Week 7 provided carnage with half of the top 10 losing games, including our beloved and bewildering Fighting Irish. It was a tough week for a lot of programs with many looking to regroup as we inch closer to Halloween and the last month of the regular season. For their part, Notre Dame will be on a much needed introspective bye week.

18 Stripes Top 20 Ranking

Dropped Out:

#13 Mississippi State
#20 Missouri 

Clanga was forced to play against LSU without Super Kamario and things came crashing back down to earth in a 31-0 loss. Missouri looked like it was coming on strong the last couple weeks but were soundly rocked by Ole Miss, losing 31-3. A couple of SEC teams drop out of our weekly ranking.

National Stories:

#1 It Just Means More

We’ll start in Athens where turnover prone Georgia had a huge letdown game hosting Auburn. Should we have seen this struggle coming? The Tigers won it 27-24 with a game-winning field goal at the end. I dropped the Dawgs way further than most would expect (their best win against Alabama now looks worse and losing to an unranked team at home is never great!) although they only moved from no. 1 to no. 5 in the most recent AP Poll. I’m not sure how we should view Auburn (they’re now up to no. 28th in the AP after receiving votes this week).

#2 Back-to-Back L’s

Alabama damn near went two DECADES without losing back-to-back regular season games. That is until this past weekend when the Tide dropped their third straight visit to Tennessee by the tune of 26-10. It’s a pretty egregious loss in all aspects for DeBoer & Company who only totaled 201 yards. Yikes.

#3 Sark, You Good?

I really thought Texas would bounce back this week, I really did! Alarm bells are ringing as their offensive struggled once again (only 13 first downs) as previously reeling Florida goes into Austin and wins 27-24. That was with Florida playing their backup quarterback, too. Now there’s talk about benching Arch Manning. Things are not going well for the Horns.

#4 But At What Cost?

The good news for Ohio State is that they snapped Indiana’s long winning streak and did it on the road at Bloomington where the Hoosiers hadn’t lost in freaking forever. It’s still early days, but this win could go a long way to Ohio State securing an appearance in the Big Ten Championship, as well. But, quarterback Julian Sayin left the game with an injured arm, will not be back for several weeks per head coach Ryan Day, and hoo boy their backup did not look remotely ready to move this offense down the field in any capacity.

#5 A New No. 1

Notre Dame’s future opponent Miami ascends to no. 1 in the rankings but just barely! The Canes were in an hours-long tussle with rivals Florida State that went to double overtime. Miami got the win 43-35 after being down 21-7 in the 3rd quarter.

#6 A Suspicious Eye

The advanced stats have liked Utah well enough but they are the most suspicious undefeated power team remaining in the country. They don’t really have a quality win yet and just struggled to beat Colorado (27-24) in Boulder this past weekend. They’ll face Houston next in one of the better games of the weekend and then host BYU on November 7th for more challenges.

#7 Big Ten Competitor 

How sure are we that UCLA won’t be in the B1G Championship Game? They just keep winning! This week the Bruins hosted Wisconsin and completely shut down their offense, limiting the Badgers to 214 yards in a 17-7 victory. UCLA finishes the season with Michigan State, Nevada, Illinois, and USC at home plus road games to Minnesota and Michigan.

Opponent Recap:

Wisconsin (4-2): That offensive rebuild for the Badgers took a big hit this weekend and now they have USC and Iowa coming up.

Rice (1-6): The Owls are dead last in the American conference and lost to Tulsa 38-17 on Saturday.

Michigan State (2-4): Five straight losses for Sparty after dropping a tough one 24-21 to visiting Northwestern. That’s 19 losses in Michigan State’s last 22 Big Ten games, by the way.

Purdue (3-4): The Boilermakers finally had some momentum as a program, and it’s gone. Washington traveled across the country and beat Purdue by 12 points.

North Carolina (4-2): A rivalry game was on tap for the Tar Heels and they held off Duke 24-20 in Durham.

Stanford (3-4): Scheduling Elon mid-season is a decision, at least it brought a win 34-7.

BYU (6-0): Notre Dame’s ‘weak’ schedule now features the nation’s top two teams.

Navy (2-4): The Middies have played 4 road games this season and lost them all. This time out they fell 38-34 at UTSA.

Miami (6-0): The last time the Hurricanes were no. 1 during the regular season? Way back on December 8, 2002!

Boston College (3-3): The Nard Dog wanted Pitt to be ranked after beating Virginia Tech. They’ve since lost their last 2 games including this road game at Boston College 27-21.

SMU (5-1): A solid defensive performance for SMU saw them beat visiting Virginia 23-13.

Syracuse (2-4): The Orange remain the only team in the ACC without a league victory in 2026. They lost 34-26 to visiting Louisville.