How Much Better is USC?

Much better, according to Vegas. The week four Oddsmakers Poll is out, and the guys who set the line appear ready to hand the Trojans the hardware.

To give you an idea of the distance the bookies see between USC and the field, the Trojans have a "rating" of 115.2, about five points better than the second-ranked Oklahoma Sooners (110.5) and third-ranked Florida (110.0). Homerism has no clue how Las Vegas Sports Consultants determine each team's rating, but that five-point gap between USC and OU is equal to the spread between the Sooners and the squads at number 10, BYU and Oregon (105.5).

A few interesting notes about the latest poll:

*In apparent deference to the Trojans' superiority, the oddsmakers decided not to penalize Ohio State too harshly for the egg laid by the Buckeyes over the weekend, dropping them from five to seven.

*The books are much higher than the pollsters on: Penn State, West Virginia, Cal, TCU and none other than Oklahoma State.

*According to the oddsmakers, overrated teams include: Wisconsin, LSU, East Carolina and Auburn.

*Vegas has Clemson ranked seven spots ahead of Alabama despite losing head to head. Same goes for West Virginia and East Carolina.