College football report card: Visit to Jackson State shows what ESPN's College GameDay should be

The last week of October is the time of the year where the contenders in college football start to emerge from the pack and the pretenders are sent to put on their clown suits for Halloween for making people believe they were legitimate threats to win the title.

The College Football Report Card is here to point out the week’s best plays and the questionable decisions that get the most hardened fan bases up in arms. 

Last week, Iowa was shamed so bad multiple columns were written about it (including this one), with the Hawkeyes earning failing grades all around.

Remember, the same thing goes for grading as last season. High marks will be only for the spectacular, and failing grades have no chance of being reversed.

Without further ado, here is the Week 9 analysis of how fans, teams, players and coaches fared before things get interesting next week with the release of the first College Football Playoff rankings:

College GameDay in Jackson

After almost three decades on the air, ESPN’s "College GameDay" is a nothing more than an acquired taste. Either you like the program and see it for what it’s worth, or you think the entire shtick is corny and it’s three hours of wasted broadcasting. Whatever your feelings about it are, when ESPN does it right, it makes for good television.

Let’s be real, the only reason GameDay showed up in Jackson, Mississippi, is Deion Sanders. If the same Jackson State team had the same record with a different coach, that GameDay bus is parking elsewhere.

The Jackson State Tigers are whipping their competition at an historic rate and there is no reason to be believe they can’t keep it going, as evidenced by their 35-0 thrashing of Southern on Saturday.

Sanders has revitalized the talk around HBCUs and put a spotlight on good football that most of the country is not paying attention to. Sanders, who highlighted the water crisis in Jackson, has made Jackson State a major player for top recruits. He's a candidate for other Power Five jobs at schools looking for an infusion of energy.

GameDay should really take half its shows and visit lower division schools, whether they are good or not. If unique traditions and pageantry is what college football is supposed to be about, and if that is what GameDay claims to encompass, then make it happen. People are going to watch big games whether networks' pre-game broadcasts show up in town or not.

Jackson State prime: A+

Demon Deacon meltdown

Wake Forest has played football for 115 years. Most of it has been plagued by pathetic showings on the field. The program has only two seasons of 10 wins or more and two appearances in the AP Poll as a top-10 team.

Last year's team achieved the feat and promptly lost a high-scoring affair to North Carolina. The second top-10 ranking came this week when the Demon Deacons were again ranked 10th heading into their road contest with Louisville.

Wake was actually winning 14-13 at halftime. Apparently, the team that entered the locker room stayed there because the team that came out for the second half had no interest in holding on to the ball.

Check out this comedy of errors by the Deacons starting in the third quarter: Interception, fumble, fumble, interception, fumble, punt, interception, fumble, interception.

You won't beat an elementary school team turning it over like that.

That's right for you math whizzes out there. A total of eight turnovers in one half, including two pick-sixes.

The Cardinals won this laugher 48-21.

Christmas in October: F

Tossed from the bench

Usually when a player gets ejected from a football game, it's for something egregious, like targeting.

Since chances are Akron backup quarterback Jeff Undercuffler Jr. wasn't going to play in the Zips' game against Miami (Ohio), he decided to get his two cents in to the officials late in fourth quarter with his team well on its way to defeat.

Undercuffler seemed confused by the ejection, but replays made it clear he threw a few choice "F" bombs toward the officials, getting an early shower and a failing grade here.

For the F bomb: F

Stats for you:

1 – Win in 11 tries against top-five opponents that James Franklin has in his Penn State tenure.

3 – Games this season where a touchdown was not scored. It was a field goal and two-point conversion battle in Charlottesville, as Miami squeaked past Virginia 14-12.

10 – False start penalties for Virginia Tech in a road contest against NC State. Overall, the Hokies were flagged 13 times in the 22-21 loss.

48 - Point margin defeat of Oklahoma State by Kansas State. It's the Cowboys' worst loss in the Mike Gundy era.

Best and worst of the week:

Pac-12 refs: Definition of incompetence

Spotting ball not required: F

Fog bowl comes to Ypsilanti, Michigan

You can't see me: A

Textbook trickeration from Oklahoma

Kicker love: Immediate graduation

Penn State's Sean Clifford seeing ghosts in the name of J.T. Tuimoloau.

One man wrecking crew: A++.

Your weekly Brock Bowers highlight

Tip drill: A

Hail Mary ... almost.

One yard short: Incomplete

The Dog of the Week: New Mexico State at Massachusetts

Give it up for Ripken the bat dog, who usually works his magic for the Durham Bulls, Triple-A affiliate of the Tampa Bay Rays. On Thursday, the good boy worked the NC State-Virginia Tech game, and no doubt got the rest of the pups to hide their eyes for this week's pick for dog of the week.

Now to the game:

Coming into this contest, the teams had a combined record of 3-11, the Minutemen’s lone victory a 20-3 triumph over Stony Brook. If two teams were going to go out of their way to schedule each other and travel thousands of miles to do so, at least get compensated for it. Neither team received a penny for their efforts, but for the roughly 9,200 spectators in attendance, they saw New Mexico State come away with the 23-13 victory to spoil the UMass homecoming.

Follow Scooby Axson on Twitter @scoobaxson. 

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: College football Week 9: College GameDay with Deion Sanders was great