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1. The French Quarter is thriving and Tulane University has recovered from Hurricane Katrina. But the Green Wave football team hasn’t. A respectable 18-18 in the three years before the 2005 disaster, Tulane is 21-57 over the past seven seasons, 15-40 under coach Bob Toledo, who resigned Tuesday. Toledo, one of the good guys in the sport, is no match for Category Five problems (small fan base, apathetic student body, no on-campus stadium). Tulane is raising money for an on-campus stadium. That’s a good place to start.

2. SMU, Tulane’s fellow Conference USA member, has climbed from depths deeper than Tulane ever has seen. The Mustangs are 5-1, and it’s easy to imagine their Nov. 19 game at No. 19 Houston (6-0) being big enough to attract national attention. What isn’t easy to imagine is how the Mustangs are 5-1 while minus-9 in turnover margin. Blame the Mustang defense, which has generated only five turnovers.

3. Georgia Tech head coach Paul Johnson asked for his Yellow Jackets to get a break -- literally. They have played seven straight weeks and go to Miami on Saturday. “This is probably about the longest that I’ve ever played without a break,” Johnson said. “... I think our guys want to win and want to play, I don’t doubt that. They just need a little more in that tank.” If a head coach in his 15th season says he has never played eight straight weeks, he’s either lucky, a scheduling genius, or has a short memory.

1. Coaches no longer automatically redshirt freshmen. If he’s good enough to play, he plays. One side effect of that, Houston head coach Kevin Sumlin learned, is that leadership isn’t limited to seniors. In fact, a senior displaced by a younger player may not lead at all. “I used to be a guy who put all his stock in the senior class,” Sumlin said. “It’s changed. You’re playing so many young guys now, older guys can get disgruntled with their roles. You don’t talk about seniors as leaders. You talk about players with experience.”

2. Senator John McCain (R-Ariz.) is “disgusted” with the state of intercollegiate athletics. The money, he told KTAR Radio in Phoenix, “is destroying, really, any semblance of the word amateur in college sports.” What’s "destroyed" -- college athletes get $250,000 educations. But McCain added that the U.S. government shouldn’t be the place to find a solution. “I’m embarrassed that Congress would have to get involved in something like this,” McCain said. “There’s neither the talent nor the expertise residing in Congress.”

3. Texas Tech has had three field goals blocked in each of the last two games, narrow losses to Texas A&M and Kansas State. Red Raider head coach Tommy Tuberville said Monday he thinks it’s mostly an issue of focus. So, in Sunday meetings, Tuberville has begun to show video of all phases of the kicking game to the entire team, coaches included. “I want the players on special teams to understand the importance (of it),” Tuberville said. The secret power of video is, as it always has been, public humiliation.

1. The computer ratings will be more accurate as they receive more data, which explains why there is such a discrepancy of opinion between voters and software when it comes to Wisconsin (voters 4th, computers 11th), Oklahoma State (6/1) and Kansas State (12/7). It’s clear that the computers love the Big 12. It’s clear that the voters weigh margin of victory, at least in the case of the Badgers. All the computers measure is Wisconsin’s lack of competition.

2. The Heisman Trophy is the near-exclusive property of quarterbacks and running backs, and you can scratch the latter. After injuries to Oregon’s LaMichael James (elbow) and South Carolina’s Marcus Lattimore (knee) on the past two Saturdays, Alabama’s Trent Richardson is the last rusher with the production and profile to remain in the discussion. On Nov. 5, Richardson will take the national stage against the only other non-quarterback who’s gotten any Heisman notice, LSU corner Tyrann Mathieu.

3. You may quibble that Eastern Michigan’s 4-3 record includes two victories over FCS schools (Howard, Alabama State). You may argue that the Eagles’ average margin of defeat, 31.3 points, is a truer measure of their ability. But after the 35-28 defeat of Central Michigan, and with the next three games at home, Ron English’s team has a great chance to win at least five games. That hasn’t happened since 1995 (6-5). English, the former defensive coordinator right up the road at Michigan, is making progress in his third year.

1. The SEC presidents will decide which school to invite as the league’s 14th member. Athletic administrators, I am told, don’t want Missouri because of the travel to Columbia. For instance, it’s 1,000 miles from there to Gainesville, Fla. Add the remote nature of so many SEC campuses, and travel of non-revenue teams will incur a sharp increase in either time (commercial travel through Atlanta) or money ($30,000 charter flights).

2. If your Heisman tastes run toward the dual-threat quarterback a la Cam Newton (2010), then Baylor quarterback Robert Griffin III may be your guy. You may know that Griffin has rushed 60 times for 280 yards and two touchdowns (sick), and that he ranks second in the nation in passing efficiency with a rating of 212.94 (sicker). Thanks to the ESPN Stats & Info geeks, you now know that on passes of 25 yards or more this season, Griffin has completed 12 of 16 for nine touchdowns (sickest).

3. If North Carolina hires Bubba Cunningham, it will be the best hire the university has made regarding football since it took Mack Brown away from Tulane in 1988. Cunningham cut his teeth in the athletic department of Notre Dame, his alma mater. As athletic director at Ball State in 2003, he hired Brady Hoke. At Tulsa in 2007, he hired Todd Graham. That’s good news for a North Carolina program without a permanent coach and about to be penalized by the NCAA.

1. The NCAA closed its investigation of Auburn over the recruitment of former quarterback Cam Newton and removed the shadow that hovered over his Heisman Trophy and the Tigers’ crystal football. It is good to know once and for all that 80 interviews conducted by the NCAA didn’t find evidence worthy of a Letter of Inquiry. Auburn will have to live with the conspiracy theorists, of course -- that’s the price of success today -- but the Tigers’ miracle climb to the BCS title should get its due from anyone who held back.

2. Northwestern quarterback Dan Persa has been limited in his comeback from an Achilles’ tendon tear late last season. After rushing for 519 yards last season, he has minus-8 yards in two games. But Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz, whose Hawkeyes play the Wildcats this week, said the lack of rushing isn’t the same as being immobile. “He may not be running north and south but he's running east, west,” Ferentz said. “…The real danger right there is you've got a guy who can break the pocket and still throw the ball down the field.”

3. You may have seen when the AP poll came out Sunday that there are no ranked teams from Florida for the first time since Dec. 6, 1982. Just to put that into perspective, that poll came out nine days before Alabama coach Bear Bryant announced his retirement. Former Florida coach Urban Meyer, who has already retired, was an 18-year-old shortstop in the Atlanta Braves’ minor-league system. And since that poll, Florida schools have won 10 national championships, a total which won’t increase in 2011.

1. With junior LaMichael James, sophomore Kenjon Barner and freshman De'Anthony Thomas, No. 9 Oregon appears as if it is plenty deep. But James’s dislocated elbow has brought closer scrutiny, which indicates how much Oregon depends on James. He has 95 carries, compared to a total of 52 for Barner and James. James leads the nation in rushing (170.4 yards per game) and is tied for second in punt returns (19.33-yard average). The Ducks need him to get healthy soon.

2. As a panelist on The Experts yesterday on ESPNU, I brought up Rich Rodriguez as an obvious candidate to replace Mike Stoops at Arizona. Rodriguez wants speed, and there’s plenty available in the Pac-12 South footprint. Rodriguez likes the desert area. But a source who has spoken to Rodriguez said he will look to other openings first. Among other reasons: Arizona doesn’t have the facilities or budget of the strongest Pac-12 teams.

3. Elsewhere in the Stoops family, when Oklahoma beat Texas, coach Bob Stoops won his 43rd game against a ranked opponent, tying former Sooner coach Barry Switzer. Stoops (43-17) reached that mark in 13 seasons, while Switzer (43-21-4) needed 16 seasons. However, when Switzer coached (1973-88), the rankings stopped at No. 20. Stoops is coaching in the era of the Top 25. It makes a difference. Stoops is 10-2 against teams ranked 21-25.

