Big East Update

Ugggh.   Uggggggh.
Rutgers!  That was a frustrating game for every player and fan,  The Big East title was theirs for the taking.  I do not want to repeat what happened.  It was too painful the first time.  But it was typical Rutgers and they will now have to get excited to play in the Belk Bowl or some such second tier game.
As for Louisville, QB Teddy Bridgewater was fabulous.  Shaking off multiple injuries, Bridgewater rallied the troops in splendid fashion.  He truly is a star and will rightfully have a BCS showcase.  That game is huge for a Cardinals program hoping to move up in class with a new commitment to winning.  They have shown plenty of second half fortitude this year but cannot fall too far behind against another conference champion.

Four Team Playoff Blues

If Alabama wins Saturday then the nation will have a few weeks to get ready for a national championship tilt between the Tide and Notre Dame.  The Irish will still be knocked for, well, I am unsure what reasons, but generally most everyone will accept the pairing as the best way to decide the 2012 champion.
But what if the four-team playoff system, to begin next season, were in place this year?  To be honest it would be a problem-causer.  Let's say, for the sake of argument, that all of the favorites this weekend win their games.  So Notre Dame and Alabama, obviously, are in.  But what about spots three and four?  Kansas State and Florida?  That would leave both Oregon and Stanford out, plus the 2-loss SEC teams and FSU.  SI conducted a survey of 11 current administrators and they came up with Florida and Oregon.  So no KSU nor a Stanford team that could win the Pac 12 title and has already topped Oregon on the field.
Not sure making the playoffs larger would work as the main BCS conference champions should get automatic berths but that may not leave enough at large berths to count for Notre Dame, a Boise State type team and all of the talented second place teams from big conferences.  No one has explained where these games are going to be played either.  Go to 16 then the logistics get worse.
One thing is clear about the future of playoffs.  Money will be the driving factor.

Big Conference of the East/USA Update

To be honest, there is not much more to say about conference realignment.  Louisville is now going to the ACC and not the Big 12 and Rick Pitino is just going to have to deal with it.  As for football, well, the Cardinals should do okay but it is hard to know for sure until the ACC is rearranged.  Meanwhile more Conference USA teams are flocking to the Big East as it becomes the best of the second tier schools (in football, add a bunch a non football playing old timers in basketball).
On the field the battle of a future Big Ten team and future ACC team is the key one for the Big East on the season.  Due to tiebreakers, the winner of Thursday's Rutgers versus Louisville battle should be BCS bound.  The game should be competitive with Rutgers looking to pound the visitors on the ground while injured QB Teddy Bridewater hopes to shake off ankle and wrist injuries to lead Louisville.  Look for Rutgers to ride RBs Jawan Jamison and Savon Huggins, both expected to play after leaving the Pitt loss with injuries, to a decent 4th Q lead and then withstand heroic Bridgewater-led comeback.  Scarlet Knights by 3.

Kentucky Hires the other, other Stoops

I like the hire.  I was worried the Kentucky would try to get that idiot Petrino but they went to the coaching tree for Mark Stoops and he will get them competitive.  Not sure how high they could ever go but 7-8 wins is doable.  Get some hungry players who would prefer to be in the two-deep for Kentucky than on Alabama's bench.  Play hard and the fans will come--at least until hoops season.

View From Bennett Avenue

In discussing match-ups for the national championship game analysts have talked throughout November about the style similarities and differences between the top contenders.  One element of football that is taking center stage--thank God--is toughness as Notre Dame, Alabama, LSU, KSU, Florida, etc all game plan to beat up opponents while teams that try to out-athlete opponents have stumbled.  The team that best epitomizes the speed game, Oregon, fell to a Stanford team that was much tougher than the Ducks.
But you can't hit 'em if you can't catch them and the premium is now on very big players that can also move.  There are not that many of those guys and they tend to be collected by those top teams.So when you take a look at your favorite team's recruits pay attention to the big guys.  The rise to the BCS title game is much easier with guys like Nix, Tuitt and Te'o than Clausen.
As for this title game Notre Dame does match up well with both Georgia and Alabama and the game should be a good one.  Keep and eye on the very talented players up front as they will dictate the outcome of the game.

