College Football Midseason Roundup: Overrated, Underrated, What It All Means
College football midseason roundup with the 5 things that matter, winners and losers, overrated and underrated aspects to the season so far, and what it all means
College Football Midseason Roundup
College Football Week 7 Roundup
CFN 1-131 Rankings | Rankings by Conference
Bowl Projections | Week 7 Scoreboard
Week 8 Early Lines | AP Rankings | Coaches Poll
What 12-Team Playoff Would Look Like
Top 10 Hot Seat Coach Rankings | Heisman Race
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– Everything is fine One Really Big Thing
– That BIG win Most Overrated Thing
– Quarterback injuries Most Underrated Thing
– Superpowers are back What It All Means, Midseason
Winners & Losers From College Football First Half
Winner: Pac-12
UCLA is all of a sudden great. It’s 6-0 for the first time since 2005, and USC got to 6-0 for the first time since 2006 before losing to Utah. The Utes are great, Oregon is great, Oregon State has become wildly interesting, and Washington is as fun as any team going.
Washington State went to Madison and beat Wisconsin, Stanford went to South Bend and beat Notre Dame, Arizona took out one of the best teams in the FCS when North Dakota State came to Tucson.
Forgetting the expansion aspect – other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, how was the play? – the conference had a great few weeks.
Loser: Mountain West
What happened? All of a sudden the league that was so great over the last few years forgot how to play.
Boise State had to change offenses midway through, Fresno State struggled when QB Jake Haener went down, and it can’t be confirmed, but an angel reportedly loses its wings every time San Diego State’s brutal offense attempts a forward pass.
Utah State – awful. Nevada – awful. Colorado State, Hawaii, awful and awful.
To be fair, the rise of UNLV has been a blast, Wyoming has balled out, and Air Force and San Jose State have been great. The league could use a big second half, though.
Winner: Big 12
Who doesn’t want to be a part of the Big 12 shopping spree?
BYU has been okay, UCF is great, Cincinnati will probably be the top Group of Five program going to a New Year’s Six game, and Houston has been wildly fun. That’s all on the way in 2023 to go along with a base – at least in full form a season – with the strongest top-to-bottom conference in the country.
Where’s the easy out? Really? Iowa State is the worst team in the conference? Or maybe it’s Oklahoma? Or Texas Tech? They all might be bowling, including Kansas – one of the best stories in college football in the first half.
Loser: Big Ten
How much longer do we have to wait before Ohio State is just handed the Big Ten title trophy so we can go do other stuff?
Michigan has been great, and Illinois is having a wonderful breakthrough season, but there’s a whole lot of bad just about everywhere else.
Nebraska’s season fizzled immediately against a Northwestern team that flat-out died ever since the trip to Ireland. Wisconsin has been a massive disappointment, Michigan State a bigger one, and Iowa’s offense makes people sad.
Ohio State vs Michigan will be fun, but probably not.
Winner: Sun Belt
The whole Sun Belt, Fun Belt thing is kicking in full force.
It yoinked a bunch of programs from Conference USA, and then it went on a rampage to start the season.
How good was James Madison over the first several weeks? That’s how you make an entrance.
Appalachian State? All it did was beat Texas A&M. Marshall? It might not even go bowling, but it beat Notre Dame. Old Dominion? Welcome to the new era with your new coach, Virginia Tech, here’s a loss.
Nebraska has been miserable for years, but a loss to Georgia Southern broke the program’s back.
South Alabama might be the league’s best team, Southern Miss has been a good new edition, and Troy is in the mix. From top to bottom, the conference is strong, but …
Loser: Group of Five programs
Remember last year when we were all wondering if Cincinnati should be in the College Football Playoff, and then Alabama and reality smacked us all in the face? Good times.
Yeah, that whole narrative ended never happened for 2022 as the Group of Five programs tapped out almost instantly. Houston bailed out fast. Cincinnati lost right away. UCF lost to Louisville – that’s not good – and after the hot start, the Sun Belt CFP dream fizzled after they started beating each other up. Conference USA? No. The MAC? Double no.
It’s been a rough run for the second-tier. At least their respective conference races are fascinating.
– Everything is fine One Really Big Thing
– That BIG win Most Overrated Thing
– Quarterback injuries Most Underrated Thing
– Superpowers are back What It All Means, Midseason
NEXT: The really big Week 6 thing was …
The Really Big Thing Was …
Everything is okay.
I couldn’t say it enough this offseason – it’s all fine.
College football players are making money now. Did Bryce Young’s Dr. Pepper spot take away from his brilliance late against Tennessee? No.
Do you even know who has Name, Image, and Likeness deals? Probably not, because it doesn’t matter – at least, it doesn’t to anyone outside of the companies trying to get you to notice.
Do you even remember which players are transfers and which ones were recruits?
The players can move about now. They’re bigger stars thanks to NIL, and social media, and all the exposure from coast to coast that wasn’t there just a few years ago.
And the finish of USC-Utah was still wonderful.
The Texas-Oklahoma game might have been an ugly blowout, but did it really matter when it all got going in the sunlights with the gorgeous optics that they’re both going to be in the SEC in a few years?
Did anyone think about USC’s move to the Big Ten when Caleb Williams was desperately directing that late drive in the win over Oregon State?
Were we focusing on Notre Dame’s soon-to-be-revamped media deals when the ball was in the air on Cal’s final Hail Mary attempt?
The conferences are bigger, the stakes are bigger, the hype is bigger.
The players have a bigger voice now, and they’re using it. They’re more savvy, they have more power, and yet there’s still a familiar infrastructure because of the generational wealth being paid to the head coaches. That last part isn’t really okay, but as far as the on-field product, it’s all fine.
The games are still awesome.
All of this was long overdue, and none of the changes are leading to the end of the sport like so many feared. The game is evolving into something even stronger.
And it’s all okay.
– Winners & Losers Pac-12, Big Ten, Sun Belt
– That BIG win Most Overrated Thing
– Quarterback injuries Most Underrated Thing
– Superpowers are back What It All Means, Midseason
NEXT: The most overrated thing was …
The Most Overrated Thing Was …
Making too much out of any one big game.
I know we’re not supposed to say this right now, but (brace for impact) …
That Tennessee win over Alabama might not matter without a win over Georgia.
It was the game of the first half of the season, it was an all-time moment for the Tennessee program, and it’ll be a game that will live as long as Rocky Top is sung.
And, of course it mattered.
For a fan base dying to finally have its program back among the superpowers again, this was a giant step forward.
Then again, Texas A&M beat Alabama in a thriller last year.
Texas was all of a sudden riding high because it came this close to beating Alabama. Two weeks later it lost to Texas Tech.
Oregon apparently couldn’t play football anymore after getting walloped by Georgia 49-3 in the opener. If the Ducks get by UCLA this weekend, there’s a solid chance they can get to the Pac-12 Championship 11-1 with the CFP slot there for the taking.
Georgia couldn’t play football anymore after a bad half against Kent State and a sluggish performance against Missouri. It won its next two games by a combined score of 97-10.
Alabama supposedly can’t play football now – oh the “Saban should retire” thoughts on social media are rich.
USC can’t play football this season because it lost at Utah. Penn State can’t play because it lost to Michigan …
Remember, Michigan lost to Michigan State last year and got to the College Football Playoff. Alabama had that loss to Texas A&M and it made it to the national championship. Georgia lost to Bama and won it all.
The season is only about three months long – compared to other sports that you can ignore for six months and then dive in when the playoffs start – but every game takes on a life of its own with an outsized importance.
With all of that said, those games built everything up for what’s coming.
And yeah, Tennessee beating Alabama was a big deal. Just wait, though, until the Vols roll into Athens on November 5th.
– Winners & Losers Pac-12, Big Ten, Sun Belt
– Everything is fine One Really Big Thing
– Quarterback injuries Most Underrated Thing
– Superpowers are back What It All Means, Midseason
NEXT: The most underrated thing was …
The Most Underrated Thing Was …
Quarterback injuries. They’ve played a huge role so far.
It was part of the concern in the transfer portal world – how good were the backup quarterbacks?
