Week 5: College Football Trend Watching

Week 5 trends from beneath the giant sombrero that I wear will typing Trend Watching...

Up

• Miami - Jacory Harris started off awful but came back and was able to beat down the Bradford-less Sooners. The second big win, coupled with UNC's utter collapse, mean's its easy sailing the rest of the way to an at-large bid
• Auburn - Suddenly Auburn comments and hype are coming out of the woodwork. I won't reiterate the job their new o-coordinator has done for the team (for those that are unaware the inventor of the modern wildcat formation is their offensive coordinator) but suffice to say Auburn has gone from averaging -17 pts a game to over 30. I doubt Auburn can win the loaded SEC West but don't be surprised it upsets a team or two.
• Oregon - Shame on me for trusting Cal but I have this new get rich and quick scheme..err Pac 10 team. Yes, yes Boise State crushed them but in the last two weeks they've played the same teams USC has and won by larger margins. Oregon is that last hope of not having USC win the Pac 10.
  

Down

• Houston - After winning against Tech Houston lost an absolutely inexplicable game against UTEP. For those that are unaware UTEP doesn't actually field 11 players on defense. So the mid-major bids lose another. Only TCU and Boise State remain.
• FSU - After a monumental crushing of BYU the wheels have fully come off FSU. Dropping another game against a horrible team its looking like Bobby Bowden might "retire" this year. And by retire I mean fired. And by fired I mean its admitted that he died several years ago.
  

Open Admission of Uncertainty

• That last at large bid I'll be honest...No clue. My current list for that spot includes ND/Big 10 #2/Pac 10#2/Big 12 #2 - I think that currently includes about 8 teams. Notre Dame I'd say has the inside track but that assumes it can beat Stanford, BC, UConn, and Pitt. I'm not certain they can do that. In the meantime I'm putting my current projection of a two loss Nebraska over a two loss tOSU for reasons of profit (Nebraska fan base + tOSU has been to the Fiesta for what feels like forever)

Games of the Week
Florida at LSU
Alabama at Ole Miss
Nebraska at Missouri (Thursday)
Wisconsin at tOSU
Michigan at Iowa

Bowl Predictions

BCS Championship: Alabama over Texas
Orange Bowl : Virginia Tech over Boise State
Sugar Bowl: Florida over Cincinnati
Fiesta: Miami (FL) over Nebraska
Rose Bowl: USC over Penn State