Three-Point Stance: Saturday's Shine and Shame; SEC stinks

So what is Saturday Shine and Saturday Shame? Essentially, it’s a look at the teams, and sometimes players, who should be proud or ashamed of their performances from the weekend. This includes Thursday and Friday games, of course. So let’s take a look at those that shined first.

A LOOK BACK AT SHINE AND SHAME: Week 9 | Week 8 | Week 7 | Week 6

Baker Mayfield, Oklahoma – He just keeps putting up monster numbers and making plays with the best arm talent in football - and somehow it still feels like he's disrespected, at least to me.

“Hollywood Brown,” Oklahoma – Marquise Brown was dominant and flashed the speed we saw in JUCO in the biggest game of the year for the Sooners.

Nathan Stanley, Iowa – Against an overrated Ohio State defense, Stanley had a monster game and showed off a cannon of an arm in the face of the pass rush.

Josh Jackson, Iowa – With three interceptions against J.T. Barrett, who looked so good the week before, Jackson was huge on defense.

Brian Ferentz, Iowa – I rarely put coaches on here - and especially not coordinators - but his play calling was amazing Saturday.

Georgia defense – When the offense had an average day, the defense showed it can win games with sideline-to-sideline talent.

Alabama defense – Even when the Tide lose players, they just keep plugging them in and the hitting never stops. They dominated LSU, as usual.

Brandon Wimbush, Notre Dame – His best game as a passer? Could be. He’s developing nicely and showed the needed toughness to power through injury.

Kelly Bryant, Clemson – Clemson struggled a bit on defense, but Bryant is clearly back to full strength and was key in this win over N.C. State.

Cam Akers, Florida State – The freshman sensation finally broke out and showed us what we can look forward to for two more seasons - even behind a horrible offensive line.

Brian Lewerke, Michigan State – 400+ yards passing in bad weather was key for Michigan State to pull off the upset against Penn State.

TCU defense – The best defense in the Big 12 did it again and made me appreciate them all the more after watching the horrid defense in Bedlam.

Wisconsin offensive line – The Badgers may be boring to watch compared to some passing offenses, but watch the holes these guys continue to open. It’s amazing.

Miami defense – The 'Canes are for real and the defense is nasty as Virginia Tech learned. The defensive backs made big plays, but the pass rush was key.

Dante Pettis, Washington – He set the record for punt returns for a touchdown in NCAA history. We have no idea why Oregon kicked to him even once.

Auburn – The offense was solid, the defense played well and this looks like a team that will give Georgia all it can handle next weekend.

West Virginia – Iowa State took down Oklahoma and TCU, but Will Grier and company did enough to end its Cinderella run.

Luke Falk, Washington State – The all-time leading passer by yardage in the Pac-12 deserves props, as Washington State emerged again in the North.

Baylor – The winless streak is over. You may hate Baylor for the sins of Art Briles, but you have to feel good for Matt Rhule and company.

Skylar Thompson, Kansas State – The third-stringer came in and led his team to victory and never looked rattled, despite facing overtime.

Rutgers – Four wins for Rutgers, and a big victory over Maryland, the other somewhat recent addition to the Big Ten.

Northwestern – A third overtime win. This team never quits, and has improved greatly since the loss to Duke.

Karan Higdon, Michigan – What would the Michigan offense do without him?

Eno Benjamin, Arizona State – If you haven’t seen his triple-spin touchdown run yet, check it out. It’s one of the better runs of the year.

Buckeyes defense – This is a defense loaded with future NFL talent? You could have fooled me.

J.T. Barrett, Ohio State – After looking so great since the Oklahoma game, he looked awful once again in a key spot as the Buckeyes are out of the playoff hunt.

Oklahoma State defense – Everyone talks about Big 12 offense, but the defense in this game was horrid as the Cowboys scored 52 points and lost by double digits. How many wide open receivers did I see on Saturday? I lost count.

Oklahoma defense – The offense is amazing, but if the defense keeps playing this way it will bite them again eventually.

Florida – This is an embarrassment and a joke, as this team doesn’t care and doesn’t seem to want to play together anymore. Missouri made the Gators look silly.

LSU offense – Once again the Tigers fell flat against Alabama. It’s hard to blame them, as 'Bama’s defense is nasty, but will they ever score more than 20 points against the Tide? The last time they did so was in 2010.

Bradley Chubb, N.C. State – You’re a great player, so stop with the towel stealing and silliness. Don’t give the NFL any reason whatsoever to wonder about you.

Dave Doeren, N.C. State – Worried about a laptop? How about worrying about a good season going down the tubes?

Penn State defense – Remember when this unit was good? They’ve now made J.T. Barrett and Brian Lewerke look like Tom Brady in consecutive weeks.

Arkansas – This team almost lost to Coastal Carolina, which should cost Bret Beilema his job.

Mississippi State – This team almost lost to UMass. Yes that happened to Tennessee, but the Vols are awful. I thought the Bulldogs were better.

Virginia Tech offense – The Hokies looked bad in many aspects, but the offense was brutal and a key failure in the loss to Miami.

Nebraska – Remember when Nebraska was hard to beat at home? When the Huskers lose to Iowa to end the season it will be the fourth straight home loss, tying a mark set in 1961.

UCLA – Josh Rosen is the only good thing going for the program and when he doesn’t play, it’s just beyond ugly. It’s time for Jim Mora to go.

Kentucky – With a chance to stay alive in the SEC East, the Wildcats lost to Ole Miss two weeks after being drubbed at Mississippi State. These are the teams you need to beat to take the next step.

OK, the SEC stinks. Not that it’s a hot take or even a big news item, because the conference stunk last year as well, but this season things have been taken to the next level. This weekend was a great example. Yes, the SEC has the top two teams in the nation, according to the playoff committee. But after Georgia and Alabama, what does the conference have? Absolute crap.

In the SEC East, South Carolina is 6-3 with one good win over N.C. State. Kentucky is 6-3 with perhaps one good win over South Carolina, if you want to count that. After that, every SEC East team has a losing record, with Florida being a complete joke and losing to Mizzou this weekend, Tennessee a complete dumpster fire and Missouri and Vanderbilt combining for one conference win between them. And what of the vaunted SEC West? Auburn is 7-2 but its most impressive claim to fame is an 8-point loss to Clemson. Mississippi State is 7-2 but barely beat UMass this past weekend and has one good win - if you consider the victory over LSU impressive at all. LSU is 6-3 but has only the Auburn win to brag about and have a loss to Troy, while Texas A&M, Ole Miss and Arkansas are all hot garbage. Give me every conference, the Big 12 included, over the SEC this season. The Southeastern Conference could yet again win a national title - but could also be the worst Power Five conference overall.