FCS/1AA

-Appalachian State had been the media darlings of college football after their upset win over Michigan. They are now behind the eight ball a little bit since they lost their conference opener 42-31 to Wofford over the weekend. Appy State turned it over three times, including a fumbled punt early in the second half which gave Wofford great field position and enabled them to score the go-ahead touchdown. Wofford only lost one conference game last year, and that was to Appalachian State. Winning this game also gives Wofford the tiebreaker if both teams finish with the same record. The Southern Conference is one of eight leagues that have automatic bids to the FCS Playoffs. Eight teams are chosen as at-larges and Appalachian State is still alive as far as that goes, but this is a setback considering that the playoffs are played at campus sites.

Appalachian State had been receiving votes in the AP Poll. That isn’t very likely to continue.

-North Dakota State blew out Central Michigan 44-14. Central Michigan was a bowl team last year and picked by many to contend for the MAC Title this year. They are just 1-3 on the year and really haven’t looked all that good other than that one win against Toledo. I guess if they were going to win one game that was the one to win. They’re 1-0 in conference play, but if they don’t play any better than they did this past week they may end up 1-11. They did undergo a coaching change with Brian Kelly leaving for Cincinnati. They have not adjusted all that well.


HARRIS POLL OUT

-As predicted, there is very little difference between the Harris Poll and the other human polls. They don’t release it until after the fourth week of the season, and the logic behind that is that a team will not have their national title chances hurt because they were ranked too low in the preseason. It’s my opinion that this isn’t working. All the voters are probably looking at the Coaches’ and AP Polls anyway and that is obviously influencing their votes.


REMAINING UNBEATENS

-The number of unbeatens is now down to 23. Cincinnati, Kansas and Connecticut are the only three remaining unbeaten teams that are not ranked in the Harris Poll or the Coaches’ Poll. Cincinnati is #27 in both, but Connecticut isn’t even receiving any votes at all. Connecticut hadn’t really beaten anybody significant before this week and many weren’t expecting them to beat Pittsburgh. The Huskies got it done, though in a decisive 34-14 win against Pitt. Pitt fans can’t be too happy about that.

-It’s still possible for as many as eight teams to end the season with perfect records.

-Texas A&M fell from the ranks of the unbeaten when Miami, FL defeated them 34-17. The game wasn’t as close as the score indicated. It’s a big statement win for Miami and it gets the Canes to 3-1 on the season. After going just 6-6 last year the Canes had sort of fallen out of the national scene.

-Tulsa was blown out by Oklahoma in a result that surprised no one. What’s interesting about that game is that it was one of just two games that featured two undefeated teams. Tulsa did look impressive on offense at times and even jumped out to a very early 7-0 lead. It was all Sooners after that, though. Close to 1,000 Tulsa students actually camped out in the stadium. It’s not every day that Tulsa gets to host a team that’s ranked as high as Oklahoma and I guess the fans wanted to make the most of it.

-South Carolina at LSU was the other game that featured two unbeatens. South Carolina got on the board early, but LSU followed that up with 28 straight points and that was all they needed. They held on to win 28-16 and held on to their #2 ranking in both polls.

-Georgia at Alabama turned out to be an overtime thriller. The Tide held on to win a close game in the final seconds last week, but couldn’t do the same this week. They did a good job to force overtime, but couldn’t get over the top. It’s a big win for Georgia. It looks as though they’ve recovered nicely from the loss to South Carolina and appear to still be contenders in the SEC East.

-Indiana went down at home to Illinois 27-14 in their conference opener. The Illini have actually looked pretty good this season. They’re currently 3-1 with their only loss being in the opener to Missouri, which was a game they really should have won. Indiana is now 3-1 as well, but still appears to be on pace to make a bowl game.

-Michigan took down Penn State 14-9. Penn State was favored, but this really isn’t that big of a surprise. Michigan did start off 0-2, but Oregon is clearly better than everyone thought at the time. It’s also evident that Michigan struggles against the spread offense, but since no one in the Big Ten runs the spread they are going to be able to compete. Penn State hasn’t really been overly impressive this year either.

-Texas Tech fell to Oklahoma State in an offensive shootout 49-45. This was surprising considering how poor Oklahoma State had looked in recent weeks, and how good Texas Tech had looked. It’s a nice win for the Cowboys because a lot of their fans were really down on them after they were blown out by Troy last week.

-Air Force was beaten rather handily by BYU 31-6. It’s not surprising that BYU won because they are much better than their record indicates, but Air Force has looked really good this season as well.

-That means that Hawaii is the only remaining unbeaten non-BCS team. I personally think that there are about two or even three teams from the Mountain West that are as good or better than Hawaii. It’s just that the Warriors don’t play anyone all that challenging so they have the best chance of running the table and making a BCS Bowl.



OTHER ACTION FROM THE WEEKEND

-Louisville followed up their disappointing loss to Kentucky a week ago by playing much worse against a much poorer Syracuse team and losing their conference opener 38-35. Syracuse actually led 38-21 late, but two late Louisville touchdowns made the score a little more respectable. The loss to Kentucky was not nearly as big a surprise as the loss to Syracuse. Syracuse was 1-13 in their last 14 conference games and was 0-3 on the year. Not only that, but they didn’t come close to winning any of the games this year. The Cardinal fans were not happy. They booed loudly at halftime, and about 75% of them left early.

