College football takeaways: CFP positioning, Ole Miss’ portal power and more from Week 11

With Week 11 coming to an end, we look back at key takeaways from exciting victories, surprising losses and teams making a late surge toward the College Football Playoff.

No. 16 Ole Miss pulled off an exhilarating win at home over No. 3 Georgia. With Georgia now suffering two conference losses on the season, how could this week’s loss affect its potential CFP ranking?

With a little more than a month left of the regular season, Army and Colorado are making late pushes toward title games and a possible spot in the 12-team CFP field. What does each team need to do to gain one of those spots?

Our college football experts break down key storylines and takeaways from Week 11.

Head-to-head results matter to the CFP selection committee … sometimes

Ole Miss just beat Georgia in a critical game that boosted the two-loss Rebels’ playoff hopes, but it’s not a guarantee that Ole Miss will be ranked ahead of Georgia in their second ranking on Tuesday. The committee will compare Georgia’s best wins — against Texas and Clemson — with Ole Miss’ wins against South Carolina and Georgia. They will also look at the Rebels’ home loss to Kentucky, and the overtime loss to LSU — which just got smacked by Bama.

The FCS win against Furman will also stand out in the room. In what is still a very subjective system, the head-to-head win against Georgia could mean more to one committee member than it does another. Will they drop their No. 3 team behind two two-loss teams? It depends on whom you ask. — Heather Dinich

Is it better to be the deep SEC or the top-heavy Big Ten with CFP selections?

After Week 11, the SEC marketing brain trust is undoubtedly working on a modified message: It just means more to go 10-2. The league amazingly has seven teams with one or two losses, including Missouri, which pulled off another bewildering win that left coach Eliah Drinkwitz stumping for CFP consideration. Two blowout losses for the Tigers are likely disqualifying, but the SEC undoubtedly will push them and its other two-loss contenders. Ole Miss and Alabama are in that group after very impressive wins over now-eliminated LSU and still-very-much-alive Georgia, which can bring Tennessee into the two-loss cohort this coming week.

If Georgia beats Tennessee in Athens, Texas A&M beats Texas in College Station and every other team wins its other games, the SEC still could have seven two-loss teams at the end of the regular season. Good luck sorting all of them out for CFP selection.

Things are much cleaner in the Big Ten, which is arguably more top-heavy than ever. Two undefeated teams remain, including Indiana, which won its 10th game for the first time in team history but faced true adversity for the first time this fall. Indiana faces Ohio State on Nov. 23, but the other Big Ten CFP contenders, Oregon and Penn State, do not have a ranked opponent left. After the top four, the Big Ten drops off substantially, as every other team has at least three conference losses. If Indiana falls at Ohio State and everyone else wins out, the Big Ten will be left with three 11-1 teams and Oregon at 12-0.

How will the committee evaluate Ole Miss, Alabama and Georgia against Indiana and Penn State? If Ohio State loses to, say, Indiana, how will the Buckeyes stack up against the SEC’s 10-2 group? I’m sure everyone will be satisfied with what the selection committee decides. — Adam Rittenberg

Bruins continue surprise surge

At Big Ten media days, first-year UCLA head coach DeShaun Foster caused a stir when he stumbled and froze through his opening remarks to begin his news conference. Then, after failing to evoke much confidence in Indianapolis, Foster and the Bruins started 1-5, their only victory coming in a narrow win over Hawai’i.

But since, UCLA under Foster has quietly surged.

Friday night, the Bruins knocked off Iowa 20-17 for their third win in a row. Quarterback Ethan Garbers is up to sixth in the Big Ten in QBR (71.5), with eight touchdowns and only two picks over the past three games.

Suddenly, the Bruins (4-5) are knocking on the door of bowl eligibility in Foster’s debut season. With a win over rival USC in two weeks, they could even finish ahead of the once-ballyhooed Trojans in the Big Ten standings. — Jake Trotter

Ole Miss’ portal overhaul pays off

One year ago, in the moments after a 52-17 beatdown loss to Georgia that knocked Ole Miss out of playoff contention, Lane Kiffin knew what needed to change.

“We’ve gotta recruit at a higher level,” Kiffin told reporters.

He needed to build a team with size and length on par to the SEC’s best, particularly on defense. Closing the gap on Georgia and Alabama required bigger and better. The Rebels were already ahead of the game on transfer recruiting. But going into 2024, they couldn’t afford to miss.

They didn’t. Ole Miss proved an awful lot in its 28-10 rout of Georgia on Saturday, dominating a top-3 opponent with a lineup that included eight starters on offense and nine on defense who came to Oxford via the portal. The toughness of Jaxson Dart and the Ole Miss offense deserves plenty of praise, but coordinator Pete Golding’s turnaround on defense really fueled this win.

Pass rushers Princely Umanmielen, Jared Ivey and Walter Nolen overwhelmed Georgia and were worth every penny. Linebackers TJ Dottery and Chris Paul Jr. combined for 19 tackles and effectively contained the Bulldogs’ rushing attack. John Saunders Jr. grabbed a clutch fourth-quarter interception. All of them transferred to Ole Miss to help this program finally break through and win these season-defining games.

