In a pre-rivalry week stretch seemingly devoid of marquee matchups, Week 13 ended with some of the 2019 season’s best college football upsets.
Apart from the Noon ET kickoff between No. 2 Ohio State and No. 8 Penn State, Week 13 wasn’t supposed to reveal very much to the college football world. The SEC, as usual in its second-to-last week of the regular season, featured an array of low-quality FCS opponents. Clemson was on a bye week. The other top teams from the Big Ten, Big 12, and Pac-12 were facing mostly harmless, unranked foes.
By the end of Saturday, however, those collective thoughts changed. Oregon became yet another top-six team this season to fall to an unranked squad. This week’s David was Arizona State, which had lost four games in a row before taking down the Goliath Ducks at home, 31-28.
The Ducks’ loss narrows down the list of realistic contenders for the final fourth spot in the College Football Playoff. With two losses, the Ducks could potentially end the Pac-12’s CFP chances if they defeat one-loss Utah in the conference title game, thus opening the door for the Big 12 champion, Alabama, Minnesota, or Georgia.
No one had Miami marked down as a CFP hopeful, but the Hurricanes had an outside shot of reaching a New Year’s Six bowl. That is, until Miami lost to crosstown rival and 20-point underdog Florida International, a new football program that began play in 2002. That season, ironically, is when Miami finished as the national runner-up, losing a double-overtime contest to Ohio State in the BCS national championship game.
Let’s rate the best college football upsets of Week 13.