I have to admit I largely ignored this week in college football. The Duckies had the week off, and with the exception of a couple of interesting match ups (Florida v. LSU and Oklahoma v. Texas), I figured the favorites would mostly cruise.
I mean, USC against Stanford, what was the score of that one? Trojans 63 Cardinal 0? That's what I was thinking to myself when I rolled outta bed this morning at the crack of noon. After checking today's NFL scores, I took a look at the college games from yesterday and... wait... wha? wha happened? 24-23 Cardinal? How could this be? What kind of topsy turvy world are we living in? I debated long and hard about including a little Stanford logo in this post, but fortunately thought better of it. I hate that stupid tree.
I've probably already written too many times the any team, any time, anywhere blah blah blah cliche. Although it certainly applies in this case I'd rather concentrate on what this particular little shocker means for the Pac-10, specifically the top three teams: Cal, Oregon, and USC.
The most obvious thing is that Cal is now the number two team in the nation, the position formerly occupied by USC. And while it makes sense that the unbeaten Golden Bears would move up from number three, I'm not so sure they're a better team than the Trojans. We'll see when they play each other November 10. Oregon, which has already lost to Cal, moved ahead of USC in this week's poll, despite being idle. The Ducks are ninth, while the Trojans dropped to number 10 (that's a bit far, even for a team that can't beat Stanford). But in the grand scheme of things it makes sense, since the Trojans basically have to beat Cal and Oregon to have any hopes of winning the Pac 10. Still, I'd argue that the Ducks have to show that they can bounce back from the loss to Cal to prove that they're better than USC. Even if they're able to do that by beating Washington State and the Huskies the next two weeks, they still have to beat the Trojans three weeks from now.
Sound complicated? That's why I love college football. Every game is basically a playoff game. Would it be better if there was a real playoff to decide the national champion? Yes, but there's not, so sit back and enjoy the ride.
Other thoughts... If LSU had lost to Florida, Cal would be the number one team in the nation right now. What's next, Stanford ranked in the top 25?... Oklahoma did well to bounce back from last week's anomalous loss to Colorado, nice victory over Texas... Boston College and South Florida (no. 4 and no. 5 respectively) are ranked way too high, even for teams with no losses. If you're going to put teams in the top 10 just because nobody's beaten them, why not put Missouri (5-0, no. 11), Arizona State (6-0, no. 14), Cincinnati (6-0, no. 15), Hawaii (6-0, no. 16), and Kansas (5-0, no. 20) in there?... At least Wisconsin lost to finally prove, once and for all, that they are not a top 10 team... And lastly, way to go Notre Dame! First victory of the year! Woo hoo! But boo to UCLA for so poorly representing the Pac-10.
-CK1
