[gailtate]

I no longer despise USC. I respect them. They're comfortable in their togas. Football supremacy is in their DNA and they make no bones about it.  They embrace it unabashedly, they're damned good at it and they're positioned for another era of "being USC." They will fight on. And on, and on. While some of us fume with envy. More power to 'em.

Cheating is also in their DNA.  Course, with NIL and the portal their donors can just set up a large enough war chest that they don’t have to cheat. Mercenaries and SC go together quite well.  Respect? No. 

“Student-athletes” was a nice fiction for a long time.  There is no longer any argument to be made for major college football (or the other major revenue sport - mens basketball) having anything to do with “students”.  I do think Shaw admirably attempted to fight against that.  But it’s a lost cause.

All but lost, absolutely, and you're presenting a valid debate. Still, USC's been rebuked (censured?) for their transgressions and it cost them. They took those punches and answered the bell, such that it was. Thing is, they know who and what they are and don't puff up in the way of Duke or Notre Dame.  'SC is not Stanford and never will be. And, needless to say, vice-versa -- but they have no inferiority complex about it. And their days of being a sports punchline are in the rearview mirror. Stanford's have only begun. Not that anybody cares, of course.

[gailtate]

I no longer despise USC. I respect them. They're comfortable in their togas. Football supremacy is in their DNA and they make no bones about it.  They embrace it unabashedly, they're damned good at it and they're positioned for another era of "being USC." They will fight on. And on, and on. While some of us fume with envy. More power to 'em.

Cheating is also in their DNA.  Course, with NIL and the portal their donors can just set up a large enough war chest that they don’t have to cheat. Mercenaries and SC go together quite well.  Respect? No. 

“Student-athletes” was a nice fiction for a long time.  There is no longer any argument to be made for major college football (or the other major revenue sport - mens basketball) having anything to do with “students”.  I do think Shaw admirably attempted to fight against that.  But it’s a lost cause.

All but lost, absolutely, and you're presenting a valid debate. Still, USC's been rebuked (censured?) for their transgressions and it cost them. They took those punches and answered the bell, such that it was. Thing is, they know who and what they are and don't puff up in the way of Duke or Notre Dame.  'SC is not Stanford and never will be. And, needless to say, vice-versa -- but they have no inferiority complex about it. And their days of being a sports punchline are in the rearview mirror. Stanford's have only begun. Not that anybody cares, of course.