Rutgers led No. 1 Ohio State at halftime. Missouri led No. 2 Georgia in the third quarter and trailed by only three in the fourth. Pitt was driving to take the lead over No. 4 Florida State in the third quarter. Kansas State had chances to go ahead of No. 7 Texas with both a PAT and field goal in the closing minutes. Texas A&M had a field goal try to force overtime on No. 10 Ole Miss.
Throughout Saturday, college football's moorings seemed wobbly, as if the season had the potential to go off the rails. But as has been the case for most of the season, the favorites rallied. Ohio State, Georgia and Florida State all went on late runs. K-State botched both kicks and lost in overtime. Texas A&M had its field goal partially blocked.
We got Bedlam, though. For the second straight week, Oklahoma suffered a last-minute heartbreaker -- we chaos-seekers thank the Sooners for their service -- and this one's going to rankle for a while. Oklahoma State scored a win in the final scheduled rivalry game between the schools, scoring 10 points in one minute in the fourth quarter, forcing a late turnover on downs and perhaps getting some assistance from a let-'em-play style of officiating. The Sooners are out of the national title race, and on the off chance that two-loss LSU could have surged into the mix late, those dreams were dashed, too, with a 42-28 loss to Alabama.
A lot of teams' dreams live on after a wild Week 10, but some were ruined. Here are some of the most noteworthy dreams, alive or dead, from the weekend.
Jump to a section:
Where does Oklahoma stand?
Texas? | Alabama?
SEC chaos? | Washington, Oregon?
Iowa? | Air Force?
New Mexico State, Texas State?
What CFP should look like
Heisman of week | Top games
Dreams dashed: Oklahoma
The last three times Oklahoma began the season outside the top 15 in the preseason polls, the Sooners did big things. In 2015, they began 19th but won the Big 12, charged to 11-1 and made the College Football Playoff. In 2013, they began 16th and finished by walloping Alabama in the Sugar Bowl and finishing sixth. And in 2000, they began 19th and won the national title.
OU fans, then, have not only defiant pride and a huge chip on their collective shoulders; they also have proof that huge, unexpected runs are possible. The Sooners are almost certainly going to finish with a better 2023 campaign than a lot of people expected after last season's 6-7 stumble -- per SP+, they still have a 52% chance of finishing 10-2 and a 12% chance of winning the Big 12. But after a 7-0 start and a win over Texas, the thought of 10-2 and a merely very good season feels like a letdown.
And then there's the added context of losing the last scheduled Bedlam game. The rivalry officially goes on pause with the all-time scoreboard still heavily Sooner-skewed (91-20-7), but until these teams meet again, Oklahoma State will have won the last game in the series. Whether they want to admit it or not -- and certain famous Sooners were going out of their way to prove just how much this game didn't mean to them -- that's going to stick in craws for quite a while, even while Oklahoma is cashing SEC checks and hosting Georgia and Bama and whatnot.
OSU's 27-24 win Saturday afternoon wasn't the wildest Bedlam that ever Bedlam'd, but the plot twists were frequent.
The fired-up Cowboys took an early 17-7 lead in front of a charged crowd, but despite a missed field goal and an interception, OU seized control of the game, scoring twice, picking off a pass, stuffing a pair of fourth-and-1 rush attempts and taking a 21-17 lead into the final quarter. Ollie Gordon's second touchdown of the day gave the lead back to OSU, and the Pokes had extended it to 27-21 when a controversial pass interference no-call forced the Sooners to settle for a field goal on their next drive. Their last drive of the day ended with a pass to Drake Stoops coming up 2 yards short on fourth down, and OSU kneeled out a historic win.
Dreams alive: Texas
For a while there, Kansas State was known as a Texas killer. The Wildcats won nine of their first 13 meetings with Texas as Big 12-mates, including a five-game winning streak stretching from 2006 to 2012. But following a 24-21 win for Bill Snyder's Wildcats against Charlie Strong's Longhorns in 2016, Texas turned the tables. While almost every game between the two has been close of late, the Horns had won six in a row heading into Saturday's encounter, the last between the two in the Big 12. Somehow, they made it seven straight.
