USC, LSU divvy up national title

LOS ANGELES -- Coach Pete Carroll promised the USC Trojans will remain humble in their reign as The Associated Press' national champion -- humble and hungry.

"How do you top this? How about doing it again a couple times?" a jubilant Carroll said Monday morning after he was presented The AP's championship trophy.

"It's so great to be standing in front of you representing what this university has always been about: winning championships, national championships," Carroll said during a brief ceremony in front of Heritage Hall on campus.

Several hundred students and fans interrupted the coach's remarks by chanting, "Pete! Pete! Pete!" Some players gleefully chimed in, including quarterback Matt Leinart and defensive end Kenechi Udeze.

"This is awesome, being national champs," said Leinart, the redshirt sophomore quarterback who was MVP of the Trojans' 28-14 Rose Bowl victory over Michigan.

USC received 48 of the 65 first-place votes in The AP poll to win its first national title in football in 25 years.

The title was split, same as when the Trojans won the championship in the coaches' poll in 1978 while the media voters crowned Alabama. There was controversy at that time, too, because USC beat Alabama 24-14 early in the season.

This time, USC (12-1) topped USA Today/ESPN coaches' poll champion LSU, which beat Oklahoma 21-14 in the BCS title game Sunday night in the Sugar Bowl.

The coaches were obligated to vote for LSU (13-1), even though USC held the top spot in their poll going into the bowls. Three of the 63 coaches broke the agreement by voting the Trojans No. 1.

Carroll and several USC players still felt the season seemed to end one game short for the Trojans and LSU.

"Another game would have been sweet. We would have loved it, but it didn't happen. I think there would be an awful lot of people that would have loved that matchup," Carroll said.

Leinart said: "It would have been fun to have a playoff game. I really don't see college football getting to that. I think the BCS is going to change. This can't happen, to have a split. You don't know who is the best team."

The quarterback watched the first half of the Sugar Bowl on TV.

"It was sloppy. Both teams are very, very good teams. When the defenses are that good, it's going to be tough to move the ball," Leinart said.

The Trojans have been involved in three of the 11 split titles in college football history. Besides 1978, the coaches picked USC in 1974 while the media voted Oklahoma No. 1

The Trojans hadn't won the AP poll since 1972, when they were the undisputed national champions. That was also the last time a Pac-10 team won the AP title.

USC has four AP titles overall, tied with Minnesota, Nebraska and Ohio State for the fifth-most.

In the final AP poll, USC received 1,608 points to beat out LSU by 32 points. Oklahoma was third, followed by Ohio State and Miami.

It's the first split national championship since 1997, when Michigan won the AP poll and Nebraska was the coaches' choice. The Bowl Championship Series started the following season with the goal of determining an undisputed champion.

Clay Haswell, the AP's chief of bureau for California and Nevada, presented the trophy to Carroll, who has returned the Trojans to national prominence after years of mediocrity.

The Trojans were 31-29 in the five years before he arrived in Los Angeles. After losing five of his first seven games, Carroll is 27-4 and USC has won 20 of its last 21 games.