BLOOMINGTON – I guess we should have seen the chaos in college football coming on Saturday after Indiana fans had thought the Hoosiers were about to steal a win against Ohio State in the final minute of a chaotic fourth quarter.
But, did we expect to see this type of madness around a sport that essentially agreed to expand the CFP to 24-teams before the weekend got underway?
Absolutely not.
Maybe it’s fair to say that we have zero clue which teams are actually elite this year, coming off Indiana’s perfect season in 2025.
Or, maybe the actual answer to what occurred on Saturday across the SEC and other conferences is that parity has finally set in to a sport that has seen multiple teams spend over $35 million to piece
On Saturday, we witnessed the No. 1, No. 2, No. 5, No. 6, No. 7, No. 13, No. 16 and No. 18 ranked teams in the AP Top-25 poll go down, with five of the top eight teams losing on the same day for the first time since 1989.
There are also no more unbeaten teams within the SEC, and only one in the Big Ten (UCLA), while the ACC also has just one. The Big 12 currently sits with three unbeaten teams, which Utah capped-off early Sunday morning in its win over Colorado.
In what might have been the game of the day, it was BYU and Notre Dame going to war in Provo to cap off what was a monumental day in the sport, with the Cougars coming out on top in the 28-24 upset.
A Top-10 showdown turned into sixty-minute battle that came down to the final play of the game as CJ Carr’s pass was deflected in the end zone, leading to thousands of fans rushing the field in what was a cinematic ending to this non-conference matchup.
But, it turns out that the college football world would be talking about a game-clock, once again.
COLLEGE FOOTBALL FACES ANOTHER CLOCK CONTROVERSY AFTER BYU UPSETS NO.2 NOTRE DAME
There was plenty of controversy surrounding the final seconds, given the fact there might have actually been one second remaining on the game clock, while there also not a flag thrown for pass interference that sent social media into a frenzy.
Early Sunday morning, the Big 12 released a statement saying that there should have been one second put on the clock, which would have led to Notre Dame being allowed to run one final play from the BYU 8-yard line.
“Following the Big 12’s review of the final play of Saturday’s Notre Dame-BYU game, it was determined that time remained on the clock when the ball hit the ground and the play was incorrectly cleared by the replay officiating crew. The Conference will conduct a complete review of its end-of-game officiating process in advance of next week’s games.”
This came just hours after No. 1 Georgia was upset at home by the Auburn Tigers, which had already set the tone for what was to come throughout this wild day.
And, the way in which No. 3 Miami defeated Florida State will probably haunt Seminole fans for at least the rest of this season.
Yes, there was a wild ending that included FSU completing a Hail-Mary attempt during the second overtime that would’ve given them an opportunity to tie the game on the ensuing conversion attempt.
Unfortunately for Mike Norvell, a holding call materialized, erasing the touchdown pass, forcing the Seminoles to try again.
FLORIDA STATE FALLS AGAIN AS MIAMI SURVIVES OVERTIME SCARE TO REMAIN UNBEATEN IN WILD ENDING
Alabama, Georgia and Texas had not lost on the same weekend since 1996.
Think about that stat for a second, or the fact that the Bulldogs had won 53-straight games against unranked opponents, or that Auburn was the first team not to be ranked that upset a No. 1 squad on the road since 2007.
For all of the chatter that the regular season no longer has the same feeling because of the college football playoff, well that conversation can wait until the CFP expands to 24-teams next season.
If you had been paying attention to what was taking place in Austin, you would have seen that this group of Longhorns were an average SEC team that has a very staunch defense.
The non-stop discussion around Arch Manning has grown stale. His head coach, Steve Sarkisian, for some reason loves to act as though if he should be praised for the job he had done leading up to the Florida loss on Saturday afternoon.
Yes, if you take the last name off his uniform, Manning might be sitting on the bench if he was playing for another school without the legendary last name. And let me be clear, it’s ok to call Arch an average quarterback.
