Week 13 was certainly wild.
Four top-15 teams lost on Saturday as the College Football Playoff picture got shaken up considerably. No. 5 Indiana was blown out at No. 2 Ohio State to start the day before a four-way tie atop the Big 12 emerged and the SEC race got whittled to three teams.
Alabama, Ole Miss and Tennessee all found themselves eliminated from SEC title contention. The No. 7 Crimson Tide lost 24-3 at Oklahoma hours after No. 9 Ole Miss lost 24-17 at Florida. Tennessee took care of business against UTEP and still can go 6-2 in the conference, but the tiebreakers are not kind to the Vols.
The chaos in the SEC means that Georgia clinched a spot in the conference title game despite entering the weekend fourth among the conference’s teams in the College Football Playoff rankings. The Bulldogs gave up a lot of rushing yards to UMass in their win on Saturday, but ended their SEC slate a week ago with their 31-17 victory over Tennessee.
Here’s a look at how the conference races stack up heading into the final week of the regular season.
American
This game has been set for two weeks now. Let’s move on.
ACC
The Hurricanes are in with a win at Syracuse after beating Wake Forest 42-14 at home on Saturday. SMU clinched its spot in the ACC title game with a 33-7 win at Virginia as QB Kevin Jennings was 25-of-33 for 323 yards.
Big Ten
The Ducks were off in Week 13 after clinching a spot in the Big Ten title game with their win over Wisconsin in Week 12. Ohio State’s win over Indiana means the Buckeyes are in the title game with a win over Michigan. If Ohio State loses, Penn State is in with a win over Maryland. The Nittany Lions escaped Minnesota with a 26-25 win on Saturday. If both Ohio State and Penn State lose, then Indiana is in the title game with a win over Purdue.
Big 12
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Two of Arizona State, BYU, Iowa State, Colorado, Baylor, Kansas State, and Texas Tech
Here’s where it starts to get messy. We’ll start with the simple scenario. ASU, BYU, ISU and Colorado are all tied atop the conference at 6-2. If there’s a four-way tie at 7-2, the two conference title game participants are Arizona State and Iowa State.
Colorado needs two of the three other teams it’s tied with to lose to get to the title game thanks to losses to both Kansas State and Kansas. ASU and BYU both beat K-State already and Iowa State plays the Wildcats in Week 14. Baylor and Texas Tech need to win in Week 14 and have the four tied teams lose. Kansas State needs to beat Iowa State, have the other three tied teams lose and have Baylor lose to Kansas.
Conference USA
This is pretty straightforward too. Jacksonville State beat Sam Houston to clinch a spot in the title game while the Bearkats are now tied with Liberty after the Flames beat Western Kentucky. Liberty plays Sam Houston in Week 14. If Liberty wins, it’s in. If Sam Houston wins and Western Kentucky wins, the Hilltoppers are in. Sam Houston is in with a victory and a WKU loss.
MAC
All three teams are tied at 6-1 and Miami and Bowling Green play each other on Saturday. The winner is in and plays Ohio if the Bobcats beat Ball State. If Ohio loses to Ball State and Bowling Green beats Miami, we’ll get a rematch between the Falcons and Redhawks a week later thanks to Miami’s win over Ohio earlier in the season.
Mountain West
The Broncos clinched a spot in the title game with a 17-13 escape at Wyoming. Colorado State needs to beat Fresno State late Saturday night and beat Utah State in Week 14 to meet the Broncos. If the Rams finish at 6-1 along with UNLV — assuming the Rebels beat Nevada in Week 14 — then UNLV gets in via its CFP ranking. UNLV was at No. 24 in the most recent set of rankings.
SEC
The race for the SEC title got a lot simpler thanks to the three top-15 losses on Saturday. Alabama and Ole Miss are officially out of SEC title contention now that they have three conference losses and so is Tennessee despite the Vols’ chance to finish the season at 6-2.
Thanks to Texas A&M’s loss to Auburn, the Aggies’ home game vs. Texas is de facto SEC semifinal. The winner will play the Bulldogs.
Sun Belt
The Ragin’ Cajuns clinched the Sun Belt West with a 51-30 win over Troy. Marshall will win the east with a win at James Madison. If Marshall loses and Georgia Southern beats Appalachian State, the Eagles are in the title game thanks to their 24-23 win over Marshall earlier this season.
