Week 1: College Football Conference Winners and Losers
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The beginning of the college football season always pits conference against conference. We’ve selected the conferences that were either winners or losers for the week.
Conference Winners
Pac-10
• Cal – Cal avenged its embarrassing loss last season against Tennessee. But the main reason the Pac-10 is a winner this week is because it played the game of the week.
• Washington – Are the Huskies this good or is Syracuse that lousy? The Huskies get to prove it in the next couple of weeks at home against Boise State and Ohio State.
• Oregon – Oregon scored 48 against Houston, last season’s Conference USA champions.
SEC
• Auburn and Georgia – They welcomed two Big 12 teams into their cribs and sent them packing with losses.
• Tennessee – The Volunteers deserve respect for scheduling a home and home schedule with Cal. Traveling to the west coast to start the season isn’t easy. It would be very refreshing to see a couple more SEC teams follow Tennessee’s example.
Mountain West
• Wyoming – The Cowboys lost on an extra point at Virginia last year. This year Wyoming proved last year wasn’t a fluke with a 23-3 victory in the rematch.
• BYU – Arizona returned 10 defensive starters from last season, but BYU looked like the team with 10 starters on Saturday. BYU continues to regain its winning tradition.
• TCU – Big 12 Baylor couldn’t muster a point against this staunch defense. TCU won 27-0. Can the Horned Frogs keep it up against Texas next week?
Conference Losers
Big East
• The Big East continues to be criticized as the weakest of the BCS conferences. How does it prove this isn’t true? The conference teams play Duke, Elon, Murray State, Buffalo, Eastern Michigan, Western Michigan, and Southeast Missouri State. Embarassing, Big East.
• Syracuse – Syracuse was the last team in the Big East who needed to play another BCS conference team. The Orange proved it by getting whipped against Washington at home.
Big 12
• Oklahoma State – Oklahoma State proved it still can’t stop anyone on defense as it lost at Georgia 35-14.
• Kansas State - The Wildcats kept it close at Auburn but finally fell to the Tigers 23-13.
• Texas – Texas beat Arkansas State 21-13 at home? Is this a typo?
• Missouri – Missouri might be the team to beat in the Big 12 North but barely escaped Illinois.
Big Ten
• Appalachian State Baby!
Chris Fry
sportprojections@gmail.com
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