Posted on 11/21/2005 12:45:25 PM PST by indcons
Philadelphia, PA (Sports Network) - Southern California and Texas remain the top two teams in the BCS standings and only an upset in one of the final two weeks will prevent the two storied programs from meeting in the Rose Bowl on January 4 for the national championship.
The Trojans (11-0) had a close call this past weekend with a 50-42 victory over a tough Fresno State squad, but they'll have this week off before facing city rival UCLA on December 3.
The Longhorns (10-0), meanwhile, had their final bye this past Saturday and will play each of the next two weeks. First up will be the annual showdown with Texas A&M on Friday and then a trip to the Big 12 title game on December 3.
The final BCS standings will be released on December 4.
As of Monday, Southern California is still atop those standings with a BCS average of .9807, down from last week's .9829. Texas, meanwhile, gained some ground and has an average of .9791, up from last week's .9771.
Should one of those teams falter, Penn State, LSU or Virginia Tech would be ready to take a Rose Bowl spot.
Penn State is third in this week's BCS standings with an average of .8900. The Nittany Lions earned a share of the Big Ten title with Ohio State, but will represent the conference in the BCS thanks to a victory over the Buckeyes earlier this season.
LSU is fourth in the BCS and Virginia Tech is fifth. LSU controls its destiny for a berth in the SEC Championship game, while Virginia Tech can do the same in the ACC thanks to Miami-Florida's stunning loss to Georgia Tech this past Saturday.
Miami dropped from third in last week's BCS standings to ninth this week.
If Virginia Tech beats North Carolina this Saturday, the Hokies would play Florida State for the ACC title. An LSU victory over Arkansas this week would put the Tigers into the SEC title game against Georgia.
The champions from the Atlantic Coast Conference, Big Ten, Big 12, Big East, Pac-10 and Southeastern Conference make up six of the eight teams in the four BCS games -- the Rose, Orange, Sugar and Fiesta Bowls. The other two spots go to at-large teams.
One of those at-large berths will likely be Notre Dame, which needs only to beat Stanford this coming Saturday to lock up a BCS berth. The Irish, who stand eighth this week in the BCS, would then have the requisite nine wins to qualify for one of the BCS bowl games.
The BCS system uses a pair of human polls -- the Harris Interactive and the USA Today -- as well as six computer rankings. Each poll counts one-third toward the overall score, while the average of the computers completes the formula.
I should have been clearer.....I know he graduated. In fact, I heard Leinhart is enrolling for grad. school next so that Pete Caroll's (sp?) recruiting becomes easier.
LOL!
I would have brought up Tim Couch, but at least he did make the playoffs one year :)
Kyle will not be a sea of burnt orange on T+1.
Not on Sunday's he won't.
Pete's the best recruiter in the Nation and needs no help.
yeah...
Basketball is an entirely different animal. The game is different, you need to have different skills, and the combo of Size, speed and strength isn't so important.
before 1988 Nebraska had a winning bowl record, from 1988 to 1994 they lost 7 in a row all to Florida teams, except for Georigia Tech which is whee NU got its stigma from. 4 of them were for the NAtional Championship or produced the national champion.
Nebraska is 21-21 in bowl games. They won 5 national titles and played for 6 others, other losses produced the national champion even if NU wasnt playing for it. How many teams can claim that in the last 42 years? I would rather lose to the national champion than anybody else,if I was to lose.
Auburn places four in NFL first round
NFL.com wire reports
AUBURN, Ala. (April 23, 2005) -- Auburn made one final case to be called the nation's best college football team.
The Tigers became the first team to have an entire offensive backfield -- two running backs and a quarterback -- selected in the first round of the NFL draft since the AFL-NFL merger in 1967 and the first in the Southeastern Conference to have four first-rounders.
Tailback Ronnie Brown was the second overall pick by the Miami Dolphins and Carnell Williams went to Tampa Bay three picks later. Cornerback Carlos Rogers and quarterback Jason Campbell went to Washington with the ninth and 25th picks, respectively.
Auburn had never had more than two players chosen in Round 1. The Tigers went 13-0 last season, but were shut out of the national championship game and had to state their case for No. 1 off the field.
The draft "showed everyone why we should have been competing for the national title this year," Campbell said.
Williams and Brown were only the fourth running back tandem selected in the first round of the NFL draft since the AFL-NFL merger in 1967. They join former Auburn runners Rudi Johnson and Stephen Davis in the NFL.
As for the backfield sweep, Tigers head coach Tommy Tuberville said, "I don't think it's ever happened before and I don't think it will ever happen again."
"It's one of those things that you feel good knowing that we knew we had a good football team and now this puts the icing on the cake knowing that we are really starting to be recognized by the efforts of the NFL people who have done all of the background work," Tuberville said.
Rogers was the Jim Thorpe Award winner as the nation's top defensive back and Campbell was the SEC offensive player of the year and Williams was an AP All-American.
But the biggest postseason honor came on Day 1 of the draft.
Campbell didn't become a star until his senior year, blossoming under the tutelage of new offensive coordinator Al Borges and having a career year.
"I've grown a lot through all these years," he said. "I've learned a lot of knowledge about the football game and I've just been patient. Everything has worked out for me."
Oh come on man, that was almost 2 years ago! The first game of the 2004 season, while the 2005 season is now coming to an end? Recently...LOL!
California is a big state with a lot of HS football teams. Teams like USC and UCLA don't have to go out of state to find studs as often.
Instate recruitment is life or death for teams like UW. Was why Rick Nuihesal was soo successful at UW most of the time. They guy is a hell of a recruiter and landed a lot of the top instate talent.
Even one bad year of recruiting instate talent at a school like UW can mean disaster for years.
And the #11 team that USC will play, was trounced by an unranked team in the "mighty" Pac-10.
At least this is one National Championship game the BCS can't screw up. Two undefeateds, ranked #1 and #2. How simple can it possibly be?
And were this under the pre-BCS system, USC would be playing Penn State in the Rose Bowl while Texas would probably be playing Notre Dame in the Orange Bowl and there would be a lifelong argument over which team is really better.
As a longtime critic of the bsBCS, and proponent of a playoff system, I'd have to say that at least for 2005, the BCS is giving us what most fans want to see - a game between #1 and #2 for all the marbles.
As much as it pains me to say, VY is a freakin' stud. He seems to have the ability to take control of a game like few others can.
That will be the last positive comment I make about Texas University for the rest of the week.
Go back and look at how many of those were to teams that eventually won the National Championship, you would be surprised.
OK......Heath Shuler is an exception :)
"3,000 yard passer (returning Heisman winner and 35-1 record)"
How's this for filling the shoes of a Heisman Trophy winner (Carson Palmer)? Leinart, a sophomore who had never thrown a pass at USC while seeing brief action in just 3 games in 2002, won USC's starting quarterback job at the end of 2003 spring practice...by an ever-so-slight edge. Matt threw the first pass of his college career (for a touchdown) against the Auburn Tigers in 2003. Since then he has led the Trojans to an impressive 35 -1 record as the starting quarterback. His lone loss occurred at Cal on September 27, 2003 in overtime. Leinart never looked back at the loss, winning 33 straight victories, a Heisman Trophy and two consecutive national championships.
And keep with your criminal fixation, fixation. Many teams, FSU, Miami and others have the same problem too. And since you keep bringing this up, go and search and tell me how many covictions you can dig up.
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