By Travis Stewart/Texas Football -- We're at least getting closet to seeing eye to eye.
To say the least, it's been a wacky season.
Texas looks like it's going to lose seven games. A&M is on track to win nine. Baylor is going to make a bowl, as is UTEP, and SMU is probably going to win it's C-USA division. Lowly Rice beat Houston, which beat SMU, which lost to Tech, which beat Baylor, which beat Texas, which beat Rice. Wait, what?
But at least, with just a week to go, the staff is starting to see things eye to eye in a way we've yet to do all year long. Our top three teams — TCU, Texas A&M and Texas Tech — were unanimous at those positions all the way across the board. Neither Rice nor UNT were able to break out of the bottom two. The middle five were still in flux, but not by much. As a mater of fact, things are starting to get so clear-cut that we had two identical submissions this week (Travis and Brad) for only the second time this season.
But there is a chance that we could go al loosey-goosey again this weekend. What if Texas beats A&M? And if Houston drops Tech? What if SMU falls against East Carolina and Rice beats up UAB?
Heaven forbid TCU stumble against stumble-proof New Mexico.
But while this week has cleared up the haze surrounding the 2010 season, it could just as easily get confusing again before the end of the year. Let's root against chaos — and ensure that our staff's new-found agreeability is here to stay for this season. I don't think we can take any more drama.
DCTF 2010 Texas College Football Week 13 Power Poll
| # | School | Points (1st-place votes) | Previous |
| 1 | TCU Horned Frogs (11-0/7-0) | Points: 40 (4) | 1 |
| Adam Hochfelder: Now the real fun begins for those love math, reading tea leaves, making predictions and BCS mania. Too bad you have to hate football to love the BCS! | |||
| 2 | Texas A&M Aggies (8-3/5-2) | Points: 36 | 2 |
| Travis Stewart: The stupidest thing about A&M's win over Nebraska wasn't the final score (9-6 ... did they play in baseball?), it was that this particular office, myself included, spent all of Monday talking about Bo Pelini's asinine reactions and not the impact of the victory. "Blow-up Bo" has done great things for the Huskers, but making himself — and the program — look unstable is probably a bad career move. To introduce some '90s lingo ... take a chill pill. | |||
| 3 | Texas Tech Red Raiders (6-5/3-5) | Points: 32 | 3 |
| Brad Hilliard: The more things change, the more they stay the same. As topsy-turvy as college football has been this fall, the Red Raiders are bowl-eligible for the 18th consecutive year. | |||
| 4 | Baylor Bears (7-5/4-4) | Points: 25 | 4 |
| Travis Stewart: Baylor's season, like so many other schools every year, will look completely different at the end of December than it did in mid-October. The state rushed to crown the Bears as a feel-good story ... but before they played any of the top three teams in the division. BU's bowl berth is still a heart-warmer, but this Cinderella shoe still doesn't quite fit yet. | |||
| 5 | SMU Mustangs (6-5/5-2) | Points: 24 | 6 |
| Travis Stewart: Just a few years ago, saying that SMU making just any bowl was a step in the wrong direction would have gotten you pied in the courtyard. But it's hard to feel 100 percent delighted over this year's performance. Would this group beat last year's team? The overall record says no. The pole position for the division title says yes. But can you really trust either of those measures? | |||
| 6 | Houston Cougars (5-6/4-4) | Points: 20 | 5 |
| Travis Stewart: I feel like I'm giving out free passes at the gate for this Houston squad, but I never really expected the Coogs to travel to an emotional, hurting Southern Miss team and walk out with a win. In my mind, UH probably isn't going to make a bowl. And while that's a major disappointment, I can't honestly rake them over the coals for it. Talk about bad breaks. | |||
| 7 | Texas Longhorns (5-6/2-5) | Points: 17 | t-7 |
| Adam Hochfelder: The Longhorns are 2-0 against teams nicknamed the Owls. Can Texas find a way to play Temple in a bowl game? Talk about an unbreakable record! | |||
| 8 | UTEP Miners (6-6/3-5) | Points: 14 | t-7 |
| Travis Stewart: I went into this year thinking that a bowl for UTEP would be a victory worth celebrating. Doesn't that make sense? Yet somehow, this six-win season still feels very vanilla. Probably because the Miners looked terribly average over the second half of the season. If UTEP got passed up for a bowl, would you be surprised? | |||
| 9 | Rice Owls (3-8/2-5) | Points: 6 | 10 |
| Travis Stewart: Oh, so THAT'S what Rice looks like. Somehow, the Owls put it all together against East Carolina this past weekend, dominating offensively in both the run game and passing game. I hope the team scribe was taking notes on everyone's actions throughout the week — "OK everyone, we're going to do EXACTLY what we did last week! We didn't even wash the practice jerseys!" | |||
| 10 | North Texas Mean Green (3-8/3-5) | Points: 5 | 9 |
| Brad Hilliard: The Mean Green has fought through an incredible amount of adversity this season, and it'll receive a much-deserved fresh start next year with a new coach and a new stadium. | |||
ABOUT THE PANEL:
> Adam Hochfelder is the Executive Director of DCTF and several other IMG College properties
> Travis Stewart is the managing editor of DCTF
> Brad Hilliard is the operations coordinator for DCTF and several other IMG College properties
> Tom Sullivan is an account executive for DCTF
