Back after a few weeks off

Sorry for the long time between posts. I'm back, though, and just in time to discuss the mess that is the BCS. Let's be serious, this whole crazy season has been leading up to this, a championship game which about 8 teams could make a claim to.The most stunning aspect of all this for me was that Pitt beat WVU yesterday, even with the refs trying to give the game to the Mountaineers. I've told anyone who would listen last week that WVU would win by 40. Pitt's not very good this year and WVU has owned them these past few years. Well for the first time in a long time Pitt manned up in a big game and came away with the victory. Although, it seems more than Pitt playing well, WVU put both hands firmly on its throat throughout the game. Pat Forde weighs in on WVU choking away their chance to make it to the national championship game. The column includes this great line about the 'Eers: " They were four quarters from the French Quarter, then they fought like France with it all on the line."

So with WVU out of the picture it would seem Ohio State and Missouri would be playing in the title game. Well for that to happen, Missouri would have to go back in time and not be manhandled by Oklahoma last night. I contended for much of the early part of the season that the Sooners were the best team and I still stand by that. One of its losses was with Bradford hurt. If he wasn't hurt that game, they would probably have one loss and be on their way to the title game. Either way, they were the much better team last night and knocked Mizzou out of the title game picture. Joe Posnanski at the KC Star contends that having a league championship game format allowed OU to play free and loose. While this may be the case, it seems clear after two games between the Sooners and Tigers that Oklahoma was the class of the Big 12.

So with Missouri and WVU losing that leaves the possibilities for the BCS title game up to much debate. Unfortunately, it seems Ohio State is pretty much in unless voters make drastic changes in how they vote this week. While I wouldn't be excited for a title game involving OSU, I really don't see why they wouldn't be in the game. Yes, they haven't played many good teams but every other BCS school has problems and at least one more loss, save for Kansas. Kansas and OSU have very similar resumes but Kansas didn't make it to the Big 12 title game and so it's tough to see how they could make the title game as technically the 3rd place finisher in the Big 12.There is of course one undefeated team in D-1 college football and that team is Hawaii, which barely snuck past Washington last night. I don't see them leaping from 12th to 2nd, though and so they will probably be in one of the other BCS bowls where they will try to duplicate Boise State's feat last year of knocking off a heavily favored team from one of the big conferences. Which begs the question, if Hawaii wins do they have someone ready to propose, maybe Colt Brennan?

So who other than Ohio State and Kansas and even possibly Hawaii is being considered by pollsters and the BCS for the title game? (I can't believe I just typed that sentence, just one of many this year) Well there's Georgia and LSU out of the SEC, Va Tech, Southern Cal and even Oklahoma. If I had my druthers, I'd love to see an LSU-Oklahoma title game in which Les Miles gets completely outcoached by Bob Stoops. If I had to go with a gut feeling, I'm going to guess, like Dan Wetzel, that it will be LSU-OSU and probably another blowout.

Here's some other thoughts on the BCS picture:Ivan Maisel at ESPNDon Borst at Fox Sports lays out each team's arguments for and against making it Apparently this is BCS Armageddon Just a few quick basketball notes to end this week's post. UNC is not playing like the top team in the nation right now. If I had to rank teams I've seen, I'd probably put UCLA at number 1. UNC, however has showed it can win tough games which they didn't do last season. That's gives me confidence that by the end of the season, they will be the best team. Also, I was wrong about Duke. I went into this season thinking they wouldn't be very good and they've proven me wrong. I can't wait for their game against Pitt in a couple of weeks, that should be a good test for both teams.Ok, from here on out I will be posting every week again and once league play starts in basketball probably twice a week.