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  • Heather Dinich

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    Heather Dinich

    Senior College Football Insider

    • College football reporter
    • Joined ESPN.com in 2007
    • Graduate of Indiana University

  • Chris Low

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    Chris Low

    ESPN Senior Writer

    • College football reporter
    • Joined ESPN.com in 2007
    • Graduate of the University of Tennessee

Dec 11, 2024, 07:00 AM ET

THE STEEP CLIMB up Stony Lonesome Road is harrowing, even for the fittest of Army’s football players. When the shuttle buses aren’t running in the winter, team members hoof it from their barracks to the Kimsey Athletic Center for offseason mat drills at 5 o’clock in the morning, typically in freezing temperatures with a layer of snow on the ground.

The last thing they see before making the final left turn is the historic “Beat Navy” house, built in 1875 and used to accommodate distinguished guests. The building, with its illuminated sign out front, is a reminder that the football mission at Army is clear. It’s why you see “BEAT NAVY” signs everywhere in and around West Point, New York, from the Food Mart Go Army convenience store in nearby Fort Montgomery to the urinals in the football complex. Yes, the urinals.

In downtown Annapolis, Maryland, the waterfront home of the U.S. Naval Academy, souvenirs with GO NAVY BEAT ARMY are in storefronts everywhere — year-round — but on campus, everything ramps up during “Army Week.” That’s when the coaching staff double-checks every door is locked. It’s when mascot security is turned up a notch. (In 2012, Navy’s goat mascot went missing and was found next to a grass median on Army Navy Drive in Crystal City near the Pentagon.) It’s when the scout team wears black stripes on their helmets to mimic Army’s players.

Because of who the players are — and the soldiers they will soon become — the Army–Navy rivalry game, which will be contested for the 125th time Saturday in Landover, Maryland, is unlike any other in the country, drawing a global audience of our nation’s armed forces past and present.

But as the college football landscape continues to rapidly shift, the lives of students at Army and Navy have become a larger outlier than ever before.

“Their entire day is filled,” Navy coach Brian Newberry said. “And it’s not just classes, it’s legitimate classes. And they’ve got things in the evening within their company and military responsibilities. They don’t get sleep like you do at another place.”

There’s also no money for name, image and likeness — the Department of Defense prohibits players from endorsing any products or having any sponsorships. The academies do not allow redshirting. There are no sweeping roster changes from the transfer portal. Anyone who transfers into the U.S. Military Academy or the Naval Academy has to start all over as a freshman academically and go through the military training and dreaded “plebe” orientation, making it highly unlikely any junior football player wants to tackle that challenge.

And yet there’s still so much to play for.

“A lot of what we talk about is serving something bigger than yourself,” Navy senior fullback Daba Fofana said. “Now, there is that aspect of you want to put food on the table for your family and all of that, but the reason you play football and the reason that you serve in the military isn’t for yourself. It’s for the love of the game, love of your country, the love for your brothers.”

“I’m glad guys at other schools are getting paid big money in NIL,” Army junior linebacker Kalib Fortner said. “They should be. But that’s not our purpose. It’s the brotherhood that’s at the center of everything we do and fight for, playing for your brother that’s right beside you in the locker room, the one who lives down the hall from you in your barracks, every cadet who’s ever come through here, and most importantly, our country.”

ESPN shadowed Fortner, Army’s leader in tackles for loss this season (8.5), and Fofana, a team captain, attending classes with the players, as well as practice and position meetings — even Bible study — to illustrate what a typical day is like for an athlete at one of the academies.

As Army and Navy prepare to play the 125th edition of “America’s Game,” they do so entrenched in their military history, adhering to strict traditions in an era of college football that has drastically changed around them.

DABA, FROM THE Mandingo tribal word meaning hard worker, is named after his paternal grandfather. His father is from the Ivory Coast, but Fofana grew up in Cumming, Georgia, where he wrestled, ran track and played football.

It’s a long way from the Yard, the nickname given to the Naval Academy that dates back to the word “dockyard” during the Revolutionary War.

Like any college, the Yard is buzzing with activity — students with backpacks crisscrossing campus to get to their next class. Unlike most other places, though, you need a valid picture ID to get past the MA (master-at-arms) at Gate 1, and don’t even think about driving on campus without a credential from the Department of Defense or a Naval Academy ID card.

Not only is it hard to get in, the midshipmen need permission to get out.

There are more than 4,400 students in the Brigade of Midshipmen, and they all live in Bancroft Hall, a sprawling dormitory complex that includes 3.8 miles of corridors and eight wings divided into 36 companies.

Fofana wakes up each morning around 7 in a tiny dorm room that’s about 100 square feet, a utilitarian space devoid of any decorations, pictures or posters. He typically leaves around 7:20 a.m. and doesn’t come back until around 9 p.m. There’s no rug on the tile floor, and each room has a shower and a sink, but the bathrooms are communal. There are two raised wooden beds that each accommodate a desk and chair underneath, with no clutter on the desktops, save for a few neatly stacked papers. On the floor sits a black mini-refrigerator, which Fofana received special permission for.

“I just have the stuff that I need in here,” he said.

Fofana learned to quickly and expertly make his bed with hospital corners every morning before leaving his room, and any extra blankets have to be folded on top. It’s one detail that will be checked during two routine inspections each semester, “alpha and bravo.” Normally, he said, study hours are “sacred,” but once every semester, all midshipmen go through a white-glove test — a 40-point inspection called bravo that includes making sure the floors are waxed and that all uniforms are hanging dark to light, left to right. Students are allowed three “hits” on the inspection, and if they fail on a fourth, they have to take it again.

There’s a laundry service that does the dry cleaning for the dress uniforms, and a cart comes around the halls once a week to collect other clothes. Everyone has to be in their company spaces by 11 each night, and sign a paper confirming it with the company deck officer.

“It was very much a culture shock,” Fofana said of his arrival at Navy. “At the beginning of plebe summer, as soon as I walk through my door, you walk in and you start getting yelled at all of a sudden, I’m like, ‘Oh, shoot.’ And the first two weeks were a pretty hard adjustment, just because of the lifestyle and all that stuff. But after that, I ended up easing into things and figuring out a rhythm.”

After all, he’s got a PlayStation in his room. Both Army and Navy are in the EA Sports NCAA football game, but their players don’t receive any NIL money, unlike the $600 that players who have opted in at other schools receive.

“I’m just happy to be a part of the game,” Fofana said. “It’s a childhood dream of mine.”

FORTNER AND HIS twin brother Liam, a receiver at Army, grew up in Knoxville, Tennessee. They won back-to-back state championships together at Central High School, and Kalib was a three-time all-state selection. They signed their scholarship papers with Army together on Dec. 17, 2020.

Up by 6:15 every morning, Kalib Fortner’s day begins at 6:50 when cadets assemble in the quad for predawn formation. Breakfast in the mess hall is mandatory and begins at 6:55 a.m. Fortner doesn’t return to his barracks during the season until 8:30 or 9 p.m.

Fortner lives on the second floor of the Eisenhower Barracks, named after former general and President Dwight D. Eisenhower, a 1915 West Point graduate. There’s very little space between the two beds in his room, which he shares with Charlie Barnett, a junior kicker. There’s a desk at the foot of his bed and two portable fans.

“The smell is nothing like it was my freshman year at Sherman Barracks, when we had to leave our windows open, but you still have to air it out sometimes,” Fortner joked.

The only real decor is a collage of pictures of Fortner’s longtime girlfriend, Morgan McSwain, just above his desk. The floor is tile, and there’s nothing on the walls, which are painted a bland off-white.

There’s no television. “Wouldn’t have time to watch it if I did have one,” he said. There’s no mini-fridge, either. Fortner uses his school-issued laptop to watch game tape and also has an iPad and may watch other games on it. There’s a sink in the room, but that’s it. The toilets and communal showers are at the end of the hallway. There aren’t any elevators in his barracks, which have six floors.

Every Monday, the cadets have mandatory main inspection. Fortner is up at 6:15, shaves, gets his uniform ready and climbs the seemingly endless flight of stairs to “The Shelf,” which overlooks the rest of the barracks in the main courtyard. Fortner is a squad leader in the First Regiment and has to inspect seven cadets in his company when they get to the top.

