- No. 8 Mississippi’s win over No. 11 Oklahoma has essentially secured the Rebels a spot in the College Football Playoff.
- Oklahoma’s playoff chances are slim after the loss, and the team faces a difficult schedule to close out the season.
- Vanderbilt, Brigham Young, and Iowa were among the weekend’s biggest winners, with each team improving its postseason outlook.
No. 8 Mississippi’s 34-26 win against No. 11 Oklahoma is essentially a College Football Playoff clincher for the Rebels, who avoided a second loss in as many weeks and close with South Carolina, The Citadel, Florida and Mississippi State.
While they’ll be expected to run the table in November, the Rebels could likely survive a second loss and earn an at-large berth. Not so for Oklahoma, which may needs to win out against a brutal four-game run to cap the regular season.
No team in the Bowl Subdivision will have it tougher down the stretch. The Sooners will play No. 17 Tennessee and No. 4 Alabama on the road and then face No. 14 Missouri and No. 19 LSU at home.
The odds of a playoff berth are growing increasingly slim. A more pertinent question with a crucial run ahead: Can the Sooners and Brent Venables salvage some lost momentum with a strong November and at a minimum avoid a highly scrutinized offseason?
Doing so would require some major growth from an offense that has cratered after a strong start, in no small part because of an injury to quarterback John Mateer. While he missed only the Kent State win, the Washington State transfer has two touchdowns against three interceptions and just 36 rushing yards in his past three games.
And while the defense has helped carry the load, the Rebels gained 431 yards and ran 87 plays, eventually wearing down the Sooners’ defense and owning the fourth quarter.
There needs to be a recalibration of expectations. This isn’t an elite team, the earlier win against No. 24 Michigan notwithstanding; the Wolverines would probably be favored if the two teams met next Saturday. Oklahoma is a pretty good team in a brutal conference that chews up and spits out good teams.
At this point, the Sooners have to win at least one and likely two games in November to develop some momentum heading into what should be a make-or-break 2026 season for Venables.
Oklahoma and Vanderbilt lead Saturday’s biggest winners and losers:
Winners
Vanderbilt
This is the world we live in: No. 2 Indiana is an absolute behemoth and No. 10 Vanderbilt is pretty damn good, too. The Commodores scored one of the biggest regular-season wins in program history by beating Missouri 17-10, securing the victory with a late defensive stand after taking the lead on a Diego Pavia touchdown run with under two minutes to play. Now 7-1 and with beleaguered Texas up next, Vanderbilt is inching closer to an unexpected playoff berth that would speak to the wildly increased level of parity in the Power Four. Pavia had 149 yards of offense and that one score while Missouri lost starting quarterback Beau Pribula to an injury early in the second half.
Texas A&M
No. 3 A&M actually trailed LSU 18-14 at halftime, which makes it even more ridiculous to see the Aggies lead 35-18 with four minutes left in the third quarter. This 49-25 win was a story of two programs heading into opposite directions: LSU is down, down, down under Brian Kelly while the Aggies are flourishing in a major way under second-year coach Mike Elko. The highly impressive third quarter showed that A&M is not just capable of winning the SEC but the whole thing, too, especially with the way the offense, defense and special teams worked in concert to bulldoze hapless LSU. At this point, the Aggies are everything the Tigers are not.
Brigham Young
Unbeaten but still not taken too seriously as a legitimate contender, No. 10 Brigham Young climbed out of a pair of double-digit holes in the first half and scored a 41-27 win at Iowa State behind an eye-opening game from freshman Bear Bachmeier. While the Cyclones turned the ball over four times, including three interceptions from Rocco Becht, Bachmeier threw for 307 yards, ran for a team-high 49 yards and had three combined touchdowns with no giveaways. Being plus-four in turnovers meant the difference for the Cougars, who were outgained overall and gave up 184 yards on the ground. Now 8-0, BYU has turned a corner as a program the past two seasons.
Iowa
While a shot the Big Ten crown is unlikely given an earlier loss to No. 2 Indiana, the recipe is coming together for Iowa just in time to make a serious run at an at-large playoff bid. The Hawkeyes combined an elite defense, a largely error-free performance on offense and opportunistic special teams to swamp Minnesota 41-3, continuing an outright ownership of this rivalry. (Some Big Ten math: Iowa is to Minnesota what Minnesota is to Nebraska, but Iowa is also to Nebraska what Minnesota is to Nebraska, if that makes sense.) Iowa got started with a 75-yard touchdown drive on the game’s opening possession and then scored on a pick-six and a punt return to lead 31-0 at halftime.
Houston
The Cougars are for real in coach Willie Fritz’s second season. (He’s won everywhere else he’s been, so we’re not surprised.) While No. 25 Arizona State made things tight by scoring 16 points in the fourth quarter, beating the Sun Devils 24-16 in Tempe might be the program’s best wins in years given how firmly Houston is now set as one of the top contenders in the Big 12 heading into November.
Losers
UCLA
Nico Iamaleava was sacked on the first play of scrimmage, tossed a pick-six a play later and things didn’t get much better for UCLA, which completely outclassed in a 56-6 loss to Indiana that snapped a three-game winning streak in Big Ten play. Iamaleava completed 13 of 27 throws for 113 yards and had two interceptions as the Hoosiers held UCLA to just 201 yards on 3.8 yards per play. While not unexpected, the loss does reveal the Bruins’ inherent flaws heading into games against Nebraska, No. 1 Ohio State, Washington and Southern California to end the regular season.
Brian Kelly
Red-faced and furious Brian Kelly we know. But we’re becoming more familiar with where-am-I-and-what’s-happening Brian Kelly, who had blank stares and few words as A&M was driving his team into the ground in the second half. That he’s running out of answers means LSU is running out of time and patience with a coach who is destined to become the first since Gerry DiNardo to not win a national championship with the Tigers.
Bill Belichick
Moral victories aren’t why UNC is paying a six-time Super Bowl champion $10 million per season. But that’s where we are with the Tar Heels, who fought and clawed to hang with No. 16 Virginia – just like California the week before – but lost 17-16 in overtime to fall to 2-5 overall and 0-3 in the ACC. The defense has made some nice gains since the opener against TCU, but the UNC offense is a punchless and inept group that will clearly need to be redone this offseason. The big question: Will Belichick be around for the overhaul?
SMU
Wake Forest drilled a 50-yard field goal with no time left and topped SMU 13-12 to snap the Mustangs’ 20-game winning streak in regular-season conference games, the longest streak in the FBS. Now with a loss in conference and three overall, SMU can only make a return trip to the playoff by winning out – and getting a little bit of help along the way – to reach the ACC championship game. That’s good news for Arkansas, which has zeroed in on SMU coach Rhett Lashlee to replace Sam Pittman and could make that hire official in early December instead of waiting until later in the month.
South Florida
The No. 20 Bulls led Memphis 21-7 in the second quarter, 24-14 at halftime and 31-17 heading into the fourth quarter but lost 34-31 after missing a 52-yard field goal as time expired. This is an awful loss for a team that went into the weekend atop the American and in the driver’s seat for the Group of Five’s guaranteed playoff bid. It’s also hard to see how this happened: USF racked up 564 yards overall, ran for 295 yards on 7.8 yards per carry, held Memphis just 3.8 yards per carry and converted 12 of 18 third-down attempts. The loss drops the Bulls a game behind Navy in the conference standings.
