Week One: The Pac Ten’s Race To The BCS

The first BCS Standings have been released and there are a few things that caught my attention. Boise State (.8083), Cincinnati (.7870) and Iowa (7869) are all ranked ahead of USC (.7695). The bottom line is the Trojans are a much better football team than Boise State, Cincinnati and Iowa. If the Trojans continue to win they will eventually pass those teams. Boise State will be hurt by their remaining schedule. It is highly unlikely that any team that Boise State faces for the rest of the season will be ranked. On the other hand, USC still has to face Oregon (AP #12) and there is a chance that Arizona State and Arizona will be ranked by the time they face the Trojans. The Iowa Hawkeyes still have to play at Michigan State and at Ohio State. The Bearcats have West Virginia, Illinois and Pittsburgh on their schedule. There is a lot of football left and upsets will happen.

The Pac Ten currently has three teams ranked in the first BCS Standings. USC is #7 (.7695) followed by Oregon #11 (.5849) and Arizona is #22 (.1138). USC still has a shot at the National Championship. Oregon is a long shot for the Title game and the Ducks would need a lot of help to move up that far. Arizona’s only option of making the BCS could be the Rose Bowl Game. The Trojans have the best chance of any Pac Ten team to qualify for a BCS game with two losses.

Arizona faces UCLA, Washington State and California over the next four weeks. If the Wildcats can win all those games they might find themselves in the top fifteen of the BCS standings. Over the next three weeks the Oregon Ducks are at Washington, USC (at home) and at Stanford. This week’s game at Washington is huge. The Huskies are 3-4 and 2-2 in the Pac Ten. Washington has already upset USC, they should have beaten Notre Dame and they loss on a blown assignment to Arizona State when the game should have went into OT. The Huskies need at least three more victories to become bowl eligible and it would not be a shock if the Huskies beat the Ducks. It is very important that the Ducks are not looking past Washington with USC coming up the following week. An Oregon win at Washington this Saturday would set-up a gigantic game against the Trojans on October 31st.

The Trojans, Ducks and Wildcats need to follow the old cliché and take them one game at a time. The way the college football season has gone so far it is very likely that a number of top twenty-five teams will lose this week. If these three teams are the class of the Pac Ten and continue to win games it will create some great games for the conference for the remainder of the season.