College Football Four Weeks In

We are four weeks into this college football season. And so far my expressed opinions have been met with facts that have proven to be, shall we say, humbling.

The day before the season started, I wrote this about my Auburn Tigers: “…I do believe they are way, way better than the so-called experts are saying, and I look forward to watching them prove those so-called experts wrong.” Well, the Tigers are 3-1 and have beaten a ranked team, which may not sound bad, but up to now their play has done more to prove the experts right than to prove them wrong. Their defense has looked so meek and flaccid that it is almost impossible to see them winning any of the games in the murderer’s row that is their immediate future -- when they face South Carolina, Arkansas, Florida, and LSU over the next four weekends, with only one of those games at home.

Also, I opined that “Central Florida is the most underrated team in America. By far. And they absolutely should be ranked.” And after I wrote that, Central Florida went out and lost two games in the next nine days.

On the positive side, I correctly predicted South Florida winning at Notre Dame and Oklahoma winning at Florida State. But those positives were overshadowed by a very dark cloud: the untimely death of Lee Roy Selmon.

So maybe I should hold off on opining about college football for the time being. But unfortunately, I can’t help myself. We are four weeks into the season, and I have always said that this is the week when we have seen enough action to start making educated assessments...so without further ado, here is the Stanton’s Space Top Twenty:

1. LSU

2. Alabama

3. Oklahoma

4. Boise State

5. Wisconsin

6. Oklahoma State

7. Oregon

8. Stanford

9. Virginia Tech

10. Clemson

11. South Carolina

12. Florida

13. Nebraska

14. Texas A&M

15. Baylor

16. South Florida

17. Florida State

18. TCU

19. Georgia Tech

20. Arkansas

Note: I wanted to comment on Texas A&M leaving the Big 12 for the SEC, which became official today, but I decided to wait and write about that in its own post. For now I will simply say that no matter what you think about conference realignment in general, Texas A&M made the right decision for them, and the SEC made the right decision when it opted to welcome them into the fold.