Each week during the off-season we will be doing this feature that will simply be called "This Week In College Football". We will cover the biggest news and stories of the past week and give some opinions and analysis. In addition to covering the weekly happenings we also do a weekly roundtable where we discuss varying topics and we give several opinions on each topic. Let's get to what happened this week in college football

LACK OF INSTITUTIONAL CONTROL IN COLUMBUS, OHIO?

It all started last year when it was discovered that Ohio State players were trading stuff for tattoos. Then it hit the wall when it was found out that Jim Tressel had covered this fact up for nearly a year and lied about it on numerous times. Now it's about cars. Dr Saturday has a good laundry list of past issues the Buckeyes have had with cars under Jim Tressel. Now Ohio State is opening up an investigation on used-car purchases by dozens of it's players. There have been six programs that have received sanctions since 1990 due to deals that their players received on cars. We all know about the USC stuff. Ohio State players seem like they are running amok. I would be very surprised if the NCAA doesn't step in at some point and at the minimum give them what they gave USC. A couple of years with no bowls, reduced scholarships, vacating wins from 2010. Jim Tressel is asleep at the wheel folks. He's a hell of a college football coach but he's really crappy at knowing what's going on in his players lives (or he just turns a blind eye).

Branden Smith has been up and down in his two years at Georgia. As a true freshman he burst onto the scene in a wild game against South Carolina in 2009. Georgia was down early but had battled back and took the lead at the start of the 2nd quarter when Branden Smith took a pitch, went 61 yards and left everybody else in the dust. It was one of those plays that stays in your memory. Etched into the brains of Georgia fans as a highlight and etched into the minds of Gamecocks fans as something they'd like to forget. It's one of those moments that makes you take note of a player.

2010 Record: (8-4, 5-3 in MAC)

Head Coach: Steve Addazio (First Time Head Coach)

Last Bowl Game: 2009 Season Eagle Bowl: lost to UCLA 30-21

2010 Pre-Season Preview

CFBZ Temple Links

Steve Addazio To Temple: Good Hire Or Potential Bust?

Temple Owls: 2010 Season Exit Survey

Schedule

9/1: Villanova (2010 result: won 31-24)

9/10: at Akron (2010 result: won 30-0)

9/17: Penn State (2010 result: lost 22-13)

9/24: at Maryland

2010 Record: (3-9, 3-5 in Sun Belt)

Head Coach: Dan McCarney (First Year at North Texas, 56-85 All-Time)

Last Bowl Game: 2004 Season New Orleans Bowl: lost to Southern Miss 31-10

2010 Pre-Season Preview Link

Schedule

9/1: at FIU (2010 result: lost 34-10)

9/10: Houston

9/17: at Alabama (2009 result: lost 53-7)

9/24: Indiana

10/1: at Tulsa

2010 Record: (3-9, 2-6 in MAC)

Head Coach: Dan Enos (3-9 All-Time)

Last Bowl Game: 2009 Season GMAC Bowl: Beat Troy in OT 44-41

2010 Pre-Season Preview Link

Schedule

9/1: South Carolina State

9/10: at Kentucky

9/17: at Western Michigan (2010 result: won 26-22)

9/24: at Michigan State (2009 result: won 29-27)

10/1: Northern Illinois (2010 result: lost 33-7)

10/8: at North Carolina State

2010 Record: (2-10, 1-7 in MAC)

Head Coach: Jeff Quinn (2-10 at Buffalo, 3-11 All-Time)

Last Bowl Game: 2009 International Bowl: Lost to UConn 38-20

2010 Pre-Season Preview Link

Schedule

9/3: at Pittsburgh

9/10: Stony Brook

9/17: at Ball State (2010 result: lost 20-3)

9/24: UConn (2010 result: lost 45-21)

There won't be any college football games played for quite a while but that doesn't mean we are going to stop talking about the sport we love. Each week during the off-season we will bring you the top stories and we will discuss a variety of topics in our roundtables. We started with the ACC, hit the Big 12 , talked Big Ten football, discussed the Big East, dissected the Pac-12 and contemplated Conference USA.  This week we are going West, the Mountain West, and we are taking a friend with us. Joining us is the kingpin of the Mountain West, Jeremy Mauss. Jeremy runs the SB Nation site Mountain West Connection and you can also find him on SB Nation Denver.   You can follow him on twitter @JeremyMauss or become a fan of the Mountain West Connection on Facebook. Enough with the chit chat, let's talk college football!

Outside of Boise State and TCU, who will be the third best team in the conference?

Jeremy: San Diego State. The Aztecs have a legit shot at winning the league because they host both TCU and Boise State. Plus, they have a great offense with quarterback Ryan Lindley who if he was an a better team would be getting more recognition on the national stage. Plus, they have a stud running back with Ronnie Hillman who had the most rushing yards by a freshman and 10th most in the nation in 2010. They do lose their top three wide outs in Vincent Brown, DeMarco Sampson and Brandon Sullivan. Their top returning receiver is Dominique Sandifer who had 23 receptions and had 263 yards on the year. The Aztecs do return seven of their offensive starters and only lose one offensive lineman, so Lindley will be well protected in the pocket. If the Aztecs can have a wide receiver step up they will be able to challenge both teams.

Which SEC school do you think had the most players drafted this year? Nick Saban's football factory in Alabama had 5 (including a whopping 4 first rounders). That would be a good guess. The defending National Champion Auburn Tigers had 4, including the first overall pick. How bout the Florida Gators? They tied Auburn with 4. Dan Mullen's upstart Mississippi State squad also had 4. Reigning and defending SEC East Champs South Carolina only had two with controversial Weslye Saunders and early-entrant Tori Gurley both going undrafted. If you had your money on the LSU Tigers then you are half-right. The talent-rich Tigers had 6 players drafted this past weekend. Want to guess who tied them for the most in the SEC? That's right, the 6-7 Georgia Bulldogs. It's clear that the talent is still there in Athens, it just needs to be better utilized. Let's take a look at who got drafted, where they got drafted and check in around the net for some opinions...

If you're an Alabama fan, the 2008 Draft probably seems like ages ago.

After a tough debut season for new head coach Nick Saban, the Crimson Tide saw a grand total of zero players drafted in the entirety of the '08 Draft weekend. It was like an insult to the injury that was the Tide's November collapse in the 2007 season, which had even some of diehard faithful wondering if the Saban Era was just a more expensive version of the Shula Era (all-expenses-unpaid trip to the Independence Bowl included). But in between the injury and the insult (and really, the NFL was only telling us something we should have already known: the players stunk), Saban inked his landmark 2008 recruiting class, upon which he'd form the nucleus of teams that would go on to make Crimson Tide history. And they did it again this past Thursday night.

The journey to the 2011/2012 National Championship promises to be a long and treacherous road.  It starts in Arlington and Atlanta in week one of the college football season and then moves on to Tallahassee in week three. Week four will be our most defining look so far at shaping the National Championship Game. We have not one or two but three games that will go a long way to deciding who will play in January for the crown. Looking at Week Three we can't talk about the other two games without first talking about the SEC West. Arkansas travels to Alabama on September 24th in what looks like it could be a match-up of the best two teams in the SEC (sorry LSU fans).

ARKANSAS RAZORBACKS AT ALABAMA CRIMSON TIDE

When: September 24th

Where: Bryant Denny Stadium in Tuscaloosa, Alabama