Bama's Back A Week Later

It isn't fair.  It seemed like a done deal.  All teams had to do was win out against opponents they could beat easily.  It didn't happen, and a familiar Crimson face is staring back at us.  Why is Alabama back in the BCS title hunt?  What happened to KState and Oregon?

Alabama beat Western Carolina (nice bye week in November, huh?) and then got to sit back and watch the #1 and 2 teams in the country choke away the title game.  Kansas State was taken to the woodshed by Baylor.  It may have been understandable if RG3 was still on campus, but he is here in DC.  It didn't matter.  Colin Klein looked lost, Baylor dominated every aspect of the game, and came away with a win over the #1 team in the land.  Klein also lost the Heisman with that game.

Oregon and its unstoppable offense was... stopped.  Stanford showed up big time, led by its redshirt freshman Kevin Hogan (a proud graduate of Gonzaga College High School.  Go Eagles).  They knew exactly how to beat the Ducks, and executed their gameplan perfectly.  The biggest moment of the game, however, may have come when DeAnthony Thomas failed to make a key block that would have let quarterback Marcus Mariota score on what ended up being a 77 yard run.  Instead of an early knockout touchdown, the Ducks turned the ball over on downs and swung the momentum to the Cardinal.

Now, we are left with the possibility of Notre Dame vs Alabama.  The ratings for the game would be amazing, so I know that the NCAA and BCS folks are salivating over it.  But there is still so much more football to be played.  The Irish need to beat a USC team coming off of an embarrassing loss to UCLA.  Alabama still has the Iron Bowl against a hapless Auburn team, and of course the SEC title game.  If Notre Dame wins, they punch their ticket to the big game.  Unfortunately for all of us, it looks like they will end up playing a team from the SEC.