Five weeks into the season, we can list four things we’ve figured out about the Big Ten in less than it takes Michigan to go three-and-out.
Illinois (2-3) is bad, Rutgers (1-4) is bad, Maryland (2-3) is bad, and the time left on the clock is more of a suggestion than a rule.
Beyond that, any predictions about the league are likely to be about as accurate as a Bryce Underwood deep ball.
Ohio State dominated Texas for three quarters but ultimately lost. Oregon lost to Oklahoma State then upended USC. Penn State was ranked as high as No. 13, but now looks a lot like the team that got James Franklin fired. Purdue won a game. None of it makes much sense.
The defending champ, Indiana, has flown beneath the radar almost entirely thanks to a schedule that includes Northwestern, Rutgers and, in keeping with tradition, three nonconference games against teams that fell victim to an email scam about a deposed Nigerian prince who really just needed some cash.
Meanwhile Nebraska and UCLA — two programs that had largely avoided relevancy since the last time U2 put out a good album — are undefeated. Sure, Nebraska has played the 126th-ranked schedule so far, and UCLA the 113th, but this is no time for nitpicking. The last time Nebraska had something to celebrate on the football field, Bo Pelini was still on the sideline.
Minnesota has knocked off Washington and Michigan in back-to-back weeks, while PJ Fleck is taking a blood oath on the sideline.
Wisconsin has fluttered back to life like a Waffle House after last call.
And Northwestern, a program that last scored 30 points during the Hoover administration, suddenly has an offense under Chip Kelly that has turned quarterback Aiden Chiles into a burgeoning star.
The conference that has provided the past three national champions certainly has its share of contenders for a fourth, but the options for who that might be are spread from coast to — well, OK, the Eastern options stop right around Ohio.
And yet, at long last, Week 6 should offer some clarity.
Indiana travels to Lincoln for arguably the biggest Huskers game in a generation. It is Indiana’s first real test away from home since last year’s national championship game. It’s a chance for Nebraska to get to 6-0 for the first time in a decade. It’s Matt Rhule’s latest opportunity to get a signature win. He’s 0-9 against AP top-25 teams at Nebraska and 2-25 in his career. On the other hand, he was pretty solid in the season finale of “Lanterns,” so his tenure hasn’t been a total waste. The Huskers, as a program, have gone 10 years without a ranked win — 31 straight defeats when the opponent has a little number next to its name. Imagine traveling back in time to 1996 and explaining to Nebraska fans that beating Indiana would be a watershed moment for the program. But these are strange times in the Big Ten.
UCLA travels to Oregon with a chance to also quiet the doubters. Wins over Cal, Purdue and Maryland — a combined 3-9 vs. FBS opponents this season — don’t exactly make for a stellar résumé, but it also marks the first time the Bruins have won three games against power-conference foes since 2022. A win over Oregon would certainly change the conversation, giving UCLA enough cache to force its way into the playoff conversation and, perhaps, knock the Ducks out of that discussion.
But if UCLA and Nebraska are looking to prove their worth in Week 6, USC and Penn State are both looking to avoid disaster.
Lincoln Riley’s spiral into oblivion after the Oregon loss took a brief pit stop with a win over Washington last week, but the Trojans’ trip to Happy Valley offers yet another chance for USC fans to revolt. Or attend a Chris Brown concert.
Penn State has problems of its own, as Matt Campbell lamented the team’s lack of an offensive identity, which hardly seems fair, because technically, “complete dumpster fire” is an identity. Still, Rocco Becht‘s numbers vs. Power 4 competition in the past calendar year: 3-5 record, 50.7 Total QBR, 55.6% completions, eight touchdowns, 10 interceptions. Somewhere, Christian Hackenberg, Trace McSorley and Sean Clifford are shaking their heads in disappointment and also just now realizing they’re not all the same person.
