Still having intermittent problems with the blog, both on my side and on my host’s side. Sneaking this in before the window of opportunity closes again.

1. Texas

2. Southern Cal

3. Penn State

4. West Virginia

5. Ohio State

6. Georgia

7. Louisiana State

8. TCU

9. Virginia Tech

10. Alabama

11. Oregon

12. UCLA

13. Notre Dame

14. Wisconsin

15. Auburn

16. Florida

17. Boston College

18. Miami

19. Texas Tech

20. Louisville

21. Florida State

22. Clemson

23. Oklahoma

24. Nebraska

25. California

As the bowl games draw near, here’s a list of BCS team blogs to help you keep up with the teams that are, you know, still playing football. Salty language warning for some of these.

Rose Bowl

USC Trojans

• Trojan Wire
• Heisman Pundit
• SC Football
• Inside USC
• Tribute to Troy
• Student Body Right
• Boi from Troy

Texas Longhorns

• Burnt Orange Nation
• Bevo Beat

Orange Bowl

Penn State

• 50-Yard Lion
• Nittany Blog
• Bleed Blue ‘n’ White

Florida State

Does anyone in Tallahassee blog?

Fiesta Bowl

Notre Dame

• Blue-Gray Sky
• Kanka Sports
• Kelly Green
• The Irish Brogue

Ohio State

• Buckeye Commentary
• Around the Oval
• Buckeye Sports Blitz
• Walking to the Shoe

Sugar Bowl

Georgia

• Georgia Sports Blog
• I’m a Realist
• Dawg News
• The Junkyard Blawg

West Virginia

• WV Law Dog Blog

1. Texas: UT gets nod over USC only because of USC’s would-be loss to Notre Dame
2. USC: Basically neck and neck with the Longhorns
3. Notre Dame: Two bad calls on final two plays cost them victory over USC
4. Georgia: SEC champ
5. LSU: SEC runner-up
6. Florida: Lost three games, but beat both SEC champ and ACC champ
7. Penn State: Only one loss, but docked for not having to play a championship game
8. Ohio State: Only losses to Texas and Penn State
9. Florida State: Yeah, four losses, but still champ of tough ACC conference
10. Virginia Tech: ACC runner-up
11. Georgia Tech: Four losses, but beat both Auburn and Miami
12. Auburn: Stumbled out of the gate and lost to SEC runner-up LSU, but beat SEC champ Georgia
13. Miami: Throttled ACC runner-up Virginia Tech
14. Alabama: Only losses to SEC runner-up LSU and number 12 Auburn
15. Oregon: Only one loss, but docked for relatively weak conference
16. West Virginia: Received a BCS berth while never cracking the top ten
17. Michigan: Beat Big 10 champ Penn State, but lost four games
18. UCLA
19. Clemson: Beat ACC champ FSU, but who didn’t?
20. South Carolina: Wins over Florida and Tennessee not as impressive in hindsight
21. TCU
22. Northwestern
23. Iowa
24. Iowa State
25. Louisville

Even as the Tennessee Volunteers have come up lame, stumbled, fallen, fallen, and fallen out of the Top 25 altogether, the Race to the Rose Bowl goes on.

Georgia drops out of the top ten after losing to the Gators, and USC takes over the top spot it lost last week to the Longhorns.

Tonight’s game between the Virginia Tech Hokies and the Miami Hurricanes is huge. Plus, there are still a lot of games that either will or could impact the Race:

• USC at California, November 12, 2005
• LSU at Alabama, November 12, 2005 (3:30, CBS, maybe)
• Texas at Texas A&M, November 25, 2005 (12:00, ABC)
• Florida State at Florida, November 26, 2005 (3:30, CBS)
• UCLA at USC, December 3, 2005 (4:30, ABC)

College Football News’ Road to the Rose Bowl has Five Unbeaten Contenders — USC, Texas, Virginia Tech, Alabama, and UCLA — and eight No Margin for Errors — Miami, Penn State, LSU, Florida State, Georgia, Wisconsin, Oregon, and Texas Tech.

