Here are two text messages I've received within the hour from people associated with the Notre Dame football program.

With Oregon State on its way to beating woeful Washington State (Cougars leading, 21-10, at halftime), a six-way tie for the Pacific 10 Conference championship and another trip to the Rose Bowl for USC is officially dead.

So, in honor of the Trojans' seven-year run as conference kings, click HERE for a "Random Rant," containing seven reasons for this head-scratching bump in the road for USC.

Southeastern Conference officials really have a problem judging acts of excessive celebration.

This much is clear, because it happened again in tonight's LSU-Mississippi game.

Even though it wasn't off-the-charts ridiculous like the time they inexplicably flagged Georgia wideout A.J. Green at a crucial moment in a 20-13 loss to LSU on Oct. 3, it was still a curious decision.

The play in question occurred on the Tigers' first possession of the game, when Rebel senior cornerback Cassius Vaughn intercepted a Jordan Jefferson pass and returned it all the way to the end zone, punctuated by a dive to make sure he got in.

Ole Miss was flagged for two penalties on the play, one deservingly for a block in the back that meant there would be no touchdown. But, the second one, nailing Vaughn for "unsportsmanlike conduct" due to his dive, was ... well ... excessive.

Why can't these SEC zebras let the players play?

As expected, both Florida and Alabama are making quick work of their late season cupcakes.

In Gainesville, the Gators rolled to 35 first half points, and Tim Tebow has put up the requisite numbers to get him back to New York for the Heisman ceremony. In Tuscaloosa, Alabama has already gotten Mark Ingram over 100 yards and he's added two touchdowns, most likely cementing his place on the Heisman ballot as well.

More importantly, if Alabama takes care of business in the Iron Bowl, it'll set up a #1 vs. #2 de facto playoff game in the SEC Championship for a place in the National Championship game. Interestingly enough, with both team's playing in the "rough and tumble" SEC, neither has a schedule rated in the Top 20.

Still, the SEC Championship looks to be one of those epic rematches that will have all of college football salivating, which is better than we can say for the matchups this weekend. 

As the second quarter opened up during the Ohio State and Michigan game, the broadcast gave us a heartfelt tribute to Stephanie Spielman, who passed away after a long battle with cancer this week.

Spielman was the wife of former Ohio State great and fellow ESPN commentator Chris Spielman, a colleague of announcer Sean McDonough and Matt Millen. As McDonough spoke about Stephanie and Chris his voice wavered and he struggled to contain his emotions.

Chris Spielman walked away from his NFL career when his wife was first stricken with breast cancer 11 years ago. Since then, Stephanie and Chris have been heroes in the local community raising millions of dollars for breast cancer awareness. She leaves behind four children and an incredible legacy of courage.

A nice (and incredibly sincere) tribute by the folks at ESPN.

In a battle of 7-3 ACC teams, North Carolina is drilling Boston College in the first quarter, 21-3. The most valuable player for North Carolina hasn't been a Tar Heel, but rather Eagles quarterback Dave Shinskie.

Two of North Carolina's touchdowns are courtesy of the former minor-leaguer turned freshman quarterback. His first turnover, a fumble, was recovered and run back for a touchdown by Cam Thomas. The other was a pick six courtesy of Kendrick Burney, who went 30 yards for a touchdown.

On the opening drive of the game the Tar Heels rode running back Ryan Houston for a decisive touchdown. Quarterback T.J. Yates' fumble opened the door a bit for the Eagles, but they had to settle for a field goal.

21-3 as the first quarter comes to an end.

Remember when Tate Forcier was the second coming? Man September must've been fun for Wolverines' fans.

On Michigan's first offensive drive against Ohio State, Forcier dropped back to pass deep in Wolverine territory, wandered back into his end zone for some inexplicable reason, then proceeded to fumble the ball off his thigh into the arms Cameron Heyward for a touchdown.

7-0 Buckeyes early in the first quarter, and as Sean McDonough just said, "set up by the nice 42-yard punt, 13 of that on the roll by Jon Thoma."

You know times are tough when the announcers are treating you with kid gloves...

Say this for the BCS, at the very least they're trying. New executive director Bill Hancock went to the airwaves, speaking with Dan Patrick this week and doing his best to stump for the system. The BCS also went the way of new media, launching a twitter page as well as a facebook profile, because - well, you know... that's what the kids are doing these days.

But the ugly head of the BCS rears itself this weekend, with the absolutely mediocre slate of games that's on tap. With teams so happy to play the system, we're stuck with nary a good matchup, and the only Top 25 teams facing off are #25 Cal playing at the Farm against #17 Stanford. It's so bad that ESPN's GameDay is in Tuscon, where Oregon battles an unranked (but very game) Arizona team.

When the top two teams in the country are squaring off against Florida International and Chattanooga respectively, it's clear that schools are more interested in finding a win than playing legit competition, and the reality of it is, you can't blame them. The BCS system has laid out a clear road-map for teams looking to succeed within the system and the bottom line is it just doesn't pay to play tough competition at the end of the season when conference championship games supply all the strength of schedule you'd ever need to climb the rankings.

While Michigan and Ohio State fans can't blame the BSC for Michigan's slide into mediocrity, the rest of us have plenty of reason to blame the Bowl Championship Series for marginalizing the best regular season in all of sports. 

Yesterday, the Chicago Sun-Times floated Tony Dungy's name as a possibility for the Notre Dame Dame if/when it became available.

For those in Wolverine Nation who've had a hard time dealing with Michigan's struggles throughout the last couple of months in particular, you have some pretty good company with which to commiserate.