Add in Iowa‘s trip to Washington, and Week 6 marks the first truly big weekend for the Big Ten — perhaps not the point in which the conference hierarchy becomes clear, but at least a start to unraveling the threads still tangled by a nonconference slate with less buzz than the new Tom Cruise movie.
Say what you will about the five weeks of mediocrity that got us here, but when the Big Ten finally shows up to the party, it knows how to make an entrance.
Jump to:
Top games | Under-the-radar
Upset alert | Power rankings
Heisman five | Two-minute drill
Best of the rest of Week 6
Georgia is 5-0 with an average margin of victory of 38 points, demoralizing all comers except Arkansas, which is incapable of being demoralized due to already being at rock bottom. Gunner Stockton is completing better than 75% of his throws and is averaging 10 yards per pass. Georgia has a grand total of 19 snaps on offense in the second halves of games this season in which it hasn’t been leading by at least two touchdowns. Kirby Smart has had players practicing against each other during timeouts just to ensure it’s worth washing their jerseys after the games.
Alabama at least had the common courtesy to play with its food for a while against Kentucky and Florida State, giving its prey hope before snuffing it out amid second-half offensive onslaughts. The Tide are 5-0, Kalen DeBoer’s seat is suddenly cozy and cool, and Alabama might have its most dynamic quarterback since Bryce Young. Oh, and in those prolific second halves, Alabama has outscored its opponents 108-32.
There’s a good case to be made that no two teams have looked as utterly dominant during the first five weeks of this season as the Dawgs and the Tide — assuming you don’t mind making that case while Miami fans shout epithets at you.
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Is the matchup Saturday a bigger game for Georgia or Alabama?
Dawgs-Tide isn’t exactly a rivalry. It’s more like two people who wore the same outfit to a party. There’s a begrudging respect for the good taste, but someone has to go home and change, and neither side is planning to budge.
This latest showdown between the two winningest schools in the past decade is setting up as yet another blockbuster. This is the 14th meeting between Georgia and Alabama in the past two decades, and it’s the 11th time they’ve both been ranked in the top 10. Half of those matchups have come in the SEC championship game or the College Football Playoff. Alabama has won 10 of them, including the past five played in the regular season dating to 2008.
But the stakes Saturday aren’t necessarily make-or-break. Alabama toppled Georgia in the 2021 SEC title game, but the Dawgs won the national championship. The Tide won in Athens last September, but Georgia got revenge in the conference championship game in December. And given the red-hot starts for both programs in 2026, it’d be a surprise if this was anything other than a playoff preview rather than an elimination game. Such is life in a 12-team playoff when Greg Sankey has already booked a party of six on his Resy app for the SEC.
But there is something to be said for witnessing two titans trade punches — even in early October. The Big Ten has rightfully taken the mantle as the country’s preeminent conference thanks to three straight national titles by three different teams, but on Saturday, Georgia and Alabama get a chance to show the world why things still mean more in the SEC.
The corn dogs and chicken wings aren’t the only things that look fried at this year’s Red River game. Oklahoma has mustered a grand total of 37 points over its past three games, and quarterback John Mateer is a mess. It was just a year ago that Mateer looked like a Heisman contender before injuring his throwing hand in a win over Auburn. He sat out a week and returned for the showdown with Texas but looked like a shell of himself in a 23-6 loss. Little has changed since. In the 10 Power 4 games he has played over the past year, Mateer has mustered just 5.5 yards per dropback with 12 touchdowns and 10 turnovers.
Iowa and Washington have played five Power 4 opponents so far this season and scored a combined 95 points — 19 per game — in those contests. A loss for Washington would be its third straight, something the Huskies haven’t done since 2021.
Kentucky already knocked off Texas A&M and South Carolina. The Wildcats haven’t won three straight SEC games since 2021. The job gets tougher against Lane Kiffin and LSU, which has won its four games against schools not actively out to destroy Kiffin by an average of 38 points.
Under-the-radar games of the week
Since the start of last season, Louisville has lost eight games. Seven of those eight have come by a three points or fewer, including last week against NC State and the week before against Wake Forest.