1. The Big East won’t be successful in expanding unless it brings in a school, or schools, that will have finished high enough in the rankings for the league to keep its automatic BCS bid. That’s one reason the Big East asked TCU to join. That’s the same reason there’s interest in Boise State. But that also may be the reason the league is interested in Air Force and Navy. To deny either service academy a BCS bid if they win the Big East just might invite Congress to release the hounds.

2. In a typical year, LSU defensive back Tyrann Mathieu’s combination of playmaking, ballhawking and punt returning would have gained the sophomore more traction in the Heisman Trophy race. But so many offensive players on the other highly ranked teams (Luck/Wilson/Moore/Jones/Griffin/Richardson/James) are having Heisman seasons that Mathieu remains back in the pack. He will have to do what every Heisman winner does -- make a signature play in a big game -- to have any chance at all.

3. Arizona fired Mike Stoops on Monday because the Wildcats have lost 10 consecutive games to FBS opponents. Stoops, 41-50 over eight seasons, restored Arizona to the respectability it enjoyed under Dick Tomey in the 1990s. But he couldn’t get past 8-5 (2008-09). Stoops joins Watson Brown, Bill Dooley, the late George Paterno and Bill Warner (Pop’s brother) as the less successful, though not unsuccessful, sibling.

1. Must read: Andy Katz’s interview of deposed Big 12 commissioner Dan Beebe. He said the league picked up TCU as its 10th member because the Big 12 needs four Texas schools. That must be more important than the long-promoted idea that a new member increase the league’s TV footprint. Regarding the revenue-sharing rule that passed last week, Beebe said that Nebraska shot it down two years ago. He believes that if the rule had been in place, Nebraska and Colorado may have stayed. That sounds like wishful thinking.

2. Texas fell from 11th to 22nd after being schooled by No. 3 Oklahoma, 55-17. But having said last week that I didn’t understand why the Longhorns were ranked so high, I’m just as unconvinced that Texas is as bad as the loss to the Sooners suggests. A very young team played a rivalry game in a bowl-type setting and proved woefully unprepared. I think the Longhorns will show up for their home game Saturday against No. 6 Oklahoma State. The one caveat: How deeply the Sooners bruised the Longhorns’ confidence.

3. What impresses me about No. 11 Michigan’s 6-0 start under first-year coach Brady Hoke is the fight that they showed in the fourth quarter against their two toughest opponents to date: Notre Dame and Northwestern. Michigan still hasn’t beaten a team that is ranked this week, and No. 4 Wisconsin is not on the regular-season schedule. That means if Michigan wins Saturday at No. 23 Michigan State, the Wolverines become the team to beat in the Legends Division. Who would have believed that in August?

1. There is fear, a touch of panic and a healthy dose of confusion in the Big East about what to do to secure the future. The idea of inviting SMU to join TCU as a Lone Star anchor disappeared Thursday when TCU said it wasn’t coming. The Horned Frogs were to serve as insurance for the league’s automatic BCS bid. If UConn, Louisville and West Virginia don’t hang together, the Big East itself may not survive.

2. No. 9 Oregon pulled away from stubborn Cal in the second half Thursday night, quelling the doubts the Ducks raised about themselves in the first half. Kenjon Barner is talented and De'Anthony Thomas will be a keeper. But on a night when quarterback Darron Thomas struggled, it became clearer than ever that junior Heisman hopeful LaMichael James is the fuel that makes the Oregon rocket soar. James had his third consecutive 200-yard game of the season, but was carted off the field in the fourth quarter with an arm injury. Ducks fans have their fingers crossed that it's not serious.

3. Are we in a golden age of quarterbacks? With a win tonight at Fresno State, No. 5 Boise State quarterback Kellen Moore will have 43 career victories, giving him sole possession of second place in FBS history, two behind Colt McCoy of Texas (2006-09). Houston senior Case Keenum, who has thrown for 15,591 career yards, is about 1,500 short of surpassing Timmy Chang of Hawaii (2001-04) as the all-time leader. And then there’s Andrew Luck of Stanford, Russell Wilson of Wisconsin, Landry Jones of Oklahoma. ...