-One of the more exciting games of the day was Wyoming’s come from behind win against Ohio. Both teams are trying to build up their programs and make bowls this year, so it was a big game in that aspect even if it didn’t impact the BCS. Ohio had a 23-6 lead at one point, but Wyoming came storming back to win 34-33. A big shout out to Ohio place-kicker Mic Braunstein who made four big field goals from pretty far out. I’m sure a lot of BCS contenders would like to have a kicking game as solid as that. Ohio falls to 2-2 and Wyoming improves to 3-1. A bowl is still within reach for both teams.

-Virginia jumped out to a big lead against Georgia Tech and held on to pick up a huge win 28-23. Virginia was beaten rather handily in their first game by Wyoming, but they have not lost since and beat a pretty strong Georgia Tech team today that many expected to contend for the divisional title. The Cavaliers can now consider themselves ACC contenders. They are 3-0 in the league and will likely be favored in their next three games, all of which are out of conference.

-Akron scored 17 points in the fourth quarter to beat Kent State 27-20. It was a big win as far as the MAC standings go, and it puts Akron in the driver’s seat of the East Division. Both division winners in the MAC are generally invited to bowl games.

-Florida struggled at Mississippi, but managed to hold on to win 30-24. After seeing the Gators and the Sooners I think Oklahoma is definitely deserving of the higher ranking. For that matter, perhaps West Virginia is as well.

-For the fourth straight week Notre Dame was unimpressive on offense and was beaten handily. Michigan State got the 31-14 win to remain unbeaten. The win was also enough to get Michigan State into the polls, although they really haven’t looked all that good from what I’ve seen. Beating Notre Dame should hardly be considered impressive this year.

-Kentucky got a huge win against Arkansas to remain unbeaten on the year. This is a very good Arkansas team who was coming off a close loss to Alabama, so they had a lot to play for. The loss makes it virtually impossible for the Razorbacks to keep pace with LSU in the SEC West. I wouldn’t go so far to say that Kentucky will contend for the East, but they are 1-0 in the league, unbeaten on the year, and a top 25 caliber team that should make it to a nice bowl game if they keep it up.

-Utah was beaten badly by UNLV, who is widely considered to be among the worst in the Mountain West. Utah’s only win was their blowout against UCLA. That doesn’t make UCLA look all that good.

-UCLA was able to bounce back though. They beat Washington 44-31, which is no small thing because it keeps the Bruins unbeaten in Pac Ten play, and Washington has looked like a pretty solid team this year.

-Cincinnati defeated Marshall to improve to 4-0, which is their best start since 1954. They play a struggling San Diego State team next week and should be able to improve to 5-0.

-Wisconsin struggled to beat Iowa in a 17-13 thriller. It was a big game because Iowa does not play Ohio State or Michigan this year, and due to the Big Ten having a tiebreaker where the most recent conference champion loses the tie, it looked as though the Hawkeyes could compete for the title. This was a game they really had circled, but they couldn’t get it done despite the good effort. Had Iowa played like this against Iowa State last week they would have won by about four touchdowns…maybe more.

-USC, Texas, Ohio State, Oregon and California all won big to remain unbeaten.



YOU MAY NOT HAVE REALIZED…

-Duke blew a fourth quarter lead and ended up losing to Navy on a last second field goal. Duke’s win last week against Northwestern was their first against a 1A/FBS team since 2004. A win against Navy would have given Duke their first back-to-back wins against 1A/FBS since 1997. Coincidentally, Duke’s two wins came against Army and Navy that year.

-Western Kentucky’s win over Middle Tennessee marks their first official win over an FBS school as an FBS team. WKU will be in the Sun Belt next year. Middle Tennessee and Western KY have a strong rivalry in basketball, so one would assume they will develop a strong football rivalry as well.

-There are 11 teams that have yet to win a game. Middle Tennessee, Notre Dame and Rice are the only three winless teams that went to bowls last year.

-Nebraska was lucky to escape Ball State in their 41-40 win. Nebraska doesn't look like a top 25 team, but Ball State may be better than what we realize. They are 2-2 this season and both losses were by just one point. They won three of their last four games last season with the only loss being a 34-26 loss to #2 Michigan. Their next three games are at home against Buffalo, Central Michigan and Western Kentucky. Ball State will likely be favored in all three of those games.



MY TOP 25, WHICH HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH THE BCS

1. USC
2. LSU
3. Oklahoma
4. West Virginia
5. Florida
6. Ohio State
7. Texas
8. Oregon
9. California
10. Boston College
11. Wisconsin
12. Clemson
13. Rutgers
14. South Carolina
15. Kentucky
16. Georgia
17. South Florida
18. Alabama
19. Cincinnati
20. Virginia Tech
21. Arizona State
22. Purdue
23. Kansas
24. Michigan State
25. Missouri

No UConn?????????????????????????

Edit: We recieved three votes in the AP and 24 in the Harris.