Big Night

That was a great win for Notre Dame, coming on the field of their bitterest rival.  And now they-we-I have to wait 45 days?  Let the countdown begin.
And what a way to seal an undefeated regular season.  It could not have been scripted any better.  I'll write more tomorrow as I am too drained now.

Today's Picks

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving.  The pro games that day failed to live up to the quality of my sister-in-law's turkey and sides but hopefully the college football slate today measures up.  And I hope you have cleared your day as there are a full day of intriguing match-ups.
Michigan +4 at Ohio State
I am going back and forth on which team has the better motivation.  OSU needing a win to wrap up a 12-0 season or Michigan, who can stop that from happening?  And so, since I believe we will be watching two highly motivated squads, it will come down to talent and I feel the talent level is pretty close.  Take the points and keep track of the big plays.
Georgia -13 hosting Georgia Tech
I am not much of a fan of this Bulldogs squad as they seem like a 9-3 team to me.  Thanks to a ridiculous schedule, however, they can make the national championship game with two straight wins.  They do own this series and Tech has been pretty mediocre this year.  Sure the pressure is on Georgia and that has killed the chances of others this November, but I do not see how an undermanned Tech team can take advantage.
Minnesota +8 hosting MSU
I am trying to focus on meaningful games but this spread just seems too lopsided for me.
Vandy -11.5 at Wake
The Deacs seemed to have shut it down for the season while the Dores are a bit under the radar.  Vandy to win by 20.
Duke +6 hosting Miami
Good luck getting a Canes team motivated after their spot in the ACC title game and a bowl game were taken away this week by school officials.  Meanwhile the Blue Devils want to put a stamp on one of their most successful regular seasons in decades.
Pitt -2 hosting Rutgers
Panthers will be focused on taking down a Rutgers squad that is ranked but not necessarily better.  The Scarlet Knights can lose this game by 100 and still make a BCS game with a win next week.  That is a big advantage for the home team.
Oregon State +10 hosting Oregon
Oregon spreads are all out of whack based on the team's rout of lesser lights for the first ten weeks of the season.  But now they play a tough Oregon State D the week after playing a tough Stanford D.  This game should go down to the wire and do not be tempted by the notion that Oregon will rout the Beavers to make up for last week.
South Carolina +4 at Clemson
Gamecocks have owned this series recently and do better in big games.
USC +6.5 hosting ND
I am just trying to jinx the Trojans.  Game could easily go down to a FG which could hurt a Trojans team struggling in the kicking game.
Good luck...

Two More For Big Ten

The tentacles of the big boys struck again yesterday with the announcement that Maryland and Rutgers will join the Big Ten Conference.  The conference is focused on making even more money for its members via future television deals as the primary reason for offering these two schools is access to Eastern markets.  I guess that is a good enough reason to water down your conference talent level (on the football field as they will certainly be a boost to other sports like women's basketball), but will ad sales continue to improve as the number of mediocre games increase?  Will a Wisconsin-Maryland football game excite anyone?  Keep in mind that the Baltimore-DC marketplace is pro oriented.  The Terps have to have a good team to attract attention and being that they stink in the worst BCS conference, how do we think that they will be any good in the Big Ten?  And does anyone really believe that the ratings of other Big Ten games will really improve by that much simply because a bad Big Ten squad plays nearby?  Getting people in Maryland excited for a Iowa-Nebraska game will take decades of promotion.
As a fan of Rutgers sports I must say that I have seen this all before.  Before joining the Big East Rutgers had a solid independent football team and one of the better sports programs in the Atlantic 10.  The football team, after bottoming out in the mid to late 1990s is now in good shape although hardly that much better than the better teams of the 1970s and 80s.  They have not even sold out every football game this season despite having an excellent season to date.  As for basketball, the program had its ups and downs before joining the Big East and made the occasional NCAA tournament--even advancing to the final four in 1976.  Since joining the BE they have been pretty awful and have not secured a tourney berth in that time (17 years), so I am unsure of the benefits for Rutgers athletics.  This is especially the case when considering that a lot of the increased money earned by being a member of the BE has had to go back into the programs with middling results.
This is be the case for both Rutgers and Maryland as they enter the Big Ten as a great deal of the extra money secured by joining the conference will be poured into the football programs to allow them to remain competitive while aslo being wasted on the increased expenses of away games to Lincoln and Madison, etc.
So, then, how does any of this help the Scarlet Knights and Terps?  I doubt they will be helped on the field.  All of the other Big Ten teams will now recruit New Jersey and Maryland better while taking advantage of the difference between their athletic programs and those of RU and Maryland on Saturdays the way UConn and Syracuse, etc, took advantage of the Rutgers basketball program.  Playing in the Big Ten should help the national stature of both schools but there are easier ways to do that.  My alma mater, Fordham, has bettered its national standing over the past 25 years without doing too much athletically.  So let me be on the record as saying these moves are ridiculous.  they remind me of the playground when the cool guys allow a nerd to join their game and the nerd dumps his friends only to get his ass kicked by the cool kids.  Just stick it out with the ones you know.

