Song Girl Forum

This week, Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich was arrested and charged on counts of corruption, cronyism and nepotism.

This decade's USC Song Girls, prior to the Notre Dame game, have performed in Chicago, Illinois in 2001, 2003, 2005 and 2007. During this period of time, Blagojevich was in office and a resident of Chicago.

Coincidence?

Could we launch a formal investigation into who voted for the Stanford Dollies in the poll of the best cheerleaders of the Pac-10? I know true democracy requires a secret ballot, but let's get real, that vote for the Stanford Dollies is beyond the realm of acceptable behavior in an industrialized country. A vote for the Stanford Dollies is clearly a case of voter fraud.

UCLA routinely has a few Peninsula High School cheerleadrs and this year they have at least 2. Is that school typical for having great cheerleaders or does Lori Nelson have an evil twin at UCLA?

Do you think all the Song Girls from the 2000s, as well as all the athletic department staff, voted furiously for USC in the poll of "Who has the best cheerleaders in the Pac-10" in order to keep their margin of defeat somewhat respectable? Even if they did, pretty feeble vote tally for the Song Girls, even more so considering it's a USC blog, no?

With the picture "of the new 2009 song girls" having been revealed to be of the 2008 squad, I have to wonder, did the person who sent it to you happen to be one of the song girls from this decade who sent it to you as a hoax to see if you would fall for it? Is this part of a conspiracy that falls under Song Girlgate?

The Oregon State cheerleaders received a disproportionately high number of votes: 3%. Do you believe, as I do, some voters cast a vote in the wrong circle, by clicking on the circle to the right, rather than the left, of Oregon and, subsequently, voting for Oregon State by mistake? If this is the case, can we not add the votes cast for Oregon State to Oregon's tally as the intent was clearly to vote for the Oregon cheerleaders and not Oregon State?

How much of the votes cast for the USC Song Girls were part of a "sympathy vote"?

Earlier this decade UCLA's softball team was slapped with NCAA sanctions when it was discovered they had players on the team who were not even enrolled students at the university. With evidence having come out these past few months showing how several members of the USC Song Girls during this decade were on the squad even after they had already graduated from the university, when should we expect similar sanctions against the Song Girls?

Tricia Pillsbury. Print journalism major or another major?

Any word on whether the former Song Girls from this decade will be celebrating New Year's Eve by getting Penn State's replacement Nittany Lion drunk with a beer bong, then photographing themselves making out with each other at midnight?

Do you have an idea of when we will get an actual picture of the 2009 USC Song Girls? We all know a lot is riding on this next squad. If it turns out that we're getting the first respectable squad since the late-1990s, Song Girlgate will officially be over (unless further scandals in the private lives of the Song Girls make their way on to the Internet, of course.) If the 2009 squad is a continuation of what we've had this decade, Song Girlgate will continue in force into next year.

We know that due to low tryout turnout and squad expansion, it has become incredibly easy to make the SG squad. Based on the reported # of candidates at tryouts per Ben Malcolmson, which of the two scenarios below has the higher probability of occurring:

A) a random girl shows up at SG tryouts and makes the squad, or

B) you will win a poker hand in Texas Hold'em with two pair unique to you after the flop (meaning the flop delivered two cards that match your different two hole cards)

Hint: the face of a university

With all the bailouts going on in our nation, don't you feel it would be for the best interest of the Pac 10 if we could also do a bailout of our own for the Rose Bowl, in regards to the Song Girls.

With Penn State coming, it would be very humiliating for the Pac 10 to be represented by the much-maligned Song Girls.

Thus, to ensure that the Pac 10 will not be embarrassed, I think the 3 strongest Pac 10 squads could bailout the Song Girls by supplying the squad with their best girls. Oregon, UCLA, and Arizona State should supply 2 girls each to compensate for the Song Girl's known deficiencies.

This bailout will help ensure that the Pac 10 can be represented by the girls (and clearly, the Song Girls will not be able to do this on their own). I'm sure Oregon, UCLA, and Arizona State will see this as their moral duty for the league and would be more than happy to oblige.

Thoughts?

Steve Sample is the holder of the endowed Robert C. Packard President’s Chair. Art Bartner claims he has been raising money for several years to endow the USC band director's position in order to hire a top replacement when the day comes that he finally retires (probably sometime in the next century).

So why is there no discussion of endowing the position for the coach of the USC Song Girls? If the Song Girls are as important to the university as their coach claims they are, an endowed position could be used to hire a top coach rather than the sad excuse of a coach we have had to endure this past decade.

Leaving aside subjective criterion such as the decline in the physical appearances of the Song Girls, we can use objective criteria to show complete mismanagement of the squad under the current coach. From the 1990s to now, the number of girls trying out for the Song Girls has dropped by around 65 percent to unheard of lows, while the size of the student body has increased during the same period by close to 20 percent. Yet despite the number of applicants for the squad plummeting, the actual size of the squad has doubled? That is mismanagement that cannot be denied and the coach should be held entirely accountable for.

So does it not seem like a good idea to endow the position of the USC Song Girls coach and be able to hire a top replacement to bring the squad back to its former glory? How much does the coach of the Oregon cheerleaders cost?

So I saw how one of Sports Illustrated's Cheerleaders of the Week this past month was an Oregon cheerleader called Amanda Pflugrad. Very beautiful girl. I then read how her father is Robin Pflugrad, the Wide Receivers coach for the Oregon Ducks. Any chance we can get Pete Carroll to hire Coach Pflugrad and his daughter can transfer to USC and become a Song Girl? It's a win-win situation for everyone involved.

Could we launch a formal investigation into who voted for the USC Song Girls in the poll of the best cheerleaders of the Pac-10? I know true democracy requires a secret ballot, but let's get real, that vote for the USC Song Girls is beyond the realm of acceptable behavior in an industrialized country. A vote for the USC Song Girls is clearly a case of voter fraud. They make the Stanford Dollies look good.

Steve Sarkisian appears to have offered everyone at USC a job up at Washington, why doesn't he offer to take the coach and advisor of the Song Girls with him too?

The USC Song Girls of the 2000s have openly supported other universities over USC and this has been very well documented. Subsequently, why are members of the athletic department, as well as Lori Nelson and Justine Gilman, opposed to USC alumni and students supporting cheerleaders from other universities? Is this not the absolute height of hypocrisy?

What evidence is there to suggest Tricia Pillsbury was a print journalism major and what evidence is there to to suggest she was not?

Word is several of the 2008 Song Girls who tried out for the 2009 squad were actually cut last month and this is something that has not happened for several years. Apparently some of these girls are not happy to still remain on the squad for another month and there is currently a lot of drama. What, if anything, have you heard? Do you think returning squad members finally being cut, rather than being guaranteed spots on the next squad, is due to the increased public scrutiny of this past year?

Scott:

Despite the fact the USC Song Girls were routed by the Oregon cheerleaders in the Pac-10 poll, do you know anything about whether there was any sense of a MORAL VICTORY on the part of those associated with the Song Girls (current/recent members and the administration) over how they still narrowly edged out the UCLA Dance Team?