It’s that time of year again, and for the first time in a long time, I won’t be obessively tracking it.

If my old website was still up, I could show you my old tracking of the baseball playoffs, originally born out of a desire to have a readable schedule. I used to check MLB’s websites extensively for any hint of when the games would be, stuff like that.

But due to a combination of the Braves sucking, readable website designs, and trying to graduate this semester (hint: do not take more than 2 real classes your graduating semester) I simply do not have the time or desire to do it. So, yeah.

That said, I will still be doing bowl predictions. With this new commetary site thinger, the three of us could have a sort of competition to see who’s picks turn out the best. Or I could continue what I did last year, which is get a bunch of my friends together early Sunday morning after the games were over to decide the best bets for who goes where and trying to decide what the BCS would look like. In the end, I’ll probably compromise – use the comittee to predict who goes where, and then have a competition picking the actual games.

Anyway, I don’t do the predictions until the weekend the first BCS standings come out, which I believe is next weekend (which is also my fall break). So keep it here for two weeks for no to get my opinion on who will be in such illustrious new games like the Birmingham Bowl and the International Bowl.

It’s kind of sad that the 2006 college football season is already a third complete. College football is kind of like Christmas. You wait months for it to come, then you wake up one morning and the day has arrived. The presents are downstairs under the tree. You open the first one, which is awesome simply because it’s the first. Some great ones get thrown into the middle, then your parents surprise you with the big one at the end.

Thank goodness the other two thirds of the season are left to go, because the last two weeks of college football remind me of the part of Christmas where you have to take the family photograph. It takes ten minutes for my family to show up at the designated location, another five for the distribution of faces to satisfy my parents and oldest sister, and another fifteen for the ten-plus takes to be shot. All thirty minutes are, honestly, a drag.

For the most part, the matchups that ended September were as painful as those photographic sessions. This past weekend, Texas and LSU rolled over Sam Houston State (no surprise) and Mississippi State (ditto). Ohio State basically proved that they are the team to beat in Division I-A by a 38-17 whomping of Iowa. Florida struggled to put away Alabama (Alabama’s defense) at home, and Georgia continued to look awful by beating Ole Miss by five points. I’m sticking by my prediction that the Dawgs will lose at least four games by the end of the season.

Thursday night, Auburn went to South Carolina and pulled out a nailbiter in Columbia. Tommy Tuberville got back to his old crazy ways, calling for an onside kick in the third quarter which prevented USC’s offense from touching the ball for those fifteen minutes. Auburn converted two fourth downs, one from six yards away and one at the goal line for a touchdown. Tre’ Smith made a crucial play during the onside kick when he helped the football bounce towards another Auburn player. Congrats, Tre’. I’m not going to say anything negative about you…this week.

Now that I’ve discussed USC-EC (East Coast), I’d like to note that the one in California squeaked by Washington State 28-22. Wait a minute, isn’t that the same Washington State squad that Auburn soundly defeated 40-14 in their season opener? ESPN played off USC’s poor performance on the absence of star receiver Dwayne Jarrett. However, the game summary’s headline shockingly read “No. 3 USC survives”. I’m ashamed that they would say that USC has ever done anything other than “thrive”. The word “survives” is simply not in the vocabulary of the best college football program of all time.

Next weekend’s lineup is looking pretty good. Georgia plays (loses to) Tennessee on primetime ESPN. Oregon and California fight over who gets to look like the team with the best chance to beat USC, a post Notre Dame quickly relinquished. Texas and Oklahoma play for the Big 12 Championship and the chance to have one state’s governor present a side of beef to the other state’s governor (read this Wikipedia article if you don’t believe me). Florida and LSU duke it out for the title of “Best Team to Lose to Auburn in 2006”.

Auburn plays Arkansas at 11 AM Central Time. Thanks, CBS. This means I’ll be arriving at the student gates of Jordan-Hare Stadium around 8 AM. I’ll be grumpy, sleepy, sweaty, and probably a few more of the Seven Dwarves, but War Eagle anyhow! Come back next Monday for more uninformed analysis and confusing analogies!

