There can be only one!

(Well, not really since there are no playoffs or anything in BCS college football. It’s possible for there to be two or more but unlikely. But in the Football Championship Subdivision, yeah, one's all there can be. because they, like, really duke it out at the end.)

Anyway, there are three games this weekend that pit undefeated 1-A teams against one another. In THOSE match-ups only one will survive and carry the “unbeaten” label for at least one more week.

Friday night, in the first Big East competition for both teams it will be the #5 West Virginia Mountaineers taking their 4-0 record in Tampa to face the #18 South Florida Bulls who sport a 3-0 record.

I came thiiiiiiiss close to going to Morgantown way back when but early admissions and $$ considerations put me at Rutgers. The Vegas.com line has WVU as 7 point favorites but I’m hoping the Bulls can gore the Mountaineers and slow their high powered offense. The WVU defense is a potential Achille’s Heel. And SF’s sophomore QB may be the one who can stick it. Let’s go Grothe!

For an added touch:

… the Bulls shocked then-No. 7 West Virginia 24-19 at Morgantown to knock the Mountaineers out of contention for a BCS bowl game last season.

This year it’s on home turf, baby!

On Saturday we have two more battles of the unbeatens. (Or is that three—more on that later.)

At 3:30 Eastern Time:

#6 California (4-0) travels up the coast to face #11 Oregon (4-0).

I’ve got no dog in this fight. (Am I allowed to say that when talking about football?) However, whichever team loses is surely going to fall in the rankings, which means others will be moving on up—hopefully #10 RU.

Here’s an interesting observation from the CBS Sports’ Sportsline.com preview:

California (4-0, 1-0) has scored at least 34 points in each of its four wins, totaling 166 - 13th-most in the Football Bowl Subdivision. Among Pac-10 teams, only Oregon (4-0, 1-0) has more points, as the Ducks are tied for seventh in the nation with 194.

Sounds like the first team to punt loses. Oregon is favored by 5.

Also at 3:30 Eastern Time:

Unranked Michigan State (4-0) visits #9 Wisconsin (4-0).

Again I’ve no dog in this hunt. (Yeah, that sounds better.) But if #9 Wisconsin gets knocked off it will be good for my #10 RU. It won’t be easy for the second week in a row, Wisconsin got some heroic effort in the second half to win and extend the nation’s longest winning streak to 13.

The Spartans were just 1-7 in the Big Ten last year and under a new coach are looking to exact revenge on their conference rivals. But this week, they might have to wait. The Badgers are favored by 7 ½.

About that third game.

It starts at 1:00 eastern and will take place for bragging rights in Massachusetts and pits the #12 Boston College Eagles (4-0) against 1-AA (or FCS if you prefer) #2 Massachusetts Minutemen (4-0). BC is averaging 37 points per game and UMass 35. This one could get real interesting. They play some exciting ball on the FCS level, just ask Michigan. No line is listed because they are form different divisions.

Interesting story:

My daughter went to UMass and played in the Marching Band. Her first year there, the Minutemen were National Champs as they beat powerhouse Georgia Southern in Chattanooga, GS's backyard, very decisively. She said they got razzed coming into the stadium ("Go home yankees!")but that after three turnovers and three UMass TDs in the first 5 minutes it got awfully quiet. They had a little guy named Marcel Shipp running through defenses like grass through a goose. Played for the Arizona Cardinals for a while but I don't know where he is now.


Oh, BTW; #10 RU is a 16 point favorite against Maryland.