College football is an amazing sport. If you're reading this column, I have a feeling you'll likely agree with me. But Week 2 of the 2022 season was on another level. On this past Saturday, seven of the AP-ranked teams all lost. Now a couple of those (Baylor and Pittsburgh) lost to fellow ranked teams, but no one in their right mind would've picked Appalachian State and Marshall to win at Texas A&M and Notre Dame. And I didn't even include the fact that No. 1 Alabama have lost at unranked Texas, or that Nebraska lost to Georgia Southern of all teams (I had both underdogs to cover in last week's article).'
Five quick thoughts on what we saw last weekend:
- Alabama is still really good. Texas arguably outplayed them but I would still rank the Crimson Tide No. 1 based on talent and potential if I had a vote.
- Why do Texas A&M and Jimbo Fisher always struggle to find a halfway decent quarterback despite the rest of the team being so talented?
- Marcus Freeman's tenure at Notre Dame might be shorter than Scott Frost's at Nebraska. Yikes.
- USC is really, really good. Lincoln Riley is a roster-building machine. One of the five best teams I've seen all year, bar none.
- There are not 25 better teams in the country than Mike Leach's Mississippi State team. A lot more impressive in person than I was expecting.
I went 10-6 with my picks last weekend, though we haven't yet cashed a conference parlay. Houston is now on my banned list for their multiple end-of-game choke jobs against Texas Tech costing me the largest conference parlay of the week. The good news is that they aren't in the Big 12 just yet, so this week's game against Kansas is my last chance to pick one of their games in this column all season. I'll pass.
Unfortunately Week 3 isn't bringing us the most exciting slate of games. There's only two matchups of ranked vs. ranked teams (No. 12 BYU at No. 25 Oregon and No. 13 Miami at No. 24 Texas A&M) with both home teams or favorites having one loss. But there are betting opportunities galore and we're all about finding the best values on the board.