College football conference power rankings: SEC morphed into the Big 12 overnight

It’s getting a little harder to tell which college football conference is best.

These college football conference power rankings are only going to be getting more interesting.

It won’t be that long before the Big Ten and the Pac-12 return to action. Though the Pac-12 has no chance of challenging for the top spot in these college football conference power rankings, they can have an undefeated champion, which is something that seems now impossible in the SEC side of things. With the ACC looking pretty good at the top, let’s dive into these weekly rankings.

College football conference power rankings heading into Week 7.

The Pac-12 will be back in action at some point, but unless you really believe in a team like the Oregon Ducks or the USC Trojans to go undefeated, they have next to no shot of getting into the College Football Playoff. Going conference-only will be to the benefit of Power 5 conferences like the ACC, the Big Ten and the SEC, while it only hurts the Pac-12, and to some extent, the Big 12.

What does help the Pac-12 though, is we haven’t seen them play yet. They’re not going to suffer as many humiliating losses in the non-conference like Big 12 teams did. The Pac-12 is usually pretty competitive to begin with. Cannibalization is inevitable, but they have more than one team capable of possibly making the playoff, whereas the Big 12 really only has team to lean on now.

The Big 12 edges out the Pac-12 for fourth place this week mostly because the conference played games this past weekend. Even though both teams are largely out of it, we got a fantastic game down in Dallas between the Oklahoma Sooners and the Texas Longhorns. Both have two conference losses this year, but gave us a compelling TV product to watch in the early window.

As for the upward trajectory of the Big 12, the only team it has with a realistic shot of getting into the playoff is the Oklahoma State Cowboys. None of their wins are impressive, but the Pokes remain unblemished. As it turns out, their two biggest challengers to win the Big 12 this year are the Iowa State Cyclones and the Kansas State Wildcats, who haven’t lost in conference play yet.

It’ll only be a few weeks before we see the Big Ten back in action. When Power 5 conference does return to the field, it will be a huge deal for Midwesterners and major college football fans across this great country of ours. Though the Big Ten will likely end up getting a team into the College Football Playoff, the reason they’re coming in at No. 3 this week is they can’t get two teams in.

The top five teams in the Big Ten are as good as any Power 5 conference’s five best teams, but once you get past the Minnesota Golden Gophers and the Michigan Wolverines, you have to believe in teams like the Iowa Hawkeyes and the Nebraska Cornhuskers to carry their weight. As long as the Ohio State Buckeyes are dominant, the Big Ten should be in pretty good shape.

Even though the Miami Hurricanes didn’t look good in their Week 6 road loss to the Clemson Tigers, the ‘Canes present themselves a very high-end middle class team in the ACC. At the top, we have Clemson, the Notre Dame Fighting Irish and for the time being, the North Carolina Tar Heels. Teams like Miami and the Virginia Tech Hokies give the ACC a solid middle to lean on.

What hurts the ACC from being able to catch the SEC for the best conference in the land is the clear gap between Clemson at No. 1 and whoever is at No. 2, whether that’s Notre Dame or North Carolina. Though we could be proven wrong, it doesn’t feel like either Notre Dame or North Carolina can challenge Clemson. We though Miami would be a more formidable challenger.

The SEC may be cannibalizing already, but that’s a testament to how tough the conference really is. Only the Vanderbilt Commodores are without a win through three weeks, and they had an opportunity to win their season opener at the Texas A&M Aggies back in Week 4. For now, only two undefeated teams remain: The No. 2 Alabama Crimson Tide and the No. 3 Georgia Bulldogs.

Even if those are the two best teams in the SEC, there’s a great chance we may end up seeing them both reach the College Football Playoff this year. If they split the presumptive season series at Tuscaloosa and then at Atlanta, they’re both getting in as one-loss teams if that’s how it shakes out. If not, quality programs like Florida, Texas A&M and maybe even Auburn have a shot, too?

What this season will tell us is losing in conference play is inevitable unless you’re Clemson or maybe Ohio State. Everybody else is expected to drop at least one. So keep an eye on us potentially getting our first two-loss team into the College Football Playoff, especially of the non-champion variety. The Big 12 and the Pac-12 won’t get the benefit of the doubt this year.

Does the ACC have any shot of catching the SEC for the top spot by the end of the season?

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