College Football Games Leave Fans in Shock

By: Garrett Arch '26

Photo credits: (Butch Dill/Imagn Images)

What was supposed to be one of the mildest weeks of the college football season has turned into one of the most chaotic in recent history. Four of the top eleven teams in the country went on the road and were taken down by unranked opponents. 

After losing a nail biter to Michigan two weeks ago, number 11 USC seemed to regain their footing, shutting down Wisconsin by 17 points in last week’s matchup. Though this week, they traveled north to face Minnesota, where they lost by just 7 points. In a rematch of last year’s national championship game, Number 10 Michigan went on the road to Seattle to face Washington. This time, unlike the championship game, Michigan lost by 10 points to the Huskies. But if this weren’t enough, number 4 Tennessee went on the road to face the Arkansas Razorbacks where they lost by just 5 points. Previous to this game, Arkansas had an 18 game losing streak against Top 5 opponents. 

Though these three upsets were none to forget, they don’t come close in comparison to what will go down as one of the greatest upsets in College Football history. For context, last week in college football, conference rivals, number 2 Georgia and number 4 Alabama faced off in Tuscaloosa in what was predicted to be “the best game of the season.” After an extremely back and forth game, number 4 Alabama claimed the victory with a last minute touchdown and a game saving interception. After this game, when it was time for the updated rankings, Alabama shot to number 1. Coming into this week, Alabama had an easy game against Vanderbilt, a team who didn’t win a single conference game this year. But after starting with an early lead, Vanderbilt slowly ran away with this game, winning 40 to 35. 

To make this win even more incredible, this game was Vanderbilt’s first win against a number 1 ranked team, broke a 23 game losing streak to Alabama, and in celebration, students found a way to get their goal post into Nashville’s Cumberland river. By the end of the day, fanbases had been devastated, four fields had been rushed, and the entire power dynamic of college football had been shattered. This week’s upsets will be talked about for years to come, and the effects of the games will be felt throughout the remainder of the season.