Footballifact: Oklahoma's Title Game Bona Fides, Alabama's Reloading and More

Sifting out what the conventional wisdom looks like after the weekend in football. Inspiration, obviously, is right here. Particularly with just one week to go on, take with a grain of salt.

Oklahoma is a national title contender: Mostly False
The box score might suggest the game was along the lines of the 24-7 final, but the box score and the margin overstate how impressive Oklahoma's win was. For one thing, the Sooners tacked on 14 points in the fourth quarter and got 146 of their 427 yards in fourth-quarter drives. UTEP missed three field goals. And while the Miners gained just 255 yards on the night, 207 of those came on the ground; if you're giving up an average of 5.8 yards per carry to a Conference USA team, what's going to happen against the rest of the Big 12 and during the nonconference marquee game with Notre Dame?

Florida is good enough to contend for the SEC East: Half True
In this case, it's not so much that Florida is good enough to be a factor in the division race, but that front-runners Georgia and South Carolina might have been overestimated. It took Georgia far to long to put some separation between itself and Buffalo, and the Gamecocks struggled more than they likely should have against Vanderbilt. Sure, there are excuses for both -- Vanderbilt has given South Carolina fits over the years, and both teams were playing their first games of the season -- but it's not like the Dawgs and the Gamecocks distinguished themselves from Florida's lackluster outing against Bowling Green by that much.

Alabama is ready for another national title run: Mostly True
The 41-14 shellacking of Michigan didn't answer all of the questions about the Crimson Tide's new-look defense, but it answered enough to quiet the doubters at least until the Arkansas game. Alabama rolled over what was a Top 10 team before the showdown in Jerry Jones' Death Star but might do well to remain in the Top 20 after Saturday night. Alabama's place as the favorite in the SEC West might now have less to do with the dismissal/suspension of Tyrann Mathieu and more to do with the fact that Alabama is just that good.

Mike Leach will fix Washington State's offense: False
At least for the moment. The Air Raid was more like a stink bomb for the Cougars this week. Playing BYU (also Cougars) in the first game of the Leach Era, Washington State gained just 224 yards, 229 of those through the passing game. No, that's not a typo -- WSU gained minus-5 yards rushing on 16 carries. No one expected Leach to turn things around quickly, but when your top rusher gains seven yards on four carries, it's going to be a long season.

Baylor's going to fall way off without RG3: Pants on Fire
It's not like the Bears were facing world-beaters in Southern Methodist, but it's also not like they ever left the game in any doubt. Baylor pounded the Mustangs for 613 yards of total offense and led 45-10 after the third quarter. Nick Florence was 21-of-30 for 341 yards and four touchdowns. No one's going to say that the Bears aren't going to miss Robert Griffin III -- that would be stupid. But expecting them to go back to being the old Baylor is probably also a stretch. The one question is the defense, which allowed 507 yards, even if those did come on 92 offensive snaps.