We are not going to go there, but Chris Dufresne of the LA Times already has:
Texas hasn't won a national title in 35 years and UCLA hasn't won since 1954, but it's not because the schools aren't trying.
Texas has put so much into winning and facilities and being better than Oklahoma that the Austin campus looks like a Steve Wynn property.
So far, though, it just hasn't clicked. Since Texas won the coaches' share of the 1970 title under Darrell Royal, archrival Oklahoma has won four national titles and pretty much rubbed Texas' nose in it.
[...]
So it's interesting to see how this season may be shaping up in the aftermath of another shake-out weekend, which began with seven unbeaten teams and ended with six and Texas and UCLA still in the mix.
We're not saying Texas and UCLA are going to meet in the Jan. 4 Rose Bowl for the national title, but there's some weird karma going on here.
No schools in the short history of the bowl championship series have longed for "do-over" chances more than these programs.
Texas needed one play to reach the title game in 2001; UCLA needed one tackle in 1998.
And now, cue the sci-fi music.
CD goes over the scenario on how Texas will reach the Rose Bowl (pretty easy one, although Mack is perfectly capable of blowing it, as we all know), and then he goes over UCLA:
Texas has put so much into winning and facilities and being better than Oklahoma that the Austin campus looks like a Steve Wynn property.
So far, though, it just hasn't clicked. Since Texas won the coaches' share of the 1970 title under Darrell Royal, archrival Oklahoma has won four national titles and pretty much rubbed Texas' nose in it.
[...]
So it's interesting to see how this season may be shaping up in the aftermath of another shake-out weekend, which began with seven unbeaten teams and ended with six and Texas and UCLA still in the mix.
We're not saying Texas and UCLA are going to meet in the Jan. 4 Rose Bowl for the national title, but there's some weird karma going on here.
No schools in the short history of the bowl championship series have longed for "do-over" chances more than these programs.
Texas needed one play to reach the title game in 2001; UCLA needed one tackle in 1998.
And now, cue the sci-fi music.
UCLA, meanwhile, is 7-0 after a 51-28 thrashing of Oregon State and is starting to jog foggy memories of 1998, that Bob Toledo-coached carnival ride that ended in a sad clown face at Miami.
Toledo was eventually fired for losing too many exciting games and replaced by Karl Dorrell, who was going to restore discipline and defense.
Dorrell's first win, remember, was 6-3 against Illinois.
Yet, in Year 3 of his tenure, UCLA is now playing a lot of games down to its cuticles. The Bruins have given up 109 points in the last three games and won. They came from behind to win three consecutive games before Saturday's comparative breather.
Drew Olson's six touchdown passes against Oregon State rekindled sonnets of '98 and Cade McNown's heaving a pass into the mist to beat Oregon State.
And, just as in 1998, UCLA will need luck to get where it wants to go and probably will have to make a tackle when it counts.
There are five undefeated teams ahead of UCLA in the rankings, with the Bruins needing to get to No. 2 or No. 1.
That prospect seemed all but impossible until Saturday, when undefeated Georgia squeezed by Arkansas but lost starting quarterback D.J. Shockley to injury with a huge game against Florida next weekend.
And, for the second week in a row, Alabama needed a last-second field goal to remain unbeaten, but, with a struggling offense, how can the Crimson Tide stay that way with Louisiana State, Auburn and a possible Southeastern Conference title game still to play?
No. 3 Virginia Tech stands unscathed in UCLA's way, but the Hokies still have to play Boston College, Miami and maybe Florida State.
This isn't going to be easy. UCLA has to keep winning, needs USC to do the same and hope the BCS gods part the seas.
But if UCLA could somehow upend No. 1 USC on Dec. 3, who knows?
Stranger things have happened in the BCS.
Yes, we are going to be hearing and (probably writing about) December 5, 1998 number of times over next few weeks. But right now it's all about one game at a time baby. And this week we got Stanford. And, to beat them we will need our offense to come out on fire, just like it did against the Beavers on Saturday. Dohn has a piece on how the offense has been clicking on all cylinders. White has a feature on the front that has kept this offense balanced, and more importantly scoring at will. It is pretty obvious that the local press right now is full bandwagon mode. Let's keep our fingers crossed that all this positive PR don't get to our kids heads and that they stay focused. We, as in the Nation are not going to be able to handle another letdown we saw in Palo Alto, just about four years ago. We need to make up for that heartbreak this upcoming weekend. We know it's all about December 3, however before we get there we have a whole lot of other demons to exorcise. GO BRUINS.
Toledo was eventually fired for losing too many exciting games and replaced by Karl Dorrell, who was going to restore discipline and defense.
Dorrell's first win, remember, was 6-3 against Illinois.
Yet, in Year 3 of his tenure, UCLA is now playing a lot of games down to its cuticles. The Bruins have given up 109 points in the last three games and won. They came from behind to win three consecutive games before Saturday's comparative breather.
Drew Olson's six touchdown passes against Oregon State rekindled sonnets of '98 and Cade McNown's heaving a pass into the mist to beat Oregon State.
And, just as in 1998, UCLA will need luck to get where it wants to go and probably will have to make a tackle when it counts.
There are five undefeated teams ahead of UCLA in the rankings, with the Bruins needing to get to No. 2 or No. 1.
That prospect seemed all but impossible until Saturday, when undefeated Georgia squeezed by Arkansas but lost starting quarterback D.J. Shockley to injury with a huge game against Florida next weekend.
And, for the second week in a row, Alabama needed a last-second field goal to remain unbeaten, but, with a struggling offense, how can the Crimson Tide stay that way with Louisiana State, Auburn and a possible Southeastern Conference title game still to play?
No. 3 Virginia Tech stands unscathed in UCLA's way, but the Hokies still have to play Boston College, Miami and maybe Florida State.
This isn't going to be easy. UCLA has to keep winning, needs USC to do the same and hope the BCS gods part the seas.
But if UCLA could somehow upend No. 1 USC on Dec. 3, who knows?
Stranger things have happened in the BCS.