Can't comment on the game - hell, I didn't even know the two teams were playing.  As a Penn State fan, though, I find it highly interesting that the Beavers were good enough to knock off SoCal at their digs, but get pummeled by the Lions at Beaver Stadium.  Must have been the travel.

What this meams is that the pre-season favorites for everything under the sun are no longer at the moment in the picture.  The Saturday night tilt between LSU and Georgia takes on a national championship-type game - even though they don't play in the same division in the SEC, these two teams are without a doubt front-runners for the SEC title game, and then the mythical national championship game.

It also opens the door to the Big 12, and to a lesser extent, the Big 10.  Both conferences have rising powers, or traditional powers that have already flexed their muscle.  Oklahoma looks very good, and Missouri is dangerous.  In the SEC you have Georgia, LSU, Florida and Alabama all making noise.  Now that's a powerful conference!  The Big 10 has Ohio State, whose loss to USC now looks that much worse, and a resurgent Penn State and a solid Wisconsin.  It's certainly feasible to believe that either Wisconsin or Penn State **could** emerge from the Big 10 unbeaten, although that's a long way off and purely conjecture.  What's not so difficult to imagine is the likes of at least 1 SEC team going undefeated - despite the schedule - nor is it difficult to think that a team like Oklahoma will go undefeated.  The ACC and Big East are both down this year in talent and power, and there's little likelihood that a national championship contender will emerge from that conference. 

Basically, that leaves a very interesting situation.  You have really 3 conferences to watch, and the battle in the SEC will leave the eventual conference champion probably with one loss.  Oklahoma has the horses to run the table, but even they've been subject to the Big 12 conference championship upset bug - so no one is yet safe in the Big 12.  The Big 10 does not have a conference championship, so if the winner of that conference goes undefeated, you can bet that the winner will be rooting for upsets in the conference championship games if they are the odd team out. 

It's feasible, too, that USC ekes its way back into the title contention.  The Pac-10 is weaker this year, without that much star power except for SoCal.  So if USC climbs back into the top 5, sits there with an undefeated Big 10 team, and watches two 1-loss teams from the SEC battle it out and Oklahoma battle it out with whomever, it's possible that SoCal is back in the championship if both B12 and SEC conference winners go to underdogs.  Hard to fathom that one game determines the fate of so many schools, isn't it? 

I will say this for the BCS (of which I am normally a detractor).  Although someone will likely be the odd-man out come late November/early December, it makes all college football games compelling, especially the conference championships.  One game can make or break a season, and that means that everyone - especially fans of those teams in the hunt - will be watching with intense interest.  That means revenue.  So yeah, I hate the BCS.  I really do.  But yet at the same time, I see why it suddenly makes every game so good to watch.  And whether or not your team makes it into the national championship game or not, you'll find yourself watching and waiting. 

Because in college football, you just never, ever know.

Sports mirrors life in so many ways.  You get the minor ups and downs, the kinds of things that make you happy one day, sad the next.  You get the tremendous joys with winning the biggest of the bigs, and the sorrow that comes from those last-minute, heart-breaking losses. 

But two things separate it from life.  First, the outcomes aren't life-altering.  Not for fans.  A loss hurts for a while, but you don't dwell on it, and have it ruin your life for years.  It's not like a tragic, untimely death that has a life-altering impact; the agony that comes with defeat is short-lived.  You go to bed, and upon waking still remember that you have a job, family, and your health (you hope). 

Second, the casual fan can play the same sports that the athletes do.  You and I can walk onto our local municipal course tomorrow, tee up the ball on the first green and grip it and rip it.  The fact that our drive is one hundred and fifty yards shorter than the pros - and decidedly less accurate - matters not one damned bit.  We can play golf, and maybe you get to taste that satisfying thrill that comes from a perfect shot, or a clutch putt.  Or maybe you play backyard soccer, and score the game winning goal, or you play deck hockey and make the game-saving save.  Whatever - the point is that we all can do it.  We can all participate.  We can all pretend that we're Tiger on the 1st hole of sudden death playoff after playing him to a draw over the 18-hole Monday regular playoff. 

Sports imitates life in less pleasant ways, too.  There are the snotty athletes that remind us of the poorly behaved kid in the neighborhood, or the bullies that are just like the bullies we have to worry about our kids meeting.  There are the criminals, those that bring shame to our families.  There are the losers and posers, the what ifs and coulda beens that we all seem to meet.

What makes sports so great is that every so often we fans are treated to an event that surpasses nearly everything else.  A few short hours that make us forget about office productivity, the bills that need to be paid, the kids' bad grades in his math class.  We sit, entranced, watching two stellar athletes compete at the highest levels, under the most pressure their sport can bring to bear.  We watch two complete opposites, the embodiment of David and Goliath, as they take a pleasant afternoon stroll on the golf course, and oh by the way, happen to be playing in the Monday playoff of the US Open.  No matter who you root for, suddenly you want your guy to win but you don't want the other guy to lose.  You want to see them both hoist the trophy over their heads, and to share the joy of a victory.  Alas, that is not to be - that is never to be.  Sports have a definite winner and loser.  One person gets the glory.  The other gets to consider "what if." 

This past US Open was that kind of event.  A guy that no one can dislike against the guy that simply everyone respects, and is awed by.  David, and Goliath.  It was an afternoon that simply defied description, and expectation.  And for those moments that come and go so fleetingly, those moments remind us why we love sports.  Those moments keep us rooted to our sport.  Because you just never know when the next Rocco Mediate - of personal or team sport - is up against the next Tiger, and has the proverbial tiger by the tail.  You wait, watch and hope.  And savor. 

That's why we love sports.