College Footbal: Week 10

My Rankings:

1. Boise State
2. Oregon
3. TCU
4. Auburn
5. Alabama
6. Wisconsin
7. Oklahoma
8. Ohio State
9. Stanford
10. Nebraska
11. Missouri
12. Utah
13. LSU
14. Virginia Tech
15. Arizona
16. Iowa
17. Michigan State
18. Arkansas
19. South Carolina
20. Oklahoma State
21. Baylor
22. Florida State
23. Mississippi State
24. Oregon State
25. Illinois

This Week's Top 5 Games:

#5 - South Carolina 31, Arkansas 28 - This game seems like a total toss-up.  The injuries are piling up for Arkansas in a disappointing season, and South Carolina will probably be looking forwards to the de facto SEC East title game with Florida next week.  When in doubt, I'll go with the home team than can run the ball better.

#4 - Stanford 31, Arizona 20 - I like what Arizona has done this year, but this feels like the end of the line for their Rose Bowl hopes.  Nick Foles is still uncertain for this game, and Andrew Luck has been rolling.  The athleticism of Arizona's defense should keep it interesting, but Stanford should be able to take advantage of all the opportunities they get with Andrew Luck and his underrated group of receivers.

#3 - Oklahoma State 48, Baylor 38 - Baylor's ascent to the top of the Big 12 South has been one of the best stories of the year.  However, that doesn't change the fact that their defense has been awful.  I still don't have a lot of faith in Oklahoma State, but we know their offense comes to play at home.  I think the Cowboys will be able to win an entertaining shootout.

#2 - Alabama 17, LSU 16 - Alabama seems both overrated and underrated at #5.  There's a feeling that they should be able to turn it on and simply rout any team in their way, but they also have a few major flaws that most teams haven't been able to take advantage of (lack of big plays on offense, bad secondary).  If I could trust LSU to produce a competent passing gameplan coming out of the bye week, then I would pick the upset, but once again I don't think Alabama's competition will be able to muster enough to pull it off.

#1 - TCU 37, Utah 14 - Yeah, I'm still not sold on Utah.  You could postulate that last week's 4th quarter against Air Force was mearly a team looking ahead to the big game, but I worry that it's a sign that they're just not ready for this game.  If Utah is to keep it closer than this, they'll have to dominate special teams.  KR Shaky Smithson gives Utah their best chance to have an advantage over TCU.  All that being said, TCU is playing far too focused to let Utah hang around.

Last Week: 4-1