It was another quiet week on the site, but a crazy week in fringe college football. Boise’s hopes were dashed by a very good Nevada team, and if you’re a regular reader here you’re less surprised by that than most. The two conference championship games fell into place on Friday, and the last league championship appears to be settled as well.
MAC
Miami beat Temple on Tuesday night in what was seen as a game for second place in the division, since Ohio just had to clear Kent State on Friday to get back to Detroit. But to everyone’s surprise, Kent State rose up and stomped the Bobcats, which hands the East to Miami with a 7-1 MAC record, ensuring a bowl for the Redhawks and sending them to Detroit to face Northern Illinois, who punched their ticket last week. Also, Akron beat Buffalo to avoid a 0-12 season.
C-USA
SMU beat ECU with an overtime interception to clinch the West on Friday afternoon, and then Tulsa finished out their impressive run by stopping Southern Miss Friday night, which handed the East to UCF before they stepped on the field. C-USA reached out to the BCS folks, who determined that even if UCF lost, they’d finish ahead of SMU in the extended BCS standings, so it was determined that UCF would host SMU next Saturday for the league title. UCF did go on to beat Memphis, finishing with a 7-1 league record.
Sun Belt
Florida International clinched at least a share of the Sun Belt title and, almost certainly, the New Orleans bowl bid, since they hold the tiebreaker over Troy head-to-head. Troy won to stay a game back, but they are the only two bowl eligible teams so far anyway, although Middle Tennessee won also to keep their bowl hopes alive. Still, FIU joins Miami as one of the most impressive surprise stories this year.
WAC
The WAC will most likely finish as a 3 way tie, with Nevada taking down Boise State in overtime Friday night. All 3 will be crowned co-champs, and the league will work with the Kraft and Humanitarian bowls to assign locations, although there is talk that the league will try to get Boise placed in a higher profile bowl against a better opponent than they might get in the H-Bowl. Elsewhere, Fresno State topped Idaho, removing the Vandals hopes of going bowling.
Mountain West
TCU took care of New Mexico and appears bound for the Rose Bowl, although you won’t find bigger Steve Spurrier fans anywhere else outside of Dallas this week. Utah “saved” its season with 17 4th quarter points to win The Holy War over rival BYU, 17-16, and finish with 10 wins for the umpteenth time.
Thanks for popping in despite an erratic posting schedule lately. Hopefully a busy week here, with bowl projections and previews of the championship games, but we’ll see.