SEC delivers game everyone wants to see, now will NCG be anti-climatic?

All year the pundits have been quite adamant that the National Champion would come from the SEC and the winner of the SEC Championship Game in a sense is the titular National Champion regardless if the computers schedule them for a rematch in the show or not. Well, months later we have our 1 vs. 2 in the in SEC Championship game as promised but now where does that leave the BCS Championship? Is it a no-win situation? Ok, scenario 1, the Sec Champ blows out Texas (assuming they beat Nebraska in the B-12 championship) all we’ll hear next year is how superior the SEC is and that even an SEC team with one loss should still get consideration over an undefeated mid-major or even a major if the conference is down for the year, because the two “best teams in the nation” didn’t play in the NCG, not a whole lot of finality there. Scenario 2, the SEC champ loses to Texas, and there’s an undefeated team out there who will argue that they should have had an opportunity play for the NC as they beat everyone they put in front of them (ie Utah 08’), and we may even get some of how tough of a schedule the SEC teams have an how tough it is to run the SEC table and still have enough left to win the NCG. Either way, I really hope the SEC and NCG give us a show to justify all of the BS the BCS makes us put up with every year. Who in your opinion should be in the NCG? Let us know here and in any of the quick links:
BCS Standings
RK TEAM RECORD
1 Florida 12-0
2 Alabama 12-0
3 Texas 12-0
4 TCU 12-0
5 Cincinnati 11-0
6 Boise State 12-0
7 Oregon 9-2
8 Ohio State 10-2
9 Iowa 10-2
10 Georgia Tech 10-2
11 Penn State 10-2
12 Virginia Tech 9-3
13 LSU 9-3
14 Brigham Young 10-2
15 Pittsburgh 9-2
16 Oregon State 8-3
17 Miami (FL) 9-3
18 USC 8-3
19 California 8-3
20 Oklahoma State 9-3
21 Houston 10-2
22 Nebraska 9-3
23 West Virginia 8-3
24 Stanford 8-4
25 Utah 9-3

Texas the first to answer the call, Pittsburgh caught looking ahead

The Texas Longhorns took care of their business on Thanksgiving with a 49-39 victory over Texas A & M. This was a bear trap for the Horns’ as they had to stop themselves from looking ahead to the Big-12 Championship Game and ticket to the NCG. Big plays gave the Aggies the early lead and kept them in the game throughout but the Horns answered every big punch with a shot of their own, including a kick return with just over 7 minutes to play after A & M closed the gap to 3, but a crucial missed field goal put the Aggies on the canvas for the final time. Now the pressure shifts to Bama’ and Florida who must win their rivalry games to set up the SEC matchup for all the money.

West Virginia returned the favor of the Pittsburgh upset of their undefeated team that cost them a trip to the national championship two years back by upsetting the Panthers 19-16 an handing them their first conference loss. Pitt can still take the Big East crown and automatic BCS birth with a victory over Cincinnati next week but perhaps Pitt was already looking forward to that game. Bottom line is you gotta take care of the business in front of you and Pitt got behind and had to scramble to get the tie with 4 minutes to go in the game. The “backyard brawl” lived up to expectations again but it took a lot of luster (and ratings) away from the 5 vs. 9 matchup of next week. Will there be more upsets in the rivalry games this weekend? Let us know here and in the NCAA chat rooms and quick links:

Rivalry week has all of the stages set but no premieres

This is the type of weekend we all hoped the majority of the Saturdays would look like at the beginning of the NCAA football season, unfortunately most have been lack luster. Rivalry week and Thanksgiving are upon us it’s not just the top two spots that are still up in the air but if someone would have told me that the only rivalry game that would have two top 25, let alone top 10 opponents would be BYU/Utah I would have given 10-1 odds, but that’s the case as down the line Auburn/Bama’, Fla/Fla St., SC/UCLA, OK/Ok St., Pitt/WV, etc. only ONE of the two teams is ranked! So where does that leave us? Well, much like the previous month of football, unless there is an upset of biblical proportions, we’re unlikely to see any movement at the top of the BCS. There are a couple of conferences that still have some things to play for however, as in the Pac-10 the conference championship AND the Rose Bowl bid are still up for grabs as they have had their own many playoff now that the king (USC) is dead. Last week Oregon eliminated Arizona in overtime to end their chances and now they face Oregon State for the biggest “Civil War” game in both school’s history, with the winner to Pasadena. In the Iron Bowl classic, the Tigers get an opportunity to spoil the BCS Championship party for the Tide’ but it won’t be easy because although they’ve won 5 straight games they have given up a ton of points (23.8 per game) in the process against offenses not nearly as potent as the one they will see on Saturday. Offensively the will need to continue to run the ball well as they do at home (+200 yards per game), and keep the Bama’ offense off the field. For the Tide it’s the final step prior to the re-match they’ve been waiting for all year, a chance to take the SEC title back and earn a spot in the National Championship Game. Which rivalry game will you be watching?

