We’re in that annual mud pit where everyone starts eating their own for the most part, so it’s a fantastic time for hyperbolic “transitive property” arguments to take center stage. Team X from my conference beat team Y from yours, and team Y beat a good team from their conference, so clearly team X from my conference would win yours.
Circular firing squad, this college football.
1. Big Ten
Michigan just scored on Rutgers again (note to other significantly inferior teams … don’t cheese off Jim Harbaugh in the off season). Purdue looks like it might get to that coveted bowl game, because that was a must-win to do so over Illinois. Penn State, Iowa, and Ohio State all won games they should. But then there’s Michigan State, which is looking a bit “yikes” this year.
Best win: Purdue over Illinois
Worst Loss: BYU over Michigan State
PGOW: Ohio State @ Wisconsin
2. SEC
So … Tennessee CAN lose. Seriously, if you’re a Tennessee fan, you’re getting your money’s worth on this season if you like banging on your carpet screaming at the television until the bitter end. Then you’ve got Alabama, which is the exact opposite, but you’re still getting your money’s worth there, too. As in, “I can feel good about our odds after roughly five minutes of game play.” They’re still not as deep at the top as the Big Ten as a conference, however. No one looks close to Alabama in the conference.
Best Win: Texas A&M over Tennessee
Worst Loss: Auburn over Mississippi State (who wasn’t even competitive at home)
PGOW: Alabama @ Tennessee (Underrated hatred here)
3. ACC
All in all, a damage free weekend for the conference, which still is solidly behind the top two. FSU and Miami was thrilling, which it typically seems to be. FSU did nothing out of the conference to suggest that anything they do will drag the conference down in spite of two losses. UNC came back to earth, hard. Oh, and NC State beat Notre Dame in a pool. Onward and upward.
Best Win: FSU over Miami
Worst Loss: Virginia Tech over North Carolina
PGOW: Wake Forest (are they for real!?) @ Florida State
4. Pac 12
So … Washington is really good. So is Washington State. The Apple Cup should be great fun. Redd’s should sponsor it, and prior to that, they should sponsor this moderately bad weekly column. Stanford is back to reality after three of the last four Pac 12 titles. UCLA and Arizona are surprisingly not good. And darn it, Colorado, I know winning at USC is tough, but I was all in. Oh, and Oregon … oh. Mark Helfrich really needed to find a quarterback rather than resorting to FCS transfers.
Best Win: Washington over Oregon
Worst Loss: Washington over Oregon (look, that’s a massive chasm it showed)
PGOW: Stanford @ Notre Dame (hey, and out of conference game!)
5. Big 12
Oh, poor Big 12. The allure of Texas being “back” has officially worn off now that clearly it’s going to be an incremental “back” and Notre Dame has been outed. And poor Kansas, who looked like they might actually get a nice looking Big 12 win … only to blow it in the 4th. There’s just a lot of average in this conference, with West Virginia and Baylor still unbeaten and a Big 12 probably hoping WVU is really, really good.
Best win: Kansas State over Texas Tech, I guess?
Worst Loss: TCU over Kansas (if only because what could have been)
PGOW: WVU @ Texas Tech
