The NCAA college football roller-coaster continues with the loss of the Oregon Ducks to the Arizona Wildcats in a 34-24 routing that ended in the first quarter after star quarterback Dennis Dixon went down after re-injuring his knee. The championship hopeful team is just a number of teams that have brought hope to students, alumni, and fans only to let the chance to win the national championship slip between the crack. Lets look at some of the major upsets this year.
The biggest upset this year and probably other years occurred in the very first week as Appalachian State upset then number 5 ranked Michigan who was so favored to win that there was not even a sports betting line on the game. Michigan fans got their hopes dashed in the very first game and Lloyd Carr, well the question if he would remain Michigan’s head coach definitely lingered in people’s minds.
Both UCLA fans and Georgia fans followed in misery after both teams loss in the following weeks. Georgia loss only by 4 points to a touch South Carolina team but the Bruins got dominated by Utah in a lopsided 44-6 loss where the team only mustered 2 field goals. Number 9 ranked Louisville also showed their weak defense that week in a shootout loss to the Kentucky Wildcats and would lose the following week to a very sorry Syracuse team. Meanwhile the Big Ten conference does what it normally does which is beat up each other with Michigan beating Penn State.
Week 5 brought a surprising end to West Virginia and Pat White and Steve Slaton’s championship run as the South Florida Bulls made their own run in a 21-13 defensive struggle. The same week, both number 3 Oklahoma and number 7 Texas both were upset before their Big Red River Shootout and Auburn again beat an undefeated Florida team.
Week 6 saw the end of the Wisconsin Badgers championship hope with a loss to Ron Zook’s Illini team and one of the bigger upsets of the year as Jim Harbaugh lead his Stanford Cardinals to one of their biggest wins of the year over then number 2 USC. This meant that the Trojans were kicked out of any chance of winning a national championship by losing to a team other PAC-10 teams just dominated.
The South Florida Bulls brought an overrated number 2 ranking into week 8 and were upset by a very talented team in Rutgers. South Florida has always been overrated to me with a decent defense but a mediocre offense. If they played any elite school like LSU or Ohio State, they would get demolished. Sorry Bull fans but that’s just how it is after the loss to Rutgers but the loss to Connecticut and Cincinnati the following weeks just showed the team could not be balanced enough.
Arizona State brought one of it’s highest rankings in years into a battle against Oregon but failed to deliver fans an exciting outcome by losing 35-23 and Boston College and New England fans finally bit the final nail as the Eagles lost to Florida State 27-17. Boston College just didn’t have enough steam in tougher match-ups to live up to the ranking.
Ohio State Buckeye fans were shocked to see their number 1 ranked team and national championship hopeful fall to Ron Zook’s talented Illini team 28-21. With that upset, everything was again shaken up in the college football ranking with only 1 unbeaten team left, Kansas, with a very tough schedule remaining in Missouri and Oklahoma.
Number 2 Oregon’s loss means that several teams have a chance at the national championship with LSU in the lead and in control and Kansas, if they can win out, will make a surprising visit to Mark Magino’s first Championship appearance. Jayhawk nation will certainly be in an uproar for the next couple of weeks to see if their team can reach the big game by beating a pair of the Big 12’s best teams in Missouri and Oklahoma. LSU has an easier schedule in Mississippi and Arkansas but will face a challenge in the SEC championship game.
The chance to be in the national championship is definitely not set in stone as the season has shown many teams faltering with their chances and so many teams with one or two losses ready to take the leap at either a shot at the big game or at least a BCS bowl berth. My prediction is LSU holds on to the number 1 spot and Oklahoma takes out Kansas to take over the number 2 spot and play for the national championship.