We are somehow already halfway through the college football season after what was easily the wildest weekend of the year so far.

Five of the top 10 teams in the country suffered losses on Saturday and the result was a drastically different AP poll. There are only six undefeated teams left in college football — No. 1 Miami, No. 2 BYU, No. 8 Texas Tech, No. 9 UCLA, No. 10 Utah and unranked James Madison — and there have been plenty of surprises early this season.

After beating top-ranked Ohio State in Week 2, Arch Manning and Texas have fallen off with consecutive losses to unranked Oklahoma and Florida (it's the first time since 1990 that the No. 1 team in the country has been taken down by unranked opponents in consecutive weeks). Another preseason title contender, Oregon, has stumbled out of the blocks and fallen out of the rankings completely without Dante Moore.

College football mainstays Penn State, Washington, Florida State and Arizona State all have several losses, and every single team in the SEC has already dropped a conference game.

Which teams are punching above their weight? Wake Forest has seemingly come out of nowhere and sits in second in the ACC. Northwestern’s only blemish is a 29-23 loss to defending champion Indiana. And the Bruins remain undefeated in Bob Chesney’s first year with the program.

So, what can we expect from the rest of the season? Our college football experts offer up their Heisman picks, title predictions, biggest surprises, disappointments and more below.

Five of the top seven AP-ranked teams in the country lost in Week 7, including two of those (Georgia and Texas) to unranked opponents at home. The historic Saturday is indicative of a big-picture, landscape-altering situation in the industry: parity!

We’ve seen a gradual increase in parity since the combination of NIL and free transfers arrived in college sports in 2021. The blue bloods no longer have their stranglehold on a recruiting environment that changed drastically. Big stadiums, historic brands, past success, recruiting budgets — none of that means as much anymore. Direct athlete compensation, plus player mobility, has leveled the field for many of the top 30-40 power league programs, leading to results like Saturday — a showcase of parity-driven volatility.

Do no expect it to end. The rise of Texas Tech, Indiana, SMU, Ole Miss and even down to Miami’s resurgence will continue onward. Look at Kentucky this year, for example, and UCLA under first-year coach Bob Chesney (the Bruins are the only unbeaten team in the SEC or Big Ten). Get ready for a wild second half of a season that reminds us all that college football is different now. Two to three-loss national champions? It’s possible if not probable.

Look, we all knew this season was going to be a weird one right from Week Zero, when William & Mary (my alma mater) took down Villanova after trailing by 10 in the final 53 seconds of the game. And the first two months of the season have only followed in that chaotic tradition.

Let’s begin with the bad news. I said it in August, I took some heat for it in September, I reiterate it in October: Texas, Steve Sarkisian and Arch Manning continue to be the season’s (if not the decade’s) biggest disappointment. Gifted with every possible opportunity, benefit of the doubt and alumni dollar in the state of Texas, the Longhorns still can’t keep from tripping over their own horns.

On a more positive note, Darian Mensah of Miami is actually carrying through on his Heisman promise, at least so far. Braden Atkinson is on a lucrative pathway from Mercer to Oregon State to holding a clipboard on Sundays. And remember the name Brooks Davis; he’ll have plenty of suitors if he decides to jump from Montana into the spotlight next year.

And since college football is best when it’s flawed, weird and dumb, I wrap with these beauties. Worst coaching decision of the year — so far — goes to Montana State’s Brent Vigen, who called timeout with one second remaining even though his team was leading a no-timeouts-remaining Idaho 34-27. Granted an unexpected extra play, Idaho scored from 25 yards out, then converted the 2-point conversion to vulture away a win.

Finally, just try wrapping your head around this: At the conclusion of two separate games this same season, Michigan didn’t have a second remaining, got gifted one, and won, while Notre Dame had a second remaining, didn’t get to use it, and lost. College football. Always the best.

There are a lot of disappointing teams, but for Matt Campbell to be 0-4 in the Big Ten in his first year at Penn State is almost impossible to believe. Though it was certainly not the smoothest transition out of the James Franklin era, you’ve got to be able to get enough talent in the door at Penn State to be in the upper third of the Big Ten. That shouldn’t even be in question. Instead, it’s been a disaster for Campbell and Rocco Becht, the quarterback he brought with him from Iowa State. The players just aren’t good enough to win in the Big Ten, and Campbell is not going to get much leeway to fix this mess.

