Top Ten -- Week 3

1) LSU -- Seven (disputed) points have been scored against the Tigers this year. Middle Tennessee State, while certainly not world-beaters, did put up some gaudy offensive numbers against Louisville. LSU held them to under 100 yards of total offense. Oh yeah, and if you want to talk about depth, how about super backup QB Ryan Perrilloux? The only weakness Pat Forde can find on this team is that Perrilloux is too good, meaning a couple of slip-ups by Matt Flynn could lead to some controversy. That's a pretty weak weakness.

1a) USC -- The resume argument that kept SC a little further down last week no longer holds water. Nebraska is not a great team, but it's also never an easy place to win. Southern Cal won, and won with ease. This is, once again, a football-game-winning machine.

3) OU -- Probably should be 1b, but it's our blog and ou still sucks. QB Sam Bradford is absolutely sick for a freshman, and Texas is legitimately the only team on the sooners' schedule that will be a single-digit underdog--and even that is now in doubt. We're afraid.

4) Florida -- The Gators could be team 1c here; there's just no way of telling these 4 squads apart. Luckily for LSU, they get to play Florida in Baton Rouge this year. Unfortunately for both teams, the winner of that matchup will likely have to beat the other one again in Atlanta in December. It won't be easy for either one to beat the other twice, and that could be the undoing of the SEC's chances of a berth in the BCS Championship. But it's awfully early for that kind of speculation.

5) West Virginia -- Speed kills, and in this case, speed on offense makes up for an above-average but not super defense. The Mountaineers are really fast.

6) Cal -- It became clear in Utah that UCLA will not, after all, be a legitimate threat in the Pac-10. That leaves Cal once again as the most legitimate threat to the Trojans in the conference. Jeff Tedford continues to be a top-notch gameday coach and RB Justin Forsett is very talented. This week's game against Arizona will be a beatdown of a head coach named Stoops--which is always fun.

7) Ohio State -- They won a championship playing like this--i.e., pulling games out without looking so hot in the process. Last week's win showed two things: Washington is probably still year away from returning to national relevance, and Ohio State can still step up and play a very impressive ballgame.

8) Texas -- Looked awfully shaky this week. Texas has a lot of issues to work out before the October 6 One Game Season, and the more players keep getting arrested the less likely it is that the Horns will succeed in doing that. This season does not have the same positive vibe surrounding the program to which we have grown accustomed, and Texas probably won't be on this list come October 7th. But, again, it's our blog. And of course, pulling out a win in Dallas would fix that vibe in a hurry.

9) Penn State -- Could be higher, but that Notre Dame win doesn't look all that impressive right now. The Lions are in a tough situation this weekend, because if they win at Michigan all it means is that they beat the Wolverines in a year when everyone is beating them. If they lose, they lost to Michigan in a year when everyone is beating them, which is even worse. Appalachian State essentially robbed Penn State fans of any joy that may come from breaking the 8-year losing streak vs UM.

10) Rutgers -- Look, they're good, ok?! One of us has family in Jersey, screw you for judging us.