2008 Woodie Awards
Markie Mark and the football bunch
in SportsIssue date: 11/13/08
Heading into this, the 12th week of college football, the picture is becoming clearer, but it's still pretty blurry. Last week, Texas Tech proved it belonged at the top by taking care of Oklahoma State 56-20 at home. Now the No. 2 Red Raiders are idle, so will a team jump them in the BCS? For this week, a safe bet is no, but nothing is guaranteed. No. 3 Texas is at Kansas, but how the Longhorns can leapfrog a team they lost to is beyond me.
Penn State dropped a heart-breaker last week at the hands of Iowa, flushing their national title aspirations down the drain. Being a Nittany Lion fan, (there, I said it) I really don't want to talk about it, which puts me in an interesting situation being a columnist that writes about it. Daryll Clark threw a late-game interception, giving Iowa the ball down one. They had roughly 80 yards to go, and State's defense absolutely bent over, setting up a game-winning field goal as time expired. Sniff, sniff. If Penn State and USC both win out, they should meet in the Rose Bowl, a respectable consolation for two teams that wanted nothing but to play for all the marbles.
Alabama got a scare similar to that, however they held off LSU in overtime, remaining the No. 1 team and a heavy favorite to be playing in the SEC championship game against probably No. 4 Florida. Assuming those two meet for the Southeastern title, the winner will likely advance to the BCS championship game against probably the winner of the Big XII championship game.
In the conferences that aren't nearly as important, Maryland plays No. 16 North Carolina in an ACC showdown. If they follow suit, the Terrapins should be able to beat UNC, being the way they play against better teams. Unfortunately they play poorly against lesser opponents. Take for example beating No. 23 California, No. 20 Clemson, and No. 21 Wake Forest, but then losing to Middle Tennessee State and getting shut out by Virginia.
In the Big East, things got interesting when West Virginia lost to Cincinnati 26-23 last week in overtime. There are three teams-Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, and West Virginia-that are 3-1 in the conference. Pittsburgh is idle this week before facing No. 22 Cincinnati November 22. If Pitt wins that and West Virginia can beat Pitt the day after Thanksgiving, I'm assuming the Mountaineers would be the Big East champs, but I honestly don't know the specific science behind it. As it stands, there seems to be three teams that could claim the Big East, that's all I'm trying to say.
Penn State dropped a heart-breaker last week at the hands of Iowa, flushing their national title aspirations down the drain. Being a Nittany Lion fan, (there, I said it) I really don't want to talk about it, which puts me in an interesting situation being a columnist that writes about it. Daryll Clark threw a late-game interception, giving Iowa the ball down one. They had roughly 80 yards to go, and State's defense absolutely bent over, setting up a game-winning field goal as time expired. Sniff, sniff. If Penn State and USC both win out, they should meet in the Rose Bowl, a respectable consolation for two teams that wanted nothing but to play for all the marbles.
Alabama got a scare similar to that, however they held off LSU in overtime, remaining the No. 1 team and a heavy favorite to be playing in the SEC championship game against probably No. 4 Florida. Assuming those two meet for the Southeastern title, the winner will likely advance to the BCS championship game against probably the winner of the Big XII championship game.
In the conferences that aren't nearly as important, Maryland plays No. 16 North Carolina in an ACC showdown. If they follow suit, the Terrapins should be able to beat UNC, being the way they play against better teams. Unfortunately they play poorly against lesser opponents. Take for example beating No. 23 California, No. 20 Clemson, and No. 21 Wake Forest, but then losing to Middle Tennessee State and getting shut out by Virginia.
In the Big East, things got interesting when West Virginia lost to Cincinnati 26-23 last week in overtime. There are three teams-Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, and West Virginia-that are 3-1 in the conference. Pittsburgh is idle this week before facing No. 22 Cincinnati November 22. If Pitt wins that and West Virginia can beat Pitt the day after Thanksgiving, I'm assuming the Mountaineers would be the Big East champs, but I honestly don't know the specific science behind it. As it stands, there seems to be three teams that could claim the Big East, that's all I'm trying to say.
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