On this very page during this season, we have discussed the upsets.  We’ve recapped the storylines and reveled in just how special the 2007 season has already been.  We’ve talked about the fallout each week and tried to make sense of it all.

Here’s a little secret.  Unlike most other sports, college football doesn’t always make sense.  And…that’s good.

The national “experts” have no clue that they don’t have a clue.  After the rash of upsets from September 29, they said, “we didn’t see that coming.”  Then, they promptly told us, “now that the unforeseeable has happened, let us tell you how the rest of the season is going to unfold.”

For us at AutumnSpectacle.com, October is our favorite month of the year.  The temperatures start to drop, the foliage can light up the afternoon landscape and each week dashes some teams’ dreams while resuscitating other squads’ hopes.

However, because September was so unbelievable, there was something inside of us that expected October to not to be as good as its predecessor.  Surely the Autumn Spectacle couldn’t churn out consecutive months of irrational upsets that send the weekly polls spiraling out of control.

Once again, we are gleeful by the events that transpired this past weekend and are eager to drink it all in.  With each game, there are revelations and with the outcome there are implications.  Let’s try to wrap our brains around the first week of October so we can be prepared to better enjoy next week.

Where else can we start except at the top.  Conventional wisdom said that USC's next few weeks were merely a formality until they faced Oregon, Cal and Arizona State – all on the road.

Make no mistake, the Trojans’ loss to Stanford was not a fluke.  The Cardinal went into the L.A. Coliseum, place of the country’s longest home winning streak.  Then, they made every single play when it counted.  From the defensive stop on the goal line to the interception return for a TD.  From the interception that set up the game-winning drive to the 4th & 20 conversion.  From the 4th down touchdown pass to the sack of John David Booty and victory-sealing pick.

It reminded us of the immortal words of Apollo Creed’s manager in the first Rocky movie when he told the champ, “he doesn’t know it’s supposed to be a show.  He thinks it’s a damn fight!”

The boys from The Farm turned their backs on the idea that they were 40-point underdogs and played their hearts out underneath the Hollywood night sky.  Their comeback win is what movies are made of and it will be a game remembered for years to come.

In the process, the Men of Troy’s efforts to make it to New Orleans took a hit, but not a major one.  They only dropped to #7 in the Coaches and Harris polls.  (Remember that the AP is completely irrelevant!)  The way they’ve played the last two weeks makes their upcoming trips to Eugene, Berkeley and Tempe even more important.

Those three games can give them the fuel needed to make a serious run at regaining one of the top two spots in the polls.  Only a few dominoes have to fall for the Trojans to be where they want to be by early November.

Of the Top 10, two others fell out of the unbeaten ranks with road losses to conference foes.  Kentucky spent exactly one week in the top 10 after about a half-century hiatus and Wisconsin's weekly playing-with-fire performances finally caught up to them.  That opens the door for a whole new list of suspects.

A week ago, Oklahoma's loss to Colorado appeared to severely hinder the Sooners’ chances of playing for the Crystal Ball.  But, as we pointed out, the list of upsets from September 29 kept them in the hunt with a minimum of seven more weeks to play.  Now, we add the dramatic results of October 6 and, all of a sudden, OU is in the thick of it.  Their win against Texas sets up a showdown in Norman this week with undefeated Missouri, who joins Kansas as the only remaining unbeaten teams in the Big 12.

Ohio State just keeps rolling along and appears to get stronger each week.  They manhandled Purdue, knocking the Boilermakers from the unbeaten ranks.  The Buckeyes are on a collision course with a four-game stretch at the end of the year that will test their mettle.  THE OSU goes to Penn State in the last week of October and then hosts Wisconsin and Illinois before closing at Michigan.  The last two months of the Big 10 race will have plots and subplots galore.

Speaking of wild possibilities in a conference race, South Carolina’s win over UK combined with Florida’s loss and Tennessee’s win over Georgia makes the SEC East race incredibly interesting.  The scenarios are endless and we won’t bother going into them yet.  We’ll wait until more football is played before we try to imagine all the possibilities.

Finally, we’ll discuss Boston College.  The Eagles have come out of nowhere and just keep winning.  No doubt, BC is in the mix.

They go to Notre Dame this week before they have to run the gauntlet.  They are at Virginia Tech on Thursday, October 25 before Florida State and Maryland visit Chestnut Hill in consecutive weeks.  They close out at Clemson and a home game versus Miami.

If BC runs the table, they will have earned every single accolade they receive, including a possible spot in the national championship game.

A week ago, we joyfully relived the miraculous weekend that saw half of the top 10 and ten of the top 25 go down.  This week did not take a back seat.

By the time the day was over, four of the top 10 and eleven of the top 25 were beaten.  We started the season with 119 teams with zero losses.  We began this past week with 15 undefeated teams remaining and now that number has dwindled to 11.

Watching the drama unfold over the first six weeks of the season has been priceless and exactly what we all hoped for back in March, May and July.  What makes college football so special is not only the unpredictability of it all, but the fact that there is so much on the line every week. 

A loss has ramifications that seem to make the world stop turning for those fans.  Then a week later, hope is renewed with a win and some help.  This past weekend, once again, reinforced why we chose our name, Autumn Spectacle.

Don’t let the “experts” fill your head with tales of “chaos” and “BCS nightmare.”  Enjoy this format because it provides us with three months of drama – a regular season unmatched by any other.  Embrace it because it is the essence of the sport.  Revel in it while you can because, all too soon, it will be January 9 and the Autumn Spectacle will be nine months away.

As Trip Captain says, “there are a limited number of autumn Saturdays in a lifetime.”

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