Actually, the Gamecocks did rise to #6 by accident, as anyone who watched UNC almost come back last week never would've voted them that high. Or in the top 10, for that matter.

Um, North Dakota State is D-IAA not DII

This whole season can be summed up as "weird". I believe 7 1-AA teams (if you take NDSU as a 1-AA team) have beaten 1-A teams including some 1-A teams that went to bowl games last season.

To the poster about NDSU, I think they are a provisional 1-A team and that Stew was just a little sloppy with his writings.

The weird think about the season is that every SEC East except maybe Vandy has a way to win the SEC East.

I agree about the Gamecocks being an accidental #6. I do not know of anyone who looked at that team as being #6. Seriously.

Congrats to Tulsa boy Mackenzi Adams and the rest of the Commodores for a huge upset! As for Oklahoma, maybe they are overrated like every other Top 25 team, lol. Gotta love the parity if your team isn't one of those Top 25 squads...

"After all, no team that has Phillip Fulmer as a head coach is going to win any championships."

There, Stewart, I fixed that typo for ya.

I like to call an apple an apple, the SEC has been terribly over-ranked this season and Vandy just showed us all why.

Before all the Ohio State haters show up, please review more stats than the final score.

Offensively, Ohio State scored 24 and Michigan State scored 3. The other 14 Sparty got came on uncharacteristic Buckeye turnovers. Ohio State still has the best defense in the nation, and an efficient offense.

with USF's lost to Rutgers on Thurday night and Ohio State barely getting by unranked Michigan State today, what are the odds that #3 BC will take over #1 in the BCS if they beat #11 Virginia Tech later tonight?

Brad - If you understood anything about football you would know it is difficult to get up for a big game, then play someone with no reputation the next week. Vandy beating SC proves little except what the contests between the big teams take out of you. Florida plays Vandy close every year. But it always follows a marathon of Florida vs Alabama, Georgia, Auburn & LSU.

For Netizen - Mich St is not one of the better Big Ten schools. How is it that when they force OSU turnovers and play a close game that it doesn't count? OSU should have put them away, but lacks the talent to do it.

Stewart, I picked up your book BOWLS, POLLS, AND TATTERED SOULS last week-end and was just finishing reading it as the clock wound down in the Rutgers-USF game. Thanks for putting NCAA-sanctioned athletics on equal footing [almost] with professional wrestling as sport[-like] spectacle. It was good to see that the sun actually still came up the morning after the USF loss. No love lost here in Tampa -- This town bleeds green and gold and they love their Bulls. Thanks also for your nod to parity in the Big East. Three intraconference games this week were decided by 14 points TOTAL, with two ranked teams going down in defeat. At this point, Tranghese has as much claim as the SEC that his league is "competitive from top to bottom." (Well, maybe the bottom of the Big East is not as bad as the bottom of the SEC -- We'd have to see Pitt or Syracuse play Mississippi State to figure that one out.) Anyway, the book's a good read and I laud you for having had the courage to give credit where it was due and vote the USF Bulls #1 last week. I still think that, were Rutgers and USF to line up and play 10 times, USF would win 7 or 8 of them. But Rutgers played their best game of the season on Thursday night and USF did not. That was the best we'll of Rutgers. It was not the best we've seen of USF which, ironically, has seemed to go a little flat after each of their big wins. Although it ranks about 9th in the nation in total enrollment, the University of South Florida is younger than I am (but not by much), and one of the things I liked most about the undefeated USF Bulls was that they represented such a thorn in the sides of those good ol' boys and girls at (and from) all the old, perennial football powerhouses. It was great to see some new faces, with a younger coach (and some wizened assistants) enjoying some newfound and much deserved success. I don't think we've heard the last wimper from USF or the Big East this season. Check out this week-end's upsets and near-upsets -- The Big East might still be in the BCS hunt!

I'd be very impressed if BC beat Virginia Tech tonight since they don't play until next week.

