Conference
Title Games Set
by Mike Mitchell
11/27/05
11:03 am est
Virginia
Tech, Colorado, West Virginia, Tulsa, Akron, Northern Illinois
and LSU all secured conference or division titles over the Thanksgiving
holiday. Arkansas State, Louisiana-Lafayette, Boise State and
Nevada all grabbed a share of their conference crowns.
Colorado backed into the Big 12 title game while Iowa State,
UTEP, Louisiana-Monroe, South Florida and Bowling Green all blew
their conference title shots. Fresno State coughed up the opportunity
to win the WAC title outright.
Nine teams became eligible to receive bowl bids as Akron, Arizona
State, Arkansas State, Louisiana-Lafayette, Memphis, Houston,
N.C. State, Kansas and Southern Miss all won their sixth game
of the season. But Akron's bowl life likely hinges on the Zips
winning the MAC title game. And Louisiana-Lafayette is unlikely
to get a bid as the second qualified team in the Sun Belt, despite
their co-champion status.
Seven other teams failed in their bids to become bowl eligible as
Pittsburgh, Texas A&M, UAB, Louisiana-Monroe, Maryland, North
Carolina and Stanford all went down to defeat.
Connecticut clung to bowl life for one more week.
Texas, LSU and Notre Dame avoided the upsets but Fresno State
couldn't do the same.
The computer's top-ranked team certainly didn't play perfect
Friday, and they needed a little help from late Texas A&M
miscues, but Texas managed to outlast their arch-rival 40-29
in College Station on Friday to improve to 11-0.
The Aggies turned the ball over on a fumble deep in Texas territory
in the fourth quarter, then fumbled the punt return when they
held the Longhorns. Texas didn't get any points out of either
mistake but clung to their 37-29 lead until they converted on
a field goal with 2:24 left for the final margin.
Texas A&M will miss the postseason as the Aggies dropped
to 5-6 with the loss. The Longhorns had already clinched the
Big 12 south division title and found out Saturday they'll be
playing Colorado in the conference championship.
Colorado could have clinched the north division title on Friday
with a home win over Nebraska but the Buffaloes were trampled
30-3. That gave Iowa State a shot at the division title on Saturday
but Iowa State gave it right back to Colorado when the Cyclones
blew a late 21-14 lead and lost in overtime to Kansas 24-21.
At least Kansas did something right - they became bowl eligible
with the comeback victory.
Virginia Tech secured the ACC's coastal division title with a
30-3 rout of North Carolina that kept the Tar Heels from becoming
bowl eligible. The Hokies will play Florida State in the first
conference championship game at Jacksonville next Saturday.
Florida State lost a 3rd-straight game for the first time since
1983 when state rival Florida walloped the Seminoles 34-7 in
"The Swamp".
LSU on Friday survived the upset bid by Arkansas and clinched
the SEC West's berth in the conference championship game with
a 19-17 victory. LSU picked off Arkansas on a 4th-and-18 desperation
heave with under a minute left to secure the win. LSU and Auburn
finished with identical 7-1 conference marks but the Bayou Bengals
own the tie-breaker with their 20-17 overtime win over the Tigers
on October 22nd.
LSU will face Georgia in Atlanta next Saturday for the SEC title
and the accompanying automatic bid to a BCS bowl game. Georgia
and LSU did not meet in the regular season.
Stanford did its best to become bowl eligible and kick Notre
Dame out of the BCS, but the Irish easily drove the length of
the field and erased the 1-point lead Stanford had taken with
less than two minutes to play. So, instead of a 31-30 upset victory
by the Cardinal, the Irish eked out the 38-31 win and became
BCS eligible with its ninth win of the season.
Fresno State couldn't avoid the upset. A week after coming ever-so-close
to knocking off USC, the Bulldogs fell victim to the upset bug
themselves in a 38-35 loss to Nevada in Reno. As a result, Fresno
State lost its chance to win the WAC title outright with a victory
next week over Louisiana Tech. Instead, the best they can hope
for is a share of the title with Boise State and Nevada.
South Florida was just one game away from hosting a Big East
conference title showdown with West Virginia until they became
surprising 15-10 losers at Connecticut. The loss by the Bulls
enabled West Virginia to go ahead and clinch the conference title
and an accompanying BCS bowl slot.
West Virginia did its part to help itself with a 45-13 clubbing
of Pittsburgh last Thursday in the "Backyard Brawl".
The Mountaineers broke open a 14-13 contest by scoring the final
31 points of the game.
UTEP only needed to beat SMU on Saturday to clinch a berth in
the first CUSA title game against Central Florida. But the Mustangs
uncorked a 34-point second half and ripped the Miners 40-27.
UTEP's loss was Tulsa's gain. The idle Golden Hurricane became
the outright west division champs and will play UCF in Orlando
next Saturday.
Louisiana-Monroe only needed a home win over rival Louisiana-Lafayette
to secure an outright Sun Belt conference title. But the Ragin'
Cajuns needed a win to become bowl eligible and earn a share
of the conference title so they routed their rival 54-21. The
Monroe Indians failed to win the outright title or even become
bowl eligible at 5-6.
Together with Arkansas State's 31-24 win at North Texas, the
conference wound up in a three-way tie for first place between
ASU, Louisiana-Lafayette and Louisiana-Monroe. The Jonesboro
Indians will be the league's representative in the New Orleans
Bowl.
