Race for No. 1 Gets Tighter

-- In the tunnel of the Orange Bowl, Florida State football coach Bobby Bowden was asked if his Seminoles could still win the national championship after their 34-20 loss to Miami on Saturday night. "I don't know, but at least we'll have a chance to play the No. 1 team," Bowden said. "If we beat them, then we could be right back here (Jan. 2) against Colorado."


Bowden is assuming Florida still will be No. 1 when the Gators play in Tallahassee, Florida on Nov. 26. He apparently also is of the belief the Buffaloes will stay unbeaten and win the Big Eight -- meaning they will beat Nebraska in Lincoln on Oct. 29.


Considering Florida won't play away from "The Swamp" until it meets the Seminoles in the regular-season finale, considering the fragile state of the Cornhuskers at quarterback, Bowden's assumption easily could become reality.


But considering what happened in the course of several hours Saturday, when three of the nation's top eight teams were beaten, nothing is a lock. "It's been a crazy year," Big East associate commissioner Tom McElroy said in the press box at the Orange Bowl.


It could get crazier this week, when Florida plays No. 6 Auburn, which is still unbeaten under Terry Bowden -- its 17-game winning streak is the nation's longest in Division I-A -- and still on NCAA probation, ineligible for a bowl game.


So this could be Auburn's national championship game. And it also should be the toughest test the Gators, who are banged up along the offensive line, will get in the watered-down Southeastern Conference this year.


"It'll be a good time to play somebody like that, someone we need to focus on," Florida receiver Jack Jackson said after the Gators looked a bit lethargic in the second half of a 42-18 win over LSU. "We definitely need to step it up a lot."


So does Nebraska, which has lost starting quarterback Tommie Frazier for the season with blood clots in his leg and backup Brook Berringer with a lung injury. The Cornhuskers could go into this week's game against unbeaten and No. 16 Kansas State with No. 3 quarterback Matt Turman.


And then there's Penn State. The Nittany Lions, who moved to No. 3 after Florida State's loss, come back from a week off to play No. 5 Michigan in Ann Arbor, Michigan. A victory over the Wolverines could pave the way for an unbeaten season, but the Nittany Lions still have to play at Illinois and Indiana in November. Dropping out of the hunt after losses Saturday were then-eighth-ranked Notre Dame, upset at Boston College 30-11, and then-No. 6 Arizona, losing at home by Colorado State, 21-16.


There are some significant showdowns looming after this week.


The first will come Oct. 29, when Colorado travels to Nebraska. If the Cornhuskers can stay unbeaten, this may wind up being the biggest game at Memorial Stadium since the 1987 mega-matchup with Oklahoma. The winner likely will go to the Federal Express Orange Bowl for a shot at a national championship.


Two weeks later, Penn State goes to Champaign, Illinois, to play the Fighting Illini. And two weeks after that comes Florida versus Florida State at Doak Campbell Stadium. A victory for the Seminoles, who likely will stay unbeaten in the Atlantic Coast Conference, could set up a similar scenario to last season. Florida State lost at Notre Dame in November and still won the national championship.


"I told the kids, 'What is the difference from a year ago at Notre Dame?'" Bowden said Sunday. "I hope we can make another run."


Crazier things have happened. This season.