“Rivalry Weeks” begin with more than bragging rites on the line

For most rivalry games just being able to claim the prize albeit a Jug, Ax, Bell etc is enough to satisfy fans for year and sometimes save a coaches job. Unfortunately, the reprieve last about as long as the hangover because in this age of college football it’s not what have you done for me lately, but what are you doing for me right now? Looking at the first slate of rivalry games this week that’s a question that will be asked and hopefully adequately replied in order to keep the nation’s double digit unemployment rate from increasing. Starting with the most storied matchup of the weekend Ohio Sate/Michigan where Ohio State already has the Rose Bowl locked up and tries to avoid obscurity as they won’t play a game until the Granddaddy next year. So an impressive win to keep themselves on the mind of the pollsters and avoid being ranked 19th come bowl time would be helpful. As for the Maze and Blue it may take a huge upset win by the 12.5 point underdogs to keep Rich Rod and his spread offense in Ann Arbor even though he came in with so much hype because people in Michigan haven’t won a bowl game that’s mattered in an Age, or beat the sweater vest in five years, and there’s a Michigan alum riding and causing all kinds of waves in California who many want to see come back home. With that said, “The Big Game” hasn’t had much riding on it since the band took the field in 82’ but this year on of the hottest teams/coaches, are the Stanford Cardinal and their head coach Jim Harbaugh. Peaking at the right time, or perhaps just a little bit late, the Cardinal have won 3 straight including big wins over Oregon and USC, and find themselves needing a win and a little love to get to the Rose Bowl for the first time since 2000. On the strength of their 51-42 win over the Ducks the Cardinal have the tie-breaker in the event both teams end up at 8-3, but for that to happen Stanford must first win The Big Game with Cal and then get some much needed love from Oregon State, who beat the cardinals earlier in the year by 10 points and travel to Eugene to close out their season next week. It could happen but the Cardinals’ chances would be much better if the Beavers were at home, just the same it’s been a great run for Stanford and their coach, but they should enjoy both while they can, as USC will probably re-load next year and Harbaugh will be on the road to a marquis program come February. Which rivalry game will you be more interested in? Let us know here and in the NCAA chat rooms and quick links:

Isn't this the beginning of rivalry week?

We were trying to decide which games to created chat rooms for and discovered something very interesting, much like many previous weeks there are very few interesting games. I mean, this is November! Thanksgiving is next week! Where’s the drama? Where’s the sense of finality? We shouldn’t need to route for the underdog just to make the week more exciting. The next time someone argues the point that a playoff system would make the season too long, I’m certainly going to refresh their memory of Saturday’s like this were 90% are inconsequential and how the playoff system could easily begin next week. Even as the rivalry weeks begin (OSU/Mich and Cal/Stan), this Saturday, (USC/UCLA) next, the consequences are really meaningless and what used to be a day that you cleared your calendar is more like an afternoon that if you can get a glance at a TV while at the mall shopping for your Thanksgiving amenities that will suffice. Now I for one am keeping an objective mindset about this year and am convinced that the season can still provide us with an impressive finale with some great Conference Championship games, and it appears we will get our undefeated matchup of either Florida/Bama vs. Texas in the NCG, an unbeaten non-BCS complaining, and a major upset or two with a big name program not showing up for a bowl they really didn’t want to play in. However, regardless of its finishing kick, it should be noted in the court transcripts that there were plenty of Saturdays where we were able to catch up on our sleep that could have been spent screaming at the TV, painting our faces, or complaining about a play that should have been reviewed. Are you looking forward to the 09’ BCS lineup?