1. Nothing personal regarding Garrett Gilbert's decision to transfer from Texas. He is out for the season after shoulder surgery and whatever coach Mack Brown and offensive coordinator Bryan Harsin told him about his future made him decide that if he wants to play football, he should go somewhere else. But whatever happened to love of school? Love of teammates? Whatever happened to being, as every backup quarterback is, one play away?

2. It’s one thing for players to learn a new coach’s schemes in the relative calm of spring ball. It’s another to execute the schemes in a game, when the adrenaline flows or opponents hit you with something you’ve never seen. Miami coach Al Golden said the Hurricanes’ defensive line play has been so-so because, “when they get competitive they sometimes revert back to what they were taught. ... We are trying to play a different style now. The break down is coming because not everybody is playing the same technique or as a unit.”

3. Thanks to the nerds at ESPN Stats & Info, we now have a sense of just how dominant the top SEC defenses are. They broke down the highest percentage of opponent plays for no gain or lost yardage on first down. The top three defenses in the nation in this esoteric category are Florida (47.8 percent), Alabama (44.1) and LSU (43.0). Fresno State is fourth (42.0). I’m not sure how important that is, except that every defensive coordinator in America loves 2nd-and-long as much as he loves his children.

1. The Big 12 “family” is beginning to resemble a daytime soap. They argue, they leave, they look to leave, they come back. One day after the conference members agree to share their main TV money equally, a big step on the road to a happy future, Missouri decides to withhold its commitment. The chancellor resigned as conference chairman. It comes down to Mizzou forsaking tradition and loyalty, to flirt with the SEC, a league in which the Tigers are not equipped to compete. Knock yourself out.

2. In the last week, both Bret Bielema of Wisconsin and Mark Richt of Georgia have endorsed a lead of three scores as the benchmark for deciding to milk the clock in the fourth quarter. “You do that by running the ball and making sure you don’t snap the ball too early in the 40-second clock,” Richt said. Bielema praised quarterback Russell Wilson after the Nebraska game for having the presence of mind, when chased out of the pocket, to slide inbounds and keep the clock moving.

3. Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz said Tuesday that yards per carry is a better measure of the effectiveness of a running back than it is an offense, because sacks and kneeldowns (every coach’s favorite offensive call) can skew that statistic for a team. There, Ferentz said, the better measure is carries per game. He didn’t establish a number. For what it’s worth, the 15 undefeated teams average 42.3 carries per game.

1. South Carolina defensive end Melvin Ingram won SEC Defensive Player of the Week for the second consecutive week. He also won Special Teams Player of the Week against Georgia. Three awards in five weeks may put Ingram on a record pace. It’s hard to say– the SEC hasn’t kept track of who has won the most weekly awards in a season. The last two Heisman winners, Cam Newton of Auburn and Mark Ingram (no relation) of Alabama, won six and two, respectively. That makes Melvin the lead Ingram.

2. Ohio State athletic director Gene Smith said that tailback Boom Herron and wide receiver DeVier Posey made decisions “to go off the reservation” when they accepted too much money for their 2011 summer jobs. Does that mean that, after receiving five-game suspensions to start this season, they returned to the reservation only to decide to leave again? Did they just keep straying, and if so, where is Ohio State’s boundary? Which Native American tribe, and what is its translation of the word "knucklehead?”

3. It’s easy to forget that college football players are young and have lives. Oklahoma State offensive coordinator Todd Monken reminded me of that when he discussed the Cowboys’ three practices during bye week. “We’ve been going at it pretty good now for four weeks of camp and four weeks of the season, so I think their minds were on the weekend,” he said. “I’m sure for a month they had planned what they were going to do for the bye week.” The rested No. 6 Cowboys play Kansas this week.

