The Cornhuskers actually ran two more trick plays - a Marlon Lucky half-back pass that he pulled down and ran with, and a double reverse that gained 1 yard and a holding penalty.

Also, Jay Norvell has already been taken out of consideration for the Iowa State job, so your theory is shot.

Interesting theory on Jay Norvell, except that he had already been eliminated from contention for the ISU job before the NU-CU game started. Callahan had been setting up a few of those (notably the fake punt and Zac Taylor's acting job) the entire season; I bet he has a few left for OU this Saturday.

Florida getting shut out of the BCS is a GOOD thing! Their O cannot match the points OSU or USC would put on the board. Nobody really want to see another overrated SEC get lit up similiar to West Virginia & USC have recently done to the SEC....

Actually Florida should be left out for it's continued weak non-conference schedule. No way teams should be rewarded for padding their schedule with 1-AA teams. Just because they claim the SEC is tough conference, which beats up on each other. With no signature non-conference wins except Tenn over Cal. they went 3-3 bowl games last year with only LSU having a dominating wind over Miami.

Florida should be left out for punishment in scheduling creampuffs in non conference play.

Hey, it's not Calvin Johnson's fault that his quarterback can't throw. Put Johnson in USC's offense, and we wouldn't be talking about Troy Smith for the Heisman. GT hardly threw the ball yesterday, and when they did, the passes were ALWAYS offline. Reggie Ball is the worst quarterback ever to be allowed to play for 4 years.

Hey, it's not Calvin Johnson's fault that his quarterback can't throw. Put Johnson in USC's offense, and we wouldn't be talking about Troy Smith for the Heisman. GT hardly threw the ball yesterday, and when they did, the passes were ALWAYS offline. Reggie Ball is the worst quarterback ever to be allowed to play for 4 years.

why all the agony over playing in the national championship game? can't a BCS number 3 team play in the Rose Bowl and have a faux championship bestowed upon them?

here comes an NC for Michigan!

Speaking of creampuffs, Tennessee dominated Cal, LSU destroyed Arizona(who beat mighty Oregon) and Boise State had their way with Oregon State (aka the Trojan killers) and I thought these were the "top" teams in the Pac-10. USC is obligated to schedule a tougher OOC schedule b/c they only play creampuffs in the Pac10.

I don't want to rag on Reggie Ball that much, but how bad to the backup QBs at Tech have to be if Chan The Man sticks with him continuosly? Or is it just blind loyalty?

Can we finally hear the end of the "I love college football because the whole season is a playoff" nonsense???? College football is a fine sport but the whole season is NOT a playoff. What makes playoffs so captivating is that at the end of each game, one team goes on and the other team goes home. The fact that we're even having this discussion about Florida is proof positive that the "season-long playoff" is pure myth. If the whole college football season were a playoff, then the National Championship game would be Ohio St. vs. Boise St., period - yet somehow there isn't anybody calling for that at all....

As a Gator fan I will readily admit this is a flawed team; I live in Tallahassee and watched a mediocore Noles team that was blown off the field by Wake Forest play competitively against Florida. That being said, it is unfair that Florida should be blasted for their weak nonconference schedule when their conference is so tough. Look at Wisconsin: the only top 25 team they faced was Michigan, and against their soft Big-Ten schedule they only lost one game...to Michigan. Michigan has one decent win (Wisconsin) and one suspect good win (Notre Dame, who was blown out in both losses and almost lost to an above average Georgia Tech team). Ohio State's win over Texas is less convincing now that Texas has a third loss and won't even play for their conference championship. Make no mistake: the Gaotrs didn't get it done against Auburn. But to blame their non-conference schedule is to point out their flaws without taking a good look at everyone else's.

putting florida in the national title game would be one of the stupidest things ever! they do not deserve just because they play in the SEC woah the SEC just because there in that conference doesnt mean they deserve to be in it they play a sorry non conf. schedule and if there so tuff y dnt they hav a schedule like the mighty great USC who play all D-1 schools from all the big 6 conferences!!! and mayb we do need something other than the BCS but no way in hell do we need a PLAYOFF SYSTEM that will ruin College Football

Criticize the Gators all you want, but the one thing you can't attack is the schedule. Florida will have played 10 bowl teams and their non-conference schedule is usually pretty tough (its not their fault FSU is having a terrible year). The only reason they played a 1-AA team is because the schedule got moved to 12 games instead of 11 and they had to scramble for another team to play. Florida played Bama, LSU, Auburn and Georgia in a row, not to mention UT, South Carolina, FSU (even if FSU isn't very good this year its still a rivalry game), and the possibility of beating a damn good Arkansas team. Attack their inconsistent offense if you want but don't even try to say they play a soft schedule.

