Top 25 Shakeup: College Football’s Instant Winners, Losers Ranked After Wild Week 11

We didn’t see quite as much confusion across college football in Week 11, giving the various rankings committees some breathing room when making their new polls.

But that doesn’t mean they won’t be faced with some important decisions, including after watching these teams on the field this Saturday.

Here are the biggest winners and losers from this weekend’s early action.

Loser: USC

Top 25 Shakeup: College Football’s Instant Winners, Losers Ranked After Wild Week 11 — IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

Lincoln Riley basically can’t win football games against good teams on the road.

Indiana reaffirmed that theory as fact in a 27-13 decision against the Trojans, whose ordinarily stalwart quarterback Jayden Maiava gave the ball away three critical times to the Hoosier defense.

That will likely erase much of the goodwill that had built up in the wake of USC’s win against Ohio State a couple weeks ago. Its inability to generate a consistent offense opposite a physical Indiana side raises, and likely answers, questions around its ceiling.

A soft remaining schedule theoretically offers a path back into the conversation, but the Trojans need a very strong finish, especially against Big Ten leader UCLA, and a ton of help from around the conference to get anywhere near the playoff conversation. Neither are likely to happen.

Winner: Tennessee

A gritty 22-7 road win at Texas A&M reinforced the Volunteers’ defensive identity on a day when their offense was stuck in neutral.

Ranked No. 8 by the playoff committee and No. 9 by the AP pollsters coming in, Tennessee continues to be on the right side of the argument as the bracket unfolds.

But while it keeps them in the mix for a favorable playoff seed, Saturday’s result came at a potentially serious price. Both quarterback George MacIntyre and star wide receiver Mike Matthews both left the game with injuries. That’s something to watch.

Loser: SMU

A 49-7 thrashing at the hands of No. 13 Wake Forest, in the final home game of the season no less, was a brutal reality check for Southern Methodist.

Clinging to the No. 25 ranking in the AP poll, the Mustangs are now 1-2 in their last three games, and coming out the wrong end of such a merciless beat down definitively puts them out of the conversation around the important teams in the ACC.

Winner: Wake Forest

If the Demon Deacons wore Alabama uniforms, they would be a top-five team. That claim was reinforced after building a 42-0 first half lead against SMU on the road, en route to a 49-7 rout.

Over the last six games, Wake Forest has outscored its opponents, 313-38. They have a “quality loss” against a full-strength Miami earlier in the year, and a key road win against conference rival Louisville.

This team believes it’s worthy of a College Football Playoff berth. And at this moment, it’s very hard to argue against it.

Loser: Houston

Granted, the Cougars may have already played themselves out of relevance in the Big 12 with losses to two of the conference’s best teams in Texas Tech and Utah.

But a 42-32 loss at unranked Colorado that had one win in Big 12 competition completely derailed any momentum they had.

Not long ago, this was a 6-1 football team with a two-point loss to the still highly-ranked Red Raiders, but what happened against the Utes and now against Coach Prime has put Willie Fritz’s team on the wrong side of the conversation.

Winner: Oregon

Dylan Raiola threw for 341 yards and four touchdowns in a dominant 31-7 dismantling of Michigan at home. The Ducks, ranked in the mid-teens in the various polls, have now won three straight and look like a team peaking at the right time.

Continued strong play could push Oregon higher in the rankings and into serious at-large playoff consideration as the Big Ten race unfolds. But they need a little help from around the conference.

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