By Eddie Mayrose

SEC Football Not For The Faint Of Heart

Three conference matchups this week gave a bit of a preview as to just how tough this season may be in the SEC.  While Alabama cruised past Arkansas, Mississippi State came up less than a yard short of knocking off #5 LSU in Baton Rouge.  The Bulldogs had a first and goal at the Tigers’ 2 yard line but couldn’t punch it in.  In Lexington, despite Florida’s thrashing of previously unbeaten Kentucky, All-World QB Tim Tebow was knocked from the game with a concussion.  After spending Saturday night in the hospital, Tebow’s availability to return in time for the Gators’ road trip to LSU this weekend had yet to be determined.

Big East Conference Makes a Statement

Ask a college football fan which of the BCS conferences is the weakest and he’ll usually tell you it’s the Big East.  Seemingly bristling from that tag, the Big East made a Big Statement this weekend when South Florida, behind an untested freshman QB, went into Tallahassee and dominated Florida State.  Led by Tallahassee native B.J. Daniels, the Bulls led from start to finish in vanquishing Seminole squad coming off a huge win over Brigham Young.  Daniels, who decided to attend South Florida because Florida State wanted him to play defense, ran the ball well, made the passes he had to and gave his team reason to believe there might be life after Matt Grothe… Rutgers used a strong second half to put Maryland away while Pitt blew a fourth quarter lead in Raleigh and fell to N.C. State.

Miami Hurricanes Not All The Way Back Just Yet

Much was made last week of Miami’s 3-0 record that included victories over Florida State and Georgia Tech.  While their return to the Top Ten of the Coaches’ poll grabbed a lot of attention, it also seemed to make people forget just how good Virginia Tech is.  The pre season league favorite, none too happy at being listed as an underdog on their home field, sent “The U” back to the drawing board with a 31-7 thrashing in Blacksburg… Georgia Tech recovered from its loss to Miami and routed the offensively-challenged North Carolina Tar heels 24-7.

Big 12 Takes Weekend Off

Not a busy week in the Big 12, as early season cupcakes were still on the menu.  As league play commences this week, Texas has clearly established itself as the team to beat; at least until Sam Bradford returns to the Oklahoma lineup.

Parity Means Mediocrity Once Again In The Big Ten

One of these years, college football analysts will see the Big Ten for the Big Fraud that it is and stop ranking its teams so high in the pre season; especially Penn State.  Despite the fact that Paterno’s boys annually beat up on women’s colleges to start the year, pollsters taken with the ancient coach write the Nittany Lions onto their ballots.  Iowa made a mockery of PSU’s ranking this week and with it all talk of one last title for Paterno.  Indiana showed some chops by hanging with Michigan in the Big House, Wisconsin remained undefeated and Ohio State restablished itself as the cream of the crop.

Three BCS Party Crashers Still Left

Through the first month of the season, we’ve seen Boise State, TCU and Houston all establish solid resumes for a BCS bowl in spite of their residing in Non-BCS conferences.  Boise continues to roll; it’s decisive victory over Oregon to open 2009 now looking even better with the Ducks’ annihilation of California.  TCU traveled to Clemson and handled the Tigers; no easy task in Death Valley.  The Horned Frogs’ chances will come down to a matchup with BYU in the Mountain West.  As for Houston, if they weren’t in Conference USA,  they’d currently be sitting atop the standings of the Big 12 South off of their victories over Oklahoma State and Texas Tech.  As we always do here at CollegeSportsView.com, we hope all three finish the season with perfect records and cause the BCS computer to explode.

CollegeSportsView.com Top 25

1) Florida                4-0
2) Texas                   4-0
3) Alabama             4-0
4) LSU                       4-0
5) Boise State         4-0
6) Cincinnati           4-0
7) TCU                       3-0
USC                        3-1
9)Virginia Tech      3-1
10)Ohio State          3-1
11)Oklahoma           2-1
12)Kansas                 4-0
13)Houston              4-0
14)South Florida    4-0
15)Iowa                      4-0
16)Oklahoma State 3-1
17)Georgia                3-1
18)Mississippi          3-1
19)Michigan              4-0
20)Oregon                 3-1
21)California             3-1
22)Penn State           3-1
23)BYU                       3-1
24)Missouri              4-0
25)Auburn                4-0

Five Teams to Watch

Utah
South Carolina
Nebraska
Indiana
Miami