Week 2 of the college football season really took us for a ride. One of the top teams in the country, Ohio State, fell in a big upset to Oregon, while USC‘s loss to Stanford opened up one of the biggest jobs in the sport.
Week 3 brings us some more very interesting matchups. Early in the day, we have the renewal of an old Big 12 rivalry, as No. 3 Oklahoma and Nebraska play for the first time since 2010.
No. 24 Miami hosts Michigan State in a fun non-conference duel, No. 12 Notre Dame renews its rivalry with Purdue, and No. 1 Alabama hits the road to face No. 11 Florida at The Swamp.
No. 10 Penn State takes on No. 22 Auburn in one of the headline games of the evening slate. Late night gives us an all-ranked battle between No. 19 Arizona State and No. 23 BYU in Provo. No. 13 UCLA looks to keep its significant momentum pushing forward with a late home game against Mountain West power Fresno State.
We had some pretty significant upsets in Week 2, that caught up many of us making picks. Right off the bat, only two of our 11 staff members called Oregon’s seismic win over Ohio State. Only one called Arkansas over Texas, and all of us were stumped by Florida State‘s shocking loss to Jacksonville State, and USC falling to Stanford, the game that cost Clay Helton his job.
After two weeks of picks, Stephen Driscoll is all alone in first place by a game. Here are the standings after Week 2.
1. Steve Driscoll: 89-18
2. Alek Arend: 88-19
T-3. Andrew McCarty: 87-20
T-3. Zach Koons: 87-20
5. Tzvi Machlin: 86-21
T-6. Matt Lombardi: 85-22
T-6. Dan Lyons: 85-22
T-8. Andrew Holleran 84-23
T-8. Matt Audilet: 84-23
10. Chris Rosvoglou: 83-24
11. Matt Hladik: 82-25
With our 11 staff members picking each game, the biggest splits come in Miami-Michigan State, Kansas State–Nevada, Wake Forest-Florida State, Memphis–Mississippi State, Oklahoma State–Boise State, BYU-Arizona State, and the big non-conference battle between Penn State and Auburn.
Here are our picks for Week 3 of the 2021 college football season:
Each week, we pick every college football game involving Power Five and/or ranked teams. Check back with The Spun each week for updated standings.