As The Season Dwindles Down…

Hmmm…

Zzzz…

Some weeks simply not much happens. I channel surfed vigorously, trying to find a game worth watching (and I receive a lot of channels). A very few games that I had a passing interest in (if only because of their Bowl Championship Series implications) were on the air (er, cable… er, Uverse fiber-optics), but most had nary a thing going for them.

That doesn’t mean Saturday’s action was devoid of entertaining and/or shocking results. Stanford slaughtered USC. North Carolina took down Miami. And… and… Rutgers did upset South Florida and UCF did upset Houston, but somehow those games don’t really get one’s heart pounding

And, just my luck, the most intriguing game going into the weekend from both competitive and implication standpoints, Utah at TCU, was on CBS College Sports, a channel I used to have at my old apartment but no longer receive at my new place.

Not that the game remained competitive for long. The Horned Frogs annihilated the Utes, 55-28, thus all but assuring TCU a BCS bid as long as the Frogs play to form against their far inferior opponents in their last two games. The Utes did manage the most points against TCU’s top-tier defense, but the Frogs’ offensive was in overdrive–as it has been over the last five weeks, averaging 46.6 points a game during that span.

All the other major players also held serve: Florida defeated South Carolina, 24-14; Alabama toppled Mississippi State, 31-3; Texas whipped Baylor, 47-14; Cincinnati escaped West Virginia, 24-21; and Boise State steamrolled Idaho, 65-23.

Six undefeateds remain. One (Florida or Alabama) will go down in the SEC Championship game December 5. The only other one facing a major challenge is Cincinnati, which could fall the same day against Pittsburgh.

Potentially four or five perfect teams at the end of the regular season. How dearly we need a playoff!

With that not to be, however, two intriguing situations still present themselves this season:

1. Will this be the first year two non-BCS teams bust through into the big games? TCU is all but assured, but will Boise State merit an at-large nod?
2. Could the chips fall in such a way that a non-BCS school makes it to the championship game? Not likely, of course, but it’s not entirely inconceivable that TCU could find fortune’s hand smiling brightly. The Frogs need two of Texas, Florid and Alabama to fall. The aforementioned SEC Championship Game guarantees one such loss. And, while all three are undoubtedly superior to their rivals, one can never underestimate the possibility of an upset in a rivalry game–and the Longhorns (vs. Texas A&M), the Gators (vs. Florida State) and the Crimson Tide (vs. Auburn) all have such tilts remaining on their schedules.

I’m suddenly wide awake.

• December 8, 2009 -- Bowl Challenges Set (0)
• October 19, 2009 -- BCS Rankings Are Out (3)
• October 13, 2009 -- Saturday Snoozer (2)
• October 6, 2009 -- Calm Before the Conference Season Storm (4)
• December 23, 2009 -- TCU’s Gary Patterson AP Coach of the Year – NCAA College Football (0)