It wasn't just as close. LSU won by 4. USC won by 10. If you want to make Katrina excuses, go ahead. LOL! Have a nice day.
USC was behind with 6 minutes to go. ASU was also driving to go ahead at the end of the game when the QB threw an INT and gave USC excellent field position to score a junk TD.
USC came much closer to losing that game than LSU did.
BTW, I don't give many excuses either, but Katrina was pretty exgtrordinary. If LA experienced a massive earthquake, I would certainly think that USC would be affected.