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Only a late field goal and touchdown made this one look reasonably close. LSU fell down 7-0 in the first quarter on a nice six-minute drive by the Gamecocks, and then marched right through Steve Spurrier's defense in four plays to knot the score. They kept their foot on the gas, and outfoxed the ‘Ol Ball Coach himself with a brilliantly executed fake field goal that resulted in a touchdown at the end of the first half. But again, the Tigers defense stole the show. From the end of that first Gamecocks scoring drive to the middle of the fourth quarter, LSU allowed virtually nothing. Granted, this isn't exactly Spurrier's Florida outfit of the mid-90s offensively, but the LSU defense plays every drive like the score is tied late in the fourth quarter. Between track champion Trindon Holliday and the equally speedy Early Doucet on offense, and the quarterback tandem of Matt Flynn (clearly not 100% still) and Ryan Perrilloux, the offense is going to put up at least 20 against everyone it faces. And that should be more than enough every week for the Tigers defense. LSU is the best team in America right now.

Runner-up: Kentucky 42, Arkansas 29

13. Least impressive win of the day: Nebraska 41, Ball State 40

Louisville would have run away with this award had they been able to miraculously come back against the mighty machine that is Syracuse, but their desperate comeback fell short. More of Steve Kragthorpe's boys in a bit. So we move a game that featured a different set of Cardinals. Ball State went into the Big House last year and nearly knocked off Michigan, a bit of a forewarning of problems to come for the Wolverines (and that group was much more talented than this year's underachieving bunch). Then, they knocked off Navy on the road last week, hardly a feat worth bragging about when you give up 521 rushing yards, but a confidence booster nonetheless heading into Lincoln. The ‘Huskers shouldn't have had any hangover effect from last Saturday's drubbing at the hand of USC since that game was over in the second quarter, but they played 60 minutes on the defensive side of the ball against the Cardinals looking like they were three sheets to the wind. Sam Keller threw a touchdown with three minutes remaining and Nebraska grabbed a one-point lead, but Ball State marched down the field at the end, with a sure touchdown being dropped and then a 55-yard field goal hooking to the left in the game's final seconds. Ball State QB Nate Davis threw for 424 yards, and only Keller's 447 yards through the air kept the ‘Huskers from being the first BCS conference team to ever lose to the Cardinals. The Big 12 North, for about the seventh consecutive year, looks like it will feature six teams who attempt to give away games on a week-to-week basis, while serving as a black eye for a conference that isn't that good in the first place.

Runner-up: Florida 30, Mississippi 24

12. Worst loss of the day: Syracuse 38, Louisville 35

Syracuse could have easily won this game 45-21 had they played a bit less conservative in the fourth quarter (which is hardly a knock against the Orange - they did what they needed to and won). Louisville's defense is more like an obstacle course that you'd see on Survivor, featuring a bunch of non-moving wooden poles, than a unit for a Division I-A college football program. The final blow against Kentucky last week came on a play where the Wildcat receiver was open by about 15 yards down the sideline, and a similar breakdown happened more than once against Syracuse. Throw in the Orange's Taj Smith turning an innocent screen pass into a human pinball exercise (eventually taking the ball 60 yards for a 28-14 ‘Cuse lead) and that about sums up the day for Louisville's defense. But despite Brian Brohm throwing for 555 yards, the offense wasn't itself for the Cardinals. Brohm missed open receivers, but the major disappointment was receiver Mario Urrutia, who dropped passes and generally didn't have his head in the game, committing two costly 15-yard penalties when the outcome was still in doubt. Louisville has a chance to get itself right before its brutal November schedule, but you could have said the same thing after last week's loss when eyeballing alleged patsy Syracuse at home this week. Kragthorpe has to be careful he doesn't lose his team right now, because a good portion of his squad sure didn't look like it was interested in playing today.

