Having given the big stories a few days to breathe, I’m not surprised that the two local sports talkers in town have barely discussed the two historic upsets in college ball this weekend. With the exception of a few individual hosts, the bigger names in town know little about college sports and can’t have intelligent conversations beyond the gambling aspects. Forget the fact that the four teams involved are midwestern schools with strong ties to Chicago.

Even though the national guys are upset that the Hoosiers threw a wrench in Ohio State’s perfect season, fans of underdogs are relishing what happened in Indy Saturday evening, The insufferable Buckeye nation got slapped in the face by the worst program in history (I read and heard that several times). The Hoosiers hadn’t beaten them since the 1980’s and it least for the moment are the #1 ranked team in college football. No matter that Ben Franklin or some other founding father added The to Ohio State back in 1775, the school had it coming. No matter how wonderful an accomplishment, most of the smart money is on Ohio State to win the National Championship sometime in March or April when the season finally comes to a merciful ending,

Some 30 exits off 65, another upset of a #1 team was happening, but this time the Indiana school was the loser. Amazingly, the #1 Purdue Boilermakers lost by 23 points to the visiting Iowa State Cyclones. It was the largest home loss by a #1 ranked team since UConn pooped down the leg of their trousers in 1995-that loss was to a #15 ranked conference rival.

Only a few hours after the Purdue loss, a national betting guru had the Boilermakers making the Final Four. Years ago. I realized it’s not too smart to gloat when a #1 ranked team gets bounced (especially early in the season) as karma will smack you in the face. It’s bound to happen to everyone. As a kid I remember when the annoying Fighting Irish ended UCLA’s 88-game winning streak and years later, a different ND team ended a San Francisco streak as well.

I expect the next 5 or 6 teams to hold the top spot will relinquish it as quickly as you can say Jerry Tarkanian. In the meantime, sit back and enjoy the Curt Cignetti story.