The first weekend of College Football in October completely changed the outlook of the rankings and what the playoffs will be like according to the current situation, as only ten teams in the nation remain undefeated: Three in the SEC (Auburn, Ole Miss, Mississippi State), two in the ACC (Florida State, Georgia Tech), two in the Big 12 (Baylor, TCU), one in the Pac-12 (Arizona), Notre Dame among the Independents and Marshall from Conference USA.
So who lost and is no longer with 0 in the loss column? Almost everyone. This was the first time since 1990 that four out of the top 6 in the AP Poll lost on the same weekend. It was the first time ever that five teams out of the top 8 lost on the same weekend. All the ranked Pac-12 teams lost and by the time the next rankings come out, it’ll be the first time ever that both Mississippi programs are in the top 10; not just at the same time, but in the same year.
Thursday marked the first “victim” as Arizona came to Eugene and beat Oregon 31-24. It might have been with some bad officiating, but it didn’t matter. The Wildcats will be ranked next time they play, and are the only perfect team in the Pac-12, while the Ducks once again find a way to lose a game against an inferior team.
Friday took care of the second undefeated team, this time BYU. The Cougars had a pretty easy schedule going for them, but lost at home 35-20 to Utah State. A lot of it had to do with their best player, quarterback Taysom Hill, breaking his left leg in the first half which means he’s out for the season. So much for running all over their remaining schedule.
And then came the big Saturday, with five undefeated teams losing that big 0. Mississippi State, ranked 12, hosted Texas A&M, number 6, in a big SEC showdown. The end result? Not just the Bulldogs winning 48-31, but Dak Prescott possibly jumping to the pole position in the Heisman trophy rankings.
A huge upset in the form of #25 TCU beating Oklahoma 37-33, as they held the #4 Sooners to just two points in the fourth quarter, intercepting Trevor Knight on the final play as the Oklahoma quarterback was attempting a hail mary pass to save the day. TCU are still undefeated.
Ole Miss beat Alabama for the first time in over a decade, coming away with the 23-17 victory against the #3 team in the nation. The Rebels shut down Alabama in the fourth quarter, outscoring them 13-0 and getting a big interception off of Blake Sims in the final quarter.
Next? Nebraska fell against Michigan State, which isn’t much of an upset. The Spartans won 27-22 at home. They were the #10 team going into the contest while Nebraska, now at 5-1, where the #19 ranked team due to the rivals they faced previously, meaning it’s not much of a surprise to see them lose there.
The final blow to the undefeated ranks came very late, as Utah stunned UCLA with a 30-28 win, winning on a field goal with 34 seconds to go. Brett Hundley threw a pick-six to start the game and UCLA struggled slowing down the Utes running game, meaning they’re behind Arizona in the Pac-12 South.
As for the remaining undefeated teams that we haven’t mentioned: Auburn walked all over LSU, Florida State had an easy, quiet week for once, Georgia Tech beat Miami, Baylor were the next team to embarrass Texas in Austin, Notre Dame handed Stanford their second loss of the season thanks to a late touchdown and Marshall, unranked, improved to 5-0 with a 56-14 win over Old Dominion.