This game turned on a dime. Texas dominated the first 40 or so minutes, with backup quarterback Maalik Murphy, in for the injured Quinn Ewers, looking infinitely more comfortable in his second start than he had a week earlier. Bert Auburn's 49-yard field goal gave the Horns a 27-7 lead with 4:13 left in the third quarter. But K-State tied it in just nine plays, thanks to three Will Howard touchdown passes and two Texas turnovers. But the Wildcats botched the center-holder exchange on the last PAT, so it was 27-27 instead of 28-27.
After the Longhorns gathered themselves with a field goal, K-State's Chris Tennant missed a 27-yarder. He nailed a 45-yarder at the buzzer to force overtime because college kickers are never allowed to make sense, but after Auburn's fourth field goal of the day made it 33-30 Texas in OT, KSU's Chris Klieman elected to go for the win on fourth-and-goal from the Texas 4 instead of a field goal try to tie it. Howard was pressured, and his desperation pass fell incomplete. Texas' national title hopes live on.
A week ago, with five teams tied atop the standings at 4-1, SP+ gave Oklahoma a 41% chance of winning the Big 12, followed by Texas at 24%, K-State at 19%, Oklahoma State at 10% and Iowa State at 4%.
After the chaotic wins by OSU and Texas, those teams find themselves ahead of the pack at 5-1 with five more schools chasing at 4-2. Predictably, the odds have flipped. SP+ now gives Texas a 53% title chance, followed by OSU at 16% and the 4-2 crowd following: K-State is at 14%, OU 12%, Kansas 3%, West Virginia 2% and Iowa State 1%. We were potentially one K-State kick away from even wilder odds than that.
Dreams alive: Alabama
Georgia does still loom. It's worth reminding ourselves of that.
While Alabama's 42-28 win over LSU on Saturday gave the Tide a 98% chance of winning the SEC West, per SP+, Georgia's corresponding 30-21 win over Missouri gave the Dawgs a 95% chance of taking the East. That puts the odds of a third Bama-Georgia SEC championship game in six years -- and a fifth postseason meeting between the two powers in seven years -- at somewhere around 93%. To reach the College Football Playoff for a record eighth time in 10 years, Alabama would have to win that game, and SP+ gives that only about a 38% chance of happening.
Still, 38% is about 38% higher than where it felt the Tide were in September. After an error-prone 38-28 home loss to Texas, Nick Saban benched quarterback Jalen Milroe in favor of two different backups (Tyler Buchner and Ty Simpson) against South Florida, and with help from a shockingly porous offensive line, they proceeded to produce one of the most awful quarterback performances Bama has seen in ages. They went a combined 10-for-23 passing for 107 yards and took five sacks. Including sacks as pass attempts, they gained 75 yards in 28 attempts against what is currently the second-worst defense in FBS, per SP+.
It became crystal clear that while Milroe might be a work in progress, his legs and a very pretty deep ball were the best thing Saban and offensive coordinator Tommy Rees had to build around in 2023. So that's what they did. And after underachieving against SP+ projections by an average of 11.4 points per game in the first three contests, they've met projections since. They're back up to 12th in offensive SP+, and Milroe looked like nothing short of a Heisman contender against LSU. (I'm not saying he is a contender; I'm just saying he looked like one.) He threw for 219 yards, distributing the ball to eight different receivers, and not including a pair of sacks, he rushed 18 times for 167 yards and four touchdowns. LSU's defense is drastically far short of, say, Georgia's, but Milroe continues to improve, and so does Alabama's offense. Are the Tide playing at a genuine national title level? Not yet, but ... ask me again in a month, and I might have a different answer.
Dreams dashed: Those of us who longed for SEC chaos
In Friday's preview, I noted that for the SEC's big Week 10 doubleheader (Missouri at Georgia and LSU at Alabama), SP+ projected a 50% chance of chalk, a 43% chance of an upset and a 7% chance of a double upset that would completely overturn the SEC race. For the chaos lovers among us (a club I definitely belong to), it was impossible not to be seduced by the idea of the upsets. Upsets are fun in general, plus they would have given significant weight to the next big pair of SEC games in Week 11: Tennessee at new East leader Missouri and new West co-leader Ole Miss at Georgia.
