The Craziness Continues

People said that Week 12 was supposed to be a snooze-fest and that it lacked any exciting match-ups. Boy were they wrong. Oklahoma State was upset by Iowa State last night. Clemson went down earlier today getting decimated by NC State. Oregon just lost to USC 38-35. And Baylor is going to hold on to win 45-38. Beyond the upsets, there have been some other great games with Michigan beating Nebraska, Tennessee beating Vanderbilt in overtime, and Virginia beating FSU with a missed last second field goal. It has been a hell of a day.

First lets get to the upsets and the BCS implications.

• In one weekend, the #2, #4, #5, and #7 teams all lose. The Oregon-USC game was great one. It looked like USC was going to demolish Oregon when they were up 38-14, but after a kick return for a touchdown and a couple USC turnovers it was 38-35. They had a chance to tie it at the end, but the field goal went sailing. This all but eliminates them from a chance at the national championship game. I had felt that Oregon wasn't as good as everyone said, and it seems that is true.

• Oklahoma lost in a shootout to Baylor. Baylor was up 38-24, but Oklahoma comes back to tie it with less than a minute left. Baylor seemed content taking it to overtime with no timeouts left, but Bob Stoops calls a timeout to ruin that plan. That definitely backfires and Robert Griffin III leads his team down the field and scores with 8 seconds left. The rivalry game against OK State has definitely lost some of its intrigue now. IF the Big 12 wants any chance to have a school in the national championship game, they better root for Oklahoma State because the Sooners have no chance now. 

• What will be interesting to see in the BCS rankings when they come out tomorrow is to see if LSU, Alabama, and Arkansas are ranked 1,2, and 3. It would be the first time one conference sweeps the top 3 of the BCS rankings. It would almost guarantee and All-SEC national championship game unless something crazy happens. After today, I wouldn't be surprised if there was more craziness. 

Some other news from the college football world.

• Penn State and Wisconsin both won today to set up a winner-take-all game next week with the winner going to the first Big 12 championship game to represent the Leaders division. 
• The winner will take on Michigan State who clinched the Legends division with a win over Indiana and Michigan beating Nebraska. As a fan of the game, I would love to see and Badgers-Spartans rematch after they played an instant classic back in October.
• Virginia won a nailbiter against FSU to give them a chance to win the Coastal division next week against the Hokies. Just to win the game the had to survive a five minute review of an FSU catch, a defensive penalty, and a field goal attempt by one of the best kickers in the ACC. FSU's Hopkins missed the kick and it set up a great game next week as the Cavs and Hokies battle for a chance to play Clemson in the ACC title game.

Murray will have his chance to celebrate in Atlanta.

• Georgia looked awful in their game against Kentucky but did enough to beat the Cats 19-10. They clinched the SEC East and will be playing in the SEC title game in Atlanta. GO DAWGS!!!

Let The Mayhem Begin

Mayhem is going to be paying a visit to the BCS.

The BCS is in turmoil... once again.

With Oklahoma State losing to Iowa State 37-31 in double overtime, there is no clear #2 team in the country. First, I feel awful for Oklahoma State, having to suffer through the tragedy involving Kurt Budke. I'm sure they were looking for anything to make themselves feel better and a win tonight might have helped.  Second, I have to give props to the Cyclones.They looked like they were going to end the season with a losing record, but now have a huge win and are bowl eligible. Third, congratulations to Alabama, Oregon, Oklahoma and all the other one-loss teams who now have a chance at making the national championship.

There a nine legitimate 1-loss teams and an undefeated Houston who all feel they have a right to play in the championship game. In actuality, there are five teams that have a shot of making it to the big game. Virginia Tech, Clemson, Houston, Stanford, and Boise State have just not done enough to warrant them getting an opportunity to win it all. That leaves us with Alabama, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, and Oregon fight for the number two spot behind LSU. Let's take a look at these teams chances and why they might deserves the spot.

Arkansas
This is the team that nobody is talking about right now, but are 9-1 and if they win out should be a huge player in the championship game possibilities.  The issue with that scenario is they would have to beat LSU, which looks unstoppable. It wouldn't be the first time Arkansas beat a #1 LSU team in the final week of the regular season. I'm sure you guys remember the triple overtime game back in 2007. If that happens though, it would further increase the mayhem, with LSU joining all these teams with one loss. They seem to be a lock to go to the title game with their superior schedule, but it would be hard to deny Arkansas a chance. Even in this situation, I think they would have to win the SEC, which would require Arkansas jumping Alabama in the rankings and LSU staying ahead of Bama. Chances are they lose to LSU and they would be eliminated from this conversation.

Oklahoma/Oklahoma State
These two teams will play each other on December 3rd eliminating one of the teams from contention. Oklahoma probably has a better chance of making it to the championship game because of a better non-conference schedule and because of the Oklahoma tradition. If Oklahoma State wins, I don't see them factoring into the conversation even though they should. They will have wins over Oklahoma, Kansas State, Texas, Baylor, and the rest of the Big 12. It just will be hard to come back from the tough loss they suffered tonight. The loss hurt Oklahoma as well. A win over OK State won't look as good as it would have if Oklahoma State came in undefeated. A win on December 3rd may not help Oklahoma enough to jump over Alabama and Oregon even though Oklahoma has more high-quality wins over good teams than Oregon does.

Oregon
In all likelihood, if all of the top teams win out and no more upsets occur, it will come down to Oregon and Alabama. Personally, I don't think Oregon deserve it more than Alabama does. There are only three team even worth mentioning when talking about football in the Pac-12. Those teams are Oregon, Stanford and USC. Outside of playing each other and Oregon playing LSU, none of them have played a legitimate team. Neither Stanford nor USC have a quality win other than Stanford's triple overtime win over USC. Unless Oregon can destroy USC, they shouldn't be considered over Alabama. Oregon's one loss was to #1 LSU. It doesn't sound bad, but they were manhandled by them. The score was 40-20 before they scored a garbage time touchdown.

Alabama
Alabama has taken care of every one of their opponents except one, #1 LSU.  Sound familiar? The difference is Alabama loss was an overtime loss with a score of 9-6. Alabama stayed competitive the entire game and even looked like the better team. They have also played a tougher SEC-schedule and played a Penn State team that was undefeated outside of the Alabama game before Paterno was fired.  It is also most likely unless voters change their votes to avoid an all-SEC national championship. Alabama holds a sizable lead over Oregon in both human polls and the computers.

Of course none of this could matter because half of these teams could lose before the season ends. Iowa State has shown us anything can happen. Either way we are in for an exciting ending to the season and a controversial one. It looks like the BCS is going to take another beating in the media for not having a playoff system. There is no way this season ends without a few schools complaining about the system. All we can do is sit back and enjoy. LEt me know what you think about this mess. Feel free to leave a comment on who you think should make it to the national title game.