“Got to make sure their shoes are shined, their belts are in line, that they have their dog tags and proper haircuts,” Fortner said. “It’s a laundry list.”

AT 7:20 A.M., on a “tactical Thursday” when nearly everyone is required to dress in identical fatigues, Fofana walked through the side door of Bancroft Hall, which is essentially a food factory equipped to feed all 4,400 midshipmen in 20 minutes. By rule, he takes his hat off inside the building. A patch on the left arm of his uniform reads “DON’T TREAD ON ME,” and the pin with three gold stripes on the front of his chest indicates he’s a team captain, an honor recognized throughout the school.

“You’re at a leadership school,” longtime Navy assistant coach Ivin Jasper said. “That’s the role you’re going to be in once you leave school. It’s getting that early start on it.”

Each sports team has its own table in-season, and Fofana sat down for breakfast at table No. 42, which had a yellow FOOTBALL sign on it. He piled sausage and eggs on his plate and had a glass of orange juice. Several trays packed with pancakes were scattered around the table, with teammates grabbing food and passing it around like a supersized holiday dinner.

Fofana has a 3.69 GPA and is majoring in applied physics while pursuing a career in medicine; he hopes to be a doctor in the orthopedics field. This fall, he’s taking 16 credits and said the most difficult course is called Introduction to Aeronautics, a study of concepts such as fluid motion, airfoil and wing theory, and wind tunnels. (The students call the class “planes.”)

His class schedule on this particular Thursday began at 8:30 a.m. in Luce Hall Room 114 with Stoic Philosophy and Leadership. Fofana was one of the first students in the room.

“What do we want to know about each other today?” professor Marcus Hedahl said to start the class, asking each person in the room to share an album, song or artist they enjoy listening to.

The purpose of the class, Hedahl said, is to teach the midshipmen how to think, not what to think. It’s a leadership class that looks at diverse cultures.

As Fofana left his stoic philosophy class and made his way to Autonomy and Control Naval Weapons Systems in Rickover 1061, he joined a flood of classmates walking through a hallway adorned with posters of famous leaders, including Bill Belichick, Gregg Popovich and George Washington.

The focus of this next class is the mechanics of how weapons systems work. On the floor at the front of the room, in front of a dry-erase board, was a blue, inert (key word) 5-inch gun shell. If it’s blue, it’s a dummy weapon used for instruction.

The theme of the day was sensors, as in night cameras, smart watches and heart sensors. The students call professor Lieutenant Commander Christopher Jeffries, who is also dressed in fatigues, “sir,” and he stayed at the front of the room by a lectern as he taught, explaining to the small group that they need to know how a GPS works and not to depend on it — because sometimes it doesn’t work. He showed a video of an F-35 plane that continues flying even after the pilot has been ejected.

Before turning his attention to football in the afternoon, Fofana worked on his physics research project, where he used a confocal microscope to look at a sample DNA salt solution.

“There’s a lot of pressure, anxiety,” Newberry said of the academic demands on the players. “I want football to be an outlet for them. When they get over here, I really want it to be the best part of their day. That doesn’t mean we’re not going to do hard things. But we’re going to have fun in the process of doing those things.”

A CIVIL ENGINEERING major, Fortner is taking 16½ credit hours this semester. His five classes include Structural Analysis and Platoon Operations. He took a heavier load during last spring semester (21 credits) and made the dean’s list.

In the spring, he took a class called Survival Swim.

“You had your uniform on, your rifle, everything,” he said, “and then there was also a class called Military Movement, essentially gymnastics, but I passed them both fine.”

During his Structural Analysis class, a required course for civil engineering majors, Fortner and his brother Liam worked together drawing frames on a chalkboard (yes, an old-school black chalkboard). They erased part of the structure they were drawing and started again. “It’s deflection of beams and frames, even harder than it sounds,” Fortner said.

After his final Wednesday morning class, Fortner hustled to pre-lunch formation, where cadets gather with their companies to take accountability and make any pertinent announcements before marching into the mess hall. This week, the week of the Air Force game, cadets wore camouflage fatigues, camouflage hats and brown boots. They walked briskly and alertly, always with their heads up and prepared to salute an officer, and seeing a cadet with his or her face buried in a cellphone would be akin to seeing Bigfoot.

The campus is referred to as “post,” and is very contained. West Point covers 16,000 acres on the west bank of the Hudson River, about the size of Manhattan. “But post is pretty condensed, making it easy getting to and from classes and meeting with professors,” Fortner said. Washington Hall is the mess hall, and just out front is a statue of the first U.S. president. A helicopter landed on the lawn adjacent to the statue just after the cadets sat down at their tables for lunch. “It’s probably a general,” Fortner said.

The mess hall houses 4,000 cadets, and Fortner sat at one of the first three tables with the rest of the football team. Breakfast and lunch are mandatory for cadets. On their table was a sign that read: “Heavy, Heavy,” meaning they get a little more food in a meal served family style. The players spoon out meat, green beans and macaroni onto their plates. There are bags of rolls on two corners of the tables, and a couple of pitchers of water (no ice). Some of the players drink Hoist, an electrolyte hydration beverage approved for use by the military.

Fortner sort of picked at his lunch and didn’t eat much.

“I don’t usually eat a whole lot here. I’ll get some snacks at the football complex before practice,” he said.

The mess hall is massive, majestic and full of history. There’s a huge raised platform in the middle known as the “poop deck,” and special guests will visit periodically to address the cadets, who greet the guest by standing at attention. The same goes for any formal dinner.

Among the guests during his time at Army: former President Barack Obama, Hall of Fame basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski (a West Point graduate), multiple high-ranking generals and ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith. Even the Stanley Cup, won last season by the Florida Panthers, was raised on the poop deck in October, with team captains Aleksander Barkov, Matthew Tkachuk and Aaron Ekblad whipping the corps into a frenzy. Panthers owner Vincent Viola is a West Point graduate. Barkov brought the house down when he screamed, “Beat Navy!”

“I’m not sure a day goes by when you don’t hear that, and it doesn’t matter where you are or who you run into,” Fortner said.

AT 3 P.M., Fofana grabs a seat at the end of the table in a small room for his meeting with the fullbacks and quarterbacks. He’s wearing his football pads and eating an Uncrustable while they watch film of the previous day’s practice. At the head of the table, working the video clips and running through film is first-year offensive coordinator Drew Cronic.

As the meeting broke, Cronic said, “Daba’s got it.”

“1, 2, 3, FAMILY!” the players yelled together.

There are 180 players on the Navy roster — there’s no limit to team size. Newberry said because other programs are so focused on the portal, more talented high school players are available for Navy to recruit.

“We’re being a lot more selective, and a lot more picky with who we’re taking,” Newberry said.

When practice began, it was unusually hot for a September afternoon.

At 4:10, as the Midshipmen were finishing up stretching, one player yelled, “Where else would you rather be?”

“Nowhere!” the team responded.

Fofana is listed at 5-foot-8, and that’s probably a little generous. Most of the players at the academies are noticeably smaller than the elite recruits who typically populate blue-blood football programs, but there’s a self-awareness about it that drives them.

“These guys are going to be bigger and stronger than you,” barked Jason MacDonald, who spent his first four seasons at Navy coaching the fullbacks.

“No offense, young man, but the linebacker you face will be bigger,” MacDonald told another player. “You gotta sink lower.”

Fofana is the No. 2 fullback on the depth chart, but he has received one of the highest honors a Navy athlete can get — being voted a team captain by his teammates. As a team captain along with senior linebacker Colin Ramos, Fofana also leads Navy’s leadership council, which is composed of one player for each position group.

“Be your own blocker,” MacDonald directed as Fofana ran through the spring-loaded machine with his eyes down. “Hit it, hit it, hit it! Eyes up!”

“That could be the difference between a 5-yard gain and a touchdown,” he said. “Hear me?”

“Yes sir!”

Newberry said Navy never has more than two hard days of practice in a row because “everybody can’t really handle it.”

