A triple crown is a rare thing in the sports world, so this college football column will honor the recent feat by the Detroit Tigers' Miguel Cabrera – who led the American League in batting average (.330), home runs (44) and RBIs (139) when the season ended Wednesday – as he became the first big-leaguer to accomplish it since Carl Yastrzemski in 1967.

Instead of stats, though, my college football triple crown will consist of the three biggest impressions left on me at the halfway point of the regular season.

1. The Big Ten is down this year. It seems the days of bullying all the other, smaller conferences is over. On more than one occasion already this season, Big Ten teams have found themselves in dogfights with – and even ended up losing to – teams from the MAC, the WAC, the Mountain West, and even a few FCS schools.