Steve, How can you point to West Virginia beating Miss. State as one of your big "SEC is overrated" arguments? Do I need to point to the beat down Tennessee put on Cal? Don't even think that if Arkansas and USC played right now the score would be the same. USC still might win but I'm pretty sure Arkansas would hit them right in the mouth and make it a good game.

I just want to point out how hilarious the BCS computer rankings are. Does anybody realize they had RUTGERS as the number one computer rated team after their win over Louisville? That means the computers believed Rutgers had played the toughest schedule in America. Enough said.

Good points about Florida - though in my humble opinion, their offense isn't good enough to merit serious national championship consideration; not only would Ohio State and Michigan throttle them, but Wisconsin would beat them, and I'd give Penn St. even odds.

ps Judging from comments on your earlier posts, I think you need to set up an "SEC whine filter" on the blog...

I doubt Florida missing the national title game would lead to a playoff system. But maybe it would be enough to convince SEC schools that they can't spend all of September sitting at home playing Sun Belt teams. Which would be a good thing for college football, in the form of more compelling non-conference games.

So, Oregon State is not a creampuff?

FSU isn't a weak non-conference opponent, can't predict whether a top program will choke that year. Just because the PAC 10 and Big Ten have weak opponents within the conference doesn't make their schedules any less of a joke. I'd take Troy and Lafayette over Northwestern any day of the week.

The problem with the one plus model is that it reduces the number of BCS bowl teams because two teams end up occupying four slots. It doubt the votes for such a change would be there. Simply prohibiting teams that are not champions or co-champions of their conferences would fix one of the biggest problems with the current system and the BCS conferences can't even agree to that. Lets face it, having the maximum number of teams participating in post season bowls if far more important to the colleges than how the mythical national cbampion is crowned.

Jarret a better receiver than Ginn? Jarret looked good last night, but I would take Ginn over anyone else in the NCAA this year, except maybe Gonzo...

Stewart almost forgot explain to me how Auburn can go 13-0 and if FLorida goes 12-1 how neither one of them can play or share a national title. We all do realize USC will have played for or won 4 national championships w/o ever playing an SEC champion. How is that if the SEC is the "best" conference.

jake2 your right Wisconsin is a powerhouse and so is Penn State...I mena they have played for how many national championships in the past 15 years...oh yeah 0! Good argument. You and Steve must be brothers!

I don't have this information myself so the question is a sincere one. What other team in college football played a #3, #5, #9 and another #5, all on the road this season like LSU did? In my opinion with a schedule like that you deserve to schedule a creampuff (like Arizona) every once in awhile.

Hawaii beating Purdue doesn't prove anything. You've said yourself Mandel that its a down year for the Big Ten. Admittedly, its a rebuilding year for Purdue and they are far from solid. Aloha stadium is quite the home field advantage for the Warriors and that is what won them the game. If this game was in West Lafayette it would be a very different story.

ark2002 - If SEC fans want to brag about their W-L record vs. the Pac 10, they should do it in a year when at least one of the SEC-Pac 10 games is played in the Pacific time zone.

lebraix - It doesn't seem likely that the current BCS formula will leave the team that's #1 in both major polls (since the Harris poll voters tend to follow the AP very closely) out of its top 2 in favor of someone that was just crushed in their conference title game. Under the circumstances, the AP voters watched the team they ranked #1 beat the team they ranked #4, and the team they ranked #2 beat the team they ranked #3. They had a choice in the matter, and decided to stick with their #1. That AP voters have that choice, by the way, is why the AP title is the real one, and the BCS title is just a crystal football.

creampuffs for Florida? Before you criticize them, Who did OSU play--Tex & Michigan. Michigan played ND(joke) & OSU. USC played Ark, ND(joke), and PAC 10 weak sisters. Fla. played auburn, Tenn, LSU all ranked in top 8 when played. Don't let eastern & midwest media fool you--Fla is good--as good as OSU? maybe we will see in Glendale--By the way congrats to AP poll--they saw through Notre(joke) Dame & louisville!! Go tigers!

None of this will matter when Arkansas wins teh SEC and SC beats UCLA by thirty. SC v Ohio State in Glendale. Oh and Ginn will never have faced a secondary like SC in all of his games. Just look to the Notre Dame and Cal games. Deshaun Jackson still feels that hit.

The question itself is flawed.
The point is not "Why should Florida be locked out of the title game?" But that they haven't earned serious consideration for inclusion.

The folks in the Pac10 and Big10 didn't choose Florida's cream-pie schedule. Florida did.
Florida has not dominated it's IA opponents (IC or OOC).
Suffice to say, FLA has not done what it should have to put it in the mix. No one to blame but themselves.

