Another weekend of college football is in full swing. This story will update as more results roll in, but here are some of the most notable winners and losers so far:
Texas A&M (winner)
It’s easy to be cynical about the Aggies. Their supporters shovel millions of dollars into the program — for facilities, for players, for massive coaching buyouts — and yet the return on investment never seems to match the commitment from a school that fancies itself a national power but last won a league title in 1998 and a national title in 1939.
So when reports emerged Saturday morning that Coach Mike Elko agreed to a six-year extension and the No. 3 Aggies followed up by spotting unranked South Carolina a 27-point halftime lead, well, it felt like exactly the kind of thing that always happens to Texas A&M.
Prosperity beckons, and then somehow eludes the Aggies. Same as it ever was.
Except Texas A&M (10-0, 7-0 SEC) methodically reeled in the Gamecocks, rallying for a 31-30 victory that should all but lock up a playoff berth. (Technically, simply not losing to 1-10 Samford at home next week will do that. If the Aggies get to 11-1 with a loss to Texas, they’ll get into the playoff. Ditto if they’re 12-1 with an SEC title game defeat.)
Whether it’s wise to be handing out ginormous contract extensions to coaches when they’ve proved costly in the past (see: Fisher, Jimbo) is a debate for another day. For now, Texas A&M clearly has no complaints about Elko, who is 18-5 after helping to engineer the biggest comeback in program history.
What is most impressive about Saturday’s rally was that it was all about dominance and not about luck. Texas A&M went at least 70 yards on all four of its second-half touchdown drives. It didn’t score any points off turnovers (the Gamecocks got 17 points off three Aggies giveaways before the break).
It just played well in the second half, much as it did against Florida, against LSU, against others. And as a result, it’s on the cusp of playing meaningful December (and possibly January) football for the first time in decades. Even a cynic can acknowledge that.
Notre Dame (winner)
It’s probably time to accept the Fighting Irish are headed to the playoff again next month.
A 37-15 romp at No. 22 Pittsburgh on Saturday was the last major obstacle between No. 9 Notre Dame (8-2) and an at-large postseason berth. The Irish closes the season against a pair of 3-7 teams, Syracuse and Stanford.
And in the wake of the playoff committee slotting Notre Dame at No. 9 even without much punch on its résumé beyond a home defeat of Southern California, the Irish could be well positioned to land a first-round home game next month.
Pitt (7-3) was the last imposing matchup on the Irish’s regular season schedule, but back-to-back plays from scrimmage in the middle of the first quarter effectively gave Notre Dame control. Jeremiyah Love rushed 56 yards for a touchdown to give the Irish an immensely effective one-play drive, and Tae Johnson returned an interception 49 yards for a score on Pitt’s next play to make it 14-0.
Michigan (winner, barely)
The Wolverines’ playoff hopes survived a trip to Wrigley Field when Dominic Zvada kicked a 31-yard field goal as time expired to secure a 24-22 victory over Northwestern on Saturday.
It had been a mess of a fourth quarter for Michigan before its final drive, which spanned the last 2:10. The No. 18 Wolverines (8-2, 6-1 Big Ten) produced a pair of Bryce Underwood interceptions and then a fumble on fourth down before finally finding a way to scrape past Northwestern (5-5, 3-4).
It was Michigan’s fourth consecutive victory since an Oct. 11 loss at Southern California left it with little margin for error in the second half of the regular season. A pathway of winning out until hosting undefeated Ohio State is nearly clear; only next week’s trip to Maryland, a notoriously poor team at home in November for the past decade and a half, remains before the Buckeyes arrive for the annual regular season finale.
The Wolverines didn’t have their most compelling showing against Northwestern, almost spoiling their postseason chances at either a conference or national level. Sometimes, though, the what matters a lot more than the how. Michigan’s task is to get to 10-2, somehow or another, and it made progress toward that aim Saturday.