New Number One

The last time I saw an undefeated Notre Dame this late in the season was 1989 and that game (Miami) was a disaster.  Saturday, however, was a special day and I enjoyed it enough that some of those demons were exorcised. Some.
But let's not focus on the negative.  The day was a celebration of a senior class that fought through some bad times to reach as a high a level as possible.  One of the reasons that some very successful coaches do well early in their tenure--Bob Stoops and Urban Meyer winning national titles in year two of their reigns at OU and Florida--is that the inherited players are very hungry and will do what is needed to win.  Players like center Braxston Cave, tight end Tyler Eifert, defensive end Kapron Lewis-Moore, safety Zeke Motta and, of course, linebacker Manti Te'o, among others, epitomize this for the Irish.  Win two more game and these players and the rest of the senior class go out as champions.
As for the game itself the Irish were motivated to make a statement.  After three possessions they had a 21-0 lead and the ballgame was just about over.  And so all of the Notre Dame fans in attendance enjoyed a three-hour salute to the program, punctuated by Te'o triumphant 4th Q departure.
We all left with a smile.  Little did we know that more good news was to come.  My friend Tim and I ended up--after many bookstore purchases--in the Legends sports bar located near the stadium.  By the end of the evening we were leading the "Beat SC" cheers as both Kansas State and Oregon fell prey to the upset bug.  The Irish would return to their rightful place atop the polls for the first time since I was thin and had a decent amount of hair.
There is plenty more football to play and fortunes change dramatically by the week.  Saturday was a good day to be a Notre Dame fan.  Will we say the same about next Saturday?

Today's Picks

In beautiful Bluffton, Indiana en route to South Bend for the Notre Dame-Wake Forest game.  It is senior day and the festivities should be special because of the undefeated season and everyone's need to say farewell to the seniors--especially Manti.
More about that later.  As for picks:
Stanford +20.5
KSU -13
ND -24
UCLA +3.5
Rutgers +6
Michigan +1
Mississippi +19
Enjoy

Pac 12 Update

The Pac-12 is fairly new to the post-season conference championship game, with last year being the first one held, but it has very neatly presented us with a semifinal round of sorts this weekend. Oregon can wrap up the North title with a win over Stanford, while the Cardinal will be in the driver's seat should they pull off the upset.  Meanwhile traditional rivals USC and UCLA square off for the south crown.  Oregon has much more than a division crown riding on its game but does seem to have Stanford's number of late with wins by 23 last year (despite trailing by 7 at half) and 21 in 2010. Then again, the Ducks have had everyone's number out West having won 25 of 26 conference games since beginning of 2010 season (their one loss was by 3).  I expect Oregon to win a close one with Stanford having the advanatge of a better schedule to date and a healthier set of lines.
As for the battle for LA, it is good to see that game have meaning again.  USC has to turn their season around so the game should be a blast.  Bruins by a FG.

