2017-18 NCAA Football (Week 1)

(3) Florida State 7-24 (1) Alabama
I was shocked that Fla State came in as an 8 point favorite, figured Bama was a sucker bet. I was in and out of this game, didn't watch it super close, but my basic observation was the Seminoles just couldn't move the ball; it wasn't an embarrassing thrashing or anything, but Florida State just couldn't find the holes in the Crimson Tide D. I'm not giving up on Florida State, I think holding Bama to 24 points will look like quite an achievement by year's end and the Seminoles still have plenty enough talent to be virtually unaffected by an L to the #1 team. Bama is the still the team to beat, feels like there's a number of interesting teams out there, I tend to doubt any of them are better than the Tide. (BREAKING NEWS) Fla State QB Deondre Francois is now out for the year, which makes this loss a really critical one for the Seminoles. I was surprised by the news, the hit was ugly and while it sure looked painful, it didn't look like that kind of injury to me.

(11) Michigan 33-17 Florida
I started to watch this game and had to leave before halftime.  From what I saw Florida looked like the better team, the more poised team, the team that was gonna get it done. Apparently, after I left they didn't look like that anymore. The Gators nabbed two quick pick-6's, rode the Wolverine Heisman candidate QB right off the field....and then did nothing for the rest of the game.

(22) West Virginia 24-31(21) Virginia Tech
Good game between two evenly matched squads. Tech pulled away in the 4th quarter but WVU had their chances late too.  Both of these teams will hang around the top 20 all year long I reckon.

Top 25
Handled business, looked good
(1) Alabama, (5) Clemson, (6) Penn State, (7) Oklahoma, (9) Wisconsin, (10) Okla State, (11) Michigan, (12) Auburn, (13) LSU, (14) Stanford, (15) Georgia, (18) Miami, (19) South Florida, (20) Kansas State, (21) Virginia Tech, (24) Washington State

Didn't impress but did what they needed to do
(2) Ohio State (eh, Indiana has had a weird knack for scoring points lately and Urban Myer teams always start a little groggy, not a big deal really....right?)
(4) Southern Cal (uh, sure took their time putting away Western Michigan at home; are the Trojans starting slow or was today an indication of sloppy overrated-ness?)
(16) Louisville (Cardinals were a 24.5 point favorite, ended up scrambling to finish the game in the 4th; Purdue didn't look all that good to me, hung with Louisville easier than they should have. This does not bode well for the Cardinals)

Bad beat
(3) Florida State
(22) West Virginia

Not good
(17) Florida (Michigan looked good in this game, Florida did not)
(23) Texas (18.5 point fave at home, got slugged, ouch!; Under Armour getting revenge on Kevin Durant's notorious pro-Nike comments....?)

Not sure
(8) Washington (30-14 over Rutgers). The Huskies came in as a 27.5 point favorite, won by 16. Hey, the pros have a tough time going from the West Coast to the East, should I more impressed with a solid win a long way from home? Or is Washington gonna look lackluster against all mediocre opponents this year? Or is Rutgers better than we thought? I dunno.
(25) Tennessee (42-41 over Georgia Tech in 2OT). The Vols in the last decade or so have slipped from a consistently top notch team to an okay-every-once-in-a-while kinda team; it could be that Tech is better than we thought or that opening on a Monday night just wasn't the optimum kick off for the Vols. Not ready to say that UT is done (but they might be).

Notable games from the rest: nice win for Cal at North Carolina (but I thought both teams had moments of looking pretty good, wouldn't be shocked to see either of these teams in the top 25 this year) and I was kinda surprised to see South Carolina take out NC State (just thought State would have a little more depth than the Gamecocks).