Footballing

Wisconsin won today ... not that I saw the game or anything (thank you very much, Big Ten Network!)

Michigan walloped the Grand Forks County (North Dakota) Community College Junior Varsity team, whose uniforms have an uncanny resemblance to those worn by Notre Dame.

Ohio State beat Washington rather convincingly.

Penn State walked all over an unmatched Buffalo team.

It's hard to say if the Badgers will move up at all in the rankings. Maybe, they'll leapfrog over Texas, who played a scrappy Central Florida team tightly, but the odds are probably better that they will simply hold their position.

Normally, I don't like to kick a team when it's down, but since the team in question is Notre Dame, I don't feel all that guilty. The Irish looked like the only thing that could save them today was a mercy rule. It was essentially impossible to get an accurate idea of how much Michigan has improved since its first two losses of this season because ND played simply appeared to have no clue what it was doing. They turned the ball over four times (and it felt like they fumbled it another four), had negative rushing yards for the game (largely because of an woefully inadequate offensive line), and the defense all but rolled out the red carpet for the Michigan receiving corps and running back Mike Hart (actually, that kind of takes away from the game that Hart had today -- he clearly came to play).

There's now a reasonable chance that Notre Dame can start the season 0-8. If they keep playing like they did today I seriously doubt they will be able to beat Navy and Air Force. The only two teams that it would appear the Irish have a chance of beating are Stanford and Duke, the worst team in the country who actually broke a 22 game losing streak today. So it's not inconceivable that Notre Dame might not win a single football game this season.