Week 12 college football rankings: Miami and Georgia plummet, Indiana and Ole Miss climb

Beat the team who are on your schedule. That’s precisely what the Louisana Ragin’ Cajuns have done this season. It continued on Saturday with a thrashing of Arkansas State, 55-19, pushing the Ragin’ Cajuns to a six-game winning streak. The only blemish on Louisiana’s resume this season is a loss to Tulane, who also makes an appearance in our Week 12 college football rankings.

From 7-0 to consecutive losses, quite the fall for the Iowa State Hawkeyes. Rocco Becht (383 yards, 3 TDs) turned things around on Saturday, but the Cyclones ground game (3.3 ypc) and defense (532 total yards) proved costly. Based on the recent performances, including the narrow win against UCF, Iowa State’s tenure in the college football rankings is probably coming to an end very, very soon.

What a win for the Missouri Tigers. Forced to start backup quarterback Drew Pyne, Mizzou found itself in a 23-16 hole with under 2 minutes to play and Pyne then engineered a game-tying drive to likely send this game to OT. Instead, the Sooners fumbled it on their next drive and the Tigers scooped it up for the game-winning touchdown. Missouri doesn’t have a good resume this year, especially for an SEC team, but the 7-2 mark is all that matters.

Just another week of excellence for the Tulane Green Wave. Returning home after a two-game road trip, the Green Wave rolled over the Temple Owls (2-7) on Saturday night. Led by running back Makhi Hughes, Tulane took control early with a 28-0 halftime lead and added to it with a 42-point lead through three quarters. The Green Wave’s resume isn’t particularly impressive, but 8 wins win 10 games is still noteworthy.

It’s been a fascinating year for the South Carolina Gamecocks. The same team that got blown out by Ole Miss (27-3) and whose self-inflicted wounds proved costly in losses to LSU (36-33) and Alabama (27-25), now has consecutive wins over ranked opponents. The Gamecocks proved they were the superior team a week ago versus Texas A&M in a 24-point win. On Saturday, South Carolina went to ranked Vanderbilt and proved itself once again. Plenty of “what if” games can be played with this team, but what matters is the Gamecocks are back on track and bowl-eligible.

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The Louisville Cardinals couldn’t have asked for a better bye week. After a statement win at Clemson (33-21), the Cardinals got their flowers in their first CFP college football rankings. Coming out of the Week 11 bye, Louisville has a great shot at taking out Stanford next Saturday even with the matchup made a little more difficult by the cross-country trip. If that matchup goes well, the Cardinals would return home with a 7-3 record and a chance to catapult up the rankings with a win vs Pittsburgh.

Shedeur Sanders and Travis Hunter did it again. In a critical game on Saturday afternoon, the Colorado Buffaloes fell behind on the road 13-0 after the first quarter against Texas Tech (6-4). The Buffaloes responded to the adversity, answering with 17 unanswered points and putting the game away with a 21-point third quarter. With the victory, Colorado has 7 wins for the first time since 2016 (10-4). Up next, a home game against Utah.

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Washington State quarterback John Mateer did his thing again on Saturday night, even with the yardage totals below his season averages. Mateer accounted for 5 touchdowns (1 rushing) in a 49-28 victory over Utah State, a game the Cougars dominated early (35-14 after three quarters). Improving to 8-1, Washington State will be favored in its next two contests and that gives this program a golden opportunity for a 10-win season.

One of the few remaining college football teams lost in Week 10 and it wasn’t the Army Black Knights. A week removed from winning without darkhorse Heisman Trophy candidate Bryson Daily, the focal point of Army’s offense returned on Saturday. The Black Knights went into North Texas and came out with a win, led by Daily’s strong rushing performance and another great effort from Army’s defense. It’s the 9-0 team no one saw coming, but the perfect season likely ends in two weeks vs Notre Dame.

The bye week became a bit more painful for the Texas A&M Aggies, with Georgia’s Week 11 loss serving as a reminder of how close Mike Elko’s program came to being ranked as a top-six team in college football. Instead, the Aggies’ “signature” wins over LSU and Missouri look far less impressive weeks later, especially with two-score defeats to South Carolina and Notre Dame on the resume. Theoretically, Texas A&M could still make the playoffs, but no one should be betting on this team to beat the Texas Longhorns on Nov. 30.

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Any shot that Cade Klubnik had of being a Heisman Trophy finalist vanished a week ago, but at least he kept the Clemson Tigers’ playoff hopes alive on Saturday. However, Clemson did trail Virginia Tech 95-5) 7-0 at halftime, then Klubnikl saved the day in the second half. We’ve obviously got the Tigers higher in our college football rankings than the CFP committee does, but there’s certainly no doubt that this isn’t a playoff team right now.\

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It’s difficult to come up with a bye week scenario that could’ve gone better for the SMU Mustangs. This program needed a few dominoes to fall to move into the College Football Playoff rankings, losses by Georgia and Miami provided just that. SMU should be strong favorites in its three remaining regular-season games (vs Boston College, at Virginia, vs Cal) but as we’ve already seen, the 2024 college football season is chaotic.

Few players in college football have done as much damage to their stock as Carson Beck. Entering the season, the Georgia Bulldogs quarterback was viewed as a serious Heisman Trophy candidate and a potential No. 1 pick in the 2025 NFL Draft. Months later, he is one of the biggest reasons for two of the Bulldogs’ losses and his teammates needed to bail him out to prevent more defeats from popping up on the Bulldogs schedule. A two-score loss to Ole Miss, following rough performances against Kentucky and Florida, raise serious about about whether or not Georgia belongs in the playoff.

