YES OSU won!

Yes... OSU finally won! Wait, damn it, Oregon State won. For a minute I thought that 12 days ago I had actually dreamed, more like had a nightmare, that Ohio State lost in LA 35-3 to the USC Trojans but alas it was the young upstart Oregon State Beavers who knocked the best team in the universe from their #1 ranking tonight by the score of 27-21. Players and coaches alike from top teams from around the country are going wild right now...

... Georgia head coach Mark Richt was reportedly seen running naked through the streets of Athens, GA yelling expletives in joy.

... LSU head coach Les Miles was seen stuffing $100 bills down various "dancers" g strings drinking bottles of Cristal at a local Baton Rouge "gentleman's club".

... Alabama head coach Nick Saban was overhead actually turning down an offer to interview for another head coaching job.

... Penn State head coach Joe Paterno, well he will find out what happened when he wakes up in the morning if his son Jay sends him a text message, wait Joe doesn't know about text messaging my bad. I'm sure he will see the paper in the morning.

All jokes aside what on earth does tonight's Oregon State victory over USC actually mean in terms of the landscape of college football and Penn State football. It means nothing and it means everything. First let's get to how it means nothing.

Invariably Penn State fans across the nation are collectively beating their chests, screaming out their windows saying, "we are the best team in the nation."

They are using the logic that, since Penn State handily whipped Oregon State two weeks ago to the tune of 45-14 and today Oregon State beat USC, then Penn State is better than the supposed best team in the nation, right? It is obvious that Penn State's non-conference schedule was not weak at all but instead really strong because well again Oregon State beat the #1 team in the nation, right? Ahh... if sports, namely college football, only worked in such a nice logical way.

There is no doubt that through the first four games of the season Penn State is the class of the Big Ten. They have done what the likes of USC simply have not done, that is take care of business week in and week out. One of the few things college coaches universally agree on is the hardest part and probably the most key part to winning a game is to play each game with emotion and intensity. Coaches also admit it is impossible for a team to play with the same level of emotion each game and what separates the good teams from the great teams is being able to win despite coming into a game flat.

What we learned tonight about USC is that yes USC is a good team filled with arguably more talent than any team in the country but they are not a great team. They came into Corvallis Oregon tonight to face a huge underdog Beaver squad after coming off an emotional high in a nationally televised trouncing of Ohio State some 12 days ago. Tonight USC came into the game flat and fell victim to a proverbial trap game that they were "supposed" to win in a stadium and against a team for some reason they struggle against. Tonight what we saw is a good team come into a game flat and a bad team come into a game fired up.

On the other hand Penn State has come into the season and as previously mentioned they have done their job, they have taken care of business. So far the Nittany Lions have looked to be the most impressive team in the Big Ten. Penn State has yet to be tested and have yet to face an opponent of any real merit, Oregon State included. Penn State is a good team but therein is the problem right now in college football... there are a lot of good teams but no team yet has established itself as a great team nor have they for a few years.

Here is where we get to how the Oregon State victory over USC means everything.

There has not been a truly great team in college football for years. Last year we had two good teams, LSU and Ohio State, both who lost their last home games of the season causing the nation to write them off as having NO shot at making the national title game. A few crazy twists and turns aside defying supposed logic and we have LSU and Ohio State meeting in the BCS championship game.

The year before that the nation thought they had a truly great team in Ohio State. Heck some thought they were so great that merely keeping the final game of the season close with the Buckeyes should have earned Michigan a rematch in the BCS championship game. Instead a one loss Florida team gets into the national championship and dismantles the Buckeyes... another year and more good but not great teams.

In fact there has not been a really great team in college football since 2004 where two potentially great teams didn't even get the opportunity to meet for a national title due to crazy bowl rules, 13-0 Southern Cal and 13-0 Auburn. Since they never got to play we will call them "semi-great". One has to go all the way back to the 2002 Buckeyes who were undefeated and took care of business no matter how ugly they had to do it or the 2001-2002 Miami Hurricane squad to see the last truly "great" teams in college football.

It is impossible at this point of the season to know how great a team like Penn State or any current undefeated team is. One can't use the logic that since team A beats team C and team C Beats team B then team A is better than team B. Penn State is a good team not because they beat Oregon State when Southern Cal did not but they are a good team simply because they have taken care of teams that they should have beaten. No more, no less...

Ohio State fan... don't think I don't hear you either. Probably hugging each other saying, see how many yards Oregon State's running back put on Southern Cal tonight? If our star running back Chris "Beanie" Wells doesn't miss the game against USC 12 days ago then Ohio State probably wins. WRONG. (Jaquizz Rodgers had 186 yards rushing and yes his named is spelled with two "z".) Ohio State's offensive line simply got dominated in the LA that night. Would Wells have helped Ohio State that night? Sure he would have... but there is no way with or without Wells Ohio State wins that game.

Does that mean OSU is better than OSU since OSU beat USC and USC beat OSU? I have a headache plus I'm getting off topic...

Fact of the matter is it is too early in the season to know exactly how good any team is and to know for sure if one team is better than another team. If Penn State wins out then a legitimate case can be made that they are a potentially great team that deserves a title shot.

Is Penn State better than Southern Cal? No way of knowing that yet...

Is Oregon State better than Ohio State? See above...

All we know tonight is that Penn State was better than Oregon State two weeks ago and Oregon State was better than USC tonight. Nothing more, nothing less... Take comfort Penn State fans because you learned something very valuable tonight. Penn State fans learned that it matters little whether or not they are better than USC... all that matters is thanks to Oregon State the road to a possible national championship and a possible story book ending to Joe Paterno's career just became a real possibility. Who but Joe Paterno would have thought that coming into the season? The more I think about it the more part of me is pulling for that to happen for the ol' guy.

More on PSU's victory over Oregon State Here