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CLEMSON, S.C. -- No. 3 Louisville and quarterback Lamar Jackson have done the improbable -- turned Clemson passer Deshaun Watson into an afterthought this weekend.Tigers linebacker Ben Boulware feels it and believes Watson will be more than ready when the Cardinals (4-0, 2-0 Atlantic Coast Conference) face No. 5 Clemson (4-0, 1-0) on Saturday night.Everyone loves talking about Lamar (Jackson) and Deshauns kind of been in the background, Boulware said. But Im like, `Hey, weve got a pretty good quarterback here, too.Watson was considered college footballs best, the reigning ACC player of the year and the odds-on favorite to win the Heisman Trophy this season when the year began. But Watson has largely been left in the dust by Jacksons amazing start.Jackson, a sophomore , has passed for 1,330 yards and 13 touchdowns and run for 526 yards and 12 touchdowns. Hes the first Football Bowl Subdivision player in 10 years to put up two seven-TD games in one season. Those numbers, along with Jacksons breakaway runs, have vaulted him into the Heisman favorite a third of the way through the season.Thats OK with Watson, whos focused on keeping the Tigers perfect this week.We just have to continue to do what we do and focus on the task at hand, Watson said. We cant worry about what the future brings or anything like that. At the end of the day, we still have to go out there and play our best.Watson understands hes yet to achieve that this season. The 6-foot-3 junior has passed for 996 yards and nine touchdowns. Hes also thrown four interceptions and has yet to rush for a TD after running for 12 scores a season ago.Clemson coach Dabo Swinney said Watson is rounding into form for the most important time of the year. He has led us to four wins, critical drives, critical wins, Swinney said. Were going to need him to play a great game Saturday.---Some things to watch when No. 3 Louisville plays No. 5 Clemson.ACC SHOW: For the second time in three weeks, the ACC will have a pair of top 10 schools facing each other. Louisville, then ranked No. 10, dominated third-ranked Florida State 63-20 on Sept. 17. It is the 15th time in league history that two top 10 teams have matched up. It is just the fifth top five match in ACC history, the last one coming in 2013 at Death Valley when No. 5 Florida State took apart third-ranked Clemson 51-14.HOME SWEET HOME: Clemson does not lose often at Death Valley, currently having won 18 straight at home since its loss to Florida State three seasons ago. The Tigers are 46-6 at home since Dabo Swinney took over as coach for Tommy Bowden in the middle of the 2008 season.RARE DOUBLE: Louisville is seeking a rare double in the Atlantic Coast Conference. A win by the Cardinals on Saturday night would be the first time a league opponent has defeated both Florida State and Clemson in the same season since North Carolina in 2010. The Cardinals could also go a long way to breaking the stronghold Florida State and Clemson have had on the ACC Atlantic Division. The Seminoles and Tigers have combined to represent the division in the past seven championship games.REACHING A MILESTONE: Louisville is seeking its 500th victory in program history when it takes on Clemson. The Cardinals are 499-450-17 in 98 seasons.OFFENSE VS. DEFENSE: True test between the proverbial unstoppable force in Louisville against immovable object in Clemson. Cardinals attack ranks first nationally in overall offense and scoring offense, third in rushing and 10th in passing. Tigers stand third in overall defense and passing defense, fifth in scoring defense and 15th in rushing defense.---Online:AP College Football website: www.collegefootball.ap.org and AP-Top 25 Twitter feed: https://twitter.com/AP-Top25Follow Pete Iacobelli at www.twitter.com/PIacobelli-AP Bradley Zimmer Jersey . Now tied for second in the league in shootout goals, the 24-year-old likes to see what the opposing goaltender has in store before he ultimately lands on a move. Francisco Lindor Jersey . Self was acquired from the Buffalo Bandits in a trade for Alex Hill midway through last season, and made his debut in Rochester on March 16, 2013. http://www.indianssale.com/indians-manny-ramirez-jersey/ . Numbers Game examines the deal that sees Michael Del Zotto and Kevin Klein switch places. The Predators Get: D Michael Del Zotto. Leonys Martin Jersey . The Lightning are 2-0 so far on a four-game road trip, giving the club five straight wins as the guest and improving Tampas away record this season to 11-8-2. Manny Ramirez Indians Jersey . Their experience showed Tuesday as the No. 10 Badgers blunted a Saint Louis surge to win 63-57 and advance to face West Virginia in Wednesdays finals of the Cancun Challenge. Lets be clear up front: North Carolinas response to the NCAAs notice of allegations is a little