Who's been better?

USC had a down decade for sure but Utah also had to live through Jon Hays and early P12 adjustment.

ASU, CU, UCLA, USC...all more tradition, better schools, cooler places for students...and all had huge recruiting advantages vs. Utah.

Yet the South division Utah's. 4 straight full season in the CCG.

You can say USC was down...but they had the talent. It showed up for Utah. The best Utah teams faced the most prepared, hungry and desperate USC teams.

So not sure Utah benefitted all that much from a "down" USC. Just as Utah is doing really well in a good year for USC.

The down trend is not exclusive to USC in the west. The MW is down. Boise is down, BYU down, Stanford...the same factors should impact Utah the same way.

Utes have just risen above it. Like we did with the BCS system. But now Utah is winning more consistently.