• Week Eight
• Week Seven
• Week Six
• Week Five
• Week Four
• Week Three
• Week Two
• Week One
• Preseason

John Pennington has examined teams’ perceived recruiting successes in the past few years and compared them with those teams’ current rankings.

Here are Pennington’s top ten recruiters over the last five years and their current BCS rank:

1. Southern Cal: #2 in BCS
2. Michigan: #25 in BCS
3. LSU: #8 in BCS
4. Oklahoma: NR in BCS
5. Florida State: #10 in BCS
6. Miami: #7 in BCS
7. Tennessee: NR in BCS
8. Texas: #1 in BCS
9. Florida: #19 in BCS
10. Ohio State: #13 in BCS

Pennington’s info is much more exhaustive than the above list. His data brings to light several interesting facts. On one hand, the current top two BCS teams — Southern Cal and Texas — have excelled in recruiting, so that would suggest that there is a positive correlation between recruiting success and winning games.

On the other hand, Michigan, Oklahoma, and Tennessee have recruited well, and have been terrible disappointments so far this season. Plus, some of the other data shows the vast disparity between the current success of teams that have enjoyed about equal recruiting success.

My take is that we fans too often fall victim to the old necessary-sufficient fallacy. In order to win regularly, a school must have a certain level of success in luring top players to the team, but simply having good players is not enough. There are just too many other factors that come into play.

And the Longhorns make a move past the Trojans!

Texas edging USC is huge, but there’s very little movement otherwise. Texas Tech dropped out of the top ten (after losing to Texas), and the Florida State Seminoles take up position No. 10. LSU dropped a few spots, and UCLA and Miami both moved up and switched places with each other.

The Tennessee Volunteers drop out of the top 25 altogether after losing to the Crimson Tide. The Vols are now officially more than just mostly dead; they are really most sincerely dead.

At least in the Race to the Rose Bowl. But I’m one of those that can enjoy my team even when there are no championships on the line, and I’m not bailing.

Plus, the Race can still be exciting even if your horse has come up lame. Just pick another horse! I’m going with the Hokies.

Upcoming games with the potential to radically impact the Race include:

• Georgia at Florida, October 29, 2005 (3:30, CBS)
• Virginia Tech v. Miami, November 5, 2005
• USC at California, November 12, 2005
• LSU at Alabama, November 12, 2005 (3:30, CBS, maybe)
• Texas at Texas A&M, November 25, 2005 (12:00, ABC)
• Florida State at Florida, November 26, 2005 (3:30, CBS)
• UCLA at USC, December 3, 2005 (4:30, ABC)

• Week Seven
• Week Six
• Week Five
• Week Four
• Week Three
• Week Two
• Week One
• Preseason

The season’s first Bowl Championship Series rankings are out, so my weekly Race to the Rose Bowl will now be based on the BCS rankings instead of on the Coaches’ Poll.

Here’s how the first BCS top ten shapes up:

Newcomers UCLA and Texas Tech find themselves in the top ten with 6-0 records, while Florida State dropped after a loss to Virginia.

Notre Dame dropped and starts the BCS race at No. 16, which I think is way too low. How often do you lose a game by making a Heisman Trophy winner fumble the ball?

And while I’m on that topic, while USC deserved to win that game because they made big play after big play every time they needed to, Notre Dame also deserved to win because they executed an ingenious game plan almost to perfection and only lost because of a couple of bad breaks at the very end. Had Matt Leinart not fumbled the ball on the second to last play of the game, the clock would have run out and the Fighting Irish would have won. Had the officials spotted the ball on the three yard line (where the ball went out of bounds) instead of the one yard line (where Leinart landed), the game would certainly have been different is some way. And had USC tailback Reggie Bush not pushed (I heard someone say that that’s not even legal, but I don’t know) a back-peddling-for-a-second-chance Leinart into the end zone, the Irish would have won.

Notre Dame has lost two games: one they would have won had they not had three breaks go against them, and one in overtime to a good Michigan State team. They deserve to be ranked higher than No. 16.

This slight tangentially affects the Tennessee Volunteers, who need to play (and beat) as many good teams as they can in order to improve their standing. The Vols start the BCS race at No. 19, and highlights of their resume to this point include:

• a loss at Florida when the Gators were ranked No. 7 (now ranked No. 20);
• a big win at LSU when the Tigers were ranked No. 4. (now No. 5); and
• a loss to Georgia when the Bulldogs were ranked No. 4 (still No. 4).

