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 The Good, The Bad, and The UglyAn October tradition here in the commentary column is to take a look at the good, the bad, and the ugly in college football. The Good asks the question: how many of the undefeated teams currently playing will still be undefeated come bowl time? The Bad wonders if any of the winless teams in the land can cobble together a win before the season expires. The Ugly reviews the games lost by I-A teams to teams from lesser divisions. There's another reason I like to write this column: it forces me to double check the records of all teams in my database. This year I caught an unusual number of errors, which I attribute to the increasing unreliability of the WAJL website. Not sure what is going on over there, but their schedules and score reports have been pretty sloppy this time around. Most of the errors were in the MAC conference. But now, on to our story. The Good... TEAM: Miami Hurricanes (6-0) The Hurricanes make the top of this list because they are the best team in college football. They struggled with Florida State more than one might have expected, but the mark of a great team is not so much that they win with ease as that they win under any circumstances. Given the flood of talent that they lost to the NFL, there was no reasonable expectation that the Hurricanes would be so good again, but part of that is an underestimation of the importance of Ken Dorsey, and part of that was just wishing from the Hurricane opponents. Miami also has to travel to Tennessee, but that should not be a big challenge for Miami. The Hokies could give the Canes trouble if history is any guide, and I've seen enough late-season shockers to almost expect them. But for my money, Miami goes to the national championship game unmarred. TEAM: Oklahoma (7-0) The Sooners are in the midst of a brutal 4 game stretch that featured the Red River Shootout with Texas and a game against surprising Iowa State. Oklahoma gets a week off and then must play dangerous Colorado and travel to College Station. The Sooners will also have to deal with Texas Tech later in the season. The truth is, though, that Oklahoma is just much more solid than any of the teams left on their schedule, and will have no one to blame but themselves for not closing the deal and getting to another national title game. Bob Stoops is proving that he is a great head coach; Oklahoma's defense is again terrific and the offense does just enough, or a hell of a lot (49-3 over Iowa State), to get the job done. To top it off, they have the most attractive uniform colors in all of college football. Go Sooners! TEAM: Georgia (7-0) Given: Georgia is an average team, given the SEC is still the toughest conference in college football... how can Georgia go undefeated? The SEC is tough through and through, but there are no powerhouses this year, and so the Bulldogs squeaked by Alabama and Tennessee and could well squeak by Florida and Auburn en route to an undefeated season. I leave it to the BCS gurus to tell us if that means they'd get a crack in the national title game even if the Sooners also go undefeated. I have no doubt that Oklahoma would provide Miami a better challenge than the Bulldogs. Still, Georgia is playing awfully well (despite my preseason dire predicitons) under Mark Richt, and both Richt and previous head coach Jim Donnan recruited well, so the Dawgs are primed to take advantage of an SEC down year. Plus they dodge LSU, the team that could do the same in the West. In fact, the BCS might likely dodge a bullet by having once-beaten LSU off Georgia in the SEC Championship game. Problem is, Georgia may quite likely edge past LSU just like they edge past all the toughies. TEAM: Ohio State (8-0) Ohio State could legitimately go undefeated this year. But see my comments about Georgia. This is a strong, but not outstanding, team, taking advantage of the fact that the decent conference it is in is lacking powerhouses. The Buckeyes would seem to be for real; they pummeled a good Washington State team, and Maurice Clarett was not a one-game wonder. But in the I have to see it to believe it column, can they really get by Michigan in a year when it matters? And Penn State too could be tricky, not to mention a one-loss Minnesota team playing above its heads. Yet all three of these games (not to mention the Washington State game) are in Columbus. All three of their road games (Cincy, Northwestern, and Wisconsin) were either near-losses or surprisingly poor. So maybe every game will be a challenge for the Buckeyes: the 3 home games against good teams, and the road games because they are road games. Doesn't seem promising for their bowl. TEAM: Bowling Green (6-0) Bowling Green has a tough road to go undefeated. Unlike Ohio State, Bowling Green has tough games on the road, and the easier ones at home. The Falcons have shown substantial guttiness this year, like last week's come-from-behind overtime win against Western Michigan, but they are only a little bit better than their MAC breathren, which is hardly a guarantee that their winning ways can continue. Quarterback Josh Harris is the team leader, and he has led the Falcons to victory over not only the MAC foes but two Big 12 teams (Missouri and at Kansas, where the Falcons scored a season low 39 points). But the jury is still out. TEAM: Virginia Tech (7-0) Surprise! The Big East is the only conference with 2 undefeated teams, and as if this season was made-for-TV, there's little suspense before December 7 when the two play each other. (To be sure, Miami had to beat some good teams: Florida and Florida State, with Tennessee to come.) Frank Beamer's team has not been tested, although the win over LSU looks better and better with each passing week. The Hoakies are somehow good again; apparently, Bruce Smith and Michael Vick aren't the only two greats to ever play in Blacksburg. With another tough defense and power ground game, the Hoakies have the kind of team that you aren't blown away by, but which you are forced to grudgingly admit could beat any team in the country. The possible spoiler looms the week before Miami against Virginia (now 6-2), but really nothing should get between Va Tech and their first opportunity to lose on December 7 in the Orange Bowl. TEAM: Notre Dame (7-0) I've been hard on Notre Dame all year, but the last two weeks have made me a believer. To hold Pittsburgh to 6 points and Air Force to 14 - that's just too good. The Irish offense continues to sputter, but the defense is aggressive and impressive, and could stop anyone in the nation. I have finally gone from "When will the luck of the Irish run out?" to "Will the luck of the Irish run out?" My money is still on that it will. Like Bowling Green, Notre Dame not only has some tough games remaining, but they are both on the road. I doubt they get out of Tallahassee unscathed, but if they do, there is the year-end match up with Carson Palmer and USC. That ranks them as "unlikely" but not "unthinkable". TEAM: North Carolina State (8-0) The unlisted tough test is Georgia Tech. Here's an 8-0 team that could legitimately and unsurprisingly be 8-5 by the end of the season. It's not that I don't think Phillip Rivers and the Wolfpack offense is good; they are, I just can't swallow the idea that little NC State can compete outside of the ACC's lower tier. Rivers is good, he does lead the NCAA in passing efficiency, but this is a team that struggled last week with Duke and that has built their undefeated mark on the backs of wins over UMass, Navy, and East Tennessee State. They are going down eventually, and probably next week will be off this elite list of undefeateds. ...The Bad... TEAM: Tulsa (0-7) Tulsa is bad this year, but fortunately, they play quite a few bad teams. Not only do they have a 1-7 SMU team to end the season, but they could tough out a win against Texas El Paso, Rice, or San Jose State. TEAM: Army (0-8) The good news for Army is they always get to play Navy. Although Navy looked good in a game against SMU (pummeling them 38-7), they've dropped 6 games in a row and are looking eminently beatable. Still, Army has looked worse. Worse, there really isn't another team on their schedule they can compete with, with the possible exception of Alabama-Birmingham. It could very well be a winless campaign for the Cadets. Let's hope they beat Iraq if it comes to that. ...and The Ugly. The traditional list of I-A losses to I-AA teams, from most to least surprising:
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