1. I am a fan of how The Associated Press poll reflects the sentiment of the week. Alabama and Wisconsin rout highly-ranked teams? Move on up. Oklahoma routs rent-a-victim Ball State? You drop anyway. Stanford pounds UCLA and falls for the second consecutive week. That may mean the voters made up their minds (or went to bed) before the Cardinal's late-night 45-19 win. Or it may be a sign of how far the Bruins have slid in the eyes of the voters. Stanford has won three straight against UCLA for the first time in 80 years.

2. Talk about a day that looked as if it may never arrive. Nearly a quarter-century after the NCAA meted out the death penalty to SMU, not only are the Mustangs 4-1 and coming off an Iron Skillet upset of No. 20 TCU, but the Big East reportedly discussed SMU as a potential new member. SMU doesn’t have the assets of a TCU -- motivated fan base, a decade of success -- but SMU has the quirky genius of coach June Jones, a recently refurbished stadium and a big TV market. In today’s college sports, that’s enough.

3. Texas Tech is one of 15 undefeated teams and the Red Raiders (4-0) better enjoy it while it lasts. Six of their remaining eight opponents are ranked, which is either a measure of the newfound strength of the Big 12 or a measure of the members' adroit scheduling. Give No. 3 Oklahoma, No. 6 Oklahoma State and No. 20 Kansas State credit. They have won tough road games. How Texas has risen to No. 11 based on its schedule (Rice, BYU, at UCLA, at Iowa State) defies gravity.

1. Pittsburgh’s 44-17 rout of South Florida on Thursday night may be a boon for Todd Graham’s Panthers but it is one more indignity for the reeling Big East. The No. 16 Bulls are the conference’s highest-ranked team and held some promise as the league’s rejoinder to its critics, particularly in the wake of the decision by Pittsburgh and founding member Syracuse to abandon the league. Maybe Pittsburgh will carry the flag for the Big East. But these are the same Panthers who struggled against Iowa and Notre Dame.

2. Florida quarterback John Brantley looks more comfortable in the offense of new coordinator Charlie Weis than he ever did playing in Urban Meyer’s spread attack last season. But as Todd McShay pointed out in today’s ESPNU College Football podcast, Brantley’s success has come in short, quick passes, not downfield throws. Against a fast, experienced Alabama defense, Brantley must do more than dump the ball off if the No. 12 Gators are to upset the No. 3 Crimson Tide.

3. A reader and Longhorns fan challenged my comment that TCU has supplanted Texas as the state’s most successful program. Since the beginning of 2006, TCU is 58-11; Texas is 55-15. In that time, the Horned Frogs and the Longhorns each have been to two BCS bowls; each has won one. Texas fans argue that strength of schedule should be considered. But given TCU’s momentum -- 16-1 in 2010-11 vs. Texas’ 8-7 -- it’s hard to see why the Horned Frogs shouldn’t be considered the best.

1. When USC hired Lane Kiffin, the Trojans supposedly received the quintessential twofer. Not only did Kiffin return to run the offense but he brought with him his father, Monte, a coaching legend, to run the defense. It’s a sweet story -- just hold off on the violins. Arizona State became the seventh opponent in 17 games to score at least 30 points on Monte Kiffin’s defense. Blame turnovers (minus-four vs. the Sun Devils) or inexperience if you wish. But Monte Kiffin defenses have been far from legendary.

2. Ole Miss can’t catch a break. The Rebels (1-3) travel 2,000 miles west Saturday to play at Fresno State. In the SEC, Ole Miss is a team that has scored a total of 34 points in its three losses. But no one at Bulldog Stadium will care. All they will see is the first-ever visit by an SEC team. Fresno State has done the best job of any WAC team east of Hawaii of making deals to get AQ-conference schools in their stadium (fifth in six years). That includes you, Boise State.

3. Year after year, Clemson has gotten to the brink of championship contention and backed away. After victories over Auburn and Florida State, No. 13 Clemson has a chance to start 5-0 for the first time since 2000 but must win at No. 11 Virginia Tech to do so. “Our schedule has helped us,” Tigers coach Dabo Swinney said. “We haven’t had a chance to think about the last game because we’ve had to focus on the next game.” So what happens next week at home vs. a struggling Boston College?