College Football Conference Recap Week Two

American Athletic: Only two wins for conference members this week and both were against lower division foes. Memphis had the best performance in a close loss to UCLA but the conference's free fall into oblivion continues. ACC: This conference was undefeated yesterday and only one member, BC, lost and that was to another ACC team, Pitt. Most of these wins are not worth mentioning but Virginia Tech's beat-down of Ohio State on the road adds a great pelt to the ACC tent. While this win may have been more about how badly OSU played, this is still a we-are-back statement win for the Hokies. They do not play FSU and Notre Dame this season but do have their toughest ACC Coastal competition on the road in October versus UNC and Pitt, followed by a home game against rival Miami. Big 12: If anyone thought that this conference race was going to involve anyone else but OU and Baylor they had better revisit those thoughts. Assuming that Baylor QB Bryce Petty's back problems heal as expected, those two teams are loaded with visions of a conference title. The hope was that Texas would rejoin them as a national contender but the problems in Austin run deep. With BYU routing Texas for the second straight year--no DC fired this time--the honeymoon period with new coach Charlie Strong is officially over. Players are being dismissed every week. That situation is ready to blow. Okie State and West Virginia had impressive losses last weekend but they were still losses, while ranked Kansas State had to rally to beat lowly ISU. Big Ten: Can it get any worse? Enough has been written about the woes of this once-grand conference--and I will have more to say later--but that was not only an awful day yesterday for the Big Ten, they have very little chance to rebound from it. The perception is that the conference stinks and yesterday's play converted that perception into reality. This is beyond PR. Good luck. Conference USA: There were some near misses, but misses nonetheless. UTSA has another shot this Saturday when they travel to Stillwater. Independents: This group of four is 6-1 on the season with wins over Michigan and Texas. Not bad. While Notre Dame gained the lion share of press today for a 31-0 win over Michigan, BYU has scored 76 points this year in two wins on the road. The Cougars are very good. MAC: While beating Big Ten teams no longer has the national cache that it once did, Central Michigan and Northern Illinois are still quite happy with their wins over Purdue and Northwestern. Mountain West: Wyoming has scored only 17 points in each of its two games but that is good enough for a 2-0 record. Good luck getting to 3-0 with Oregon on deck. Nevada is the only other 2-0 team remaining in the MWC and they get to play Arizona next. Should be closer than most think. Pac 12: The Pac 12 has a whopping nine teams sitting at 2-0. Yet beyond Oregon, and maybe USC, how many of them have looked impressive? Even the Trojans are lucky to have beaten a Stanford team that continually shot itself in the foot, but a marquee win is a marquee win. As for their crosstown rivals, UCLA, will the Bruins improve their play in time? They will beat Texas this Saturday but then face ASU on the road. SEC: The SEC was off this weekend. Right? Ole Miss and Vandy did play a conference game--well, the Rebels showed up. Vandy is done. Sun Belt: I am still trying to get a handle on which teams are now in the Sun Belt, but I do now know that New Mexico State and UL-Monroe are now atop the conference with matching 2-0, 1-0 records. And that is all those two schools have in common.