Notre Dame took care of business this past weekend with a smackdown inside Acrisure Stadium (among the top 5 worst named stadiums in North American sports no doubt) against Pittsburgh. That was the most important part of week 12. Across the rest of the country, things didn’t quite break in Notre Dame’s favor. Even with several close calls, many teams escaped a loss and a couple teams we wanted to win ended up getting beaten. There’s still plenty of football remaining, though!
Here’s the latest poll from 18 Stripes:
18 Stripes Top 20 Poll
| RANK | TEAM | RECORD | NEXT |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Indiana (+1) | 11-0 | BYE |
| 2 | Ohio State (+1) | 10-0 | vs. Rutgers |
| 3 | Texas A&M (-2) | 10-0 | vs. Samford |
| 4 | Georgia (+1) | 9-1 | vs. Charlotte |
| 5 | Oregon (+1) | 9-1 | vs. USC |
| 6 | Ole Miss (+1) | 10-1 | BYE |
| 7 | Texas Tech (+1) | 10-1 | BYE |
| 8 | Oklahoma (+3) | 8-2 | vs. Missouri |
| 9 | Notre Dame | 8-2 | vs. Syracuse |
| 10 | Alabama (-6) | 8-2 | vs. Eastern Illinois |
| 11 | BYU (+2) | 9-1 | at Cincinnati |
| 12 | Georgia Tech | 9-1 | vs. Pittsburgh |
| 13 | Vanderbilt (+1) | 8-2 | vs. Kentucky |
| 14 | Utah (+1) | 8-2 | vs. Kansas State |
| 15 | Miami (+1) | 8-2 | at Virginia Tech |
| 16 | USC (+1) | 8-2 | at Oregon |
| 17 | Virginia (+1) | 9-2 | BYE |
| 18 | James Madison (+2) | 9-1 | vs. Washington State |
| 19 | Texas (-9) | 7-3 | vs. Arkansas |
| 20 | Michigan (NR) | 8-2 | at Maryland |
Dropped Out:
#19 Louisville
In a game that featured a combined 3 conversions on 3rd down, Louisville missed a pair of field goal attempts late in the 4th quarter to fall 20-19 to visiting Clemson. With their looming finale at Kentucky and only 1 more ACC game on tap (SMU) that’s the end of the playoff chase for the Cardinals who fall to 4-3 in league play.
Top Games Recap:
Neither Indiana (31-7 over Wisconsin) or Ohio State (48-10 over UCLA) struggled much this past weekend. The same cannot be said for Texas A&M who tailed 30-3 at halftime against South Carolina. The poor Gamecocks tease us once again only to be outscored 28-0 in the second half for 31-30 victory in favor of the Aggies. I’ve since moved A&M out of our no. 1 spot for their first half negligence.
Alabama outgained Oklahoma by nearly 200 yards and lost at home 23-21. That’s a big old oof. The repercussions are massive…for now. Today, the Sooners jump up in the rankings ahead of the Tide while the Sooners (6th!) and Tide (4th) aren’t near the SEC Championship Game within the current league standings. These conferences are just too damn big.
Gunner Stockton (is he going to get a Heisman invite?) outplayed Arch Manning as a big 4th quarter led the Georgia Bulldogs over Texas 35-10. I’m pretty sure the Horns are eliminated from the SEC Championship but they have A&M in the finale to play a spoiler role. Still, A&M gets in with 1-loss but would need some help from other teams.
Ole Miss had a fight on their hands but came out on top over Florida 34-24 in Oxford. Did Kiffin decide he likes the orange and blue for his future though?
Georgia Tech was trailing Boston College by double digits in the 2nd half, although they did battle back with a late field goal to pull things out 36-34 on the road.
The weird outcome where Duke makes the ACC Championship Game looks to be over as the Blue Devils fall 34-17 to visiting Virginia. The Hoos are still hanging around…
Interesting Games to Note:
Michigan 24-22 Northwestern: We were so close to a hilarious loss here, but a game-winning field goal as time expired for Michigan allows them escape in Evanston. I also hate having to rank this Wolverines team now.
Arizona 30-24 Cincinnati: That’s back-to-back losses for the Bearcats.
Western Michigan 17-13 Ohio: The Broncos now lead the MAC following this Tuesday victory. Lance Taylor DGT™?
N. Illinois 45-3 UMass: Now sitting at 0-10, the Minutemen are -271 in point differential this year.
Kansas State 14-6 Oklahoma State: That’s 16 straight conference losses for the Cowboys.
UConn 26-16 Air Force: Huskies quarterback Joe Fagano threw his first interception of the season but UConn moves to 8-3.
LSU 23-22 Arkansas: A special hell of a season continues for the Hogs, their 6th loss of the season by one score or less.
Texas State 41-14 Southern Miss: I say nice things about USM one time and they get trashed the following game!
Opponent Recap:
Miami (8-2): The Canes blasted NC State 41-7 to keep their slim ACC Championship hopes alive.
Texas A&M (10-0): The Aggies are oh so close to locking up a SEC Championship Game appearance, it would be the school’s first.
Purdue (2-9): Blown out again, this time to Washington in Seattle 49-13.
Arkansas (2-8): They cannot catch a break.
Boise State (6-4): After a 17-7 loss to San Diego State, the Broncos are no longer in the driver’s seat for a Mountain West title.
NC State (5-5): The Wolfpack said no thank you to being over .500 this season.
USC (8-2): The Trojans rallied from down 21-7 to come back and beat Iowa 26-21 with a 2nd half shutout.
Boston College (1-10): This would’ve been one of Boston College’s biggest wins in recent memory if they could’ve held on against the Bees.
Navy (8-2): The Middies remain atop the AAC with a huge 41-38 win over South Florida.
Pittsburgh (7-3): Still all to play for in the ACC, right Nard Dog?
Syracuse (3-7): The Orange have been resting for their trip to South Bend this weekend.
Stanford (3-7): Another Irish opponent on a late bye this past weekend.
You found an off-season article. Worst & Best named stadia (both current and all-time) – curious where Pengrowth Saddledome lands.
Potentially number 1 on both the best and worst lists.
The longer I look at it the stinkier our schedule looks. I know the USC win is on there, but oof we have beaten up on a range of bad teams. We will probably have wins against only 4 bowl eligible teams this year (pending NCST)
It seems it’s going to get harder to schedule quality opponents late in the year.
Honestly – who cares? Front load the schedule (conclusively, early losses are better than late losses), continue eatin’ on ACC in the middle of the year and have a few stinkers at the end to heal up and get healthy heading into playoffs.
It remains to be seen if we, and the people that matter, care a whole bunch whether we had a better win than any of our last 5 games. Things can still get dicey, It’s inarguable that a win vs. the likes of USC or a good Stanford team last game, would be a boost in the rankings.
Next year’s schedule at best, is no murderer’s row and probably weaker. As it stands right now it’s Miami and maybe SC (most likely early).
It’s like they said in SEC shorts: “Schedule two hard games year, lose two hard games a year, make the playoffs anyway. Guy’s a genius.”
Our schedule isn’t stinky, our wins are. Our schedule has #3, #15, #17, #22 (until tonight). Anyone who loses to the 2 best teams on their schedule would have a similar looking resume. tOSU, Ole Miss, and Oregon all have 1 ranked win, with Texas and Iowa looking worse than ours after this week.
If we had beat aTm and lost to NC St instead, we would have a top 5 win (probably), then a few top 30ish. We’d look a lot like OU, which the committee thinks we do right now anyway.
The good news regarding the remaining schedules. While Pitt, USC, and Navy could easily lose more games. There aren’t many teams behind us that have much opportunity to jump us (I’m already assuming OU will be ahead of us after tonight and Texas drops out of reach).
BYU/Utah have no more ranked opponents. Vandy plays Tennessee (who would end up a 4 loss team if Vandy wins).
ACC is such a mess who knows what will happen. I wouldn’t be shocked if they somehow screw us by getting 2 mediocre teams into the playoffs due to weirdness.