Five Thoughts on the week that was--Week 8

1) Oklahoma upset was HUGE
Everyone is swooning over the Hail Mary MSU win over Wisconsin and what that means to the future, but that is but a drop in the bucket to the storm that erupted in Norman. Let's make this clear: Oklahoma does NOT lose in Norman. They play so much better at home than on the road, they never play Texas at home, and they just own the rest of the country when they come to their house. Texas Tech was a nice little upstart, but they shouldn't have had a prayer with all on the line in the Sooner's house. The OU defense was befuddled by Doege and even though they put up points, no one expected them to need a comeback to make it close. This loss is HUGE for the shakeup of the BCS (much much bigger than the Wisconsin loss) and will also haunt Bob Stoops. Big game Bob showed the 'Chokelahoma' moniker is more deserved.

2) Don't forget about Oregon
With all the hype around the SEC matchup in 2 weeks and all the other top 5 upsets, people are forgetting about the Ducks sneaking around the chicken coop. Yes, they lost to LSU at a 'neutral site' in Jerry world because they nicely handed the ball to LSU many times, but since then, they are trouncing everyone. I know the competition is much much weaker, but I'm not sold that Stanford can take the Ducks this year. If LSU dominates Bama, we may have to face the possibility that the Ducks are the 2nd best team in the country. Perhaps they deserve a rematch against LSU in a more neutral location in the national championship....wait....it's in New Orleans? Crap.

3) B1G is an absolute mess
Is there a team (outside of Indiana or Minnesota--maybe Purdue) in the B1G that you can say is out of the race? The answer is no. Why? OSU is down. There is no National Title contender in the conference (as I said preseason) and the conference contains a bunch of mid-level teams for this season. The clear favorites for the B1G Conference Title Game is Wisconsin v. MSU, but pretty much every other team (more or less) controls their destiny. Let's be honest. When this Ohio State team is 1 additional Penn State loss from controlling their destiny, this conference has issues. Perhaps this is the B1G basketball year!

4) Wisconsin faced a defense and....
They were exposed. The Wisconsin offense put some points up, but the unstoppable force was not so impressive in East Lansing. The game turned into a shootout and Wilson couldn't quite hang on. Let's recall that OSU gave up 10 points to the Spartans. This Wisconsin team is pretty good, but certainly not elite. They have been feasting off the dregs in Madison and weren't ready for a real test. They come into Columbus this week to face another defense with some bite and an offense that.....well the defense is good. It's not that big of a stretch to think that Wisconsin was all bark no bite.

5) BCS teams are more or less fixed right now

Can anyone imagine a situation in which a team other than those listed below will make a BCS game?
Big 12: OU/OSU
Pac 12: Stanford/Oregon
SEC: LSU/Bama
B1G: Champ (Wisc or MSU probable)
Big East: Champ (who cares)
ACC: Champ (Clemson probable)
At-Large: Boise

In my opinion, this will be the slate and I would be surprised with anything else. Yeah, Oklahoma could die off, but I'm not seeing it. One loss also does Boise in, but can anyone on their schedule beat them. Again, the excitement is somewhat tempered with the lack of top contenders. My midseason BCS Bowl predictions are:

Rose: Oregon vs. MSU
Fiesta: Oklahoma vs. Boise State
Sugar: Alabama vs. Stanford
Orange: Clemson vs. WVU
BCS Title: LSU vs. Oklahoma State

Pretty good matchups (except for the Orange....)