“You have to be really conscious of all that they have on their plate, mentally and physically.”

At 7 p.m., following a long day, practice and more treatment — and ordering Chick-fil-A for dinner — Fofana headed back up the stairs in Ricketts Hall, where the pastor, Bill McKinney, was leading a discussion on faith, and his wife, Barbara, was handing out brownies and milk to about a dozen players in the room.

It’s September, and some players were wearing T-shirts that had BEAT ARMY written on their backs near the collar. As the pastor spoke, to his right on the wall behind him was a picture of Navy’s band, holding up poster letters that spelled “BEAT ARMY.”

FORTNER HAS A short window to go back to his barracks and change into his football practice shirt and shorts and maybe get in a little studying before the buses start running at 1:30 p.m. to take the players up to the Kimsey Athletic Center and practice fields adjacent to Michie Stadium.

None of the players want to miss the bus because they know how grueling that climb to the top can be. The buses don’t run when the weather is nasty in the winter, and Fortner said the summer bus schedule can be tricky too.

“I know what it’s like climbing that hill when it’s 20 degrees and a foot of snow on the ground,” he said. “I think one of the hardest days I ever had was going from there to boxing class. Demanding doesn’t begin to describe it.”

Treatment for the players begins at 1 p.m. followed by weightlifting for different groups. Fortner also had a leadership council meeting. The team meeting was at 3:20 p.m., followed by Fortner’s inside linebackers position meeting.

Army’s inside linebackers coach is Justin Weaver, who was also Fortner’s coach the year he was in the academy’s prep school in 2021. As the linebackers watched tape together, Weaver barked, “Every first-down marker is a trench, but we had sawed-off shotguns in all those trenches.”

There’s never any doubt, even in football position meetings, that you’re at a military academy.

“When y’all go out and lead soldiers and set up training, expect them to execute. Trust your training,” Weaver said as he looked around the room.

“Consistency over time is toughness. Anybody can do something once.”

Army coach Jeff Monken likes to refer to his program and his players as the “last of the hard.”

“I brought it with me from Georgia Southern,” said Monken, who coached there from 2010 to 2013 before coming to Army. “This is the last generation willing to accept the hard, and these kids at Army embody that. You hear people in all walks of life saying they’re soldiers. We are. That’s why we’re here.”

Just like the players’ academy duties, Army’s practices are regimented, intense and unrelenting. At one point Monken climbed on top of a cart and screamed, “It’s time to f—ing start practicing the way we’re supposed to. Are we going to talk about it or f—ing be about it?” The level of discipline on the Black Knights was clear in their 35-14 win over Tulane last Friday in the AAC championship game, when Army became the first FBS team in at least 20 years to have no turnovers, no penalties and no punts in a game, according to ESPN Research.

Army has an indoor practice facility but uses it only when severe weather forces its hand. The backdrop for the field, especially once the leaves begin to turn, is gorgeous. And you know you’re not at just any practice when midway through, a group of parachuters comes sailing in over the fields. And then a few minutes later, Army helicopters come roaring overhead.

As the players spread out to stretch toward the end, coaches bellowed, “Finish the day!”

The team dinner, catered by a local restaurant during the season, is served at 7:55 p.m. on the fourth floor of the football complex. The players chowed down on wings, then slowly made their way to older-looking school buses painted white, and back down the hill to their barracks.

The “Taps” bugle call is played at 11:30 p.m., when all cadets must return to their rooms. Even after a 12- to 13-hour day, Fortner finds himself up past “Taps” on some nights.

“There’s no such thing as wasting time here at West Point,” he said. “You find time to study, nights when you get back from practice, pockets during the day and sometimes in the early morning hours.

“It’s not easy here and not for everybody. People ask, ‘How do you juggle it all?’ My answer is that being on the football team here forces you not to be a procrastinator. Time is money. Time is valuable, and time is important.”

Fortner’s “lazy” day during the season is on Sunday when he might sleep in until 9. But then it’s time to get up, and he says, go “kick some ass” the rest of the week.

FORTNER DOESN’T HAVE a car. Cadets aren’t allowed to have one until the second semester of their junior year. But he has heard the stories of high-profile players around the country driving Lamborghinis.

“Is that true … Lamborghinis?” Fortner asked with an incredulous smile.

No Army players receive NIL money, although Fortner said he gets a $358 monthly stipend from the military. Much of that is used for incidental expenses such as his laundry and haircuts. There’s only one transfer player on the team, backup center Kyle Kloska, who came from Central Michigan.

“Part of what’s so cool about this place is that it hasn’t changed. It’s not going to change,” Fortner said. “We’re not here to cash checks. We’re here to serve each other on this football team and later on our country.”

The midshipmen also receive a monthly stipend, but they pay for everything they have — things like their computer equipment, laundry, haircuts and uniforms — making it basically an interest-free loan that they’re paying back over their four years. As a plebe, more is taken out. There is also an opportunity to take out a $32,000 loan when they are juniors at an interest rate somewhere around 4%, a benefit also available to cadets at Army.

“We’re a unicorn right now,” said Navy’s Newberry, whose roster does not include any fifth-year players. “We still truly are a developmental program. Everywhere else in the country, rosters are flipping over semester to semester — not year-to-year. How do you really build a culture? In relationships, trust takes time. We have that here.”

Monken said “society has a head start” on Army when it goes out to sign high school players on the recruiting trail. Like Newberry, he doesn’t operate in a world with NIL or the transfer portal.

“Kids have been told they should look out for themselves and build their own brand, and so the music and the social media and TV is about individual success, wealth and power,” Monken said. “That’s completely opposite than it is here. We are fully committed to training these young men to be servant leaders. So you bring guys like that in here, and they’re already wired that way to serve the team and to do what’s best for the team.

“We don’t promise a jersey number. We don’t promise starting time. We don’t have money to say, ‘Oh, we’ll give you this much money.’ No, it’s just to be a part of this. We sell this place and what this is and what it can do for them for their future, our culture.”

Army athletic director Mike Buddie, who pitched in the major leagues, said it’s not easy to find 17- and 18-year-olds who are willing to serve their country and give up five years of their mid-20s to do so, even if they go in as officers. Plus there’s always the specter of war.

“But for the ones that it does resonate with, once they’re here, they’re here and they’re committed,” he said. “For the most part, they’re coming here for the mission of the academy. They’re not coming here to improve their [NFL] draft status. I think we have fewer distractions. It’s a hell of a lot easier to build cohesion and chemistry.

“It makes it easier for coaches to coach and develop and hold kids accountable because these kids are held accountable from the moment they wake up until the moment they go to bed.

“It’s just part of their DNA, which I think they respond very well to coaching.”

JASPER, THE LONGTIME Navy assistant coach, said it has been a tradition of his to get dressed early and walk around the field at the Army-Navy Game.

“I love coaching in that game,” Jasper said. “It’s hard to really explain it, to be on the winning side. And the other side? You don’t even want to think how the other side is feeling. It is devastating. People don’t understand it. If you’re not in that inner circle where you understand, you don’t understand.”

“The truth is, you could lose every other game and beat Army and Air Force and people would be happy,” Newberry said. “I wouldn’t be happy, but people would be.”

Mike Viti, Army’s assistant head coach for the offense, played in the rivalry as a fullback for the Black Knights from 2004 to 2007. He says this game is “sacred” for both sides, and when he speaks, everybody connected with the Army program listens. After graduation, Viti served a deployment as a platoon leader in the Arghandab River Valley in Afghanistan and earned a bronze star and combat action badge. He lived on an outpost that was attacked virtually every day by the Taliban.

“I believe in my heart that this place is already a magnet for personalities like a Fortner and many other guys like him. They seek and respect and value the rawness of what this is,” Viti said. “They came to this place and games like Army-Navy to actually become who they want to become in life.”

A year ago, Fortner was the star of Army’s 17-11 win over Navy. He had a strip sack of Navy quarterback Tai Lavatai in the third quarter, picked up the fumble and returned it 44 yards for a touchdown. He also made a touchdown-saving tackle in the final seconds.

How did his life change after being named MVP in a win against Army’s biggest rival?