1. Michigan State University – Um, you guys lost to Illinois. You’re in the #1 spot until you beat someone (which may be awhile).
2. Officiating – I’m a couple weeks late on this bandwagon, but it has now affected me more personally. In the 3rd quarter of the GT-VT game (OMFG we won!?@#!), there was a “Touchdown” where the only thing that crossed the line with the VT runner’s helmet, shown clearly in replay. The call was not reversed upon review.
3. USA Today Coaches’ Poll – Georgia Tech is 2 places (and nearly 80 points) behind Virginia Tech, a team that they just absolutely bitch-slapped around the field. UGA, a team that has beat Colorado (0-5) and Ole Miss (1-4) by a combined 6 points, is ahead of LSU, whose closest win was by 31 points and whose only loss was 7-3 to the #2/#3 team in the nation, Auburn. If any coaches are looking for someone to help them with their ballot, I’d be more than happy to do it for $50 a week…(Watson Brown? You’re only 1.5 hours away from me.)
4. “Beamerball” – If I told you that there was a blocked punt and a defensive TD in the VT-GT game, you’d assume that VT was the team to have done both. And you’d be wrong.
5. Boise State University – After TCU got beat 31-17 by the Stormin’ Mormons (err, Cougars) of BYU, you’re now the only mid-major with any shot at an at-large BCS berth. Your only remaining interesting game is at home with Fresno, so your odds are pretty good. If you blow everyone out on your way to 12-0, you should get the big payday.
6. Wake Forest – Unbeaten? This is like a basketball team that goes 13-0 before conference play begins by playing a bunch of cupcakes and the occasional conference bottom feeder (aka the Duke game). In their defense, the Syracuse, UConn, and Ole Miss games probably looked a lot tougher when they scheduled them. But now they get a Clemson team that has scored 103 points in the last 2 weeks. This one won’t be close either.
7. University [sic] of Georgia – You’re the worst team in the Top 10. From what I’ve seen, I can’t expect you to beat Tennessee, Florida, Auburn, or GT.
8. University of Maryland – GT doesn’t fear the turtle. Especially since Fridge ate it after he got nervous during the FIU game.

Let’s do this.

Noon

• Virginia @ Duke (LF Sports): CRIPPLE FIGHT!!! Seriously, Duke stands a good chance of winning this one. Virginia can’t move the ball to save their lives.
• Toledo @ Pitt (ESPNU): I don’t really hae anything to say about this one. Go Rockets?
• Tennessee @ Memphis (ESPN): So, wait, a dominant state power agreed to actually play at a lesser school’s home stadium? Heck, they agreed to play them at all? Amazing, but call me when Alabama or Auburn go to UAB or Troy.
• Wisconsin @ Indiana (ESPN2): Go badgers, I guess.

12:30

• Mississippi State @ Louisiana State (LF Sports): MSU, no chance to survive, etc., etc.
• Colorado @ Missouri (FSN): 16 years ago, on October 6, 1990, an event happened that almost never happens in college football. Colorado was down 31-27 on their last chance drive at Misouri. Their national title hopes hung in the balance – at the time, they were 3-1-1. Someway, somehow, Colorado was granted a 5th down. Pay careful attention when CU gets to 1st and Goal – they spike on first down, but they don’t increment the downs, so they run again on first down, and then on 2nd. They spike again 3rd (really 4th) down, and score the winning touchdown (disputable) on 4th (really 5th) down. And people thought those Oklahoma-Oregon guys were incompenent.
  Why am I ranting about this? Well, another team went 11-0-1 that year. That was Bobby Ross’s Georgia Tech squad. Tech finished first in the UPI (now the AP) Poll, CU finished first in the coach’s poll. Yeah, that’s right – a team that a) lost a game and b) needed a 5th down to win another somehow got a share of a national title. Amazing. Because of the bowl situation back then, CU and GT never had a chance to play on the field.

2:30 – Purdue @ ND (NBC): ND probably wins. I’m really pissed off now after watching that video.
3:30

• Alabama @ Florida (CBS): UF should roll here. Alabama didn’t look good at all at Arkansas.
• Georgia Tech @ Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (ABC): Yes, that really is the full expansion of Virginia Tech’s name. This is pretty much the game of the day. The ACC Coastal title is probably at stake here, and it’s tough for me to say who will win. Regardless, it won’t be 51-7 again.
• Rice @ Army (ESPNU): Go Bobby Ross and USMA!

