Things fall apart; the centre cannot HOLD;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world...
--"The Second Coming," William Butler Yeats
Has there ever been a crazier season in college football?
Don't look now, but nine of the teams in the AP Preseason Top 10 have fallen. The number is eight of 10 for USA TODAY.
Oh, and the No. 5 team in that poll lost at home to a Division I-AA Football Championship Subdivision team.
The preseason, consensus, absolutely unbeatable No. 1, Southern Cal, just lost to Stanford.
South Florida is already ranked; Illinois likely will be. When Kentucky was knocked off Thursday (by South Carolina), they were in the Top 10.
And let's go beyond the Top 10 in that AP Preseason Poll, the one created by the so-called experts. No. 11 Ohio State is undefeated, as is No. 12 California. They will now battle for the right to be called No. 2. Georgia, ranked No. 13 at the time, has been defeated by South Carolina and blasted by then-No. 15 Tennessee, now unranked. No. 14 UCLA just became the first team to lose to Notre Dame.
Even [NAME REDACTED] doesn't think you're getting better and better.
No. 16 Rutgers is probably gone from the polls after losing to undefeated Cincinnati. No. 17 Penn State has long since fallen out. No. 18 Auburn tumbled out after losing to South Florida and Mississippi State; No. 19 FSU might actually make it back to the ranks after being dropped. No. 20 Nebraska was destroyed by Southern Cal and is in the process of being humbled again by Missouri. Nos. 21 Arkansas and 22 TCU are gone.
No. 23 Hawaii is undefeated, but both No. 24 Boise State and No. 25 Texas A&M have been bounced.
At some point, this will stop. But it might be the first week of January before it does.