That wacky college football...

[Figrin D'an]

Another Saturday, another day of fun games and drastic changes in the polls and BCS rankings...

First, the big game of the day. Nebraska ends Oklahoma's 20 game winning streak. Nebraska will be #1 in the BCS, and I wouldn't be surprised if they leapfrog Miami and are consensus #1 in the polls. At the very least, the voting for #1 will be extremely close... But, this is probably only Round One for the Huskers and Sooners. Round Two will be in Dallas in early December for the Big 12 title. If the Sooners run the table, and can beat Nebraska for the conference title, they will likely still end up in the Rose Bowl. But, for now, Nebraska controls their own destiny...

The undefeated teams fall....
Well, not only Oklahoma fell from the ranks of the unbeaten today.

Virgina Tech got upset, at home, against Syracuse. The Orangemen got an early lead, and never looked back.

UCLA was trailed Stanford 31-7 before the mounted a dramatic comeback. It fell short though, and Stanford now has beaten Oregon and UCLA in consecutive weeks... that's pretty impressive.

Florida State isn't dead yet, apparently. They piled the points on Maryland today... 52 all total... to make the ACC even more interesting.

The only undefeated teams left now are Miami (played Thursday), Nebraska (beat OU), BYU (plays San Diego State tonight) and Washington State (playing Oregon at time of post).


Maybe the most fun game to watch today though was in State College, PA... Penn State, down 27-9 to Ohio State, rallied in the second half and gave Joe Paterno win #324. After all the talk early on that Paterno might not even tie 'Bear' Bryant's record this season, the Nittany Lions rip off two impressive come-from-behind victories to give him the record. Congrats to Joe Paterno. It was great to see Penn State step up and play a big game for their coach.



Another good day, all around, wouldn't you say? :)

[JonathanLB]

Ok first of all:

Stanford is one of the best teams around. NOT like #18 or whatever. They should be top 5 to 10. They're awesome.

Second, Syracuse needs to be ranked. Obviously if they are 7-2 and won SEVEN in a row, including against VT, then they should be ranked. Duh. So hopefully that will happen.

[Figrin D'an]

Well, chances are, Syracuse will be ranked after that victory. They've been borderline Top-25 for the past couple of weeks. I think most people were hesitant to rank them since they hadn't won a game against a tough opponent yet... (they lost against their toughtest non-conference competition, and the Big East schedule up until today was not great), but that kind of win, on the road no less, will certain garner some votes.

Stanford has played very well, and they will certainly move up in the rankings even more after today. If they win out, they will be a top 5-10 team. The biggest problem with preseason polls is that the teams with preseason rankings tend to get the 'benefit of the doubt' when they slip up, so it makes it tougher for unranked teams to ascend the polls.


And, to update, Oregon beat Washington State, so yet another undefeated team goes down.

[Darth23]

The Florida State game was actually pretty entertaining. Maryland was slightly outplaying them in the first quarter, then FSU got 3 TDs in a row, then Maryland came back a bit with the help of a few key penalties (unsportsmanlike conduct on a failed 3rd down and running into the kicker on a missed FG at the end of the half.) There were a few ties and lead changes in the second half before FSU FINALLY took control.

With 2 losses, FSU is only really trying for a BCS bowl game - if they can win out then they might have a shot.

[Bobby Bowden passed Pop Warner for number 3 all-time today (320?). for a while it looked like he might pass Bear Bryant before Paterno did. he has a contract extension through 2004, so he could pass Joe Pa in the end]

[Jedieb]

At least yesterday's losses have cleared the way for Miami to guarantee itself a shot at the title game if they win out. It will be interesting to see what happens with teams like the Gators who suffered their 1 loss early in the season and now find themselves back in the top 5. Imagine if Miami slips up late in the season and sees Florida and Florida State leap frog past them. Only a ranking system makes November losses more costly than September losses. Bring on the playoff system!

[JonathanLB]

I would never root for a Florida college team. Ick.

I hope all of the unbeatens fall and Oregon makes the championship game, haha. Yeah, right.

Still, Oregon should get a great bowl bid if they can beat UCLA.

[Darth23]

"I hate Florida football"

It must be tough seeing THREE school from the same state that are always in the National Championship hunt. :D


"Florida State isn't dead yet, apparently. They piled the points on Maryland today... 52 all total... to make the ACC even more interesting. "

Actually they didn;t really pikle the points on. it was 31 al in the fourth quarter, then FSU went up quickly by 14, then Maryland player dropped a long pass that would have been an easy touchdown, making it a 7 point game again.

FSU mostly needed all 52 points just to be safe. (can you say "No Defence"?)

[Jedieb]

Florida football has been very dominate for the last couple of decades. With the rise of the Hurricanes in the 80's to the emergence of Bowden and Spurrier you've had Florida teams in the hunt year after year. I look forward to the day when my school, University of South Florida, makes a name for itself. There's so much football talent in Florida it's scary.

[Darth23]

Go Bulls!! ;)


And to think Dante Culpepper played for UCF - a brand new division 1-A school.

The thing about Florida is that the high schools have Winter/Spring football practice while most states don't. (I'm quoting what I've heard, I'm not realy sure how much of an impact it has.)

[JonathanLB]

I don't like Florida's main football teams, you know, the ones that have dominated lately. They are run by unlikeable coaches and are just not the teams I root for. I don't care about those teams.

I like the PAC-10, the best conference around :)

[Jedieb]

Originally posted by Darth23
Go Bulls!! ;)


And to think Dante Culpepper played for UCF - a brand new division 1-A school.

The thing about Florida is that the high schools have Winter/Spring football practice while most states don't. (I'm quoting what I've heard, I'm not realy sure how much of an impact it has.)

DAMN STRAIGHT! GO USF BULLS!!!!!!!

Having gone to college and HS in Florida I can't really remember if we had winter/spring football. But I can remember that the urban areas of South Florida produced an incredible number of athletes. Tampa and St. Pete were pretty solid for both football and baseball. I'm just hoping there's enough talent around to make USF competitive by the end of the decade. We had 3 players drafted in the second round last year. Humble beginnings, but a beginning nevertheless.

[Darth23]

They are run by unlikeable coaches and are just not the teams I root for

Wow, that's the first time I've heard ANYONE say that Bobby Bowden was "unlikable".

Steve Spurrier is of course, a spawn of Hell, but that's UF, not FSU. ;)