Deadspin
Dan Shanoff writes a weekly college football column for Deadspin. Email him to let him know what you think.
Fans can sincerely disagree whether Ohio State is truly better than
either LSU or Oregon — more worthy of being ranked No. 1.
But the fact is: The BCS polls have OSU in the top spot, and like it
or not, that's where the Buckeyes will stay, provided they win their
final two games, sweeping them right into one slot of the national
title-game pairing.
And so it begs the far more controversial question: Who's Number
2? Which team has the strongest claim to that second BCS slot?
Given the flimsy way Ohio State has constructed their unbeaten record,
being No. 2 at season's end seems as good as winning the BCS title
itself.
Is it LSU? No. 2 in the latest BCS poll, the Tigers overcame
their own multiple screw-ups to beat Alabama, arguably the second-best
team in the SEC, in Tuscaloosa. But was the win decisive enough? Will
voters get tired of Les Miles' close calls — and can the Tigers ride
the wire through the season-making (or -breaking) SEC title game?
Is it Oregon? The Ducks beat previously undefeated Arizona
State. But it was at Oregon. (Do the Ducks win that game at Arizona
State?) That said: They have the fewest obstacles to finishing the
season at No. 2. (If OSU, LSU and Oregon all win out, and Oregon is
shut out, they will have a hell of a legit gripe.)
Is is Kansas? One of two remaining BCS-conference unbeaten
teams hung 76 on Nebraska, but have zero respect nationally. Here's my
question: How could you NOT be rooting for Kansas to complete this
dream season? (On the other hand, KU's schedule strength makes Ohio
State's previous schedule look perilous, if you can believe that.)
Is it Oklahoma? Not until they win the Big 12 Championship,
which will involve either winning a rematch with Missouri on a neutral
field... or beating the Cinderella Jayhawks. And the Sooners would
still need LSU or Oregon BOTH to stumble ahead of them.
Is it West Virginia? Not until they beat UConn. Ponder the
improbability of that statement 10 years ago. And even if the
Mountaineers do that, they need improbable help ahead of them.
Is it anyone else? Missouri would need to beat Kansas, then
beat Oklahoma (and STILL need help)... I love a 1-loss UConn, but no
one else seems to...Of the 2-loss teams, Michigan beating Ohio State
would cap an incredible comeback, but that 0-2 start returns to haunt
them....
The bottom line: We are down to a handful of legit contenders, and all
have the potential (even likelihood) of stumbling before the finish
line. Because who wouldn't want to see a Kansas-UConn national-title
game?
This Week's Bandwagon: We Are All Navy Fans! In this most
contentious of seasons, we have argued more than we have agreed: About
Ohio State's real strength. About who's number 2. About "biggest
upsets ever." About fictitious playoff systems.
But for one moment on Saturday night, we could all agree on one thing:
Go Navy.
In an otherwise meaningless game, Navy ended a 43-game losing streak
to Notre Dame (in South Bend, no less), the longest losing streak ever
by any college football team to another.
The schadenfreude party game of the season has been reveling in
figuring out at what point Notre Dame's season has sucked worst: Was
it the nonexistent offense in the beginning? The 38-0 pummeling by
then-0-2 Michigan? The 0-5 start? It HAD to be the 38-0 loss to USC,
right?
Wrong: Rock bottom continues to be a moving target for the Irish, and
losing to a service academy they haven't lost to in 43 years qualifies
as a new low in a season of them. The 1-8 record is almost incidental.
(Almost.)
It has to be asked: How does Charlie Weis still have a job? Any other
self-respecting so-called "national" program would have jettisoned a
coach who had performed so epically poorly in his third season. Face
up to it: Weis is a feeble college coach.
This Week's BlogPoll Ballot:
1. LSU
"4th Down" = Game-winner
2. Oregon
What about Dixon's knee?
3. Ohio State
Talk to me after Michigan.
4. Kansas
Scoring 76 is no joke.
5. UConn
My "Put Down The Pipe" Pick o' the Week.
6. West Virginia
"Bye week" means "Forgotten"
7. Oklahoma
How did they lose at Colorado?
8. Missouri
Lurking behind TWO Big 12 rivals
9. Michigan
For UM, wins are wins.
10. Georgia
Wow: Was that really Troy?
Click here for the complete ballot.
Bowl Clusterf*** Series Update: How can I rank LSU *and* Oregon
ahead of Ohio State? In addition to passing the "believe what your
eyes tell you" test, LSU has at least FIVE "quality" wins better than
Ohio State's BEST win, and Oregon has at least three "quality" wins
better than OSU's best win.
OSU beating Wisconsin in Columbus did nothing to help that situation,
nor will beating Illinois in Columbus next week. Can we all agree that
Ohio State would most certainly not be unbeaten if they played in the
SEC, Pac-10, Big 12 or Big East?
(Stop griping about disrespect, OSU fans: The BCS' mouth-breathing
pollsters can't see past the "and-oh" in OSU's record; keep winning,
and you'll have a spot in the BCS title game, don't you worry. But you
better hope LSU and Oregon stumble along the way, because you know in
places you don't talk about at tailgate parties, either team would wax
the Buckeyes.)
Heisman Watch: I promised Will I wouldn't write about the
Heisman race, but since he's taking the day off today, I'll enjoy an
exemption. I was all set to declare Oregon QB Dennis Dixon
the new front-runner (as the most valuable offensive skill-position
player of a title contender, the usual Heisman criteria)...
...But preseason Heisman pick Darren McFadden forced his way
back to the top of the list after running for an SEC-record 323 yards.
I don't care that his team has 3 losses; last season's Heisman
runner-up reminded everyone that he's the best player in college
football.
Looking Ahead to Next Week's Schedule
Louisville at West Virginia (Thursday): Before the season
started, this was a de facto national semifinal playoff game. Sigh.
Pick: WVU
Illinois at Ohio State: Is it too much to ask for Leitch's
Illini to ruin the Buckeyes season? Probably.
Pick: OSU
Kansas at Oklahoma State: I am waiting for Mark Mangino's
version of Mike Gundy's rant: "I'm a man! I'm 400 pounds!"
Pick: Kansas
Auburn at Georgia: If, like me, you think the SEC is the best
conference in the country, knowing who its second-best team is
matters.
Pick: Auburn
Michigan at Wisconsin: Remember when this was supposed to be
the only stumbling block en route to a huge season for Michigan?
Pick: Michigan
Connecticut at Cincinnati: If UConn is the new South Florida,
then they better understand that Cincy just beat the old South
Florida.
Pick: Cincinnati
Florida at South Carolina: If Spurrier versus his old team is
half as good as Saban versus his old team, it'll be a barn-burner.
Pick: Florida
As usual, direct any questions or comments to
danshanoff-[at]-gmail-[dot]-com.
Comments
Who's Number 2?
(and who... does.... Number... Two... work... for?????)
A: Not BC
And so it begs the far more controversial question.
Actually no it doesn't. No logical fallacy here. Just the dumbest fucking convention for picking a champion in the history of planet earth.
I was actively rooting for Navy. Good for them. Also, one of their defensive guys had a flying sack on the QB that was just aweseome.
So Jesus is taking fall off right?
Seems that way.
Florida State at BC: Any chance the Eagles suffer a let-down? Not at home with 10 days to prepare against the negligible Noles.
Pick: BC
At least you're consistent in having no goddamn idea what you're talking about.
@Dave Ryan:
I think most BC fans would have told you that before FSU. BC was ranked second, but by no means were fans under the impression that it was the second-most talented team in the country.
@Lady Andrea: That play was awesome. He looked like Lavar Arrington from back in the day.
Illinois 28 Ohio St. 17..bet the orange and blue this week.
No love for Hawaii ? They are undefeated so that must mean they should be at least #3 in the country.
/sarcasm
@Lady Andrea: @OchentaYcinco: Totally reminded me of when Roy Williams went airborne to do the same thing to Chrissy Simms.
holy crud, the HTML is well-formatted.
@Charles: Apparently you never met the football experts that were sitting near me on Saturday night. Never had they been so shocked in all 7 weeks they had been following college football!
You forgot to mention how fat Mangino is. And I miss the italics.
@Upstate Underdog: Isn't Central Nevada Teacher's College & Auto Body up next for them?
I'm enjoying the Uconn love from Shanoff, they are 2 bad snaps (in the Virginia game) from being undefeated right now.
Cincy may have beaten South Florida, but South Florida had EIGHT turnovers in that game and Cincy scored 31 of their 38 points in the first quarter, UConn has only 10 turnovers all season and the UConn defense allowed the most points they had all season against Rutgers and still only let up 19. So South Florida, UConn is not.
/UConn Alum
@Camp Tiger Claw:
Sorry to hear you sat by ShortStack and his friends.
The rest of us have seen enough up and downs with BC to know that nothing is certain with our team.
What made the VTech game so sweet is what made the FSU game so painful: despite not playing at our best, we still had a chance to win at the end.
@Gary the No Trash Cougar: And South Florida got I think 5 and 6 turnovers respectively against Auburn and West Fuckin' Virgina.
Part of the game.
/stupid question
What the fuck happened to RSS?
@Disgruntled Goat: No, I think Hawaii beat them back in week 3 of the season.
Glad to see BC do number two all over the lawn
Take that Boston! Now all you have are the World Series champion Red Sox, the undefeated Patriots and the all-star Celtics!
I was on hand for the McFadden Experience on Saturday. Even if Houston Nutt outthinks his team into 3 straight losses, #5 should still be given any and all stiff arming trophy-like hardware.
@Gary the No Trash Cougar: The game Saturday night was the most fun I've had at a college football game in ages.
I should also learn to not stop at the Blogroll and comment before reading to the bottom and seeing a Cincinatti pick over Uconn. Grade. A. Bologna.
@Charles: I was a BC fan until I went to FSU, so they were mighty surprised when I ended up knowing more about their team than they did.
@MitchKayak: Yeah, Jesus had some grade trouble...Mainly this one professor who was just a dick, man. So you know, he's gonna move in with his mom, work at his dad's hardware store, get his head together, write some songs for his band, take some core stuff at community college...but he'll be back.
@OchentaYcinco: @preciousroy: I finally found some youtube footage: [ladiesdotdotdot.wordpress.com]
@BigRicks: I think Dan likes to build teams up (UConn at No. 5) so he can pick against them for a "big upset". Look for Shanoff to rank Hawaii in the top 10 the week before they play Boise St. and then he'll pick the Broncos and pat himself on the back when the Blue Turfers win
Charles S. Dutton as THE JANITOR! is rolling in his grave.
@Port City Gangsta: He'll have to pry all stiff-arming honors from Shaun Rogers' large, face-crushing hands.
So all this talk is about which team get to beat the crap out of tOSU in the "Mythical Championship Game" ?
@Arriaga_II: I'm glad he is getting the band back together. They really suffered after Jesus botched that audition for Dimension.
@EddieRebel: He is a lock at No. 1. He eats his opponents alive, literally.
@Lunatic Fringe: I will tie you to a dumpster in Columbus.
@MitchKayak: I think he's putting his full effort behind the Lions, leaving Notre Dame and Rockies by the wayside.
@Disgruntled Goat:
How can you tell whats a dumpster & whats a house ?
4. Kansas
Scoring 76 is no joke.
Scoring 69 on the other hand is hilarious
Sorry, I must be one of the mouth breathers, but if you survive a DI schedule undefeated, you should play in the title game. GO Kansas, and tOSU, GO!! Sorry, kids, one loss=no shot if there are 2 (or more) unbeatens. The only hope to kill the BCS is mutiple unbeatens OR multiple 2 or 3 loss conference champs. Go Chaos go!!
Shanoff, you have surprised. I had Ohio State projected to four on your blogpoll ballot, & three SEC teams rocking it in the top eleven. Wha'ppened, homes?
@ghostsoftheSCupcountry: Boise State, Tulane, and maybe someone else I'm forgetting are intrigued by your blah blah blah...
@Lady Andrea: Good work. I'm still drunk after that one BTW. All Navy grads who went to Jesuit high schools should be too.
@Lunatic Fringe: I'm laughing and rageifying at the same time.
if you survive a DI schedule undefeated, you should play in the title game
I thought we were talking about the Football Bowl Subdivision National Championship District of Anaheim, and such as.
@ghostsoftheSCupcountry: June Jones, please pick up the white courtesy phone.
Yes that was the same Troy that beat OK State and scored a lot of points on Arkansas.
And that was the Troy coach calling 3 timeouts with 30 seconds left just so he could beat the spread.
Dan, did you not notice that Cincy lost to Pitt 9 days ago?
And that UCONN crushed that same Pitt team?
As a Pitt fan I have to warn you---don't bet the house on that prediction there, Danny-boy.
Does anyone else remember last year's OSU-Illnois game? Coach Sweater Vest had to pull that one out of the fire against a then-Big-10 bottom feeder (Gophers: how's that cellar these days?); Leitch's team might do you proud this week, Shanoff.
just get me my smorsgasbord now!
At this point, I'm not even offended by Shanoff's underestimation of Ohio State. I tip my hat to his consistency.
/OSU Alumnus