What happened in Week 13? We are now down to one undefeated FBS team following No. 5 Indiana‘s loss to No. 2 Ohio State and No. 19 Army’s loss to No. 6 Notre Dame. On top of that, four ranked teams fell to their unranked opponents on Saturday.
With No. 16 Colorado’s loss to Kansas and No. 14 BYU falling to No. 21 Arizona State, the Big 12 has a four-way tie at the top of the standings. What does each team have to do next week to reach the conference title game?
After their defense dominated the Hoosiers at Ohio Stadium, the Buckeyes have one more conference matchup left. What do they need to do to meet Oregon in the Big Ten title game?
How did Saturday’s action affect our Power Rankings?
Here’s the latest top 25 from our college football experts, who provide their insight on each team following Week 13.
Previous ranking: 1
Oregon’s second bye week of the year is as good a time as any to recognize not just how the Ducks have gotten to 11-0, but how far the offensive line specifically has come since the first few weeks of the season. In its first two games, Oregon’s offensive line gave up seven sacks. Over the past nine games, it has kept quarterback Dillon Gabriel upright, allowing only five sacks total. The improvement began in the Ducks’ third game against UCLA, when they shifted Iapani Laloulu to starting center. Lalolulu, a sophomore from Hawaii, has anchored the unit. Per Pro Football Focus, Laloulu has not allowed a sack in 270 pass blocking snaps.
The move and subsequent improvement has both limited the number of sacks and quarterback pressures, but beyond that, it has facilitated the Ducks’ running game. In the first two games of the season, they averaged fewer than 3 yards per carry. Since then, they have averaged over 5 and have 20 rushing touchdowns total. It has all added up to one of the most effective offenses in the country, an undefeated season so far and a potent recipe as Oregon heads toward a conference championship and playoff run. — Paolo Uggetti
Previous ranking: 2
The Buckeyes (10-1) have upped their blitz rate since their 32-31 loss to Oregon on Oct. 12. They didn’t get a single sack against Ducks quarterback Dillon Gabriel, who threw for 341 yards while averaging a whopping 9.6 yards per dropback. Since then, they have overwhelmed opposing quarterbacks. During Saturday’s resounding 38-15 win over Indiana, Ohio State sacked quarterback Kurtis Rourke five times. Off the blitz, linebacker Cody Simon especially wreaked havoc, finishing with 2.5 sacks and a forced fumble. With little time to throw, most notably in obvious passing situations, Rourke completed just 8 of his 18 attempts for 68 yards. If the Buckeyes take care of Michigan, they’ll get a rematch with Oregon in the Big Ten championship game. There, they’ll be sure to unleash the blitz in a way they didn’t in Eugene. — Jake Trotter
Previous ranking: 3
The Longhorns (10-1) have consecutive 10-win seasons for the first time since 2008-09, accomplished in both the Big 12 and the SEC. But this team hasn’t been all flash. The Longhorns have been able to adapt to whatever form necessary to keep winning, aside from their loss to Georgia this year. On Saturday, Quintrevion Wisner had a career-high 158 yards rushing, averaging 6.1 yards per carry. But the biggest difference this season has been the pass defense. Last year, Texas allowed 254.4 yards per game through the air, and this year, they have cut that to just 143.5 per game, ranking No. 1 in the nation.
The pass rush has helped quite a bit. Against Kentucky, the Longhorns pressured Brock Vandagriff and Cutter Boley on 14 of their 31 dropbacks. The Longhorns have a big one next week, traveling to College Station to renew their rivalry with Texas A&M (whom they haven’t played since 2011), with a spot in the SEC championship game for the winner. — Dave Wilson
Previous ranking: 9
The Irish won their ninth straight game Saturday night with a 49-14 blowout of previously unbeaten Army at Yankee Stadium. Since that forgettable 16-14 loss to Northern Illinois on Sept. 7, Notre Dame (10-1) has been better at a little bit of everything and looks to be a lock for the playoff if it can finish out the regular season with a win over USC. The Irish have improved across the board on defense after giving up nearly 400 yards to Northern Illinois, and they clamped down on Army’s running game.
