With the initial Bowl Championship Series rankings releasedMonday, there are several teams coveting the ADT NationalChampionship trophy that goes to the winner of the Orange Bowl.
Who are the real contenders? There are six weeks until the endof the season, but looking into the old crystal football maybe Ican offer a few predictions.
Relentless Trojans
Maybe the F on those F-U-S-C bumper stickers means the For-RealUniversity of Southern California. The Trojans deserve their No. 1BCS ranking.
I didn’t believe the Trojans would make it throughCalifornia and Arizona State unscathed, but with a 6-0 record, USCis still going strong. Following a slim 23-17 win over BCS-No. 8Cal, the Trojans proved their dominance with a 45-7 thrashing ofNo. 18 Arizona State on Saturday.
USC should cruise to a perfect record with No. 23 Notre Dame athome as its only true test left on the schedule.
The Trojans should dust off their trophy case and make a spotfor the real national championship trophy. They will have a chanceto play for the real deal this season in the Orange Bowl, not somecheap, plastic Associated Press imitation.
Who will be No. 2?
This question caused a lot of problems last season. It’scausing problems again this season with Miami (5-0) claiming thesecond spot this week even though No. 3 Oklahoma (6-0) is rankedsecond in both human polls.
Fourth-ranked Auburn (7-0) also has a legitimate grip with winsover No. 9 Tennessee and No. 19 LSU.
This argument might last a few weeks, but when the dust settles,none of these teams will be playing for the national title —all tripping up in the latter half of the season.
The Jan. 4 Orange Bowl in Miami will look more like the RoseBowl eastern edition with PAC-10 champion USC going up against BigTen champion Wisconsin.
The Badgers at No. 6 are in the perfect place to keep clawingtheir way to No. 2 by the end of the season. Wisconsin alreadyfaced its toughest stretch of the season with wins over Ohio Stateand No. 12 Purdue. Not playing Michigan this season should alsohelp.
Mid-Major Shuffle
Could this finally be the year a Mid-Major ends up in the Top 6of the BCS rankings to land a BCS bowl?
Don’t count on it. The No. 7 Utah Utes (6-0) have the bestchance of securing a BCS bowl with an easy schedule.
Utah is just this year’s version of TCU. The Utes will allbut wrap up a BCS bid, be exposed to the disease of highexpectations and then die slowly against rival BYU on Nov. 20 inthe season finale.
Big East Bozos
Decimated by the departure of No. 2 Miami and No. 25 VirginiaTech, the Big East’s only representative in the BCS rankingsis No. 20 West Virginia.
The Big East is the Sam’s Cola of the Major BCSconferences. That’s right — it’s not the realthing but a Mid-Major conference now. And it’s not a good oneat that. Conference USA even has more teams ranked in the BCS thanthe Big East.
Every other power conference has multiple teams: SEC- 5, ACC-4,Big XII- 4, Big Ten- 3 and Pac-10- 3. Somebody’s got to pullthe plug on the Big East and its automatic BCS bowl berths.
BCS Bowl Predictions
Orange Bowl: USC vs. Wisconsin
Sugar Bowl: Auburn vs. West Virginia
Fiesta Bowl: Oklahoma vs. Georgia
Rose Bowl: California vs. Miami