5 Thoughts - Nov. 9
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5 Thoughts
Week 1
(What to do with BYU)
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Week 2
(The problem with the polls, and the new star QBs)
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Week 3
(The sleeper team to watch out for)
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Week 4
(The Big East apology)
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Week 5
(To Tebow or not Tebow)
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Week 6
(Bama vs. Florida ... already?)
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Week 7
(The pecking order for the national title)
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Week 8
(The Landry Jones era begins)
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Week 9
(Why not Boise State?)
1. And you know it's going to get
more bizarre than this.
By
Pete
Fiutak
Everyone’s talking about the jostling for the No. 4 spot in the BCS rankings, which doesn’t really matter because Texas isn’t going to lose and the SEC champion is going to Pasadena, and the debate is starting to brew around the yawner of a Heisman race, but those are nothing compared to the monster brouhaha about to kick in.
The tenth team to get a BCS bid will be … ? Uh-huh. Good luck with this one.
The BCS conference champions take up six of the bids, the loser of the SEC Championship will take one, and a non-BCS league champion, either TCU, Boise State, Utah, or Houston, will take up one spot. Barring something truly bizarre like two Alabama losses before the SEC title game or a Texas gag against Texas A&M, eight of the spots are set. Assume a ninth spot is taken by the Pac 10 if USC is still in the discussion and Oregon doesn’t collapse and goes to the Rose Bowl; a BCS bowl would take a 10-2 Trojan team in a heartbeat. That leaves one spot available, and this is about to get really, really interesting.
Here are the combatants and the scenarios for the tenth spot, and possibly two spots if the Pac 10 only sends one team or if the Big 12 North winner ends up shocking Texas. Take a deep breath, relax, and get ready to rumble.
- The ACC. If it’s Georgia Tech vs. Clemson in the ACC Championship, Tech has a case for an at-large bid even in a loss if it wins the rest of its regular season games, including against Georgia, and is 11-1 before falling to the Tigers. Clemson has to win out to get in, but the best of all scenarios for the ACC might be if Georgia Tech wins out and Miami pastes North Carolina, Duke and South Florida to finish 10-2. Miami can’t get its fans to travel to its own stadium much less across the country, but the Sugar Bowl could be very, very interested in a Hurricane vs. Tide/Gator matchup.
- The Big Ten has the stickiest of possibilities. If Ohio State loses to Iowa it’s out of the picture with three losses. But if the Buckeyes win, there’s a chance the Big Ten could have four 10-2 teams with Wisconsin and Penn State likely to be favored the rest of the way. If Iowa loses to OSU, would a BCS bowl rather have the Hawkeyes or the Nittany Lions? Iowa would likely get the nod because the entire state would travel to the BCS bowl, but Penn State is always attractive and Wisconsin, if it gets help from another Penn State loss and an Iowa win over Ohio State, could be an interesting wild-card with its rabid fan base.
- Does Oklahoma State have enough national juice to give the Big 12 a second bid? Assume that Texas beats the North representative in the championship without a problem, and assume Oklahoma State beats Texas Tech, Colorado, and Oklahoma. 19th in the current rankings, the Cowboys have work to do to get into the top 14, but that won’t be a problem by winning out and being the Big 12’s second best team. But would that be enough? Probably not, but the Big 12 head honchos would make a case.
- The Big East could make this really interesting if Cincinnati is 11-0 and loses at Pitt. The 11-1 Panthers would get the automatic bid, but would the 11-1 Bearcats be a shoo-in for an at-large spot? Maybe, and it won’t even be a question if USC isn’t involved and if there are two spots available. Pitt won’t get in at 10-2.
- Houston might be a fun addition to the BCS mix because of the offense, but it would be a tough sell over an Iowa, a Penn State or even a one-loss Cincinnati, and forget about it if …
- … Boise State is 12-0. The Broncos got screwed over last year being bypassed by the Fiesta for a lower ranked Ohio State. Forget that Boise State lost to TCU in the Poinsettia Bowl; a 12-0 Bronco team deserved the bid over the two-loss Buckeyes. But this year there’s more of a buzz and it would be really, really hard to keep out a team that goes unbeaten yet again and has a dominant win over Oregon on the résumé. Watch the WAC go ballistic if it misses out on a big payday.
What’s probably going to happen? In: Florida, Alabama, Texas, Georgia Tech, Cincinnati, Oregon, Ohio State, and TCU. Likely: USC. The Main Contenders (in order of probability): 1) Iowa, 2) Penn State, 3) Boise State, 4) Miami, 5) Oklahoma State.
2. Forget that they look like the Great
Pumpkin in those uniforms.
By
Richard
Cirminiello
Someone keep Lucy away from Death Valley. Clemson is trying to finally avoid having the ball yanked away in its quest for that long-awaited ACC championship.
The Tigers have not won a league title since 1991, often teasing their fans with gobs of next-level talent and gaudy upside potential. It was those unfulfilled expectations that eventually cost Tommy Bowden his job a year ago, putting Dabo Swinney in the position he currently holds on the sidelines. Could this year’s edition actually be different or are we about to get fooled again?
Oh, the talent is more than adequate once again at Clemson. RB C.J. Spiller is one of the nation’s most explosive multi-dimensional threats, playing through pain to spark the offense and special teams. WR Jacoby Ford has world-class speed on the outside. The defense has been next to impossible to throw on during the current four-game winning streak, picking off 11 passes and allowing just three touchdowns. The difference this year, however, is that the Tigers are beginning to heat up at the most critical time of the year—November. As the rest of the division runs a fade pattern, Clemson is streaking toward Tampa, needing only to beat NC State and Virginia to block out Boston College and make a program-first appearance in the ACC title game. The old Tigers would have lost at home to Florida State Saturday night. The new Tigers scored 19 unanswered points in the final 10 minutes for the win.
