Greetings, BBN!
Each week this college football season, we’ll be doing a new series called The Top State. With FBS teams in 41 of the 50 states, the entire country will be full of teams representing their state on the gridiron and showcasing how good their state is at football. There’ll be an award given out here for The Top State each week, which will be given to the state with some combination of the most wins that week, the most impactful wins that week, and/or the most interesting wins that week.
Saturday got the season into full swing with almost every single team getting their season kicked off, with noon games on the East Coast and late-night finales on the West. Let’s get into it!
Honorable Mention: Louisiana
Biggest win of Week 1? Debatable, but LSU’s road win at Clemson made a lot of doubters of their CFP potential look silly on Saturday. The Tigers significantly increased the odds that the state of Louisiana will be represented in the CFP come December with that victory. Tulane also increased those odds by squashing Northwestern 23-3.
The Top State: Florida
The Sunshine State took down the legendary Alabama Crimson Tide on Saturday evening, as the Florida State Seminoles, fresh off a 2-10 season, triumphed victoriously at home 31-17. The win was so big that their fans racked up $50,000 in field-storming fines. One big upset wasn’t what got Florida into this week’s top spot, though.
On Sunday night, Miami hosted last year’s national runner-ups, the legendary Notre Dame Fighting Irish, and knocked them off with a late field goal 27-24. Around the rest of the state, the Florida Gators handily beat an FCS team, FIU and UCF won, and the South Florida Bulls upended Boise State in a Thursday night game.
Thus, the award for the Top State of Week 1 goes to Florida, because all their schools basically took over half the country and significantly impacted the CFP picture by dealing losses to Alabama, Notre Dame, and Boise State all in one week!
