30 September 2008

Week 5 College Football Ranking (AP and me)

First Place votes in parentheses

Week 4 (Old) Week 5 (New) Me
#1USC (62) Oklahoma (43) Oklahoma
#2Oklahoma Alabama (21) Alabama
#3Georgia (2) LSU Mizzou
#4Florida (1) Mizzou (1) LSU
#5LSU Texas Penn State
#6Mizzou Penn State Texas
#7Texas Texas Tech Texas Tech
#8Alabama BYU BYU
#9Wisconsin USC Georgia
#10Texas Tech South Florida Florida
#11BYU Georgia South Florida
#12Penn State Florida USC
#13South Florida Auburn Ohio State
#14Ohio State Ohio State Auburn
#15Auburn Utah Kansas
#16Wake Forest Kansas Boise State
#17Utah Boise State Utah
#18Kansas Wisconsin Wisconsin
#19Boise State Vanderbilt Vanderbilt
#20Clemson Virginia Tech Oregon
#21Vanderbilt Oklahoma State Oklahoma State
#22Illinois Fresno State Virginia Tech
#23East Carolina Oregon Fresno State
#24TCU UConn Illinois
#25Fresno State Wake Forest UConn


Falling out of the AP Top 25: Clemson, Illinois, East Carolina, TCU
Falling out of my Top 25: Wake Forest, Clemson, East Carolina, TCU

Newly ranked teams in the AP: Virginia Tech, Oklahoma State, Oregon, UConn
AP Biggest gain within ranking: Alabama (8 --> 2)
AP Biggest gain into ranking: Virginia Tech (28 --> 20)
AP Biggest loss within ranking: Wisconsin (9 -->18) and Wake Forest (16 --> 25)
AP Biggest loss out of ranking: Clemson (23 --> 0 votes)

29 September 2008

Weekend of 9/25 - 9/28

With the Sunday Night Football game in the books with a 24-20 Bears win over the Eagles (w00t!), suffice to say that even without the Ravens-Steelers game tomorrow it's been quite an weekend in the world of sports. Three of the top four college football teams go down, NL Wild Card and AL Central races go down to the last day, and Vijay Singh taking home the FedEx Cup, and you have yourself...well I'm not sure what you have, but it's certainly something.

Thursday - Unranked Beavers take down #1 USC
Little 5-7 Jacquizz (wtf kinda name is that anyway?) Rodgers runs for 186 yards and 2 TDs on 37 carries through a thought-to-be iron wall of a defense. Rey Maualuga had 12 tackles, but the defense as a whole looked like they just couldn't find him over the respective linemen of OSU and USC.

I was hoping USC would hit a road bump along the way, seeing as everyone had them picked to go to the BCS Championship game. I wish it would have happened against Notre Dame, but I'll take what I can get. Pat on the back to the Beavers for exposing the Trojans.

Friday - Homecoming win for the alma mater
I wasn't there, but I heard it was a great game as Glenbard East defeated West Chicago 22-18 in Lombard, IL. For the recap, here is a link to the story

Saturday - Wild day in college football sees nine Top 25 teams falter
#2 Oklahoma, putting a 35-10 beatdown on #24 TCU, was the only team in the top four to post a W in Week 5. With 411 yards and 4 TDs, OU quarterback Sam Bradford put himself right in the middle of the Heisman race. The OU offense is also legitimately balance on the ground as well, averaging nearly 170 yards per game. Taking over #1 in the AP poll, if the Sooners don't lay an egg against their remaining Big 12 schedule (I see now-#5 Texas giving them all they can handle), the Sooners should be on the road to Miami.

Tim Tebow looked more liked Florida alum Rex Grossman in a stunning defeat to Ole Miss. Although he didn't throw any interceptions, Tebow just looked uncomfortable in the pocket, getting sacked three times, coughing up a costly fumble and not converting on a fourth-and-one late in the fourth quarter. Are we to think this is the down-to-earth year for the Gator quarterback, or is this just a bump in the road? As Florida falls from #4 to #12 in the AP poll, its seems unlikely we will be seeing them in a BCS bowl, with a remaining schedule featuring #3 LSU and at #11 Georgia. Speaking of Georgia…

I figured Nick Saban would bring Alabama back to the national scene, but I had no idea it would be this quickly. In the “Black Out” game in Athens that saw the Crimson Tide rolling over the Bulldogs 31-0 at halftime, Georgia (one of my favorites to be in the national title game) looked like mere pups. Flashy tailback Knowshon Moreno only had 34 yards, and a supposed vaunted defense gave up 334 total yards to ‘Bama between the hedges. The Tide, which rises all the way to #2 in the AP poll, now seems to be the front-runner of the SEC.

Other top 25 losses included:

  • #20 Clemson losing to Maryland 20-17; Clemson now unranked

  • #16 Wake Forest losing to Navy 24-17 (the ACC is officially the worst BCS conference); Wake now #25

  • #9 Wisconsin (my darkhorse for the title game) losing to Michigan 27-25 in the Big House; Wisconsin now #18

  • #23 East Carolina losing again in conference play to Houston in a blowout 41-24; ECU now unranked

  • #22 Illinois losing in a non-upset to #12 Penn State 38-24; With the score tied 14-14 after just one quarter, I thought this would turn into a shootout. Derrick Williams was a complete momentum killer with TD’s rushing, receiving, and on a kickoff return. The White Out in Happy Valley didn’t seem to faze the Illini much; it was, in my opinion, more the Nittany Lions that put us in our place. Illini now unranked, Penn State now #6


Sunday - Brewers in playoffs for first time since ’82; Mets out (again); One spot in AL still to be decided;
When the Cubs held up a 1-0 against CC Sebathia in the sixth, I thought we would be able to pull it out. I can’t really blame anyone on the Cubs here, since pitchers in the game (Guzman, Gaudin, Cotts, Hart, Marshall, Wuertz, and Howry) were all relievers, and it was smart to rest the starters, especially Zambrano, who was scheduled to start today, for the playoffs. I’ll give credit where credit is due, as Sebathia pitched a helluva game, going the distance with a 4-hitter, 7 K’s on 122 pitches. I really won’t be surprised if his arm falls off during the playoffs. Consider this: he has made 2 fewer starts with Milwaukee than Cleveland this year, but was traded a week and a half after the midway point of the season and included the All-Star break. In those 16 starts, he has thrown 121 2/3 innings (an average of 7 2/3 per start), and made 3 starts in 9 days. All I have to say is, CC, we’ll see you in the NLCS.

In a collapse almost as epic as last year, the Mets failed to make the playoffs again after being ahead of the Brewers by 2.5 games with a week to go. The Florida Marlins played the role of party-crasher, beating New York 4-2 in the final game at Shea Stadium. Wes Helms and Dan Uggla hit back-to-back homers for the difference in the game.

Coming into Sunday a half game behind Minnesota in the AL Central, the White Sox would need to win Sunday and again Monday in a makeup game against Detroit to tie the Twins for the AL Central title. Both teams won (Sox 5-1 over Cleveland; Twins 6-2 over Kansas City), and should the Sox win Monday, a one-game playoff would come on Tuesday at the Cell.

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