Saturdays Bringing No Separation, Only Anxiety

Seven undefeated schools remain standing, No. 1 USC won in a romp, Penn State didn’t score a touchdown, a late fumble killed Purdue, UCLA couldn’t play defense and only a fool could predict what’s going to happen today when the bowl championship series standings are released.

Hey, wait a minute, wasn’t that the intro to last weekend’s recap?

No, but it could have been.

We do our best to alert the public regarding imminent rumblings with sandwich-board shout-outs such as “Separation Saturday.”

We also ought to report when Saturday turns out to be “Groundhog Day.”

The difference this year is, the longer things stay the same in college football, the crazier things could become.

Every team in the Associated Press top 10 won -- including six unbeaten schools. Again, we repeat, none of those schools play each other down the stretch.

So, unless a few teams start losing soon, college football is headed for a chaotic conclusion with perhaps several schools staking claims to a mythical national title.

If USC can retroactively claim a piece of the 1939 title for finishing first in the Dickinson System, what’s to stop an 11-0 Boise State from hoisting a trophy from the Potato Pundit Index?

Everyone keeps saying the situation will sort itself out eventually ... um, we’re still waiting.

Other observations, some astute:

* Ron Zook is Wrong Zook at Florida. Saturday’s 38-31 loss at Mississippi State ranks as one of the worst in school history and will not be tolerated by an already infuriated fan base. It simply does not compute in Gator craniums that Florida could lose to a team that lost to Division I-AA Maine.

Zook’s only hope now to stave off unemployment is to beat Georgia and Florida State -- and that might not be enough.

Expected to be overlooked in the hyperventilating effort to bring Steve Spurrier back to Gainesville is the fact Spurrier lost at Mississippi State in 2000.

* Keith Gilbertson is a goner at Washington, isn’t he? Raindrops and lopsided losses keep falling on his head.

* Iowa and Penn State played a better World Series opener than Boston and St. Louis.

Iowa held off Penn State, 6-4, thanks to just enough offense and dazzling defense led by no one named Manny Ramirez.

* Florida State is getting a free pass.

Two weeks ago, the Seminoles were lucky to defeat lowly Syracuse and on Saturday needed a field goal to defeat unranked Wake Forest. Yet, Florida State held rock steady at No. 5 in the writers’ and coaches’ polls.

Imagine how far non-BCS school Utah would have dropped had it struggled against similar opponents?

Meanwhile, the coaches dropped Georgia one spot, to No. 7, after the Bulldogs defeated Arkansas. And we’d like a sobriety check for the coach who took a first-place vote away from USC after a 38-0 win.

* Utah’s BCS fate is tied to Texas A&M.;

Utah, No. 7 in the first BCS standings, needs to get to No. 6 or better to secure a major bowl bid. As impressive as Utah’s 63-28 win over Nevada Las Vegas was, the Utes also received a boost when Texas A&M; defeated Colorado in overtime.

Utah’s 20-point victory over 6-1 Texas A&M; early in the season looks better and better with each Aggie win.

Weekend Wrap

New college football axiom: Boston College is to Notre Dame what Notre Dame is to Navy?

OK, that’s a bit harsh, but several schools in the hunt for BCS at-large bids were thrilled Boston College defeated Notre Dame for the fourth consecutive year.

A third loss has all but extinguished Notre Dame’s hopes of securing a BCS bid. The Irish could have guaranteed themselves a major bowl berth had they won nine games this year and Utah finished No. 6 or higher in the BCS standings. Technically, the Irish could still get there if they beat Tennessee and USC and finish in the BCS top 10, but now it’s a real longshot.

All you need to know about the rivalry gap between USC and UCLA: In its last two games, USC has allowed opponents a total of seven points and 356 yards. UCLA has allowed its last two opponents 93 points and 1,086 yards.

Funny how Karl Dorrell’s second year as UCLA coach is starting to resemble Bob Toledo’s last year.

One amazing aspect of Penn State’s 2-5 start is how many Nittany Lion fans have remained loyal to the program ... for now. Saturday, a crowd of 108,062 witnessed Penn State’s desultory 6-4 homecoming loss to Iowa.

“There have been a lot of tough ones,” Coach Joe Paterno said after a loss in which his team’s only points came on two safeties, “but this certainly would be right there with them.”

At least Penn State had an excuse for not scoring a point on offense last week -- the Nittany Lions were off.

Here we go again: Michigan and Wisconsin have emerged as the two best teams in the Big Ten so, naturally, this is the year they miss each other on the schedule. You’d say this was a fluke, except the same thing happened two years ago when Ohio State and Iowa finished unbeaten in conference but did not play each other.

In that case, Ohio State played in the Fiesta Bowl for the national title and Iowa met USC in the Orange Bowl.

Two late-game fumbles in consecutive losses have knocked Purdue (5-2) from national-title contention to also-ran status. Last week, a Kyle Orton fumble led to the winning touchdown for Wisconsin, and a late fumble Saturday by Dorien Bryant helped clinch Michigan’s 16-14 win.