That was the top five in the Big 12 preseason media poll. It didn't seem wrong in any way. Utah was supposed to be the star, Arizona was coming off a hot season, and there's no dogging the early call. Fast forward to now.
There are five teams in Big 12 play who are 1-4 or worse. Who are they? Arizona, Utah, UCF, Kansas, and 0-5 Oklahoma State. Four of the preseason top five might not even go bowling.
9. Penalizing Vanderbilt
Forget that Vanderbilt is, you know, Vanderbilt for a moment. Yeah, it's doing this with duct tape, a prayer, and Diego Pavia, but it's also a nasty out.
It took everything for Texas to get out of Nashville with a 27-24 win over a team that was 25th in both polls two weeks ago.
College Football Playoff committee, it's a new era, and let's start with a new pattern - don't punish teams for great losses.
Texas is a top five team, Vandy lost by three, and it shouldn't have dropped out of the top 25 while others who didn't play a Texas moved up.
By the way, Vanderbilt continues to be Georgia State's only win over an FBS team.
8. The Washington State Issue
Washington State will almost certainly go 11-1 with the loss coming on the road to a Boise State team whose only loss this season might be to Oregon.
The Cougars beat Texas Tech - again, that's as many or more Big 12 wins as five Big 12 teams have - but the rest of the schedule isn't anything great.
Beating San Diego State 29-26 isn't good enough. There should be a place in an expanded CFP world for a Wazzu, but there can't be any more close calls. Utah, at New Mexico, at Oregon State, Wyoming - all have to be ugly blowouts.
7. Schedules Matter, Part 1: Texas A&M
We're all gushing over Texas A&M after its wonderful win over LSU. At South Carolina, New Mexico State, at Auburn, Texas - that's it for the rest of the slate. It should finish, at worst, 10-2, at best 11-1 with a shot at the SEC Championship. Here's where this gets a tad unfair.
Yes, LSU and Texas are on the slate, but both games were in College Station. Georgia, Tennessee, and Alabama are all off the the SEC schedule. The toughest road game will probably be this week at South Carolina.
6. Schedules Matter, Part 2: Army
I heard "Navy over Notre Dame is my upset special" - or something like that - at least 30 times last week. Not a chance. Notre Dame is just that good, and Navy looked great against a horrible schedule. However, it took down Memphis. Army doesn't have one of those.
Army is America's darling because it's 7-0 with blowout after blowout, but it has yet to beat at team that will go bowling. Lehigh, at Florida Atlantic, Rice, at Temple, at Tulsa, UAB, East Carolina, and now Air Force is this week.
It didn't play Texas like Vanderbilt had to.
5. The Most Interesting Conference in College Football
Kent State. The Golden Flashes are the only team reasonably out of the MAC title chase. All 11 teams are still in it, eight teams are within two games of conference 4-0 Western Michigan, and now it's Game On.
Akron is 1-3 after storming back to beat Eastern Michigan, Northern Illinois is 1-3, but it was good enough to beat Notre Dame, and the Central Michigan team that beat San Diego State is 1-3.
Miami University is probably the best team - it's 3-1 in the MAC - but this is going to be wild.
4. This Heisman Race is Awful
Someone has to win it.
Ashton Jeanty is fantastic, but the Boise State star running back can't be anything but off-the-charts playing in the Mountain west, and he was relatively bottled up by UNLV even with his 128 yards and a score.
Oregon's Dillon Gabriel is fine, but he's not screaming HEISMAN. ESPN is screaming that when it comes to Miami QB Cam Ward, but ... meh. Shedeur Sanders throws a lot, and Travis Hunter is great, but Deion Sanders is the star on Colorado.
3. Boise State Might Be the 4 Seed
The Big 12 is fine, but it's also about to be a mess.
Even the worst teams in the league this season are capable of rising up and beating anyone else - Utah could absolutely take down BYU, and Iowa State could absolutely lose any of its last five games. If all goes according to plan, the Big 12 champion will be 11-2, and possibly 10-3.
Boise State's only sin was a 37-34 loss at Oregon. It beat Washington State 45-24, and that might turn out to be the Cougars' only loss.
Even with the relatively lighter Group of Five schedule, if the Broncos run the table and go 12-1 with a Mountain West title, they'll probably finish somewhere around 7ish to 9ish in the final College Football Playoff rankings, and ahead of the Big 12 champion.
That would mean a first round bye and, most likely, a quarterfinal game against the loser of an Ohio State-Oregon Big Ten Championship.
2. Indiana Football is Having More Fun Than Anyone
How do we know Indiana is good? Kurtis Rourke is playing better than any quarterback in college football, and he was out in the 31-17 win over Washington that wasn't even that close.
There's nothing more fun in sports than when your team rises up from obscurity into greatness in a snap. No one's saying Indiana will win the national title, but this is the best start in the history of Hoosier football, all eight wins were by 14 points or more, and ...
Again schedules. There's an honest chance that Nebraska is the only win over a team that will go to a bowl game. Like any Indiana football fan cares.
Stuff's about to get real with road games at Michigan State and Ohio State and a home game against Michigan coming up, but for now ...
Indiana, we're all for you. Enjoy this.
1. Deion Sanders Got Colorado to a Bowl Game
I still have a bunch of Deion posters, a jersey, and other stuff from 35 years ago in a box down in the basement. He might be my favorite sports figure of all-time - or 1B next to Jordan - so understand that there's zero ill-will ...
I still don't think Colorado is all that great.
The pass protection isn't there, the Big 12 is meh, the team lost to an okay Nebraska, needed a Jayden Daniels to get by Baylor, lost to Kansas State, hasn't faced Iowa State or BYU, and ...
Colorado is going to a bowl game for the first time since 2020, and even then that wasn't quite normal coming in the five-game COVID year. 2016 was really the last time the program rolled through a full season to go bowling.
Colorado football has been horrendous. There's been just one season of six wins or more since 2007, and the program has just one winning season and 2020 since 2005.
No matter what you think, and despite the overhype, and for all the methods, surliness, and sideshow spectacle, give Coach Prime his due.
Colorado went from one win before he got there to four victories to six and counting. It's still deep in the Big 12 title chase, the College Football Playoff is absolutely still on the table by winning out and getting some help, and ...
Deion Sanders is pretty good at this coaching thing.
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