Your Home of the Oregon ILLINI. Oskee Wa Wa!

Well, let me start out by saying that the POSER was right. Wow, lots of perfect scores this week, and they all made me sick. I took the under at 4 and would have still lost at 17. Ouch man, I was wrong on this one. For sure, I thought there were a few upsets out there this week. Just didn't happen. It was a day to save your season. If you didn't get 55 points today you lost ground to the field and the 18 of us who did. Unbelieveable. It used to be that scoring in the 50's meant something. Not anymore. Not this year. At least my system is working well. If it werent' for a few games turning out the way they did (mostly involving an academy called NAVY) I'd be in a little better rank shape. Weeks like this do nothing to separate the cream from the rest of the pack. We need more tough weeks like we had in WEEK #3 and #5. Most of the games today had no business being there this week: Ohio State and Indiana? LSU and Fresno? Really – give us a challenge. Too many perfect scores to recognize any great achievement this week. Enjoy the mediocrity for now; and let’s just hope it gets tougher soon. This was a ‘gimme’ week if there ever was one. Enjoy the 5’s for now.

PICK EM is a mess after 8 weeks. If you've played all of them you're in the TOP 78% in the nation. It's just all clogged up at the top. We are in desperate need of another separation week of games to showcase the best from the rest. I'm ready. Are you? On to week #9 and the home stretch. I've said it all along that this is a marathon and not a sprint. Well, it's turning into more of a track meet right now with only 5 more weeks to go. Who will win? Who has it within to be the PICK EM champ for 2k6? And Kudos to Jon Lang for his 55 points tonight. Good to see your system is working for you once again.

What another great weekend of college football. This week gave us the greatest comeback in DIV 1A history as SPARTY rebounded in the 2^nd half on the road against the WILDCATS for a 41-38 victory. Nothing special here. SPARTY was only down 38-3 in the 2^nd half before putting it all together for John L. Smith. Wow – that was an impressive comeback and a monumental choke for Northwestern. Ouch, I feel that pain. Either way, it was the biggest deficit every overcome in CFB DIV1-A. On the banks of the ole red cedar. Unbelieveable. Evanston is devasted tonight. Battered troops won this game. Kudos to the team from East Lansing. Biggest comeback ever. Congratulations SPARTY!

How many 1-loss teams struggled today at home but found ways to win? Let me tell you. CAL, Tennessee, and Notre Dame all had games that were much closer than expected. All won today, but not very impressively at home. TEXAS barely escaped in Lincoln against the Huskers in another classic BIG-12 thriller. Hook 'Em Hard baby! Colt McCoy is the real deal. This guy is going to reak havoc on the BIG - 12 for years to come. Sorry TED, this was a close game that could have gone either way down the stretch. Give credit to Nebraska for hanging tough for 4 full quarters. Lots of trickeration kept it close. It just wasn’t meant to be today. These two teams might see each other again later in the year at the BIG-12 Championship game. Better take ‘em one at a time if you expect to be there at the end of the season. Notre Dame and CAL really had their hands full right down to the wire and then in to OT before the BEARS put the HUSKIES away. Closer than the experts thought. What did you expect from 2 of only 4 teams with 800 wins with their programs? Wow, what a game.

I think one of the best teams in the country right now resides in CLEMSON, SC. Sorry Johnny D with the ACC BIAS, your JACKETS got smaked tonight in CLEMSON by those nasty TIGERS. This team is firing on all cylinders on both sides of the ball. In Spiller and Davis, I don’t think anybody else in the nation has a more impressive 1-2 punch in thunder and lightening. What's even more scary? One is a freshmen and the other is a sophomore. Ouch! Davis had 216 himself. Touch the rock - you deserve it James. They just ran all over the Jackets tonight in the game of the week. Fear the Clemson TIGERS. They just might be one of a few teams who can beat Ohio State – maybe. Super stud Calvin Johnson was completely shutdown tonight by CLEMSON with zero catches for zero yards. Very impressive.

What happened to the DUCKS today? Bye Bye BCS. Maybe they will bace Oklahoma after all in San Diego come bowl season. Not a good showing by Belotti's boys on the road tonight. I’ll tell you what happened; they lost to the better team today. It’s tough to win on the road, especially in PULLMAN. Looks like Oregon didn’t really wakeup until the 4^th quarter. Stewart was shutdown for 28 yards on 11 carries. Dixon had a terrible day throwing too many interceptions. Brink really stuck it to the DUCKS who didn’t even show any interest in him as a QB from Eugene, his hometown university. Kudos to the BEAVERS who found a way win their 2^nd consecutive PAC-10 game today on the road in Tucson over the CATS, 17-10. Congratulations on a job well done. And suddenly, USC doesn’t look too bad in the PAC-10 with Oregon losing today and CAL struggling mightily at home against the HUSKIES.

Who looked good today? SUNJ (Rutgers), Wisconsin, LSU, TEXAS, Nebraska, Ohio State, Arkansas, Missouri, Auburn, BYU, BC, A&M, Washington State, Va. Tech, Oklahoma, and Clemson. Who struggled? How about CAL, Oregon, and Notre Dame, and Tennessee? All won, but.....

Several interesting BCS scenarios are developing. What if USC wins out? They're likely going to GLENDALE and the BCS TITLE game. Same for Michigan or Ohio State. One of these two teams is a virtual lock for the January 8th game right now. It gets a little interesting should USC lose? What about WV, Louisville, or Rutgers should they go undefeated in the BIG-EAST? It's a lot better conference than I once thought. Then there is the argument for a team like TEXAS, or FLORIDA, or Clemson, or even Notre Dame should these teams run the table w/o any more losses. Yes, it's getting interesting right now.

My top 10: #1) Ohio State, #2) Michigan, #3) USC, #4) Florida, #5) WV, #6) TEXAS, #7) Tennessee, #8) Clemson, , #9) Louisville, #10) CAL / Notre Dame. And this makes 9 weeks in a row as the #1 team in the land for the Ohio State University -AP Poll. No new teams made it into the TOP-25 this week. And this just in, FSU is in last place in the ACC. Wow! Dating back to 2003, only three teams have topped the list: USC, Texas, and now Ohio State. USC was there a record 33 weeks before being dethrowned by TEJAS. Hook-'Em! And here are your WEEK #2 BCS Rankings. On the Rise: Texas, WV, Rutgers, BC, Wisconsin, Oklahoma, A&M, and yes WAZZU. On the decline: USC (didn't play), Auburn (1 spot), Louisville, (1 spot), Nebraska, Oregon, Gergia Tech, and a host of others. Oregon State actually is showing up in the BCS at #32 behind Va. Tech. Yikes!.

It's looking more and more like a Michigan / Ohio State showdown on November 18th in Columbus between two undefeated squads. They might be #1 and #2 in the nation by then given their respective schedules over the next few weeks. Both are favored to win out until that monster rivalry game of games. Until then, we have 5 more weeks of PICK EM. It's starting to get interesting this time of year. On to week #9.