iggymcfly

THURSDAY Virginia Tech at Georgia Tech FRIDAY Hawaii at Boise State SATURDAY Oklahoma at Oklahoma State N.C. State at Clemson Purdue at Northwestern Missouri at Nebraska Western Michigan at Central Michigan Connecticut at Syracuse Kansas at Iowa State Kentucky at Mississippi State New Mexico at Colorado State Army at East Carolina TCU at Cincinnati Utah State at Middle Tennessee State Air Force at Wyoming Rice at Tulsa Florida vs. Georgia Ohio at Kent State Texas Tech at Kansas State Oregon State at Arizona Tiebreak #1: How many total points will be scored in the Hawaii/Boise State game? 85 Tiebreak #2: How many rushing yards will Georgia Tech's P.J. Daniels have against Virginia Tech? 97

It actually kinda makes sense if you think about it, because the way he got famous right before the article (if anyone even remembers) is having an absolute lights-out postseason the year before. He was really popular in Atlanta for about 2 and a half months before the SI article that killed his career.

If Utah does make a BCS bowl, I hope they don't get stuck going against West Virginia. I think with an undefeated season, they should get a chance to prove themselves against a real contender, and maybe even earn a little tiny share of the national championship, not get stuck playing a team that's almost as much of a mid-major than they are. I'm pretty sure that Auburn will lose somewhere along the way (and by somewhere along the way, I mean Georgia), and if Boise was even an issue, they'll probably lose one too. But I don't see any of the other undefeateds picking up a loss. USC's way too solid at home to lose to Notre Dame, and Oregon State's the toughest road test they have left. As far as Oklahoma goes, OSU and Texas A&M are both way too overrated to actually pull the upset. Missouri might have actually had a chance to be a trap game, but after the Sooners lost in the conference championship last year, there's no way they let it happen again. Utah doesn't play anyone close to talented enough to pull off the upset, which just leaves Miami. Virginia's incredibly overrated and won't come close which leaves Virginia Tech, as the only team capable of actually knocking off a top team. Even if they do get beat, that still leaves four undefeated teams in the BCS games.

Just because they're likely to end up 7-4 in the SEC doesn't mean that they wouldn't be 9-2 in the Big 12 North, or even the Big 10. You can't tell me that Southern Miss or Minnesota (both ranked in the AP poll) are playing better football than South Carolina right now.

Well, I'm certainly not going to move them up following "big wins" like Kentucky and La. Tech. I can't make any promises without seeing how Oklahoma does against OSU and Texas A&M, but a big win over Georgia followed by another win in the SEC Championship game would probably be enough to get the job done.

Well, there weren't many changes this week, and I didn't really feel like writing them all up with commentary right away, but they're ready now, so here they are: (previous week's rank in parenthesis) 1. USC 7-0 (1) The Trojans have still played the toughest schedule of any of the unbeatens, and have been playing even better the last few weeks to boot. It would almost take a loss to wrench away the top spot now. . 2. Oklahoma 7-0 (2) Despite a moderately suspect schedule, the Sooners have been impressive enough in their wins to hold off Miami and Auburn for now. However, they may need some style points against OSU and Texas A&M to keep the two spot. . 3. Auburn 8-0 (3) Auburn will have plenty of chances to prove themselves worthy in the upcoming weeks, taking on Georgia before the SEC Championship game. However, they'll also have plenty of chances to pick up a loss. . 4. Miami 6-0 (4) The Canes got another impressive win on Saturday, beating NC State 45-31 in a game that was much less close than the score indicated. It's almost a coin flip between Miami and Auburn right now, but the Tigers dominant win over Tennessee is still just enough to give them the edge. . 5. California 5-1 (5) Cal strengthened their resume, dominating the same Arizona team that came within a late field goal of beating Wisconsin by a score of 38-0. The Golden Bears continue to impress, and are a completed pass away from being the consensus #1 team in America. . 6. Utah 7-0 (6) Utah also solidified its position by beating a common opponent of the Badgers, as they ran up 63 points on a UNLV team that held Wisconsin to 18. Despite their conference, the Utes have just been too strong to ignore thus far. . 7. Wisconsin 8-0 (7) The Badgers keep rolling along, but don't really have anyone left on the schedule strong enough to make a statement against. Without help, Wisconsin will just remain at seven. . 8. Georgia 6-1 (8) The Dawgs pulled out another victory over a tough SEC team, beating Arkansas on the road. Having one close loss really isn't bad considering the depth of the SEC right now. . 9. Florida State 6-1 (9) An embarrassing performance against Wake Forest threatened to drop the Noles down, but they remain in the 9 spot for now. Despite the struggles against mediocre teams, one has to think that Florida State has enough talent to win when it matters. . 10. Tennessee 6-1 (10) Tennessee escaped Alabama with a win, and as long as they only have one loss, the Georgia win should be enough to keep them in the Top Ten. . 11. Texas 6-1 (12) The Longhorns finally got an impressive win against a good team, and it was enough to leapfrog Louisville to move into eleventh. . 12. Louisville 5-1 (11) The Cardinal have seeed very impressive within the confines of their schedule, but they really need at least one major win to be taken seriously among the top contenders. . 13. Michigan 7-1 (14) Beating Purdue on the road was a nice boost for this Wolverine team, that up until then was 1-1 against Top 40 teams. . 14. Boise State 7-0 (15) The Broncos showed that when they get up for a game, they really are a little better than the rest of the WAC, and that close games against the likes of Tulsa are due as much to lack of interest as lack of skill. . 15. Virginia Tech 5-2 (17) The Hokies have a favorable schedule most of the way from here on out, and could easily roll into Miami on December 4, with the ACC title on the line. . 16. Texas A&M 6-1 (18) Beating Colorado in overtime's not exactly very impressive, but you can't really blame them for taking a week off after the big win over OSU. . 17. Arizona State 6-1 (19) Somewhere along the same lines, Arizona State had a lot more trouble than they should have with UCLA, but at the end of the day, they still only have one loss. . 18. LSU 5-2 (16) Coming within four points of losing to Troy at home is inexcusable for a two-loss team trying to gain some national respect. . 19. West Virginia 6-1 (21) While the Big East may not even be the sixth best conference in America, WV is still somewhat legit as the loss to VT is nothing to be ashamed of. . 20. Purdue 5-2 (13) The Boilermakers are in danger of entering free-fall mode now, coming off two consecutive losses to Michigan and Wisconsin. They obviously have the talent to be 7-0, but just couldn't quite get it done when it counted. . 21. Oklahoma State 6-1 (24) UCLA and Missouri are decent, but nothing compared to what's awaiting the Cowboys the next two weeks against Oklahoma and Texas. . 22. Virginia 6-1 (22) The Cavaliers get this spot by default as a one-loss BCS team, but the 33 point loss to Florida State was their only game all year against a team with a winning record. . 23. South Carolina 5-2 (NR) The Gamecocks are extremely underrated. They dominated Alabama, nearly beat Georgia, and still have an outside shot to win the SEC East and make it to the title game. . 24. Iowa 5-2 (NR) The Hawkeyes are also in the rankings pretty much by default, as the only memorable point of their season thus far was the 44-7 shellacking they took at the hands of Arizona State. . 25. NC State 4-3 (25) The Wolfpack having nothing to be ashamed of in a close loss to Miami, and still have tough road wins over Virginia Tech and Maryland to hold to their credit.

