Conference power rankings after Week 5 have a little bit of a different look. We’re starting to run out of ways we can say the SEC is college football’s best conference, just as we can say the Sun Belt is clearly in the cellar, but there are some moves and shake-ups in between.
Check ‘em out:
Our Conclusion:
1. SEC (last wk, No. 1) -- The Good: Bama Rolls in Gainesville over Florida; LSU takes care of business against Kentucky. The Bad: South Carolina being South Carolina against Auburn. The Ugly: Urinating on the opposing teams shrubbery is never a good idea.
2. Big Ten (last wk, T-No. 4) -- The Good: Wisconsin welcome Nebraska to the Big Ten with a Mad Town mauling, Michigan State goes to the ‘Shoe and defeats Ohio State. The Bad: Minnesota and Purdue are really scraping the bottom of the conference barrel, which also acts as a rivalry trophy. The Ugly: Penn. State’s. Offense.
3. Pac-12 (last wk, No. 3) -- The Good: Stanford makes it look easy against UCLA, Arizona State keeps rolling. The Bad: their opponents. UCLA and Oregon State are quickly having seasons to forget. The Ugly: Colorado can’t close out games and Utah just can’t seem to catch a break with their quarterback, Jordan Wynn.
4. Big 12 (last wk. No. 2) -- Oklahoma continues to beat up their opposition, which should make for a good Red River Rivalry against suddenly sharp Texas. The Bad: Baylor goes on the road and coughs up a loss against Kansas State. RGIII can’t do it all, y’all. The Ugly: Texas A&M and second halves might be a worse fit than Missouri to the SEC.
5. ACC (last wk, T-No. 4) -- The Good: can we finally get some love for Clemson? The Tigers have defeated three AP top 25 teams in a row, the latest being Virginia Tech. The Bad: Boston College is not quite who we thought they were with just one win on the season; Wake Forest is definitely not who we thought they were at 3-1. The Ugly: Virginia needed overtime to defeat Idaho.
6. Conference USA (last wk, No. 9) -- The Good: SMU ends a four-game drought against TCU, upsetting the Horned Frogs 40-33. The Bad: Houston can score with just about anyone. Unfortunately, just about anyone’s offense can score on the Cougars. The Ugly: Memphis needs to stop fielding a football team for a while. Just take a break. Seriously.
7. Mountain West (last wk, No. 10) -- The Good: Boise State gets rid of the Brotzman curse by defeating Nevada 30-10. The Bad: San Jose State walks out against Colorado State with a win. Never good. The Ugly: Gary Patterson‘s comments this week following TCU’s loss to SMU sounded pretty bitter. Being 3-2 doesn’t help.
8. Big East (last wk, T-No. 4) -- The Good: LOLZ!!! The Bad: South Florida, which some would consider the Big East’s second-best team, just got pummeled by Pittsburgh on national Thursday night TV. ACC gets another victory. The Ugly: Dana Holgorsen calls out WVU fans for poor fan attendance. S-E-C?
9. MAC (last wk, No. 7) -- The Good: Western Michigan throws the kitchen sink Florida OC Charlie Weis meant to throw against Alabama at UConn in a 38-31 win. The Bad: Ball State and Buffalo lost to Oklahoma and Tennessee by a combined score of 103-16. The Ugly: I shoulda never gave Temple props in the first place. The Owls follow up a huge win against Maryland with an even bigger letdown against Toledo.
10. WAC (last wk, No.8) -- The Good: Despite a 38-38 loss, Fresno State hangs tough with Ole Miss; Idaho forces Virginia to OT. The Bad: Nevada really wishes Colin Kaepernick were still around. The Ugly: Utah State cannot close out a game. I don’t know what they did to tick off the football gods, but holy guacamole the final two minutes of a fourth quarter have not been good to the Aggies.
11. Sun Belt (last wk, No. 11) -- The Good: Troy always has talent, and despite their 2-2 record thanks a win over UAB, they should still be contenders when conference play gets going. The Bad: Florida International has now dropped two in a row against Louisiana Lafayette and Duke after getting off to a hot start. The Ugly: Florida Atlantic is not sending legendary coach Howard Schnellenberger off the right way; the Owls are 0-4 and look just dreadful.
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