Select 17 – Week 10
Posted by Brett Kincaid on November 1, 2010
Believe it or not, two-thirds of the college football season has passed us by. Here we are the start of November, and there are 7 teams that have legitimate claims to being in the BCS Championship Game (although Wisconsin’s seems to be the weakest). This past weekend helped solidify the top contenders. Oregon and Auburn both went on the road and pulled out impressive victories. Boise St. dispatched Louisiana Tech with ease, and both TCU and Utah remain unbeaten heading into their elimination game this weekend. Alabama eased up a spot after their weekend off.
Meanwhile, Arkansas re-enters the Select 17 … barely. This weekend’s contest at South Carolina is clearly the turning point in the Razorbacks’ season. A win means every bowl outside of the BCS is still attainable. A loss means early January in Dallas is about the best the Hogs can hope for this year.
| Rank | Team | Points | LW |
| 1 | Oregon (6) | 134 | 1 |
| 2 | Auburn (1) | 127 | 2 |
| 3 | Boise St. (1) | 116 | 3 |
| 4 | TCU | 111 | 4 |
| 5 | Alabama | 109 | 6 |
| 6 | Wisconsin | 89 | 8 |
| 7 | Utah | 85 | 9 |
| 8 | Ohio St. | 75 | 10 |
| 9 | Stanford | 67 | 11 |
| 10 | Nebraska | 65 | 13 |
| 11 | Oklahoma | 53 | 12 |
| 12t | Arizona | 39 | 15 |
| 12t | LSU | 39 | 14 |
| 14 | Iowa | 38 | 17 |
| 15t | Michigan St. | 33 | 5 |
| 15t | Missouri | 33 | 7 |
| 17 | Arkansas | 6 | NR |
Others Receiving Votes: South Carolina 3, Oklahoma State 2
The Hogs and Roosters kick off at 6:00PM CDT on Saturday. The game will be televised by ESPN.
17 Responses to “Select 17 – Week 10”
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The Blog Hawgs 
Brett Kincaid said
Auburn is still at #2 with only 1 first-place vote.
Matt going off in 3…2…1….
Matt said
I’ve said my 2 cents. I’m ok with it now. It’s a mute point if we beat Alabama.
Jeff said
Matt, I’m your 1 first place vote. I think Auburn crushes Oregon.
But they have to get by Bama first.
Matt said
I appreciate that Jeff. You would think that being 9th in the strength of schedule, compared to Oregon’s which is around 100, would mean something. Apparently we don’t have enough “style” points, but yet we have the heisman front runner. I give up.
Stave said
I think everyone has forgotten that Boise has already clinched one of the spots in the Championship game. They beat Virgina Tech in the first game of the season.
Adam Butler said
“Boise St. dispatched Louisiana Tech with ease”.
Did they play Tech 2xs last week?
The game I saw they outgained a not good La Tech team by a whopping 74 yards, got bailed out on a BS penalty on an onside kick La Tech recovered late in the first quarter with the game tied, stopped the Bulldogs 3 times on 4th down in Boise territory or the score would not have been quite so pretty and resorted to a trick play late to tack on cosmetic points.
Did they roll it back and play on Wednesday, too? I know WAC teams like to play lots of midweek games, so maybe that’s what happened.
Maukavelli said
I considered changing my vote to Auburn, but something’s been bothering me all year about Auburn. I never could quite put my finger on it until yesterday when I started looking a little more. Auburn may have a tougher strength of schedule, but the hardest game they’ve played on the road came in Week 2 against Mississippi State (before MSU figured out they weren’t half bad). Further, that game will be the toughest game they’ll play outside of their own state. Their schedule is laughable, quite honestly. How in the world could they get Arkansas, LSU, Georgia, Clemson, and South Carolina all at home, but have to travel to both Mississippi schools and Kentucky? Sure, a road game to BAMA looms, but seriously? Not a single tough road game amongst the rest of the schedule.
Don’t get me wrong, I realize that Oregon hasn’t played anyone all that good, but at least they’ve gone into the belly of the beast a few times. Road trips to Tennessee, AZ State and USC trump MS State, Ole Piss, and KT in my opinion. Auburn’s really, really good. And I think they can beat BAMA. I’m just not quite ready to say they’re better than Oregon at this point. It’s super close. It’ll be a fun championship game if it comes down to those two teams.
Oh, and didn’t something happen back on October 2nd that should have caused BK to flip his lid about this poll? Or did the criteria finally change?
Matt said
I agree it is super close and we have had a favorable schedule in terms of home/away games. But again, doesn’t beating quality opponents at home trump not playing quality opponents at all? Now if Oregon’s schedule was around the top 30 or so, then the mixture of home/away games starts to be more of a factor.