BCS Polls mean all chips in the center of the table for SEC Championship

BCS Standings
RK TEAM RECORD
1 Florida 10-0
2 Alabama 10-0
3 Texas 10-0
4 TCU 10-0
5 Cincinnati 10-0
6 Boise State 10-0
7 Georgia Tech 10-1
8 LSU 8-2
9 Pittsburgh 9-1
10 Ohio State 9-2
11 Oregon 8-2
12 Oklahoma State 8-2
13 Iowa 9-2
14 Penn State 9-2
15 Virginia Tech 7-3
16 Wisconsin 8-2
17 Stanford 7-3
18 USC 7-3
19 Oregon State 7-3
20 Miami (FL) 7-3
21 Utah 8-2
22 Brigham Young 8-2
23 Clemson 7-3
24 Houston 8-2
25 California 7-3

Unless the dogs come out and bark, should be a quiet Saturday

It may be the most tense time of the year for college football fans as a loss in November has often resulted in the end of your BCS Bowl aspirations, but you wouldn’t know it by this weekends schedule as three of the top four BCS teams have scrimmages against schools not in the top 25. The one exception is TCU who was on the other side of coin last year as they tried to derail Utah’s bid for an unbeaten season. This year it’s the Utes that are playing the roll of spoiler and trying to become the Longhorn’s new best friend by taking the 4th ranked Frogs out of the mix. Meanwhile Florida gets the Head Ball Coach and the other USC, Bama gets 4-5 Miss St., and Texas gets the powerhouse Baylor Bears. It doesn’t even make good late night TV unless there is a sleeping dog waiting to pull off the biggest upset of not only the season but in recent years. The game that was previously slated as the game of the week, and the year in the Big-10 OSU/PSU has turned out to be uneventful outside of the conference interest. Iowa’s collapse last week means the winner does get to take a trip out to Pasadena, just a week before they expected to be there at the start of the season. Well, the one thing that college football, and the BCS for that matter always manages to do is keep us guessing and unless something extraordinary happens, our questions will have to wait for next week. Should anyone be on upset watch? Also chat live with both TCU and Utah fans in the in-game chat room.Let us know here and in any of the quick links:

Iowa finally has to ‘pay the piper’

The Iowa Hawkeyes have been living la vida loca trailing in 7 of 8 games at half-time but still posting an undefeated 9-0 record, until today when Northwestern handed the Hawks their first loss of the year, knocking them out of the Big-10 race and BCS Championship game all at once. It was the same ol’ story for Iowa with way too many turnovers, and the huge loss of Stanzi just before half to an injury (from which he would not return) was too much to overcome. So now the game later between OSU and PSU should be for all of the marbles in the big-10, and the dream season Iowa is over.
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BCS Contenders take the afternoon off while the SEC West is decided

After three consecutive weeks of huge impact games in college football, the teams fighting for the ‘elite eight’ spots in the BCS get a breather before heading for the home stretch. Florida gets 2-7 Vandy in the swamp, Texas host 5-3 UCF, Iowa host mighty Nortwestern (5-3), and Cincinnati has a very emotionally unstable 4-4 UCONN team coming to town for a visit. So don’t expect any shakeups in those matchups even though all bets are off in any game Iowa plays, but for the most part this will be good week for the schools to fine tune, rest up, or get those pesky suspensions out of the way before the curtail holiday and rivalry games. Amidst all of our presumptions is one of the biggest games on the year in the SEC which will decide the SEC West representative in the SEC Championship game and continues the series of BCS elimination games as #9 LSU travels to #3 Alabama. The loser is surely out of the NGC race and possibly a BCS game in general. Conversely, the winner solidifies their BCS merits and is almost assured of a spot in the final eight. Even with that as a given, it means even more for the Tide, as win puts them one game away from the big prize, a birth in the National Championship Game, and will also give them an opportunity to return the favor to Texas, who “leaped frogged” them on a Saturday where both teams won. On the national scale it almost assures that the winner of the SEC will not have a loss and close the door on the chance of a non-BCS team sneaking in the back door, and thus leaving all of the pressure on Texas to walk their own path to Pasadena. The Big-10 clash between Ohio St. and Penn St. that was on everyone’s calendar has lost its luster for those outside the conference as both former BCS place holders now come in at #16 and #11 respectively, with the automatic bid the only keeping them in the mix. Who do you think will slip out of the final 8 by the end of the year? Chat live with fans from both Alabama and LSU in the live game chatroom, or in any of the quick links: