The Week 10 college football roundup. The 5 things that matter, winners and losers, overrated and underrated, and what it all means.
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College Football Week 10 Roundup
CFN 1-130 Rankings | Bowl Projections
Early Week 11 Line Lookahead
Rankings: AP | USA Today Coaches | FWAA
– Willie Taggart fired: 5 possible options
– Predicting First CFP Rankings
– Predicting every remaining game, conference race
Week 10 Roundup
The Really Big Thing | Most Overrated Thing
Most Underrated Thing | What It All Means
5. Winners & Losers From Week 10
Winner: The hope for a killer Pac-12 Championship
There’s still a ton of work ahead, but 11-1 Utah vs. 11-1 Oregon would be the strongest Pac-12 title game ever. The Utes cranked up the defense to get by Washington 33-28, and now they get UCLA, at Arizona, and Colorado to close. Thanks to Oregon’s 56-24 blowout win over USC in LA, Utah also got the loss it needed to take over the lead in the South. The Ducks get Arizona, at Arizona State, Oregon State to close.
Loser: The hope for a killer Big 12 Championship
Baylor is undefeated, but … zzzzzzzz. It took WAY too much work to get past a bad West Virginia team. Texas isn’t even in the top 25, Kansas State is fine, Iowa State lost to Oklahoma State, and while it’s an interesting season, the league is just okay overall. Oklahoma is still Oklahoma, but the Big 12 title game doesn’t seem like it’s going to be anything amazing.
Winner: RB AJ Dillon, Boston College
The nation’s most underappreciated star keeps on rolling. With QB Anthony Brown out, Dillon and the running game have done even more to take over and save the team’s season. Dillon ran 35 times for 242 yards and three scores in the 58-27 win over Syracuse to get a win away from bowl eligibility.
Loser: The Florida running game
It was partially ignored, and it was totally stuffed. The Gators ran 19 times for 21 yards with no runs of more than nine yards in the 24-17 loss to Georgia. There weren’t even a ton of Bulldog tackles for loss or sacks to screw things up – the ground game just didn’t work.
Winner: The American Athletic Conference
Memphis was a blast in its win over SMU. Cincinnati survived East Carolina to stay in the hunt for a New Year’s Six game. UCF rolled by Houston and is still interesting, and Navy has moved into the top 25 in the polls. It’s looking like eight teams will become bowl eligible, and the AAC champion – if it’s 12-1 – is the likely favorite to go to the Cotton Bowl.
Loser: The Sun Belt
Everything would’ve been set up for Appalachian State. With SMU losing to Memphis, ASU would’ve been the only unbeaten Group of Five program had it gotten by Georgia Southern on Thursday night. For the second straight season, the Mountaineers couldn’t handle the option in the 24-21 loss, and now that ruins the hope for the Sun Belt to get its champion into the New Year’s Six.
Winner: UAB with its schedule
Why do schedules matter? UAB lost to Tennessee, but it’s 6-2 with the nation’s easiest schedule, at least according to the NCAA. Alabama State, at Akron, South Alabama, Rice, at UTSA, Old Dominion – those are the wins. On the opposite end …
Loser: Tulsa with its schedule
Tulsa lost to Tulane 38-26. The Green Wave will go bowling. So will Memphis, Cincinnati, Navy and SMU, who all lost just one game each so far. Michigan State is okay, and Oklahoma State is Oklahoma State. Those are Tulsa’s seven losses, and it beat a Wyoming team that beat Missouri, and it blew out a vastly-improved San Jose State team on the road. It’s not going bowling, and UAB probably is.
Winner: Big Ten defenses
And no, it’s not just because the Big Ten defenses are playing a slew of bad offenses, but that helps. Wisconsin (1), Ohio State (2), Iowa (6), Michigan (7), Penn State (9), Minnesota (13) give the Big Ten six of the top 13 defenses in the country. Indiana (18) and Michigan State (20) make it eight of the top 20.
Loser: UMass defense
The Liberty Flames came up with 730 yards and 63 points in the blowout win over UMass on Saturday. Now, the already horrible UMass defense is the nation’s worst by a mile, allowing 572 yards per game and getting worse by the week. It’s not going to be the historically-worst defense of all-time like 2018 UConn’s was, but no one else is allowing more than 500 yards an outing.
Week 10 Roundup
The Really Big Thing | Most Overrated Thing
Most Underrated Thing | What It All Means
NEXT: The really big thing was …
4. The Really Big Thing Was …
Georgia beat Florida 24-17
Yeah, yeah, yeah, it’s giant deal because it was the SEC East Game of the Year and a battle between two of 2019 college football’s biggest heavyweights. But it was a really big thing that Georgia beat Florida, and not the other way around.
Had Florida won, it would’ve been close to a mortal lock to get into the SEC Championship at 11-1. It still has to play Vanderbilt, go to Missouri – that’s not a layup – and deal with a Taggart-less Florida State, but that’s all doable.
Considering the Gators lost at LSU, a fun theoretical argument could’ve been had that they would’ve deserved to be in the CFP no matter if they had beaten Georgia, to go along with the win over Auburn. If the two losses were to LSU on the road and to the Alabama/LSU winner in the SEC Championship …
In other words, had Florida won this weekend, it would’ve been GAME ON with a whole slew of wild College Football Playoff debates.
Why isn’t it that way for Georgia after winning in Jacksonville? Two reasons.
CFN 1-130 Rankings | Bowl Projections
Early Week 11 Line Lookahead
Rankings: AP | USA Today Coaches | FWAA
– Willie Taggart fired: 5 possible options
– Predicting First CFP Rankings
– Predicting every remaining game, conference race
First, it lost to South Carolina. That’s not like losing to LSU on the road like Florida did. If Georgia wins out, of course it’s in the CFP as the 12-1 SEC champs. But 11-2? There’s no four-best-team argument to be had there.
The second issue … November 16, at Auburn.
Florida has a relatively clear path the rest of the way, while Georgia gets Missouri – again, not all that easy – at Auburn, Texas A&M, at Georgia Tech. The Dawgs can and probably should win all of those, but if they lose to Auburn and go to the SEC Championship, they’re probably not in the CFP if they’re 10-2 and then beat Bama or LSU.
When it comes to the game itself, that’s Georgia. It’s not pretty, but it can absolutely get the job done. With those lines, and with that defense, and with Jake Fromm, this might be a far deadlier team in the national title chase than it’s being given credit for.
It just has a tough road to get there.
Week 10 Roundup
Winners & Losers | Most Overrated Thing
Most Underrated Thing | What It All Means
NEXT: The most overrated thing was …
3. The Most Overrated Thing Was …
The race for the Group of Five’s slot in a New Year’s Six bowl
Agree or disagree, the idea and narrative that non-CFP bowl games matter is what helps keep the Group of Five programs out of the College Football Playoff talk.
Hey, Go5 champion … no, we’re not going to expand the playoff, and you don’t actually have a path to get in, but we’ll throw you this delightful bone of a big bowl game appearance to your top champion!
And that’s what stinks about the outstanding show put on by Memphis and SMU in primetime, and it’s what took the luster off the Appalachian State loss to Georgia Southern, and the battle Boise State went through to get by San Jose State.
They’re fighting SO hard for the chance to play in what amounts to an overblown scrimmage with a New Year’s Six bowl appearance, when they should be still in the fight for something bigger. Saturday night seemed a bit like we were all doing the American Athletic Conference a favor, mainly because we’re all waiting for LSU vs. Alabama and the other big games to kick back in.
That’s not fair.
How much more intense would that Tiger-Mustang fight have been if at stake was a possible No. 8 seed in an expanded playoff? How much more would we all be paying attention to these teams all year long if they were shooting for something that truly mattered?
And this year, of ALL years, how much more fun would college football be with eight CFP spots – all five Power Five champs, two at-large bids, and the top Group of Five champion?
If that was the case, a game like SMU vs. Memphis wouldn’t be featured just because there wasn’t another big game option.