Charles, you are an idiot. I'm a vandy alumnus so trust me, us winning wasn't very shocking simply because USC is not that great of a team. They still have the toughest part of their schedule. Thus far they have won the games they should have, vandy being the exception. The SEC has too many ranked teams and not a great BCS OOC record to demand it. So save me the song and dance, its getting old.

What's funnier about Charles' post is the idea that the Vandy loss was the result of USC getting up for the big game at powerhouse UNC last week and then suffering a letdown after squeaking by the Tarheels.

... and, wait one second ... ah, there we go: Kentucky just lost, too.

So that's two losses in two games today for the trendy, already-with-one-loss SEC teams that all the Southern fans (and, sadly, most of the national media) fell all over themselves to worship. Seriously, are you guys over it now? Does TWO losses before November finally do it?

Oh, and way to go, Tennessee. That's a THIRD loss for the alleged No. 20 team in the country. And congratulations to both Ole Miss and Miss. State for yet another set of pratfalls. And then there's always the 50/50 chance that the Auburn offense will actually get into field-goal range in any given game.

Yeah, the SEC is so clearly the best conference in the nation. Not.

(Stay tuned below for numerous SEC fans spouting their usual "it's just that the teams beat each other up every week" rhetoric. As if the exact same thing doesn't happen in every OTHER conference, too).

Correct, ChrTh -- BC can not lose until NEXT week. (But, the way things have been going, I'm almost expecting them to...)

I am officially off the Charlie Weis band wagon. Can we start looking for a successor for the 2009 seaon?

Let's review- 6 Big Ten teams with 2 losses or less, 7 SEC teams with 2 losses or less.

Of those, 2 Big Ten teams are currently ranked, and 6 SEC teams are ranked.

What is this based on? The SEC's "dominance" of other BCS conference teams out of conference? Yeah, 5-4 is a great record.

Their dominance over the Big Ten in the bowls last year? Oh, right, the Big Ten was 2-1 vs. the SEC in bowl games last year.

My only guess is that it's gotta be the media propping the SEC up and bashing the Big Ten.

So I suppose that South Carolina will stay at No. 6 and Vanderbilt will move into the Top 25, right? I mean it's not like SC lost to a (hack, gag) Big East school or anything so low. The SEC: God's conference, where football rules and everybody's great.

I'm a Big Ten fan (Go Buckeyes!), but I will admit that top-to-bottom the SEC is better than the Big Ten this year. I mean, come on: Northwestern lost to Duke. And yes, the media loves the SEC; but frankly, who cares? The AP Poll is meaningless.

Before all the Ohio State lovers show up, enjoy the win while you can. Penn State won't be so easy, especially in Happy Valley. And I think our defense will put up a little more of a challenge than MSU. Sparty left your average receivers get by them all game and Beanie (a freakin dumb nickname) won't get easy, long runs like that.

So, does UF beating Kentucky and Vandy beating USC just another example of why the SEC is so tough. I take nothing away from them, but when other conferences do the same thing they're called weak. Conference games are always on another level, no matter what conference.

It gets old with the SEC fans using that excuse all the time. Didn't Miss St get crushed by WVU today? What happens next week when they beat Kentucky? Will that be another example of the strength of the SEC?

Mizzou absolutely killed Texas Tech. Did you see? The Tigers' sole loss was at Oklahoma -- where NO VISITOR wins. No mid-season swoon this year. MU should be ranked much higher than teams that lost games AT HOME (SoCal, So.Carolina, Florida, Kentucky, Rutgers (TWICE!), Cal). Stewart, it's time to give the Tigers' -- both the offense AND the defense -- their due.

Hypothetical situation:

A top ten team loses to an unranked interconference team. A top twenty five team gets crushed by an unranked team. What happens?

A: You bash the conference as being overrated, and explain that if a top team can't handle their business, that the team and the conference just suck.

B: You explain that the loss shows how competitive the conference is, and that the loss shows strength from top to bottom.

Funny how when that happens with Wisconsin or PSU that the Big Ten is overrated, but when it happens to SC that the SEC is just that deep.

