Friday, October 17, 2008

A Shift in Power?

After watching TCU dismantle the conference favorite and #9th ranked BYU Cougars it made
me realize that their has been a huge shift of power in some of the conferences. Here are the teams that have finally become conference favorites:


Alabama - SEC


The Crimson Tide have come out of no where and are ranked #2 in the country. Alabama hasn't won an SEC title since 1999 and are looking like the conference favorite this year. Auburn and LSU have previously dominated the SEC West but with the football program at Auburn being in turmoil and the LSU Tigers suffering a 30 point loss to Florida, the SEC West looks up for grabs and 'Bama may just capitalize. The last three games of 'Bama's schedule will determine the fate of their season when they play LSU, Mississippi State and then Auburn. If Alabama can get to those games without a loss or with only 1 loss they will have a good chance at winning the SEC West if they can win those last three games. No matter what happens the rest of the season, Alabama has certainly exceeded expectations.



Penn State - Big Ten


Penn State is off to their best start this year going 7-0 and 3-0 against quality Big Ten teams (Illinois, Purdue and Wisconsin). With Ohio State looking very shaky in a 31-3 loss at USC earlier on in the year, Penn State has quickly become the conference favorite. Penn State joined the conference in 1990 and has only won 2 conference championships (1 of those was shared with Ohio State). The rest of the schedule looks manageable but the big game will of course be against Ohio State, the best team in the conference for the last three years. Beating Ohio State will send a message and Penn State would overtake Ohio State as the best in the conference.




TCU - MWC

The time may have run out for BYU. After getting embarrassed by TCU yesterday, it was clear to me that TCU was the all-round better team. BYU looked shaky in all aspects of basic football. The win yesterday was a big win for TCU. Not only did they improve to 7-1 and crush BYU's BCS hopes, they avenged the loss from two years ago when BYU beat TCU and dashed their own BCS bowl hopes. The funny thing about that was BYU became the best team in the MWC after that and TCU dropped. Yesterday may have just shifted the power back in TCU's hands. There is more information on that in this article. The only other team in the MWC who may be better than TCU is the unbeaten Utah Utes.


South Florida - Big East

West Virginia have been the cream of the crop of the Big East for the last three years. South Florida has quickly become mentioned as one of the best teams in the Big East and as it stands now, South Florida is the best team in the Big East. The first hint that USF was on the rise is when they best West Virginia two years ago. This was the beginning of a new powerhouse in the Big East. The second hint was when Louisville went from winning 12 games in 2006 to only winning six games last year. Then, last year, South Florida once again beat West Virginia. Now South Florida stands atop the Big East and is the highest ranked team from the Big East at #19. If South Florida can win the rest of their games heading into their December 6 match up with West Virginia, South Florida can finally prove that they are the best team in the Big East.

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