After another week of college football, we are able to better understand the best teams this year but more importantly, rank the biggest losers.
Pac-12
In case I haven’t mentioned it enough in my previous lists of biggest losers, the Pac-12 is an inherently inferior conference in terms of the P5. I mentioned in my last article how the Pac-12 is P5 in name only and already managed to lose any hopes at a playoff spot. Yet, the downfall for the conference continues.
The last time I discussed the mediocrity of the Pac-12, Colorado, the last remaining undefeated team in the conference, had just lost their first game to USC. Since then, the Buffaloes have lost 3 straight games, which most recently includes an OT loss to 2-6 Oregon State. The Pac even managed to lose the most teams from the rankings after the weekend. No. 15 Washington fell off after a 12-10 loss to unranked Cal, No. 19 Oregon dropped off after becoming Arizona’s fourth win of the season in a 44-15 loss and No. 24 Stanford took a 41-38 loss to No. 14 Washington State. Even USC is now 4-4 after a loss to Arizona State.
The Pac-12 now only has 2 ranked teams, No. 10 Washington State and No. 16 Utah. Not only have they nearly lost any possible chance of earning a playoff spot but they are performing on-par with G5 conferences instead of the P5 that they claim. The MWC currently has No. 18 Utah State and No. 20 Fresno State. The AAC is actually outperforming the Pac with No. 9 UCF and No. 17 Houston. I think I said it best in my last biggest losers article;
“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?”
State of Texas, Outside of Houston
The State that helms the best high school football recruits every year has been ironically struggling this year in college football. Here are the FBS schools in Texas that lost over the weekend: Baylor, Texas, Texas A&M, Texas Tech, TCU, SMU, Rice and UTEP. Here are the FBS Texas schools that won: Houston, UNT and Texas State. So yeah, not an ideal week for the state of Texas.
I’m not one that usually enjoys having to say, “I told you so,” but boy did I tell all of you dumb idiots the whole damn time. I’ve gotten used to hearing, “Texas is back,” because I like in Austin. Ever since they beat the now 3-5 TCU though, it’s all I’ve heard from national sports networks as if they have just been waiting to say it. The fact is, Texas was never “back” this year. They beat a clearly overrated TCU and USC and won a rivalry game that is historically prone to upsets. They haven’t had and single decisive win all season, not to mention their loss to Maryland. I think Texas is making slow progress but like I said in my last college football biggest losers article, they were never going to make the playoffs. I think my tweet from before the game says it best;
Texas lost to Maryland, beat Tulsa by 7, Kansas St by 5 and Baylor by 6. UT beat 4-4 USC who just lost to ASU, 3-5 TCU who just lost to Kansas and OU in a rivalry that’s traditionally prone to upsets. If this is Texas being back than wtf was Mack doing?
— Chairgatin' (@chairgatin) October 28, 2018
Unlike the Longhorns, I don’t think anyone expected any more than what we are currently getting from the 4-4 Baylor. I am pretty disappointed with Texas Tech however after their loss to Iowa State. I expected a lot more from freshman QB Alan Bowman. He’s had a spectacular season so far but a 57 completion percentage with 1 TD and 3 interceptions is just embarrassing. SMU is pretty decent this year and put up a hell of a fight with the 1-loss Cincinnati in an overtime loss. The real disappointment however is TCU. Currently 3-5, the Horned Frogs just took a loss to Kansas. Now they know how Texas felt.
Rice and UTEP are two of the worst teams in college football so a loss is almost expected but Texas State, the third regular addition to that list, managed to get their second win of the season over New Mexico State. After taking their third loss to Mississippi State, A&M managed to barely hang into the rankings at No. 25 while No. 17 Houston is now the second highest ranked team in the state after beating No. 21 USF. After the last 4 seasons of the most consistent dominance in the state though, is anyone surprised by that anymore?
State of Florida, Outside of UCF
Just like Texas, Florida is slipping. It’s interesting that the two states with the best football recruits are now being run by an AAC team. Similar to the Lone Star State, the only school from Florida that didn’t move down in the rankings was an American Athletic team. Forget the SEC or Big 12, #P6.
