A win's a win. At this point in the season -- perhaps in this era of college football -- "style points" are an archaic concept. Just survive, week to week. It's not that easy, as Iowa and Oregon fans will tell you.
*Florida wins without style -- just the best defense in college football.
*Alabama won without style -- in a slugfest with LSU, that's all you can hope for.
*Cincinnati won a shootout -- Collaros for Heisman!
(There's an interesting corollary to the "style points are dead" idea about Cincy: By all rights, their defense was exposed last night -- the offense may be the most dynamic in the country... it remains to be seen how it would fare against a Texas, Florida or even TCU... but the defense doesn't look like it could stop a top-tier team. I wonder how many voters will use that UConn point total against Cincy. They're still a Top 5 team; I wouldn't rank them ahead of TCU, though.)
*Georgia Tech gritted out a win over Wake.
*My god: Did you see the Houston finish?
And then there's the flip side: Iowa finally couldn't maintain the "win's a win" philosophy. And Oregon got caught in a post-USC hangover. And Penn State made themselves irrelevant. And Notre Dame... oh, Notre Dame.
It must hurt Irish fans to know that the rest of the country revels in the schadenfreude (we all nervously recognize that you're a Brian Kelly hire from being a juggernaut).
And then there was the Jahvid Best injury -- without knowing the specifics of the decision-making to let him play after last week's "mild" concussion, it now seems utterly derelict -- if not criminally, then certainly medically and ethically -- to have let him play. If Urban Meyer could be fined $30K for criticizing SEC officials and Mike Locksley could be suspended for a game for an office altercation, what would you do with the negligent Jeff Tedford?
So Florida-Alabama is set for the SEC title game as a de facto national semifinal (presuming both teams win out through then), but more immediately: TCU could virtually clinch the non-BCS BCS at-large bid by beating Utah next week, and Ohio State could virtually clinch the Big Ten title by beating Iowa next week.
BlogPoll ballot first draft coming a little later today.
-- D.S.
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2 comments:
Dan - the bug up yr ass about Boise St. is getting ridiculous. "A win is a win...(except when it's Boise)". Didn't Boise & Cincy just play the same game. First let's discredit UConn as a quality opponent: they beat Ohio by 7, Baylor by 8, lost to North Carolina and only have 1 Big East win (vs. Louisville). OK, so Boise goes ON THE ROAD, builds a 27-7 halftime lead, relaxes, let's La Tech back to within 2 (30-28) and wins 45-35. Cincy, AT HOME, builds a 30-10 halftime lead, relaxes, let's UConn back within 2 (40-38), and wins 47-45.
Also, compare Boise vs. Cincy resumes. Common opponents: @Boise 48, Mia OH 0; Cincy 37, @Mia OH 13. Boise 51, @Fresno 34; @Cincy 28, Fresno 20; Boise's sexy out of conference win? over Oregon 19-8; Cincy's? over @Oregon St 28-18. a) You can't just chuck out Boise's win over Oregon: all of Oregon's "big" wins have come at home (Utah, Cal, USC)where they are obviously a different team; b) Cincy's opening statement win over Rutgers has got to come with a grain of salt: Rutgers may be 6-2, but 4 wins are against Howard, Flat Intl, Texas Southern & ARMY; c) bottom line: despite Boise's weak conference, you can't be on the Cincy bandwagon and not be on the Boise bandwagon too = no sense
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