This season long series, "The Short List To The Superdome", is written for Canespace by Christopher Welpton. Join us each week as Chris, also known as Orange and Green in Vein or OGV on the blog, eliminates the losers and salutes the winners in the chase for the 2007 National Championship...
As the first month of the season draws to a close, more than half the list has been pared down already. As a quick reminder, the legion of "wait until next year" teams reads as follows:
Troy, Memphis, Louisiana-Lafayette, FIU, N. Illinois, Toledo, UAB, New Mexico, North Texas, SMU, Baylor, Nevada, CSU, C. Michigan, ECU, Marshall, Idaho, Houston, San Jose St., Utah, Arizona, W. Michigan, E. Michigan, New Mexico St., Utah St., ULM, Temple, Army, Ball St., Buffalo, Middle Tennessee, Arkansas St., Rice, Michigan, Minnesota, Iowa State, Virginia, NC State, Tulane, Southern Mississippi, Kent State, Notre Dame, Akron, Syracuse, UNLV, Bowling Green, Miami-OH, TCU, Fresno St., FAU, UTEP, Wake Forest, Duke, BYU, Navy, San Diego St., Louisiana Tech, Boise State, UNC, Ole Miss, Tennessee, UCF, Colorado, Ohio, Wyoming.
Joining these unlucky schools this week are a sample platter of BCS conference teams that saw their title dreams evaporate in the dust of upset losses that have left their fan bases more than a little miffed:
1) UCLA implodes on the road against Utah 44-6. The troubling thing for Bruin fans is that traditionally the team usually plays better earlier than late in the year thanks to the school being on the quarter system. I for one wouldn't have been surprised if UCLA had been undefeated going into the cross town rivalry against USC, but with this loss, they can now only play spoiler for the second year in a row. Go Bruins!
2) Oklahoma State falls to Troy in the great state of Alabama 41-23. The Cowboys barely survived past week one here thanks to an opening loss to Georgia, but they find themselves unceremoniously done in on this list by a team that's not even from a BCS conference. Ouch, that's going to leave a mark! Never a fun way to start looking toward next year.
3) Auburn can't recover from last week's upset loss and will lose again to Mississippi State 19-14 at home. Former UM Defensive Coordinator Tommy Tuberville is back in the hot seat again. He's survived all kinds of intrigue and political maneuvering to keep his job before, and thanks to this result may have to warm up those skills once more to keep his seat as the Head Coach at Auburn. It's a shame as he put together a dominant undefeated season just three years ago only to have it go unrecognized by the college football public at large since then. The Tigers will bounce back to reach a bowl, but this one will sting for a while.
The total number of eliminated teams from the Shortlist to the Superdome now stands at 70 out of 119. Three lucky teams avoided an elimination I called for them last time:
1) Air Force escaped the ax once more, this time in OT, beating TCU 20-17 at home. For the third week in a row, I expect the Falcons to finally come crashing to earth, this time at BYU in a game that gets out of hand late. Against BYU it will be the Falcons turn to finally say: eject, eject, eject!
2) Miss St. as mentioned above comes through in a big way for Coach Sylvester Croom. Last week I mentioned that the three SEC coaches whose teams I called for exclusion from the list all could use a win badly. Croom was the only one who bagged one which sets him up for a job saving bowl berth if he can continue to keep the breaks rolling for his squad. The Bulldogs will handle Gardner-Webb this week, but their time on the Shortlist grows rarer by the day as South Carolina will most likely escort them out of the list of potential invitees.
3) Tulsa survives a shootout with BYU at home 55-47. The smallest little private school in all of D-I tries to do something the most successful little private school in D-I football failed to do just two weeks ago, beat Oklahoma, or failing that, keep the score close. They won't, and the don't on Friday night in Tulsa, while they watch their shot at the big prize blow out of town in the midst of yet another OU blowout on the year.
Congratulations to the three teams above are in order, while I expect both Air Force and Tulsa to join these teams this week as exclusions off the Shortlist come Sunday:
Georgia, Northwestern, Iowa, Georgia Tech, Stanford, Washington, Oregon State, Washington State.
The BCS leagues begin to feast on their weak and sort themselves out starting now. And speaking of starting now, it seems once again I've left another team off my list of eliminations, honestly, I still haven't recovered from the fourth quarter in Norman.
Miami of Florida gets dropped from the Shortlist this week as the more lunatic fringe of the fanbase in South Florida have already seen enough of this regime in Coral Gables. I am not one of them mind you, but I promise they do exist and will boo on Thursday night as the Hurricanes fail to defend the honor of the greatest venue in the game today in it's final season. If you thought last week's Shortlist was bitter, you haven't seen nothing yet.
In the wake of Miami's passing game struggles, rumors have abounded about recruit poaching on behalf of the reining National Champions in football. I decided to go to
the smartest Gator Fan alive today, once again, braving the dangers of the gator filled Lake Alice of Gainesville to ask this sage of Florida football what can Urban Meyer possibly sell to South Florida recruits to get them to come up there?
His answer, again straight from his mouth just like last week, was as follows: "Well he could suggest they might actually be interested in their academic future as well as football and might want to go to one
of the leading public university's in the nation and get a really good college education. He might suggest that perhaps the less urban and "hectic" pace of life in Gainesville might be more conducive to focusing on both school and football. And he probably would invite them to help continue the tradition of winning conference titles and adding to the latest national title to be won by a Florida college."
So there, reading between the lines I understood what the Gator was essentially saying. "Kyle Wright sucks and once he's gone in a few months the recruits will flock to UM for a chance at being the guy who
restores the prestige back to the wide-out position at Miami." For that I risked losing a leg in that god-forsaken swamp? I could have told you that myself.
Enjoy the games this weekend and I'll see you back here next week to answer the question that's on my mind, and I know is on yours as well: Will the Hurricanes still be on the Shortlist come Sunday? We'll see...