“Probably more officers coming up to me walking to class and saying my first and last name, even some instructors recognizing me on post,” Fortner said. “You hear a lot of ‘Beat Navy’ wherever you go around here, but I heard a lot of that the next week.

“People remember what you do in that game. … You’re at a place where presidents went to school, famous generals, the best of the best in our country. Yeah, it’s a football game, but you’re representing all of those people.”

Monken has seen the rivalry from both sides. He was an assistant under Paul Johnson at Navy from 2002-07, and when he arrived at Army in 2014, the Black Knights had lost the last 12 meetings. Monken wasn’t bashful about saying it was time to make it a rivalry again.

A soldier’s duty is to complete his mission.

“We hadn’t been completing our mission in this series,” Monken said.

There are “Beat Navy” signs everywhere — on stair steps, on the weights in the weight room, on the walls in team meeting rooms, the sides of trailers, in the locker room, even in the bathrooms. As the players walk onto the practice field, there’s a clock counting down the hours, minutes and seconds to the game.

Contrast that to when Monken took over at Army.

“There was a little sign about this big underneath the upper cabinets,” said Monken, holding up his hands a couple of feet apart. “That was it. Nowhere else.”

Entering Saturday’s game, Army has won six of the past eight meetings with Navy. The Midshipmen won every game in the series from 2002 to 2015 until Army upset No. 25 Navy 21-17 in 2016.

The pendulum has swung, but Monken knows any momentum in a rivalry like this one comes with a caveat.

“It’s only as good as this year,” he said.

With its AAC championship victory, the Black Knights reached the 11-win plateau for just the second time in program history. For Monken and everyone else associated with the team, while the first conference championship in the history of Army football has punctuated a season to remember, it will hardly define it.

“We take pride in holding ourselves accountable in everything we do,” Fortner said. “And in football, that means beating Navy.

“That’s how you’re judged here, and that’s the way it should be.”

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LAS VEGAS — Center William Karlsson sustained an apparent injury at the end of the first period of the Vegas Golden Knights ‘ 4-3 loss to the Anaheim Ducks on Saturday night.

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He set up the game’s first goal with an outstanding pass behind the net to Brett Howden.

Karlsson has four goals and three assists this season. He had back-to-back 50-point seasons, but had 29 in 53 games last year, twice sidelined because of injuries.

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Indiana’s catch of the year, Oregon’s last-second escape: The B1G stole the show in Week 11

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  • David HaleNov 9, 2025, 12:07 AM ET

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    • College football reporter.
    • Joined ESPN in 2012.
    • Graduate of the University of Delaware.

The Big Ten has a lot going for it. It has the sport’s richest TV contract. It has three teams in the top 10. It is the sport’s chief exporter of cheese, beef and punts. What is often missing from Big Ten games, however, is drama.

It’s not that the Big Ten doesn’t have good games, necessarily. It’s just the drama often feels more “Masterpiece Theater” than “Alien vs. Predator” — a slow burn built upon subtle character studies and power run games. Like a 20-year cheddar, it’s made for refined tastes.

But every so often, the Big Ten offers a surprise. We’ll spend a Saturday wallowing in another defensive stalemate, poised to invest in one of those eye-opening contraptions from “A Clockwork Orange” just to stay awake, and then suddenly Indiana–Penn State becomes something utterly unexpected, like Bret Bielema taking off his hoodie to reveal a giant tattoo of Barry Alvarez astride a unicorn with lightning bolts shooting from his eyes. It’s surprising, disturbing and strangely beautiful.

On Saturday, the Big Ten delivered not just one of those unexpected classics, but two.

No. 2 Indiana was on the brink of disaster until Fernando Mendoza took the Hoosiers on another trip down the field for a game winner.

No. 9 Oregon toyed with becoming the latest victim of Kirk Ferentz’s uncanny ability to drag every offense in the country into a vat of quicksand until Dante Moore chipped away at Iowa‘s blockade to set up a game-winning kick.

Each game turned in the final minutes, only to reverse course and deliver another shocking twist.

Saturday, the Big Ten was the savior of a lackluster Week 11 slate, as two of its best teams peered into the abyss and, seeing only the horrifying visage of Purdue Pete, pulled back from the brink to salvage playoff hopes and deliver enough adrenaline to increase the average Iowa fan’s health insurance premiums.

There had been little happiness in Happy Valley of late. Penn State had lost five straight entering Saturday’s game with Indiana. It had fired its coach. The seasonal flavors at Berkey Creamery were just OK. Before halftime, a contingent of bros had already removed their shirts, a sure sign of desperation in trying times.

But as Penn State roared back from a 20-7 third-quarter deficit to breathe life into a now raucous crowd, all the demons of the 2025 season felt as if they might be exorcised, and the Nittany Lions might do something that had long felt impossible by knocking off a top-five team. Nicholas Singleton‘s 19-yard touchdown grab with 6:27 to go put Penn State up by four, and by the time Indiana got the ball with 1:51 to play, there was almost an air of certainty that the tide had finally turned for the Nittany Lions.

But if the powers that be can take Penn State away from James Franklin, they can’t take the James Franklin out of Penn State, and a win over a top-five team would not come so easily. The Big Ten, after all, isn’t like the grand opening of a Bass Pro Shop. There are rules here, and one of them is that Penn State cannot have nice things.

Mendoza completed passes of 22, 12, 29 and 17, dashing through the Penn State defense like it was security at the Louvre, ultimately delivering a 7-yard touchdown throw to Omar Cooper Jr. in the back of the end zone. Cooper’s grab, which warrants strong consideration for catch of the year, saved the Hoosiers from humiliation, silenced the Penn State crowd, kept Indiana on course for a trip to the Big Ten championship and got Gus Johnson dropped from his health insurance coverage.

Meanwhile, Oregon arrived in Iowa to find weather that could best be described as a circle of hell that Dante’s editors cut from his rough draft, deeming it “too on the nose,” and a Hawkeyes defense that was equally as unpleasant.

Iowa did what it does best. It ran the ball 43 times for a meager 101 yards. It stymied Moore, who entered the final drive of the game having thrown for just 65 yards. The Ducks were stifled deep in Iowa territory again and again.

What couldn’t have been anticipated was a late Iowa touchdown drive of 93 yards on 12 plays, forcing grizzled old Hawkeyes fans to turn to their grandchildren and mutter, “These eyes have never seen such beauty.” Given that the sun had already been blotted, this constituted an uncomfortable number of signs of an impending apocalypse being checked off the list.

But Oregon wasn’t going to go down that easily. Moore dinked and dunked his way down the field, driving to the Iowa 21 before stalling. Oregon sent in kicker Atticus Sappington, who put on hold his quest to regain his rightful title as the 3rd Earl of Huntingdon, to attempt the game winner. Sappington used his cravat, wiped a smudge off his monocle, gently tapped his pipe on his arm chair, then strode onto the field to boot a 39-yard field goal to secure an 18-16 win.

Ultimately, the Big Ten’s drama did little more than restore order on what might’ve been a day of utter chaos, leading the ACC to quizzically ask, “Wait, you can do that?” The twists and turns still left us in the same place we started, with three teams from the league all but assured a place in the College Football Playoff. It was a Saturday that still saw another Ohio State blowout, a Wisconsin win over Washington that was only slightly more palatable than performing your own appendectomy, and a Rutgers–Maryland matchup that will be used by the CIA to extract information from suspected spies in the future. They can’t all be winners.

But for one Saturday, at least, the Big Ten was the center of the college football universe, the lone purveyor of suspense on a day that desperately needed a dose of excitement.

And if the outcome of all that drama amounts only to further assurances that the Hoosiers and Ducks are playoff bound, let’s just hope they haven’t used up all their magic already.

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Heisman five

Week 11 vibe check

Each week, the biggest matchups deliver major changes to the playoff picture. Meanwhile, dozens of smaller shifts in the landscape can add up to an even bigger impact. We track those here.

Trending up: SEC clarity

Texas A&M threw for 221, ran for 243 and demolished Missouri 38-17 on Saturday, further staking claim to the top spot in the SEC and all but guaranteeing a playoff bid.

