texas choked.  west virginia blew it against.....south florida....?  notre dame got what they deserved at USC, although i'm sure it wont eliminate them from the BCS picture.  arkansas got railroaded by LSU.

....florida beat florida state, which they should have.  but did they do enough to overtake michigan at #2 in the polls?  heck, did they even do enough to keep USC from leapfrogging them?

rarely, if ever, do i try to make sense of the polls, or predict who will play where against which team....but i'm going to give it a shot, and try to explain my choices along the way.

 ....here goes nothing...

first off, it's a tough choice between michigan, florida and USC to be ohio state's opponent in the title game.   since wisconsin is in the big ten, i admit i may be a bit biased toward michigan, but there is some logic behind picking them over florida or USC.  simply put, their only loss was to the only undefeated team left worth mentioning, ohio state.  florida lost to auburn, who also lost 2 other games and struggled against lesser opponents almost all year.

 for USC, their 1 loss came against a 4-loss oregon state team.  their thumping of arkansas became slightly less impressive after the razorbacks coughed it up against LSU this weekend, but i'd give them a slight edge over florida at this point, perhaps because they beat ND soundly, even though i think ND isnt nearly as good as the polls, or their fans, claim they are.

 so now its between USC and michigan.  the reasons people dont want a rematch of michigan and ohio state include: 1) they play in the same conference, and a team playing for the national title should have won their conference to play for the big prize, 2) rematches in the past have proven to be either a blowout, or the previously beaten team wins, making it even more confusing to determine which team really is better.  3) people feel that michigan's schedule wasnt as tough as others, especially whoever comes out of the SEC or USC, who played ND, arkansas, and their PAC 10 schedule.

 the interesting thing about the rematch being unfair or unappealing, is that the announce team on the USC/ND game mentioned that a michigan/ND rematch in the rose bowl would be a great game.  what i dont understand is, if a rematch isnt good for the title game, why is it good for one of the lesser BCS games?  at least the michigan/ohio state game was close, or close enough to end with a 3 point margin of victory.  remember, michigan clubbed ND by over 20 points earlier in the year.

 the most ridiculous thing about keeping michigan out is that they lost a game late in the year.  well, either they had to lose, or ohio state had to lose....they dont allow ties anymore.  not to mention arkansas, WVU, and ND all lost late, and they'll probably still get a better game than they deserve, assuming WVU and arkansas dont tank their final games next week.

 all that said, this year i would actually choose USC to play ohio state for the national championship over michigan and florida.  michigan will have to settle for a rose bowl appearance against florida, provided they beat arkansas next week.  if rutgers wins against west virginia, they should face oklahoma.  if rutgers loses, then louisville gets the bid. 

 who does that leave?  since arkansas lost this week, and assuming they'll lose next week to florida, i'd bump LSU above them to take one of the at-large bids and play....whoever is left that the BCS is required to take.  i tried reading the rules as to how teams are selected, but it gave me a headache, so i'd just pick whoever is left not named notre dame.  yeah, i know both their losses came against top 5 teams, but they also got blown out in both of them.  couple that with my hatred for them, and thats reason enough for me to leave them out in the cold.

 at this point, i'd even take wisconsin over them, even though i dont think wisconsin is worthy either.