Mike Miller

College football, to me, is more exciting to watch sometimes than the NFL.

College football is filled with skilled, unknown teams and upsets.

It’s all about the polls and rankings. If a lower seed beats a higher seed, it’s a pretty big deal. Since there are no playoffs in college football, teams need to be good and ranked high to contend for a national title, or just to get recognized for an invitation to one of the many bowl games.

This past weekend was filled with exciting games. I’ll begin by talking about the home team, the Minnesota Golden Gophers. Going into the weekend at 5-1 with big wins over Michigan and Purdue, they were ranked number 22. Wisconsin, on the other hand, after losing to Northwestern last week, managed to get the number 23 ranking. Minnesota and Wisconsin have set a Division-I record for most games played against each other, meeting 115 times. They’ve played each other every year since 1907. The teams play for the Paul Bunyan Axe. The winner of the game keeps the axe at its school for the year. This year, the Badgers brought the axe to Madison, Wis. by recovering a blocked punt in the end zone for a touchdown with about 30 seconds left to play.

I am pretty disappointed in the Gophers. To let someone block a punt when you’re punting from your own 5-yard line is just ridiculous. Not to mention the punter just bobbled the ball; it wasn’t a bad snap. I’ve come to the conclusion that all Minnesota sports teams can be awesome, but are never good enough, and end up doing horrible in the end.

One of the most amazing games played last weekend was the University of Southern California versus Notre Dame game. Why was it so amazing? The game was down to about 12 seconds left when USC quarterback Matt Leinart tried running the ball in the end zone and fumbled it out of bounds. However, the referee on the sideline signaled for the clock to continue running. USC pleaded their case, and the referee put seven seconds back on the clock. Leinart then ran the ball in from the 1-yard line for the winning touchdown.

One of the big upsets this weekend was the Michigan and Penn State game. It all came down to the last second, literally. Penn State came into the game undefeated and off to its best start since 1999, but Michigan is one of the most storied programs in college football history. Most of the scoring was done in the fourth quarter. The most vital scoring was Michigan’s last drive to lift them over Penn State’s dominating defense. Quarterback Chad Henne threw the ball to Mario Manningham to seal the win. It was an exciting game, and quite the comeback for the Wolverines.

Another upset occurred in the Florida State and Virginia game. Florida State was upset in an odd way last weekend by Virginia. FSU led all offense categories; however, Virginia just didn’t let them into the end zone. FSU freshman quarterback Drew Weatherford threw for 377 yards, but was also picked off three times. I guess, in a nutshell, Virginia beat them defensively. They didn’t score in the fourth quarter, but managed to hold FSU to just a touchdown shy of winning.

The impact that these crazy games will have on the bowl match ups remains to be seen.