Checking out the polls before they change:
Harris poll : 17 1st place votes for Penn State.
USA Today: 14
AP: 6
Total: 37 dummies who thought that Penn State beating Ohio State should get them a 1st place vote.
OK, I’m going to go sleep it off now. Goodnight all.
Texas Tech just looked unstoppable on offense last night. I’m curious to learn, somewhere down the road, are they that good or is the opposing defense that bad? The QB for TT seemed to do a great job of reading his progressions and there were a lot of interesting and creative runs after the catch. To win out Texas Tech will need to beat Oklahoma in Norman, then play Texas in the Big 12 Conference championship? Or would they face someone else there?
I am massively curious about that myself. Going back to the ‘Run’n’Shoot’ days of the 80’s and 90’s I have always be one of those who believe that those gimicky High-output offenses just simply wouldn’t work against a really good team. But TT is challenging that. Of course they have to complete the gauntlet first, but it is fun to watch and wonder.
According to this site: http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/football/standings
Texas, TTech, and Oklahoma are all in the Southern Division. It seems that if TT beats Ok, they will play Missouri in the Big XII CC. It OK wins, then we have a 3-way tie in just about every sense. I don’t know how the tie-breaking system works in the Big 12, but they would each be 6-1 (10-1) and all ranked around 4-7 in the polls. (TT would probably lose out in the polls because of losing most recently).
I hope someone can elaborate, but it seems to me that TT vs. OK is one of the playoff games for the NCG. (The other being 'Bama vs. Florida, which I think is set in stone… at least as far as being the matchup for the SEC CC).
I almost forgot:
After 'Bama’s first TD, Wilson got a personal foul called on him for making a phone-call gesture with his hand to the side of his face. The announcers mentioned that the first 1 or 2 guys to do that got away with it, but now the refs were looking for it. They even showed clips of the 2 guys (?Tebow and Stafford?) doing it, at it seems that they were also playing LSU, so it SEEMS to be an LSU-specific taunt.
Anybody know the backstory to this?
If there is a 3 way tie in the Big XII South, the team with the highest BCS ranking goes to the championship game. This should favor Oklahoma since they have the toughest schedule remaining.
I don’t know about Stafford but last year the week before the UF-LSU game some LSU fans acquired Tebow’s cell phone number and he got a significant numbers of calls and text messages from LSU fans, some threatening physical violence. That’s the reason he used that taunt after a touchdown pass in last years game.
Poor JPW. He can’t get a break. Watching that “phone call” taunt was like having your best friend’s annoying little brother copy everything you do. It was just so…out of place, weird. Pathetic.
I love living in Tuscaloosa right now. I was riding my bike to a friend’s house during the first few minutes of the first quarter. There was one place where the LSU quarterback almost got sacked, scrambled out, threw a scary pass into touchdown zone, and it got intercepted, which our player later fumbled. I didn’t have a clue, but as I was driving down the empty street I could hear from the houses WOOOOO FUCK WOOOO OH NO OH NO WOOO ROLL TIDE GOD DAMNIT!.
Usually after a big win everyone hits the strip to celebrate, but tonight was dead. That was such an exhausting, stressful game, that me and about fifteen of my buddies who had all been watching the game just sighed with relief when it was over. 10:00pm felt like two in the morning. The entire city was exhausted.
Florida and Alabama are in the SEC Championship game. Alabama has an insurmountable lead. Florida has one game on Georgia but owns the head-to-head tie breaker.
Alabama’s remaining schedule: Mississippi State, Auburn, SEC title game
Florida’s remaining schedule: South Carolina, Citadel, at FSU, SEC title game
While researching, I came across this which answers your other question:
From this article at ESPN.com
That’s why I think if Oklahoma wins out, they’ll be Big 12 champs. The computers currently favor UT slightly but they’ve already had the toughest part of their schedule factored in. Of course, beating Tech at home and OSU on the road will be no easy feat. OU’s offense is scary good but their defense is playing average ball.
KRM
OU grad
Both, I think. Our defense is better than that, they kept us in the game against Texas, and sealed the win at Mizzou.
But they didn’t come to play, and Tech exploited it to perfection. Tech is much less absurdly playstationy this year. Their RB does more than block and catch in the flat.
I think they go to the MNC, and my sis in the band goes too! 
Are there any decent games this weekend? It looks like all the top teams either have a bye, or a virtual bye (Texas - Kansas, Alabama - Miss St). Is College Game Day just going to stay in Bristol?
ABC is showing 16 North Carolina at Maryland, California at Oregon State and Minnesota at Wisconsin, all at 3:30. I guess it will be a regional thing. CBS has BYU at Air Force also at 3:30 EST.
Earlier we have Notre Dame at Navy on CBS and a few things on ESPN360 and on ESPN U.
The late games on ABC are BC at FSU or Oklahoma State at Colorado. ESPN2 is carrying Vandy at Kentucky.
I just checked local cable listings and ABC will show Rutgers at USF as the early game (local). All the others still show TBA.
Maybe the College Game Day guys get this week off to celebrate an early Thanksgiving with their families?
Btw…if Oregon State wins out (Cal, @Arizona, Oregon) they go to the Rose Bowl, where they’ll probably face Penn State again. That does not appear to be an attractive matchup.
On the other hand, this would drop USC down to the Holiday Bowl, where they would meet the #3 team from the Big XII – probably one of Texas, Texas Tech, Missouri or Oklahoma…which would be an awesome game.
Ohio State vs. Illinois seems to be the best game going on this Saturday.
I guess that Oregon State would technically be the PAC10 champs, but doesn’t the Rose Bowl committee get to pick which Pac10 team they want? Or does it have to be the conference champ?
Has to be Pac-10 champ vs Big 10 champ, unless those teams are otherwise engaged in the BCSCG.
(Not sure why you inserted the “technically” qualifier…)
Sorry. No offense to OS, but I don’t think that anybody thinks that they are a better team than Southern Cal. IIRC, last year Tennessee played in the SEC CG, but were considered, at best, the 4th best team in the SEC (behind Georgia and Florida, who are both in their division).
So, last year when Georgia played in the Sugar Bowl… did the Sugar Bowl committee get to pick whichever SEC team they wanted (other than LSU) because LSU was in the NCG? Would they have had to take LSU (not that they wouldn’t have wanted to) otherwise?
I was under the impression that a bowl game that included, say “SEC #2 vs. Big10 #2” meant that that bowl got 2nd pick from each conference, and that they could pick anybody they wanted from those conferences, regardless of rank or conference standings, after the higher bowls (Sugar and Rose) got their first pick of whatever SEC and Big10 teams that they wanted. Is this the case except for the major bowls that are tied into certain conference champions?
No offense taken. I agree that if OSU played USC 100 times, SC would probably win 85 or 90. But that’s why they play the games; and the Pac-10 has a pretty water-tight way of determining their champion: everybody plays everybody else…and the team with the best record wins. Tie-breaker is head-to-head result.
Your supposition about what “#2 vs #3” means is correct…I know for a fact, that when the Holiday Bowl says that they take Big XII #3, it really means they get 3rd pick of the Big XII teams, and can take whoever they want with it.
The Rose Bowl really means conference champion, though, when they say #1. They’re big on tradition.
Should USC win out, I’d say they’re more likely for a BCS at-large than the Holiday.
…
I’m still holding out for the matchup I’ve wanted to see every season (until my Huskers get better):
USC vs SEC champ
With Penn State going down, Texas Tech likely to lose to Oklahoma in Norman, might I get my wish?