Game of the Week:

#5 USC at #10 Oregon
8:00 PM
ABC

The Pac-10 champion won't be decided Saturday when these two square off, but it will definitely have an effect on the outcome.

The fifth-ranked Trojans will be out of the hunt if they should lose to Oregon. Meanwhile, Oregon has turned around their season since their season-opening loss to Boise State and are looking for their first Pac-10 title since 2001.

The key for the Trojans will be their defense and their running game. They will have to improve on the defensive side of the football after giving up 36-points last week to Oregon State this week, as they go against Oregon's prolific offense led by quarterback Jeremiah Masoli. On offense they will need to control the ball and open up some big holes for Joe McKnight and Allen Bradford in the run game.

For Oregon the key will be to get off to a fast start on offense and create turnovers on defense. The offense is averaging 45.7 points and 484.7 yards in the last three games that Masoli has played. Defensively the Ducks are tied for the lead in the Pac-10 with 19 takeaways. If they are able to get up early and force a turnover or two by USC freshman quarterback Matt Barkley then the Ducks have a great chance to pull off the upset.

Other Games to Watch:

#3 Texas at #14 Oklahoma State

This year should renew the rivalry between these two teams. Colt McCoy is 3-0 against the Cowboys while completing 79.4 perecent of his passes for 1,019 yards. Will he come out of this one 4-0?

#22 South Carolina at Tennessee

Tennessee tries to rebound at home after their close call with Alabama last week against a South Carolina team that has only won once in 14 tries in Knoxville.

Upset Pick of the Week: Tennessee over South Carolina

College Football ncaa, football, usc, oregon, south carolina, tennessee

Game of the Week:

#8 Oklahoma at #17 Miami

Saturday 8:00 PM

A tough schedule to start the season caught up with the U last week as they dropped their first game of the season.

The Hurricanes will have to bounce back against another tough opponent in No. 8 Oklahoma who are without last year's Heisman winner quarterback Sam Bradford.

The key will be to see how the Sooners' defense matches up against the Miami offense. Last week Miami sophomore quarterback Jacory Harris didn't look like the Heisman contender he had been hyped to be going 9 for 25 for 150 yards, no touchdowns, one interception and a lost fumble. The Virginia Tech defense was consistently in the backfield and had Harris out of his comfort zone from the first series to the last. The Sooner defense will undoubtedly be coming after the 'Canes signal caller.

If the Sooners' defense is able to slow down the Miami attack then it will come down to Bradford's backup, freshman Landry Jones, stepping up and making a few big plays when they ask him to. He has done a nice job filling in for Bradford thus far completing 43 of 69 passes for 622 yards, nine touchdowns and three interceptions. However, six of those touchdown passes came in one game against Tulsa and the Sooners have not faced a defense the caliber of Miami's yet with Jones at quarterback.

Other Games to Watch:

#4 LSU at #18 Georgia
Doesn't get much better than two of the top SEC teams going to battle on a Saturday after noon.

#7 USC at #24 California
The Trojans bounced back after their loss, but it will be tough to put this weeks' events behind them as teammate Stafon Johnson crushed his neck and larynx when the weight bar he was bench pressing slipped and fell on him. Cal was embarassed last week at Oregon so they'll be looking to get back on track at home.

#25 Georgia Tech at Mississippi State
The Yellowjackets are still trying to prove that they  are legit. This will be another good test for them as Mississippi State nearly upset LSU last week.

Upset Pick of the Week: Mississippi State over Georgia tech

College Football college football, lsu, georgia, usc, california, georgia tech, mississippi state, game of the week, upset pick of the week

Game of the Week:

USC vs Ohio State
8:00 ESPN

It doesn't get any better on a Saturday night...Two of the top programs, two of the most dynamic quarterbacks and two of the largest fan bases.

The key will be to watch how USC Freshman quarterback Matt Barkley handles the big stage on Saturday night on the road. If he is able to remain poised the way he was last week then expect USC to come out on top of this one.

Ohio State will need to limit the turnovers against the fast and ferocious USC defense. Terelle Pryor will be throwing on the run a lot, so it's crucial that he makes good decisions and doesn't turn the ball over.


Other Games to Watch:

Notre Dame vs Michigan
Two of the more storied programs going at it in this one. It'd be huge for Michigan to pull off the upset.

UCLA vs Tennessee
UCLA knocked Tennessee off last year 27-24 in overtime. Tennessee needs to prove that last weeks demolition of WKU wasn't just them running it up on a helpless defense.

LSU vs Vanderbilt
These two teams kick off the SEC schedule. LSU should roll but they need to get off to a good start after finishing worse than .500 last season in conference play.

Upset Pick of the Week: Mississipi State over Auburn

College Football ohio state, usc, terrelle pryor, matt barkley, auburn, mississippi state

(from Holytaco.com)

 SEE THE REST

College Football, College Hoops, Just For Fun college mascots, florida, oregon state, duke, usc, nebraska, arizona, cal-berkeley

Perhaps my favorite highlight of the Bengals' newest linebacker...