The Black Knights came into the game leading the country in rushing (334.9 yards per game), but Bryson Daily could never get on track. The Irish haven’t played what you would call a killer schedule since the loss in Week 2 but have won every game but one by double digits. Running back Jeremiyah Love continues to be a key weapon for the Irish. He scored two more rushing touchdowns, including a 68-yarder, and has 14 on the season. — Chris Low
Previous ranking: 5
Tyler Warren had a touchdown catch in Penn State’s (10-1) season-opening win at West Virginia, but the tight end extraordinaire wasn’t the focal point of the Nittany Lions’ offense right away. He had 50 receiving yards or fewer in four of the team’s first five games before his record-setting performance Oct. 12 at USC, when he set career highs for receptions (17) and receiving yards (224). Since then, Warren has been the centerpiece of Penn State’s offense. He has seven or more receptions in four of Penn State’s past five games, while taking on a bigger role in the run game as well.
In Penn State’s 26-25 win over Minnesota on Saturday, Warren led the team with eight receptions for 102 yards, including an 11-yard reception on fourth-and-1 that allowed the Nittany Lions to run out the clock and keep their CFP hopes firmly intact. He continues to provide quarterback Drew Allar with a reliable option and offset PSU’s limitations at wide receiver. Warren and Bowling Green’s Harold Fannin Jr. are the top two candidates for the Mackey Award (given to the top tight end in the nation). — Adam Rittenberg
Previous ranking: 8
The Bulldogs (9-2) might have been a popular pick to reach the SEC championship game before the season, but their route in getting back to Atlanta has been far more difficult than it was the past few seasons. Injuries along the offensive line and at tailback resulted in a mediocre running game, putting more pressure on quarterback Carson Beck. He had 12 interceptions in a six-game stretch and played poorly in the first half of a loss at Alabama and another loss at Ole Miss. Beck has played efficiently and avoided big mistakes in Georgia’s past two victories over Tennessee and UMass.
After All-America guard Tate Ratledge returned, the offensive line has provided enough protection (one sack in the past two games), and the Bulldogs are running the ball again. Georgia’s tight ends have also stepped up, and freshman tailback Nate Frazier looks like a star. If Georgia beats Georgia Tech at home Friday night, it should be back in the CFP, regardless of what happens against the Texas-Texas A&M winner in the SEC championship game. — Mark Schlabach
Previous ranking: 10
Cam Ward has dazzled for the majority of the season, starting with the opener against Florida. But where Miami (10-1) has improved the most is building depth in its running back room, and that showed in a 42-14 win over Wake Forest. The Hurricanes added freshman Jordan Lyle to the mix with Damien Martinez and Mark Fletcher Jr. Lyle had seven carries for 115 yards and a score, while Martinez added 63 yards and Fletcher 55. Miami rushed for 228 yards and a whopping 7.1 yards per carry. Ward added 280 yards passing, showing the type of balance Miami wants but has not achieved consistently. Up next is a Syracuse team that has struggled to stop the run this season. A win clinches a spot for the Hurricanes in the ACC championship game. — Andrea Adelson
Previous ranking: 13
Kevin Jennings and the offense were dominant again, and SMU’s emphatic win at Virginia offered the latest statement that the Mustangs aren’t just ACC upstarts, but the genuine favorite in the conference and a legitimate playoff team. SMU (10-1) is one of just eight remaining undefeated or one-loss teams in the Power 4, and since Jennings took over as the starting QB, the Mustangs are 8-0 and averaging 41 points per game. — David Hale
Previous ranking: 12
While SEC (and CFP) rivals Ole Miss and Alabama were suffering upset losses, Tennessee benefited by simply handling its business against UTEP in a 56-0 win. Nico Iamaleava overcame a slow start — three punts in the first three drives — to complete 17 of 23 passes for 209 yards and four touchdowns, including Bru McCoy‘s first two touchdown catches of the season. Iamaleava was nearly perfect as the Volunteers unleashed a 28-0 second quarter to salt the game away. Tennessee’s offense hasn’t averaged over 5.8 yards per play in an SEC game all season but cruised along at 6.8 against the outmanned Miners, and after finding themselves on the outside looking in with this week’s CFP rankings, the Vols should be comfortably in the field of 12 when the rankings are updated Tuesday. — Connelly
Previous ranking: 4
Even though Indiana got routed by Ohio State 38-15 on Saturday, the Hoosiers have continued to impress with their red zone defense. In the first half at Ohio Stadium, Indiana allowed just one touchdown on three Ohio State possessions in the red zone. The Hoosiers stuffed Quinshon Judkins on fourth-and-1 from the Indiana 2-yard line.
