Week One Postgame: West Coast Rising

(Photo by Ronald Martinez/Getty Images)

You don't have to watch SportsCenter every day or spend 12 hours in front of the television every Saturday if you want to keep up with college football. Let me do that for you, so you can check out my weekly postgame report all fall.

The postgame report is simple. We'll take an overview of the weekend in college football. Then, we'll have a 3-up, 3-down (for the sake of football we'll have Third-Down Conversions and Three-and-Outs) teams on the rise and teams on the decline based on the weekend's performances. Finally, we'll preview the week ahead and what implications lie in the upcoming weekend. I'll close with a rundown of my 1-25 rankings.

*Of note, all rankings are Associated Press as of the previous week, unless listed as "new, latest, current," etc. or "Coaches' Poll, Harris Poll," etc. During the upcoming week's "Gameplan" rankings are current.*

Play-by-Play: The Rise of the West Coast

For years now the SEC, Big 12, even the Big 10 have been widely considered better than any West Coast team not named the Trojans.

This past weekend, the West took a big step back into the national limelight:

— No. 3 Oklahoma's loss (14-13 to BYU) took down a big buck for No. 4 USC (56-3 win over San Jose State) in its hunt for the National Championship. With a road game at current No. 8 Ohio State this weekend, the Trojans can vault right into the discussion with Florida and Texas.

— The Mountain West's No. 20 BYU, as already mentioned, did themselves a huge favor in busting the BCS by defeating Oklahoma and jumped up to the No. 9 ranking. The Cougars have a challenging schedule, but home-field advantage is in their favor from now on. The four most difficult opponents remaining (Florida State, current #16 TCU, Air Force, and current #17 Utah) will all have to travel to Provo to face BYU.

— Perennial BCS wrecker No. 14 Boise State quieted the quack of No. 16 Oregon (and LeGarrette Blount, who we'll discuss later), 19-8. The Broncos have an easy road ahead, and the win will serve as the biggest print on their BCS resume come December. Moreover, Boise State's defense proved it can stop one of the more prolific offenses in country.

—No. 12 Cal absolutely destroyed the ACC's Maryland in a 52-13 blowout and showed for once it can be a contender, instead of a pretender.

— Coming off the most embarrassing season in the school's history (a winless 0-12 campaign), unranked Washington stuck with No. 11 LSU for four quarters before falling 31-23 to the 2007 National Champion.

Third-Down Conversions

Small-conference BCS busters — Current No. 9 BYU and No. 12 Boise State put together impressive wins against ranked teams to insert themselves in BCS discussions. BYU has put themselves in a position where, if they run the table, they'll most assuredly be given a BCS bowl berth.

In fact, BYU's schedule is such that it could even suffer a loss and remain in the talk. Boise State's objective is simple: it must win every game it plays. A BYU loss certainly wouldn't do BSU any harm either, as BYU is currently in front of the Broncos for a coveted BCS bid.

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