Maybe that win, more specifically the poor performance by Boise State quarterback Maddux Madsen, will help Heisman Trophy voters see why Ashton Jeanty should be the front-runner. Feeding Jeanty was the only thing working for the Broncos on Saturday night and he came through with 3 touchdowns and over 190 scrimmage yards. Narrowly beating Nevada (3-8) does raise some red flags with Boise State, but this team is still good enough to beat San Jose State, Wyoming and Oregon State to close out the regular season which would put the Broncos at 11-1.

As Jaxson Dart went for a medical evaluation following an interception that set up a 7-0 lead for the Georgia Bulldogs, the Ole Miss Rebels seemed destined for another ugly loss. However, backup quarterback Austin Simmons provided a much-needed spark with a touchdown drive off the bench. Minutes later, Dart returned to the field and kept the Rebels running. Of course, the biggest difference-maker here was an Ole Miss defense that generated 3 takeaways and did an excellent job pressuring Carson Beck. Lane Kiffin desperately needed this win and he got it, Ole Miss’ playoff hopes are still very much alive.

Well, there’s a version of Jalen Milroe we haven’t seen for a few weeks. The Alabama Crimson Tide knew the blueprint to beat the LSU Tigers, use Milroe’s legs against a defense that has no answer for mobile quarterbacks. Mission accomplished. Alabama went into LSU on Saturday night and demonstrated it is the better team by a significant margin. Alabama should be able to finish out the regular season (vs Mercer, at Oklahoma, vs Auburn) with three straight wins and that might be enough to miraculously get this team into the SEC Championship Game.

The Miami Hurricanes held complete control over their destiny, heading into the remainder of their schedule as favorites in every matchup. Once again, the Hurricanes defense put this team in an awful position and Heisman candidate Cam Ward couldn’t save the day this time. It’s only Miami’s first loss of the season and the program’s College Football Playoff chances are still alive, but the Hurricanes just demonstrated why few would pick them to advance far in the CFP.

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With each passing week, the loss at home to Northern Illinois looks more inexplicable. Since taking out Louisville 31-24, who is ranked once again, the Notre Dame Fighting Irish have demolished their last four opponents by at least three scores. It bodes very well for the upcoming matchup next Saturday at home against Virginia. Of course, all eyes are on that Nov. 23 matchup against undefeated Army. With all due respect to the Black Knights, though, Notre Dame should dominate.

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Jake Retzlaff (15-of-33, 6.6 ypa) and the BYU Cougars had a rough go of it for much of Saturday night in Utah, trailing their hated rival 31-10 at halftime and even down by 8 points entering the fourth quarter. The Cougars didn’t quit, though, making it a two-point game with a shot at a game-winning drive. While the officiating on that final series should be questioned, BYU did take advantage of it to set up the game-winning field goal as time expired. It’s a 9-0 record for BYU and the most physical game on their regular-season schedule is now in the rearview mirror.

Allow Week 11 to demonstrate how difficult it is to still be undefeated in November. The Indiana Hoosiers certainly didn’t play their cleanest football game on Saturday, with quarterback Kurtis Rourke getting picked off and asked to play effectively despite a non-existent rushing attack. The Hoosiers survived, overcoming a late fight from Michigan to preserve the win. Indiana is a 10-win team for the first time in program history and this team isn’t done yet.

The Penn State Nittany Lions really only needed the first half to put the win on ice in Week 10. Drew Allar was efficient through the air, while tight end Tyler Warren rushed for a pair of first-half touchdowns. Of course, the Nittany Lions’ defense dominated the Washington Huskies along the way. With all the chaos from Saturday, Penn State’s pedestrian resume doesn’t matter nearly as much anymore because it’s getting a lot harder to find Power 4 teams with fewer than two losses.

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Just an uneventful Saturday for Quinn Ewers and the Texas Longhorns. Hosting the Florida Gators, Texas jumped out to a 32-0 lead after its first drive in the third quarter. At that point, it could take its foot off the break with the final score (49-17) being more deceiving. The Longhorns have a wider margin for error in the playoff hunt now that Miami and Georgia have lost, but that regular-season finale at Kyle Field will ultimately determine if Texas makes the playoffs.

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Can Saturday night be a spark for the Tennessee Volunteers offense moving forward? Dylan Sampson continued to add to arguably the greatest season by a running back in Vols’ history, while quarterback Nico Iamaleava came through with one of his best performances through the air. It comes at a much-needed time because Tennessee will need both its defense and offense to be playing at peak levels against a motivated and desperate Bulldogs team in Georgia next Saturday night.

Too easy for the Ohio State Buckeyes. Purdue (1-8) might’ve kept it close early, only trailing 7-0 after the first quarter but that was as close as it would get. Ohio State accounted for 433 total yards, putting up 45 points even on a Saturday with only a 41.7 percent third-down conversion rate. The Buckeyes have rebounded nicely from the Oregon loss and are just one victory away from a must-see battle at home against the Indiana Hoosiers on Nov. 23.

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The Oregon Ducks are the best team in college football, but they looked far from flawless on Saturday night. Typically one of the most explosive offenses in the nation, quarterback Dillon Gabriel and Co. had big issues finding big plays. So, a slow and methodical approach with a solid effort from the defense won the game. We’ve learned from the 2024 season that there is no truly dominant team, but the Ducks are undefeated and proving they can win in a variety of ways.

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