Little Ten

I had prepared to talk about the quick demise of Auburn and Maryland, two highly ranked pre-season teams that are now eliminated from ECF competition, or the great game played by Florida, who took a very young team into Miami and damn near pulled off a major upset, banging up Gator Traitor Brock Berlin in the process. But how can I resist a chance to go after the Big Ten? Here are the losses for the Big Ten yesterday:

Penn State loses at home to BC 27-14
Purdue loses at home to Bowling Green 27-26
Northwestern loses at home to Air Force 22-21
Indiana, who had already got smoked by UConn, gets clobbered at Washington 38-13

That's four Unacceptable Losses in one weekend. Illinois has already lost, too. Big Ten fans like to argue that they avoid difficult non-conference road games because of the top-to-bottom strength of their conference, but where is that exactly? And while Eisenberg Sports doesn't rank teams, it's difficult not to notice the less than stellar performances of Ohio State (a 3 point win at home over San Jose St), Michigan State (giving up 28 to Rutgers), and Wisconsin (giving up 31 to Akron). Someone in this conference has a great chance of dominating again, just like Ohio State and Iowa did last year, and with no conference championship game, walking right into the Sugar Bowl.

There are now only 98 teams left in the ECF competition. Here are the standings, as of Sunday morning:

Teams That Are Eliminated From The ECF Championship Race:
Auburn, San Jose St, Indiana, Maryland, UNC, California, East Carolina, Tulane, Akron, Mid Tenn St, Baylor, La-Monroe, Idaho, Troy St, UTEP, Tulsa, Utah St, La-Lafayette, Buffalo

Teams Protected By The Three Weeks Rule That Have Suffered An Unacceptable Loss:
Washington, CSU, Clemson, BC, Fresno St, S. Miss, Illinois, W Virginia, Miss St, Miami OH, Duke, N Texas, USF, La Tech, Vanderbilt, Rice, Kansas, SMU, C Mich, UAB, Penn St, Purdue, Virginia, Army, Northwestern, Ohio, Ball State, Wyoming, UNLV, Kent St, Alabama, BYU, Houston, E. Michigan

Teams With One Acceptable Loss:
Oklahoma St, Ga Tech, Toledo, Temple, W Michigan, Arkansas St, NC St, SD St, Mississippi, Rutgers, UCLA, Marshall, New Mexico, Navy, Florida, Oregon St, Utah

Teams With A Half-Acceptable Loss:
N Illinois, Washington State, Notre Dame

Teams With A Perfect Record Who Haven't Beaten A Top 10 Team:
Everyone else except for...

The One Team With A Perfect Record That Has Beaten A Top Ten Team:

USC!

This last grouping is only important if you get screwed out of a major bowl. Every year there is some team that has a terrific season but doesn't get matched up with a Top Ten team in the bowls, so for these teams beating someone in the Top Ten during the season is crucial.

Look for next weekend's College Football Preview Friday night.

Dave's Email