As we look at all the action around the nation during Week 9, here are some of the biggest performances of the day. Follow all the action on our scoreboard and our updating college football blog .

3: Touchdowns each by Ryan Lindley and Brandon Sullivan in San Diego State's 48-38 victory over Wyoming. Lindley also had 365 yards as the Aztecs are bowl-eligible for the first time since 1998.

5: Freshman quarterback David Piland passed for a career-high five / touchdowns and Houston routed Memphis 56-17.

142: Rushing yards by Montel Harris in Boston College's 16-10 victory over Clemson. The victory stopped a five-game losing streak, which was the Eagles' longest losing streak since 1998.

158: Jared Hassin's rushing yards to lead Army over VMI 29-7 . It was Hassin's third straight 100-yard rushing game.

164: Johnny White's total yards rushing in North Carolina's win over William & Mary 21-17 . White also had a 67-yard touchdown run with 5:27 to play.

180: UCF's Ronnie Weaver career-high rushing yards in the 49-35 victory over C-USA rival East Carolina.

184: Career-high rushing yards by South Carolina freshman Marcus Lattimore in the victory over Tennessee. He also had his 11th rushing touchdown of the season.

215: Rushing yards by North Texas' Lance Dunbar in the 33-6 victory over Western Kentucky . Dunbar also had three touchdowns in the first game under interim coach Mike Canales.

313: Total yards rushing and passing by Illinois' Nathan Scheelhaase in the 44-10 victory over Purdue . The quarterback ran for 118 yards and threw for 195 and four touchdowns.

307:  School-record rushing yards by Roy Helu Jr. in Nebraska's 31-17 victory  over Missouri. Helu ran for touchdowns of 66, 73 and 53 yards. 

409: School-record number of passing yards by Ryan Mallett in Arkansas' 49-14 victory over Vanderbilt. Mallett topped his own record of 408 yards, set last year against Georgia, and finished 27 of 44 passing.

While the nation awaits for some of the biggest names -- Manti Te'o, Ruben Randle, Marlon Brown -- to decide where they will play college, there are still a handful of lower-ranked Top 100 players that are undecided.

Frankie Telfort, who is ranked No. 61 on Maxpreps.com/Tom Lemming's Top 100, is expected to make his decision between Florida and USC tomorrow. But according to the Miami Herald, academic power Stanford is still in the mix.

During his visit, Telfort, who is interested in medicine, got to see an open-heart surgery.

"I was a about a foot away" said Telfort to the Miami Herald. "It was crazy. It was the biggest highlight of any of my recruiting visits. I thought, 'There's not a lot they wouldn't do for their students.'"

One of the top receivers still on the board is, Kendall Kelly (No. 96 overall), is deciding between Alabama, LSU and Clemson. According to Tuscaloosanews.com, Kelly might choose to go out of state and join high school teammate Darrell Smith, who was offered a scholarship by Clemson.

The NewsStar.com, also reported that Clemson is ahead of LSU and Alabama for Kelly.

Another linebacker, Anthony Patrick (ranked No. 70) from Stevenson, Alabama will make a decision between Alabama, USC, Auburn and Tennessee.

WSPA Channel 7 in Greenville, SC and the Florida Times Union are reporting Clemson has accepted a bid to play in the Gator Bowl in Jacksonville.

Clemson just became bowl-eligible this past weekend with a victory over South Carolina, but the Gator Bowl used its third pick out of the ACC to take the Tigers.

The ACC Champion goes to the Orange Bowl, which will be the winner of the Boston College/Virginia Tech game this Saturday. The Chick-fil-A Bowl gets the No. 2 pick and took Georgia Tech.

The Champs Sports Bowl picks after the Gator Bowl and it appears they will take Florida State. The Orlando Sentinel is reporting the Seminoles appear to be headed for Orlando for a matchup against Minnesota or Wisconsin.

With the No. 5 pick the Music City Bowl is preparing for the loser of the ACC title game. The Meineke Car Care Bowl picks next and the Durham Herald Sun is reporting that North Carolina will be invited.

That would leave Miami (Fla.), Maryland, Wake Forest and N.C. State out of the ACC to fill spots in the Emerald Bowl, Humanitarian Bowl, EagleBank Bowl and an at-large bid, possibly the Motor City Bowl.

Since the Emerald Bowl picks next and had Maryland last year, its likely that the Hurricanes will play out west.

Stay tuned ...

 

 

 

If Rutgers beats Louisville on Dec. 4 and Notre Dame loses to USC, the Irish are going to be the most sought after 6-6 team in history.

First, let's assume in all scenarios that Notre Dame loses to USC. And remember Notre Dame falls in the pecking order for Big East bowl placement.

Now if Rutgers beats Louisville that would give the Big East six teams with at least 7 wins and six Big East bowl slots. Which means a 6-win Notre Dame team can not take the place of a 7-win team. So the Big East picture would look like this -- Cincinnati to BCS, West Virginia/Pitt winner to Sun Bowl, West Virginia/Pitt loser to Meineke Car Care Bowl, Connecticut to International,  Rutgers to Papajohns.com and South Florida to St. Pete Bowl.

So what happens to the Fighting Irish? 

Well, they would have to find a home in a bowl that has an open slot due to conferences not being able to fill.

-- Texas Bowl could have a Big 12 slot. So this might be a home for the Irish. Notre Dame vs. a C-USA team (Rice/Houston/Tulsa) on the NFL Network. Half the country wouldn't even be able to watch Notre Dame. So much for TV ratings.

-- Poinsettia Bowl will have an open slot because it won't be able to fill its Pac-10 slot, but it has a backup deal with the WAC. So scratch that one.

-- Papajohns.com and Independence Bowls will have slots to fill from the SEC, but they have a backup contracts with the Sun Belt. According the Palm Beach Post, both the PapaJohns and Independence must fill it with a 6-6 Sun Belt team unless there is another 7-5 team out there without a bid. So scratch those two. The Independence is going to have a slot on the Big 12 side too, but it looks like they will land Louisiana Tech.

-- Hawaii and Emerald Bowls will have an open slots because it won't be able to fill its Pac-10 slot. So maybe Notre Dame could meet Hawaii in lovely Honolulu. Hey, there are worse places you could be on Dec. 24. Or maybe even San Francisco on Dec. 27 against a team from the ACC -- Clemson? Boston College? Maybe even .... Notre Dame vs. Miami (Fla.).

The biggest problem with the Hawaii, Emerald and Texas Bowls is that a MAC team is going to grab one of these slots. The MAC has three slots and assuming Ball State is in the Motor City and Buffalo is in the International -- either Western Michigan or Central Michigan will be in one of these games with the other in the GMAC Bowl. Both teams have more than 7 wins, so they have to be in a bowl over Notre Dame.

Now all this above becomes moot if Louisville beats Rutgers, because then Notre Dame can take a Big East slot and will most definitely be in El Paso, Tex in the Sun Bowl to play Arizona/Oregon/California or Oregon State.

But if Louisville wins, the Irish will have to scramble, but it looks like the Hawaii, Texas or Emerald Bowls are going to be their best chance to land. Hawaii Bowl pays the least, Emerald Bowl pays the most.

Your guess is as good as mine.

Notes

... It doesn't look like Boise State is going to land in the BCS, so that means either stay home at the Humanitarian Bowl or opt out and find another place to play. If it decides to stay home, the Broncos would be matched up against ACC No. 8, which could be Wake Forest or Maryland. If it decides to find a new home, the Poinsettia Bowl would be the best place for them. The Poinsettia Bowl would need a replacement for a Pac-10 team and would match up the undefeated Broncos vs. either BYU or TCU, whichever team the the Las Vegas doesn't take. This could end up being one of the best non-BCS bowl games of the year with the WAC Champions vs. the second-best Mountain West team. Call in the Non-BCS Bowl.

...  Speaking of Clemson. If the Tigers win their last game they will be bowl-eligible at 6-6 and become very attractive in the bowl world. According to The State, Meineke bowl director Will Webb said he can foresee Clemson chosen as early as the Champs Sports Bowl, which gets the third at-large ACC pick. “There are just an awfully lot of people who are going to be interested in Clemson, us included,” Webb said. Remember, ACC No. 3 doesn't mean third-place team out of the ACC, it means that bowl gets the third pick.

