This was the moment for No. 6 Oregon.
Down 16-15 to No. 20 Iowa with 1:51 remaining, the Ducks drove 54 yards in 10 plays and made a 39-yard field goal with three seconds left to notch a must-have win against a ranked opponent.
This is the result the College Football Playoff selection committee was waiting for.
In explaining why the committee had the Ducks No. 9 in last week’s debut rankings, chair Mack Rhoades expressed reservations about their résumé, which before Saturday featured just one victory against an opponent with a winning record.
While there’s still more work to be done – and opportunities to further impress the committee against Minnesota, No. 21 Southern California and Washington – the win in Iowa City helps bring the Ducks’ résumé more in line with their reputation as one of the best teams in the Power Four.
Looking ahead to Tuesday night’s rankings, Oregon is assured of climbing at least one spot and inching closer to an at-large berth.
The Ducks, Texas A&M and Brigham Young lead Saturday’s biggest winners and losers:
Winners
Texas A&M
No. 3 Texas A&M turned a fumble recovery into a touchdown late in the first half and pulled away coming out of the break for a 38-17 win at No. 22 Missouri, the team’s third road win this season against an opponent that was in the Top 25. After some diminishing returns in a shootout win against Arkansas and over the first two quarters against LSU, the A&M defense carried over the ferocious close in Baton Rouge to hold Missouri to just 284 yards and harassed freshman quarterback Matt Zollers into just passing 77 yards on 3.5 yards per attempt. The only unbeaten team in the SEC, the Aggies’ convincing win might trigger a debate over which team lands at No. 2 in this week’s US LBM Coaches Poll and Tuesday’s playoff rankings.
Vanderbilt
The No. 16 Commodores’ playoff hopes are still alive after they pulled out a 45-38 overtime win against suddenly frisky Auburn, which clearly experienced some sort of addition by subtraction with the firing of Hugh Freeze. Beating the Tigers meant weathering 442 yards of offense and four scores by quarterback Ashton Daniels, overcoming a 17-3 deficit in the first half and bouncing back from the heartbreak of a failed fourth-down attempt late in regulation when Vanderbilt could’ve tried a 42-yard field goal. This isn’t the first time we’ve written this sentence this season: Diego Pavia was the hero, delivering 377 passing yards on 11.2 yards per attempt, running for a team-high 112 yards and accounting for four touchdowns, including the game winner in overtime.
Texas Tech
No. 8 Texas Tech’s 29-7 win against No. 7 Brigham Young confirms the Red Raiders’ place as the unquestioned team to beat in the Big 12. With games against Central Florida and West Virginia to end November and head-to-head tiebreakers against the BYU and Houston in hand, Tech steps into the driver’s seat for the conference championship game looking to make some history – the program hasn’t won an outright league crown since taking the defunct Border Conference in 1955. The Red Raiders were plus-three in turnover margin, dominated the line of scrimmage and held BYU to only 3.9 yards per play, highlighting the program’s immense edge in talent compared to the rest of the conference.
Indiana
Fernando Mendoza tossed a touchdown pass with 36 seconds left and No. 2 Indiana escaped Penn State with a 27-24 win, essentially locking down an appearance in the Big Ten championship game. This is just the Hoosiers’ second single-digit win of the year, joining the earlier win against the Ducks, and comes on the heels of wins against Maryland and UCLA by a combined 95 points. Don’t read too much into the late comeback and narrower-than-expected win: Indiana might be a powerhouse – that’s simply inarguable at this point – but even powerhouse teams need to get lucky once or twice to post an unbeaten regular season in the current landscape of college football.
Wisconsin
Wisconsin scored a touchdown in a home game for the first time since Sept. 20 and won a Big Ten game for the first time in over a year in beating Washington 13-10. That’s just the start: Sean West was the Badgers’ leading passer, and Sean West had 24 yards, and Sean West is also the punter. Starting quarterback Danny O’Neil left the game due to injury in the first quarter and was replaced by freshman Carter Smith, who had 3 completions in 12 attempts for 8 yards with 47 rushing yards in his debut. But the defense turned in a vintage performance by holding the Huskies to 251 yards with two takeaways. The win comes after athletics director Chris McIntosh announced that coach Luke Fickell would be returning for the 2026 season.
North Carolina
North Carolina held on for dear life and beat Stanford 20-15 for a second win in a row, something Bill Belichick hadn’t done since the 2022 Patriots took three in a row against Jets, Colts and Jets again. (This still counts even if two wins came against the Jets.) The Tar Heels have started to climb closer to bowl eligibility with three rivalry games to close the regular season: Wake Forest, Duke and North Carolina State.
Losers
Brigham Young
It was a bad but not fatal loss, docking BYU a chunk of national credibility but still leaving the Cougars in range of a rematch with wins against TCU, Cincinnati and UCF. The nature of the loss raises eyebrows, though, while also raising concerns about the Cougars’ quarterback play and run defense. Bear Bachmeier averaged a season-low 4.9 yards per pass and tossed his fourth interception of the season while running for just 12 yards, his fewest in a conference game. BYU allowed 149 yards on the ground and is giving up 175.2 yards per game in league play. TCU will force the Cougars’ passing game to keep pace while the Bearcats are averaging a tick under 200 rushing yards per game; both games will stress and strain BYU.
The ACC
No. 11 Virginia lost 16-9 to Wake Forest and No. 15 Louisville fell 29-26 in overtime to California, leaving the ACC with just one single one-loss team in No. 14 Georgia Tech and potentially without a team in the top 15 of this week’s playoff rankings. The Cavaliers had been walking a tightrope all season, narrowly getting past Florida State, Louisville, Washington State and North Carolina, and couldn’t overcome three turnovers and losing quarterback Chandler Morris in the second quarter. After rising in the rankings on the back of wins against James Madison, Pittsburgh and Miami, Louisville falls behind five teams with just one league loss. This whole thing is messy, but can be basically boiled down to this: Like the Big 12 last year, it’s more likely than ever the ACC is a one-bid playoff league.
Iowa
The Hawkeyes might not be the most accomplished three-loss team in the country – those six wins are really nothing to write home about – but the three defeats show how close this team is to perfection. Iowa’s losses to Iowa State, Indiana and the Ducks have come by a combined 10 points. The Cyclones drilled a 54-yard field goal with under two minutes left to win 16-13 and the Hoosiers trailed 13-10 in the fourth quarter before pulling out a 20-15 win in the final two minutes..
Colorado
The bottom has dropped out in Deion Sanders’ third season, with Colorado falling toward the bottom of the Big 12 ladder and ceding much of the goodwill that came from last year’s breakthrough. (To little surprise, the Buffaloes have struggled to replace the most prolific passer and the best pound-for-pound player in program history.) But this is a brand-new low: Colorado was plus-two in takeaways and drew a nice game from freshman quarterback Julian Lewis but fell behind early and lost 29-22 to West Virginia, which has taken two in a row under new coach Rich Rodriguez. While more competitive than blowouts against Utah and Arizona, the loss eliminates the Buffaloes from bowl contention.