This Week in Our Dumb, Beautiful Sport: Big Ten Powers Maintain Supremacy, Chaos Reigns in the ACC, and Clarity Emerges in the SEC

By Ryan Ginn on November 10, 2025 at 9:10 am
Indiana Hoosiers linebacker Isaiah Jones (46) celebrates with the fans following the game against the Penn State Nittany Lions at Beaver Stadium.
Matthew O'Haren-Imagn Images
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Welcome to This Week in Our Dumb Beautiful Sport, a weekly look at the chaos that reigns over the most perfectly imperfect world of college football.

It was a survive and advance type week for a couple of the best Big Ten teams, while ACC contenders had no such luck. And in the SEC, the conference pecking order continued to take shape as the status quo was upheld. 

INDIANA, OREGON ESCAPE WITH LATE WINS

While I'm a big believer in the fact that sometimes a loss isn't the worst thing in the world (see: 2015 Ohio State, who I think would have won a 12-team playoff if it existed at the time), it's unclear what good would have come out of losing to a spiraling Penn State team. Luckily for Indiana, the Hoosiers will never know. Fernando Mendoza connected with Omar Cooper Jr. for one of the best plays of the year -- and just as importantly, the Dumb, Beautiful Sport play of the week -- to help Indiana to a 27-24 win over the Nittany Lions. 

This was somehow Indiana's first win at Penn State in the history of the program, although this was "only" their 14th trip there. It's also just the second time in 127 seasons that Indiana has won 10 games in a season, joining... 2024 Indiana. 

Elsewhere, Oregon survived a downpour and the soul-crushing slog of facing Iowa in Kinnick Stadium thanks to a last-second field goal that gave the Ducks an 18-16 win over the Hawkeyes. After Iowa scored to take a 16-15 lead with less than two minutes to go, Oregon quarterback Dante Moore navigated his way through a 10-play drive that methodically chipped away at the distance remaining to field goal range. Oregon kicker Atticus Sappington drilled a 39-yard field goal to keep the Ducks from absorbing a second loss.

JULIAN SAYIN, HEISMAN FRONTRUNNER

I try not to mention the Heisman Trophy race too often (in fact, this might be the first time I've done so this year) because it's my belief at this point that it's become an award for the best performance in a conference championship game. Just wait. The recency bias from college football writers is off the charts in late November and early December. 

With that being said, I do still think it's noteworthy that Julian Sayin is currently the betting favorite to win the Heisman. Sayin deserves a lot of credit for rocketing up the standings after opening the season with 22-1 odds, as he's continued to get better throughout the season. Assuming the Buckeyes and Hoosiers keep winning, the Heisman talk in Indianapolis is going to be unbearable because Indiana quarterback Fernando Mendoza barely trails Sayin as the favorite. 

For the record, Sayin and all-world receiver Jeremiah Smith each made a Heisman pitch for the other after the Buckeyes' 34-10 victory against Purdue. And if you need a good laugh, here are some of the names that were above Sayin in the preseason Heisman odds:

  • Texas QB Arch Manning
  • Clemson QB Cade Klubnick
  • LSU QB Garrett Nussmeier
  • South Carolina QB LaNorris Sellers
  • Penn State QB Drew Allar
  • Miami (Fla.) QB Carson Beck
  • Florida QB DJ Lagway

Woof.

SEC STATUS QUO REMAINS

It was a largely chaos-free week in the SEC after Vanderbilt managed to survive an upset bid from Auburn, who continues to find new and inventive ways to torment its fan base. Here's how the SEC's playoff contenders fared:

  • No. 3 Texas A&M 38, Missouri 17
  • No. 4 Alabama 20, LSU 9
  • No. 5 Georgia 41, Mississippi State 21
  • No. 6 Ole Miss 49, The Citadel 0
  • No. 16 Vanderbilt 45, Auburn 38 (OT)

Not a lot to write home about! Texas A&M and Alabama continue to barrel their way to a date in the SEC Championship, despite both looking entirely flawed at various times this season. Texas A&M crushed Mizzou's third-string quarterback, while Alabama somehow played bad enough that LSU had the ball down just one possession late in the fourth quarter despite playing so bad itself that preseason Heisman candidate Garrett Nussmeier was benched. I'd feel good betting on the Big Ten's top teams in a matchup against these teams any day. 