It’s even more painful for the Nittany Lions because they probably should have just hired Pennsylvania native Bob Chesney, who has UCLA at 6-0 and very much in the mix for a CFP bid. So many schools missed on Chesney because he hadn’t coached at a name-brand program but had won everywhere he’s been and is doing the same in Westwood. It goes to show you that demonstrated competence at multiple levels of football plus a solid plan can turn things around quickly — even at a school like UCLA that so many people considered a coaching graveyard.

From top to bottom, it's obvious that the SEC is the best conference in college football. It's also the most unpredictable. And I'm quickly coming to the realization that it's going to cost the SEC a chance at the national title once again. With Julian Sayin's injury, it feels like Notre Dame, Miami and Indiana are the top three national title contenders. I still think Georgia is the SEC's best hope, but — and this might be recency bias after the Auburn loss — I'm not totally sure I trust Georgia's offense to do enough throughout the CFP.

My worst coaching decision may seem curious, but it's hard not to wonder if Tosh Lupoi's recent decision to open up the quarterback competition at Cal could lead to the offseason departure of Jaron-Keawe Sagopolutele. Remember, JKS picked Cal over Oregon after briefly enrolling in Eugene, and there hasn't been much from Oregon's backups to show that the Ducks and Dan Lanning will be content with the status quo after Dante Moore's likely departure following the 2026 season.

I also realize that UCLA will probably be the trendy pick for surprise team, but Bob Chesney was always going to get the ship righted sooner rather than later in Los Angeles. I'm really impressed with what Kentucky has done in Will Stein's first year. Oregon is missing Stein more than a lot of us realized.

Before the season began, I picked Oregon to win it all. The Ducks had followed up a College Football Playoff quarterfinal appearance with a trip to the CFP semifinals last season. Ranked top 15 in ESPN’s returning production metric, I felt good about a Dan Lanning-led program finally capturing that elusive national championship. But during a Week 2 loss at Oklahoma State, Dante Moore didn’t look like the quarterback who could have gone as high as No. 2 overall in this year’s NFL Draft. Then he suffered a scary concussion at USC. Regardless of who’s been under center, the Ducks’ offense has left a lot to be desired. Oregon has sorely missing former offensive coordinator Will Stein, who’s now at the helm of an upstart Kentucky team.

Those Wildcats were a candidate for my midseason “biggest surprise,” but I went with Wake Forest instead. The Demon Deacons, piloted by second-year head coach Jake Dickert, have already won four games on the road. Last month, they wound up putting up a fight against Miami. And they’ve outscored their past three opponents 136-24. With Virginia, FCS Merrimack, SMU, Georgia Tech and Duke remaining on its schedule, Wake has a legitimate path to the ACC title game. It was voted to finish 13th in the conference. As for UCLA? I had my preseason whiffs, yet Bob Chesney’s Big Ten breakoutwas one of my better predictions.

Speaking of Chesney, I’m penciling his old program in for the Group of Six CFP bid. James Madison is 7-0, and its leading man, Billy Napier, has won 19 straight Sun Belt games, dating back to his Louisiana days. Boise State could very well nab that G6 spot in the 12-team field; however, don’t count out Napier’s JMU, which has a top-10 leading rusher in running back George Pettaway.

Even if you don’t know Pettaway, you probably recognize Jesse Legree. The Oregon State wideout leads the nation with 1,040 receiving yards and 14 touchdown catches, and he’s only a freshman. He’s becoming one of the most coveted players in college football. Ohio State’s Jeremiah Smith isn’t far off those numbers, though. Smith’s my Heisman Trophy pick at this point. It was already clear he was the best player in the sport. Now he’s got the numbers to help him win an award that’s favored QBs for years.

After sorting through the carnage of an upset-filled week, I’ve got Georgia beating Notre Dame in the national championship. Yes, both the Bulldogs and Fighting Irish are coming off defeats. That said, Georgia lost to Auburn in a game where it had a field goal blocked, Gunner Stockton uncharacteristically turned the ball over three times, the Bulldogs committed three personal foul penalties and a Tigers receiver made arguably the catch of the year. And Notre Dame’s setback against BYU came with controversy, as the Big 12 admitted an officiating mistake that cost Marcus Freeman’s squad a final second and, in turn, a final play to possibly beat the Cougars (and that’s not to mention the disputed DPI no-call). CJ Carr is among the better QBs in the country. Plus, Notre Dame is tied for fifth nationally in points per game allowed. I’m expecting the Bulldogs and Irish to bounce back, big time.