On paper it looks like we might get a breather this Saturday from more BCS-shaping surprises. That's on paper.

BCS No. 2 Miami and No. 3 Washington State are idle, and No. 4 Oklahoma has a walkover with Baylor. There is not a single match up of contenders anywhere on the map, but let's throw answers at a few of the week's key questions.

Can Ohio State lose at Illinois? Sure. It's a dangerous game. Any road game is dangerous for that OSU offense. A win gives the Illini a great chance to avoid a losing season, a helluva turnaround after a 1-5 start that featured a home loss to San Jose State.

Can Minnesota spoil Iowa's perfect conference run? Yep. Toss out the records when the Floyd of Rosedale trophy is up for grabs. The Hawkeyes have put together three straight great efforts and even their "B" game is good enough here. That's what we may see with an 11 a.m. kick in the Metrodome. True, the Gophers' defense was awful against Michigan, but this may not be as easy as it looks.

Can Iowa State spoil Colorado's attempt to clinch the Big 12 North? Yes. The Cyclones will play much better than in last week's meltdown at Manhattan and Seneca Wallace is still dangerous. You watch, this won't be a Buffs' romp.

Can Auburn derail Georgia's bid to claim its first SEC East crown? Definitely. I expect the Tigers to win, in fact. The 'Dawgs are banged up and now face a recent nemesis on the road. By the end of the day, Florida could be headed to Atlanta as division champs by beating a South Carolina bunch that surrendered meekly at home last week.

Can Nebraska really be a 10 1/2 point underdog? Yes. The Huskers have earned that right, with their pitiful road performances lately. Kansas State is peaking right now and plenty thirsty for Big Red blood. A loss would drop NU to 3-4 in the league.

At stake Saturday
Playing for a chance at a winning season and bowl bid: BYU (vs. New Mexico), Oklahoma State (at Kansas), Washington (at Oregon), South Carolina (at Florida), and Ole Miss (at LSU). Texas A&M must win at Missouri unless it plans to face Texas needing a victory to go bowling. It seems clear that some conferences will fail to fill their bowl slots.

Ranked but under-appreciated
Colorado State (8-2) is a solid team, deserving of a higher ranking than the the AP pollsters believe. Bradlee Van Pelt's improved passing has created trouble for defenses structured to stop still-underrated runner Cecil Sapp. Too bad the Rams are locked into another trip to Memphis for the Liberty Bowl. It's a real weakness of the bowl structure that the same teams often go to the same bowls. The Mountain West needs a better regional tie in for its champ.

Computer logic
Finally, all eight of the BCS computers rank either Miami or Ohio State first. Even the nutty New York Times ratings -- which put Miami behind two-loss USC before last week -- is coming around. I think Kirk's tossing of a laptop on to the concrete below our stage last week may have shaken some sense into the BCS mainframe.

Heisman bulletin
All 921 Heisman Trophy voters take note: please tune in to ESPN or continue to surf to ESPN.com for an important Heisman announcement in the coming weeks. We know that your ballots will be arriving at the end of the week. We would like you to hold on to them for awhile.

We will be letting you know exactly when to tune in so that Lee, Kirk, and I can tell you whom you should vote for.

Huh, you say? That's not how it works? You'll make up your own minds this year? OK, suit yourself. But just know that Gary Barnett will be stunned and disappointed.

I'm just having a little fun with the Buffs' boss. But he did say during the Big 12 media conference this week that our little GameDay trio has a huge say on how Heisman voters view the race, and which candidates have a chance. We've been accused of this "kingmaker" stuff before. I don't much buy it.

Heisman voters have access to more information than ever via the Internet and the abundance of highlight shows and Heisman-watch newspaper columns. They are now much better versed on the candidates than they have ever been. It's insulting to say that voters simply tune in like sheep and are told how to vote.

True, not all of them follow college football full-time. But not all the people who vote on much more important issues, like who should lead the free world, are ultra-informed, either.

It's an outdated notion that publicity campaigns win Heisman Trophies. They used to play a bigger role. Novel ideas like Joey Harrington's building-sized image on a Manhattan billboard attract attention and increase awareness. But they don't pull in votes. More than ever, performance is what counts.

Many recent Heisman winners received almost zero preseason hype: Charles Woodson, Eddie George, Rashaan Salaam, Andre Ware. These guys and many others were part of a big pack of contenders until the last half of the season.

So, Gary, it does matter what you say about Chris Brown. Voters listen when coaches praise their candidates, especially a guy who doesn't spew hyperbole and waste our time with false hype. You say Brown is a great player and the best back in the nation, and I think you're right about that.

Brown doesn't have a glamorous image, though. Maybe that's why it seems so many fans still don't realize how dominant he is. Brown is not mere rugged plugger, grinding out five yard gains. He's worked hard on his quickness and is a constant big play threat. He has six runs of fifty or more yards and his average of almost 6.5 yards per carry is outstanding, given his huge number of carries.

Colorado running backs coach Eric Bieniemy had a heart-to-heart with Brown over the summer. Bieniemy told Brown that to be considered great he'd have to lose weight and get faster. Brown did, mixing in long sessions of jumprope and grass drills. He learned to lower his pad level, coach-speak for running less upright.

Brown still hammers tacklers, though. Defenders wear down before he does. In overtime at Missouri last week, Bieniemy told him to be ready to carry the load and he was more than ready.

Even after a punishing 30-carry game, Brown is out there at practice wanting to go hard. Bieniemy has to hold him out to keep him as fresh as possible. He's not a guy to live in the training room all week, either, too tough to need that and too proud for it.

