Hang in there, Oregon: at this point last year, the Florida Gators were ranked #8 in the BCS standings before going on the win the national championship. So should the currently ranked #8 Ducks feel encouraged by that fact? Probably not. Boise State, the only team who beat Oregon and a team that remains undefeated, is ahead of the Ducks in the BCS poll. It would be a tough sell for Oregon to jump an undefeated Boise team under any scenario since we’ve already seen the Broncos defeat the Ducks. Speaking of the BCS….
My new #1 argument for why preseason rankings are worthless: Ole Miss is in danger of not making a bowl game. The same Ole Miss who was ranked in the top ten before the year began. Under the current NCAA rules, a team must win at least six games to be bowl eligible. Ole Miss currently has five wins with remaining games against Northern Arizona, Tennessee, LSU, and a road trip Mississippi State. Here’s the catch: you can only count one win against D1-AA competition toward bowl eligibility. That means this weekend’s matchup against Northern Arizona is meaningless for the Rebs, which means that Ole Miss will have to win at least one out of the Vols, LSU and Miss State. While this is a very attainable goal, it seems like the wheels have come off in Oxford. The players and fan base are deflated after a beating in Auburn this past weekend. Tennessee is red hot, LSU can play very well when they want to, and the Egg Bowl is in Starkville this year- never discount a team in a rivalry game.
More to come on my growing hatred for the system very soon. But for now, on to other current events.
This is a big week for the Alabama Crimson Tide when LSU travels to Tuscaloosa for one of the biggest games of the year in the SEC. Both teams, although faint for LSU, have national championship aspirations. A win this week would vault either team closer to that goal while a loss would all but eliminate either of them for contention. The winner of this game is likely to appear in the SEC Championship Game in December to face Florida with a BCS bid on the line.
The game is also loaded with personal history for Alabama head coach Nick Saban who formerly coached LSU to a national championship before jumping ship for a short lived NFL career. Tiger fans are still bitter about how Saban treated the situation as well as some comments that he has made along the way. LSU would love nothing more than to stick it to Saban and the Tide and ruin their perfect season. They have the defense to pull it off, but can the LSU offense outplay a stingy Tide defense that has held opponents to 20 points or less in seven of eight games, including single digits in four of those wins? It will be an extremely tough task for Les Miles offense this Saturday in Tuscaloosa.
There really isn’t a whole lot to get excited about this weekend other than the marquee SEC matchup. We have Ohio State visiting Penn State- that is about as good as it gets this weekend. We are at the point in the season where teams either have byes or cupcakes on the schedule to gear up for rivalry week and other big time conference matchups. Fortunately, we at least those have two games with national relevance.
In coaching news, the seat that had previously cooled for Michigan head coach Rich Rodriguez is starting to catch on fire now. Losing to an inept Illinois team is inexcusable for a program like Michigan. Rich Rod better have his sales pitch ready and come out hitting hard early next season or the sun may be setting on the Rich Rod era in Ann Arbor. Despite his best efforts to butcher every game, Charlie Weis’ team is playing pretty well with two losses so far. I guess having a potential Heisman candidate can make any coach look good (hey, even Joe Cain made James Caan seem like a good coach).
Random thought of the week: Minnesota probably won’t win another game this year without stud wideout Eric Decker. Out for the rest of the year with an ankle injury, Decker’s college football career is most likely over. Decker will have to choose between a pro baseball or football career. I think he could be a solid possession guy in the NFL, but depending how he heals up and what kind of numbers he shows if he makes it to the combine, I have a feeling he might lean toward baseball. He has taken a beating while being the only option on the Gopher offense for the past few years.
I hope no one has been keeping score on my predictions. I haven’t really been putting much time into researching them and it is really showing with some of the picks. But again subjecting myself to more embarrassment and criticism, here are my picks for the week (winners in bold) :
Week 10:
Purdue @ Michigan
Illinois @ Minnesota
Navy @ Notre Dame
Oregon @ Stanford
Ohio State @ Penn State
FSU @ Clemson
UConn @ Cincinnati
South Carolina @ Arkansas
Tennessee Tech @ UGA
Eastern Kentucky @ Kentucky
Furman @ Auburn
LSU @ Alabama
Memphis @ Tennessee
Vandy @ Florida
Northern Arizona @ Mississippi
Good to be a home team in the SEC this week. Hopefully I just gave Alabama the kiss of death.
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