A lot of ranked teams falling in Division I college football this weekend, and a few others that almost fell, including Florida and Texas. Also, the first BCS standings for the 2009 season were officially released today.
http://espn.go.com/college-football/rankings
We all know that it's the BCS Standings that truly matter, at least in terms of determining the national title game and the major BCS bowls.
It never ceases to amaze me how comical Division I college football can be. If everything shakes out okay and there's no controversy, we all get the matchup that we expect for the national title game, end of story. But if we get a trio of top 3 unbeatens, or every major team entering the bowl season with a loss, then the only way to reconcile that is pick two of the three teams and leave the third one on the outside looking in. Justifications can always be made for the choices either way, but the only real way to settle such a conundrum would be to have a playoff. Don't expect to see it anytime soon if you're one of the fans who wants it.
Take last year as an example: Oklahoma loses in the Big 12 title game but still gets to play Florida for the national championship. Texas won that Big 12 title game, and only lost once about midway through the regular season to a highly-rated Texas Tech team. So much for slipping up just once and then rebuilding your profile by winning the rest of your games. Usually that formula works in D-I college football. But then, it's really just up to a bunch of old privileged men when you get right down to it anyway. They're like an elite group of decision-makers, a special club that gets to make these choices but still be nameless and faceless to the general college football viewing public.
I personally would love it if Florida, Alabama and Texas all lose late in the season and we get undefeated Boise State (No. 4 in the BCS) vs. CIncinnati (No. 5) for the championship. Don't count on that either though.
Here's a quick rundown of what happened with the top 8 teams in the BCS Standings this past weekend, and what might be in store for the rest of the season for each of them.
No. 1 Florida - beat unranked Arkansas 23-20 on Caleb Sturgis' 27-yard field goal with 9 seconds remaining. Close call for the Gators. They trailed 10-3 at halftime and seriously looked like they wouldn't make it out of this one alive. The victory most likely saved Florida's national championship hopes. The only top 25 team left on the schedule is No. 23 South Carolina. But don't think for a second the Gators couldn't slip up against Mississippi State (next weekend) or Georgia (Halloween), or hell, even Florida State (Gators' regular-season finale on Nov. 28th). Not a whole lot of rough ones left though. It would be surprising not to find Tim Tebow and crew back in the SEC title game.
No. 2 Alabama - beat South Carolina (No. 22 at the time) 20-6. The Crimson Tide don't make a lot of noise about it, but they just keep convincingly winning ball games with that snake oil salesman of a head coach of theirs. Oh come on, I'm just kidding. Ask anybody in Baton Rouge, Nick Saban is a saint! Much like Dorothy Mantooth. Look, we're headed for Florida vs. 'Bama in the SEC title game, as usual. Oh, yeah, so who's left on the schedule for the Tide? Let's see. The only real threat is LSU. Sure, Tennessee (next weekend), Miss State (Nov. 14) and Auburn (Nov. 27) can all be feisty, but assuming no egregious slip-ups going forward, Tide should continue to roll.
No. 3 Texas - beat Oklahoma (No. 20 at the time) 16-13. Doesn't get any bigger than this Big 12 rivalry at the neutral field Texas State Fair in Dallas each year. 2008 Heisman Trophy winning QB Sam Bradford made his return for the Sooners in this one, but was promptly knocked out in the first half after taking a vicious Longhorn hit. Bring back Landry Jones and the crazy 'stache. Honestly, this was pretty ugly to watch, and UT has made something of a habit out of making winning look painful. Oh and the Longhorns have a slightly tougher road to their conference title game than do Florida and 'Bama --- Missouri, Oklahoma State, Kansas and Texas A&M all wait in the wings. Gonna be tough to come out of all that without a loss.
No. 4 Boise State - beat unranked Tulsa 28-21. Tough road game here for the Broncos, but they pulled it out. I would make a bunch of jokes here about the fact that Boise State is No. 4 in the BCS Standings, but that's not nice. They deserve to be here. No, really. Oh wait, what's that you ask? Who is left on their schedule? Try this run of teams on for size: Hawaii, San Jose St., Louisiana Tech, Idaho, Utah State, Nevada and New Mexico State. Good God, how will they do it?!
No. 5 Cincinnati - beat South Florida (No. 21 at the time) 34-17. Yeah yeah, so the Big East isn't exactly the SEC or the Big 12 either, but it's still a cut above Boise State's schedule. The Bearcats have opened a lot of eyes this season, but they'd still have to catch some lightning in a bottle to reach the title game. West Virginia and Pitt are the toughest remaining teams in their way.
No. 6 Iowa - beat unranked Wisconsin 20-10. The Big 10 officially belongs to the Hawkeyes. Wow. Not Penn State, not Michigan, not Ohio State. But Kirk Ferentz' Hawkeyes. Fascinating. Good story. Iowa is even winning these close ones, as they did in the hostile confines of Camp Randall at the U of Wisconsin. I would say that it's smooth sailing for the Hawkeyes, who are in the Top 10 for the first time since '02, but Iowa has to travel to the Horseshoe to take on Ohio State on Nov. 14. Stay tuned, this is one of the more surprising and interesting sub-plots of the '09 season.
No. 7 USC - beat Notre Dame (ranked No. 25 at the time) 34-27. This is always a classic matchup, no matter what ranking either of these teams is carrying around. But the Trojans aren't hearing the talk that they're out of the picture just yet. Their only loss is to an unranked-but-much-improved-from-last-year Washington team, 13-10. And winning more games in the quietly challenging Pac 10 will help them climb back up the ladder. Remaining teams? Oregon and Arizona are both ranked, and the crosstown-rivalry UCLA game is never a walk through the park. If the Trojans can win out, they'll have earned it.
No. 8 TCU - beat unranked Colorado State 44-6. Ahh, the Mountain West Conference. Laugh if you want to, but the Horned Frogs mean business. Hey, at least they have two ranked opponents left, including No. 16 BYU and No. 19 Utah. The BYU game this Saturday is actually a key contest for both teams. A loss for TCU can make it hard for the Frogs to get a BCS Bowl bid, but can also propel BYU back into the limelight.
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