ShareThisBy JAKE CURTIS
Friday, November 17, 2006
The Bowl Championship Series standings have become the focus of college football, so we begin our three R's by reviewing the top seven candidates to reach the Jan. 8 national championship game.
Each has a major obstacle or two to get past before it can claim to deserve a berth in the title game. Each also has things working for and against it in its quest to finish among the top two in the final BCS standings.
Louisville, West Virginia, Wisconsin and Wake Forest conceivably could get into the title game, but these seven, listed in order of their BCS ranking, have more reasonable chances:
_ Ohio State: The Buckeyes have been No. 1 all season, and they have the front-runner for the Heisman Trophy, Troy Smith.
Biggest obstacle: Michigan.
Biggest BCS advantage: Even if they lose to Michigan, but do not get swamped, the Buckeyes might have built up enough respect to finish second in the BCS standings.
Biggest BCS disadvantage: Saturday is Ohio State's final game; most other national contenders have at least two games remaining, giving the rest a chance to leave a better final impression.
_ Michigan: The Wolverines are the only team to have beaten two teams currently ranked in the top 10 of the BCS standings (No. 5 Notre Dame and No. 9 Wisconsin).
Biggest obstacle: Ohio State.
Biggest BCS advantage: same as Ohio State's.
Biggest BCS disadvantage: same as Ohio State's.
_ USC: The Trojans finally are playing as expected. Since falling behind Oregon State 33-10, the Trojans have outscored opponents 98-10.
Biggest obstacle: Consecutive games against Cal and Notre Dame.
Biggest BCS advantage: Beating Cal and Notre Dame would count heavily in Trojans' favor.
Biggest BCS disadvantage: The loss to Oregon State might be tough to overlook.
_ Florida: The Gators have not been particularly impressive lately, winning their past three games by seven points or fewer, all against unranked teams.
Biggest obstacle: SEC title game, probably against Arkansas.
Biggest BCS advantage: Winning the SEC title game just hours before the final poll votes are cast would make a favorable last impression.
Biggest BCS disadvantage: Saturday's game against Division I-AA Western Carolina has no upside.
_ Notre Dame: The Irish's only loss was to No. 2 Michigan, although their only win over a currently ranked team was on Sept. 2 against Georgia Tech.
Biggest obstacle: USC on the road.
Biggest BCS advantage: It is Notre Dame, with all that name entails.
Biggest BCS disadvantage: It is Notre Dame, with all that name entails.
_ Rutgers: The Scarlet Knights are the surprise of the nation and proved against Louisville that their defense is top-10 caliber.
Biggest obstacle: West Virginia on the road.
Biggest BCS advantage: If they finish as one of two unbeaten teams from BCS conferences, how could they be kept out of the title game? After all, the BCS computers have Rutgers ranked No. 2, ahead of Ohio State.
Biggest BCS disadvantage: Voters aren't convinced Rutgers is a national power.
_ Arkansas: Since that 50-14 loss to USC in the opener, the Hogs have run over everyone, including Tennessee and Auburn.
Biggest obstacle: LSU and Florida.
Biggest BCS advantage: Winning the SEC would count for a lot.
Biggest BCS disadvantage: When making their final votes, pollsters will consider that USC game and find it hard to rank the Hogs No. 2.
RECORD
San Jose State's next game is at Hawaii, which is 8-2 and has a quarterback, Colt Brennan, who's on pace to set two major NCAA records.
Brennan has 43 touchdown passes, and with three games left, he is within reach of David Klingler's single-season record of 54, set at Houston in 1990. (Houston had 11 regular-season games in 1990; Hawaii has 13 this season.)
Brennan also has a chance to break the record for highest passer-efficiency rating for a season. His current rating of 189.0 is better than the record of 183.3 set by Tulane's Shaun King in 1998.
So why isn't Brennan not in more Heisman Trophy discussions?
RANKING
Top five tiresome phrases and terms:
1. "Trickeration." Some of TV's talking heads have pounded this corny term into the ground, although Kansas State's use of trickery on consecutive plays to score a touchdown in its 45-42 win over Texas was fresh and innovative.
2. "Style points." The phrase refers to the presumed need to win by a wide margin to impress voters in the polls. Boise State supposedly needed style points to climb into the top 12 of the BCS standings, which is what the Broncos need to land a berth to a BCS game. The Broncos got no style points for their 23-20 win at San Jose State, yet they moved up two spots in the BCS rankings this week to No. 12.
3. "We don't like to make excuses." A coaching phrase that is usually followed by a series of excuses. We won't name names.
4. "We're not looking ahead." Coach-speak for "Boy, I hope we don't get embarrassed by losing to this week's crummy opponent." Cal, Auburn and Texas got embarrassed with upset losses Saturday.
5. "There's no such thing as an ugly win." The post-game comment of a coach trying to maintain his team's ranking after his team looked bad but still won. Florida coach Urban Meyer did not utter the words, saying only that his team was lucky in its 17-16 home win over unranked South Carolina. Apparently it was ugly enough to cost the Gators in the rankings, as USC passed Florida in this week's BCS standings.
