Yes, I Do Love Pac-10 Football

While Robyn and I were eating delicious pulled pork sandwiches on Saturday at the Black Dog in Urbana, and most of the raucous crowd was hooting and hollering at the Iowa-Ohio State game, I was keeping my eye on the sports ticker that showed the following: Stanford 35, USC 21, 4th quarter. I couldn't believe what I was reading. A week after beating my beloved Ducks, the Cardinal was crushing 'SC in the Coliseum!!! This is one of the many reasons why I love the Pac-10: Anything can, and will, happen. Later that night, I watched 'Bama beat Mississippi State 31-3 in the most boring football game ever in grand preparation for their showdown next week with Chattanooga. And, with Ohio State winning the Big Ten, the Pac-10 remains the only major conference left with any drama concerning who their champ will be. The Ducks are on top for now, and it's probable that the champion of the Pac-10 will be the winner of the Toilet Bowl Civil War Game. But by my calculations, six of the ten Pac-10 teams still have a mathematical possibility of reaching the Rose Bowl:

1) Oregon (8-2, 6-1): Win at Arizona, Win vs. Oregon St.

2) Arizona (6-3, 4-2): Win vs. Oregon, Win at Arizona St., Win at USC.

3) Oregon State (7-3, 5-2): Win at Wash. St., Win at Oregon. Have Arizona lose once.

4) Stanford (7-3, 6-2): Win vs. Cal. Have Oregon lose once, Arizona lose once, and Oregon State lose once.

5) USC (7-3, 4-3): Win vs. UCLA, Win vs. Arizona. Have Oregon lose to Arizona and Oregon State. Have Arizona beat Arizona State. Have Oregon State lose to Washington State. Have Cal beat Stanford and Washington, thereby creating a six team tie for first place. The first tie-breaker would be those six team's records against one another, which would be: USC: 3-2, Arizona: 3-2, Oregon State: 3-2, Stanford: 2-3, Cal: 2-3, Oregon: 2-3. Oregon, Stanford, and Cal would all be dropped, leaving only Arizona, Oregon State, and USC, and since USC beat both Oregon St. and Arizona, they would win the final tie breaker.

6) California (7-3, 4-3): Win at Stanford, Win at Washington. Have Oregon lose to Arizona and Oregon State. Have Arizona lose to Arizona State and USC. Have Oregon State lose to Washington State. Have USC lose to UCLA. This would create a four-way tie for first between Oregon, Oregon State, Cal, and Stanford. Their head-to-head records would be: Oregon: 1-2, Stanford: 1-2, Cal: 1-2, Oregon State: 3-0..... Damn. Maybe there are only five teams that can still go to the Rose Bowl. Let me get back to you on this one.