So what was wrong with Monday night? There was an NCAA-ball match on Sunday, one on Tuesday, one on Wednesday, a handful on Thursday and Friday, and the usual shedload on Saturday. But nothing on Monday.
TMQ points out that, as recently as 2005, there were regularly scheduled games amongst the non-BCS conferences in midweek. These have now been moved to Saturday, ostensibly as being one of 75 games on Saturday is more prestigious than being the only Tuesday Night NCAA-ball Game. The result: games involving obscure colleges in places no-one's ever been to, like EMICH, are tucked away on little-viewed channels. That's apart from every AKRON game, which gets international viewership on NASN...
Actually, the more prosaic reason is the expansion of the season to 12 games: the season remains 14 weeks long, and no-one wants to play Saturday - Tuesday, so each midweek game eats up one of just two bye weeks. The solution is simple: extend the season to a fifteenth week, a little deeper into December. But, oh, that's tinkering with tradition, and the NCAA-ball can't be doing with that. May the football gods smite whoever came up with that idea.
Smite of the Week
47- Illinois 28 vs. #1 Ohio St. 21
Well, that's set the wrapped toffees amongst the staff of Playpigeon magazine, and no mistake. OHIST loses its first game of the season, and its number 1 ranking. It also means that Michigan goes to the top of the standings in the Big Ten - the two season-opening defeats count for naught as they were against non-divisional opposition.
Smite of the Week (2)
33- #4 Michigan 21 vs. #18 Wisconsin 37
Oh, heck. We'll go away and look at the rest of the results, and come back to the BX in the rest of the conferences...
The rest of Last Week's Top Ten
2- Louisiana Tech 10 vs. #2 LSU 58
Baylor 21 vs. #3 Oklahoma 52
#5 Southern Cal 24 vs. #20 California 17
#6 Oregon - no game
#40 Louisville 31 vs. #7 West Virginia 38
38- #8 Boston College 35 vs. Maryland 42
#30 Texas Tech 43 vs. #9 Texas 59
#34 Florida St. 21 vs. #10 Virginia Tech 40
No surprise to find LSU running out winners against the local technical college. This was one of three matches to be as one-sided and obvious as a Manchester Buccaneers - Gretna game - the presumptive Bucs win would also have an upset-o-meter rating of 2. SCALF kept its charge alive with a victory over CALIF. Remember the days when LSVLE-WVIRG matches actually meant something? That's 2006 nostalgia for you. And remember when Boston College was a number 3 team? The side's now scrabbling for a place in the top 20, so save your nostalgia for I Remember Thursday Last Week
, coming soon to an obscure station.
Other top-40 matches
#17 Auburn 20 vs. #15 Georgia 45 #33 Texas A&M 26 vs. #16 Missouri 40 #37 Arkansas 13 vs. #21 Tennessee 34 #23 Wake Forest 10 vs. #22 Clemson 44 #38 TCU 22 vs. #24 BYU 27 #32 Connecticut 3 vs. #31 Cincinnati 27
Everything going to form, even in the three matches between sides separated by a statistical quirk.
Sending the Upset-o-meter into Meltdown This Week
47- Illinois 28 vs. #1 Ohio St. 21 43- East Carolina 7 vs. #104 Marshall 26 39- #110 Louisiana-Lafayette 34 vs. Middle Tennessee 24 38- #8 Boston College 35 vs. Maryland 42 38- UTEP 19 vs. #116 Tulane 34 34- Colorado 28 vs. Iowa St. 31 34- Michigan St. 48 vs. #29 Purdue 31 33- #4 Michigan 21 vs. #18 Wisconsin 37 33- #36 Alabama 12 vs. Mississippi St. 17 31- Ohio 37 vs. #100 Akron 48
Two matches exceed the 40-point conservative estimate we made of App State's win, two whole Michigan losses ago. Ohio Province's loss is the biggest scalp for Illinois, which has previously featured here with victories over Indiana (35-point upset, week 4), Penn State (40-point, week 5), and Wisconsin (43-point, week 6). After that sequence, some commentators posited that the side belonged in the top 20. Maybe they do.
Provincial Championship Update
Cent. Michigan 34 vs. W. Michigan 31 North Carolina 27 vs. N.C. State 31 #30 Texas Tech 43 vs. #9 Texas 59 #5 Southern Cal 24 vs. #20 California 17 2- Louisiana Tech 10 vs. #2 LSU 58
Notre Dame, and App. State's Beatpath
Air Force 41 vs. Notre Dame 24 X- Elon 31 vs. The Citadel 42
Appalachian was beaten by Wofford, in turn beaten last week by Elon, now beaten by The Citadel. At this rate, Michigan's beatpath won't even go into the Division I-AA final tournament.
Hey! Big scorers!
X- W. Carolina 35 vs. Appalachian St. 79 X- Richmond 62 vs. Delaware 56 X- Illinois St. 24 vs. S. Illinois 34 Kansas St. 31 vs. Nebraska 73 Navy 74 vs. #115 North Texas 62
The 136-point aggregate in that final game is a record for top-flight play.
Not Tickling the Upset-o-meter
3- #19 Penn St. 31 vs. Temple 0 2- #12 Boise St. 52 vs. #118 Utah St. 0 2- Louisiana Tech 10 vs. #2 LSU 58
We can certainly see why Boise needs to play Utah St: both are in the WACaday, which is a round-robin league. We can just about justify Louisiana Purchase's match against Louisiana Technical College, the clue's in the name. But there's no excuse for Penn Province to schedule a game against Temple, thus ending the latter's bowl aspirations.
