College football winners and losers: Will Ohio State or Texas move to No. 1 with Alabama’s loss?

A team in the top two of the AP Top 25 lost for the second Saturday in a row.

A week ago, No. 4 Alabama defeated No. 2 Georgia 41-34 in a rout that turned into a thriller. On Saturday, Alabama was the team that pulled off the upset as the No. 1 Crimson Tide lost 40-35 at Vanderbilt. It was the Commodores’ first win over Alabama in forty years and the school’s first-ever win over a team ranked in the top five, let alone a team ranked No. 1.

We don’t need to tell you that there will be a new No. 1 team in Sunday’s AP Top 25. That’s clear. The two candidates are also obvious after No. 4 Tennessee lost at Arkansas. It will be a surprise if Texas or Ohio State aren’t ranked No. 1 on Sunday.

And guess what? There’s a good chance one of those two teams loses in Week 7, just like Alabama and Tennessee did on Saturday.

Texas is currently the No. 2 team and did not play Saturday as it prepared for the Red River Rivalry showdown with No. 19 Oklahoma. Texas will be favored in that game, but rivalry games at neutral sites can be weird. Just ask the Longhorns. No. No. 12 Oklahoma defeated No. 3 Texas with a late touchdown a season ago. In 2022, Texas destroyed Oklahoma 49-0 in a matchup of unranked teams. Four of the last five games in the Cotton Bowl Series have been won by one possession.

Texas could simply move up one spot without playing. But Ohio State was able to beat the Longhorns thanks to an easy 35-7 win over Iowa. The Hawkeyes were the biggest test yet for Ohio State. And yes, it was an easy test. Iowa didn’t score until the fourth quarter as Ohio State’s defense dominated and kicked the offense into gear in the third quarter. OSU QB Will Howard threw for four touchdowns. Three went to Emeka Egbuka and the other was a one-handed catch by freshman Jeremiah Smith.

Ohio State has been very good so far this season, even if fans are left wanting more. The Buckeyes’ 28-point winning margin on Saturday was the smallest of the season. Granted, the schedule included Akron, Western Michigan, Marshall and Michigan State in addition to Iowa. But that’s still pretty impressive.

It’s hard to see Ohio State winning the next game by four scores. The Buckeyes travel to Eugene in Week 7 to play No. 6 Oregon in the biggest game of the weekend. The Ducks made Michigan State 5-0 on Friday and could even be favored by the time the game starts.

It’s a game that could be a preview of the Big Ten title game — and will go a long way in deciding who plays in that game. At Ohio State, both Penn State and Michigan are still on the schedule and the Ducks also face the Wolverines in November.

Whoever ends up at number 1 on Sunday, their stay at the top may not last long. Texas has Georgia in Week 8 and the Buckeyes play at Penn State on Nov. 2. Given the way the 2024 season has unfolded so far, the top five will change quite often going forward.

Here are this week’s other winners and losers:

Winners

Army and Navy: The service academies are on the move. Both the Army and Navy are 5-0 for the first time since 1945. Navy destroyed Air Force 34-7 on Saturday, while Army defeated Tulsa 42 in a 49-7 victory. It’s not out of the question that both Navy and Army qualify for the AAC title game and meet for the conference title a week before playing each other in their traditional rivalry game. That would be difficult. But also quite fun.

Pitt: The Panthers are 5-0 for the first time since 1991 after a 34-24 win at North Carolina. Alabama transfer Eli Holstein was 25 of 42 for 381 yards and three touchdowns and also led the Panthers with 10 carries for 76 yards and a score. Pitt coach Pat Narduzzi has always been a run-first guy, but his offense was at its best when Holstein turned the ball upside down. Pitt hosts Cal in Week 7 before playing Syracuse in Week 9. Bowl eligibility isn’t far away.

Syracuse: Speaking of the Orange, they got a TD pass from Kyle McCord to Jackson Meeks with 23 seconds left to force overtime against No. 25 UNLV in a 44-41 victory on Friday night. After the Rebels kicked a field goal to open overtime, LeQuint Allen won the game with a 1-yard touchdown run. McCord threw the ball 63 times and completed 40 of those passes for 355 yards and three touchdowns. The Dutch are now 4-1 and UNLV’s time in the top 25 will be very short. For now.

Sam Houston: The Bearkats are rolling. Sam Houston moved to 5-1 with a 41-21 win over UTEP on Thursday night. The former FCS powerhouse is on the verge of making his first appearance in an FBS bowl game with one win left. DJ McKinney rushed 14 times for 138 yards and two scores as the Bearkats now have in-state wins over Rice, Texas State and the Miners. Sam Houston is a contender for the Conference USA title game.

Virginia: The Cavaliers are now 4-1 and 2-0 in the ACC after a 24-14 home win over Boston College. Virginia scored 18 straight points in the fourth quarter to turn a 14-6 lead over Boston College into a 10-point victory in a span of eight minutes. Virginia turned a three-point lead into a two-possession game with a 40-yard fumble return by Jonas Sanker.

SMU: The Mustangs are doing well in the ACC. With the help of a controversial replay call, SMU moved to 5-1 with a 34-27 win over No. 22 Louisville. The QB switch to Kevin Jennings paid off, as Jennings was 21 of 27 for 281 yards and also rushed 10 times for 113 yards and a score in the win. SMU no longer has a ranked team on its schedule and is more than a sleeper candidate to make the ACC title game.

Louisiana-Monroe: The Warhawks capped James Madison’s undefeated season with a 21-19 victory over the Dukes. ULM overcame a 10-0 first-half deficit before halftime and had what turned out to be the winning score in the fourth quarter when Aidan Armenta found Jake Godfrey for a 12-yard touchdown. ULM is now 4-1 and two wins away from a bowl game. It was a tremendous turnaround under former UAB interim coach Bryant Vincent.

Losers

State of Oklahoma: What’s going on in Stillwater? The Cowboys were dismantled 38-14 by a West Virginia team that entered the game at 2-2. The Mountaineers had a clear game plan Saturday: run the damn ball. And it worked. WVU rushed 65 times for 389 yards and four scores. Oklahoma State had 21 carries for 36 yards, while last year’s All-American Ollie Gordon had 13 carries for 50 yards. After making the Big 12 title game in 2023, OSU is now 0-3 in the conference with very little hope of returning to the title game.

Auburn coach Hugh Freeze: The Tigers lost at No. 5 Georgia on Saturday. That was no surprise. It was also no surprise that Freeze once again blamed his quarterback for a key mistake.

Freeze may be fair, but he also places a lot of blame on his players over the course of Auburn’s 2-4 start. Are Auburn’s players not performing optimally? It is very possible. But it also seems unlikely that it’s all about the players and has a little bit to do with the coaching.

South Carolina: The Gamecocks had a chance to hit a reeling Ole Miss on Saturday and lay an egg. The No. 12 Rebels had no problems at all in a 27-3 win over the Gamecocks. JJ Pegues had two rushing scores for the Rebels as South Carolina averaged less than five yards per pass and converted it twice. USC travels to Alabama in Week 7 and then visits Oklahoma in Week 8 for a home game against Texas A&M in early November. Can the Gamecocks steal a game to avoid a 1-5 start in SEC play?

UAB: The Blazers are in the losers column for the second week in a row. Normally we like to avoid letting teams down in consecutive weeks, but it’s hard to ignore a 71-20 loss at home. Yes, Tulane is a very good football team, but UAB was once a very good football team. The Blazers are far from doing well under Trent Dilfer right now, and it remains difficult to see how his hiring has been anything other than a failure.