Well, a rare meaningful Thursday in football land this week.

That pleasant aroma from Provo, Utah isn’t a sorority cleaning their sheets, but the BCS schools sending flowers to Brigham Young for closing one of this year’s nightmare scenario’s. If TCU had run the table, and if either West Virginia or Louisville runs the table, you would have your two undefeated teams and one would be excluded over a one loss school. For the title, the party remains uncrashed.

For Auburn, however, their road continues to narrow down. I can’t imagine that many people outside South Carolina thought that Auburn would be in a dogfight. Yet, they came within six yards of a tie and an overtime game on the road. A great night for RB Kenny Irons, scoring twice.

You know that in between administering urine tests to see what Terrell Owens was ingesting last night, Bill Parcells was mighty proud that one team could hold possession for a whole quarter. Even more amazing is that South Carolina actually had the ball longer for the game, by 40 seconds.

On to Saturday!

The boys discussed five games for tomorrow. I think I went 3-2 last week.

Georgia Tech at Virginia Tech- The Jackets are good, but the Hokies are better. This game is in Blacksburg. The swagger, or Swaggs? factor on the Hokies is down a few notches from the Vick days. Add that Reggie Ball really cannot beat a team with his arm, or Notre Dame would have lost their opener, leads me to believe that Virginia Tech will win with some ease.

Would the power house team in the ACC please stand up? We have no idea who you are.

Oregon at Arizona State- Thanks for giving Cal a hard time last week, Sun Devils. Kickoff was at 12:30 PT, in case you missed it.

It’s obvious from the Cal game that Arizona State is not ready for the BCS prime time, but the question this week is has Cal passed Oregon to claim the #2 spot in the Pac-10. Oregon has come off a bye and a controversial win over Oklahoma at home, threatening to have the Big 12 dump the West Coast deep into the Pacific.

We know that Oregon is a good team and, on paper, should win. It’s in the Valley of the Sun, however, and one should not assume that the road team will dominate in conference. Oregon will win here, but by less than ten. Some will say that that should put Cal back ahead. That would be foolish. Any conference win on the road is a sign of strength, and until Oregon loses, they are better than Cal.

You have to think that the Sun Devils will be playing with a chip on their shoulder. This will be a war.

Purdue at Notre Dame- Notre Dame should win, following their theatrical win over Michigan State last week. The smiling eyes of Irish Nation are gazing on South Bend with a warm glow. Plus, you must think that Purdue is a bit under Penn State on talent, and we know what Notre Dame did to Penn State.

However, and you knew that there would be a however, Notre Dame at times this year has made the Jerry Faust era look good. Brady Quinn can still be rattled with ease, and the run can be stopped. Purdue must think they have a realistic shot of sending the Irish to the Gator Bowl with a win.

Charlie Weis’ decision to go no-huddle in the second quarter saved the Irish season. There’s a reason he is sought after, he can flat out coach.

They will struggle, but Notre Dame wins. That means they win by 45 because this team has been unpredictable all year.

Texas Tech at Texas A&M- Air Lubbock has been a bit off this year, and now they play a team with defense. A&M by 10.

Ohio State at Iowa- A classic gunslingers duel between Heisman favorite Troy Smith and Iowa legend Drew Tate. We saw Ohio State struggle at times last week on offense, but it would appear that the weather and the wet ball were some of that reason.

Ohio State is playing now with a giant bullseye on them. #1 in the country and the conference gives them a ton of confidence. Iowa, however, should not be intimidated by that despite getting beat bad in Columbus last year.

Tate needs not to lose this game. He needs to mix it up a bit so the faster Buckeye defense will be off a step or two. That’s the chance that the Hawkeyes have. The lower the score, the better off Ohio State be. They won’t be forced to go all pass and he more they mix the offense, the more comfortable Smith looks. When he looks good, they don’t lose.

Including tomorrow night, Ohio State by 10.