Shock and awe: LSU loss opens doors across the country

One more shockwave. One more punch to the gut. One more reminder that the Season of the Upset isn't through with us yet.

One day after Thanksgiving, Morgantown, Columbus, Columbia and Lawrence are likely to be shouting, "Thanks, LSU, for giving!"

The Tigers blew their second No. 1 ranking of the season -- this time fatally -- in three overtimes to Arkansas on Friday evening. That opens the door to all kinds of possibilities nine days before the end of the regular season.

• Back in the Heisman race: Darren McFadden who ran over and around a beat-up LSU defense for 206 yards while accounting for four touchdowns.

• Back in the national championship race: West Virginia and Ohio State.

• Poised to take over the No. 1 spot: The winner of Kansas-Missouri, at least for a week. The victor should ascend to No. 1, at least in the human polls, after Saturday's now even-more hyped encounter in Kansas City.

• Eliminated from the national championship: The SEC. The league that loves to brag on itself is now a footnote to the title race. Each team in the SEC now has at least two losses. It is almost assured that the 2007 national champ is going to come from the Big 12, Big East or Big Ten.

• Saved: Perhaps Houston Nutt's job. The Arkansas coach reportedly was out after Friday, but how do you fire a guy who won eight games, perhaps produced a Heisman Trophy winner and knocked off No. 1 in its own crib?

"For three hours, maybe four hours, we were the best team in the country today," Nutt told the nation on CBS.

Actually both coaches had a foot out the door. LSU's Les Miles spent a large part of the week kind of, sort of, pledging his love to LSU without actually saying he'd be back next season. That's because the gravitational pull of Michigan is strong for the former Wolverine player and assistant. It might be a little easier to leave now that the Tigers won't get a third chance to go to New Orleans.

After spending two weeks at No. 1 for parts of September and October the Tigers lost a three-overtime thriller at Kentucky on Oct. 13. That was the second of four consecutive games involving LSU that were decided by seven points or less. As the season wore on, the Tigers became just, plain worn. Counting Friday, the once-vaunted defense gave up 185 points in the second half of the season (more than 30 per game over the last six contests). Arkansas pounded the Tigers for 385 rushing yards, 513 overall.

The Mountaineers and Buckeyes might benefit the most. West Virginia, No. 3 in the BCS, now seemingly controls its own destiny. It will be helped when either BCS No. 2 Kansas or No. 4 Missouri lose on Saturday. The Mountaineers play a showdown game with Connecticut for the Big East title on Saturday before finishing with Pittsburgh.

Ohio State has been done with its regular season since Saturday and was seemingly out of national title consideration after losing on Nov. 10 at home to Illinois. Now the Buckeyes could slip into a trip to New Orleans 15 days after last having snapped a ball. They still need help, probably with a loss by the Kansas-Missouri winner in the Big 12 Championship Game. Think of the way the No. 1s lost this season. USC got stung by hapless Stanford on Oct 6. The next week Kentucky beat a No. 1 team (LSU) for the first time in 43 years. LSU's first stay at the top spot lasted exactly one week. Two weeks ago unranked Illinois knocked off Ohio State in Columbus. LSU returned to No. 1 and was able to hold it for only two weeks.

Sunday will mark four changes at No. 1 since early October. Coming into the season a regular-season No. 1 had not lost since 2003.

The upsets have to stop at some point. There's only two Saturdays left. But there's no reason to assume the shockwaves are done.