Let me set a scene for you.

Sunday night around 7:30 p.m. after we had found out our fate, I had the good fortune of being at Ron Zook’s press conference.

Zook was riddled with questions about the recent progression of events, heading to Pasadena, if his daughter, an actress in Los Angeles, is doing any scouting for him, etc.

Zook was finally asked what he would say if someone told him in Rantoul in August that he and the Illini would be in the Rose Bowl.

“What are you smoking?” Zook said.

In a decision to go with the Illini, there are a lot of people scratching their heads. Granted the Rose Bowl Committee led by Mitch Dorger said that it wanted to keep the Pac 10/Big Ten rivalry alive, the committee had the first pick out of all at-large teams to fill its game. Illinois was No. 13 in the BCS rankings, but I think that there were other worthy teams that may have arguably had a more legitimate argument to go to the game.

Instead, the committee’s love of tradition has left teams like Missouri out of the BCS or relegated to other at-large bids. (Remember when Mizzou was No. 1 in the country, all of two days ago?)

Dorger said in a teleconference Sunday night that maintaining the conference rivalry is first and foremost when selecting teams, but not the only thing.

I might question the decision, but its wisdom is Illinois’ gain and our ticket to Pasadena.

I think that Illinois is hugely indebted to Big Ten Commissioner of Athletics Jim Delaney.

Delaney has been fiercely opposed to a BCS playoff for his own devices, and by that I mean the ridiculous amounts of money that the six BCS conferences make from the BCS system.

If the Rose Bowl were to have chosen a team that wasn’t in keeping with the Pac 10/Big Ten setup, I think Delaney would have been none too pleased and may have pulled support of the system, or something along those lines to exact a little revenge for the snubbing of Illinois

While I’ll never be certain, I think there is a strong chance that James Edward Delaney may have gotten up this morning and called said Rose Bowl Committee and reminded it how much “tradition” matters.

I don’t know if the system got it “right” or not, but I am damn glad that it worked out the way that it did, and that the Rose Bowl Committee cares about tradition.

As much as I question the BCS, I must say that it worked beautifully in favor of the Illini. If there weren’t all of these quirky rules that have been instituted over the years, amending the process in which teams are selected to the bowl game, there is a good chance that Illinois may be playing in Orlando come Jan. 1.

Politics aside, Zook has got a hell of a lot of problems to worry about now that the Illini are going to Pasadena against a USC team that is playing a de facto home game.

I’ll try not to put you to sleep with numbers, but here are a few that I think are more than indicative of the problem with playing the Trojans.

USC has scored 375 points this season, but it isn’t the Trojans’ perennially high-powered offense that has me worried; it’s the other side of the ball.

Their defense, which is second in the nation, has 40 sacks, 10 inceptions and 15 forced fumbles in a year which they let up 191 points. By way of comparison, Illinois has 345 and let up 234.

It just doesn’t seem plausible that Illinois is playing in this game, when this time last year the team was, well, you know. Whereas I’ve been watching Pete Carroll and his USC machine dominate college football for the past years.

All I know is Illinois is going to Pasadena to play in a bowl game that I have wanted to see it play in since I was able to understand football.

Illinois has more than proved itself throughout this season, and even if it has benefited some from the system, it deserves the chance to play in this game.

Daniel Johnson is a junior in Communications. He can be reached at [email protected]