Well we aren’t even to Saturday yet and the whole entire bowl picture has changed. Three games, three upsets and the whole post season has been knocked on its proverbial rear end.
On Thursday night, USC showed everyone that they are certainly deserving of high bowl honors by crushing #4 Arizona State 44-24. What was really impressive was the Trojan defense, holding Rudy Carpenter and the ASU offense down most all of the game, except when it didnt really matter. This really puts the pressure on Oregon this weekend to defeat UCLA, to avoid being knocked out of the Rose Bowl.
On Saturday, the Texas A&M Aggies ruined the hopes of Texas fans everywhere by making the Longhorns look silly. The Aggie victory gives the Big-12 South to the Oklahoma Sooners no matter what they do against Oklahoma State on Saturday, so they’ll go to San Antonio to ace the winner of the Kansas-Missouri game. (More on that later).
Also on Friday night, congratulations to Hawaii for whooping up on Boise State to capture their first WAC champion ship. A win next week at home against Washington will complete a perfect, undefeated season, and most likely get them a BCS bowl game.
The real shocker, was #1 LSU going down to Arkansas in overtime 50-48. Matt Flynn proved he was selfish, irresponsible, and generally a poor clutch quarterback, while the vaunted Tiger defense couldn’t stop Arkansas most of the game, allowing huge plays, including 2 TDs of 40 yards or greater. LSU will still go to the SEC championship game, but the best they can do now is a Sugar Bowl berth, as Arkansas becomes the 12th unranked team to take down a top 5 team this year.
This certainly changes the outlook and especially grateful will be West Virginia, who now is almost a lock for a slot in the Title game (pending a victory over UConn tomorrow), and Ohio State who will be thanking its lucky stars that they don’t play any more games. The whole post season really comes down to the two remaining, huge Big-12 games. In each of the two likely scenarios, the winner of the KU/Missouri game has their destiny in their hands, and ultimately the Big-12 Championship game decides who plays in the National Title game.
Basically its really simple if West Virginia beats UConn – there is little chance they dont get to the title game. At that point its just what happens to KU and Missouri, with Oklahoma playing the spoiler. Whoever wins the KU-Missouri game has their title hopes in their hands. If they beat OU they will go to the title game, If OU beats either team, then Ohio State will go to the Championship against WVU. Its really that simple.
However, for fun, lets consider what could happen if UConn were to beat West Virginia. This would result in the winner of the KU-Missouri game taking the #1 spot for at least a week. Moving up would be Georgia (if they beat Georgia Tech) and Virginia Tech (if they beat Virginia):
1. Kansas/Missouri
2. Ohio State
3. Georgia
4. Virginia Tech
5. Missouri/Kansas
6. LSU
7. Oklahoma
8. USC
Now, if OU beat KU or Missouri, that would put Ohio State and Georgia in the Title Game. Otherwise KU/Mizzou plays Ohio State.
Should be fun…stay tuned tomorrow night!!
