Stanford rockets up the rankings after latest 50-point outburst

Not one AP Top 25 team faces another AP Top 25 team this week. Allow that to sink in for a second. BCS apologists and bowl representatives in ugly blazers always tell us the existing system preserves the regular season's relevance. Yet with two or three weeks -- depending on the conference -- remaining in that oh-so-relevant regular season slate, we're facing a weekend devoid of a single compelling game.

Our excitement for college football should be at a fever pitch now. Instead, thanks to the popularity contest that determines who plays for the national title and the money-grab decision three years ago to add a 12th regular-season game, college football has rendered itself completely unwatchable for a week. And barring some potentially spectacular upsets, this stint won't help those of us who rank teams figure out which squad belongs in which slot.

Sure, certain fan bases have reason to be excited. Ohio State-Michigan always matters, even if Michigan isn't very good. Nebraska-Kansas State should interest those who care which team Texas throttles in the Big 12 title game. But a week of Alabama-Chattanoogas and Florida-Florida Internationals leaves the casual fan wondering if he'd be better off raking leaves.

This isn't completely the system's fault. Kansas-Texas looked like an intriguing matchup two months ago. Oregon-Arizona seemed interesting just a week ago. Still, the BCS and the 12th game deserve full blame for the biggest stinkers on the slate.

Alabama, which has challenged itself out of the SEC the past two seasons by facing Clemson and Virginia Tech in season-openers, would be crazy to schedule anyone better than Chattanooga, a 6-4 FCS program that just wrapped a 4-4 Southern Conference campaign. The Crimson Tide always close their season against Auburn. The rivalry is so intense the best team doesn't always win, which means preparation time is critical. This season, Auburn has an open date before the game. So it would be the acme of foolishness for Alabama to schedule a decent opponent. This point was driven home further in April when the SEC, at the request of CBS, moved the Iron Bowl to Friday, giving Alabama a short week to prepare.

Replace Auburn with Florida State to understand Florida's predicament. The Seminoles aren't exactly elite, but FSU is less than a decade removed from a 14-year string of top four finishes. And just as in the Iron Bowl, the hatred runs so deep here that the best team doesn't always win. The Gators had three choices: 1) They could have front-loaded their nonconference schedule and played eight consecutive SEC games; 2) They could have taken their bye week early and played a nonconference patsy the week before they played at LSU; 3) They could have scheduled a sacrificial lamb the week before the FSU game.

Needless to say, scheduling FIU was an easy choice.

So don't expect many changes in the rankings next week. You didn't get many this week thanks to a heavy dose of chalk from the teams in the top 10. Stanford made the biggest move, rocketing from No. 22 to No. 11. Why such a rapid ascension? Colleague Stewart Mandel put it best in his College Football Overtime column on Monday. Stanford is like the No. 5 seed in the NCAA tournament that no one wants to play.

Unfortunately for us, nobody wanted to play anybody this week.

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