The Fighting Illini and Northwestern Wildcats have scheduled a football game to be played at Wrigley Field this year on November 20 at 11am.  How will it look you ask?  Well MPS has created a photoshop of the most likely scenario.

It seems like a very cool idea.  The Winter Classic was amazing and although there’s no way this could be as exciting as that, it still looks to be very interesting.  My pop always talks about how he used to see the Bears play at Wrigley back in the 1960s and how great it was (or wait, did he complain about it?  I can’t remember…).  Either way I’m getting tickets soon and you should too.

By Paul M. Banks Founder/President of The Sports Bank.net,

The year 2008 truly solidified my theory: to be a fan of either the Chicago Cubs and University of Illinois football means you know a lot about soul-crushing defeats. You know more than losing, you know exactly what it’s like to have any shred of hope or optimism crushed into grains of dust. You’ve had your hopes and dreams imploded so many times that you can’t even feel optimism anymore. You’ve routinely endured the type of losing that makes you wonder to yourself why you keep returning, but in ’08 took that disappointment spiked to cataclysmic proportions. The fallout from that devastation will likely linger for generations.

I’m lucky enough to be in only one (UI football) of these subsets. If I was in the intersection of both these groups (don’t you love using ven diagram lingo?) I’d probably take a bath with an electrical appliance. If you happen to be both a Cubs and Illini football fan, I’d suggest taking the laces out of your shoes and avoiding any and all tall buildings before reading on. I’d also suggest reading this only on a bright, sunny day.

In 2008, the Cubs had their best team since, well since any of us have been alive. Unless you’re a 115 years old. They cruised through the regular season, and had they not taken their foot off the gas pedal a bit in August-September (though it’s easy to understand why they did) the Cubs easily could have won 100-105 games.

Coming off a first round playoff sweep at the hands of the Arizona Diamondbacks the year before, this season was about October: plain and simple. Actually, it should always be about October, but these are the Cubs- so it’s quite common for even August and September to be meaningless. Still there was no way the Cubs could blow this thing, right? It was also the centennial anniversary of the last title. It was almost too perfect.

It was too perfect; for the L.A. Dodgers, as every Cubs infielder somehow found a way to make an error in the same inning of game 1. The ’08 sweep, combined with the ’07 sweep, and the five outs from a World Series collapse in ’03, makes me wonder if Cub fans have any reason to look forward to April each year. Regarding Cub die-hards, I wonder if they have any reason to live.

As bad as’08 was for those who live in Wrigleyville (and I mean “Wrigleyville” as the state of mind, not a physical location, kind of like “Margaritaville”), it was equally bad or worse in Champaign. Ron Zook, who is most famous for inspiring Southern fried yahoos to create a website encouraging his dismissal, was coming off a banner season. His best laid plans had finally worked as Illinois made their first Rose Bowl since 1983. The Illini got their second BCS bowl bid this decade, tying Iowa. I know, I know that sentence is utterly unbelievable, but trust me it’s true. However, just like in ’01 when the Ron Turner led Illini qualified for the Sugar Bowl, Illinois got EMBARASSED on New Year’s Day. It was another dark day.

And how did Illinois build off the momentum of a 9-4 campaign? By going 5-7 the following season. ’08 was low-lighted by an embarrassing loss to Western Michigan before a crowd of like 6,000 people in Detroit. In an era where ABSOLUTELY EVERYBODY goes to a bowl game, Illinois hasn’t been to back-to-back bowl games since ’91-’92.

How is that even remotely possible for a team that plays in a power conference?

The Zooker is back for another year even though he REALLY should have been canned after last year’s dismal 3-9 showing; a year in which numerous experts predicted Illinois to finish third or fourth in the Big Ten. I knew better, I picked them seventh, but that was STILL too optimistic.

How can you ever trust an optimistic pre-season forecast for an Illini football team ever again? The state doesn’t have enough money to buy Zook out of his contract, meaning our hope -what little of it that we have left- is years down the road.  Hopefully, his successor will do the right thing: schedule cupcakes, beat them down, and get the program’s confidence back up so they can actually squeak out a few 6+ win seasons in a row, and then we can stop referring to every good Illini campaign as “that fluke season a few years ago.”

Of course, I know that’s an extremely sunny forecast. Because I also thought Turner would use the boost of the ’01 season, combined with the Chicago Bears playing in his home stadium during 2002, as the perfect springboard for the program recruiting onto itself. And everything would change for the better. But Turner recruited division III level talent on defense and everywhere on offense outside of the tailback position.