South Carolina (loser)
The Gamecocks’ 31-30 loss to Texas A&M sealed a losing record in about the most disappointing fashion possible — a high bar in a season that unraveled long ago.
South Carolina (3-7, 1-7 SEC), which dropped its fifth in a row, built a 30-3 lead on the undefeated Aggies. Finally, the potential that led to the Gamecocks briefly cracking the top 10 of the national rankings in September was evident.
Instead, they were outgained 371-76 in the second half while giving up touchdowns on four consecutive possessions after the break to sputter to a one-point loss and lock in a disappointing season.
Oregon (winner)
Don’t make this any more complicated than it needs to be. The Ducks’ job at this point is to make it to the end of the regular season without a second loss, preferably by winning in as convincing a fashion as possible.
Oregon checked both boxes in clobbering Minnesota, 42-13, on Friday night, a thrashing that saw the Ducks outgain the Golden Gophers 510-200 and quarterback Dante Moore author a crisp 27-for-30, 306-yard, two-touchdown passing night.
Now 9-1 overall and 6-1 in conference, the Ducks remain behind undefeated Ohio State and Indiana in the Big Ten standings, and last month’s loss to Indiana means their path to a conference title game requires some help. But Oregon still has Southern Cal coming to Eugene next week before closing at Washington, so it still has work to do as well.
Nonetheless, the bigger prize is getting to the playoff and either landing a top-four seed or a home game in the first round. If the Ducks can win the next two weeks — and they probably will if they play like they did against Minnesota (6-4, 4-3) — they’ll end up with one of those two postseason scenarios.
Louisville (loser)
The Cardinals (7-3, 4-3 ACC) are going to look back at this season as a massive missed opportunity, a fate cemented with Friday’s 20-19 loss to Clemson that effectively finished off their hopes of reaching the conference title game.
No. 20 Louisville missed an extra point in the first half and two field goals in the fourth quarter, but there was more to the loss than a shoddy kicking game. The Cardinals had seven penalties for 70 yards in the fourth quarter, a disciplinary implosion that sabotaged their hopes down the stretch.
That game was at home, and so were overtime defeats against Virginia and California earlier in the season. Those three losses were decided by a combined seven points, and in a year when no one in the ACC is all that imposing, Louisville really isn’t that far away from being in control of the regular season race heading into next week’s trip to SMU.
Instead, Louisville can still wind up with a decent record, but it has a trip to a second-tier bowl around the holidays in its future.
Navy (winner)
As scrambled as the American’s standings look now, the Midshipmen’s 41-38 victory over South Florida on Saturday ensures they’ll have a chance to reach the conference title game entering their last league game.
Navy (8-2, 6-1) is one of four teams in the American that entered the weekend with just one league loss. And because it has an open date followed by a Thanksgiving trip to Memphis, it has the luxury of allowing the other contenders to take blemishes next weekend and clear up its own position.
The Mids never trailed the No. 24 Bulls (7-3, 4-2) on Saturday, but they created just enough separation thanks to Braxton Woodson’s 64-yard touchdown run with 3:59 to go. Though South Florida scored on its next possession, Navy recovered the onside kick and was able to almost entirely run out the clock.
Cincinnati (loser)
The Bearcats’ backloaded Big 12 schedule was always going to render a verdict on the conference title hopes of what was one of the country’s most improved teams through October.
Only two of the four games were ultimately needed.
Cincinnati opened November by getting pummeled, 45-14, at Utah, a damaging though understandable defeat. A 30-24 loss at home to a good Arizona team Saturday offered up an even better barometer of where the No. 25 Bearcats (7-3, 5-2) sit deep into Coach Scott Satterfield’s third season.
They’re legitimately better, having progressed from 3-9 to 5-7 to bowl eligibility. But after getting bottled up for most of the middle two quarters by the Wildcats (7-3, 4-3), their Big 12 championship hopes are fading fast — and might be done for good when Brigham Young comes to Cincinnati next week.
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