2012 ... And Then There Were 12

In the battle to become the last unbeaten team in America, there are now 12 contenders left. Four teams fell for the first time last week - South Carolina, West Virginia, Louisiana Tech and Texas-San Antonio. Everyone with an unblemished record is now ranked. The remaining contenders are (with AP rankings in parentheses followed by their opponent this week):

1. Alabama (1) - @ Tennessee
2. Oregon (2) - @ ASU
3. Florida (3) - #9 South Carolina
4. Kansas St. (4) - @ #17 West Virginia
5. Notre Dame (5) - BYU
6. Ohio St. (7) - Purdue
7. Oregon St. (8) - Utah
8. Mississippi St. (15) - Middle Tenn. St.
9. Louisville (16) - South Florida
10. Rutgers (19) - @ Temple
11. Cincinnati (21) - @ Toledo
12. Ohio (25) - Bye

By conference, the totals are: Big 12 (1), Big East (3), Big Ten (1), Ind (1), MAC (1), Pac-12 (2) and SEC (3). The ACC, CUSA, Mountain West, WAC and Sun Belt have none.

This week, there are no match-ups among unbeaten teams, so theoretically, we could have anywhere from 1 to 12 unbeaten teams. Five undefeated teams hit the road this week. Two unbeaten teams draw ranked opponents. My guess is that the list will get down to 10 this week.