So week 3 what can we say there were big upsets and big blowouts. The week also saw old school good teams make major waves to getting back to prominence. Some schools squeaked by much lessor opponents. Others tried their best to make a case to enter the top 25 and some who fell out are doing some major work to get back in. This week we will see our first team with a loss in the top 25 that will provide hope to others that fell out. With each passing week teams identities are starting to shine through. Without further delay here comes week 3 blogpoll.
Men of the Scarlet and Gray Ballot – Week 3
| Rank | Team | Delta |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Alabama Crimson Tide | — |
| 2 | Oregon Ducks | — |
| 3 | Florida St. Seminoles |  1 |
| 4 | LSU Tigers |  -1 |
| 5 | Oklahoma Sooners | 1 |
| 6 | Georgia Bulldogs | 1 |
| 7 | Clemson Tigers | 1 |
| 8 | Notre Dame Fighting Irish | 10 |
| 9 | West Virginia Mountaineers | 3 |
| 10 | Florida Gators | 6 |
| 11 | Texas Longhorns | 3 |
| 12 | South Carolina Gamecocks | -1 |
| 13 | Stanford Cardinal | 8 |
| 14 | TCU Horned Frogs | 1 |
| 15 | Ohio St. Buckeyes | -5 |
| 16 | Louisville Cardinals | 1 |
| 17 | Kansas St. Wildcats | 2 |
| 18 | UCLA Bruins | 6 |
| 19 | USC Trojans | -14 |
| 20 | Arizona Wildcats | 2 |
| 21 | Oregon St. Beavers | 2 |
| 22 | Ohio Bobcats | — |
| 23 | Mississippi St. Bulldogs | — |
| 24 | Iowa St. Cyclones | — |
| 25 | Rutgers Scarlet Knights | — |
| Dropouts: Michigan St. Spartans, Virginia Tech Hokies, BYU Cougars, ULM Warhawks | ||
SB Nation BlogPoll College Football Top 25 Rankings »
Where should I start?
How about the B1G which is just a horrible league this year. Our “best team” Mich St. lost a home game at night in prime time on Natl. TV to Notre Dame. Ohio St. barely beat a middle of the road Pac 12 team at home. Northwestern and Minnesota are the only other 2 undefeated teams left other then the Buckeyes and are on the cusp of being top 25 if they ever played a good team to show us how good they are. Michigan and MSU are good teams but both lost big games in front of America badly. Wisconsin is a dreadful team that should be 1-2 if not for a missed FG by Utah St. so they are 2-1 but are really really bad. For right now only Ohio St. deserves to be ranked for the B1G and they are dropping in the polls each of the last 2 weeks.
Next lets discuss the SEC. Bama and LSU are for real as normal. Florida is proving that Urban Meyer didnt leave the cupboard empty as some people think. Georgia and South Carolina are on the cusp of greatness but will stay in the background behind the top 2 until they beat them. The rest of the SEC is blah to say the least. 2 teams from the SEC have lost to Sun Belt opponents in the last 2 weeks and Auburn almost made it 3 teams. The SEC bottom half of the league is just as bad as everyone else if not worse.
The PAC 12 and Big 12 are pretty stacked top to bottom with decent to great teams and are probably the top 2 conferences as a whole right now. The top teams in both leagues can play with BAMA and LSU.
Notre Dame is better then anyone thought and everyone knows it now. They are bigger and faster on defense and capable on offense. The question is can they sustain it for the whole year with a very difficult schedule?
The ACC and Big East are just who they are and the B1G is doing their best to join them in underachieving and disastrous play. None of them deserve more then 2-3 ranked teams and eventually all will be down to one ranked team each if they don’t improve leaps and bounds.
At some point the “Big 10 stinks” myth needs to stop being part of the narrative. A couple of high-profile losses and a single bad Saturday a couple of weeks ago were balanced out by a really good day last week (except for Dantonio’s team). In reality, the Big10 has a higher winning percentage so far this season than either the SEC or the Pac12, and all of the conferences have suffered embarrassing high-profile losses.
In reality, the only “shock” in the Big 10 is Wisco’s unexpected struggles. But Northwestern is making up for Wisco’s slack. NW could go 7-0 or better to start the season, actually, and flirt with a 10 win season.
Regarding the poll, however, I think Florida is very overrated. They barely beat Bowling Green at home, almost lost to crappy Tx A&M, and struggled mightily and looked terrible against SEC-bottom-feeder Tennessee. No way that’s worth a top 10 ranking, IMO.
@Monkey- The B1G currently has 4 wins vs BCS AQ schools. Ohio State over Cal and All 3 of Northwesters wins. The B1G has one win over a team that was ranked at the time MSU over Boise St. So that is our signature win this year so far in OOC games. Last week saw the B1G play 2 BCS AQ teams and we went 1-1 and MSU who was carrying the banner of the B1G laid a goose egg on Natl TV.
If anything I haven’t given Northwestern enough credit for playing the schedule and winning the games they have. The rest of the B1G has woefully played avg to bad football so far this year coming off a really bad bowl season last year.
