College football conference power rankings, Week 2: ACC exposed as frauds

3. Big 12

It wasn’t exactly a great week for the Big 12, but only one team in the entire conference lost. Oklahoma, the conference’s great hope to compete for a championship, struggled against Tulane. They needed pure luck to escape with a five-point win at home, but they won and that’s all that matters. Spencer Rattler hardly looked like a future No. 1 overall pick in the NFL Draft. Iowa State, the other team ranked in the top 10, struggled against Northern Iowa. West Virginia had four turnovers against Maryland to basically hand Taulia Tagovailoa a win. However, WVU is the only Big 12 team to lose in Week 1. Texas took care of business against a ranked Louisiana team in the first win of the Steve Sarkisian era. This should be a fun conference to watch because it seems the Sooners and Cyclones might not be as clear-cut the favorites in the conference as was once thought. The Big 12 is ahead of the ACC for now, but it’s so fragile that one bad week could flip the rankings again.

2. Big Ten

Ohio State started a bit slow vs. Minnesota but quarterback C.J. Stroud settled in and led the Buckeyes to a win after trailing at halftime. Penn State and Wisconsin took a while to get going, but the ending was a lot of fun and the Nittany Lions showed they are ready to put last season behind them. Michigan took care of business, but they didn’t have much of a challenge in front of them against Western Michigan. Iowa looks like they may be the team to beat in the Big Ten West after dismantling Indiana. Maryland rode big plays to a win over the Mountaineers. Even Rutgers had a fantastic performance, scoring 61 points vs. Temple. Michigan State looks vastly improved after a convincing win behind Kenneth Walker’s rushing exploits vs. Northwestern.

1. SEC

The SEC remains the best conference in college football. Alabama took Miami to the woodshed with a dominating defense and record-breaking debut from quarterback Bryce Young. Georgia is the No. 2 team in the country with a defense that demolished Clemson and a capable quarterback in JT Daniels. LSU and Vanderbilt were the only teams in the conference to lose. The Tigers need to figure out what the goal of this season will be after losing to UCLA. Auburn has the pieces to put together something better than many expected in Bryan Harsin’s first season, but they need to prove it against legit competition. Only Arkansas is facing a Top 25 team next week (Texas), so don’t expect much change in the rankings next week.

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