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

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

UPDATE: The Final Animated BCS Race to the Rose Bowl is up and running on its own static page.

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Only one week left, and it’s still looking like the Trojans and the Longhorns will finish Nos. 1 and 2:

Pesky Texas A&M couldn’t keep pace with the Longhorns, and the only real change in the line up this week is that everyone is one week closer to their final position.

The final two big games before the bowls are this Saturday: Texas plays Colorado for the Big XII Championship, and USC hosts No. 12 UCLA.

ABC has both games, Texas-Colorado at 1:00 and UCLA-USC at 4:30. If both the ‘horns and the Trojans win, they’ll meet in the Rose Bowl for the National Championship.

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If you have any questions at all about the BCS, check out Fanblogs’ excellent Primer to the 2005-2006 BCS Championship.

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See the Race to the Rose Bowl from the beginning:

• Week Twelve
• Week Eleven
• Week Ten
• Week Nine
• Week Eight
• Week Seven
• Week Six
• Week Five
• Week Four
• Week Three
• Week Two
• Week One
• Preseason

Entering the home stretch:

The Trojans and the Longhorns remain Nos. 1 and 2, and Penn State, LSU, Virginia Tech, and Ohio State all move up one spot due to Miami falling from No. 3 to No. 9 after losing to Georgia Tech. Oregon jumped from No. 10 to No. 7 after clobbering Oregon State, and the Fighting Irish improved by one position. Auburn rounds out the top ten.

The Tennessee Volunteers round out the top 117, and some players are behaving badly.

Games remaining that either will or could impact the Race:

• Texas at Texas A&M, November 25, 2005 (12:00, ABC)
• UCLA (12) at USC (1), December 3, 2005 (4:30, ABC)

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See the Race to the Rose Bowl from the beginning:

• Week Eleven
• Week Ten
• Week Nine
• Week Eight
• Week Seven
• Week Six
• Week Five
• Week Four
• Week Three
• Week Two
• Week One
• Preseason

UPDATE: This is Week Eleven. If you’re looking for the latest, see the Animated BCS Race to the Rose Bowl: Final Bowl Selections.

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Only a few weeks left to go, and the Race to the Rose Bowl is tightening:Alabama’s loss to the LSU Tigers left the USC Trojans and the Texas Longhorns as the only remaining unbeaten teams. Miami moves up to the third spot behind the unbeatens, and LSU vaults over the Hokies to the fifth position behind number four Penn State. Georgia dropped out of the top ten after a loss to Auburn and is replaced by Notre Dame.

Games remaining that either will or could impact the Race:

• Texas at Texas A&M, November 25, 2005 (12:00, ABC)
• UCLA at USC, December 3, 2005 (4:30, ABC)

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See the Race to the Rose Bowl from the beginning:

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

Rounding the final corner:

Virginia Tech drops, but not by much, after getting thrashed by Miami, Georgia re-enters the Race, and Oregon’s putrid yellow and green breaks the top ten.

Games remaining 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)
• UCLA at USC, December 3, 2005 (4:30, ABC)

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

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See the Race to the Rose Bowl from the beginning:

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

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.

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See the Race to the Rose Bowl from the beginning:

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

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)

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See the Race to the Rose Bowl from the beginning:

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

The Tennessee Volunteers get a great chance to redeem themselves and improve their national standing when they travel to Tuscaloosa to take on archrival Alabama. This game is too close to call: the Vol defense should make it difficult for the Crimson Tide offense to be productive, and the Bama defense won’t make it easy for the Vol offense to get on track. Heck, even collegefootballnews.com can’t make up its mind.

Some other games of interest to Volunteer fans this weekend:

• Auburn at LSU. This one’s sorta hard to figure. LSU is ranked higher than Auburn, so you’d think you’d want Auburn to win, but an LSU victory makes the Vols’ earlier victory over LSU look better, and an LSU loss would probably only have the effect of substituting Auburn for LSU in the top ten anyway. It’s really a toss up on whom to root for, but I’m going with LSU.
• Arkansas at Georgia. This one, however, is a no-brainer. Wooooo Pigs Soooie!
• Texas Tech at Texas. Tech burst into the top ten last week, and the Longhorns may be due for a letdown. Really, they both need to lose, but this might be the other UT’s only real challenge for the rest of the year.
• Georgia Tech at Miami. Georgia Tech beat Auburn earlier this year. Can they pull off another upset?
• Penn State at Illinois. Will Penn State have a hangover after a tought loss last week at Michigan? Will it matter?
• Oregon State at UCLA. Can the Beavers knock off a top ten team two weeks in a row?

CFN has the TV listings.

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.

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See the Race to the Rose Bowl from the beginning:

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