2005 College Football, Top 25 - Week 13

Alas, it was not to be. Fresno State came awfully close to creating a real mess of things, but instead, and once again, USC came back and won.  If anything, they cemented their position as #2 in my poll.  Doubt the national pollsters will do the same.  But it is clear to me that Texas is #1.  And Miami had a bit of a hiccup yesterday against Georgia Tech.  I hope the Tech win either makes Tech a bit overconfident against Georgia next week, or that the victory is only fleeting.  They are a sneaky team, that one, with wins against two of the better two loss teams in the country - Miami and Auburn. And Alabama cannot seem to buy a win these days.  Their consecutive losses to LSU and Auburn prove that losing Prothro was the deathnell.  Well, that and their quarterback needs to watch out for the sack - 11 in yesterday's game.  So here's the poll:

1. Texas (10-0)
2. USC (11-0)
3. LSU (10-1)
4. Penn State (10-1)
5. Virginia Tech (9-1)
6. Oregon (10-1)
7. Ohio State (9-2)
8. Notre Dame (8-2)
9. Auburn (9-2)
10. West Virginia (8-1)
11. Georgia (8-2)
12. Miami (8-2)
13. UCLA (9-1)
14. TCU (10-1)
15. Fresno State (8-2)
16. Alabama (9-2)
17. Texas Tech (9-2)
18. Louisville (7-2)
19. Wisconsin (8-3)
20. Florida (7-3)
21. Georgia Tech (8-3)
22. Florida State (7-3)
23. Iowa State (7-3)
24. Colorado (7-3)
25. Boston College (8-3)

You may notice that even though Fresno State lost yesterday, they actually moved up in my poll. Their gutsy game against USC showed that they deserve to, in my opinion. And sorry, Tide fans - I think they would beat Alabama so that's why they drop behind Fresno State.  UCLA may be ranked too low, but their loss against Arizona still keeps me from truly giving them credit. I suppose if they take down USC, I'll have to eat some humble pie.  But at the moment, I think both Georgia and Miami are better teams.  And I should have either ranked both Iowa State and Colorado last week, or neither of them. So I fixed it this week placing Iowa State ahead of Colorado after their victory last weekend.

As for the rest of the poll after the 15th ranked team, not much changed since so many had bye weeks.  That should change next week when the inner-state rivalries kick into gear with Florida facing Florida State and Georgia facing Georgia Tech, not to mention a potential stumbling block for Texas when they go on the road to face Texas A&M.

As well, a few teams still have to look in the rear-view mirror.  West Virginia has to watch out for South Florida in the Big East.  They play each other the last game of the year for each and a South Florida win gives them the title.  And Colorado must beat Nebraska to take the Big 12 North and gain the chance to face Texas in the championship game.  More importantly, LSU must not stumble against Arkansas this week (a very real possibility) if they want to keep their berth against Georgia in the SEC title game.  And finally, Virginia Tech needs to beat North Carolina (which I am sure they will) to face Florida State in the ACC title game - a game that Florida State will lose.  Mark that down right now.

And it seems a shame that so many teams are done with their schedules for the year.  I'd hate to be a Big 10 fan.  I wish Notre Dame would just sign up with that conference and give us a title game.  I don't know how they would structure it into divisions, maybe a North and South.  Doing that this year would give a four way tie in the North (with Michigan, Iowa, Wisconsin and Northwestern all having three losses) and a three way tie in the South (with Penn State, Ohio State and Notre Dame all having one Big 10 loss.) Of course, that's assuming they adopted my divisional plan.  They could structure it like the ACC to give us some cross regional rivalries like Miami/Florida State or North Carolina/NC State.  Just an idea.

Anyway, one final weekend of glorious college football arrives after this next one and gives us USC's last chance to fail and the title games for the ACC, SEC and Big 12 (and I suppose the MAC and Conf. USA as well, but I doubt I'll pay that much attention there.)  People say they want a playoff for college football.  I say no way.  The season is the playoff.  If they want to do a plus one scenario, I'm fine with it.  But don't take away the regular season's importance.  It's simply to much fun.  That is all.