What a Beautiful Sweater

My birthday is rapidly approaching. Perhaps a reward for giving you all those bowl winners (25-7, but who's counting?). Just something to think about...

Apparently Oklahoma and Texas have some pull. Despite each: losing 3 times, being blown out, and losing to 1 poor team they were each voted into the Top 10 (sadly I don't even disagree). And because Kansas didn't play either of these "superior" teams, they were not voted ahead of any big time team with less than 3 losses. Their worst (and only, mind you) loss is by one score to the #4 ranked team in the country but apparently West Virginia was better because they beat Oklahoma – never mind they couldn't get into double digits against Pitt. I wish I could give you a reason Ohio State was also voted better, but I just can't. Before I go on, I want to also direct you to Stew Mandel's poll, completely devoid of any coastal bias of course.

Let me first go on record as saying even though I picked LSU to win, I had a small hunch aOSU could pull it out. So much for hunches. It was in my conference rankings where I pointed out that by far the best OOC win for the Big11 came when aOSU won at 4-9 Washington. So then they ran through the Big11 with tantalizing wins over Penn State, Wisconsin and Michigan. But alas, they couldn't muster up enough to stop Juice and the Zooker (in the Shoe, no less). Yes, the same Illini team that was run off the field by USC a week ago. And more importantly, the same one that was beaten by Iowa, Michigan and Methzou. Yet despite all of that evidence they were placed in the National Championship and had a semi-legitimate case to be there. But as soon as LSU put up 31 straight points, they (along with WVU) should have been dropped below the 1 loss team that actually performed in their bowl game.

Here's my final rankings (and try and remember that since this isn't a preseason poll, it should reflect what has happened, not what you think would happen)

1.Louisiana State University: There are arguments to be made, but 7-2 against >.500
2.University of Georgia: 8-1 against >.500…but then there's that home loss to South Carolina to consider
3.Kansas University: Only 1 loss team involved in the discussion and now they have a signature win
4.Methzou: Could be inter-changed at 3, but let's face it they had two chances and instead shit the bed against a team that couldn't stay on the field with WVU…
5.University of Southern California: They are almost assuredly better than KU/MU and could certainly beat LSU/UGA, but they didn't prove it
6.West Virginia University: Score one for Wannstache
7.a Ohio State University: And this may be too high
8.Oklahoma University: This is too high for a team that can't beat Colorado or prepare for teams they don't play regularly
9.University of Texas: They were the 4th best team in the Big 12 – if that's good enough for 9th nationally, color me surprised…but who else deserves it?
10.Virginia Polytechnic and State University: See below
Just missing the cut: Auburn, Tennessee, and BC

Speaking of Boston College, apparently that drubbing Kansas put on them Saturday is still lingering a bit as they were unable to recover in time to beat Robert Morris. That's unfortunate.

On that topic, how about the Purple taking out Savannah State, 85-25. Xavier, they are not. Suffice it to say, the Bease had more than 5 points this time. But even if he's only had 5, that would have been one more than Savannah score the entire second half.

Tough to say if he was watching or not, but this cow could not have been happy with the Orange Bowl.

'Tis a wonderful thought…where have I heard it before?

And here’s a nice recap of this season, plus a solid look-ahead to next year…Personally, I think that Top 10 is about dead-on, except I would trade out Texas for OU.

On the heals of last night, let's all pray that the September 13th game in SoCal ends any NC talk because the 2008 Big11 could make this year's bunch look like All-Stars.

And just for fun, here's a look at each conference's BCS record:

1.SEC (11-4) LSU leads the way with 4, but as you can see they rarely lose these games. Six different have made it, and none have more than 1 loss.
2.PAC 10 (8-4) Big surprise here, USC leads the way at 5-1. Seven different teams have made it, none of which are Cal and none of which have been twice (aside from USC of course).
3.Big East (6-4) Miami still takes the cake here with 3, but WVU has looked good going 2-0. Six teams have made it, but only 4 are still in the league.
4.Big 11 (8-8) aOSU leads the way with 4 wins, hard as it may be to believe after the last 2 years (3 of them came against ND, K-State and A&M though). Barry Alvarez was 2-0 though as well. Seven teams in all have made it in.
5.Big 12 (6-8) Thanks Bob! If you're just going to shit the bed, quit stealing the bid. OU and Texas lead the way with 2 wins each. Of course, OU has 4 losses as well. Kansas is the only other undefeated and Nebraska has the other win (humorous that they only have 2 appearances). Seven teams in all have played in one.
6.ACC (1-9) And the only win was over current member, Virginia Tech. Florida State leads the nation with 6 appearances, but has only mustered 1 win out of them. Hard to believe this is a team that won 11 straight bowl games and played in 3 straight NC's (during the BCS)…not to mention their run of like 14 years in a row finishing in the top 4.

Oh yeah, God (you still read this, right?), please make this happen!