Halloween is still six days away, and undefeated teams are dropping like flies in college football. With No. 2 BYU's loss to UCF and No. 8 Texas Tech's loss to Cincinnati, just three unbeatens remain in FBS, a historic low.
The last time major college football had only three undefeated teams through Oct. 24 was in 1977. I'd let you guess which teams those were, but we might be here all week, and I have another full slate of action to cover on Saturday.
Through Oct. 24, 1977, Texas was sitting at 6-0, and its unblemished brethren were Colgate (7-0) and Louisiana Tech (4-0-2). So, yes, it's extremely rare to have this much carnage at this point in the season.
The only three teams with a zero in the loss column are Miami, Utah and UCLA. The Hurricanes are a serious candidate to run the table -- at least in the regular season, but the other two are much more vulnerable.
After notching a top-25 win over Houston late Saturday night, Utah must travel to Cincinnati, which just handed Texas Tech its first loss of the season. After that, it's Holy War time as BYU visits Salt Lake City.
The Bruins are playing with a backup quarterback for the rest of the season, and they still have to visit Minnesota and Michigan before hosting USC. It's a manageable path for UCLA, but the loss of Nico Iamaleava reduces the team's margin for error on a weekly basis.
If you think all three of those remaining unbeatens will get through the rest of the season unscathed, you haven't been watching much college football in 2026. In fact, there's a chance we don't have any undefeated teams if Miami loses to Notre Dame on Nov. 7.
All this parity is setting up for a wild November filled with neck-and-neck conference races and maddening College Football Playoff debates. I can't wait.
Perplexing playoff picture
We've already seen 2007-level insanity, and there's still one week of games left before the first College Football Playoff rankings are unveiled on Tuesday, Nov. 3.
The race for the playoffs is officially wide open because as small as the number of undefeated teams is, the list of one-loss teams is shrinking rapidly too. There are only 16 teams with one or fewer losses on their resumes, and just 12 of those reside in a Power Four conference.
As a result, the list of teams with hope of reaching the College Football Playoff is lengthy. According to ESPN FPI, there are 19 teams with at least a 20 percent chance (or 1-in-5 shot) of getting into the playoff field. And that doesn't even include one-loss teams like Arizona or SMU.
It should also be noted that two of the teams with a better-than-50-percent chance, Texas and Alabama, already have two losses. Will both of those teams run the table? Given what we've seen to this point, that seems unlikely.
What about two-loss teams with big-game opportunities coming up? USC plays a shorthanded Ohio State team in Los Angeles this weekend, and the path really widens for the winner of Iowa vs. Wisconsin on Saturday.
The evolution of NIL and the transfer portal has created a new era of parity in college football, and that's great news for fans, but it will create some tough decisions for the playoff selection committee.
I don't envy anyone on that committee because someone with a legitimate case to reach the playoff will get left out. There are too many participants and too few seats in this game of musical chairs.
Conference title game chaos
With the CFP set to expand to 24 teams next year, this will likely be our final season with conference championship games, at least among the Power Four leagues.
If they're going extinct, they may as well go out with a bang, and these conference championship races are shaping up for exactly that. Just look around the country at some of these conference standings.
In the SEC, first-place Kentucky is rolling toward a matchup against Georgia. The Wildcats have never appeared in an SEC title game before, but it would be better late than never if they can sneak in a trip to Atlanta under the wire.
What about the Big Ten? A rematch between Ohio State and Indiana is far from a lock at this point. Neither team has looked invulnerable, and each has its own unique quarterback issue. There's also the matter of UCLA -- a team that went 3-9 last year -- sitting in first place at 5-0 in conference play, and the Bruins may not play another ranked team.
Now let's check in on the Big 12, where your guess about what will happen week to week is as good as mine. Utah is the clear front-runner, at least for now, but the Utes still have to play Cincinnati, BYU and Arizona. Behind Utah, there are four teams with one conference loss just waiting for the Utes to slip up.
We can all admit that Miami is running away with the ACC, although the Hurricanes haven't won the conference title game since coming over from the Big East. The race for second place in the ACC is what's really fascinating. Wake Forest and SMU each have one loss, but Virginia Tech and Louisville are on their heels at 3-2. It helps that the Cardinals already have a head-to-head win over the Mustangs.
I hope everyone is up to date on conference tiebreakers because they will almost certainly come into play once we make it through Thanksgiving weekend. We still have five weeks of these teams eating one another alive, and it will be a joy to watch.
