‘Threepeat’ would put USC among football’s royalty
By OLIN BUCHANAN Austin American-Statesman

Among the exhibits seen on a tour of the College Football Hall of Fame in South Bend, Ind., is a replica of Bear Bryant’s houndstooth hat, Knute Rockne’s sweatshirt and whistle, a Red Grange jersey and even the soup bowl and spoon from which Joe Montana ate while fending off hypothermia in the 1979 Cotton Bowl.

The tour eventually progresses to the National Championship Room, which displays memorabilia to honor the reigning champion.

The past two years, the room could be mistaken for a University of Southern California dorm room. With one more victory this season, the Trojans might deserve their own wing in the museum.

Should USC — which has won 34 straight games and features two Heisman Trophy winners in quarterback Matt Leinart and running back Reggie Bush — defeat Texas in the Rose Bowl, it would clinch its third consecutive national championship, a feat made even greater by taking inventory of the game’s legends who never accomplished that.

Bryant’s Alabama teams never did it. Neither did Rockne’s Notre Dame teams, nor the Illinois teams that starred Grange, the legendary Galloping Ghost.

Bud Wilkinson’s fabled Oklahoma teams posted an NCAArecord 47 consecutive victories in the mid-1950s, but won only back-to-back national championships in ’55 and ’56.

Other teams have come close to winning a third straight title, but none came closer than Bryant’s Crimson Tide, which reigned in 1964 and 1965. In 1966 Alabama finished undefeated but was voted third behind Notre Dame and Michigan State, which had tied that year.

Civil rights was a major issue in America in 1966, and a national backlash against Alabama’s segregation policies likely cost the Crimson Tide the championship.

Not since Minnesota from 1934-36 has a team won three consecutive national titles. And the Golden Gophers shared the ‘35 title with SMU, Princeton and Louisiana State, and never had to win a bowl game to be crowned champion.

A permanent exhibit? Hmmm, USC Coach Pete Carroll never donned a houndstooth hat and doesn’t wear a whistle around his neck, so finding the appropriate prop to immortalize him might prove problematic. Perhaps, a salt-and-pepper wig would do the trick.

Exhibits aside, another championship would likely raise Southern Cal to a higher level of respect in college football.

At least, it would in 49 states, with Louisiana dissenting. After all, it was LSU that defeated Oklahoma to win the Bowl Championship Series national title in January 2004. Meanwhile, Southern Cal was merely voted the national champion in the Associated Press media poll.

Annoyed Tiger fans bristle at the suggestion that USC is bidding for a third straight crown.

What can be debated is whether a third straight national championship will establish Carroll’s Trojans as the greatest dynasty in college football history. Even if the Trojans capture a third straight title, that won’t necessary mean they are college football’s greatest dynasty.

Ivan Maisel, ESPN.com’s national college football writer, maintains that distinction will still belong to Wilkinson’s Oklahoma Sooners.

“To me, the debate doesn’t begin until (the Trojans) close in on 47,” Maisel said. “Certainly, (three straight champions) is a badge of sustained excellence and speaks for itself. But what Oklahoma did in the ’50s is college football’s 56game hitting streak.”

If USC wins the Rose Bowl, Oklahoma’s record might be its next target.