Games I watched (some of):
(1) Georgia 34-7 Florida
(I had family stuff going on this weekend--pleased to report it was all good news in a very enjoyable setting--but some background TV sneaking was all I got this week) Yeah, Georgia is better than Florida. Gators put up a good fight early on, slowed down the Bulldogs, but a flurry of turnovers before halftime made this a rout right quick. In the last few years it felt to me like Florida was coming and would overtake the Bulldogs, but that has yet to materialize and for now UGA is still the team to beat in the SEC East.
Top 25
Handled their business
(1) Georgia, (2) Cincinnati, (4) Oklahoma, (5) Ohio State, (7) Oregon, (8) Michigan State, (11) Notre Dame, (13) Wake Forest, (15) Oklahoma State, (16) Baylor, (18) Auburn, (24) Coastal Carolina, (25) Brigham Young
Bad beat
(10) Ole Miss. All those SEC West teams are all the same to me: none of them are gonna beat Alabama, so what does it really matter what they do against each other? Is Ole Miss better than Auburn? I dunno, maybe, but they weren't on this Saturday and that's what goes in the books.
(12) Kentucky. UK was able to knock out LSU this season but trying to get two wins from the West is still a tall order. UK is a nice team that is overachieving, so losing to Mississippi State is not a shocker (not even a disappointment, really).
(19) Southern Methodist. SMU suddenly bubbles up to the top 25 and we're supposed to be shocked they lost a tough conference road game in late game fluke fashion. I'm not shocked, this is not the end of the world, SMU was not going to win the title this year, this is not a result requiring panic.
(20) Penn State. Ohio State is still better. Those Big-10 schools are in the maelstrom of their own scheduling. The other conferences have front-loaded their games whereas the B-10 is still a November conference, which makes for a fun full season but it also makes it hard to tell who the good teams are. (When all is said and done, it's gonna be Ohio State, right?) Penn State does seem to be getting better (or more dangerous), but they're not there yet, so this is still just a bad beat to me.
Not so good
(6) Michigan. I've been skeptical of Michigan all year and they couldn't hold off Michigan State in their first real game of the season, so....I'm still skeptical of Michigan (but they can still fuck up Ohio State's season).
(9) Iowa. Yeah, it all finally caught up to Iowa. There were a nice team, Iowa State was a nice W, Penn State was a nice W, they've still got a shot at the B-10 title game. But they're not that deep, they're not that talented, and they drifted way too high up the rankings, the fall was probably inevitable.
Next week's interesting matches:
(12) Auburn @ (13) Texas A&M (I dunno, the SEC West is at least competitive with itself)
Tennessee @ (18) Kentucky (UK's toughest remaining match, they ought to win but we'll see)
Oh yeah, it's that time of the season to get hardcore on the rankings. Here's my top 6:
(1) Georgia, (2) Alabama, (3) Cincinnati, (4) Oklahoma, (5) winner of Ohio State/Michigan State, (6) Notre Dame
I've still got my eye on Oklahoma State and Baylor as the last teams that could still sneak in. Personally, I got no need for Oregon (and their 1-loss isn't as good as Notre Dame's, don't see why they'd go higher), the loser of Ohio State/Michigan State (don't need 2-loss Buckeyes or Spartans that couldn't win the B-10), Michigan (they can still be a spoiler, but I don't see how they resurrect their chances), Wake Forest (sorry, Wake, the schedule just isn't there; go undefeated and maybe I can get you to #7), Brigham Young (yawn of a schedule) or Houston (sorry, American Conference, Alabama with 2 losses is still way better than you).
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