Here are the rest of this week’s winners and losers.
Winners
Florida: The Gators have not stopped fighting. Florida has a great chance of finishing the regular season 7-5 after its upset of No. 9 Ole Miss on Saturday. The Florida pass rush did a fantastic job against Ole Miss QB Jaxson Dart and had two late interceptions to seal the 24-17 win. Freshman QB DJ Lagway was 10-of-17 passing for 180 yards and two TDs, while RB Montrell Johnson saw significant action for the first time since Oct. 12 and rushed 18 times for 107 yards and a TD.
Kansas: The Jayhawks became the first team with a losing record to score three straight wins over ranked opponents with their 37-21 win against No. 16 Colorado. RB Devin Neal rushed for over 200 yards and four touchdowns as Kansas did not punt a single time.
Kansas punter Damon Greaves’ family made the trip from Australia to Kansas City for the Colorado game.
They didn’t get to see any punts today. https://t.co/uyCijUQEPp
— Max Olson (@max_olson) November 24, 2024
Kansas is now 5-6 and will be bowl eligible with a win over Baylor in the final week of the regular season.
Nebraska: The losing streak is over. Nebraska is going to a bowl game for the first time since 2016. The Huskers took down Wisconsin 44-25 to finally get bowl eligible. Entering Saturday, Nebraska had lost nine straight games after getting its fifth win of the season. Freshman QB Dylan Raiola was 28-of-38 passing for 293 yards and a TD as Nebraska scored 20 straight points over the second and third quarters to break the game open.
Oregon State: The Beavers are Pac-12 champions. Oregon State won the battle for bragging rights in the two-team conference with a 41-38 home win over Washington State. The loss is the second straight for the Cougars after they fell to New Mexico a week ago. Oregon State tied the game at 38-38 with a 16-play, 75-yard drive that ended with a four-yard TD pass from Ben Gulbranson to Darrius Clemons with 2:45 to go. Washington State fumbled on the second play of its next possession and Everett Hayes hit a go-ahead 55-yard field goal with 20 seconds left.
Losers
Rutgers: Greg Schiano is going to be re-living the end of Saturday’s game for a long, long time. As Rutgers led 31-30, Illinois lined up for a 58-yard field goal with 14 seconds to go. The kick missed wide and short, but Schiano had called timeout before the play. Since the kick didn’t come close to going in, Illinois coach Bret Bielema decided to go for it on fourth-and-10. That worked out very well as Luke Altmyer found Pat Bryant over the middle and Bryant raced to the end zone for the go-ahead TD with four seconds to go in the 38-31 Illini win.
Pitt: The Panthers lost their fourth straight game on Saturday and potentially lost QB Eli Holstein for the season in a 37-9 defeat at Louisville. Holstein was carted off the field with his left lower leg in a boot following a sack in the first quarter. The Cardinals led 27-0 at halftime before cruising in the second half. Pitt mustered just 265 yards of offense overall after Holstein had thrown for 51 yards on just five attempts. The Panthers need to win at Boston College in Week 14 to avoid a five-game skid to end the season.
NC State: The Wolfpack were on the verge of getting bowl eligible when Daylan “Hollywood” Smothers rushed 53 yards for a TD with 1:30 to go against Georgia Tech on Thursday. Smothers’ TD gave NC State a 29-23 lead, but Georgia Tech needed just seven plays to go 75 yards for the game-winning score.
QB Aaron Philo rushed 18 yards for a touchdown with 22 seconds left as Aidan Birr’s extra point provided the winning margin in a 30-29 win. The loss dropped NC State to 5-6 overall and 2-5 in the ACC ahead of its rivalry game against North Carolina to end the season.
Kent State: The Golden Flashes seem destined for an 0-12 season. Kent State hosted a 2-8 Akron team on Tuesday night in what looked to be KSU’s best chance for a win in over a year. Instead, Akron easily won 38-17 to extend Kent State’s losing streak. The Golden Flashes haven’t won since beating FCS opponent Central Connecticut State on Sept. 16, 2023. That’s a streak of 20 straight games and you have to go back to the final week of the 2022 season to find Kent State’s last win over an FBS opponent.
