No guarantees for the top spot

What a strange season it has been. How strange? Consider:

All of the preseason top-10 teams already have at least one loss.

The top two teams are Ohio State and . . . South Florida/Boston College?

Kansas is unbeaten in the Big 12, although the Jayhawks have yet to leave the state of Kansas for a game.

Michigan lost to Appalachian State.

Nebraska has lost its last two games (to Missouri and Oklahoma State) by a combined score of 86-20. This is a Nebraska team that in 1983 beat Minnesota on the road, 84-13.

The No. 1- and 2-ranked teams in the country last week - LSU and California - both lost, something that hadn't happened since 1996.

Florida State and Miami face each other this weekend as unranked teams. That hasn't happened since 1977.

South Florida, which didn't even have a program 12 years ago, is No. 2 and leading the Big East. This is off the charts in terms of a surprise.

Boise State and Nevada went four overtimes last Sunday, with Boise State winning, 69-67.

Hawaii quarterback Colt Brennan completed 44 of 75 passes for four touchdowns in Hawaii's 42-35 overtime victory over San Jose State last week. The 75 passes are a Western Athletic Conference record and are more than Navy has thrown (69) this season.

Texas Tech QB Graham Harrell has thrown 31 TD passes for 3,151 yards and three interceptions in seven games. Heisman, anyone?

Texas A&M coach Dennis Franchione, who makes approximately $2 million a year, was selling inside information to Aggies boosters if they paid $1,200 a year to subscribe to his Internet newsletter.

Oklahoma State coach Mike Gundy did not like a story an Oklahoma City columnist wrote and responded with a verbal blast in a postgame news conference that created national headlines not for its content, but for its intensity and anger.

Notre Dame quarterback Demetrius Jones, upon learning he had been replaced as the starter by freshman Jimmy Clausen, enrolled at Northern Illinois Thursday, Sept. 13, missed the Notre Dame team bus that was headed to the University of Michigan that Friday, missed the Michigan game Saturday, and attended classes at Northern Illinois Monday. Jones was last seen transferring to the University of Cincinnati.

UCLA has lost two games this season: to Utah and Notre Dame, teams the Bruins were favored to beat by a total of more than 40 points.

Penn State coach Joe Paterno, who has had problems off the field with his players' conduct more than he has had on the field in compiling a 4-2 record, had a minor meltdown on campus when he was driving behind a car that apparently did not stop at a stop sign. That brought a lecture from Joe Pa, who waved his finger at the offending driver, a woman, who was riding with her husband. When the husband pointed out to Joe Pa that he was indeed lecturing his wife, Paterno replied, "That's your problem."

Tom Osborne, former congressman, former head coach (he was the Huskers' coach in the 84-13 win over Minnesota in 1983), and defeated candidate for governor, was named interim athletic director at Nebraska after Steve Pederson was fired. With coach Bill Callahan sitting in a seat that gets hotter with each one-sided loss, some people think Coach might again be a good title for the 70-year-old Osborne, who has three national championships on his résumé.

Hawaii won at Louisiana Tech and dropped five spots in the AP poll.

Boston College beat a playoff division (formerly 1-AA) team at home (UMass) and moved up five spots in the poll.

Syracuse, a team that had lost its first three games by a combined 118-32, upset Louisville, which was ranked ninth in Week 2 before being upset by Kentucky, which lost to South Carolina before beating No. 1 LSU.

You factor all those items into a season that this week has Ohio State, South Florida, and Boston College as its top teams in the BCS rankings and it makes perfect sense to project an Ohio State-Boston College BCS title game, as Ivan Maisel, the college football writer for ESPN.com, has forecast.

Throw in BC quarterback Matt Ryan for the Heisman and you have the potential of a BC national championship/Patriots Super Bowl title parlay.

Too crazy to happen?

If there are any guarantees this season, it is that the unexpected will happen.

The Globe's Top 10
1. Ohio State
2. Oklahoma
3. Boston College
4. Oregon
5. Kentucky
6. LSU
7. South Carolina
8. California
9. West Virginia
10. South Florida

Mark Blaudschun can be reached at blaudschun@globe.com.