At least Cub fans have that whole solidarity, safety in numbers thing going for them. They have each other to lean on in during their hopeless existence from April-September.  You know who Cub fans are because they never stop telling you. They make stupid documentaries, write cheesy books, and record awful music that reminds you they’re Cub fans. Then they stumble around and puke on the sidewalks in your neighborhood. Seriously, Cub fans, shot the f— up! You’ve produced enough cultural crap already. Even your mother is sick of you talking about how much you love the Cubs.

As for Illini fans, I guess they have basketball season. And these days basketball season seems to start in October, or maybe even September.

But all is not lost, right? The Atlanta Braves won a World Series, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers won a game when it was below 42 degrees, and the Denver Broncos won a Super Bowl. The Illini won two national titles in the 1920s (I’m sure national championships were a totally different animal and had a completely different name back then) and the Cubs have a date that we’re all sick of hearing for the kajillionth time.

Well, maybe it really is hopeless for both of them. I’ll start believing after the Buffalo Bills win a Super Bowl.

Paul M. Banks is Founder/President of The Sports Bank.net, an Upper Midwest sports webzine. He’s also a member of the Football Writers Association of America, the United States Basketball Writers Association and a sports writer for the Washington Times.com Communities and Walter Football.com

By Paul M. Banks is Founder/President of The Sports Bank.net

Remember when Ohio State quarterback Terrelle Pryor was being recruited? As far as high school players go, his hype was bigger than Jesus, Jimmy Clausen, and Tim Couch combined. (This analogy is contingent on Jesus’ having played college football, and I’m assuming that’s true because he’s a part of Notre Dame’s wall of fame.)

Entering his junior season, Pryor hasn’t quite lived up to expectations.

Katie Witham covers Ohio State football and basketball for the Big Ten Network, and before spring practice started, I asked her what Buckeye fans will be focused in on this April.

“This spring all eyes, including mine will be on Terrelle Pryor and how he’s progressed. The kid is good. There’s no doubt about that,” Witham said.

“The biggest thing for me with Pryor is whether or not he can back up all the talk; and that means doing away with all the easy turnovers and making something happen every snap,” she continued.

Last fall Pryor was the preseason Big Ten Player of the year. He fell well short of that expectation, but he did have his moments. I’ll let Sport Bank’s Ohio St. expert Hans Hetrick sum up Pryor’s ‘09.

Pryor obviously closed out the season with a fantastic Rose Bowl, but there are a few caveats that should be considered, namely, his release and decision making, both of which are slower than the Olentangy River in the middle of summer.

Oregon brought a lot of people into the box in that game. Remember, running the ball and playing good defense was OSU modis operandi throughout the season. The Ducks were going to make Pryor win the game through the air, and he did. But he did it against a small Oregon defense. Pryor’s ability to break tackles and a fantastic job by the offensive line gave him an extraordinary amount of time to throw the ball or pick a gap and run. In my mind, Pryor still hasn’t proved he can carry the team on his arm, which he’ll need to do if the Buckeyes are to make a serious run at the NCAA championship.

The good news for Pryor is that almost the entire offense is returning for 2010, standout tackle Jim Cordle being the only loss. That should help Pryor pick right up where he left off in the Rose Bowl.

That hasn’t exactly happened this spring. Outside of the most football-crazy portions of SEC and Big 12 country, there are precious few who care about spring football. But for those that do, eyes have indeed been watching Pryor, and the results have been less than promising.

I’ll let the O-Zone describe what went down on Saturday.

The Buckeyes lost five starters on defense this off-season, but it didn’t show one bit Saturday. Jim Heacock and his defense held on to the coveted Scarlet practice jerseys with a 78-24 thumping of the offense in the spring jersey scrimmage…With the defense hounding him all morning, Pryor finished the game just 5-of-16 passing, unofficially, for 45 yards. Part of that was the cold weather, part of it was dropped passes and bad protection, but a big portion of it was just bad passing by the junior signal caller who was wearing a black no-contact jersey.

It’s become abundantly clear that Pryor hates wearing the black jersey, and seems to struggle when he is confined to being a pocket passer at the mercy of his offensive tackles. For that reason, Tressel doesn’t expect to get an accurate reading on Pryor’s progress from this type of setting.

The article also mentions how this game had only one touchdown in it. Yet there were 102 points scored! What the..?! If watching one team play itself doesn’t turn you off from spring football, then perhaps the inconsistent, incoherent, and indecipherable scoring systems for the games will.

