Top Ten -- Week Ten

Oregon wins out. LSU wins out. Ohio State wins out. LSU wins the SEC Championship. LSU, having won all but one game while playing the most difficult conference in NCAA sports will play Ohio State for the national championship in New Orleans. Some voters (and most of the media) will bitch that Oregon deserved it more. Few will defend the logic that LSU deserves it because defending what is obvious does not sell papers.

1. Ohio State -- We've been saying it for quite a while that this is a good (but not spectacular)football team in a season devoid of consistently good football teams. Ohio State - Michigan may decide the Big Ten and give Lloyd Carr a chance to save his job.


2. LSU -- It was only a matter of time for Boston College. The Tigers have now won two games they probably should have lost, lost one they probably should have won, and then won the Alabama game that could have gone either way. Ole Miss and Arkansas could be surprisingly tough, but it's looking like the road to New Orleans will run through Georgia again.


3. Oregon -- We are less impressed with this win than we are with last week's victory over USC. Two more road games could be tough, but if they win out it will be VERY interesting to see how the BCS works out. Once again the lack of a Pac-10 championship may give the Pac-10 team the shaft as going 12-1 is inherently more impressive than going 11-1.


4. Kansas -- Are you kidding? 76 points? Against a non-Baylor conference opponent? We aren't saying it is even likely, but if KU wins out it deserves to be playing for the BCS championship. How people (and we're basing this on Mark May leaving KU out of his top five) are still ignoring the Jayhawks is beyond us. (Note: this blog does not in any way officially endorse the view that Mark May is a person.)


5. Oklahoma -- ou sucks, and that's what makes it so hilariously delightful that all the media talk about one-loss teams getting into the championship game boils down almost exclusively to LSU and Oregon. Will sooner fans soon become so enraged that they invade the ESPN set and start ripping analysts' scrotums (scrota?) off? Only time will tell.


6. West Virginia -- By virtue of playing a somewhat weak schedule, and with the South Florida loss looking worse and worse each week, the Moutaineers will likely end up in another BCS bowl game-but not the championship game.
   
7. Mizzou -- The Tigers and their Border War rival Jayhawks have led the resurgence of the Big XII North this year. Who saw that coming? We all expected that the Northw ould produce a couple of legit teams again eventually, but we figured it would be Nebraska and Colorado returning to prominence.
   
8. Boston College -- We feel bad for the Eagles, but honestly? An Ohio State-BC championship game would have been way too boring for us. Plus, the Celtics appear to be pretty good now, the Patriots are dominant, and the Red Sox have just won the World Series. Enough already.
   
9. Arizona State -- On the big stage with a chance to prove they belonged in the national conversation, the Sun Devils instead proved that everyone was right not to take them too seriously.
   
10. Georgia -- The 'Dawgs have quietly compiled a 7-2 record while playing in the cannibalistic SEC East. It is Tennessee, however, that controls its own destiny in the division by virtue of the Vols' 35-14 thumping of the Bulldogs. Both UGA and LSU will be hoping that Bad Tennessee shows up for at least one of their 3 remaining conference games (Arkansas, Vandy, and Kentucky) so that Georgia can play the Tigers in Atlanta. A win over higher-ranked Georgia would do more for LSU's BCS numbers than would a win over The Other UT.