(Plus, as a Columbia, Missouri, resident, the distinct possibility of "College GameDay" coming back to town for the first time in 13 years was a tantalizing thought.)
We got chalk, of course. We usually do. But kudos to both Missouri and LSU -- well, LSU's offense, at least -- for giving us a pair of aesthetically pleasing fights and a taste of possibility. Neither set of Tigers shrank from the moment; they just didn't quite have enough to get the job done. Ill-timed penalties, minor injuries (Luther Burden III's ankle for Missouri, Jayden Daniels' head for LSU) and third downs all doomed the underdogs. Alabama went 11-for-14 on third downs on offense and won 70% of the game's third downs overall, and while Georgia won 61% of the game's third downs, that percentage was 80% when the ball was in either team's red zone.
Regardless, Missouri should avoid too much of a drop in the CFP rankings after a solid showing, and the Tigers still have quite a bit to play for over the final three games. With wins in their final three games -- Tennessee, Florida, at Arkansas -- they would finish 10-2 and potentially have a shot at their first New Year's Six bowl bid. But while Eliah Drinkwitz is 3-3 against Arkansas and Florida thus far at Mizzou, he's 0-3 against Tennessee with losses by an average score of 54-20. We'll see if the Vols still have the Tigers' number Saturday afternoon.
Dreams alive: Washington and Oregon (and the Pac-12)
Four weeks ago, the Pac-12 boasted the No. 7, No. 8, No. 10, No. 15, No. 16, No. 18 and No. 19 teams in the AP poll. (In SP+, those same teams were ranked fifth, sixth, ninth, 16th, 19th, 25th and 27th. Legit quality here.) For all of its obvious depth, it was fair to wonder if the gauntlet that awaited these teams was going to result in all of them having at least a couple of blemishes and missing the CFP.
Said gauntlet has indeed taken quite a few teams down due to that whole "someone has to lose every game" thing. Washington State has collapsed, losing five in a row, and at this point we're down to only two teams with fewer than two losses: 8-1 Oregon and 9-0 Washington. Washington survived a 52-42 track meet at USC, while Oregon showed Cal no mercy in a 63-19 win. The Ducks have looked spectacular of late -- they're up to fourth in SP+, barely behind Ohio State -- but they still have to survive their own USC track meet (the Trojans visit this Saturday) and a bitter Week 13 battle with rival Oregon State.
Meanwhile, Washington's reward for wins over Oregon and USC is a Week 11 rock fight with Utah, a trip to Oregon State and a battle with its own bitter rival, Washington State, over the next three weeks. (I'm betting the Cougars will rediscover their A-game for that one.) And then, of course, if all hurdles are cleared, Oregon and Washington will meet again in the Pac-12 championship game.
The Pac-12 has been both awesome and an awesome provider of entertainment value this year. It deserves to have a team in the CFP, but it still has time to sabotage itself. Washington and Oregon both have quite a bit of work left.
Dreams alive: Iowa
Look, I'm not any happier about it than you are, but someone's going to have to win the Big Ten West. It's in the bylaws, and it appears Big Ten commissioner Tony Petitti has his hands full with other matters and probably isn't going to do the common-sense thing and ditch divisions tomorrow instead of waiting until next season.
After a ridiculously topsy-turvy Saturday in the division, it's Iowa's title to lose. Nebraska and a banged-up Wisconsin were each favored to win on the road and move to 4-2 in conference play, but instead they handed Michigan State and Indiana their respective first Big Ten wins of the season. Minnesota could have taken advantage but fell 27-26 to Illinois via a last-minute heave by the Fighting Illini's backup quarterback. Iowa could have done the hilarious thing and lost to Northwestern, thereby creating a five-way tie at 3-3, but we should know by now the Hawkeyes always do the antisocial thing instead.
