NCAA Football

Top-ranked Florida's biggest challenge Saturday against Florida State may be making sure it doesn't get lost in the emotion of Senior Day. Drum roll, please.

UF's senior class, headlined by quarterback Tim Tebow, has won more games than any other in SEC history at 46-6. It is 27-5 in the SEC, 25-2 at Florida Field, 14-3 against ranked teams and 11-1 vs. Tennessee, Georgia, FSU and Miami. The class includes a Heisman Trophy winner and a national Defensive Player of the Year.

Let's not forget it has also helped win two national championships and crafted a nation-best 21-game winning streak. That's the beauty of this class -- it's also well aware of what's at stake. The Gators promise, cross their hearts, they are wary of heavy underdog FSU.

Georgia's football season has been, well, a nightmare.

The Bulldogs are next to last in the country in turnover ratio. They lead the SEC and are 116th nationally in penalty yards. They are nearly allowing just as many points (26.6) as they are scoring (27.5). They don't have a dependable quarterback or a defense. Let's not forget their coaching issues either. And, a moment of silence for Uga VII, the 4-year-old English Bulldog/team mascot that died unexpectedly two weeks ago from heart disease.

All that said, No.7 Georgia Tech should coast to an easy home win on Saturday against Georgia, right? Not so fast, says Tech head coach Paul Johnson, who also offers a unique view on the rivalry.

COLLEGE STATION, Texas -- The third-ranked Texas Longhorns still have their undefeated record and BCS national championship hopes intact.

But the Longhorns found themselves in a much tougher than expected shootout with rival Texas A&M before pulling away for a 49-39 win Thursday night at Kyle Field in their regular-season finale to keep their dreams alive. Texas, which finished 12-0, 8-0 in Big 12, is a win away from a likely BCS national title bid provided the Longhorns make it past Nebraska in next week's Big 12 Championship Game.

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MORGANTOWN, W.Va. -- The Backyard Brawl between West Virginia and Pittsburgh is one of the best -- and better named -- rivalries in college football.

And it's also home to the Big East's rudest fan bases, according to a survey of college football fans by SI.com.

The survey of 33,144 fans nationwide voted West Virginia and Pittsburgh as the favorite stadiums to visit in the Big East -- 23.2 percent voted for WVU's Milan Puskar Stadium and 19.5 percent voted for Pitt's Heinz Field.

However, West Virginia and Pitt fans also were the overwhelming choices as the league's rudest fans. WVU received 34.9 percent of the vote, followed by Pitt at 25 percent.

Friday night when Pitt visits West Virginia, there might be more late hits in the stands than on the field.

Can Cretin-Derham Hall keep its aerial circus and powerful ground game going for one last game? Seantrel Henderson thinks so.

Henderson, the massive senior offensive lineman and top-ranked recruit in the country, ends his stellar Raiders football career on Minnesota's brightest stage Friday. That's when No. 2 Cretin-Derham (11-1) faces No. 1 Eden Prairie (12-0) in the Class 5A state championship at the Metrodome in Minneapolis.

All eyes have been on Henderson, who has been very deliberative in his college selection process and is not expected to announce his decision until February's National Signing Day.

The mystery surrounding Dan Hawkins' immediate future at Colorado has been resolved.

Colorado athletic director Mike Bohn announced Thursday morning that the embattled coach will return for his fifth season in 2010 despite four losing seasons. Speculation had mounted in recent weeks as the Colorado Buffaloes spiral at 3-8 – their third non-bowl season in four years.

Nearly a decade ago, I took my first and only trip to the center of the Ole Miss campus in Oxford, Miss., and I lived to tell about it.

It wasn't fun.

The place is called The Grove, where tailgaters join others before Mississippi football games to hear a concert from The Pride of the South Marching Band. With various versions of "Dixie " blaring, Confederate flags waving and "yahoos" echoing through the willow oaks, the whole thing ranks among the most appalling things I've seen as a sports journalist who happens to be darker than a KKK hood.

"Win one for the Gipper?" How about "Win one to keep the Gipper out of the Gator Bowl?"

When Stanford plays host to Notre Dame (6-5) Saturday, the entire Big East Conference will be pulling for the Cardinal to defeat the Fighting Irish.

The reason is simple: an Irish victory would likely earn Notre Dame an invitation to the Gator Bowl, taking one of the Big East's bowl berths.

The Gator Bowl has the option of selecting a Big East team or Notre Dame, as long as the Irish have at least seven wins. There has been an understanding between the Big East and the Gator Bowl that it would only take Notre Dame if the Irish is within two wins of an available Big East team. However, there is nothing in writing and since the Gator Bowl and Big East are parting ways after this season, the Gator Bowl has no reason to honor that agreement.

SOUTH BEND, Ind. -- School's out. In so many ways.

It is a wet and raw and gray Thanksgiving eve day. Classes ended Tuesday for the holiday weekend. The Notre Dame campus is quiet except for the shuffling back and forth by various football players between the Gug and the athletic trainers' offices inside the Joyce Athletic and Convocation Center (the J.A.C.C.).

Tailback Armando Allen, his right arm in a soft cast and a sling, is one of many players who can be seen (but not spoken to) walking at what can only be described as a leisurely pace. Allen's sling-and-cast get-up, by the way, appears less cumbersome than the one Charlie Jr. was sporting at Tuesday's practice following the surgery he underwent Monday for a broken finger.

Darth Visor, to answer your question, was nowhere to be seen.

Urban Meyer almost cried at the mention of Notre Dame the other day. His heart and future is at Florida, and nothing short of a papal encyclical is going to change that.

Sorry, Irish fans. Such a thing is not on Pope Benedict's calendar.

If only Notre Dame had a bit more divine wisdom 10 years ago, it wouldn't be in this mess. The Fighting Irish had Meyer and let him go. Now, there's just a trail of tears that altered the college football universe.

How different would this decade have been if Notre Dame had locked up its former receivers coach in 2000?