College Football Third Quarter Report

SEC

Did anyone catch the thriller between Vanderbilt and Florida and the constant reaction shots off Jay Cutler's dad? When the gifted Vanderbilt QB would make a big play, Dad had the classlessness to start doing a mocking version of the Gator Chomp. Then it appeared that a Florida fan said something to him, and Dad started to walk confrontationally towards the man until his wife pulled him back.

What an incredible jerk. He might as well start wearing t-shirts to road games that say, "My son is Jay Cutler. Yours is not. He's gonna make me rich someday. Your team sucks. Wanna fight about it?"

It's an unfortunate chapter in what has been a dream season by Vanderbilt standards. They represent a middle ground team in a conference where everyone seems to be either world-class (Florida, LSU, Alabama, Georgia) or terrible (the Mississippi schools, Kentucky, Arkansas). Alabama is the college football version of a lame-duck president, an undefeated team that absolutely nobody outside of the Crimson faithful expects to stay that way.

Predicted Champion: LSU

ACC

The Athletic Coast Conference is not only the strongest conference in the land, and the deepest, but also the conference boasting the most parity. Yes, that was basement-dwelling North Carolina State going into Tallahassee and knocking off the 'Noles. Any one of these teams, except for Duke, is capable of knocking off any of the other teams, anywhere, any time.

So, those uniforms that Florida and Virginia Tech have worn recently, where one jersey shoulder is a different color than the other one (Miami and USC will reportedly be following in the next few weeks) is part of a disturbing trend. I don't personally dislike the look, although many others do, and say it makes the players look like their arm is in a sling. What I do dislike is these designs are not coming from the schools themselves. It's a Nike design, and they are basically modeling their new designs on the game jerseys of several teams.

I had no idea that the shoe companies held artistic control over the uniforms they produce. I never had a problem with Nike putting a small swoosh on the uniforms they put out, but if the schools they have contracted do not maintain creative control over the uniform's designs, that's a travesty. Colleges are fountains of creativity and if the school wants a cutting-edge uniform, there is an abundance of free ideas for it to be found in the student body itself.

But no, the schools take a pass on the ingenuity of their own students and pass it off to the shoe companies instead. And Nike, not satisfied with the swoosh being everywhere we look, has to create their own imprint on the entirety of the uniform and put it in place across the country. Words cannot express how horrified I would be if my alma mater, Ohio State, followed Florida and Virginia Tech's lead.

Predicted Champion: Miami

Big 10

It's Penn State's to lose now, and so it comes down to a trip to East Lansing in two weeks. To be sure, if the Spartans post the kind of game they did against Notre Dame, the upset is possible. But even then, Penn State has already defeated three of the four teams that could tie or overtake them in the standings, so you would have to like Penn State's chances even if they do lay an egg at Michigan State.

Ohio State is the only team that can still finish with a better record outright, but for that to happen (besides needing Penn State to lose their last game), Ohio State would have win two very tough games — home to Northwestern and at Michigan. And Penn State is so charged up right now, JoePa's not going to let them stumble on themselves.

With the strides that Rutgers, Arizona, Vanderbilt, and even Baylor have made, Illinois is now the worst BCS team in the country. Two years ago, I put that odious crown on Arizona's heads. So that's twice in three years that a huge state school with lots of resources has been the team to be surpassed by every other BCS school in the country. There's no excuse for that. Illinois won the Big 10 just four years ago.

Predicted Champion: Penn State

Big 12

Probably not quite as bad as everyone thinks, although certainly the worst BCS conference (excluding, of course, the Big East, who is soon to be kicked off the BCS island and I'm not even going to review for this column). The domination of Texas, the decline of Oklahoma, and the improvement of Baylor and Iowa State makes the conference look worse than they actually is. Baylor is a couple of overtime losses (to Oklahoma and Texas A&M) from being one hell of a great feel-good story — maybe next year. The next Longhorn game that does not end in a blowout may not take place until the fall of 2006.

It doesn't make sense because I was never a big follower of it anyway, but lately, I've been feeling nostalgic for the old "SWC," the Southwestern Conference. For the kids in the audience, the SWC used to house every large school in Texas, plus Arkansas, but after Arkansas defected to the SEC, it was bitten in half by the Big 12 (then called the Big 8, who took Baylor, Texas, Texas A&M, and Texas Tech) and the WAC (who took Rice, SMU, TCU, and UTEP, and then split into two conferences, as well, with the weaker conference keeping the WAC name and the stronger schools forming the Mountain West Conference). This made an orphan of Houston, who went on to join Conference USA. History lesson complete.

Predicted Champion: Texas

Pac-10

I still think USC is the best team in the nation and will defeat Texas in the Rose Bowl, but I now feel shaky about that prediction and I backed off claims that they might be on par with some of the dominant teams of all time long ago. Cal, Oregon, and UCLA (and Fresno State, who for the purposes of this article, are an honorary, one-year member of the Pac-10) are all about equally second-best, with both Arizona schools (Wildcats rising, Sun Devils fading) right behind them. Stanford comes next, then Oregon State. The Washington schools bring up the rear, with the Cougs a leg up on the Huskies.

I do have a point to this rundown: the Pac-10 is indeed underrated, but a bit lacking in parity.

Has anyone else noticed that Arizona State seems to use their end zones as a canvas for creativity? They honored Pat Tillman in the end zones last year. They honored LSU and Hurricane Katrina victims with a map of Louisiana and a fleur-de-lis this year. Then against USC, they rolled out end zones featuring a close-up of their mascot's face and a pitchfork forming the E in "State" in one end zone and in "Devils" in the other." I'm sure the design was way too gaudy for the purists who prefer the Notre Dame end zone style, but I'm no purist. Big thumbs up to the ASU field maintenance staff.

Predicted Champion: USC