NCAA College Football Week 11 Recap

A look back at Week 11 of the 2012 NCAA College Football Season.

Bye, Bye ‘Bama

When the fallout was complete after the latest round of conference shuffles last summer–which saw (most notably in terms of 2012 at least) Texas A&M and Missouri moving to the SEC, and TCU and West Virginia entering the Big 12–a fair percentage of commentary scoffed at the new teams’ chances in their new conferences. Indeed, many of the sports messages boards on sites swore that all would be bottom feeders in their new leagues.

Now might be a good time to see how they are faring…

• West Virginia Mountaineers (5-4, 2-4 Big 12): West Virginia started strong–even in the Big 12 conference–blowing out opponents behind one-time Heisman Trophy frontrunner Geno Smith. But the Mountaineers 5-0 start has been vaporized by four straight losses, leaving the Mountaineers 7th in the new ten-team Big 12. Not good, but could be worse.
• TCU Horned Frogs (6-4, 3-4 Big 12): The Horned Frogs similarly looked good coming out of the gate, winning their first four games…but have only been 2-4 since then. Somewhat mitigating the falloff in terms of judging how their standing in their new conference, is that the losing began when starting QB Casey Pachall–one of the better passers in the game in 2011–was suspended for a DUI arrest. He later withdrew from school for substance abuse counseling. Backup redshirt freshman Trevone Boykin has actually performed pretty well in his trial by fire, but one has to believe that TCU would be even better than their current record if Pachall were still starting. Still 6-4 has TCU bowl eligible, and 3-4 puts the Horned Frogs sixth in the Big 12.
• Missouri Tigers (5-5, 2-5 SEC): Missouri has indeed struggled in its inaugural SEC season, currently fifth in the SEC East and 13th overall. No quality wins to boot. Not much else to say, other than at least the Tigers are Kentucky, Tennessee or Auburn.
• Texas A&M Aggies (8-2, 5-2 SEC): And then there are the Aggies. I remember very clearly comments of the like, “…and Texas A&M has immediately become the last place team of the SEC.” All the Aggies have done behind redshirt freshman QB Johnny Manziel is go 8-2 and make mincemeat of the previously dominant Alabama defense, knocking off the #1 team in the nation. Some so-called bottom feeder! Of course the smart money on sites such as PartyCasino.com saw otherwise. The Aggies are now ranked 8th in the nation. Johnny Football has brought some serious excitement to college station and even generated quiet whispers of a possible first-ever freshman Heisman winner.

The Texas A&M upset of the Crimson Tide had a seismic effect on the newest BCS rankings, with Alabama slipping to #4–leaving no SEC team in the top two slots, currently held by the undefeated Kansas State Wildcats and undefeated Oregon Ducks. The third of the four unbeatens, Notre Dame, also currently resides above Alabama in the 3 slot (the fourth, Ohio State, is of course on probation and ineligible). Considering that the last six BCS National Champions have come out of the SEC–and that the next six slots, #4-#9, in the current BCS standings are all SEC teams–that is no small situation.

• October 19, 2009 -- BCS Rankings Are Out (3)
• November 3, 2012 -- NCAA College Football Week 10 Recap (0)
• October 1, 2012 -- NCAA College Football Week 5 Recap (0)
• September 25, 2011 -- NCAA College Football Week 4 Recap (0)
• November 1, 2010 -- NCAA College Football Week 9 Recap (0)