And for most of us, we’re done.
With Boise St. and LSU losing, we’re down to three title contenders. TCU will need either Oregon or Auburn to lose. In my mind, they need either one to lose big in order to justify TCU getting into the title game b/c of how pitiful TCU’s schedule is.
Some random thoughts from the weeked, as it’s exam week for me:
A few commenters on Twitter noted the irony of Notre Dame beating the Trojans in a week when the pope had to battle contraception. Everyone can enjoy the sweet, sweet tears of USC fans.
Do college coaches not know about this new fangled thing called the prevent defense? Nevada & LSU, I’m looking straight at you (or am until i burst out in tears b/c we lost to a clearly inferior Arkansas team b/c we didn’t play freakin prevent defense. Nope, not bitter at all). Speaking of Nevada, I watched that game (one of the perks of having a newborn is getting to watch late night TV!). A lot of fun to watch as a game, but the stands? This was the big road test for Boise, and the stands for the student section were smaller than my high school. Auburn has to go play in front of 90,000+ Bama fans. It’s just not comparable. I just don’t know if I can ever justify putting those kinds of schools over a BCS team for a national title.
Does Rich Rod stay at Michigan or do they give him another chance? I don’t know how much longer Michigan will be content to be so far behind not only Ohio St., but also Iowa and Wisconsin.
Boise went from the Rose Bowl to the Kraft Fight Hunger. They would play a PAC-10 team but since the PAC-10 can’t fill its spots it’ll get an ACC team: either BC or Miami, which just fired its coach.
I hate rankings being used as conference tiebreakers, especially when the teams met in the regular season. Use some metric from the season, like points differential instead.
I’m going to hate writing the next sentence, but LSU losing was great for college football. Cries against the BCS would have increased if LSU, whom the media have decided is only lucky, made it in over TCU. This would have increased if Oregon lost and we had an SEC rematch. The same is true for Boise. TCU has no business in the title game this year (they did last year), so I think the anger against the BCS will abate unless one of the big two lose this weekend.
By the way, I’m rooting for South Carolina next weekend. Pay for play is a bad deal, and while logically Auburn ought to go over TCU, emotionally I want those cheaters to watch TCU go over them. Furthermore, that would knock Arkansas out of the BCS bid, sending them to the Cap One bowl instead of us. Yes, I am rooting for LSU to get knocked out of the “better” bowl and go to the Cotton, perhaps to play the Aggies. Sorry, but after last year I never want to go to the Cap One bowl again (ps-dear SEC-when LSU fans are openly hoping to not go to your premiere non-BCS bowl, it’s time to change the premiere non-BCS bowl). And yes, I know that they put in a new field but I’d rather Jerryworld than Disney world (the fact that I could maybe convince my wife to take a texas trip but not a Orlando trip has nothing to do with it)
TCU just joined the Big East. While the Big East could use a football school, 17 teams in basketball? Sure, they get exposure but how many teams until you have to contract? If you don’t think Mike Slive will be traveling with LSU to Morgantown this fall, you’re dead wrong.
Now, for next week I figure there won’t be enough to do another set of rankings (not to mention I’ll have three exams that week), so the rankings are done for the year. However, our college football stuff will not. I’ll ask all the rankers to submit their picks for the bowls with their reasoning behind the picks. I’m not sure if we’ll do all the bowls of just the ones after Christmas. When the bowl lineups come out, I’ll make a call. However, I also want our readers to participate. So you can send in your picks via comment here or via our facebook page. We can bash each other picks, trash talk etc.
(Speaking of trash talk, is it acceptable to post your team’s victory cheer on the facebook page of the opposing team after a win? Ex: an Ole Miss fan posting “Hotty Totty!” on the wall of an LSU fan. I think so, b/c it’s not really trash talk, it’s just “yay! my team won!” and is fairly harmless, especially if there’s a history of playful trash-talk between the two. However, someone recently disagreed with me and told me I was a jerk. I was curious if in fact I am a jerk).
Allright, so to the final rankings!
