Top 25 picks: Teams fear second losses

Last week’s upsets have taken some of the luster off this week’s schedule, but it didn’t make the big games in Dallas and Baton Rouge, La., any less important.

Actually, those games are more crucial to the teams looking to bounce back. Remember, last year’s national champion Florida lost a game, so one loss is not necessarily a death sentence for a team’s title hopes.

Two losses, however, is definitely too many for a national championship contender.

As for those Gators, they visit LSU for the Tigers’ first game as the No. 1 team in the AP Top 25 in more than half a century. Since LSU was last No. 1 in November 1959, 31 teams have held the top spot in the AP poll, including seven of the current members of the SEC (Florida, Tennessee, Georgia, Auburn, Alabama, Mississippi and Arkansas, while in the Southwest Conference).

Tim Tebow and Florida fell to Auburn 20-17 last week. A win over LSU would go a long way toward making poll voters forget all about that slip-up at home to those other Tigers. With another Southeastern Conference loss, Urban Meyer’s Gators would not only be out of national title contention, but they’d have a tough time getting back to the SEC title game.

In Dallas, both the participants in the Red River Rivalry are coming off surprising – and a bit puzzling – upsets.

Texas was pounded 41-21 at home by Kansas State. Oklahoma blew a 17-point lead in the second half and lost 27-24 at Colorado. For the first time since 1999, the Sooners and Longhorns both lost the week before they played each other.

Consider this a national championship elimination game, although Texas has hardly played like a team that should even be in the conversation.

There would be no better way for the Longhorns to right themselves than by making it three straight victories over the Sooners. The winner of this game usually represents the Big 12 South in the conference title game. Not last season, though. The Sooners rebounded and didn’t lose another game and the Longhorns lost two straight to end the regular season.

The picks: