We got craziness in week 2 of college football, unfortunately the chaos planted itself in South Bend and infected everything about Notre Dame’s program. Goodbye playoff talk. Goodbye to the top 20 poll. What do the bowl options look like even if the Irish could somehow rebound to 11-1? I shudder to think!

Here’s the latest 18 Stripes Top 20 Poll:

18 Stripes Top 20 Poll

RANK TEAM RECORD NEXT
1 Georgia 2-0 at Kentucky
2 Texas (+1) 2-0 vs. UTSA
3 Oregon (-1) 2-0 at Oregon State
4 Missouri (+1) 2-0 vs. Boston College
5 Ohio State (+1) 2-0 BYE
6 USC (+2) 2-0 BYE
7 Alabama 2-0 at Wisconsin
8 Ole Miss (+2) 2-0 at Wake Forest
9 Miami (+2) 2-0 vs. Ball State
10 Tennessee (+5) 2-0 vs. Kent State
11 Louisville (+6) 2-0 BYE
12 Utah (+6) 2-0 at Utah State
13 Arizona 2-0 at Kansas State
14 Oklahoma 2-0 vs. Tulane
15 Oklahoma State (-3) 2-0 at Tulsa
16 Iowa State (NR) 2-0 BYE
17 Kansas State (NR) 2-0 vs. Arizona
18 Penn State (-2) 2-0 BYE
19 Nebraska (NR) 2-0 vs. Northern Iowa
20 UNLV 2-0 at Kansas

OUT:

#4 Notre Dame
#9 Kansas
#19 Iowa

We’ve dropped the Irish completely out of our top 20 and it feels justified after this past weekend. That Notre Dame only fell to 18th in the latest AP rankings (with Northern Illinois coming in at 25th!) feels pretty dumb.

Kansas needed to be careful visiting Illinois and Jalon Daniels throwing 3 interceptions in a 23-17 loss was the exact opposite.

Iowa State drilled a 54-yard field goal to upset Iowa in the latest edition of Farmageddon.

First round bye watch (if they win their conferences):

#1 Georgia
#3 Oregon
#9 Miami
#12 Utah

With Florida State and Clemson looking like they’ll struggle to win the ACC the door is wide open for Miami (who also don’t face Clemson in the regular season).

A trio of Big 12 teams enter our rankings this week but top end talent and a great team is going to continue plaguing the conference. How many people will be betting the Big 12 to win their quarterfinal game after a bye?

National Storylines

Alabama struggled for the 2nd year in a row versus USF but 28-points in the 4th quarter gave them a ho-hum 42-16 win.

I almost nailed the score of Texas-Michigan but the Horns allowed a late touchdown instead of a field goal in an easy 31-12 victory inside the Big House. I was smart enough not to have Michigan ranked, remember.

Oregon needed a late field goal to hold off Boise State 37-34. We’d probably drop the Ducks further in the rankings but who should jump them?

More struggles nationally (chuckles nervously) as Penn State rallied to beat Bowling Green 34-27 in Happy Valley.

Utah jumped out to a 23-0 lead against Baylor and would eventually win 23-12.

Tennessee absolutely wrecked NC State in the Mayo Classic to the tune of 51-10.

Oklahoma looked all out of sorts scoring only a safety in the 2nd half on their way to beat Houston by the random score of 16-12.

An absolute wild one in Stillwater saw Oklahoma State outgained 648-385 but come back to win 39-31 over Arkansas double overtime.

For a while, Kansas State looked dead visiting mighty Tulane. They’d score 24 points in the 2nd half to win 34-27.

I went to bed Saturday night with Arizona losing at halftime to noted running school Northern Arizona. The Wildcats would shut out the Lumberjacks in the 2nd half to win 22-10.

Pitt trailed Cincinnati most of the afternoon but came back to win 28-27 in the Queen City.

Kent State lost to St. Francis 23-17, ouch.

With Deuce Knight ready to commit, Auburn lost to Cal 21-14.

South Carolina upset Kentucky in big fashion 31-6.

Nebraska shut down Colorado’s offense on their way to an easy 28-10 win in Lincoln.

Washington State beating Texas Tech 37-16 in the Battle of Air Raid History teams was a bit unexpected.

Score one for the Pac-12, I mean Big 12, as Arizona State beat Mississippi State 30-23.

Opponent Watch

Texas A&M (1-1): The Aggies bounced back easily crushing McNeese State 52-10.

Northern Illinois (2-0): This weekend NIU faces Buffalo who just got blown off the field by Missouri. What are the odds the Huskies have their own let down game?

Purdue (1-0): A bye week in week 2!?? They really want to beat Notre Dame.

Miami [OH] (0-1): Another team that was off this weekend. They’ll face Cincinnati next.

Louisville (2-0): The Cardinals are lurking as a maybe quality team–they beat Jacksonville State 49-14.

Stanford (1-1): Win number one for Stanford after beating Cal-Poly 41-7.

Georgia Tech (2-1): The good vibes for the Yellow Jackets were crushed by the Orange. Kyle McCord threw for 381 yards and 4 touchdowns to beat Tech 31-28 inside the Carrier Dome (I will always call it this).

Navy (2-0): Another solid performance for Navy after beating Temple by the score of 38-11.

Florida State (0-2): This team needed a bye and will face Memphis this weekend.

Virginia (2-0): I was watching this game a little bit after Notre Dame lost as Virginia came from behind to beat Wake Forest 31-30 in Winston-Salem.

Army (2-0): A first conference win in 2 decades as Army opened up their AAC schedule beating FAU 24-7.

USC (2-0): The Trojans smoked Utah State 48-0 and are lining up Michigan next weekend.