The biggest, most-anticipated game of the season so far took a while, but No. 2 Georgia vs. No. 4 Alabama eventually lived up to the hype — then exceeded it. The Crimson Tide’s barnburner of a win is the clear headliner from Saturday, but as is always the case, there was plenty of drama elsewhere. It started with a controversially overturned Hail Mary in Miami’s win against Virginia Tech on Friday night and continued all the way through a loss by No. 10 Utah that crept into Sunday morning for most of the United States.
The 12-team College Football Playoff race continues to hover over all of it, as an SEC giant stumbled, top-10 teams tumbled, and UNLV put an exclamation point on the end of a weird, wild week.
Here are five CFP-related lessons from Week 5:
1. Alabama wins an instant classic
It’s not often that a team can claim a comeback victory after jumping out to a 28-0 lead. Add it to the long list of memorable moments from Alabama’s 41-34 win, a game with 1,066 yards of total offense, a pair of Heisman-candidate quarterbacks and 177 yards on six catches for Alabama freshman phenom Ryan Williams, who, you may have heard, is only 17 years old.
The Crimson Tide silenced questions about how they’d perform without legendary coach Nick Saban on the sideline when they sprinted ahead with four consecutive touchdown drives, but things went off the rails in the second half as Georgia stormed back. In the end, it was a white-knuckle signature win for Alabama coach Kalen DeBoer in his first SEC game, a heartbreaking loss for Kirby Smart and the Bulldogs, and a result that reiterated these are two of the best teams in the sport.
Alabama and Georgia both belong in that tip-top tier with Texas and Ohio State (until the Buckeyes play an opponent good enough to indicate otherwise). That doesn’t mean things will stay that way, especially in the gantlet of the SEC, where whichever two teams reach the conference title game will have earned it. The Tide still have Missouri and road trips to Tennessee, LSU and Oklahoma ahead on the schedule, while Georgia has trips to Texas and Ole Miss and gets Tennessee at home. There’s a decent chance neither will wind up playing in the league championship.
For now, however, Alabama looks like the best team in the country and may be ranked as such on Sunday, supplanting Texas for the No. 1 spot. The Bulldogs shouldn’t drop too far, either.
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2. Notre Dame offers timely reminder that it’s a long season
We all poured cold water on the Irish after their Week 2 loss to Northern Illinois, and rightfully so. But they have bounced back for three consecutive wins, including Saturday’s 31-24 dispatching of No. 15 Louisville, on top of Week 1’s victory at Texas A&M.
It’s a similar story for Clemson, which was bulldozed by Georgia in the opener and has since logged three blowouts in a row. Both teams still have work to do in order to feel good about their Playoff spot, and Notre Dame’s path will have to be as an at-large. But their misguided early dismissal is important to remember when considering Ole Miss, which looked like a paper tiger in Saturday’s 20-17 home loss to Kentucky. Same for Utah, which fell 23-10 to Arizona with backup Isaac Wilson starting again at quarterback. Or LSU, which flopped against USC in Week 1 but hasn’t lost since.
It’s easy to be a prisoner of the moment, particularly in a sport where a bad or unexpected loss at this point in the season has historically been a death rattle for Playoff hopes. Those days are gone. Notre Dame still has to play at USC to end the regular season, and a loss to anyone else along the way might keep it on the outside looking in, but by no means is it out of it: Our projections gave the Irish a 37 percent chance to make the field before defeating Louisville.
As bad as Ole Miss is feeling today, a lot can change in a few weeks.
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3. The Big 12 chaos is real, and it’s spectacular
Add Kansas State back to that ever-sliding scale of Playoff hopefuls. The Wildcats followed last week’s humbling 38-9 loss to BYU with a 42-20 thumping of Oklahoma State. Quarterback Avery Johnson had the most complete game of his young career, throwing for more than 250 yards and accounting for five total touchdowns. It perfectly encapsulated a Big 12 that already has havoc in the conference standings.
K-State’s bounce-back win keeps it in the mix and means an 0-2 start to league play for Oklahoma State, which played for a Big 12 championship last season and was expected to compete for it again. Elsewhere, Utah took an L as the curious case of Cam Rising’s absence drags on. That means the top four teams in the conference’s preseason poll already have a league loss. That includes a Kansas team that is 0-2 and 1-4 overall after a loss to TCU, but does not include BYU, which held on to beat Baylor and improve to 5-0. Iowa State has started 4-0 for the first time since 2000.
It’s anarchy, and while that might not help the Big 12 land multiple spots in the 12-team field come December, it’s already as fun as advertised.
Up next for Kansas State, by the way? An idle week followed by a trip to Colorado to face the 4-1 Buffs (2-0 Big 12) and Travis Hunter’s billowing Heisman campaign.
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4. The Group of 5 race is a big tent
Navy! James Madison! Sam Houston State! UNLV! Anyone who argued against G5 access to the Playoff should be forced to apologize and make amends.
The eventual outcome — getting smoked as the No. 12 seed in the first round by the second-best SEC team — may be inevitable. But what is not to love about all these programs that have a shot to make it? Forget Iowa State and the year 2000; Army and Navy are both 4-0 for the first time since 1945, as the Midshipmen continued to sling it around in an easy win against UAB. JMU followed its 70-point outburst against North Carolina with a 63-7 win over Ball State. Sam Houston State, a double-digit underdog, upset Texas State to improve to 4-1. In the mix, all of them.
And then there are the UNLV Rebels, who lived a lifetime this week. Their starting quarterback Matthew Sluka sparked an NIL-related firestorm, the school elected to spurn the Pac-12 and remain in the Mountain West, and then the team went out and stomped Fresno State by a score of 59-14. So much for distractions.
The Rebels should be ranked in the AP Top 25 come Sunday, along with fellow Mountain West foe (for now) Boise State, which unleashed Ashton Jeanty on Washington State to the tune of 259 yards and four touchdowns on 26 carries. Even with their last-second loss to Oregon, the Broncos are probably in the driver’s seat, with the caveat that a team must win its conference championship to earn the G5 spot. But don’t forget Tulane, which has two power-conference losses but crushed South Florida on Saturday, or 4-0 Liberty, which had its game against Appalachian State canceled due to Hurricane Helene.
5. Deciding the at-large bids will be fascinating
Don’t lose track of the at-large jockeying that will continue to heat up as we get deeper into league play. Seven at-large bids go to the highest ranked teams that do not win a conference championship. How many will the SEC get? At least three, including the automatic berth, but probably four? Maybe five? Who from Alabama, Texas, Georgia, Tennessee, Missouri, LSU and Ole Miss will out?
Can Rutgers and/or Indiana, both still undefeated, actually make some noise in the Big Ten alongside Ohio State, Oregon, Penn State, Michigan and USC? Washington State’s longshot hopes are probably dead after the loss to Boise State, but Notre Dame persists. Can anyone trip up Cam Ward and Miami in the ACC?
Some good teams will ultimately get left out of the Playoff. The big difference this season is that so many teams still have a chance right now.
Except Florida State. That ship has sunk.
(Photo: Chris Gardner / Getty Images)
