Because of the number of unbeaten teams left, there is a guarantee of more than one unbeaten at the end of the bowls.  There is likely to be more than one claim to a national champoinship with the winner of Texas-Alabama getting the biggest nod.

Citi National Championship Game
January 7, 2010 at 8:30 p.m. ET
Pasadena, California
Texas vs. Alabama

Allstate Sugar Bowl
January 1, 2010 at 8:30 p.m. ET
New Orleans, Louisiana
Cincinnati vs. Florida

Rose Bowl Presented by Citi
January 1, 2010 at 5 p.m. ET
Pasadena, California
Oregon vs. Ohio State

Tostitos Fiesta Bowl
January 4, 2010 at 8 p.m. ET
Glendale, Arizona
TCU vs. Boise State

FedEx Orange Bowl
January 5, 2010 at 8 p.m. ET
Miami, Florida
Iowa vs. Georgia Tech

source:  www.bcsfootball.org/bcsfootball

What do think about the match ups? Do you think any of these teams should not be in a BCS bowl?  Why or why not?  Let us know what you think!

Here is how it could play out.

Alabama wraps up its season with Auburn next week, The Iron Bowl.  This is a rivalry game.  Auburn, while not great, is not bad either.  Rivalry games can get really strange sometimes.  What if the War Eagle puts it all together and takes out the Crimson Tide?

Florida plays Florida State for the Florida state title.  Christian Ponder is a capable quarterback, and Florida’s offense has been suspect from time to time.  What if?

Then, there is Texas.  The Longhorns play Texas A&M on Thanksgiving Day.  This is a red-hot Aggie team, and they are dangerous.  And, it’s a rivalry game.  If the Longhorns win there, they have to beat Nebraska in the Big XII title game.  Seems like I remember an upset a few years ago by Texas against the better Nebraska team.  Just saying.

So, Texas loses one or both of it’s remaining games.  Florida or Alabama loses one of its games and then beats the other undefeated team in the SEC title game.  TCU runs rough shot over New Mexico in its final game this year at Amon G. Carter Stadium in Fort Worth and finishes 12-0.  What will happen?

Texas, Alabama and  Florida all receive a loss in the final two weeks.  TCU is undefeated.  A nightmare.  Then those BCSers will have to make a real decision about if they put the Horned Frogs in the National Championship Game.  And, who would play them?  Boise State?  Interesting.

I would love to see this happen just to see the mass chaos that would result.  Either way, TCU will play in a BCS game, but they might, somehow, slide into the National Title game.

And if they did, and played Texas?  Well, it would be irony if TCU won via a Antioine Hicks touchdown pass reception.

His 60-plus yard punt return for a touchdown was full of cut backs, stiff arms and quick misses.  ESPN counted at least 7 players that missed Kerley on the return.  The return was one of many highlights for the Horned Frogs on their way to a 44-6 win against Colorado State.

TCU had failed to have a punt return for several years until Kerley returned one against SMU two weeks ago sparking a flat Horned Frog team to win that game.

Kerley is a multi dimensional weapon best known for his use in the “wildfrog” package that shredded the BYU defense last year.  He is a special teams specialist and wide receiver for the Frogs who played quarterback in high school.

Congratulations to the Frogs and Kerley on the award and the exposure.

Texas/Oklahoma Preview 2009

By Adam Jones, special to collegefootballtopten.com

Almost everything that could go wrong for the Oklahoma Sooners offense has during the first stretch of the season. Meanwhile, Texas rolls along mostly intact. So why are Longhorn fans nervous?