Every voted, but Tito’s votes did not count in these rankings b/c if they did, Jay and I would fly into Houston and kill him ourselves (Also I typed everything up and then got Tito’s email, and I just don’t have time to redo everything).
- Auburn (3) -Marching through SEC play with a perfect record earns you the #1 spot, no questions asked. South Carolina, however, is more than capable of taming these Tigers (MJ)
- Oregon (2) (TIED w/ Auburn) – Strange things can happen in rivalry games, but it’s hard to imagine Oregon St. stopping Oregon’s march to the title game. (PZ)
- TCU – Even an Auburn loss might not be enough to get them in the title game. (PZ)
- Wisconsin – Their sheer physicality drives teams into utter submission and humiliating defeats (DH)
- Stanford – (If Harbuagh stays, the Cardinal could be a new West Coast powerhouse (DH)
- Ohio St. – How many more years do the Buckeyes crush the Wolverines before that stops being a big rivalry outside the states of Ohio & Michigan? (MD)
- Michigan St. – Losing in a blowout to Iowa is all that’s keeping the Spartans out of the Rose Bowl (MJ)
- Arkansas – I really have no idea how this team ended up with a BCS bid. Choked in their big games, then scraped by Miss. St., smoked the Gamecocks, and upset the Tigers to be headed to the Sugar barring an upset in the SEC title game. I love college football. (MD)
- Oklahoma – Even though the Sooners end up tied to Texas A&M, to whom they lost in a head-to-head game, they’re going to the Big 12 Championship. Such is the BCS era (MJ)
- Boise St. Â – Opinionated Catholic and I laughed as the Boise St. official twitter account boldly claimed they would stomp both Bama & Auburn and then couldn’t hold down the Nevada Wolfpack. Feel really bad for that poor kicker.
- LSU – Prevent defense made a difference, but LSU fans know that with better offensive play, this could have been a national title season. Disappointing, but the loss to Arkansas likely seals Gary Crowton’s fate. (MD)
- Nebraska – They can beat just about any team that’s not from the State of Texas (MJ)
- Virginia Tech – They’re great run down the stretch might really help get Boise St over the hump . . . Oh. Wait. (PZ)
- Missouri – If the Tigers beat Texas Tech–a game they should have easily won–they’d be a top-10 BCS team heading to the Big 12 Championship. Instead, they’ll be in Columbia waiting for good bowl news (MJ)
- Nevada (TIE w/ Mizzou) – Had they beaten Hawaii, their seismic win against Boise State would make them BCS bound (DH)
- Oklahoma St. – The Cowboys failed to beat a very beatable Oklahoma team. There go the BCS hopes (MJ)
- Texas A&M – An impressive six game winning streak that included wins over Oklahoma and Nebraska is not enough to overcome those close losses to Oklahoma State and Arkansas. Could it have been an 11-1 season? Maybe not, since Jerrod Johnson’s struggles in those losses brought in Ryan Tannehill and the win streak (MJ)
- Alabama – Saban got outcoached by Miles and then melted down at home with a 24 point lead. Yelling doesn’t get you much. Hopefully LSU fans will stop wishing he would return to Baton Rouge. (MD)
- South Carolina – A lot at stake this weekend. The Outback Bowl isn’t bad, but the Sugar bowl and an upset of the #1 team is much sweeter. (MD)
- Florida St. – By stomping the Gators and watching Miami fire its coach, Jimbo Fisher is in a good position for recruiting in the state of Florida. (MD)
- Mississippi St. – A good first step towards becoming an elite team in the SEC; they’d have won the East this year. (MD)
- Utah – The loss to TCU have deflated them; they haven’t won impressively since the blowout (MD)
- West Virginia – The Big East & West Virginia both want to see UConn lose so that the Big East can have a respectable and ranked team in the BCS bowl. (MD)
- N. Illinois – They really haven’t beaten anyone of note. But they seem to be pretty good (MJ)
- Hawaii – Kicking themselves for some of their early losses to mediocre teams (DH)
- UNC (TIE w/ Hawaii) – Considering the adversity this team has faced, it’s a good performance. (MD)
Also receiving votes: UCF, Iowa, Arizona
Yeah, Tito ranked LSu 25th, Ohio St. 23rd, and put Bama, Miss. St. and Texas A&M over Arkansas even though the razorbacks beat the Bulldogs and Aggies and have one less loss than all of those teams.
