I'm sure there are a lot of USC grads in the Bay Area. Judging by travel to Notre Dame games, SC travels very well, while Stanford is the easiest ticket.
And that's the rub. The Big 12 actually does it right (by playing every conference team). The other conferences are rewarded for greed . Teams playing for a chance at the BCS championship by NOT playing the good teams and only having to win a conference championship game.