1. The state of Mississippi.
by Jason Kirk
When Sunday's poll rankings roll in, Ole Miss is almost certain to match or exceed its highest ranking since 1965, when it opened the season No. 1 before crashing to a 5-5-1 finish. Mississippi State will match or exceed its highest ranking ever, from a week spent at No. 7 in October 1981.
Two of college football's top five teams could hail from a single state that is not Alabama, California, Florida, or Texas, or even Georgia or Michigan. At the same time, both of the SEC's Mississippi teams might be as good as they've ever been, with the Rebels' avalanche of a defense and MSU's thundering offense leading the way.
And unless your team's on the schedule, part of you hopes they can keep it up until they meet Nov. 29 in Vaught-Hemingway Stadium.
Hugh Freeze's Rebels hosted "College GameDay" for the first time in school history Saturday, making good on the all-time-high atmosphere with a takedown of the No. 3 Tide. Odds are good Dan Mullen's Bulldogs, who just slugged Texas A&M in the face for three hours, will get to do the same next weekend, when they host an Auburn team that might rank No. 2 in the country. In the show's 21-year existence, the national spotlight never focused once on Mississippi, and now it might have to do so for two weeks in a row.
Sure, Florida State's gonna remain No. 1 for a while. And sure, teams like Auburn and Baylor and a little program by the name of Notre Dame are right up there as well. But at this exact moment, the center of college football lies around Calhoun City, Mississippi, halfway-ish between Oxford and Starkville.
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Also, here's where Ole Miss' goalposts ended up, near where Katy Perry ended up.
2. Everything else broke.
by Nam Le
Chaos was the theme. Oregon and BYU set the tone for the weekend that would follow, picking up their first losses of the season before Saturday began. The upset bug spread quickly to each corner of the country, infecting Playoff contenders and ranked teams alike.
In all, 11 teams in the AP Top 25 lost, including four in the top six. The upcoming poll could look like someone haphazardly drew 25 names from a soup bowl, and that still might not be too far off from an accurate ranking. After a day like Saturday, it's hard to accurately project much with certainty. The landscape of college football looks smoggier than a Shanghai skyline.
Insanity totally sunk in out west, where four ranked teams lost: Oregon, Stanford, UCLA, and USC, the quartet long thought to be head and shoulders above the others. Three lost to other Pac-12 teams, which tells us nothing about who might actually play for the conference championship on December 5. Hell, Cal and Arizona are your Pac-12 division leaders at this juncture. Raise your hands if you had that happening.
On top of Texas A&M's and Alabama's losses, it must be noted that longtime SEC West mainstay LSU also fell at Jordan-Hare Stadium by a 41-7 margin. It's tempting to interpret that to mean Auburn is the favorite in the SEC West ... except they still have five ranked teams left to go on the schedule.
Considering everything happening around them, the Big 12 and Big Ten were a bit fortunate, losing only one ranked and unbeaten team apiece: No. 3 Oklahoma and No. 19 Nebraska, respectively. We'd love to tell you that the Sooner downfall means the Big 12 runs through Baylor, except the Bears looked vulnerable against Texas, winning a challenging 28-7 victory. Well, by Baylor standards anyway. Michigan State is in a similar predicament. The Spartans dominated Nebraska for three quarters, then withstood a Cornhusker rally only because of a late interception.
Although there were a few contenders who held serve and were otherwise immune, the biggest beneficiaries after the events of Saturday were No. 1 Florida State and No. 5 Auburn. In fact, the Tigers look like they'll move all the way back up to second after the weekend's events.
It's been that type of year. It is that type of year. Really, we don't know a whole lot for certain. And we love it.
3. ... and that includes the Heisman race.
by Pete Volk
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Shanna Lockwood, USA Today
The Playoff race might have been thrown into confusion after Week 6, but the Heisman is possibly even less clear. Half of Vegas' top 10 contenders saw their teams lose, with some decidedly not-great performances hurting stocks.
Oregon quarterback Marcus Mariota, considered the favorite heading in, had a mediocre game by Mariota standards, averaging 8.6 yards per attempt with two touchdowns in the Ducks' Thursday night loss to Arizona. Nebraska running back Ameer Abdullah scored two touchdowns late against Michigan State, but still averaged just 1.9 yards per carry (45 yards on 24 rushes) and did not have a single run go for double-digit yardage in the game. Texas A&M quarterback Kenny Hill threw four touchdowns, but his three interceptions were instrumental in Mississippi State's blowout victory over the Aggies.
Two players did find a way to lose and still impress. Wisconsin running back Melvin Gordon ran for 259 yards in a loss to Northwestern. UCLA quarterback Brett Hundley threw for 269 yards on 21 attempts, with two touchdowns against one interception in the Bruins' loss to Utah. But their teams still lost.
