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Forty names, games, teams and minutiae making news in college football, where five field storms in one week says everything about the current state of play.
We are living in interesting, uncertain, unpredictable, occasionally unimpressive times. Excellence is fleeting. There are only three undefeated teams left, and the last season the number was smaller than that on Oct. 24, the year was 1977. There was only one then, Texas, with Earl Campbell. The Longhorns kept it going all the way to the Cotton Bowl, where they were routed by Notre Dame and Joe Montana.
Surveying the wreckage, it’s fair to ask: How many teams are really national title contenders? Somebody has to win it. Very few are stepping up and declaring their capability to do so.
The Dash Circle of Championship Trust numbers roughly four right now. A handful of others lurk outside the circle and could play their way in. Projecting forward, this is the hierarchy as of now:
The Hurricanes aren’t just undefeated, they’ve been challenged only once (albeit a serious challenge, from Florida State in a rivalry game). Their win at Wake Forest, which they led 31–7 in the third quarter, continues to add resonance. Even after removing the massacre of FCS opponent Florida A&M, Miami leads the nation in scoring at 44.6 points per game.
The Canes’ weakness is pass defense, which has been exploited several times this season, but how many great passing attacks are there in the sport right now? And if it comes down to a shootout, go with the team that has the best passing game in the country by a wide margin—that’s Miami, with a 202.11 efficiency rating.
The home loss to Auburn was shockingly bad, but everything else has been very good. That includes a win at Alabama and three other SEC victories by 24 points or more. The presumption is that quarterback Gunner Stockton won’t have any more three-turnover games like he did against the Tigers, and that the Bulldogs won’t be a -3 turnover margin again. If Georgia removes self-sabotage from the equation, it is the best all-around team in the nation in the building-block categories of running the ball, stopping the run and affecting the opposing quarterback. They’re built for a deep playoff run.
This requires a moderate leap of faith after watching the Fighting Irish get outplayed by BYU in their last outing. But that was also the game of a lifetime for the Cougars, and their subsequent performance at Central Florida shows how much they invested in winning it. Notre Dame still had a shot to win and arguably should have had the ball on the 1-yard line with a final play to run, if pass interference had been called in the end zone. The Irish have the No. 1 total defense in the nation and a quarterback who showed his late-game mettle in Provo, Utah, shaking off a shaky performance to lead a desperation drive at the end. With a middling résumé to date—the win over Wisconsin is doing a lot of work—the next month is critical.
Yes, Kentucky. Who leads the SEC? The Wildcats, at 5–1 in the league and 7–1 overall. Who is the only SEC team with three conference road wins? The Cats, with victories at Texas A&M, South Carolina and Oklahoma. Who leads the SEC in turnover margin, by a mile? Kentucky, at +13. Will Stein’s debut season feels like Curt Cignetti’s at Indiana.
Can a team lose at home by 28 points and be a national title contender? That’s a fair question. But the loss was to Alabama and it was in Stein’s second game, before full belief had set in. Kentucky led 17–13 at halftime and 17–16 midway through the third quarter, then a fumble and an unwise decision to go for a fourth-and-3 at its own 32-yard line triggered a Crimson Tide avalanche. Kentucky is much better now, with a big November ahead.
So much is riding on what the Buckeyes can do to replace injured star QB Julian Sayin. Their open date was well-timed to figure that out, giving Ryan Day and offensive coordinator Arthur Smith time to ramp up either freshman Luke Fahey or sophomore Tavien St. Clair for the job. It’s unrealistic to expect a team with an inconsistent running game and elite receivers to become a ground-and-pound operation overnight, which means the next QB up must be capable of throwing the ball 25 or more times a game. If Ohio State can do that productively, it jumps right back into the title mix. If not, the College Football Playoff selection committee will have a job on its hands appraising the post-Sayin Buckeyes.
The Bruins have proven their resourcefulness after the season-ending injury to Nico Iamaleava, getting good-enough play out of Cal Poly transfer Ty Dieffenbach while continuing to lean into the running game and their defense. Since giving up 38 points to Purdue on Sept. 19, Bob Chesney’s team has allowed a total of 35 over the last four games, helping get both Maryland head coach Mike Locksley and Oregon offensive coordinator Drew Mehringer fired.
On the season, the Bruins have outrushed their opponents by a whopping 998 yards. That’s a Kirby Smart–esque ability to run the ball and stop the run. More will be required of Dieffenbach by the time UCLA visits Minnesota on Nov. 7, and throughout a challenging November. We’ll see whether he’s up for it.
There is no injury situation with the Hoosiers, but a crisis of confidence seems apparent for Josh Hoover. His accuracy has nose-dived the last three games, completing just 40 out of 80 passes and bottoming out in an 8-for-18 nightmare at Michigan Saturday. He’s been wild high with a lot of throws in that span, overthrowing even tall receivers Charlie Becker (6'4") and Nick Marsh (6'3"). With a running game that is less dominant than last year, the Hoosiers very much need to get Hoover back in command.
The good news for Indiana is that its defense continues to be outstanding. Other than some issues corralling mobile QBs (Aidan Chiles of Northwestern, Anthony Colandrea of Nebraska) the Hoosiers have been lights out on that side of the ball.
After wipeout Saturday removed two of the league’s three unbeatens, visions of a multibid playoff season are being readjusted.
The undefeated Utes have handled all business, most notably beating a ranked Houston team Saturday. They have the usual stout defense and a pair of offensive closers in quarterback Devon Dampier and running back Wayshawn Parker. But they’re also fraying a bit around the edges, starting slowly and trailing both the Cougars and a very bad Colorado team in the third quarter the last two games. Everything could ride on the next three games: at Cincinnati, which Texas Tech just found out can be rough; the Holy War against BYU; and at one-loss Arizona.
The Cougars have the best nonconference win of anyone other than Texas. But they also found out what almost everyone in the SEC has learned this fall—it’s really hard to maintain peak edge and execution the week after a flag-planting triumph. The 39 points scored by UCF is the most against BYU since the last game of the 2023 season. The 463 yards allowed by the Knights was the most allowed by BYU in a year, since mid-2025, ending a streak of 11 straight games holding opponents to fewer than 400 yards.
The huddled masses remain almost impossible to separate. For now, The Dash has Texas narrowly ahead of Mississippi, Tennessee, Alabama, Florida, Missouri and LSU. The Longhorns have beaten three ranked opponents in Ohio State, Tennessee and Mississippi, which none of the rest of this group can say.
Remaining games that will (in theory) help organize this tub of live bait:
Good luck to all involved parties.
Each week, The Dash selects and seeds the 12 teams who belong in the College Football Playoff as if today were Selection Sunday.
Also considered: Northwestern, Mississippi, Tennessee, Alabama, Florida, Missouri, LSU, Arizona, SMU, Wisconsin, New Mexico, UTSA.
PODCAST: Listen to Sports Illustrated’s college sports podcast, Others Receiving Votes, hosted by Pat Forde, on Apple and. Watch the show on SI’s college YouTube channel or on SI TV.
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