Tuesday Reading Room - New Las Vegas poll has Georgia Tech ranked 8th, Iowa 22nd

Last week, some of you here got incensed by the Las Vegas Sports Consultants' Top 30 when Iowa was ranked 22nd.

Well, a week has passed and LVSC now has the Hawkeyes ranked . . . 22nd.

Georgia Tech, meanwhile, is tied for eighth. Am I putting this here just to push some buttons? Perish the thought. This is for informational purposes only.

For the unaware, this is Las Vegas Sports Consultants. Here is its poll:

Team

1

1

Alabama

119.4

119.4

4

4

2

2

Florida

119.0

119.0

1

1

3

3

Texas

118.7

118.7

2

2

4

4

Texas Christian

116.7

116.7

3

3

5

5

Oregon

114.1

114.1

5

5

6

6

Ohio State

112.1

112.1

6

6

6

6

Boise State

112.1

112.1

7

7

8

8

Cincinnati

110.9

110.9

9

9

8

8

Georgia Tech

110.9

110.9

11

11

10

10

Penn State

110.5

110.5

8

8

11

11

Oklahoma

110.2

110.2

10

10

12

12

Virginia Tech

109.9

109.9

12

12

13

13

Nebraska

109.4

109.4

19

19

14

14

Texas Tech

109.3

109.3

14

14

14

14

LSU

109.3

109.3

14

14

16

16

Clemson

108.9

108.9

16

16

17

17

Miami

108.7

108.7

17

17

17

17

Oregon State

108.7

108.7

24

24

17

17

Stanford

108.7

108.7

17

17

20

20

Arkansas

108.5

108.5

20

20

21

21

Mississippi

108.4

108.4

21

21

22

22

Iowa

108.2

108.2

22

22

23

23

Arizona

108.1

108.1

26

26

24

24

Pittsburgh

107.8

107.8

23

23

25

25

Southern Cal

107.7

107.7

13

13

26

26

Oklahoma State

107.3

107.3

25

25

27

27

Tennessee

106.5

106.5

27

27

28

28

Brigham Young

106.1

106.1

28

28

29

29

Wisconsin

106.0

106.0

NR 35

NR 35

30

30

Georgia

105.8

105.8

30

30

Speaking of Las Vegas, both Orange Bowl teams made bettors happy this year, as this story explains. SU is straight-up. ATS is against the spread.

Team records: College Football Predictions

Iowa: 10-2 SU, 8-3 ATS

Georgia Tech: 11-2 SU, 8-4 ATS

Let us proceed.

Georgia Tech Coach Paul Johnson isn't afraid of stirring up a bit of dust, at least in Georgia.

Tech lost 30-24 to Georgia on Nov. 28. A few days later, Johnson went on an Atlanta radio program and talked a little, as this Atlanta Journal-Constitution story tells us:

"Why would the University of Georgia define Georgia Tech?" Johnson said during an apperance on 790 The Zone's Brandon and Woolvey program. "What have they done to be the mark for Georgia Tech  football? What's the last thing they won? 1980?"

Actually, the Bulldogs have won two SEC championships since Mark Richt took over as head coach in 2001. Richt is 8-1 vs. the Jackets -- the sole loss coming last year in Athens.

"I understand rival games. I understand in-state games," said Johnson, 19-6 in two years as Tech's coach. "We're not going anywhere. We'll be here for awhile. It's not the be all, end all. We're 1-1."

But that wasn't what caused a little controversy. This is:

When asked about the psyche of Jackets fans in the wake of Saturday's loss, Johnson didn't skip a beat.

"Get a thick skin. Guy giving you a hard time and you get tired of it, punch him in the face," he said, tongue-in-cheek.

Bulldog backers were not amused.

The Hlog shares space on Gazetteonline with several other sports blogs, good ones, as you you can easily find here.

Scott Dochterman had this post that amused me Monday.

Iowa officials have asked Big Ten officials to consider moving Iowa's men's basketball game against Illinois, which is scheduled for Jan. 5. Iowa's football team competes against Georgia Tech in the Orange Bowl that day.

Iowa Sports Information Director Phil Haddy said the school would like to move the basketball game to another date, if possible. The basketball game is scheduled for 8 p.m., which runs concurrent to the Orange Bowl. Viewership likely would be miniscule for basketball game (on Big Ten Network) against the football game, which airs on Fox.