ACC Update

The first broadside this season against the BCS from a college football coach is the dominant story in the ACC.  Florida State coach Jimbo Fisher is mad that his Seminoles are 10th in the BCS standings despite sitting at 9-1 on the season.  Three two-loss SEC teams sit directly in front of FSU and if we include the three one-loss SEC teams directly in front of them, the BCS considers Florida State as no better than the seventh best team if we combined the two conferences.  That is ridiculous.  But the Noles are a victim of their schedule which includes a good win against Clemson and, well, that's it.  Fisher knows this but hides behind the infamous "eye test" saying that anyone can see that his team is better than some of those ranked higher.  But what exactly does that mean?  These dopey eye tests have aided SEC teams for a decade now and it is ironic that someone is trying to use it against the SEC.  But eyes can lie--the eye test said that Alabama was better than Texas A&M.  Until the game began.  Fortunately for Fisher he still has one more game to change the way his team is perceived and that is when the Noles host Florida on 11/24.  Win that game and you make you point.  Ditto Clemson hosting South Carolina on the same day.  The ACC has been awfully quiet since September but can make a lot of noise on that day (Georgia Tech also plays Georgia and Wake butts head with Vandy on that day).
As for the ACC race Florida State should have no problem clinching the Atlantic this weekend when playing Maryland.  The Coastal is more confusing and probably will not be decided this weekend since Miami is playing out of conference.  Duke traveling to Atlanta is the game of the week and the Yellow Jackets should win to put pressure on Miami to beat Duke the following weekend.  The other game to watch is North Carolina State traveling to Clemson.
To repeat, the ACC is not getting any respect but can change that--to a degree--with a big day next weekend.

BCS Blues

In the current BCS standings we have another school atop the human polls that does not lead the computers and BCS in Oregon.  The Ducks are rightfully being punished by the machines for playing outside BCS conferences in September, although Arkansas State and Fresno State are fine clubs.  They also have had an unbalanced conference schedule as five of their seven conference wins have come against Pac-12 schools sporting losing conference records.  And so we will know a lot more about the Ducks in December after they have played Stanford, Oregon State and, should they get there, the conference title game.  Until then we can just marvel at their team speed while trying to remember the last time a national champion surrendered 51 points in a regular season game.
Kansas State is in the enviable position as the top-ranked team in the BCS standings.  The longer the season goes, however, the worse their schedule looks as not one of their out-of-conference opponents has a winning record and many of the Big 12 opponents they have beaten are tanking (West Virginia) or slowly drifting toward ho-hum status (Texas Tech and Oklahoma State).  The more we look at the Cats' body of work the more we grow bored.  Fortunately Texas woke up from its mid-season slumber and provides a nice final game opponent--assuming they beat TCU on Thanksgiving.
Notre Dame sits in first place in the computer rankings but third in the overall BCS rankings thanks to a weaker showing in the human polls.  The computers are attracted to an Irish schedule that eschews non BCS teams except for major independents while not punishing ND for too many close wins.  But, and this is the key, the voters have too many stumbling blocks to overcome when voting for Notre Dame.  The Irish do not have any conference affiliation, of course, and therefore do not get fellow conference coaches/writers voting them up.  The Irish were not over-ranked in preseason--for a change--and that costs them now as they have had to play catch-up.  Finally the Irish are not liked by some for the NBC contract, for being perceived as holier-than-thou and, well, for being able to do it the right way when others cannot--and some resent them enough to under-vote them.  By not beating Boston College by 50 points the Irish have allowed doubters and haters to label them unworthy.
Here is the biggest problem facing the big three undefeated teams.  Not one of them play a team from the SEC.  So the myth of SEC superiority--and they do occupy BCS slots four through nine--remains true despite less-than-spectacular results.  After all, how could Oregon, KSU and ND survive playing the SEC?  Please.  Georgia has wins against Buffalo, Missouri, Florida Atlantic, Vanderbilt, Tennessee, Kentucky, Florida, Mississippi and Auburn and a blowout loss to South Carolina.  They still play Georgia Southern and Georgia Tech.  I am fairly certain that any of the big three undefeated teams would do just as well, if not better, than Georgia against that schedule.  But, of course, if any of the three teams lose one of their remaining games they will fall behind the Bulldogs--only because Georgia plays in the SEC.  I can do this will other SEC teams too.  And it is ridiculous.
It will take a few years for the SEC boost to go away and it will only happen if other schools win national titles and win head-to-head games.  That, of course, is difficult as the SEC rarely schedules any team with a chance to beat them.  So it will be up to bowl opponents this year and in the near future to prove that the SEC is not far superior to everyone else.

