College football conference power rankings, from the ACC to the Underdogs

Clemson bested Louisville without starting quarterback Deshaun Watson, but the game was close and in Death Valley. That won't drop the Cards down too much. Notre Dame survived North Carolina in a lookahead spot. Virginia remains undefeated in the conference, while Louisville's two conference losses are close road games to two of the better teams in the league. Georgia Tech was finally knocked off its perch, losing at home to Duke -- a game that could have all but sewn up the division for the Yellow Jackets.

Remember when Virginia Tech beat Ohio State? That win keeps looking better and better, though the Hokies have not done much in conference so far. Miami got back on track and put up a 50 spot against Cincinnati, and next Thursday travels to Blacksburg for a likely division elimination contest.

I was all ready to finally give the Baylor Bears some credit if they went ahead and took care of business vs. TCU. Baylor would get a win over a quality program, and they'd finally earn my attention in the process. But instead, no. Who do Baylor and TCU think they are, putting together a 61-58 final score this weekend? What am I supposed to make of that? You allowed one team to score 58 points, and yet the national polls have Baylor ranked at No. 4 in the country? Watching this game wasn't about the back-and-forth everyone praised up; it made me sick to my stomach that these offensive gurus can find any and every way to get wide receivers open 30 yards down the field, yet their defenses can hardly do anything.

Do better, Baylor. You too, TCU. One hundred and nineteen combined points? I'll allow Baylor to take the top post until further notice, but this type of behavior is unacceptable.

This remains the country's hardest conference to sort out. We've also had three different people taking on that task at points this season. Combine those two, and the Big Ten gets reshuffled weekly.

The Spartans are by no means an assured No. 1 at this point. Two straight disappointing performances -- this week a 45-31 win over Purdue that only had 1:22 of garbage time -- and a surging Ohio State, which bombed quality opponents Cincinnati and Maryland before a week off, made the top choice a challenge of its own. MSU's loss at a recovering Oregon sustains it, but it's time to stop goofing around. From there ... we'll go Nebraska, since the Huskers have at least blown out some opponents and have a highly respectable loss, by five points at East Lansing.

Another week, another shuffling, although it's a familiar team that returns to the top in Oregon, which stormed into the Rose Bowl to put a hurting on a suddenly reeling UCLA team. With so much of the Ducks' depth injured up front (but healing), they are by no means as strong as they once were perceived to be, and that was still enough to manhandle the Bruins.

The telling stretch will be if they can survive both Stanford and Utah on back-to-back weekends in November.

Mississippi is the center of the college football universe. You’ll tell your grandkids about this some day, but for now, just sit back and enjoy the ride. There’s a great chance the Egg Bowl will be a battle of 11-0 teams fighting for their division, conference, and national title aspirations.

Which Magnolia State team is superior? That’s a tough call. Right now, Mississippi State gets the edge thanks to its three consecutive wins over top-10 teams, near-perfect balance on offense (265.3 passing yards per game, 264.3 rushing) and a bona fide Heisman contender in quarterback Dak Prescott. Prescott is so good, in fact, that CBS in-booth analyst Gary Danielson implied that he might be a better college quarterback than Tim Tebow. And the Bulldogs defense, with perhaps the best front seven in the nation, leads the SEC in sacks and tackles for loss.

As the season keeps chugging along, Underdogs keep dropping. First, there was Boise State, then BYU, Cincinnati, NIU, and so forth. Challenger after challenger has stepped up, poised to make a play for that top spot, only to stumble. That leaves us with two familiar names atop our power rankings once again: ECU and Marshall.

And the thing that stands out to me about both of these teams? Their defenses. Yes, I’m well aware that these squads possess two of the most prolific offenses in college football. Marshall is second in the nation in points per game, ECU 15th. Yes, I’m also well-aware that superhumans who make playing quarterback look easy lead both, but the reason both teams are still standing while others have fallen is because of their defensive ability.