After another week of college football, we are able to better understand the best teams this year but more importantly, rank the biggest losers.
Big 12 Playoff Hopes
After Texas upset Oklahoma in the Red River Rivalry two weeks ago, they essentially upset the Big 12 by knocking off the conference’s highest ranked undefeated team. Not all hope was lost however as West Virginia still remained undefeated and appeared to look like a possible playoff dark horse. That is, until they lost to Iowa State over the weekend. That’s right, the same Iowa State that previously lost to Iowa, Oklahoma and the surprisingly disappointing TCU. The Mountaineers didn’t simply lose either. They were dismantled by the Cyclones, 30-14. Leave it up to a 3-loss Iowa State team to crash the Big 12 playoff party.
I know I’m going to get a few dummies reading this article thinking I forgot about the Longhorn’s possible playoff chance. I can see them especially triggered right now, internally ranting in their head, “Texas is back, Texas is back,” like that Farva lookalike from the Full Metal Jacket bathroom scene. Well, calm down Pte. Pyle, I’m aware Texas is currently leading the Big 12. In all fairness, they’re on one hell of a hot winning streak right now too. Beating Baylor by 7 points and Kansas State by 4 were especially impressive. The fact is however, I don’t think UT is going to get past back-to-back weeks against West Virginia and Texas Tech without a loss. Even if they do, are we really ok with a team that lost to Maryland being in the playoffs? My suggestion; get use to this 10-team conference beating the hell out of each other and continually missing the playoffs until they decide to either expand to just dissolve. My money’s on dissolve though.
Penn State
The Nittany Lions were truckin’ along nicely this year. They really impressed the world of college football with their early 4-0 record, as real conference contenders in such a strong year for the Big 10. They also really impressed voting members of the AP Poll and managed to climb all the way to No. 9. Surly, it was due to their huge early victories over notorious powerhouse programs such as Pitt, Kent State, Illinois and even Appalachian State in overtime. Penn State finally showed weakness however against Ohio State two weeks again in a close 27-26 loss. After only dropping 2 spots in the rankings however, their 1-loss season quickly came crashing down as they lost to Michigan State over the weekend.
Firstly, I would like to point out something important in the most respectful manner possible, of course. Michigan State sucks balls this year. There’s no getting around it. I have consistently ridiculed Michigan State all year as the biggest frauds in the rankings. Just to get a little taste, here’s something I said about the Spartans in my list of college football biggest losers from last week;
“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.”
Penn State is now Michigan State’s 4th win in a long and proud line of great accomplishments this season. The Spartans have beaten Utah State by 7 points, Indiana by 14 and Central Michigan by 11. They also lost to the 3-3 Arizona State and 3-3 Northwestern, who lost to Akron. Honestly, what about that schedule says rank me? Other than managing to lose to Ohio State by only 1 point, what about Penn State says the same thing? The Nittany Lions drastically fell 10 spots in the rankings down to No. 18 and rightfully so, even though I think that’s still too high. The real reason Penn State is number 2 on my list of biggest losers this week however is for letting Michigan State actually get ranked again. For that, their loss is all of our loss. At least they gave me some more hateful content for another week.
Pac-12
In case you have forgotten, the Pac-12 is technically still considered a “Power 5” conference, regardless of performance. This means, if one of their teams goes undefeated they will likely get a spot in the playoffs. Whatever chance the Pac-12 had for that to happen however, just went out the window as their last remaining undefeated team took their first loss. Over the weekend, Colorado lost to USC 31-20, in a fairly expected outcome. To further prove just how little respect the Pac-12 gets, after only 1 loss, Colorado has completely dropped out of the rankings. Even at 5-0 last week, the Buffaloes were only ranked No. 19.
Currently, the Pac-12 only has 3 ranked teams, the same amount as the “G5” American Athletic Conference. In fact, the AAC has a higher ranked team than any from the Pac. Last week the Pac’s highest ranked team was Washington at No. 7. That quickly changed however as the now 5-2 Huskies dropped to No. 15 after losing to Oregon over the weekend, the current highest ranked Pac team at No. 12. Overall, the Pac-12 is clearly just a P5 conference in name only. It’s like an honorary title given to the larger Western schools to help them feel like they are still better than the smaller schools in the MWC, even if they consistently lose to them every year. Honestly, what does it say about the “P5” Pac-12 conference when an AAC team has made a better argument of deserving a playoff spot, let alone national championship, more recently than any team from their conference?
