Week 5 - 2007

Wow...talk about a tight race - our top 6 (Lance, Jen, Dave, Shaun, Blaine, Michael) are all within 1.1 points of each other. The bottom three (Robert, Scott, Jeff) just switched places a little. Of our 11 players only two (Blaine, Robert) improved their score this week.

As for football this past week: Nobody is safe. Season 2007 will go down as the season of surprises. Nobody...nobody would have predicted Notre Dame 0 - 5, Michigan un-ranked, Louisville un-ranked, and USF in the top 10...nobody. If there was ever a year to make the drive to Wendover and bet on the underdog, this is the year.

Nine of the top 25 lost this week; five of those nine were in the top 10 and four of those elite top 10 were humbled by non-ranked teams: OK lost to Colorado, Florida to Auburn (again), Texas to Kansas State (again) and Rutgers to Maryland. And what about the USF jump...from #18 to #6? Wow!

This raises the question (again) of the validity of a ranking system. If voters pick the best teams how is it that four of the top 10 all lost to un-ranked teams? And two other top 10 teams (USC, Wisconsin) seriously struggled to win by a field goal. Maybe the voters should be ranked and their votes counted accordingly.

Next weeks poll results will also be interesting as the SEC will get a big shake up: Florida at LSU, UGA at Tennessee and Kentucky at South Carolina. Five of those six teams are in the top 12.

Week 4 - 2007

Dave continues to show us all up - even the pros (though I don't think Wisconsin and Rutgers will hold on); Shaun moves into 2nd place and Jen is welcomed back into the top tier, tying with Lance for 3rd. (Yes, Robert is still on the bottom but I'm slowly dragging Jeff and Scott with me).

Newcomers into the top 25: Purdue, Michigan State, Cincinatti and Arizona State. BYU pulled off a commanding win over then 3-0 Air Force, hopefully getting back defensively to where they have shown they can be. USC continued to show why they are ranked #1 (for now), Ohio State is showing signs of taking the Big 10 and Oklahoma continued to be impressive as they showed up Tulsa. And what a day in the SEC: Florida by only 6 over Ole Miss, UGA pulls out an OT win over 'Bama, Kentucky looks as good as their basketball team and although LSU won they let the Gamecocks score 16 points (LSU only allowed 7 total points in the three previous games).

My predictions for teams previously in the top 15 but will not return that far: Michigan, Arkansas, Nebraska, Tennessee, Penn State, Auburn, Louisville; and Wisconsin is bordering this list given their poor defensive performance on Saturday.

For Saturday's funniest (weirdest) commentary along with an awesome play, click here.

Week 3 - 2007

No gimmees, no gaurantees - that's what I like about college football. Three ranked teams fell to un-ranked teams (Louisville to Kentucky, UCLA to Utah and Arkansas to 'Bama) and four new teams entered the top-25 (Alabama, Kentucky, South Florida, Missouri). TCU was handed their second loss by Air Force, Texas barely escaped over mid-major UCF, USC proved a point and BYU surprised us with a loss to Tulsa.

Two top-25 (and SEC) matchups next week that could affect us each: Georgia at Alabama and South Carolina at LSU.

There is a lot of pink in our chart...even on the pro side. Dave (1st place) and Robert (last place) hold on to their spots for the second week in a row.

Week 2 - 2007

One game just doesn't mean much, does it? Texas A&M pulled off a win to un-ranked Fresno but it took three overtimes; UGA fell at home to un-ranked South Carolina; Va Tech fell hard to LSU; Louisville, even though they won, allowed 42 points by Middle Tennessee; Hawaii won in OT but allowed 44 points...and Michigan...well...they just did not live up to the pre-season hype. Any bets for the Michigan - Notre Dame game next week? Both teams are 0 - 2 and on a 4-game losing streak.

BYU started out bad, almost came back, lost in the end, but left with some amazing stats. TCU started running away with the upset but couldn't sustain it.

This weeks beef: Why did Oregon go from un-ranked to #19 (AP) for beating now 0 - 2 Michigan? Since when do we give credit for beating up un-ranked teams?

Dave pulled way ahead in our contest...even beating out all three pro pre-season rankings! But he'll have to keep Rugers and Nebraska in there to sustain that. Jason jumped into 2nd place (the only one of us who showed improvement this week) and Keith "the football prophet" fell to third but he has been in the top three each week...so far.

Week 1 - 2007

WEEK 1: Jeff and Michael are the only ones who improved on last week (along with SI).

Michigan, Tennessee and Florida State were the top 25 teams that lost. We all goofed on Michigan. Pollsters will not likely forgive Michigan's loss to an FCS team anytime soon...nor Tennessee's SEC defense giving up 45 points to Cal.

BYU looked very good against Arizona but they need some serious work on special teams to compete with UCLA next week. Along with the updated chart there are a few pics from the BYU game that some of us attended. One was taken as BYU scored TD #2 and the other is from the 4th quarter.

Stewart Mandel (si.com) on the Michigan / App State game:
"For everything that Boise State’s historic Fiesta Bowl win over Oklahoma said about the new era of college football, Appalachian State just trumped it ten-fold. What every coach tries to tell his players and the media every week only to be met by perennial skepticism has now been confirmed as true. No one is unbeatable in college football anymore. Anything can happen."