Back in 2007, Buckeye Nation watched in horror as we fell to Illinois, then fell to #7 in the AP poll. Supposedly, our National Championship dreams were gone.
But The BBC didn’t believe that. At the time, we actually predicted a series of losses by the teams above us that would eventually place us in the BCS Championship game. And we were right about it.
From this point on, we’re going to take a week-by-week look at the teams ahead of us (and a few creeping up behind us) and see what our chances are of getting back into a BCS Bowl, and possibly the National Championship. So here we go;
#1 Florida – bye week – The week off will work in the Gators favor, because there’s no way that Tim Tebow would have been able to take the field on Saturday after spending over 36 hours in a Kentucky hospital. They have the luxury of resting him, but there’s a date with LSU looming the following weekend….
#2 Texas – bye week – Three cupcakes and a sufficiently weakened Texas Tech is all Texas has to show on their resume so far. I’m not impressed yet, but that will change in mid-October when Oklahoma, Oklahoma State and Missouri come calling in consecutive weeks.
#3 Alabama – at Kentucky, Noon – Don’t dream too hard of the upset in this game. Florida scored 31 first-quarter points against the Cats last weekend, and Alabama is actually a better team than the Gators (at least according to us). Alabama will be looking to run up the score and gain poll points on Florida.
#4 LSU – at #18 Georgia, 330pm – If an upset is going to happen in the Top 10 this week, it’s going to happen in this game. Three major reasons for the upset to happen here; One, Georgia is at home….two, LSU just isn’t as good as the #4 team should be (see Mississippi State)….and three, a Top-5 team has lost in EVERY week of this young season so far. Keep your eyes peeled in this game.
#5 Boise State – vs. UC Davis, 8pm – The Broncos’ fans have finally succeeded in whining to the media, who bought into their argument about being shut out of the BCS Championship hunt. Now that they’re in that hunt, maybe that same media can notice that their schedule has more cupcakes than Hostess and start to penalize them for it.
#6 Virginia Tech – at Duke, Noon – The Hokies did what they had to do last week, and the ACC’s doormat awaits them. If Va Tech doesn’t overlook Duke, they could hang 50 on them and quite possibly pick up the 13 poll points they need to overtake Boise.
#7 USC – at @24 Cal, 8pm – I honestly have no idea who to take in this game. USC is the scariest team in the Pac-10 when they’re on the road (scary, if you’re a Trojan fan, because they’ll cause heart failure even against Stanford), and Cal is more schizophrenic than the girl I dated in 2005. I won’t dare to guess who will win this game, but USC’s reputation on the road in the Pac-10, coupled with the shock over Stefon Johnson’s injury might create room for an upset here.
#8 Oklahoma – at #17 Miami, 8pm – Oklahoma has been flexing muscle on weak teams since they lost Sam Bradford and the BYU game on the same night. They were looking at beating Miami with Bradford returning….but today, OU announced that he won’t be making the trip to Miami. That’s not a good sign. Miami, meanwhile, was enjoying their three-week return to glory (before Va Tech destroyed them) and the Canes desperately want back in the picture. I’m not sure it would be called an upset if Miami wins.
#9 Ohio State – at Indiana, 7pm – Take care of business, boys. That’s mandatory.
Meanwhile, below us are a bevy of non-traditional Top 10 teams who are all playing bad, bad opponents;
- #10 Cincinnati – at Miami of Ohio (0-4)
- #11 TCU – vs. Southern Methodist (2-1)
- #12 Houston – at UTEP (1-3)
- #13 Iowa – vs. Arkansas State (1-2)
Anything short of a 50-point win will not likely allow any of these teams to leapfrog the teams ahead of them. I don’t expect any of them to jump us (as long as we do what we’re supposed to do). But if Cinci employs the marketing department that Boise State has been collaborating with, we could be in trouble.
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