Top 30
LY LW TW Conf R RD Idle ================================================================== 4 2 1 LSU SE 1379 112.1 0 Louisiana Purchase 2 1 2 OHIST BX 1370 115.2 0 Ohio Province 9 3 3 OKLAH BT 1331 108.3 0 Oklahoma 1 5 4 SCALF PX 1329 110.8 0 Southern California 10 7 5 WVIRG BE 1314 116.4 0 W Virginia 32 6 6 OREGN PX 1299 103.3 1 Oregon 5 9 7 TEXAS BT 1297 106.8 0 Texas 11 10 8 VTECH AC 1281 107.7 0 Virginia Tech 12 4 9 MICH BX 1280 106.5 0 Michigan 3 11 10 FLORD SE 1265 106.4 0 Florida 36 13 11 ARZST PX 1259 99.9 0 Arizona Province 18 15 12 GRGIA SE 1257 104.6 0 Georgia 53 14 13 KANSS BT 1247 102.7 0 Kansas 13 12 14 BSEST WA 1246 104.6 0 Boise State 38 16 15 MISRI BT 1245 102.6 0 Missouri 7 18 16 WISCO BX 1244 106.4 0 Wisconsin 12 -- -- MICH2 BX 1235 102.5 0 Michigan 2 19 8 17 BOSCL AC 1232 109.6 0 Boston College 17 19 18 PENST BX 1207 103.2 0 Penn Province 30 21 19 TENSE SE 1198 99.8 0 Tennessee 34 22 20 CLEMS AC 1195 103.7 0 Clemson 21 24 21 BYU MW 1188 106.8 0 Brigham Young 8 17 22 AUBRN SE 1180 107.0 0 Auburn 15 20 23 CALIF PX 1173 102.7 0 California 39 25 24 HAWII WA 1173 120.2 0 Hawaii 54 26 25 KNTCY SE 1165 107.6 0 Kentucky 56 27 26 VIRGI AC 1162 96.8 0 Virginia 44 31 27 CINCI BE 1159 105.3 0 Cincinnati 27 28 28 ORGST PX 1151 100.5 0 Oregon Territory 23 23 29 WAKEF AC 1135 99.7 0 Wake Forest 31 45 30 MARYL AC 1129 104.7 0 Maryland
The entire top ten is within one RD of the leader, and must have a credible claim to the championship game; most of the top 25 is within two RD, and can seriously look at the top five bowls. Maryland's big win catapults them into the top 30, with Utah (up 11 to 33) and Illinois (up 14 to 38) also making big moves.
BCS divisions
AC CLEMS (20) takes over atop the Atlantic division, half a game clear of BOSCL (17; plays CLEMS next week) with WAKEF (29) one game off the lead; WAKEF lost head-to-heads against both rivals. The Coastal division is between VIRGI (26) and VTECH (8); the former has a half-game lead, and the sides meet on 24 Nov.
BE CONNC (40) suffered its first loss in divisional play this week, WVIRG (7) is half a game adrift, and CINCI (27) is a game off the pace. WVIRG plays CINCI and CONNC in the next two weeks, so all sides are masters of their own destiny.
BT KANSS (13) leads the North, a game clear of MISRI (15; sides meet 24 Nov). In the South, OKLAH (3) leads TEXAS (7) by half a game, and has the tie-break.
BX As you were at the top, with OHIST (2) and MICH (9) a game clear of ILLNS (38). OHIST and MICH end their seasons with next week's game, the winner has the title.
PX ARZST (11) still leads the division, half-a-game ahead of OREGN (6). Powerhouses SCALF (4) are just one win away from taking the division. OREGN has beaten both other contenders, SCALF and ARZST meet on 22 November.
SE GRGIA (12) heads the East subdivision, half-a-game ahead of TENSE (19) and FLORD (10). GRGIA lost to TENSE, who lost to FLORD, who lost to GRGIA; the latter's match against GEOTC on 24 November could decide the sub-division, with a win guaranteeing the title, and a loss sending us reaching for the rulebook. LSU (1) has the West sewn up, a game-and-a-half advantage - and head-to-head wins - over AUBRN (22) and ALABM (47).
Other divisions
CU UCF (60) tops the East, a half-game ahead of ECARL (63), but the Carolina side has the tie-break. A win for TULSA (51) over HOUST (64) leaves the two sides locked at the top of the West, clear of all opposition.
MA MIOHO (89) is the only Miami in bowl contention, leading the East by half-a-game from BUFFL (102) and BOWLG (86); Miami beat both contenders. CMICH (57) is two clear of BALLS (83) for the West.
MW BYU (21) takes a one-game lead over AIRFC (52), with UTAH (33) and NEWMX (50) a further half-game back.
SB TROY (62) leads FLATL (77) by one; the sides meet on 1 December.
WA HAWII (24) and BSEST (14) are perfect +6-0 in divisional play, with FRSST (69) a game and a half back. The leaders meet on 23 November; both have beaten Fresno. Indeed, +9-0 HAWII and +10-0 KANSS are the only two sides able to end the regular season without a defeat.
XX NAVY (48) the only side looking for bowls, +6-4 is not certain. ARMY (106) has 3 wins, NOTDM (68) just one.
Next week
We 1730 MA: #85 Toledo -v- #83 Ball State (tape) Th 1730 MA: #96 Akron -v- #89 Miamiohio (tape) Fr 1800 PX: #6 Oregon -v- #66 Arizona (tape) Sa 0400 WA: #24 Hawaii -v- #71 Nevada Sa 1700 BX: #2 Ohio Province -v- #9 Michigan Sa 2000 Game tbc Su 0900 Game tbc Su 1200 Game tbc
Helpful, that.
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