For all of us college football anarchists, all of us BCS-hating, fair play-loving folks who long ago cursed the way the sport crowns its champion and slants its playing field, there is no question who to root for on Thursday.

The TCU Horned Frogs.

It's not often TCU is referred to as a fan favorite. It didn't even sell out its 46,000-seat home stadium once all season.

But the Frogs will have plenty of people pulling for them when they march into Southern Mississippi with a 10-0 record and the Conference USA title on the line. Defeat the Golden Eagles and a perfect season is just a single victory over winless SMU away.

The rub, of course, is that even 12-0 probably won't be enough for the Frogs to get invited to a big payday BCS bowl. That's because the BCS formula makes it almost impossible for any team outside the old boys' club of power conference football to qualify for such a game.

To earn a BCS slot, TCU will have to finish in the top six of the standings. Right now the Frogs are

ANN ARBOR, Mich. – Maybe in other rivalries, in other parts of the country, the focus of the biggest of games would be on a different kind of player – the swift receiver, the speedy tailback, the golden-armed quarterback. You know, skill guys.

But this is Michigan. This is Ohio State. And this is November, when a blue-gray college football sky descends over the Midwest, and two ancient rivals match up for, once again, not just a Big Ten title, not just a Rose Bowl, but a lifetime of bragging rights.

Naturally Saturday's 100th meeting between these two powerhouse programs, both currently ranked in the top five, will be determined in the trenches. Two of the nation's best big uglies, UM's Tony Pape and OSU's Will Smith, will wage hand-to-hand combat for 60 cloud-of-dust minutes.

For these two teams with these two traditions that is just how it ought to be.

"It's going to be won on the line," says Pape, the Wolverines' All-America candidate at right tackle. "[It is] whether our offensive

The beauty of sports is that, unlike life, there always is an obvious winner and loser. In NASCAR's case Matt Kenseth was the 2003 season's all-around victor, Ryan Newman sprayed the most champagne throughout the year and some of the sport's great traditions took a worse beating than Kurt Busch did from Jimmy Spencer.

We aren't here to tell you who won the races. You already know that.

Instead here is Yahoo! Sports' subjective list of season-long winners and losers from the tumultuous, transitional 2003 NASCAR campaign.

WINNER: Young drivers
Aided by 25-year-old Ryan Newman's eight victories, the average age of this season's champions (31.9) was the youngest since 1967. Just two years ago that number was 35.5, a significant and telling drop in such a short time.

Newman set the pace, but he had company. A fresh generation of young drivers is emerging in NASCAR. Fellow top 10 finishers Jimmie Johnson (age 28), Kurt Busch (25), Kevin Harvick (27) and Dale Earnhardt Jr. (29) are part of a

For the national champion, the team that has dodged so many last-second bullets and produced on so many fourth-quarter drives to win 23 of its last 24, this would be perhaps its greatest comeback of all.

Two weeks, two games, two top-caliber opponents await Ohio State. Two final chances for the Buckeyes to make a come-from-behind Bowl Championship Series move and get the opportunity to defend their title in the Sugar Bowl, most likely against top-ranked, top gun Oklahoma.

Isn't this perfect? Isn't this the only way? Ohio State (9-1) looking for one more miracle.

OSU hosts No. 11 Purdue on Saturday. A week later it travels to fifth-ranked Michigan. Win those two – and we are not underestimating how considerable that achievement would be – and the Buckeyes still might be able to punch a ticket to New Orleans.

By the skin of their teeth, naturally.

The obstacle is Southern California, which is 8-1. In the BCS standings, USC has the all-important No. 2 slot that brings a date with (most

It has been 25 seasons since a team from outside one of the nation's power conferences reached the Final Four. Penn and Indiana State, led by Larry Bird, both did it in 1979.

In the quarter century since ESPN has become a major player, creating a direct correlation between national television exposure and recruiting might. Major conferences were constructed, expanded and then expanded again, establishing a division between the haves and have-nots. The formulas for selecting the NCAA Tournament and distributing its revenue were altered, and the rich got richer.

As much as March has been built on maddening upsets and charismatic Cinderellas, by the time the final weekend arrives it is all about the big boys.

Yet here we are, with the season beginning Thursday at the Coaches vs. Cancer Classic in New York, and one of the chic picks to reach at least the national semifinals is decidedly small-school, non-power-league Gonzaga.

The Bulldogs are ranked 10th nationally heading into Friday's

In baseball there is The Streak – the 2,632 consecutive regular-season games Cal Ripken Jr. played for the Baltimore Orioles between 1982 and 1998. When it comes to iron man accomplishments in sports, nothing has gotten as much attention.

Well, here's a real streak: A week ago, Green Bay Packers quarterback Brett Favre came out of nowhere to lay a bone-jarring block on Viking cornerback Denard Walker who, in turn, took out a teammate (two guys in one block) to help Ahman Green turn a busted play into a 17-yard gain. And by the way, Favre did it despite a broken thumb that would have relegated 99 percent of QBs to clipboard duty.

You want tough? You want day-in, day-out consistency? You want the greatest endurance run in professional sports history?

There is no debate.

Favre, who is set to start his 199th consecutive game (including 17 in the postseason) on Monday night against the Philadelphia Eagles, is the iron man's iron man. He has played the most oft-injured position in the most

In 1985, the Chicago Bears started the season 12-0 before losing at Miami. They wound up shuffling their way to a Super Bowl title without losing another game.

In 1991 the Washington Redskins began 11-0 but lost at Dallas. The 'Skins won the Super Bowl also.

In 1998 the Denver Broncos won their first 13 games. A huge matchup in Miami loomed in the penultimate game on the schedule. But before the Broncos could get to South Florida, the Giants upset them. But Denver won the Super Bowl.

So Kansas City, perfect 8-0 Kansas City, enters the second half of its blessed season with the mixed message of failed perfect-season dreamers before it. Running the table in the NFL isn't likely. But make a real charge at it and good things (like a Lombardi Trophy) tend to happen in the end.

Two teams in NFL history have completed perfect regular seasons – the 1934 Bears and the 1972 Dolphins. Only the Dolphins won the championship to cap a 17-0 campaign, the gold standard of the league.

The Chiefs have a

It would be mean to say that New England's 9-3 victory last week over Cleveland was an example of an ugly win.

Let's just say it had a good personality.

Which is fine with the Patriots who, despite a rash of injuries, despite an offense that seems to fear throwing deep, despite having no running back averaging more than 57 yards a game, despite a humiliating 31-0 loss to open the season, are 6-2 and seemingly getting better by the week.

Winning ugly is what under-the-radar New England is all about.

Heading into Monday's prime time clash with a reeling Denver team – losers of three of their last four, with third-string Danny Kanell in at QB – the Pats are, somehow, poised to take a game-and-a-half lead in the AFC East.

Not that coach Bill Belichick is counting on the Broncos rolling over.

"That is the same thing that people were saying a couple of weeks ago against us," Belichick says. "'This guy is out and that guy is out. Maybe we just ought to save the plane fare.'"

Dismissing the