The Other Five Out-Power Big Brands in Week 1

It was enough to warm the left cockle of a college football purist's heart.

The game's personnel turnover that makes Week 1 a prime time for upsets truly delivered this past weekend, with Power Five programs falling like they were being clearcut by a feisty batch of Other Five upstarts.

Some of these victors were the usual suspects, like Boise State and Memphis. Others were outta-the-blue ambushers like Georgia State.

 

Other Five football exists because most of those schools don't have the markets or the budgets to play in the swag wars that are the Power Five universe.

Not that it matters, apparently, but the Other Five conference schools do provide a quality education and life experiences for their athletes, and in the cold light of harsh reality, very little if anything separates them from the Power Fivers who aren't mega-dosh programs.

 

Take Boise State. If it was a traditional research university, it might have a shot at joining the Pac-12. But it began as a community college and, somehow, that counts against it even thought Boise's a rather wealthy market.

In Week 1, the Broncos' neutral site clash in Jacksonville against the original West Florida Seminary -- now known as Florida State University -- became a true away game in Tallahassee, and did what that program does.

 

Dudes introduced a ballsy true frosh chucker in Hank Bachmeier, spotted the Seminarians Seminoles an 18-point lead, and rolled to a 36-31 takedown.

Because that crew never quits:

 

Wyoming may have luxury destinations like Jackson Hole, but it's a hard-nosed state whose main university found a hardass coach in Craig Bohl, who steeps hardcore players in hard-to-argue fundamentals.

The Big XII's Missouri Tigers with newly-acquired Clemson transfer Kelly Bryant found that out the hard way, as the Cowboys bushwhacked them, 37-31:

 

The Biggest Little City in the World is only 4506 feet above sea level, but its still a friendly environment for air-filled projectiles.

An engineering school like Purdue would normally appreciate a fact like that, but not so much after the Nevada Wolfpack's frosh kicker Brandon Talton knocked a 56-yard field goal through the uprights on the game's last play to shock the Boilermakers, 34-31:

 

The Mountain West didn't have all the fun.

Memphis is nobody's pushover, and the Tigers have had their day every now and then against SEC teams. This season, dudes gave Ole Miss more than the Rebels could handle in a 15-10 slugfest:

 

OK, Georgia Southern's upset over the Volunteers was an eyebrow-raider, but really, none of these Other Five results were surprising.

They're playing middle-of-the-pack Power Fivers, and overall program budget aside, there's only one significant difference between them:

Maybe it's remote, but those Power Five teams at least have a chance to put together a season for the ages and earn a shot at the CFP title.

 

That's exactly what needs to be done.

The Other Five deserve it. This is America, dammit!

 

Where everybody gets their shot, big brands be damned.