Starting with the Sooners, it wasn’t enough to replace almost an entire offensive line in the off-season. The players left behind started to play their way out of the game, as well. It got so comical that tight end Brody Eldridge moved over to center for the opener against BYU. This makeshift wall could have gotten Sam Bradford killed—death didn’t result, but injury did. Bradford’s balky shoulder, combined with the loss of All-American tight end Jermaine Gresham for the season, left the Sooners with little more than a serviceable run game, a decent back-up QB in Landry Jones and emerging receiver Ryan Broyles. That was enough—behind an excellent defense—to rout Idaho State and Tulsa, but the Sooners failed again in an excruciating one-point loss to Miami. To add injury to insult, Ryan Broyles went down with a broken scapula (yes, yes, Bob Stoops believes he will play Saturday…whatever).

Sam Bradford returned against Baylor and looked sharp, but his receivers didn’t and the Sooner line has not gotten any better. Now it must contend with the loss of guard Brian Simmons. The hits just keep on coming. Recipe for a Texas rout, right? Not so much. For as bad as the Sooner offense looks on paper, the OU defense is just as good on the field. Gerald McCoy may be the best defensive tackle in college football and Jeremy Beal, at end, has almost been his equal. The pair have been twin and will make life miserable for an underperforming Texas offensive line. Indeed, the game has come down to an ugly battle of terrific front sevens (Longhorns Sergio Kindle, Sam Acho, Lamarr Houston and a posse of athletic linebackers can’t wait to challenge the Sooners) against offensive fronts that don’t look capable of keeping them at bay. This is hard for Longhorn fans to swallow, since they are fielding roughly the same offensive line that played the same OU defense straight up in last year’s contest and dominated the fourth quarter. But the Texas offense simply isn’t right this year. The running game is abominable and Colt McCoy, though still ridiculously accurate, has been turnover prone. The brilliance of Jordan Shipley and the Texas game-breaking return units have been the story for the Horns thus far.

Unless Texas gets off track and shows something on offense they haven’t shown so far, and unless the depleted Sooner receiving corps can do something (anything!) to help Sam Bradford out and take the pressure off of tailbacks DeMarco Murray and Chris Brown, then a repeat of last year’s 45-35 barn-burner is not in the cards. Texas is a bit better on offense and has a passel of game-changing players waiting for their break-out Cotton Bowl moment. It should be enough for a 28-20 win. But not too many Longhorn fans are confident of much more.

Adam Jones is the author of Rose Bowl Dreams: A Memoir of Faith, Family and Football and writes a weekly college football column at the website www.jonestopten.com.

If you asked most people, what major city in Texas is located in Taylor County? The majority of people would probably say Lubbock, Austin, Houston, San Antonio, or Wichita Falls as the main city for Taylor County. Actually, Abilene is the major city for Taylor County. If you knew Abilene was the major city for Taylor County, then you most likely didn’t know how Taylor County became originated.

The county is named after three brothers: Edward Taylor, George Taylor, and James Taylor who died in the Alamo. Taylor County has some of the top NCAA quarterbacks playing at various universities in the Lone Star State. The first of the three quarterbacks is from the University of Texas Longhorns

and last year’s Heisman runner-up Colt McCoy. Second of the three quarterbacks is Case Keenum from the University of Houston Cougars. Last of the three quarterbacks is Taylor Potts from the University of Texas Tech Red Raiders.

University of Texas is ranked #2 this year, the same ranking as they finished the 2008 season and major factor is Colt McCoy whose NCAA rankings are third in completions (103), third in completion percentage (71%), eighth in yards passing (1145), and tied eighth in touchdown passes (9). The Longhorns offense ranked #1 in points per game averaging at a torching clip of 50 points per game. They scored 64 points against University of Texas-El Paso last Saturday and 59 points against University of Louisiana-Monroe on September 5th. In his NCAA career, he has thrown for over 10,000 passing yards, less than 75 completions away reaching 1,000 completions and six touchdown passes away reaching the milestone of 100 touchdowns.

