So we pick up in Week Three of the 2007/1985 season. Gameday is in Gainesville for #13 Rutgers at #5 Florida, while #24 Missouri begins its season hosting lowly Northwestern.
Week Three Games of Interest
(Again home teams are in all caps)
September 14
#24 MISSOURI > Northwestern (my guess: 55-21)
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#2 Louisiana State > NORTH CAROLINA
#3 WEST VIRGINIA > Duke
#5 FLORIDA > Rutgers
#6 MICHIGAN > Notre Dame
#7 WISCONSIN > Northern Illinois
#8 California > OREGON STATE (in the real 2007, OSU knocked off Cal, but for Cal games I’m going by how their season flowed—they were a fantastic team until they lost in early-October, at which point the wheels fell off)
#10 GEORGIA > Baylor (oof)
#11 OHIO STATE > Pittsburgh
#12 TENNESSEE > #19 ucla (fun-looking matchup that probably would have been painful to actually watch)
INDIANA > #14 Louisville (amazing how many crap teams were ranked to start the season)
#15 PENN STATE > Temple
#17 VIRGINIA TECH > Clemson
#18 AUBURN > Southern Miss
#20 Arkansas > OLE MISS
#21 TCU > Tulane
ALABAMA > #22 Texas A&M
Maryland > #23 BOSTON COLLEGE
OKLAHOMA STATE > North Texas
KANSAS STATE > Northern Iowa
Oregon > COLORADO
IOWA STATE > Utah State
KANSAS > Vanderbilt
A slew of teams begin to drop out of the Top 25 at this point, but Missouri only moves up to #21. Oregon, who smoked Colorado in Boulder, jumps ahead of them to #20. Purely due to inaction, Oklahoma has fallen to #10. It will still be another week before they play their first game. Nebraska moves to #14, but trouble is on the horizon. Kansas and Kansas State begin to receive some votes (more for KU after their road upset of Hawaii a couple weeks ago).
Week Four Games of Interest
This week, Gameday is in...Austin! Why? Because #5 Texas (0-0) is matched up with #21 Mizzou (1-0)! The only other battle of ranked teams is #25 Cincy vs #23 Alabama, so this one gets the nod.
Week Four is the week that moves begin...upsets have already knocked the likes of UCLA and Louisville down the polls, but you ain’t seen nothing yet.
September 21
#21 Missouri > #5 TEXAS (that’s right...I said it...38-30...we were shaky in the ‘second half defense’ department early in the season, but they were just plain shaky...they almost lost to Arkansas State and UCF...this is a ha-yuge win for Mizzou, with the Gameday crew in attendance)
#1 USC > Baylor
#2 LSU > Colorado State
#3 West Virginia > MARYLAND
SOUTH CAROLINA > #6 Michigan (the slide begins)
#7 WISCONSIN > unlv
#8 CALIFORNIA > Arizona
#9 Georgia > CLEMSON
#11 Ohio State > COLORADO (CU’s schedule biting them big-time)
#13 PENN STATE > East Carolina
Illinois > #14 NEBRASKA (the slide begins)
#17 Rutgers > Army
#18 ARKANSAS > Tulsa
KANSAS STATE > #19 tcu
#20 OREGON > Stanford
#22 byu > TEMPLE
#25 Cincinnati > #23 ALABAMA
#24 WAKE FOREST > N.C. State
KANSAS > Indiana State
Vanderbilt > IOWA STATE
#5, #6, #14, #19, and #23 all go down, three of them to unranked opponents. The season of upsets has begun.
So after four weeks and a major shakeup, here is the Top 25 poll on the morning of September 23.
- USC (2-0)
- LSU (2-0)
- West Virginia (3-0)
- Florida (2-0)
- California (4-0)
- Wisconsin (2-0)
- Georgia (3-0)
- Oklahoma (0-0!)
- Ohio State (2-0)
- Penn State (3-0)
- Missouri (2-0)
- Texas (0-1)
- Tennessee (1-0)
- Michigan (1-1)
- Virginia Tech (2-1)
- Auburn (2-0)
- Rutgers (1-1)
- Arkansas (2-0)
- Oregon (3-0)
- Cincinnati (4-0)
- South Carolina (3-0)
- Nebraska (1-1)
- BYU (3-1)
- Wake Forest (3-0)
- Kansas State (3-0)
Big games for Week Five: Gameday is in Athens for #21 South Carolina at #7 Georgia...#1 USC travels to AZ to take on undefeated Arizona State...#8 OU actually plays, albeit against lowly Minnesota...#10 Penn State is at #17 Rutgers...#16 Auburn is in Knoxville against #13 Tennessee in a battle of SEC unbeatens...and the Oregon Big 8 show continues, as the #19 Ducks take on #21 Nebraska in Lincoln.
Stay tuned!