The German financial giant joins UBS UBSN

The German financial giant joins UBS (UBSN.VX), Goldman Sachs(GS.N), Morgan Stanley (MS.N) and Credit Suisse (CSGN.VX) amongwestern investment banks with a mainland Chinese joint venture. Foreign banks are eager for a share of the business advisingand underwriting domestic deals in China, but their progress inwinning access to the heavily regulated market has been slow, andthey are restricted to holding minority stakes in local jointventures. Late last year, Australia's Macquarie Group Ltd (MQG.AX)entered into a non-binding agreement to explore a mainlandChinese securities venture with Hengtai Securities. (Reporting by Tony Munroe; Editing by Jacqueline Wong) China. I've come up with a ranking system for college football similar to the RPI system for college basketball There are a few slight modifications though. I've scaled wins and losses based on margin of victory, opponent strength, and home field advantage. I used this adjust winning percentage as a portion of each schools score.

I also used opponents' winning percentage and opponents' opponents' winning percentage.There are some quirks. Arkansas is seemingly ranked way to high, but they did play one of the hardest schedules, played good teams closely, and blew out most others. Some notes: margin of victory was capped at 28 points, FBS wins do not count, FBS losses are counted as twolosses, and scores are normalized so that the top team has a score of one. FCS Top 25 TeamRPIRankAlabama 11Texas0.966113592TCU0.9541260253Florida 0.9283766714Boise St.0.8824415925Virginia Tech0.8649696326Cincinnati0.853918427Oregon 0.8525086968Ohio St.0.8187543699Penn St.0.77299418210Pittsburgh0.75986616711Arkansas0.75392998312Oklahoma0.75342705113Iowa0.73001113414Texas Tech0.71534156115Georgia Tech0.70650912616Miami (Fla.)0.70135089517LSU0.69275129918Arizona 0.68930533719Oregon St.0.68788273420Auburn 0.68578865621Stanford0.68349153622Central Mich.0.68215050723Nebraska0.67927885224West Virginia0.67542984525. Every season brings surprising play from teams that most people either ignore or leave out of their initial ballots.All-stars emerge from last year's bench, freshmen make good on their recruiting rankings, and overachievers lift their teams from the middle of the pack.I've picked out 10 teams I think could surprise us in 2010.

Whether they return a lot of players, ended the year strong, or missed out on a few wins by the pitfalls of chance, these 10 teams could be the Cinderella stories of next year.. This was supposed to be the season in which Baylor surprised us.QB Robert Griffin III was coming off of a stellar Big XII Freshman of the Year campaign during which he passed for 15 touchdowns and added 13 more on the ground.But, an ACL tear suffered in a blowout at Northwestern State knocked him out of the rest of the season. The Bears mustered just two more wins without himagainst Kent State, and in a shootout over Missouribut Griffin, was and remains, the player who can elevate Baylor's status from conference doormat to contender.He'll be back next year in a far more hospitable Big XII South racewith Colt McCoy gone and Oklahoma rebuildingthis might be the year to stage a dark horse campaign for the ages. That said, I'm sure Baylor fans will also be content to just make a bowl.. Left for dead after both projected starters at quarterback left before the season began, Boston College still managed to scrape together eight wins and a narrow loss to Notre Dame that came down to a late interception.The Eagles did it with defense, Frank Spaziani's specialty, and should expect the return of Luke Kuechly, the freshman middle linebacker who ended the season second in the nation in tackles.QB Dave Shinskie was just a freshman, so some experience in a bowl and more offseason prep work will minimize the compunction for throwing multiple interceptions in a game.He'll get more help from Montel Harris, the RB who ran for 100 yards in BC's last four games, three of which were wins, and scored 13 touchdowns on the year.The ACC is always wide open, and the Eagles have as good a shot as any, particularly in the Atlantic Division: Clemson might be missing CJ Spiller more than they realize, and Florida State will be down one legendary coach. Je deteste Danny Hope. I consider him short on class, for his habit of gesturing to the crowd and igniting misguided controversies.

But man, this guy can coach.The Boilermakers were slated to be Big Ten bottom-dwellers, and they did lose to Northern Illinois and miss a bowl.But they also beat Ohio State and Michigan, took Notre Dame to the wire, produced a second-team All-Big Ten rusher (Ralph Bolden), 3,000-yard passer (Joey Elliott), and an 1100-yard receiver (Keith Smith), and brought home the Old Oaken Bucket from rival Indiana.Plus, the Boilers' recruiting is at or above the level of the Tiller years.Elliott is gone next year, but Smith and Bolden return. Hopefully, they can help redshirt sophomore Caleb TerBush bring Purdue back into the postseason and flirt with a Big Ten title. Hopefully they can make a few more close games end their way.. The Huskies closed the season on a four-game tear, taking unbeaten Cincinnati to the brink, besting Notre Dame in overtime, running over Syracuse, and outlasting South Florida. The streak paid a fitting homage to cornerback Jasper Howard, who was murdered halfway through the season.UConn loses the underrated Andre Dixon at running back, but returns Jordan Todman, who split carries with Dixon and took 14 in for scores.The Huskies will have to choose between Zach Frazer and Cody Endres at QB before the season-opener at Michigan, but if they can pull off the "upset" in the Big House (against that secondary, there are no upsets), it could spur a championship run.The Big East is wide-open: Brian Kelly has departed to Notre Dame, Pitt loses QB Bill Stull, and West Virginia will be starting over post-Jarrett Brown. Ah, if only the Aggies played every team with as much enthusiasm as they played Texas this year, they wouldn't be staring at a 6-6 record.I still think they have promise.