Week 4 NCAA Ruminations

In this episode:
1) Danny Hope vs. Rock: Who has the Higher IQ?
2) BCS Busters
3) Poll Madness

Danny Hope vs. Rock: Who has the Higher IQ
Oh what a beautiful Saturday it was shaping up to be...Virginia Tech dominated Miami in all facets of the game on the way to a HUGE conference and division win over the suddenly dangerous Miami Hurricanes. Florida went up 31-0 on Kentucky and never looked back. They did, however, look up and around and saw stars when Tebow went down with a concussion. That having been said, the alma maters of the Sorenson household were taking care of business. Onto the night game and the last alma mater - Purdue. Now, I am not going to pretend to be a HUGE Boiler fan. I am also not going to pretend that they've been much to watch on the gridiron since back whence I and some of the other pool players graced West Lafayette and a young gun named Drew Brees was flinging the ball all the way to Pasadena. That said, Purdue was teeing up against the much despised Fighting Irish and had the green and gold on the ropes!!! Could it be - the tri-fecta? Were the Irish going to get a second nick in the loss column and get out of serious BCS consideration for real? Here we had the Irish, and their uber-QB Clausen hurting with turf-toe and they were down 4 points with little time left. This was it!!!

Well, that is until Purdue gifted the Irish, oh about 80 yards in 20 seconds and we get to this in the play by play:

2nd-4, Purd4 0:42 R. Hughes rushed to the left for 2 yard gain

Yep, the Irish, with no timeouts, run the ball in the middle on second down with 42 seconds. The back gets a yard or two...AWESOME shouts I - the clock will ru.....WHY ISN'T THE CLOCK RUNNING!!! WHAT'S GOIN ON WITH THE CLOCK??? SOMETHING'S WRONG!!! Wait...what's this? DANNY HOPE CALLED TIME OUT???????? WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY?

So, the end of the play - and I mean barely before the knee was down, at 38 seconds - Purdue calls for the TO (God Forbid an extra second tick off). Now had they not, Notre Dame with only two more downs would surely have rushed play three (they wouldn't spike the ball to stop the clock with only two downs). They throw an incomplete pass. And on 4th, Clausen connected with Kyle Rudolph for the win. This despite the fact that EVERYONE, including my dogs, knew that was were the pass was going.

But back to the rock...I mean Danny Hope - what on Earth would incent him to call TO? Oh wait, I know - the Irish live to haunt my dreams. Last week, Michigan State's QB Kirk Cousins missed a WIDE open (and I mean no one within a zip code) receiver for the go ahead score, only to throw a ridiculous interception on the next play.

Yes, the Irish are winning and I give credit where due - Clausen has a cannon for an arm and he will win games for them this year. BUT if the Irish would face a remotely stiff defense once this year (and USC is coming to town), Clausen isn't going to be able to to this.

So, sorry Danny Hope - I guess your ill-advised Time Out was the result of the hex upon me - and good Irish fortune.

BCS Busters
The BCS buster conversation goes like this in the early stages of this very strange season: The BCS busters this year are shaping up to be BYU...OOPS they got thumped in Provo by the schizo Seminoles...so that leaves Houston, TCU, and Boise State as the real contenders to break up the BCS party. Let's take a look shall we:

Houston: Currently sitting at #12 with wins over Oklahoma State and Texas Tech on their resume (give them the Big 12 title!). Remaining is Mississippi State in Starkville and then the Conference USA line-up that includes 3-1 Tulsa and 3-1 Southern Miss.

TCU: Currently sitting at #11 with wins over Virginia (no biggie) and Clemson (a little bigger biggie), both on the road (Give them the ACC title!). The rest of the Horned Frogs Mountain West slate includes: #19 BYU (at 3-1), 3-1 Air Force, 3-1 Utah, and 3-1 Colorado State.

Boise State: Currently sitting at #5 with a win over Oregon at home. After Oregon the Broncos dispatched 0-4 Miami OH, 1-3 Fresno State, and 1-3 Bowling Green (give them the MAC title!). The rest of the schedule includes a DII Cal-Davis, one more decent OOC in 3-1 Tulsa, and WAC tests that include only Idaho and Hawaii as the only conference teams that have a winning record after week 4.

Now the fact remains a non-BCS has to remain unbeaten to even get in the BCS much less the title game - that's just how it is and that's why BYU is gone. So let's look at these contenders. All have good chances of going unbeaten with TCU probably facing the toughest challenge over Houston given the Mountain Wests stronger in conference teams. Boise isn't even close in terms of difficulty - in all likelihood Boise will cruise to an undefeated season.

