Miami finally meets its fate, Georgia suffers its 2nd loss, BYU hangs on in controversial fashion, Indiana stays perfect, and LSU loses big. These were the highlights from this past weekend in college football.
Here’s the latest 18 Stripes Top 20 Poll:
18 Stripes Top 20 Poll
| RANK | TEAM | RECORD | NEXT |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Oregon | 10-0 | at Wisconsin |
| 2 | Ohio State (+1) | 8-1 | at Northwestern |
| 3 | Texas (+2) | 8-1 | at Arkansas |
| 4 | Indiana (+2) | 10-0 | BYE |
| 5 | BYU (+3) | 9-0 | vs. Kansas |
| 6 | Tennessee (+1) | 8-1 | at Georgia |
| 7 | SMU (+2) | 9-1 | vs. Boston College |
| 8 | Notre Dame (+2) | 8-1 | vs. Virginia |
| 9 | Alabama (+5) | 7-2 | vs. Mercer |
| 10 | Penn State (+1) | 8-1 | at Purdue |
| 11 | Miami (-9) | 9-1 | BYE |
| 12 | Georgia (-8) | 7-2 | vs. Tennessee |
| 13 | Boise State (-1) | 8-1 | at San Jose State |
| 14 | Army (-1) | 9-0 | BYE |
| 15 | Ole Miss (+5) | 8-2 | BYE |
| 16 | Washington State (+1) | 8-1 | at New Mexico |
| 17 | Texas A&M (+1) | 7-2 | vs. New Mexico State |
| 18 | Clemson (+2) | 7-2 | at Pittsburgh |
| 19 | Kansas State (NR) | 7-2 | vs. Arizona State |
| 20 | Colorado (NR) | 7-2 | vs. Utah |
OUT:
#15 Iowa State
#16 LSU
Iowa State lost last week but was still in the Big 12 title game. No longer! The Cyclones finally saw good Kansas show up on Saturday and lost 45-36 in Lawrence. That opens the door to Coach Prime and Colorado who now sit in 2nd place within the conference.
LSU has also now lost 2 straight games following an ugly 42-13 blowout loss to Alabama. The Bayou Bengals will now need a lot of chaos to make the SEC Championship and the playoffs.
First round bye watch (if they win their conferences):
#1 Oregon
#3 Texas
#5 BYU
#7 SMU
Teams east of the Mississippi River weep! Oregon has the easiest remaining regular season among these teams and is pretty much a lock for the playoffs at this point. Although, the Ducks might have the hardest conference championship game opponent if it ends up being a re-match against Ohio State.
In the SEC standings, #1 Tennessee faces #4 Georgia this weekend and #2 Texas A&M faces #3 Texas to finish the regular season. These are some massively big games to come.
National Storylines
California picked up its first ACC win after beating Wake Forest 46-36 in Winston-Salem.
UCLA has picked itself up a little bit and beat Iowa 20-17 at the Rose Bowl. There’s no Big Ten West to save the Hawkeyes this year as they drop their 4th game in 2024.
No. 1 Oregon remains perfect on the season thrashing visiting Maryland 39-18.
Indiana has started 10-0 for the first time ever after a 20-15 victory over Michigan.
Georgia’s offense continues to look highly suspect as Ole Miss hangs on to beat the Dawgs 28-10 in Oxford.
Boise State holds on in the playoff talk with a 28-21 win over Nevada.
Florida got blasted 49-17 at Texas, just a couple days after publicizing the return of head coach Billy Napier for the 2025 season.
Big controversy in the Big 12 as BYU was able to escape the upset over Utah 22-21 thanks to a late decision from the officials.
Penn State took care of Washington easily in a 35-6 win.
Oklahoma is 1-5 in the SEC as 3 touchdown passes from Drew Pyne-led Missouri to a 30-23 win.
A big 2nd half allowed Colorado to beat Texas Tech 41-27 as the tortillas flew on the field.
Tennessee moves to 7-1 in the SEC following a 33-14 win over Mississippi State.
Clemson were shutout in the 1st half then came back to beat Virginia Tech 24-14 in Blacksburg.
Duke is 7-3 after picking up a 29-19 road win at NC State.
A tough loss for the Clark Lea hype as Vanderbilt was beaten soundly 28-7 by South Carolina.
Oklahoma State, Purdue, and Miss State are the only power conference teams without a league win in 2024. The Cowboys lost 38-13 to TCU on Saturday.
