Hasta La Vista, South Florida / The Race for #1

Rutgers has done it again...

Last year they took out Louisville and their shot at the National Title (costing all of us a chance to see a true shoot-out between Brian Brohm/Bobby Petrino and Troy Smith/Anthony Gonzalez)

Apparently, South Florida's penchant for sloppy turnovers decided to catch up with them at some point - and chose last night.

This doesn't make me feel bad about ranking the Bulls #1 last week, because as a season's body of work, their wins at Auburn and vs West Virginia meaned they had earned the #1 spot. Now we're going to have a #1 next Monday who may not have earned even a TOP 10 spot in a normal season.

So expect more seemingly random fluctuation in the rankings as I continue to try to figure out who's really good and who isn't.

Since I'm now searching for a #1, let's preview this weekend's games and see who might be able to seize the top spot.

Ohio State v Michigan State - This would be the Buckeye's first decent victory of the season. Their defense is great and the offense has had 7 easy games to get their identity and some practice, so perhaps the backloading of the schedule ISN'T the worst idea in the history of sports.

Boston College @ Virginia Tech - This win would allow me to feel better about putting the Eagles at #1, even though one quality win doesn't really legitimize them. In this case, the Hokies' reputation would carry BC to the top. And yes I know I had BC at #2 last week but I consider there to be no real frontrunner at this point. I'm open to suggestions

LSU v Auburn - How weird would it be for me to put a 1-loss team at #1 with BCS teams still left undefeated? Answer: how weird has this college football season been? Bottom line is, LSU has beaten South Carolina, Florida and Virginia Tech , last week's #7, 14 and 15 picks according to Dr Hak. In truth, I think Va Tech and UF are better than a lot of the teams I have ranked ahead of them and expect them to end up closer to the Top 10 at the very end of the season. So... to me that's good enough. 4 (if they beat Auburn) quality wins would trump the one-loss deal. Weirdo sport = weirdo rankings

Kentucky v Florida - I don't really believe in Kentucky. Probably because they usually don't have a good football team (reputation), but also because they had multiple chances to put LSU away in the 4th quarter and couldn't do it. At home. Just call ONE slant pass. Take advantage of Les "Who's Perriloux?" Miles brain malfunction and get it done. Oh well. This is their last major test for a few weeks. They get by Florida, they get Mississippi State and Vanderbilt back to back, which are trap games, before the down Georgia and Tennessee programs to finish the year. You can beat LSU, but you can't beat them? Anyway, wins vs Florida and LSU could justify #1 to me.

South Carolina v Vanderbilt - not a big enough game to really qualify, especially if LSU doesn't lose. Chances for signature wins are at the end of the year.


Who I didn't mention

Oregon - win over Michigan doesn't look that special now, even though Michigan is playing better. Loss to Cal at first I wanted to forgive them for, but now I'll reserve judgment until they play some more Pac-10 games

Oklahoma - lost to Colorado. I don't care what they do unless they win out, I can't put them at #1 after that.

West Va - should've beaten South Florida

Kansas - umm... 6-0 with wins against Central Michigan, SE Louisiana, Toledo, Florida International and Baylor, plus the one victory against Kansas State will not get you a WHIFF of the #1 spot around here. They don't have any super tests because all of the teams in the Big 12 are down, but, we don't really have evidence that they are better than Oklahoma State, Nebraska, Colorado, or Texas A&M either. Missouri to end the season.

Arizona State - has a bye and then gets Cal, @ Oregon, @ UCLA and USC in a month. If for some reason they win all those games, we have a national title contender.


So, all that being said, I expect to have to put Ohio State #1 on Monday, followed by LSU and then some order of Oregon, Oklahoma and South Carolina.
...

Nowm since I said that, watch Kentucky beat Florida and BC spank Va Tech in Blacksburg or something crazy like that...