Whether CFB goes with a playoff, a modifiec BCS +1 or +2 system or stays the same, one thing we should all be able to agree on is:
Teams that schedule 1AA opponents drop from the top10 and BCS consideration.

SEC fans are right - we need a playoff! Here's my idea for how it would work: the SEC champ gets to play in the Big 10 for a season. Then, when the SEC team goes 3-5, they have a "playoff" with Minnesota and Iowa to see who gets 6th place!

Early this year the sec dominated the pac-10, last saturday mid-tier sec teams dominated ACC (South Carolina over clemson and Georgia over GT). USC, Michigan or OSU could not play Alabama, Auburn, LSU, ARkansas, Georgia, Tenn, South Carolina, FSU undefeated - NO WAY IN HELL. UF has/will play all of them. The SEC is so far ahead of the other conferences it is silly. THe big ten is more like the Big Joke conference. The Big Joke Conferenced or the patheic ten conference doesn't deserve to be in the NC.

Yes, Florida can go to the Rose Bowl, beat Michigan (possiby), and win a national championship - and not even a faux one.

All it has to do get invited and convince all the voters that it's the best team in the country. And it can be pretty well assured that the voters will see it play.

I'm no expert and I'm biased but I've watched four Florida games this year and I'm not convinced it's the best team in the SEC, myself. I don't really expect a huge public outcry that they really are the best and shouldn't have been left out.

something else we learned:

the Texas A&M rushing attack is as nasty as they come. Texas' #1 ranked rush defense had TWO WEEKS to prepare for the Aggies, and still got TF'd. The Ags racked up 244yds rushing on a team that only allowed 42yds per game.

Oh and i forgot to mention...Lane, Goodson, and McGee are all back next year.

The USC Trojans more than likely locked up a championship match-up with Ohio State. I have heard about the great job USC Trojan receivers did against Notre Dame. I did not think it is a great offensive feat to have success in the passing against one of worst pass defense units in the country. When Jarret and USC receivers match up against Ohio State's defense I am sure that the same opportunities they enjoyed against the Irish we not be there against OSU. John David Booty is still a first year starter and the likelyhood of him outdueling Troy Smith and Ohio State's offense is not very likely.

Oregon State might be a cream puff but they managed to do what Arkansas could only dream of, come within 35 points of SC!

I still think Michigan is getting the short end of the stick in this one. They only have one close loss to the #1 team, whereas, USC lost to an unranked team and they have not had as many close calls as USC. I just wonder if it because no-one wants to watch the rematch or if it is the politics of college football at work. Either way, Michigan is getting ripped off!!!

The Pac 10 has a winning record vs the SEC the past few years. Does that mean the Pac 10 was the best conference in the world those years??? One good yr by SEC teams and they think theyre the NFC East!!

If you're an AD and you have to add a game late in the season, and the rest of your schedule reads Alabama, LSU, Auburn, Georgia, South Carolina, (open game) and then Florida State, what would you do with that open date?

Maybe Florida shouldn't have scheduled a 1-AA team, but don't ask them to schedule non-conference games like USC did with that schedule.

Tennessee beat Cal, LSU beat Arizona, Auburn beat Washington St., South Carolina beat Clemson, Georgia beat Georgia Tech, and Florida beat FSU.

Of games featuring bowl eligible teams from BCS conferences, the SEC went 6-2. The SEC has nine teams bowl eligible. What's wrong with putting a couple "creampuff" games on your schedule? Almost everyone does it.

Michigan played Central Michigan, Ball State and 4-8 Vanderbilt, and played a much weaker conference schedule. That's a great non-conference schedule?

Here's the problem with "plus 1":
1998: Tennessee beats FSU, only undefeated team left standing. Who's their "plus one"?
1999: FSU beats VT, only undefeated team left standing. Who's their "plus one"?
2000: OU beats FSU, , only undefeated team left standing. Who's their "plus one"?
2001: Miami beats Nebraska, only undefeated team left standing. Who's their "plus one"?
2002: Ohio St beats Miami, only undefeated team left standing. Who's their "plus one"?
2003: USC, OU, and LSU both have one loss, BCS rules says OU plays LSU. USC whines because they're #1 in the polls, so the country whines with them.
2004: OU, USC, Auburn (oh yeah, AND Utah) all unbeaten, Auburn whines because they're they're left out, so the country whines with them.
2005: Texas beats USC, only undefeated team left standing. Who's their "plus one"?

So, out of all the years of the BCS, we've had 2 years with real complaints once everything was played.

The *real* problem with the BCS is that they kept tinkering with the formula to try and make their formula match what all the opinion-makers in the media were saying, thus the bonus points for winning your conference (in response to Nebraska playing in 2001 evern though they didn't win the Big XII). Or the bonus points for "quality wins" after Miami beat FSU head-to-head and got passed over in 2000.
If the BCS had stuck to their guns from the start and said "that's our formula and we'll re-evaluate next time the contract is up" then 90% of the whining would be gone. People whine because they know the BCS listens.

