Calm Before the Conference Season Storm
Tuesday, October 6, 2009 10:20
After two weekends during which upsets absolutely abounded, Week 5 of the NCAA college football season was sadly disappointing. Of course, in a week in which only twenty of the Top 25 ranked teams played, the odds of a top tier team going down are greatly diminished.
Nobody was more thankful to have the week off than #1 Florida, as the Gators pray for the speedy recovery of Hesiman Trophy poster-child quarterback Tim Tebow. As of today, Tebow still has not been cleared to practice, let alone, play after suffering a concussion against Kentucky in Week 4.
Is it just me, or have rapid rises and precipitous falls in the rankings been more extreme than ever this year. Except at the very top, where there simply isn’t enough room to ever move more than one or two slots, it seems like teams have been jumping a surprisingly high number of spots in both directions.
Cases in point, using the AP Poll as my reference… Miami went from unranked to the Top Ten (#9) after only two victories, then dropped to #17 after their first loss. The drop was reasonable, but that fast a rise? Last week Mississippi dropped seventeen slots after their loss, and Cal went from #6 to out of the rankings in two weeks, starting with an eighteen position drop after losing to Oregon. And what about Houston? They don’t even enter the rankings until Week 4, make it all the way to #12 in Week 5, and then vanish again in Week 6 after losing to UTEP.
Poor, poor Houston. Case Keenum had a ridiculous career day and the Cougars still lose. If only the defense had decided to show up and play. Easily one of this week’s winners of the “What Could Have Been” award, along with Oklahoma.
Kudos go out to Miami, which showed great resiliency in coming off their first loss of the season and beating the Sooners; Oregon, whose Ducks have been playing with an absolute vengeance
Finally, the "Clock Is Ticking" watch goes out to LSU. The Tigers have narrowly avoided defeat the last two games and need to collect themselves lest they become early casualties of the tough SEC season.
4 Responses to “Calm Before the Conference Season Storm”
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Gairzo
says:
October 6th, 2009 at 6:17 pm
I used to be a rabid fan of college football and still watch a a game or two a week.
Just something about the phoniness of declaring a national champion without a playoff just turns me off. It's simply not legitimate to keep a Utah or Boise St. out of consideration when they proven they can play.
The whole season, bowl games, BCS, is so overtly about greed, the game has become a caricature of itself.
Nate Barlow
says:
October 6th, 2009 at 8:14 pm
I could not agree with you more about the BCS, and I root for any possible outcome that would have it collapse in flames. I've actually become a bigger fan of the game since I started following a non-BCS school and conference.
I'm working on a post about a potentially damaging situation for the BCS…
Gairzo
says:
October 7th, 2009 at 2:38 am
Houston is your team? I thought they were in a mid-major conference.
I like your college football stuff. I'm just so sick of hearing and seeing the same 8-10 teams. Even if Pitt were in that top 10, I'd get sick of seeing them.
Nate Barlow
says:
October 7th, 2009 at 3:21 am
No, TCU is my team. That is where my beautiful wife went for undergrad, so she's made me a fan. Although I root for any non-BCS school on general principles.
For the most part, I didn't really follow a single team growing up–to the extent that I did, it was Boston College. Still have a soft spot for the Eagles. Loved those Catholic school match-ups versus Notre Dame!