In a game that played out exactly as one would have predicted -- 339 total yards, 144 total passing yards, 17 total points, 14 punts on 20 possessions (the only surprise: zero safeties) -- Iowa set up its only touchdown of the game with a blocked punt, and Drew Stevens nailed a 52-yard field goal with 14 seconds left to beat the Wildcats 10-7. To add to the morbid humor of the situation, the game was held at Wrigley Field ... which hosted six Cubs games with more than 17 runs this past season.
Current West title odds, per SP+: Iowa 67%, Wisconsin 12%, Nebraska 12%, Minnesota 8%, Illinois 2%, Northwestern 0.1%
Iowa currently ranks 121st in scoring offense and has a two-in-three chance of playing in Indianapolis. Long live the Big Ten West.
Dreams (mostly) dashed: Air Force
Air Force had begun to wobble a bit. The Falcons were 8-0 heading into Saturday's rivalry game with Army in Denver, but they had slightly underachieved against SP+ projections for three straight games, two of which were played with quarterback Zac Larrier battling through a knee injury. On Saturday, they underachieved by 42 points.
Army essentially landed the knockout punch two minutes in. Quarterback Bryson Daily raced 62 yards down the left sideline just four plays into the game to give the Black Knights a 7-0 lead, then Army stuffed Air Force on a fourth-and-1 and made it 10-0 just four minutes in. Larrier fumbled, and Army ground out 43 yards in 11 plays to score again. Another Air Force fumble, another Army field goal. The Falcons had snapped the ball just 10 times and trailed by 20. That was the final margin in a 23-3 defeat. Air Force outgained the Knights but fumbled five times, lost four and threw two picks to boot.
Air Force was already in a precarious position in the race to land the Group of 5's New Year's Six bowl bid. With a very poor strength of schedule -- the same thing that will continue to hold unbeaten Liberty back -- the Falcons were ranked behind one-loss Tulane in the first CFP rankings last week. Now, knocked from the unbeatens list, they're going to need a lot of help to get there, even though SP+ still gives them a 54% chance of winning the Mountain West. Granted, Tulane thought long and hard about losing to 1-6 East Carolina on Saturday, so there could be a few plot twists to come. But Air Force wasn't even atop the pack when it was unbeaten. On Saturday, the Falcons were soundly beaten, by both Army and themselves.
Dreams alive: New Mexico State and Texas State
We're almost to "People complaining that there are too damn many bowls" season. Like clockwork, folks from TV to Twitter will tell you that bowls used to mean something! But now they're like participation trophies! They will rage against bonus football that no one is making them watch.
Ignore them. Because if they ever got their way and the roster of bowls was cut down, some of the best stories of a given season would get cut too.
With a gutty 13-7 home win over Middle Tennessee on Saturday, New Mexico State moved to an incredible 7-3 on the season. After starting the year 2-3 with losses to both UMass and Hawai'i (who combined have lost 14 of 16 other games against FBS opponents), Jerry Kill's Aggies have won five in a row. They're up to 81st in SP+ -- their highest finish of the past 50 years is 80th in 2006 -- and they have both an 82% chance of finishing the regular season 8-5 or better (they haven't won eight games in a season since 1965) and an 18% chance of winning Conference USA in their first year in the league. This is one of the hardest jobs in college football, and Kill has taken his team to two bowls in his first two years on the job. The 62-year-old is an unbelievable fixer and has been his entire career.
G.J. Kinne, meanwhile, is barely half Kill's age (34), and he has pulled off a similar miracle in San Marcos. Behind 301 passing yards from TJ Finley and 141 receiving yards for Joey Hobert, Texas State blew out Georgia Southern 45-24 on Saturday to move to 6-3 and almost certainly clinch the Bobcats' first-ever bowl bid in 12 FBS seasons.
How do you celebrate bowl eligibility at Texas State? You jump in a river, apparently.
River jump after bowl eligibility for #TXST. pic.twitter.com/vsW66b7j3H
— Keff Ciardello (@Keff_C) November 5, 2023
College football is just the strangest and most delightful thing in the world.