Get over it, Denton. I was in no mood to be heckled after that game.
OVERRATED!!!
LSU!!!
OVERRATED!!!
East Coast bias prevails again, from an LSU grad no less.
LSU is not overrated; their two losses were by touchdowns on the road to teams ranked #1 and #8 respectively. 7 of the 10 wins were over bowl-eligible teams.
OVERRATED!!!
LSU!!!
OVERRATED!!!
Rankings based on NON-of my votes due to your bitterness.
Over bowl-eligible teams?
You gotta be kidding!
Everybody is bowl-eligible. All you need is a pulse.
And this wasn’t about East Coast bias. Fresno St. has no business in the top 25, but my complaints were the bizarre rankings of LSU, Ohio St. and Arkansas in relation to other East Coast teams. Hard to have an East Coast bias when you’re picking East Coast teams over other East Coast teams. (And I defining East Coast in this context to mean teams East of the PAC & WAC)
I suppose the Buckeyes are “overrated”, too, since their only loss came in Madison to the #4 team in the nation.
I feel bad for Sparty because, under the old system, Michigan State would be headed to the Rose Bowl. Now, they’re going to be locked out of the BCS bowls altogether even though they have only 1 loss and are the only team to beat the #4 team in the nation.
Had they not been so completely blown out by Iowa (who finished the season with a shocking 5 losses), and instead lost by a closer score, the Spartans would likely be ranked ahead of Ohio State (and maybe even Wisconsin since they beat the Badgers head-to-head) and be headed to the Sugar Bowl (or even the Rose Bowl).
Jay,
Ohio State is notorious for losing mythical national championship games by 30 or more.
When they stop choking then I’ll consider them higher.
Shoulda, coulda, woulda… re: Arky, Okie Lite, and Mizzou. I like the Aggies’ chances in a rematch with these teams, but that’s now how it works. These teams took advantage of the Aggies various woes and made them pay. Good for them… they did what they were supposed to do. At the end of the day, I’m loving the fact that they are 9-3, with huge wins over t.u. and the two teams vying for the Big 12 championship.
This is a huge step towards regaining and maintaining relevance in NCAAF. Looking forward to the bowl game and next season.
Nebraska – They can beat just about any team that’s not from the State of Texas
ROFL… I like their chances against Baylor and tceh. And Cougar High and SMU and Rice.
Bama surprised me. Up by 24 and lose? Either that was an EPIC meltdown, or that demonstrates the legitimacy of Auburn. Auburn and Oregon for the MNC, with Auburn taking the title.
List out all these games the Buckeyes have lost by 30 or more points. There must be quite a few of them, since Ohio State is allegedly “notorious” for it.
East Coast Bias!
Banning the only west coast writer!
East Coast Bias!
Everybody is bowl-eligible. All you need is a pulse.
What does that say about the PAC-10? Considering that they’re looking at getting 3 teams at worst and 5 teams at best into bowls?
Had they not been so completely blown out by Iowa (who finished the season with a shocking 5 losses), and instead lost by a closer score, the Spartans would likely be ranked ahead of Ohio State (and maybe even Wisconsin since they beat the Badgers head-to-head) and be headed to the Sugar Bowl (or even the Rose Bowl)
Yeah, I really hate the idea of conferences using rankings as tiebreakers. These teams played on the field; we use the rankings to compare teams that haven’t played. OSU, OU, and A&M played each other. Use on the field stuff. Same with the Big 10, though the problem there is allowing teams to not play each other and not having a conference title game.
I was being sarcastic, but when you get as many shots at the MNC and still lose (and you only get in because of your reputation), then they get the ranking they deserve.
Banning the only west coast writer!
Don’t you live in Houston?
All you need is a 6-6 season to get in.
That doesn’t make it all that remarkable.
I live in Houston, but I was raised on WAC and PAC-10 football.
