Week 3 is in the books and MSU has risen to #2 in the AP Poll. Let's take a quick spin around the country to see how the rest of the country faired. First off, here is the comparison of the opening Vegas Spread to the actual game outcomes.
I count 7 total upsets including the high profile upsets of Ole Miss over Bama, Stanford over USC, and Texas Tech over Arkansas. Although the initial spreads were tight, by my book Northwestern over Duke and Notre Dame over GA Tech were also upsets. In other news, it was a rough week against the spread for several other ranked and Big Ten teams as Oregon, TCU, Oklahoma, UCLA, Missouri, OSU, MSU, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and even Team Harbaugh failed to cover by over 10 points. On the winning side of the week was LSU, Oklahoma State, Georgia, UNC, and Virginia Tech, who all covered by more than 10 points. As for each conference:
Big Ten
As mentioned above, the top of the conference struggled a bit, and over all the conference lost the mini "ACC-Big Ten Challenge" by a margin of 2-3 based on wins by UNC over Illinois, VA Tech over Purdue, and Miami over Nebraska. But NW was the only team to actually get an upset win, so on some level the Big Ten actually over-achieved here at least a little. Indiana and Maryland actually won, so I am going to go ahead and call this a fair week for the Big Ten. Oh, and we learned that Rutgers IS actually worse than PSU.
ACC
As mentioned above, the ACC did win the mini-challenge with the Big Ten, which is something ACC basketball hasn't done since 2008. Florida State shut out BC, but only put up 14 points doing it, Clemson struggled with Louisville, and GA Tech got trucked by Notre Dame. All-in-all, I am not sure this is a league deserving of a play-off bid. If Notre Dame takes care of Clemson on 10/3, I think their hopes would be dim. The only problem there is that the Irish might just take their spot.
Big 12
Let's see... the good news is that Texas Tech beat Arkansas, which means another angel gets their wings, and OK State finally showed some life by destroying poor Texas San Antonio. But, the did-not-cover bug bit Oklahoma, TCU, and Kansas State (who needed OT to beat LA Tech). Also, Texas loses to Cal on a missed extra point and Iowa State becomes the second consecutive Power 5 team to fall to Toledo. I think that Baylor and WVU had the right idea by just taking the week off.
Pac 12
The Pac 12 also had a little trouble covering this week, but the big news is clearly Stanford taking out USC. With road games coming up at Notre Dame, Oregon, and Arizona State, I doubt that we see the Trojans in the Final Four. Now that Stanford is showing some life, their schedule has suddenly opened up. Their toughest road game left? Colorado. Really? That being said, Arizona, UCLA, Oregon, and Notre Dame all still need to travel to Palo Alto. Elsewhere in LA this weekend, UCLA rallied past BYU. Will any of these teams finish with less than 2 losses? The only undefeated teams are Cal, UCLA, Utah, and Arizona.
SEC
LSU, Georgia, and Ole Miss were the clear SEC winners this week while Auburn, Alabama, Arkansas, and Missouri were the clear losers. As for Florida and South Carolina, the rest of the country just doesn't even care about you anymore. All of a sudden, that LSU at Ole Miss game on 11/21 is looking to be pretty important. Does the winner take all in the West only to face Georgia for all the marbles? Maybe so.
Independents
Notre Dame, I just can't figure you out. You dominate, then your QB goes down and suddenly you suck, then you dominate again. I think that I like you better when you suck. BYU is looking pretty strong and guess where they play next week? Ruh Roh.
American
Memphis beat BGSU in the September bracket buster. They will most likely get wrecked by Ole Miss in a few weeks, but late season games at Houston and at Temple loom large. Also, last week I anointed Temple as a team to watch for a possible New Year's Six Bowl and then they barely squeak by UMass. Huh.
C-USA
LA Tech actually took Kansas State to OT and Middle Tenn State hung 73 on the new guy (UNC Charlotte). I guess Southern Miss over Texas State was also technically an upset. Why am I still typing about this conference?
MAC
The MAC didn't get a lot of good wins this week outside of Toledo over ISU and I guess Buffalo over FAU, but Central, Kent, UMASS, Miami(OH), and NUI all represented and covered the spread this week. MAC POWER!
Mountain West
The M-West failed to win any games this week against FBS opponents. I am sure Boise State is wondering if they can get into the Big 12 before it dissolves.
