If it wasn't for the Big Ten, where would the SEC be this week?

Consider that two Purdue castoffs at quarterback are likely starting for Florida and LSU. Austin Appleby is replacing the injured Luke Del Rio with the Gators. Danny Etling continues to make his case with the quarterback-challenged Tigers.

Laugh all you want at what seem to be these random occurrences. While the Big Ten hasn't exactly become a feeder for the SEC, it has become the best conference.

This week. Right now. No kidding.

Look around the college football landscape. Three Big Ten teams reside in the top 10 of this week's AP Top 25. Two -- No. 2 Ohio State and No. 4 Michigan -- are in the top four.

So if the College Football Playoff started today ...

Too soon? Perhaps, but the Large 14 has started 4-0 against ranked teams and is 8-3 against the Power Five and Notre Dame. Only the SEC (4-2) is also above .500 vs ranked teams.

Surely you've noticed ...

Eight of the Big Ten's 14 teams are undefeated. Only the SEC is close with six unbeaten.

Nebraska finally won a big one knocking Oregon out of the top 25. That hadn't been done in consecutive seasons to the Ducks since 2009.

Michigan State scored 36 straight at Notre Dame after falling behind 7-0. That's the most consecutive points scored against the Irish at home in nine years.

Ohio State dealt Bob Stoops only his ninth home loss in 18 seasons at Oklahoma.

If putting coaches on the hot seat counts, Wisconsin sort of kicked things off for Les Miles on opening day against LSU.

The league's four new coaches have started a combined 8-3.

Let's just say the Conference You Love To Dis has come a long way in the last 20 months. Shortly before Ohio State wrapped up the national championship in Urban Meyer's third season (2014), Michigan hired Jim Harbaugh.

The look, feel and future of the Big Ten changed right then and there. If nothing else, it then had two rock-star coaches -- one with an itchier Twitter finger (Harbaugh) than the other, but we digress. Not only were Harbaugh and Meyer competing with each other, the rest of the conference was trying to catch up with them.

Don't forget Mark Dantonio beat both last year en route to a third Big Ten title in five years. After the Notre Dame win, it doesn't look like the Spartans are going to give up the title easily.

Iowa stepped up financially with coach Kirk Ferentz who seemingly can lose to North Dakota State a few more times and still be safe. Ferentz has an extension now out through 2026.

Nothing else was working for Illinois, why not hire a former NFL coach (Lovie Smith) and pay him $21 million over six years?

You can't judge a conference without scraping the bottom. The bottom of the Big Ten isn't ... terrible. Only the state of Illinois (both Northwestern and Illinois) is under .500.

The SEC will kick and scream at this assertion. The league has seven ranked in the top 20 itself. But remember, we're only talking about in the moment. The Big Ten's body of work is superior even if it is only Week 4. In this age of the 140-character reaction, nothing is forever. Much will be revealed as conference play unwinds.

Wisconsin will fall out of it or not with consecutive games against Michigan State, Michigan, Ohio State, Iowa and Nebraska.

Michigan doesn't go on the road for the first time until Oct 8 (at Rutgers).

Nebraska has a chance to start 7-0 before an Oct. 29 trip to Wisconsin.

Ohio State has won by more combined points (133) than all by 14 have scored.

As for Appleby and Etling, well, they just didn't make it at Purdue. But it's a good thing for the SEC they transferred. Etling was 2-10 as a starter for the Boilermakers but seems to be the guy to replace Brandon Harris.

Appleby? Someone must be concerned about him. A Tennessee fan started a GoFundMe page for the quarterback's impending "funeral."

Credit the all-powerful Big Ten, cradle of backup quarterbacks?

More, please, of Action Jackson: Bobby Petrino revealed to CBS Sports this week a surprising nugget regarding his superstar quarterback. Petrino offered Lamar Jackson having not seen the Boynton Beach (Fla.) play in person."That's been one of my golden rules," Petrino said, "Don't take anybody unless you see them throw in person. You don't really know until you see the ball come out of his hand."

Petrino admitted to being a bit bowled over by Jackson as a person, that the athletic ability was almost secondary.

"The first time I watched video of him, I thought, 'Man what an athlete. So quick, just great feet,'" the coach said. "I got to talk to him. I really liked his personality because he never saw anything negative. To be that positive an outlook, I was really happy about.

"Then he wanted to commit and I've never taken a quarterback I didn't see throw the ball in person before. We went ahead and took that commitment."

The results have been amazing. Jackson would be the overwhelming winner of the September Heisman (if there were such a thing). As a freshman, Jackson set Louisville's career record for quarterback rushing. This season, he is No. 2 nationally overall in rushing (next to San Diego State tailback Donnel Pumphrey).

"The running style, I don't know if there is anybody you can compare it you," Petrino said. "There have been comparisons to Michael [Vick]. The way the ball comes out of his hands, the way it snaps out of his hands reminds me of Jake Plummer."

Petrino was Arizona State's quarterbacks coach in 1992 when Plummer came through the program. Plummer eventually played 10 years in the NFL.

"He's so far ahead as far as his knowledge of offense and defense and drops and timing," Petrino added. "Last year we played him because he had such great athletic ability. He didn't know a whole lot of the offense. We'd have a couple of formation packages for him ... He's developing now into a real quarterback."

What happens when this kid really matures?

Big 12 piling on: If you're a senior at Texas Tech, you've seen Kliff Kingsbury's amazing offense score an amazing 208 touchdowns in his 41 career games. That's an average of 5.07 touchdowns and 39 points per game. Logic would dictate the Red Raiders could -- at worst -- outscore most teams. Not even close.

On defense, Texas Tech has given up an equal amount of touchdowns in that span -- 208, the most by a Power Five team since 2013.

Kingsbury is 21-20 in those 41 games at the beginning of his head coaching career. That stat begins to explain the Big 12's current downturn. The league has a whole has had to outscore folks to win. When it doesn't, embarrassing things happen.

Since 2013, the Big 12 has finished no worse than second nationally in scoring. This season it leads everyone by far averaging 39 points per game. But the Big 12 is down, probably out of the playoff in September. We all know that.

The bottom has fallen out, defensively, in a defensively challenged league. It wasn't too long ago Baylor had a top 25 defense. TCU usually fields top 10 defenses under Gary Patterson. In the Horned Frogs last 16 games, they've given up more than 28 points per game. The last three quality teams Oklahoma has played (Clemson, Houston, Ohio State) have exposed the Sooners' defensively. It is 93rd currently in scoring defense.

The current situation, though, has to be worse than 2014. On Pick 'Em Day that year, both TCU and Baylor were left out of the first College Football Playoff. Combined record, 22-2. As of now, the Big 12 has 10 more weeks to suffer the virtual certainty of not having its name called on this year's Pick 'Em Day, Dec. 4.

Not all bad at UCLA: Adrian Klemm has been shamed. He admits -- as does the NCAA -- the UCLA assistant arranged for two recruits to train in Arizona at a facility operated by a former NFL player.

But why couldn't the NCAA include in its report that, according to a source, Klemm reported the violation to coach Jim Mora?

The violations were Level II, not major. The case was dealt with through summary disposition meaning no one disputes the findings. So why not preserve a guy's reputation by at least including in the findings he turned himself in?