If somebody were to ask me at the start of football season about the Houston Cougars being undefeated and ranked #12 in the nation, many people including myself would be very skeptical especially facing Big XII teams of Oklahoma State and Texas Tech. The biggest reason for  their early season success starts with Case Keenum. He threw for 435 yards, completing 38 out of 58 passes in their comeback win against Texas Tech. In the 45-35 upset victory over Oklahoma State
Cowboys in Stillwater, Keenum completed 32 out of 46 passes for 366 yards. Last year, he threw for over 5,000 yards, 397 completions and 44 touchdown passes. The NCAA ranking for the Cougars offense is third in passing yards per game, sixth in points per game, and second in total offense.

When Graham Harrell left for the NFL this year, there became a major void in who would be filling in the Red Raiders quarterback position. Even though the Red Raiders are off to a slow start at 2-2, Taylor Potts shouldn’t be blamed for his play at the quarterback position. He has already thrown for over 400 yards in three out of the first four games of the season. Potts threw for 405 yards, completing 34 out of 48 passes for a couple of touchdowns against University of North Dakota in a 38-13 victory. On September 12, Potts had a game any quarterback would image having for a lifetime. He threw for 456 yards and seven touchdowns in the 55-10 blowout victory against Rice. After four weeks into the college football season, Potts leads the nation in several offensive categories: passing yards, passing touchdowns, and completions. He also is completing nearly 69% of his passes. You never know if any to all of three quarterbacks are going to have the NFL knocking on their doors in the next few years.

Sara’s sister, Alyson, was in my class.  The Low family is a good family, always helpful in our community.  Sara was doing what she loved.  For me, Sara is the face of these hideous, cowardly attacks.

I have the same idea I have every year on this day.  I like to encourage people to have fun, spend money and stick it in the eyes of the terror extremists.  Make sure our economy doesn’t fall apart.  They tried to take down our society by trying to take out the symbols of our great economy, but, of course, all we remember is the people they took from us like Sara.

Heck, if I had the money, I would go buy a new car!  We are a great country with great people like Sara and her sister Alyson and their parents, Mike and Bobbie Low.  We work hard to support our families.

So, here is an Ode to Sara.  Remember her, and all of the victims of 9/11, but also, continue to live life working hard, enjoying your friends and family and sharing with others in need.

We love Sara!  We love the victims of 9/11!

God Bless Sara Low and all of the vicitms, and God Bless America!

In the middle of the 1980’s, I was growing up in Batesville, AR.  We all, of course, were Razorback fans.  Ken Hatfield had shown up, and he was in the middle of rebuilding a great tradition at Arkansas, but over in Jonesboro, AR, a guy by the name of Larry Lacewell was building his own tradition.

The Arkansas State Indians (ehem) Red Wolves were emerging as one of the best teams in Division I AA football, uh, I mean the Fooball Chamipionship (played on the field) Subdivision.  Lacewell, was running the wishbone at st-A-te (we called them ASU, but everyone else didn’t know that, so they referred to Arizona State as ASU), excecuting the triple option with precision behind the quarterback Dwane Brown.

Brown may quite possibly have been a top 5 option quarterback during his time at ASU in all of the divisions.  I think only Oklahoma’s Jamelle Holieway and Georgia Southern’s Tracy Ham may have ran it better.  Of course, Lacewell came to ASU from the staff of Oklahoma, so he knew how to run it too.

Those Indian teams were good.  They finally got over the hump of losing in the second round of the playoffs and advanced to the 1986 championship game only to play the legendary Georgia Southern team of the 1980’s and QB Tracy Ham.  They finished number two that year.

They began the long ascent to Division I A after that year, playing as an independent in D  I AA before climbing in to the division with the big brothers, and things have not always been so good for them.

Fast forward to this year and you will see that the Red Wolves are led by senior quarterback Corey Leonard and senior running back Reggie Arnold.  The Red Wolves pasted the Mississippi Valley State Delta Devils 61-0.  Such as what a Bowl Subdivision team should do to a Championship Subdivision team, but you know (wink, wink) that doesn’t always happen (see Virginia and Duke).

