Ratings 11/18/06 Ratings (11/18)
What a great game! You couldn't expect a much better game than the Ohio State Michigan "instant classic" on Saturday. However, I think you could ask for a better game; for instance, wasn't the Texas-USC Rose Bowl better? Multiple lead changes and in doubt to the last play. A person could argue that if you took away two Buckeye bad center snaps that Michigan wouldn't have been in the game. So, my interest in a possible rematch is more academic (could we bring ourselves to allow that?) than personal. Not to be defensive about my (stupid) rankings (it's not my fault), but I do think that USC offers the best hope for a strong championship game, if they can get by Notre Dame and UCLA. I actually thought their win over Cal was impressive; they didn't score 40 points, but they shut down a very good and highly motivated offense.

With all the stories of Bo versus Woody over the weekend, I thought I'd share one that is not well known. In 1978, my second year at Clemson, the Tigers went 10-1 with the only loss being an early season road game at Georgia. The reward was a Gator Bowl appearance against the Buckeyes of Woody Hayes. A close Clemson win (17-15, not enough to cover the spread, as my Clemson roommate still regrets) is not remembered nearly as well as Woody's attack on Charlie Bauman, the Clemson defender who made a late interception to seal the win and unfortunately was tackled near Ohio State's angry coach. What I can add is that the following year Woody was the guest speaker at the Clemson athletic banquet. I wasn't there, but the campus newspaper had glowing reports of a charming and humble man who truly loved coaching football and working with young men. If you do some Googling on this, you can read that Woody never apologized to Bauman. That's wrong. He did so at the banquet. Sadly, I couldn't find any evidence of the banquet on the internet.

This is part deux of Rivalry Week. Aside from the Ohio State game last week, I think this week is the more interesting. There's the cockfight in Clemson (I hope not quite so literally as two years ago). The Virginias, the Floridas, the Georgias and the Oklahomas have the spoiler versus heavy favorite angle. The Mississippis are both 3-8, the Oregons are both 7-4 and the Arizonas are both 6-5 as they head into the Egg Bowl, the Civil War and whatever Arizona has renamed what was the Territorial Championship Cup when they played in 1899. BYU tries to run the table after a 1-2 start with a tough game at Utah, Boise tries to go 12-0 and get a BCS bowl with a win at Nevada, Wake and Maryland have shots at the ACC Championship Game, and Troy and Middle Tennessee play for the Sun Belt title and a bowl bid.

The following predictions are straight from the ratings with 4 points added for home field. Enjoy the games and the turkey!
Clemson over South Carolina by 8 (it's been awhile since the Chickens won; that's fine by me)
Boston College over Miami by 8 (no bowl for the Canes and a trip to Jacksonville for BC?)
UNC over Duke by 5 (the Heels diaper dandies and the Cameron crazies, baby! wrong sport, never mind)
Maryland over Wake Forest by 1 (the Deacs get a mulligan on the division; the Fat Man needs to lay off the turnovers)
Florida over Florida State by 13 (last year the Noles had a late season comeback; any surprises left?)
Georgia over Georgia Tech by 2 (contrary to the buzz, but the Dawgs pounded Auburn last time out)
Oklahoma over Oklahoma State by 5 (the Cowboys usually play well, the Sooners may be playing for a title)
Texas over Texas A&M by 12 (back-to-back 1 point losses have hurt the Aggies, but this could make their year)
Rice over SMU by 5 (both teams at 6-5, playing for bowl games? Amazing!)
Southern Cal over Notre Dame by 12 (for a trip to Glendale? A big step up in competition for the Irish)
BYU over Utah by 8 (early losses to Arizona and BC don't look bad now for BYU)
Arizona over Arizona State by 6 (the Cats are one of the hottest teams in the country)
Tennessee over Kentucky by 14 (I can't repeat the above line, but these Cats are 7-4 and go bowling!)
Oregon over Oregon State by 5 (O has quacked up since the SC game, but Ducks versus Beavers is never fowl)
Arkansas over LSU by 1 (the other white meat tries to stay unbeaten in the SEC; mostly unrespected, though)
Boise State over Nevada by 7 (the Fiesta Bowl says "Go Wolfpack!")
Hawaii over Purdue by 13 (surprise! the Warriors are on a roll, and this home field is usually worth more than 4)

