Yeah, SC sells a lot more than you are giving it credit for. They have a lot in common with ND in the sense they have incredible tradition, they put a ton of guys in the league, they are a private school, and they offer a FANTASTIC education. Difference in that education of course is that they don't actually educate and graduate a lot of their players, but they don't talk about that LOL. Now, you have a lot of guys that don't care about that stuff and choose USC for the reasons you mentioned, but as much as I hate them they do have other things to offer that a attractive to recruits.
And I wouldn't call their class imploding just yet. They put on incredible OVs and they have some HUGE ones coming up. Yeah, guys are looking elsewhere but they might be replaced by even bigger studs. And with guys like Sua Cravens and several other 5 stars fully committed, they're still doing fine. Now, if they lose the bowl game, **** could get real!