A lot of people are saying that Notre Dame was overrated after its 44-13 loss to Southern California. Say that if you want, but it was a complete surprise that USC dominated with the passing game.

Carson Palmer put up 425 yards against an Irish pass defense had been fantastic in giving up just 180 passing yards per game coming in, and for him to go off like that against cornerbacks like Vontez Duff and Shane Walton was amazing.

	Carson Palmer and the Trojans deserve to be in the BCS after their dismantling of Notre Dame.

Particularly impressive was the distribution in the Southern Cal passing game. It seemed that every other throw went to a different receiver, whether it was Mike Williams, Keary Colbert, Sultan McCullough or Justin Fargas. The Trojans unleashed a huge array of weapons against a Notre Dame team that was back pedaling all night and really didn't know what was coming next.

And don't forget that the Fighting Irish were playing their kind of football in the first half. They got 10 first-half points thanks to a fumble and blocked punt and were were in the game at halftime. Take away those miscues and the final score could have been 60-0 in favor of USC.

The Trojans' two losses came at Washington State on a missed overtime field goal and at Kansas State when a last-minute comeback attempt fell just short. Coach Pete Carroll deserves a lot of credit for taking this team as far as he has.

It will be a terrible injustice if USC is somehow left out of the BCS mix. Everyone is hoping UCLA can upset Washington State at home and make for a nice, clean situation where the Trojans play Iowa in the Rose Bowl, Notre Dame goes to the Orange Bowl and no one gets too upset.

If the Cougars beat UCLA, though, they will likely play the Hawkeyes in the Rose Bowl. And let's be clear about one thing: the BCS cannot afford the public relations nightmare that will surely come if Notre Dame gets in and USC ends up on the outside looking in.

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that the Irish are not in Southern Cal's league. The Trojans deserve to be in.

See ya later, Sooners
The thing that was most surprising about Oklahoma State's 38-28 win over Oklahoma was that the Sooners got so little pressure on OSU quarterback Josh Fields. As good as its defensive front four is, OU came into the game with just 22 sacks and the failure to get constant pressure came back to bite Oklahoma again.

The Sooners got two sacks against Fields, but for most of the game he was very comfortable in the pocket and was never under duress when he threw. That was the real key in the game. You can talk about the mental breakdowns in the Oklahoma secondary, but the lack of consistent pressure was the story.

And instead of focusing on OU and saying the Sooners played poorly, we should be talking about the great job Oklahoma State coach Les Miles and his staff and did with their offense. There were a couple of bad plays by the Sooner defense, but much of the OSU success had to do with Rashaun Woods and the other receivers sitting down in the zones and finding the soft spots.

One play in particular comes to mind when looking at this game. Woods was locked up in man coverage with OU's Derrick Strait, but Fields threw the ball to the boundary in a place where only the receiver could catch it, and it went for a huge gain. Simply a matter of the Cowboys executing.

And on the other side, Oklahoma State got a good performance from the defense. Oklahoma got some yards and Sooner running back Quentin Griffin went over 100 yards, but the Cowboys slowed OU to the point where it couldn't catch up.

Just a great overall effort by a team that believed it could win.

Tech wrecks UVa
Virginia Tech's 21-9 win over Virginia was also a shocker. Coach Al Groh has built a good team at UVa and the Cavaliers were hot coming in.

The Hokies got back to "Beamer-ball," blocking a punt for a touchdown and holding Virginia to 203 total yards. That is a fantastic effort against a hot quarterback like Matt Schaub, who came in playing as well as anyone in the country, and a running game that was getting decent production from Wali Lundy. It also leads me to believe Tech has a reasonable shot against Miami this week.

Dominating on defense and special teams while running the ball well with Lee Suggs is the recipe for success. Quarterback Marcus Randall completed only five passes against UVa, and he will be the final piece of the puzzle against the 'Canes. He must not only avoid turnovers, but he must be efficient and complete some more passes. The Hokies cannot be one-dimensional and hope to have a chance against the Miami defense.

Trev Alberts is a college football analyst for ESPN. He contributes a weekly column to ESPN.com.