Week 2 College Football Reflection

Last week I would have said there were five teams in college football that clearly stand above the rest. Well, this week that number has dwindled to four. Florida, Texas, USC, and Alabama seem to be the class after the second week. But, if the first two weeks are an indication of the trend of this season, then we shouldn't even bother speculating who are going to be the final two teams. Sure, right now the obvious contenders are Florida and Texas. However, while everyone else in the top ten has been challenging themselves with worthy opponents, these two teams have played absolute cupcakes. Lets take a look at these schedules:

(1) Florida:
Week 1- Charleston Southern W 62-3
Week 2- Troy W 56-6

(2) Texas:
Week 1- Louisiana Monroe W 59-20
Week 2- Wyoming W 41-10

Yes, both of these teams performed how they should have and completely dismantled these inferior opponents. But, my question is, how is this fair? During this two week span Oklahoma played BYU at a neutral site, Oklahoma State played Georgia and a game Houston squad, Alabama and Virginia Tech played a nuetral site game, USC and Ohio State collided, LSU and Cal both played BCS conference teams, and Boise State hosted then ranked Oregon. The argument that Texas and Florida would make is that their conferences are already so tough that they don't need those challenging out of conference games. Well, my response would be, "well, everyone else seems to do it." The other two teams I am going to call out for a soft out of conference schedule are Ole Miss and Penn State. Ole Miss gets a pass in my book because when these schedules were made their goal was simply to make a bowl. Ole Miss was not expecting to be a preseason top ten team. Texas and Florida definitely had a good idea they would be highly touted coming into the year. I digress to Penn State, who should be embarrassed of their out of conference schedule. The toughest out of conference team on their schedule is Syracuse, who went 3-9 last year, and Cuse now has a guy who hasn't played football in four years starting at quarterback. Let's pray that Ohio State can take care of them, or else Penn State will most likely be in the national championship. And this leads me to my next point.

The rankings are not updated correctly. If we are not rewarding teams for playing these brutal out of conference games, then they are going to stop playing them. As a fan I don't want to see that happen. Those who manage these polls should hold some sort of a workshop for the voters before the season takes place and tell voters to arrange their polls according to who looks the best, so far, on a weekly basis. This would include not making a preseason poll, those should be left to the preseason maganizes to entertain the fans. This would take into account who you have beaten, not how you have beaten cupcake teams that won't make a bowl. Florida did look good against Charleston Southern, beating them by 59. But, FCS Wofford played them the next week and won by 38. That win for Florida should be completely ignored. If I had a vote in the polls this is what it would look like.

1. USC- Beat Ohio State in a classic game AT Ohio State
2. Alabama- Ran all over a very good Virginia Tech defense
3. BYU- Beat defending runner-up Oklahoma at a nuetral site
4. Florida- Defending national champion
5. Texas- Easily could have played in national championship last year
6. Boise State- Defeated Oregon at home; defense looks improved
7. Ohio State- Very easily could have beat USC and be in top three
8. California- Whomped BCS opponent Maryland
9. LSU- Beat a much improved looking Washington team
10. Oklahoma- With Bradford, the BYU game could have gone differently
11. Georgia Tech- Got a big conference win against Clemson at home
12. Penn State- We are goin to have to wait a while to see how good they are
13. Ole Miss- Kind of squeaked by Memphis; that final score is deceiving
14. Virginia Tech- Lost to Alabama, but can't drop them too far for taking on that challenge
15. Houston- Beat Oklahoma State on the road
16. TCU- Beat a BCS conference team in Virginia, but UVA did lose to a FCS team
17. Oklahoma State- Beat Georgia, then lost to Houston
18. Cincinnati- Impressive opening week win over Rutgers
19. Miami (FL)- Offense looked much improved against rival FSU
20. Michigan- Great program win against very hyped Notre Dame
21. Nebraska- Looks improved, but we'll find out for sure this weekend against Virginia Tech
22. North Carolina- Good win one the road at Connecticut
23. Georgia- Avoided 0-2 start by pulling out a good win against South Carolina
24. Missouri- Didn't look great this weekend, could have been a letdown after beating rival IL
25. Baylor- Good start to the season winning at Wake Forest

We'll see how it all plays out this year, but after week two this is what the polls should look like.