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Posted on 11/02/2006 3:06:56 PM PST by MikefromOhio
Weekend Nine brought one of the “Big 3” down. USC went into Corvallis, Oregon with their BCS destiny in their hands. Had they won out, they were assured of playing for the mythical National Championship. Unfortunately for USC, the Oregon State Beavers had other ideas. After getting out to a 33-10 lead, Oregon St. survived a ferocious comeback attempt by John David Booty to hold on. The loss by USC opened the door for yet another unbeaten team to hold destiny in the palm of their hand. West Virginia takes the spotlight this weekend in the Thursday Night Showdown with Louisville.
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This game will easily be the toughest game that either team has experienced this year. West Virginia features a devastating running game headed by RB Steve Slaton. While you may not know the name now, as a sophomore, he still has time to make a name for himself in college. Louisville features a tough dependable Quarterback in Brian Brohm. 5 weeks after having surgery on a ligament in his throwing hand, Brohm is back guiding the Cardinal offense with the efficiency that was predicted early on this year. The winner of this game has the inside track to the BCS National Title game. The loser is still in the BCS hunt, but can’t afford another slip up.
Louisville is a good team, but West Virginia is the class of the Big East. Slaton and QB Pat White will show why their running game is one of the best in the nation. This won’t be a blowout, but I think that by the end of the game, everyone will know exactly who is the top dog in the Big East race.
(1) Ohio State (-24) at Illinois
Ohio State 45 – Illinois 6
Ball St. at (2) Michigan (-33.5)
Michigan 34 – Ball St. 3
Oklahoma St. at (4) Texas (-18)
Texas 38 – Oklahoma St. 27
Arkansas St. at (6) Auburn (-30)
Auburn 37 - Arkansas St. 3
(7) Florida (-17) at Vanderbilt
Florida 35 – Vandy 10
(13) LSU (-3.5) at (8) Tennessee 
LSU 21 – Tennessee 17
(9) USC (-28) at Stanford
USC 37 – Stanford 10
UCLA at (10) Cal (-17)
Cal 42 – UCLA 21
North Carolina at (11) Notre Dame (-24.5)
ND 38 – North Carolina 7
(12) Arkansas (-2.5) at South Carolina
Arkansas 24 – South Carolina 17
Fresno St. 21 at (14) Boise State 45 from Wednesday
(15) Rutgers BYE
(16) Boston College (-3.5) at (22) Wake Forest
BC 30 – Wake 24
Penn State at (17) Wisconsin (-7)
Wisconsin 25 – Penn State 22
(18) Oklahoma (-2) at (21) Texas A&M
Oklahoma 45 – Texas A&M 28
Maryland at (19) Clemson (-20)
Clemson 32 – Maryland 24
(20) Georgia Tech (-5) at N.C. State
Georgia Tech 38 – NC State 16
(23) Virginia Tech (-2.5) at Miami
VT 23 – Miami 17
(24) Oregon (-16.5) at Washington
Oregon 32 – Washington 28
Arizona at (25) Washington State (-16)
A&M is entering a tough stretch of their schedule. After putting away Baylor late, they enter a brutal stretch in the Big XII where they will face Oklahoma, Nebraska and Texas in consecutive weeks.
Oklahoma 45 – Texas A&M 28
Memphis is one of the worst teams in D-1A this year. Southern Miss tends to play down to its competition, but I think they will win this game easily.
Southern Miss 38 – Memphis 13
Major conferences don’t usually play on Tuesday nights. That said Tuesday night games are great exposure for the MAC. Northern Illinois should be the favorite in this game. Can Garrett Wolfe look like the guy who was on pace for nearly 4000 yards on the ground? That’s the key here.
Northern Illinois 32 – Toledo 28
BTW, unless you have a spot on the team or a mouse in your pocket, you probably shouldn't say "we" when you are talking about Louisville.....
And, for what it is worth, I have friends who are Ohio State alumni who both (a.) use "we" to describe their school allegiance and (b.) have a lot more respect for, and understanding of, good college football than you do. I am glad to call them friends, since they are not assholes.
Latest BCS:
1 OSU
2 Michigan
3 Louisville (.893, I think)
gap
4 Florida (.802)
5 Texas (.800)
6 Auburn (.781)
7 USC (.745)
I hadn't seen that yet, Diddle. Thanks! It looks good.
WV spanking Georgia last year really paid off this year. Should be enough to hold off the AP voters from moving Florida back above Louisville, there is a big gap. Your problem is going to be Texas, who is ahead of Louisville in the Coach's Assistant's poll, and only 3 points behind Louisville in the AP poll. Louisville should probably be rooting for OSU (and their obnoxious fans) to win out, since Texas already losing to them works to Louisville's advantage, and most voters will probably want to see if Louisville is for real rather than a rematch. But watch out for a strong late push from USC. If they win out and they blow out overrated Notre Dame, the computers will fall in love with them and there will be the usual west coast squawking of being ignored by 'east coast bias'. But again, I bet the voters will opt for Louisville and its new blood, perhaps with a bit of Trojan fatigue.
So I think ya'll are perfectly positioned, but Louisville has to win out.
Southern Miss at Memphis coming up....
If you can rip your attention away from the Colts at the Pats :)
Texas still gets no respect from the computer geeks - ranked 12th by one of them and 14th by another - behind powerful schools like Rutgers, Boise St., Notre Dame, Wisconsin and Cal.
Unfrigginbelievable.
Texas is NOT getting the respect it deserves. While it doesn't help that they couldn't beat Ohio State, but haven't lost a game since.
There goes the theory about losing early and all that.
I don't quite understand why the computers aren't giving Texas more love.
We got no respect last year either when everyone said USC was going to destroy us with "the best college football team ever". Don't think we still don't have that chip on our shoulders.
And remember our Freshman quarterback was playing just his second game when we lost while our second-best corner was suspended. If there is a rematch with the Buckeyes, I wouldn't suggest gloating over it just yet.
Guess we'll be taking out our frustration in Glendale wiping the floor with Boise St. instead of the OSU-Michigan winner. Thanks, Jeff Sagarin.
I wasn't gloating....there's no reason to gloat now. Maybe in week 3 I was :), but not now...
Right now I'm looking forward to the Northwestern game and then after that, the Michigan game.
Texas needed one more good OOC game instead of North Texas or Rice or Sam Houston St......
I think Boise will lose their bowl game this year, esp. if they get into the BCS. They haven't played all that great since the Utah game--Hawaii has been playing better football than BSU in their own conf.
Here's what it comes down to with Boise St. Any team that can stop the run can beat them. (Very few people outside of our lovely corner of the universe know that Boise has been a running team since Dan Hawkins took the HC job there). Can the 'Horns do that? Well, you're probably more insightful in that regard than I.
So where is Ohio State in your unofficial poll?
and Auburn or Florida?
I don't understand why or how you'd put Texas ahead of OSU, but ok I'll take that...
If Ohio State beats Michigan on November 18th, will you put them in the top 2 even then?
Yeah, LSU won the game, then Pete Carroll lobbied to get the a few AP voters to break their aggreement to recognize the BCS champion.
You if it is you, I must say you can be a little harsh but you are a gentleman never-the-less.
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