by Peter Schrager

Mark Dantonio has worked extensively alongside Ohio State's Jim Tressel in the past but goes head-to-head with him this week. (Kevin C. Cox / Getty Images)

1. For the first time in what feels like years, Michigan State football is relevant on the national radar again. With a win over Ohio State in East Lansing, the Spartans will be one step closer to the program's first Big 10 championship in 18 years. Saturday's battle is a make or break game for Sparty, but if they come out like they did last weekend vs. Northwestern they should be in better than good shape.

Of course, there's some history between these two programs, and more specifically, their coaches.

Michigan State's Mark Dantonio is quite familiar with Jim Tressel, having served as Tressel's defensive secondary coach at Youngstown State from 1986-1990. In '90, the Penguins went 11-0 and were ranked No. 2 in the nation in Division I-AA. Ten years later, Tressel hired Dantonio as his defensive coordinator at Ohio State. While serving that role for three years in Columbus, Dantonio's defense became known as one of the toughest units in the country. That group won a BCS title in 2002 and was the nation's No. 1-ranked rushing defense in 2003. Future NFL stars Chris Gamble, Will Smith, Mike Doss, A.J. Hawk, Matt Wilhelm and Bobby Carpenter (among others) were all Dantonio pupils during that time.

Tressel and Dantonio are more than ex-colleagues. They're former brothers-in-arms and dear friends. Add on the fact that 22 players on the Michigan State roster (including Dayton's Javon Ringer) are from the state of Ohio and there are more than enough storylines boiling in the underbelly of this one.

Two years removed from John L. Smith's now infamous self-imposed, head-slapping press conference, coach Mark Dantonio has the Spartans playing smart, physical, inspired football. He'll have his boys ready to play on Saturday, as he did last year when Ohio State barely squeaked out a 24-17 victory over the Spartans in Columbus.

If -- and I know it's a big if -- MSU can get by the Buckeyes, Sparty's got winnable games against Michigan, Wisconsin, and Purdue on the docket before their Nov. 22 trip to Happy Valley for their season-ender with Penn State. If the SEC and Big 12 teams continue to beat up on each other as they have been doing all season, that one could end up serving as an unofficial Big 10 title game and potentially a BCS Championship Game play-in. I know I'm getting very ahead of myself, but there's reason for optimism in East Lansing.

With the Lions and Wolverines downright dreadful this year, the MSU Spartans are carrying the state of Michigan's football teams on their shoulders.

I led you the right way with Oklahoma State last Saturday. You want an upset pick for the weekend? Take Dantonio, Ringer and a raucous home crowd on Saturday.

Mike Stoops' Wildcats are coming off a bad showing against Stanford. (Gregory Shamus / Getty Images)

2. Just when I was about ready to pack my bags, get some suntan lotion, and jump aboard the 2008 Arizona Wildcats bandwagon last week, Mike Stoops' boys lost a bad one to Stanford. Arizona's now got Cal, the Pac-10's only unbeaten team, coming off a bye week in Tucson tomorrow night. Needless to say, I'm glad I didn't book my ticket for the Arizona Bandwagon Express.

The Wildcats have had a perplexing season, to be certain. After starting with impressive wins over Idaho and Toledo (winners over Michigan in Ann Arbor last weekend), Arizona lost to winless New Mexico on Sept. 13. The Wildcats rebounded, though, blowing out UCLA and Washington in consecutive weeks. But just as you think they're back on track and ready to make the move into the Pac-10's upper echelon, they drop an ugly one in improbable fashion Saturday in Palo Alto. Stanford third-stringer Alex Loukas looked like John Elway in the final minutes, driving his team 65 yards in the final six minutes for a game-winning score. Loukas, who filled in for injured starter Tavita Pritchard and ineffective backup Jason Forcier, completed just one pass all evening. That pass and five rushes for 39 yards were enough to pull the upset.

Devastating defeats like Saturday's have become commonplace at Arizona over the years, but 2008 was supposed to be different. This was supposed to be the year Stoops' Wildcats finally put it all together. With a loss tomorrow night, they'll be 2-2 in the Pac-10 and 4-3 overall. In other words, same-old same-old down in Tucson.

3. If only Virginia knew how to function in September, who knows what this program could have accomplished over the past two seasons? Consider that last year the Cavaliers came out of the gate completely overwhelmed and under-prepared, dropping their opener at less-than-stellar Wyoming, 23-3. They answered that loss by winning seven straight and 10 of their next 11, before losing in the ACC Championship Game to Virginia Tech. When the season was all done and dusted, that Sept. 1 loss in Wyoming made even less sense than it did in Week 1.

This year? Same song, different tune. This September, aside from a less-than-impressive 16-0 victory at Richmond (in which they only led 3-0 heading into the fourth quarter), the Cavaliers were outscored 128-20 in horrible losses to USC, Connecticut and Duke. The Duke loss -- 31-3 in Durham and the Blue Devils' first ACC victory in 25 games -- appeared to be the nadir of the Virginia football program. Al Groh was put on the hottest seat available, and there was already talk of next year.

