The TV schedule for this weekend is small, but action packed. Leave the third TV in the guest bedroom, you’ll only need two to see everything you want to see on Saturday.
First, the non-championship games. Even the non-championship games have championship over-tones. If La Tech beats Fresno St. tonight, they will tie for 2nd in the conference. With a win, FSU enters a 3-way tie for 1st. Likewise, a UCLA win would cause an interesting 3-way tie for 1st in the Pac-10. Anyone who’s seen Reggie Bush won’t waste any time trying to figure out the tie-breakers. A South Florida loss last week prevented what would have been a de facto Big East Championship game between WVU & USF, and Louisville looks to hold on to an outright 2nd place finish in the Big East. A loss could tie them with USF, Rutgers, and Pitt – not exactly good company.
MAC
Akron won the MAC last night. Don’t we all wish that Trev Alberts would have gotten his wish two years ago and made the MAC a BCS conference? Wouldn’t it be great to see the (7-5) Zips facing the Fighting Irish in the Fiesta Bowl?
C-USA
This conference has gone seriously downhill with the loss of TCU, Louisville, and South Florida. I’d like to see O’Leary continue the amazing turn-around in Orlando and win this one.
The Embarrassing 12
Much like and perhaps more so than USC, Texas plays in a joke of a conference, as such, they should be required to do more than just win. Texas has the talent, leadership, and experience to be as good as they look, but they’ve only played two teams in the top 25. Those games include a tight victory over an Ohio State team who was undecided on a quarterback and a win over a Texas Tech team that probably doesn’t deserve to be in the top 25 anyway.
ACC
FSU is 2-4 against teams with winning records and haven’t beaten a team with more than 5 wins since September. Va Tech is 5-1 against teams with winning records, and hasn’t won by less than 17 since the NC State game. Call me crazy, but I don’t think Bowden has lost it yet. I haven’t followed FSU closely enough to know specifically what’s going on with them right now, but my gut tells me that this game will be much closer than the people and the numbers say it will be. Plus I can’t help but smile at the thought of a 7-4 FSU team in the BCS.
SEC
LSU is about to finish up a tough year. Nothing can compare with what the Tulane team went through. However, you can’t discount the adversity the Tigers have played through either. This is a team that didn’t have a “normal� game week until October 8th, and if any team deserves a pass on a loss it’s the Tigers against Tennessee. That being said, the Tigers should have played better in games against Florida, Alabama, Auburn, and Arkansas. Three of those teams are very good, but LSU made too many mistakes and let those guys stay in the games. The upside, if LSU can ever fire on all 8 cylinders in the same game, no one in the country can play with them. The downside, they’ve yet to put it all together. Georgia is a very good team, but if LSU plays up to its ability, they win – period. On defense, LSU has been consistent since the Tennessee game. On offense, too many dropped passes, missed holes, penalties, and bad decisions have stalled drives. There’s no Reggie Bush, but LSU’s overall offensive talent is unmatched.
Note to Texas and USC
These two teams need to put an exclamation point on their seasons, which are filled with incredibly underwhelming opponents. Both had disappointing outings against mediocre opponents in their last games. Anything less than a four touchdown margin by either team is unacceptable against the teams they’re facing. They’ve won the Rose Bowl invitations, but they owe it to the college football world to prove that they both deserve to be there.
