>Big game yesterday for Utah State. They beat #19 Louisiana Tech in OT. This marks the first time in history the Aggies beat a ranked team on the road. It's also the first 9 win season since Merlin Olsen played for the Aggies in 1961. They're ranked #25 in the AP poll this week. The first national ranking for the Aggies since 1978. Next week they play Idaho at home. Should be an easy win. And that win will give them the outright WAC title, their first outright conference championship since the 1930s.

I saw the score and was glad to see it. (Unfortunately I saw the score while watching Wisconsin's latest dramatic loss against a good team, Ohio State). It was only a few weeks ago before Utah State visited Madison when I asked you, sincerely, whether they were any good. I don't follow the western conferences other than the Pac 12. Now we all know they're good.

Pretty wild evening at the top of the rankings. Oregon State fell from the unbeatens as the latest victim of Stanford. At least they lost a close one in OT. #2 Kansas State got pounded. So suddenly Notre Dame is the only unbeaten team (not counting Ohio State, who are ineligible to play in a bowl game). This is funny to me because I was in the car Friday morning listening to "Mike and Mike in the morning" on ESPN Radio. They were discussing different scenarios for the BCS title game. Greenie suggested that Alabama, even with one loss, might deserve a spot. Mike Golic said no way, not with three eligible unbeatens and the current BCS rules. You couldn't help feeling that having played at ND might have colored his comments. He wears his playing past lightly, which not all ex-jocks do, but there was a sense of "Don't you mess with my Irish!" They will presumably be ranked #1 in the new BCS poll to be announced today. One oddsmaker has already installed Alabama as a 10 point favorite over Notre Dame in a prospective BCS title matchup.

The Wisconsin-Ohio State game was an intriguing one. The Badgers keep coming tantalizingly close and falling short at the end. They lost on the road at Oregon State, 10-7, before people realized how good Oregon State is. The win at home against Utah State, which we agree Utah State deserved to win. A loss at Nebraska in a game they had wrapped up. An OT loss at home against Michigan State a couple of weeks ago, another one that seemed locked up. Then losing another OT game against Ohio State yesterday. If not for a terrible punt that was returned for a TD and a shanked gimme field goal, Ohio State would not have even been in OT. Wisconsin's defense, playing without stalwart linebacker Chris Borland (hamstring), held Ohio State down like no one else has this year. But give credit to the Buckeyes (spit, spit). That is a seriously good football team. With Urban Meyer as head coach you can pretty much pencil them into the top 5 every year until he gets wanderlust again. They said on the broadcast that he was born in Ohio so maybe this time he will stick around for a while.