After months of counting down to the first weekend of September, it’s now almost over. There’s a few gems left on the schedule, but the bulk of America’s college teams now know what they have. It was not a great day for the non-BCS teams, but there were a few highlights along the way.
The Bad: The MAC went 3-10 overall, with their only wins over Troy, UTEP, and 1-AA Coastal Carolina. Other conference contenders found themselves on the wrong end of some big beatings, as Western Michigan got smoked by the Wolverines and Central Michigan came up short in Arizona. Meanwhile the Sun Belt had a profitable but disappointing weekend, failing to be competitive in any of their 4 games against BCS conference teams.
The Indifferent: Conference USA began with mostly 1-AA teams, and managed to beat them all, unlike the MAC or the ACC.
The Good: Non-BCS teams only stole 2 games from BCS conferences, but BYU’s upset over the Sooners puts them at the head of the pack in the BCS Buster race. Boise also cleared their highest hurdle, but like 2008, their strength of schedule can’t match the Mountain West teams. Nevada’s loss to Notre Dame was a disappointment, but neither the WAC or MWC lost to any 1-AA teams.
Today’s Games
Ole Miss at Memphis, 3:30 PM, ESPN- Only a couple hours apart, this is a big rivalry game for both teams. Ole Miss is expected to fight for the SEC West title, while Memphis isn’t projected to be too strong, the blue Tigers won’t want to get embarrassed at home.
Colorado State at Colorado, 7:00 PM, Fox Sports Net- This doesn’t have the cachet of the big rivalries in the south or California, but there’s no love lost between these schools.
Coming this week: more breakdown of this past week, and we’ll start looking toward week 2. Ok that’s not very original, but whatever.
Yesterday was pretty bad for the MAC. In the games that MAC teams should have steamrolled, they either barely won or lost outright. In the close games, with the exceptions of Bowling Green and Buffalo, they didn’t even show up.