What happened Saturday, Oct. 11 in college football: Scores and 3 things to know
The Mississippi thing is still something we’re just gonna have to wrap our minds around, Baylor is barely and officially the Big 12 favorite, and the one-loss pile is setting up all sorts of controversy. Full FBS scores below!
by Jason Kirk
We’re gonna sort of repeat ourselves for a moment, but there’s no way around it. Ole Miss and Mississippi State -- already earning their highest AP rankings in 50 years and forever, respectively -- are still here. Either could even steal the No. 1 spot without too many serious gripes.
This is the same Mississippi that combined to go 6-10 in the SEC last year and 2-14 in both 2011 and 2005. The two have not combined for a winning record in the SEC since 1999. Only one Mississippi team appears among the 44 teams that have played in the SEC Championship, and that 1998 MSU team finished 8-5 and unranked.
These teams have long been destined for mediocrity, and if one ever does claw its way up, that means the other suffers. Not right now.
The two are now a combined 6-0 in the league and 12-0 overall, each with a couple of its toughest games out of the way. Saturday, Mississippi State made an Auburn team that had ranked No. 1 in a composite ranking look helpless, winning 38-23. Our MSU site had already called it the biggest game in school history. And Ole Miss shut down Texas A&M in College Station, 35-20, after two garbage-time Aggie touchdowns.
Mississippi will remain a thing, even though it’s giving up control of College GameDay after a two-week run, the first two times the show had ever appeared in the state.
How’s this happening? Bill Connelly explained last week, pointing to six men who’ve changed the courses and fortunes of Magnolia State football. Bud Elliott looked at the advantages of Ole Miss’ recruiting and Mississippi State’s player development.
Can it continue happening? For at least a week, it’s quite likely to. MSU is off next week before playing Kentucky, Arkansas, and an FCS team. Ole Miss gets Tennessee, but then heads to LSU and welcomes Auburn. And with the way the College Football Playoff is expected to work, and with the strength of the SEC West, even if the Mississippi schools lose a game or two before the Egg Bowl, their meeting in Oxford could still be for the division title and a Playoff berth.
Dwell on that until it makes sense, because it might never. The Egg Bowl could be a play-in game, whether either team is unbeaten or not.
2. Baylor’s high-wire act begins.
by Adam Jacobi
It’s hard to imagine a game more thrilling than TCU-Baylor. The 61-58 dogfight was an instant classic, one that came down to the wire and featured a massive rally in front of the delirious Baylor faithful.
Not pictured: Art Briles enjoying any of this
It’s hard to overstate just how close we came to TCU becoming the favorite in the Big 12. The Horned Frogs already hold a win over Oklahoma and were up by 21 over Baylor with 11 minutes to play. Even against a quick-strike nightmare of an opponent like Baylor, 21 points with a sizable chunk of the last quarter gone is an awfully safe lead. Or so one would think.
If TCU gets that win, that’s a game up on its two main rivals for the Big 12 crown. After that, well ... who’s the serious contender to the Big 12? Oklahoma State? Kansas State? Do either of those teams strike you as threats to not only beat TCU, but also enough other contenders that they’d take a New Year’s spot?
That’s the precipice the conference was on. And sure, TCU isn’t all of a sudden out of the running for the Big 12 title, either. Six teams in the Big 12 still have one conference loss or fewer, and TCU’s one of them.
With the round-robin schedule, there’s no ducking anybody, no need to just finish atop a startlingly weak division and see where one more game on a neutral field will get you (Am I side-eyeing Oregon here? Yes, yes I am). So with that, there’s only so much stock to be put in conference records this early on without also considering the opponents faced. TCU’s 1-1 vs. Oklahoma and Baylor is far superior to West Virginia’s 2-1 against Oklahoma, Kansas, and Texas Tech.
Because of this, teams like Baylor and Oklahoma will be working with incomplete grades for the rest of October. Baylor’s schedule is heavily backloaded, with Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, and Kansas State all coming in the last four games. Oklahoma’s only got Baylor and Oklahoma State as ranked foes in that span, but either of those games could derail the Sooners’ still-breathing title hopes in a hurry.
Backloaded schedule or no, Baylor’s the only contender left to come out of this mess at 9-0. It’s going to take some magic, if Saturday’s game is any indication, but if there’s any quarterback and coach up for conjuring that luck again and again down the stretch, it’s Bryce Petty and Art Briles.
And the Big 12’s keeping its foot on the gas pedal. Next week features two key games: KSU at Oklahoma and Oklahoma State at TCU. Baylor’s visiting West Virginia as well. The shakeout begins Saturday. Giddyup.
