If you were hoping for BYU to lose for general chaos reasons, your wish was granted on Saturday night. The no. 1 team in the land nearly lost in Jump Around land but came back to remain unbeaten. We’ll cover that and more in this week’s recap from week 12.
Here’s the latest 18 Stripes Top 20 Poll:
18 Stripes Top 20 Poll
| RANK | TEAM | RECORD | NEXT |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Oregon | 11-0 | BYE |
| 2 | Ohio State | 9-1 | vs. Indiana |
| 3 | Texas | 9-1 | vs. Kentucky |
| 4 | Indiana | 10-0 | at Ohio State |
| 5 | Georgia (+7) | 8-2 | vs. UMass |
| 6 | Notre Dame (+2) | 9-1 | vs. Army |
| 7 | BYU (-2) | 9-1 | at Arizona State |
| 8 | SMU (-1) | 9-1 | at Virginia |
| 9 | Alabama | 8-2 | at Oklahoma |
| 10 | Penn State | 9-1 | at Minnesota |
| 11 | Miami | 9-1 | vs. Wake Forest |
| 12 | Tennessee (-6) | 8-2 | vs. UTEP |
| 13 | Boise State | 9-1 | at Wyoming |
| 14 | Army | 9-0 | vs. Notre Dame |
| 15 | Ole Miss | 8-2 | at Florida |
| 16 | Texas A&M (+1) | 8-2 | at Auburn |
| 17 | Clemson (+1) | 8-2 | vs. Citadel |
| 18 | Colorado (+2) | 8-2 | at Kansas |
| 19 | Arizona State (NR) | 8-2 | vs. BYU |
| 20 | Tulane (NR) | 9-2 | BYE |
OUT:
#16 Washington State
#19 Kansas State
Late Saturday night while the country wasn’t watching Washington State blew a 2-touchdown lead and lost an ugly one to New Mexico 38-35 in Albuquerque. The Cougars’ super slim playoff chances are now gone completely without a conference championship game to prop them up in a few weeks.
I’m glad I included the Kansas State game in last week’s picks as they were ultimately upset by Arizona State. It’s been a super weird year for the Wildcats. They have wins over currently ranked Tulane and Colorado, but lost comfortably to BYU and have now dropped 2 straight games to Houston and the Sun Devils.
For their part, ASU has been a fun story in 2024. They face BYU this weekend and the winner would be favored to make the Big 12 Championship Game. Yes, Arizona State in the playoffs is a discussion we can have now.
First round bye watch (if they win their conferences):
#1 Oregon
#3 Texas
#6 BYU
#7 SMU
BYU only dropped 2 spots in our rankings this week because we had SMU ranked much higher than other places–and the Cougars have a win over the Ponies this season. The playoff committee and AP had SMU ranked only 14th last week. A case could be made that we have overvalued the Mustangs. Their lone ranked win (Louisville) will be gone from the committee this week and their other quality win (Pittsburgh) just got further devalued, as well.
Most of this stuff really doesn’t matter when it comes down to whether these teams are going to win their conference championship games or not anyway.
National Storylines
Colorado State and Jay Norvell continue to DGT™ as the Rams moved to 5-0 in the Mountain West after a 24-10 win over Wyoming. Notably, CSU does not play Boise State in the regular season so a potential league championship showdown could have playoff implications nationally.
Oregon needed 10 points in the 4th quarter to come back and beat Wisconsin by the thin margin of 16-13. Survive and advance.
Purdue remains winless in the Big Ten. The Boilers were dismantled 49-10 by Penn State.
Ohio State breezed past Northwestern 31-7 inside Wrigley Field.
SMU wasn’t able to put away Boston College until late. The Mustangs ended up winning 38-28 and are still perfect in ACC play.
Georgia controlled things from the 2nd quarter onward and held serve on their home field with a 31-17 win over Tennessee.
Texas was in a fight late but ended up beating Arkansas 20-10 in Fayetteville.
LSU has lost 3 straight games! The Tigers went into the Swamp and came out on the losing end of a 27-16 defeat to Florida.
Boise State trailed 14-0 early against San Jose State then came back to win easily 42-21.
South Carolina stunned Missouri late and won 34-30 in a wild game.
The first loss finally came for BYU as Kansas upset the Big 12 leaders 17-13 in Provo.
Pre-season ranked Utah has fallen to 1-6 in the Big 12 following a 49-24 loss to Colorado.
A late touchdown run by Cade Klubnik allowed Clemson to hold off Pittsburgh 24-20.
Opponent Watch
Texas A&M (8-2): A late season scrimmage for the Aggies who beat New Mexico State 38-3 in College Station.
Northern Illinois (6-4): They won’t win the MAC but NIU beat Akron 29-16 to move a couple games over .500 this year.
Purdue (1-9): There was decent promise for this team during the pre-season! What a nightmare 2024…
Miami [OH] (6-4): Chuck Martin has his team sitting atop the MAC and they beat Kent State 34-7 this past weekend. Up next, they will face Northern Illinois.
Louisville (6-4): This is the worst ‘good’ team in America. How do you lose (38-35) to Stanford!?
Stanford (3-7): This was the Cardinal’s first power conference win since week 3.
Georgia Tech (6-4): The Bees enjoyed a bye week.
Navy (7-3): If a loss to Rice didn’t send off alarm bells a 35-0 defeat to Tulane might get the job done.
Florida State (1-9): You can’t lose if you don’t play–the Seminoles had the week off.
Virginia (5-5): I can’t believe this team beat Pittsburgh a couple weeks ago, but that’s college football for you.
Army (9-0): They are rested but are they ready for Notre Dame’s blue-gray uniforms?
USC (5-5): This team is fighting for a bowl appearance (and maybe Lincoln Riley’s job)! They held off Nebraska 28-20 in the Coliseum.
The comprehensiveness of the Ole Miss win over Georgia would keep them down the rankings a little bit for me. Georgia was minus two in TOs which helps write a poor performance off as an off week, but Georgia lost every quarter of that game, including the first quarter when they scored their only TD on a 21 yard drive after intercepting Dart’s first pass of the game.
I’d have them slotted in #9 and move everyone else up one. Both Alabama’s losses have been one score games on the road and they have the head to head over Georgia.