Opponent Watch
Texas A&M (7-2): The Aggies were off this week preparing for mighty New Mexico State.
Northern Illinois (5-4): Western Michigan were handed their first loss in the MAC after NIU beat them 42-28.
Purdue (1-8): The Boilermakers were shutout for the 2nd time in 3 games after Ohio State crushed them 45-0.
Miami [OH] (5-4): The Red Hawks are 4-1 in the MAC after a 27-21 win at Ball State.
Louisville (6-3): A weekend of rest for the Cardinals as they travel to Stanford this weekend.
Stanford (2-7): The Cardinal were also on a bye awaiting Louisville on Saturday.
Georgia Tech (6-4): One of the more popular wins of the weekend came in Bobby-Dodd Stadium as Georgia Tech upset previously undefeated Miami by the score of 28-23.
Navy (7-2): The Middies snapped their 2-game losing streak after a 28-7 win at USF.
Florida State (1-9): The Seminoles are dead last among Power teams with 4.29 yards per play on offense. Only Air Force, Kent State, and Kennesaw State are worse overall nationally.
Virginia (5-4): Coming off a 3-game losing streak, Virginia beat Pittsburgh 24-19 in the Steel City. Up next, Notre Dame!
Army (9-0): Bryson Daily returned from injury to run the ball a season-high 36(!) times in Army’s 14-3 win over North Texas.
USC (4-5): The Trojans are coming off a much-needed bye week. They host Nebraska on Saturday and are switching to backup quarterback Jayden Maiava after Miller Moss entered the transfer portal late last week.
“Oklahoma State, Purdue, and Miss State are the only power conference teams without a league win in 2024”
A list made all the more inauspicious by FSU’s absence. What the hell is happening in Stillwater?
Every report I’ve read says Moss was benched before entering the portal. Is that wrong ?
I think the “committee” has a tough job figuring out the seeding with so many teams with one loss and the schedules being so diverse. Some of those teams have little in their way in the next 3 weeks to help in the decision.(Ala. PSU) The word is championship games won’t hurt losing teams. If ND not having to play in one factors (no 1st rd. bye) then I think it should for the losers to some degree. Surely if a team blows out another in the CG it would be a boost for them, then why shouldn’t being blown out affect the loser at least some? Even before that there will surely be clamoring from the SEC to not penalize the losers of Ga.-Tenn. and A&M- Tx. too much.(though GA. needs to win)…Good luck Committee.
It’s my understanding that a loss in the championship game counts, just not more than a loss in the regular season.
I hate everything Coach Prime has done at Colorado. But, he might actually be a good football coach, something I was pretty skeptical of after last year.
CU plays a much easier schedule than it did when it was in a P5 conference, and an FCS team might be their best win, but still, this is only the 2nd 7 win season since Barnett left in 2005. I wonder if he manages back to back winning seasons, and FSU sucks again next year, if he could end up at FSU. What a nightmare that would be.
Prime’s attitude really grate’s on me. I still haven’t bought into the ‘good football coach’. I need at least another year to evaluate. With the number of starters he will lose this year that are key to his teams success, next year will tell a story if he knows how to coach or not. Also his o-line has only been serviceable in their best games and a tire fire in their worst, there has been some steady improvement this year, but I’m not sure if that is coaching or experience as they learn to play with each other.
He has a completely appropriate attitude for the NFL. 100% self concern and promotion with no concern for integrity or the well being of players.
Good to see Drew Pyne have some success. Eli Drinkiwitz was campaigning for all 2 loss SEC teams to make the playoffs. They probably lose their next game to South Carolina, however if they don’t they have a possibility to win out and be 10-2 without going to the SEC championship game.
In the coaches poll IU jumped 4 spots over ND. Not sure how beating a struggling MI team by 5 points can elevate you like that, but oh well, I do think that IU is legitimate this year and probably makes the playoffs, and I personally would have had them ranked ahead of ND since about week 5.
There are to many ranked teams that don’t have wins against other ranked teams. Hopefully the next few weeks sorts the contenders from the pretenders. I am not certain that any SEC team other than the conference champion has a good argument for playoff contention, other than I don’t see a lot of other great options this season. If ND can get Leonard in peak form for the playoffs, I think we have a chance. Much better than 2012 vs the Bama death star.
I was going to ask what if tOSU murders IU ? Looking at their schedule though weak, they’ve beaten most everyone except Mich. badly.
IU has 0 wins over teams that are above .500 against FBS competition. A blowout loss would knock them out for sure