The other back who just amazes me with his productivity is Larry Johnson of Penn State. Not enough folks are noticing how good he is. In the coming weeks, with games against Indiana and Michigan State, Johnson will put up some attention-grabbing numbers. As the season has worn on, he's become more of a workhorse.

Ivy championship
Harvard collides with Penn on Saturday to again decide the ancient eight's championship. You probably know very little about the Ivy football programs. Hey, I'm far from an authority and I've spent 70 hours a week covering college football over the past 15 autumns.

I'm really looking forward to watching the Crimson and Quakers get after it in Philadelphia's fabled Franklin Field, though, as GameDay makes its' first visit to the Ivy League -- or any non-Division I-A game, for that matter.

You want dominant streaks? Harvard has won 12 straight Ivy games, scored three or more touchdowns in an amazing 20 consecutive league games and has had the lead or been tied in the fourth quarter of 27 straight Ivy games. The Crimson has won nine straight on the road and Penn has taken its last 13 at home. Combined, the two heavies are 22-0 versus the rest of the league since the start of last season.

Still don't buy the Ivies as "real football?" You should.

Think the players are a bunch of prep school poindexters who thought it would be an amusing diversion to go out for the football squad and throw on the pads each fall Saturday? Not by a long shot.

If you know about Ivy League football, bear with me for a few paragraphs. I'm about to give the league some love. It's first necessary to clear up the above widely held misconceptions.

First, the guys who play at Penn and Harvard, and to some degree all Ivy schools, take football very seriously. They don't just show up at these academic temples and then happen to try out in August. Almost all were recruited and football was a huge part of their college decisions.

Most grew up middle class kids, not in the kinds of hallowed, uptight prep schools you see in movies. They got good grades and jumped at the chance for an Ivy diploma, needing every bit of financial aid they could get to afford tuition. But football means a lot.

Harvard coach Tim Murphy told me his privately funded recruiting budget is comparable to what Notre Dame or Stanford spend, and he canvasses the whole country for players, as those schools do. Murphy says he personally criss-crosses the continent to visit Harvard's top 100 prospects. His staff of six full time assistants divides the country into regions and pounds the pavement so hard all winter that they "never see their wives."

Hey, I never realized Ivy recruiting was that hard core, either.

Harvard went to Hawaii to find quarterback Neil Rose, its captain and a rare fifth-year player who broke his leg playing pickup hoops and was granted a medical hardship year. Because the Ivies don't allow you to play if you're not making academic progress, Rose had to withdraw from school last spring. He returned to Hawaii, but instead of surfing all day Rose -- an economics major -- managed a hedge fund. Running Harvard's complex no-huddle offense must seem simple by comparison.

Rose has battled a sciatic nerve condition this season, missing two entire games and parts of two others. Despite that, he holds or shares 14 school records. In his high school days, Rose was the "other" quarterback in Hawaii behind a guy named Jason Gesser. His prep team won every week and Rose's lost.

In fact, Rose's team lost all but two games during his career. He was once sacked 25 times in one game. It's amazing he survived that with a Harvard-worthy IQ intact. Truth is, Rose's porous protection helped him develop mobility. It's call survival instinct.

Rose's prime target is NFL-bound receiver Carl Morris, who leads the nation in yards per game. At Dartmouth, he snagged 21 passes for 257 yards in one game. Morris is 6-3 with long arms. His time in the 40-yard dash is about 4.55 but he "plays faster", and scouts know all about him.

Like so many of his teammates, he has a good story. He didn't play football until his junior year in high school and his English mother had pushed soccer, like a lot of moms from America these days.

Morris is a competitive guy who loves football with a new convert's zealousness. He hasn't yet tapped his potential, and if he'd had more football under his belt Morris might have become a multi-threat college quarterback, Murphy says. His arm is that good. Some I-A schools wanted him as a defensive back, but I bet they'd take him as a receiver now.

In case you wondered how a guy can catch 21 balls in a game without drawing two, three or four defenders, well, Morris has faced and beaten all types of coverages. Saturday, he'll face a Penn defense that's tops in Division I-AA against the run but also tough to throw on. Offering support will be an amazing travelling party of 115-120 folks, up from the Sterling, Va., area in a chartered bus to cheer for him.

If stats like Rose's and Morris' haven't tipped you off, let's shatter another misconception: the Ivies don't play stone-age football. Sure, there was an era not long ago when everybody in the league ran toss sweeps from the I-formation in thick-ankled slow motion, and there will be a few more "thick ankles" on Franklin Field than in a Miami game. The speed just can't compare to I-A.

But both the Crimson and Quakers pitch the ball around very well while balancing that with a strong running game. It'll be fun football to watch and I'm really looking forward to it.

The setting at Franklin Field, the oldest stadium still in use, will add to the fun. It was opened in 1895! It had the first football stadium scoreboard and the first upper deck, and it was the scene of the first live football radio broadcast in 1922 and television broadcast in 1939.

The Eagles won an NFL title there, Illinois' Red Grange once romped past the Penn defense for 331 yards and Penn actually led the nation in attendance from 1938-42. The only shame is that it has been covered for years by artificial turf.

Hope you'll check out a GameDay first Saturday morning. Besides the usual lowdown on the big games, and various features on Penn-Harvard, we have visits scheduled with Larry Coker and Jason Gesser, and a feature on "Chris Harvard," bad guy WWE wrestler and former Crimson football star, in his days as Chris Nowinski.

Chris Fowler is host of ESPN College GameDay