USC would not have beaten LSU, but would have beaten OSU.
Keep in mind that USC lost to Standford (the biggest lost against the point spread in NCAA history). USC beat Ill in the bowl BUT Ill was not ranked in the top twenty until they beat OSU, and had three loses prior to that.
USC beat Arizona State, but TEXAS beat Arizona State worse that USC did...Ball State had more total offensive yards against Nebraska than USC (as did six other teams agaisnt Nebraska).
In the end, we need a playoff system.
I'm generally a Pac-10 loyalist but USC wouldn't have beaten LSU this year. The USC fans are reading way too much into the Rose Bowl game. It was basically a home game against an extremely one-dimensional team. Other than Hawaii (which was a complete joke), Illinois was the worst BCS team by a long ways. Kansas, the other candidate for the distinction, would have handed the Illini their head.
I've watched a lot of college football and the best team I saw this year was the LSU team against VT (prior to LSU getting bite by the injury bug).
Their QB broke his finger during that game and started making bad throws. Once he got it back together they started winning again. They have a very, very fast defense, a beast of a DT and their RB’s are break away threats.