As noted, last Saturday’s college football games featured a number of games between top-ranked teams. As discussed in this space before, every game generally is going to end with one team on the winning side and one team on the losing side, games being athletic events between two teams. This means that a bunch of ranked teams lost this week, and boy did they.

South Carolina was all over Georgia in a technical upset (#5 vs. #6) that became a real upset because of how one-sided the game was. Barring a late touchdown, SC would’ve shut out UGA, and they might as well have. It was not pretty for the Dawgs in Columbia. (The SEC’s newest Columbia played host to a game not much prettier, charter-member of the SEC prevented conference newcomer Missouri from achieving its first conference win thanks to winning the field-position battle, which I ignored to my own chastisement.) Speaking of late touchdowns, ACC Up All Night provided some after-bedtime fireworks when North Carolina State came back to beat Florida State in a low-scoring affair that, according to ESPN’s mobile editor, sent the conference (back?) into irrelevancy. Clemson traded punches, and the lead, with Georgia Tech all day before eventually winning 47-31, so yeah, that’s probably right. The featured game from that preview, LSU at Florida, was a snoozer by SEC/NFL standards, but the contrast between other games on at the same time was notable. Florida won because Will Muschamp’s oversized headset (I have a theory…) intercepted Magalan’s text message to me toward the end of the first half, which contained the formula for a Gator victory. Or, LSU has no offense. It’s probably that.

How did the rest of the featured college games go?

1. Bleeding Kansas: Yep. KSU 56-16 over KU.
2. Penn State pulled an NCST on Northwestern and the conference, which, in context, tells you just how rotten the Big Ten is this year.
3. (See above.)
4. Without its starting quarterback, TCU lost by two scores to Iowa State.
5. Wake Forest and Maryland played a game. Meanwhile, Duke beat UVA to go to 5-1 overall, 2-0 in conference.
6. Louisiana-Monroe got all over MTSU. These teams should play on days other than Tuesday more often.
7. (See above.)
8. West Virginia got by Texas, 48-45, on the strength of their running game. Their quarterback, Geno Smith, also threw for four TDs. WVU is not logical.
9. Rice stuck to the playbook in Memphis by taking a 10-0 first-half lead and taking the second half off. 14-10 Memphis.
10. Washington did what we thought they’d do, and Oregon let them get away with it, to the tune of a 52-21 Duck victory.

Elsewhere, Michigan State almost lost to Indiana, and Michigan bounced back with a strong performance against Purdue, setting up an in-state clash in Ann Arbor that ALDLAND will cover from multiple angles later this month.

It continues to be difficult to get excited about early season NFL. Some quick notes:

• The Falcons are still undefeated, and Rich Eisen seems to be leading a campaign to re-dub Matty Ice “The Mattural.” This bullet point brought to you by Anheuser Busch.
• Robert Griffin III left the game with a concussion and could not return, paving the way for Kirk Cousins to throw a touchdown pass on his first play in the game and a pair of interceptions to top things off.
• Andrew Luck’s Colts, inspired by their ailing coach, beat the Packers, who were uninspired by their nonexistent run game.
• New Orleans finally got a win, beating hapless San Diego.
• The Jets, tragic heroes of their own making, play the other remaining unbeaten, Houston, tonight.

Playoff baseball is happening, and for a few teams, it’s happening well. The Tigers are up 2-0 on the A’s, a fact unchanged by my viewing of the game on quasi-tape delay, a strange thing when modern technology is afoot. The Reds, despite pitching issues early, also are up 2-0. The Yankees are doing well too. As predicted, the Giants are not.