USC (Southern Cal) in the Pete Carroll Era has become the nation's premier college football program

Thank you snelld7, for the argument, and I'm sorry about the Springfield power outage. As for the argument... Where to begin, where to begin. I'll start with your second contention/rebuttal, in which you claim USC is not the greatest college football program of all time. "If you had limited this to the modern era, you may have had a shot, but all-time the choice has to be the University of Michigan." This contention, I'm sorry to say, was a complete waste of your time. The statement that is under debate is "USC (Southern Cal) in the Pete Carroll Era has become the nation's premier college football program." I'd like to point out the words PETE CARROLL ERA. These words make it clear that I am only arguing that the USC football program is the top program in the nation SINCE PETE CARROLL'S start at USC. I'm sorry that it seemed that I was claiming that USC was the best in history. For a side note, I consider them Top-5, along with Notre Dame (most national championships), Michigan (winningest program in history), Alabama (Coach Bear Bryant), Penn State (Joe Paterno and his legacy), although the last one is a bit questionable. ============================================================================ The second thing I will address is your claim that since USC is not ranked number 1 at this very moment, they are not the premier program in college football. Although this argument may make sense at first, this feeling doesn't, and rightfully shouldn't last. I did not say that USC was the ONLY good team in the PC era, nor did I argue that USC was always going to be the best in the PC era. My only argument is that if you examine USC's track record and performance in the PC era, no program has matched USC's success over that era. But giving another example may help the voters. The Los Angeles Lakers had a streak of 3 consecutive championships, from the 1999-2000 season to the 2001-2002 season, and were upset by a upstart Detroit Pistons team that kept their 4th straight championship from them. At that time, I may have contended that "In the Phil Jackson Era, the Lakers have become the premier team in the NBA". (He had started the first championship year). Would anyone argue that simply because Detroit had ONE good season and beat the Lakers ONCE, they were the premier team? Of course not! Anyone can see that through Phil Jackson's term of 4 years, he had made the Lakers the best team of that time period. The argument may be made that the Lakers, and yes, also USC, was not perfect. This I accept wholeheartedly. Perfection is an arbitrary standard. But "premier" is really just a relative view. Through Pete Carroll's tenure at USC, no program has been better. After rebuttals of my opponent's claims, I must now provide the burden of proof, as I have made the claim. ========================================================================= 1) Pete Carroll has the best winning percentage His record since arrival stands at 88–15, or a percentage of 85.4%. This percentage is the BEST among active coaches. If you remove his first year, a year in which most coaches adjust and prepare the program for the NEXT season's improvement, his record stands at 82-8, with an ASTRONOMICAL win percentage of 91.1%. 2) USC has set records through the PC era that show incredible dominance 10-win seasons seems to be the benchmark for many great coaches. Mark Richt, of Georgia, Jim Tressel, of Ohio State, and other great coaches have their accomplishments mentioned regularly, with their lists including # of 10-win seasons. Pete Carroll has set a new standard at USC, however. From 2002-2008, USC has had 7 straight ELEVEN win seasons. Although 1 more game may not seem like a big deal, most college football teams, USC included, play 12 games in the regular season, and 1 bowl/postseason game. 3 seasons with a final record of 11-2 3 seasons with a final record of 12-1 1 season with a final record of 13-0 They also hold an NCAA record of 63 straight 20-point games. A record six BCS bowl victories A record seven consecutive BCS bowl appearances For those who might not follow college football, teams compete in 12 games, and if they win 6 or more, are invited to a bowl game. Since 1998, however, the top 10 teams are invited to more prestigious bowls, called the BCS bowls, in which they are pitted against each other. 1 of these bowls is the championship, and 4 other bowls form these top bowls. For USC to make 7 straight BCS appearances means that they have finished the year at least in the top-ten (or close, and also have the conference or league championship, guaranteeing a spot in the BCS bowls). Although this may not SEEM impressive, once you realize that this feat has been UNMATCHED by any other team, then you realize how hard it is. No one has come close to this streak. Although Ohio State and Oklahoma have also been to 7 BCS bowls, their streaks reached only 4 and 3, respectively. They also had the benefit of 3 more years, 1998-2001, that were not counted in the Pete Carroll Era. This doesn't even mention USC's PERFORMANCE in these bowls. Ohio State's record in the bowls is 4-3, and Oklahoma's is 2-5. USC's is 6-1, in fact, if it were not for the heroics of a Vince Young, USC would have an impeccable and god-like perfect record in what is supposed to be a challenge against other evenly matched teams. 3) A national-record 33 consecutive weeks as AP's No. 1-ranked team. This record needs its own heading to do it justice. AP's No. 1 ranked team means that the Associated Press Poll of sportswriters, retired players, etc. has voted USC as the top team in the nation. This may seem like a bunch of bigheads claiming unrightful power, but again, to those of you who don't follow college football, you may not know the significance of these polls. Only 2 teams play off for the national championship. There is no playoff, like every other major sport. And since there is only 12 games, many teams will have identical records. So how do you decide which teams get to go to the national championship? Well, the polls do that. The AP poll, along with the BCS polls (a system of 3 polls) influence public perception and ACTUAL seedings of the teams. That means that the ultimate authority on college football voted USC the top program for 33 weeks. Less than a year? No. Although 33 weeks itself is a short time, in college football weeks, it is a long time. Since the college football season has a 15 week regular season and a 1 week (poll-wise) postseason, that means that USC stood atop the rankings for OVER 2 straight seasons. So for 2 years, USC was not only the best, but also perfect, in the eyes of the AP poll. Seven consecutive Associated Press Top-4 finishes also shows that USC has finished in the Top-4 7 straight years, with 2 championships. 1 AP championship (split) 1 BCS championship ============================================================================ A final note before the end of the post: All records are ALL TIME. If they are the best ALL TIME, they are surely, by transitive logic, the best of the Pete Carroll Era (in terms of those records). http://en.wikipedia.org... http://en.wikipedia.org... ============================================================================== I look forward to my opponent's response, and I hope the voters are enjoying the debate so far! :]