Great day for sports

1. What a great week for college football! Before I do any BYU or Utah analysis, here is a quick recapitulation:

ACC: The biggest winner was Georgia Tech, who defeated Duke 49-10. The victory puts them in the ACC Championship Game. Their last regular season game is against Georgia in two weeks.

Clemson appears to be the most likely opponent in the championship game. They won at North Carolina State 43-23, and a win next week versus Virginia would clinch it.

It doesn't appear that the ACC will get any at-large BCS consideration after Miami lost at North Carolina. Their one hope to get two teams into the BCS would be Georgia Tech losing the ACC championship game and getting a lucky bid.

Big XII: In the Game of the Week, Oklahoma State won at home over Texas Tech, 24-17. Though the Cowboys are out of luck as far as making it to the Big XII Championship Game, they have a chance to make a strong case for at-large BCS consideration. If they win their last two games against Colorado and at Oklahoma, they should be in.

Meanwhile, Texas stayed a game up on OSU by routing Baylor on the road. One more win will clinch their spot in the Big XII title game, and it should happen next week against Kansas.

In the weaker North Division, Nebraska stayed on top with a win at Kansas. They host Kansas State next week in a game that could determine the division champion.

Big East: Cincinnati kept their perfect season going by beating West Virginia on Friday night, and sets up a huge Big East finale when they play at Pittsburgh in two weeks, a game which will determine who goes to the BCS. The loser is unlikely to grab an at-large bid. Pittsburgh, for their part, made the game much more interesting after dispatching Notre Dame. The Big East has really rebounded from a poor performance in 2008.

Big 10: The Ohio State Buckeyes clinched at least a share of the Big 10 championship after beating Iowa 27-24. They wrap up their season next week at rivals Michigan, but even if they lose, they own the tiebreaker and will go to the Rose Bowl.

In other games, Wisconsin defeated Michigan, while Penn State beat Indiana. Both schools kept alive their hopes for at-large BCS consideration.

Conference USA: Houston's slim BCS hopes were demolished after losing at Central Florida 37-32. The Cougars now find themselves in second place in the C-USA West Division, trailing SMU in the standings. The Mustangs defeated UTEP 35-31, and they now control their own destiny to the C-USA Championship Game.

Pac 10: Last week, I projected that Oregon State would get the automatic bid from the Pac 10 by winning the championship. They still control their own destiny after hammering Washington over the weekend.

But the big news was Stanford trouncing USC at the Coliseum, 55-21. After dominating nearly the entire decade, the Trojans will now be lucky to get to the Las Vegas Bowl in 2009.

SEC: All that mattered was that Florida and Alabama kept winning to set up the best SEC Championship Game of all time. They held serve with road wins against South Carolina and Mississippi State, respectively. I was way off on my MSU over Alabama prediction.

Sun Belt: Troy had a chance to give the Sun Belt Conference some national respect, but they got obliterated by Arkansas, 55-20. The Trojans can clinch the conference title by winning either of their last two games.

WAC: Boise State probably won't get an automatic BCS bid now since TCU looks to be well on their way to clinching the non-BCS spot. But Boise took care of business, destroying in-state "rival" Idaho 63-25.

But it is Nevada that is raising some eyebrows right now. After a slow start, they dominated Fresno State over the last three quarters, winning 52-14 to stay atop the WAC standings. Maybe Boise State should be more concerned with winning their conference than dealing with the BCS right now.



2. Real Salt Lake of Sandy is the Eastern Conference champions! They defeated the Chicago Fire on the road, 5-4 in a shootout after a 0-0 draw in 120 minutes of regulation and extra time. Real Salt Lake could be the first champion of a major professional sport from the state of Utah. They play the Los Angeles Galaxy for the title next weekend.


3. Back to college football, the new rankings are out. Here is what the BCS would look like if the season ended today:

National Championship Game:
Florida vs. Alabama

Rose Bowl:
Ohio State vs. Oregon

Fiesta Bowl:
Texas vs. TCU

Orange Bowl:
Georgia Tech vs. Cincinnati

Sugar Bowl:
Penn State vs. Pittsburgh

I think the two at-large spots go to Sugar Bowl, where they pit former rivals against each other to create an intriguing match-up. They get criticized for passing on Boise State, but they want the most money, and there is also pressure from the Big Six Conferences to pick a team from an auto-qualifying conference.

Oklahoma State and Stanford are also left out.