Runner-up: Michigan 14, Penn State 9

11. Best game of the day: Georgia 26, Alabama 23 (OT)

Nick Saban might be the anti-Christ, but his teams sure play exciting football games! For the second week in a row, a game involving the Tide came right down to the end. In the latest chapter of As Tuscaloosa Turns, Alabama authored another fourth-quarter comeback, this time making up a 10-point deficit with a Leigh Tiffin field goal and a John Parker Wilson rushing TD to knot things up with just over a minute left in regulation. The Tide got the ball first in overtime and kicked a field goal, and Georgia wasted no time from there. After having looked shaky (again) against a ranked team for much of the game, Matthew Stafford went for it all on the Bulldogs' first play, placing a pass right on the back shoulder of Mikey Henderson for the win. Wilson's stats didn't look nearly as good as they did last week, but it looks like Saban is getting the junior QB to live up to his potential. Meanwhile, Stafford is still somewhat of an enigma, but he played well enough to win, and threw a truly beautiful pass for the win. Get used to games like this in the SEC - these back and forth nail-biters are going to be the story all season in a league that has two elite teams and 10 others that are all capable of knocking one another off.

Runner-up: Nebraska 41, Ball State 40

10. Craziest game of the day: Oklahoma State 49, Texas Tech 45

How's 1,343 yards of offense for ya? Texas Tech's Graham Harrell threw for 644 yards in a losing effort. Down 45-42, the Cowboys got the ball back with two minutes to play and made the mistake of scoring way, way too fast. Like a PlayStation game where you absolutely want to have the ball last, Brandon Pettigrew caught a 54-yards touchdown pass on Oklahoma State's first play of the drive, which probably made the Red Raiders crack a smile rather than frown at yet another defensive breakdown. Texas Tech got the ball back and drove down inside the Cowboys' 20, but Harrell had a pass bounce off the hands of the nation's leading receiver, Michael Crabtree, with 11 seconds left, and the team that had the ball last lost. So in case you're wondering, 644 yards and five bucks will get you a large coffee at Starbucks. Do they even have Starbucks in Stillwater?

Runner-up: Navy 46, Duke 43

9. Who beat Temple this week?

That would be none other than Bowling Green, which avenged its luminous fate of being the only team to lose to the Owls a year ago. Temple battled the Falcons even for a half, but a 17-point third quarter blew this game open and ensured the Owls would not be robbed of a win this week. As for the team that needed a beneficial call to top Temple last week? UConn hammered Pitt 34-14, proving that a game against Temple can truly prepares you to play with the best of the best. Or a team coached by Dave Wannstedt. The Owls next travel to West Point for a Titanic clash with 1-3 Army, which was surprisingly feisty for a while against Boston College.

8. Who beat Duke this week?

Now that the Blue Devils no longer carry the same weight as a running joke following their pulsating victory at Northwestern, I find it unfair to chronicle Duke's latest misstep in the column on a weekly basis. So we're looking for other candidates of ineptitude, and, wouldn't you know it, we have a winner! Charlie Weis, come on down! You just managed to be the first head coach ever at Notre Dame to lead the team to four straight losses to start a season! But according to Chuckles, "record to me is not a factor." Guess what, Chaz? That's typically how you're evaluated as a coach, not on how many goofy-looking high school quarterbacks you can recruit. Michigan State has won a ridiculous six straight in South Bend after yesterday's 31-14 pasting, and Charlie, if record to you is "not a factor," you might want to reconsider that considering your next four games are at Purdue and UCLA and at home against Boston College and USC. O.J. Simpson has a better chance of hosting "Good Morning America" than your team does of not starting 0-8. But at least your offense found the end zone, twice for that matter. Scoring two offensive touchdowns through four games should sit well on the ‘ol resume, huh? You know, should you need a resume anytime soon.

