John Walters

If you tuned into ESPN on Thursday night, you watched a three-hour testimonial as to why college football is a three-touchdown favorite over the NFL and always will be … as long as the sport avoids the temptation of a playoff.

Excuse me, and you probably didn’t have Jacquizz Rodgers on your fantasy league team, but Oregon State just blew up the No. 1 team in the nation, USC, 27-21. The overeager Beavers fired out to a 21-0 lead as the Trojans took a USC-iesta in the first half.

The Beavers did it with a quarterback whom you’ve never heard of (and probably still haven’t).

They did it with a true freshman tailback whose first name includes all the letters of “Jacuzzi” plus a “Q” thrown in for the hell of it.

They did it in a place you’ve probably never been to.

On a Thursday evening.

And they did it despite already being a two-loss team and, let’s face it, completely out of the national championship picture. Please, I beseech you: the next time Milo T. Sports Radio decries the lack of a playoff in college football because the rest of the games don’t matter, show him the tape of this one.

Jack McCoy couldn’t make a better closing argument. The punkarazzi at TMZ couldn’t make their editor shake his head more disbelievingly. Nancy Grace could not be more surprised if we somehow found Caylee.

Unranked Oregon State just landed a third-round knockout punch against the heavyweight champ. Oregon State, which only two weeks ago found itself trailing by four touchdowns in the first half at Penn State, was up three touchdowns at halftime tonight against the nation’s top-ranked team.

Simple explanation: the Beavers wanted it that much more.

The NFL? The NFL, are you kidding? The talent is superior, but the only place you will find as much excitement is the Oakland Raiders’ press room. The NFL is more bored with itself than Jessica Simpson, which may explain why the two found each other.

Tonight in Corvallis was the kind of evening that makes the commissioner of college football beam with pride, or it might if the sport had a commissioner.

Special feature Heisman Hopefuls Bradford, Tebow on top now NBCSports.com

You lose a game in the NFL, and everyone pulls out their laptops to see if it’s too late to replace Derek Anderson with Joe Flacco on their fantasy teams. The NFL — I mean, only today did I read that yet another team cut Joey Harrington yesterday. I’m not kidding. I don’t even know if Joey Harrrington was even on a team earlier this week; someone just cut him as a reflex action.

You lose a game in college football, and suddenly people are buying rounds for the entire bar in Athens and Norman and Gainesville (well, okay, in Gainesville that was going to happen win or lose) and Austin. It’s viral schaudenfreude, and we love it (unless the team who happened to lose was your team).

First Person Tailgating pictures View photos of college football celebrations before and after games from our readers, then send your own.

Another thing I love about college football? Drew Rosenhaus never appears on “College Football Live” (and let’s keep it that way, Rece).

The most shocking thing about an upset such as tonight’s (USC had not lost to an unranked team as a No. 1 in 27 years) is that it still shocks us. But it does. Earlier today on ESPN’s “First Take” Damon Jones predicted that if the Trojans were to play the St. Louis Rams they would win by two touchdowns. This morning I wrote “I like USC and large.”

I mean, who saw this coming? Sure, USC had lost in each of its last two trips to the Beaver State, but we all saw that 35-3 slappity-slap of Ohio State. Plus, the Trojans had an extra five days off.

Few saw it coming because it’s impossible to measure motivation, particularly among 19- and 20-year olds. And before tonight, did you know that the brothers James and Jacquizz Rodgers was the most jaw-dropping fraternity the state of Oregon had seen since Delta House (Animal House having been filmed at the Unversity of Oregon)?

Rogers and Hart. Rogers and Hammerstein. And now Rodgers and Rodgers.

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