As a well-known tenor saxophonist would say, “Wow! I tell you what, wow!”

The first major shoe has dropped in the BCS framework for 2006-7, and there was a lot more movement in my rankings as well in games that had nothing to do with the Pac-10. But just to keep things orderly, I’ll dive right into the weekly roundup:

Upset of the Week: Honorable mention to Temple, the team that is so bad that it essentially got kicked out of the Big East Conference a couple of years ago, getting its first win of the year, beating Bowling Green by a score of 28-14 and snapping a 20-game losing streak that dated back to 2004. The current owner of the nation’s longest losing streak is Duke (16), followed by Stanford (10). But the real upset of the week belongs to Oregon St, who built up a 23 lead on USC before having to hang on to win 33-31, thwarting a 2-point conversion in the waning seconds to preserve the victory. The Beaver defense forced four Trojan turnovers and their special teams returned a punt for a touchdown en route to the victory. 1-loss USC dropped to #5 in my ratings and #9 in the AP poll, opening the door for another team (West Virginia?, Florida?) to face the winner of the Ohio St – Michigan game in the BCS national championship.

Comeback of the Week: Honorable mention to Wisconsin, who overcame a 21-3 deficit to Illinois before winning 30-24. The Badgers continue to impress as a 2^nd-tier Big 10 team, checking into my rankings at #18. The real comeback of the week belongs to Texas, who overcame a 21-0 deficit to Texas Tech in Lubbock before holding Tech scoreless in the second half en route to a 35-31 win. All Big-12 eyes should be looking ahead to the matchup between Texas and Texas A&M on November 24. Both teams are 8-1, and that game should determine who represents the South Division in the Big-12 championship game (though A&M still has to survive Oklahoma before it can officially stay in that discussion).

Yawner of the Week: Ohio St over Minnesota, 44-0. A classic case of two teams headed in very opposite directions. Ohio St is certainly one of the top two teams in the country, undefeated, and looking stronger every week. Minnesota came into the season with high expectations, but they are winless in the Big 10 and looking uninspired.

Game of the Week: Gotta go with Oregon St over USC. On top of it being an earth-shattering upset, it was just a really entertaining game to watch. The emotional swings in the game were incredible – Reser Stadium was rocking as OSU built its lead, dead silent as John David Booty led the Trojans on their comeback, and rocking again as fans rushed the field following the failed 2-point conversion.

Other news: There were a couple of interesting shakeups in my rankings this week beyond that of USC falling to #5. Tennessee leapfrogged Auburn, moving from #8 to #7 while Auburn fell from #7 to #10. This is mostly due to the fact that Tennessee’s victory this weekend was over South Carolina (5-3, #42) while Auburn’s victory was over Mississippi (2-7, #95). The take-home message here, though, is that the top three teams in the SEC are so closely matched as to be virtually indistinguishable, a characteristic that will surely serve as little comfort to the one or two of them that get left out of the BCS in the end (more on that later). Another anomaly this week is that Louisville leapfrogged Rutgers despite the fact that both teams had byes this past weekend (not counting Rutgers’ win over Connecticut on Sunday, a game that occurred too late to be figured into the ratings). The Cardinals jumped from #9 to #4, while the Scarlet Knights dropped from #5 to #8. The best explanation for that is that Louisville’s prior non-conference opponents went 4-1 this past week, while Rutgers’ prior non-conference opponents were 1-3. The take-home message here is that we won’t have a good idea of the relative strengths of the top 3 teams in the Big East until they actually start playing each other, which they finally do this week.

And so, with all of that, here are this week’s numbers:

Rank	Team		Wins	Losses	Value	STR	Last Week	AP
1	Michigan		9	0	6.455	10	2	2
2	Ohio St		9	0	6.384	11	3	1
3	Florida		7	1	5.671	1	4	7
4	Louisville		7	0	5.247	55	9	5
5	USC		6	1	5.163	2	1	9
6	Notre Dame		7	1	5.117	5	6	11
7	Tennessee		7	1	5.047	7	8	8
8	Rutgers		7	0	5.018	76	5	15
9	California		7	1	4.929	13	10	10
10	Auburn		8	1	4.750	19	7	6
11	Boise St		8	0	4.712	88	11	14
12	West Virginia		7	0	4.450	98	14	3
13	Texas		8	1	4.369	33	13	4
14	Boston Coll		7	1	4.008	38	12	16
15	Texas A&M		8	1	3.752	69	16	21
16	Arkansas		7	1	3.579	80	17	12
17	Georgia Tech		6	2	3.561	14	21	20
18	Wisconsin		8	1	3.429	93	18	17
19	Tulsa		7	1	3.282	94	20	26
20	Clemson		7	2	3.190	35	15	19
21	Oklahoma		6	2	3.065	25	27	18
22	Washington St		6	3	2.964	4	24	25
23	Missouri		7	2	2.951	49	19	28
24	LSU		6	2	2.895	32	22	13
25	Virginia Tech		6	2	2.603	57	35	23
26	Oregon		6	2	2.583	59		24
27	Maryland		6	2	2.466	72		30
28	Oregon St		5	3	2.434	6		31
29	Wake Forest		7	1	2.398	116	23	22
30	BYU		6	2	2.276	79		27
31	Penn St		6	3	2.158	24		32
32	Iowa		6	3	2.062	27		34
33	Pittsburgh		6	2	2.039	92		33
34	TCU		5	2	1.794	83
35	Nebraska		6	3	1.788	50	25	29
36	Navy		5	3	1.700	29
37	Ohio		6	3	1.657	64
38	Alabama		6	3	1.587	77		35
39	W Michigan		6	2	1.536	111
40	Oklahoma St		5	3	1.524	36		35
41	Hawaii		5	2	1.515	100		35
42	South Carolina		5	3	1.492	41
43	Georgia		6	3	1.253	91
44	Arizona St		5	3	1.212	71
45	Cent Michigan		5	3	1.203	63
46	Houston		6	3	1.154	97
47	Cincinnati		5	4	0.971	31
48	Middle Tenn St		5	3	0.879	96
49	Indiana		5	4	0.829	28
50	Texas Tech		5	4	0.796	34
51	LA Lafayette		4	3	0.758	60
52	Kansas St		5	4	0.740	43
53	Miami FL		5	3	0.549	106
54	Kentucky		4	4	0.524	22
55	Southern Miss		4	4	0.459	23
56	Washington		4	5	0.344	9
57	Purdue		5	4	0.308	82
58	East Carolina		4	4	0.266	39
59	Nevada		5	3	0.227	112
60	San Jose St		5	2	0.214	120
61	South Florida		5	3	0.207	113
62	UCLA		4	4	0.201	40
63	Florida St		4	4	0.181	42
64	Michigan St		4	5	0.101	15
65	Northern Illinois		5	4	-0.033	101
66	Kent St		5	3	-0.099	117
67	UTEP		4	4	-0.149	68
68	Utah		5	4	-0.159	107
69	Connecticut		3	4	-0.280	30
70	New Mexico		5	4	-0.300	108
71	Idaho		4	4	-0.368	87
72	Arkansas St		5	3	-0.395	119
73	Baylor		4	5	-0.401	44
74	Air Force		3	4	-0.431	26
75	Virginia		4	5	-0.557	62
76	Wyoming		4	5	-0.587	65
77	Vanderbilt		4	5	-0.703	75
78	SMU		4	4	-0.744	109
79	Minnesota		3	6	-0.754	3
80	NC St		3	5	-0.886	37
81	Bowling Green		4	5	-0.899	84
82	Arizona		3	5	-1.066	48
83	Syracuse		3	6	-1.072	18
84	Kansas		4	5	-1.074	99
85	Tulane		3	5	-1.122	45
86	Florida Atlantic		3	5	-1.293	67
87	Colorado St		4	4	-1.357	118
88	Rice		3	5	-1.387	74
89	Troy		3	4	-1.441	110
90	Iowa St		3	6	-1.604	46
91	Marshall		3	5	-1.612	95
92	Akron		3	5	-1.729	102
93	Army		3	6	-1.743	78
94	UAB		3	5	-1.778	105
95	Mississippi		2	7	-2.107	8
96	Toledo		3	6	-2.160	104
97	Louisiana Tech		2	6	-2.194	20
98	Illinois		2	7	-2.332	17
99	Mississippi St		2	7	-2.446	21
100	UCF		2	6	-2.453	53
101	North Texas		2	6	-2.518	61
102	Ball St		3	6	-2.534	115
103	New Mexico St		2	6	-2.703	81
104	Northwestern		2	7	-2.994	73
105	North Carolina		1	7	-3.364	16
106	Fresno St		1	6	-3.427	52
107	San Diego St		1	6	-3.513	51
108	Colorado		1	8	-3.835	56
109	Temple		1	8	-3.843	47
110	Utah St		1	7	-3.867	70
111	LA Monroe		1	7	-3.954	85
112	UNLV		1	7	-3.980	90
113	Memphis		1	7	-4.016	86
114	Buffalo		1	7	-4.061	89
115	East Michigan		1	7	-4.095	103
116	Others-Normal		0.76161	7.507298	-4.126	58
117	Miami OH		1	8	-4.477	114
118	Stanford		0	8	-4.755	12
119	Florida Intl		0	8	-5.081	54
120	Duke		0	8	-5.155	66

Most overrated team: After watching them struggle, particularly defensively in the first half, against Texas Tech this past weekend, I’m going to say Texas (8-1, AP#4, Hack#13). This also leads into my saying that:

Most underrated team: Texas A&M (8-1, AP#21, Hack#15). The game between these two teams the day after Thanksgiving should be fun to watch.

BCS implications: Most people are saying that the team that benefits the most from USC’s loss to Oregon St is West Virginia. While it may be true that the Mountaineers have the inside track to the championship game, they still have three tough games on their schedule before they can punch their ticket to Tempe. In my opinion, the real beneficiary of the Trojan loss is Auburn. Had USC run the table and faced the Big 10 champion in the championship game, it’s likely that the Rose Bowl would have selected Cal to face the loser of the Michigan-Ohio St game, and there would have been no at-large team from the SEC in the BCS. With USC’s loss, now it is likely that the winner of the USC-Cal game will go to the Rose Bowl and the loser will be relegated to the Holiday Bowl, opening up a BCS at-large spot for an SEC team, most likely Auburn.

Interesting games this week:

(12) West Virginia vs. (4) Louisville [Finally we get to see these teams play each other]

(27) Maryland vs. (20) Clemson [Sorry I couldn’t rank the Terps higher, Adi]

(24) LSU vs. (7) Tennessee [Volunteers clinging to slim division title hopes]

(21) Oklahoma vs. (15) Texas A&M [Defining game for Aggies]

(62) UCLA vs. (9) California [Bears look to avenge last year’s loss to Bruins]