Here’s how the college football Power Five grades out following week eight action.
Following one of the most chaotic Saturdays in memory, the order was restored in week eight of the 2017 college football regular season.
The vast majority of College Football Playoff contenders not only won but made a statement in the process. No. 2 Penn State picked up its first ranked win of the season by destroying No. 19 Michigan 42-13, while fellow top five teams Alabama, TCU and Wisconsin had little trouble with overmatched opponents.
Saturday’s big winner was the Notre Dame Fighting Irish, who laid a 49-14 beatdown on the rival USC Trojans in South Bend. USC’s second loss puts the Pac-12’s College Football Playoff hopes on life support, as either Washington or Washington State is going to have to win out while getting some help elsewhere.
It wasn’t quite as easy for a pair of Big 12 contenders, as both Oklahoma and Oklahoma State had to survive hard-fought battles on the road. Undefeated Miami also continued it’s Houdini by escaping 27-19 against Syracuse, which narrowly missed out on its second straight top 10 upset.
With few changes to the playoff race other than the independent Fighting Irish establishing themselves as a national title contender, there aren’t many changes to the week nine conference power rankings. Here’s how the Power Five stacks up following week eight.
5. Pac-12
The Pac-12 is the only Power Five conference in the nation without an undefeated team and continues to fall further behind the rest of college football by the week.
USC’s national title dreams are officially dead following the 49-14 beatdown in which it never really looked competitive. The Trojans surrendered a whopping 377 rushing yards in the loss and could be in for a struggle over the rest of the season with numerous key injuries and Sam Darnold going through a major sophomore slump.
With the Trojans sliding, the door just might be open for either Arizona school to take the Pac-12 South. Rich Rodriguez’s Wildcats survived Cal in double overtime to quietly improve to 5-2 thanks to the sudden emergence of quarterback Khalil Tate, while Arizona State now has two straight quality wins after topping Utah 30-10 at Rice-Eccles Stadium.
Washington State managed to bounce back from its stunning blowout loss at Cal by dominating Colorado 28-0 in Pullman, while the other two ranked Pac-12 teams in Washington and Stanford were both idle. Oregon is making a case for the most disappointing team in the mediocre conference after being crushed by UCLA to drop to 1-4 in Pac-12 play, taking some of the pressure off Jim Mora for the time being.
The Pac-12 is by far the most likely conference to be left out of the College Football Playoff and doesn’t even have a lot of depth to back up the lack of elite tier teams at the top. Both Arizona schools will get to make their case as legitimate division title contenders next weekend when Washington State visits the Wildcats and USC make the trip to Tempe.