1	Southern Cal	65.07
2	Ohio State	63.37
3	Florida	61.12
4	Louisville	60.87
5	LSU	60.41
6	Michigan	59.21
7	West Virginia	59.18
8	California	57.82
9	Texas	57.49
10	Arkansas	56.92
11	Notre Dame	56.57
12	Auburn	56.36
13	Tennessee	56.33
14	Oklahoma	55.65
15	Rutgers	55.39
16	Boise St	54.78
17	Virginia Tech	54.16
18	BYU	53.14
19	Nebraska	53.04
20	Clemson	52.79
21	Wisconsin	52.72
22	Boston College	52.27
23	Oregon	51.24
24	Hawaii	50.73
25	Oregon St	50.58
26	Georgia Tech	50.16
27	UCLA	49.66
28	Wake Forest	49.12
29	Texas A&M	48.97
30	S Carolina	48.71
31	Arizona	48.49
32	Georgia	48.48
33	Penn State	47.53
34	Washington St	47.48
35	Missouri	47.23
36	TCU	46.78
37	Arizona St	46.71
38	Cincinnati	46.43
39	Oklahoma St	46.34
40	Texas Tech	45.99
41	Maryland	45.83
42	Kentucky	45.82
43	Alabama	45.13
44	Pittsburgh	44.95
45	Houston	44.81
46	Washington	44.25
47	Florida State	43.91
48	Nevada	43.87
49	S. Florida	43.69
50	Navy	43.52
51	Minnesota	43.40
52	Kansas State	42.98
53	Southern Miss	42.61
54	Tulsa	42.29
55	Purdue	41.89
56	Iowa	41.79
57	Utah	41.27
58	Kansas	40.59
59	East Carolina	39.89
60	Miami F	39.66
61	Ohio	39.57
62	Central Michigan	39.03
63	Middle Tenn	39.01
64	Air Force	38.51
65	Vanderbilt	38.49
66	Rice	38.11
67	UConn	38.07
68	Syracuse	37.92
69	San Jose	37.33
70	Miss St	37.24
71	Virginia	37.02
72	SMU	36.75
73	Wyoming	36.71
74	Michigan St	36.47
75	Ole Miss	35.95
76	Northern Illinois	35.74
77	West.Michigan	35.69
78	Marshall	35.42
79	Indiana	35.16
80	Baylor	35.11
81	NC State	34.31
82	Fresno St	33.93
83	UTEP	33.46
84	New Mexico	33.35
85	Troy	32.57
86	Colorado St	32.23
87	Northwestern	32.16
88	Tulane	31.87
89	UNC	31.68
90	Iowa State	31.64
91	La-Lafayette	31.50
92	Colorado	31.22
93	Illinois	31.13
94	Kent State	31.05
95	Akron	30.84
96	UAB	30.80
97	Stanford	30.59
98	Arkansas St	30.37
99	Army	29.00
100	Ball State	28.98
101	C. Florida	28.83
102	La-Monroe	27.71
103	Florida Atlantic	27.25
104	Toledo	27.03
105	Idaho	26.69
106	New Mexico St	26.45
107	Bowling Green	25.49
108	San Diego St	25.42
109	La Tech	24.17
110	Memphis	23.46
111	North Texas	23.39
112	Miami O	23.17
113	Duke	22.82
114	UNLV	21.85
115	Buffalo	21.46
116	Utah State	20.69
117	East.Michigan	19.21
118	Temple	17.42
119	Florida Int.	17.02