Ole Miss was off this week, but there was a lot happening in the race for the national championship.
No. 1 Alabama beat No. 16 LSU 27-21 in overtime, in Baton Rouge; no small feat. No. 2 Texas Tech beat No. 9 Oklahoma State 56-20. No. 3 Penn State was upset by unranked Iowa 24-23, effectively putting them out of the chase for the national championship. No. 4 Texas, No. 5 Florida, No. 6 Oklahoma, and No. 7 USC (all one loss teams) won their games this weekend.
If Alabama and Texas Tech continue to win, it’d be a huge surprise if they don’t end up in the national championship. The big question is whether or not they continue to win.
Alabama finishes up the regular season with Mississippi State and Auburn. Auburn has had a very rough year, but have beaten Alabama seven years straight. It should be a good game. Also, Alabama will face No. 5 Florida in the SEC Championship game. With the way Florida has been playing since we beat them, I don’t see Alabama winning that game. It’ll be fun to watch either way.
Texas Tech plays No. 5 Oklahoma and Baylor to finish up its regular season. A week ago I would have said that Oklahoma wins that game. However, Texas Tech was impressive against a very good Oklahoma State team this weekend. If Texas Tech beats Oklahoma, they would most likely face Missouri in the Big 12 Championship game. If Oklahoma wins, that would put the Big 12 South into a three-way tie between Oklahoma, Texas Tech, and Texas. Normally the tie would go to the team with the best record against the other two teams, but since Texas beat Oklahoma, but lost to Texas Tech, the tie would go to the team with the highest BCS ranking after the last regular season game. That would be Oklahoma or Texas, and it’d be hard to argue one over the other.
ESPN’s BCS guru suggests that the SEC champion will face the Big 12 champion in the BCS Championship game. That’s certainly not a bad guess, but it’s not a given by any means. I’m hoping that Florida beats Alabama and that they find their way into the BCS championship game.
If Alabama and/or Texas Tech lose before making it to the national championship game, it could throw the system into enough chaos that more people would start calling for a playoff; the way it should be.
In an appearance on Monday Night Football, the night before the election, when asked what one thing he would change about sports, Barack Obama said he would like to see a playoff system in college football. So, it seems Obama finally agrees with me on an issue that I’m passionate about. Of course, I hope he won’t try to change anything directly, but his comments have got some people talking.
(James, I have to know. Did my title trick you into reading a sports-related post? :)
Yes. Yes it did. You duped me into reading a post about football. I hope you can sleep at night.
Oh, I sleep just fine. When Liam lets me that is.
[...] Looking at the teams still in the hunt for the national championship, No. 1 Alabama beat Mississippi State 32-7, No. 3 Texas beat Kansas 35-7, and No. 4 Florida crushed No. 25 South Carolina 56-6. No. 2 Texas Tech and No. 5 Oklahoma were off this week, but will play each other next week in a game with huge implications. See last week’s football post for a more thorough look at the national championship race. [...]