How’s this for chaos?
The consensus top-ranked team in the country wins by a mere touchdown as a significant favorite against a squad that had the same margin of victory against Wake Forest. The second-ranked team is no longer in that slot after almost squandering a sloppily-acquired lead to a team worse than the one that pushed the one at the top of the polls.
Number three gets smashed by a team whose claim to fame was having almost two dozen players get the flu during the preceding days. Number six loses on a two-point conversion that would not have mattered had its coach just kicked an extra point earlier. Number seven gets punked at home by a team that had been punked at its home just one week prior. Number eight gets obliterated by Nick Saban’s piercing glare.
Three different conferences suffered losses to top teams at the pinnacle of the polls last week, which makes for a truly “throw-your-hands-up-and-scream-why” version of the conference power rankings…
- SEC
Basically, this will be the default position until someone jumps up and grabs the top spot. Otherwise, even a week such as this won’t be enough to take down the behemoth that runs college football’s conference cartel.
Georgia and Ole Miss experienced market corrections that come when your reputation gets unreasonably enhanced. The good news is that Florida and Alabama picked up signature wins that should prove beneficial in the days and weeks to come. Mississippi State probably shouldn’t be ranked, and it isn’t after dropping a game on the road to Texas A&M.
Here’s the deal with the SEC, though: The bottom is an absolute disaster. Auburn played a four-quarter game with San Jose State and has no idea what to do at any point. Kentucky barely beat Eastern Kentucky, Vanderbilt barely beat Middle Tennessee, and watching Arkansas-Tennessee was like watching two people with severe speech impediments recite the Gettysburg Address.
And then there’s South Carolina…
- Big 12
The haves in this league continue to impress. TCU and Baylor had solid victories—TCU’s was more than solid, in fact, as the Horned Frogs blasted Texas in a merciless blowout win. The Bears are keeping pace, as is Oklahoma after a convincing win over West Virginia.
The middle of the conference is solid for now, but Oklahoma State and West Virginia are playing each other. One or both of those teams will need to continue to garner respect, as will Kansas State, for the Big 12 to supplant the SEC because the bottom of the league is atrocious. So far, so good for this bunch, though.
- Pac-12
Depth is the calling card of this league, and it was on display last week. Unfortunately for Pac-12 lovers, that wasn’t to the benefit of many teams at the top of the conference.
UCLA went from media darling to pariah after getting pummeled at home by Arizona State. Arizona lost its second game in as many weeks at Stanford, a team that appears to have put a sluggish start behind it. Given USC’s disastrous start to the week on Thursday night, this conference is in danger of killing off its own hopes and dreams. Stay tuned…this could get interesting.
- ACC
The ACC’s primary national contenders both won on opposite ends of the spectrum. Clemson’s win over Notre Dame was obviously an eye-catcher, while Florida State squeaked one out against lowly Wake Forest. It tells you what happened elsewhere in the country that the Seminoles’ win somehow sets them apart.
Other than that, there’s a lot of nonsense in the middle of this league. Louisville, Georgia Tech, and Virginia Tech are all 2-3. Miami dropped a Thursday night game at Cincinnati by double digits. Duke scored a whopping nine points to beat Boston College. N.C. State’s unbeaten start was squashed by the Cardinals. There doesn’t really seem to be much to count on after those top two teams. Maybe North Carolina can be that team after an upset win in Atlanta.
- Big Ten
The Big Ten is forever relegated to the bottom of this list until either of its alleged national contenders can muster up an impressive performance. Ohio State, in what was a predictable result, barely squeaked by a flawed Indiana team. Michigan State almost blew a 21-0 halftime lead at home against lowly Purdue.
Seriously. These are top five teams. This is the class of the Big Ten.
Northwestern has been the most impressive team thus far, furthering a hot start with a shutout win over Minnesota. Michigan also shut out Maryland in College Park, while Iowa went to Camp Randall Stadium and beat Wisconsin scoring a mere ten points. An Illinois team that got pounded by North Carolina is now 4-1 and just beat Nebraska in the last minute.
The Big Ten is fun because there’s nothing ever certain here. That’s why we’ll watch each week.