:format(webp)/cdn.vox-cdn.com/photo_images/9048563/152047039.jpg)
In this periodical, we're keeping track of which college football teams actually still have a chance at playing for the national title. The number is falling quickly, and this sport is like the meanest in the world. First up, a handful of important items:
Performance Of The Week
The Stanford front seven. Allowing .9 yards per rush and coming up with five sacks counts as somethin' no matter the opponent, but when it comes against an all-star squad that had scored 13 touchdowns in two games so far and was holding a pep rally in Times Square the weekend prior?
Shutdown Fullback reviews Week 3's mayhem and was right about USC all along!
The Cardinal looked like a gang of sharks in the fourth quarter, like they were competing with each other more than with USC's offensive line. This was no fluke; that Lane Kiffin refused to operate from a shotgun late or otherwise counter the rush in any real way besides calling a final-minute running play shows Stanford has better coaching when it matters. That USC was so deeply in trouble because it was without center Khaled Holmes shows what we've been saying about the Trojans since spring: they lack depth on the lines.
USC has time to get it corrected, though -- just a trip to Star Lotulelei's house right around the corner, no big deal. Stanford, meanwhile, has yet to allow more than 17 points in a game. If they can treat the upcoming Washington and Arizona as rudely as they did USC, then we might've been overlooking another non-Trojans Pac-12 pick all along.
Fan Of The Week
Despite a furious challenge by the 139,771st-craziest Arkansas fan ...
... the honor goes to the entire state of Utah for its never-ending hunger for mayhem:
GIF Of The Week
I will never understand what's happening to Longhorns receiver and Olympic athlete Marquise Goodwin here, and really don't even want to, but, man. Ole Miss' new mascot is WEIRD. The hat rattling around like a tea kettle in a cartoon and the two ole boys in the back chuckling like this happens all the time take us to the next level of Bevo Grove insanity.
Photo Of The Week
"Really shoulda claimed to be a Florida fan on my Facebook this morning."
John Sommers II/Getty Images
And now, the BCS Eliminator.
Eliminated
Bolded teams are just now joining us, and each team's week of entry is noted in parentheses.
Is that the fastest any top-10 team has ever landed in the ranks of the eliminated? Well, this is the Eliminator's first year, so yes. With Kentucky also formally splashing down, that's two SEC teams completely out of the running, and take a look at which other BCS conferences have multiple non-banned teams already down here. I'll wait!
"The SEC is a bottom-heavy conference this year" is the official thing to say about conferences with two really bad teams, I think.
Not Yet Eliminated
I really wish we could go back and do this throughout all time, because I have a feeling 90 percent of the ACC would always reside on this list.
This week's cruelest twist: Georgia Tech pounds Virginia, yet goes down with the Virginia Tech ship. The Yellow Jackets have now lost to a team that lost to a team that lost to a FCS team, and it might take a 222-0 to salvage that. Also unfairly dinged: Ohio, which is gonna have to start absolutely mauling people if it wants to build serious BCS-bustin' noise.
Elsewhere, Auburn lives to fight another day, and I'm keeping potential Big Ten champion Indiana around for like one more week despite their loss to Ball State because Ball State's pretty good! They beat Big Ten teams* all the time!
* Indiana.
Still Alive
We entered Week 3 with 53 teams still super eligible for national title consideration, and we're now down to 40. A third of the country! After three weeks! And I'm being pretty generous with at least a couple of these teams! What a completely ridiculous sport!
Week 4 Eliminator Games Of The Week
In Arizona-Oregon, Michigan-Notre Dame, Kansas State-Oklahoma and Clemson-Florida State we have solid ranked-on-ranked action, while games like Utah-Arizona State, Louisiana Tech-Illinois, Maryland-West Virginia and Cal-USC are sure to see dreams dashed one way or the other.
Check the national college football scoreboard right here, and look through SB Nation's many excellent college football blogs to find your team's community.
While we’re here, let’s watch some of the many fine college football videos from SB Nation’s YouTube channel:
