Inside the Undefeated

Going into the tenth week now, the race for the top bowl games is getting intense. During that last two weeks, about seven teams set themselves apart form the pack as real contenders, and depending on the next few games, I think that any of them could potentially hit that number one spot.

But the BCS rankings aren’t about the number of games won. That magical list comes from a computer that determines who’s played harder teams and who won by better margins in relationship to the difficulty of their games. Although they are not the top five, there are five undefeated teams so far. Let’s go inside the undefeated to see if they have a chance of remaining that way and potentially going for the National Championship!

#1 Ohio State (9-0)

During week ten, Ohio State, the only team that has played nine undefeated games so far this season, will face #21 Wisconsin (7-2). I don’t foresee any problems there, especially after coming off a much-needed win at Penn State last weekend. After that, the Buckeyes play Illinois (again, not a problem) and Michigan, who is currently ranked #12. Michigan (7-2) could pose a problem. Can Ohio’s defense stop Mike Hart? Will Mike Hart even play? And, even if they lose against Michigan, will Ohio State still hold one of the top two spots? I think that it’s very likely.

#2 Boston College (8-0)

Last week, Matt Ryan showed us why he’s a Heisman hopeful. Can they continue their winning streak next week again Florida State? I think it’s very likely. Boston College has prevailed through the hardest opponents – Virginia Tech and Georgia Tech – so I predict that they’ll go all the way undefeated, but at the same time, they don’t have a particularly easy rest of the schedule, so anything could happen! It depends on how well Ryan plays.

#4 Arixona State (8-0)

Arizona State kinda snuck up on us didn’t they? Their week ten game is #5 Oregon – ouch. That’s a make or break game, and the rest of their schedule doesn’t look much easier – UCLA, USC, and Arizona. Well, Ok, Arizona should be an easy game, but UCLA and USC might give them some problems. The fact is, the first half of their season was pretty easy. Now is the real test. The Oregon game will tell us how good they really are, but I have to predict a loss. I think Oregon is the better team.

#8 Kansas (8-0)

Kansas played a great game last week against Texas A&M, and this week they’re playing Nebraska – which they should win easily. They’ve also got Oklahoma State, Iowa State, and Missouri left on the schedule. As far as I’m concerned, Kansas could very well go undefeated. Like Ohio State, their last game will be the biggest test. However, even if they do go undefeated, I think that Kansas will end up around #4. They just didn’t have a hard enough schedule to warrant being champions.

#14 Hawaii (8-0)

Poor Hawaii. We’ll never know how good…or bad…they are. I definitely think that Hawaii will go undefeated, but their schedule sucks, so they’ll end up pretty far down the list for an undefeated team. They do have a few slightly harder games coming up, and I think some of the current top tenners will lose, so I predict that Hawaii will end up around #7.