Well, look who finally decided to show up.
After weeks of relatively normal Saturdays, ho-hum games, predictable results, and college football heavyweights kicking sand in the face of 90-pound weaklings, our old friend Chaos came crashing through the door in Week 6.
Chaos landed blows everywhere, with malice.
Texas? Down goes No. 1, and to a bitter rival.
LSU? A second conference loss before Halloween even gets here.
Oregon? Not so fast, my friends.
Florida? Right back to the drawing board.
Fresh into the Top 25 Pitt? Back you go to the unranked.
It was loud, messy, gloriously unpredictable, and precisely what college football needed. When mid-October arrives, the most fun (or infuriating) part of college football comes in tow, leaving a path of destruction in its wake.
And with the first College Football Playoff rankings just around the corner, we can only hope the madness is only getting started.
October is when college football stops following the script
College football spends August and September trying to establish order. October exists to tear it all apart. August tells us who was good last year. September tells us who college football thinks its contenders are this year. October starts telling us who the real contenders actually are.
Conference schedules intensify. Rivals clash. Injuries accumulate. Teams that looked unbeatable suddenly look vulnerable. Teams that were written off discover they still have something to say. Games with teeth are now a weekly occurrence, and the hot seat takes for coaches fill the interwebs.
And the best part? Chaos doesn't discriminate. Chaos has no guilt.
The defending champions, preseason favorites, expensive rosters, and highly paid coaches are all vulnerable to a seemingly ordinary Saturday when nothing goes according to plan. Upsets make things messy -- and for college football, messy is perfection.
If you thought Week 6 was fun, this week we have a veritable goodie bag of potential Chaos victims.
Week 7 offers up No. 5 Ohio State at No. 4 Indiana, No. 6 Alabama at No. 14 Tennessee, No. 2 Notre Dame at No. 8 BYU, and No. 13 Missouri at No. 9 Ole Miss. If that wasn't enough to tantalize Chaos into some mischief, the No. 1 Georgia Bulldogs will be facing one of their biggest rivals, Auburn, who has revenge on their minds for last year's controversial loss.
Chaos is going to infect at least one game on that list, and Chaos is contagious. One unexpected loss changes the pressure on other contenders. A team that suddenly sees a clearer path to the playoff may find itself playing tighter. An underdog with little to lose can become the most dangerous team on the field.
If you have a number next to your name in October, consider yourself unsafe.
Chaos can give the CFP committee a headache worth remembering
The first College Football Playoff rankings of the season shouldn't arrive with everything neatly sorted out. They should arrive with the selection committee staring at an absolute mess. Trying to sort out teams with nearly identical resumes will
If the committee isn't shopping for aspirin and antacids in bulk by the time it releases its first rankings, October and Chaos haven't done their job.
In mere weeks, the College Football Playoff selection committee will have to sort through wins, losses, schedules, and conference standings. They'll have to determine schedule strength and apply the always-objective "eyeball test". That's its job.
Our job as college football fans? Enjoy the carnage that makes their job increasingly difficult.
The first CFP rankings of the year will feature multiple legitimate contenders, unexpected conference leaders, and a collection of one-loss teams with compelling arguments. The theory of transitive properties will be put to the test, and chairman Hunter Yurachek will get fitted for a new suit of armor.
The controversy will not be manufactured; the committee will face genuine uncertainty about who belongs where. And no matter what, they'll get it wrong somewhere.
Death, taxes, and the CFP committee fumbling the ball and making mortal enemies of at least one college fan base. Book it.
Here's to a few more Saturdays of glorious college football uncertainty
Somewhere out there, another unbeaten team is living on borrowed time. Another unranked underdog is preparing to ruin somebody's season. Another stadium is getting ready for the kind of Saturday its fans will talk about for decades, be it celebratory or in memoriam of a season that "could have been".
And another liquor store is getting prepared for a run on cheap whiskey, red Solo cups, and boxed wine.
We don't know where the next upset will happen, who will be responsible, or how badly it will scramble the playoff picture. We don't know if being the No. 1 team in the nation will have the approximate lifespan of a mayfly in August. We can't be certain if each week we'll be visited by Chaos... or Hope.
And that's exactly the point.
Week 6 was a stark reminder of what happens when college football stops behaving itself. Here's hoping the next few Saturdays are even worse. Or, depending on your perspective, even better.
Cheers, Chaos. Do your thing.
Add us as a preferred source on Google