This season has some very interesting possibilities for BCS controversy. The obvious one is what happens if Texas, Alabama and Penn State win out. There is an unfortunate history for an unbeaten Penn State to be left out of a champiionship game. I don't know how the voters would respond to that. Right now, my computer is not helping much, dropping Paterno to #4 after a road win at Ohio State. I can't say that I understand that. I call this thing By the Numbers because all I'm doing is reporting numbers. It is safe to say that if my computer is doing this, though, that the BCS computers may have similar tendencies. Fortunately (?) the computer rankings are little more than a tie-breaker in the current system. My personal belief is that those three will not stay unbeaten. Texas and Alabama both have tough conference games left, plus a conference championship game.

Perhaps more troublesome (interesting?) is the large number of unbeaten non-BCS teams. Utah is the highest ranked, but the Utes have games left against TCU and BYU. Boise State, Ball State and Tulsa all have good chances of running the table. If this happens, the top-ranked of these unbeatens would have an automatic BCS Bowl berth. Would a big bowl prefer an attractive unknown or an old warhorse like Notre Dame? It's tempting to make a political analogy out of that, but I wouldn't want to lose my clothing contract.

There are two very big national games, but not much else of interest. Texas goes to Lubbock to face Mike Leach's flying circus. Florida and Georgia get together in Jacksonville for cocktails. I wonder how many players will celebrate the first Georgia touchdown. I've been thinking about that -- if 60 players storm the field to celebrate, shouldn't there be 60 unsportsmanlike penalties? Could Florida bank them? On a crucial third-and-2, the ref blows his whistle and announces that Florida is using 2 15-yard penalties to make it third-and-32. "Florida has two timeouts and 13 penalties remaining." There ought to be something better to write about, but my mental game is in a rain delay tied up in the middle of the sixth inning, to be completed at a later date. Unfortunately, the forecast doesn't look good for tonight.

The following predictions are straight from the ratings, with 4 points added for home field.

Texas over Texas Tech by 6 (The over/under on punts is 2. It should be a lot of fun.)
Florida over Georgia by 4 (Maybe the best two QB's outside of the Big 12. For the SEC-East title and a big bowl.)
Georgia Tech over Florida State by 1 (The JV battle of Florida and Georgia. But big in the ACC.)
Virginia over Miami by 5 (And now they can win on the road. Hoo knew?)
UConn over West Virginia by 9 (The winner takes charge of the Big East.)
Tulsa over Arkansas by 11 (That's a bet I'd take, but can you believe the Hogs are double-digits underdogs at home?)