You’re a hot team, Charlie Brown. Just keep your eye on the ball because history is not on your side.
3. The USC-Arizona State game not
necessarily included.
By
Matt Zemek
If you love the NFL and dismiss the college game as inferior, you're following the wrong brand of pigskin--simple as that.
If you elevate the Sunday game at the expense of the Saturday product, you're not spending your weekend wisely.
What other sport can offer Iowa's pinball interception against Indiana, and then offer an even more ridiculous multi-body-part pick by Arizona State against USC?
What other sport can give its viewers Houston-Tulsa and Connecticut-Cincinnati in the same time window this past Saturday (7:30-11:30 Eastern)? Houston and its stud quarterback beat Tulsa, 46-45; Cincinnati and its "other" stud quarterback outlasted UConn, 47-45.
What other brand of football can showcase an offense as lethal as the one fielded by Oregon... and yet see the Ducks get eclipsed by an even more unconscious Stanford squad?
Can the NFL give you the ballsy, go-for-broke brilliance of Paul Johnson, showcased at its finest in Georgia Tech's overtime win over Wake Forest? In the No Fun League, a man with Johnson's guts would be viewed as a reckless riverboat-gambling outcast, a threat to the establishment.
Can the NFL compete with the power of the redemptive narrative being written in Clemson, S.C., where the Tigers, after so many years of slipping on the banana peel, now appear poised to win their first ACC Atlantic title?
Can the NFL possibly expect to match the sweet storyline strung together by the Ohio State Buckeyes, America's favorite Buffalo Bills-style punching bag and cultural whipping boy? After two and a half months of being castigated and excoriated and everything in between, the Bucks and their old-world Woody Hayes style of play are suddenly standing within one win of yet another Big Ten title for that supposedly awful, horrible, pathetic, underachieving coach, Jim Tressel.
This has not been a particularly high-quality season, but when November arrived, college football took flight. The delights witnessed, savored and absorbed this past Saturday are worth more than 17 NFL Sundays. The action, excitement, unpredictability, and poignancy of college football's passion plays create a marvelous mosaic that is beautiful beyond words. The sporting riches that flow from college football's best Saturdays trump every professional pageant with the exception of the finest, most fabulous Super Bowl.
If only college football could blow up the BCS and institute a playoff... Yeah, a sport this great still has some imperfections, but they sure weren't in evidence on November 7, 2009.
4. The Life of Riley, and not the unfunny
ESPN has-been.
By
Richard
Cirminiello
There are a handful of head coaches that routinely do bang-up jobs and perennially exceed expectations. Oregon State’s Mike Riley belongs at the top of that list.
Year-in and year-out, Riley inherits a Beaver squad dotted with question marks and gradually turns it into an eight or nine-win team. You can mark your calendar by it. Riley is at it again in Corvallis, taking a group with wholesale changes on defense and a beleaguered veteran Sean Canfield under center, and guiding it to the lip of the Top 25 cup. It never makes a lot of sense, yet it’s become part of the fabric of the Oregon State program and coaching staff. Go ahead and underestimate the Beavers again next summer, but do so at your own peril. This program will clear whatever hurdles are necessary to make you look silly.
Want a well-kept secret that absolutely no one will be talking about until the end of the month? After Stanford upset Oregon and Oregon State surprised Cal, both in Northern California, the Beavers have a legitimate shot of capturing the Pac-10 title that slipped away a year ago. Best of all, with the two Washington schools up next, they ought to be 8-3 heading into a Civil War that could decide the Rose Bowl representative for a second straight season.
If you’re a talented high school kid from the West Coast, give a long, hard look to Oregon State despite what the attention and offers you’re getting from the California schools. You’ll get a four-year football education from Riley and his assistants that’s second to none in the Pac-10. Guaranteed.
5. Combine the two and you sort of have Tebow.
By Michael Bradley
As always, the Heisman Trophy has turned into a contest between players at the top of the BCS, rather than a referendum on who is the best player in football. Look, we understand Eric Berry and Gerald McCoy and Ndamukong Suh have no chance, since they are defensive players, and those guys don’t get real consideration at any time. But to say the Heisman race is solely between Mark Ingram, Tim Tebow and (maybe) Colt McCoy is short-sighted.
Have you seen Case Keenum lately?
The guy can’t stop leading improbable comebacks and throwing for 500 yards. What he did against Tulsa Saturday was surreal. I’ll admit it; I turned the game off after the two-point conversion try and didn’t get to see the game-winning field goal that gave Houston a win over Tulsa. But I saw enough of Keenum to know that he’s a remarkable college player and has done enough against teams in and out of his conference to warrant serious Heisman consideration.
And what about Stanford’s Toby Gerhart? He’s rushed for more than 1,200 yards (with three games left) and scored 16 times. How do 1,650-plus yards and 20 or so TDs sound in the Pac-10? If he played for USC, he’d have his own fan club of Heisman voters and two SI covers by now. Everybody would know he’s a three-year starting baseball player who loves to get hit by pitches. Instead, he’s an afterthought. Let’s hope the next few weeks bring some enlightenment to Heisman voters. I know that’s asking a lot, but Keenum and Gerhart deserve that hope.