In this year's brackets, ASU has an opportunity to pull a variation of WKU's 2002 championship run, during which the Hilltoppers won a pair of regular-season-rematches.

The difference is WKU lost to McNeese and Western Illinois in the regular season, then defeated both teams en route to the title. ASU's rematches would be against teams they've already beaten.

ASU COULD see two regular-season rematches and a recent-season rematch on the way to Chattanooga. That's a big "COULD," of course (except for recent-season CCU in the 1st round), since 8 teams have to play a lot of football before anything happens at all.

Usually, the regular-season loser becomes the playoff winner (2005 ASU/Furman, 2002 WKU are classic examples).

I'm curious as to whether the reglar-season loss margin suggests anything about the outcome of the playoff rematch. A possible Furman playoff rematch is cause for anxiety, but the anxiety would be higher for this fan if ASU had won, say 21-18 in Boone instead of 40-7.

Remember that this anxiety/lack thereof is on the part of a fan, and has no effect whatsoever on how the teams prepare. Anybody who says "You Mountaineers are cocky," or "I hope you keep on overlooking so-and-so U," needs to get a clue. Maybe a visit to goasu.com, just to confirm that none of us ASU posters are, in fact, on Jerry Moore's staff or roster, would help a bit.

If the 3-rematch scenario plays itself out completely for ASU, the Mountaineers face teams they've beaten 30-3, 40-7, and 21-10. What does that imply for these rematches, if in fact more than one occurs?

And hey, what about the other rematches/possible rematches in this seasons' playoff field?

Illinois State at Eastern Illinois? (EIU lost to Ill. State, 30-44 back on 9/16)
UMass/New Hampshire? (UMass won 28-20 on 11/4)

and there are more, I'm sure...