Sports: Mid-Season Observations on College Football

What Big 12 team currently shares the same record as Miami, FSU and Auburn? Mildly amazingly, at 5-1 it is the Huskers that do so, their only loss coming in the last minutes against No. 10 Texas Tech. Nebraska is the first team in the consolatory "others receiving votes" portion of the AP poll and, for what it's worth (not too much, really, but still), is at No. 23 in the BCS poll. A win vs. Missouri this weekend could well propel the Huskers into the Top 25.------------- Why I am a USC Fan: Yes, Notre Dame is back. While it was endlessly repeated last weekend that college football is more interesting when ND is good, it is true that the team elicits strong emotions one way or the other. I like Charlie Weis, but have always disliked ND. That may be one reason why I am a USC fan. They have a historical rivalry, and I am virtually certain to root for whoever ND is playing against. This may also explain, in part, why I have gone for USC over UCLA despite my general inclination to support public schools (I still dislike Stanford and Duke, though, rest assured).----------- National Championship Game prediction: USC vs. Virginia Tech. Yes, Texas looks pretty good this year, but they always choke somewhere along the line and this year will be no exception. The SEC will end up kind of like the Big 10 in that all the teams end up beating up on one another, so I don't expect a team to come out of there unscathed. Sub-seciton to prediction: if USC losses in the regular season, then I would predict LSU or Georgia vs. Va. Tech.