David HaleNov 9, 2025, 12:07 AM ETCloseCollege football reporter.Joined ESPN in 2012.Graduate of the University of Delaware.Follow on X
play1:05LSU Tigers vs. Alabama Crimson Tide: Full HighlightsLSU Tigers vs. Alabama Crimson Tide: Full Highlights
play0:57Francis Mauigoa crosses goal line for 3-yard rushing touchdownFrancis Mauigoa crosses goal line for 3-yard rushing touchdown.
Oregon prevails on FG in final seconds (0:26)Atticus Sappington seals the game for Oregon with a 39-yard field goal with just three seconds to play. (0:26)
LSU Tigers vs. Alabama Crimson Tide: Full HighlightsLSU Tigers vs. Alabama Crimson Tide: Full Highlights
Francis Mauigoa crosses goal line for 3-yard rushing touchdownFrancis Mauigoa crosses goal line for 3-yard rushing touchdown.
The Big Ten has a lot going for it. It has the sport’s richest TV contract. It has three teams in the top 10. It is the sport’s chief exporter of cheese, beef and punts. What is often missing from Big Ten games, however, is drama.
It’s not that the Big Ten doesn’t have good games, necessarily. It’s just the drama often feels more “Masterpiece Theater” than “Alien vs. Predator” — a slow burn built upon subtle character studies and power run games. Like a 20-year cheddar, it’s made for refined tastes.
But every so often, the Big Ten offers a surprise. We’ll spend a Saturday wallowing in another defensive stalemate, poised to invest in one of those eye-opening contraptions from “A Clockwork Orange” just to stay awake, and then suddenly Indiana-Penn State becomes something utterly unexpected, like Bret Bielema taking off his hoodie to reveal a giant tattoo of Barry Alvarez astride a unicorn with lightning bolts shooting from his eyes. It’s surprising, disturbing and strangely beautiful.
No. 2 Indiana was on the brink of disaster until Fernando Mendoza took the Hoosiers on another trip down the field for a game winner.
No. 9 Oregon toyed with becoming the latest victim of Kirk Ferentz’s uncanny ability to drag every offense in the country into a vat of quicksand until Dante Moore chipped away at Iowa’s blockade to set up a game-winning kick.
There had been little happiness in Happy Valley of late. Penn State had lost five straight entering Saturday’s game with Indiana. It had fired its coach. The seasonal flavors at Berkey Creamery were just OK. Before halftime, a contingent of bros had already removed their shirts, a sure sign of desperation in trying times.
But if the powers that be can take Penn State away from James Franklin, they can’t take the James Franklin out of Penn State, and a win over a top-five team would not come so easily. The Big Ten, after all, isn’t like the grand opening of a Bass Pro Shop. There are rules here, and one of them is that Penn State cannot have nice things.
Mendoza completed passes of 22, 12, 29 and 17, dashing through the Penn State defense like it was security at the Louvre, ultimately delivering a 7-yard touchdown throw to Omar Cooper Jr. in the back of the end zone. Cooper’s grab, which warrants strong consideration for catch of the year, saved the Hoosiers from humiliation, silenced the Penn State crowd, kept Indiana on course for a trip to the Big Ten championship and got Gus Johnson dropped from his health insurance coverage.
Meanwhile, Oregon arrived in Iowa to find weather that could best be described as a circle of hell that Dante’s editors cut from his rough draft, deeming it “too on the nose,” and a Hawkeyes defense that was equally as unpleasant.
Iowa did what it does best. It ran the ball 43 times for a meager 101 yards. It stymied Moore, who entered the final drive of the game having thrown for just 65 yards. The Ducks were stifled deep in Iowa territory again and again.
What couldn’t have been anticipated was a late Iowa touchdown drive of 93 yards on 12 plays, forcing grizzled old Hawkeyes fans to turn to their grandchildren and mutter, “These eyes have never seen such beauty.” Given that the sun had already been blotted, this constituted an uncomfortable number of signs of an impending apocalypse being checked off the list.
But Oregon wasn’t going to go down that easily. Moore dinked and dunked his way down the field, driving to the Iowa 21 before stalling. Oregon sent in kicker Atticus Sappington, who put on hold his quest to regain his rightful title as the 3rd Earl of Huntingdon, to attempt the game winner. Sappington used his cravat, wiped a smudge off his monocle, gently tapped his pipe on his armchair, then strode onto the field to boot a 39-yard field goal to secure an 18-16 win.
But for one Saturday, at least, the Big Ten was the center of the college football universe, the lone purveyor of suspense on a day that desperately needed a dose of excitement.
And if the outcome of all that drama amounts only to further assurances that the Hoosiers and Ducks are playoff bound, let’s just hope they haven’t used up all their magic already.
