2011 As 1981: Week Four

Week One
Week Two
Week Three

Through three weeks in the 'real' 2011 season, there had been five games pitting two ranked teams against each other. In 'alternate' 2011, there have been six. For the most part, the old-school style of scheduling seems to mean more battles of mediocre major conference teams more than it means tons of elite-vs-elite battles. Of course, Week Four certainly had plenty of potential -- Oklahoma-USC, Nebraska-Penn State, Stanford-Ohio State, Tennessee-Auburn, Texas-Miami, Iowa-UCLA, etc. It's not the schedule's fault that teams like USC and Penn State aren't ranked when the games take place.

College Gameday Location: Athens.

It's quite possible that OU-USC would get the nod here, but we'll go with the battle in the Southeast.

RANKED VS RANKED
No. 7 Stanford 32, No. 21 Ohio State 26 (in Palo Alto)
No. 10 South Carolina 45, No. 14 Georgia 42 (in Athens)

One of the more interesting fake games on this list is Stanford's narrow win over Ohio State. The Cardinal faced an incredibly weak early schedule in 'real' 2011 -- San Jose State, Duke, Arizona, UCLA, Colorado -- that they didn't necessarily have to play all that well to win games. They escape with a win versus a mediocre-at-the-time Ohio State team, but it isn't easy. Meanwhile, South Carolina still beats Georgia in one of the more odd, entertaining games of September.

MAJOR CONFERENCE VS MAJOR CONFERENCE
No. 2 Oklahoma 38, USC 30 (in Los Angeles)
No. 3 Oregon 38, Washington 14 (in Eugene)
No. 4 Nebraska 21, Penn State 10 (in Lincoln)
No. 5 Alabama 31, Vanderbilt 3 (in Nashville)
No. 15 Virginia Tech 42, Wake Forest 14 (in Blacksburg)
Tennessee 32, No. 16 Auburn 27 (in Knoxville)
No. 17 Missouri 40, Louisville 34 (in Columbia)
Florida 34, No. 18 Mississippi State 30 (in Jackson)
SMU 40, No. 20 TCU 33 (in Ft. Worth)
No. 22 Texas 38, Miami 24 (in Austin)
No. 23 Arkansas 52, Ole Miss 7 (in Jackson)
No. 24 Notre Dame 38, Purdue 10 (in West Lafayette)
Baylor 66, Texas Tech 38 (in Waco)
BYU 30, Colorado 26 (in Boulder)
Iowa 40, UCLA 30 (in Iowa City)
Kansas 33, Kentucky 31 (in Lawrence)
Minnesota 29, Oregon State 28 (in Minneapolis)
North Carolina 34, Boston College 27 (in Chapel Hill)
N.C. State 56, Maryland 41 (in Raleigh)
Rutgers 17, Cincinnati 7 (in Cincinnati)
Syracuse 34, Indiana 21 (in Syracuse)
Utah 34, Northwestern 23 (in Evanston)
Virginia 31, Duke 21 (in Charlottesville)
Washington State 37, Arizona State 27 (in Pullman)

USC's offense began to figure things out by Week Four of the 'real' 2011 season, but Oklahoma is still the better team at this point. (That's a different story in November.) Meanwhile, Tennessee takes out an overrated Auburn squad, giving them early wins over both Auburn and USC ... meaning they will probably be ranked heading into Week Five.

FBS VS FBS
No. 1 LSU 39, Rice 23 (in Baton Rouge)
No. 6 Texas A&M 32, Louisiana Tech 25 (in College Station)
No. 8 Oklahoma State 34, San Diego State 24 (in Stillwater)
No. 12 Michigan State 29, Bowling Green 10 (in East Lansing)
No. 13 Wisconsin 38, Western Michigan 26 (in Madison)
No. 19 West Virginia 39, Colorado State 25 (in Morgantown)
No. 25 Georgia Tech 42, Memphis 17 (in Atlanta)
Air Force 42, New Mexico 0 (in Albuquerque)
Arizona 35, Nevada 34 (in Tucson)
Ball State 23, Ohio 20 (in Athens)
California 31, San Jose State 27 (in Berkeley)
Arkansas State 32, Central Michigan 23 (in Mount Pleasant)
East Carolina 34, Toledo 30 (in Greenville)
Eastern Michigan 28, Miami-OH 27 (in Ypsilanti)
Houston 35, Utah State 18 (in Houston)
Iowa State 32, Kent State 19 (in Ames)
Michigan 38, Navy 33 (in Ann Arbor)
UL-Lafayette 30, North Texas 10 (in Lafayette)
UNLV 25, Idaho 23 (in Las Vegas)

Yeah, not a lot of excitement here. Rice lands some early blows before caving against LSU, San Diego State does the same against Oklahoma State, Western Michigan does the same against Wisconsin, and Navy does the same against Michigan (that would have been a pretty damn fun game). In the end, though, there are no major upsets.

Also: Texas A&M holds off a solid Louisiana Tech team; and yes, I was tempted to just go ahead and assume a third-quarter A&M collapse and give the Techsters the win.

FBS VS FCS
Army 58, Brown 0 (in West Point)
Hawaii 56, UC-Davis 14 (in Honolulu)
Kansas State 58, Drake 0 (in Manhattan)
Northern Illinois 47, Cal Poly 30 (in Dekalb)
Southern Miss 52, SE Louisiana 6 (in Hattiesburg)
Tulsa 49, Southern Illinois 20 (in Tulsa)

Pretty sure Drake no longer has an FCS program. Oh well.

TOP 25
1. Oklahoma (2-0)
2. LSU (4-0)
3. Oregon (4-0)
4. Nebraska (3-0)
5. Alabama (3-1)
6. Stanford (3-0)
7. Texas A&M (3-0)
8. South Carolina (4-0)
9. Oklahoma State (2-0)
10. Florida State (2-1)
11. Boise State (2-1)
12. Michigan State (3-0)
13. Wisconsin (3-0)
14. Virginia Tech (3-0)
15. Missouri (3-0)
16. Georgia (3-1)
17. West Virginia (3-0)
18. Arkansas (2-1)
19. Texas (3-0)
20. Notre Dame (1-2)
21. Tennessee (3-1)
22. Georgia Tech (1-1)
23. Michigan (2-1)
24. Auburn (2-1)
25. Mississippi State (2-1)