And, actually, you're wrong about that. The media picked USC as pre-season #1 and the favorite to win the national championship. Then when USC lost to Stanford, the media had a brief courtship with Florida State, until they lost. The media has been actively trying to find a #1 team and NCAA champion not from the SEC. But so far, their efforts have been a failure.
I’d say USC is the McCain of football because they usually end up kicking their own supporters in the groin (by losing a game they were suppose to win and thus end championship talk) and the media acts like they like them until the first sign of trouble or something more exciting comes along.