The Shortlist to the Superdome kicks off the second half of the season with only twenty four teams left in the running for it all. The final two dozen read as follows:
LSU, South Carolina, UK, Ohio St., Wisconsin, Purdue, Illinois, Indiana, Oklahoma, TAMU, Texas Tech, Missouri, Kansas, VT, FSU, BC, Southern Cal, Oregon, ASU, Cal, WVA, USF, Cincinnati, and UConn.
Only nine teams remain with perfect records from the BCS conferences and suddenly, the odds of a once beaten team finding it's way to New Orleans seems a lot more likely than it did just a week ago. Two teams avoided eliminations that I predicted last week, and they happen to be coached by two of my personal least favorite coaches in the entire game, but they deserve recognition none the less and get it now:
1) Illinois ends Wisconsin's undefeated season in Champaign 31-26 as Ron Zook makes me look as foolish as he did standing on the sidelines of the Swamp in Gainesville for the second week in a row. There is no doubt that this man can recruit, but I've always laughed at his coaching "abilities." Will this result cause me to stop laughing now? Of course not! He's still the Zooker to me and I expect Iowa to salvage some pride in a misbegotten season this week against the Illini at home while they show the least popular head coach in Gator history the way off the shortlist.
2) VT rolls Clemson in Death Valley 41-23 in a game that wasn't in doubt for very long.
Beamer has found a quarterback that plays to his tendencies as a coach, not putting the ball air and boring fans of other programs to sleep with a ground based attack. Only a Hokie fan could find pleasure in that I'm sure.
A full six teams dropped games last week that I did not call for resulting in them dropping off the shortlist. The roll call of shame this week includes the teams below:
1) Georgia refuses to show up in Knoxville as Tennessee pummels them 35-14. I thought before the season that Georgia was the best team in the SEC East, but this result throws that race wide open once again. It should be an interesting battles of attrition in the most competitive division of all of college football this year, stay tuned.
2) Michigan St. drops a heartbreaker at home in overtime to Northwestern 48-41. Mark Dantonio has his work cut out for him in East Lansing and this proves he hasn't gotten his team past it's recent history of in-game implosions resulting in grabbing defeat from the jaws of victory. Don't write off the Spartans just yet as they might still play spoiler down the stretch in Big 10 play.
3) Kansas St. can't pull of a win against their in-state rivals Kansas as they lose at home 30-24. For the former preeminent doormat of college football, any winning season is a victory, and Ron Prince will have the Wildcats in their second consecutive bowl when it's all said and done, but for now they fall off the list as their rivals stay unbeaten for yet another week which has to sting no matter how you slice it.
4) Clemson, as mentioned above, is soundly routed by VT. Tommy Bowden is no stranger to the hot-seat in South Carolina and finding your way off the shortlist thanks to back-to-back flat performances will no doubt get the flame burning bright underneath him once again. Bowden has survived tough spots like this before, but until he pulls another escape as he has in the past, I'll be mildly surprised if he's back again next year. Not that the termination of the Bowden Bowl is any great loss to the game, but it's always fun watching that particular post-game handshake every year in my opinion.
5) Rutgers falls again for the second week in a row at home to Cincinnati 28-23. Greg Schiano still has a shot at double digit wins this year, but with the two game home losing streak, the chances just got a lot longer against that happening. His job is safe after the last two seasons in New Brunswick, but the next four games will determine if this season can be considered a success after last year's breakthrough performance.
6) Miami falls to UNC on the road 33-27. The most dominant program of the last twenty-five years is undone by turnovers and shoddy tackling and I had a creeping sensation it was going to happen last week. I refused to wear any of my customary orange and green out to watch the game just in case, but not even I saw the total egg the QB position was going to lay. Not that I'm surprised, the guy playing quarterback is so bad, his reign reminds me of the current president's of the United States after all, but now the real difficult teams start showing up on the schedule from here on out. It could get ugly in Coral Gables real quickly if the play under center doesn't improve markedly and fast. Oh well, there's always next year I suppose.
Teams that I expect to drop off the shortlist this week are as follows:
Kentucky, Purdue, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, TAMU.
I predict it will be a weekend of wreckage all across the Big 10 this weekend as it's ranks of shortlist potential invitees is drastically slashed.
Finally, I get letters. A few weeks ago, I announced the shortlist would be guaranteed of of inviting only
BCS conference schools, as the other non-BCS conferences had found all their members dispatched from losses. It seems that I'm now being accused of overlooking one school that stands outside the BCS circle but without a blemish on it's record, Hawaii. To tell you the truth, I'm torn. On one hand, yes, the Warriors are undefeated, they even have a Heisman candidate playing quarterback for them, and are surely in contention for a BCS bowl bid. However, as I scan the schedule for June Jone's "offensive
force of nature from the islands," I find these results mixed in for September: Hawaii 63, N. Colorado 6, and Hawaii 66, Charleston Southern 10. So now you see my dilemma. I find it impossible to seriously give the Warriors any title consideration when their WAC schedule is augmented by the aforementioned teams. Sure the Warriors host a possibly bowl bound Washington team to close the year, but that's the cream of their competition. Even if the Warriors end up the lone I-A unbeaten, can I really call for them
to play for it all in New Orleans over a more deserving one loss team from a BCS conference? I honestly can't tell you at this juncture, but check back with me in a few weeks. With that being said, my top ten college football teams right now reads as such:
1) LSU
2) USF
3) OSU
4) Cal
5) BC
6) ASU
7) Missouri
8) Cincinnati
9) UConn
10) Hawaii
Enjoy the games this week and I'll see you back here next week where it will all get sorted out if not made sense of on the Shortlist to the Superdome.
Copyright 2007 Christopher Whelpton for Canespace.