Who will stay perfect in college football?

ALABAMA, OREGON, Ohio State. It's no great shock that all three are still unbeaten. The same could even apply to Florida State, if you didn't think that trip to Clemson was going to get in the way. But hey, 'Bama could have lost at Texas A&M. OSU could've lost at Northwestern. Oregon could've lost at Washington. OK, maybe not so much.

Then you've got (in poll order) Missouri, Baylor, Miami and Texas Tech, each also and-0. Sometimes you don't know.

Missouri won at Georgia but lost its quarterback and used a freshman to beat Florida at home by 19. Now the Tigers host South Carolina, which saw its QB leave in a loss at Tennessee. This might decide your SEC East. If they get past the Steve Spurriers the only things left between them and 10-0 would be Tennessee at home and at Kentucky.

The only FBS team Baylor has beaten that has a winning record is Buffalo. But the Bears are scoring more than they did with RGIII. They get Kansas this week so that won't change. Then it's Oklahoma at home, Texas Tech in neutral Arlington and Oklahoma State away. That's 20-2. So if they get to 10-0 maybe Texas should just go ahead and hire Art Briles.

Tech's first-year coach is former Red Raider QB Kliff Kingsbury, who got the gig at 34 when Tommy Tuberville, for whatever reason, bolted for Cincinnati after three seasons. Last year he was Johnny Football's offensive coordinator at Texas A&M. The Raiders don't have a marquee win either. Saturday they're at Oklahoma, where they won 2 years ago. That would suffice.

Miami hasn't reached double-digit wins since 2003, when Al Golden was the defensive coordinator at Virginia. In his third year, the guy who transformed Temple has the Hurricanes one Wake Forest home win away from a retro showdown at Florida State. So much for dealing with those nagging NCAA issues. That '03 team beat FSU twice, in Tallahasee in early November and again in the Orange Bowl.

Only twice in the first 15 years of the BCS has more than two teams from one of the six automatic-qualifying conferences finished the regular season unbeaten. And just six times has the title game been a matchup of unbeatens.

Still, for the unusual suspects it at least can make things, well, different for however long they can keep this going.

Michigan's Jeremy Gallon just set a Big Ten record for receiving yards in a game. Who did he surpass? Hint: He did it against the Wolverines, in 1999. See Answer Man.

Louisville and Central Florida both have a loss. UL's best win was against Rutgers (by 14) at home. UCF, which won at Penn State and almost won at South Carolina, just beat Louisville on the road.

Yet UL's ranked 18th in the AP (media) poll, 16th in USA Today (coaches). UCF is 21st and 25th.

* Central Florida's Storm Johnson (10 TDs) leads the nation in scoring at 10.0 points a game.

* In the loss to SMU, Memphis linebacker Ryan Coleman became the fourth player in NCAA history to score twice on fumble returns.

* Urban Meyer has won all of his 19 games at Ohio State. He hasn't played anyone ranked higher than 16th.

* Alabama, which has given up one touchdown in its last five games, has allowed 68 points. Texas A&M scored 42 of them. Now the Tide gets Tennessee, which hasn't got more than 17 against them since since Nick Saban moved to Tuscaloosa.

* Florida State received first-place poll votes (two) for the first time since Sept. 2, 2002. The Seminoles host North Carolina State, which they've lost to two of the past 3 years. But not in Tallahasee.

The Wolfpack coach is Dave Doeren, who was coaching Northern Illinois when it lost to FSU in last January's Orange Bowl, 31-10.

* Baylor's No. 5 ranking in the USA Today (coaches) vote is its highest in any poll since it was third in in AP (media) in 1953. The Bears are No. 6 in AP, the highest they've been since also being sixth on Jan. 1, 1980.

* Akron and second-year coach Terry Bowden just won a road game for the first time since 2008, 24-17 over winless Miami of Ohio. The Zips have won twice (the other by two over FCS James Madison), after going 1-11 the last three seasons.

The ACC's the only conference with three teams in the top 10 of the BCS standings. The last time it had three was Halloween 2005.

Del Val (5-1) hosts King's (3-3) and defensive end Ron Garrett, who's had a TD in five consecutive games (four fumble recoveries, one interception) and is 14th in the MAC in scoring.

Purdue's Chris Daniels, who was catching passes from sophomore Drew Brees.

The Ducks have Marcus Mariota, who might be the Heisman Trophy favorite. But Oregon State has Sean Mannion, a 6-5 junior who could be one of the nation's best-kept secrets. That's what can happen when you play in the wrong time zone and your team isn't ranked.

While Mariota beats you with his arm and legs, Mannion is one-dimensional. But it's quite a dimension. He has thrown for 29 touchdowns and just three interceptions for the 6-1 Beavers, who somehow lost their opener to FCS Eastern Washington on a touchdown in the closing seconds. He leads FBS in passing yardage, with 2,992, completing almost 33 a game.

"It's not an accident," said coach Mike Riley. "He's got the experience and he's got the talent."

Still, those Ducks cast a big-time shadow, not just nationally but within the Beaver state. Just ask Phil Knight.

This week OSU is at No. 6 Stanford (6-1), a team it hasn't beaten since 2009. Last year it lost in Palo Alto, 27-23, on a late TD. Mannion, who missed three games in 2012 because of injury, threw one pass (on their last play). In a 38-13 loss to Andrew Luck in 2011, he threw for 252 and a score.

"We feel good about our team," Mannion said. "From our perspective, we let the play take care of itself. If we continue to play good football only good things are going to happen for us."

Collectively, perhaps even individually.

The Beavers go to Oregon Nov. 29. Maybe the Civil War will mean something to everyone involved other than mere pride. The last time OSU won was 2007. But the Beavers have had a Heisman winner (Terry Baker, 1962), which is something Oregon can't say. At least not yet.