Later, D’Angelo Ponds broke up a pass, which landed in the arms of Jailin Walker for an interception at the Hoosiers’ 11, thwarting another Ohio State scoring opportunity. Those plays kept Indiana in the game through halftime, even though its offense gained just 53 yards, the Hoosiers’ lowest first-half total in a decade. In Indiana’s previous game, it allowed Michigan to score just one touchdown on three red zone chances. The Hoosiers are now in the top half of the Big Ten in red zone defensive efficiency. — Trotter
Previous ranking: 11
For all of the attention Ashton Jeanty and Boise State’s offense gets, there isn’t much discussed about the Broncos’ defense. When the season began, there wasn’t much to praise on that side of the ball. Opponents scored over 30 points in three of the first five games, and Boise State allowed over 400 yards three times. Over the past five games, however, the unit has shown slight yet important improvements. No team has scored more than 24 points on the Broncos (10-1), and they’ve held teams under 350 yards three separate times. Spencer Danielson’s team has shown time and time again that it can win shootouts. All they need is for the defense to be serviceable and do enough to allow their offense to win games. In the back half of the season, the Broncos have done just that. — Uggetti
Previous ranking: 20
The Sun Devils (9-2) are one of the hottest teams in the country, and a trip to the Big 12 title game (and even the CFP) is now within reach following their dramatic 28-23 win over BYU. They’ve won four in a row ever since Sam Leavitt came back from his rib injury. We’re watching the redshirt freshman blossom into one of the best young QBs in the FBS on a weekly basis. Leavitt has the second-best QBR in the Big 12 over the past month (83.8) (behind only Shedeur Sanders) and is averaging 8.7 yards per attempt with a 10-1 TD-INT ratio. He’s taking care of the football and playing his best at the best possible time. — Max Olson
Previous ranking: 19
The Tigers picked a good week to play an FCS team. While chaos ruled the day around them, Clemson took care of business with a 51-14 win over The Citadel behind three touchdown passes by Cade Klubnik. The Tigers are now 9-2, marking their 14th straight season of nine wins or more. More importantly, the losses around them in the top 25 leave the door wide open for a playoff berth. A win next week against South Carolina would offer a signature victory over the SEC — home of the majority of the teams Clemson would be judged against. A Miami loss next week would also push the Tigers into the ACC title game, which could be either a blessing or a curse at this point. — Hale
Previous ranking: 6
It’s difficult to pull many positives after the Crimson Tide’s crushing stumble at Oklahoma in Week 13, but a once-vulnerable Alabama secondary that Georgia tore up for 439 passing yards on Sept. 28 has steadily improved over the course of the season. The Sooners’ success on the ground — and the overall state of their passing game — meant there wasn’t much work for the Crimson Tide defensive backs in Saturday’s 24-3 defeat.
