The secret of winning a national championship is to be in the right place at the right time and be close enough to the top that when someone loses a late November game, you swoop in and take their spot.

This is why college football needs a playoff system because you reward only the teams that have a good November and not the teams that play well all year, dominate their conference but hack one up in the last three weeks (JoPa, your ears must be burning by now.)

With that said, the cosmic tumblers shifted again last night, setting up a couple of interesting scenarios and shortening the list of contenders considerably.

The Contenders

• Say what you want about Alabama's performance against LSU, but to win on the road with a hostile crowd like that on national television is a huge win for any program.  Give it up to Coach Satan, his boys were flat, his field goal kicker couldn't hit his butt with his left hand, but they got it done against a tough LSU defense.  They are the number one team in the country for now. If they avoid being Croomed and giving Tommy Tuberville a gift, they will play in the SEC Championship game as the undefeated number one team in the rankings.  More on that in a moment.
  
• Texas Tech beat an Oklahoma State team that's good but not great.  Yes, this was a hyped game and yes Ok State did have the potential to upset Texas tech, but in the end, the Red raiders, playing at home, got it done. Now comes the acid test: On the road at Oklahoma.  If they can survive that one, they should crush Baylor and Missouri (in the Big 12 Title Game) and move on to Miami.  But beating Oklahoma will not be easy.
• Florida crushed Vandy, which was not unexpected.  Florida now has to face The Ole Ball Coach and South Carolina next, which may be considered a trap game, especially since South Carolina has played so well lately. If they survive that, Citadel and Florida State, they will have the opportunity to face Alabama in the SEC Championship game, positioned to knock off the Tide and go to the BCS championship game.  This is why I hate conference title games so much.  But given that, if Florida continues to play as well as they are playing for the next three weeks, Alabama will have to bring it's A+ game to Atlanta to beat them.  And even that might not be enough.
• Texas bounced Baylor in an easy game and now needs help to get to the Big 12 championship game. According to the Big 12 tiebreaking procedures, the team with the highest BCS ranking wins the division. Given the fact that the Horns finish with Kansas and A&M and Oklahoma finishes with Tech and OSU, the Horns may need some help to get there.  If they want to be in the BCS championship game, they'll need  help from Tech and OSU.
• Oklahoma has a bye week and meets Tech on November 22nd in Norman, then finishes with OSU.  Crushing A&M is nice, but not that nice where they will vault over people in the rankings. They need help from Florida and Kansas and two more wins to get to the Big 12 championship game and the opportunity to play for a championship.
• USC had a poor performance last night that may set them far enough back to where they can't recover and have a shot at the big one.  They will most likely be in the Rose Bowl.  They'll need to run the table against Stanford, Notre Dame and UCLA and get a lot of help from some of the teams above, including a Missouri upset in the Big Twelve championship game.
• Boise State beat Utah State and with Oklahoma State getting drilled last night, may get to a point where they get high enough in the BCS standings to have an outside shot at the BCS championship game if they run the table.  However, getting there will involve several upsets and possibly a plane crash.

So Long, thanks for playing

• Penn State was a great story until they went to Iowa and lost.  Now they are another one loss team who will fall to the middle of the top 10 and not be able to recover.  It's justice for the Big 12 and SEC which are vastly superior to the Big 10 this year.  

Lightning Round

• I felt really bad for Phillip Fulmer until yesterday.  There is no excuse for this, although I suppose it could be worse.
  
• What better way to spend your birthday then taking it to the people that fired your son?
• Today's we'd rather be lucky than good award goes to the Georgia Bulldogs.