Chaos on Campuses

Colorado making the National League playoffs by winning 14 of 15, including a one-game playoff comeback on a Hall-of-Fame closer. The Mets' horrific collapse. The Steelers and Ravens being shocked by the Cardinals and Browns.

And yet the week in those sports seem outright mundane compared to the corresponding week of college football.

Outside of USC and LSU, it looks like everyone was just guessing when they filled out their preseason top-10 after this week. Five of this week's top 10 teams in the land fell.

No realistic prognosticator thought he had everything right. But after the most turbulent week of college football in recent memory, you have to wonder if pollsters and experts were just picking schools out of a hat.

Even USC and LSU were unimpressive this week, with Trojan mistakes resulting in enough laundry on the field to jam an industrial-sized drier, and with LSU allowing Tulane to stick around way longer than expected. But they are still the model of consistency of college football right now. Wisconsin, meanwhile has to be the ugliest team to ever have the longest running winning streak in the nation, but they, too, have survived.

Everyone else in the preseason Associated Press top 10 has already face-planted like Matt Holiday at home plate. West Virginia's eight-cylinder running offense blew a transition for the second-straight year against South Florida. And sportswriters are running out of synonyms and metaphors for porous, soft, and pathetic to describe Louisville's defense, which has blown games to Kentucky and (cough) Syracuse.

Texas bit the dust against Kansas State; like West Virginia/USF, it was an upset Part Deaux. Oklahoma looked dominant against weaklings before sleepwalking through the fourth quarter against another Big 12 North team, Colorado. By the way, this all leads up to this week's Red River slap-fight in Dallas ... I'm pumped.

Michigan: do I really need to go into them?

And in the SEC, Florida follows up a near flop against Ole Miss by finishing the choke-job against Auburn. A week after the Tigers were beaten by lowly Mississippi State.

And yeah, powerhouse LSU accounts for Virginia Tech's lone loss. But they were absolutely torched, and seven-point wins over ECU and UNC are hardly validating.

So we are left to pick through the rubble of the college football landscape after the week's nuclear fallout, trying to salvage what is left of what we thought we knew about the sport.

Outside the (former) top 10, sanity is no more safe. The Big 12 North is in general better than the South, Cincinnati and South Florida are 5-0 while Notre Dame is 0-5, Illinois is 2-0 in the Big Ten while Penn State is 0-2, and Iowa State can't beat Toledo, Northern Iowa or Kent State, but managed to take down the rival Iowa Hawkeyes. Nothing makes sense to me anymore.

That said, I will hold my breath and throw out a top 10 ... for now.

1. USC — Even the best teams are going to have an ugly win or five this year. While the home slate is not daunting, visits to Tempe, Eugene, and Berkley will make the Trojans earn a spot in New Orleans. And the way this season is going, they could even lose one of them.

2. LSU — No, I'm not bumping the Tigers over USC for a win over any team from the state of Louisiana. They get better competition in practice. Think not? If you could go to LSU on scholarship, would you be playing football at Tulane? Also, this team has the easiest road to 12-0 out there, especially if they dispatch Florida Saturday.

3. Cal — The Golden Bears showed poise in a tough environment. This team is a legitimate national title contender. DeSean Jackson is a Heisman-caliber player. And visits to Arizona State, UCLA, and Washington (not to mention the arrival of a Trojan Horse Nov. 10) will make Cal and Jackson prove it.

4. Ohio State — Jim Tressell can build up a defense so fast the Pentagon should hire him. And they are pummeling the Big Ten ... well, if you still consider Northwestern and Minnesota the Big Ten.

5. Boston College — The Eagles have solid wins over Wake Forest and Georgia Tech. And while they haven't blown anyone out, they have been consistent, winning by at least 10 each week. And the ACC isn't quite as bad as everyone thinks; Virginia Tech, Wake, Virginia, Miami, Georgia Tech, Clemson, Florida State, and Maryland are have respectable wins in a league that especially reflects the parity of the sport at-large.

6. South Florida — I will continue to give the Bulls props until they lose, if for no other reason than to resist punishing them for having literally no history. They make Rutgers look like a storied program. They do have a veteran quarterback, a defense that can slow Steve Slaton, a ton of grit stemming from that chip on their shoulders reminiscent of 2006 Rutgers, and I've said enough good things about them to justify the ranking in this muddled picture. That said, this team is not going undefeated. Then again, there is a chance no one will.

7. Wisconsin — Talk about an undefeated team here almost by default. One-score games with UNLV, Michigan State, Iowa ... can they beat anyone with a sense of conviction? The later two were at home, and Iowa State and Indiana have beaten the Hawkeyes.

8. Oregon — This is still a good team. And if Dennis Dixon doesn't forget what color his team is wearing, the Ducks are where Cal is at No. 3. He looked like a different quarterback throwing the ball against the Golden Bears. In a bad way.

9. South Carolina — Like Virginia Tech, their only loss is to LSU. The coaches' poll still has them well below a Georgia team they beat. Of the one loss teams, there aren't many better.

10. Oklahoma — Think the Sooners received their wake-up call in Boulder? I think so. I pity the next team on their slate. Texas, which had showed a lot more warning signs before their embarrassing loss this week, may get mauled in Dallas.

But hey, as we have shown, these are educated guesses. At best. Half these teams will probably lose next week anyway just to spite anyone trying to make sense of last week's mess. Seriously, we have South Florida, Kentucky and Boston College in the AP top 10 right now ... can anyone call this anything but anarchy?

Meanwhile, Oregon (still a good team after Cal loss), Missouri (undefeated element of that Big 12 North), Arizona State (also unblemished), and Florida (still very dangerous) are waiting in the wings for the next time the college football world gets dropped on its head for a week.