Setting The Table

By Ivan Maisel, ESPN.com

Address your thank-you notes to the Oklahoma Sooners and Texas Longhorns, care of Big Tex at the State Fair in Dallas. By taking care of their business on the road, No. 1 Oklahoma and No. 5 Texas preserved their undefeated records and their rankings for the annual neutral-site showdown Saturday at the Cotton Bowl.

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Sam Bradford and Colt McCoy will meet again Saturday in Dallas.

The standards of what constitutes a championship team have not changed. Offenses explode and defenses contain. But those standards have become harder to reach in general in this era of upsets. And in the Big 12, where defense is never easy, those standards can seem like a relic, which brings us to the conference's other showdown between undefeated teams Saturday.

No. 17 Oklahoma State plays at No. 3 Missouri in a matchup of offenses that score a lot against defenses that back up a lot. Given that combination, kickoff is scheduled for 8 p.m. ET, with the last tick of the clock estimated sometime Monday afternoon.

OK, maybe that's a slight exaggeration. But the fact remains that Missouri has won a game by the score of 52-42 (against Illinois) and Oklahoma State has victories of 56-37 (Houston) and 56-28 (Texas A&M). That may be life in the Big 12, but it is not the life traditionally lived by the highly ranked.

Next weekend is a weekend of big games. The Big 12 has the biggest, thanks to its undefeated teams' abilities to remain that way. Eighteen teams began the previous week undefeated and only 15 finished it unblemished. The Big 12's schedule mandates that no more than 13 will survive the week to come. In other conferences, several other unbeatens have difficult games.

The top game in the Big Ten on Saturday will be No. 6 Penn State's nocturnal visit to Wisconsin, a team that followed its heartbreaking 27-25 loss at Michigan with an equally gut-wrenching 20-17 home loss to No. 12 Ohio State. Nevertheless, the Badgers should be the toughest test to date for the Nittany Lions, who reached 6-0 for the 13th time in Joe Paterno's 43 seasons.

And don't forget Northwestern (5-0), which returns from an off week to play No. 23 Michigan State (5-1).

In the Southeastern Conference, No. 4 LSU (4-0), which also had the benefit of not playing Saturday, travels to No. 11 Florida. While scientists continue to search through the wreckage for the black box that explains how the Gators lost at home to Ole Miss last week, Florida rebounded to crush Arkansas 38-7.

Ready To Red River Rumble

Still The One?

By Adam Rittenberg, ESPN.com

MADISON, Wis. -- Penn State is part of the national title picture, Michigan State has backed up its preseason hype and Northwestern has shocked everyone with a 5-0 start.

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Beanie Wells ran for 168 yards and a touchdown against Wisconsin.

Few Big Ten victories will be savored more than Saturday night's dramatic 20-17 triumph against No. 18 Wisconsin at Camp Randall Stadium. The 14th-ranked Buckeyes survived the first of several Big Ten road tests and won their third straight game since the Collapse at the Coliseum.

So, do the consensus Big Ten preseason favorites still hold that title?

"I guess you can say we are," Ohio State running back Chris "Beanie" Wells said. "We are the defending Big Ten champions. We know it's going to be a tough, tough battle each and every week. We're just preparing ourselves for that.

"I really don't know what it says to whoever or what team."

To read the rest of Adam Rittenberg's story, click here.

Smart Play

By Chris Low, ESPN.com

NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- The older gentleman operating the elevator Saturday night at the Vanderbilt Stadium press box offered a proud smile.

Frank Hood, who has been watching Vanderbilt play (mostly bad) football for the past 45 years, offered up what the entire Commodore Nation had to be thinking.

Vanderbilt had just beaten Auburn 14-13 once again, dominating the second half and making every key play, to improve to 5-0 for the first time since 1943.

"You remember all those games Vanderbilt would fold?" asked Hood, not really giving anybody a chance to answer. "Not this year and not this team."

This is not your father's Vanderbilt or even your grandfather's Vanderbilt.

This is a Vanderbilt that we haven't seen since, well, Dan McGugin was running the show. For the record, McGugin's last season as Vanderbilt's head coach was 1934.

To read the rest of Chris Low's story, click here.

