Oregon St

Take a wild guess who is ranked as the top coach in the Pac 10?  You got it, that guy.

Heading into this Saturday it seemed like the Notre Dame Fighting Irish were well on their way to a seventh victory and a berth in either the Gator or Sun Bowl. All they had to do was beat Syracuse, playing for a recently dismissed head coach in Greg Robinson and dead last in the Big East. But while the Orange haven't played particularly well this season, you can't accuse this team of quitting. What ensued was one of the more stunning results of the day, with Syracuse stunning the Irish 24-23 on a late touchdown pass. Where do the Irish go from here?

Pac-10 Player Grades

This is the fifth of six fantasy stats projections of BCS conference starters. The lineups are based on the Starting Fives series of articles released two weeks ago, along with a couple of changes due to recent developments.

Today's BIG PICTURE

PAC-10 FIVE-YEAR STANDINGS

This ranking tries to answer a simple question: Who has been the best team in the Pac-10 over the last five years?

Unlike the NBA, where most starting lineups are set in stone weeks before the season, NCAA starting fives are highly unsettled and constantly in flux. Going through the BCS leagues this week, I'll be projecting the starting fives for each team. Also included is the team's most important bench option, and some notes on other possible lineups.

Three games are on tap tonight, with two ranked teams looking to make a statement on a day dominated by the MLB playoffs and the vice presidential debate. Last night's game wasn't much of a test for #17 Boise State, as they extended their home win streak to fifteen games with a 38-3 pasting of Louisiana Tech. Hopefully the games tonight will offer more in the way of suspense, and I think they will.

Pittsburgh (3-1, 1-0 Big East) @ #10 USF (5-0, 0-0) 7:30 PM EST on ESPN