A Northerner's Perspective

Ok, it’s now time for my homer, pro-PSU argument for the BCS title game. It seems that PSU is the only 1-loss team receiving little to no attention when it comes to sneaking into the title game. I just wanted to take a closer look at the other 1-loss teams out there. If there’s one thing that we all know it’s that anything can happen in the final weeks of the season (see last year).

I’m going to break down Oklahoma, Florida, Texas, USC, and Texas Tech. I am omitting Utah and Boise St. from this discussion because they are undefeated and they do not belong in the title game, period. However, that’s for another discussion.

Everyone LOVES Florida and Oklahoma right now and rightfully so I suppose. Both lost early in the season; Oklahoma to a great Texas team on a neutral field, and Florida to an OK Ole Miss team at home, and both are playing great football right now. Texas’ only loss is to Texas Tech, at night, in Lubbock. Texas shot themselves in the foot on multiple occasions in that game and easily could have walked out of there victorious. I strongly believe that Texas is still a better team than Oklahoma and Texas Tech. USC is playing in a conference that is significantly worse than the Big 10 this year and they still managed to lose a game. And we all saw what happened to Texas Tech last Saturday night.

People seem to enjoy hating on Penn State because of their “weak” non-conference schedule and the “weakness” of the Big 10 conference this year. Let’s take a closer look at the previously mentioned teams’ accomplishments. Rankings are as of today, not when they played the actual game

Texas Tech:
Top 10 wins: Texas (home)
Top 25 wins: Oklahoma State (home)
Loss: Looked pathetic against Oklahoma (road)

USC:
Top 10 wins: Ohio State (home)
Top 25 wins: Oregon (home)
Loss: Oregon State (road)

Texas:
Top 10 wins: Oklahoma (neutral)
Top 25 wins: Oklahoma State (home), Missouri (home)
Loss: Texas Tech (road)

Florida:
Top 10 wins: 0
Top 25 wins: Georgia (neutral)
Loss: Ole Miss (home)

Oklahoma:
Top 10 wins: Texas Tech (home)
Top 25 wins: Cincinnati (home), TCU (home)
Loss: Texas (neutral)

Penn State:
Top 10 wins: Ohio State (road)
Top 25 wins: Oregon St. (home), Michigan St. (home)
Loss: Iowa (road, horrible weather)

I understand that there are still many important games to play; however, of those teams, who has the best BCS argument at this point based on those facts?

Penn State hammered Oregon State (who beat USC the next week), and beat OSU with Beanie in their building. They also smoked Michigan State last weekend. No doubt PSU should be ranked higher than USC.

Florida has one solid win this year if you think about it. Georgia is good, but not great, and that is the only team currently ranked that they have prevailed over. PSU should be ranked higher than Florida.

Texas Tech just got their asses handed to them. PSU should be ranked higher than Texas Tech.

Texas is a damn good football team whose only loss is a last second miracle to Texas Tech on the road. PSU should NOT be ranked higher than UT right now.

Oklahoma has some nice wins this year. Saturday’s performance was awe inspiring in my opinion. Complete domination of a pretty darn good Tech team. However, their other wins are comparable to PSU’s victories over Oregon State and Michigan State. I will give OU a slight edge at this point. PSU should NOT be ranked higher than OU right now.

Penn State lost on the road, in horrid weather conditions, on a last second FG, with a gimpy starting QB. Iowa is NO WORSE than Ole Miss. Yes, Iowa has 4 losses this season; however, they have lost those 4 games by a combined 12 points! They’re really not all that bad of a team.

I'm interested to hear what everyone else thinks about the 1 loss situation. I honetly think PSU has a pretty good argument to be ranked higher than they are right now. What do you guys think?

Lets go Auburn, Texas A&M, Florida State, Oklahoma State, Notre Dame, and Baylor!!!! (I never thought the day would come that I would be rooting for FSU and Notre f'n Dame on the same weekend)