USC is now a top 25 university and the equal to Cal and UCLA. In other words we are now an elite university. If a kid is planning on staying in southern california there are probably more reasons to pick USC with all its contacts than Stanford. We can more than hold our own recruiting vs. USC. And by the way, Stanford has always had a huge advantage on USC due to facilities, in both basketball and football. With the opening of the Galen and now the opening of the John McKay Center USC ends that advantage.