What will that leave us - I'm guessing Houston and TCU will slip somewhere along the way which is going to leave us with an undefeated Boise sitting at or better than it's current #5 rank - a rank they achieved by beating Oregon and 3 teams with a combined 2-10 record. This of course happened primarily because Boise started the season at #9. Does this make any sense? Prepare yourself now because as the season progresses and Boise's resume looks more and more suspect against teams that have faced MUCH tougher challenges - the bluster and fluster of the BCS will be huge. And Boise will once again be sitting on a perfect season and looking from the outside at the title game against two BCS biggies. That's the truth and truthfully, given Boise's schedule - that doesn't bother me. Give them a big bowl and let them test themselves against a Big 12 team as they did when the tested and proved against Oklahoma.

NOW, TCU or Houston makes it and Houston, we have a problem. If either of those teams make it I would argue their season will stand up to any BCS biggie. And if BOTH make it - well lookout - the universe will likely implode on itself.

Poll Madness
Well, if you follow college ball at all you know some strange things are afoot in the polls this year. Of course, most of the strangeness results from the long and tired tradition of starting polls in the pre-season and the even more tired tradition of voters never being able to admit they are wrong and ONLY moving a team down if it loses. Here's my list of the wacky after week four (this focuses on the coaches and Harris polls since they actually matter):

Florida at #1 and Bama at #3 What exactly, outside of the first quarter against Kentucky, has Florida done to merit a #1 ranking? Not much as far as I can see. The Gators struggled with a pedestrian Tennessee squad in the Swamp and played two other cream puffs. On the other hand Alabama opened with a huge win against Virginia Tech and absolutely annihilated the Arkansas Razorbacks last Saturday. No one is playing better than the Tide - right now. Flip the Gators and the Tide and keep Texas at #2 and you've got a good top three.

LSU is at #4. Granted the closer-than-thought-should-be win at Washington is looking good, the should -have-lost win at Mississippi State leaves some question marks about a team that is coming off an 8-5 season and is having serious QB trouble. 4 is WAY too high given the season to date.

Boise is at #5. See BCS Busters section

Virginia Tech is at #6. Granted, I wear Orange and Maroon glasses and losing to Alabama is no shame at all and it could be argued that VT has faced the toughest schedule to date of any team but still. A loss is a loss and does it make sense to have a one loss team at #6 when there are some very solid undefeated teams out there?

USC is at #7. See the reservation about Virginia Tech, only substitute a more damaging loss at Washington.

Oklahoma at #8 and #9 and Ohio State at #9 and #8 Again, both one loss teams. Both lost at home. I guess Oklahoma gets a pass because every just knows Bradford would've beat BYU??? (I guess they forgot BYU was doing just fine when Bradford was in the game?) Ohio State lost at home to USC and dropped about 10 places behind the Trojans in the poll. Now they are back to one spot behind? Why?

TCU at #10 and #11 Any reason TCU, sitting undefeated should not be ranked ahead of those one loss teams above - especially if Boise State gets to be?

Concinnatti at #11 and #10 See TCU and understand the Bearcats beat Oregon State on the and Rutgers (currently 3-1) on the road.

Do the Games Matter at All??? In the coaches poll, they've ranked Oklahoma State ahead of Houston AND Penn State ahead of Iowa, despite the fact Houston beat Oklahoma State and Iowa beat Penn State (both came as road victories). Now one could argue there could be a case for that if the victors had any losses themselves BUT THEY DON'T. Ridiculous. Oh, the Harris poll did see fit to rank Houston ahead of Oklahoma State but Penn State is ranked ahead of both of those AND Iowa.

Do My Eyes Deceive Me Four weeks of action have passed and Michigan, THE MICHIGAN WOLVERINES, are undefeated and only merit a 20 ranking in both polls. Really?

Sign of the Apocolypse? You know it is bad when Bill Sorenson thinks it a travesty that Notre Dame, at 3-1 doesn't merit at least a 25 rank.

Wrong Tigers? You saw my concerns about LSU. Now look at Auburn; not in either poll yet is almost averaging 50 points a game and already has wins against Mississippi State (with whom there was no struggle) and West Virginia (which is going to prove to be a pretty solid win). Seriously, not even the top 25?

Kick Them Out of Polling Forever Kansas State earned 2 points in the latest coaches poll. This means either one coach voted them 24 or two voted them 25. This based on the Wildcats' 2-2 record with the two wins coming against Massachusetts and Tennessee Tech. BE GONE FOREVER!

Sad but true folks....sad but true.