Yes, it’s true that we can’t learn much about a quarterback from a game where he’s not allowed to be hit. And perhaps Pryor’s ugly stats do mean much less in a game where he’s not allowed to scramble (especially when analyzing a QB whose game has such an important running dimension). And we should recall that Pryor put up the most impressive statistics of his college career during his final six games in ‘09, all Buckeye wins, capped off with a 338 yard day which earned him the Rose Bowl MVP award.

But this much is clear; if Pryor doesn’t challenge for national QB awards and/or lead his Buckeyes into the national championship discussion, his career will be a tremendous bust. In 2010, should Pryor struggle, those shortfalls can no longer be blamed on lack of experience.

Paul M. Banks is Founder/President of The Sports Bank.net, an Upper Midwest sports webzine. He’s also a member of the Football Writers Association of America, the United States Basketball Writers Association and a sports writer for the Washington Times.com Communities and Walter Football.com

Paul M. Banks is Founder/President of The Sports Bank.net,

Under the current and counter-intuitive BCS system, college football will never have a title game like the instant classic we watched Monday night. There will never be a mid-major taking on a BCS conference school, and battling them down to the final second, for all the marbles.

2010 has been perhaps the most exciting NCAA Tournament in memory. And the final game, a Duke 61-Butler 59 Goliath-barely-escaping-from-David classic was the perfect frosting to a delightfully delicious cake. This March madness is yet another example of why the college hoops postseason is BY FAR the best postseason around.

It doesn’t need fixing; college football’s pathetic excuse for a postseason does. And because of this vast disparity in playoff structure, when it comes to naming my favorite league college basketball will always be my 1a) and college football my 1b) even though football is by far my favorite sport.

Hey BCS, Get an effing clue!

On Sunday a reporter here in Indianapolis asked Coach K. to speak about how this sort of championship environment, could never happen in football.

“No, it can’t. It can’t because the top hundred football programs have their own thing, and then there’s AA. It’s a completely different animal. And they don’t have a system that would allow a smaller school to get into their spotlight with the BCS. They know what the heck they’re doing as far as monopoly,” Coach K. said.

“That’s why I think our tournament has captured America, is because everybody can get in it. Everybody can identify. Everyone’s got a chance. And they got a chance right now, whether there’s expansion or not, through their conference tournaments. And then once they’re in it, look what’s happened…Boy, this year it’s really happened.” Kryzyzewski continued.

You’ll notice he used the word monopoly. Yes, exactly. In his piece entitled “Butler’s run proves continued idiocy of BCS,” Akiem of the blog Footbasket, put it perfectly:

“Under the BCS system where the Big 6 Conferences get preferential treatment, Butler despite winning The Horizon League wouldn’t be anywhere near a National Championship game. It would probably be Kansas vs. Kentucky. There would be no magical run or any comparisons to Hoosiers. All we’d have is a system where the regular season is essentially de-valued so the big wigs like Jim Delany (Big Ten commissioner) could make extra unnecessary money off of the competition-loving sports fan.”

It’s true- the NCAA’s current maxim is greed and profits uber alles. And it seems like that belief becomes more extreme each day. They even charged journalists covering the tournament $16 a day to have internet access while they’re at the arena doing their jobs.

Yes, forcing media professionals to pay to do their job, instead of getting paid to do their job. So it should come as no surprise that “it’s all about the benjamins” at the macro level of the NCAA organization, because it’s the exact same on the micro level.

We watched history last night. 2010’s Final Game will be right up there with 1979 and 1983, in the discussions about what title game was most intriguing all-time.

Now imagine if we could have that with Boise St. or TCU capping off a “December Madness” someday?

Paul M. Banks is Founder/President of The Sports Bank.net, an Upper Midwest sports webzine. He’s also a member of the Football Writers Association of America, the United States Basketball Writers Association and a sports writer for the Washington Times.com Communities and Walter Football.com

Seemingly held up for weeks by bureaucratic paperwork, USC Head Coach Lane Kiffin was successful in officially relocating the douchebaggery capitol of the United States to Los Angeles on Thursday.  While the capitol had previously taken residence in the relatively modest enclave of Knoxville, Tennesse, the nation’s capitol will now be under the bright lights of Hollywood. Kiffin and his lead recruiting assistant, Ed Orgeron, diligently worked the phones over the last month or so trying to negotiate a cross-country move for the title that less than a year ago seemed to have found a permanent home in Rocky Top Country.