What We Learned Yesterday

Yesterday confirmed what we already knew about this season.  College football remains the greatest sport around and the SEC is overrated.  Nobody knew who Johnny Manziel was three months ago and there he was outclassing Alabama last night.  Sure A&M is now part of the SEC but the same cannot be said of Louisiana-Lafayette.  And wasn't the SEC too powerful for a Big 12 team to come in and improve?  Meanwhile out west Oregon continued to lose guys to injury but never stopped scoring in routing Cal.  Kansas State won another game with toughness, while Notre Dame did little to impress voters who remember the Irish struggles a lot more than the good moments.
But let's get back to the SEC as voters have made it painfully clear that if either Georgia or Alabama win out they will be the next in line should two of the remaining three unbeatens lose.  No one else need apply even if another one-loss team has a better resume. With so much football remaining the pressure is on the top three.
Meanwhile, let's hear it for Kent State who is ranked for the first time since the 1973 squad (coached by Don James and featuring NFL picks Gerald Tinker on offense and Jack Lambert pacing the D).  Beat Bowling Green Saturday and a ticket to the MAC championship will be punched.

Early Games

My god you have to feel for Northwestern, which just lost another close one they led late as Michigan won in OT. This really could have been a special year for the Cats.  At 7-3 they will now have to regroup before playing MSU.
Meanwhile Syracuse enjoyed their biggest win of the season as they easily knocked Louisville out of the ranks of the unbeatens, 45-26.  At 5-5 the Orange need to stay focused despite the huge win to secure bowl eligibility.
I did not see anything but the game-winning TD pass but that was a nice win for a Virginia team that had moderate hopes for this season.  Hopefully they can build on the excitement.
Then there is the upset in the Ivy League as UPenn grabbed first place by itself with a 30-21 win over Harvard.  Enjoy the big win but do not give the gained advantage away by blowing it at Cornell next weekend.
As for Florida, well the SEC is overrated.  Enough said.

Today's Picks

From this point on I will first pick the games involving the top teams before choosing a few others that stand out.
Texas A&M +13.5 at Bama: Making Zach Mettenberger look good last week does not bode well for a Tide defense living off past glory.  Johnny Manziel will give that D its toughest test of the season, while the A&M DE Damontre Moore will make Bama QB A.J. McCarron cry in a different way this week by adding to his NCAA-leading (in a 3-way tie) 11.5 sack total.
Cal +28.5 hosting Oregon: When focusing on remaining schedules for BCS contenders year-in-and-year-out the pundits over anaylize the obvious match-ups against opponents with good records and under analyze games agaisnt game lesser lights.  Sitting at 3-7 overall and 2-5 in conference the Cal Bears stink.  But they were not very good two years ago when they lost to then no. 1 Oregon 15-13 in a game in which they missed a chippy FG.  The Bears are 3-1 versus Oregon at home the past few years and may be playing for coach Jeff Tedford's job.  And for those who love trap games the Ducks played USC last week and Stanford and Oregon State the next two weeks.  Oregon wins, but does not cover.
TCU +7 hosting KSU: The Horned Frogs make it three straight underdog picks for me this week and they are obviously the one with the best chance of winning outright.  TCU coach Gary Patterson pisses off the rest of his fellow KSU alumni by upsetting the Wildcats by forcing KSU to pass.  Yeah you heard me.  They hope to make the Heisman favorite QB beat them through the air.  But as great a college player Collin Klein is, he is not 100% after last week's concussion and is not a great passer.  In his last two road games against teams that try to play D--and yes I am calling you out West Virginia--Klein threw for 187y and 0 TDs against ISU and 149y with 0 passing TDs against OU.  Yes he managed both of those wins brilliantly but the Cats O is not built on throwing the ball and lot.  Against TCU's top-ranked rush defense they may have to do something they are not comfortable.
Notre Dame -19 at BC: Okay wait a second.  The only team from the BCS top four that I picked to cover was my Irish.  But they will romp tonight over an out-manned but game Eagles squad.
Louisville -1.5 at Syracuse: Look, Louisville is certainly vulnerable as they are not used to being undefeated in November.   But the spread is ridiculous.
I also like Northwestern +10, Clemson -31, Auburn +15, Penn State +8, ASU +11, Washington +1, New Mexico +2, UCLA -15, TT -25.5, Louisiana-Lafayette +27.

