Friday’s FAA chaos put college football travel plans in a blender, but the people who keep the sport moving did their jobs and saved a messy weekend from getting even messier. The Federal Aviation Administration’s third nationwide ground stop in history, triggered by a mass communication outage, sent schedules into disarray and left teams scrambling.
Colorado State even had to hold a walkthrough on a tarmac. By Saturday morning, though, only one game - Mississippi-Oklahoma, a certified fiasco - had been pushed to Sunday.
That kind of damage control doesn’t happen by accident. It happened because the sport’s travel staffers moved fast under pressure, and they deserve their flowers.
Kerry Callender and Mary Marsden at Utah, Laura Barlow at Tennessee, Wayne Langbein and Nicole Wood at Washington, and plenty of others around the country helped keep this weekend intact. For a profession that usually works in the background, Friday was a reminder of just how much these unsung heroes matter.
On the field, Wisconsin’s season keeps taking strange turns. The Badgers entered Saturday with a last-five-game stretch that looked like a weekly mood swing: a blowout over Michigan State, a 17-7 loss at UCLA, a 24-7 win over USC that seemed like a breakthrough, a 30-0 no-show against Iowa, and a 31-10 win over Rutgers.
Then Maryland arrived, playing with a new edge under interim coach Aazaar Abdul-Rahim, and rallied from a 10-0 deficit to put a serious dent in Wisconsin’s faint Big Ten title hopes. The quarterback situation in Madison is still unsettled, but the bigger issue is the defense, which let Maryland quarterback Cardell Williams go 21-of-23 for 183 yards and a touchdown while also scoring twice on the ground.
Wake Forest, meanwhile, turned disrespect into fuel and flattened SMU in Texas. Barely favored and sitting at No. 13 in this week’s CFP standings, the Demon Deacons came out swinging and built a 42-0 halftime lead, not far off from last Saturday’s 49-0 edge over Merrimack at the break.
They also converted 12 of 18 third- and fourth-down chances, a ruthless number that told the whole story. Jake Dickert delivered the line of the day when he said SMU had “nowhere to hide” at halftime.
If this team misses the CFP - even with a hypothetical second ACC championship loss to Miami - the sport will be worse for it.
Northwestern also let a chance slip away against Ohio State. Every team that loses to the worst Ohio State team in 15 years is wasting an opening, and the Wildcats did exactly that.
They were without star quarterback Aidan Chiles, but that didn’t excuse the missed opportunity after three takeaways and a surprisingly cautious approach from a Chip Kelly-coordinated offense. Given the gap between Northwestern’s play last season and this one, the 2026 record can’t look like 7-6 again.
With Minnesota and Illinois still ahead, that’s suddenly in play.
In Other News...
Wake Forest Just Set Up A Massive Final Stretch In The ACC
Wake Forest took care of business in emphatic fashion against SMU, rolling to a 49-7 win that kept the Demon Deacons squarely in the ACC race. Gio Lopez handled the offense efficiently, throwing for 134 yards while adding two rushing touchdowns, and backup Steele Pizzella finished things off with a late scoring run as Wake Forest continued to build momentum at the right time.
With two regular-season games left, the path ahead is suddenly very real for the Demon Deacons. They have put themselves in position to reach the ACC Championship Game, and the next stretch will determine whether this surge turns into a title shot or just a strong finish to a promising season. [Read more 🡒]
Wake Forest Just Made Its CFP Case Impossible To Ignore
Wake Forest keeps stacking up the kind of wins that force people to pay attention, and the latest one was as convincing as any of them. The Demon Deacons rolled past SMU behind a blistering first half, building a lead so large that the rest of the afternoon became more about maintaining control than proving a point, and the result only added to a run that has turned them into one of the most efficient teams in the country.
The broader case is getting harder to dismiss. Wake Forest has now won six straight games by at least 24 points, sits near the top of several key statistical categories, and has positioned itself squarely in the ACC race with an eye on the championship game. The timing also comes with the program showing some stability off the field, after recent contract extensions for Jake Dickert and offensive coordinator Rob Ezell, leaving the Deacons with both momentum and a clear path to keep pushing their postseason profile higher. [Read more 🡒]
Wake Forest Suddenly Has A Real Playoff Shot With Everything Ahead
After a loss to Miami, Wake Forest has steadied itself in a hurry, ripping off seven straight wins and suddenly putting its season in a very different light. The Demon Deacons are now sitting at No. 13 in the College Football Playoff rankings, a spot that would have sounded far-fetched not long ago but now comes with real meaning as the season enters its final stretch.
The path ahead is still tricky, and not just because the margin for error is so thin. Wake Forests lighter schedule and lack of a marquee win mean the committee may not hand it much benefit of the doubt, so the Deacons likely need to keep stacking wins and possibly get some help elsewhere to make an at-large case. A strong finish could change the conversation entirely, but for now the playoff picture remains open enough to keep every remaining week in play. [Read more 🡒]