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With the Missouri Tigers and Texas A&M Aggies leaving the Big 12 for the SEC and the West Virginia Mountaineers from the Big East to the Big 12, college football is losing a few annual games that date back to the late 19th century. Of course these teams had many rivalries within their old conferences but these are the highlights:

1. Border War (Kansas vs. Missouri) – Believe it or not, these two neighboring states still harbor some ill will between the two that dates back to the American Civil War. The schools’ mascots Jayhawks and Tigers were both derived from the Civil War but that story is another blog. The first meeting was in 1891 with Kansas coming out victorious 22-10. The series was the second-most-played rivalry in major-college football history behind Minnesota-Wisconsin (yawn). Mizzou leads the series 57-54-9.
2. Lone Star Showdown (Texas Longhorns vs. Texas A&M) Beginning in 1894, the state of Texas’ two oldest public universities have had a long history of good old-fashion hate. From 1910 to 1940 there was only one instance of a team winning the rivalry game in consecutive seasons. Texas holds an overall 76-37-5 lead with many wins coming from 1940 to 1974 when A&M only won thrice and one tie. Legendary coach Darrell Royal was at the helm for most of those wins. Since then it has been pretty even. Each team had won three of the last six meetings.
3. Backyard Brawl (Pitt Panthers vs. West Virginia Mountaineers) This game is so named because of the proximity of the two campuses. The two cities of Pittsburgh and Morgantown are linked by I-79 with around 75 miles between them. They have played 104 times since 1895 with Pitt hanging on to a 60-41-3 lead but WVU has won the last three meetings.

What are the odds of two guys with the exact same name being a college football recruit in the same year? If the name is “James Johnson” the odds are probably not too long. But what if the name is an odd one like Cole Mazza?

(From left to right: Miami, WKU, Ball State)

When it came down to the end, there were 72 bowl eligible schools for 70 spots. AND THE LOSERS ARE: WESTERN KENTUCKY and BALL STATE!

WKU who finished 7-5 and 7-1 in the Sun Belt was denied a bowl-game invitation despite winning six of their last seven games (the loss was to #1 LSU).

Ball State was 6-6. There was not much chance they would beat out BCS teams with similar records.

Miami (Fla.) finished 6-6 but are sitting out of the bowl season as a self-imposed post-season ban due to the impending hammer that will be coming down from the NCAA.

35 Bowls, 70 slots, 54 teams locked in, 16 remain:

LOCKED INTO A BOWL GAME WITH 6 OR MORE WINS & CONFERENCE TIE-IN (54):

.

6 OR MORE WINS BUT NOT NECESSARILY A LOCK (11):

.

6 WINS BUT 2 WINS VS. I-AA SCHOOLS, HENCE INELIGIBLE (so far):

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STILL NEED 6 I-A WINS:

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PROBATION, NOT BOWL ELIGIBLE:

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NOT ENOUGH WINS, INELIGIBLE:

Another week of crazy finishes and wild upsets. A missed field goal doomed Oregon. A late TD finished off Oklahoma.

Oklahoma State saw their first lost at the hands of Iowa State. Clemson inexplicably gets routed by a lower tier ACC team in NC State (6-5).

In Las Vegas, you can bet on almost anything: points scored, who wins the coin flip, halftime score, number of first downs…
I wonder what the odds would be that the Florida State Seminoles would have identical final scores in back-to-back games, not once but twice:

Sat, Sept 24    @ Clemson    L 35-30
Sat, Oct 8    @ Wake Forest    L 35-30
Sat, Oct 15    @ Duke              W 41-16
Sat, Oct 22    vs Maryland    W 41-16

This is going to be a long post so I hope I don’t need a long intro or explanation.
35 Bowls, 70 teams.

LOCKED INTO A BOWL GAME WITH 6 OR MORE WINS & CONFERENCE TIE-IN (42):

.
6 OR MORE WINS BUT NOT NECESSARILY A LOCK:

.
6 WINS BUT 2 WINS VS. I-AA SCHOOLS, HENCE INELIGIBLE (so far):

.
STILL NEED 6 I-A WINS:

.
PROBATION, NOT BOWL ELIGIBLE:

.
NOT ENOUGH WINS, INELIGIBLE:

Stanford and Boise go down HARD.

Any team with 3 or more losses is long gone. New to this group are Florida & Tennessee.

It is not out of the question that a 2 loss team can win a National Championship (LSU in 2007) but it is farfetched. Auburn, Texas, Texas Tech, Arizona State, Baylor, Iowa

Alabama: Looking good. Real good.

Auburn: Ugly.

Florida: They still have yet to recover from the thrashing the Tide gave them in 2009 (and 2010 and 2011), made Tebow cry and made Urban have a nervous breakdown.

Georgia: Look at their record and they are not bad. Watch them play a game and they do look bad.

LSU: If I am coaching this team, Jordan Jefferson only plays in garbage time or in case of a Lee injury.

Ole Miss: Do ya’ll remember how excited the Ole Miss fans were when they hired Nutt? He has set the program back another 10 years.

Mississippi State: I am convinced that nobody can win big here. The state doesn’t have the recruits and what you do have you split with Ole Miss. It has to be impossible to convince someone from out of the area to come to Starkville. Mullen should start job hunting.

South Carolina: Spurrier is getting a big helping of karma. Connor Shaw has a big game and he dumps Stephen Garcia. Now it looks like Shaw is just as bad. Additionally, he does not develop any other running backs and now it’s trial by fire.

Tennessee: Vols fans are getting impatient? Already? They need to realize that is going to take some time to undo the mess that Fat Boy and Lame Kitten left in their wakes.

Vanderbilt: It must be sad to think this is what they consider good.

* Arkansas & Kentucky did not play.