The MAC does not have a football team in the chase for the BCS Title game.  Nor does it have a past champion and I am willing to bet that they never will taste national title game happiness.  And so MAC football teams play for love of game, pride and the conference championship with some secondary bowl spots mixed in.  And they do all of that very well.
Once again the MAC is providing very entertaining football for those lucky enough to tune every in midweek--and I do thank ESPN for that--as six squads, three in each division have at least 7 wins on the season and four in conference.  The league is so stout that Ohio, who opened the season 7-0 including a win at Penn State, now sits at 8-2, 4-2 after last night's loss to red hot Bowling Green.  They were eliminated from the MAC championship race just a few weeks after being ranked.  The Falcons, who are 7-3, 5-1 and one spot ahead of Ohio in the East race have control of their own destiny as they host first place Kent State this Saturday at noon.  If the Falcons win then they just have to beat Buffalo in the final game to wrap up the division.  If the Golden Flashes (8-1, 5-0) win, and they have won seven straight themselves including handing Rutgers their first loss of the season, then the East is theirs.  This game is a match-up of Bowling Green's great defense, ninth in the nation in points allowed at 15.1, versus a rush offense featuring two stud RBs on pace for 1,000y seasons in fleet junior back Dri Archer (97/892y, 10 TDs) and power back Trayvion Durham (190/897y, 11 TDs).  At 260, the soph Durham weighs about 100 lbs more than teammate Archer and they make a great big/little combo for Kent State.
The MAC West Division also has a showdown coming, next Wednesday the 14th, as second place Toledo travels to first place Northern Illinois.  The Huskies are 9-1, 6-0 and have won every game since an opening 18-17 loss to Iowa.  The defending Mid-American champs have scored at least 30 pts in every game since that loss behind dual-threat QB Jordan Lynch, who has thrown for 2,175y and 19 TDs and rushed for 1,342y and 16 more TDs.  Toledo, who has beaten Cincinnati and lost to Arizona in OT, will pose a big threat.  Their offense features RB David Fluellen, the nation's leader in rushing yardage at 1,381y.  Second place?  Lynch.  Toledo will be looking to avenge the 63-60 loss to Northern that cost them the West title last year.  It should be compelling TV once again this year.

Darrell Royal RIP

Those of you my age and older will remember when Darrell Royal was still active and considered a living legend while patrolling the Texas sideline.  Royal had lifted the football program at Texas from stately and tired when he took over in 1957 to the preeminent sports program in the state by the time he left after the 1976 season.  Royal's squads won or shared 11 Southwest Conference titles and he was the winningest coach in college football for that 20-year period.  His 1962 and 1969 teams won outright national championships and in 1970 they captured the UPI title.
Having been born in 1964 I really do not remember watching the famous 1969 Arkansas game or any other of the great moments of the 1960s.  The Royal I remember from the early to mid 70s seemed older than he was (he retired from coaching at age 52) as he carried the weight of a program that was as much a big business as a football team.  Royal's teams were not integrated until 1970 and that fact was used by coaches like Oklahoma's Barry Switzer on the recruiting trail.  Other recruits were bought away from the Longhorns and Royal struggled to maintain his level of excellence in a new world.  Yes the switch to the Wishbone helped but by the early 70s other programs had similar offenses with similar amounts of talent. Finally, after a 5-5-1 season in 1976, Royal was secure enough in his legacy and fed up enough with the b.s. of coaching to leave the sideline despite having a boatload of talent in place for a near national title run by his successor Fred Akers the following season.
Although a star DB/QB (his 18 career INTs is still a Sooner record and he led OU to an 11-0 record in 1949) at Oklahoma, Royal became the face of a Longhorn program that replaced his alma mater as the kings of the southwest.  He should be remembered for being an exceptional coach who did his best to win the right way.