Week 10 Roundup
Winners & Losers | The Really Big Thing
Most Underrated Thing | What It All Means
NEXT: The most underrated thing was …
2. The Most Underrated Thing Was …
Notre Dame 21, Virginia Tech 20
This year, considering how blah the conference is, how much do you want to see ACC and ACC-related teams in the top bowl games?
If Clemson gets into the College Football Playoff, that means there will be two ACC teams among the 12 in the New Year’s Six/CFP games. The Orange gets the ACC champion, but if it’s in the playoff, the next ACC team up goes, and that’s no fun this year.
You really want to see Wake Forest or Virginia Tech – instead of Clemson – face Florida, LSU, Ohio State, Penn State, or some other big boy in the Orange? You might have to.
And then there’s Notre Dame.
The Irish continue to enjoy their wonderful friends with benefits relationship with the ACC, and that includes being a part of the bowl picture.
With Ian Book leading the way to the thrilling win over Virginia Tech, that kept the hope alive of going to the Cotton Bowl in the New Year’s Six. If that doesn’t happen – and there’s a loss at some point the rest of the way, or if the CFP doesn’t like a 10-2 Irish team enough in the rankings – they get one of the ACC bowl slots. That’s not a horrible thing.
That means everyone else in the ACC moves down a spot, and that means better ACC teams in the bowl matchups. However, the Irish are going to get really, really close to getting one of the bigger bowls.
In other words, that drive by Book might have ensured that three ACC and ACC-related partners will get into the New Year’s Six instead of two or possibly one.
Get all that? Basically, Book might have just made the ACC a whole lot more money, and he might have created a slew of worse bowl matchups.
Week 10 Roundup
Winners & Losers | The Really Big Thing
Most Overrated Thing | What It All Means
NEXT: What Is All Means: Week 10
1. What It All Means: Week 10
No more saying that “there aren’t any fun games this week” again, and that goes for here, too.
Florida vs. Georgia might have been the only showdown worth stopping the world for, and you know we’ve hit sort of a lull when GameDay goes to South Dakota one week and Memphis the next, but even though this was a calm-before-the-storm weekend …
It’s still a lot of fun.
One of the great aspects of college football is the sheer volume of games. If you got bored with Michigan whacking around Maryland in one of the early battles – which was sort of entertaining in its own way – there was Nebraska vs. Purdue for you.
Both teams are bad at college football – yes, Nebraska, sorry, but you’re bad at this college football thing now until you can prove otherwise – but they played a wildly fun game.
Both teams are banged up, Purdue lost second-string QB Jack Plummer – maybe for the season – and kept on rolling, and the two were battling back-and-forth in a fantastic fourth quarter. Purdue won in the final minute 31-27.
That was just good college football.
Down one, Coastal Carolina went for two late against Troy and pulled it off for a 36-35 win to keep bowl hopes alive.
Keeping it in the Sun Belt, Arkansas State beat ULM 48-41 as the two teams combined for almost 1,000 yards and put together one of the best first halves all year – it was 31-28 ASU going into the locker room.
Boise State had to score 35 points in the second half to get by San Jose State. Cincinnati needed 18 points with an interception return for a score to survive East Carolina, and on a bigger scale. Ian Book was magnificent in the final moments to get Notre Dame past Virginia Tech.
And the whole day finished up with a wild rally by Fresno State to slip by Hawaii 41-38 in an insane final three minutes that closed out with a 37-yard walk-off field goal by the Bulldogs’ Cesar Silva.
If you like college football, keep searching around for games that get interesting. There are over 50 every Saturday to choose from – go away from the obvious SEC showcase showdown once in a while and you’ll have a blast.
Of course, if you gamble, every game is beautiful in its own way.
And with that, let’s do this already.
LSU vs. Alabama at 3:30 ET. Oh hell yeah.
CFN 1-130 Rankings | Bowl Projections
Early Week 11 Line Lookahead
Rankings: AP | USA Today Coaches | FWAA
– Willie Taggart fired: 5 possible options
– Predicting First CFP Rankings
– Predicting every remaining game, conference race