Akron blasted Kent State 35-3 on Thanksgiving Day to earn the
east division's spot in the MAC title game. A three-way tie had
to be broken by going deep into tie-breaker rules that looked
at each teams' west division foes' records.
Northern Illinois captured the west division on Wednesday with
a resounding 42-7 win over Western Michigan. The Huskies finished
tied with Toledo at the top of the division standings but won
the tie-breaker with their 35-17 win over Toledo just last week.
Akron has never won a conference, or even division, title. Northern
Illinois captured their only conference championship in 1983
(see MAC Champions).
The Broncos finished the season 7-4 over-all, 5-3 in the MAC,
a year after going 1-10 over-all and 0-8 in the conference. Their
conference title hopes disappeared when Toledo beat Bowling Green
44-41 in double-overtime on Tuesday night. Toledo's hopes vanished
with Western Michigan's loss open Wednesday.
On Monday night, Miami (Ohio) rolled over Ohio 38-7 and seemingly
took Akron out of the MAC east division puzzle. But Toledo's
win over BGSU on Tuesday gave Akron new life.
Barry Alvarez won his last regular season game as coach of Wisconsin.
The Badgers beat Hawaii 41-24 to snap a two-game losing streak
and finish 9-3.
A 20-yard field goal with 9 seconds left lifted Arizona State
over Arizona 23-20 in the Territorial Cup. In the process, the
Sun Devils became bowl eligible at 6-5. The Wildcats led 20-5
in the 3rd quarter before ASU scored the game's final 18 points.
Still Winning: USC and Texas are still on course
for a Rose Bowl showdown of the nation's only two remaining undefeated
teams. The Longhorns escaped a severe threat from Texas A&M
with a 40-29 win at College Station. USC faces rival UCLA next
Saturday while Texas plays Colorado in the Big 12 Championship
in Houston. The Longhorns crushed the Buffaloes 42-17 earlier
in the year.
In case you were wondering - at this point last season, there
were still five undefeated teams - Auburn, Boise State, Oklahoma,
USC and Utah.
Still Losing: Two teams finished the season winless.
New Mexico State (0-12) came close but lost its season finale
to Utah State 24-21.
Temple (0-11) had already ended its season with a 38-17 loss
at Navy last week.
The Aggies have lost 13 straight while the Owls have lost 12
in-a-row.
At this point last year, UCF was the only winless team.
1-AA Schools Strike Out: 54 games were played this
season between 1-A teams and lower-division foes. No such games
were played this past week. The 1-A teams went 52-2. Since the
beginning of the 2003 season, 1-A teams are 164-18 (.901).
Streaks: USC was idle last week and carries a number
of streaks into this week's home game against UCLA. The Trojans
have won 33 straight over-all, 26 at home and 22 against conference
foes. The 33-game over-all winning streak is the longest in PAC-10
history, breaking their own record of 25 games set in 1931-1933.
USC has won 44 of its last 45 games.
Texas won its 18 straight game, 40-29 over Texas A&M.
Boise State has a nation-leading streak of 31 home wins. This
past week's 30-13 victory over Louisiana Tech took place in Ruston,
La. so it did not add to the streak.
New Mexico State escaped victory and kept is record a perfect
0-12. The Aggies now own the nation's longest losing streak all
by themselves at 13 games. They were tied with Temple but the
Owls finished their season last week with a 12th straight loss
as they fell 38-17 to Navy.
New Coaches: The 2005 season began with 23 coaching changes.
Here is how each has fared for the season, by order of success,
and how they performed this past week:
LSU, 10-1 under Les Miles, beat Arkansas 19-17.
Notre Dame, 9-2 under Charlie Weis, won at Stanford 38-31.
Florida, 8-3 under Urban Meyer, beat Florida State 34-7.
Miami, O., 7-4 under Shane Montgomery, won at Ohio 38-7.
South Carolina, 7-4 under Steve Spurrier. Regular season complete.
Western Michigan, 7-4 under Bill Cubit, lost at No. Illinois
42-7.
BYU, 6-5 under Bronco Mendenhall. Regular season complete.
Utah, 6-5 under Kyle Wittingham. Regular season complete.
East Carolina, 5-6 under Skip Holtz, beat UAB 31-23.
Pittsburgh, 5-6 under Dave Wannstedt, lost at West Virginia 45-13.
Stanford, 5-6 under Walt Harris, lost to Notre Dame 38-31.
Indiana, 4-7 under Terry Hoeppner. Regular season complete.
Marshall, 4-7 under Mark Snyder, lost at Memphis 26-3.
Ohio, 4-7 under Frank Solich, lost to Miami, Ohio 38-7.
Oklahoma St, 4-7 under Mike Gundy, lost at Oklahoma 42-14.
Mississippi, 3-8 under Ed Orgeron, lost at Mississippi State
35-14.
San Jose St., 3-8 under Dick Tomey, beat Idaho 26-18.
Utah State, 3-8 under Brent Guy, won at New Mexico State 24-21.
Illinois, 2-9 under Ron Zook. Regular season complete.
UNLV, 2-9 under Mike Sanford. Regular season complete.
Washington, 2-9 under Ty Willingham. Regular season complete.
Syracuse, 1-10 under Greg Robinson, lost at Louisville 41-17.
New Mexico St., 0-12 under Hal Mumme, lost to Utah State 24-21. |