Hey, Bored could you actually see where Mike and I would be ranked without the forfeits? I know you mentioned it last week, and i was just wondering if you could let me know what my rank would be.

That's all right, the Lucky Strike Cigarettes Bowl can be the "people's championship." Neither one of us has lost a game since we took over, and that's where we're scheduled to meet right now. Of course, if we can keep going and then pick the conference championship games right, we should be meeting in a BCS bowl anyway.

How exactly did LSU benefit from the conference championship game? If anything, it hurt them when they knocked Georgia down, and lost their quality win bonus.

This is just a question that occured to me. If Steinbrenner actually reduced the payroll to a reasonable level, say second or third in the league: 1) How much worse would the Yankees be and 2) How long before the fans got sick of it, and he stopped bringing in the insane amounts of money that allow him to do what he does.

And just to brighten up my day a little bit, the college football gods offer up this. Boston College 24 Notre Dame 23 I don't know why, but I really fucking hate the Irish.

Hey, people tend to mock my Top 25 a little bit, but there's a reason that I only have Florida State at #9 in there, and lack of consistency is it. Honestly, that Virginia game is really the only time they've looked good all year. Wisconsin, Cal, Utah, and Georgia should all be ahead of Florida State right now, and obviously a lot more teams should be added to that list if they lose today.

Must distract from petty bickering. Uh, how about those Cougars! Only down by 21 in the second quarter. Yeah!

Has anyone been watching this Wisconsin/Northwestern game. The whole time, they keep acting like when Erasmus James got injured, it was a premeditated assault or something. It was a good block! He was starting to get away, so Purdue's tackle fired out and took out his legs. That's a perfectly legal technique, and a perfectly legal block. I mean what, is he supposed to just let Erasmus James make the tackle because he might get hurt if someone blocks him? Football's a contact sport. If you're gonna bitch when someone hits you, you should either grow some balls or find a new sport.

First of all, I admitted I was messing with you. With the way the Cougs are playing, it's nice to have a team I can talk shit with. Second, flavor of the week, lucky to be ranked, hoping to make the playoffs Northwestern State is just a little different than defending five-time Big Sky Champion Montana who has two national championships in the last ten years, and hasn't missed the playoffs since 1993. EWU collapsing against UM (Montana) is more like Lousiville collapsing against UM (Miami). It's the team with the pedigree coming up big when it counts. Nicholls beating Northwestern is more like when West Virginia was supposed to be top ten and they lost to Virginia Tech.

It's all right, I'm just talking shit because the Griz are so much better than most of the Big Sky from year to year. And don't worry, I certainly remember the '97 game. That year, we were coming off of two straight national championships, and then we didn't even win the conference because of that game. As for Miami's schedule, it's really not all that hard. Despite the ACC being solid this year, the only moderately tough games left are NC State, Virginia, and Virginia Tech. Virginia's looking a lot easier after the Florida State game, and VT's probably not good enough to pull the upset on the road, so really the Hurricanes' best chance of losing is probably this week against the Wolfpack.

Actually, looking at the schedules, I say that there's a better than 50/50 chance that there are three undefeateds this year. I just don't see anyone on the slates that can realistically beat Wisconsin, USC, or Oklahoma. Having more than two undefeateds is just about the only thing that could set a playoff in motion, but I think that if they did change the system, it would just be for one national championship game after the bowls are finished. If they made an actual 8 team playoff, (the logical solution), it would throw off the whole bowl system. It would be really difficult to incorporate the current major bowls into the system, because no one's going to want to travel all the way across the country for a preliminary game or multiple times. And GreatOne, quit calling it a chokejob. Montana's a greatly superior football program, and if they let you hang around until the fourth quarter, you should be happy. I mean none of your players has a Big Sky Conference Championship ring. Not only do we have guys with four, but Ochs has a Big XII championship as well. (Yeah, I go to Wazzu, but I'm from Missoula, and I was born and raised on Grizzly football. With the Cougs playing like shit, I'm kind of identifying myself more with UM football right now. I mean at Coug games, they stop me at the gate to smell my coke cup to see if there's alcohol that they can take away from me; at Grizzly games, there's four different lines for free beer at halftime.)

This is the most blatant case of a straw man argument I've ever seen. NO ONE IS SAYING OKLAHOMA ISN'T GOOD! I don't even think anyone's saying they're not one the two best teams in the country right now. All anybody says is that OU's playing a ridiculously easy schedule, and if Miami or Auburn goes undefeated, they would deserve the national championship game more than the Sooners would. I swear I've said this before.

If you don't follow that, you're stupid. Anyway, Francona said Lowe was pitching right after the game when he was getting interviewed on FOX. I have to say that this is pretty crazy though the way the series has turned around.

THURSDAY Syracuse at West Virginia FRIDAY South Florida at Louisville Wyoming at Colorado State SATURDAY Northwestern at Wisconsin Iowa at Penn State Georgia at Arkansas Bowling Green at Ohio Boston College at Notre Dame UTEP at Louisiana Tech Michigan at Purdue Oklahoma State at Missouri Florida State at Wake Forest UCLA at Arizona State Washington State at Oregon State (I'm in somber pessimist mode on the Cougs now) Oregon at Stanford Alabama at Tennessee Texas at Texas Tech New Mexico State at North Texas Miami at N.C. State Fresno State at Boise State Tiebreaker #1: How many total points will be scored in the USF/Louisville game? 55 Tiebreaker #2: How many total yards (passing & rushing) will West Virginia's Rasheed Marshall have against Syracuse? 198

A couple things. First, as some who goes to WSU, don't use them as an example of anything representative of a good team. They're probably about 8th in the Pac-10 this year, and could easily go 4-7. The only plus is that a healthy Brink is a little bit better at QB than the gimpy Josh Swogger we've had limping around for the last few weeks, and Swogger's now officially out for the season. Now, as for the Big XII, they're still terrible. Not one team in the whole conference has a non-conference win over a team with a vote in the last coaches poll, but a couple of the "good" teams still found time to lose to Troy and New Mexico of all teams. The conference is a fraud, and if a team like Miami or Auburn did manage to go undefeated through an entire difficult conference slate, they probably would deserve to go to the Orange Bowl over OU.

Geez, it's not that hard to read, is it?

First off, I didn't have Purdue ranked fifth. They were sixth, behind Cal. The reason that they could be primed for an Orange Bowl run was that they still had chances against Wisconsin and Michigan to prove themselves and move up a couple of spots. The Wisconsin/Purdue game last week was sloppy, and the Badgers won not by making a play of their own, but because of a missed field goal by their opponents. Now this doesn't mean that Wisconsin's not a very good team that should be rewarded for their unbeaten season thus far. What it does mean is that I don't think that they could go into the L.A. Coliseum, and come within one play of defeating USC, and it does mean that I don't think they're as good of a team all-around as Cal. Cal beat OSU by 42, UCLA by 17, and they really haven't looked bad once all year. Just because they don't have as good of a record as Wisconsin or Utah doesn't mean that I should ignore the fact that they've been a better team.

And do you have a reason why Wisconsin should be top five? They needed a missed field goal to beat Arizona, and a missed field goal and a fumble to beat Purdue. Yes, they're undefeated, but they haven't been as impressive as Utah thus far, and they haven't been anywhere near as impressive as Cal, last-second loss on the road to USC or no. And Damaramu, do you care to elaborate on what's wrong with my rankings? The only real difference between those and the AP/Coaches is that I focus more on how the teams have actually played than I do on their reputations.

Wow, I can't believe that Tavarez got out of the inning there. Looked like the Astros were about to blow the game open.