For Brad - I don't think name calling strengthens your argument, but if it makes you feel better go ahead. South Carolina has had three big games, won two of them, and Tennessee on deck. Vandy hardly qualifies as worrisome competition in that context. But being overlooked Vandy does have the kind of talent to make one regret the omission. Now, got any new names to call me?

Nah, idiot still fits you charles. You were apologizing for usc cause they have a hard time getting up for a week team after playing a big game. Well the played unc last week, hardly a big game. They lost cause they aren't that great and no, kentucky isn't a "big" game, they are yet another over-ranked team. Just like when LSU loses tonight. Stop apologizing you're still an idiot. I'm not trying to strengthen any argument, i already know i'm right.

Cory and Jennifer are correct... North Dakota State Univerity is not Division II... they are Division I-AA... or FCS... Stewart has a typo on the blog...

Like I said once before... No respect, no respect at all. ASU and UCLA are tied atop the Pac-10 at 4-0, Stew. I know it doesn't sound as impressive in your observations while you are building up UCLA as the new IT-team in the Pac-10-- but facts trump fiction still, don't they?

And for the record, ASU is now 1 of 5 undefeated teams in the country at 7-0. If they had a Great Lake instead of a Grand Canyon, they'd be the #1 game in town. (That's a slam on Ohio St., for the double-digit IQ crowd).

mikegoble (speaking of double-digit IQs): You honestly think ASU deserves to be #1? Who have they beaten? The only they've beaten with a winning record is Oregon State at 4-3. Granted, OSU's schedule hasn't been that tough, but at least MSU and Purdue have winning records.

Now, should ASU be 7th? No, they should be top 5. But they got a meaty schedule coming up, and if they deserve to be in the discussion, well, we'll find out won't we?

P.S. Columbus isn't on a Great Lake. That's Cleveland.

Hey Stu...don't sweat your Oregon prediction yet...55-34 is pretty respectable with your 5th string receiver. So is around 600 yards of offense.

Not saying anything except Oreogn has churned out some pretty high-quality wins week after week (except, of course, against you-know-who)

Look, it's become pretty apparent that the SEC's skirts have been lifted; it's one dogsh-t team beating another dogsh-t team, while telling everyone that they're really all thoroughbreds. Kick 'em all out of the top 25 until they can beat a non-conference opponent better than Toothless State.

"Funny how when that happens with Wisconsin or PSU that the Big Ten is overrated, but when it happens to SC that the SEC is just that deep."

I'm sorry... what is the SEC's record this season against I-AA teams? And the Big Ten's? Has anyone in the SEC lost to Duke? What happened when Virginia Tech (arguably the best ACC team) went up against the SEC?

Yeah, I guess the Big Ten is pretty dominant and the SEC is completely overrated.

Speaking of overrated, why is Michigan in the Top 25. Is the media completely blind to their embarassing loss to a 1-AA opponent? What of the drubbing by Oregon? If any one program is loved by the media and completely overrated, it must be UM.

The Big 10 (11?) University of Minnesota Golden Gophers were lucky. They might have lost to the University of North Dakota (mascot name deleted in fear of NCAA sanction . . . ah . . "Golden Gophers" . . inspires subterranean bliss only Fielding Yost could appreciate!).

Hmm, I guess you missed bowl season last year (and I'm not talking about the many decent but great SEC teams that made some sort of bowl:

UF: Blowout National Championship victory.

LSU: Blowout BCS bowl win.

Arkansas: Close loss to a very good Wisc. team (arguably the best team in the Big 10.)

Auburn: Got the Cotton Bowl W.

USC beat a hot C-USA champ (UH.)

UK: got the W.

UGA: Had perhaps the most dominating second half comeback I've ever seen against VT.

A struggling 'Bama that didn't even deserve to play in a bowl lost by 3.

The worst loss was Penn State over UT by 10. Hardly a blowout. Hardly to a chump or poorly coached team.

Not that last year bears on this year, but I'd say the SEC had a strong showing at bowl time last year and I'd expect more of the same this year. In fact, I'd expect even better showings this year given the fact that USC, UK, and 'Bama are much better than last year