College Football Biggest Losers: Week 5

After another week of college football, we are able to better understand the best teams this year but more importantly, rank the biggest losers.

1) BYU

Just when you thought they were back, the Mormons did it again! After an impressive start to the season with a win over Arizona, close loss to Cal and a huge upset over Wisconsin, BYU had most of the college football world convinced they were probably back to their old ways of taking down P5 house-hold names. Oh how those trickster Mormons pulled a fast one on us all!

I’m not really even sure how it happened but BYU managed to look like an FCS team playing Washington in week 1. I mean, nothing against the Huskies. They seem like a competitive team and probably even the best in the Pac but how does a team that beat Wisconsin lose 35-7 to any team? Other than Alabama of course because let’s be honest, that is essentially an NFL team. BYU fell hard from grace after that loss, from No. 20 to completely dropping out of the rankings. Based on this performance with remaining games against teams like Hawaii, Northern Illinois, Boise State and Utah, the Cougars might be fighting just to get into a bowl game at the end of the season. A far cry from their expectations after that Wisconsin win.

2) Stanford

Ever since the inclusion of the playoff system it seems the Pac-12 has been popularly considered the weakest of the P5 conferences. On Saturday, Notre Dame further proved that argument by chopping down the Stanford Cardinal tree, 38-17.  As previously one of the last remaining undefeated Pac teams, as well as highest nationally ranked, Stanford was the main beacon of hope to represent the commonly overlooked conference. So, this is pretty much the worst case scenario for such a highly anticipated matchup.

After squeaking by with a 38-31 comeback win over No. 19 Oregon during ESPN College GameDay the week before, Stanford set themselves at the helm of the Pac-12 spotlight. As the No. 7 Cardinal travelled to Indiana to take on the undefeated No. 8 Notre Dame, the Pac was quickly exposed as frauds. That’s not to say I think the entire Pac-12 conference is garbage, necessarily. I think Washington is a legitimate team and I still think Stanford is good.

The main problem lies with teams like Cal getting ranked for being 3-0 with wins over UNC, BYU and Idaho State. If a G5 team was undefeated with that same schedule there is no way they would be ranked. The Pac-12 has become essentially a middle man between the top competitive conferences and the American Athletic Conference. I’m done hearing about SEC cupcake schedules when their in-conference games are against playoff contenders almost every week. From here on out, the Pac-12 should have to prove themselves with only P5 matchups.

3) G5 New Year’s Bowl Hopefuls

The G5 conferences still have their defending, “national champion,” representatives rolling through the ranking, as No. 12 UCF collected their 17^th consecutive win over the weekend. Although the Golden Knights appear almost as unstoppable as Alabama at this point, there were still a few promising G5 teams with sights on that sweet, sweet G5 New Year’s (consolation) Bowl spot, that essentially ruined any hope they once had.

UNT actually appeared to be real contenders for the bowl spot this year as they ran through their schedule with decisive wins over SMU and even Arkansas. That all came to a halt this weekend as they unexpectedly took their first loss to Louisiana Tech, 29-17. I guess the Mean Green only has themselves to be mad at now. Although Hawaii has one loss this year to Army, they have beaten competitive teams such as Colorado State and Navy. It may seem odd that I am including the Rainbow Warriors on this list of losers for week 5 since they didn’t lose over the weekend but beating San Jose State 44-41 in overtime essentially equals a loss in my eyes. To put into perspective, San Jose State has yet to win a game this year and even opened their season with a loss to UC Davis.

As a competitive team in the AAC, Memphis is notoriously considered an early contender for the NY bowl spot but with their second loss already of the season, they are officially out of the discussion. A 22-21 loss playing at Navy is understandable but losing to Tulane 40-24, to be only their 2^nd win of the season, is never ok. Looks like UCF is losing any real threats for that bowl spot by the waist side every week.

4) Louisville

The team that opened their season against Alabama, just to prove how absolutely dangerous the Tide was going to be once again, turned out to be possibly the worst team in the ACC. That’s right, Louisville, a team added to the ACC specifically to increase the conference’s football value, is now probably the worst team in the conference. By finding a way to lose to Florida State in arguably the Seminoles worst season since the ‘70s, Louisville solidified the fear their fans already had of officially being a 2018 ACC bottom-feeder.

To be fair, the ACC is weirdly competitive this year with teams like Duke, Boston College and even Syracuse rising to the top. That being said, Louisville is also actually just that bad this year. The only wins they have so far are against Indiana State, 31-7, and Western Kentucky, 20-17. After losing to the Seminoles over the weekend, the Cards are now 0-2 in conference play which includes a 27-3 loss to Virginia. No offense to the Cavaliers but they’re not an ACC team you should be losing to, especially that badly. In fact, UVA and FSU were probably two of Louisville’s easiest ACC opponents they were set to face this year.

Florida State is impressively bad and Louisville held a 7-point lead going into half. By the 4^th quarter however, FSU scored 14 unanswered points to win the game. Looking ahead at their schedule, I personally don’t think they are going to get any more than 1 more win this year; resulting in a 3-win season. Their bowl hopes this year are looking far too similar to their conference record.

5) Big Ten East

It may seem odd to include the Big Ten East in this list of biggest losers for week 5, especially considering all their teams that should have won, did. Not to mention, it’s clearly the superior division compared to the vastly disappointing Big Ten West. That being said, I have a duty to perpetuate my bias opinion ever since I wrote about the Big Ten being overrated. So, you shouldn’t be surprised to find something Big Ten related on this list of biggest losers pretty much any given week.

I want to start out by saying that the Michigan State Spartans are the biggest frauds in the rankings this year. They barely snuck by with a 38-31 win over Utah State in week 1 and lost to ASU (who is no longer even ranked) the very next week, 16-13. They beat Indiana which means pretty much nothing and over the weekend beat Central Michigan, 31-20, and actually went up 1 spot in the rankings to No. 20. Need I remind you, Central Michigan lost to Kansas 31-7 a few weeks ago and only has 1 win. No. 4 Ohio State pulled out an excellent comeback in the 4^th quarter of a very exciting game to beat No. 9 Penn State. Although this is just further proof that Ohio State probably won’t lose a game this year, I don’t think Penn State was ever a top 10 team. Head Coach James Franklin said it best;

“Right now, we’re comfortable being great. We’re a great program and we lost to an elite program. We’re that close.”

Thankfully, Michigan at least went down 1 spot in the rankings this week after pulling out a 4^th quarter comeback-win over Northwestern, 20-17. That’s right, the same 1-3 Northwestern that lost to Akron a week before. I’ve been claiming the Wolverines are frauds as well, ever since week 1. The problem with the Big Ten is that the ranked teams are rarely tested because the rest of the Big Ten is garbage. I’m seeing at least 3 more loses on Michigan’s schedule, maybe even 4.

Last but absolutely least, I have to mention that the Big Ten East still has to claim Rutgers; the stain on the Big Ten name and perennial P5 pretenders. Definitely the worst college football team in a P5 conference, which they proved this year after a 55-14 loss to Kansas, Rutgers managed to lose to Indiana over the weekend in what is shaping up to be yet another winless Big Ten season.

Dear Big Ten Commissioner Jim Delany,

It’s still not too late to take back that Big Ten invitation you gave to Rutgers and admit it was a mistake; or at least a very long, humorless joke. It’s only been 4 years and I think everyone would understand at this point.