NFL bengals, usc, rey maualuga, erin andrews

Florida is No. 1 in the AP Top 25. Utah is perfect at No. 2, though not perfectly happy. Texas and Southern California also claimed to be the best - but media voters didn't think so. The Gators received 48 first-place votes and 1,606 points in the poll released early Friday, after they beat Oklahoma 24-14 in the BCS national title game.

Here's the final AP College Football:
1 Florida
2 Utah
3 Southern California
4 Texas
5 Oklahoma
6 Alabama
7 TCU
8 Penn State
9 Ohio State
10 Oregon
11 Boise State
12 Texas Tech
13 Georgia
14 Mississippi
15 Virginia Tech
16 Oklahoma State
17 Cincinnati
18 Oregon State
19 Missouri
20 Iowa
21 Florida State
22 Georgia Tech
23 West Virginia
24 Michigan State
25 Brigham Young

College Football ap poll, florida, utah, texas, usc

from the BostonHerald.com:

The national championship has never seemed more mythical.

College football has been played in this land for 140 years, and for long stretches of Thursday night’s tractor pull between Florida and Oklahoma, it looked as if these two teams were trying to set the game back by at least half that. The first three quarters were so boring, they should have been moved from FOX to C-SPAN.

The Gators’ 24-14 win over the Sooners did nothing to dispel competing claims from Southern California, Utah and Texas about who belonged in the top spot. Earlier in the week, Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff said he was looking into whether the BCS violated antitrust laws by barring the 13-0 Utes — the only unbeaten team in college football’s top division — from the national title game.

COMPLETE ARTICLE

College Football bcs, bcs championship game, oklahoma, florida, utah, texas, usc

The bowl games finally start this weekend. Fellow GetSportsInfo.com writer, Jeremy Fischer, and myself have put together our picks including how confident we are in them. In case you've never done a pick 'em game like this before, here's how it works. In addition to picking who you think will win the game, you assign a number to that pick as to how confident you think that pick is going to be right. There are 34 bowl games this year (way too many in most people's opinion, but that's beside the point), so the max number of confidence points you can give to one game is, yep, you guessed it, 34. The game you are least confident in you assign one point too, and fill in everything in between.

A lot of office pools are done like this and make it much more challenging than simply picking a winner for each game. As J-Fish states when it comes to doing a pick 'em game like this, "I have seen many strategies and I prefer the one that calls for using the higher confidence points on the bigger BCS games." He goes on to give his reasons as to why.

"Right or wrong, the larger conference teams get more coverage. The more information that is out there, the better informed pick you can make. The more informed you are, the more confident you'll be about a particular selection." Makes sense right? So picking the BCS bowl games really isn't as difficult as picking some of the more obscure games like the R+L Carriers New Orleans Bowl between Southern Mississippi and Troy that provide more difficulty in not only picking who will win, but deciding how confident you are in that pick.

J-Fish goes on to say, "Unless you fancy yourself as the next Jimmy the Greek, don't over analyze. The amount of games will definitely lead to paralysis-by-analysis." In my opinion, when it comes to picking some of the lower level bowl games, its almost more of a gut feeling when making that selection than anything else.

With all that said, let's get to the picks. What you'll find below is the bowl schedule starting with the first game on the docket all the way to the National Championship game on January 8th. With each pick you'll see both J-Fish's pick as well as my own with a little bit of analysis and how many confidence points (#) we have assigned to the pick we've made. Let's get to it with a look at the BCS games.

January 1st
ROSE - Penn State vs. USC
JFISH: USC (34) - Too much defense.
DICO: USC (32) - Too much USC! PSU hasn't seen anything like the Trojans this year. Ask OSU how things worked out for them. Plus this is a "home game" for the Trojans.

FEDEX ORANGE - Cincinnati vs. Virginia Tech
JFISH: Cincinnati (22) - 1st BCS bowl berth will drive the Bearcats.
DICO: Cincinnati (10) - Special teams could be the difference in this game. Mardy Gilyard for the Bearcats is one of the best in the country in the return game. A chance to finish the season in the Top 10 will push the Bearcats to a win.

January 2nd
ALLSTATE SUGAR - Utah vs. Alabama
JFISH: Alabama (32) - Utah hasn't faced a defense like this.
DICO: Alabama (33) - See JFISH's comments...the Utes will have a hard time stopping the 'Bama offense as well.

January 5th
TOSTITOS FIESTA - Ohio State vs. Texas
JFISH: Texas (33) - Too much speed on defense, and the Horns will be playing angry because of the whole BIG XII, BCS screw job.
DICO: Texas (31) - QB Colt McCoy will be too much even for a good Buckeyes' defense. Terrelle Pryor will see what team speed on defense is all about against the Longhorns.

January 8th
FEDEX BCS NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP - Florida vs. Oklahoma
JFISH: Florida (26) - Tebow/Harvin will find a way.
DICO: Oklahoma (22) - Bradford leads the most potent offense in the country. Even with the loss of DeMarco Murray at RB, the Sooners won't miss a beat. Expect a high scoring affair.