3. This will not be a season with many unbeaten teams.
by Pete Volk
Saturday, three top-10 teams (Auburn, TCU, and Arizona) lost for the first time this season, including two by three points or less.
Just six undefeated teams remain: Baylor, Florida State, Marshall, the Mississippi schools, and Notre Dame. Assuming the five notable ones (sorry Marshall) lose -- and with how the season has gone, that seems a fair assumption -- there’s a slew of one-loss teams ready to fight for a place and make a mess of the new Playoff system. Saturday only added to the carnage.
In all, 22 one-loss power-conference teams remain, with another three among the non-powers.
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On Saturday, Alabama, Michigan State, Notre Dame, and Oklahoma each barely beat an unranked opponent, but they’ve had strong enough seasons to this point to still consider them contenders. Oregon and Georgia were the day’s real winners among the one-loss teams, showing little trouble in routs of UCLA and Missouri, respectively.
The Bulldogs were perhaps the most impressive one-loss team Saturday, recording their second win over a ranked opponent this season and showing little signs of struggle without star running back Todd Gurley. Georgia did not have the same explosive ability it had with its former Heisman favorite, but it still managed to score 34 points on what has been a fine Missouri defense. UGA could pose problems for Auburn when the two teams meet Nov. 15.
Ole Miss and Mississippi State play in the year-end Egg Bowl. Florida State and Notre Dame play each other next week. That’s already two undefeated teams guaranteed to lose before the end of the season.
Throw in other tough games for Ole Miss, Mississippi State, Baylor, and Notre Dame, and it sure looks like more than a few of those one-loss teams will be back in play again.
And that means hard choices are on the way.
Six fun things
Final scores
Saturday
No. 1 Florida State 38, Syracuse 20 (recap)
No. 3 Mississippi State 38, No. 2 Auburn 23 (CLANGA)
No. 3 Ole Miss 35, No. 14 Texas A&M 20 (recap)
No. 5 Baylor 61, No. 9 TCU 58 (recap)
No. 6 Notre Dame 50, North Carolina 43 (recap)
No. 7 Alabama 14, Arkansas 13 (recap)
No. 8 Michigan State 45, Purdue 31 (recap)
USC 28, No. 10 Arizona 26 (recap)
No. 11 Oklahoma 31, Texas 26 (recap)
No. 12 Oregon 42, No. 18 UCLA 30 (recap)
No. 13 Georgia 34, No. 23 Missouri 0 (recap)
No. 16 Oklahoma State 27, Kansas 20 (Tyreek Hill for President)
No. 19 East Carolina 28, South Florida 17 (recap)
Duke 31, No. 22 Georgia Tech 25 (recap)
Akron 29, Miami (Ohio) 19
Arkansas State 52, Georgia State 10
Boston College 30, NC State 14 (recap)
Bowling Green 31, Ohio 13 (recap)
Central Michigan 34, Northern Illinois 17 (recap)
Clemson 23, Louisville 17 (recap)
Colorado State 31, Nevada 24
Eastern Michigan 37, Buffalo 27 (recap)
Georgia Southern 47, Idaho 24 (recap)
Hawaii 38, Wyoming 28
Houston 28, Memphis 24
Iowa 45, Indiana 29 (recap)
Iowa State 37, Toledo 30 (recap)
Kentucky 48, Louisiana-Monroe 14 (recap)
Liberty 55, Appalachian State 48 (OT)
LSU 30, Florida 27 (recap)
Marshall 49, Middle Tennessee 24 (recap)
Massachusetts 40, Kent State 17
Miami 55, Cincinnati 34 (recap)
Michigan 18, Penn State 13 (recap)
Minnesota 24, Northwestern 17 (recap)
Navy 51, Virginia Military Institute 14
Rice 41, Army 21
Temple 35, Tulsa 24 (recap)
Tennessee 45, Chattanooga 10 (recap)
Troy 41, New Mexico State 24 (recap)
Tulane 12, Connecticut 3
UAB 56, North Texas 21 (recap)
Utah State 34, Air Force 16 (recap)
UTEP 42, Old Dominion 35 (recap)
UTSA 16, Florida International 13
Vanderbilt 21, Charleston Southern 20 (recap)
Washington 31, California 7 (recap)
West Virginia 37, Texas Tech 34 (recap)
Western Michigan 42, Ball State 38 (recap)
Wisconsin 38, Illinois 28 (recap)
Weeknight
No. 25 Stanford 34, Washington State 17 (recap)
San Diego State 24, New Mexico 14 (recap)
UCF 31, BYU 24 (OT) (recap)
UNLV 30, Fresno State 27 (OT) (recap)
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