ShareThisWith six bowl-eligible teams, the Pac-10 is the best conference in college football and sitting at the throne is Stanford coach Jim Harbaugh. And to think, some people thought the $60,000 private bathroom the university built its coach over the summer was a bad idea.
Stanford scored 55 points Saturday at USC -- the Trojans allowed only 93 all of last season -- and jumped to 14th in the Associated Press rankings and 17th in the Bowl Championship Series standings. And though some think the Cardinal cost the Pac-10 $4.5 million because USC was the conference's only shot at getting an at-large berth in a BCS bowl, we quote the great Lee Corso:
"Not so fast, my friends!"
You mean to tell me that Stanford can't get the 10th spot if it beats Cal, beats Notre Dame and finishes 9-3. Especially with suddenly red-hot Heisman Trophy candidate Toby Gerhart and Andrew Luck, "the best quarterback in the country," leading the way?
Of course, things would have to happen, namely No. 5 Cincinnati beating No. 8 Pittsburgh in two weeks and ending the Big East's dreams of pocketing $9 million.
But it's possible.
What we learned
-- ESPN is mean. We give Cal quarterback Kevin Riley a hard time, but even we wouldn't put up a graphic (during the Arizona State-Oregon telecast) of the six starting quarterbacks returning next year in the Pac-10 ... and not list Riley. Ouch.
-- Notre Dame coach Charlie Weis canceled his weekly Sunday conference call (he said the team got home late) and you can't blame him. How many ways can you answer, "So, think you're getting fired?"
After Saturday night's 27-22 loss to Pitt, Weis has the same winning percentage as his two predecessors, Bob Davie and Tyrone Willingham. The best he can do, if the Irish beat Connecticut and Stanford, is 8-4 and the Gator Bowl.
Still, there are 18 million reasons Notre Dame won't fire Weis. That's the amount it would have to pay him for the remaining six years on his contract. You have to really, really dislike someone to give him $18 million to go away. For $18 million, you constantly could stream Matthew McConaughey and Eddie Murphy films from this decade on my television.
-- June Jones knows what he is doing. After leaving Hawaii, the coach has Southern Methodist bowl-eligible after its 35-31 win over UTEP. It's only the third time the Mustangs have been bowl-eligible since coming back from the death penalty in 1989.
The last time SMU actually went to a bowl, it beat Notre Dame in the Aloha Bowl on Dec. 28, 1984.
-- Dabo Sweeney knew what he was doing when he signed his contract with Clemson. If the Tigers win the Atlantic Coast Conference, his salary jumps from $800,000 to $2 million.
-- There was a time when Matt Barkley was 6-0 as a starter, with wins over Ohio State, Cal and Notre Dame (I don't know why we threw in the last two) -- but the USC freshman quarterback has struggled as much as the Trojans' defense of late.
In the last 10 quarters, he has completed only 33 of 69 passes for 360 yards and two touchdowns, with five interceptions.
Michigan freshman quarterback Tate Forcier, whom we profiled after a fast start early in the season, also has fallen on hard times and coach Rich Rodriguez sympathizes.
"Typical freshman ... at some point, you hit a little bit of a wall, without an open date, academically and athletically, and it's a lot on your plate," Rodriguez said. "(That's why) freshmen generally are redshirted because they have the biggest adjustment."
Jim Harbaugh knew that -- Andrew Luck is a redshirt freshman.
BCS-ing:
Utah coach Kyle Whittingham weighed in on TCU after the Horned Frogs' 55-28 win over his team Saturday.
"I've been a head coach for five years and that is the best team that I've faced," said Whittingham, whose team played Alabama in last season's Sugar Bowl.
TCU (10-0) remained behind Florida, Alabama and Texas in the latest BCS standings. Last week, the Mountain West Conference team became the first from a league without an automatic BCS bid to break into the top five of the standings.
If you listen carefully, there are whispers now that the Horned Frogs might get a national-title shot if Texas somehow loses one of its last two remaining regular-season games. (Florida and Alabama play each other in the Southeastern Conference championship game).
Undefeated Cincinnati is in fifth place and unbeaten Boise State is sixth. If Cincinnati can beat Pittsburgh in the regular-season finale, it will earn the Big East's automatic BCS berth for the second straight year.
Though no team from outside the six automatic-qualifying leagues has been an at-large selection, Boise State is in. If I am wrong, I will paint my face blue like a Smurf in honor of the Broncos' lovely blue turf.
E-mail Vittorio Tafur at vtafur(at)sfchronicle.com.
(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)
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