In the way of #1 – Florida State

Photo Attribution: Icon SMI

Welcome to a new series on what must take place for Oklahoma State to reach #1 in the polls this year. Who must win in order for the Cowboys to sit atop the college football world?

Here’s your full fan’s guide to who OSU fans should be rooting for this season.

We’ve looked at Boise St. and Stanford so far and now we’re heading east to look at Chief Osceola and his band of #5-ranked Seminoles.

The Noles have scrimmages scheduled with Louisiana-Monroe and Charleston Southern before OU comes to town on September 24. That game is (obviously) their best chance to lose all year and drop below Oklahoma State in the standings although the line (OU -3) is in free fall since Travis Lewis hurt his toe.

It should be noted that this is the first “one of these teams is definitely dropping below OSU in the rankings if OSU takes care of business” games we’ve looked at so far (the other is Oregon LSU but we’ll get to that later on).

If Jimbo’s squad can survive OU it has to go to Clemson, Wake, and Duke consecutively. You can’t be overly confident as a Seminoles fan in going to Death Valley seven days after playing the best team in the country even if (maybe especially if) you come away with the W.

After that they host Maryland and NC State (whatever) and go to BC.

Then they close with The U and UVA at home and on the road to Gainesville.

The only thing I’m certain of in FSU’s schedule is that they will be 2-0 and ranked higher than #5 (probably #4) when they play OU. After that I’m fuzzy. They could beat OU and lose to Clemson and Florida. Or they could lose to OU and then run the table.

No matter what they do against the Sooners though I don’t really think they’re going undefeated. I mean do we really trust E.J. Manuel on the road at Florida, BC, Clemson, and Wake? Hell, do we even trust EJ Manuel at home?

So do we need to root for Landry and Broyles on Sept. 17 in Tallahassee? To be safe, yes, because no matter what OU does after that, OSU still controls its own destiny. But are we still good if FSU comes away with the win? Absolutely, we’re just the biggest Tajh Boyd and John Brantley fans on the face of the earth for the next ten weeks.

How worried I am:      (out of 10)

If you haven’t checked out our other series on the 20 most important people to a 2011 national title you can do so here.