FanHouse Tony Pike

CINCINNATI -- Go ahead. Combine Florida, Alabama, Texas and TCU, the only four teams ahead of Cincinnati in the BCS standings. Now throw in the rest of the programs throughout college football, and it still won't matter.

You won't find a collection of teams -- let alone one individually -- with more riveting stories than those surrounding Cincinnati. Come to think of it, the 2009 Bearcats have the best set of storylines of all-time for a season. Despite a wretched existence during their 123 years of playing football at a place more noted for the guy who designed the Golden Gate Bridge and Oscar Robertson, the Bearcats are in the national championship discussion with a 10-0 record out of nowhere.

That's the best of those stories.

CINCINNATI -- The talk all week in Cincinnati -- no make that for the past few weeks -- was when would Cincinnati quarterback Tony Pike return? And, if so, would he start?

Friday against West Virginia, Pike finally saw his first action in 29 days and even threw two touchdowns, but he was merely a footnote. The real story for the Bearcats was running back Isaiah Pead, who rushed for a career-high 175 yards as the fifth-ranked Bearcats did just enough to get past the Mountaineers 24-21.

With the victory, Cincinnati became the nation's first team to get to 10-0 this season, but it was anything but a perfect 10. Playing on Friday the 13th, there were a lot of strange occurrences for the Bearcats, including trailing in a game for the first time in 24 quarters and losing a fumble for the first time this season.

CINCINNATI -- Cincinnati senior Tony Pike is rated as the third-best NFL quarterback prospect by NFLDraftScout.com. He likely will make a fine NFL quarterback one day.

Yet, the No. 4-ranked Bearcats are better off without him.

Last season, Pike led the Bearcats to their first Big East title. This year, he led Cincinnati to a 5-0 start before he re-injured his left (non-throwing) arm – the arm he broke last season.

Pike, who had missed the past 2½ games, was cleared to play Saturday against UConn, but he never left the bench. He should stay there the rest of the season.

That's because sophomore Zach Collaros is smokin' hot.

CINCINNATI -- Cincinnati senior quarterback Tony Pike has been cleared to play against UConn Saturday niight, but sophomore quarterback Zach Collaros (right) will make his third consecutive start, Coach Brian Kelly said.

"Tony has been cleared to play, but we don't want to put him in a risky situation," Kelly said. "We'll really have to see how it plays out to decide when to put him in the game."

Collaros replaced Pike in the second half at South Florida on Oct. 15 and led the Bearcats to a 34-17 win against the Bulls.

Southern California, with one loss already this season, has allowed a combined 63 points the past two weeks in single-digit margin victories against unranked opponents. The Trojans are ranked No. 4 in this week's AP poll and are No. 5 in the BCS rankings. In the ranking that matters (the BCS poll) USC, whose loss came to a team with a sub-.500 record (Washington), is rated ahead of three undefeated teams and nine one-loss schools. Three of those one-loss programs (No. 9 LSU, No. 10 Oregon and No. 12 Penn State) fell to teams that are currently undefeated (respectively, Florida, Boise State and Iowa).

Am I missing something?

Cincinnati senior quarterback Tony Pike underwent surgery on his left (non-throwing arm) Tuesday, but still might play Saturday against Louisville.

Pike broke the arm last season and had a plate and six screws placed in his forearm, but re-injured it in Thursday's win at South Florida. Tuesday's surgery was to repair the plate that Coach Brian Kelly said had shifted around during the USF game.

Pike, who practiced Monday with a cast on his left arm, missed Tuesday's practice and will not practice Wednesday. He is, however, expected to return to practice Thursday.

"We have to get the swelling out of there first," Kelly said Tuesday. "It's something we have to manage day to day.

South Florida plays all its college football games at Raymond James Stadium. (For those lacking stadium name knowledge: the one with the giant pirate ship and loud, obnoxious cannons.) Typically, there are not as many people at a USF game as there are at Tampa Bay Buccaneers games; this makes total sense because USF is not Alabama or LSU. Or Florida State, for that matter.

But for Thursday night's game against Cincinnati, USF had 52,073 fans show up to Raymond James. That prompted some folks around the area to wonder if the Bulls would finally outdraw the Bucs (and, thusly, embarrass the hell out of Tampa's currently anemic NFL franchise). Well, they did. By 12,000 people.

Cincinnati quarterback Tony Pike's left (non-throwing) arm has been placed in a cast and is listed as day-to-day for Saturday's game with Louisville.

Pike participated in Monday's practice for the No. 5 ranked Bearcats.

He will continue to practice this week and be evaluated by both the coaching and medical staffs, a UC official said.

Pike was injured late in the second quarter at South Florida Thursday with what was called a sprained left wrist. Pike returned in the third quarter, but re-injured the wrist and did not return.

Kelly, who said after Thursday's win at USF that Pike would not play against Louisville Saturday, did not completely rule him out for Saturday.

LOS ANGELES -- Only the Pacific 10 Conference can show some muscle but take a step back on the same day.

Highlighted by Washington's victory over No. 3 USC on Saturday, the Pac-10 proved once again that it's not a conference dominated by one team. It was the fourth consecutive season that the highly-regarded Trojans -- who are 33-1 in their last 34 games against non-conference opponents -- were knocked off by an underdog Pac-10 squad.

Alternative post headline: Your Guess is as Good as Mine.

In the preseason media poll, Pitt was picked to win the conference followed by West Virginia, Cincinnati, South Florida and then Rutgers. The top four teams all received first place votes. The point difference between Pitt and No. 5 Rutgers was only 34, while the gap between Rutgers and the No. 6 team, UConn, was 48. In other words, everyone is guessing, and everyone is unsure.

Just checking the multitude of preview guides only emphasizes the confusion. The various mags have picked four different teams to finish first in the Big East. In other words, the Big East is looking a lot like the ACC of the last few years. No dominant team. Plenty of parity and coaches getting defensive about it.

[West Virginia] Coach [Bill] Stewart on the league outlook: "I don't call it parity, I call it competitive."

And somewhere in Raleigh, North Carolina, Tom O'Brien nods his head in approval.