Week #8 - NCAA Ruminations

Week #7 went AWOL for Ruminations, but in the words of the immortal L.L. Cool J, don't call it a comeback, I've been here for years. And thusly, here we go with Week #8 NCAA Ruminations.

Out-standings!

ACC Coastal Division leader? The Duke Blue Devils. That about sums up ACC football. 

Big Ten Leaders Division leaders? Two teams ineligible for post-season play: Ohio State and Penn State. If the Buckeyes weren't gifted an end of regulation touchdown (and they were), and Purdue wasn't so...Purdue-like...we wouldn't be talking about Urban Meyer's ridiculously over-hyped squad. The Buckeyes are sitting at #9 on the strength of wins against Miami (OH), Central Florida, Cal, Alabama - Birmingham, and the following Big 10 disappointees: Michigan State (with whom they struggled), Nebraska (who the crushed), Indiana (with whom they struggled) and now Purdue (with whom they struggled). This is not a good team. Decent, but not top ten decent. They've managed to benefit from a very soft non-con schedule and a completely  inept Big Ten.

In the Big 12, Kansas State sits clearly on top - the one hope for us all to keep Oklahoma from mucking up any title picture. So long as Kansas State wins out, the Sooners are locked out of the title game. It won't be easy. The Wildcats have Texas Tech next weekend (toss up), followed by Oklahoma State, road trips to TCU and Baylor, and then a home finale against Texas (and here's to hoping they hang 80 points on the Longhorns). 

Speaking of the Sooners - the primetime matchup next week is a home date with Notre Dame. The winner of this game will receive media love as rarely scene in the world. I've actually been pretty strong on the Irish. I think they are a good squad. But most of their resume was either built at home (solid win against Stanford, shaky win against BYU) or against the Big 10 (see Ohio State). If the Irish notch a road win in Norman, they are a legit contender AND they really would knock Oklahoma out of the picture. Not quite a win win but I'll take it.

Let's talk, for a moment, about the league that always gets talked about - the SEC and in particular, the behemoths that were put upon a pedestal at the beginning of the year, and by golly, they are going to stay there. Yes, Alabama and LSU. Now, it is hard to find any fault in Bama whatsoever. The Tide is machine like in its decimation of opponents week after week. The opponents, to date, having been that strong (Michigan is reasonably good) but Bama has left nothing to question. LSU, on the other hand, remains in 6th despite being beaten like a drum in Gainesville. Granted, the Tigers have beaten back to back ranked opponents in the following weeks. The win over then #3 South Carolina, at home, was ugly and if Connor Shaw could protect the ball, would never have happened. The win over Texas A&M, was even uglier. The point is, a team from any other conference in the same situation as LSU, would not be sitting at #6 in the BCS rankings, ahead of unbeaten Oregon State. It's just the way the world has turned in regards to the SEC. Close and ugly wins in the SEC are the result of parity. Close and ugly wins in other leagues means the leagues aren't as strong. The Tigers record is 2 and 0 against solid ranked teams, 5 and 0 against a slate of teamsthat includes North Texas, Idaho, and Towson, one win Auburn, and 3-4 Washington. At this stage, LSU is still in the national title discussion - in part, because the season began with the expectation that the game with Bama would be for all the marbles.  It will be a great game, don't get me wrong, but the SEC has three teams in the top 6 right now - fairly late into the season, when the resume would show at least one of those teams isn't quite as strong as expected.

I don't have much to say at this point in regards to the Pac 12 - all the big games are set up for November. We'll learn a lot more then, including Oregon @ USC, USC V. Notre Dame, Oregon v. Stanford, and  Oregon @ Oregon State.

Other

Mack Brown went on record this week complaining that the newly formed Longhorn Network is providing entirely too much exposure to the Longhorns. Thusly, Texas' opponents have been able to leverage medical and practice footage into success on the field against the Longhorns. Obviously, without the benefits of the hours upon hours of practice video and interviews, Oklahoma never would have mustered the courage or ingenuity to hang 63 points on the Longhorns. How else would 3 and 3 Baylor have been able to put up a half a hundred this past weekend. If you weren't familiar with the disdain the rest of the Big 12 has for the Longhorns, Mack Brown's whining about the Longhorn Network provides a pretty good example.

Confession time - looking at the standings of the less media savvy leagues, I noticed that UMass was a full fledged member of the Mid-America conference. When did this happen? I had no idea. I just assumed a lot of teams were getting a bye-week patsy game against the 0 and 7 Minutemen all season long.

Happy BUCFPing - next week, stay tuned for the Halloween edition of Ruminations!