Welcome back to The Rival Rundown! If you’ve always wanted to give props to your school on CC, now’s your chance! Shoot us an email explaining what’s awesome and unique about your school (or what stinks about Rival U) at rivalrundown@collegecandy.com!

This week we hit up the West Coast as we examine the two hottest schools in Los Angeles- the University of Southern California and the University of California- Los Angeles. Amidst the beautiful SoCal climate and a city rife with movie sets and superstars, private USC and public UCLA compete to find out which is most elite in the City of Angels.

1. Superior Sport

USC – The Trojans are known as “the football school” and have been awarded the NCAA national title in football eleven times, including back-to-back titles in 2003 and 2004.  They are perennially ranked in the Top 10 football programs in the BCS by ESPN, USA Today, and other publications. And Trojans have taken home the Heisman Trophy seven times.
UCLA - Meanwhile, the Bruins are known as powerhouses in basketball–also earning eleven NCAA titles. Seven of these championships were won consecutively, from 1967-1973.  UCLA is also the all-time leader in total NCAA national titles across all sports.

Meanwhile, the Lexus Gauntlet is an annual all-sports competition between the two schools sponsored by Lexus. Points are awarded for every victory (particularly in head-to-head match ups)  in NCAA-sanctioned competitions, with the school with the most points declared as the winner. (There is also a separate Lexus Gauntlet awarded to the winner of the Stanford-Berkeley rivalry.)  In the eight years of Lexus Gauntlet tradition, USC has walked away with five titles.

Three credits to: TIE.  The two schools pulled a draw in NCAA titles in their respective predominant sport.  On the one hand, the Lexus Gauntlet record gives the Trojans the edge, but UCLA also has the most NCAA titles of any school. Too close to call!! Read More »

Perhaps I’m glad that I’ll maybe, just maybe, have the last say about 30 Rock, and politely disagree with Robert Bianco’s recent review of the show. OK, that’s ridiculous. I won’t have the last say, but at least I can respond to Bianco’s false USA Today-y opinion that 30 Rock is woefully on the decline. First, as a T.V. viewer and fan of 30 Rock, I think it’s a shame that the show is ending early, and I look forward to its return next season. So, with that said, I’ll begin my letter.

Dear Mr. Bianco:

What is wrong with you?

1) Demographics:

You are terribly presumptuous in thinking that the show only appeals to a younger audience (20s and 30s age range). The demographic is wider than you would think — haven’t you noticed the subtle ways they’ve advertised baby diapers, baby toys, etc.? Obviously appealing to the baby demographic, which you failed to consider when writing your critique.

My ol’ granny lives in a nasty retirement home. It smells like urine, but that’s not the point. My ol’ granny watches 30 Rock all the time. Perhaps that’s anecdotal, but I’ve been over there many times, and enjoyed an episode out in the main area with a bunch of other old peeps. They all laughed, just like my infant cousins laugh at the show. We all know (that means you), that when my granny and my infant cousins laugh at something, it’s universally funny. Read More »

Warning: This post contains spoilers!

Recently USA Today ran an article questioning Juno’s portrayal of teen pregnancy. It seems that some people worry the movie glorified the whole thing.

Maybe it’s just me, but I think they missed the point of Juno. One of the quotes in the article suggests that teens won’t see that Juno faced any consequences, because the baby was “handed off.” Juno ended up with her boyfriend and was able, presumably, to go on with life as usual.

Sorry, but I think that’s BS. First of all — and I don’t know how many times we have to stress this before the right-wingers get it — pregnancy is NOT about punishment. Yes, the movie ended happily, but it wasn’t because Juno didn’t face any consequences. It was because she made a big, and really tough, decision. I don’t think that even a self-involved teen is going to miss that. Read More »

• Don’t exercise? No problem!

• Apparently, leotards can we worn the right way…

• USA Today’s resident “cool girl” tells us all about quirky, unique gifts to get those people you only kind of know or forgot about till just now, this holiday season

• Rolling Stone ranks the top 100 songs from 2007

• Never smell again! Cleansing from the inside out! Seriously.

It’s the early morning and I’ve already read a few newspapers, some blogs and a couple celebrity gossip sites.

I know a lot—sometimes too much—about our nations state of cultural affairs. But hey, at least I’m informed about something and it IS my job, right?

There was a day though, particularly all four years of my undergraduate career (save the Thursday Style section of the NYT) that I knew nothing about current events.

Apparently, I’m not alone in this. In a recent study based on 1,800 Americans, only 18% of those from ages 18-30 read a newspaper everyday. The results found that our generation is more of a glance at the news type of group than any other.

And although we spend hours in front of our computers each day, most of the news we do watch is from the television.

Even more importantly though, it isn’t the ways in which we are receiving our news, but the fact that we are getting it at all. It is sad to think that of the many times I spent hours mindlessly surfing the internet, I never once really went to the New York Times homepage or even USA Today, which is slightly fluffy, to find out really what was going on in the world. Read More »

I had a poignant moment during my very last all-nighter of undergrad:

I was finishing my very last assignments ever of my Salem College career and somewhere around 5:30 am I jumped up, ran from our camp in the basement of a different dorm, and bolted to my room to brush my teeth.

