bamaken Becomes a Multiple-Week Winner in Week 11

And so we are down to four. Alabama and Louisville fell from the ranks of the unbeaten, leaving Kansas State, Oregon, Notre Dame…and Ohio State. The forgotten of the four due to BCS ineligibility and the Big Ten conference being down this year, the Buckeyes couldn’t have asked for a better start to the Urban Meyer era. While they cannot win the BCS championship, it’s conceivable that if the other undefeated teams slip and they beat Wisconsin and Michigan to finish the season 12-0, they could win the AP national title. So how good are they? Well, good enough to win every week thus far, but perhaps not as dominant as some of the other unbeatens. They’ve won by seven against a Cal team that Oregon beat by 42. They won by 14 against UAB, who South Carolina beat by 43. But as we all know, the transitive property doesn’t apply in college football, so tip your cap to Meyer and the Buckeyes, who are making the absolute best of a bad situation this year.

Now that we are through almost a full year of the new conference alignments, let’s take a closer look at how teams are doing in their new digs. The team that has made the best impression in their first year in their new league is undoubtedly Texas A&M. The Aggies, fresh off of their upset of Alabama, find themselves 8-2 and two winnable games from a 10-win season and (most likely) a tie for second in the SEC Western Division. This could result in a Cotton Bowl bid…perhaps against familiar foe Texas. Wouldn’t that be a bowl matchup everyone (except maybe certain Texas fans) would love to see? Missouri hasn’t fared quite as well. The Tigers are still one win away from bowl eligibility and must beat either Syracuse or Texas A&M to get there. Injuries have hurt their chances of making a big splash this year. In the Big XII, TCU and West Virginia find themselves middle-of-the-pack. The Horned Frogs are 3-4 in the conference and bowl-eligible, but must win against Texas and/or Oklahoma in the last two games to improve their bowl destination. West Virginia started the season with a bang, but has lost four straight and is still looking for that elusive sixth win. They still have Iowa State and Kansas left on their conference schedule, so there is a good possibility of ending up with seven wins, but it’s a far cry from their dreams of a national title after a 5-0 start. Temple is back in the Big East this year, but is only 2-4 in conference and 3-6 overall. Three schools moved to the Mountain West Conference this year: Fresno State (which is 8-3 overall, and 5-1 in conference with their only loss to Boise State), Nevada (6-4, 3-3 in conference), and Hawai’i (1-7, 0-5 in conference).

In small-school news, this week marks the occasion of two of the longest-played rivalry games in all of college football. It is the 129th meeting of Harvard and Yale on the gridiron. Yale leads the third-most played series in college football 65-55-8, but Harvard has won the last five and can make it eleven of the last twelve with a win over the Bulldogs in a contest simply known as “The Game”. In the most-played, longest uninterrupted annual rivalry game in the country, Lafayette and Lehigh will meet for the 148th time this weekend. Separated by only seventeen miles (Lafayette is located in Easton, PA; Lehigh is in Bethlehem, PA), the Leopards and Mountain Hawks have played since 1884, and annually since 1896. Lafayette has the series edge, 76-66-5, but Lehigh has won the last four in a game known as “The Rivalry”. In a time of conference shakeups where dollars seem to matter more than tradition, these are two series you can be sure will stand the test of time.

The week 11 title came down to a tiebreaker, with bamaken pulling out the win over MarylandTwerp and claiming their second weekly win of the year. Both finished with 224 points. With 221 points, maestro claimed third place.

Standings after eleven weeks (dropping “two worst” weeks)…

It’s another 21 game-week this week! We’re down to the last few weeks of the season, so every point is of utmost importance! This week’s games kick off Saturday, November 17 @ Noon ET, so make sure to get your picks in by then!
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Brandon German
e-Systems.net, Inc.