Ivy League Update

Venerable Franklin Field will once again host an important football game as Penn hosts Harvard this Saturday with first place on the line.  Although Harvard has had the better season, sitting at 7-1 to Penn's 4-4, the two teams are tied atop the Ivy at 4-1 with the season ending 11/17.  And so the winner of this game can celebrate the assurance of at least a tie for the title.
Who will win?  I would not bet against coach Tim Murphy's Crimson.  Senior QB Colton Chapple leads the way, having thrown for 2,184y and rushed for 436y.  He has thrown 21 TDs, with only 4 INTs, and has rushed in 7 more.
While Harvard has won in more spectacular fashion--like last week's 69-0 humbling of Columbia--Penn gets the job done in ways that test the hearts of coaches and fans.  The Quakers rallied last week with two 4th Q TDs to beat Princeton, the first on a 15y INT return by DE C.J. Mooney and the winner on a 3y keeper by QB Billy Ragone.  For Saturday--and the game airs at noon Eastern on NBC Sports--I expect Harvard to win but they will have to withstand the inevitable Quaker rally.

What We Learned Saturday

Once again, Saturday was an excellent day of football and to be honest not enough was said about it.  One of the many hurdles facing college football is that Sunday belongs to the pros.  And so a great day of action, from Missouri's near upset of Florida at noon to San Diego State's win on the blue field over Boise that kept me up until the wee hours of the morning, was largely pushed to the back burner once coverage of the NFL began.  I bet if you asked 100 random college football fans if they even knew Boise State lost less than half would truthfully say yes.  Another problem is that we now focus a huge percentage of cfb coverage on the race to the two spots in the BCS championship game and with all of the top four undefeated squads playing meaningful games there was not room on the coverage plate for great and meaningful games like, say, Nebraska versus Michigan State.
But let's not focus on problems.  The sport is too wonderful for that.  It was fascinating to watch the Alabama win over LSU and Oregon's win over USC at roughly the same time in that the two games were stunningly different.  One game featured defense versus defense, the other offense versus offense.  Not surprisingly the D game was the one that went down to the wire with the better offense pulling out the late win.  While both Alabama and Oregon stamped themselves as favorites for the title game--even with Oregon still third in the current BCS--they both displayed vulnerabilities.  Of course you may need LSU's front seven to hang with Bama and USC's wideouts to hang with the Ducks, but they both can be beaten.
Ditto Kansas State and Notre Dame.  The biggest problem facing these two squads is that being in the BCS race in November is new territory for the players.  Heck neither was considered top ten material in August.  Look at KSU's next game, this Saturday against TCU.  The Wildcats and Horned Frogs are not that far apart in terms of talent, especially with the game being played at TCU and with some question over the health of KSU QB Collin Klein.  The biggest equalizer for the home team is that all of the pressure is on the visitors.  All of it, and for a program that has never played in a national championship game, that pressure is immense.  We have seen plenty of teams lose in similar circumstances, like Oklahoma State lose to Iowa State last November, and coach Bill Snyder needs no reminder than his own 1998 squad that lost on the last day of the season to tumble from a possible BCS title game berth.  Both Notre Dame and Kansas State must prove that they can stay focused and continue to bring a top effort for the remainder of the season.
Meanwhile there are plenty of key games that have little effect on the BCS standings.  I'll break down the conferences during the week.

Great Day

How can you not love college football?  Awesome games, gutty performanes, teams rallying late and other teams taking care of business.  Hopefully Collin Klein is not hurt too bad.  Right now I am watching a huge Mountain West game as Boise attempts to rally from eight down.  They just scored but failed on 2-pt conversion.  The Aztecs, however, are controlling the clock. The day is not over yet.

Today's Picks

Let's get to it:
Louisville -16 hosting Temple
Clemson -12.5 at Duke
Stanford -28 at Colorado
Alabama -9 at LSU
Florida -17 hosting Mo
Michigan State +1.5 hosting Nebraska
Ohio State -27.5 hosting Illinois
Cincy -4.5 hosting Syracuse
Utah -11.5 hosting WSU
Michigan -11.5 at Minny
Oklahoma State +9 at KSU
Texas Tech -7 hosting Texas
Mississippi State +7 hosting A&M
ISU +12 hosting OU
USC +8 hosting Oregon
Good luck