Moving the Chains: Takeaways from College Football 2025 – Week Fourteen

By Scott Ludwig, [email protected]

Forget about all of those meaningless bowl games.  The final weekend of the regular season, Rivalry Week, is three weeks of bowl games compressed into two days.  And they’re a lot more exciting.

The traditional rivalry games mean much more than bowls named after snack foods (Pop-Tarts, Cheez-Its) or bearing relevance to a sport that’s not even football (Pinstripe, Fenway).  Usually the bowls feature two teams of little interest outside of their respective fan bases.  And judging by the attendance at the majority of post-season bowl games – playoff games excluded – their fans don’t seem to be that interested either.   

As for the Rivalry Games, let’s begin with the SEC:

#7 Ole Miss needed a win in the Egg Bowl to ensure a spot in the playoffs.  Mississippi State, at 5 – 6, was seeking a win to become bowl-eligible (but don’t ask me why; I’ve made it clear how I feel about bowl games).  Ole Miss QB Trinidad Chambliss, who didn’t even play the first two games of the season, showed that he was Heisman worthy, completing 23 of 34 passes for 359 yards and 4 touchdowns.  Running back Kewan Lacy helped the cause by rushing for 143 yards and a TD on 24 carries.  (For the season, Lacy carried the ball 258 times without a fumble.  Chambliss threw 333 passes with only 3 interceptions.)   Final score: Ole Miss – 38, State – 19.  Next up for Ole Miss  (11 – 1) is their playoff debut.    

After last year’s thrilling 8-overtime 44 – 42 Bulldog win over the Yellow Jackets, the expectations ran high for an equally thrilling game this year with both teams ranked in the top 25.  After the dust settled, #4 Georgia (11 – 1) edged out #23 Georgia Tech (9 – 3) 16 – 9.  Sure, it was close, but it fell short on drama.  With the win, the Bulldogs earned a berth in the SEC championship game – which may or not be a blessing in disguise.  Regardless, they’ll be making their fourth playoff appearance.  For the Yellow Jackets, it was a disappointing finish to a once-promising season (ACC title? CFP? National Championship?).  Adding insult to injury, a meaningless bowl game is next.  

#16 Texas (9 – 3) ruined #3 Texas A&M’s (11 – 1) perfect season with a 27 – 17 win in Austin.  Longhorn coach Steve Sarkisian believes his team should be in the playoffs: they beat three teams ranked in the Top Ten at the time – Oklahoma, Vanderbilt, and now Texas A&M – and their three losses were to #1 Ohio State, #4 Georgia, and … wait for it … Florida.  So maybe Sark has a point, although that loss to the Gators certainly doesn’t help.

Sarkisian could make an equally compelling case for leaving the Aggies out of the playoffs.  Outside of an early 1-point win over Notre Dame, there’s not much on their resume.  Their game against Texas was their first against an SEC opponent with a winning record.  As for their 7 SEC wins, they were against teams with a combined record of an underwhelming if not mind-boggling 12 – 44 in conference play.  And outside of their win against the Fighting Irish, the Aggies’ 3 out-of-conference wins were against teams with a composite record of 13 – 23.  There are those who are already speculating that Texas A&M jumped the gun on giving second-year coach Mike Elko a six-year contract paying him an annual salary of $11 million.  For now, the jury is out.    

#10 Alabama scored a game-winning TD late in the 4^th quarter to defeat Auburn 27 – 20, securing a spot against Georgia in the SEC championship.  Auburn was snakebit throughout the night: 4 defensive penalties on 3^rd or 4^th down, a player ejected for targeting, a TD called back for a penalty, Alabama succeeding on all 3 of their 4^th down conversions (one the game-winning TD), and a game-ending fumble on a potential game-tying drive in the final minute.  Alabama, incidentally, handed Georgia their only loss during the regular season.  

No less than a half-dozen teams had a shot at the ACC conference championship going into the final weekend.  SMU and Virginia, both 6 – 1 in conference play, had the simplest path: all they had to do was win their games against Cal and Virginia Tech, respectively.  

Meanwhile, #12 Miami made a statement for playoff consideration by beating #22 Pitt 38 – 21 to improve to 10 – 2.  The Hurricanes went into the game as the ACC team with the highest ranking in the Top 25, which may be enough considering …

By virtue of #18 Virginia’s 27 – 7 win over Virginia Tech and #21 SMU’s last-minute loss to California, 38 – 35, Virginia will face 7 – 5 Duke, 49 – 32 winners over Wake Forest, in the ACC championship.  The Virginia – Duke title game all but assures it of its lowest television ratings of all time (it’s up against the Big Ten championship; also, it’s Virginia and Duke).  And if the Blue Devils pull the upset, the playoff committee will need to sharpen their pencils.  

