Well well, it looks like college football is back in session. After two so-so weeks of play, last Saturday was a welcome return to greatness. The rest of the season doesn’t look much different. Thank goodness.

West Virginia posted a 14-7 halftime lead on Mississippi State. Even though they took off in the second half, I’m still not impressed by their slow starts every week against so-so to awful teams. Florida State lost again, this time to NCState. I wonder how bad their record will look at the end of the year and if it will be bad enough to get Jeff Bowden fired. Here’s a fun statistic: Miami and FSU are both unranked for the first time since 1982. Yikes.

Georgia Tech needed a little fourth-quarter magic to beat Maryland, who beat William and Mary, Middle Tennessee State, and Florida International by a combined margin of 31. Since this was Tech’s only shaky performance of the season, I’ll cut them some slack. I’m looking forward to next week’s game against Clemson, which could possibly be a preview of the ACC Championship game. You know the ACC is different when Florida State, Miami, and Virginia Tech are on the outside track to the championship. The conference has flipflopped almost as much as John Kerry.

USC barely held off a Washington drive that would have ended their undefeated hopes. It probably doesn’t matter, because I doubt they will make it through their four-game season-ending stretch unscathed. The Trojans host Oregon, California, and Notre Dame before heading to UCLA. By now, it’s pretty obvious thatUSC is missing Leinhart and Bush, two NFL rookie superstars. Considering USC’s performances over the past few weeks, I’m amazed they are still ranked #2/#3. Michigan, Florida, and Texas all look pretty good in comparison.

Tennessee and Georgia outscored California and Oregon 84-69. I’m not sure if this means that SEC defenses are getting worse or their offenses are getting better. More likely, it means rampant turnovers equal points. (By the way, I’m 1-0 on my Georgia loss predictions. One down, three to go.) Florida dominated LSU 23-10 in a game that looked a lot more lopsided than the score. The Swamp has definitely regained its Spurrier-level intensity. I’m looking forward to going to Gainesville next fall to see the Tigers take on the Gators.

While Florida is probably my favorite challenger to Ohio State, I no longer count (and should not have counted for some weeks now) Auburn among that elite list. The Tigers gave up 257 rushing yards last Saturday. Arkansas isn’t anemic when running the ball, but dang! Just when I was beginning to think our secondary was weak, our defensive line caught my eye instead. Huge gaps in the line. Huge. What makes things worse is that Arkansas ran the ball on 36 of their last 38 plays, so it’s not like we didn’t know it was coming.

Even more embarrassing, Auburn only managed 95 yards on the ground, if you don’t count the five sacks for 35 yards. Those five sacks remind me that our offensive line didn’t look very good, either. Neither did our receiving corps, whose inexperience left Cox with little to do but wait in the pocket for Arkansas’ D-line to push him over. Even Kody Bliss had an off day; one of his punts travelled only 19 yards. I hate to say it, but John Vaughn was the only one who did his job (when Tuberville decided to kick a field goal rather than go for it on fourth and five).

Now that I’ve lamented last week’s loss, it’s time for me to offer an unrealistically optimistic picture of Auburn’s (laughable) national championship and SEC championship hopes. First, Auburn has to go undefeated. As bad as Auburn looked against Arkansas, there is still a chance that they can pull it off. Doing so would mean that they would pass Florida in the polls. Ohio State plays Michigan, USC plays Notre Dame, and West Virginia plays Louisville, so at least three of those six teams will drop below Auburn by the end of the season.

Texas will probably make it through the rest of their schedule undefeated, but Tennessee could lose to Alabama, at South Carolina, LSU, or at Arkansas. I’m not even going to check how close all of those things combined would get Auburn to a title game bid, but my guess is not close enough. To win the SEC West, Auburn needs Arkansas to lose two SEC games. The Razorbacks get three weeks off (essentially), then go to South Carolina before hosting Tennessee and LSU. My fingers are crossed, but after Alabama/Arkansas’ failure to topple LSU for us last season, I probably shouldn’t get my hopes up too much. (Side note: I bet this post looks pretty stupid in January.)

GameDay is coming to Auburn this Saturday, which is pretty exciting, even with the lessened hype. Some friends and I are tossing around the idea of spelling out “OVERRATED” across our chests in reference to Auburn’s collapse on the 7th. At the very least, I’ll be sporting a paper bag with “10-27” painted across the forehead. I’m wondering how much grief I’ll get from fellow Tiger fans, or how much TV time I’ll garner. Look for me and my pals (or, more likely, just me) on ESPN from 10-12 PM and 6:45-9:45 PM Eastern Time.