Starting out with the most obvious, 4-4 Florida State is historically bad this year. In a matchup that is usually the best in the ACC, the Seminoles got destroyed by Clemson, 59-10. It’s clearly not a good start for Willie Taggart, especially when dealing with a fan base of unrealistic expectations like FSU. Unlike the collective absent expectations of the Seminoles this year, Miami has really made us all look like fools. After their second conference loss to BC over the weekend, the Canes are now 4th in the ACC Coastal behind Virginia, Virginia Tech and Pitt. Yes, you read that order correctly. Ever since their game against FSU, I have said Miami is clearly not as good as we expected them to be and that is become more and more evident. I think I summed it up best in my last article;
“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… Regardless, Miami is all but out of the equation at this point.”
Florida is a very solid team this year but for whatever reason, people actually expected them to beat Georgia. I guess it was because they are LSU’s only loss of the season so far and LSU beat Georgia so based on transitive property they should automatically win? I get it, the SEC is honestly too good this year so it’s really hard to pick who is going to win each week but Georgia is still a top-5 team in the nation. Either way, the SEC East has all but been determined. Unfortunately, USF completely dropped out of the rankings as the Bulls took their first loss of the season to Houston. Charlie Strong has been doing well down in South Florida but let’s be real; this was not the same USF team as last year. Although previously undefeated, they had some very questionable wins. Once again, the state of Florida is being run by UCF and it’s pretty hilarious.
Any ACC Competition for Clemson
Here are the ACC teams that are currently ranked and where; No. 2 Clemson, No. 22 Syracuse, No. 23 Virginia and No. 24 Boston College. Yes, you read that correctly and no, this is not basketball season. With regular conference competition like Florida State at 4-4 and Louisville 2-6, the ACC doesn’t know what the hell to do.
Usually you can count on Virginia Tech to at least put up some difficulty for another team to win the conference. After their 49-35 loss to Old Dominion however, the world of college football was left scratching their head. Since then, the Hokies managed to lose to Notre Dame and most recently, Georgia Tech. As possibility the biggest disappointment in college football of 2018, VaTech is now 4-3 and sitting behind Virginia for the ACC Coastal. There’s a solid chance they still end up playing Clemson for the conference championship but at this point they might just want to throw in the towel before the game even starts.
With 4 wins in a row over quality opponents such as Army, Northwestern and Baylor, Duke seemed like an ACC sleeper this year. Just like every other team in the ACC Coastal division however, we were all very wrong. At 5-3, the Blue Devils have taken back-to-back losses to UVA and Pitt. I’m honestly not sure what the hell is going on with Pitt since they seem to win games they aren’t supposed to but lose to teams like UNC. Just to make sure the ACC Atlantic is equally non-competitive however; Syracuse continued to level the playing field by beating NC State and knocking them out of the rankings entirely. The ACC is traditionally a mess so this shouldn’t be that surprising but at this point we should all just expect Louisville to get their first conference win this weekend by giving Clemson their first loss.
UConn
It should come as no surprise that UConn is impressively bad at football. This year, the Huskies have one win against Rhode Island. As a point of reference, Rhode Island lost to Stoney Brook this year 52-14. Head Coach Randy Edsall once had a fairly successful career at UConn before being let go after 5 disappointing seasons at Maryland. In Edsall’s second season back as HC for UConn, the Huskies have gone 4-16.
In only their 6th season as an FBS team, UMass has manage to win 3 games this season, the most recent against UConn. The Huskies now join the reputable list of Minutemen losers consisting of Duquesne and UNC Charlotte. With only 4 games left, I’m fairly certain UConn has essentially given up on this disaster of a season. Surely their fans have if nothing else as ticket sales were down to 13,000 at the beginning of the season. No doubt tickets have continued to plummet since then. I initially wanted to compare the Huskies to Kansas but that would be giving them far to much credit. Instead, as the New England based dark stain on a competitive conference, UConn is essentially the Rutgers of the AAC. The only difference is, UConn is at least good at sports other than football.
Honorable Mention: Rutgers – Per our weekly tradition, the Knights are once again the college football biggest losers. Even after a bye week, only Rutgers could sustain such an honorable title. The Knights take on Wisconsin this weekend and could hypothetically defeat the impressively disappointing Badgers. That would of course entail Rutgers to perform at even the least competitive level however; something the Knights haven’t been able to do. I have a feeling this honorary title will last at least the rest of the season with no end in sight.
