Edwin MacPhisto

I think I prefer 8 teams and no preseason rankings, with the first polls taking place in the middle of October, after, say, the first 5 or 6 weeks of the season. 16 is viable, but I love bowl games. It won't happen anyway, but I like it. The BCS adding a 5th game next year (it's next year, isn't it?) is going to be weird.

Even beating USC, I don't think Fresno would make the top 10 in the human polls. Probably #11 or 12, if they're already ranked in the 20s at the time. USC would certainly still be ranked ahead of them. I tend to prefer the eight-team playoff because it preserves more of the lower bowls, giving the majority of teams that are good but not elite something to play for all season--and gives their tremendous fan bases something to care about as well. The inter-conference matchups and odd pairings bowl games yield make the stretch from a day or two before Christmas through New Year's my favorite sports stretch of the year, possibly with the exception of the first week of the NCAA tournament. Admittedly, this wouldn't be a bad year for a 16-team playoff, since there seem to be very few truly elite teams. VT, Miami, Texas, Texas Tech, LSU, Alabama, Georgia, West Virginia, Penn State, Ohio State, Notre Dame, Oregon, USC, UCLA, FSU or UF depending on who wins their season-ender, and TCU, if you go with Bored's rule.

I think pollsters putting Miami above Alabama are subject to two things: -seeing that Miami put an absolute nationally-televised whooping on media-golden-children and previously ass-whooping team Virginia Tech at Blacksburg -seeing that Alabama is still playing well, but not as well as when they still had Prothro, and anticipating an LSU win next week Which isn't necessarily the right thing to do, but isn't that out of nowhere.

Nor do I intend to. UCLA got their asses whooped. They've played well enough the rest of the season that I still wouldn't drop them below WVU just yet, though. I really think very, very little of the Big East.

(credit Agent of Oblivion)

WHY? UCLA lost to Arizona by a significant margin. WVU lost to VT when they were still undefeated. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> I haven't been terribly impressed by WVU's victories, with the exception of this week's absolute shitkicking of Connecticut. So WVU is on the way up, but the general level of competition in the Pac-10 is miles above the Big East. I'd probably have UCLA around 15 or 16, and WVU one spot behind them. When UCLA proves that they definitely weren't that great by getting mauled by USC, then I'll drop them below West Virginia--if West Virginia gets by USF, that is.

Iggy, your rankings look lonely here. The LSU/Alabama game will be huge for how the top 5 shakes out. If LSU wins, they probably deserve to be ahead of Penn State, certainly Ohio State. If 'Bama wins, they'll really solidify that 3-spot. And, slightly unrelated, but if any of the one-loss teams in the top 10 drop another, they should probably fall behind Notre Dame. With Shockley, I think Georgia is a top-10 team, but I always forget how light on SEC powers their schedule's been this year. And, though West Virginia is the supposed class of the Big East, I would be hard-pressed to place them any higher than 16. They have played pretty well and are playing pretty well, but until Wisconsin, FSU, Michigan, and even UCLA drop another game, I'd have all of them ahead of the Mountaineers.

I dig Alabama and don't think they should be punished for gutting out close, ugly wins--it's their style of football, and there's nothing wrong with that--but, like a couple others have said, I'll be amazed if they win out. That'd be a hell of a feat.

Ah, this was disappointing. It sucked, but not in the same hilarious-sucking way of the first. I really did miss having actual decent actors slumming it this time around. The big drug dealer guy who always looked and sounded like he was trying really hard to take a shit was probably my favorite part.

I think that's great. Everyone at an ACC school roots to get the Peach Bowl if their team doesn't make the BCS, because the Gator is easily the lamest of the post-New Year's games. The location of the championship game is of course a big factor. The Peach Bowl has a history of really great games, and come on, it's in Atlanta. With the current bowl alliances--and even with the changes taking place next year--it's a no-brainer. Which do you think is a more appropriate game--FSU/Miami/Virginia Tech vs. South Florida/Rutgers, or vs. Auburn/Florida/LSU/Alabama?

Watching VT go down like that was sweet. Now they have two weeks to get ready to get rolled again, in Charlottesville this time (what UVA pride what). At the start of the year I said Miami/FSU in the championship game (amusingly enough, despite bombing against NC State today, FSU still sewed up their spot in the ACC title game), and now it looks like we'll get it. VT finally had to play someone who was faster than them and had comparable talent, and they got absolutely wrecked. The Vandy/Florida game also had a spectacular fourth quarter and finish. That unsportsmanlike penalty was ridiculous, but I would have taken the extra point anyway, so not that big a deal.

Fishyswa bounded into Matt's grave and started groping him like some Laertes-lookin' motherfucker. Also, I'm quite convinced FrigidSoul will rape someone within the next 18 months.

No, he explained it. Wasn't it a solar boat race or something like that?

THURSDAY Louisville FRIDAY Toledo SATURDAY Northwestern Boston College Nebraska Northern Illinois Western Michigan Iowa State Georgia Tech Utah Wisconsin California Arizona State Central Florida Miami Tiebreak #1: How many total points will be scored in the Pittsburgh/Louisville game? 55 Tiebreak #2: How many total yards will Penn State's Michael Robinson have against Wisconsin? 195

Probably the strength of schedule that's still in the computer rankings? None of OU's losses look very bad right now, since they're to 8-0 Texas, 8-0 UCLA, and TCU, who's, what, 7-1? 8-1?

AMC did all right with Monstervision, but they would have done better to replay the Hellraisers and the like a little more often, and Scream 2 and Tremors a lot less. Much as I love Tremors, that shit was on like every four hours this week.

His daughter has goat-legs.

The Replacements - Tim: Left of the Dial, Little Mascara, Here Comes A Regular Prince - Sign o' the Times: If I Was Your Girlfriend, Strange Relationship, I Could Never Take The Place Of Your Man

If that doofy sci-fi nonsense were true, I would probably stop watching the show.

THURSDAY Virginia Tech FRIDAY New Mexico SATURDAY Georgia Tech Ohio State Nebraska Syracuse Missouri Central Florida BYU Georgia Michigan Kentucky Tulane Tiebreak #1: How many total points will be scored in the Boston College/Virginia Tech game? 45 Tiebreak #2: How many yards rushing will Northwestern's Tyrell Sutton have against Michigan? 140

Cool thought. Of course, if this season proceeds at about the same pace as the first season, which covered 40 days--and, judging by what we've seen so far, that seems likely--we wouldn't have someone coming to replenish the food until at least the end of the third season. Yeowch.

What about that cop gimmick that only ever had the one post? Was that Kinetic?

I simply can't see Sawyer dying anytime soon because he's basically been set up as the dual male lead. I mean, Boone was, all things considered, probably the lowest male character on the "importance" totem pole. He was moving up when he started being Locke Junior, but was still way down there. Sawyer's got too many complex relationships with everyone on the island (and, really, is too much money in the bank for the people actually making the show) to just slice it off there. But I agree that Bernard buying it would be a minor gut-punch storywise and a good way to lure people in with hype without having to actually drop any of the moneymaking cast members. Admittedly, one thing about having the show really only focused on a few characters so far this season is that it's tough to tell who'd get axed. But, I pretty much hate "on the next episode, someone dies!" marketing, so I think I'll quit speculating here and just ride it out.

Really more of a head bump, after the fact.

Sawyer dying would be idiotic. If that's an actual spoiler you forgot to tag, I'm going to digitally kick you in the nuts about 8 times.