Miami
Remember last week when I mentioned Miami’s obsession with making football fans doubt themselves the second they start to actually believe the Hurricanes will contend for something? Do you also remember last week’s Chairgatin’ podcast? You know, when my host Jared Klim argued that their 28-27 win over ACC bottom-feeder FSU was actually a good thing because it proved their freshman QB N’Kosi Perry was going to be great. In case you forgot, here’s a passage from my college football biggest losers article last week about the Canes;
“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.”
After losing 16-13 to 4-2 Virginia over the weekend, I think it’s safe to say, I was right. While I conceded to his point that Perry did a good job of pulling out a win over FSU, I also argued that Perry’s performance could have been one-shining moment of hope that may not last. After throwing for only 20 yards with 2 interceptions, Perry was quickly benched in the 2nd quarter for the Redshirt Senior, Malik Rosier. In all fairness, Rosier didn’t perform great either, throwing for 170 yards, 0 TDs and 1 interception but anything is better than the disaster Perry created. Rosier has been confirmed to return to his original position as starting QB for the Canes’ against Boston College this weekend.
The main problem doesn’t solely rely on the QB position for Miami however, as I previously stated. Just like a great team wouldn’t allow a close outcome against the very disappointing Florida State, they also wouldn’t lose 16-13 against a team that lost to Indiana. The outcome of the ACC looks like it is doomed to repeat itself with Virginia Tech most likely losing to the superior Clemson Tigers, assuming they defeat the undefeated NC State this weekend. Regardless, Miami is all but out of the equation at this point.
Georgia
This is two weeks in a row now that I have included an SEC segment in my college football biggest losers list. As I previously mentioned last week, LSU took their first loss to Florida, 27-19. Although I said the undefeated Alabama and Georgia breathed a sigh of relief as this great team took an unexpected loss, I failed to mention that the very next week Georgia would have to play the underappreciated Tigers in Baton Rouge. However, I also made sure to mention that LSU would still likely contend for the SEC title. This point seems to be holding strong as LSU took down the undefeated Georgia Bulldogs 36-16. Fear not though, “SEC-bias” Rattlesnake will surely find a way to turn this into a positive.
While some may claim this to be an example of the SEC being overhyped, I stand by my claim that this only proves the SEC is too good. The 5-1 Tigers dropped 8 spots in the rankings down to No. 13 after losing to the 5-1 Gaters. It’s my belief that this just proved how good Florida is this year. Similarly, LSU was immediately under ranked going into a winnable game against undefeated No. 2 Georgia. After their win, LSU is now rightfully ranked at No. 5 while UGA remains in the top 10 at No. 8. The SEC currently has 6 teams ranked in the top 25 with Auburn completely falling off after their unexpected second loss in a row. The only reason I included Georgia instead of Auburn for this biggest loser list, with their embarrassing loss to Tennessee, was because this will likely hurt UGA’s argument to get into the playoffs.
Nevertheless, the SEC definitely deserves to have at least 3 of the top 10 teams. I mean, Texas is in the top 10 for God’s sake. Matching the top 5 football programs of every conference, no one comes close to the level of competitiveness the SEC boasts. Hell, even the bottom 5 of the SEC would run through the bottom 5 of any other conference. With Ohio State appearing unstoppable, this national championship may not be another SEC title game but I’ll be damned to believe there are any other two divisions in college football more competitive than the SEC East and SEC West.
Honorable Mention: Rutgers – As promised in one of my previous lists of college football biggest losers, I will continue to include Rutgers because the Knights are consistently the biggest losers in college football. With yet another embarrassing conference beating to Maryland, Rutgers now holds a total of 5 Big Ten wins in the midst of their 5th season in the conference. Why exactly they were ever invited to join the prestigious Big Ten, no one may ever know. Nevertheless, I will continue to include Rutgers in my list of biggest losers until they win a game. So, this may last awhile.
