If you’ve waited patiently to see where the Trojans would appear in the first BCS standings, that wait ended this afternoon.  With the 3 components combined after seven weeks of football, there is a mix of good and bad in USC’s placement.

Contrary to expectations, Southern California is not among the top-five in the initial standings.  Though they are ranked 4th in each of the human elements, it’s apparent that the computers still love the “zero”.  The Trojans trail Florida, Alabama, Texas, Boise State, Cincinnati and Iowa in the standings, leaving them perched on the seventh spot.  Undefeated TCU is settled beneath them.

1. Florida (6-0) .9886
2. Alabama (7-0) .9526
3. Texas (6-0) .8911
4. Boise State (6-0) .8083
5. Cincinnati (6-0) .7870
6. Iowa (7-0) .7869
7. USC (5-1) .7695
8. Texas Christian (6-0) .7139
9. LSU (5-1) .7083
10. Miami (Fla.) (5-1) .6273
11. Oregon (5-1) .5849
12. Georgia Tech (6-1) .5702
13. Penn State (6-1) .4982
14. Virginia Tech (5-2) .4947
15. Oklahoma State (5-1) .4043
16. Brigham Young (6-1) .2986
17. Houston (5-1) .2660
18. Utah (5-1) .2511
19. Ohio State (5-2) .2216
20. Pittsburgh (6-1) .2012
21. Wisconsin (5-2) .1180
22. Arizona (4-2) .1138
23. West Virginia (5-1) .1113
24. South Carolina (5-2) .1040
25. Kansas (5-1) .0973

The system has spoken, and in doing so, has tagged USC as the best one-loss program in the country, which is hardly a bad position to be in.  If anything, the standings act as a reminder that the Trojans no longer control their own destiny.  They are peeping through a window, needing help from others to enter the discussion inside.