arrogant, a little elitist and, well, a lot right.The school is essentially saying that, yes, the courses in the African-American Studies department were a sham. And yes, a disproportionate number of athletes took those sham courses. But, the school counters, the NCAA shouldnt be able to charge the school with lack of institutional control or failure to monitor for two reasons:Its not the NCAAs businessSitting next to the scores of mens and womens basketball players and football players were everyday students.To the casual reader it is downright laughable. What else does the NCAA have to do other than to maintain academic integrity among its athletes? And since when is the retort, well everyone else was doing it, too a good defense?As ridiculous as the argument sounds, theyve got a point.In what is arguably the biggest case, in both scope and the brand name of the school being investigated, to fall on its enforcement staffs desk in decades, the NCAA may very well have a difficult time landing its two most serious charges. For that, it has no one to blame but itself and a thick rulebook that intentionally glosses over academic integrity.The NCAA membership worked long and hard studying and trying to decide what should and shouldnt be a bylaw, what is and is not within the manual, athletic director Bubba Cunningham said. The quality of the class, we understand and have said for some time didnt meet our normal standards, but that doesnt mean its a violation of a bylaw.There are two issues at play here.First up: What exactly is the NCAAs job? From the organizations own mission statement:Our purpose is to govern competition in a fair, safe, equitable and sportsmanlike manner, and to integrate intercollegiate athletics into higher education so that the educational experience of the student-athlete is paramount.The key words are to govern competition. Nowhere does it say that the NCAA has a say so in the governance of or determining the merits of an institutions academic courses. In fact, the same organization that somehow has deemed itself worthy to determine if thousands of high schools meet their standards for initial eligibility is purposefully standoffish when it comes to telling colleges and universities what is and is not up to snuff.Once an athlete is enrolled in school, the NCAA monitors whether he or she is making the proper progress toward graduation -- i.e., taking enough, and passing enough, courses; makingg sure that student athletes are graduating at a proper rate.dddddddddddd If not, the NCAA penalizes schools.But it does not -- nor does it want -- to police whether the courses athletes are taking are worth a fig. Its the NCAAs version of a separation of church and state.Weve got sports; you get class.The organization, in fact, hasnt created a by-law regarding academic integrity since 1983.For many, many years we have had presidents on the council and faculty athletic representatives on the council and each and every time when theyve looked at what the role of the NCAA is relative to academics they stay out of it, Cunningham said. They dont want the NCAA in the classroom. ... We work with our accrediting agency for academic issues. The NCAA Is our athletic agency. They each have different jurisdictional responsibilities.The second problem for the NCAA? The number of regular Joes and Janes who took the same courses as the athletes did. The NCAA tried to point to the paper classes as an impermissible benefit, a gift given to athletes to help them along because of their stature as big men and women on campus. Critics naturally and logically argue that if the academic support staff steered athletes to these courses they were, in fact, receiving an extra benefit.But UNC is asking, if everyone on campus was given the same chance to take the courses, no matter how fraudulent they were, how can it be construed as a benefit given only to athletes?The simple answer: It cant.The NCAA knows it cant, which is why in April the organization announced new rules regarding academic misconduct. Schools now must adhere to strict academic integrity policies. A violation of those policies now will equate to an NCAA violation. Heres the kicker from the NCAAs own press release:Additionally the proposal recognizes schools cant predict every type of academic integrity issue that could occur. Therefore, some misconduct committed by staff members or boosters that doesnt violate a schools academic misconduct policies may still violate NCAA rules.In other words, well know it when we see it.Surely under those rules, North Carolina wouldnt have passed the smell test.In adjudicating UNCs case, the rules are too little too late, enacted after the NCAA began its investigation.Instead the school is allowed to make what, by all accounts, is a nervy, illogical and downright laughable defense.And it just might work. ' ' '