Trojans Could Lose '04 National Title If Appeal Fails

Already faced with a blistering set of NCAA sanctions, USC is staring down the possibility of another school (and national) first: the revocation of their 2004 BCS national title.

"If USC loses the appeal, the [2004] championship will be vacated," Hancock told reporters. "And the feeling is in our group, the commissioners group, is that there was not a game, no game happened."

Hancock added, "They will vacate, they will not elevate anyone," referring to the 12 school presidents who make up the BCS Oversight Committee.

Now, this is normally about the point where I'd start making jokes about Auburn fans busting out the champagne glasses filled with Boone's Farm, but ... wait a second, they might actually get something out of this?

Steve Richardson, executive director of the Football Writers Association of America, said Monday at the Big 12 Conference football preview that the FWAA may take away the 2004 national title it awarded to Southern California and give it to Auburn.

Let this serve as a beacon of hope to angry, fruitless billboard campaigns across the land: Never abandon hope. The appeals committee doesn't even meet again until late September, however, so as ever with this case, we're back to the waiting game. (Although this is where, if you're Tommy Tuberville, you walk into the AD's office in Lubbock and ask for a raise now that you've got an imaginary title ring and all. I hear his new bosses are the friendly sort.)