Meanwhile, Georgia is improving but it's hard to get too worked up about beating a team with one conference win in the last two seasons. Double that for Ole Miss and its rent-a-win against an FCS military academy. 

ACC DIALS UP MORE CHAOS

The ACC will never be normal, and I love them for it. This week's latest example: playoff contenders Virginia and Louisville each going down in an upset to further complicate the conference standings. 

The Cavaliers, who had previously been 7-1 overall and 5-0 in ACC play, lost 16-9 at home to Wake Forest after failing to convert a 4th-and-3 at the Wake Forest 5-yard line in the final minute of the game. Louisville, on the other hand, lost 29-26 in overtime at home to California. The final seven drives in regulation ended with punts from either team. 

I kind of assumed two top teams losing might have helped Miami (Fla.), but that was wildly incorrect. The Hurricanes really dug themselves a hole with their two losses as they still trail six teams in the standings -- two of whom beat them and have a head-to-head tiebreaker over the Canes. Georgia Tech, Virginia, Pittsburgh, and SMU are in a four-way tie for first place at 5-1, while Duke is 4-1 and Louisville is 4-2. Miami sits in seventh at 3-2.

TEXAS TECH IN CONTROL OF BIG 12

Despite everyone's best efforts, this year's Texas Tech-BYU matchup never felt nearly as big a deal to me as the 2008 Texas Tech-Texas game. I still remember watching the ending of that game at a random tailgate while walking back to my dorm as a college sophomore. Perhaps it's because it's hard to believe this would be anything other than a battle for fourth  place if these two teams were in a different conference. 

Regardless, Texas Tech got the job done and thoroughly took apart BYU in a 29-7 romp. Congrats to the Red Raiders, who are a legitimately interesting story as Exhibit A that NIL leveled the college football playing field despite whatever I may think about how they'd fare in the Big Ten or SEC this year. 

LUKE FICKELL GETS HIS MOMENT

Wisconsin announced on Tuesday that Luke Fickell would be retained for the 2026 season, which effectively doubled as a way for the Badgers to tell everyone they don't have a spare $25 million lying around. 

Even so, it was nice to see Fickell reward that show of faith with a so-ugly-it-was-pretty 13-10 win against No. 23 Washington. The box score was a work of art. Four different Badgers attempted passes, and their leading passer with a grand total of 24 yards on one attempt was punter Sean West. If that name sounds familiar, it's because he was somehow also one of the Badgers' leading rushers against Ohio State after taking a fake punt 20 yards for a first down. 

Anyways, I really enjoyed this video of Fickell and his players and staff soaking up the win. 

WHAT NOW IN THE GROUP OF FIVE?

It's hard to know where the Group of Five contenders stand given that none of them were ranked in the CFP committee's initial Top 25 last week. That will probably be the case again this week after Memphis, whose coach was the subject of a fake tweet Nov. 6 announcing he'd agreed to take the Arkansas job, lost to Tulane on Friday. The Tigers were the No. 12 seed in the initial bracket, and there are now a handful of contenders for that spot. Let's break it down:

South Florida (7-2 overall, 4-1 American): Lost to Memphis but has wins over Florida and Boise State. Also hammered fellow contender North Texas 63-36. 

North Texas (8-1 overall, 4-1 American): That one in the loss column would look a lot nicer if it weren't a blowout loss at home to a fellow contender.

Tulane (7-2 overall, 4-1 American): Would be in a much better position without the horrendous UTSA loss or if their 45-10 loss to Ole Miss had been closer. Beat Memphis but doesn't face USF or North Texas in the regular season. 

James Madison (8-1 overall, 6-0 Sun Belt): Only loss was to Louisville, but not much in the way of quality wins. 

For what it's worth, ESPN's SP+ metric has North Texas at No. 27, South Florida at No. 30, Memphis at No. 32, James Madison at No. 37, and Tulane all the way down at No. 62. 

OREGON STATE FINDS ROCK BOTTOM

One week after we celebrated Oregon State and interim coach Robb Akey for an emotional win over Washington State, the Beavers are in here for a different reason.

