The D1scourse 30

Patrick Stevens The Washington Times - January 9, 2009, 08:58AM

Utah is No. 2.

SEE RELATED:

Seems fair.

It still would have been nice to see Texas, rather than Oklahoma, play for the national title. Can’t have everything.

There’s still a case for the Longhorns at No. 2. One of them stems from the Ohio State backlash built up over the last two years. There’s so much of it that people don’t realize the Buckeyes are actually better this season than last. Go ahead and don’t believe that, and sure they lost an extra game along the way. But overall, they’re more capable than in 2007, and Texas ended the year with a victory of high quality.

Good enough for No. 2 here? Not quite. The top of the schedules is sufficiently close to give Utah the nod based on record. Routing Alabama can go a long way.

Here’s the full (final) 30, with all overtime games treated as ties:

No./Team	Adj. record	AP	Pvs.	Notable Wins/Head-to-Head
1. Florida	13-1	1	2	* Alabama, Ga. And Okla. (N); lost to Miss. (H)
2. Utah	13-0	2	8	* Alabama (N); Oregon State & TCU (H)
3. Texas	12-1	4	1	* Okla. & Ohio State (N); Okla. State (H)
4. Southern Cal	12-1	3	4	* Ohio St. (H), Penn St. (N); lost at Oregon St.
5. Oklahoma	12-2	5	3	* TCU and TT (H); lost to Texas and Fla. (N)
6. Alabama	11-2-1	6	5	* Ga. (A); lost to Florida and Utah (N)
7. Texas Christian	11-2	7	13	* Boise St. (N); lost to Okla. & Utah (A)
8. Penn State	11-2	8	7	* Ohio St. (A), Oregon St. (H); lost at Iowa
9. Boise State	12-1	11	9	* Oregon (A); lost to TCU (N)
10. Ohio State	10-3	9	10	* Lost to USC (A), Penn St. (H) and Texas (N)
11. Oregon	9-3-1	10	15	* Oregon State (A); Oklahoma State (N)
12. Georgia	10-3	13	16	* Lost to Bama and GT (H) , Florida (N)
13. Mississippi	9-4	14	18	* Florida (A), LSU (A) and Texas Tech (N)
14. Texas Tech	10-2-1	12	6	* Texas (H); lost to Okla. (A) and Ole Miss (N)
15. Virginia Tech	10-4	15	20	* Cincinnati and BC (N); GT (H); Nebraska (A)
16. Oregon State	9-4	18	21	* USC and Cal (H); Pittsburgh (N)
17. Oklahoma St.	9-4	16	11	* Lost to Oregon (N); 0-3 vs. Big 12 S powers
18. Georgia Tech	9-4	22	12	* Florida State (H) and Georgia (A)
19. Florida State	9-4	21	24	* Virginia Tech (H)
20. Iowa	9-4	20	26	* Penn State (H), South Carolina (N)
21. Cincinnati	10-3-1	17	14	* Pittsburgh (H); OTW at West Virginia
22. Michigan St.	9-4	24	22	* Iowa (H) and Northwestern (A)
23. California	9-4	26	28	* Oregon (H)
24. Pittsburgh	8-4-1	27	22	* West Virginia (H); OTW at Notre Dame
25. Missouri	9-4-1	19	29	* Nebraska (A) and Northwestern (N)
26. Nebraska	9-3-1	29	NR	* Kansas (H), Clemson (N)
27. West Virginia	9-2-2	23	NR	* OTL vs. Cincinnati and at Colorado
28. Tulsa	11-3	30	NR	* Rice (H), Ball State (N)
29. Louisiana St.	8-4-1	28	NR	* Georgia Tech (N); OTL vs. Alabama
30. Northwestern	9-3-1	31	25	* Iowa (A); OTL vs. Missouri (N)