Week One: Winners and Losers

It was another great week in what should be another great college football season. So, after one week of play, what did we learn?

Winners

1. Non-BCS Teams. This was arguably the most significant week ever for non-BCS teams. Never has there been so much hype around "mid-major" schools in the preseason, and they didn't disappoint. Boise State dominated Oregon without even having to play their best game, meaning they would need to fall flat on their faces to not finish undefeated.

More importantly, however, BYU took down Oklahoma. Though they did beat a Bradford-less OU team, it's an impressive win nonetheless. If BYU can win out they would have victories over four preseason top 25 teams.

That would be three more than Penn State will probably play. With that kind of schedule, it would be hard to justify passing them up for the national title game (especially in favor of a one-loss team).

2. Big 12 Conference. Yes, I did see the Oklahoma-BYU game. I also saw the best quarterback in the country sitting on the sideline for the entire second half. Say what you want, but Oklahoma is a different team with Bradford in there. Other than that, the conference had a spectacular week.

Oklahoma State looked far superior to Georgia, Baylor took care of Wake Forrest, and everyone else took care of business. It was a very good week for the conference that is now clearly the second best in the country (and maybe the best by the end of the year).

3. Notre Dame. I'm not a Notre Dame fan, but I found myself watching almost the entire Notre Dame game yesterday. They were just fun to watch. Clausen looked like the star he was supposed to be, the running game looked legitimate, the defense was very strong and Michael Floyd might be the best receiver in the country not named Dez Bryant.

4. Quarterback Debuts. Greg Paulus, Matt Barkley, Zac Lee, Blaine Gabbert, Tate Forcier, Greg McElroy and Ryan Mallett highlight the great crop of new starting quarterbacks that will help truly make this the "year of the quarterback" in college football.

5. USC. Nothing USC did managed to make them a winner this week (not to say they didn't play well, but nothing spectacular). What made USC a winner this week was what everyone else did. Oregon lost its best offensive weapon and Ohio State looked like well..... a Big Ten team. After week one it appears that USC will have only two true tests, Notre Dame and California. 

Losers

1. ACC Conference. Most people noticed the Big Ten struggles yesterday (and I'll get to that), but the ACC had by far the worst day. All of their "statement" games went sour as Virginia Tech lost to Alabama, NC State lost to South Carolina and Wake Forrest lost to Baylor.

Those losses mean that the ACC has lost all of its credibility for the rest of the season (unless Florida State could beat Florida). Aside from that, Maryland got annihilated by California and Virginia and Duke lost to FCS teams. The ACC is the only conference whose reputation is already damaged beyond repair.

2. Big Ten Conference. The only thing that made the Big Ten better than the ACC this week was that they didn't lose most of their disappointing games. Ohio State, Iowa, Wisconsin, Minnesota and Indiana all hung on against inferior opponents. That being said, their performances did put another dent in the conference.

Possible fall-outs will be Iowa out of the top 25 and less praise for Ohio State going into their biggest game of the year (against USC). Seriously, is anyone going to pick Ohio State next week?

Oh and then there was Illinois getting smashed by a rebuilding Missouri team. The only good sign for the Big Ten was Michigan’s performance. Other than that, all signs point to another year of happiness for Big Ten bashers.

3. Veteran quarterbacks. Did anyone who was supposed to really step up? Bradford got injured. Tebow put up numbers that would have been disappointing against an SEC team, let alone an FCS one. McCoy looked solid but unspectacular.

Tyrod Taylor looked lost against Alabama. Same story for Juice Williams against Missouri. Even Max Hall and Kellen Moore played average football despite leading their teams to huge victories. The best veteran quarterbacks this weekend were Jonathan Crompton and Jimmy Clausen. Who thought we'd be saying that?

4. Oregon. On Thursday morning I would have told you that Oregon had a great shot to unseed USC as the Pac Ten champion. They had a great running game, a good quarterback and an underrated defense.

By Friday morning, however, a winning season would seem like an accomplishment for this team. A first year head coach, the suspension of the best player and the dejecting opening loss all point to a long year for the quackers.