Gators' schedule is actually #1 based on opponents' cumulative won-loss:

http://web1.ncaa.org/d1mfb/2006/Internet/toughest%20schedule/ia_9games_cumm.pdf

They have also played as many (or more) top 25 opponents as USC, Michigan, and OSU. This advantage would be even greater if FSU and Georgia weren't simultaneously having down years, and will grow even larger if they manage to win the SECCG. So drop the talk about the scheduling - it's simply incorrect.

They may be winning ugly, but they are winning, and their competition is on par with the other elite programs. The casual way in which Florida is being dismissed by the media at large is ridiculous, and symptomatic of the lazy groupthink of pollsters and sportswriters alike.

Callahan did not "pull out all the stops" as he has been running gadget plays all year. And he just gave Stoops a little more to think about for Saturday night in Kansas City.

Stewart,
I'm a lifelong Florida fan, and I can tell you that we are not getting shafted. We had the chance to be undefeated, and we did not come through. We had no excuse for losing to a reeling Auburn team. It is so hard to watch the offense this year. The word schizophrenic comes to mind, because we seem to follow great plays with mindless errors. We also make any set of receivers look like they belong in the NFL. With a spastic offense, no coverage skills, and the demise of Marcus Thomas, it is truly a wonder that we have only lost one game. Bottom line for me is this: We have a borderline gimmick offense that we run poorly against average competition (see Vandy game), so I really don't want to see us play elite teams right now. I hope this team will be better next year, but the fact remains we don't deserve the shot right now.

Pbreeves please be consistent. While I do believe the SEC is overrated, that's a subjective argument that will be partially confirmed or refuted (bowl games aren't a completely fair comparison because there's usually a 2-7 week layoff and teams aren't playing at their peak) once the bowl games begin. However, you conveniently point out that Tennessee romped over Cal but then go on to say "If USC and Arkansas played today...". If both games were played today, the Pac-10 would be 2-0 and not 1-1 in those games. Even though Cal has stumbled as of late, so has Tennessee and Cal is probably the better team. Arkansas would still lose by at least two touchdowns to USC.

c'mon folks. put the "whose conference is better" arguement aside and get ready for an awesome nc game. i'm an sec guy, alabama student, but who cares? osu versus usc is gonna be amazing. i can't wait to see the game for the simple fact of all the speed on the field! so usc lost to oregon state. big deal. lsu was the best team in the sec and they gave away TWO games! but lets not match entire conferences. that's silly. usc has beaten quality sec competition over the years, albeit arkansas without the best rb in the country. other than usc, the pac-10 just doesn't match up to sec play. or big 10. or big 12. well....maybe big 12. and the big 10 is the big 2. but they're a pretty phenomonal 2. so could it be that the elite of the sec don't match up against the elite of these other two conferences? it's blasphemy, i know, coming from a crimson tider, but it could be true. the talent is here, but sec teams lack consistency. osu and usc have been models of consistency all year. in usc's case, for about 4 years. so lets stop all the "my conference can beat up your conference" talk. bowl season is gonna be pretty great. and hey, atleast baseball season is over! hip-hip-hooray!

Ginn over Jarrett? What are you smoking? Jarrett and Calvin Johnson are clearly the two best receivers in the country. No one else is even in there league. You must be a Buckeye fan. Ask Notre Dame about Calvin Johnson and Dwayne Jarrett. Both of them torched the Irish. And if Calvin Johnson had a decent quarterback, he would be even better. Sorry but Johnson and Jarrett are 1 and 1A. No one else is even close.

Hey Stewart. Hmmmmmmmmmm. What happened to all the Notre Dame fans??? You had that one right on the money!

Finnian59 - your reasoning about weak non-conf. schedule is flawed because you assume that the in-conference games are equal.

Also, the NC game between OSU and USC should be good, but come one, does the word defense mean anything to the these teams?

Bottom line, no one has the power to change the entire quality of their conference, or their conference schedule. They ALL can choose their out of conference schedules. USC chose Notre Dame, Nebraska, and Arkansas.

Florida chose 1-AA schools to be cute and game the system. How anyone (Urban Meyer I am looking at you) can proclaim themselves worthy of the BCS championship when they willingly chose 1-AA opponents is beyond me.

The system worked. It chose the two teams that will make for the best, most competitive game on Jan 7th. I want to see OSU vs. USC. Why on earth would I want to see OSU stomp Florida? Why should the BCS change their system to allow a creampuff like Florida in?

Hey Urban, want to play in the big game, play a FULL 1-A schedule next year.