College football weekend observations

by WCT, The Ship of Fools

pic:AP

You can argue whether or not the Big 12 is the best conference in college football (I would say it is) but its pretty clear that the most entertaining football in the nation is played in that league. The Texas-Oklahoma game 2 weeks ago was a thriller, as was Ok State-Missouri that same night. Follow those games with the Texas Tech-Nebraska OT game, and this week's Ok State-Texas barn-burner. The football is played at a high level, there is plenty of scoring, and the quarterback play is as good as you will find anywhere in the country. Who would've thought that we would be saying things like this about a conference that seemed to be down severely only a couple years ago?

- The saying goes "freshman'll get you beat" and Ohio State learned this the hard way Saturday night. Up 6-3 late in the 4th quarter, Terrelle Pryor fumbled away the game, and any chance for the Buckeyes to repeat as Big Ten champions.

- Staying with that game, Penn State now has a pretty easy walk to the BCS title game. Yes, they play an improved Iowa team next week, but they should be able to easily finish up the season 12-0 and earn a spot in the Championship Game in Miami.

- That was a very surprising outcome in the Georgia-LSU game, wasn't it? LSU has now been destroyed by Florida in Gainesville, and UGA at home. I told myself that I would fight the urge to call the loser of this game "overrated," but I'm not sure how else to describe the Tigers, who rose as to as high as #2 in the rankings a few weeks ago.

- Just when people took notice of the surprisingly good starts of Northwestern and Georgia Tech, they lose to unranked opponents, and fall out of the polls.

- I'm officially done predicting the Tennessee "inexplicable win over a team they have no business beating." Not going to happen this season. The Vols are now 1-4 in conference and last in the SEC East.

- Finally, a poll was released yesterday, and it didn't include Kansas. Jeebus, I have no idea how this team was able to do nothing impressive from week-to-week and remained ranked. I don't think we will be hearing from them again this season. I can't believe I picked this team on Friday.

- You know who is quietly putting together a very solid season? The #25 Florida State Seminoles. Yes, the ACC is complete and utter garbage for the most part, so you have to discount their 6-1 record a bit, but it would be nice to see them make the UF-FSU rivalry meaningful like it used to be.

- Is it possible that there are absolutely no capable football players in the entire state of Washington? The University of Washington, who was drubbed by Notre Dame Saturday, and Washington State, who gets pounded every goddamn week by whomever they play, are a combined 1-14 so far this year. And if the Cougars hadn't had the foresight to schedule 1-AA Portland State, then both teams would likely be winless. Luckily for both of them, we are guaranteed that one of them will have at least 1 D-1A win, as they face off in Pullman on November 22nd. I would imagine that there are plenty of good seats available for that game.

- Next week is already shaping up to be another big Saturday with Texas traveling to Texas Tech and Georgia and Florida squaring off in Jacksonville.