Story Lines From Around the Country, Week 3

The SEC didn't have it's best weekend of the year, what with Kentucky giving the league another loss to a Sun Belt team, Auburn needing overtime to defeat another, and Arkansas completely falling apart. Don't worry though. It could have been worse. It could have been one of these fine conferences.

The ACC had a bad weekend.

The league celebrated plucking Notre Dame out of the Big East by going 0-3 against that league. In a horrid, horrid game, Virginia Tech got manhandled by Pitt. Yes, the same Pitt that got manhandled by Youngstown State just two weeks ago. Randy Edsall and Maryland lost at home to Edsall's old school UConn. Finally, UNC went down big to Louisville before its comeback attempt fell just short. BC also lost to Northwestern, and Virginia followed up its big win over Penn State last week by getting whacked 56-20 by Georgia Tech. The lone bright spot was FSU treating Wake Forest like it's Wake Forest for once.

The Big Ten had an even worse weekend.

The Big Ten's sole postseason eligible national title contender heading into the weekend was Michigan State, and Sparty nearly got shut out by Notre Dame at home. Wisconsin needed a last-minute missed field goal to escape Utah State. Indiana lost to Ball State. Iowa had trouble with Northern Iowa. Ohio State barely was able to beat Cal, which lost to Nevada in Week 1. All things considered, that Northwestern win over BC might have been the banner game, unless you want to count Penn State picking up its first win over Navy. Minnesota and Northwestern are the only undefeated teams left in the conference. That tells you what you need to know.

The Pac-12 wasn't great either, raising the question of who exactly did have a good weekend.

Cal did give Ohio State a good run, but it lost. Arizona State went on the road to Missouri and lost. Colorado spawned a litany of "hope they kept the receipt" jokes by letting Fresno State drop a train on them to the tune of 69-14 (665 yards allowed!). Utah edging BYU was the best non-conference result of day. And oh yeah, USC's title hopes are looking shaky after losing to Stanford again.

The Big 12. The Big 12 had a good weekend.

Here's your answer. Six teams beat their cupcakes with ease. Texas blew out Ole Miss and scored 66 points in the process. The only blemish was TCU beating Kansas only by a score of 20-6, but the game wasn't really that close. Apparently the only way to have a good Saturday was to play no one of note.

BCS Busters, mostly busted.

Only three non-AQ teams are left with unblemished records: Ohio, UTSA, and Louisiana Tech. Ohio edged Marshall to stay undefeated, LA Tech destroyed Rice, and UTSA took down I-AA Georgia State. UTSA doesn't really have the schedule to be in this conversation with no AQ conference opponents, but Ohio has a win over Penn State and LTU has Illinois, Virginia, and Texas A&M still left to go.