The final straw that convinced the country to allow the title to relocate to Southern California was the news that on Thursday Kiffin reeled in yet another football recruit.

No, this recruit will not be included in USC’s Recruiting Class of 2010, but rather the Recruiting Class of 2015. That’s right, Lane Kiffin offered a scholarship to David Sills, a 13-year-old quarterback from Delaware, and the young lad accepted.  Now, it’s ridiculous that the offer was even extended, as it is in no way binding on the kid, but it’s just weird in general. The LA Times article on the offer, allows 13-year-olds to read the comments on their website, but not to post any comments of their own.  If a kid can’t comment on a newspaper website, should they really be able to accept scholarship offers to college?  This is like saying the kid to the right just aced his times tables and the Booth School of Business has a spot in their Executive MBA program waiting for him in 2031.

While this alone should make you shake your head as to what has become of college sports recruiting, the following quote from the young quarterback should maybe alert authorities or the NCAA to grill Lane Kiffin on the recruiting techniques he used on this 13-year-old.

“I’m very excited, but I was very, very nervous. It was very cool, but my heart was beating so fast and I was scared. But after it was over, I was so excited and pumped.”

Either Sills was allowed to stay up all night and eat whatever he wanted, saw his first R-rated movie without his parents, did his first beer bong on his campus visit, got to second base with a USC Song Girl (hands on the outside of her sweater), or maybe it’s just the puberty talking. I smell an NCAA investigation in eight to nine years from now.

News coming out of South Bend is that Irish QB Jimmy Clausen received a black eye or two after getting slugged outside a bar early Sunday morning.  On the sabbath?!!

Anyway, it’s not completely clear whether this was a fight of any kind or if Clausen was just the victim of an idiotic angry fan.  I suppose it’s possible there was a double-dog dare involved too. 

Somehow this is the fault of Charlie Weis, but we’ll wait for the official news to come down from the authorities to figure out how to pass that blame.  The entire season has been one huge black eye for Notre Dame.  This was supposed to be the year that Weis finally shed himself of all those Willingham recruits and took his guys to a BCS game, or as Lou Holtz predicted, their seventh straight National Championship. 

Obviously, things didn’t go as planned and when things are down incidents like your star QB getting punched outside of a bar seem to happen more often.  Clausen was at one point this season discussed as a legitimate Heisman candidate and maybe even the front-runner, but that all seems very unlikely at this point.  Even though he has continued to impress, losses to Navy and UConn don’t help the cause. 

The Irish finish up their regular season Saturday night against Stanford before all the focus turns to whether Weis will get to stick around to coach ND in the bowl game.

Hopefully you’ve all seen the videos making fun of the BCS by depicting the employees as chimps.  While they are funny, I’m starting to wonder if they’re eerily accurate based on the latest PR blunder.  In case you’ve always wanted a forum to spew anger at the worst championship system in sports, the BCS has helped you out via Twitter. 

If you’re looking to blow off some steam this afternoon, may I suggest taking a trip to @insidethebcs.  Here is some of the debris:

• “If u know ur product is universally loathed, Twitter is not the place for u.”
• “Online PR disaster?”
• “Great job killing reg season, encouraging cupcakes. Second to last week, closest spread for unbeatens: minus 23 “
• “die”
• “Also, George W. Bush is flat-out laughing at your approval rating”
• “If the balloon boy dad set up a Twitter account, even he would not draw the level of venom @InsidetheBCS is right now.”

There are many many more.  Have fun!

h/t: Global Sports Fraternity for the vid.

Here’s the ballot for Week 11, your thoughts in the comments.

Rank	Team	Delta
1	Alabama
2	Florida
3	Texas
4	Boise State
5	Cincinnati
6	TCU
7	Georgia Tech
8	Pittsburgh	1
9	LSU	1
10	Oregon
11	Ohio State	1
12	Penn State	5
13	Oklahoma State	5
14	Stanford	11
15	Wisconsin	5
16	Virginia Tech	6
17	Iowa	4
18	Utah	3
19	Brigham Young	2
20	Southern Cal	9
21	Oregon State	3
22	Miami (Florida)	6
23	Clemson
24	Nebraska
25	North Carolina
Last week’s ballot

Tennessee’s football season has been tumultuous at best this year and has frequently descended into downright hilarity.  Most of this is thanks to Lane Kiffin, but they’re branching out. 

