The Good
The Florida Gators
It was a great week to be a Florida Gator. First of all, the Gators extended their streak of blowout victories by waxing Vanderiblt in Nashville. However, Penn State's meltdown in Iowa City was the the biggest boon the Gators received. Florida now controls its destiny to the BCS Title Game: beat South Carolina, Florida State, and Alabama, and you're in. While I would love to see the Gamecocks pull off a shocker this weekend in the Swamp, any neutral observer would have to admit that Florida's chances are looking good right now.
The Bad
The Big Ten
I am not one to call out an entire conference because its best team loses to one of its middle-tier teams. Obviously, LSU was a good team last year despite losing to Kentucky.
However, whether fair or not, Penn State losing to Iowa over the weekend was not good for the conference's image. Iowa has not been a good team lately, and if the team that has so far have looked far and away to be the best team in the Big 10 could not beat them, why should we believe that the Big 10 is any good?
Of course, Iowa could go on to win the rest of its games, including a bowl game against an SEC team. Penn State could also win out and finish in the top five. But one thing is for sure: there will be no Big 10 representative in the BCS Title Game this year, no matter how much ESPN might cry about it.
The Ugly
Notre Dame
Although early in the year they looked like they might be better this time around, the Irish are still pretty bad. While they came close against a couple of decent teams, Notre Dame has yet to beat a team with a pulse. Things got worse this past weekend. The 17-0 loss to a pedestrian Boston College was everything that non-Irish fans have learned to love about the current state of affairs at Notre Dame, the best of the best being the four interceptions by former super recruit Jimmy Clausen.
The good news coming out of South Bend is that fans of the blue and gold are finally beginning to realize that Charlie Weiss is a vastly overrated coach. Unfortunately for them, they are stuck with Weiss for a little longer because Notre Dame foolishly elected to give him a huge contract extension on the virtue of a loss (not a win, mind you) to rival Southern Cal. Estimates indicate that Notre Dame would have to pay a buyout in excess of $10 million to fire Weiss. Ty Willingham would be laughing if not for the sorry state of his own program.