After another week of college football, we are able to better understand the best teams this year but more importantly, rank the biggest losers.
Michigan State
What have I been saying since week 1? That’s right, Michigan State is garbage. I have been hammering non-stop for weeks about how Michigan State has been unjustly ranked since the college football season began. To put it into perspective, they were preseason ranked No. 11. At no point in this season have they deserved a spot in the rankings. To further clarify, let’s look at something I wrote in my college football biggest losers week 5 article;
“I want to start out by saying that the Michigan State Spartans are the biggest frauds in the rankings this year.”
It’s taken 6 weeks of pure mediocrity but my point has finally been made. On Saturday, the Spartans took a miserable 10-point loss to Northwestern, 29-19. Just as a reminder, Northwestern is the same team that previously lost to Akron and only had 1 win, which was against Purdue. Michigan State has been the biggest frauds in the rankings all season and a definitive loss to Northwestern was the perfect way to expose them as such.
Kansas State
Wildcats, what is going on? I don’t expect you to be the best football team in the Big 12 but I certainly don’t expect you to be the worst and at this point, you just might be. As the season has dragged along for Kansas State, the Wildcats have looked progressively more disappointing. Last weekend seemed to be the tipping point however as they took a 37-34 loss to Baylor.
Now, if this happened 3 years ago, that would have been a respectable outcome but this was against the 1-11 Matt Rhule Baylor. Granted, the Bears have definitely improved since last year but Baylor seems to be playing quality control for the Big 12 this year and Kansas State just showed everyone what kind of quality they have to offer. Like Wayne Graham for Rice baseball, I think it’s about that time Bill Snyder officially hands over the reins. At least the Kansas vs Kansas State rivalry game will be entertaining this year. Not for the competition obviously but to see which team is officially the worst in the Big 12.
SEC Contenders
This is an interesting addition to the list because it doesn’t necessarily show the weakness of the SEC but contrarily, that the SEC is too good. Of course, leave it to Rattlesnake to turn an SEC biggest losers segment into something positive but it’s true. Sure, you could call it SEC bias (even though I’m not even necessarily an SEC fan, just a realist preaching the truth) but I have a fair argument to be made. So, maybe just keep reading before you send me an angry tweet. Or, on second thought, just send the angry tweet. It won’t be the first or last I receive, I guarantee that.
Just like water, the SEC always seems to find a way to balance itself out. In such a competitive year for the entire SEC, it seemed like Alabama and Georgia might have some real competition for the East and West titles. Kentucky, LSU and Auburn all looked very capable of taking down the Tide or the Bulldogs. Unfortunately, all three of those schools happened to lose over the weekend.
As I previously mentioned, this actually shows just how good the SEC truly is because all of those great SEC schools lost to underrated SEC opponents. Kentucky took their first loss of the season to the criminally-unranked A&M Aggies, who have only lost to Alabama and Clemson this year, two of the best teams in college football. LSU also took their first loss of the season to No. 22 Florida and Auburn, who’s only loss previously came from LSU, lost to an extremely underrated Mississippi State team. While I think all 3 of these schools will still compete for their divisions, Alabama and Georgia just breathed a sigh of relief as they now remain the only undefeated teams in the SEC.
Miami
Every time you think Miami is back, they manage to make you doubt yourself. Last year, it was when the 10-0 Hurricanes lost to a 5-7 Pitt team, which lead to a 3-game losing streak. This year, Miami barely squeaked by with a 28-27 win over Florida State. Normally, that would sound impressive but this is not the FSU team we all once knew. This is the, losing to Syracuse, FSU team.
I initially wanted to rank Miami higher on my list of weekly losers for such an embarrassing performance to such an embarrassing opponent but after a discussion with Belly Up’s own, Jared Klim, I decided against it. To hear that discussion, I highly recommend checking out the entire Chairgatin’ podcast episode, which is posted above.
In summary, he made a valid argument that the silver lining to that game was the Canes witnessing the abilities of their new starting QB, N’Kosi Perry. In all fairness, Perry did lead an impressive late-3rd quarter to 4th quarter comeback as the Canes were down 27-7, scoring 21 unanswered points for the win. He also threw 4 TD’s and 0 interceptions. Regardless, my argument was that overall, a great Miami team wouldn’t have let the game even get to that point and that’s the Miami team they have been selling us on for a few years. Like I initially stated, Miami always seems to find a way to make you doubt them.
Honorable Mention: Rutgers – I’m well aware it comes as no surprise that Rutgers lost once again. I think it’s commonly accepted at this point, that they are the absolute worst team in any P5 conference. After last week’s letter to Big Ten Commissioner Jim Delany requesting they be removed from the conference however, I made a decision to somehow include Rutgers every week on my list of biggest losers until they win. After their performance over the weekend against Illinois, it looks like I will have a permeant spot for Rutgers on this list for the rest of the season. Truly an honor indeed.
