Bevy of Upsets Creates Carnage in the Polls

Rutgers fans laid low by their team’s performance in a home loss to Maryland Saturday, take solace. It could have been worse. You could be a scalper holding tickets to next week’s Red River Shootout game between Texas and Oklahoma, both of whom lost to unranked foes on an upset-filled day.This weekend saw as much poll carnage as any in recent memory, although outside of dealing Oklahoma’s title hopes a serious blow, it did surprisingly little to alter the national-title picture. More on that later. First, the casualty report: Five of the top 10 teams in the AP poll lost, and seven of the top 13. Five of the seven losers fell to unranked teams; four lost at home. It was the worst weekend for top-10 teams since October of2003, when five also lost.There was nearly even more chaos. Top-ranked USC edged Washington by a field goal, losing the top spot in the polls to LSU in the process. The Tigers passed USC in the AP rankings despite looking far from impressive in a win over Tulane. Boston College got a stiff challenge from UMass. Wisconsin held off Michigan State in the final minutes. Among the top 10, only Ohio State, a three-touchdown winner over Minnesota, survived the weekend without so much as a mark.Next week was to have been one of those days necessitating an ESPN nickname. But instead of Texas-Oklahoma and Florida-LSU headlining a “Showdown Saturday,” perhaps the focus will shift to Kansas-Kansas State and Kentucky-South Carolina (combined records: 16–2).Those four teams are all nice stories, and in the case of perennial SEC doormat Kentucky, suddenly a contender in the conference’s East division, maybe more than that. Yet even the Wildcats take a back seat to what is occurring in Tampa as the year’s best Cinderella tale. In a sport ruled by traditional powers, South Florida is the upstart to end all upstarts. The Bulls have been playing the sport SEC championship. A second win there could propel a 12–1 Florida back to the title game, just as it did last season. LSU, on the other hand, can probably afford to lose this week as long as it runs the table and wins a presumed rematch against the Gators in December.That label might have been worn by Rutgers today had the Knights not fallen on their face against a Maryland team that came into the contest on a two-game losing streak. Rutgers was better than a two-touchdown favorite, yet trailed much of the game despite knocking out Maryland’s starting quarterback with a concussion.Though Rutgers has yet to play a conference game, this loss showed defensive holes which may be too great to overcome against the likes of South Florida, West Virginia, and even Cincinnati, which visits Piscataway, N.J., this coming Saturday. Against Maryland, and before that Navy, Rutgers was gashed repeatedly on the ground. Unlike Navy, Maryland is not known as a standout rushing team, yet the Terrapins rolled up 239 yards on the ground. Maryland possessed the ball for nearly 37 minutes and kept Ray Rice on the sidelines.TRutgers can still have a very successful season, perhaps even better than last year’s 11-2 campaign. But if there is anything to be learned from this loss it is this: It is time for Rutgers to upgrade its schedule. Games against Buffalo and Norfolk State help to pad the stat sheet, but they do little to prepare a team for the better competition to come. Rutgers no longer needs to schedule patsies just to ensure it can get to six wins and a bowl, and would be better served challenging itself more in the nonconference season.Still, Rutgers was not the weekend’s biggest loser. That honor goes to Oklahoma, which was stunned by Colorado in Boulder. Oklahoma was one of four teams, along with USC, LSU, and Florida, that appeared to have separated itself from the pack coming into the weekend. The Sooners looked like they might cruise to an undefeated regular season and a berth in the BCS title game, especially with Texas showing its vulnerability. Instead, they saw their championship dreams come crashing down as Colorado — 2–10 a year ago — scored the final 20 points to pull off the day’s biggest upset.The overall weakness of the Big 12 will likely prevent a one-loss Oklahoma from reaching the title game. The same can’t be said of Florida, thanks to the reputation enjoyed by the SEC. The Gators fell just five spots in the new AP poll despite losing at home to unranked, two-loss Auburn. That kind of benefit of the doubt means that should the Gators pull off the upset of LSU this week, they will have an excellent chance to earn a rematch against the Tigers in theUSC also need not worry. The Trojans remain in the driver’s seat for a spot in the title game as long as they keep winning. That’s no certainty, of course, not with visits to both Oregon and Cal still to come. Following this weekend’s upsets, the Trojans’ trip to Berkeley on November 10 now looks like it has the potential to be the regular-season for just 11 seasons, yet after beating then-no. 5 West Virginia Friday night, they must now be considered the favorite to capture the Big East’s BCS berth.Yet such forecasts come with a cautionary tale. If ever there was a season that proved the folly of trying to project match-ups weeks ahead of time, it was this one. Just ask anyone trying to dump a spare pair of tickets outside the Cotton Bowl this coming Saturday.Mr. Levine is a writer for Footballoutsiders.com.

Bevy of Upsets Creates Carnage in the Polls

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