College football conference power rankings: Week 3

With huge non-conference wins for the Big 12 and ACC, Week 2 brought some changes to the college football conference power rankings.

Week 2 action in college football did not disappoint, as four crucial ranked matchups around the nation changed the landscape of the playoff race.

Saturday’s biggest result by far came out of Columbus, as the Oklahoma Sooners laid an impressive 31-16 beatdown on the Ohio State Buckeyes at The Shoe. That puts Oklahoma on a fast track to the playoff, while the Buckeyes will have to be flawless through the rest of its Big Ten schedule.

Elsewhere, the USC Trojans overwhelmed the Stanford Cardinal 42-24 behind a terrific performance from Heisman hopeful Sam Darnold. The Georgia Bulldogs also held off the Notre Dame Fighting Irish in a rare matchup, while the Clemson Tigers look like a national championship contender once again after stifling the Auburn Tigers.

With so many key non-conference games on Saturday, the state of each Power Five conference has changed over the past week. The Big 12 appears to be in good shape to reach the College Football Playoff after missing out last year, while the Pac-12 and SEC are increasingly looking like two-team races.

Here’s how the Power Five stacks up following a huge week two in college football.

5. Pac-12

It wasn’t a bad week for the Pac-12 by any means, but the conference moves down to fifth with just two legitimate playoff contenders following Saturday night’s result in Los Angeles.

After a sluggish showing in the opener against Western Michigan, USC will be relieved to look like a title contender once again, as the Darnold to Deontay Burnett looks to be nearly unstoppable. While there’s no shame in losing to USC on the road, Stanford’s defense will be bitterly disappointed to give up 623 yards of total offense, and the Cardinal no longer look like a top-tier team.

Even if it came against FCS Montana, the Washington Huskies will be happy with a 63-7 blowout after struggling a bit with the Rutgers Scarlet Knights last week. There’s now a huge dropoff after that with Stanford’s loss, and the third-best team in the conference could now be the Washington State Cougars, who erased a late 31-10 deficit to beat the Boise State Broncos in a wild, three-overtime game.

There were a smattering of good wins elsewhere, including the Oregon Ducks taking down the Nebraska Cornhuskers and the Utah Utes continuing their Holy War dominance over the BYU Cougars in Provo. The Oregon State Beavers, Arizona Wildcats and Arizona State Sun Devils all suffered home losses, and the former two could be among the worst teams in the Power Five.

While having two elite teams in USC and Washington means the gap to the rest of the Power Five is narrow, the Pac-12 is currently in last due to its lack of depth.