College Football Top 25

By Matt Smith

Another crazy week.

1. Ohio State (8-0): The schedule got a bit tougher and the game got a bit closer. They are a loss waiting to happen.

2. Boston College (7-0): An off week keeps them safe from a loss. Big, big game on Thursday in Blacksburg.

3. Oregon (6-1): The Ducks are soundly beating all the teams they should beat and now have a chance to assert themselves as the best in the Pac-10 when they host USC.

4. LSU (7-1): They are truly a second half team. They might have not beat Auburn by much, but a win is a win against a ranked SEC team.

5. Oklahoma (7-1): Can’t look great every day I suppose. They took Iowa State’s best punch and were still standing.

6. Florida (5-2): A nice bounce back win for the Gators puts them in the driver’s seat again as far as reaching the SEC championship game.

7. USC (6-1): Sanchez looked like he settled in during his second start. They were playing Notre Dame, but looked very dominant.

8. West Virginia (6-1): Just lambasted Mississippi State, an SEC team that had beaten Auburn and played others tough.

9. Virginia Tech (6-1): Quietly waiting for their big chance to get into the BCS picture with Thursday’s game against BC.

10. Arizona State (7-0): What happens when you are unbeaten, have a bye and several teams ahead of you lose? You move up.

11. Michigan (6-2): They have come back very nicely from the opening pair of losses and withstood several key injuries to beat Illinois in Champagne.

12. Hawaii (7-0): See Arizona State.

13. Kentucky (6-2): This is right where I thought they belonged before the Florida game, and I still feel that way after a tough loss to a tough team.

14. Missouri (6-1): Good bounce back win from the Oklahoma loss. They exposed Texas Tech for the pretender it was.

15. Cal (5-2): They are two mistakes by their quarterbacks away from being the Nation’s top team.

16. South Carolina (6-2): Thank god they lost. Sixth in the BCS!?! Joke.

17. South Florida (6-1): This where the Bulls should be. They are a good team, but not a great team.

18. Texas (5-2): The Longhorns eventually pulled away from Baylor. They are good for what they are, but this year it’s not a BCS contender.

19. Georgia (5-2): A week off before a big game with Florida.

20. Alabama (6-2): John Parker Wilson stepped up and had a big game to get Bama back in the race.

21. Penn State (6-2): Big Ten is still wide open and the Nittany Lions are as tough as anyone in the conference.

22. Auburn (5-3): I watch them beat Florida and play LSU as tough as anyone and I wonder how they lost to Mississippi State.

23. Kansas (7-0): Beat someone.

24. Rutgers (6-0): The Scarlet Knights led at halftime in both of their losses. They are close to being undefeated and they looked tough in that South Florida win.

25. Virginia (7-1): To quote my website cohort Ben Malley, “the loss to Wyoming is perplexing.” They don’t win pretty and they don’t win big, but they have won seven straight.

BCS Breakdown Week #7

By: Ben Malley

1. Ohio State .942

2. South Florida .920

3. Boston College .891

4. LSU .840

5. Oklahoma .762

6. South Carolina .743

7. Kentucky .683

8. Arizona State .683

9. West Virginia .662

10. Oregon .637

11. Virginia Tech .630

12. California .600

13. Kansas .517

14. USC .472

15. Florida .435

The nearly full point difference between fourth placed LSU and fifth placed Oklahoma means that if any two of the top four win out they will play in the title game.

Ohio State still plays everyone who matters in the Big 10 (Illinois, Wisconsin, Penn St. and Michigan). The Big 10 may be down this year, but if they can win those games I will have to grudgingly admit they’ll have earned their spot in the championship game.

The computers love South Florida ranking them first, with Rutgers, Cincinnati and Louisville still on the schedule. Because the name of the school is South Florida it’s hard to see them making it through the year undefeated, but those pesky computers aren’t taking into account that South Florida had never even been ranked, ever, before this year.

Boston College only has two tests, a trip to Blacksburg, and most likely a rematch in the ACC championship game. However, they didn’t impress at all against a horrible Notre Dame and may slip up against inconsistent ACC competition such as Clemson, Florida St. and Miami.

LSU is through the toughest part of their schedule, but they will play either South Carolina (who they’ve already beaten handily), Florida (an amazing comeback victory), Tennessee or Kentucky (a revenge match up) in the SEC championship game. If an SEC homer reads this (which they won't because I don't think I have any SEC homer friends) they will call me out and say that LSU still has to play Auburn, Alabama and Arkansas. Well what I'm actually doing here is saying that I think LSU is so good, so elite, that they won't have any trouble with those mediocre SEC teams.

Oklahoma is also through the rough part (Texas, Mizzou) of the weak Big 12. Oklahoma looks the most likely to get into the national championship game if someone slips up. They still have to get by the Big 12 North winner where they may be the first test for Kansas who might actually still be undefeated at that point.

I haven’t said a thing about the Pac 10 because the computers seem to hate them, making the conference basically as relevant as the WAC with respect to the national title picture. With Cal losing, ironically Oregon becomes the Pac 10 team with the "best loss." Of course, I'm not respecting undefeated Arizona State at all, but then again neither is the BCS ranking system. One of the great things about the Pac 10 is that everybody plays everybody. Much like in the Big 10 this year not too many of the contenders have played each other yet. October 27 will clear a lot of things up with Cal at Arizona St and USC at Oregon.