Alot has changed in the week since USC's sugar bowl hopes were "dreams"...
Yesterday was a bloodbath among one-loss teams: #3 FSU fell to Clemson... BCS #4 Miami...hee hee...lost its second in a row... and Pitt established itself as the Beast of the East... VaTech, Miami...thanks for playing, now get out!
Now, both human Top Five polls...AP and Coaches...have the same list:
1. Oklahoma
2. USC
3. LSU
4. Ohio State
5. Michigan
Now a look at the computers available as of Sunday night:
- Sagarin has OU-USC-Texas Christian-Miami (Ohio)-Ohio State as its top 5; the inclusion of the second-tier schools may be enough to keep Ohio State from sneaking above USC in the BCS.
- Massey's BCS rankings put OU-OSU-USC-LSU-Tennessee.
- The Colley Matrix has OU-OSU-USC-TCU-Tennessee as its top 5
- The NYT moves Ohio State ahead of USC for OU-OSU-USC-UT-UT as its top 5
So the trend is that USC is closing the gap with Oklahoma, since its computer rankings will improve from 3.5 to 2.5 this week. Its strngth of schedule improved three places, even though they had a bye (what does that say about the Pac 10?) and they may get some quality win points if Wazzu continues to win. The need to watch out for Ohio State, however, as wins against Purdue and Michigan could vault them over USC in all computers and ahead of LSU in the human polls.
Story lines to watch for this week...
Arizona's Coaching Search: Norm Chow, USC Offensive Coordinator, is rumored to be under consideration for the head coaching job at AU--the next opponent on USC's schedule. Hopefully, this won't distract him or the team. Apparently, Mike Price is also interested...I hear them Arizona girls are easy!
Three-way in the South East: Tennesee, Florida or Georgia? Who wants to take on LSU for a chance at...playing FSU in the Orange Bowl!
What to do about TCU: The Horned Frogs are perilously close to being in the top 6 of the BCS--meaning they'd get a guaranteed berth in one of the four major Bowls.
What did he do and when did he do it? I know it's not college football related, but it wasn't jaywalking, or a boating accident, but for some reason, no one is saying anything, yet we all seem to know about it...and trust me, it is talking-about worthy.
So, here are my bowl predictions as of today...
Sugar: Oklahoma (Big XII) vs. USC (Pac 10)
Fiesta: Texas (at large) vs. Texas Christian (automatic)
Rose: Michigan (Big X) vs. Pittsburgh (Big East)
Orange: FSU (ACC) vs. Georgia (SEC)
Cross posted at BoiFromTroy
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