We’re used to getting the shaft from the east coast establishment.
Ohio St. the last two shots at the title game were the only undefeated AQ team and the only AQ 1 loss team. The last two times they got in on merit. I think the Big 10 gets a lot of media hype, but if we’re looking at a team getting in on reputation alone, the criminal is OU. OU had no business being in the title game in 2003 or 2004 and have played poorly in bowls since (losing to Boise, then losing again in the BCS title game v. Florida).
There was an aberration in ’84 when BYU won the MNC, but besides that, Oregon and USC have been denied the MNC because of east coast bias.
Am I complaining?
No, but I bring it up because of the FACT that I have been banned from this poll from you easterners.
Yeah, getting to a bowl isn’t impressive. However, it’s a good measuring stick for strength of schedule. To see the SoS, you look at number of ranked teams (either at the end or at the time played) and then the number of bowl eligibility. That way you can see top wins as well as the depth of the schedule.
USC getting East Coast Bias? Wtf. They got the national in 2003 despite not getting in the game. They got the nod of Auburn in 04 despite having a much weaker schedule. USC was declared the greatest team ever in 2005 before Young Stomped them. I’m sure Oregon has complaints, but USC is so far up ESPN’s rear that it’s ridiculous to claim they’re hurt by bias.
I’ll admit I tanked LSU, but does it really matter?
I re-did my rankings after second thoughts on TCU (had them #24) after jumping to the Big LEast.
Considering the WAC has three teams ranked nationally and the Big Least only one (and behind the other WAC ranked teams).
Yet Boise State gets the Toilet Bowl game and a Big Least Champion gets a ticket to a BCS bowl game.
Anyhoo, I can’t wait for bowl season and watch all the Big Least teams choke in the bowls (along with Ohio State).
Tito:
I didn’t yours in b/c I had already finished writing this up & your rankings weren’t based on what you really think. I’m just not going to spend time re-doing rankings b/c you’re mad at LSU fans (which by the way, the Miles haters annoy me too, but they’re overblown in the media. Go to And the Valley Shook blog; you’ll see that they are by no means the only LSU fans). If you really think LSU & Ohio St. are 22nd and 25th, then fine, but I don’t think you do. If you say that they are, fine, I’ll go back and edit them. If you want to re-do your rankings, I’ll put them in.
Now, we really need to talk about this TCU jump. In this, the WAC is dead, Boise is screwed, and the Big East somehow ended up securing an auto bid (unless the SEC takes WVU). What does Boise do now? Do they go to beg the PAC for an invite? They gained nothing except a game against Air Force.
Aggies to the Cotton Bowl.
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/spt/colleges/texasam/stories/120110dnspoblogcolltexasam.27feae0e3.html
Aggies to the Cotton Bowl.
Awesome! It won’t matter which SEC team they face–the Aggies are getting 10 wins this year!
Tito,
You do realize that Ohio State actually won one of the three “mythical national championship” games they played in, right?
You do realize that Ohio State’s BCS bowl record was 4-0 prior to losing those last two “mythical national championship” games, right?
You do realize that their overall BCS bowl record at this point is 5-3, in stark contrast to Oklahoma’s paltry 2-5 BCS bowl record, right?
Yet Oklahoma always gets a pass and everyone always gives Ohio State hell. Yeah, SOME “East Coast bias”. Give me a frickin’ break.
By the way, Tito, who was the last team your precious west coast Oregon Ducks lost to (say, sometime around New Year’s Day in Pasadena)?
Overrated and getting in based on reputation alone, my ass.
It won’t matter which SEC team they face–the Aggies are getting 10 wins this year!
Them be fighting words. If the Aggies face the Tigers, this blog is going to explode.
Them be fighting words. If the Aggies face the Tigers, this blog is going to explode.
From what I’ve been hearing, it’ll be LSU. I’ll bring the beer. You bring the boudin. Jay will bring some BBQ and his REK collection. Darwin will provide Scotch. MJ will bring the rotel dip and fritos. Tito can bring the organic, fair-trade tofu he heard about from the hippies in Eugene, OR. 🙂