The number of unbeatens in college football continues to dwindle.
Three teams that came into week 12 with unblemished records crashed to defeat on Saturday, most notably Ohio State. The Buckeyes turned in a rather listless performance in the Horseshoe against Michigan State, and for the second time in three years found themselves on the wrong end of the final score. The loss marked Urban Meyer’s first regular season loss in Big Ten play since he arrived in Columbus.
Elsewhere, another OSU suffered a similar fate as the Bucks as Oklahoma State saw their perfect record come to an end at home against a conference foe with one-loss in Baylor. The Bears, though down to third-string quarterback Chris Johnson, upended the Cowboys 45-35 and are now probably cheering for that same Poke squad to rebound and knock off the Sooners in week 13.
Finally, Houston’s hopes of finishing the year undefeated also came to an end as the Cougars fell on the road to UConn 20-17. Their loss may be Navy’s gain as the Midshipmen continue to position themselves favorably to be that Group of Five team that garners a New Year’s Six bowl invite.
As a result of the carnage, just top-ranked Clemson and now third-ranked Iowa are the only two remaining FBS teams that have yet to lose.
How do these developments affect our rankings this week? Sparty certainly vaults themselves right back into the CFP conversation. Assuming they take care of Penn State in the regular season finale, their looming matchup with Iowa in the Big Ten title game could in essence be an elimination game for the semifinals.
And in addition to MSU, there is a logjam of one-loss teams in the mix, including Oklahoma, Notre Dame, Baylor and Florida. Even two-loss Stanford still has a shot multiple teams slip up ahead of them. Either way, these final few weeks before the announcement of the bowls and the eventual semifinalists are certainly shaping up to be exciting and dramatic as usual.
LWOS College Football Week 12 Top 25
(As usual, a reminder to our mobile readers to please turn your screen sideways so you can see our entire rankings.)
Dropped from rankings: LSU (16), Pittsburgh (21), Wisconsin (22), Memphis (24)
Previous Rankings:
