Statement Saturday in Week 10 mostly maintained college football’s status quo. Will week 11 bring chaos, as it has every year of the college football playoff thus far?
The first weekend of November has always gotten the most national attention leading into it, and rightfully so with numerous marquee matchups. Just last week we had two Top-10 teams squaring off in de-facto SEC divisional championship games. There were two other ranked-vs-ranked matchups across college football as well that carried a lot of wait.
Despite the heavy billing, the games were mostly duds with the powers-at-be asserting their dominance over the sport and further separating themselves from the pack as the playoff picture becomes clearer. This is far from the first time Week 10 has provided clarity to the playoff picture, and this won’t be the first time Week 11 has thrown it into chaos.
It feels like we always have our guard down for this week, following a hyped statement Saturday, but in the playoff era, Week 11 has always provided high drama.
Since 2014, at least three Top 10 teams have lost on Week 11 all four years, and at least one Top 10 team has gone down to an unranked opponent.
In 2014, unranked Texas A&M took down No. 3 Auburn. No. 7 Kansas State, No. 8 Michigan State, and No. 10 Notre Dame all dropped games to ranked opponents.
In 2015, No. 7 Stanford, No. 9 LSU, and No. 10 Utah all lost to unranked opponents. No. 6 Baylor also saw its playoff hopes dwindle with a loss to Oklahoma.
2016 brought the most chaos, with five of the Top 10 falling, four of which to unranked opponents in games that were considered afterthoughts. No. 2 Clemson lost to unranked Pittsburgh, No. 3 Michigan fell to unranked Iowa, No. 8 Texas A&M was stunned by unranked Ole Miss, and No. 9 Auburn was upended by unranked Georgia. That’s not to mention No. 4 Washington getting throttled by No. 20 USC to cap the chaotic day.
Last season, No. 1 Georgia and No. 3 Notre Dame were blasted by Top 10 opponents Auburn and Miami. No. 9 Stanford had its playoff hopes go up in smoke with a loss to unranked Stanford.
If recent history has taught us anything, it’s that we could be in for an unexpectedly wild ride this Saturday, with a few contenders being surprised by unranked opponents.
Will Week 11 bring the chaos that has felt so inevitable this season? Or will the contenders once again assert themselves as college football’s elite, further separating themselves from the pack?
Let’s take a look at this week’s biggest games.
All point spreads are courtesy of oddsshark.com
Last week: 10-0 overall; 5-4-1 ATS (Season: 32-8 overall; 19-18-1 ATS)