Week 6 Upset Galore: Instant thoughts after an insane slate of college football
By Sam Simonic
College football is unique. College football is exciting. College football is… well, college football is college football. Just as we approach the halfway mark of the season, things seem to get more crazy by the day.
I’m not exactly sure where to begin. College football has seen quite a monumental shift over the past few years. From the ways of NIL to the transfer portal, and now to conference realignment, we have seen just about everything; and all these factors play into what we saw today.
Although, if I were a bettor, today would not be my day. Put it in the history book folks, this slate of football games saw a ridiculous amount of upsets. And I’m here for every part of it.
Who doesn’t appreciate fields being stormed? If you paid any bit of attention to college football on October 5, 2024, you probably saw a few of those. It all started with the game between the No. 1 Alabama Crimson Tide and Vanderbilt Commodores.
Also read: The world erupts as Vanderbilt takes down the No. 1 Alabama Crimson Tide
Plain and simple, Vanderbilt won because of pure heart. I would love to see viewership numbers throughout the game. I’m sure as the game went on those numbers continued to rise. I for one, was not tuned in from the very beginning. This game was being broadcast on SEC Network, and no one expected the events that unfolded today.
Alabama, a team that just defeated the Georgia Bulldogs. A team that has carried all the momentum thus far, lost to a team in the middle of a rebuild who finished with a historically bad 2-10 record last season. Make it make sense.
Following this we were treated to the night slate featuring No. 4 Tennessee and Arkansas. At the same time that was being played, the No. 10 Michigan Wolverines were facing Washington. Subsequently, the No. 11 USC Trojans were facing the Minnesota Golden Gophers. Want me to blow your mind? All these ranked teams lost.
Oh, how can I forget? The No. 9 Missouri Tigers lost in a blowout to No. 25 Texas A&M and No. 22 Louisville lost at home to SMU. So if you were able to keep up with all of this, congratulations. If you find your head spinning in disbelief, congratulations. All college football fans have something in common.
What the heck is going on????
We are now entering historic numbers. I’m not exactly sure when the last time half of the AP top-10 teams lost. But it can’t be recent. That was until today. (At the time this is being written No. 8 Miami is currently losing to unranked Cal)
What gives? Is college football just rapidly changing? Is there an extreme amount of luck that plays into these teams losing?
There’s no definitive reasoning to anything we witnessed today. However, I have one thought that might play a factor in everything. I can’t help but think about the massive amounts of upsets we have already seen. Just last week we saw Ole Miss fall at home to South Carolina, and a few weeks before that we saw Notre Dame lose at home to NIU.
These upsets aren’t happening out of nowhere. Simply, the talent roaming college football is at an all-time high. We are at the point where we are declaring true freshmen some of the best in all of college football. This includes the likes of someone who isn’t even a grown adult Ryan Williams from Alabama, as well as the prodigy in Ohio State’s Jeremiah Smith.
The College Football Playoff was expanded for a reason. Last year it was made official; we need an expanded playoff. It is necessary not just for our own entertainment, but for the sake of the game that we all know and love. The idea that a team with one loss gets left out was recently outdated. Last season it was brought to an extreme. A new level of controversy arose when the 12-0 Florida State Seminoles were left out of the Playoffs.
Guess what, that no longer applies. What truly matters is handling enough business in the regular season. Key word, “enough.” There is no telling what will happen with the committee and making decisions this year. There is a good chance the controversy is elevated. Frankly, I don’t care. I’m all for the drama. That is the best thing college football can ask for.
The competitiveness has been at an all-time high. We are seeing teams fight and seriously go on a mission. However, we are also witnessing the other side of this. Take a team like Georgia for example. A team that just recently lost on the road to Alabama. In hindsight, that was what many would consider a “good loss.” It likely wouldn’t be held against them too much in the long run. Just a week later, Alabama now loses to Vanderbilt making this loss look substantially worse on Georgia.
I believe the strength of the schedule and comparisons of teams by wins and losses has become ineffective. There’s just too much to factor in.
In the end, there will almost certainly be teams with two or three losses reaching the Playoffs. How that will be decided will remain in the hands of the committee. I can’t help but think, that prediction at the start of the season from Lee Corso, where he stated there will be no undefeated teams is one heck of a prediction.
This is a unique era of college football. There is no longer a consensus top team. Buckle up, we aren’t even halfway yet. This ride is just beginning.