Clemson is down to No. 3 in the latest AP College football poll after starting the season No. 1. The Tigers have been passed by both Alabama and LSU since they had a close call against North Carolina. David Hale of ESPN thinks Clemson has earned the benefit of the doubt similar to what Alabama gets from pollsters. Hale argues the underlying numbers show Clemson’s performance really hasn’t dropped off much at all this year. Plus, trying to make sense of the Atlantic Coast Conference beyond Clemson and why strength of schedule is often poorly used when judging teams. Also, why we should stop judging coaching hires when they are made.

No. 7 Florida at No. 5 LSU. No. 6 Oklahoma against No. 11 Texas. No. 10 Penn State at No. 17 Iowa. USC at Notre Dame. Alabama at Texas A&M. Florida State goes to Clemson.There have been few surprises so far this season and the same six teams have totally dominated the top of the rankings. Maybe that changes this week? Ross Dellenger of Sports Illustrated joins AP’s Ralph Russo to break down a big weekend in college football.Ross covers college football nationally but he was a beat writer ...

A new California law is pushing the NCAA toward allowing college athletes to make money off their names, images and likenesses. It is being built up as tipping point for college athletics, a change in the landscape that could finally bring the NCAA down. But in reality, it is just forcing the NCAA to do something it probably should have done a long time ago. Andy Staples from The Athletic joins AP’s Ralph Russo to talk about the consequences, intended and unintended, from Fair Pay to Play and...

There is so much more than a Clay Helton hot-watch going on at the University of Southern California these days. ESPN’s Adam Rittenberg joins AP’s Ralph Russo to discuss the Trojans. Both were in LA for last week’s game against Utah, which had plenty of side stories with Reggie Bush and Urban Meyer in the Coliseum. Rittenberg and Russo look back at Michigan’s mess, discuss the odd news out of Houston regarding star quarterback D’Eriq King deciding to sit out the rest of this season, and they ...

Figuring out what to make of early season college football results can be hard. Bill Connolly of ESPN joins AP’s Ralph Russo to sort through the noise using Bill’s SP+ rankings. The advance metric system looks beyond wins and losses to judge the performance of each team. College football followers are often too quick to dismiss results of any game that doesn’t qualify as a big game. Every team is terrible. Every schedule is soft. Connolly’s system helps quantify the value of each team and gam...

Fox has decided to take on ESPN’s iconic pregame game show “College GameDay” with an hour show leading into its Big Noon game of the week. John Walters, who writes the Bubble Screen column for the Athletic, joins AP’s Ralph Russo to discuss how Fox’s new crew is doing. Former Ohio State coach Urban Meyer shows signs of being great on television, but you can tell he’s still trying to get comfortable leaving coach-speak behind. Plus, John talks about some of his favorite analysts, what he’d lik...

The first week of the season was highlighted -- or lowlighted, if you’re a fan of Florida State or Tennessee -- by a couple of embarrassing losses by blue blood programs. Or at least programs that used to be blue bloods. Dan Wolken from USA Today joins AP’s Ralph Russo to discuss where Jeremy Pruitt and Tennessee and Florida State and Willie Taggart go from here. Chip Kelly’s second year at UCLA also got off to a bad start. We look ahead to LSU-Texas and Texas A&M-Clemson, plus, does it r...

The season is about to start, but the race for the Heisman Trophy has already begun. Heisman historian Chris Huston, who edits Heisman.com, joins AP’s Ralph Russo to talk about how Heismans are won. The process has evolved throughout the years from the days of running backs and upperclassmen dominating to now when quarterbacks and underclassmen are all the rage. Heisman campaigns are not quite as important for simple name recognition, but winning a Heisman takes a good story and schools need ...

Voting in the AP Top 25 is a mix of art, science and hunch, and it’s especially tricky when it comes to the preseason poll.On the latest AP Top 25 College Football Podcast, ESPN’s Rece Davis joins AP’s Ralph Russo to discuss filling out a ballot when nobody has played yet.Davis explains how he tries not to make his preseason vote a straight prediction for the season and how that can lead to some rankings that look a little different from the consensus. Rece like Texas A&M more than the co...

Oregon is trying to make the jump to playoff contender in the Pac-12 North, while Washington is breaking in a high-profile transfer quarterback and a bunch of new players on defense. Meanwhile, in the South, what will be the fate of coach Clay Helton at USC? Jon Wilner of the Pac-12 Hotline joins AP’s Ralph Russo to preview the conference season. While all the drama surrounds USC, Utah has become the one sure bet in the Pac-12 South. The Utes might have a team good enough to win the Pac-12 fo...