NCAA Football Week 12

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NCAA Football Week 12

Cody Goggin

   Whenever a team is ranked number one in the nation, some spell seems to hit them and they are quickly upset by a team that is not expected to beat them. The spell struck again this past weekend, but this time it took out both number one and two for the first time since 2007.

    Coming into the closing weeks of the college football season, the fans were fresh off of seeing an upset of No. 1 Alabama at the hands of Texas A&M. Kansas State would then assume the role of being at the top and following them would be Oregon. The Wildcats would come out and play a sloppy game against a Baylor team that was ready to play. The Bears of Baylor put up 52 points, but more impressively, held the explosive Kansas State offense to only 24 points. The loss drops Kansas State into sixth, likely falling short of a National Championship.

     No. 2 was the Oregon Ducks. Playing an unproven Stanford team at home, Oregon seemed like a sure-thing… But not so fast. Things would be all knotted up at halftime, and for that matter, at the end of the fourth quarter. This game would go into overtime, but would not last very long as Stanford would only need one overtime to complete the 17-14 upset. Oregon will too drop in the standings, though likely not as low as Kansas State. This could be a crushing end to their title hopes, although they still have a chance as victories against Oregon State and UCLA could improve their rankings with the computers.

     The team that is likely to assume the role of No.1 is Notre Dame. The Irish remain undefeated after a blowout win in Winston-Salem against the Wake Forest Demon Deacons. The final score of this game was 38-0 as the Notre Dame defense flexed its muscles to show that they are just as good as any SEC team.

     Three SEC teams come behind these teams in the order, all of whom had wins or byes in Week 12. Only one of these teams will likely make it to the championship to have a chance at continuing the SEC’s run of dominance and streak of National Championships. These teams are Alabama, Florida, and Georgia. Two will play for the conference championship, but we first have to find out which ones.

     The world of college football seems to be shaken up every week by upsets and surprises. This is all the more reason to keep watching as there are many evenly matched teams still vying for conference championships and spots in a BCS bowl game.