Saturday, September 08, 2007

on the Docket | by Jay

So few teams schedule a big game to start the season anymore, and BCS conference showdowns are increasingly rare. Thus, teams in the Conversation are always the easiest to pick out after the first week's results; essentially, it just boils down to whoever beat a BCS conference opponent in their opener.

No sense ranking anybody yet, but let's break them out by division.

12 BCS teams in the Conversation
Auburn
Boston College
Cal
Clemson
UConn
Georgia
Georgia Tech
LSU
Missouri
UCLA
Washington
Wisconsin
def. Kansas State, 23-13
def. Wake Forest, 38-28
def. Tennessee, 45-31
def. Florida State, 24-18
def. Duke, 45-14
def. Oklahoma State, 35-14
def. Notre Dame, 33-3
def. Mississippi State, 45-0
def. Illinois, 40-34
def. Stanford, 45-17
def. Syracuse, 42-12
def. Washington State, 42-21

6 non-BCS Division 1 teams in the Conversation
Bowling Green
BYU
Central Florida
Kent State
TCU
Wyoming
def. Minnesota, 32-31
def. Arizona, 20-7
def. NC State, 25-23
def. Iowa State, 23-14
def. Baylor, 27-0
def. Virginia, 23-3

and last, but certainly not least, one little 'ol team from Division 1-AA
Appalachian State
def. Michigan, 34-32

19 teams in the Conversation. That's a pretty good snapshot of who made a mark in week one.

Besides the Irish, these are the games I'm keeping an eye on today. Conversation teams in blue.

12:00 pm
Miami at Oklahoma

Nebraska at Wake Forest

Bowling Green at Michigan State
12:34 pm
Alabama at Vanderbilt
2:00 pm
Cal at Colorado State
2:30 pm
NC State at Boston College
3:30 pm
Oregon at Michigan

Boise State at Washington
5:45 pm
South Carolina at Georgia
6:00 pm
Missouri at Mississippi
6:30 pm
BYU at UCLA *
7:00 pm
TCU at Texas
9:00 pm
South Florida at Auburn
9:22 pm
Virginia Tech at LSU

* the only matchup today between two teams already in the Conversation