The Wiz of Odds

Stanford

The Cardinal decided to go with "We Work" as their marketing campaign. It hasn't gone over well in the Bay Area. Jon Wilner of the San Jose Mercury News wrote, "Personally, on a scale of 1 to 10, I'd give it a minus-16." FanHouse's Clay Travis had this to say: "You know what I'm offended by? A smart school being so stupid. Can I retroactively withdraw my Stanford Law School application? The one that got rejected 25 seconds after it arrived on campus?" OK, the slogan ain't great, but the design, done by Old Hat Creative, is top notch.

Mississippi

The Rebels opened with a victory at Memphis, then had last week off, which turned out to be a good thing. Up to 30 players came down with flu symptoms, including quarterback Jevan Snead, who is front and center in the poster. Mississippi plays its home opener Saturday night against Southeastern Louisiana, one of two Division I-AA teams on the schedule. A reminder to click any poster schedule for an enlarged view. Thanks to Erik at Deep South Sports and Brandon.

Purdue

Not much was expected of the Boilermakers, but Danny Hope's team has played well, coming within a whisker of a 2-0 start. Purdue lost a heartbreaker Saturday at Oregon, the only game among the first five away from Ross-Ade Stadium. Up next is Northern Illinois, followed by Notre Dame and Northwestern. Thanks to Jackie!

South Florida

No team cranks out poster schedules like South Florida. Last season, the Bulls produced five posters. They trimmed it back to three this season, but that still tops our field. Jim Leavitt's squad is one of seven Division I-A teams to play two I-AA opponents. We will have no idea how good South Florida is until its first real game, Sept. 26 at Florida State. Thanks to Carlos!

Let the Voting Begin for Poster Primary No. 9

We are heading into the home stretch of our poster primary contest. Contestants in this round: USC, East Carolina, Nebraska, UCLA, Notre Dame, Washington State and Illinois. Click here to view all of the candidates on one page.

For newbies to the site, here is the background on the contest.

Each year, the Wiz displays poster schedules of Division I-A teams. But this year, in an attempt to keep things fresh, it was decided to put the posters up to a vote of fans to determine the Wiz Readers' Choice Poster of the Year.

One problem: With roughly 70 posters in hand, it was necessary to thin the herd before a final vote. Thus, the idea of poster primaries came to be, with each primary having seven posters. This is the ninth of 10 primaries. The winner of each primary will advance to the final.

Voting for each primary will remain open until midnight Sept. 21 (a week from Monday). The 10 finalists will then advance to the final and voting will begin for the Wiz Readers' Choice Poster of the Year. That poll will remain open until midnight on Sept. 29.

Voting continues in the other primaries. Let's break it down:

Primary No. 1: West Virginia has a 250-vote lead over Iowa State.
Primary No. 2: Texas Tech has a lock on this primary and will advance to the final.
Primary No. 3: Michigan State clings to a 128-vote lead over North Carolina. North Carolina State and Missouri are third and fourth.
Primary No. 4: Surprising Louisiana Tech has a 1,573-vote lead over Colorado. Florida State is a distant third, followed by the Florida.
Primary No. 5: One of the tightest races of all. Middle Tennessee leads Bowling Green by only 40 votes. Washington, Wisconsin, Auburn and Kansas State continue to get blown out.
Primary No. 6: Penn State is beating Iowa by 827 votes. Brigham Young is third and Houston, fresh off the upset of Oklahoma State, is fourth.
Primary No. 7: Oklahoma has a 247-vote lead over Louisiana Lafayette. Still time for Tennessee, Minnesota, Texas El Paso and Syracuse to make a run.
Primary No. 8: The tightest race of them all. Louisiana State holds a 27-vote lead over Georgia Tech. Michigan was expected to be a factor but is a distant third.

USC

The Trojans cleared one of their biggest hurdles toward a possible berth in the BCS title game Saturday night with an 18-15 victory at Ohio State. The trip to Columbus started a stretch of six of eight games on the road. October features road games at California and Notre Dame. Thanks to Tim, Adam and Ken.