Poll Results: Which Team Was The Most Overrated?

The poll has closed for the question, "Which team was the most overrated?" The Utah Utes ran away with this one with 68% of the vote. Pittsburgh and Iowa both got 14% of the vote. Baylor grabbed the last 4%.

Thank you to everyone who voted. Don't forget to vote in this week's poll: "Who will win the Big XII?"

Weekly Predictions/Game of the Week

My "Game of the Week" this week is Michigan State at Iowa. Iowa was my pick to win the Big Ten this year. Michigan State has needed fake kicks to win two of their eight games this year, but what matters most is that you win. A win today and not only is the Big Ten championship essentially in the bag, but an undefeated season as well. Iowa will present the biggest test to date for the Spartans. Many aren't giving them a chance. Then again, no one gave them a chance against Wisconsin--the team that just beat Iowa.

Kickoff: 3:30 ET
TV: abc and ESPN

Now for my predictions. I might be settling in on my “happy medium.” For the secon week in a row, I had seven predictions wrong. My overall record was 16-7. That puts me at 131-53 for the year. As always, you are free to chime in with your picks, or at least where you agree or disagree, and we can discuss. If I left off a game that really interests you, throw it out and we can discuss it also.

ACC
Wake Forest at Maryland, 28-10 Maryland
Miami at Virginia, 31-3 Miami

Big XII
Baylor at Texas, 28-14 Texas
Texas Tech at Texas A&M, 31-21 Texas Tech

Big East
Louisville at Pittsburgh, 35-21 Pitt
Syracuse at Cincinnati, 24-20 Syracuse

Big Ten
Michigan State at Iowa, 27-24 Michigan State
Purdue at Illinois, 28-27 Illinois

Conference USA
Houston at Memphis, 38-7 Houston
SMU at Tulane, 28-10 SMU

MAC
Ball State at Kent State, 35-13 Kent State
Toledo at Eastern Michigan, 34-14 Toledo

MWC
San Diego State at Wyoming, 27-10 San Diego State
New Mexico at Colorado State, 35-3 Colorado State

Pac-10
Cal at Oregon State, 35-21 Oregon State
Washington State at Arizona State, 45-24 Arizona State

SEC
Tennessee at South Carolina, 38-21 South Carolina
Florida vs. Georgia, 42-28 Georgia

Sun Belt
Florida International at Florida Atlantic, 21-17 FAU
North Texas at Western Kentucky, 21-17 Western Kentucky

WAC
Idaho at Hawaii, 49-24 Hawaii
Utah State at Nevada, 31-17 Nevada

Independents
Tulsa at Notre Dame, 35-14 Notre Dame

Other recent posts on COLLEGE FOOTBALL HAVEN:
Weekly Trivia: 1,000 Yard Rushers
Heisman Hopefuls: Auburn's Cam Newton Now Number One
Monday Musings: BCS = Broken Championship System
Poll Results: Will either #1 Oklahoma or #2 Oregon play in the BCS National Championship Game?
College Football Haven Top 25, Week 8, 2010
Game of the Week: LSU Tigers at Auburn Tigers

Monday Musings: 10 Thoughts About Week 5

Week 5 was supposed to be another exciting week of top 10 games and the Red River Rivalry. Conference schedules started to be in full force, too. The top 10 games fizzled, but the conference play sizzled. Here are this week’s Monday Musings.