Not all the winners impressed, either. Notre Dame quarterback Everett Golson threw a dramatic, game-winning touchdown on fourth-and-11 to beat Stanford, but had a poor game otherwise, averaging just 5.6 yards per pass attempt. Florida State quarterback Jameis Winston had another pedestrian day, averaging 7.6 yards per attempt against Wake Forest with two total touchdowns against one interception.
There were a select few players who were able to really impress in wins. Georgia running back Todd Gurley took advantage of a porous Vanderbilt defense, running 25 times for 163 yards and two touchdowns and throwing a 50-yard pass -- the Bulldogs' longest pass completion of the season so far. Auburn quarterback Nick Marshall had four total touchdowns and 326 yards of total offense in the Tigers' 41-7 thrashing of LSU.
The real winner was Dak Prescott, whose yardage numbers alone (259 passing, 77 rushing, 11 receiving) might not surpass some of the other contenders, but whose importance (five total touchdowns in the win vs. Texas A&M) cannot be overstated.
The top five likely includes some order of Gurley, Prescott, Marshall, Mariota, and Golson, and if this week is any sort of predictor, we could get a much closer race than we have in recent years past.
Five neat things
Oklahoma State invents 50-yard onside kick
Michigan State player celebrates with ... complicated internet joke
*INSANE* Miami hit, set to WWE's Jim Ross
Tons of photos, GIFs, and videos of Ole Miss fans going nuts
Auburn player celebrates TD with tribute to fallen teammate
Full FBS final scores
No. 1 Florida State 43, Wake Forest 3 (recap)
No. 11 Ole Miss 23, No. 3 Alabama 17 (recap)
No. 25 TCU 37, No. 4 Oklahoma 33 (recap)
No. 5 Auburn 41, No. 15 LSU 7 (recap)
No. 12 Mississippi State 48, No. 6 Texas A&M 31 (recap)
No. 7 Baylor 28, Texas 7 (recap)
Utah 30, No. 8 UCLA 28 (recap)
No. 9 Notre Dame 17, No. 14 Stanford 14 (recap)
No. 10 Michigan State 27, No. 19 Nebraska 22 (recap)
No. 13 Georgia 44, Vanderbilt 17 (recap)
Arizona State 38, No. 16 USC 34 (HAIL MARY)
Northwestern 20, No. 17 Wisconsin 14 (recap)
No. 20 Ohio State 52, Maryland 24 (recap)
No. 21 Oklahoma State 37, Iowa State 20 (recap)
No. 22 East Carolina 45, SMU 24 (recap)
No. 23 Kansas State 45, Texas Tech 13 (recap)
Air Force 30, Navy 21 (recap)
Akron 31, Eastern Michigan 6 (recap)
Arkansas State 28, Louisiana-Monroe 14 (recap)
Army 33, Ball State 24 (recap)
Boise State 51, Nevada 46 (recap)
Bowling Green 36, Buffalo 35 (recap)
California 60, Washington State 59 (utter insanity)
Central Michigan 28, Ohio 10 (recap)
Clemson 41, NC State 0 (recap)
Colorado State 42, Tulsa 17
Florida 10, Tennessee 9 (recap)
Georgia Southern 36, New Mexico State 28 (recap)
Georgia Tech 28, Miami 17 (recap)
Indiana 49, North Texas 24 (recap)
Kentucky 45, South Carolina 38 (recap)
Louisiana Tech 55, UTEP 3 (recap)
Louisiana-Lafayette 34, Georgia State 31
Marshall 56, Old Dominion 14 (recap)
Memphis 41, Cincinnati 14 (recap)
Miami (Ohio) 42, UMass 41 (COLLAPSE)
Middle Tennessee 37, Southern Miss 31
New Mexico 21, UTSA 9 (recap)
Northern Illinois 17, Kent State 14
Oregon State 36, Colorado 31 (recap)
Purdue 38, Illinois 27 (recap)
Rice 28, Hawaii 14
Rutgers 26, Michigan 24 (recap)
San Jose State 33, UNLV 10
South Alabama 47, Appalachian State 21
Texas State 35, Idaho 30 (recap)
Toledo 20, Western Michigan 19 (OT) (recap)
UAB 42, Western Kentucky 39
Virginia 24, Pittsburgh 19 (recap)
Virginia Tech 34, North Carolina 17 (recap)
West Virginia 33, Kansas 14 (recap)
Arizona 31, No. 2 Oregon 24 (recap)
Utah State 35, No. 18 BYU 20 (recap)
Florida International 38, Florida Atlantic 10 (recap)
Fresno State 24, San Diego State 13
Louisville 28, Syracuse 6 (recap)
UCF 17, Houston 12 (game-winning touchback)