Sun Belt
South Alabama upset San Diego State, who was supposed to be the best team in the West Division. Somewhere Boise is shouting, "COME ON!"
I count 7 total upsets including the high profile upsets of Ole Miss over Bama, Stanford over USC, and Texas Tech over Arkansas. Although the initial spreads were tight, by my book Northwestern over Duke and Notre Dame over GA Tech were also upsets. In other news, it was a rough week against the spread for several other ranked and Big Ten teams as Oregon, TCU, Oklahoma, UCLA, Missouri, OSU, MSU, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and even Team Harbaugh failed to cover by over 10 points. On the winning side of the week was LSU, Oklahoma State, Georgia, UNC, and Virginia Tech, who all covered by more than 10 points. As for each conference:
Big Ten
As mentioned above, the top of the conference struggled a bit, and over all the conference lost the mini "ACC-Big Ten Challenge" by a margin of 2-3 based on wins by UNC over Illinois, VA Tech over Purdue, and Miami over Nebraska. But NW was the only team to actually get an upset win, so on some level the Big Ten actually over-achieved here at least a little. Indiana and Maryland actually won, so I am going to go ahead and call this a fair week for the Big Ten. Oh, and we learned that Rutgers IS actually worse than PSU.
ACC
As mentioned above, the ACC did win the mini-challenge with the Big Ten, which is something ACC basketball hasn't done since 2008. Florida State shut out BC, but only put up 14 points doing it, Clemson struggled with Louisville, and GA Tech got trucked by Notre Dame. All-in-all, I am not sure this is a league deserving of a play-off bid. If Notre Dame takes care of Clemson on 10/3, I think their hopes would be dim. The only problem there is that the Irish might just take their spot.
Big 12
Let's see... the good news is that Texas Tech beat Arkansas, which means another angel gets their wings, and OK State finally showed some life by destroying poor Texas San Antonio. But, the did-not-cover bug bit Oklahoma, TCU, and Kansas State (who needed OT to beat LA Tech). Also, Texas loses to Cal on a missed extra point and Iowa State becomes the second consecutive Power 5 team to fall to Toledo. I think that Baylor and WVU had the right idea by just taking the week off.
Pac 12
The Pac 12 also had a little trouble covering this week, but the big news is clearly Stanford taking out USC. With road games coming up at Notre Dame, Oregon, and Arizona State, I doubt that we see the Trojans in the Final Four. Now that Stanford is showing some life, their schedule has suddenly opened up. Their toughest road game left? Colorado. Really? That being said, Arizona, UCLA, Oregon, and Notre Dame all still need to travel to Palo Alto. Elsewhere in LA this weekend, UCLA rallied past BYU. Will any of these teams finish with less than 2 losses? The only undefeated teams are Cal, UCLA, Utah, and Arizona.
SEC
LSU, Georgia, and Ole Miss were the clear SEC winners this week while Auburn, Alabama, Arkansas, and Missouri were the clear losers. As for Florida and South Carolina, the rest of the country just doesn't even care about you anymore. All of a sudden, that LSU at Ole Miss game on 11/21 is looking to be pretty important. Does the winner take all in the West only to face Georgia for all the marbles? Maybe so.
Independents
Notre Dame, I just can't figure you out. You dominate, then your QB goes down and suddenly you suck, then you dominate again. I think that I like you better when you suck. BYU is looking pretty strong and guess where they play next week? Ruh Roh.
American
Memphis beat BGSU in the September bracket buster. They will most likely get wrecked by Ole Miss in a few weeks, but late season games at Houston and at Temple loom large. Also, last week I anointed Temple as a team to watch for a possible New Year's Six Bowl and then they barely squeak by UMass. Huh.
C-USA
LA Tech actually took Kansas State to OT and Middle Tenn State hung 73 on the new guy (UNC Charlotte). I guess Southern Miss over Texas State was also technically an upset. Why am I still typing about this conference?
MAC
The MAC didn't get a lot of good wins this week outside of Toledo over ISU and I guess Buffalo over FAU, but Central, Kent, UMASS, Miami(OH), and NUI all represented and covered the spread this week. MAC POWER!
Mountain West
The M-West failed to win any games this week against FBS opponents. I am sure Boise State is wondering if they can get into the Big 12 before it dissolves.
Sun Belt
South Alabama upset San Diego State, who was supposed to be the best team in the West Division. Somewhere Boise is shouting, "COME ON!"