Respect The Opportunity

By Ted Miller, ESPN.com

LOS ANGELES -- Oregon State didn't blindside USC nine days ago. Pete Carroll saw it coming.

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USC sure looked like one of the nation's top teams against Oregon.

He saw Ohio State on the schedule. He knew what that meant. The hype machine would roll into town, and to the victor would go considerable spoils, namely the No. 1 ranking.

And he saw a tricky visit to Oregon State 12 days later.

He knew what his players needed to do. He tried to get them to do it. But they didn't, and a sense of personal failure still weighed heavily on Carroll's shoulders, even as he talked about his ninth-ranked Trojans' 44-10 plundering of No. 23 Oregon.

"That huge game against those guys [Ohio State] -- it was going to be talked about and all that, and as much of our philosophy and approach addresses that, it still fricking happened to us," he said. "It was the fact I couldn't keep it from happening. I tried everything I could think of."

So when he gathered his players Friday night for the traditional pregame talk, he took things deeper.

He spoke, many of his assistant coaches spoke and some of the veteran players spoke.

"It's about sensing your responsibility and to respect what we've been about through the years here," he said. "You could tell from the depth of the night that it made sense and they got it. They respected this opportunity to play here today."

To read the rest of Ted Miller's story, click here.

What Trap Game?

By Tim Griffin, ESPN.com

MANHATTAN, Kan. -- A bunch of Kansas State fans weren't buying Texas Tech's legitimacy as a national power before Saturday's game.

"We walked out and everybody was chanting, 'Overrated, overrated,' at us before the game," Tech running back Baron Batch said. "Maybe we are, but I honestly don't care what they think. Because we're just keeping winning ballgames."

Tech answered many of those critics with an impressive 58-28 victory over the Wildcats. In the process, the No. 7 Red Raiders defended the program's highest national ranking in nearly 32 years with a strong outing that showed the team's strength on offense and defense.

The victory came in exactly the kind of trap game that had bedeviled Tech in recent seasons. At least once in the past four seasons, the Red Raiders lost on the road as a heavy favorite.

But that wasn't the case Saturday as Tech extended its seven-game winning streak, the longest in the Big 12.

To read the rest of Tim Griffin's story, click here.

Coast Is Clear

By Heather Dinich, ESPN.com

ATLANTA, Ga. -- They're not being cocky.

Dale Zanine/US Presswire

Thanks to a stout defense and a tricky offense, Georgia Tech is thinking big.

"That's the truth," defensive tackle Vance Walker said. "The only people who can stop us are ourselves."

While 11 wins might be pushing it for any team in the ACC, the Yellow Jackets have every reason to consider themselves in the mix for the Coastal Division crown.

After its upcoming game against Gardner-Webb, Georgia Tech should head into Clemson with a 5-1 record. It's arguably the most complete team in the Coastal Division -- and that includes division leader Virginia Tech, which is 5-1 after a 27-13 win over Western Kentucky.

Yes, the Yellow Jackets lost to Virginia Tech 20-17 on Sept. 13, but midway through the season Georgia Tech's offense is one of the toughest to stop, and nobody matches the NFL potential on its defensive line.

"I think we just believe in each other," true freshman quarterback Jaybo Shaw said. "The offense believes the defense is going to stop them and get us the ball back, and the defense believes we're going to put points on the board. When you have that, I think things can go your way a lot."

To read the rest of Heather Dinich's story, click here.

The Earlier, The Better

By Brett Edgerton, ESPN.com

Want the secret to the success of the nation's top two teams? Bury the opponent early. And we do mean bury.

In first quarters this season, No. 1 Oklahoma has outscored opponents by an impressive 103-3 margin, including a 28-0 lead at Baylor on Saturday. The No. 2 Crimson Tide have outscored the opposition 88-0 in the first stanza. So for those keeping count at home, that's 191 points in the first quarter for the Sooners and Tide and a whopping three for their 11 opponents combined.

The margin becomes even more impressive when you consider how those three points came about. On its first possession of the game, TCU ran the OU kickoff back 75 yards to the Sooners' 11-yard line. The Horned Frogs managed minus-4 yards against the Oklahoma defense and settled for a field goal. So yes, the only first-quarter scoring drive of the year against OU or Alabama netted negative yards.