Forty names, games, teams and minutiae making news in college football, where the sport’s most dangerous habit is becoming impossible to ignore: one week you’re riding high, the next you’re staring at a crater.
That’s the reality this season has delivered over and over again. After every big win, there’s been a warning label attached: enjoy it now, because the floor can drop out fast.
Coaches who looked cooked have suddenly found themselves back in the good graces of their fan bases. Others have gone from safe to sweating in a matter of days.
The numbers tell the story. Twenty-two ranked teams have lost to unranked opponents in September and October, and 10 of those defeats have come in the last two weekends alone.
Five happened on Oct. 24.
Five more came on Halloween.
Wisconsin is a perfect example of how quickly the mood can swing. A 4-1 start got Luke Fickell some real support again, but the Badgers then lost 17-7 to UCLA, beat No.
16 USC 24-7 in a result that sent the crowd storming the field and earned Wisconsin its first Top 25 ranking since 2023, and then promptly got blasted by unranked Iowa 30-0. That result also made the last four seasons of Kirk Ferentz vs.
Fickell a 124-16 mismatch in Ferentz’s favor.
Iowa’s own stay in the rankings didn’t last long, because Minnesota knocked the Hawkeyes out. The Gophers have been all over the place themselves.
They were beaten by 25 at home by Mississippi State, then won three straight and sent P.J. Fleck into full celebration mode, including wiping players’ blood on his face and chugging from the Little Brown Jug.
Then Minnesota lost by 28 to Purdue, a team that hadn’t won a Big Ten game since 2023. The Gophers bounced back to upset Iowa before losing in overtime to Indiana, the team that has spent the season living on the edge.
The reigning national champions are a play from 8-0, and also about five plays from 4-4.
Oregon and USC have been tangled up in their own seesaw. Oregon opened with a loss to unranked Oklahoma State on Sept. 12, then looked much more like a preseason top-five team in a win over USC in Los Angeles. Since then, the Ducks have gone win-loss-win-loss, most recently beating Northwestern to keep their hopes alive for a backdoor path into the Big Ten title game.
USC is still in that picture too, even after losses to Wisconsin and Oregon and all the noise around Lincoln Riley’s expensive job security. The Trojans changed the mood again by upsetting No. 2 Ohio State on Saturday, though the win brought out some strange reactions from Riley.
The Big 12 has been just as volatile. BYU stormed the field after beating Notre Dame, only to watch Central Florida do the same to the Cougars the next week. Then Baylor, which fired its coach five days earlier, went to UCF and crushed the Knights at home on Friday.
Cincinnati had its own field-storming moment after beating Texas Tech on Oct. 24, handing the Red Raiders their first loss of the season. A week later, the Bearcats got hammered by Utah, falling behind 42-6 at halftime and losing 49-25.
Scott Satterfield’s brief escape from the hot seat didn’t last long. Texas Tech, meanwhile, responded by beating Arizona, with emergency transfer quarterback Thomas Castellanos stepping in and outplaying trendy Heisman candidate Noah Fifita when the game was on the line.
Cody Campbell didn’t even have to fire anyone.
The SEC and ACC have had their own share of chaos, and some coaches have used it to steady their footing. South Carolina looked finished after a 2-3 start, but then the Gamecocks rolled past ranked Florida on the road, upset ranked Tennessee at home and embarrassed Oklahoma on the road.
That surge has given Shane Beamer real breathing room, and LaNorris Sellers is a big reason why. Sellers, once viewed as a high-end first-round NFL draft pick, struggled through September after struggling most of last year. Over South Carolina’s three-game winning streak, he has accounted for 13 touchdowns and 1,002 yards of total offense, his best stretch of SEC play since 2024.
South Carolina is still outside the playoff race, but it has become the kind of team nobody in the SEC wants to see right now. The Gamecocks should be 7-3 when Georgia comes to Columbia, S.C., and that’s when things could get interesting.
Syracuse has played the spoiler role in the ACC. After starting 0-4 in league play, the Orange rallied to win at North Carolina on Oct. 24 and then knocked off No.
19 SMU to end the Mustangs’ four-game winning streak. Those wins helped clear the way for a Miami-Wake Forest rematch in the ACC championship game.
Fran Brown’s stock has moved just as sharply as everyone else’s. He went from rising star after a 10-3 debut season to under scrutiny after a 3-9 second year and then into serious heat after Syracuse’s 2-4 start this season.
The last two weeks have changed that, and Steve Angeli has been central to it. With the Notre Dame transfer in the lineup the last two seasons, Syracuse is 5-3.
Without him because of injury, the Orange are 1-10. It’s hard to find a player whose presence has meant more to a program’s bottom line, and to his coach’s job security.
Each week, The Dash seeds the 12 teams that would make the College Football Playoff if Selection Sunday were today. This week carries extra weight, with the first CFP selection committee rankings set to come out Tuesday.
Also considered: Texas Tech, Mississippi, Tennessee, Alabama, Missouri, LSU, USC, Iowa, Houston, New Mexico, North Texas, Boise State.
In Other News...
Ohio State Just Got A New Recruiting Concern After USC Upset
USCs upset of Ohio State did more than shake up the scoreboard at the Coliseum. It also gave the Trojans a jolt on the recruiting trail, with fans and 2028 running back prospect Malaki Davis joining the field rush after the game and leaving with a vivid first impression of the programs energy and atmosphere.
Davis, who spent time around the celebration and interacted with USC legend Marcus Allen, came away clearly enthused about the Trojans. The moment also arrived as Lincoln Riley tried to quiet outside noise about his future, issuing a handwritten statement to reinforce his commitment to USC, adding another layer to a night that could resonate well beyond one win. [Read more 🡒]
USC Just Got National Validation For Its Biggest Win Yet
The win over No. 2 Ohio State is still resonating well beyond Los Angeles, and now it has brought USC another round of national recognition. The Football Writers Association of America named the Trojans the Pop-Tarts Bowl Crazy Good Team of the Week after the 30-18 upset on Oct. 31, a result that pushed USC to 7-2 and back into the AP Top 25 at No. 18.
It is a notable honor for a program that has been waiting a long time for this kind of weekly spotlight. This is USCs fifth selection for the award, and its first since 2013, which says plenty about how rare this sort of validation has been even in seasons when the Trojans have had big moments. After beating one of the sports premier teams, they have at least earned a fresh national platform, with the bigger question now being how much staying power that performance will have. [Read more 🡒]
USC Just Made Its Biggest November Question A Lot More Interesting
USCs win over No. 2 Ohio State did more than add another marquee result to the rsum. It pushed the Trojans to 7-2 overall and 4-2 in conference play, with Lincoln Riley getting a performance that looked as complete as anything USC has put together this season. Freshman tight end Mark Bowman was part of the story, and Trent Mosleys 69-yard touchdown early in the game helped set the tone for a night that felt bigger than a single upset.
Ohio State still moved the ball on the ground, finishing with 204 rushing yards, but USCs defense tightened when it mattered most and held the Buckeyes to just one red-zone touchdown. For a team trying to sort out its November ceiling, that kind of response is what makes the conversation around the Trojans suddenly a lot more interesting. [Read more 🡒]