How low can you go?

For a handful of teams ranked in the preseason Top 25 we are about to find out.

Preseason favorites Auburn, Wisconsin, Arizona State and Clemson all find themselves falling down the rankings in the CBSSports.com 120 with a possibility that it could get worse before the season is over.

Auburn, which we all had in our preseason Top 25, fell to No. 42 this week after losing its third game in the past four.

The Tigers started the season at 3-0 before losing a close game with LSU. They then squeaked out a 14-12 victory against Tennessee before losing 14-13 to Vanderbilt and 25-22 to Arkansas.

Auburn was expected to be alot better offensively with Kodi Burns seeing time at quarterback and a strong rushing attack with the combination of Ben Tate and Brad Lester.

But Burns and Chris Todd have combined for only 1,101 passing yards, five touchdowns and nine interceptions. Tate has had some good games, but had only 32 yards rushing against Arkansas and 45 yards against LSU.

"Offensively, we just don't have an identity and that's what we have to do this week," coach Tommy Tuberville said as Auburn prepares to face West Virginia on Oct. 23.

Now Auburn is looking at other options at quarterback, including freshman Barrett Trotter and scout-team quarterback Neil Caudle, who has three attempts in his career.

"To burn a redshirt this late, we wouldn't play [Trotter] four or five plays. We'd get him ready to go," Tuberville told the Birmingham News. "If we're going to play him, we're going to play him."

If things don't get better in a hurry, Auburn will continue to fall down the rankings. After facing the Mountaineers in two weeks, Auburn still has to play Mississippi, Georgia and Alabama on the schedule.

Another team that finds itself in the same boat as Auburn is Wisconsin. Many expected the Badgers to compete for the Big Ten title and a possible BCS Bowl, but the Badgers have lost three in a row and dropped down to No. 44.

Things have fallen apart since the Michigan loss, where the Badgers had a 19-0 lead at halftime. They followed that up with a close loss to Ohio State and then getting blown out by Penn State.

P.J. Hill is averaging just 3.6 yards per carry (191 yards on 53 carries) in the losses with just one touchdown, while quarterback Allan Evridge has four interceptions and only two touchdowns over that stretch.

Wisconsin's schedule isn't as tough as Auburn's, but the Badgers still have to face Illinois, Michigan State and Minnesota.

Arizona State dropped the lowest of all the preseason favorites, falling to No. 64 this week after losing its fourth in a row. Nobody expected them to beat Georgia or USC at the beginning of the season, but they got manhandled in both.

Add in the losses to California and UNLV and the Sun Devils are now fighting just to be bowl-eligible. They still have to face Oregon and Oregon State and then UCLA and Arizona to close the season.

ACC favorite Clemson has lost two in a row, but holds steady at No. 47 after putting together a four-game winning streak earlier. Just as it looked like the Tigers were turing things around, they lost to Maryland 20-17 and Wake Forest 12-7. And now they go and fire Tommy Bowden!

Poll Notes

-- The lowest-ranked BCS team is Syracuse at No. 109. It is 1-5 with its only victory coming against Northeastern. The 'Cuse play at South Florida this week.

-- Mississippi State is the highest-ranked team with a losing record, checking in at No. 57 at 2-4. The Bulldogs moved up this week after beating Vanderbilt.

-- The lowest-ranked team with at least four wins is Arkansas State at No. 83. Their strength of schedule is 119th out of 120 schools, beating Texas A&M (No. 89), Middle Tennessee State (No. 102), Louisiana-Monroe (No. 114) and Texas Southern (FCS).

The preseason Coaches poll is out and surprise, surprise -- Georgia is No. 1.

Actually its not that big of a surprise. Most expected Georgia to be ranked in the top 2. What I do find somewhat surprising is Ohio State is No. 3. Is there an anti-Buckeyes movement among the coaches? Or is there just a love for USC. I'm sure the community users have an un-biased answer.