In a season in which nearly every team has flirted with disaster, the Aggies have been an antidote to the notion that 2025 is a season of parity. They’ve scored at least 30 in all but one game this year. They’ve won four of their past five SEC games by at least two scores. Marcel Reed has quietly forced his way into the Heisman Trophy conversation, accounting for 250 yards and a pair of touchdowns in Saturday’s win. Texas A&M has blossomed into a relentless winning machine, displaying the type of businesslike constancy that has largely been lacking in college football since Nick Saban’s retirement — a team whose lone flaw is that it’s not all too interesting to see it chip away at each opponent’s psyche like Hannibal Lecter until it’s devouring the opponent’s soul alongside some fava beans and a nice Chianti.

If Texas A&M continues its dominance, it now seems destined to meet Saban’s old employer in the SEC title game. Alabama dispatched with LSU on Saturday 20-9 in a game that proved Louisiana’s governor is no better at designing an offense than Brian Kelly. Ty Simpson threw for 277 yards and a score, Bama’s defense racked up seven tackles for loss, and LSU mustered just 232 yards of offense.

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LSU Tigers vs. Alabama Crimson Tide: Full Highlights

LSU Tigers vs. Alabama Crimson Tide: Full Highlights

Is it a concern that Alabama managed just 56 yards rushing and continues to rely so heavily on Simpson and the passing game? Well, was it a concern that Chuck Norris relied heavily on roundhouse kicks and never bested an opponent via the subtle art of persuasion? Is it a problem that Chick-fil-A is stuck on chicken sandwiches without even trying to sell a nice tuna tartare? Should we be worried that the “beyond” in Bed Bath & Beyond doesn’t extend to lumber and sheet rock? Sometimes being awesome at one thing is enough.

Add in Vanderbilt‘s overtime win against Auburn, and the SEC figures to have at least half the top 14 in the next playoff rankings, so for Alabama and A&M to sit comfortably atop the deepest conference in college football — and to do so by once again winning emphatically — speaks volumes.

It has been three years since an SEC team last won it all. That’s nearly as long as the average wait at a Krystal drive-through. But like a late-night Krystal run, the reward for the wait might be well worth it.

Trending up: Big-budget wins

If there was any doubt who the favorite in the Big 12 should be, Texas Tech set the record straight with a dominant 29-7 win over BYU on Saturday.

Cameron Dickey ran for 121 yards and a touchdown, Behren Morton played mistake-free ball, and the Red Raiders’ defense was suffocating, led by Jacob Rodriguez, who had 14 tackles and an interception. The Red Raiders had three takeaways, held BYU to just 255 total yards and allowed just three conversions on 14 third-down tries.

It’s further proof that Texas Tech’s decision to treat the transfer portal like the buffet at a Golden Corral was a stroke of brilliance. After all, nothing bad has ever happened after consuming too many portions of popcorn shrimp that have been sitting under a heat lamp for six hours.

Adding to the emphatic result Saturday, Texas Tech fans found a workaround for the rule banning the throwing of tortillas onto the field by throwing them — um, not on the field.

Trending up: Wedding season in Mississippi

“Daddy, tell me about how you proposed to mommy.”

“Well, son, we were losing to Georgia by 30, and …”

No, it wasn’t a good day for Mississippi State, which was demolished by Georgia 41-21 as Gunner Stockton threw for 269 yards and three touchdowns. But Stockton couldn’t supply the most romantic moment of the game, despite preparing for the contest by sitting in his F-150, listening to Journey’s “Open Arms” on cassette and staring longingly at a photo of Uga trying to bite an Auburn player.

Of course, when it comes to true love, no one upstages Lane Kiffin.

Kiffin, whose Ole Miss team cruised past The Citadel 49-0, is like the cupid of college football, insofar as he appreciates a romantic gesture like this, and also because he’s the most likely SEC coach to shoot someone with an arrow.

Sure, getting engaged during a blowout loss or a blowout win over an FCS foe might not be what these young ladies always dreamed of, but as anyone who has ever held a rehearsal dinner at Waffle House can tell you, you can’t spell “romance” without S-E-C.

Trending down: Up-tempo offense

Army escaped Temple 14-13 by running out the clock on an Owls’ comeback effort with an 18-play drive that ate up the final 9:53 of the game before the Black Knights took a knee at the Temple 5-yard line.

Army held the ball for 13:31 in the fourth quarter, running 24 plays to Temple’s three.

Afterward, Army’s keep-away performance was lauded as the greatest triumph of American military strategy since Patton famously engaged Mussolini in a nearly three-day version of the “Orange you glad I didn’t say ‘Banana'” joke while the Allies took control of the Mediterranean.

Trending up: Buzz cuts

Things are bleak in Boulder, as Colorado lost its third straight — 29-22 to West Virginia — assuring the Buffaloes will miss out on a bowl in Deion Sanders’ third season at the helm.

Colorado freshman QB Julian Lewis got the start and had some good moments, throwing for 299 yards and two scores, but he was sacked seven times, including one particularly painful takedown.

It’s the most unfortunate hair day in college football since Mike Gundy got his mullet caught in an escalator at the mall while trying to prove gravity only exists because we believe it does.

Trending up: Candy motivation

Dabo Swinney, hoping to send a message to his team after a 3-5 start to the season, reportedly gave his players Sour Patch Kids before Saturday’s game with Florida State — a reminder that you have to get through the sour before you get to the sweet.

It proved a far more effective lesson than when he tried to teach trick-or-treaters about offseason training techniques with boxes of Milk Duds a week earlier.

Cade Klubnik threw for a touchdown and ran for another, and the Clemson defense sacked Tommy Castellanos six times and forced two Florida State turnovers en route to a 24-10 win.

After the game, FSU coach Mike Norvell handed out 100 Grand bars to his team to symbolize the hefty buyout he’s likely to be getting after the Seminoles lost their fifth game of the season to fall to 1-5 in ACC play.

Trending down: Certainty in the Group of 5

Memphis wasn’t ranked in the committee’s first top 25, but the Tigers were still pegged as the top team outside the Power 4 and in line for a playoff berth.

On Friday, Tulane upended those plans, as Jake Retzlaff threw for 322 yards and three touchdowns, and the Green Wave toppled Memphis 38-32.

That opened the door for James Madison to make its way to the top of the Group of 5, and the Dukes delivered a 35-23 win over Marshall Thundering Herd, sparked by Alonza Barnett III‘s three touchdown throws.

The committee will now follow protocol by asking ChatGPT if UCF is still a Group of 5 team, then let the algorithm decide who should be ranked highest.

Trending down: Committee hate

In the first playoff rankings of the season, the committee saw fit to rank Miami eight spots below Notre Dame, despite having the same record and a head-to-head win. It seemed an illogical choice, but one easily defended by committee members who rightly noted that the Canes’ offense too often looked like a toddler who hadn’t mastered object permanence trying to parallel park.

On Saturday, the Canes took out their frustration on woeful Syracuse, with Carson Beck leading a 38-10 win, in spite of a host of Miami offensive weapons missing the game due to injury.

Miami seemed intent on proving to the committee that the offense had its share of imagination, with receiver Malachi Toney throwing a touchdown to Beck, and Beck delivering a TD throw to 335-pound offensive lineman Francis Mauigoa.

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Francis Mauigoa crosses goal line for 3-yard rushing touchdown

Francis Mauigoa crosses goal line for 3-yard rushing touchdown

The win proved something of an empty statement, however, as all committee members had missed the game as their DVRs were full, and they were forced to watch a bunch of episodes of “9-1-1: Nashville” instead to make space.

Trending down: Nice things in the ACC

In Week 10, top-ranked teams Georgia Tech and Miami were both upset, utterly upending the ACC’s hopes for multiple playoff bids.

Week 11 ACC said, “Hold my beer,” and then proceeded to slip on a banana peel and spill that beer all over itself.

Virginia, the league’s highest-ranked team, saw QB Chandler Morris leave the game with a concussion and the offense disappear, falling to Wake Forest 16-9.

Louisville, the team that might have had the best case for a top-12 ranking, played without star tailback Isaac Brown and struggled to consistently move the football. Instead, Cal QB Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele threw for 323 yards and a pair of touchdowns, including a 3-yard strike to Jacob De Jesus on fourth down in overtime to secure a 29-26 win.