I could no longer ignore the fact that I had not brushed my teeth and they felt as fuzzy as the fleece I was wearing.

It was sick. I was sick. I had a problem. I could no longer function—or write—during the day. But I had made it to the end.

And then, I slept. For about two days straight.

To say that I mastered the all-nighter during my four years would be an understatement. I was pretty much the ninja master of staying awake for hours on end, typing furiously at my keyboard and screwing around long enough during the normal hours (until at least 3 am) to HAVE to make it until class the next day.

Damn you, facebook.

My best friend and I would down coffee, pop adderall (hey, at least mine was prescribed) and sleep in shifts. The second semester of my senior year was so grueling I was pulling at least one a week just to keep up. Writing and editing the first four chapters of a novel is no easy feat.

I basically triple majored. It was a dumb idea. Read More »

I don’t know much about it yet, but I guess breastfeeding is good for your babies. So, breast milk and babies? A sensible combination.

But babies and Facebook? Not so much.

I don’t care how much Facebook is “expanding” its users. Facebook is really for college students and it should stay that way. Which is why I’m not too offended to find out that it has been removing pictures of females breastfeeding their kids.

The blog posted on USAToday said, “Karen Speed, a 33-year-old Canadian mother who describes herself as a “lactivist,” tells The (Toronto) Star that such photos led Facebook to delete her account and a support group she had established for breastfeeding mothers.”

First of all, what is Karen Speed, a 33-year-old Canadian mother/lactivist doing on Facebook in the first place? What is she possibly getting out of this? Finding out at which side of campus the next tailgate is gonna start? Checking up on her douchebag ex-boyfriend to see if he added any new skanks to his friend list?

Seriously, Karen. Seriously.

I think it’s great that mothers are reaching out to each other for support, but is it really necessary to post, what I think, are such personal and intimate photos on this particular site that is regularly monitored? Here is one of the pics that was removed from the site, and nipple or not – it may not be “obscene” as Facebook would say, but it’s still pretty needless on a college-based networking site. Read More »

I’m pretty sure EVERYONE I know is getting married.

That is… except me. And I’m in no rush. No rush at all. I have tons of friends who are getting married. And some of them, the ones who have been together for 5 plus years, or the ones who have been dating older guys for a while, those situations I understand. But the girls who are getting engaged during their junior year of college?

Cut me a break. It’s unnecessary.

You do not have to get engaged to be in a secure, stable and mature relationship. Going through years together shows much more commitment than a big rock.

Of course, I want the big rock one day, but I also want to be emotionally ready for all that marriage entails. Marriage is meant to be a lasting union, not a trend that everyone has to follow.

This isn’t fashion, ladies. You can’t decide you don’t like your hubby next season when suddenly you feel like he’s out of style.

I have a friend from high school who I have just found out is 23 and getting a divorce. And they were one of those relationships everyone thought would work. I also know another girl who is now a senior in college and on her second engagement.

I want to get married young enough so that I can enjoy being married before I’m ready to settle down with a family. But I don’t want to be young enough that my fiancé and I have yet to experience the real life situations that make a couple grow together. Read More »

Being green ain’t easy. Recycling, environmentally friendly beauty products, eco clothing, you have to think about this shit. And in college when most of your brain cells are still trying to compensate from last nights drinking binge, thinking comes just about as easily as being eco conscience.

Even before the whole green movement, I discovered one of the easiest ways to help out the environment: reusable bags. The good news ladies, is that they are totally in right now! Not only can you help the earth while going on a beer run, you can be considered as chic and as green as they come.

Surely, even in the college towns, you didn’t miss Anya Hindmarch “Not a Plastic Bag” craze/controversy. Fashionistas were lining up for the $7 dollar version of the canvas tote, while they were being sold on EBay for upwards of $600 dollars. Now, international launches of the bags have been canceled in Southeast Asia because of their “concern for their customers safety.” Cuh-razy fashion folk, they’ll do anything to be in!

Despite the fact that Hindmarch’s website denies the accusations, a London paper reported that the bags were made in China using cheap labor laws and were neither fair-trade nor organic. Huh?

Personally, I like this one a lot better. Read More »

“In 2004, 26.5% of black males ages 18 to 24 were enrolled in college versus 36.5% of black women that age, according to the American Council on Education’s most recent statistics”.

Which is one of the reasons why black women are dating more white men then ever before, USA Today claims.

The hot button article appeared last Sunday, stating, among other things, that “American black women are among the least likely to marry”. The reason for this low marriage rate? The negative statistics aimed at young black men.

According to the article, recent numbers have shown that black men are “seven times more likely to be incarcerated than white men and more than twice as likely to be unemployed.”

Combine those figures with a growing number of black women frustrated with the ‘high rates of successful black men choosing blondes”, and you’ve got women ready for a change.

“I think a lot of black women are realizing or feeling that the pickings are slim,” one such women is quoted as saying in the article, while another one claims she witnessed “All the black men literally [pushing] (us) out the way to talk to the blondes” at a party she once attended. Read More »