Every Saturday is a play off

How that football season is into October, it’s time to chat about the only sport with a 120 team play-off!  

It’s called Division 1A college football!

          I know the ncaa has given it a different name, but I like 1A & 1aa, if it were up to me it would be D1 and the nobody cares division, but we will stick with 1A & 1aa

And in the 1A division EVERY Saturday is a play off !

If you don’t believe that than just ask Houston, or Texas A&M about last Saturday.

This week the play-off continues; with Missouri & Nebraska on Thursday night.  A win by Nebraska would knock Missouri out of the winner’s bracket and down to the loser’s column.  But a win by Missouri would certainly knock Nebraska out of any chance and help push Missouri up the top 25.

# 12 & 5-0 Iowa has Michigan over Saturday night, and this is a huge BigTen game. A lost by Michigan would give them two for the conference and put them out of the Big 10  and the national championship race. An Iowa win combined   with a Wisconsin win would set up a huge play-off game the following week between the Hawkeyes & Badgers. The undefeated but unranked Badgers of Wisconsin are the underdogs going into Columbus.  An Ohio State win would keep Ohio State in the title race for another week, albeit on the loser’s bracket side.  Wisconsin like Iowa needs a win to keep their title hopes alive.

             Down south  #3 Alabama travels to William Faulkner’s home for another one of those classic southern rivalry games, not sure if a win by Ole Miss would put them back in the race, but a lost for Bama, would certainly move them out. The big southern game of the week is in Baton Rouge and at night, with the # 1 Gators and it’s bang up Qb Tim Tebow taking on the Bengal Tigers. After this war, one team will be in the loser’s bracket hoping for some help, while the victor prays they don’t have to play the other again in the SEC championship play-off game!

           While the nation is watching those 2 SEC powers on CBS, don’t forget the surprise SEC team of the year- will be facing one of the premier QB’s in the nation, when Auburn travel to the far reaches of Northwest Arkansas to take on the Hogs and the #12 Qb in the nation in Ryan Mallett.  Another road win for Auburn might propel them into the  top 12 and should help them not repeat the disaster  of 2004. If the tigers lose then it throws them behind the 8 ball with some very tough games ahead.

           The West coast teams all have 1 loss and will have to wait and see what happens with the undefeated, although the easy win by USC over Calif certainly puts them in the top seeds in the loser bracket, and a win over  Notre Dame and Oregon might propel them up the bracket, pollsters love those left coast guys!     

            The Cinderella group is still led by Boise State whose strength of schedule at 84^th out of 120 is embarrassing, as is Cincinnati’s # 86. An even with a win over FSU,  South Florida’s  SoS  is 101!  Maybe the best is TCU who has been playing big time ball for awhile and their SoS is at least in the top half(56). The Horn Frogs beat both Virginia & Clemson, this week they travel to 3-2 Air Force, with later games against BYU and Utah   

The easiest path to an undefeated season is Boise State, they play in a conference with only 4 teams that have been playing big time football for more than 50 years, and a bunch of babes in the D1A field. State’s opponents are a whopping 5-13 verus D1 teams. Boise’s biggest win for the season will be their 1^st game of the year when they beat Oregon 19-8. Boise needs Oregon to finish very high in the polls and PacTen, but don’t look for that to happen.  Up next for the Broncos is 4-1 Tulsa, who lost by 42 to the Sooners.     

The winners bracket as of Oct. 4:  # 1Florida 4-0, #2 Texas 4-0, #3 Alabama5-0,   

#4 LSU 5-0, #6 Boise State5-0,  #8 Cincinnati 5-0,  #10 TCU4-0,  #12 Iowa 5-0, #16 Kansas 4-0, #17 Auburn 5-0, #23 South Florida 5-0,  # 24 Missouri 4-0, unranked Wisconsin 5-0,  

The loser’s bracket as of Oct. 4: # 5Virginia Tech 4-1,   #9 Ohio State 4-1, #7 USC 4-1, #11 Miami 3-1, #13 Oregon 4-1, #14 Penn State 4-1,