Who's Really No. 1?: Five Things We Learned from College Football's Week Seven

After another entertaining week of college football, the BCS standings made their grand debut of 2009. And I doubt that very many people would've put Boise State and Cincinnati in the top five when the season started.

But what have we made sense of in this crazy football season? All we know is that the last two BCS title game losers, Ohio State and Oklahoma, will not be in the game this time around.

In addition, USC has found a way back into the title game picture with a freshman at QB, and Iowa remains undefeated with only one tough game left against the Buckeyes.

This week, we cut through the craziness and find five things we learned after this past week of football:

1.) Jim Tressel is not who we thought he was, not lately at least

Ohio State's last loss, a shocking 26-18 defeat at 1-5 Purdue, was the combination of all the fears that Ohio State fans had about their team into one game.

Fans see this as a simple Buckeyes choke, but clearly something is wrong with Jim Tressel. He has not been the same since Urban Meyer outcoached him in the 2007 BCS National Championship Game.

Since then, Tressel has had the "deer in the headlights" look much more often, and his timing of aggressive or conservative play calling has been repeatedly off lately. Two years after the blowout, Meyer has just not gotten out of Tressel's head, and now the once-strong big game coach now looks rattled on the sidelines.

At this point, the Vest could use some help, whether it be on the sidelines or from his own teammates.

If anyone needs to do soul searching before the November gauntlet that suddenly looks much more daunting, it's Tressel. Whatever he does, he needs to do it fast to pull Buckeye Nation away from the edge of the cliff.

2.) It's hard to find a clear-cut No. 1 team

Quickly, anyone can tell that the three best teams in the nation are Florida, Alabama, and Texas. But other than that, determining who belongs where has become a challenge.

Florida and Texas needed late-game dramatics to escape from upset bids, and Alabama has been inconsistent offensively and missing one of their best defensive players in ILB Donta Hightower.

Each of these teams is capable of running the table, though only two can because Florida and Alabama will have to compete for the SEC title.

But this looks like one year when there is no absolutely dominant team that is just simply better than everyone else.

That's what parity does for college football.

3.) Alabama RB Mark Ingram just put his name in the Heisman race

While we're on the topic of no clear-cut favorites, one player seized an opportunity to put his name in the Heisman Trophy race. And it wasn't Colt McCoy, but sophomore RB Mark Ingram of the Crimson Tide.

Ingram had 24 carries against South Carolina for a career-high 246 yards and one touchdown and ran the Alabama version of the Wildcat on the way to a 20-6 win over the Gamecocks.

He has established himself as the feature in the Alabama stable of backs, including stud freshman Trent Richardson and Roy Upchurch. The running game of Alabama is what makes them so tough to beat and a reason we could see them in Pasadena come January.

But if Ingram continues to churn yards at this rate, don't be surprised to see him in New York City after the regular season ends. The third sophomore to win the Heisman Trophy could possibly be a player that was never a household name to start the season.

4.) The ACC is still extremely convoluted and puzzling

The 2009 season for the ACC is starting to look like a Twilight Zone episode: Duke has a better record than Florida State; North Carolina is undefeated outside of the conference, but can't win in-conference; and the Virginia Cavaliers, who lost to William & Mary, are 2-0 in the ACC this season.

Clearly, there is no way to predict what is going on in the ACC, which has rapidly become jumbled up. But the Coastal Division still looks pretty tough, with Virginia Tech, Georgia Tech, and Miami all in the top 15.

With all this mess, it's hard to predict where the conference stands as a whole.

The ACC is one of the deepest conferences in the country, but who comes out of there and into the BCS is anyone's guess at this point.

5.) TCU could still crash the BCS party

While everyone talks about Boise State's undefeated season, the TCU Horned Frogs have been staying very quiet, and can begin to make noise against BYU this Saturday night.

How big is this game? College Gameday is heading to Provo despite the fact that the game is only on Versus that night.

BYU saw their BCS hopes dashed at the hands of the Seminoles at Provo, but they have a chance to keep their rivals TCU out with a win.

But the Horned Frogs defense, anchored by sack machine Jerry Hughes, and a balanced offense should give the Cougars their hands full at Lavell Edwards Stadium.

One small thing:

I do realize that this is my 100th article here on B/R. So I might as well use this opportunity to give my thanks to everyone who has been a huge help on this website.

Thanks to all those in the college football community who helped me find a place here.

Thanks to senior writers like BabyTate and Trey Bradley, who have been here from the beginning to help me improve way beyond what I could be.

Thanks to the Editors and the Ohio State community for all their support and especially in my latest endeavors as an OSU Featured Columnist.

Thanks to HD Handshoe for hooking me up with linkups to his blogging website, which has helped get my articles on Dr. Saturday's Yahoo blog and multiple entries on cleveland.com.

Thanks to KG for making me a part of the Big Ten roundtable.

And thanks to everyone who has read my articles and commented on them. 100 articles, and just a shade under 75,000 hits and 1400+ comments has made me humble and I thank everyone of you for your support.

And I promise to all of you my next 100 articles will be just as good if not better than the previous 100.

Keep on writing because you never know what will happen. I'm a perfect example.

I started here in February, and now I'm an OSU Featured Columnist, a top-50 CFB writer frequently, and I am a contributor to Fanhuddle.com for the Cleveland Cavaliers.

I have had an article posted on the front of sportsline.com and have been linked to on cleveland.com.

And I know I would not have gotten all of that without the support and encouragement from everyone who has been a part of my B/R experience.

And to that, I say, I salute you.