College football's bowl picture got a bit murkier at about 8PM Pacific on Saturday November 1. No longer were there two undefeated teams at the top. Contenders fell to the wayside from East Lansing to Jacksonville. In Austin, one Cinderella's glass slippers were shattered.

Meanwhile, in a packed Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, the largest non-rivalry-game crowd in 15 years watched a showdown between two top-ten teams that ended with both teams looking worthy of a trip east on Interstate 10...but one should stop 1000 miles short--in El Paso.

Two things are clear this November 2...Oklahoma deserves to play for the national championship and no one has a clue as to who they will face January 4, ceteris parebus.

For the next thirty five days, the following plot lines will play out, making college football one of the most intriguing sports in the nation:

1. 2001 redux? Could Florida State once again play for a National Championship ahead of a one-loss Miami team (to which it lost) and a one-loss Pac-10 team? This is a highly likely and unpleasant scenario. I don't think anyone believes Florida State is better than Miami, but since their one loss came later in the season, the Hurricanes will be punished. The computers will make-or-break it for the Pac 10 team (USC), who may have to settle for the Rose Bowl simple because schools like Arizona and Stanford are just really bad. I mean really, really, really bad.

2. Three-way in the Southeast By defeating Georgia, Florida has set up the possibility of a three-way tie for the SEC title game. This has less meaning, except for teams that have defeated Tennessee and Florida (Miami both and perhaps, FSU, one). In the event of a tie, SEC commissioners will have to vote on which team represents the SEC East in the Conference championship against Ole Miss, Auburn or LSU. This will put the power to manipulate BCS rankings for Miami and FSU into the hands of collegiate athletic directors that have no real desire to see either succeed, which may lead them to pick the neutral choice--the Volunteers. Glenn Reynolds would be happy.

3. Poor, Poor Rose Bowl I saw someone in a red jacket drive away from the Coliseum last night in an official Tournament of Roses vehicle...five minutes before the end of the game. Maybe he had to get some tums, because for the second year in a row, the Rose Bowl stands to be the big loser in the BCS shuffle. On the Pac-10 side, there is a three-way tie between USC, Washington State and UCLA. Tournament officials should book their tickets to Pullman, because the winner of the UCLA-Wazzu game next Saturday will have the inside track to Pasadena (whoever thought those words would be written?!?). Why? If USC wins out, they will likely be Sugar-Bowl bound...the human pollsters can tinker in the final standings to rectify any probable injustices to be done by the computers by moving the standings of lower-ranked teams around to set up the game they want to see--USC versus Oklahoma. If USC loses any of its final three games, they will be out of the Rose Bowl race and probably the Holiday Bowl race, too. For the Trojans, it is New Orleans or Las Vegas this Holiday Season, since with two conference losses, they could end up the 5th-ranked team in the Pac 10.

Now to what we know now. ESPN's coaches has moved USC to number 2. At least 53 of the 63 voters put them in that spot, and they are closer to Oklahoma than FSU is to them--that kind of separation should help them maintain the position over this week's bye. At the time of writing, the AP results have not been released, but expect the Trojans to also be in the Number 2 spot. The computers are less predictable. Sagarin keeps Miami as #2, moves USC to #3 and FSU to #5--all of which is fine for the Men of Troy. Massey's BCS rankings have USC #5, behind OU, Miami, FSU and Ohio State. The computers are not punishing Miami like the humans are. But the NY Times will, because they place a greater emphasis on what happened in the last game. Meanwhile, beating the #6 team in the Country has upped USC's strength of schedule to #13--up from #31--according to Massey and Sagarin, which could shave almost a point off their BCS total.

As a Trojan fan, I haven't bought my airline tickets to New Orleans, yet...but I did check out hotel packages on the internet.

Cross-posted at tommytrojan.blogspot.com