COMPLETE PICKS (ALL 34 GAMES) 

College Football college bowl game pick 'em, bcs, national title, wake forest, navy, colorado state, fresno state, memphis, south florida, byu, arizona, southern miss, troy, boise state, tcu, hawaii, notre dame, florida atlantic, central michigan, west virginia, north carolina, wisconsin, florida state, miami (fl), california, northern illinois, louisiana tech, nc state, rutgers, missouri, northwestern, maryland, nevada, western michigan, rice, oklahoma state, oregon, houston, air force, oregon state, pittsburgh, boston college, vanderbilt, kansas, minnesota, lsu, georgia tech, south carolina, iowa, georgia, michigan state, nebraska, clemson, penn state, usc, cincinnati, virginia tech, ole miss, texas tech, kentucky, east carolina, utah, alabama, buffalo, connecticut, ohio state, texas, ball state, tulsa, florida, oklahoma, butch davis, pat white, noel divine, jahvid best, chase daniel, lesean mccoy, jacquizz rogers, shonn greene, javon ringer, knowshon moreno, matt stafford, mardy gilyard, graham harrell, michael crabtree, colt mccoy, terrelle pryor, tim tebow, percy harvin, sam bradford, demarco murray

This weekend the top two teams in the country separated themselves from the rest of the pack. Alabama won a tough game over LSU on the road, 27-21. Texas Tech dominated a good Oklahoma State team, defeating them 56-20. Both teams moved to 10-0. Alabama got 44 first place votes and Texas Tech got 21 in the latest AP Top 25 poll. They are the only two teams to receive first place votes this week as the votes were split between four teams last week.

The team that took the biggest hit this week was Penn State. Their last second loss to Iowa dropped them from third to seventh in the polls. While that's not a very far fall, their shot at the national title are pretty much done unless a lot of things happen to help them out.

The teams that benefit the most from Penn State's loss are Florida, Texas, Oklahoma, and USC. They all moved up one spot in the rankings because of the Nittany Lion's loss.

Bouncing from the Top 25 are four teams; West Virginia, Califnornia, Georgia Tech and Maryland. With four leaving, four have to enter. Cincinnati moves into the Top 25 for the first time this year after beating two Top 25 teams in back-to-back games. They come in at 22 followed by three teams returning to the rankings; Oregon State, South Carolina and Tulsa.

Below is the complete list of the AP Top 25:

1. Alabama 10-0
2. Texas Tech 10-0
3. Florida 8-1
4. Texas 9-1
5. Oklahoma 9-1
6. USC 8-1
7. Penn Sate 9-1
8. Utah 10-0
9. Boise State 9-0
10. Ohio State 8-2
11. Oklahoma State 8-2
12. Missouri 8-2
13. Georgia 8-2
14. Ball State 9-0
15. TCU 9-2
16. BYU 9-1
17. North Carolina 7-2
18. Michigan State 9-2
19. LSU 6-3
20. Florida State 7-2
21. Pittsburgh 7-2
22. Cincinnati 7-2
23. Oregon State 6-3
24. South Carolina 7-3
25. Tulsa 8-1

College Football ap top 25, alabama, texas tech, penn state, florida, texas, oklahoma, usc, cincinnati, oregon state, south carolina, tulsa

As posted on YourTeamStinks.com:

The Texas Tech Red Raiders pulled off the win last night in of the greatest college football games I have ever seen. Just when it looked like the Red Raiders were going to pull away, ahead 19-0 at one point, the Texas Lonnghorns picked themselves up off the mat and came all the way back and took the lead 33-32 with 1:29 left in the game.

Texas Tech would not give up however, and rather than setting up a game winning field goal attempt by a kicker they pulled out of the crowd last week, quarterback Graham Harrell went for it all with a on a beautiful pass to the best wide receiver in the country, Michael Crabtree. It wasn't so much the catch that was amazing as it was Crabtree breaking two tackles (he was being double teamed prior to the pass) and staying in bounds and running it in for the score with one second left.

It was an instant classic. But what does it mean for the rest of the college football season going forward? First off it means that Alabama will take over the No. 1 spot in the polls and in the BCS rankings. It means Penn State will likely be No. 2 now and Texas Tech should move up to No. 3. But even more than that, it means certain teams with one loss are now back in the national title picture. Those teams include Florida, Oklahoma and USC. Florida crushed a really good Georgia team yesterday afternoon, 49-10. Oklahoma smoked Nebraska 62-28 and USC blanked Washington 56-0.

If Alabama and Texas Tech win out, its very likely they will be the two teams playing for the national title, sorry Penn State fans...your conference just isn't tough enough to make a case to be in the national title game should you stay undefeated. Alabama has games left at LSU and at home against Mississippi State and Auburn. Its not out of the realm of possibility that there could be one loss in there, possibly against LSU. Texas Tech has a really tough end of the season as they get Oklahoma State at home, then travel to Norman to take on Oklahoma and then wrap up the season at home against Baylor. In addition to the games both teams have left on their schedule, both may also have to play in their conference title games.

Nobody was happier that Texas Tech won than the Red Raiders themselves. But the one loss teams of Florida, Oklahoma and USC have to be rejoicing right now as well.

College Football texas tech, texas, graham harrell, michael crabtree, alabama, penn state, florida, oklahoma, usc