Alabama is Still Great, Top Big 12 Games, Kickers: 5 College Football Week 3 Takeaways

There wasn't a lot of meat on the Week 3 college football bone, but there was enough to shape the rest of the season and set the tone for what's coming next.

The big off-the-field thing was the Pac-12's move, and the biggest stuff on it had to do with the Big 12, a muscle flex by Bama, and the emphasis on kickers more than ever.

Here are 5 key takeaways after Week 3.

5 College Football Takeaways From Week 3

- CFN Rankings | Bowl Projections
- Overrated: Is Texas THAT good?
- Underrated: IU, Wazzu, MW teams

5. The new Pac-12 will be interesting

There was a ripple of buzz throughout the college football weekend about the Pac-12’s move to get Boise State, and Colorado State, Fresno State, and San Diego State for 2026, but the general attitude was a big, giant, “whatever” complete with a shrug.

The real story is UNLV. It already beat Houston to start the season, and this weekend it took down Kansas. Not including UNLV - everyone wants to be in the Vegas market now - probably means the Big 12 is on the table for the program.

Or, the Pac-12 is getting through this first wave before announcing two more schools to get to eight, making it a real conference with standing in the College Football Playoff and bowl pictures.

4. College kickers … PAY FOR ONE

This is a true don’t-hate-the-player-hate-the-game thing.

If you’re an elite golfer and you can’t putt, you don’t win. If you’re an elite college football program and your kicker isn’t all but automatic within 50 yards, you’re going to lose a game, maybe three.

It seems like EVERY big kick comes down to “this kid won the job in a kick off with five other players …,” or something like that.

Forgive me singling out this one kick when this goes across the college football landscape. South Carolina lost on Saturday for a variety of reasons, but it came down to a field goal, and LSU escaped when Alex Herrera missed from 49 yards out.

It was hardly an easy kick, but that's it. That's how this works, fair or not.

After all the craziness in a great game, that was the only play that mattered.

Quarterback is obviously the most position in football. In a transfer era with all the NIL money floating around, placekicker deserve to be paid and compensated like an elite star.

Yeah, kicker is the flakiest of flaky positions, but that’s why you need an elite one.

It stinks, but even more than ever, literally, that’s the deal. The money elite college kickers will start to make will bring more stars and more emphasis on the position.

3. Kansas State 31-7 over Arizona is a big deal

It’s been assumed that Utah would be the star of the Big 12 and walk right on through, and it still might. But QB Cameron Rising hurt his hand - he missed all of last season injured with a knee problem - and the team looked just okay in its win over Utah State.

Arizona was coming off a huge season and is still expected to be a player in the chase - the loss to Kansas State wasn’t technically a Big 12 game.

But now, the K-State version of the Wildcats showed they should be considered front-and-center for the Big 12’s eventual College Football Playoff spot.

There’s no Utah on the Kansas State schedule, Oklahoma State is at home, and even five road games, the slate is manageable.

If you’re good enough to beat Arizona 31-7, you’re good enough to win four of the five at BYU, Colorado, West Virginia, Houston, and Iowa State to get to the Big 12 Championship.

Furthermore …

2. The Big 12 race will be a blast

This might be a one-bid conference when it comes to the expanded College Football Playoff chase.

Big 12 fans, start rooting against Notre Dame - HARD. You need the Irish out of the picture to open up a spot, but because - best guess, at least six of the other seven spots will be taken by Big Ten and SEC teams, and it’s possible the ACC loser will be in.

And why?

The Big 12 is about to beat itself up.

Utah and Arizona will still be major factors, but if the loser in the Big 12 Championship has three losses, it’ll almost certainly be out.

So with that, the 5 biggest Big 12 games - at least the ones that will shape the race the most - appear to be …

1. Utah at Oklahoma State, Sept. 21

2. Oklahoma State at Kansas State, Sept. 28

3. Arizona at Utah, Sept. 28

4. Utah at UCF, Nov. 29

5. UCF at Iowa State, Oct. 19

1. Alabama is still really, really good

I know, everyone has a case of the Texas fever, and Georgia continues to receive a ton of love and affection, and Ohio State really might be the best team in college football, but ...

Alabama is still really, really good. It’s obviously a small sample size of three games, but at least so far, nothing stops just because Nick Saban left to relax and live the life as America’s Pitchman.

Basically, the question is being answered in real time. What if you combined the Kalen DeBoer offense with a defense that have elite talent?

Okay, so it took a while to put away USF. But when the machine turned on, the 42-16 win wasn’t a problem. And no, the Wisconsin game wouldn’t have been any different if Badger starting quarterback Tyler Van Dyke didn’t suffer a leg injury early on.

And now we’re about to see just how really, really good this Alabama team is.

It has two weeks to get ready for Georgia. There are still road games at Tennessee, LSU, and Oklahoma, and home games against South Carolina, Missouri, and - as always in a rivalry way - Auburn will be challenging.

But it seems like the only reason Alabama isn’t in that No. 1 team discussion is because of the change up top. It played as good or better than everyone else over these first three games.

- CFN Rankings | Bowl Projections
- Overrated: Is Texas THAT good?
- Underrated: IU, Wazzu, MW teams