By Mark Walters
Heading into this, the 12th week of college football, the picture is becoming clearer, but it’s still pretty blurry. Last week, Texas Tech proved it belonged at the top by taking care of Oklahoma State 56-20 at home. Now the No. 2 Red Raiders are idle, so will a team jump them in the BCS? For this week, a safe bet is no, but nothing is guaranteed. No. 3 Texas is at Kansas, but how the Longhorns can leapfrog a team they lost to is beyond me. Penn State dropped a heart-breaker last week at the hands of Iowa, flushing their national title aspirations down the drain. Being a Nittany Lion fan, (there, I said it) I really don’t want to talk about it, which puts me in an interesting situation being a columnist that writes about it. Daryll Clark threw a late-game interception, giving Iowa the ball down one. They had roughly 80 yards to go, and State’s defense absolutely bent over, setting up a game-winning field goal as time expired. Sniff, sniff. If Penn State and USC both win out, they should meet in the Rose Bowl, a respectable consolation for two teams that wanted nothing but to play for all the marbles. Alabama got a scare similar to that, however they held off LSU in overtime, remaining the No. 1 team and a heavy favorite to be playing in the SEC championship game against probably No. 4 Florida. Assuming those two meet for the Southeastern title, the winner will likely advance to the BCS championship game against probably the winner of the Big XII championship game. In the conferences that aren’t nearly as important, Maryland plays No. 16 North Carolina in an ACC showdown. If they follow suit, the Terrapins should be able to beat UNC, being the way they play against better teams. Unfortunately they play poorly against lesser opponents. Take for example beating No. 23 California, No. 20 Clemson, and No. 21 Wake Forest, but then losing to Middle Tennessee State and getting shut out by Virginia. In the Big East, things got interesting when West Virginia lost to Cincinnati 26-23 last week in overtime. There are three teams-Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, and West Virginia-that are 3-1 in the conference. Pittsburgh is idle this week before facing No. 22 Cincinnati November 22. If Pitt wins that and West Virginia can beat Pitt the day after Thanksgiving, I’m assuming the Mountaineers would be the Big East champs, but I honestly don’t know the specific science behind it. As it stands, there seems to be three teams that could claim the Big East, that’s all I’m trying to say. Out west in the Pac-10, No. 6 USC is at Stanford. If you think this one is already over, don’t forget that the Cardinal beat Southern Cal last year 24-23, so ya never know. A Trojans loss would be crippling however, being that Oregon State, who beat USC 27-21 on September 25 has just one conference loss at 5-1. This one is much like the Big East because I’m not certain, but if both the Beavers and Trojans win out, the Beavers get the title having defeated USC. Hmmm, interesting.
In that case, I retract my previous statement about USC meeting Penn State in the Rose Bowl. The Lions could see the Beavers in a re-match. Of course, Penn State has to win out because if Michigan State beats the Lions on the last game of both school’s seasons, the Spartans would force a shared Big Ten title and go to Pasadena ahead of Joe Paterno’s squad due to playing less FCS opponents. Funny how things work, huh?
Some BCS-throwaway games that should be enjoyable to watch: No. 22 Cincinnati at Louisville, East Carolina at Southern Mississippi (don’t sleep on Conference USA), Rutgers at South Florida, No. 10 Georgia at Auburn, and No. 11 Ohio State at Illinois. It’s not that these games don’t matter; they’re just not big deals.
While there aren’t any games that would be better on the hardwood, No. 12 Missouri at Iowa State would shape up to be a fantastic wrestling match, so I’ll give you that to chew on for a change.
No. 25 South Carolina is at No. 4 Florida in the Steve Spurrier Bowl as The Old Ball Coach makes a return to The Swamp. What would Spurrier love more than to beat his old team in their house? Maybe win a national title, but that’s not happening this year in Columbia. And speaking of Florida, who lost to Ole Miss earlier this season, No. 1 Alabama is hosting Mississippi State Saturday. I’m just saying, ‘not so fast my friend.’