In the Big Ten, #2 Indiana polished off a perfect 12 – 0 season with an effortless win over unmanned and outclassed Purdue, 56 – 3.  Next up for the Hoosiers is their first conference championship game.    

Meanwhile, that other team from Indiana, #9 Notre Dame, had a rather easy time with 4 – 7 Stanford.  Irish – 49, Cardinal – 20.  The Fighting Irish are assured of a playoff berth, regardless of the fact they will never win a conference championship since they stubbornly refuse to join one.  (The playoff committee really needs to take a look at that.) 

#1 Ohio State (12 – 0) broke a three-game losing streak to #15 Michigan (9 – 3), winning 27 – 9. Next up: the Big Ten championship.  THE GAME had it all.  A Michigan player head-butted an umpire.  Soul-sucking 20-play drive by Ohio State in the 4^th quarter. Heisman-worthy performance from Buckeye QB Julian Sayin (19 of 26, 233 yards, 3 TD’s).  Brutus the Buckeye mascot is carving out a large X in the snow over the top of the M (for Michigan) in the end zone.  Ohio State coach Ryan Day can finally catch his breath after 4 straight losses to the team up north.    

The Big Ten championship may be THE OTHER GAME of the season prior to the playoffs, with the winner claiming the conference title, the top seed in the playoffs, and perhaps a Heisman-winning performance from one of the two quarterbacks, Sayin and Indiana’s Fernando Mendoza.      

In the Big 12 scramble to determine the combatants in their conference championship game, #25 Arizona beat #20 Arizona State 23 – 7 on Friday night, assuring both #5 Texas Tech and #11 BYU of spots in the title game regardless of how they did in their games on Saturday.  With the pressure off, Texas Tech demolished West Virginia 49 – 0 and BYU took care of UCF 41 – 21.     

A brief timeout to mention the dominance of Ohio State and Texas Tech in their respective wins.  The Buckeyes had more first downs (23 to 9), more total yards (419 to 163), ran more plays (73 to 42), and held the ball longer (40 minutes to 20) than Michigan.  The Red Raiders had more first downs (32 to 9), more total yards (572 to 180), ran more plays (94 to 54), and held the ball longer (like Ohio State, 40 minutes to 20) than West Virginia.  Time will tell if they can both be as dominant next week against Indiana and BYU, respectively.

One last thing about the West Virginia game.  It was their worst home loss since ’91.  1891, that is.  Also worth noting: Texas Tech handed BYU its only loss of the season: 29 – 7 in Lubbock on November 8.    

There were a couple of other games involving teams in playoff contention:

• #6 Oregon 26, Washington – 14.  The win all but assures the Ducks will be in the playoffs at 11 – 1.   
• #8 Oklahoma – 17, LSU – 13.  The Sooners pulled out an ugly win at home to finish the season at 10 – 2.   
• #14 Vanderbilt – 45, #19 Tennessee – 24.  It gives the Commodores their first ever 10-win season.

In my opinion, if it comes down to which 10 – 2 SEC team makes the playoffs, Oklahoma or Vanderbilt, I’d opt for the Commodores.  They outgained Tennessee by 200 yards.  Vandy QB Diego Pavia completed 18 of 28 passes for 268 yards and a TD and rushed 20 times for 165 yards and another score. As for Oklahoma, they only managed 14 first downs while throwing 3 interceptions in their game with LSU.  And the Sooners only won the game on a 4^th quarter touchdown pass with 4 minutes left in the game – when there wasn’t an LSU defender even in the same zip code.  

Here’s a better idea: take them both and leave Notre Dame out.    

Some scores from the otherwise meaningless (in the big picture, I mean) rivalry games:

• Clemson – 28, South Carolina – 14
• #17 USC – 29, UCLA – 10
• Louisville – 41, Kentucky – 0

And in a game close to my heart:

• Florida – 40, Florida State – 21.  The Gators’ Jadan Baugh, doing his best Emmitt Smith impersonation, rushed the ball 38 times for 266 yards and 2 touchdowns and became the first Gator in 13 years to surpass 1,000 yards in a season (1,170). 

Finally, there will be one playoff spot for a team from the Group of Five.  Once I figure out who they are I’ll get back to you.