Oregon State pulled off a shocker in Corvallis on Thursday night. Coming into the game as underdogs by more than 3 TD's, the Beavers played tough all night, holding off a late charge by the Trojans as a Greg Laybourn interception off of Mark Sanchez with less than 3 minutes to go essentially sealed it for the Beavers.The big news in the Pac-10 is that Oregon State pulled off the huge upset. But the big news nationwide is that the #1 USC Trojans now have a loss, which will have an enormous domino effect on the top of the rankings.
USC's loss is great news for everyone, really, but it's especially beneficial to teams like Oklahoma, Georgia, LSU, Florida, Missouri, Wisconsin and Texas. Assuming they don't get upset on Saturday, they should all move up at least one spot, as USC will likely slide down to at least #9. Right now, Alabama is there at #9, but they play #3 Georgia, so the loser of that game could still end up behind USC after the next rankings come out.
Oklahoma and Georgia are in prime position now. As long as they survive the season, they are in excellent shape to make an appearance in the National Championship game. They both have some tough games this week. As mentioned before, Georgia plays a tough Nick Saban-led Alabama, and OU has to play #24 TCU. Later on, Georgia has to play LSU, Florida, Auburn and Vanderbilt. Oklahoma has to face Texas, Texas Tech and possibly Missouri or another quality team in the Big 12 championship game.
If any of the top 10 teams can manage to remain undefeated, they now have a great chance to be in the BCS championship game, with the unexpected USC loss. The rest of the top teams have some big challenges remaining on their schedule, so there's no guarantee that USC won't be able to sneak back up the rankings as the season goes on.
In other horrific news for USC, elite LB Rey Maualuga left the game in the 4th quarter with an apparent leg injury. Maualuga is arguably their best player, and is their catalyst on defense.
Who benefits the most from this upset? And what are the chances that USC wins out and moves back up to the top of the rankings? Is there schedule even hard enough to get them there, with the one loss? We shall see. Discuss.






















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