Chris Fowler said that last weekend was yardstick weekend, so let's stick with that theme in wrapping up the action.

I went into the weekend thinking we were going to find out the yardsticks were pretty long for some of these teams in terms of how far they need to come, but I was wrong about what teams were going to show that.

Notre Dame comes through
The Irish measured up with their win over Michigan.

	Carlyle Holiday and the Notre Dame offense finally found the end zone against Michigan.

Carlyle Holiday threw a long bomb to Maurice Stovall on the second play of the game, and even more important than the fact that the play happened was that the call was made at all. If I'm the offensive coordinator I don't know if that play gets called after what happened at Purdue. That call sent a clear message to Holiday that the Irish felt they could throw, that he could be good and that they could score points.

All offseason we heard about the loss of Julius Jones, and what a game Ryan Grant had. He was third or fourth on the depth chart at one time, but he's a pretty darn good back. I mean, 132 yards against a good Michigan defense says a lot.

Looking at the schedule, Notre Dame doesn't have a really tough game until Florida State, and the Irish could be 7-0 going into Tallahassee on Oct. 26. And we see now why Ty Willingham set the bar a little higher for his team when everyone was predicting five or six wins. The Irish beat Maryland and a Michigan team that was picked to be one of the Big Ten favorites, and none of the teams on their remaining schedule (except the Seminoles) should scare them like Michigan.

Nebraska falls short
I really felt Nebraska would win at Penn State because the Cornhuskers always win slugfests and I didn't feel the Nittany Lions had the skill guys to take advantage of Nebraska's weaknesses. Turns out they do have some good skill players, but the Huskers made them look even better. But don't take anything away from Penn State because the Lions had a great gameplan, they spread NU out and made the defense run sideline to sideline and then pounded Larry Johnson at them.

Now, these guys are good players, but at the end of the day we can't say they are Heisman candidates because Nebraska made them look better than they are. I mean, this team barely beat Central Florida!

Nebraska fans should be concerned. What's next for this program? Do players start looking around the locker room and questioning each other? This is not just a loss where the Huskers played hard and came up short. THEY GOT SMASHED! The most important thing is how they respond, and Coach Solich has to be challenging his players this week.

The defense is the first concern for Nebraska. Offenses will always have up-and-down games, but good defense has to be a constant for championship teams. I don't know if I've seen many quarterbacks in a zone like Zack Mills was with his 205 yards in the first half of that game, but I was watching the game thinking "He's on pace for 400 yards, man! Against Nebraska!" What might Seneca Wallace do to against the Huskers this week?

I talked to Nebraska strength coach Boyd Epley and he insists it's not a speed issue with the defense. There are great athletes and if defensive coordinator Craig Bohl knew what was wrong the problem would probably be fixed. It may be a problem with scheme or effort or something else, but there is no confidence, passion or enthusiasm on that defense.

So coming out of that game we'll have to wait to find out if PSU is that good or NU is that bad. Both teams needed that game badly and Penn State can use it to catapult themselves into the race in the Big Ten. This was a great win for them and I feel good for Joe Paterno.

Big Ten blunders
I don't think it's any secret that the Big Ten is not that great.

Wisconsin got dominated by Northern Illinois The Huskies beat the Badgers up, forcing four turnovers and sacking the quarterback 10 times, and Iowa was leading Iowa State 24-7 at the half and went on to lose. Minnesota had a tough time with Toledo.

And Michigan State's loss was an embarrassment. I could not believe that effort. They have the talent to win the Big Ten, but when you play a disciplined team like California it makes your mental breakdowns more obvious. Rogers is a great receiver and Smoker threw the ball well, it was just the other dumb stuff that hurt them. And they haven't been able to get the consistent running game they had in Week 1. Dawan Moss just hasn't come through.

While Ohio State was not a big surprise and Maurice Clarett is a great player, the two big games he had came against Texas Tech and Washington State teams that are 100th and 72nd, respectively, against the run. I'm not trying to take anything away from him, but he's not doing this against the Oklahomas of the world.

No BCS buster
The problem with the BCS year-in and year-out is not going to be sleeper teams from non-BCS conferences. The deck is stacked heavily against teams like BYU, Louisville and Marshall (this year's popular picks as BCS busters). If those teams play the big boys it's always on the road, so that is not much of an issue. The problem will be a good No. 2 team. Miami is clearly the best team this year, but after that who knows? What happens if Miami loses and there are a bunch of one-loss teams?

That is the big issue for the BCS, not the potential sleeper teams lurking out there.

SEC and ACC are wide open
I picked Georgia to win the SEC West and it's going to be interesting to watch David Greene now that D.J. Shockley is injured. Green will play with more confidence, but clearly their offense is not where it needs to be after putting up 300 total yards against South Carolina..

In the other SEC division I have no solid read on anybody. Louisiana State looked bad against Virginia Tech but Matt Mauck and the offense played better this week against Miami. If Daniel Cobb can throw at all Auburn has a chance. I like the Tigers' running game with Carnell Williams but they don't have a passing game to offset it. This race is wide open.

And I was disappointed in Ole Miss. I thought they would be a better team and they played poorly against Texas Tech. Statistically they put up numbers and they will push some teams they're not supposed to, but defensively they are just not where they need to be.

And that is in stark contrast to teams like NC State and Clemson that are rising in the ACC. Florida State is still the team to beat, but the Wolfpack the Tigers have defenses now. Those teams always had dangerous offenses, but now both have teams fly to the ball and make plays.

Trev Alberts is a college football analyst for ESPN. He will contribute a weekly column to ESPN.com.