Nights like Saturday night make writing about college football that much more fun.
Ohio State's convincing win over Michigan State was good enough to vault the Buckeyes to no. 7 in the Coaches Poll and no. 8 in the Associated Press. We will see on Tuesday how well the playoff committee rankings travel with the consensus of the Associated Press and the coaches sports information directors.
While Ohio State fans fretted over the game at night with Michigan State, there were still plenty of other big storylines emerging across the college football landscape. This feature will talk about the week that was in college football.
We will start in the SEC, where much of the college football national priority rests
Alabama Survives; Auburn Gets Loss No. 2
There were two major games played in the SEC on Saturday, both involving the two Iron Bowl rivals. The fortunes of both diverged as Alabama left Baton Rouge overtime winners while Auburn lost at home to Texas A&M.
I had held that Auburn was probably the best team in the SEC. Its one loss on the season to date was at Mississippi State, during which I thought it was obvious that Auburn was the best team on the field and it would've been obvious on a neutral field free of cowbells. That prior belief needs revisiting as Auburn looked all-time clumsy, and, appropriately, fumbling the game away to the Aggies.
Alabama survived a conference road game. I would be contradicting myself if I did not give credit to Alabama for that since that is the toughest game to play, all things equal. While Alabama got a win on the record books, I don't think anyone truly won that game, and certainly not the people who felt compelled to watch it.
To recap: a T.J. Yeldon fumble with less than 1:30 remaining in a tie game gave LSU the ball on Alabama's goal line. Alabama, pros that they are, successfully goaded LSU into an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty that shifted LSU's decision-making from scoring a touchdown to burning Alabama's three remaining timeouts. LSU settled for a field goal with 50 seconds remaining.
LSU kicked the ball out of bounds in an ill-timed and poorly executed decision. Alabama drove 55 yards on nine plays to kick a game-tying field goal to send the game into overtime. There was just no way LSU would win from there.
These are the major taking-away points from the week's action in the SEC.
There are two playoff-caliber teams left in the SEC. By the end of the season, there will be no more than one. Mississippi State plays at Alabama next. It finishes at Ole Miss. I think Mississippi State loses both, eliminating it from the playoff.
Alabama, the first among the remaining SEC contenders to lose this season, is the odds-on favorite to win the SEC. I mentioned several weeks ago that no team was in a better position to secure a place in the playoff than Alabama. Now, that may include winning the SEC as well.
If you would like the SEC to place no more than one team in the playoff, or preferably none at all, this would be your rooting interests going forward. This assumes Alabama is going to smash Mississippi State on Saturday, which I think of as a fait accompli.
Root for Auburn to figure out its stupid secondary and fumbling problems, but after the game against Georgia. Assuming Alabama wins the SEC West, you should want the Crimson Tide to play the only legitimately good team in the SEC East (Georgia). Georgia still needs Missouri to lose one more game, but I think that happens on Saturday at Texas A&M or the next week at Tennessee.
Hope Ole Miss rounds back to form, starting in two weeks against Arkansas. With Auburn now having a second loss on its record, you no longer have to root for Bert at Arkansas.
Pray for Auburn to round back to form at Tuscaloosa in the Iron Bowl. Alternatively, hope for the SEC East representative (hopefully Georgia) to win the SEC East.
Should this come to fruition, everyone in the SEC should have at least two losses come December.
Big Wins in the Big XII
Baylor scored the marquee win it had been wanting for over twenty years in routing Oklahoma in Norman. This win is significant for multiple reasons. It's Baylor's first win in Norman since it joined the Big XII in 1996 and its first win over a ranked opponent on the road since 1991 (a 9-5 win at no. 24 Arkansas).
While the loss is now the third for the Sooners on the season and may, oddly enough, bring down the quality of Baylor's resume for it, it's still that elusive road win over a ranked opponent Baylor fans had been wanting for the past few years. It'll be the first thing cited on Baylor's resume should Baylor sneak into the final field of four.
Meanwhile, Texas Christian eliminated Kansas State from playoff consideration with a convincing 41-20 win in Fort Worth.
It's conceivable both teams will end the season winning out. Texas Christian finishes at Kansas, at Texas, and against Iowa State at home. The game against Texas could be a trap game. Baylor finishes with a home game against Oklahoma State, a game against Texas Tech in Jerry World, and a home game against Kansas State.
Is it possible that, for all the talk of the SEC having three in the field of four in the first playoff rankings, that it's the Big XII that could be sending more than one team to the playoff?
I would think the answer is dismissive of this possibility. There could, alternatively, be a scenario in which the playoff committee punishes Baylor for its non-conference schedule and rewards Texas Christian for at least having the 30-7 win over Minnesota on its record.
That furious fourth-quarter rally in Waco between TCU and Baylor looms large in the shadow of this conversation.
Forks Up; Notre Dame Down
I've mentioned elsewhere, repeatedly, that Arizona State is in as good a position as anyone to shoehorn itself into the playoff. It showed that in spades with a mauling of Notre Dame in Tempe.
Notre Dame started the scoring with a field goal midway through the first quarter. Arizona State responded by scoring the game's next 34 points, which included a 59-yard pick six. Everett Golson would throw a 58-yard pick six later in the fourth quarter. Golson finished 22/41 for 446 yards, two touchdowns, and four interceptions.
Down 34-3 late in the second quarter, Notre Dame scored its first touchdown with 11 seconds remaining before halftime. Its defense rose to the occasion in the second half and allowed its offense to score 28 unanswered points. Arizona State clung to a 34-31 lead with six minutes remaining in the game.
The Sun Devils' offense marched 75 yards on five plays and two minutes and eight seconds to make it a ten-point lead. It followed with two more touchdowns to secure a 24-point win.
Arizona State's path to the playoff is a turbulent one. It would need to win out, including a win at Arizona (against whom Todd Graham is yet to lose). It would also require beating Oregon in the Pac-12 Championship Game. Oregon just secured that spot on Saturday night with a win at Utah.
However, should it do that, I think Arizona State's resume is set, even if explanations for getting cratered by UCLA late in September are a bit misleading.
Elsewhere in College Football
Utah could've gone up 14-0 on Oregon at home, but Utah wide receiver Kaelin Clay had to Desean Jackson himself. It's any wonder this still happens especially after high-profile incidents involving Desean Jackson.
In possibly the craziest story of the weekend, Florida backup defensive tackle Leon Orr quit the team and got on a bus heading home from Nashville after learning he wouldn't start at Vanderbilt.
Texas got its first win over a ranked team this season.
Psst, hey. Duke is 8-1 this season.
