Oct. 5, 2024 was a day to remember in college football.
On a day that featured only one matchup between teams ranked in the AP Top 25, five of the nation’s top 11 teams suffered losses with four of those defeats coming to unranked opponents.
The chaos started at the top as No. 1-ranked Alabama, fresh off of a 41-34 win over Georgia last week, suffered a 40-35 loss to Vanderbilt.
No. 4 Tennessee also fell to an unranked foe, dropping a 19-14 result at Arkansas.
Ninth-ranked Missouri got blown out in the day’s only ranked vs. ranked game, suffering a 41-10 loss to Texas A&M – which was the last team included in last week’s AP poll at No. 25.
Michigan, which had climbed its way back up to No. 10 in the AP poll despite its Week 2 loss to Texas, suffered its second loss of the year as it fell 27-17 to Washington in a rematch of last year’s national championship game.
Rounding out the day of upsets, No. 11 USC suffered its second loss – just two weeks after losing to Michigan – as it fell 24-17 at Minnesota.
The day nearly ended with a sixth upset as California held a 35-10 lead over No. 8 Miami. The unranked Golden Bears were unable to finish the job, however, as the Hurricanes scored 29 points in the game’s final 18 minutes and two seconds for a 39-38 comeback win.
Nevertheless, it was the first time in nearly eight years that four top-11 teams in the AP poll lost to unranked opponents in the same day. The last time that occurred was on Nov. 12, 2016 – the only time five top-11 teams lost to unranked foes on the same day – when No. 2 Clemson lost to Pittsburgh, No. 3 Michigan lost to Iowa, No. 4 Washington lost to USC, No. 8 Auburn lost to Georgia and No. 10 Texas A&M lost to Ole Miss.
