NCAA Football Michigan

"For of all sad words of tongue or pen, the saddest are these: 'It might have been!'" -- John Greenleaf Whittier

For Michigan it really might have been, if not for a dreadful game by Tate Forcier and the Wolverine offense. Rich Rodriguez's squad fell to Ohio State 21-10 today, keeping Michigan out of the postseason for the second year in a row.

Forcier threw four interceptions. He also fumbled in Michigan's end zone on the Wolverines' opening drive, which OSU recovered for a touchdown.

Last week I wrote about the controversy over The South Will Rise Again chant at Ole Miss. In that piece I noted that Ole Miss was the only SEC school that couldn't escape the South's past. Now a new controversy is here, the Klu Klux Klan is protesting for this week's game against LSU. Seriously.

Faulkner memorably said, "The past is never dead. It's not even past."

And when it comes to Ole Miss that's certainly the case.

The Ohio State-Michigan game has always been my personal favorite college football rivalry, dating back to my days as a 5-year-old living near Ann Arbor and worshiping Bo Schembechler. OSU vs. Michigan 2009 doesn't figure to be one of the legendary games -- it might not even be a very good game -- but I'll be watching, and I'll be tweeting my observations while I watch.

And since I'm a sucker for rivalry games, I'll also be tweeting about lesser rivalries like the Harvard-Yale game as well. Follow along below or follow me on Twitter @MichaelDavSmith.

Every Thursday, Pickin' on the Big Ten previews the upcoming weekend's games and ponders the meaning of it all, staring into the yawning existential void and calling a fullback dive on third-and-seven.

With one more loss, Michigan will become ineligible for a bowl game for the second season in a row. This has not happened since W.A. "Brad" Thornwhistle's disastrous first two seasons in 1847 and 1848. To avoid this horrible dishonor, all the Wolverines have to do is to beat Ohio State on Saturday. That will keep them alive for the Little Caesar's Pizza! Pizza! Bowl Bowl.

Every Thursday, Pickin' on the Big Ten previews the upcoming weekend's games and issues random taunts to overconfident fan bases.

Be careful what you ask for, college football fan. The very same Iowa team that so many of you desperately wanted to see lose lest the Big Ten get another team into the title game is now the only thing standing between Ohio State and the BCS. If the Hawkeyes can't pull off a ginormous upset in Columbus behind a quarterback making his first college start, you're going to get the Scarlet and Grey facing some honked-off Pac 10 team.

One little loss to Northwestern can change everything. Iowa looked like the team to beat in the Big Ten title race, but now that it has fallen to the Wildcats and Ohio State has beaten Penn State, all the momentum has moved back to Columbus. Technically, both the Hawkeyes and Buckeyes control their own destiny. Whichever team wins Saturday's game is the presumptive conference champion.

Now go try to figure the odds that Iowa can win in the Horseshoe with a redshirt freshman quarterback making his first career start with no run support to speak of.

As the fourth quarter of CBS's coverage of Alabama-LSU went to commercial break, the cameras caught something extraordinary, an Alabama fan giving the cliched and overused four finger slogan. Okay, nothing extraordinary about that, but, this is when a bit of the Southern Gothic came into your living room, the man only had four fingers, he was missing a pinkie! So he gave the four finger sign utilizing his thumb.

My jaw literally dropped. Judging by everyone's reaction on Twitter, I wasn't the only one. The most shocking thing, of course, is that the fan gave up the pinkie to Nick Saban, wielding a machete, as part of the pregame speech. Good to see they got the bleeding stopped.

But, of course, this moment of four-finger jubilation wasn't the only thing that caught my attention. We've got Alabama, LSU, Notre Dame, Oregon, Cincinnati, and a groom who made it rain at this wedding reception and caused a 40-person brawl. Plus, we learn that 5 yards in Alabama math actually means 5.5 yards.

Dive in and enjoy.

SOUTH BEND, Ind. -- Crist will come again ... in four to six months.

Notre Dame learned the fates of both back-up quarterback Dayne Crist and wide receiver Michael Floyd on Monday and the results were mixed.

Crist, a sophomore who went down in the fourth quarter of Notre Dame's 40-14 win against Washington State, learned on Monday that he had torn the anterior cruciate ligament of his right knee. Floyd, who broke his left collarbone against Michigan State in the season's third game, was cleared to play.

On Tuesday, Notre Dame coach Charlie Weis confirmed that Crist, who had an MRI on Monday, had torn his ACL and that he would have surgery on Friday. Weis said that the Irish staff consulted "the guru in Alabama" (Dr. James Andrews) and that the prognosis was for a four-to-six month rehab. That likely keeps Crist out of spring football.

"I know one thing," Weis said, concerning Crist's return. "We'll be conservative."

For the second time this season, a Michigan player has been caught on video (the clip has been pulled off of YouTube) throwing a punch after a play, leading to a likely suspension.

Every Thursday, Pickin' on the Big Ten runs down the weekend's games from inside a chicken coop, at least as far as you know.

Cue the inevitable anti-Iowa backlash. A team that barely got by Arkansas State and Northern Iowa is somehow No. 1 in the nation according to the computer polls the BCS uses. Don't like it? Line forms to the left. Kirk Ferentz even agrees with you.

Shouldn't the computers' top ranked team have at least some sort of offense? Yes, of course. But whose fault is that No. 1 ranking?

Yours, you loudmouth.