In the big picture, if we keep winning then we stay in the top 2. That’s all that matters.
Brett Kincaid said
I think that’s the correct view for anyone in contention. It is fun to argue about who should be Number One, but the fact is that all you really want is to be Number 2 in the final BCS rankings.
In terms of schedule, I really only have 2 thoughts on Oregon right now. One is that they did try to schedule a good intra-sectional game with Tennessee. When the game was scheduled it was impossible to know that Tennessee would be so horrible. Hard to defend the Portland State game, but it seems everyone has one of those now. And while UNM is terrible right now, the Lobos have been competitive in their conference recently. Oregon would have won anyway, but it probably looked a lot better a few years ago when they signed the contract.
The other thought is this: Oregon’s schedule gets a lot tougher here on out. While ESPN would have you think the USC game was their last big test, I beg to differ. They have dangerous games in the coming 2 weeks against Washington and Cal (who admittedly did play like Cal should play this weekend). Then they host Arizona, who is not getting the credit they deserve in my opinion. Arizona is a very, very good team. Then they close the year at Oregon State.
I’d argue that overall, the Ducks have a more difficult schedule in the remaining month of the season than does Auburn. The Tigers really only have 1 tough game left, and to be fair it is a really tough game. But if the Tigers are as good as advertised, they’ll really only be challenged one more time.
Oregon, on the other hand, has four quality FBS opponents left that each have a legit shot at going bowling.
We are splitting hairs at this point. Hell, I voted Boise St. at the top this week. Although TCU may actually be better. I watched the Frogs a bit Saturday night. They were pretty sloppy and still annihilated UNLV in Vegas.
Adam Butler said
You may be right, in general, on the schedules but Washington is awful. Just awful. Terrible. Gross.
Cal isn’t much better. I say that, and I still have Oregon Number 1. It’s uber close, though.
That AU secondary just scares me a bit. I can’t recall a NC team having the worst pass defense (or close to it) i its league.
They have been able to overcome it with a super stud QB, a great OL, very good RBs, a good WR coprs, a solid DL and very good special teams. But, it’s hard to keep winning shootouts every week.
Maukavelli said
You may be right. I don’t know. Maybe I’m an example of the problem with the voters and the BCS. Style points matter, particularly at the top of the list. You are correct, Matt, that being #2 is all that ultimately matters. Isn’t there some stat about the #2 team winning the championship more often than the #2? Where’s Brain? He’ll know that stat off the top of his head. So, maybe Auburn wants to stay at #2.
I just felt like Auburn hasn’t had that really tough road game yet, while at least Oregon has had to face some hostile environments. I just can’t believe that Auburn gets that kind of road schedule every other year?!? I guess it only matters when LSU, Arkansas, and UGA are good, but it seems like Chizik would want to level that out a bit more and split up the Miss schools.
I still maintain, as I have since 1996, that the BCS is better at getting the top 8 (or 16) than it is at getting the top 2. Wouldn’t you rather argue about who’s #9 or 17 than #3? Maybe that’s just me.
Brett Kincaid said
It’s not just you, Mauk. This season more than ever has convinced me that some sort of small playoff is in order. I’d be happy with a Plus One format at this point. I think anything beyond 8 teams is unnecessary. There is never a case where the #9 team in the country has a legitimate argument as to why they should be considered the best.
If you REALLY want a Plus One or some sort of playoff format, you should root for a Boise v. Utah/TCU BCS Champ Game. We’d have a playoff in 2011.
Matt said
Brett – you’re right Oregon probably does have a tougher remaining schedule, but we’re ranking them as of now. If and when Oregon beats those remaining teams then maybe you have a point.
Adam – winning games begins and ends with being able to run the ball and stop the run. We do those 2 things as good as anybody.
Adam Butler said
I know. I thought I said that, pretty much. I think AU is a very tough team to beat. We failed to do it. And, I don’t think Bama matches up with AU very well (AU almost won last year in Tuscaloosa w/o the best player in the country against a much better Bama defense).
I just think it (a not good secondary) could catch up with them, eventually.
Mike Terrell said
I kinda sorta almost want to see one of the undeserving teams get into the big game just so we can all be validated when they get punked.
Brett Kincaid said
Not all of us, Mike. Not all of us….
I’m the champion of non-AQ schools. I should just change my name to Jude and be done with it.
Mike Terrell said
Oh right, sorry Brett. If it helps, it’s not that I was overlooking you, it’s that I was giving you too much credit.