Week 3 is in the books! Thanks, Alan, for your comments, and yes, Lucy, they are the Hilltoppers. I may sound like I make this stuff up, but really I don’t. Mostly…

Without further ado, the weekly awards:

Upset of the Week: This is a tough one. I’m tempted to say Mississippi St’s 19-14 win at Auburn, the second week in a row that the highly touted Tigers lost a home game. I’m tempted to say Florida Atlantic’s 42-39 win over Minnesota, but the Golden Gophers have really been a program in chaos of late. I’m tempted to say 0-2 Iowa St’s 15-13 win over 2-0 Iowa, but the Hawkeyes have not lived up to expectations ever since their big loss to Ohio St last year. I would like to have said UCF over Texas, but the Longhorns did manage to outlast the Golden Knights (yes, Lucy, the Golden Knights) in the end by a score of 35-32. So instead I’m going to go with Kentucky’s 40-34 win over Louisville. Kentucky has quietly put together a 3-0 start, jumped into the national rankings, and upset a team that was expected to be strongly in the running for a BCS bid. The Wildcats have their work cut out for them though: four of their next five games are against Arkansas, South Carolina, LSU, and Florida!

Comeback of the Week: There were no comebacks from oppressively huge deficits this week, but Alabama wins the award for their 41-38 victory over Arkansas. The Crimson Tide led by as many as 21 points earlier in the game, but late in the fourth quarter found themselves trailing the Razorbacks until getting a touchdown pass with 8 seconds to go to win it. The Tide preserved their undefeated season and looks forward to another big SEC test – Georgia – next week.

Yawner of the Week: As always at this time of year, there are lots of candidates for this award. I’m going with Rutgers’ 59-0 win over Norfolk St. The Scarlet Knights rolled up 42 points in the second quarter alone, and they have everyone believing that they will be every bit as in the thick of the BCS conversation as they were last year. They haven’t really played anyone of consequence yet, but that will change quickly, as four of their next five opponents are Maryland, Cincinnati, South Florida, and West Virginia. Oddly enough, however, all four of those games are at home!

Game of the Week: Gotta go with the Alabama win over Arkansas, a great game providing some early season definition to the SEC.

And now, with 6.2% reliability, here are this week’s rankings, with last week’s rankings and this week’s AP rankings provided for comparison:

Rank	Team		Wins	Losses	Value	STR	Last Week	AP
1	Texas		3	0	2.745	5	3	7
2	Michigan St		3	0	2.537	15	15	36
3	USC		2	0	2.469	21	5	1
4	LSU		3	0	2.355	26	1	2
5	Florida		3	0	2.320	27	20	3
6	Kentucky		3	0	2.230	34	19	21
7	Alabama		3	0	2.181	38	12	16
8	Boston Coll		3	0	2.037	48	32	14
9	Ohio St		3	0	2.018	47	10	8
10	Missouri		3	0	1.889	54	6	25
11	Cincinnati		3	0	1.880	58	17	29
12	Wisconsin		3	0	1.872	57	7	9
13	Oregon		3	0	1.769	65	76	13
14	Air Force		3	0	1.703	69	49	32
15	California		3	0	1.626	73	16	6
16	Clemson		3	0	1.593	81	21	15
17	Hawaii		3	0	1.473	85	13	19
18	Rutgers		3	0	1.350	91	8	11
19	Tulsa		2	0	1.348	89	29	36
20	Virginia Tech		2	1	1.290	13	27	17
21	South Carolina		3	0	1.276	98	9	12
22	West Virginia		3	0	1.258	97	48	5
23	Indiana		3	0	1.228	92	40
24	Texas Tech		3	0	1.208	101	4	31
25	South Florida		2	0	1.189	105	22	23
26	Texas A&M		3	0	1.157	102	14	20
27	Oklahoma		3	0	1.124	109	23	4
28	Washington		2	1	1.000	31	11	35
29	Purdue		3	0	0.988	112		33
30	Kansas		3	0	0.988	111	18	36
31	Florida St		2	1	0.926	33		34
32	Connecticut		3	0	0.918	113
33	Nebraska		2	1	0.912	41		24
34	Arizona St		3	0	0.881	114	25	28
35	Vanderbilt		2	1	0.857	36
36	Oregon St		2	1	0.855	39
37	Penn St		3	0	0.820	117		10
38	Washington St		2	1	0.784	42
39	Boise St		2	1	0.755	46
40	Kent St		2	1	0.733	49
41	Pittsburgh		2	1	0.711	50
42	Mississippi St		2	1	0.682	53
43	Arkansas		1	1	0.651	7		26
44	Georgia		2	1	0.651	59		22
45	Bowling Green		1	1	0.606	10
46	UCF		1	1	0.604	11
47	Arkansas St		1	1	0.596	9
48	Wyoming		2	1	0.560	67	24
49	Virginia		2	1	0.535	66
50	West Kentucky		2	1	0.528	68
51	New Mexico		2	1	0.479	71
52	Louisville		2	1	0.463	74		18
53	New Mexico St		2	1	0.416	78
54	Georgia Tech		2	1	0.373	83		27
55	UCLA		2	1	0.373	80	2	30
56	Tennessee		1	2	0.348	3
57	Illinois		2	1	0.319	87
58	Maryland		2	1	0.315	88
59	TCU		1	2	0.278	4
60	Houston		1	1	0.193	28
61	Miami FL		2	1	0.162	96
62	Ball St		2	1	0.108	94
63	Southern Miss		2	1	0.099	93
64	Utah		1	2	0.064	6
65	Ohio		2	1	0.034	108
66	UTEP		1	2	0.018	8
67	Northwestern		2	1	-0.002	107
68	Duke		1	2	-0.071	14
69	Mississippi		1	2	-0.115	12
70	Akron		1	2	-0.137	17
71	Florida Atlantic		2	1	-0.180	116
72	Fresno St		1	2	-0.208	18
73	Louisiana Tech		1	2	-0.208	19
74	Troy		1	2	-0.265	20
75	Baylor		2	1	-0.267	118
76	UNLV		1	2	-0.291	25
77	Miami OH		1	2	-0.295	29
78	Wake Forest		1	2	-0.308	30
79	UAB		1	2	-0.331	23
80	Cent Michigan		1	2	-0.376	35
81	Kansas St		2	1	-0.403	120
82	Idaho		1	2	-0.434	44
83	Buffalo		1	2	-0.438	45
84	NC St		1	2	-0.478	43
85	Stanford		1	1	-0.478	106
86	BYU		1	2	-0.484	61
87	Colorado		1	2	-0.494	40
88	Auburn		1	2	-0.536	95
89	Oklahoma St		1	2	-0.554	63
90	East Carolina		1	2	-0.587	64
91	SMU		1	2	-0.603	52
92	Memphis		1	1	-0.653	115
93	Minnesota		1	2	-0.662	76
94	Navy		1	2	-0.676	75
95	Iowa		2	1	-0.690	121
96	Nevada		1	2	-0.745	84
97	Iowa St		1	2	-0.815	90
98	Arizona		1	2	-0.938	99
99	East Michigan		1	2	-0.940	104
100	North Carolina		1	2	-0.963	103
101	Michigan		1	2	-0.991	100
102	Army		1	2	-1.085	110
103	W Michigan		0	3	-1.290	1
104	LA Monroe		0	3	-1.308	2
105	Others-Normal		0.346	2.537333	-1.334	55
106	San Diego St		0	2	-1.568	16
107	Middle Tenn St		0	3	-1.636	22
108	Toledo		0	3	-1.659	24
109	Florida Intl		0	3	-1.667	32
110	Utah St		0	3	-1.758	37
111	San Jose St		0	3	-1.793	62
112	Syracuse		0	3	-1.799	60
113	Colorado St		0	2	-1.800	51
114	North Texas		0	2	-1.817	56
115	Notre Dame		0	3	-1.845	72
116	Tulane		0	2	-1.847	70
117	Marshall		0	3	-1.906	77
118	LA Lafayette		0	3	-1.911	79
119	Temple		0	3	-1.923	82
120	Rice		0	3	-1.932	86
121	Northern Illinois		0	3	-2.136	119

Most overrated team: Penn St (3-0, AP#10, Hack#37). The Nittany Lions may very well be a top-10 team, but so far they have played the 5^th easiest schedule in the country – their opponents have gone a paltry 1-8. Now admittedly, no one expected Notre Dame to be 0-3 at this point, and that is dragging down Penn St’s strength of schedule considerably. Nevertheless, they will need to prove themselves against more worthy opposition before they make my radar screen. Mark your calendars for October 13 when they host Wisconsin, another highly touted but (in my opinion) overrated team.

Most underrated team: Michigan St (3-0, AP#36, Hack#2). I’m gritting my teeth as I do this because the Spartans always seem to let me down right after I give them props. But they have won convincingly over a respectable schedule (their opponents are 4-1 when they are not playing Michigan St), and they have a chance this weekend to deal Notre Dame an unbelievable fourth straight loss. Is this the year they finally overcome the label of “great potential”?

By the way, don’t look now, but Duke actually won a game! On the road! At Northwestern! This has been a good week for traditionally strong basketball schools on the football field (Duke, Kentucky, Florida, North Car.. [oh well, 3 out of 4 isn’t bad…])

Interesting games next week:

(27) Oklahoma vs. (19) Tulsa [Tulsa riding high after shootout win over BYU]

(21) South Carolina vs. (4) LSU [Tough road test for the Gamecocks]

(38) Penn St vs. (101) Michigan [Neither team can afford to lose this game]

(98) Arizona vs. (15) California [Bears eager for revenge as Wildcats knocked them out of the Rose Bowl last year]