Living in Tampa and watching the USF bandwagon explode beyond anyone's wildest dreams has been fantastic. And now, I expect it to overflow and blow a tire on I-275 after tonight's news.
The Buckeyes and Bulls held the first two spots in the first BCS standings on the season released Sunday. The top two teams in the final standings released Dec. 2 will play in the national title game in New Orleans on Jan. 7.
That's right. The University of Busch Gardens, home to MOSI, accused terrorists, and the hospital which once cut the wrong foot off a guy, is currently in line to play for a national title.
Florida is 15th, which is about right. They are the highest of the two loss teams and at this point, UF is playing for the SEC. Kentucky will go into Saturday's slugfest as 7th in the BCS. There are seven SEC teams in the BCS 25.
Getting back to the top of the table, USF and Boston College are on the doorstep, but BC has the much more difficult trek to New Orleans. They get Va Tech next week, FSU in Boston, and finish at Clemson and home versus Miami. Hopefully, Va Tech owns them, because I cannot stand anything from Boston unless it is one of our Founding Fathers or Sam Adams beer.
USF is at the State University of New Jersey Thursday night and won't be challenged in their last five except for Cincy. That game is in Raymond James on November 3rd. And now that USF has started the BCS standings at number two, it'll be harder for them to get knocked out by a one-loss team.
But USF's status now means a big problem for UF and FSU; Tampa Bay is now USF country. While the team has been built by finding diamonds in the rough, USF can now recruit 4 and 5 star kids by saying they are hotter than FSU and not as competitive as UF (in terms of position battles). We've already said how USF's roster is dominated by Bay Area kids so that number of kids may continue. Urban already has made strides in the area, but he may have to make some preemptive strikes in Tampa to keep the pipeline open.