College football Week 8 roundup with the 5 things that matter, winners and losers, overrated and underrated parts of the weekend, and what it all means.
College Football Week 8 Roundup
Week 8 Roundup
CFN 1-130 Rankings | Bowl Projections
Week 8 scoreboard, all the predictions
Week 8 opening lines | AP | Coaches
Big Game Reaction: Illinois, Oregon, Pitt, more
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– AAC expansion: One Really Big Thing
– OU-Kansas: Most Overrated Thing
– ACC & CFP: Most Underrated Thing
– Curveballs coming What It All Means, Week 8
– Contact/Follow @ColFootballNews & @PeteFiutak
Winners & Losers From Week 8
Winner: Cincinnati, San Diego State, Wake Forest
It might not have been a walk in the park, but there are just nine unbeaten teams left, and Cincinnati, San Diego State, and Wake Forest have managed to be among them. They each had quirky tests last week that turned out to be somewhat historic – unbeaten ranked teams all going against service academies – and they all passed.
Loser: Air Force, Army, Navy
The amazing San Diego State run defense held Air Force to just 192 rushing yards in a 20-14 win. Army put up 56 points and 416 rushing yards on Wake Forest, but gave up 70 points. 1-6 Navy scored ten fourth quarter points to push Cincinnati – who was held to just 271 yards of total offense – in a 27-20 Bearcat win.
Winner: Pitt QB Kenny Pickett
Ole Miss’ Matt Corral and Coastal Carolina’s Grayson McCall have each thrown 15 touchdown passes with just one interception. There’s only one quarterback who’s better at the whole TD-to-INT thing.
Kenny Pickett has thrown 23 touchdown passes with just the one pick, he has two or more scoring throws in every game, and he’s coming off a 302-yard, two touchdown, no interception day in the 27-17 win over Clemson, which was massive because …
Loser: Clemson losing by double-digits
November 15th, 2014. That was the last time Clemson lost a regular season game by ten points or more, dropping the date to Georgia Tech 28-6. It took a total of seven regular seasons before Pitt finally broke the streak with its win on Saturday.
Winner: Sun Belt
The natural expansion progression appeared to be the Power Five would take American Athletic Conference schools, the AAC would take Conference USA schools, and Conference USA would take Sun Belt schools.
But things have flipped – the Sun Belt is grabbing Southern Miss from Conference USA, and it might get Marshall and Old Dominion, too. Throw in James Madison from the FCS, and the Sun Belt is about to get a whole lot stronger.
Loser: Conference USA
The doom-and-gloom is warranted with Conference USA likely losing nine of its 14 members, but there’s a flicker of hope. It can go add a slew of FCS programs, a few independents might be added to the mix, and there’s always the option of trying woo a few schools from the MAC, but there’s also a shot that the league can’t go on. It’s going to all depend on what kind of TV and streaming deals the league can rework.
Winner: USF
The Bulls beat Temple 34-14 on Saturday for their first win over an FBS program this season – they beat Florida A&M in September. That broke a streak of 17 straight losses against FBSers since getting by East Carolina in late October of 2019.
Loser: Arizona, Kansas, UNLV
With the heartbreaking 21-16 loss to Washington, Arizona is now 0-7 and on a 19-game losing streak since beating Colorado in early October of 2019.
With its tough loss to Oklahoma, Kansas has lost 19 straight to FBS teams 23 of its last 24.
UNLV had San Jose State there for the taking, but couldn’t catch a break on a ton of Spartan fumbles and collapsed late in a 27-20 loss. It’s now 0-7 and lost 13 straight – and 21 of its last 24 – with the last victory coming over Nevada to close out 2019.
– AAC expansion: One Really Big Thing
– OU-Kansas: Most Overrated Thing
– ACC & CFP: Most Underrated Thing
– Curveballs coming What It All Means, Week 8