Hats Off to the Overachievers:

College football has an extremely feel good story this year.  A lot of teams that historically haven't fared too well are still unbeaten.  Not even having a good season.  These people are 100% perfect week after week.  Five weeks into the season.  It's almost unheard of, what these little guys are doing on the field.

Temple is 4-0.  Its average winning percentage until this year was a sorry 44.3%.

Northwestern is 5-0.  Its average winning percentage until this year was a pitiable 44.1%

Memphis is 5-0.  Its average winning percentage until this year was a painful 47.8%

Then there are teams with only 1 loss, like Duke (4-1) (49.3%), Indiana (4-1) (41.8%), Kansas State (3-1) (44.9%), Kentucky (4-1) (49.5%), and Ohio (4-1) (49.8%).

These people are rewriting legacies of continuous failure and making a sizable impact on the future playoff finale.  Indiana came this close to upsetting Ohio State last week.  Northwestern could still reach the playoff if it keeps on winning.  These are heady times for people who haven't had much to cheer about in, well, decades.

These losers have gamely kept on playing football even though, year in and year out, they serve solely as the punching bags for other teams to burnish their resumes with.  It's about time they got to be a little selfish and hog some of that glory for themselves.

Temple beat Penn State at the beginning of the year.  The last time they did that?  1941.  That's a long wait.  It makes waiting for Rewrite to get an anime look like peanuts.  They lost 38 times and tied once before this year broke the curse.  Can you imagine that?  Thirty eight losses before they could get a win.  Who is persistent enough to challenge someone at Street Fighter 38 times before winning, much less a grueling football game where they pulverize you every year?  But here the Temple Owls have done it, showing us all the way that persistence ultimately pays off.

It's fine to cheer for Notre Dame, who has a historical 73.2% win rate.  Or Michigan, with a historical 72.9% win rate.  But you're only a real fan when you cheer for Indiana.

Texas (71.2%), Tennessee (68%), and Nebraska (70.1%) are being force fed some humble pie this year, but their historic win rates leave me with little pity for their plight.  It's about time these 70% winners shared the wealth a bit.

TCU (53.6%) and Baylor (51%), I think it's about time you won a national championship, and put these old legacy programs in their place.  If you play as well as you did last year, there's no way the selection committee could possibly leave you out in the cold twice in a row.  Let's win one for the little guys.  Let's make this the season of the legacy-less.  Parity comes for us all.