What should the CFP rankings look like?
A while back, I crafted a BCS-like formula that combines poll averages with computer rankings -- two power ratings (SP+ and FPI), two resume ratings (resume SP+ and strength of record) -- in an effort to compare this more objective process to what the CFP committee comes up with each week. For the most part, the two processes end up agreeing, but the differences are always noteworthy.
Last week, the committee predictably punished Michigan (No. 1 per the formula) for its strength-of-schedule problem and ranked the Wolverines third, while giving a bit more respect to the Big 12 than the numbers expected. Oklahoma ranked two spots higher than the formula thought, Kansas was three spots higher, and Oklahoma State was seven spots higher.
Let's see what happens this week. Here are the BCS-style rankings. Nothing changed in the top 10, but pretty much everything changed after that.
BCS-style CFP rankings:
1. Georgia (9-0)
2. Michigan (9-0)
3. Ohio State (9-0)
4. Florida State (9-0)
5. Washington (9-0)
6. Oregon (8-1)
7. Texas (8-1)
8. Alabama (8-1)
9. Penn State (8-1)
10. Ole Miss (8-1)
11. Louisville (8-1) -- up four spots from last week
12. Tennessee (7-2) -- up four spots
13. Oregon State (7-2) -- up four spots
14. Utah (7-2) -- up four spots
15. Missouri (7-2) -- down one spot
16. Oklahoma (7-2) -- down five spots
17. LSU (6-3) -- down four spots
18. Oklahoma State (7-2) -- up 11 spots
19. Kansas (7-2) -- up five spots
20. Notre Dame (7-3) -- down eight spots
21. James Madison (9-0) -- up four spots
22. Tulane (8-1) -- up one spot
23. North Carolina (7-2) -- up three spots
24. Kansas State (6-3) -- down two spots
25. Arizona (6-3) -- up nine spots
With Georgia now boasting a top-15 win over Missouri and Ohio State laboring significantly before finally accelerating past Rutgers on Saturday, it wouldn't surprise me at all if the Bulldogs moved into the No. 1 spot Tuesday night. Ohio State will probably still be No. 2, if I had to bet, but the rest of the top 10 could end up looking exactly like the above list.
And yes, I'm ranking James Madison even though the committee isn't. This whole "ineligible for a bowl and therefore ineligible to be ranked" thing is ridiculous, and I'm ignoring it.
Who won the Heisman this week?
I am once again awarding the Heisman every single week of the season and doling out weekly points, F1-style (in this case, 10 points for first place, 9 for second, and so on). How will this Heisman race play out, and how different will the result be from the actual Heisman voting?
Here is this week's Heisman top 10:
1. Jalen Milroe, Alabama (15-for-23 for 219 yards, plus 155 rushing yards and four touchdowns, against LSU)
2. Jayden Daniels, LSU (15-for-24 for 219 yards, 2 touchdowns and an interception, plus 163 rushing yards and a touchdown, against Alabama)
Daniels has been the most hypnotic player in college football this season, and Milroe managed to match him, throw for throw and run for run. This Bama offense isn't nearly as consistent as recent vintages, but the upside is still pretty massive. (Especially against a defense as poor as LSU's.)
