College Football News & Notes, Week 13

This Texas Tech-Oklahoma game went from mildly competitive to downright ugly fast. Shiny, high-scoring offenses may be shiny and exciting, but in the end the same boring defenses will reign supreme. Now there's a torrid triangle atop the Big XII Texlahoma Division. Chaos will reign. Now watch and behold the horror when either Florida or Alabama lose next weekend but win the SEC, setting up a Texas-Oklahoma title game. Remember when people said that Ohio State and Michigan could have ended up playing again for the title in 2006? This could happen and again, and I'm pretty sure Mike Tranghese is ripping his hair out one follicle at a time.

Rick Rodriguez epically failed this entire season, then goes on GameDay this morning and says he lost because of Lloyd Carr's recruits? It takes a lot to alienate an entire program's fan base in a mere season, but here we are. Also, local reports claim RichRod's postgame chat with Tress consisted of Rodriguez saying, "this is the last time this happens." West Virginia, I'm pretty sure he did y'all a favor. And Michigan fans? I can't believe I'm gonna say this, but I feel bad for you guys. You guys do run a classy program, and Rich...he makes Nick Saban a model of integrity. Bobby Petrino's still a douche.

An ACC update: If Virigina Tech wins next week, they win the Coastal Conference with a win next week. Georgia Tech can win if Virginia Tech, and the game against Georgia doesn't matter. Boston College....awwwwww, fuck it. I just give up on predicting anything. They can play games the next two weeks, then whoever shows up in Tampa gets to play for the title. It's a clusterfuck of a year in the BCS's real chump conference - would you belive the ACC is 1-9 all-time in BCS games? Freals. Even the Big East has done better. More on this sometime.

Man, I think the Big XII is the only conference/division that isn't overrated.

What happens if Ohio State gets picked by the BCS over an undefeated Boise State? Dear lord, I'm taking a month-long hiatus from sports talk shows. Come to think of it, I may be better off doing that until after the season anyway.

I wanna see the top four teams lose next weekend. Hey, Missouri and West Virginia choked it away despite themselves, why can't, like, four teams. I just wanna see all hell break loose and see, like, Boise State and Texas Tech play for the National Championship. Let's see Penn State take on, like, USC. I WANT A UTAH UTES NATIONAL COMMEMORATIVE THINGER WITH MY SPORTS ILLUSTRATED SUBSCRIPTION, DAMMIT. Grumble grumble playoffs grumble.

The Rose Bowl is currently projected as a matchup between Penn State and Oregon State. Man, people were worried over a USC-Ohio State matchup.

I gotta say, Texas Tech's utter spewing tonight was pretty impressive. I mean, we've seen a host of top-ranked teams blow their big shot the last two seasons, but not quite in this horrific a fashion. There is no one talking them up, and it's only been over officially for less than three hours. Yeah, I'm still awake. Whatevs.

So looking ahead, no giant matchups, but still, give me three days to surf games at the girlfriends' place, and you've got a pretty content guy here.

Preaseason coulda-been game: UCLA (4-6) @ Arizona State (4-6), Friday 9:30. Both were ranked in the Top 25 preseason, and both just snoozed away in a pretty boring conference. Give this one to the Sun Devils, I think UCLA's got bigger fish to fry - namely, fucking up USC's title hopes at the last minute, and at great expense.

The Surprisingly Big Game: Given that most of the shockers have been wiped out (Texas Tech, don't forget to turn out the lights as you leave, I give you Tennessee-Kentucky. Tennessee needs this win for a surprising reason: with a loss, they'll have 8 losses in a season for the first time in school history, leaving only one school in I-A without an 8-loss campaign. Which team?

Ohio State.