It will be interesting to hear Illinois' response. It would be interesting to speculate what Iowa's response would have been had Illinois wanted to move the game were it being played at Iowa, with the Illini playing in a bowl game that night.

As for other Big Ten matters, ESPN.com's Adam Rittenberg has Part I of an interview with Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany on how his league's teams made out bowl-wise Sunday. Delany said this:

Iowa had a great year. I know Penn State was under serious consideration as well, but as the Orange Bowl spoke, it was probably [the] head-to-head [outcome] at the end of the day. All the teams that were eligible were able to go inside of our bowl agreements. We got a chance to move up. Iowa's a top-10 team, and they travel exceptionally well.

Dick Harmon of the Deseret News in Salt Lake City is in the heart of Mountain West Conference territory. He's a little protective of the Mountain West's TCU. Of course, he's also seen the Horned Frogs play, so he knows they're loaded.

In this column, he kind of lets the BCS have it for not giving TCU a BCS-conference team to beat. Iowa isn't spared Harmon's wrath. Excerpts:

The guys who run the BCS draft tank for post season play had a great chance on Sunday to prove their credibility in the face of a ton of criticism and scrutiny by Congress. . . .

Instead, by choosing to restrict non-automatic qualifiers TCU and Boise State from embarrassing their BCS elite Florida, Iowa, Georgia Tech or even Big East champion Cincinnati, the BCS chose a protectionist route: Put TCU and Boise State on the back porch and ensure these outsiders don't go 2-0 in a few weeks.

Elitism, snobbery, cronyism at its best, it is a perfect example of the arrogance that surrounds the BCS folks.

Face it, TCU would run past Florida, topple Tim Tebow, embarrass Iowa and flip Georgia Tech upside down. The Frogs would simply spank Cincinnati. Boise State could potentially beat those teams and already whipped BCS Rose Bowl-bound Oregon. . . .

No wonder, from all reports, Gary Patterson's team was distraught when they saw the BCS pairings. What a kick in the guts.

Look, you can't know TCU would run past Florida, embarrass Iowa, or flip Georgia Tech upside down. But Harmon's right. TCU deserved a shot at one of the BCS-conference big boys.

Brian Murphy of the Idaho Statesman has an interesting quote from Fiesta Bowl CEO John Junker on a so-called BCS conspiracy to keep Boise State and TCU away from BCS-conference teams.

"I'm attempting to be a gentleman, but that's the biggest load of crap I've heard in my life," Junker said Sunday, dismissing the suggestion.

"We don't do the bidding of somebody else to our detriment."

Jon Wilner of the San Jose Mercury News has his bowl winners and losers here, and says the Fiesta Bowl is a winner. Among his losers: The Orange and Insight bowls.

Winner: Fiesta Bowl. Guarantees all hotel rooms will be filled with TCU and BSU and can boast that it's the first BCS game to match two non-AQ teams.

Loser: Orange Bowl. Once again becomes the who-cares bowl with Iowa and GaTech.

Loser: Insight Bowl. It wanted no part of the Pac-10 and bailed on that partnership a few years ago. Its reward this season: 6-6 Minnesota against 6-6 Iowa State.

Loser: January. There are 14 bowls, but only four qualify as must-see TV (Fiesta, Sugar, Rose and NCG).

Finally, many Iowa fans may be sorry to see the Alamo Bowl leave the Big Ten's bowl rotation after this year, given the Alamo brought the Hawkeyes down to San Antonio on four occasions.

Minnesota, on the other hand, won't miss San Antone. Which is easy for the Gophers, since they never played in the Alamo Bowl. The Alamo folks avoided the Gophers as if they were actual rodents, as Kent Youngblood explains in this Minneapolis Star Tribune story:

There probably won't be anybody in the Gophers athletic department who will miss the Alamo Bowl once it is dropped from the Big Ten rotation after this season. In 2003 the Alamo picked Michigan State over Minnesota, even though the Gophers had one more victory. In 2006 the Alamo chose Iowa over the Gophers, though the teams had the same record and Minnesota had just beaten the Hawkeyes in the regular-season finale.

This season MSU and the Gophers had the same overall record. The Spartans had one more conference victory, but the Gophers had defeated the Spartans. Still, some thought the recent suspensions that had hit the MSU program might sway the Alamo Bowl's decision.