Here are six big-picture realities you need to know about after Week 3 of the 2019 college football season:

The Atlantic Coast Conference is a mess, with only a few noticeable exceptions

QUESTION: Why are the Clemson Tigers such a likely bet to make the College Football Playoff National Championship Game on January 13, 2020, in New Orleans?

Unlike Alabama, having to go through LSU and Georgia in the Southeastern Conference, Clemson has no apparent roadblock in the ACC.

The only two ACC teams other than Clemson which have been impressive through three weeks are Virginia and Wake Forest. Both teams are 3-0 after important wins. Virginia came back in the fourth quarter to beat Florida State, while Wake Forest held off a North Carolina team which had pleasantly surprised ACC observers with wins over South Carolina and Miami.

Virginia is now the favourite to win the ACC Coastal Division and play Atlantic Division heavyweight Clemson in December’s ACC Championship Game. Virginia is a good team, but nowhere close to Clemson’s level of quality. Wake Forest has a shot at a nine-win season and an unexpectedly prestigious bowl bid, but Clemson competes in a separate universe.

The rest of the ACC has stumbled early in the season. 

North Carolina State was pulverized by a West Virginia team which looked terrible the previous week in a blowout loss to Missouri. Pittsburgh’s offense has been dreadful this year. Georgia Tech lost to an FCS (lower-division) school, The Citadel, at home in Week 3. Florida State is 1-2 after three games, immersed in a genuine crisis under struggling head coach Willie Taggart. Syracuse looks nowhere near the standard set by the 2018 team which won 10 games. Boston College got crushed by a Kansas team which lost to Coastal Carolina the week before. Virginia Tech lost to that Boston College team, an indicator of how far the Hokies have fallen. Miami has already lost twice. Only North Carolina, Louisville and Duke haven’t embarrassed themselves yet, but they aren’t clearly a cut above the competition in the ACC.

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The ACC is being “challenged” by the Pac-12, and not in a good way

The Atlantic Coast Conference has endured a bad start to the 2019 season. The Pac-12 is almost as bad.

Washington looks shaky through three weeks, having absorbed a terrible home loss to California. Oregon lost to Auburn in a game it should have won. Stanford has been blown out twice, a shell of its former self. USC’s loss to BYU shows how weak the Trojans are. Freshman quarterback, Kedon Slovis, is talented, but he is no Sam Darnold, who rescued coach Clay Helton in 2016.

The Pac-12 is a conference which plays nine league games. Other Power Five conferences such as the ACC and SEC play only eight league games. The Pac-12 has barely begun its conference schedule, and already, its top teams have picked up losses, making it very hard to reach the College Football Playoff. Utah is the best bet to represent the conference in the playoff… but, as we know, “best bet” does not mean “good bet” at this point.

Ohio State looks a cut above every other Big Ten team

Michigan, Michigan State, and Penn State have all had trouble scoring this season. Wisconsin has faced soft competition, so we have to wait to see if the Badgers belong in the same conversation as the Buckeyes. For now, Ohio State is the only team with a superpowered offense which has shown it can play well against solid competition. (It demolished Cincinnati, a team which won 11 games last year.)

Nebraska is rebuilding. Northwestern - last year’s Big Ten West Division champion - is struggling on offense. Purdue is also stumbling through the early part of its schedule. Ohio State has to feel very good about its position right now, with the rest of the Big Ten being a jumble with a lot of sputtering offenses.

In the Big 12, it is Oklahoma and Texas, and everyone else

Iowa State lost at home to Iowa. TCU’s quarterback play looks shaky. Texas Tech was physically handled by Arizona. West Virginia is rebuilding (despite its win over North Carolina State). Kansas beat Boston College but looked awful in its previous two games. Kansas State beat Mississippi State, but the Wildcats will face much tougher opposition in the near future. 

This is a two-team conference until proven otherwise.

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The SEC is clearly the conference with the most national championship contenders

Alabama is the gold standard in the SEC, with Georgia – a team which almost defeated Alabama in both the 2017 and 2018 seasons – being the formidable main contender to the Crimson Tide. Now, LSU – after beating Texas in Week 2 – has announced itself as a legitimate contender to both 'Bama and Georgia. The SEC has three national title contenders, and if Oklahoma or Ohio State falter later this season (losing twice), the SEC could place two teams in the four-team playoff. 

In the first five seasons of the playoff, which began in 2014, only one conference has placed two teams in the playoff, the SEC (2017).

The Mountain West is clearly the best Group of Five conference

Boise State won at Florida State. Air Force won at Colorado. Hawaii defeated Oregon State and Arizona. San Diego State defeated UCLA. Wyoming defeated Missouri. The Mountain West’s member schools have defeated several Power Five conference opponents.

Meanwhile, the American Athletic Conference has not collected the same amount of non-conference wins in September. Houston lost at home to Washington State. Cincinnati was clobbered by Ohio State. Memphis did not look convincing in a narrow win over an Ole Miss team which will finish in the bottom tier of the SEC. 

The Mountain West has outplayed the AAC by a wide margin in the first three weeks.

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