And Duke, a team now tied for first place in the conference, lost its third nonconference game of the year — and second to a non-Power 4 team — to UConn 37-34.

Now, there is the possibility that two Group of 5 champions could ultimately end up ranked higher, leaving the league out of the playoff entirely. Regardless of that unlikely outcome, the committee has recommended that the ACC not book any travel in advance and should probably wear mittens when using scissors for the rest of the season.

Trending up: Cashing NIL checks

Cutter Boley threw two touchdown passes, Kentucky ran for 233 yards, and the Wildcats embarrassed Florida 38-7 on Saturday.

Afterward, we can only imagine QB Zach Calzada, smoking a cigar and wearing a velvet tracksuit, handed hundreds to each Florida player, patted them on the cheek and said “good game, good effort,” before popping a bottle of Ale 8, spraying it on a group of confused groundskeepers and hopping into a limo with Ashley Judd and Secretariat’s great-grandson.

Under-the-radar play of the week

Early in the second quarter of a tie game, USC engaged in a little cloak-and-dagger scheme on a fourth-down play, running backup QB Sam Huard onto the field in a No. 80 jersey — which just so happens to be the same number worn by punter Sam Johnson.

The ruse was effective against Northwestern, and Huard tossed a completion to Tanook Hines for a 10-yard completion and a first down. USC scored on the drive to take a 14-7 lead and went on to win 38-17.

The play didn’t exactly sit well with everyone though.

Punting is sacrosanct in the Big Ten, and now these carpetbaggers from Holly-weird come waltzing into this historic conference and make a mockery of their most beloved traditions.

Lincoln Riley was unapologetic afterward, however, noting that no Trojans in history had ever so cleverly toppled an opponent by presenting something as a benign concession when it was, in truth, an offensive attack.

Under-the-radar game of the week

With 2:23 to play, Jacob Fields picked off Delaware QB Nick Minicucci and returned it to the end zone to give Louisiana Tech a 24-16 lead.

Then things got weird.

Delaware marched 72 yards on eight plays, scoring with 34 seconds to go to pull within two. The Hens failed to connect on the 2-point try, but Nate Reed used a plotline from a “Now You See Me” sequel to execute one of the greatest onside kicks in recent history, giving the Hens the ball back with 33 seconds to go.

Then, on Delaware’s third straight possession without Louisiana Tech running an offensive play, Reed came on to drill a 51-yard kick to win the game 25-24.

It was the type of chaotic finish rarely seen in Delaware outside of last call at The Starboard, and it gave the Hens win No. 5 for the season. As a first-year FBS member, however, Delaware won’t be in a bowl unless there aren’t enough eligible teams elsewhere, but the good news is the Hens can still do all their holiday shopping tax-free at the Christiana Mall, which is nice.

Heisman five

1. Ohio State QB Julian Sayin

There’s something that just feels off about Sayin’s Heisman candidacy. It has been too easy, like an email from a deposed prince assuring you of millions if you can just help him out by providing your credit card number. Sayin threw for 303 yards and a score against Purdue, even without one of his top receivers, while Jeremiah Smith picked up the slack, catching 10 balls for 137 yards. Sayin looks like he shouldn’t be able to get into an R-rated movie without a member of the Ohio State coaching staff accompanying him, and yet he has been nearly flawless all season. How is this possible? It feels like someone is about to explain that he’s as much a real quarterback as is a sentient Jugs machine that was developed by OpenAI to eventually eliminate the need for human quarterbacks.

2. Indiana QB Fernando Mendoza

If Mendoza takes home the Heisman as many pundits seem to feel is inevitable now, his final drive that toppled Penn State and shredded Gus Johnson’s vocal cords will be lauded as his “Heisman moment.” Hard to argue. It wasn’t just that he found the holes in Penn State’s defense. There weren’t holes. He created them. He put the ball, time and again, in the one spot his receivers could catch it, and each time — miraculously on the final throw — they did. We’re not quite ready to hand him the hardware yet, but the Big Ten title game, if it is a matchup between Indiana and Ohio State, figures to be the deciding factor.

3. Alabama QB Ty Simpson

Years from now, our greatest scientists will study the game film of Simpson’s Week 1 loss to Florida State, and the first one to explain it rationally will win a Nobel Prize.

4. Notre Dame RB Jeremiyah Love

Love carried 13 times for 94 yards and 2 touchdowns in a 49-10 win over Navy in Week 11. He has multiple touchdowns in six of his past eight games. His next three games are against ACC teams. He might finish the year with 100 touchdowns.

5. UConn QB Joe Fagnano

OK, we know, putting a UConn QB in the Heisman conversation is a bit like adding Nachos BellGrande to the tasting menu at The French Laundry. But hear us out: Fagnano was 27-of-39 for 311 yards and 3 touchdowns passing, ran for 51 more yards and scored a critical 2-point conversion late as the Huskies knocked off Duke 37-34. Fagnano now has 25 touchdown passes without a pick this season — the first player to do that since Marcus Mariota in 2013. Fagnano has thrown 382 consecutive passes without an interception, passing Russell Wilson (379) for the second-longest streak in FBS history. He now trails only Louisiana Tech’s Colby Cameron, who threw 444 straight without an INT in 2011 and 2012. In other words, it’s time to award Taco Bell with a Michelin star.

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Projecting the CFP top 12: Who’s No. 2?

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November 9, 2025

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Projecting the CFP top 12: Who's No. 2?

Following the first College Football Playoff rankings of the season, selection committee chair Mack Rhoades wanted to make sure reporters understood the most integral part of the ranking process.

“We’ve watched the games,” he said on the weekly teleconference. “Let me repeat that; we watch the games.”

That won’t make it easier to decide who should be No. 2 on Tuesday night: Indiana, which escaped a 3-6 Penn State team, or Texas A&M, which soundly beat a CFP top 25 team in Mizzou. A deeper dive into the statistics and résumés of both undefeated teams — plus the context of why the group ranked them No. 2 and No. 3, respectively, last week — will factor into their discussions. It might be a bigger debate than how far No. 7 BYU should fall this week after a 29-7 loss to No. 8 Texas Tech.

Here’s a prediction of what the selection committee will do Tuesday night when it reveals its second of six rankings (7 p.m. ET/ESPN).

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Ranking | Bracket

Projecting the top 12

Why they could be here: Ohio State earned its fourth Big Ten road win of the season Saturday, albeit against a 2-8 Purdue team that hasn’t won since Sept. 6 against Southern Illinois. The Buckeyes entered Saturday ranked No. 33 in strength of schedule, according to ESPN Analytics, but No. 1 in Game Control and No. 3 in Strength of Record. “So it was certainly close [between Ohio State, Indiana and Texas A&M], but when we looked at film, and we’re blessed to have committee members and coaches that do a lot of film work, we just felt like Ohio State had a slight edge when we think about offensive line play and then a slight edge defensively,” Rhoades said after the first ranking release Tuesday. “That was really the outcome. Ohio State has some, I’m going to call them explosive players, that probably stood out as well.”

Why they could be lower: It would be difficult for the committee to justify dropping the Buckeyes below Indiana after the Hoosiers were fortunate to escape Penn State with a win Saturday, but undefeated Texas A&M continues to make a case for the top spot. The Aggies, who entered the week ranked No. 1 in ESPN’s Strength of Record metric, earned another CFP top 25 win at Mizzou on Saturday.

Need to know: Ohio State entered Week 11 with the best chance in the country to reach the playoff (99.2%), the best chance to earn the No. 1 seed (41.1%), and the best chance to win it all (27%).

Toughest remaining game: Nov. 29 at Michigan. It’s the only CFP top 25 team left on Ohio State’s regular-season schedule. The Buckeyes are trying to avoid a fifth straight loss to their rivals.

