There was some turbulence in Texas this Saturday.
And it fouled up some flight plans.
Your standings are here , and other excellent analysis can be found here .
Friends of Destiny
There are only two teams left who can run their slate and set a flight date for Miami.
Texas Tech
The biggest pothole in their route is gone, as Tech won’t be facing another team higher ranked for the rest of their season. But the next two obstacles aren’t much easier to get around: an Oklahoma State team that controls its own destiny in the Big 12 is coming to Lubbock for the Night of the Nouveau Riche this Saturday, and the Red Raiders must take a road trip to Norman to see the jet-fueled Sooners.
I slate Tech first here because I think, with a home game against Okie State, a road game against an Oklahoma team Mike Leach has beaten before when there was more defensive talent in Norman, a potential come-down visit from Baylor, and the Big 12 Championship, Tech’s got a substantially easier road than Alabama.
Having a bye week between two of the Big 12 South leviathans helps, but no shadow of the suddenly incandescent Florida Gators is the key.
Alabama
I called Alabama’s schedule the toughest of the unbeatens as of last week, and it remains that way. Baton Rouge will welcome Nick Saban with all manner of pitchforks and improvised incendiary devices, and you can be certain there will be more than a modicum of vengeance in the Bayou Bengals’ minds after getting embarrassed by the SEC East.
Mississippi State could go Crooming once more, though the game isn’t in the Delta Bermuda Triangle that is Starkville. And though the Iron Bowl is on paper a game in which Rammer Jammer could be favored by three touchdowns, Auburn may be playing for Tommy Tuberville’s job and would love nothing more than to torpedo Bama’s title hopes with what would be a huge upset.
At the end of that road, this team gets rewarded with Florida unless something unfathomable happens to the Gators. Bama’s work is far from done.
Puckering Up for Destiny
These two teams are next in line for the BCS Championship should the teams above falter.
Penn State
The Nittany Lions need to win out convincingly and hope Joe Paterno’s got as much sympathy from the voters as conventional wisdom believes. The White and Blue have one road game, at Iowa, and one likely ranked team, Michigan State, left, and they’ll be favored in both of those games and in a home date against Indiana.
There’s some danger in the trip to Iowa City, but given how Penn State bottled up Beanie Wells, Shonn Greene may be neutralized quickly. The same goes for the Spartans’ Javon Ringer. There’s also an infinitesimal chance that the overmatched Hoosiers could pull what would be the upset of the season in Happy Valley.
But it may not matter if Penn State can’t be persuasive in those wins, as Florida is going to have a more splashy slate to finish and a chance for an emphatic case against Alabama in the SEC Championship.
The best-case scenario is Texas Tech losing, because more chaos in the Big 12 can only be good for the Lions. The nightmare is going undefeated and being passed by a one-loss Florida team. Both are conceivable.
Florida
The Gators established themselves as the class of the one-loss teams with nationally televised woodsheddings of LSU and Georgia, and they’ll have a few more chances to impress against Vanderbilt, South Carolina, and Florida State, and then, in the dream SEC Championship, against Alabama.
The road date at Vanderbilt this Saturday screams trap, especially after the emotional win over Georgia, but this team has seemed driven and flop-proof since its loss, and it’s hard to imagine the constellation of talent in orange and blue could fall to offensively neutered Vandy. South Carolina comes to the Swamp for a home game against a less impressive team than the version a less wise Florida team housed 51-31 last year in Columbia.
The Florida State game will be similar to Alabama’s date with Auburn, but scarier, as the Seminoles have the talent to compete with the Gators and the sort of offensive schizophrenia that could result in unexpected pyrotechnics that could scorch either squad.
Alabama’s the only hip-high hurdle left, and the Gators have looked more impressive than the Crimson Tide in recent weeks. A lot could go wrong, and the gimme against The Citadel isn’t going to help anything, but Gainesville has some reason for exuberance.
0 Comments
Loading more comments...
This comment and all replies have been deleted This comment has been deleted Undo delete