Not that it really matters because the Buckeyes will play No. 2 USC on Sept. 13. I'm pretty sure the winner will by No. 1 or No. 2 after that game and all this preseason nonsense will mean nothing.

The defending national champions check in at No. 6, right behind Oklahoma (No. 4) and Florida (No. 5).  That makes three SEC teams in the Top 6.

The biggest surprise to me is Clemson at No. 9 -- that's pretty high for a team that has high expectations every year, but always falls short. The Tigers are pretty stacked this year, especially at running back, so I'm sure the coaches see them as the class of the ACC.

BYU checks in at No. 17, which is pretty good for them to make a run at that BCS bowl. They won't have far to go to get into that top 12 if they finish the season undefeated.

A few teams with losing records last year, got votes in the preseason poll -- Nebraska (5-7) got 17 votes and Notre Dame (3-9) got 5 votes. Arizona (5-7) and Colorado (6-7) each got one vote.

Potential BCS Bowl Predictions (based solely on the Preseason Poll, which we know means nothing, but it sure is fun):

BCS Title -- Georgia vs. USC

Rose: Ohio State vs. Arizona State

Orange: Clemson vs. West Virginia

Sugar: Florida vs. Missouri

Fiesta: Oklahoma vs. BYU

With Dennis Dodd's updated Spring Top 25, let's take a look at part 2 of the early, early BCS projections:

BCS: Ohio State vs. Georgia. The top two teams in the nation would meet in Miami for all the marbles. Obviously this is an early projection, but for now let's assume Dodd's top 2 teams remain there all season.

The Rose Bowl would get first choice of all the replacement teams, but they love to keep that Big Ten vs. Pac-10 tradition, so expect them to take another Big Ten team if they can -- maybe Illinois or Wisconsin. Now if USC is the Pac-10 representative, I'm not so sure they take Illinois in a rematch game. Wisconsin vs. USC would be there best choice, but it IS possible for them to take a Big 12 team, not likely, but if Missouri is way up there, maybe Top 4, it could have a Missouri vs. USC game.

Now the Sugar Bowl also would lose an anchor team (SEC Champ), so it would get second choice of all the remaining teams. And you better believe if Florida is ranked in the Top 7, the Gators and Tim Tebow are heading to New Orleans.

So now we need to put the rest of the conference champs in place. ACC Champ -- projected Clemson -- heads to the Orange Bowl; Big 12 Champ -- projected Oklahoma -- heads to the Fiesta Bowl.

So this is what we have:

BCS: Ohio State vs. Georgia
Rose: USC vs. Big 10 No. 2 (Wisconsin/Illinois) or Missouri
Orange: Clemson vs.
Sugar: Florida vs.
Fiesta: Oklahoma vs.

Now the rest of the selection for 2009 is as follows -- Fiesta, Sugar and Orange. With the Fiesta getting first choice, they probably would pass on West Virginia to avoid a rematch, but could take Arizona State, if the Sun Devils finish high enough in the final standings. Now if Missouri ends up in the Rose Bowl, then Wisconsin in the Fiesta would be the most logical choice.

Next up is the Sugar Bowl, and they would snag West Virginia (Big East champs) or Missouri. West Virginia travels well, Pat White's final game or the prospects of taking the Big 12 runner up with a potential Heisman Trophy winner in Chase Daniel.

The Orange gets the final pick and still could end up with Missouri if everybody elses passes or West Virginia depending on who the Sugar Bowl takes in front of them.

Now here is the big kicker -- BYU. They could be the BCS party crasher this year. They will start out in the preseason Top 20, could easily run through their conference games. Their non conference games are Northern Iowa, Utah State, Washington and UCLA. Now, they beat UCLA last year and the game is in Provo, but still could lose and they travel to Washington on Sept. 6. If BYU qualifies, they most likely will be headed to Miami, unless the Fiesta Bowl shocks everybody and takes them with the first selection after the replacement picks.

BCS: Ohio State vs. Georgia
Rose: USC vs. Illinois/Wisconsin/Missouri
Orange: Clemson vs. West Virginia/Missouri/BYU
Sugar: Florida vs. West Virginia/Missouri
Fiesta: Oklahoma vs. Arizona State/Wisconsin/BYU