Tennessee is scheduled to play No. 5 Alabama this Saturday and a should-be-in-the-top-ten Notre Dame team two weeks after that. In between those two big games, they host Steve Spurrier and South Carolina.

• Week Six
• Week Five
• Week Four
• Week Three
• Week Two
• Week One
• Preseason

Something really struck me while I was writing this post.

WARNING! PREPARE YOURSELF FOR SHOCKING NEWS:

The Tennessee Volunteers are not dead yet. Okay, so maybe they’re mostly dead, but as Miracle Max said in The Princess Bride, “There’s a big difference between mostly dead and all dead. Mostly dead is slightly alive.”

But before I get to that, here are the top ten horses after Week Six:

Okay, so here’s what happened this past weekend. Ohio State, who lost to Penn State, and Tennessee dropped out of the top ten, and Miami consequently moved up two spots to No. 6. California dropped out after losing to UCLA, and Alabama consequently moved up behind Miami. LSU found itself back in the hunt at No. 8, and newcomers Notre Dame and Penn State entered the race at Nos. 9 and 10 respectively.

Tennessee tumbled all the way to No. 18 after losing to the Georgia Bulldogs.

Not to say the drop is unjustified at all, but really, look at their schedule:

• Lost at Florida when the Gators were ranked No. 7.
• Won at LSU when the Tigers were ranked No. 4.
• Lost against Georgia when the Bulldogs were ranked No. 4.
• Scheduled to play Alabama (currently No. 7) next and Notre Dame (currently No. 9) later.

If (and yes, it’s a big if) the Volunteers can win against Alabama and Notre Dame, they will have won three of five games against top ten opponents. Is that really the end of the world as we know it? What if Notre Dame can upset USC this weekend at South Bend? (Okay, okay, I know. If they beat USC, we haven’t got a chance against them, but dream with me, won’t you?)

Yes, Tennessee’s two losses will have been against SEC East opponents Florida and Georgia and will have cost them any shot at an SEC or even an SEC East title. And because of that, they have no chance at the Rose Bowl. But they should still be able to get back into the top ten with quality wins against the Crimson Tide and the Irish.

Of course, with the way the Vols have been playing, predicting any win is a risky proposition, but the point remains:

The Volunteers are only mostly dead.

• Week Five
• Week Four
• Week Three
• Week Two
• Week One
• Preseason

Fixin to head down to Knoxville and Neyland Stadium with Freaktoe to see the Tennessee Vols take on the Georgia Bulldogs. Hoping for a big win.

Of course, the Vols need a big win to stay in the Race to the Rose Bowl. Here are the other important games in the Race, from a Rocky Top perspective:

Best Chances for the Volunteers to Advance

• No. 2 Texas v. Oklahoma. The Red River Shootout has been the other UT’s can’t-get-over-the-hump game for years. They should get it done this year against a sub-par Oklahoma team, but the Longhorns could suffer adverse consequences from the Spotlight Effect.
• No. 6 Ohio State v. Penn State. Ohio State probably wins this one, but as-yet undefeated Penn State is on a mini-roll, and might pull off an upset.

Long Shots for the Volunteers to Advance

• No. 1 Southern Cal v. Arizona.
• No. 3 Virginia Tech v. Marshall.
• No. 5 Florida State v. Wake Forest.

College Football News’ weekly Road to the Rose Bowl is up. There are 6 Unbeaten Contenders (Southern Cal, Texas, Virginia Tech, Florida State, Georgia, and Alabama), 6 Unbeaten Longshots (Cal, Wisconsin, Penn State, UCLA, Texas Tech, and Nebraska), and 17 No Margin for Errors (including Tennessee). The Tennessee Volunteers get a couple of chances to decrease the number of Unbeaten Contenders over the next couple of weeks, as they host the Georgia Bulldogs this Saturday (CFN’s lock-yourself-in-a-room-to-watch game) and travel to take on the Alabama Crimson Tide two weeks after that.