Still Alive
October 13, 2007 11:57 PM | General
October 13, 2007
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – If you don’t play you can’t lose. That has pretty much been the theme in college football this year. This weekend the upsets continued with No. 1 LSU heading to the gallows following its 43-37 triple-overtime loss at No. 17 Kentucky.
No. 2 Cal’s hopes of an undefeated season were eliminated at home against Oregon State on Saturday night. The Beavers (4-3) led by 10 late in the game and eventually held on for a 31-28 victory.
Big East Cinderella Cincinnati’s nine-game winning streak went down the tubes at home against Louisville 28-24. Connecticut also had its perfect record expunged at Virginia, losing 17-16 to the 6-1 Cavaliers. Unbeaten Missouri fell from the ranks of the undefeated against Oklahoma.
That leaves six remaining undefeated teams and the top three this week should look like this: Ohio State at No. 1, Boston College at No. 2 and South Florida at No. 3.
The Buckeyes ran their record to 7-0 with a 48-3 thumping of Kent State. Boston College moved to 7-0 with a 27-14 win at Notre Dame while South Florida improved to 6-0 with a 64-12 home win against Central Florida.
Two of these three – Boston College and South Florida – weren’t even ranked when the polls opened. Speaking of the preseason poll, all 10 of AP’s preseason Top 10 have lost at least once already after just seven weeks into the season.
So which team is really the best in college football this year? The polls this week will say Ohio State but who have the Buckeyes really played? Ohio State shows wins over Youngstown State, Akron, Washington, Northwestern, Minnesota, Purdue and Kent State that have a combined 23-24 record. Take out non-Division I-A Youngstown State’s 5-2 record and it drops to 18-22.
Boston College, which had little trouble with a bad Notre Dame team on Saturday, has seven wins against Wake Forest, North Carolina State, Georgia Tech, Army, UMass, Bowling Green and the Irish. Those seven are a combined 21-24. Again, take out non-division I-A Massachusetts’ 5-1 record and it falls to 16-23.
Then there is South Florida, a program that wasn’t even around 12 years ago. The Bulls thumped Central Florida 64-12 in a big rivalry game Saturday afternoon to run their record to 6-0. USF beat Elon, Auburn, North Carolina, West Virginia, Florida Atlantic and Central Florida, which have a combined 22-16 record. Take out non-Division I-A Elon’s 4-2 record and the record is 18-14.
South Florida’s case for being No. 1 is as strong as anyone’s this year. And there are other candidates out there lurking.
Coach Dennis Erickson’s Arizona State Sun Devils are 6-0 but are in a dogfight with Washington in a late Pac-10 game. Kansas is 6-0 with wins over Central Michigan, Southeast Louisiana, Toledo, Florida International and Baylor. The Jayhawks don’t play Texas or Oklahoma during the Big 12 regular season giving them a fighting chance of finishing the regular season unbeaten.
And then there is Hawaii. Coach June Jones’ Rainbows dodged a bullet last Friday night by pulling out a 42-35 win over San Jose State. Hawaii has winnable games left against New Mexico State, Fresno State, Nevada and Boise State before wrapping up the regular season against Washington.
If Hawaii is 11-0 heading into the Washington game, look for the Huskies to become the poster child for the six BCS conferences. The rest of college football will be pulling for the Rainbows.
The last time college football experienced anything close to this was 1984. When the dust settled Brigham Young came out on top of the polls with an undefeated record against a schedule rated the 96th toughest in college football. The Cougars wrapped up their title on Dec. 21 with their 24-17 victory over 6-6 Michigan. BYU claimed the AP title by a mere 20 poll points over No. 2 Washington.
Perhaps Hawaii is this year’s BYU.
Or maybe we are looking at a one-loss national champion this year. All of those one-loss teams are not out of it yet.
