Taking NCAA Stock

Taking NCAA Stock

It seems my name is associated with redundancy these last few weeks. I just can't find any logic within the college ranking system, so I keep complaining about it – keep talking about it as if I say it in a different way, it will magically disappear and a playoff system will materialize out of a magical mist. Unfortunately, because of this “larger” picture, I've lost sight of the smaller one: The fact that there have been some phenomenal efforts laid on the NCAA gridiron over the past few weeks, and this weekend was no different.

Another week, another top team fell. The once “unbeatable” LSU and USC forged ahead through injury, adversity and playing in the two superior NCAA conferences and will have to settle for climbing the BCS ladder one rung at a time. (Good luck, gents, there's still a lot of season left to play.) The PAC-10 and SEC East are wide open, and it seems impossible to predict where the teams will stand at season's end. It is, on paper, a perfect college football season – then the computer screws us into “caring” about (by “caring” I mean hating) the BCS once again, as a slower, less athletic Big 10 team is sitting atop the college football world.

Taking Some Stock

Cal's win at Oregon once seemed as impressive as the LSU win over Florida...or the Kentucky win over LSU...or the Rutgers win over South Florida. And how about 7-0 Kansas? Parity, my friends – from top to bottom, the college athletic world is spread rich and thick with talent, and a level playing ground. You keep hearing that word everywhere these days. Yes, I keep repeating it, but so does everyone. It's really the only way to describe all this...awesome...ness: Parity!

I still like LSU. Yes, that has more to do with breeding than anything else, but name one team that has had a three week stretch on their schedule equivalent to Florida, Kentucky and Auburn. LSU's bye week couldn't come at a better time, and it will allow them the time to prepare for a final, formidable SEC opponent in Alabama. (They'll never forget about the Hogs of Arkansas and the Battle for the Boot, but getting by Alabama will put them over the little hump that followed the lovely lady lumps – or minor heart attacks, as I call them – of the past three weeks.)

I said it early and I'm sticking by it. USC vs. LSU, Louisiana Superdome, early January. When it's all said and done, I don't see anyone finishing this season without a loss...well, not anyone who actually plays against the likes of the PAC-10, Big 10, Big XII or SEC – wait, that leaves the inferior ACC and Boston College. Don't worry, college football fans, they lose next week at Virginia Tech.

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