While the secondary remains the weak link in Alabama’s defense, the unit anchored by Malachi Moore and Domani Jackson was strong enough to keep a lid on LSU’s passing attack on Nov. 9, and the Crimson Tide (8-3) entered the weekend ranked 18th among FBS defenses in pass defense (181.2 yards per game) after holding four of their past five opponents below 200 passing yards. — Eli Lederman
Previous ranking: 7
All Ole Miss had to do was beat Florida and Mississippi State, and Lane Kiffin’s Rebels would have likely secured their first College Football Playoff bid. Instead, they became the second straight ranked team to fall in the Swamp, suffering a 24-17 defeat. Jaxson Dart threw for 323 yards and two touchdowns, but he lost the plot late, throwing two bad interceptions; his 22-yard scoring strike to Cayden Lee with 9:05 left in the second quarter turned out to be the Rebels’ last touchdown of the day. Ole Miss (8-3) scored just three points in its last eight drives. There was enough chaos elsewhere that the Rebels’ playoff hopes aren’t completely dusted, but they’re going to need some more chaos over Rivalry Week to have a chance. — Bill Connelly
Previous ranking: 18
With the CFP bubble getting a lot weirder, and a couple of key conference mates joining the pile of three-loss teams on Saturday, South Carolina, 18th in the CFP rankings, got a breather with a 56-12 win over Wofford. Quarterback LaNorris Sellers overcame an early interception to go 23-for-27 for 307 yards and three touchdowns, and he added 53 rushing yards and another score. Dalevon Campbell caught five passes for 120 yards, and 12 different receivers caught at least one pass. The Gamecocks (8-3) gained 608 yards with 34 first downs, and while this was obviously an FCS opponent, the improvement of South Carolina’s offense has been a consistent storyline over the second half of the season. Even with the SEC’s Saturday upsets, they might not have a particularly realistic path toward the CFP, but their hopes aren’t completely dead yet, either. — Connelly
Previous ranking: 22
The Cyclones (9-2) didn’t crack 90 rushing yards in either of their first two games this fall and have emerged as an effective complement to the Big 12’s fifth-ranked passing attack. Sophomore rusher Carson Hansen upped his touchdown tally this fall to 11 with another pair of scores at Utah on Saturday, including his go-ahead, 3-yard touchdown with 1:31 remaining in a 31-28 road win that got dicey late for the Cyclones. Iowa State’s run game remains middle of the pack in the Big 12, but the Cyclones leaned on the program’s ground attack heavily in conference wins over Baylor (265 rushing yards) and UCF (256), and Hansen has emerged as a red zone weapon with seven of his 11 touchdowns coming from inside the 5-yard line. — Lederman
Previous ranking: 21
The Green Wave offensive line allowed eight sacks across a pair of September losses to Kansas State and Oklahoma. Since then, Tulane quarterbacks have been sacked just six times during the eight-game winning streak that vaulted the Green Wave (9-2) to No. 20 in this week’s College Football Playoff rankings coming off of an idle weekend. Tulane is buoyed by one of the Group of 5’s rising stars in freshman quarterback Darian Mensah and the AAC’s leading rusher in Makhi Hughes. And both are succeeding this fall with the help of an offensive line that enters the final weekend of the regular season ranked 25th in sacks allowed while powering the nation’s 10th-ranked rushing attack. — Lederman
Previous ranking: 14
The Cougars (9-2) played a dangerous game for weeks and their luck has caught up with them having now suffered back-to-back losses with a 28-23 loss at Arizona State on Saturday. The defeat leaves BYU as one of four two-loss teams in the Big 12 and it no longer controls its destiny, as it would not reach the title game if both ASU and Iowa State win next week. After falling behind 21-0 to ASU, the Cougars played much better, but their Hail Mary fell two yards shy of the end zone, which could be the difference between a second-tier bowl game and a College Football Playoff appearance. — Kyle Bonagura
Previous ranking: 15
The Aggies (8-3) lost a heartbreaker on the road at Auburn, with the first drop of Amari Daniels‘ season coming on the last play of the game, as the ball bounced off his hands in overtime in the end zone. It was improbable in many other ways: It marked Auburn’s first win in 15 tries against an AP-ranked team and the first overtime loss by the Aggies after winning seven straight.
