Text messages from press row ...

You’re reminded anew that college football is a wacky business when you realize that USC probably would be better off finishing second in the Pacific 10 Conference than winning a share of its sixth consecutive conference title. . . .

A loss by Oregon in one of its last three games would boost USC’s title hopes but would all but end the Trojans’ Rose Bowl aspirations. . . .

Oregon, which still has designs on reaching the Bowl Championship Series title game in New Orleans, owns the Rose Bowl tiebreaker because it defeated USC. . . .

After Patrick Cowan and UCLA took such great pleasure in knocking USC into the Rose Bowl last year -- surely there must be at least one 13-9 tattoo in Westwood -- imagine how they’d react if they knocked the Trojans out this year. . . .

If nothing else, a USC-Ohio State Rose Bowl would at least offer a preview of 2008, when the Trojans and Buckeyes meet Sept. 13 at the Coliseum. . . .

The teams will meet again in 2009 at Columbus, Ohio. . . .

Even when Tim Duncan is not at his best, as was the case Tuesday night, the San Antonio Spurs are miles ahead of the Lakers. . . .

If fading star Shaquille O’Neal and the Miami Heat were not in the Eastern Conference, they probably wouldn’t make the playoffs. . . .

They might not anyway. . . .

The last team to reach the Final Four three years in a row, as Coach Ben Howland and UCLA are trying to do this season, was Michigan State, which won a national title in 2000 but lost in the semifinals in 1999 and 2001. . . .

At the fifth annual Joe Torre Safe at Home Foundation benefit last Friday in New York, New York Yankees fan Bruce Springsteen played a half-hour acoustic set that included a version of the Rivieras’ 1960s rock nugget, “California Sun,” with lyrics tailored in honor of the new Dodgers manager. . . .

“I won’t need no coat when I go to the park/The stands will be filled with movie stars/Going out where the palm trees are swayin’/Nobody gonna second-guess just who I’m playin’.” . . .

Torre might want to check with Grady Little before taking that last line to heart. . . .

Torre joked during his introductory news conference last week about coming into Dodger Stadium as a player and, because of the numerous transistor radios tuned to Vin Scully’s broadcast, vividly hearing the announcer “so beautifully say, ‘Torre struck out again,’ ” which Torre says was “easy to do” against the likes of Sandy Koufax and Don Drysdale. . . .

Actually, the .297 lifetime hitter batted a robust .348 against Drysdale while striking out only 13 times in 92 at-bats. . . .

Against Koufax, he struck out 15 times in 59 at-bats, batting .220. . . .

Hats off to new Hockey Hall of Famer Mark Messier, who not only guaranteed that the New York Rangers would win Game 6 in the 1994 Eastern Conference finals to stay alive in the series but also delivered a hat trick in the game. . . .

Messier, who helped the Edmonton Oilers win five championships, then scored the clinching goal in the finals to end the Rangers’ 54-year Stanley Cup drought. . . .

In response to news that Justin Timberlake will host a PGA tournament in Las Vegas next year, a reader going by news2me posted this comment on the sfgate.com website: “The PGA marketing department has obviously decided to tap into that elusive but high-spending demographic: tone-deaf ‘tweens.” . . .

Timberlake, an avid golfer, joins a long list of celebrity PGA hosts that has included Bob Hope, Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Glen Campbell, Jackie Gleason, Ed McMahon and Sammy Davis Jr. . . .

Says the pop star, who will play in the celebrity pro-am segment of the Justin Timberlake Shriners Hospitals for Children Open, “Raising money to better children’s lives while playing golf? I can’t think of a better way to pass the time.” . . .

His fans probably could. . . .

Pepperdine will honor All-American fullback Darwin Horn and the rest of its unbeaten, small-college national championship-winning football team of 1947 during halftime of Saturday night’s basketball game against Cal State Northridge. . . .

Pepperdine dropped football after the 1961 season. . . .

For NASCAR’s Jeff Gordon, apparently, it’s over before it’s over. . . .

Has he never heard of Yogi Berra?

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