3. Dillon Johnson, Washington (26 carries for 256 yards and four touchdowns, plus 11 receiving yards, against USC)
4. TreVeyon Henderson, Ohio State (22 carries for 128 yards and a touchdown, plus 80 receiving yards, against Rutgers)
5. Jordan McCloud, James Madison (28-for-36 for 307 yards, 4 touchdowns and an interception, plus 104 rushing yards and two touchdowns, against Georgia State)
6. Jaxson Dart, Ole Miss (24-for-33 for 387 yards and two touchdowns, against Texas A&M)
7. Bo Nix, Oregon (29-for-38 for 386 yards, 4 touchdowns and an interception, plus two rushing touchdowns, against Cal)
8. Jeremiah Trotter Jr., Clemson (11 tackles, 2.5 TFLs, 2 sacks and a pick-six against Notre Dame)
9. Jacob Zeno, UAB (29-for-35 for 484 yards, five touchdowns and an interception against Florida Atlantic)
10. Byrum Brown, South Florida (31-for-38 for 357 yards, 5 touchdowns and an interception, plus 100 rushing yards, against Memphis)
Limiting this to only a few honorable mentions was hard -- J.J. McCarthy threw for 335 yards and didn't make the list! -- but here you go:
• Andrew Chatfield, Oregon State (three sacks, a forced fumble and two pass breakups against Colorado)
• Tre Harris, Ole Miss (11 catches for 213 yards and a touchdown against Texas A&M)
• Xavier Legette, South Carolina (9 catches for 217 yards and 2 touchdowns against Jacksonville State)
• Phil Mafah, Clemson (36 carries for 186 yards and 2 touchdowns against Notre Dame)
• Jordan Travis, Florida State (22-for-36 for 360 yards and a touchdown, plus a rushing touchdown against Pitt)
• LaJohntay Wester, Florida Atlantic (11 catches for 219 yards and 3 touchdowns, plus a rushing touchdown against UAB)
Through 10 weeks, here are your points leaders:
1. Jayden Daniels, LSU (53 points)
2. Michael Penix Jr., Washington (34 points)
3. Ollie Gordon II, Oklahoma State (27 points)
4. Dillon Gabriel, Oklahoma (25 points)
5. J.J. McCarthy, Michigan (22 points)
6. Jordan Travis, Florida State (22 points)
7. Caleb Williams, USC (21 points)
8. Shedeur Sanders, Colorado (16 points)
9. Bo Nix, Oregon (15 points)
T-10. Jaxson Dart, Ole Miss (13 points)
T-10. TreVeyon Henderson, Ohio State (13 points)
Daniels' lead is significant, but there are still four weeks to go, and four weeks ago, Daniels, Penix and Gabriel were all neck-and-neck at the top, Shedeur Sanders was still in the top five, and current third-place racer Ollie Gordon II had zero points. There's still time for things to change, but if the vote were due today, Daniels should win despite LSU having three losses. He was incredible in two of the three.
My 10 favorite games of the weekend
I could have made the entire column out of this week's favorite games. It was so hard limiting this list to 10.
1. No. 22 Oklahoma State 27, No. 9 Oklahoma 24. It wasn't the craziest game Bedlam ever gave us, but it was crazy enough to remind us of what we'll be missing.
2. No. 7 Texas 33, No. 23 Kansas State 30. The ultimate "survive and advance" game for the Longhorns. Man oh man, K-State had this one in its grasp. (So did Texas, I guess. Wild game.)
3. Arkansas 39, Florida 36. I appreciate when games state their intentions from the very start. Arkansas took a 14-0 lead in barely four minutes thanks to a quick touchdown drive and a "yank the ball out of an offensive player's hands and take it back for a score" touchdown from Jaylon Braxton. But Florida had the game tied by the end of the first quarter and led on three occasions in the fourth quarter. Cam Little's 48-yard field goal with 44 seconds left, and a coinciding miss from Florida's Trey Smack, sent the game to overtime, where a KJ Jefferson-to-Tyrone Broden TD won the game for the 3-6 Hogs. Bowl hopes still alive (barely).
4. Div. III: No. 4 Wisconsin-La Crosse 31, No. 7 Wisconsin-River Falls 28. At the FCS level, Austin Peay led Eastern Kentucky 20-6 halfway through the fourth quarter, only to blow the lead and then win in overtime anyway. But Wisconsin-La Crosse took that concept one step further: The Eagles led 31-7 in the third quarter, only to watch Wisconsin-River Falls score three straight touchdowns and drive for a short, game-tying field goal at the buzzer. Overtime? Nope! Zach Kehl blocked the 27-yarder, and UWL clinched a share of the WIAC title and a spot in the Division III playoffs.
Blocked! UWL 31, UWRF 28. F. #d3fb pic.twitter.com/pZDfze2b1t
— D3football.com (@d3football) November 4, 2023
5. No. 10 Ole Miss 38, Texas A&M 35. Texas A&M has now lost to Alabama, Ole Miss and Tennessee by a combined 16 points. This one might have hurt the most for Jimbo Fisher. Not only did it come against constant smack-talker Lane Kiffin, but it came after the Aggies had taken a 35-31 lead with 4:34 left. Ole Miss took the lead back with 1:40 remaining, but A&M created a late field goal chance. But the Rebels' Zxavian Harris got a piece of it.
Rebs Win 👍 pic.twitter.com/6i6Nkp7I70
— Ole Miss Football (@OleMissFB) November 4, 2023
It was quite the day for blocked field goals.
6. Illinois 27, Minnesota 26. With starting quarterback Luke Altmyer having to leave the game with injury on the final series, Illinois backup John Paddock came in, completed a fourth-down pass to Isaiah Williams from his 15, then completed a 17-yarder and this shocking, game-winning bomb to Williams.
ILLINOIS TAKES THE LEAD WITH LESS THAN A MINUTE TO GO. 😱
— Big Ten Network (@BigTenNetwork) November 4, 2023
📺: BTN pic.twitter.com/cc0hPmw3d9
Minnesota's disappointing season grew more disappointing.
7. Sam Houston 24, Kennesaw State 21. After suffering a series of heartbreakers, Sam Houston State entered November still winless in its first FBS campaign ... and quickly fell behind soon-to-be FBS newcomer Kennesaw State 14-0. But the Bearkats tied the game at 21-21 with 3:49 left, forced a turnover near midfield and ate up the rest of the clock. Colby Sessums' 35-yard field goal at the buzzer gave them a well-earned win.
8. Akron 31, Kent State 27 (Wednesday). The first week of MACtion gave us lots of inclement weather and some delightfully close games. What more can we ask for in life? Akron's season has been derailed by close losses and a quarterback injury, and the Zips trailed this one 27-10 heading into the fourth quarter. But Jeff Undercuffler's 5-yard score with 26 seconds left capped a 21-0 quarter and a stunning comeback win.
9. Div. II: No. 24 Missouri Western 31, No. 3 Pittsburg State 30. When Missouri Western wins a big game, the Griffons ring the big bell at Spratt Stadium. What happens, then, when they block a game-tying PAT -- another big block! -- and then clinch a win over the No. 3 team in D-II with a sack-and-strip fumble recovery? They ring the bell!
Ring the bell!!🔔🔔🔔#OurCity🦅🦁 #A10Mentality pic.twitter.com/eYdlGrxrOI
— Missouri Western Football (@MWSU_Football) November 4, 2023
10. Div. III: No. 12 Wheaton 36, Washington U. 35. We finish back in the D3 ranks because who doesn't like a good Hail Mary and game-winning 2-point conversion combo? Wheaton likely needed this one to keep its playoff hopes alive, and the Thunder pulled off a miracle.
The Hail Mary and game-winning two-point conversion for No. 12 Wheaton today against Washington Univ. (Mo.) with no time left in a dramatic come-from-behind 36-35 win for Wheaton. #d3fb #SCTOP10 @ESPNAssignDesk @dlag1995 @NCAADIII #YouGotMossed pic.twitter.com/tYPjadp8Va
— Wheaton Thunder (@Wheaton_Thunder) November 4, 2023
Actually, no one's legally requiring me to stop at 10 games, so here's one more: Can I interest you in a game-winning UT Martin overtime tip drill??
UT Martin gets the 44-41 overtime win over Tennessee Tech as Zoe Roberts makes miraculous catch in the end zone after tipping it to himself.
The midweek playlist
Wednesday: Eastern Michigan at Toledo (7:30 p.m., ESPN2). MACtion continues, and depending on other results, Toledo could wrap up a spot in the MAC championship game with a win here. But EMU is as unpredictable and randomly competitive as ever.
Thursday: Virginia at No. 13 Louisville (7:30 p.m., ESPN). The Cardinals have been just about the most dominant team in the country at home this year. Virginia is feisty, but the Cardinals should move to 9-1 after this one.