Each week, the biggest matchups deliver major changes to the playoff picture. Meanwhile, dozens of smaller shifts in the landscape can add up to an even bigger impact. We track those here.
Texas A&M threw for 221, ran for 243 and demolished Missouri 38-17 on Saturday, further staking claim to the top spot in the SEC and all but guaranteeing a playoff bid.
If Texas A&M continues its dominance, it now seems destined to meet Saban’s old employer in the SEC title game. Alabama dispatched with LSU on Saturday 20-9 in a game that proved Louisiana’s governor is no better at designing an offense than Brian Kelly. Ty Simpson threw for 277 yards and a score, Bama’s defense racked up seven tackles for loss and LSU mustered just 232 yards of offense.
LSU Tigers vs. Alabama Crimson Tide: Full Highlights
LSU Tigers vs. Alabama Crimson Tide: Full Highlights
Add in Vanderbilt’s overtime win against Auburn, and the SEC figures to have at least half the top 14 in the next playoff rankings, so for Alabama and A&M to sit comfortably atop the deepest conference in college football — and to do so by once again winning emphatically — speaks volumes.
It has been three years since an SEC team last won it all. That’s nearly as long as the average wait at a Krystal drive-through. But like a late-night Krystal run, the reward for the wait might be well worth it.
If there was any doubt who the favorite in the Big 12 should be, Texas Tech set the record straight with a dominant 29-7 win over BYU on Saturday.
Cameron Dickey ran for 121 yards and a touchdown, Behren Morton played mistake-free ball, and the Red Raiders’ defense was suffocating, led by Jacob Rodriguez, who had 14 tackles and an interception. The Red Raiders had three takeaways, held BYU to just 255 total yards and allowed just three conversions on 14 third-down tries.
It’s further proof that Texas Tech’s decision to treat the transfer portal like the buffet at a Golden Corral was a stroke of brilliance. After all, nothing bad has ever happened after consuming too many portions of popcorn shrimp that have been sitting under a heat lamp for six hours.
Adding to the emphatic result Saturday, Texas Tech fans found a workaround for the rule banning the throwing of tortillas onto the field by throwing them — um, not on the field.
No, it wasn’t a good day for Mississippi State, which was demolished by Georgia 41-21 as Gunner Stockton threw for 269 yards and three touchdowns. But Stockton couldn’t supply the most romantic moment of the game, despite preparing for the contest by sitting in his F-150, listening to Journey’s “Open Arms” on cassette and staring longingly at a photo of Uga trying to bite an Auburn player.
Kiffin, whose Ole Miss team cruised past The Citadel 49-0, is like the cupid of college football, insofar as he appreciates a romantic gesture like this, and also because he’s the most likely SEC coach to shoot someone with an arrow.
Sure, getting engaged during a blowout loss or a blowout win over an FCS foe might not be what these young ladies always dreamed of, but as anyone who has ever held a rehearsal dinner at Waffle House can tell you, you can’t spell “romance” without S-E-C.
Army escaped Temple 14-13 by running out the clock on an Owls’ comeback effort with an 18-play drive that ate up the final 9:53 before the Black Knights took a knee at the Temple 5-yard line.
Afterward, Army’s keep-away performance was lauded as the greatest triumph of American military strategy since Patton famously engaged Mussolini in a nearly three-day version of the “Orange you glad I didn’t say ‘Banana'” joke while the Allies took control of the Mediterranean.
Things are bleak in Boulder, as Colorado lost its third straight — 29-22 to West Virginia — assuring the Buffaloes will miss out on a bowl in Deion Sanders’ third season at the helm.
Colorado freshman QB Julian Lewis got the start and had some good moments, throwing for 299 yards and two scores, but he was sacked seven times, including one particularly painful takedown.
It’s the most unfortunate hair day in college football since Mike Gundy got his mullet caught in an escalator at the mall while trying to prove gravity only exists because we believe it does.
Dabo Swinney, hoping to send a message to his team after a 3-5 start, reportedly gave his players Sour Patch Kids before Saturday’s game with Florida State — a reminder that you have to get through the sour before you get to the sweet.
Cade Klubnik threw for a touchdown and ran for another, and the Clemson defense sacked Tommy Castellanos six times and forced two Florida State turnovers en route to a 24-10 win.
After the game, FSU coach Mike Norvell handed out 100 Grand bars to his team to symbolize the hefty buyout he’s likely to be getting after the Seminoles lost their fifth game to fall to 1-5 in ACC play.
Memphis wasn’t ranked in the committee’s first top 25, but the Tigers were still pegged as the top team outside the Power 4 and in line for a playoff berth.
On Friday, Tulane upended those plans, as Jake Retzlaff threw for 322 yards and three touchdowns, and the Green Wave toppled Memphis 38-32.