College Football Top 25 Poll: Week 3....

...Now with 25% less Pac-10.

Week 3 is going to give us our first major shakeups of the season in The Beardown College Football Top 25 Poll. Work has been hectic today so not much analysis, just know that I should have waited until week 3 to make my Top 25 predictions since a good portion of the teams I have had in here didn't play too well yesterday. It could be worse, I could have had Michigan in my Top 25 (USA Today Coaches Poll).

1(1). USC Trojans
Number one again and not only furthering themselves from the Pac-10 but the rest of the nation as well. They have, by far, played the toughest non-conference schedule of the rest of the Top 25 (other than ECU). USC is the real deal...until they blow an easy Pac-10 game sometime later in the year (2003 - California, 2006 - Oregon State, 2007 - Stanford, 2008 - Arizona?)

2(2). Oklahoma Sooners
It may have been a lowly Pac-10 school but 55-14 is convincing in anyone's book.

3(3). Florida Gators
-Off-

4(6). Missouri Tigers
They leapfrogged AN Ohio State University and Georgia to take the up for grabs 3 spot. I don't care if it was Nevada Jeremy Maclin and Chase Daniel are just too good. Big XII play will be exciting this year.

5(5). Georgia Bulldogs
I considered moving them up with AN Ohio State University's loss, but bottom line was 14-7 over SoCar wasn't as impressive as Mizzou's Saturday performance. Unluckily for them, a Win over ASU next week won't do as much to launch their season as they may have hoped. They need the teams ahead of them to fall and spotless SEC play to make it to the Big Game.

6(7). Texas Tech Red Raiders
Maintaining, although they have put up 127 points, I expected more out of their offense against Eastern Michigan, Nevada, and Southern Methodist.

7(9). LSU Tigers
They move up due to AN Ohio State University loss and an unimpressive Auburn performance. Oh and they beat North Texas, but who cares, Play someone already.

8(10). Texas Longhorns
-Off-

9(11). Wisconsin Badgers
The new Top Big Eleven team. A nice road win at Fresno State and they make it into the Top Ten.

10(16). Brigham Young Cougars
59-0 over UCLA. Outplayed them in ever single facet of the game. That meeting with Utah at the end of the season could be the biggest game in MWC history.

11(8). Auburn Tigers
3-2 over Mississippi State. 15 of the 18 Baseball games played on Saturday had a combined higher score, the remaining three each combined for 5 points as well: 3-2 (Reds v. Backs) 3-2 (Braves v. Mets) and 5-0 (Braves v. Mets). Not impressive.

12(14). Alabama Crimson Tide
It came down to ECU and Bama right here and despite ECU's resume I gave the edge to Bama due to the most recent performance.

13(13). East Carolina Pirates
Had they played a little bit stronger against 0-2 Tulane they would have jumped to 11, but a 28-24 victory didn't impress. I think that their slipper has a short shelf life especially with the recent injury to Star Linebacker Quentin Cotton.

14(4). AN Ohio State University
10 spot slip after getting blown out by #1 team sans Heisman RB. Would Beanie have made a difference. Absolutely. Would Ohio State have won with Beanie? Absolutely Not. The Big Eleven is starting to look like the Little Eleven. When do you start Pryor if you're the vest?

15(17). Oregon Ducks
Eeking out a game against Purdue (32-26) and losing a QB sohuld be a scary sight for Oregon fans, unless 4Real is right by thinking that Masoli should be in there anyway.

16(18). Penn State Nittany Lions
They're doing what they've gotta do, we'll see how real they are come Little Eleven conference play. I'm still not sold on them just yet.

17(21). South Florida Bulls
Great game against Kansas on Friday. A solid home "upset" over an outmatched Reesing and Co. Maybe they aren't just a one-year wonder.

18(12). Kansas Jayhawks
They lost to a better South Florida team. With Conference play aroud the corner don't expect Kansas to get much higher than this without a couple of really well played games.

19(19). Clemson Tigers
Pretty run of the mill 27-9 victory over NC State.

20(20) Wake Forest Demon Deacons
-Off-

21(25). Utah Utes
Moving up a few spots, doesn't matter if it was Utah State (a bottom feeder) they looked clean and crisp. Like I said, the match-up with BYU should be the difference between a BCS bid.

22(UR). Illinois Fighting Illini
Survived a tough one against what should have been an outmanned opponent (LaLaf). That Illinois defense needs to get a fire under their Ass to have a chance at the Little Eleven title.

23(15). Arizona State Sun Devils
USC has clearly made a case for the National Championship, or at the very worst, the Rose Bowl, and Oregon having a step up on ASU, the Devils are going to need something big to happen to get back into the national spotlight. A Home game against a Georgia team that hasn't played a lot of top competition could be their only hope. Unless the same team that lost to UNLV steps on the field.

24(24). Tennessee Volunteers
-Off-

25(23). Fresno State Bulldogs
Hung in there with (now) #9 Wisconsin, lost by 3 at Home in a tough game. The Bulldogs stick in there one more week.

Outside looking in:
Florida State Seminoles, Kentucky Wildcats, Boise State Broncos, Nebraska Cornhuskers, Oklahoma State Cowboys, West Virginia Mountaineers.

As Always:
January
July
August
Week 1
Week 2