The college football season is in full swing, which means that it is time to see how things stack up now that the season is a quarter of the way finished.

The contending teams in the country are beginning to separate themselves from the pretenders and we are beginning to gain insight as to which teams are capable of making a playoff run. Your sports editors are taking a look at the wild week 3 in football and discussing who has impressed or failed to live up to expectations.

Chris:

Going into this season, the defending national champions Ohio State were the consensus number one team in the country. Going into week five Ohio State has been able to keep their place at number one, going 4-0 on the season. Despite a close game against Northern Illinois, Ohio State has not shown any signs of giving up their number one ranking in the country.

Now, other than Ohio State, the rest of the teams in the AP top 25 rankings have been in constant fluctuation.

For example, Oregon, who was ranked seventh in the nation during preseason, has now completely fallen out of the top 25 rankings. Oregon lost an embarrassing game at home on Saturday night to Utah, with a score of 62-20. This loss knocked Oregon out of the top 25 for the first time since 2009.

Oregon is not the only team to lose their spot in the rankings. Alabama, a college football powerhouse and yearly favorite to win the national title, fell out of the top five rankings, falling all the way to 13 in the AP rankings.

While some teams lost their rankings, others improved greatly.

For example, Michigan was written off by most fans and experts, being that this is coach Jim Harbaugh’s (former coach of the San Francisco 49ers) first year as head coach. The team was unranked going into the season. However, Harbaugh has defied the odds and Michigan is currently 3-1 on the season and is ranked twenty-second in the AP top 25.

The SEC (Southeastern Conference) is considered by many to be the best conference in all of college football. The conference is home to teams like Texas A&M, Alabama, Auburn, LSU, South Carolina, Florida and more. Some experts have said that the SEC is not as big a powerhouse as some think. The SEC has proven the sceptics wrong this season.

At one point, the SEC had 10 teams ranked in the AP top 25, including all of the SEC Western Division. The SEC currently has seven teams in the top 25 and the conference does not seem to be slowing down anytime soon.

The PAC-12 Conference has also looked very good despite the play of powerhouse Oregon. The conference currently has five teams in the top 25.

The college football season still has a long way to go. There is plenty of time for teams to work their way in or out of the college football playoffs. The way this season is turning out the second year of the college football playoffs could be a very interesting one.

Shareik:

What an exciting weekend it was for college football. There were great games around the country and some notable upsets.

The biggest upset of the weekend was undeniably Utah’s trashing of Oregon.

Utah’s 62-20 win over Oregon in Oregon is remarkable and indicative of Utah’s realistic playoff chances. The Utes pounded the ball on the Ducks’ defense all game and the Ducks had no response. The Ducks’ pass defense was non-existent all game and allowed five touchdowns through the air in the game. The 42-point defeat was an embarrassing loss for the Ducks and knocked the team out of the top 25—its first time out of the poll since 2009.

While the Utah-Oregon game was a blowout, the TCU and Texas Tech game was the opposite. TCU was on upset alert but managed to squeak a 55-52 victory over unranked Texas Tech. TCU’s inability to contain Texas Tech’s rushing attack almost doomed the Horned Frogs.

TCU allowed Texas Tech’s DeAandre Washington to run for 188 yards and four touchdowns on the day. Washington found open gaps in TCU’s defense all game and almost lifted his team to the upset victory. Had it not been for TCU’s Josh Doctson who had a career day with 288 receiving yards and four touchdowns, TCU would have probably suffered its first loss of the season.

A few others teams had their share of scares too. 14th ranked Texas A&M narrowly beat Arkansas in a game that required overtime play. Texas A&M escaped with a one touchdown victory and now faces three consecutive opponents who are all ranked in the top 25—including third-ranked Ole Miss.

Although a few of the premier teams in the country had difficulties securing a win, not all of the top 25 ranked teams had trouble this past Saturday. Fifth ranked Baylor washed Rice University with a 70-17 win. Starting quarterback Seth Russel finished that game with 277 yards and a staggering six touchdowns. The reigning national champion Ohio State Buckeyes had a 38-12 win over the terribly mismatched Western Michigan Broncos.

Ohio State has looked impressive thus far and looks to capture another title this season.

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