Typically, there isn’t anything to chuckle about when it comes to armed robbery unless you’re talking about a dumb criminal story or the victim comes out unscathed and has done something ridiculous.  Well the recent alleged incident involving three Vols football players is full of win.

First, the players rob some guy at a convenience store at gunpoint wearing their Tennessee football gear.  Always the great ambassadors for the university.  So the players are idiots and will undoubtedly be kicked off the team, which is quite a feat in the SEC by the way. 

This is where the victim picks up the ball and takes it in for six.  Corey Zickefoose is the 20-year-old that had the pleasure of a gun in his face during the heist.  To say he is a die-hard Vol fan would be an epic low-balling of the situation.  Check out his quotable material:

Corey Zickefoose: I think they should still be able to play football, regardless. Tennessee is my place. You know, it’s my football team.

Reporter: Even after they put a gun in your face, you say let them play football?

Corey Zickefoose: Yeah. It’s Tennessee. That’s the way it is sometimes.

Of course, it’s Tennessee, where sometimes, that’s the way it is.  I think this is a good time for some self assessment.  The best time for self assessment is when someone does or says something outlandishly idiotic; woo, self esteem.  So, if I was held at gunpoint by Tate Forcier, would I want him kicked off the team?  Absolutely.  Whew!  Though there is a better than slight chance that any Wolverine would bungle the operation entirely anyway.

Anyway, this kid is obviously awesome and you can get further proof by checking out some video at Dr. Saturday.  I’m not positive, but if you substitute Derrick Rose, Chicago Bulls, Stormin’ Norman, and modify the accent to something not so southern, the quotes from the victim may still be very believable.

Here’s the final poll for Week 10, as the Blogpoll once again employs more logic and fairness than the three major polls, who all moved USC ahead of Oregon.  Seriously.  Full poll with analysis at CBS Sports. 

NQTC gets mention again for the “Mr. Numb Existence Award” which goes to the five blogs that have the least divergence from the average ballot.  As the writer at CBS Sports has pointed out,

Yea, truly, the Mr. Numb Existence award has devolved to the teams that cause so much pain for their fans that all they can do when it comes time to put some teams in a top twenty-five is dully click the “chalk” button before moving on to the next pointless exercise in their meaningless lives.

Being a Michigan fan following Illinois, this is doubly true.  Anyway, here’s the poll, and I’m off to count ceiling tiles.

Rank	Team	PPB	StdDev	Delta
1	Florida (32)	24.0	0.8	–
2	Alabama (37)	24.0	1.0	1
3	Texas (24)	23.8	0.9	1
4	TCU (1)	21.4	1.0	1
5	Cincinnati	21.3	0.8	1
6	Boise State	20.0	1.4	1
7	Georgia Tech	18.9	1.3	3
8	Pittsburgh	15.8	2.8	5
9	LSU	14.6	3.4	–
10	Oregon	14.2	2.6	2

Can’t believe we’re 10 weeks in.  Here’s this week’s ballot:

Rank	Team	Delta
1	Alabama	1
2	Florida	1
3	Texas
4	Boise State
5	Cincinnati
6	TCU	1
7	Georgia Tech	3
8	LSU	1
9	Pittsburgh	5
10	Oregon	2
11	Southern Cal	1
12	Ohio State	5
13	Iowa	7
14	Houston	1
15	Utah
16	Miami (Florida)
17	Penn State	6
18	Oklahoma State	1
19	Arizona	1
20	Wisconsin	3
21	Brigham Young	3
22	Virginia Tech	3
23	West Virginia
24	Oregon State
25	Stanford
Last week’s ballot

A few things:

• Florida moves down to #2.  I did this a long time after everyone else did, and a lot of people have moved Texas up and have gone back to the Gators, but Bama has so many quality wins that they’ll likely keep this spot until they play Florida in the SEC Championship.
• Georgia Tech soars to #7.  Bow to the triple option!  Bow to it!
• Iowa couldn’t make it through their brutal home games against Indiana and Northwestern, as their hopes for a NC blew out in the endzone with Stanzi’s ankle/knee. 
• Ohio State and USC are creeping back toward the top 10.  The Buckeyes will probably return with a win over Iowa Saturday. 

Florida eye-gouges Bama and Texas to jump to the top spot, while Texas gets the most first place votes.  What does it mean?  Bad time for a bye week, Bama.  Also, don’t almost lose to Indiana.  Full poll and analysis at CBS Sports.  NQTC gets a mention!  Apparently I am very much in agreement with everyone else.

