And then there were two

Ohio State left the ranks of the unbeaten today. Let’s see how Ohio State’s opponents did, get some commentary on the Big 10 race, review the Top 12, and finally the Bottom 5.

OSU Opponent Watch

• Youngstown State (7-4) – Played Western Illinois at home, won 31-24. Conclusion: Expected Win
• Akron (4-6) – Played Bowling Green at home, won 48-37. Conclusion: Unexpected Win
• Washington (3-7) – Played Oregon State away, lost 23-29. Conclusion: Expected Loss
• Northwestern (6-5) – Played Indiana at home, won 31-28. Conclusion: Unexpected Win
• Minnesota (1-9) – Played Iowa away, lost 16-21. Conclusion: Expected Loss
• Purdue (7-4) – Played Michigan State at home, lost 31-48. Conclusion: Unexpected Loss
• Kent State (3-7) – Played Northern Illinois away, lost 20-27. Conclusion: Expected Loss
• Michigan State (6-5) – Played Purdue away, won 48-31. Conclusion: Unexpected Win
• Penn State (8-3) – Played Temple away, won 31-0. Conclusion: Expected Win
• Wisconsin (8-3) – Played Michigan at home, won 37-21. Conclusion: Unexpected Win
• Illinois (8-3) – Played Ohio State away, won 28-21. Conclusion: Unexpected Win
• Michigan (8-3) – Played Wisconsin away, lost 21-37. Conclusion: Unexpected Loss

Buckeye opponent’s records after the 10th week, 69-59. After 8 weeks of conference play, Ohio State and Michigan each suffered their first conference loss and will play for the Big 10 championship next weekend. Congratulations to Michigan State, Iowa, and Northwestern who became bowl eligible. For the first time since 1959 both Ohio State and Michigan lost before their rivalry game. This weekend, 10 of the 11 Big 10 teams are now eligible for bowl play. The Big 10 is so tough, it’s tough to make it through conference play undefeated.

Quick Hits from Around College Football

These are the undefeated survivors; give them credit for standing tall when others are losing games they should win: Kansas and Hawaii. The Warriors thumped Fresno State and the Jayhawks outscored the Cowboys. Utah State and Florida International maintained their perfect records with zero wins between them this year.

Projected BCS Top 5: LSU, Oregon, Kansas, Oklahoma, and West Virginia.

Game of the week? Central Michigan beat Western Michigan 34-31. The teams combined to score 48 points in the final stanza.

Mismatch of the week? Virginia humiliated Miami 48-0 in their final game in the Orange Bowl stadium.

My Special Top 12 rankings: (Why Top 12? That’s where you need to be to get into BCS contention.)

1. Kansas – Outscored Oklahoma State.
2. Oregon – Knocked out Arizona State.
3. Oklahoma – Thumped Baylor.
4. Arizona State – Slipped past UCLA.
5. Missouri – Beat Texas A&M.
6. Ohio State – Spit the bit losing to Illinois.
7. West Virginia – Outlasted Louisville.
8. LSU – Obliterated Louisiana Tech.
9. Virginia – Killed Miami.
10. Georgia – Rallied to beat Auburn.
11. Illinois – Upset Ohio State.
12. Hawaii – Oulasted Fresno State.

My Special Bottom 5 rankings: (Why bottom 5? If you finish there you should be relegated to I-AA)

1. Notre Dame – 1-9 this season. Lost to Air Force.
2. Florida International – 0-9 Bye week.
3. Utah State – 0-10 this season. Lost to Boise State.
4. Colorado State – 1-9 this season. Lost to New Mexico.
5. Minnesota – 1-10 this season. Lost to Iowa.

In the coming week I’ll post an Michigan/OSU preview, a game review of Michigan/OSU, and a Weekend Update Sports edition.

Give Illinois all the credit, they came to play and ran the ball down the Buckeyes throat. Ohio State drops to 10-1 on the season and will play Michigan next week for the Big 10 championship and a Rose Bowl berth. Suffice to say, my game preview was wrong where I predicted a 31-20 Buckeye win.

The Good

• The first two offensive series. Picture perfect, well executed, and effective.
• Heart. Down two touchdowns, the team didn’t fold and continued to battle back.

The Bad

• The first two defensive series. They were thinking rather than reacting and it set the tone for the rest of the day.
• Turnovers. The team could survive a shaky defensive performance if the offense was on. It couldn’t survive bad quarterback decisions and bad defensive execution in the same game.

The Ugly

• Officiating. It was so bad in this game, they ought to resign. Two missed Illini turnovers, offensive holding all day. Bad replay execution. I don’t know that with the Illinois was running it would have made a difference, but the refs are directly responsible for 7 points.
• The run defense. 65 yards per game coming in, they gave up 265 today.
• End of Game melee. That’s good for no one, I was disappointed and embarrassed to see the poor sportsmanship at the end of the game.

Despite the outcome of this game, I’m proud of the season the Buckeyes have delivered. They barely lost to a very good Illinois team and had help from the refs spotting the Illini 7 points in the first quarter, the difference in the game. However, great teams overcome that sort of adversity and the Bucks weren’t up to the challenge this time. Illinois ran us over.

Now it’s time to regroup for next week and beat the Wolverines.

Finkbuilt has a great instructional article on how to build more durable lightsabers, you know, “elegant weapons from a more civilized age.” Wish I’d seen this before Halloween, it would have influenced my costume choice. These not only look great, they’re likely to be more durable than other choices available as you engage your foe…If you build one, let me know!

The latest rage seems to be represented by Bush defending Mukasey “not knowing what waterboarding is and if it is being used” and the Guiliani quote “if you’re taking a simplistic position on it, you’re probably irresponsible.” Color me wildly irresponsible, this is a simple issue. Waterboarding constitutes torture. This is easy to test: Anyone who contends that waterboarding (simulated drowning) does not constitute torture should be subjected to the practice. After such an experience, I submit that the person in question would then a) clearly understand the practice and b) have absolutely no doubt that it is torture.

The unfortunate aspect of this situation is that these wimps who condone such behavior won’t submit to the practice. Wouldn’t you just love to see some politician who believes this is an acceptable practice held down for simulated drowning? We could do our own interrogation: “Do you think this is torture yet? No answer? Do it again. Really, do you think this is torture yet? Still not ready to talk? Do it again.” I think with a few hours of repetition, the point would become clear.

Here’s a video demonstration of the practice, just in case you haven’t had a chance to see “enhanced interrogation” in action. The people faced with this enhanced interrogation approach do so over hours and days, not one little 20 second duration demonstration. There is no doubt, this constitutes torture. We should denounce this practice loudly and clearly, it is unacceptable in any circumstance.

Earlier this year I wrote an entry entitled “Screw the Planet, Save Yourself” – if I had known about this George Carlin routine at the time, I would have included it along with that entry. Yesterday I heard this on the radio and laughed repeatedly. No one drives home the point on this subject more effectively than he does…Enjoy!