There is a lot of talk this morning about the BCS Bowl championship and who might be selected for it now that the season is finally completed. Florida is a potential shoe-in, because they have been completely dominant again this season. But they have been challenged by the Alabama Crimson Tide, who have had a phenomenal season, especially on defense. Will they face one another? Or will Texas be another contender. They have had a practically perfect season under the tutelage of Mr Colt McCoy. He has been able to lead them in most of the stats, especially after the 4 touchdown effort he gave last week. But will that be enough? Florida is defending their championship from last year, but these two teams could be the ones to give them a big challenge this year!

Colt McCoy has been the toast of the NCAA for awhile, and yesterday we saw that. He was amazing in the way he played against Texas A&M, winning by a score of 49-39. They are #3 in the country right now and McCoy might have sealed up a BCS Championship Game as well as the Heisman Trophy. It’s great to see this kid living up to the expectations that were set for him over the last few years. With his 4 touchdown passes yesterday, and a 65 yard run for another TD, he was able to keep his team undefeated on the season, even though A&M had a game like none other this season. It didn’t make any difference, as Texas just rolled right through. McCoy clearly can see the field well and can make decisions with no difficulty. Expect to see something exciting from him in the future!

There are a few important teams who are in big trouble at the moment. Not only has this year gone sour, but for some of them the last few years have been big trouble for them too. One of the teams involved is USC, which we’ve read about in recent weeks. Another is Michigan, who has been dropping for over a year. Last year, they had their first under .500 year in nearly two centuries (ok, maybe not that long, but still a long time!). A second year of that is underway again, with the continuing loss of players. Another team in that tank is Notre Dame, who has turned in one of their worst seasons in many years. The next few weeks will be critical to see if these teams are going to bring in new coaching corps or if we’ll see them try to keep some sense of continuity on the teams.

The Oregon vs Arizona game this weekend is probably the biggest of the year. Both teams know that there might be a bowl game riding on the outcome of this game. We have to look at this rationally, though. These teams are essentially equal matched. This season has not seen them play in a stellar way, but they’ve been relatively consistent, except for the recent weeks, when they have found themselves dropping lots of points in the second half. The Ducks almost gave up at 30 point lead in the second half of last week’s game, but they were able to hold it off in the end. But both teams can win or lose their shot at the Rose Bowl with their game this weekend. If there’s a game to watch this week, it is definitely this one!

The world of college football seems to have been flipped on its head. The USC Trojans have been one of the league’s best teams for a long time and they have been hoping not to lose that. There have been lots of rumors of late as to the viability of the team this year. While they have talented players and good coaches, there have been injuries and other problems keeping them from getting everything done. Meanwhile, Stanford has been doing a great job against tough opponents, especially after beating USC by 55-21 this weekend. Stanford now sits in the rankings at #14 while USC just clings to top 25 status at #22. As for the top of the standings, it of course lines up as Florida, Alabama and Texas as the 1-2-3 spots. There’s not much football left, so we’ll be looking at which bowls teams get to go to fairly soon. Always an exciting time of year.

It was just released that three Tennessee football players were arrested this week on attempted armed robbery charges. They were supposed to be big leaders on the team this year and in future years. It’s possible that they still will be. The story goes like this: there were three victims in their car at a gas station late at night and they were approached by three men in hoods who demanded everything they had. After they were found to have no money, the men took off in a Prius. Believe it or not, the robbers in a Prius. The police stopped a similar car a short time later and found hoods, as well as some drug paraphernalia. This could be a big problem for these guys, because surely their school wont let them play if they are convicted of this. My guess is that there will be some deal where they pay a fine, do some probation and maybe also get to play as well.

There are a few different schools that people are excited to root for when they’re actually winning. Notre Dame is definitely one of them, and they’ve been really strong for many years. But they haven’t been able to get themselves back into winning this season. They look more like Northwestern and Stanford; they rise and fall every once in awhile. The Fighting Irish are not looking like the contenders that they have been for a long time, though. This year, the media is describing it as though the team has just crashed and burned, and that’s almost right.They haven’t gotten a win against a Big 10 opponent in about 3 years, which makes them much less excited as they move forwards than they were before. Perhaps next year. But the Irish have just 3 games to get themselves back into action this year. Hopefully this team will be able to improve at least a little bit so that they will feel better.

In last weeks game between the Florida Gators and the Georgia Bulldogs, we knew that tempers would be running high. But we didn’t expect the big story to come out of it as one of these random acts of violence that sometimes appear on the field. Brandon Spikes was seen at the end of a play reaching into a guy’s helmet and, effectively, clawing at his eyes. The player, Ealey, says that it wasn’t such a big deal, but it does show an awful lack of safety consciousness on Spikes part. The conference and the coach suspended him for half of this weekend’s game against Vanderbilt. But he suspended himself for the rest of the game, because he doesn’t want to be a bad influence or something. Meanwhile, there is a big discussion now about “what if” he had really harmed Ealey. He didn’t get his eyes, but he could have come close. And who does that on the football field anyway? The idea is that this was a fully avoidable incident. Anyway, the issue has been more or less dealt with and the teams move on.

The top three teams in the NCAA Football polls from the AP certainly deserve it. Florida is on top, which they earned against Georgia this weekend in a hard-fought but ultimately uneven match in Jacksonville (which looked to be sunny and warm, unlike the place where I was watching it on Halloween). Texas is in second place and they’re working hard to get to the championship this year. The Longhorns were strong last year and strong this year, with Colt McCoy looking for the Heisman. Alabama is in third place, having been overtaken by Texas in these polls. It’s a comfortable place for all these teams, though they would certainly like to get higher in the rankings. It looks like Florida will stay up for the foreseeable future unless there is some huge loss against someone else. Keep watching these polls, because they tend to be a good barometer of where the teams really stand.