Week Twelve News and Notes

[LordJeffBuck]

If It Looks Like a Duck....

Yes, props to Oregon for messing up the BCS picture even further by becoming the tenth top-five team this season to lose to an unranked opponent, in this case the Arizona Wildcats. I realize that Oregon quarterback and Heisman Trophy candidate Deniss Dixon was injured early in the contest, but a legitimate national title contender has to be able to survive the loss of one key player, especially when playing a 4-6 team that had already lost to the likes of Stanford and New Mexico. And last I checked, Dixon doesn't play on defense, so please explain the 27 points given up by the Ducks' "stop" squad. Quack! Quack!

Sooner or Later....

After the Ducks were shot down by the Wildcats on Thursday night, the Oklahoma Sooners became the eleventh top-five team to lose to an unranked opponent when they fell to the Texas Tech Red Raiders on Saturday evening. What makes this choke job even more interesting is that it marks the second time this season that the Sooners have lost to an unranked opponent while being amongst the top five teams in the country. But late season choke jobs are nothing new in Norman. Sooner or later, the national media will realize that whipping patsies by 50 points in September doesn't make a team great, especially when that team has a history of getting beat by inferior opponents down the stretch and flaming out in BCS bowl games....

Oh and Four....

Michigan stars Chad Henne, Michael Hart, and Jake Long all passed up a chance at last spring's NFL draft to return to Ann Arbor for their senior seasons. One of their oft-stated reasons for staying at Michigan was to get a chance to beat the Ohio State Buckeyes, something that the Wolverines hadn't accomplished in the trio's three years on campus. Well, guys, thanks for showing up on Saturday - 3 points and 91 yards of total offense isn't much of an effort in your final shot at your arch rival.

What a Difference a Week Makes....

Surprise, surprise! After getting lit up for 99 points and 1,187 yards in their past two contests, the South Carolina defense didn't get gashed last Saturday. The Gamecocks had a "bye" week, but look for Clemson to continue the blood letting and send South Carolina to a fifth straight loss to end the regular season.

A Big Twelve Showdown....

This Saturday, #2 Kansas (11-0) takes on #3 Missouri (10-1) for the Big Twelve North crown and a shot at the national title contest in the Sugar Bowl. College football fans have grown accustomed to such showdowns in the Big 12, but Kansas and Missouri? Is it the dawning of a new age, or is 2007 just a wacky year...?

Worst Loss of the Season...?

It still has to be a top-five Michigan team going in the tank against I-AA Appalachian State in the Big House in week one. But both Alabama and Iowa made a serious push for top honors by losing to Louisiana-Monroe and Western Michigan, respectively. And I thought that Nick Saban and Kirk Ferentz were coaching geniuses....

[Heavystarch]

Any predictions of a title game yet?

With the way the season has gone, I'm going to guess LSU v West Virginia.

My reason why, LSU will likely play Arkansas and Tennessee to close out the season. I'm going to guess the winner of the Mizzou/Kansas game will lose to the Sooners, keeping the Big 12 out of it. However, if Tennessee falls to Kentucky, which is easily possible, and LSU has to face Georgia (Assuming they beat Ga Tech) in Atlanta, I think LSU would lose that game. That could have OSU playing in the title game again.

Oh wow, this is going to a crazy finish with a lot of great football left to play.

Nice post as usual LJB

[LordJeffBuck]

Originally Posted by Heavystarch

Any predictions of a title game yet?

With the way the season has gone, I'm going to guess LSU v West Virginia.

My reason why, LSU will likely play Arkansas and Tennessee to close out the season. I'm going to guess the winner of the Mizzou/Kansas game will lose to the Sooners, keeping the Big 12 out of it. However, if Tennessee falls to Kentucky, which is easily possible, and LSU has to face Georgia (Assuming they beat Ga Tech) in Atlanta, I think LSU would lose that game. That could have OSU playing in the title game again.

Oh wow, this is going to a crazy finish with a lot of great football left to play.

Nice post as usual LJB

Thanks, I appreciate that.

Well, Ohio State is the leader in the club house, so to speak, so I have to like the Buckeyes' chances as well. As Mike Golic said on his radio talk show last Friday, all that Ohio State has to do is beat Michigan and then sit back and wait for everyone else to lose. Step one accomplished, now it's up to the rest of the field to choke down the stretch.

Oklahoma really screwed things up by losing to Texas Tech. As you say, if Oklahoma ends up winning the Big 12 title game (a very likely possibility), then the Big 12 goes being virtually guaranteed of chance at the BCS title game to absolutely no chance at all.

West Virginia should win out, but LSU has been living close to the edge lately. If I were a Bayou Bengal, I wouldn't be looking past an Arkansas team that can run and score on anybody, especially because LSU's defense hasn't exactly been staunch in the second half of the season (31.3 ppg in their last four SEC contests). And conference title games often produce wacky results, so I wouldn't count out the SEC Eastern Division champ, particularly if Georgia gets the bid.

One other thing to consider.... Regardless of which two teams make the BCS championship game, we might have a split national championship as in 2003, especially if the season ends with four once-beaten teams. Let's say that Missouri and LSU win out in uninspiring fashion and play in the BCS title game, narrowly edging out Ohio State and West Virginia, who match up in the Rose Bowl. If the title game is a boring, sloppy, low-scoring affair, and if either OSU or WVU wins in an impressive rout, then the AP might just crown the Rose Bowl winner as their national champ.

Like you said, there's still a lot of football left to played....

[LordJeffBuck]

Originally Posted by LordJeffBuck

One other thing to consider.... Regardless of which two teams make the BCS championship game, we might have a split national championship as in 2003, especially if the season ends with four once-beaten teams. Let's say that Missouri and LSU win out in uninspiring fashion and play in the BCS title game, narrowly edging out Ohio State and West Virginia, who match up in the Rose Bowl. If the title game is a boring, sloppy, low-scoring affair, and if either OSU or WVU wins in an impressive rout, then the AP might just crown the Rose Bowl winner as their national champ.

Actually, my mistake here.... I thought that with the expansion to a fifth BCS bowl, that the automatic bids requirments had been loosened, but apparently that is not the case (the Big East champ does not have a bowl "tie-in"). The Rose Bowl is still stuck taking the Big Ten-Pac Ten champs, unless one or both of them make it to the BCS title game. So, Ohio State will play the Pac 10 champ in the 2008 Rose Bowl unless the Buckeyes can "back into" the title game.

All the more reason to have a playoff, I guess....

Here's the 2007-2008 bowl schedule, for those who are interested: LINK