Who Should Be College Football’s Number One? You Tell Me

If you weren’t around to digest all of the action in college football this weekend, well, sorry.  Week 3 of the season brought the first (and probably not the last) Saturday of wild and wacky happenings, as Ole Miss beat Alabama, Ohio State looked ready to lose to Northern Illinois, and SEC West ex-hopefuls Auburn and Arkansas withered against LSU and Texas Tech, respectively.  And while there weren’t exactly that many upsets, per se, this Saturday just felt… different.

This is why it was different: virtually every team in the top 10 got tested in some fashion.  #1 ranked Ohio State was pushed to the brink by the pesky Huskies of Northern Illinois.  For basically the entire game, the Bucks looked terrible, and even made a QB change from Cardale Jones to JT Barrett in the second quarter; Jones threw two picks in the early going.  It’s worth noting that they did win 20-13, but so many questions remain for the defending champs.

As for Alabama, they encountered an even worse fate.  They would be dispatched by Ole Miss in a tight, high-scoring, and rather long 43-37 affair.  While Ole Miss did have some luck in pulling off the upset (see play below), the Tide were dominated and were down 43-24 in the late going.

TCU also had to deal with a test, this one against in-state rival SMU.  At home, the Horned Frogs let the Mustangs pull within five with just over eight minutes to play in the fourth quarter.  While Gary Patterson’s team was able to pull away late, SMU did have the ball with a chance to take the lead and six minutes to play; however, they would turn it over on downs, and TCU survived.

As for the other major upset, #6 ranked USC was toppled by perennial foe Stanford at home; the Cardinal, after being left for dead after a stunning opening week loss to Northwestern, have crept back into the AP Top 25 at #21.  They won the game against USC by controlling the ball in the second half and limiting the potent Trojan offense to just 20:31 of possession for the game.

The other top 10 teams (Michigan State, Georgia, Notre Dame, Florida State, UCLA) all won, and #5 Baylor was off.  And even that being said, last Saturday certainly did not disappoint.

But it also left us with a serious conundrum: who should be #1?

If you like sticking with the status quo, then you’re probably going with Ohio State.  And if you’re going with Ohio State, then… I’m sorry. I would strongly disagree with you.

They just don’t look good.  They sleepwalked through their second straight home win Saturday (they turned in a similarly sleepy performance against Hawaii in a 31-0 win the week before) and it looks like they will be facing the same curse that has befallen every team (other than Alabama) this side of 1995 Nebraska; the curse of trying to become a repeat champion.

And, as Stewart Mandel of Fox Sports writes, it isn’t happening this year, either:

Alas, it appears we will go yet another season without seeing college football’s elusive unicorn – The Unbeatable Preseason No. 1 Team. Following in the footsteps of 2005USC, 2009 Florida, 2013 Alabama and 2014 Florida State, 2015 Ohio State appears to be yet another ostensibly loaded defending national champ that, it turns out, has issues just like everyone else.

Mind you, the Buckeyes’ are particularly puzzling. How does an offense with Cardale Jones, J.T. Barrett, Ezekiel Elliott,Braxton Miller, Michael Thomas and four veteran O-lineman score just 13 points against Northern Illinois? Like those aforementioned teams, Ohio State will likely remain a contender into December but hardly the overwhelming favorite it appeared a couple of weeks ago.

This should serve to us as a lesson of how difficult it is to repeat in sports.  And Ohio State won’t be doing it this year, so why make them #1 now?

As for Michigan State, they have a case, but not a strong one.  While they moved up to #2 in this week’s poll (leap frogging TCU for no particular reason), they haven’t looked overly impressive, either, save for a strong game against Oregon in East Lansing on September 12. Western Michigan and Air Force both played them well, and this may be something to remember as Sparty gets into its conference slate. But if they and the Buckeyes can both win out against fairly easy schedules, it could set up a Game of the Century in Columbus on November 21.  Stay tuned.

The aforementioned Horned Frogs have also looked somewhat uninspired, and, other than a cupcake game against Stephen F. Austin, have been pushed by Minnesota and SMU.  It should be duly noted that Minnesota, whom TCU beat on the road on the season’s opening night, has beaten Colorado State and Kent State in its last two games by a combined total of six points.  That being said, I would actually put them at #1, if only for this week.  They have most of the players back from last year’s squad and have come to play in both of their games.  Their defense is nowhere good enough to win or even compete for a national title right now, but they have a track record and a history of success with the players currently on the team. While their defense has been disappointing, their offense looks as if it is firing on all cylinders, and most importantly, they have passed the eye test so far in this young season.

And as for the other team I would put in my top 4 for this week? Baylor.  Yes, they haven’t looked great either, but, again, track record must be absolutely critical when ranking teams.  And after all, I picked Baylor to win the national title, so that has to bear some consideration, right?  Only kidding.

Yes, Ole Miss did look dominant against Alabama, but to be very honest with you, I thought Alabama was overrated in the first place. They should have never been as high as #2 and, by extension, Ole Miss shouldn’t be as high as tied for third in the latest AP poll.

My point is that it is far, far too soon to be passing out judgment on the college football season, because there is probably more carnage on the way.  We still have to remember that it’s early in the season, and even though Ohio State looks like a cross between 2014 Florida State and 2011 Auburn, it’s still a little to early to be overreacting to teams looking unimpressive.  But if we get another week like this one, well, I’ll have to write another one of these articles.

I don’t know for sure who number one should be.  But I did take a guess, at least.  I’m more than happy to put my name and face to putting TCU at #1 and picking Baylor as my national champion.

But I can’t pretend to have any idea what’s coming next week, or in that case, the rest of the season.

*P.S.: This is what my top 10 would look like if I had an AP ballot. I don’t, obviously, but this is what I would have done. Here it is:

1. TCU
2. Ohio State
3. Michigan State
4. Baylor
5. Notre Dame
6. Georgia
7. Ole Miss
8. UCLA
9. LSU
10. Florida State

Let me know what’s right and wrong in the comments section!