The first big weekend in college football left 8 of the top 25 with a loss, although only 2 of those were against teams outside of the top 25. The first of which was #22 Wisconsin falling to hapless Indiana 32-29, an upset I did not foresee although I’ve taken the Badgers as a weak team to this point. One stunner I did see coming was Arkansas beating #21 Auburn (my pick 25-22) although they did it more convincingly than I expected. In all I went 17-2 for the week, moving me to 50-15 on the season (77%).

The biggest game of the day was #3 Oklahoma beating #2 Texas 35-24 (my pick 23-19) although some people in the state of Florida would beg to differ. I was just off by a few points in my pick of #1 Miami over #12 Florida State (my pick 27-22, actual 28-27). #5 Ohio State blew past San Jose State 50-7 to no one’s surprise (my pick 45-6) and #8 Notre Dame took care of Pittsburgh 14-6 (my pick 28-13) to slide up the polls. Holding off a furious rally, #6 Georgia beat #9 Tennessee 18-13 (my pick 24-20) and #17 Michigan needed overtime to dust off #17 Penn State 27-24 (my pick 28-20) in a pair of heated battles between ranked teams. #7 Oregon won a shootout over #25 UCLA 31-30 (my pick 34-22) in their first test of the season.

#11 N.C. State took care of North Carolina 34-17 (my pick 26-17) and #13 Washington State blew out Stanford 36-11 (my pick 38-14) while #14 Iowa State cruised past Texas Tech 31-17 (my pick 42-31). In an upset in terms of how convincing it was, #15 LSU went down to the swamp and killed #16 Florida 36-7 which was the only other game I missed (my pick Florida 27-20). #18 Washington struggled past Arizona 32-28 (my pick 34-13) to avoid back to back home losses. #19 Air Force creamed BYU 52-9 (my pick 40-28) and #23 Kansas State was about as unkind to Oklahoma State during a 44-9 rout (my pick 28-16) while #20 Iowa also blasted Michigan State 44-16 (my pick 27-19).

#24 USC benefited from a bad call that gave them a touchdown and edged out California 30-28 (my pick 30-23). In the Thursday night game #4 Virginia Tech struggled past Boston College 28-23 (my pick 31-12). All in all, I was very accurate in 7 of 19 picks where the scoring is concerned, and was nose on for 2 of the 38 team’s point total.

With all of the shaking that went on, only a pair of my top 10 teams lost, and they lost against my #1 and #2 respectively. With that in mind, there will be a little less shaking in my poll than the AP or coache’s poll.

#1 (1) Miami (5-0) They were staggered, but the got off the canvas like champions. They get a week of rest, and a pair of cupcakes before visiting #18 Tennessee on November 19.

#2 (2) Oklahoma (6-0) The win over Texas was huge, but there’s no rest for the wicked, and #14 Iowa State comes to town this week.

#3 (4) Ohio State (7-0) Suddenly this week’s game at #22 Wisconsin doesn’t seem like such a stern test for them.

#4 (5) Virginia Tech (6-0) Really only Virginia stands in their way of a season ending showdown at #1 Miami.

#5 (7) Georgia (6-0) They seem to be improving and gaining confidence every week, and aren’t scheduled to play a top 20 team the rest of the regular season.

#6 (8) Oregon (6-0) Winning at UCLA is no easy task, and they still have a lot of proving to do before they are a BCS factor.

#7 (6) Notre Dame (7-0) I’m getting a little tired of sluggish wins, and I wonder if they can score with #19 Air Force this week.

#8 (9) N.C. State (7-0) Like Virginia Tech, Virginia is really their only roadblock to a season ending showdown with Florida State.

#9 (2) Texas (5-1) I might be showing them too much respect by only dropping them behind unbeaten teams, but this week at #23 Kansas State will tell me if I’m right or wrong.

#10 (12) Michigan (5-1) They are showing big time presence, and have to keep playing hard with 3 more ranked opponents on the schedule.

#11 (13) Washington State (6-1) The most dangerous team that no one really pays attention to.

#12 (10) Florida State (5-2) If ever a team could gain momentum from a loss, this would be the kind of loss. They played great.

#13 (14) Iowa State (6-1) Are they for real? We’ll find out this week when they travel to Norman.

#14 (15) Kansas State (14) Ditto for the Wildcats, who host the Longhorns this week.

#15 (19) LSU (5-1) Huge win at the swamp proved they are SEC title contenders.

#16 (11) Tennessee (4-2) Another tough loss to a ranked opponent brings up questions as to how big time this team really is.

#17 (20) Iowa (6-1) Crushing Michigan State is fine, but I want to see them against top Big-10 opponents.

#18 (NR) Air Force (6-0) Okay boys, I ranked you. Now let’s see what you can do against #7 Notre Dame.

#19 (16) Penn State (4-2) They are not that far away from being a 6-0 team, but they need to develop consistency for 60 minutes.

#20 (NR) USC (4-2) They have played some good teams, and have a good record to show for it.