Bowl season roundup

Bowl recaps and analysis:

EagleBank: Wake 29, Navy 19 | CFN
New Mexico: Colo. St. 40, Fresno St. 35
St. Petersburg: S. Florida 41, Memphis 14
Las Vegas: Arizona 31, BYU 21 | CFN
New Orleans: SMU 30, Troy 27 (OT) | CFN
Poinsettia: TCU 17, Boise St. 16 | CFN
Hawaii: Notre Dame 49, Hawaii 21 | CFN
Motor City: FAU 24, Cen. Mich. 21 | CFN
Meineke: W. Virginia 31, UNC 30 | CFN
Champs Sports: Fla. St. 42, Wis. 13 | CFN
Emerald: Cal 24, Miami 17 | CFN
Independence: La. Tech 17, NIU 10 | CFN
Papajohns.com: Rutgers 29, N.C. St. 23
Alamo: Mizzou 30, N'west. 23 (OT) | CFN
Humanitarian: Maryland 42, Nevada 35
Texas: Rice 38, W. Michigan 14
Holiday: Oregon 42, Oklahoma St. 31 | CFN
Armed Forces: Houston 34, Air Force 28
Sun: Oregon St. 3, Pittsburgh 0 | CFN
Music City: Vandy 16, BC 14 | CFN
Insight: Kansas 42, Minnesota 21
Chick-fil-A: LSU 38, Georgia Tech 3
Outback: Iowa 31, South Carolina 10 | CFN
Capital One: Georgia 24, MSU 12 | CFN
Gator: Nebraska 26, Clemson 21
Rose: USC 38, Penn St. 24 | Analysis
Orange: Va. Tech 20, Cincinnati 7
Cotton: Ole Miss 47, Texas Tech 34
Liberty: Kentucky 25, East Carolina 19
Sugar: Utah 31, Alabama 17
International: UConn 38, Buffalo 20
Fiesta: Texas 24, Ohio St. 21 | Analysis
GMAC: Tulsa 45, Ball St. 13
BCS title: Florida 24, Oklahoma 14
Complete bowl schedule

Photo gallery:

• Fiesta Bowl snapshots
• Snapshots from Saturday's bowls
• Best from bowl season's 1st weekend

Shopping:

• Get your '09 BCS bowl gear!

And then the Cavs waltzed into October and responded by shutting out a solid Maryland squad 31-0 and blowing out East Carolina 35-20 last Saturday. Virginia's looked incredible the past two games. Better late than never, I guess -- but where was all this in September?

Virginia's got the 22nd-ranked North Carolina team in Charlottesville tomorrow. North Carolina lost star receiver/return man Brandon Tate for the year with a knee injury on Saturday, and still is without starting quarterback T.J. Yates. Tate was leading the Atlantic Coast Conference with 163.7 all-purpose yards per game and was a huge part of Butch Davis' offense. The Tar Heels also haven't won in Charlottesville since 1981.

This is a winnable game for Virginia. Win tomorrow and the season's suddenly salvaged. With a 2-1 record in the conference and momentum heading into the final two months of the season, an ACC Coastal division title -- though a longshot -- is still a possibility for the Cavaliers. It's the ACC; crazier things have certainly happened.

You've just got to wonder what could have been had only someone told the Cavs that their season started in September, and not October.

4. Mark it on your calendars now. Come Dec. 8, 95 percent of the sports columnists in the country will emerge from the woodwork. Several of them will not have seen any college football this entire season but will be red in the face and angry. These columnists, with their gigs on TV in which they scream from satellites at high decibels, will lash out against the NCAA and the BCS system and demand some sort of a playoff.

In essence, they'll just click "File Open" in Microsoft Word, open the same column they wrote last year (and the year before) and fill in the blanks with new team names. There will be outrage. There will be fury. There will be demands and hypothetical eight-team tournament brackets! Everyone will be mad!

Well, I'm here to tell you that those guys -- the ones who didn't stay home and watch 16 straight hours of unbelievable football action last Saturday -- should think twice before filing that column this year.

Call it serendipity, call it what you will. But the scheduling gods have been right on the money this season. It seems like every week one unbeaten conference power is pitted against another, while upsets occur at a wild pace. In essence, the 2008 college football campaign is serving as a four-month playoff. The top two teams at the end, whether the screaming talking heads will admit it or not, will likely be deserving of their place in the BCS title game.

Take the Big 12. Texas will truly earn any trip to Miami in January this year. In previous years, they would only need to get by some second- and third-tier conference opponents and win the conference championship before entering bowl season. This year? The next three weeks, they have dates with Missouri, Oklahoma State and Texas Tech. The Pokes, meanwhile, have Texas, Texas Tech, and Oklahoma up ahead. Missouri's still got Texas and Kansas. The Sooners and Red Raiders have tough roads ahead, as well. Kansas, mind you, is still undefeated, too. Then, there's a conference championship game. There's your "playoff" in the Big 12. Any undefeated team after all that deserves a spot in the BCS Title Game.

The SEC's the same way this year.

In the Big 10, Michigan State, Penn State and Ohio State all have to play each other at some point. In the Mountain West, TCU, Utah and BYU all face each other head-on as well.

In truth, no team in any of the six BCS conferences will have a cakewalk to the national title game. Any participant in that game will have earned and deserved their spot.

Would a BCS playoff be cool and exciting? Of course. It's what dreams are made of.

But if ever there was a year for an argument against one, 2008 is it.

It's too bad most the screaming talking heads aren't paying attention.

5. As Craig Bolerjack pointed out during Saturday's Georgia-Tennessee game, two of the nation's top running backs were Pop Warner teammates in Central New Jersey a decade ago. UConn's Donald Brown, the nation's second leading rusher with 1,067 yards and 12 touchdowns, and Georgia's Knowshon Moreno teamed up in the backfield for the Atlantic Highlands (N.J.) Pop Warner squad.

The cruel irony of all this? Rutgers -- the state school of New Jersey -- is ranked eighth out of eight Big East teams in rushing, with just 679 total rushing yards.