Upsets shake college football

The Washington Huskies, a week removed from ending a 15-game losing streak, beat USC on a last-second field goal by California native Erik Folk. The 16-13 victory marked the fourth consecutive year that the Trojans have lost to an unranked opponent. USC — coming off a big win against Ohio State — has yet again disappointed the Trojan faithful, derailing their hope for a potential BCS bid. With this loss, USC has dropped nine spots in the rankings from No. 3 to No. 12.

USC is the second preseason top-five team to lose this season. In the opening weekend, BYU upset highly-favored Oklahoma. The Sooners had high national championship hopes after Heisman trophy winner Sam Bradford returned for his senior season. After BYU’s opening-weekend victory, many analysts thought they were a potential BCS buster. BYU, however, lost Saturday to a Florida State team that had a lackluster win against Jacksonville State the week before. With Utah losing to Oregon over the weekend, the potential Bowl Championship Series buster field has shrunk with the only real contender being No. 9 Boise State.

Washington celebrates a monumental victory over USC.

With all the upsets this year, the rest of the season promises to be interesting. The title-defending Florida Gators, who — with Urban Meyer and Tim Tebow — are supposed to follow the rose pedals to Pasadena, frankly looked beatable against the Tennessee Volunteers. The Gators have a tough schedule ahead of them facing No. 7 LSU, No. 21 Georgia, No. 18 Florida State and potentially the Southeastern Conference Championship game.

Nick Saban’s Alabama squad is the only top-five team to be tested this season, beating No. 11 Virginia Tech in the season opener. The other top five teams — Florida, Texas, Penn State and Mississippi — have yet to play any ranked opponents and are ranked highly solely based on preseason expectations.

Unlike most of the college football elite, the Miami Hurricanes have thoroughly proven themselves this year. After a mediocre past couple of seasons, they beat No. 18 Florida State and No. 14 Georgia Tech in their first two games. The No. 9 Hurricanes moved up 11 spots in the rankings and into the top 10 for the first time since the end of the 2005 season. Miami hopes to keep their great season alive as they travel to Blacksburg to face off against the No. 11 Virginia Tech Hokies. Facing No. 10 Oklahoma the week after, the Hurricanes will have potentially beaten four ranked teams heading into October, putting them in contention for the national championship.

The BCS picture will become clearer in the coming weeks, as schedules get tougher. For now, however, it seems that college football’s elite have a lot to prove if they are going to be playing in sunny California come January.