College Football: Week 13

Polls, conference championship games, and the BCS: not quite the Nina, Pinta and Santa Maria, but these are the devices that get us where we are going in the world of college football. Whether you are thankful for them or not, their sails have caught wind and there is no turning back now.

As we enter rivalry week, and the final weekend of the regular season, it is pretty clear what needs to happen for each team to arrive at their destination. Only three teams control their fate to play for the BCS National Championship: Florida, Alabama and Texas. The rest of the contenders must win their games and hope for a miracle at the top. There will certainly be a lot of people pulling for FSU, Auburn and Texas A&M this weekend, particularly in Cincinnati, Boise and Forth Worth.

Rivalry week is great. We get to watch more heated, competitive games this week than the past three weeks combined (maybe more). You can throw out records, postseason implications and recruiting class rankings this week. This is a player’s week, a week where the game is personal, a week where a loss leaves a sour taste in your mouth for an entire year. To the winner goes bragging rights for 365 days, and to the loser: the humility of arguing that “there’s always next year.” This is the week where a coach can save his job with a single win, even if the rest of the year has been disappointing. This is the week that is circled on calendars as soon as the schedule comes out. It’s a week where statements are made, recruiting battles are won, and the will and determination of the two teams is tested until the final whistle. This is must see TV for college football fans.

And now it’s the time where I normally talk about how Charlie Weis should be fired. But this week I think enough other people have said it, so I’ll spare you. I feel vindicated. If only most athletic departments had the same insight. If they did, maybe LSU’s staff would have made sure that Les Miles knows that you can’t take timeouts to the grave with you and that maybe someone should make sure that Les knows how to manage the clock at the end of a game. Nah, he’s got a national championship on his resume, he’ll be fine. Whoops. What was Les thinking, letting 17 seconds run off the clock before calling timeout. Most of the time you can’t blame a loss on a single event or coaching decision (with the exception of the rare 4th and 2 on your town 28 yard line incident). But this loss is hard to pin on anyone except for the mad hatter. At least Miles manned up to his mistake and shouldered the blame for the loss. Good thing that LSU was already out of the SEC race or this could have been grounds for a firing in Baton Rouge.



There really is an awesome slate of games this weekend. I am going to try my hardest to watch them all, unless Auburn gets massacred by Alabama on Friday and I have such a bad taste in my mouth for football that I can’t stomach any more. Let’s just hope that doesn’t happen. You’re hoping for me, right? Here come the picks (winners in bold):




Texas @ Texas A&M
Pittsburgh @ West Virginia
Oklahoma State @ Oklahoma
Miami @ South Florida
Virginia Tech @ Virginia
Arizona @ Arizona State
Boston College @ Maryland
Missouri @ Kansas
Utah @ BYU
Notre Dame @ Stanford
UCLA @ USC

Alabama @ Auburn
Clemson @ South Carolina
Mississippi @ Mississippi State
Florida State @ Florida
Arkansas @ LSU
Tennessee @ Kentucky
Georgia @ Georgia Tech