SEC ROOTING GUIDE

In which we tell you which teams you should root against in the upcoming week.

Sometimes chaos arrives loud and visible, stands in the middle of the room and forces everyone to stare. Apparently, that’s so last year. Because the first week of college football featured nothing like 2014, when Virginia Tech upset Ohio State and had everyone yelling about the demise of the Big Ten.

Sometimes it simmers, developing in the shadows before bursting into a flood plane of upside down without notice. Perhaps that’s how college football will be this year.

There aren’t many opportunities for a top team from another power conference to fall in Week 2. SEC fans hoping their team gets into the College Football Playoff — and that other contenders fade — may have to wait until later in the year this time to dance on some proverbial football graves.

Then again, perhaps we’ve got it all wrong and teams like Utah State, Virginia and BYU can pull off some upsets this weekend.

Here are the Week 2 teams that SEC fans should root against.

Utah State at Utah (9 p.m. ET, Friday): It seems like Chuckie Keeton has been at Utah State forever. This time last year, he suffered a season-ending injury soon after Tennessee crushed him in the season opener. He’s probably a better quarterback than Utah’s Travis Wilson. But the Utes are stronger along the line of scrimmage and are feeling confident after beating Michigan in Jim Harbaugh’s Wolverines debut. The Pac-12 South is supposed to be loaded, but last year Utah hung around until late in the year, and already Arizona State looks like a dud. So the SEC would like to see Arizona, UCLA and USC as the lone threats from that division by getting the formalities out of the way with Utah.

Notre Dame at Virginia (3:30 p.m. ET, Saturday): For the second consecutive week, a majority of the nation is pinning its hopes on a team from Virginia. This time, it’s the Cavaliers. Notre Dame looked very impressive in Week 1, sending Texas back to the Longhorn state with a 38-3 shellacking. It looks like the Fighting Irish may have kept the right quarterback, as Malik Zaire completed 19-of-22 passes. But hey, maybe Notre Dame at home won’t be as hard as facing a stout UCLA team on the road, which is what the Cavs did Week 1.

Oregon at Michigan State (8 p.m. ET, Saturday): Easily the best non-SEC game of the week — and maybe the best non-conference game of the year — the Ducks and Spartans stare each other down in East Lansing. Last year, a visiting Michigan State led in the second half, but Oregon stormed back, won and eventually made it to the College Football Playoff championship game. This year, the Spartans hold the more high-profile quarterback. Yes, they share a conference with unanimous No. 1 Ohio State. But as far as the SEC is concerned, Michigan State probably is more likely than Oregon to challenge for a playoff spot in 2015. Plus, if the Spartans lose, then the SEC still can root for them to take out Ohio State, and maybe the Big Ten would be eliminated altogether. That probably won’t happen without help from another conference, because let’s face it, there aren’t any more great teams in the B1G beyond those two.

Boise State at BYU (10:15 p.m. ET, Saturday): The Broncos make this list for the second consecutive week. Already ranked in the Top 25, this is one of two road games that Boise State faces the rest of the year that could really push the team. The Broncos also travel to Virginia on Sept. 25. And this matchup comes one week after BYU lost quarterback Taysom Hill to injury for a second consecutive season. But it’s also one week after Boise State beat Washington — coached, of course, by Chris Petersen, who left the program for “greener pastures” in the Pac-12. So perhaps this is a letdown spot for the team with the blue turf. If Boise State rolls through September unbeaten, there will be a lot of small-school cries to let them into the playoff discussion later in the year.