The first BCS standings come out after next weekend. The race to the finish is almost here. The halfway point approacheth. (I apologize for the John Kerry joke in the third paragraph. It was pretty lame.)

1. Michigan State University – Lost again to UM, going to lose next week also, as #1 OSU rolls into town.
2. Tim Tebow – No more gay jump passes, ok?
3. Florida International University – See #4
4. University of North Texas – You two combined for 47 points…after 7 overtimes. Each kicker missed 4 attempts during the OT periods, and all the points after regulation were field goals. This may be one of the most poorly played game in D-IA in a long time.
5. Wake Forest – An exquisite performance in the mold of John L Smith. Up 17-3 in the 4th quarter, and attempting a field goal to make it more, a bad snap turns into a TD for Clemson, who proceeded to roll up 24 unanswered points in the fourth to win 27-17.
6. Florida State University – You lost to NC State…guess it’s karma for renting a band. But it is good for you that the next rule doesn’t apply, or you’d be worse than Akron.
7. The Transitive Property – Ivan Maisel of ESPN.com said it better than I can: “Auburn fans reveled in the old comparative-score trick last week. The Tigers beat Washington State by 26. USC beat the Cougars by six. Let’s see now: USC beat Arkansas by 36 …“
8. IDLE – A tough opponent for some teams (Miami (FL), FSU, VT, etc.), but Tech should have no problems. A win here sets up a huge match up against Clemson in 2 weeks…

Down with the red and black…

Auburn lost.

Here we go.

Noon:

• Arkansas @ Auburn, CBS – As much as I admire Arkansas for somehow beating Alabama, they’re probably heading for a beating here.
• UNC @ Miami, LF ACC Game – Amato has saved his job, so these are the two hottest seats in the ACC right now. The funniest message board post I’ve seen in the past two weeks involved a UNC fan going on the Miami board to make sure that UM was pysched about beating UNC. The UM fans responded in kind, asking UNC to lay the wood on UM. I kid you not. These people are depressed.
• Purdue @ Iowa, ESPNU – Once again, fellow engineering school bias. Go Biolermakers!
• Clemson @ Wake, ESPN – A surprisingly heated ACC rivalry – Wake has won the last two meetings. Wake is also the sole remaining undefeated team in the ACC. Can the Deacons pull it off?

2:30- Stanford @ Notre Dame, ABC – ND rolls. Why can’t they just play USC already?

3:30:

• Oklahoma @ Texas, ABC – I think Texas rolls here. Adrian Peterson has a chance to make some noise, and I wish I could see it, but nonetheless, the horns hook ’em again.
• LSU @ Florida, CBS – I wish I could also see this game. A lot of people like LSU, but I think Florida has a good chance. It helps Auburn a lot if LSU wins, though.
• Maryland @ Georgia Tech, ESPNU – Can Tech keep it up? Will the Fridge outsmart us? If for some reason you happen to have ESPNU, tune it in. I’ll be there (hence my two previous statements) along with a guest appearance by my brother.
• Washington @ USC, FSN – USC rolls. (It’s almost 6am, I’m tired.)

4:30: Michigan St. @ UMich, ESPN – How, MSU looked so good 3 weeks ago. Amazing what one horrendous loss can do to a team. And John L. Smith is insane.

7:00:

• Missouri @ Texas Tech, TBS – TTU burned me last week, but I refuse to believe that Mizzou is actually any good. General good rule right now for the Big 12 is that the Big 12 South is a lot better than the North, so I’m going with the Raiders on this one.
• Central Mich @ Toledo, ESPNU – Uh, go Rockets?
• South Carolina @ Kentucky, ESPN2 – Kentucky is in the bottom 3 worst programs in the SEC right now, along with the Mississippi schools. The Visored One rolls.

7:45: Tennessee @ Georgia, ESPN – Big SEC East game. Go Vols! (Seriously, UGA, where is your offense? Not that I’m complaining.)

8:00: Oregon @ Cal, ABC – Cal continues to try to recover from their opening loss to UT, and karma hopefully will work against Oregon. Cal, I imagine, also has a better post-3rd quarter song. So Go Bears!