1. The SEC is officially down. The preview of the SEC championship game was a very lopsided 31-6 blowout. Georgia is 1-4. LSU is in contention for the title “worst 5-0 team.” Ole Miss lost to Jacksonville State. Tennessee squeaked past UAB in overtime. In a year that Alabama had to replace virtually its entire defense, they look to be tested only twice (Arkansas and Auburn), and that is with six conference teams having two weeks to prepare for the Crimson Tide.
2. The torch is officially passed. Tim Tebow was king of college football for the last three years. Everyone was star struck with the quarterback in Gainesville. He accumulated eye popping offensive stats. With Tebow off to the NFL, the torch has been passed to Denard Robinson. Get ready for a three year love fest with the sophomore quarterback in Ann Arbor. Robinson accounted for 5 TDs on Saturday as he passed for nearly 300 yards and ran for over 200 more. On the season he has a 179 pass efficiency rating and leads the nation in rushing (908 yards) by nearly 200 yards!
3. The worst 5-0 team. LSU makes a strong push for this title, but Northwestern definitely takes the cake. The Wildcats biggest win is 37-3 over Illinois State. The rest of the wins are one point over Minnesota (1-4), five points over Central Michigan (2-3), 17 points over Rice (1-4), and two points over Vanderbilt (1-3). Got a problem with this Northwestern? Well, you have a chance to show me something October 23 against Michigan State.
4. What is your favorite color? The Temple Owls love the color brown. With running back Bernard Pierce out with an ankle sprain, Matt Brown picked up the slack and carried 28 times for 226 yards and 4 TDs. Temple needed every yard to beat Army 42-35 and move to 4-1 on the year.
5. The warning light better be on. With the conference schedule swinging into full force, some top teams better have taken notice to what happened Saturday, or they will not be among the ranks of the unbeatens much longer. Ohio State struggled to beat Illinois. They better shape things up in Columbus before they face the likes of Iowa, Wisconsin, and Michigan. LSU barely escaped Tennessee in a game best described as a “comedy of errors.” Oklahoma, congratulations on finally beating Texas. It wasn’t pretty, but you did it. Now, get back to work so you don’t lose to a Big 12 North team.
6. Gutsiest call. Chip Kelly reached into the Sean Payton bag of tricks and used an onsides kick to get back in the game against Stanford. Down 21-10 early in the second quarter following a 29-yard TD pass by Darron Thomas, Oregon recovered an onsides kick and drove down to make it a four point game.
7. Hear come the Hokies and Beavers. We all knew that Virginia Tech and Oregon State were slow starting teams. Much to the satisfaction of Boise, Idaho, both teams are ramping up their speed. Virginia Tech is on a three game win streak after downing previously undefeated North Carolina State, 41-30. The Hokies are 2-0 and first in the Coastal division of the ACC. Oregon State got a solid win against Arizona State to move to 2-2, but isn’t that what we all expected? Remember those two losses are to top 5 teams. Oregon State is ready to play the spoiler role in the Pac-10 and if they play their cards right, they will find themselves in Pasadena.
8. The worst FBS team. While some teams have been astonishingly good and fun to watch, others have been atrociously bad and painful to watch. The sad part is deciding the worst college football team is harder than choosing the worst 5-0 team. In the end, the winner (or loser) is New Mexico. Whether it is Oregon or UNLV, New Mexico has not been competitive in any of their games.
9. Doomed to fail? After Gene Chizik was hired by Auburn, all the experts and pundits said Chizik was in a situation where it was impossible to succeed. He had a 5-19 record at Iowa State in two years. The public backlash was huge. Charles Barkley even got mixed up in it. Eighteen games, a 13-5 record, a top 10 ranking, a Heisman Trophy candidate at quarterback, and the Chizik hire appears to have paid off.
10. No surprise this time. The last two years, Iowa has surprised everyone and knocked off an undefeated Penn State team. The Hawkeye’s 24-3 win over the Nittany Lions this weekend came as no surprise to anyone. Penn State is reloading on offense and Iowa is expected to push Ohio State for the Big Ten title.

For the results to last week's opinion poll, click here.
For the latest College Football Haven Top 25, click here.

Game of the Week: Iowa Hawkeyes at Arizona Wildcats

The Arizona Wildcats have surprised several people this year. The Iowa Hawkeyes are living up to their high expectations. Saturday night, each team will find out how close or far they are from where they need to be to reach their 2010 goals.

Arizona has been overlooked in a wide open Pac-10 this year. Oregon, Oregon State, Stanford, USC, and even Washington got attention in the preseason, but Arizona is making people notice them. They have outscored their first two opponents 93-8, while rolling up over 1,000 yards of total offense.

After winning a BCS bowl last year, Iowa is expected to push Ohio State for the Big Ten title and, possibly, a spot in the BCS National Championship game. Ricky Stanzi has stepped up his game and the offense has more fire power than a year ago.

On paper, Iowa is clearly the better team, but don’t count Arizona out. If I am a Hawkeye, I am concerned about the start time of this game: 9:30 p.m. local Iowa time. When this game ends, it will already be Sunday in Iowa. I don’t think the Iowa players are used to playing so late at night. I would also be concerned about the revenge factor. Iowa beat Arizona 27-17 last year. Since this is the first real game for Arizona, that means the Arizona players have been staring at this game since January.

Big Ten Conference Preview For 2010

Previewing the Big Ten conference is next to continue priming us for the 2010 NCAA college football season. All the conferences and the independents will be previewed this week (Monday through Saturday, two per day).

1. Who will win the conference? Iowa. If Ricky Stanzi didn’t get injured, the Hawkeye’s probably would have been undefeated and in the Rose Bowl last year. Stanzi is back as well as a strong defense. The schedule is favorable as well. Iowa plays Wisconsin, Ohio State, and Penn State at home with at least two weeks separating each of these games.

2. Who is the top returning player? John Clay, Wisconsin. The bruising tailback rushed for 1,517 yards last year and scored 18 touchdowns. He finished 2009 with six consecutive 100 yard rushing games, and had a total of nine 100 yard rushing games.

3. Who will be the most improved team? Michigan. The Wolverines were 1-7 in conference play last year. In his third year in Ann Arbor, Rich Rodriguez will start to deliver what everyone has been expecting. Although the schedule is difficult, I expect Michigan to reach 8 wins.

4. What will be the biggest surprise? Between the end of the regular season and the bowl game, Joe Paterno will announce that he is retiring. After reaching 400 wins and no Bobby Bowden to push him for college football immortality, JoePa will step aside.

5. Which coach is on the hottest seat? Rich Rodriguez, Michigan. With an 8-16 record after two seasons, and this is a make or break year for Rodriguez. He will be gone if there is not a very positive feeling about the direction of the program after this year.