Bye Week Blues

This happens to me every year. I hate bye weeks. I seriously go through Utah Football withdrawals. In order to keep my mind off the fact that we don’t play again until Nov. 1, I have been trying to focus on the teams that are playing this week. In a perfect world, here’s how it would play out:

*****DISCLAIMER*****
The following does not reflect my actual opinion of who WILL win each game, but simply my opinion of who I would LIKE to see win each game.

#12 Boise St. @ San Jose St.

If SJ State can pull off an upset in this game, that would ease my mind a little. I actually really like BSU, but if they are our toughest competitor as far as crashing the BCS goes. They play in a very weak WAC conference, so there aren’t many teams with even a slight chance of beating them. SJ State is one of them.

#8 Texas Tech @ #23 Kansas

The obvious pick here is Kansas. A loss to Kansas would probably allow us to jump Texas Tech. Kansas would definitely go up in the polls, but it’s unlikely that they would rise high enough to jump us.

#4 Oklahoma @ Kansas State

Rule Number One: Any time a high-ranked team is playing an un-ranked opponent, an upset is the best case scenario. Good luck Wildcats.

# 10 Florida vs. Kentucky

See rule number one. Go… Wildcats.

#21 BYU vs. UNLV

Eh... I don't really care. A win for BYU won't push them up in the polls unless some teams ahead of them lose, which would also move Utah up. I mean, I love seeing the Cougars lose, but it would help Utah a little if BYU was still at least ranked when we play them in November. So, Rebels, Cougars, fight it out amongst yourselves.

#1 Texas vs # 6 Oklahoma State

This is going to be a good game. I am rooting for Texas in this one, and I hope it’s a blow-out. Why? Because an OK State loss might be enough for Utah to jump them. Admittedly not an extremely likely scenario, but it could happen.

#7 Georgia @ # 13 LSU

I’m going with the Georgia Bulldogs on this one. An LSU win would propel them past Utah in the rankings. (Although, it would probably also drop Georgia below Utah at the same time, thus leaving us exactly where we are now.) Scratch that. I don’t care who wins this game.

# 16 South Florida @ Louisville

As per rule number one, I’ll be rooting for Louisville.

# 14 TCU vs. Wyoming

This is an important game for Utah’s strength of schedule. A loss to Wyoming would be devastating to TCU’s credibility. I actually don’t even mind if TCU jumps Utah in the polls between now and November 6th. It will only help us as long as we beat them. Go Frogs.

# 15 Missouri vs. Colorado

Rule number one gives Colorado my support in this one.

# 2 Alabama @ Tennessee

See rule number one. Go Volunteers! (as a side note, I beat the Tennessee Volunteers 67-7 in the Sugar Bowl last night. Gotta love NCAA football for PS2.)

# 3 Penn State @ # 9 Ohio State

Here again, I’m hoping for a blowout win. I’m going with Penn State in this game. If they blow out the Buckeyes, we could potentially jump OSU.

# 6 USC @ Arizona

As per rule number one, Arizona gets the nod. Although, this game also has implications towards Utah. If USC loses, Oregon State’s win over them looks less impressive, and so does our win over Oregon State. HOWEVER, it would also give Oregon State the opportunity to win the PAC-10, so that would make Utah’s win over them seem pretty good.

So there you have it. If I could decide the outcome of this week’s games, that’s how it would all play out. I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.