Many moons ago, or one or two anyway, our friends over at L.A. Weekly's West Coast Sound decided to evaluate Southern California's two main universities, USC and UCLA, using a set of music-oriented criteria and declare a winner. We're not talking matriculation either, though that's certainly part of it — they also factored in each school's distinguished alumni in the music world, notable on-campus performances past and present, student-run media (specifically radio stations) and a few other points.
Naturally this idea was too good not to steal, especially considering two such prime candidates as the University of Houston and Rice University. As L.A. did, Rocks Off asked two members of our team to act as advocate. Here, fairly recent UH grad Matthew Keever took up for his alma mater, while Rice U. alumnus-in-law Jeff Balke stated the Owls' case. As a proud Texas Longhorn, even if he never quite graduated, our Music Editor was more than happy to play judge. Hook 'em.