Why they could be here: The road win against 3-6 Penn State isn’t going to help the Hoosiers’ résumé much, but they narrowly avoided putting their first-round bye in jeopardy. Indiana should remain safely in the top four, thanks to a double-digit road win against No. 9 Oregon and another CFP top 25 win at Iowa. The Hoosiers beat two teams that were in a nailbiter Saturday before Oregon won on a game-winning field goal at Iowa. Penn State and Iowa are the only opponents Indiana hasn’t defeated by double digits. The historic 63-10 win against 6-3 Illinois is another respectable résumé booster, even though it’s not against a CFP top 25 opponent.

Why they could be lower: Texas A&M continues to make a push to move up after its 38-17 win at Mizzou on Saturday. The Aggies entered Week 11 ranked higher than Indiana in ESPN’s Strength of Schedule and Strength of Record metrics.

Need to know: Both of Indiana’s remaining opponents — Wisconsin and Purdue — have six losses. The Hoosiers entered Week 11 with the best chance in the Big Ten to reach the conference championship game.

Toughest remaining game: Nov. 28 at Purdue. It’s on a Friday night against an in-state rival — and Indiana still has at least a 97% chance to win, according to ESPN Analytics.

Why they could be here: With Saturday’s win at Mizzou, the Aggies have won three straight SEC road games to go along with the Sept. 13 win at Notre Dame. The committee will discuss, though, that Missouri was without injured starting quarterback Beau Pribula, and the Aggies easily handled freshman quarterback Matt Zollers, who was making his first start. Texas A&M entered Week 11 ranked No. 18 in defensive efficiency, behind Ohio State (No. 3) and Indiana (No. 2), and that played a role in the committee’s decision last week. “What we saw in A&M is a really, really good football team,” Rhoades said Tuesday. “They went into Death Valley, I thought dominated a good LSU team. You have a dynamic playmaker at quarterback, Marcel Reed. He can beat you with his arm. He can beat you with his feet. Impressive win, certainly going on the road, South Bend. I think you’re talking about really small margins when you think about the difference between Ohio State, Indiana and A&M, and then I think statistically, when we looked at A&M defensively, they’re just lower than both Ohio State and Indiana. We had to make a hard decision, and you’re trying to find separators, and that was a separator for us.”

Why they could be higher: Though Indiana was fortunate to escape 3-6 Penn State with a win, Texas A&M went on the road and beat the committee’s No. 22 team soundly, scoring 24 points in the second half against Mizzou.

Need to know: Texas A&M entered Saturday with a 56.7% chance to earn a first-round bye but had less than a 50% chance to beat Texas in the regular-season finale.

Toughest remaining game: Nov. 28 at Texas. It’s the only ranked opponent remaining on the Aggies’ schedule, and their last road game.

Why they could be here: If the Tide didn’t start any higher in the first ranking, it’s unlikely a home win against LSU on Saturday will boost them above any of the undefeated teams. The head-to-head win will keep them above Georgia, though, as the committee’s highest-ranked one-loss team. The road win against the No. 5 Bulldogs is one of the best in the country — arguably better than any win the teams above them can claim — but the season-opening loss to Florida State is holding them back. The Oct. 11 victory at Mizzou is still good, even if the Tigers fall out of the Top 25 this week, and the committee will recognize Bama beat Mizzou when starting quarterback Beau Pribula was healthy. The Tide also have a CFP top 25 win against Tennessee, which had a bye this week. “I’m not sure, when you look at a résumé, anybody had a better stretch of four games,” Rhoades said of the Tide on Tuesday. “When you think about Alabama, really, really impressive, two of those wins on the road. Going into Athens, one of the hardest, toughest environments to be able to get out of there with a win. There was certainly discussion about the Florida State loss early on, but just felt like that four-game stretch — which by the way, historical in the SEC. Nobody has beaten four straight ranked teams without a bye.”

Why they could be lower: It would be hard for the committee to justify any movement up or down this week, given the teams around them won, the head-to-head results and last week’s ranking.

Need to know: Alabama’s strength of schedule was No. 4 in the country heading into Week 11 — better than every team ranked ahead of it. The Tide was No. 5, though, in ESPN’s Strength of Record metric, trailing the committee’s top three teams.

Toughest remaining game: Nov. 15 vs. Oklahoma. This is the last ranked opponent Alabama will face.

Why they could be here: Georgia didn’t need a second-half surge at Mississippi State, after rallying from a tie or from behind during its previous three games. The committee likes what it sees from Georgia, but it has to account for head-to-head results, which is why Georgia should continue to be sandwiched between Alabama and Ole Miss again Tuesday night. “I think Gunner Stockton at quarterback has really progressed,” Rhoades said Tuesday. “It certainly feels like they have more confidence in him, doing a lot more with him. Again, he’s another maybe similar to Marcel Reed where he can beat you with his arm, he can beat you with his feet. The head-to-head against Ole Miss, obviously we took that into account. We absolutely took into account the loss at home versus Alabama.”

Why they could be lower: It would be surprising to see the Bulldogs move Tuesday night, given that nothing drastic happened around them.

Need to know: Georgia will play its last SEC game of the season Saturday against Texas, as it finishes the month against Charlotte and rival Georgia Tech.

Toughest remaining game: Nov. 15 vs. Texas. The Longhorns beat Vanderbilt on Nov. 1 and enter this game on a four-game winning streak. They also had a bye to prepare for the trip to Athens, while Georgia is coming off a road win against Mississippi State.

Why they could be here: A lopsided win against The Citadel won’t impress the selection committee, but the Rebels already earned their respect in the first ranking. Ole Miss will still be ranked behind Georgia because of the head-to-head road loss to the Bulldogs on Oct. 18. The Rebels entered Saturday with a slight edge over Texas Tech in Strength of Record, but with greater separation in strength of schedule, where Ole Miss was No. 25 and Texas Tech was No. 58. The committee will also consider the Rebels’ road defeat to Georgia is a better loss than the Red Raiders’ road setback to Arizona State, which has lost two of its past four games.

Why they could be lower: Texas Tech earned a CFP top-10 win Saturday when it beat previously undefeated BYU. Ole Miss’ best win was Oct. 25 at No. 12 Oklahoma.

Need to know: The 45-10 win against Tulane on Sept. 20 continues to enhance the Rebels’ overall record strength, even though it’s not a CFP top 25 win. The Green Wave earned an important win at Memphis on Friday, keeping their playoff hopes alive. Tulane also beat Northwestern and Duke this season, and the committee pays attention to opponents’ opponents (yes, you read that right).

Toughest remaining game: Nov. 28 at Mississippi State. The Egg Bowl isn’t a gimme, even after the Bulldogs were beaten soundly Saturday by Georgia. A loss could mean a first-round road trip instead of a home game for Ole Miss — or getting bumped out of the bracket.

Why they could be here: The Red Raiders looked like the best team in the Big 12 on Saturday, and the committee will likely reflect that in its second ranking. The double-digit win against previously undefeated BYU is better than Oregon’s best win, but the loss to Arizona State could play a role in the committee keeping Texas Tech behind Ole Miss. Still, the committee factors in injuries to key players, and the Red Raiders were without their starting quarterback Behren Morton (knee) on the road in the close defeat to the Sun Devils. “The loss at Arizona State without Behren at quarterback, Arizona State wins that late, so we do talk about quality wins,” Rhoades said last Tuesday. “We also talk about quality losses.”

Why they could be higher: The selection committee also rewarded Texas Tech for its road win against No. 13 Utah. On Saturday, Texas Tech earned its ninth victory by at least 20 points this season, showing the committee its ability to win convincingly consistently. The Red Raiders’ defense held BYU to its fewest points in any game over the past two seasons.

Need to know: Texas Tech and BYU are still the most likely matchup in the Big 12 title game. According to ESPN Analytics, Texas Tech has a 93% chance to reach it, BYU is second with a 55% chance and Cincinnati is third (19%). If BYU captures the Big 12, Texas Tech could claim a regular-season win against the eventual Big 12 champ, which would help boost its résumé and the case for playoff inclusion as the league runner-up.

Toughest remaining game: Nov. 29 at West Virginia. The Red Raiders have at least an 80% chance to win their two remaining regular-season games, but this one is slightly more difficult than against UCF because it’s on the road at a difficult venue.

