Week 3 NCAA Rankings
Rather than doing an entire top 25, LUCK NUNU will be ranking the top 5: the 4 playoff teams and 1 "at-large" that hopes to swoop in for some of that sweet playoff misery. These rankings are fluid and are not based upon the previous week's ranking, but a ranking of which teams are the best at that time.
So many overtimes this week, yet so many letdowns. Let's have ONE MORE LETDOWN with the Luck Nunu Top 5!
#1 Clemson - I was tempted to put LSU here, but Clemson played a pretty good A&M team and was never really threatened at any point. Their defense is still top notch even after losing 40,821 guys in the draft. If they stumble this year before the playoffs, they're overlooking that opponent. Next up: @Syracuse. 'Cuse always plays them tough, but they were humiliated by Maryland this week. Add that to their struggles with Liberty and you have a recipe for a blow out favoring Clemson.
#2 LSU - LSU wasn't really high on the radar last week because they played some JV team from Georgia. Sure they humiliated them like they should, but a game like that doesn't give us much detail to go on. Going to Texas and putting up 45 points and 573 yards of total offense is the most impressive thing I've seen from LSU in years. Their defense needs some work, but they came out with the win in a matchup between theoretical top-10 teams (#6 LSU @ #9 Texas). Next up: Northwestern State... uhh, that's a bad game.
#3 Ohio State - As with most things, we were completely wrong in thinking the matchup with Cincinnati would be interesting. That was a tough game. Ohio State was never challenged, giving up 0 total points. Last week, Ohio State came out guns blazing and got up 28-0 in the first quarter. This week was a bit slower, building up to 28-0 by half. They comfortably coasted after halftime. Next up: @Indiana. I don't think Ohio State will be challenged in this game, but Indiana plays them tough at times. Historically, Indiana can play decent offense. If Ohio State's defense is as good as it seems, the game will be over by half.
#4 Maryland - This is the second week in a row that Maryland has put up 60+ points. They're averaging 71 ppg over the first two weeks. 71! Granted, week one was against a joke of an opponent. This week was up against a Syracuse team that has been defensively stout over the past few years, although we'll learn how poor their defense is as the season goes on. Early season Maryland is always more impressive than late season, but maybe with new leadership they can put together a full season. Next up: @Temple. It's difficult to say what Temple is going to show up with. They are coming off a bye week and only played an FCS team so far. My guess is that Maryland will be a 20+ point favorite.
Always the bridesmaid...
#5 Alabama - I bet no one expected Alabama out here! The truth is that they've been impressive in their games, but they're playing absolutely no one. It's really hard to rank them in the top 4 when they haven't played any real competition yet. Next up: @South Carolina. South Carolina lost a heartbreaker in week 1 to neighboring North Carolina, but came back this week and beat up on an overmatched FCS team. Alabama should win this game, but I expect the line to be closer to -10 than the -33 they had against Duke.
Other teams under consideration after Week 1
Wisconsin continues to blast teams. They have a bye week coming up before Michigan comes to town. I fully expect them to beat Michigan by at least 9. Auburn had a slow game against Tulane, but they can't expect to keep all games down in score like this. Iowa shut out Rutgers and Oklahoma massacred the worst team in South Dakota. Let's hope some real games will come up on the schedule soon.