STEVE SARKISIAN’S ‘JOE SMITH’ ARGUMENT FOR ARCH MANNING IS ABSOLUTE NONSENSE FOR AN AVERAGE QB
Sure, a nice chunk of the blame should also go towards the guy who is calling plays on offense: Steve Sarkisian.
Texas would have lost to Ohio State if the Buckeyes did not implode in the fourth quarter, or missed a field goal late in the game. The Longhorns would have lost to Tennessee if the Josh Heupel had a quarterback that could have completed a 20-yard route across the middle.
And now, the Longhorns have lost two-straight games against teams they were ‘supposed’ to beat, with their starting quarterback being a major factor in those losses.
Whether it’s erratic interceptions or fumbles, or overthrowing receivers, things are not clicking for this Texas offense.
Now? Steve Sarkisian is just one-loss away from having his words of making it past the CFP semifinals blow up in his face. Maybe he will actually open the quarterback competition up this week, or we can continue having these conversations about his inept offense.
Well, that was fun while it lasted at No. 1 for Georgia
Over in Athens, the Georgia Bulldogs obviously didn’t get the memo that the SEC is just full of itself this season, and any one of their teams can catch a loss on any given Saturday.
How else are we to describe what the Tigers did for the first time since 2007, in being an unranked team to go on the road and beat the No.1 team in the country?
Two interceptions and one lost fumble for starting quarterback Gunner Stockton was the perfect recipe for Auburn to stroll into Athens and shock the top-ranked team in the country.
Tied 24-24 with :58 seconds remaining in the game, Auburn drove 40-yards thanks in-part to a bad penalty on Georgia, to have Alex McPherson drill a 34-yard field goal to send the Tigers home with the shocking win.
What does this mean for the Bulldogs? I still think they are the best team in the SEC, but obviously that doesn’t mean much at the moment.
Tennessee lights them up again in Knoxville after beating Alabama
Just when I thought Kalen DeBoer had this team in the right frame of mind, the Crimson Tide strolled a whooping on Saturday afternoon against the Vols.
George MacIntyre made his second ever start as the Tennessee quarterback, throwing for 197 yards and 1 interception. But, if you had been paying attention to the Vols, it wasn’t hard to notice that this defensive group is playing out of their minds under defensive coordinator Jim Knowles.
Having laid that part out, this win for the Vols came down to them pushing Alabama around for an entire afternoon, led by running back DeSean Bishop and his 159 yards with two touchdowns.
The scary part is that if Heupel can get just a bit more out of his quarterback, this team could be even more dangerous over the second half of the season.
For Alabama, the supposed wake-up call for the program against Georgia last weekend in the heavyweight fight that resulted in a loss led to another rough night at the office.
Quarterback Keelon Russell was brought back down to reality with his two interceptions, and if they don’t figure it out pretty quickly, they will be eliminated from any CFP conversation over the next few weeks.
As for the rest of this conference…
I can honestly say I did not have Ole Miss holding No. 13 Missouri to just three points on my bingo card for the weekend, but it go ugly in Oxford, with the Rebels now preparing for a trip to offensively-rudderless Texas next weekend.
LSU took care of a Mississippi State team playing without starting quarterback Kamario Taylor and starting running back Fluff Bothwell, giving Tiger fans something else to think about for at least one night after the shocking loss to Kentucky two weeks ago.
No, this does not mean Lane Kiffin has things figured out in Baton Rouge, with a trip to Auburn coming next week.
What we witnessed on Saturday across the country will be hard to replicate over the next two months, but more importantly over the next five years.
Thanks to the money-driven decisions and pariticpaption trophy mindset, the college football playoff will expand to 24-teams next season, which in the minds of most is twelve more than necessary in this current era of the sport.
It’s obvious that college football is thriving, and the fans are reaping the benefits of parity starting to become more of a factor within the NIL-Revenue Sharing era that has encompassed the sport.
Will the optics around the college football regular season change in the future with the additional teams?
Yes.
But, can Saturday’s like the one we just witnessed still hold the same type of meaning moving forward is the bigger question on the minds of many around the country.
That’s what conference commissioners are banking on.