Rank	Team	PPB	StdDev	Delta
1	Florida (33)	24.1	0.8	1
2	Texas (34)	23.9	1.1	1
3	Alabama (20)	23.6	1.1	2
4	Cincinnati	20.6	1.5	–
5	TCU	20.1	1.8	1
6	Iowa	20.1	1.9	1
7	Boise State	19.8	1.6	–
8	Oregon	18.9	1.5	1
9	LSU	16.8	1.8	1
10	Georgia Tech	16.2	1.3	1

Rank	Team	Delta
1	Florida
2	Alabama
3	Texas
4	Boise State
5	Cincinnati
6	Iowa
7	TCU	1
8	Oregon	4
9	LSU	2
10	Georgia Tech
11	Penn State
12	Southern Cal	3
13	Houston	1
14	Pittsburgh	1
15	Utah	4
16	Miami (Florida)	1
17	Ohio State	1
18	Arizona	3
19	Oklahoma State	6
20	Oklahoma	2
21	California
22	Notre Dame	3
23	Wisconsin
24	Brigham Young
25	Virginia Tech	9
Last week’s ballot

• Florida stays at number one for now, with a blowout of Georgia.  Texas and Alabama really haven’t done anything to avoid the top spot, Florida just stays there because I think they’d win heads-up against either team. 
• I’m keeping Boise State at #4.  Their big win against Oregon looks even better now.  If teams slip up, I think Boise deserves strong consideration for the title game.  Cincy and Iowa keep playing well, but Iowa will need a big win at Ohio State to make me put them higher and I’m not sure that Cincy has a tough enough game left to impress. 
• LSU drops a couple spots, but I think TCU deserved to be up there and Oregon has been great. 
• Again, the bottom half of the poll is tough to classify, but I did my best.

The Blogpoll is out and Alabama remains #1. Looks like the first place votes are starting to spread out a bit though, with even Iowa and TCU picking up a couple.  Full poll with analysis at CBS Sports.

Rank	Team	PPB	StdDev	Delta
1	Alabama (46)	24.2	0.9	–
2	Florida (24)	23.9	0.9	–
3	Texas (17)	23.4	1.2	–
4	Cincinnati	20.4	1.9	–
5	Iowa (2)	20.3	2.1	–
6	TCU (2)	19.8	2.1	2
7	Boise State	19.2	2.0	–
8	Southern Cal	19.1	2.1	2
9	Oregon	16.2	1.8	2
10	LSU	16.2	2.1	–

Here’s the Week 8 ballot, your thoughts in the comments.  Florida or Bama #1?

Rank	Team	Delta
1	Florida
2	Alabama
3	Texas
4	Boise State
5	Cincinnati
6	Iowa	4
7	LSU	1
8	TCU	1
9	Southern Cal	2
10	Georgia Tech	1
11	Penn State	1
12	Oregon	3
13	Oklahoma State
14	Houston	2
15	Pittsburgh	7
16	Virginia Tech	1
17	Miami (Florida)	9
18	Ohio State
19	Utah	1
20	South Carolina	1
21	Arizona
22	Oklahoma	3
23	West Virginia	2
24	Central Michigan
25	Notre Dame
Last week’s ballot

Some thoughts:

• Well, I’m sticking with the Gators at #1.  It goes against my philosophy for the rest of the poll since Alabama has a more impressive overall resume, but I really think the Gators would beat Alabama.  Maybe if the Tide had a better showing against Tennessee. 
• Finally, some respect for Iowa.  I know beating MSU is not that impressive, but it was time to move the Hawkeyes up.  If they can take care of business the next couple of weeks, a game at Ohio State in November will be gigantic.  If Iowa beats Penn State, Wisconsin, Michigan State and Ohio State all on the road, they deserve some consideration for the national title game, no matter how down the conference is.  Nail biters against Arkansas and Mississippi State don’t make you look all that invincible Florida. 
• A couple of teams are dropping even after wins, but Iowa had to move up.  I jumped TCU over USC also.  TCU had a big win, but I think this is mostly backlash over USC’s jump in the BCS.  How do they pull this crap every year?  They have done nothing impressive outside of a close win at Ohio State.  A narrow escape at home against Oregon State should not move you ahead of three unbeaten teams regardless of how much whining your coach does. 
• Arizona and CMU move into the poll.  There aren’t too many good candidates in the mid-twenties, no offense to these two teams though.