The Red Wolves held the Delta Devils to a total of 69 yards offense.  Arkansas State rolled up 358 total rushing yards.  Now I am sure that MVSU is no Nebraska, but are they that bad?  Shouldn’t a high school team get at least 100 total yards of offense.

So, can the Red Wolves go in to Lincoln and pull off a shocker?  Well, before you frown, don’t forget that they “shocked” Texas A&M in College Station last year.  I actually expected that to happen.  The year before, the Red Wolves came within a hair of knocking off Texas in Austin.

Sure, the Aggies were in a new system and administration and not really ready for the Red Wolves.  Also, that Longhorn team didn’t really find their groove until later in the year.  But, it’s not inconceivable that the Red Wolves could go in to Nebraska and get a cornhusker-sized upset.

My observation has been that the Red Wolves have been rather inconsistent the past few years, but when they take on the big teams early in the year, they come out swinging and focused.  They take on an “us against the world” mentality and they make it work for them.

To my Cornhusker fan friends (read, John Boehler), beware of the very quick QB Corey Leonoard and the equally dangerous running back Reggie Arnold.  They will run multiple sets, but a spread offense is kind of their base.  Leonard runs the zone-read pretty well.  And, when he is “on” passing the ball, he becomes really dangerous.  As a senior, maybe, many of the young player-mistakes are behind him.

If the Red Wolves knock off the Cornhuskers, well, “I told you so.”  However, if they are another Nebraska victim, “everyone knew all along.”

Beware the Wolves!!

Brad Sham, the voice of the Dallas Cowboys since 1977, will serve as the emcee of the luncheon.

The luncheon will be held at the Westin City Center Hotel at 650 North Pearl Street in Dallas. Tables and individual tickets for the luncheon are still available at $1,000 and $100, respectively. To reserve your seat today, contact the A&M-Commerce athletic department at (903) 886-5558.

For 13 seasons, Wright played in 166 games, started at right tackle in six NFC Championship games, and played in five Super Bowls, winning two. He was inducted into the NFL Hall of Fame in 2006, the Dallas Cowboys’ Ring of Honor in 2004 and the Texas Sports Hall of Fame in 2005. Since his playing days, he has gone on to have a successful career as an entrepreneur, author, and philanthropist.

Fort Worth Avengers semi pro football team

Fans of major college football program do not think about semi pro football.  I don’t think there is any disagreement to that, but fans of semi pro football usually watch all football.  And, for a few players, there is the hope that he will one day play big-time football, whether it is in the NCAA or the NFL.

Rarely, however, does this move actually happen.  Mostly, the best these guys will do is move up in to a league that has a little more status.  Maybe they can get in to an indoor league where they might actually get paid something to play the game.  Thus, semi pro football has its pay-to-play leagues and the play-for-play leagues.  Even the play-for-play leagues pay very, very little.

The chances of making the NFL is so slim that it prompted one semi pro football owner to tell me that guys looking to get to the NFL should just go to college.  They should walk on if they half to, because, as he said, “If they have it, they will make the team.”  Nevertheless, there are the rare exceptions of guys moving up the ranks because of their play in semi pro football.  Oklahoma linebacker Mike Balogun is one of those exceptions.

Balogun played in the North American Football Leauge (NAFL), which is one of the largest semi pro football leagues in the country, although, it appears he may have played in another league as well.  I am unsure of the entire story, but the question is whether or not Balogun played past his 21st birthday in semi pro football.  That will cost a player elgibility.

I first learned this back in the Spring when it happened to a player at Florida State, who as turns out, seems to have blown the whistle on Oklahoma.  How nice of them!

So, normally, the college football fan wouldn’t think twice about this vagabond existence of traveling football with little money involved, but this year, when Florida State and Oklahoma take the field, it will most likely be on the minds of their fans and the college football community as a whole.

For you college football fans, when the Spring rolls around, and it’s “off season” time, look up the local semi pro football team, and go make a game.  The team in your area might just be really good.  You might enjoy the football.  They still wear helmets, not leather, and they still play on a football field.  Some even have dancers!