Not every team has the 2 ready to do what the 1 could.
Overall the quarterback play across the board is at an all-time high level. You’re not wrong to think there are at least 20 legitimate high-end NFL prospects quarterbacking at any one time on a college football Saturday.
And then Kentucky’s Will Levis goes down, and the team lost at home to South Carolina. Levis comes back, 27-17 over Mississippi State.
Quinn Ewers was carving up Alabama. He got hurt, and Texas couldn’t keep the momentum going in the loss. The Longhorns lost to Texas Tech a few weeks later, too. Ewers comes back, 49-0 over an Oklahoma team that was a shadow of itself without Dillon Gabriel.
Gabriel comes back, 403 yards and two touchdowns in the win over Kansas.
For every team with a good backup ready to go – like JJ McCarthy at Michigan and Max Duggan at TCU – there are several other teams that can’t handle the disruption.
NC State survived Florida State with an injured Devin Leary, but he was out against Syracuse – 24-9 Orange.
Arkansas pushed Alabama in a wild loss. KJ Jefferson was out against Mississippi State, 40-17 loss. He comes back for the date at BYU, 367 yards and five touchdowns in the win.
And on and on and on. Yeah, of course losing the starting quarterback matters. It’s why the NFL won’t let anyone hit the quarterbacks without nesting them onto a fluffy pillow.
To steal the SEC’s bit, as the first half of the season showed when it comes to quarterbacks, it just means more now.
– Winners & Losers Pac-12, Big Ten, Sun Belt
– Everything is fine One Really Big Thing
– That BIG win Most Overrated Thing
– Superpowers are back What It All Means, Midseason
NEXT: What It All Means: Midseason
What It All Means: Midseason
Yeah, the powerhouses are back, and the sleeping giants are waking up.
College football is more fun when Tennessee is awesome. It just is.
The sport is more fun when USC is really good,
It’s more of a blast when Texas is playing like it’s on the verge of something great. It’s more exciting when Michigan is showing staying power, and Clemson can bounce back and be great, and LSU can be a quick turnaround under Brian Kelly.
The game could use it.
As conferences realign, move, merge, and do whatever they’re about to do next, the sport needs more than the usual powerhouse teams that might be brilliant, but have America wanting more.
I’m personally a fan of greatness and have no problem watching excellence, but my ears are still ringing from that one big yell across the country when that knuckleball from Tennessee kicker Chase McGrath went through.
College Football Week 7 Roundup
CFN 1-131 Rankings | Rankings by Conference
Bowl Projections | Week 7 Scoreboard
Week 8 Early Lines | AP Rankings | Coaches Poll
What 12-Team Playoff Would Look Like
Top 10 Hot Seat Coach Rankings | Heisman Race
Oh sure, we still might get a College Football Playoff final four of Ohio State, Alabama, Georgia, Clemson, but it’s not a sure thing now. Even if it is that, they’re going to have to battle to get there.
But it’s not just about those four this year.
It’s about UCLA, who for some reason hasn’t been able to put it all together to be the consistent powerhouse it should be. Now it looks like it’s going to be amazing under Chip Kelly.
It’s about an Illinois program that’s in a great geographical location for recruiting, has a tough guy style that fits the base up in Chicago, and has a whole lot of things in place to become special.
It’s about the reemergence of Tennessee, and Washington, and Texas, and USC, and with Florida looking to be on the way back soon, and with an amazing coaching staff at Miami, and with Florida State starting to get going a bit, and …
More fan bases than ever are getting back into college football. Don’t believe me? I’ll show you the messages from Penn State, TCU, Tennessee, and yeah, Wake Forest fans who were more than happy to chirp it up.
The fans are more jacked, the games are more exciting, and – saying the quiet part out loud – there’s more interest thanks to easy betting.
There are more wild swings, unpredictable finishes, and more talented players and coaches than ever making it all happen.
It’s going to be even more fun over the second half.
– Winners & Losers Pac-12, Big Ten, Sun Belt
– Everything is fine One Really Big Thing
– That BIG win Most Overrated Thing
– Quarterback injuries Most Underrated Thing