The Aggies found some rhythm in their passing game (Marcel Reed was 22-of-35 for 297 yards and a career-high three TDs, adding 66 rushing yards), but the Aggies’ defense imploded, giving up 43 points to a Tigers team that hadn’t scored more than 24 in SEC play this season. The loss is a blow to hopes the Aggies had of reaching the College Football Playoff, but Alabama’s loss means the Aggies can still reach the SEC championship game with a win over Texas next weekend, leaving the door cracked for them to play their way back in. — Wilson
Previous ranking: 24
The Rebels (9-2) can wrap up a 10-win regular season with a win against Nevada next week and would qualify for the Mountain West title game against Boise State in the process. If UNLV loses to Nevada and CSU wins, then it would go to a computer tiebreaker. Beyond the conference title, the Rebels are still in play for the playoff. If they win the Mountain West and finish ranked ahead of the AAC champion in the final CFP rankings, then the Broncos would be in. The early-season QB drama seems so long ago now as UNLV is on pace to finish with one of its best seasons in school history. — Bonagura
Previous ranking: 16
It was Army’s first loss of the season and a lopsided one, as Notre Dame outmanned the Black Knights 49-14 on Saturday in Yankee Stadium. Afterward, Army coach Jeff Monken said it would be unfair to judge his team on that one game and he was proud of the way his team had continued to progress in all areas. Army had one turnover against Notre Dame but has been terrific at taking care of the ball this season.
The defense couldn’t stop Notre Dame, but the goal-line stand in the first half was indicative of the way Army has fought on defense this season. The Black Knights (9-1) still have a lot to play for. They face UTSA on Saturday and then Tulane the following weekend in the AAC championship game and of course rival Navy in the finale. — Low
Previous ranking: 25
The offense started with a pair of three-and-outs, but a 28-7 run resulted in a comfortable 39-20 win for Missouri at Mississippi State. It was the Tigers’ first win over the Bulldogs in three tries since joining the SEC in 2012, and it moved them to 8-3 for the season. Brady Cook completed 15 of 20 passes for 268 yards and a touchdown, and after gaining under 300 yards for two straight games while Cook was battling injury, the offense followed up on last week’s 381-yard effort by gaining 472 against MSU. The difference? Big plays. Cook completed five passes of 28 yards or more, and to four different receivers. The Tigers are still out of the playoff picture, but they have a chance to finish 9-3 with a Battle Line Rivalry win over Arkansas on Saturday. — Connelly
Previous ranking: NR
Coach Bret Bielema’s teams always have been known for running the ball, but Illinois (8-3) showed other strengths for much of the season before returning to its roots down the stretch. The Illini ran for 182 yards and three touchdowns in Saturday’s 38-31 road win against Rutgers, marking their second straight game with three rushing scores and third in the past six contests. Other than the loss to Penn State, when Illinois finished with 34 net rushing yards, the Illini have averaged 158.3 rushing yards in their other seven Big Ten games. Quarterback Luke Altmyer and running backs Josh McCray and Aidan Laughery all found the end zone at Rutgers, as Illinois averaged 5.1 yards per carry. The Illini aren’t the elite run outfit that Bielema frequently had at Wisconsin, but they provide enough on the ground to balance out a passing attack led by wideout Pat Bryant, who had 197 receiving yards and the game-winning touchdown with four seconds to play. — Rittenberg
Previous ranking: 17
The Buffaloes’ defense showed so much progress under new defensive coordinator Robert Livingston throughout this season, but they had no answers for stopping Devin Neal and Kansas in their 37-21 loss in Kansas City. Colorado (8-3) had held every opponent on its schedule under 200 rushing yards — and gave up just 31 yards vs. Utah last week — until the resurgent Jayhawks burned them for 331 yards on 57 carries, with Neal surpassing 200 all by himself. Deion Sanders believes it was an uncharacteristic performance for his defense in every way. They can prove it was a fluke by slowing down Ollie Gordon II and the Oklahoma State Cowboys in their regular-season finale on Friday. — Olson
