It was letdown week in college football as highly ranked teams across the country faced unexpected challenges following the emotional high of Week 1 victories. The phenomenon was most prominently on display with No. 5 Notre Dame, which suffered a stunning 16-14 home loss to Northern Illinois just a week after beating Texas A&M on the road.
The Fighting Irish’s national championship odds were +1700 after the momentous Week 1 win. But those odds had slipped to +10000 by the end of Week 2. While Notre Dame was the only national title contender to lose in their letdown spot, others encountered adversity. No. 8 Penn State found itself in a fierce battle with Bowling Green before escaping with a 34-27 win just one week after crushing West Virginia on the road in a high-profile season opener.
Similarly, just a week after scoring at will in a 63-0 win over Western Kentucky to begin the Kalen DeBoer era, No. 4 Alabama needed a huge fourth quarter to pull away from South Florida. No. 15 Oklahoma provided yet another example of a high-powered program struggling as a heavy favorite in Week 2 as the Sooners fought through a 16-12 win over Houston.
Despite those lackluster performances, our report card also features plenty of good grades, especially since some of the teams mentioned above played their way out of our +4000 threshold. Here are the Week 2 grades for each team with national title odds of +4000 or better.
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