Saturday night featured one of the most anticipated games of the year so far in college football. Notre Dame went to visit Oklahoma, playing them for only the tenth time ever. The Irish had a surprisingly easy time, beating the Sooners 30-13. This was the 9th time the Irish have won in their 10 game series. Many so-called college football experts thought Oklahoma would tear up the Notre Dame secondary, with Landry Jones and his big receivers. In fact, Oklahoma was an 11 1/2 point favorite in the game.
I guess the Notre Dame defense wasn’t intimidated by the powerful Oklahoma offense. Jones did throw for 356 yards, but had no big plays. The Notre Dame secondary kept all the completions in front of them, so Oklahoma had no explosive plays in the entire game. As for the running game, Notre Dame outrushed Oklahoma 215-15. Yes, you read that correctly. So Oklahoma was forced to pass 51 times just to compete. Jones ended with one interception and no touchdown passes. Manti Teo, the Irish linebacker, who has been mentioned as a possible Heisman Trophy finalist, was the recipient of the interception, as the ball was flipped up in the air, and Teo dove for it, barely catching it off the grass. This interception basically sealed the game for Notre Dame.
On Sunday night, the new Bowl Championship Series rankings came out, and Notre Dame had moved up 2 spots to #3, narrowly scoring ahead of Oregon, who remained at #4. Oregon pummeled another opponent on Saturday. They crushed Colorado 70-14, a team with only one win. However, since Notre Dame has played against a much tougher series of opponents than Oregon, the computer rankings favor Notre Dame. In fact, the Irish is tied for first with Kansas State in the computer rankings. However, Alabama is a clear #1 in both of the polls. Oregon’s chances of playing in the BCS Championship Game also was hurt by future opponents USC and Oregon State both losing. So their strength of schedule took a serious hit with those losses.
Now there are 6 undefeated teams remaining, including Louisville at #10, and Ohio State, who is ineligible for a bowl game. If Alabama, Kansas State, Notre Dame, and Oregon all remain unbeaten until the end of the season, who will play for the championship? Alabama at #1 seems to have a lock as one team in the game, but it would be very difficult to pick amongst the other three. Kansas State will probably finish with the best strength of schedule of the three teams. Oregon has a tremendous fast paced, high scoring team. Notre Dame has one of the best defenses in college football, as well as the largest fan base. Notre Dame has the easiest remaining schedule, just having to go to USC for its last game of the season. But that will jsut hurt them in the computer rankings. There is still another month left in the regular season, so a lot could still happen. Going into last Saturday, there was 11 unbeaten teams, and 5 of them lost. The four team playoff doesn’t start until next year. I hope it isn’t needed this year, to decide who is the national champion of college football in 2012.
