“The Power 5 conference members have no business playing anyone but each other.” You might have heard a variant of this argument at some point during the college football off-season, and one could easily make this observation based on some of the results of this weekend’s games. For example, just considering ranked teams (rankings were as of last week’s games):
- #2 Alabama rolled up 620 yards and gave up 145 against Florida Atlantic in a game stopped halfway through the fourth quarter due to lightning. Alabama won 41-0.
- #4 Oklahoma at least went to Tulsa to put up their outlandish numbers, as opposed to taking on the Golden Hurricane at home. They rolled up 580 yards and won 52-7.
- #5 Auburn had over 250 yards twenty minutes into their game against San Jose State. They could have had more, but they lost the chance to start a drive because they returned a Spartan punt for a touchdown. They ended up with 493, and won 59-13.
- #9 Texas A&M ran 78 plays against Lamar. 30 of them went for first downs as the Aggies rolled up 630 total yards in a 73-3 win.
- #10 Baylor had 438 yards passing, 538 yards total, and 49 points against Northwestern State at halftime. They slowed down to end up with 720 yards in a 70-6 win.
- #12 LSU obliterated Sam Houston State 56-0 as the Tigers amassed 590 yards, and because Les Miles is Les Miles, also faked a punt.
- #23 Clemson outgained South Carolina State by almost 700 yards. They had 735, the third-largest total in school history, and only gave up 44. They won 73-7.
- #25 Louisville led their game against Murray State 45-7 at halftime. They won 66-21 and rolled up 603 total yards.
But it doesn’t have to end up that way. Ask Nevada, which beat Washington State 24-13. Or Central Michigan, who beat Purdue 38-17. Or Northern Illinois, who knocked off Northwestern 23-15. And there were several close calls: McNeese State, San Diego State, Eastern Washington, and Ball State almost pulled off big upsets over #19 Nebraska, #21 North Carolina, Washington, and Iowa respectively. Or ask North Dakota State. The three-time defending champion of FCS currently hold a five-game winning streak against the big boys, with wins over Kansas State, Minnesota, and most recently Iowa State in week 1 of this year. Sometimes the little guy takes home more than a paycheck.
Two amazing streaks were snapped Saturday night in the Big Ten. With a 31-0 loss to Notre Dame, Michigan’s streak of scoring in games was snapped at 365, an NCAA record. The Wolverines had not been shut out since 1984, a 26-0 loss to Iowa. The longest active streak now belongs to Florida, at 323 games. Ohio State lost to Virginia Tech 35-21, which broke a string of 35 straight seasons in which the Buckeyes won their opening home game. The last Ohio State opening home loss was in 1978, 19-0 against Penn State.
Congratulations to Rudy Ruettiger, who wins week 2 with 251 points, missing just one game! Second place for the week was a tie between gatorbamalover, Bronson, and Bamagirl25, who scored 249 points.
Overall standings after 2 weeks:
| 1st | gatorbamalover | 501 |
| 2nd | Bamagirl25 | 499 |
| 3rd | JHutto | 498 |
| T-4th | JagRag | 497 |
| T-4th | Ross | 497 |
| T-4th | War Ralphie | 497 |
| T-4th | Crimson Gator | 497 |
| T-8th | AUBrian | 496 |
| T-8th | pachyderm | 496 |
| T-8th | AUTiger | 496 |
Once again, this week’s games do not feature many matchups between top-25 teams. However, it is a pretty good week as far as intersectional “Power 5” games are concerned. Three good examples: Purdue plays Notre Dame, Tennessee travels to Oklahoma, and UCLA heads to Austin to take on Texas. The first game this week is Houston at BYU, Thursday, September 11 @ 9 ET, so make sure to get your picks in by then!