7. On the rise: Virginia, UCF, Arizona State

6. On the decline: Georgia Tech, Penn State, Maryland

5. What conference embarrassed itself the most this week?

Since this is more of a week-to-week "honor," I've clarified this to make it such, since it's a bit difficult to determine on a weekly basis which conference is the best and which, well, stinks the most. The logical choice would be the Big East, where Louisville embarrassed itself at home against quite possibly the worst team in a BCS conference. But it was quite clear last week that the Cardinals were at best the fourth-best team in the Big East, and Cincinnati might well join USF, West Virginia and Rutgers as teams that are better than Louisville by season's end. Coming into this weekend, Penn State, Wisconsin and Ohio State stood out as the bellwethers of the Big Ten. None have been without their warts the first three weeks of the season, but Penn State has had the least amount of struggles. Perhaps that's because the Lions "tests" heading into Ann Arbor had been Florida International, Notre Dame and Buffalo. Having lost eight straight to the maize and blue, Joe Paterno and his coaching staff had been given a crystal-clear game plan on how to beat Michigan, courtesy of Appalachian State and Oregon: attack their secondary (and yeah, a mobile quarterback is nice, but far from a necessity). Well, Paterno and company played scared from the get-go, failed to spread the Wolverines, couldn't run the ball, and sat back on defense. Throw in Anthony Morelli's inability to read a defense and Austin Scott's inability to hold a football, and you have a recipe for disaster. For the third straight trip to Michigan, Penn State went in with superior talent. And for the third straight trip, they played not to lose. Not coincidentally, for the third straight trip, they lost. Wisconsin didn't look much better in a narrow win over Iowa. If Ohio State manages to go undefeated, which at this point seems perfectly reasonably given the deficiencies of literally every other Big Ten team, it may well get beaten out by a one-loss LSU or Florida for a spot in the BCS championship. And you won't be able to make an argument for leaving the Buckeyes out in the cold.

4. Which conference made itself proud this weekend?

The SEC by default. Its best team, LSU, asserted its dominance against a top 15 team. Its second best team, Florida, gutted out a road win while at the same time, we found out that one of the conference's three-worst teams (Mississippi) could hang with one of the heavyweights. The middle-tier (Kentucky, Arkansas, Alabama, Georgia) beat each other up in two thrilling games. The SEC probably isn't as strong as most conference shills believe it usually is. But it has the depth of quality competition going for it, something few other conferences can say? Can the second-worst team in the Pac-10, Arizona, hang with the second-best, Cal? It didn't Saturday - the Bears dominated the Wildcats. Iowa State hanging with Texas? No chance. The Big East can't be used as a good example because the league only has eight teams. And the second best teams in the ACC and Big Ten aren't very good anyway. I'm sick of hearing about how good the SEC is just like everyone else. But it gets the credit for a reason.

3. The request for announcers to pay attention to the games they're calling rather than pondering the future career of one white-trash former pop star:

There are a lot of inside jokes that go on between the bozos announcing football games of which we're probably not privy to the source. But for the life of me, I cannot figure out what ESPN's Mike Patrick was thinking, when, between overtime innings of the Alabama-Georgia game, asked colleague Todd Blackledge the following: "I have an important question - what's Britney doing with her life?" A clearly confounded Blackledge responded, "who?" Patrick: "Britney." Blackledge: "Britney who?" Patrick: "Britney Spears!" Oh, now it all makes sense Mike. You're calling an overtime game between two ranked SEC teams on national TV, and you say that??? Blackledge clearly had no clue what his play-by-play man was talking about and if Patrick was trying to lighten the intensity of the situation with a crack about pop culture, it went over about as well as yelling "fire drill!" in an auditorium full of pregnant women.

To top that off, ESPN2's telecast of what, at the time, was an exciting game in the second quarter between Oklahoma and Tulsa, was interrupted by, you guessed it, another episode of "Good Luck Chuck: The Story of the 2007 Notre Dame Football Team." As Tulsa drove down the field to eventually pull within seven of No. 3 Oklahoma, ESPN2 viewers were forced to endure Sean McDonough, Chris Spielman, no-apparent-reason-to-be-there-guest commentator Bob Davie, and can't-speak-clearly-enough-for-anyone-to-care Lou Holtz mulling the problems of the 0-3 Irish. They debate went on for a solid ten minutes of TV time, with two key penalties going unexplained and a 49-yard Tulsa touchdown going practically unnoticed because the quartet of talking heads was too busy discussing a winless team that wasn't playing in the game they were supposed to be watching.

It's cases like these that make ESPN hated with such vitriol by people who actually care about what they're watching.

2. Top five games to watch next weekend:

West Virginia at South Florida, Michigan State at Wisconsin, Cal at Oregon, Kansas State at Texas, Alabama at Florida State

1. Top 10 teams after 9/22/07:

1. LSU

2. USC

3. Oklahoma

4. Florida

5. West Virginia

6. California

7. Ohio State

8. Texas

9. Oregon

10. Boston College