There are only 5 undefeated teams left in Division 1-A football and Penn State is not one of them. The 5 perfect records belong to Alabama (10-0), Texas Tech (10-0), Boise State (9-0), Utah (10-0) and Ball State (9-0).

Joe Paterno’s Nittany Lions reached 9-0 and moved up to No. 3 in the AP Top 25 poll before traveling to Iowa on Saturday (11-8-08) and losing to the Hawkeyes 24-23 on a field goal. of 31 yards. with a second left.

Daniel Murray, who hadn’t made a field goal since Iowa’s season opener and had lost his job to a freshman, finally got a second chance. Murray had handled the kickoff duties, but when it came to windy playing conditions and the need for experience, coach Kirk Ferentz turned to Murray.

Murray drilled him down the middle and the icy Iowa fans went wild, flooding the field with wild excitement. It happened because Penn State blew a 9-point lead in the 4th quarter. Iowa won the fourth quarter 10-0. The Hawkeyes were helped by Shonn Greene’s 117 rushing yards and 2 TDs, and Ricky Stanzi’s 15-of-25 passing for 171 yards.

The victory was Iowa’s biggest in years, and their first against a Top 5 team since 1990. The Hawkeyes improved their record to 6-4, becoming bowl eligible. The Hawkeyes’ 4 losses this year have come by a total of 12 points. Last week they lost to Illinois on a 46-yard field goal with 24 seconds remaining. This week they had to win with a field goal in the last second.

Penn State’s chance to compete in the national championship evaporated. The kiss of death for Penn State was the fact that Iowa was not a ranked team and Penn State was playing on the road. The Nittany Lions’ new goals will be a Big Ten title and a berth in the Rose Bowl on New Year’s Day.

For the first time this season, all AP Top 25 Poll teams played, with 17 of the 25 teams winning and 5 big wins among winners playing other ranked teams. They included:

No. 1 Alabama on the road over No. 15 LSU in overtime, 27-21, with star quarterback John Parker Wilson scoring on a sneaky 1-yard pass. The Crimson Tide had a chance to win the game in regulation play, but Leigh Tiffin’s 29-yard field goal attempt went low and blocked.

LSU had the first chance in overtime, but even allowed a field goal opportunity as Jarrett Lee threw his fourth interception and Alabama’s Rashad Johnson intercepted it for the third time in the game, who tied a school record in the process. The Tide turned down another field goal attempt, having missed it twice, and Wilson scored on the sneak to give Alabama a berth in the SEC championship game.

No. 2 Texas Tech at home over No. 8 Oklahoma State, 56-20, as the Red Raiders scored touchdowns on 7 straight possessions.

No. 7 Southern Cal at home to No. 21 California, 17-3, in an amazing display of defense. The win was the sixth in a row for the Trojans who have outscored their opponents 231-23 since losing 27-21 as a 25-point favorite at Oregon State. Those are the Trojans, always losing a game to an unranked team, they apparently wake up late in Hollywood.

No. 10 Utah at home over No. 11 Texas Christian in a squeaker, 13-10. Utah had gone 9-0 and moved up to No. 10 by playing one of the weaker schedules west of the Mississippi River. The Utes are in the Mountain West Conference, and if they hadn’t played TCU, they wouldn’t have faced a quality team worth talking about; they still face BYU in their final game.

No. 19 North Carolina at home over No. 22 Georgia Tech, 28-7, scoring 3 touchdowns in the 4th quarter.

Twelve other Top 25 teams won against ranked opponents, including:

No. 4 Florida on the road over Vanderbilt, 42-14, as Tim Tebow threw for 3 touchdowns and rushed for 2 more. The Gators clinched the SEC Eastern Division title and will face SEC Western Division title holders Alabama for the SEC Championship.

No. 5 Texas at home over Baylor, 45-21, as Longhorn Colt McCoy threw for 5 TDs and 300 yards. No. 6 Oklahoma on the road over Texas A&M in an easy loss, 66-28. No. 9 Boise State at home over Utah State, 49-14, as Kellen Moore threw for 362 yards and 2 TDs. No. 12 Ohio State on the road over Northwestern, 45-10, as Terrelle Prior threw for 3 scores and Chris “Beanie” Wells added 2 more on the ground.

No. 13 Missouri at home over Kansas State, 41-24, as Jeremy Maclin had 3 TDs and amassed 278 all-purpose yards. No. 14 Georgia on the road over Kentucky, 42-38, getting the go-ahead TD on a pass from Matthew Stafford to AJ Green with 1:54 to play. No. 16 Ball State at home over Northern Illinois 45-14. No. 17 Brigham Young (BYU) at home over a 1-9 41-12 San Diego State team.

No. 18 Michigan State at home over Purdue, 21-7, as Javon Ringer scored twice and the Spartan defense made some excellent third-down stops. No. 24 Florida State at home to Clemson, 41-27, on coach Bobby Bowden’s 79th birthday (yes, the guy’s 79 and still coaching), and following Bowden’s son Tommy’s firing as coach in chief at Clemson last month. No. 25 Pittsburgh at home over Louisville, 41-7, as the Panthers turned 4 Cardinal turnovers into touchdowns.

The 7 losing Top 25 teams, other than No. 3 Penn State, that lost to unranked teams included:

No. 20 West Virginia at home to Cincinnati in overtime 26-23. West Virginia is one of those teams that can’t stand prosperity, they’ve been in and out of the AP Top 25 all season. No. 23 Maryland en route to Virginia Tech, 23-13.

For the 8 losing teams in the AP Top 25 this week, it’s pretty much what legendary coach Lou Holtz said: “When all is said and done, more is said than done.”

When the new AP Top 25 poll came out on Sunday, 4 teams were missing: West Virginia, California, Georgia Tech and Maryland. Replacing them were 2 new teams-No. 22 Cincinnati and No. 23 Oregon State-and 2 returning teams-No. 24 South Carolina (the Gamecocks dropped out of the poll after the first week) and No. 25 Tulsa (the Golden Hurricane came in week 8, was ousted last week, and returned this week).

In other featured games this week:

Boston College at home defeated Notre Dame 17-0 in their annual “Catholic Bowl” game.

An 8-2 West Michigan team from the growing Mid-American Conference hosted and beat Big Ten Illinois, 23-17.

A 4-5 Wyoming team from the Mountain West Conference hosted and beat Tennessee from the Southeastern Conference, 13-7. Could Tennessee sink any lower? Some fans had to read this result THREE times to believe it was true.

Hawaii beat New Mexico State 42-30 to even their record at 5-5 and a win short of bowl eligibility.

East Carolina became bowl eligible with its sixth win, an overtime win over Marshall, 19-16.

That is. That’s all. I am out of here. Four more weeks and the regular season is over, then bowl season comes along and some big winners are going to raise a lot of money for their football programs. Some of the bowling games will be great, but we don’t know which ones.

Copyright © 2008 Ed Bagley