New Top 25

October 10, 2010

What a day of college football. FINALLY we will have a new #1 team after yours truly corrected chose South Carolina to beat the soon-to-be former-No. 1 team in the nation, Alabama. Another upset pick I scored on was LSU beating Florida in The Swamp. Notre Dame also got a win over Pittsburgh for me and with the upcoming schedule the Irish should soon be in the Top 25.

My other upset picks (Tennessee over Georgia, Baylor over Texas Tech, Clemson over North Carolina, Michigan over Michigan State, etc.) didn't fare so well. And I'm killing myself that I chose NOT to go with Rutgers this week, when I seem to pick Rutgers for an upset every week and they've let me down all year until now when I don't pick them.

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So I loved the Alabama-South Carolina game. I didn't believe Alabama could have an answer for Alshon Jeffery and they didn't, but the real key was South Carolina QB Stephen Garcia having a great game. The best game of his career. He was 9-for-9 with three touchdowns in the first half. The three touchdowns tied his career-high. But this is why there is a flaw in the college football postseason system. Even with this loss, Alabama is still a national championship contender. Even with this win, South Carolina is not. Sounds like someone's getting screwed, right? I agree, but it won't change a thing.

And so now the debate begins. Alabama is still a top five team, but who's the new No. 1--Ohio State, Oregon, or even Boise State? Here's where I differ from everyone else in the country. As you'll see in my rankings below, but it is not an indication of me saying that Boise State will play or deserves to play for the national championship. We'll save that for another time, but I am in no way trying to replicate what the BCS Standings should be; my rankings are just where my opinion resides. So you'll see when you get to them.

LSU finally has some clock management at the end of a game and wins with six seconds left against Florida. Yeah do you believe that they had six seconds left? They didn't have to sprint to the line of scrimmage with the game clock about to hit zero this time. I wonder how many times they practiced stopping and starting the clock in practice. But nonetheless, a HUGE win for LSU to finally make a statement and seal Les Miles' job in the safe. Worst part about this, I bet when the real rankings come out tomorrow that Florida is still ranked. My Texas Longhorns lose two games in a row and they're dropped while Florida loses two in a row and will stay in. I bet that's how it'll be. But granted Florida played two top ten teams.

I was surprised that Auburn struggled to put Kentucky away and needed a field goal to save their season in a 37-34 win. And speaking of last second field goals, how about USC losing to a last second field for the second straight week. What a way to end that game.

The USC-Stanford game literally went back and forth. Stanford got a full effort from USC tonight after I bashed USC for a half-hearted effort in the past. USC failed to get any kind of run game going against Stanford, but both quarterbacks Matt Barkley and Andrew Luck had huge days and because of the sanctions against USC, no one has talked about them, but we have to bring up Matt Barkley in the Heisman discussion at some point. But again we'll save that topic for another time.

Stanford looked to be in trouble when an extra point was partially blocked or hooked to the left, it was hard to tell, but USC took a 35-34 lead with a minute to go thanks to the failed point-after. But all that provided was a Heisman moment for Andrew Luck as he drove his Stanford team down the field and set up the game-winning 31 yard field goal for Nate Whittaker as time expired. Last week Washington beat USC with 0:03 left and now Stanford does the same with 0:01 left. This time though I saw a little heart in USC, when I bashed them on my radio show last week for looking like they didn't care whether they won or lost against Washington.

So USC is done. Stanford rebounds from the loss to Oregon. If Stanford would have lost this game, I think they would have fallen out of the Top 25, but that's speculation, but this game exposed the lack of depth in the Stanford defense. Those guys were exhausted in the fourth quarter.

And staying in the Pac-10, Arizona was a huge disappointment for me today. If you know, you know I also root for the University of Arizona. Oregon State over Arizona was a popular upset pick, one that I considered, but couldn't fathom in the end and Oregon State was able to hold off Arizona at the end of the game for a 29-27 win. This time Juron Criner had a huge game for Zona but couldn't pull out some late-game heroics. I thought the California game would provide some life to the Arizona offense, but instead this was a huge letdown. You've heard me saying Arizona is my Rose Bowl pick, but now this gives Oregon State a leg up, so the road is tough now. Arizona has to run the table, meaning beat Oregon too, AND Oregon has to lose another conference game. Right now, it doesn't look like that's going to happen.

While we're on the topic of letdowns, put Penn State right there getting roughed by Illinois on Homecoming. Fortunately, I was not there. I am home.

Staying in the Big Ten, top performer of the week might go to Terrelle Pryor and not Denard Robinson. He couldn't carry Michigan to a big win over Michigan State and can't do anything about the lack of defense on his team, and his three interceptions didn't help anything. My gut feeling says Denard Robinson won't be winning the AT&T Player of the Week Award this time...

There's so much more I can say, as always, but I need to get to the rankings. And by the way next week as awesome must watch games. I can't wait.

Here's my New Top 25:
Last Week's Rankings

My New Top 25
(x) = last week
*=game to watch
1. Ohio State (2)
Beat Indiana 38-10
Next: at Wisconsin*
2. Boise State (3)
Beat Toledo 57-14
Next: at San Jose State
3. Oregon (4)
Beat Washington State 43-23
Next: Off
4. Alabama (1)
Lost to South Carolina 21-35
Next: vs. Ole Miss
5. TCU (5)
Beat Wyoming 45-0
Next: vs. BYU*
6. Nebraska (6)
Beat Kansas State 48-13
Next: vs. TEXAS*
7. Oklahoma (7)
Off
Next: vs. Iowa State
8. Auburn (8)
Beat Kentucky 37-34
Next: vs. Arkansas*
9. South Carolina (14)
Beat Alabama 35-21
Next: at Kentucky
10. Arkansas (9)
Beat Texas A&M 24-17
Next: at Auburn*
11. LSU (10)
Beat Florida 33-29
Next: vs. McNeese State
12. Utah (11)
Beat Iowa State 68-27
Next: at Wyoming
13. Iowa (13)
Off
Next: at Michigan*
14. Michigan State (19)
Beat Michigan 34-17
Next: vs. Illinois
15. Wisconsin (15)
Beat Minnesota 41-23
Next: vs. Ohio State*
16. Arizona (12)
Lost to Oregon State 27-29
Next: at Washington State
17. Stanford (18)
Beat USC 37-35
Next: Off
18. Florida State (NR)
Beat Miami 45-17
Next: vs. Boston College
19. Missouri (20)
Beat Colorado 26-0
Next: at Texas A&M*
20. Florida (17)
Lost to LSU 29-33
Next: vs. Mississippi State*
21. Oklahoma State (22)
Beat Louisiana 54-28
Next: at Texas Tech*
22. Nevada (24)
Beat San Jose State 35-13
Next: at Hawaii*
23. TEXAS (25)
Off
Next: at Nebraska*
24. Virginia Tech (NR)
Beat Central Michigan 45-21
Next: vs. Wake Forest
25. West Virginia (NR)Beat UNLV 49-10
Next: vs. South Florida*
Dropped: Miami, Michigan, USC
Bubble: Air Force, Oregon State, Rutgers, North Carolina, Miami, Michigan

I am pumped for Taylor Martinez to meet the Texas defense.