Why they could be here: The Ducks got a much-needed résumé boost with Saturday’s win at Iowa, their first against a CFP top 25 team. Rhoades had said last week that Oregon had the lowest record strength of any team in the committee’s top 10. Saturday’s win also showed the group some impressive depth and grit, with the Ducks winning on the road in horrible weather and without multiple injured starters, including three of their top receivers. The question is if Iowa will still be a top 25 team Tuesday now that the Hawkeyes have three losses.

Why they could be higher: Oregon has been passing the eye test, ranking in the top five in offensive and defensive efficiency entering Saturday. With the exception of the two close road wins at Iowa and Penn State, the Ducks have dominated their opponents, ranking No. 4 in the country in Game Control — trailing only Ohio State, Indiana and Texas Tech.

Need to know: Oregon has at least a 70% chance to win each of its remaining games (Minnesota, USC and at Washington), according to ESPN Analytics, but it’s still unlikely to reach the Big Ten title game. The head-to-head home loss to the Hoosiers is a major reason.

Toughest remaining game: Nov. 22 vs. USC. The Trojans are 7-2 with one Big Ten loss and opportunities to climb in the ranking. A win at Oregon would flip the script in the conference pecking order, and if USC can beat Iowa Saturday, this game will be the Trojans’ Super Bowl.

Why they could be here: Notre Dame had no trouble dismantling an overmatched Navy team that was playing without injured starting quarterback Blake Horvath. It was Notre Dame’s seventh straight win since starting the season 0-2. The committee considered that those two losses in last week’s first ranking were by a total of four points to two CFP top 25 teams, including No. 3 and unbeaten Texas A&M. The committee was also impressed with Notre Dame’s 34-24 win against USC on Oct. 18, and that will continue to resonate with the Trojans improving to 7-2 after Friday’s win against Northwestern. Rhoades said Notre Dame had been “much, much better defensively” of late. “You look at their backfield, Jadarian Price, Jeremiyah Love, probably the best backfield in the country when you think about one-two punch,” Rhoades said. “Going into the Southern Cal game, they lost their starting center for the year, and they were able to overcome that and run for a bunch of yards, again, against Southern Cal.”

Why they could be lower: This all depends on how far BYU drops. The Cougars will most likely be at No. 10 above Notre Dame and the two-loss pack of teams, or at No. 12, and below OU and Texas but above Utah. If the Cougars drop to No. 12, Notre Dame would get a slight promotion by default this week.

Need to know: Notre Dame still has the best chance of any team to win out, according to ESPN Analytics.

Toughest remaining game: Nov. 15 at Pitt. The Panthers might be playing the best of any team in the ACC during their five-game winning streak. They also had a bye week to prepare for the Irish.

Why they could be here: The Longhorns had a bye after earning a top-12 spot in the first ranking. Texas has won four straight, including CFP top 25 wins against Oklahoma and Vanderbilt. Vandy needed overtime to beat a 4-6 Auburn team Saturday, but that win should continue to help the Longhorns’ résumé. The Oct. 4 loss at Florida remains a stain on that résumé, though. The 14-7 season-opening road defeat to No. 1-ranked Ohio State isn’t what keeps Texas out of the playoff.

Why they could be lower: It depends on how far BYU falls after losing 29-7 to Texas Tech on Saturday. BYU’s lone win against a CFP top 25 team was Oct. 18 at home against Utah 24-21. BYU entered Week 11 ranked No. 45 in strength of schedule, while Texas was No. 11. BYU didn’t lose to Florida, though — its lone defeat is to a CFP top-10 team.

Need to know: No team has a better opportunity to impress the selection committee in the final three weeks of the season than Texas, which will face two CFP top-five teams in No. 5 Georgia and No. 3 Texas A&M. If Texas splits those games and finishes as a three-loss team, it could still be ranked in the top 12 but might not make the playoff. It would be a similar situation to what happened to three-loss Alabama last year, which finished No. 11 on Selection Day, but was excluded from the playoff to make room for ACC champion Clemson. If Texas wins both games, it could jump Notre Dame and put the Irish in a similarly precarious position at No. 11 or No. 12.

Toughest remaining game: Nov. 28 vs. Texas A&M. It certainly won’t be easy to win at Georgia on Saturday, but the Longhorns had a bye week to prepare for it while the Bulldogs were on the road. Texas will face in-state rival Texas A&M on a Friday night in the regular-season finale, the second top-five team it will face in a three-week span.

Why they could be here: The Sooners had a bye, but are stuck behind Texas because of the head-to-head loss to the Longhorns on Oct. 11. Wins against Tennessee and Michigan, though, have them within range of making the 12-team field, and it helped that the committee ranked the Vols No. 25 as their highest-ranked three-loss team.

Why they could be lower: The selection committee probably wouldn’t shuffle this order, considering Texas and Oklahoma were off this week, but OU could stay at 12 in the second ranking if the committee keeps BYU in the top 10.

Need to know: If the playoff were today, Oklahoma would still be bumped out of the field during the seeding process to make room for the ACC champion, which is still projected to be ranked outside of the committee’s top 12 but guaranteed a spot as one of the five highest-ranked conference champions.

Toughest remaining game: Nov. 15 at Alabama. The Sooners will be in a must-win situation in Tuscaloosa, as the rest of their résumé likely won’t be enough to compensate for a third loss, given that they’re already on the bubble in the eyes of the committee.

Why they could be here: The Cougars have a good win (Oct. 18 against Utah) and an eyebrow-raising defeat (Saturday). Texas Tech is a good team, but how BYU lost to the Red Raiders will matter. BYU was outplayed, and its offense was stifled: 67 rushing yards, 3 turnovers, 4.9 yards per pass, while converting just 3 of 14 third downs. A drop behind two-loss Texas and OU isn’t unreasonable. Utah is the only opponent BYU has defeated with fewer than four defeats. BYU entered Saturday ranked No. 45 in ESPN’s Strength of Schedule metric — significantly behind Notre Dame (23), Texas (11) and Oklahoma (13). The loss opens the door for the committee to reevaluate BYU’s body of work. The committee would still likely honor BYU’s head-to-head win against Utah, though, giving the Cougars a safety net to stay in the top 12.

Why they could be higher: It was BYU’s first loss of the season, on the road, and to a top-10 team leading the nation in defensive efficiency.

Need to know: If BYU runs the table and reaches the Big 12 title game, it would clinch a spot in the playoff with a win. What happens if the Cougars finish as a two-loss runner-up with a second lopsided loss to Texas Tech? Where they’re placed in the committee’s second ranking Tuesday night will provide some insight and show how much margin for error they might have. If they land at No. 12 on Selection Day, even as the Big 12 runner-up, they’d be excluded to make room for the fifth-highest-ranked conference champion, which is projected to be South Florida out of the American Conference.

Toughest remaining game: Nov. 22 at Cincinnati. The Big 12 race isn’t over yet, and Cincinnati might have something to say about it — unless the Bearcats play the way they did during a 45-14 loss at Utah. Cincinnati still has the third-best chance to reach the Big 12 title game behind Texas Tech and BYU.

Bracket

Based on the rankings above, the seeding would be:

First-round byes

No. 1 Ohio State (Big Ten champ)
No. 2 Indiana
No. 3 Texas A&M (SEC champ)
No. 4 Alabama

First-round games

On campus, Dec. 19 and 20

No. 12 South Florida (American champ) at No. 5 Georgia
No. 11 Georgia Tech (ACC champ) at No. 6 Ole Miss
No. 10 Texas at No. 7 Texas Tech (Big 12 champ)
No. 9 Notre Dame at No. 8 Oregon

Quarterfinal games

At the Goodyear Cotton Bowl, Capital One Orange Bowl, Rose Bowl Presented by Prudential and Allstate Sugar Bowl on Dec. 31 and Jan. 1.

No. 12 South Florida/No. 5 Georgia winner vs. No. 4 Alabama
No. 11 Georgia Tech/No. 6 Ole Miss winner vs. No. 3 Texas A&M
No. 10 Texas/No. 7 Texas Tech winner vs. No. 2 Indiana
No. 9 Notre Dame/No. 8 Oregon winner vs. No. 1 Ohio State

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