South Florida is No. 6 in the nation. Boston College is No. 7 and Kentucky is No. 8. Yes, I’m talking about college football. And no, this is not a joke.

In a weekend of college football that one ESPN writer deemed “Insanity Saturday,” the No. 3, 4, 5, 7 and 10 teams in the AP poll all lost last Saturday. Nine of the top 25 teams overall lost, leaving fans from around the country with nothing else to do than sift through the aftermath.

It’s an aftermath that has turned the world of college football upside down — a world where South Florida, a team that moved to the Football Championship Subdivision (formerly known as Division I-A) only six years ago, is the sixth-best team in the nation.

It’s a world where Cal, better known for its past ineptitude and wayward tree-huggers, is the No. 3 team in the country and set to face No. 2 USC in a colossal match-up in just over a month.

Don’t forget the likes of Kentucky or Boston College, either. Kentucky, the traditional whipping boy of the SEC, is now 5-0 and riding behind Heisman candidate Andre’ Woodson. As for Boston College, they haven’t been this good since Doug Flutie was throwing Hail Marys and being carried off of the field — which in case you don’t remember, was a long time ago.

It’s a world where Hawaii has the most prolific passer in the nation, and maybe the best chance of any team of going undefeated during the regular season. And let’s not forget about Appalachian State, a Division I-AA school which defeated a Midwest power that shall remain unnamed.

But wait a minute. South Florida. South Florida? Yep, South Florida.

Nothing has been more indicative of this newfound parity in college football than coach Jim Leavitt’s squad. A school once known for — well, nothing — is shaking the very foundations of college football as we know it.

Already winners against then-No. 5 West Virginia and then-No. 17 Auburn earlier in the season, South Florida looks as if it’s in the driver’s seat for the Big East Championship. The team is led by its stifling defense, which shut down West Virginia’s double-threat of quarterback Pat White and Steve Slaton two years in a row.

Let’s just take a step back, though. Forget the talent, the numbers and the match-ups and take a second to internalize this simple fact: South Florida is the sixth-best team in the nation.

Seriously, what the hell is going on?

As an avid fan of the sport myself, I can’t lie: I have no clue what to make of this.

Unlike college basketball, which saw a progressive and noted movement from its mid-major programs over time, this explosion of football nobodies has come out of thin air: there wasn’t a single columnist, writer or purported expert who could have called Appalachian State beating Michigan or South Florida sitting only one spot out of the nation’s top five.

It’s still to be seen how long this apparent shift will last, however; it could be just a week or two before the Floridas, the Michigans and the Oklahomas of the world are back in their rightful positions.

For all we know, South Florida is a good team but will fade down the stretch. Boston College may have a great quarterback but they play in the watered-down ACC and will get beat down once they play real competition. And Kentucky, well, we’ll find out how good they are soon enough: the Wildcats face the brutal gauntlet of No. 11 South Carolina today, No. 2 Lousiana State the week after and No. 9 Florida the one after that.

At this point, it’s impossible to tell how good anyone is. Aside from LSU and USC, any team in the top ten could be a blatant fraud, stealing our collective football attention for brief moments before they are sent back to pigskin purgatory.

However, week in and week out, the games have been exciting, the scores stunning and the predictions useless. While many decry this as a season with simply weaker teams, accounting for the so-called parity, only one thing is certain: this year in college football may be unlike any other.

And if you ask me, I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Jack Salisbury is still trying to figure out who Andre’ Woodson is. If you think the Bulls, Eagles and Wildcats are for real, send him an e-mail at jack24@stanford.edu.