Most of these teams have websites, Myspace and Facebook sites and Twitter accounts.  The owners are usually local, and they are not looking to build a $2 Billion dollar facility on your dime!

It has been said that, “any news is good news.”  This might be true for semi pro football, and most likely, the NAFL.

Last year at my college football blog, I read and reviewed several books. I like to think I had a niche at Collegefootballtopten.com doing book reviews, and I had access to the books working for a bookstore.

One of the authors I read was a guy by the name of Jeffrey Marx. He wrote a very inspirational book about a former Baltimore Colts football player-turned volunteer coach, mentor and minister. My story about reading it was almost as compelling as the book itself! Check out my reviews here and here.

Now, Marx has written a new inspirational book about a New England Patriots deep snapper who was teaching seventh-grade Bible Study when he got the call to snap for the Super Bowl bound Patriots. The player eventually won a Super Bowl ring on a last second field goal in which his job was critical to the outcome of the game.

I am a fan of what Marx is doing with his books. I highly recommend fans picking up a copy of his book and reading it, especially as we are approaching the football season. We all could use a little inspiration in a world in which it seems that the bad dominates the day in sports. We need heroes who display courage and provide inspiration.

The book is available to buy on Tuesday August 18. You should be able to find a copy at your local bookstore, however, you can help out this site and buy a coy from our bookstore at the same time. Simply navigate to the bookstore, and look for the Jeffrey Marx books. There is a regular copy and a large print copy available in the store. To make it easier, here is the link.

Be sure and let everyone you know that likes football about the book. Feel free to pass along this article if you would like. You can use the addthis button at the bottom of the article to send it via email, Twitter, and other social media outlets.

About the Book

“In his first book since his New York Times bestseller Season of Life, Pulitzer Prize winner Jeffrey Marx tells the remarkable and true story of one man’s odyssey from seventh-grade Bible teacher to Super Bowl champion.”

The Long Snapper: A Second Chance, A Super Bowl, A Lesson for Life

“Don’t we all long for one last chance? Don’t we all dream to do it over again? Anybody who has ever had those pangs will love Jeffrey Marx’s beautiful and uplifting story about a guy who had opportunity dropped into his lap. Do yourself a favor and read The Long Snapper.”
– Frank Deford, Sports Illustrated

“Jeffrey Marx has done it again, only better than ever. Thoughtful and inspiring, The Long Snapper is quite simply a joy to behold.”
– Rick Telander, Chicago Sun-Times

Brian Kinchen was a thirty-eight-year-old husband, father of four, and seventh-grade Bible teacher whose professional football career had been over for three years when the New England Patriots called on December 15, 2003. With the Patriots riding a ten-game winning streak and the NFL playoffs only a few weeks away, they needed a fill-in for the obscure but vital job of snapping the ball for their punter and kicker – a long snapper. Brian was hesitant because he had received similar invitations to tryouts that yielded only disappointment – the teams always went with a younger guy. But could he really turn away from the chance of a lifetime?

The Long Snapper chronicles Brian’s remarkable odyssey as he and the Patriots – led by head coach Bill Belichick and quarterback Tom Brady – seek the ultimate trophy. Unfortunately, the dream come true turns into a personal nightmare as Brian struggles both on and off the field, and the pressure to perform on the biggest stage in professional sports nearly causes him to walk away. Seven weeks after leaving the classroom, however, Brian overcomes his greatest fear and snaps the ball on the historic game-winning field goal with only seconds left in the Super Bowl.

The Long Snapper is the story of a man who finally achieves the success he has always wanted. Brian Kinchen’s championship ring is a powerful status symbol for all to see. But his journey forces him to reexamine what really matters, and he realizes the true measure of a man has nothing to do with status: life is not about prestige, it is about passion and purpose. It is about impacting the lives of others.