As a Tuscaloosa resident (who can see the Tide practice when I look out my living room window) and a lifelong Penn State fan, I’d be remiss if I didn’t chime in on this.

Alabama is just plain nasty in the trenches, on both sides of the ball. No way around that.

But let’s not just capitulate to those stats being skewed because of Penn State’s “easy” schedule. Alabama blew up Georgia, and that remains arguably the best win any team has had this season. Outside of that, they’ve pounded a mediocre Clemson team (honestly, is Clemson better than Oregon State? Um, hell no.), a lousy Arkansas outfit, and the mighty Hilltoppers of Western Kentucky. They also strugled to the end with Tulane and an admittedly underrated Kentucky team.

That’s three bad teams, two okay teams, and one excellent team they’ve beaten. Plenty of room for the Tide to inflate stats, too.

We all know that the pre-season rankings were bunk. They’ve shown themselves to be thus far, and the only way that one could argue otherwise is if things swing all of the way around and somehow return the pre-season darlings to the top before the end of the season.

Keeping in mind the fact that the Big Ten teams have pretty much played one game more than all of their Big 12 and SEC counterparts, you Big 12 and SEC fans might want to take a look at the following and then ask yourself what seems to be out of place.

-BIG 12-
Oklahoma State #8 2-0 6-0
Texas #1 2-0 6-0
Texas Tech #7 2-0 6-0
Oklahoma #4 1-1 5-1 // Lost to 6-0 Texas
Kansas #16 2-0 5-1 // Lost to 5-1 South Florida
Missouri #11 1-1 5-1 // Lost to 6-0 Oklahoma State

-SEC-
Alabama #2 3-0 6-0
Florida #5 3-1 5-1 // Lost to 3-3 Mississippi
Vanderbilt #22 3-1 5-1 // Lost to 2-4 Mississippi State
Georgia #10 2-1 5-1 // Lost to 6-0 Alabama
LSU #13 2-1 4-1 // Lost to 5-1 Florida

-BIG TEN-
Penn State #3 3-0 7-0
Ohio State #12 3-0 6-1 // Lost to 4-1 USC
Michigan State #20 3-0 6-1 // Lost to 4-1 Cal
Minnesota 2-1 6-1 // Lost to 6-1 Ohio State
Northwestern 1-1 5-1 // Lost to 5-1 Michigan State

No rankings for Minnesota and Northwestern?

Can you imagine a 6-1 or 5-1 Big 12 or SEC team that had lost only one game to a 6-1 or 5-1 team being unranked?

Of course you can’t…

It all started with people’s perceptions of the teams based upon pre-season rankings. Had the Big Ten started their seasons a week later, the Big 12 and SEC teams would have been keeping pace with the number of losses dealt to them, and as a result, would have been playing even lower-ranked conference opponents, which would have made each victory just a little less impressive.

Just as you guys can’t take any of your conference games as a gimme, I won’t take any of PSU’s upcoming games for granted. If, however, PSU runs the Big Ten gauntlet and emerges unbeaten, we will be taking home the NC trophy.

Bank on it.