In the marquee match ups for the B1G this year they were woeful and if OSU is the best team in the B1G this year the league is in a whole lot of trouble come Bowl Season.
Wisconsin is bad really really bad and I cant figure out why except to say Bielema is being exposed now.
As for Florida they have 2 road wins over BCS AQ teams and one of them was ranked at the time Tenn. Florida may be overrated right now and will be exposed sooner or later if they are or I am right and they are better then most people thought. Either way it will play out.
@SYR – one could say the similar things about the other major conferences. The Big10 currently has a 72% winning percentage, compared to the SEC’s 70 and Pac12’s 71.
All are performing about equal — as usual — this preseason. All have suffered embarrassing losses (Louisiana Monroe, anyone?).
But only the Big10’s losses are used as proof of the conference’s weakness. And the myth is being perpetuated by the B10 blogosphere in general, which is too bad.
It just seems too superficial of a position to me. In reality, the “meat” of the big 10 may be equal to or better than the “meat” of the SEC, etc.
Unfortunately, a bad bowl season is already guaranteed. Because the Big10’s best team OSU can’t play in a bowl game, the other teams will slide up one or two slots and face superior opponents, and likely have a bad season. Of course, nobody will analyze the truth behind that either, and will continue to push the “B10 weak” myth…
@Monkey I am a B1G homer and so wish I could agree with you but the facts just dont support your theory.
The B1G has zero wins over teams currently ranked. Our 2 highest ranked teams coming into the season MSU and TTUN were both embarrassed on Natl TV. Wisconsin is 2-1 by the skin of their teeth and should be 0-3.
In the area that really matters on the field play Our best team got destroyed by the SEC best team. MSU didnt cross into ND side of the field even one time in their sad loss. Wisconsin was beaten by a horrific bottom feeder Pac 12 school in Ore St. Illinois got smashed by a middle tier Pac 12 school in Az St. Penn St. lost to a MAC school and a bottom feeder ACC school. Purdue lost to Notre Dame but at least they scored on ND. Ohio St. squeezed by a far inferior Pac 12 school at home. Iowa lost to a bottom feeder Big 12 team. Indiana lost to a MAC team.
Sure the B1G has the best winning % and if you want to hang your hat on that I understand but quantity never equals quality. We have no signature wins and no one carrying the flag of the conference right now. We have no teams ranked higher then 16 and if you put our best 6 teams up against the best 6 in the SEC and Big 12 and Pac 12 we would lose the vast majority of all those games.
You say it is a myth that the B1G is inferior but right now the facts and numbers suggest it is a truth. Just give me some facts about this year right now how we can say the B1G is anything but the 4th best conference. I really want to believe we arent horrible I just havent seen any proof in the games I have watched.
Just a few final responses to consider:
It seems like your argument is based entirely on two premises: two expected top-tier B10 teams have struggled, and the conference hasn’t performed well in ranked games. Both premises are incorrect.
As for the first: You argue that since Wisco is struggling and MSU lost to ND then this is part of the reason why the Big10 is weak. Why not apply the same argument to the SEC, with Auburn and Arkansas? Both were preseason ranked (Ark was top 10), both have wet the bed and are TRBL. Yet nobody seems to use their struggles as evidence the SEC is inferior…
As for ranked games, you can’t use wins against ranked teams as evidence of B10 inferiority. The SEC only has one victory to hang a hat on, that being Bama’s beatdown of Michigan. But the conference overall is 1-9 against ranked teams so far (10 percent!!!), compared to the Big10’s 1-3 (25%). We agree Bama’s good, but the rest of the SEC has become the whipping boy of the ACC/Big12/Pac12. Again, the “meat” of the SEC is getting destroyed by conferences across the country, and when they have won, it’s been against their cupcakes with a lot of those wins ugly and embarrassing.
My point boils down to this: whatever measures someone uses to paint the Big10 as weak or strong can also be used to conclude the same thing about any other conference. In most measures, the conferences are about equal, as you’d expect because parity exists. The only exceptions are the clear elite powerhouses like Alabama, and the annual OOC struggles of the mid-major conference schools. Otherwise, though, the ONLY differentiator is that the Big 10 has had two losses on national primetime TV (Michigan and MSU) that has painted the conference in a worse light than it actually is. Its one bad day on Sept 8th was reported on heavily. Yet nobody seemed to notice or report on how good the conference did one week later, going 8-2 OOC. The stats equalized, as they tend to do, but the narrative had already been set and folks started ignoring the results on the field in favor of the “entertainment” of the myth.
@Monkey The top 4 ranked teams entering this season from the SEC were Bama, LSU, Georgia, and South Carolina.
The 4 highest B1G teams in the rankings. TTUN, Wisconsin, MSU, and Nebraska.
I just want to reiterate I dont think the SEC is the best conf in the country. I think it is Big 12 and Pac 12 and then the SEC and B1G.
The B1G is dangerously close to becoming more like the ACC and Big East then it is the top 3 I mentioned.