College football rankings: Big Ten overtakes SEC as college football’s top conference

With Alabama losing to Texas A&M, the SEC can no longer boast of having the two best teams in college football, nor can it boast of being the best conference with the Big Ten taking over.

Texas A&M finally did it. They broke so many streaks against a powerhouse Alabama team on Saturday night. For those who stayed up to watch it, they witnessed history. Alabama has beaten 100 straight unranked opponents before the Aggies came in and ruined everything. Now, the entire college football landscape was flipped on its head. One loss Ohio State seems as in the hunt as ever. An underwhelming Oklahoma team has new life with a new quarterback. Iowa’s mediocre offense came alive at the exact moment it needed. This week was great, plain and simple. It’s no longer Alabama, Georgia, and everyone else in the college football landscape. It’s Georgia and the rest of the country.

What does that do for the conference power rankings? There is no consensus now. The Big Ten just had a powerhouse matchup between Iowa and Penn State live up to the hype (at least in the second half). Oklahoma and Texas had one of the most entertaining Red River Rivalry showdowns in the history of football.

The saving grace for the SEC? The secondary games were great. Arkansas-Ole Miss was one of the best games in the NCAA this season. Kentucky showed they weren’t a fluke. Florida bounced back in a major way. Was it enough?

Can the SEC overcome Alabama’s loss in the college football conference rankings?

5. ACC

Clemson was off this week. North Carolina lost to a winless Florida State team. Undefeated Wake Forest survived overtime against Syracuse. They overcame an 11-point deficit to give the ACC an undefeated team this late in the season. There were a lot of teams off this week, and nobody really had a marquee win near the top of the conference. While the rest of the NCAA went into a spin cycle, the ACC very quietly stayed status quo.

4. Pac-12

Oregon was so embarrassed after losing to Stanford, they couldn’t even show their face in Week 6 (or it was a regularly scheduled bye week). However, Stanford took the field against Arizona State. And the game was not close. ASU showed its dominance, and the Cardinal showed their win against the Ducks was indeed a fluke. Oregon State took another loss, pushing them further down the standings. UCLA took an easy win over a bad Arizona team. Both these conferences are bad, and most of the disappointing teams were not playing in order to prove themselves.