Week 8 promised to be a dud, and it wasn’t, but the results didn’t really show it. Few upsets came out of a ton of entertaining games in which the favorites were able to ward off challenges from lesser teams.
The bottom line is that the conference picture looks very similar to the way it was a week ago—heck, it’s pretty much the same it’s been for about a month.
- SEC
The best thing about the way the SEC operated last weekend was that no one got whacked. Alabama survived a harrowing experience against Tennessee at home without incident. Ole Miss looked the part of a potentially dominant team against Texas A&M. Mississippi State—thought to be the weakest team in the SEC West prior to the start of the season—is now bowl eligible.
Perhaps the biggest weakness for this league right now is having a two-loss team atop the West. The Rebels own the tiebreaker with Alabama and get LSU at home in November. If Hugh Freeze’s squad takes care of business, the SEC title game could feature two teams with no chance of being involved in a four-team playoff. Talk about a headache for the playoff committee!
- Big 12
On the surface, it was a ho-hum week for this league. Baylor’s win over Iowa State was tainted due to an injury to quarterback Seth Russell, but the Bears are still unbeaten. The same can be said of Oklahoma State, which shook off tragedy by throttling Kansas on Homecoming. Oklahoma pounded Texas Tech to give the conference another good-looking win.
The top of this conference is still solid, with three unbeatens (including idle TCU) and the one-loss Sooners leading the charge. That apparatus will likely crumble after a jam-packed November schedule in this conference.
- Pac-12
This league continues to struggle to break out of the malaise created by average play from both of its signature programs. Oregon was off last week, while USC did acquit itself well with a beatdown of previously undefeated Utah. The problem is that the Utes represented a legitimate shot for this league to be in the playoff picture.
Right now, the best hope for that scenario to unfold resides in Stanford. Washington State has strengthened the middle of the league, while Arizona State and Arizona—both disappointments—have weakened it. The credibility of UCLA waxes and wanes week to week. Some consistency with the Bruins could elevate the status of this league.
- Big Ten
The Big Ten boasts three undefeated teams, but the overall depth of the league is very shallow. Ohio State and Michigan State won convincingly, while Iowa was not in action. Other than that, it was a nothing-to-see kind of week in the Big Ten.
The strength of this conference is totally dependent on both Iowa and either of the other two squads being undefeated heading into the Big Ten title game. None of the other teams have the kind of national cache to be able to move the needle in any positive direction.
- ACC
Florida State’s freakish loss to Georgia Tech really puts the onus on Clemson to hold up the rest of the ACC. The conference does have three ranked wins—more than the stronger Big 12—but the consistent level of play across the board simply is not there.
Obviously, Clemson beating down Miami helps the Tigers immensely in the national picture. A sneaky good storyline is how three teams from the Coastal Division—Duke, North Carolina, and Pittsburgh—were able to exit Week 8 unbeaten in conference play and with only one loss apiece overall. The positioning of all three of those teams is something to watch moving forward.