This season is Ohio State's third attempt at winning a repeat national championship this century, and each of the past two were covered breathlessly in the Buckeye State and beyond. The Buckeyes appeared on the cover of to begin 2003, and generated best-team-of-all-time talk entering 2015.
It is strange, then, that Ohio State's 2025 outfit has flown under the radar a little bit. It is especially strange because this team is leaps and bounds better than the '03 team, and possibly better than the uber-talented '15 team as well. In eight games this season, the Buckeyes have demonstrated almost no weakness, and they seemed unbothered by a rare off-quarter Saturday in a 38–13 win over Penn State.
Maybe Indiana's rise and an anarchic year at the top of the polls have sucked some regional and national oxygen away from Columbus. Ohio State continues to win anyway. Here's hoping, regardless of its social media impressions, that your team's play was pure this All Saints' Day.
Winner: Julian Sayin
You knew the Buckeyes could defend—their 5.9 point-per-game scoring defense entering Saturday has been cited into the ground. You knew wide receivers Jeremiah Smith and Carnell Tate, both future NFL stars, could catch. Saturday, however, marked a coming-out party for quarterback Julian Sayin. In front of (presumably) a massive television audience, Sayin completed 20 of 23 passes for 316 yards and four touchdowns against last year's national title-winning defensive coordinator in Jim Knowles. The Solana Beach, Calif., native would be wise to block off the second weekend of December for a possible trip to New York.
Loser: ESPN and YouTube TV
This weekend brought an epic showdown between two of the most malevolent actors in American life—but enough about Georgia and Florida fans (we kid! we kid!). YouTube TV's highly public carriage dispute with Disney burnt the entire sports world this weekend, but particularly college football, where ESPN's near-monopoly power over the sport has been a subject of scholarly attention for 15 years. That's not to absolve YouTube TV, whose price-hiking addiction makes Your Local Podunk CableSystem look more enticing by the day. Though Fox is its judge, jury and executioner, the Big Ten's decision to divvy up its TV rights between that network, CBS and NBC was a savvy move in a media space discouraging of competition and hateful toward consumers.
Winner: Rhett Lashlee
Lashlee, the owner of the most Southern first name a human being can have, looked like a slam-dunk candidate for one of the SEC's open jobs this offseason—perhaps Florida, LSU or Arkansas, his alma mater. Instead, he pulled off the admirable two-step of signing an extension and immediately standing on business. On Friday, he locked himself in for two more years with SMU; on Saturday, he steered the Mustangs to a 26–20 overtime win over No. 10 Miami, his former team (the Hurricanes helped SMU out with 12 penalties for 96 yards). The Mustangs, as they did in their 1930s and 1980s heydays, have resources to spare—even if they're stepping back this year, don't think 2024's College Football Playoff trip was an aberration.
Loser: Clemson
Remember 2021, when Clemson's 10-3 season was considered a massive flop? A year like that looks pretty appetizing to Tigers fans right now, especially after what happened against Duke Saturday. The Blue Devils scored with 40 seconds left to down Clemson 46–45—their first win at Memorial Stadium since Jimmy Carter was president. The Tigers, ACC champions and CFP qualifiers last year, now will have to win three of their final four games (no guarantee—Louisville and South Carolina loom). Clemson has not missed a bowl game since 2004 and has not had a losing season since 1998.
Winner: North Carolina
It took a constellation of favorable circumstances Friday—namely Syracuse's quarterback room completely falling apart—but North Carolina coach Bill Belichick finally picked up his first ACC win. The Tar Heels legitimately dominated a disappointing Orange team, outgaining Syracuse 425–147 en route to a 27–10 victory. Quarterback Gio Lopez was efficient (16-for-19 for 216 yards and two touchdowns), and running back Demon June led both teams in receiving and rushing. Baby steps for an improving North Carolina team, which hosts Stanford before closing its season with all three of its Tobacco Road rivals.
Loser: LSU—back in the 1930s
Former Louisiana Senator and Governor Huey Long has been dead for 90 years, and yet his name was on the lips of fans around the state this week as LSU honored its heritage as a cauldron of football and political intrigue. To recap: Republican Governor Jeff Landry publicly announced that athletic director Scott Woodward would not hire the Tigers' replacement for fired coach Brian Kelly; LSU and Woodward parted ways; longtime state Democratic power broker James Carville suggested Woodward should sue Landry for libel (that every politco involved is a Tigers superfan as Long was should go without saying). The upshot here is that, as prestigious of a program as LSU is, this hardly seems like an enticing situation for a coach to enter. Counterpoint: the Tigers lured two Hall of Famers (Biff Jones and Bennie Moore) while Long was in office.
Winner: American magic and dread
At time of writing, there are six teams tied atop the American standings in the loss column with one apiece. A brief breakdown of college football's most exciting conference race: North Texas (4-1 in the conference) beat unbeaten underdog Navy (5-1) Saturday in a non-upset upset; Memphis (4-1) dominated Rice 38–14 Friday on national television; South Florida (3-1) took the week off; UTSA crushed Tulane (3-1) 48–26 Thursday; East Carolina (3-1) blew out an improved Temple team 45–14 Saturday. Got all that? It'd be a stunner if a Group of Five CFP representative didn't emerge from this league, whose .573 collective winning percentage is a conference record.
Loser: Vanderbilt—but not by much
It looked like Texas and quarterback Arch Manning (playing his most complete game of the season) were going to run this season's best story out of Austin Saturday afternoon, as the Longhorns jumped out to a 24–3 lead. Not so fast—Vanderbilt scored 21 unanswered points in the fourth quarter and came unsettlingly close to recovering a final onside kick late. On paper, Texas is more talented than the Commodores and showed them a glimpse of a frontier they have yet to cross. In the near term, if Vanderbilt can hold serve against Auburn and Kentucky, a CFP loser-leaves-town game looms against Tennessee on Nov. 29.
Winner: The Border Conference
Before it had air conditioning and Cormac McCarthy, the American Southwest had the Border Conference. From 1931 to '61, nine teams played on and off in a league centered around what at the time was a sparsely populated area of the country. No team won that conference more frequently than Texas Tech, and on Saturday the Red Raiders crushed Kansas State 43–20 to set up their biggest game in years against BYU next Saturday (will be there). Less successful in that league was New Mexico—but on Saturday, the Lobos beat UNLV to become bowl-eligible for the first time since 2016. Even the ancient conference's less fortunate programs fared well; Division III Hardin-Simmons shelled Howard Payne 54–24.
Loser: Michigan State
Ahead of its game against Minnesota Saturday, Michigan State benched quarterback Aidan Chiles—a quasi-admission of defeat for coach Jonathan Smith, who brought Chiles with him from Oregon State after the 2023 season. His replacement, Alessio Milivojevic, played well but led his team to a 23–20 overtime loss. November is no time for a quarterback controversy anywhere—least of all in East Lansing, Mich., where the Spartans will need to beat Penn State, Iowa and Maryland in succession to qualify for their first bowl game since 2021. An identity crisis abounds at a school light-years from its 2010s success.
