<p>Boise state will never be in the BCS until they get invited into a respectable conference. Their schedule is way too easy and a one loss Texas, Miami, VT, USC, OSU…etc. would be taken before Boise, sorry.</p>
<p>The BCS game will be an SEC team, Florida or Alabama (I think Alabama looks better so far, but this weekend will be UF’s first real competition) and Texas unless they lose to Oklahoma (or possibly get upset) which could make things interesting. Do you take a one loss UT or a one loss USC that lost without it’s starting QB and leader on defense (T. Mays)? Plus, I would argue USC will play a more difficult schedule than UT, but maybe I’m biased.</p>
<p>"I find it hard to believe that the BCS would take a one-loss team over an undefeated team unless all they really do care about is money (large fan base=more money). Being undefeated will help Boise State in the computer rankings. "
Who has Boise beaten/will beat that shows they deserve to compete with Alabama, Florida, Texas, or USC?</p>
<p>pramirez, the BCS voters thought nothing of taking TWO-loss LSU (sorry, Tiger fans, “undefeated in regulation” doesn’t mean squat) over undefeated Hawaii two years ago. Also, the BCS can’t pick its national championship teams, so Boise’s lack of a fan base can’t hurt its chances of going to the title game.</p>
<p>Speaking of Boise, the win against Oregon will <em>really</em> start to mean something if Oregon beats USC.</p>
<p>Oregon winning out, going 12-1 and winning the pac-10, is a best case scenario for Boise. The voters would almost surely move up oregon to be a top-5 team, and any number of them would keep Boise ahead (some would also surely rank Oregon over Boise, though)</p>
<p>USC-Oregon certainly looks like the pac-10 game of the year now. The return of our #2 WR RoJo (broke collarbone in preseason) by then will help Barkley a lot as teams have been keying on Damian Williams.</p>
<p>Then again, USC has not won in the state of Oregon since 2005.</p>
<p>National Championship is almost definitely SEC Champ vs other. The only way the SEC Champ will not go is with 2 losses, which we’ve pretty much explained. I truthfully see Texas winning out and then going to the NC and loosing to Florida/Alabama. If Texas does loose, it’ll definitely be interesting. Based on how things are CURRENTLY, I would put my money on it coming down to Texas and USC. I doubt an unbeaten Cincinnati would be chosen over a one loss Texas or one loss USC. However, an unbeaten Iowa may actually have a shot…</p>
<ul>
<li><p>Were the LSU-Florida announcers on something? Seriously, one of them was obsessed with the fact that “football’s the only sport where you can score and get the ball back”. And also they called Tebow, “Timbow”</p></li>
<li><p>Florida’s defense is scary good.</p></li>
<li><p>Florida’s offense isn’t scary good. They only got 13 points on a night when LSU’s defense couldn’t even line up onside half the time.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>Prediction: The SEC champion will come from the west, and it’s not gonna be LSU.</p>
<p>There is little chance an unbeaten Cincinnati team would be passed over for the national championship if there are less than two other unbeaten BCS teams. Excluding non-BCS conference teams from the championship games is marginally acceptable, but doing so to an unbeaten BCS conference team would have an unprecedented level of fallout that logic dictates the BCS and poll voters would love to avoid.</p>
<p>Whether it’s fair or not, Cincinnati basically sits in the same position as Boise in needing some love from the computers (at least #2) in order to make it to the title game.</p>
<p>What Cincinnati and Boise have going for them is that, more or less, the computers love undefeated, and also handing a one-loss team their only loss (which both teams could do with South Florida and Oregon)</p>
<p>The trouble with Cincinnati is that a weak schedule to date (Sagarin says 109th strongest, weaker than 6 FCS teams) means that they barely lead USC in the BCS computers (0.570 to 0.560) and desperately need South Florida, WVU, and Pitt to hold up their end and stay strong.</p>
<p>Otherwise, it’s quite possible that Cincinnati goes the whole season without beating a single ranked opponent. As much as the computers love undefeated, they are also extremely brutal against those with weaker-than-average schedules. </p>
<p>witness Hawaii in '07 - despite going undefeated, the computers ranked them at #12, under#11 Florida (9-3)</p>
<p>Yeah, though the computers may help them out a bit, Cincinnati has a horribly weak schedule. And I still think some voters may be inclined to vote for some 1 loss teams over them (and Boise State). If Virginia Tech’s only loss comes from Alabama (who somehow remain unbeaten and go to the NC), I’d think many voters would vote them ahead of Cincinnati (though maybe not to the NC as not to repeat that game). Not trying to have a bias, but if USC wins out from here, our sole loss would have been in a close game when we were missing our starting quarterback and our top, All-American defensive player, and I think the voters would likely choose us over Cincinnati due to a much more difficult schedule. And strength of schedule could potentially push a 1-loss OSU, Miami, Oregon, and LSU over Cincinnati. But still, the season is still pretty young and anything could happen in the meantime.</p>
<p>Worse still, he mentioned Baseball, which is one of the only sports where in general you don’t lose “possession” after scoring. Pretty much any sport with halves like football (including Basketball, Soccer and Hockey) let’s you get the ball back after you score in that same situation.</p>
<p>Not to mention that they kept babbling away about Tebow “hitting his head on the ground again”</p>
<p>Maybe I’m nitpicking, but for two weeks now ESPN has replayed that video of Tebow’s head hitting his OG’s leg so much that, if an alien culture happened to tap into the satellite feed, they’d assume that Tebow is some kind of High Priest performing his sacred ritual…</p>
<p>I’ll admit Cincinnati looks good - if they go undefeated, they could challenge some 1-loss teams for a national title (depends on how things play out) I don’t think they’ll go undefeated though.</p>
<p>Big games on tap this weekend:</p>
<p>Oklahoma/Texas - Oklahoma’s stirring things up this year and actually playing some defense in the big-12. Texas needs it to be a shootout to win and I don’t see that happening.</p>
<p>USC/Notre Dame - Jimmy Clausen ranks #1 in pass efficiency. USC defense ranks #1 in TD passes allowed (zero). Something gotta give.</p>
<p>Nothing like Notre Dame’s 110th ranked pass defense to get Matt Barkley going, though.</p>
<p>The greatest intersectional rivalry in college football</p>
<p>I don’t know if Texas is hiding their talents or not but recent games show that they won’t go undefeated. I think last year’s Texas team was better on both offense and defense. Notre Dame always lose to USC the last couple years by 30+ points, I don’t think they can win this one either.</p>
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