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NCAA College Football 2006 Week 3 Top 25
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DTMagazine Home NCAA Top 25 Pre-season Rankings
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NCAA College Football Top 25 - Week 3
Rick Gagliano | 9/18/06
Through games of Sept. 16
--- Week 3 Notes below ---
Say Good-bye to Notre Dame: The Fighting Irish looked more like a gaggle of flailing drunks at frat party on Saturday. The hurt Michigan put on them was in a large way payback for last season's upset. And it was payback in a big way. The Irish were completely outplayed in just about every aspect of the game.
There are three schools of thought on why the margin and manner of victory was so large. One school (and right now the most popular according to the polls) says the Wolverines are a bowl-caliber team. I'm not completely sold on that concept, though I have them ranked #7. They are only 21 in the DMECRS rankings, an my personal feeling is that there are at least three, if not five, teams in the SEC that could beat them.
Besides the power having shifted to the SEC AND Big East, Michigan will have trouble getting through their own conference. They've got Ohio State at the end of the season to contend with, plus over the next five weeks they play Wisconsin, at Minnesota, Michigan State, at Penn State and Iowa. Right now, those teams are a combined 13-2, the only losses belonging to Penn State and Minnesota, and those at the hands of Notre Dame and Cal, respectively.
The other schools of thought are that Notre Dame isn't very good or that the Irish just had an off game. I don't buy the "bad game" excuse; I'm more in the Notre Dame isn't very good. Their defense had been playing over their heads and Michigan exposed it badly. Brady Quinn may need another option as well. The Irish just don't have that much talent across the field on offense. Anyone who can stop the run can go with five DBs and shut down the pass as well. Notre Dame misses Fasano at tight end and Stovall on the wing.
Power in the SEC, Big East: This weekend was about as brutal a September weekend can be for teams in the SEC. Auburn barely survived a stiff test from LSU, winning 7-3, and Florida and Tennessee played to a virtual draw, though the Gators got the best of it, 21-20. With games contested that closely, and with such ferocity, it's little wonder that all of those teams still get ranked, plus you can throw Georgia into the mix. The SEC is as solid a conference as you'll find.
Louisville's victory over Miami and Clemson's win over Florida State may have put an end to the myth that the best football comes from the Sunshine State. The Best team in Florida is probably the Gators. The Cardinals put a serious hurt on the Hurricanes' post-season aspirations with their signature win. Miami could neither generate offense consistently nor stop the potent Louisville offense. Now at 1-2, mark the Miami season down as a transitional year.
Clemson, meanwhile, after suffering a one-point loss on a missed extra point in OT, finally shook the bad vibes and prevailed in OT against the Seminoles. That puts Boston College in the driver's seat in the ACC Atlantic Division, and Virginia Tech on cruise control in the Coastal. It's probably too early to put too many nails in Miami's coffin just yet, but the ACC looks like a conference full of good, but not great, teams.
Back to the Big East for a moment. The Mountaineers are the team to beat, though Louisville is right there with them, and South Florida is still improving year by year. If Tyler Palko and the Pitt Panthers play their game, they can upset as well. And then there's Rutgers... 3-0. The Big East may prove to be better than most people think. Remember, West Virginia beat Georgia last season in the Sugar Bowl and the Big East may have five bowl-eligible teams and one playing for all the marbles.
One year on, how good are USC and Texas?: Now that USC has played a ranked team - Nebraska - and dispatched them fairly handily, one wonders just how good they really are. The Cornhuskers never employed their West Coast offense, running the ball even in obvious passing situations. The game plan was supposedly to hang close, but not win. The game was seminally ugly. The 'Huskers' weren't playing their game and the Trojans looked sloppy and uninspired without even a sniff of a running game. While they are still ranked #4 here, the jury's still out. Conference play will have to determine how good USC really is.
The Longhorns probably won't make it to the Big 12 championship game. There are just too many good teams in the Big 12 - and Texas is without Vince Young - for them to run the conference table. In their division are Texas A & M, Oklahoma State, Oklahoma and Texas Tech. No way they beat all of them.
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