“Shakeup Saturday” Sends College Football Playoff Picture Into Chaos

By Tyler Brett @atylerbrett on October 5, 2014

After the first month of the season, many felt that we had a pretty good feeling about how the college football landscape was looking. Teams had shown what they were capable of and were on a clear path to earn a spot in the inaugural College Football Playoff this postseason. Well after a wild Saturday that saw plenty of huge upsets, we will have to throw all of that out the window as the College Football Playoff picture has descended into utter chaos.

The shakeups started on Thursday when the No. 2 Oregon Ducks failed to take care of business at home against the unranked Arizona Wildcats 31-24. That figured to be a major blow just to the chances of the Ducks and possibly the Pac-12 to get a representative into the playoff. What we didn’t realize, though, is that Oregon’s loss was simply setting up the theme of the weekend with college football’s early contenders coming up short.

Before the chaos on Saturday began, then-unbeaten BYU fell at home to an average-at-best Utah State team after Cougars quarterback Taysom Hill broke his leg in the second quarter. Not only will this likely remove BYU from the top 25, the Cougars are likely done as a ranked team in 2014.

Dak Prescott fueled the No. 12 Mississippi State Bulldogs over the No. 6 Texas A&M Aggies 48-31 to get Saturday off to a raucous start. Not long after, the No. 11 Ole Miss Rebels proved the state of Mississippi was serious about their college football when they upset the No. 3 Alabama Crimson Tide 23-17 with three second-half touchdown passes from quarterback Bo Wallace. These two games sent shockwaves through the College Football Playoff landscape as well as shifting the power in the SEC West squarely into the state of Mississippi.

But the SEC wasn’t the only conference to see their heavyweights fall to the upset. The No. 4 Oklahoma Sooners, largely considered the favorites to win the Big 12, stumbled in Fort Worth against the TCU Horned Frogs 37-33. With the Sooners falling, four of the top six ranked teams in the AP poll all lost in the same week for the first time since 1990, shredding the top 10 like Swiss cheese coming out of the wild Week 6 slate of games. But it wasn’t just the top-ranked teams that fell victim to upsets.

The No. 17 Wisconsin Badgers squandered a career day out of Melvin Gordon, who rushed for 259 yards and a touchdown, losing their Big Ten opener to the unranked Northwestern Wildcats, putting a serious dent in the Badgers’ hopes of winning the Big Ten title. The No. 16 USC Trojans, rebounding from an early non-conference loss to appear as a Pac-12 contender, lost a shootout to the Arizona State Sun Devils, who tumbled out of the top 25 last week after getting blown out by the UCLA Bruins.

Speaking of the No. 8 Bruins, they got more than they could handle from the Utah Utes in the Rose Bowl 30-28. UCLA had looked shaky out of the gates to start the season but seemed to regain their form in Week 5 behind a rejuvenated Brett Hundley. But that didn’t help them escape against a Utah offense featuring an explosive running game led by Devontae Booker. The Bruins’ propensity for playing with fire finally got them burned, just like many of the other top teams in college football this weekend.

Including games between two ranked teams, 11 of the AP top 25 lost this week, which will have far-reaching implications on how the top teams shake out heading into Week 7. Parity is clearly alive and well in college football as the top of the rankings will look seriously different than they did coming into this weekend. Projections for the College Football Playoff will also take a serious hit as the top of the rankings shifted significantly this week.

That means that plenty of teams that didn’t look like contenders at the beginning of the year will make a serious move into the playoff conversation. The No. 1 Florida State Seminoles will see their position at the top tighten after being one of the few top-ranked teams to look dominant in their 43-3 win over the Wake Forest Demon Deacons. Their opponent in last year’s BCS National Championship, the No. 5 Auburn Tigers, figure to slide up to No. 2 right behind them, setting up a possible rematch in the playoffs (if both teams avoid similar upsets as their fellow top-ranked teams did this week).

Beyond that, the Notre Dame Fighting Irish, currently ranked No. 9, figure to see a healthy bump in the rankings after their big win over the No. 14 Stanford Cardinal. Both the Mississippi schools, Bulldogs and Rebels, also will make a major jump following their big week. The Baylor Bears, currently No. 7, will move up simply by default as one of just five teams in the top 10 to not lose this week (though they were far from impressive in a 28-7 win over the Texas Longhorns). Teams like the Georgia Bulldogs, currently No. 13, and the Ohio State Buckeyes, No. 20, figure to get new life in their hopes to make a run at the College Football Playoff after dominant showings against unranked foes this week (an impressive feat when you consider the rest of the field).

While there will be plenty of people disappointed that some of these favorites fell, there’s no doubt that the Playoff Committee is thrilled to see this kind of parity. With nobody safe to coast their way to the end of the year, intrigue and excitement will be at an all-time high each and every week to see who can last until the end of the year. As Week 6 proved, any week can see any team tumble out of the running by failing to bring their best on the field.

After a wild weekend like this one, the only thing that we know for sure is that change is coming to top 25 this week and a major shakeup to the race for the College Football Playoff is on the horizon. While every team is hoping for a shot at the College Football Playoff this postseason, many of them are learning the hard way that every week of the college football season is a playoff game.

Will any of this week’s upset victims find a way back into the conversation? Or will college football’s first playoff be taken by an unexpected team who simply survived a crazy season of upsets?

You can follow me on Twitter @ATylerBrett, on Facebook and on Google.