Oregon State suffered what has to be considered one of the worst losses in program history, falling 21-17 to previously 0-8 Sam Houston. For context, the Bearkats were one week removed from a 55-14 loss to Louisiana Tech and had lost all but one of its games by double digits. 

To add insult to injury, the Beavers were up 17-0 in the second quarter before allowing Sam Houston to end the game on a 21-0 run. The box score is almost impossible to believe, as Sam Houston finished the game with eight first downs and was outgained by Oregon State 474-157. Every time I looked through the drive chart I saw some new occurrence that was impossible to believe. Turnovers on downs, interceptions at the worst possible times, missed field goals, a blocked punt returned for a touchdown, and a kickoff returned for a touchdown after a re-kick due to an offsides flag on a kickoff. One last note: the Bearkats are coached by former Wisconsin offensive coordinator Phil Longo, who was fired by the Badgers with two games left in the 2024 season. 

WHAT A WAY TO LOSE

Let's take a quick trip to Big Sky Country, where FCS No. 2 Montana stayed unbeaten in about the stupidest way possible. Eastern Washington quarterback Jake Schakel got the Eagles within 29-24 thanks to a touchdown pass with 1:01 remaining, and EWU recovered the ensuing onside kick. The Eagles were at the Montana 9-yard line with no timeouts and the clock dwindling when all hell broke loose. Schakel attempted to spike the ball to stop the clock with about 6 seconds left, but the ball slipped out of his hand before he could do so. Time ran out while the players battled to recover the fumble, ending the game. 

PLAY OF THE WEEK

This is just outrageous. Omar Cooper Jr.'s gravity defying, toe-tapping catch against Penn State would have been one of the best catches of the season regardless of the circumstances. But to do it in the final minute to cap off a game-winning comeback drive that kept the Hoosiers unbeaten? Pretty good!  

IDIOT OF THE WEEK

Well, this is about as stupid as it gets. Zach Calzada, who CBS Sports reported was paid $1.25 million to transfer to Kentucky from Incarnate Word, made sure to light on fire any remaining good will he may have had with Wildcats fans. Calzada made all of two starts this season before suffering a shoulder injury. It's his bad play rather than his health that is keeping him off the field, though -- Calzada has been off the injury report for several weeks but has not come close to regaining the starting role. 

Sitting the bench has given him some free time to develop a new skill: responding to critics by sending them videos of him rolling around in his NIL money. In a video posted on Nov. 6, 2025, Calzada can be seen waving wads of cash and making fun of an unknown person named Garrett, presumably the person who was originally sent the video by Calzada. 

In total, Kentucky paid $1,250,000 for 234 passing yards and a guy who got benched for redshirt freshman Cutter Boley. Just for context in how little value that is (although I think it speaks for itself), if Ohio State paid Julian Sayin the same lopsided rate Calzada ended up getting (roughly $5,342 per passing yard), the Buckeyes would currently be on the hook for $13.3 million through nine games. 

REF JAIL INMATE OF THE WEEK

Perhaps I'm getting soft in my old age, but I didn't see anything overly egregious this week. Somehow, the officials taking several minutes to determine where LSU quarterback Michael Van Buren opened his hips to begin his slide to take away what looked like an obvious first down is still nowhere close to the biggest war crimes the league's Birmingham office has inflicted on visitors in Tuscaloosa over the years to do Alabama's bidding. 

I will say, though, that I'm getting to a point where I'd almost rather get rid of replay altogether than have it exist in its current state. It's so soul-crushing to be watching a random game in a sport that's supposed to be fun and instead have to slog through a possession ruined by three or four trips to the monitor to review the most inane detail of a play that doesn't impact the grand scheme of things. 

NO CONTEXT SCORES OF THE WEEK

Here are some scores that caught my eye for any number of reasons – randomness, outcome, unique matchup – that shall remain unknown:

USC 38, Northwestern 17
West Virginia 29, Colorado 22
UConn 37, Duke 34
Clemson 24, Florida State 10
Hawaii 38, San Diego State 6
Ohio 24, Miami (Ohio) 20
Army 14, Temple 13

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