SMQ: Which 1-loss teams are still College Football Playoff contenders?
By Zach Bigalke
1998 marked the first year of the BCS, and a number of highly-ranked teams fell early in the season. Defending AP national champion Michigan fell twice in the first two weeks, as did Pac-10 powerhouse Arizona State. Both teams dropped out of the polls after those defeats, but others still hovered around with one loss.
On the opening weekend, No. 11 West Virginia fell against No. 1 Ohio State in Morgantown, while No. 10 took down No. 17 Syracuse in a visit to the Carrier Dome. Then there was No. 14 Texas A&M’s loss to No. 2 Florida State, as the Aggies fell 23-14 in the Kickoff Classic at Giants Stadium at the Meadowlands outside New York.
A week after taking down Texas A&M, though, preseason AP No. 2 Florida State fell 24-7 in an ACC upset against NC State. The win brought the home fans flooding onto the field in Raleigh, where the goal posts came down. Two years before he won the Heisman Trophy, Chris Weinke went just 6-of-19 as the FSU quarterback and threw three interceptions.
From there, the Seminoles reeled off 10 straight victories to win the ACC title and move all the way up to No. 2 in the BCS standings. The inaugural year of the BCS was also the only time a team ever managed to return to a top-two position after losing in the first fortnight of the season.