Month of November Brings Pandemonium, Inevitable Controversy in College Football

What a tremendous weekend of college football. A quick recap follows.

For starters, the blackout in Nippert Stadium helped the Cincinnati Bearcats upend the No. 23 South Florida Bulls on Thursday night. Elsewhere in Big East play, West Virginia remained undefeated in conference play by beating Connecticut. Not to mention, Syracuse surprisingly took down Louisville. Meanwhile, Pittsburgh needed four overtimes to snatch a win over Notre Dame in South Bend.

Then a pair of ACC games needed overtime to determine a winner. In Charlottesville, the Miami Hurricanes took down Virginia 31-24 to derail the Cavaliers who were on an impressive winning streak. And Wake Forest edged the Duke Blue Devils at home by a field goal. In Atlanta, No. 15 Florida State was beat by surprise Georgia Tech.

Phenomenal day for the Big Ten. Its powerhouses Ohio State and Penn State were idle but the remaining nine teams played five games in which the margin of victory averaged only four points. Indiana lost to Central Michigan by three at home.

Purdue used a hook-and-lateral to score the go-ahead touchdown against Michigan for its first Big Ten win. No. 17 Minnesota lost to Northwestern in the closing seconds when an interception was returned for a touchdown, which broke a 17-17 tie and was the game’s only second-half points. Illinois used a late field goal to top Iowa at home. And No. 24 Michigan State survived an ugly game by downing Wisconsin with a game-winning field goal.

In the SEC, Florida dominated Georgia in the showdown in Jacksonville. Alabama took care of business, and South Carolina added to Tennessee’s misery. Most notably, Arkansas upset No. 18 and previously-unbeaten Tulsa, dashing the Golden Hurricane’s BCS bowl game chances.

From the Big 12, both No. 4 Oklahoma and No. 9 Oklahoma State won in blowouts while Missouri barely got by Baylor on the road. The game of the night, however, took place in Lubbock.

No. 7 Texas Tech outgained No. 1 Texas 182-8 in the first quarter in total yards and held a 22-6 lead at halftime. The Longhorns stormed back, however, and took the lead 33-32 with 1:29 left in the game. Texas Tech drove the length of the field and with eight seconds left, quarterback Graham Harrell found receiver Michael Crabtree along the sideline. Crabtree eluded two defenders, tip-toed the sideline, and scored with just one second left to win 39-33.

In Pac-10 play, California beat visiting No. 24 Oregon. While USC, Oregon State, and Stanford all won at home as well.

Non-BCS conference teams No. 10 Utah, No. 11 TCU, and No. 13 Boise State all remained in contention for an at-large BCS bowl bid by winning Saturday. And Ball State plays Wednesday.

With all of this in mind, what does this mean for college football in terms of the polls and how the BCS standings will shape out?

In my mind, there are seven legitimate contenders for the national championship: Penn State, Alabama, Texas Tech, USC, Oklahoma, Texas, and Florida.

Ranking these teams depends on many factors and everyone determines their order differently. For me, however, I can’t place anyone who has lost in front of an unbeaten (no loss can go unpunished) and I can’t place a loser in front of a winner in a head-to-head matchup.

So as a result, my first set of seven teams rank in order of who I believe deserves the best shot at playing in the national championship game. In the second seven, I rank those same teams in order of who would have the best record against the other six (basically a list of the best teams).

1. Penn State—The most consistent team all season regardless of strength of schedule   
2. Texas Tech—Scariest team in country if it plays all year like Saturday versus Texas
3. Alabama—Finds ways to win every game; likely awaits Florida in SEC Championship
4. Texas—Great team but just ran out of gas after facing four consecutive top ten teams
5. Florida—Winning on another level right now but loss to Ole Miss must be noted
6. Oklahoma—Offense so potent that it edges USC slightly; can’t play defense though
7. USC—Miscue at Oregon State took it out of surefire national championship berth

1. Florida
2. Texas Tech
3. Texas
4. USC
5. Oklahoma
6. Alabama
7. Penn State

Come Sunday, it will be interesting to see how the pollsters feel about Texas Tech’s win. Do they put them ahead of Oklahoma, Florida, and maybe even Alabama? Can any of those previous three drop at all despite winning?

There is no question that this season is going to be as crazy and controversial as any year under the BCS. Not to mention, it will be just as unpredictable as the regular season was last year starting in November.

Let the debate begin, and believe me, there will be debate.