6:00 – Houston @ Miami(FL) (ESPN2): This reminds me of that joke on Family Guy about dumb reality TV shows on FOX: “Next on FOX, ‘Fast Animals, Slow Children'”
7:00

• Southern Cal @ Washington State (TBS): USC rolls
• Louisiana Tech @ Clemson (ESPNU): Clemson rolls, not much going on at 7:00 today
• Kansas @ Nebraska (FSN): Again! 7:00, you disappoint me

8:00

• Ohio State @ Iowa (ABC): Honestly, I’m glad we’re not down here. Lane Stadium is pretty crazy as-is, and it’s much worse at night. Again with the rolling, though, as that’s what OSU should do, but Iowa stands more of a chance than WSU, LaTech, and Kansas.
• Michigan @ Minnesota (ESPN): Michigan may be the first team from the Big Ten to actually be underrated. OSU-Michigan should be incredible this year.

9:00 Georgia @ Mississippi (ESPN2): Not quite “Fast Animals, Slow Children”, but should be a bloodpath again. Unless Stafford plays most of the game again. At any rate, Go Rebels!
10:15 Stanford @ UCLA (FSN): Go Trees, er, Cardinal!

Last Sunday, this past weekend looked to be the worst of the 2006 college football season. Most of the games did little to buck that expectation. In fact, it may have been even worse than predicted. Texas and LSU were up a combined 58-14 at halftime on Iowa State and Tulane. The rest of the top ten struggled, often against mediocre to awful opponents. Here were some of this week’s halftime scores:

– #24 Penn State 3, #1 Ohio State 0. Ohio State’s defense finally picked off Nittany Lion QB Morelli to end the game late in the fourth quarter.
– #2 USC 3, Arizona 0. The final score was USC 20, Arizona 3. Didn’t ESPN say USC’s offense reloaded?
– #4 West Virginia 14, East Carolina 7. East Carolina’s mascot is a pirate. They have lost to Navy and UAB. Those facts alone show how silly this score looks.
– #5 Florida 12, Kentucky 7. Kentucky isn’t in Mississippi, but still…
– #6 Michigan 10, Wisconsin 10. This one isn’t that embarrassing, I guess.
– #8 Louisville 10, Kansas State 0. Kansas State beat Illinois State by one point to open their season.
– Colorado 13, #9 Georgia 0. Without two fourth-quarter touchdowns, Georgia would have lost to the Colorado team that lost to I-AA Montana State the first week of the season. If quarterback troubles continue in Athens, I don’t see Georgia beating Tennessee, Florida, Auburn, or Georgia Tech.
– #3 Auburn 10, Buffalo 0. Auburn did pull away to a 38-7 victory (well below my 117-0 prediction). However, Auburn’s defense, run and pass, looked anemic against Buffalo’s offense. This is Buffalo’s offense about which I am talking! I’m going to give myself an extra point for not ending the previous sentence with a preposition.

Speaking of extra points, I bet Alabama placekicker Leigh Tiffin wishes he could have the one I just gave myself after his performance on Saturday. He is shaping up to challenge John Vaughn for “Least Clutch SEC Placekicker.” Everyone says they feel sorry for these guys, but I’m not so sure we should. When a quarterback throws three interceptions in a game (see Drew Stanton against Notre Dame), no one cuts him slack. Why should we cut a kicker slack for missing three, four (see Tiffin against Arkansas), or five (see Vaughn against LSU in 2005) kicks that would have made the difference in the game?

On a random note, I wore my authentic Mexican sombrero to the Auburn/Buffalo game this weekend. I told people that if Auburn was going to schedule opponents as ridiculous as Buffalo, I was going to dress for the occasion. In addition to being hilarious, the sombrero provided some welcome shade from the blistering sun, which produced an 85-degree heat wave in Jordan-Hare. I’m not sure if the people behind me appreciated it as much as I did.

Thankfully, some tidbits of college football news offered hope rather than leaving question marks. Florida State destroyed Rice 55-7. Mississipi State finally won a game, beating UAB 16-10 in overtime. Actually, I guess that was all the hope I saw in the scores. I’m proud to say that Laura watched most, if not all, of the Michigan State/Notre Dame game. I am only sorry that the Spartans could not hold on to the ball long enough to pull off the “upset” for her.

Next weekend looks to be a slight improvement over the previous one, although that isn’t very hard to accomplish. #3 Auburn goes to South Carolina Thursday night (7:30 PM ET, ESPN). On Saturday, #5 Florida hosts Alabama (3:30 PM ET, CBS). Both should be closer games than the rankings would indicate. Georgia Tech visits Virginia Tech (3:30 PM ET, ABC), and Ohio State goes to Iowa (8 PM ET, ABC). I’m looking forward to both of these games but for different reasons. The first might decide the ACC Coastal Division champion, while the second is another chance for Ohio State to lose. Go Hawkeyes!