Two early SEC losses cranked up the pressure on this team and has brought out its best. Against Georgia, Kiffin proved he accomplished his mission: Ole Miss finally has the talent, experience and depth it takes to chase a national championship. — Max Olson

Virginia fights on two years after tragedy

There are some days where it hits Virginia coach Tony Elliott more than others, nearly two years after Devin Chandler, Lavel Davis Jr. and D’Sean Perry were shot and killed.

Time has passed, but the pain has not. On Wednesday, the two-year anniversary of their deaths, the university will hold a moment of silence. Anyone with the football program is invited to place flowers at the memorial trees planted in their honor last year. The roster has turned over since the tragedy happened, but there remains a core group of players who lived through the devastation. Elliott has tried to find a way to lead them forward. Because the work in building a football team continues on.

That is why what Virginia has done this season should not go unnoticed. Following a 24-19 upset win over No. 19 Pittsburgh on Saturday night, Virginia (5-4, 3-3) is one win away from bowl eligibility. After winning three games in each of his first two seasons, the Cavaliers have more overall wins and more ACC wins in Year 3.

The schedule has been daunting, with games already against ranked Louisville, Clemson and Pitt and two more to come — at Notre Dame on Saturday, then home to SMU before finishing at rival Virginia Tech.

During an open date before playing Pitt, Elliott refused to talk about the degree of difficulty with the schedule, telling ESPN, “Truth be told, I want to find a way to go win at least two of these games and get these seniors to a bowl game. I’m not going to sell this group short.”

Given what the program has overcome, Elliott said, “Everybody who is a part of the program has embraced what our new normal is. So it’s been a little bit easier just to stay in our rhythm because we don’t constantly have something going on associated with it. We have certain moments in time where we take a pause, and I’ve been intentional by acknowledging it but not being overbearing with it.

“I am day-to-day. There are moments in time where just unprovoked I’ll have my moments where I think about it and it hurts me to my core that something like that happens.”

Virginia has daily reminders when it walks into the facility, as three mannequins dressed in the jersey numbers of Chandler, Davis and Perry greet them, as a lasting tribute in their honor. Elliott and his team have repeatedly said they want to play every game to make them proud. Getting to a bowl this season would be a testament to the work they have collectively done to get the program back in the face of unthinkable circumstances. — Andrea Adelson

Daily returns, powers Army to crucial November win

Army’s Week 11 trip to North Texas marked the most significant remaining hurdle left on the Black Knights’ AAC schedule with a seismic meeting against Notre Dame waiting in Week 13. So it was a good day for Army to get quarterback Bryson Daily back under center.

Sidelined by an undisclosed injury against Air Force in Week 10, Daily returned Saturday and turned a career-high 36 carries into 153 yards and a pair of touchdowns in a 14-3 road victory, extending the nation’s longest active win streak to 13 games. Daily’s 10-yard, first-quarter touchdown run erased the Black Knights’ first deficit of the season. And the senior quarterback was the catalyst for Army’s 21-play, 94-yard scoring drive after halftime, accounting for 12 carries and 51 yards on a game-sealing series that ate up 13:54 of game clock and sucked the life out of a lingering North Texas comeback bid.

For Daily, who trails only Boise State‘s Ashton Jeanty for the nation’s touchdown lead after Week 11, it was another dazzling performance in what has been a dominant season powering an explosive Black Knights offense. With two more touchdowns on Saturday, Daily became the first FBS quarterback to reach 20 rushing scores in a season since Louisville’s Malik Cunningham in 2021. Per ESPN Research, Daily is also the first passer to log 20-plus rushing touchdowns in his team’s first nine games since at least 2000, while his run of six consecutive games with 100-plus rushing yards and multiple rushing scores is tied for the longest streak by an FBS quarterback over the past 20 seasons.

Daily’s return on Saturday and the win that followed not only pencils Army into the AAC title game ahead of the program’s Nov. 30 conference finale with UTSA, but sets up what is likely to amount to a playoff elimination game when the Black Knights meet Notre Dame at Yankee Stadium on Nov. 23. Beat the Irish and close out the AAC Championship, and Army could very well vault past Boise State and into the CFP. And with Daily back in the fold, there’s plenty of reason to believe at West Point. — Eli Lederman

Colorado is ready for its close-up now

The novelty of Deion Sanders, head coach of a Power 5 program hit college football like a tsunami wave last season. The Buffs’ highs and lows were chronicled in detailed fashion resulting in one of the most polarized teams in recent history.

A second year into the Deion era, the eyes of the sport had started to drift away, the wave of attention had subsided and yet Colorado and Sanders have now turned novelty into substance.

The Buffs have won four games in a row — including an impressive 41-27 win over Texas Tech Saturday — turning what felt like a middling season into a potential playoff run. Their defense has improved (they are allowing around 100 fewer yards per game than last season) while the offense has been more productive and efficient in Shedeur Sanders‘ second season under center. Travis Hunter remains otherworldly and the likely best player in the sport.

With three games remaining, Colorado now controls its own destiny. The Buffs play three teams that currently have losing records and they will be favored in every one of those matchups. Make it through those unscathed and a likely meeting with currently undefeated BYU awaits in the Big 12 title game. Win them all and they’re in.

The addition of Sanders to the sport’s tapestry created much hoopla last season. But as the results worsened, it became easy to question the experiment altogether. Now, the attention is fully back and it should be: There’s more here than meets the eye. — Paolo Uggetti