How wild is that? In the playoff era, that’s already the second-most losses by those margins in a two-year span by any team — and this season isn’t even half over. Moreover, the other teams who have flirted with Louisville-level outcomes have had twice as many total losses.
Most losses by 3 points or less in a 2-year span, playoff era (total losses):
Boston College, 8 – 2014-15 (15)
Louisville, 7 – 2025-present (8)
Nebraska, 7 – 2022-23 (15)
Virginia, 7 – 2022-23 (16)
Notre Dame, 6 – 2015-16 (11)
BC, 6 – 2015-16 (15)— 💫🅰️♈️🆔 (@ADavidHaleJoint) October 4, 2026
Even stranger, since Louisville and Florida State met in the 2023 ACC championship game, they’ve combined for 18 losses in games decided by a seven points or fewer — 10 for Louisville and a woeful 1-8 mark in one-score games for FSU.
Add it all up and the odds are that Friday’s game will end with a receiver running free to the end zone for a potential winning score only to slip on some marbles Mike Norvell left on the field, then fall through a plate glass window being moved from one sideline to the other.
It’s the Will Muschamp Bowl, featuring two schools that technically employed Muschamp only as a head coach for parts of nine seasons but figuratively feel as if they’ve both just cycled through Muschamp eras for a while. Florida, at long last, thinks it has found the right guy, even if Jon Sumrall just ran into his first wall against Missouri last week. For South Carolina though? The Gamecocks have lost 10 of their past 11 SEC games, and time is running out before Shane Beamer follows Muschamp to … wherever mediocre former SEC coaches go. Probably a Golden Corral in Jacksonville, Florida.
It’s the biggest rivalry game in all of the land. Or, at least the one with the most appetizing trophy. The Battle of the Bones, which features UAB and Memphis fighting over a bronzed slab of ribs. Important note to the two first-year coaches involved in this game: Do not attempt to eat the trophy. That is not just a dry rub on them. You will lose a tooth.
North Dakota State is off to a 5-0 start in its first year as an FBS program, proving it’s not as complicated as Arkansas keeps making it seem. But UNLV will be its biggest test to date, with Rebels’ quarterback Jackson Arnold off to a strong start, including accounting for 282 yards and five touchdowns in a win over Cal last week.
Sacramento State at Bowling Green
These two teams are a combined 2-8 with losses to UMass, Eastern Michigan and Tarleton State. They are Nos. 131 and 132 in SP+ and 130 and 138 in FPI. At least three players involved are actually just two toddlers standing on each other’s shoulders and wearing a trench coat. This is what Saturdays are all about.
Upset alert
Wake Forest (at NC State)
After stomping Stanford 57-3 last week, people finally seem to be taking note of Wake Forest, which has now won 11 of its past 14 games. But ACC schools are like Shroedinger’s cat — capable of any outcome as long as no one is directly observing them. Now that the world is aware of Wake’s existence, ACC rules require something awful to happen to the Deacs like an upset in Raleigh on an anvil falling on their heads.
Missouri (home vs. Texas A&M)
Ole Miss was good, then lost to Florida. Florida was good, then lost to Missouri. Now Missouri is good, so logic dictates the Tigers have to lose to Texas A&M. It’s basically like the plot of a horror movie where the only way for a potential SEC contender to rid itself of a curse is to pass it along to another team.
Boise State (at Fresno State)
Boise State is the odds-on favorite to land the Group of 6’s automatic bid to the College Football Playoff, but Fresno State is 4-1 and has won its past three against the Broncos. Toppling Boise State will require keeping quartereback Maddux Madsen in check. After a rough sophomore season in 2025, Madsen is off to a red-hot start, completing 66% of his throws with 11 touchdowns and no picks.
Liberty (home vs. Sam Houston)
Liberty is coming off a big win at Delaware, but Sam Houston isn’t exactly the pushover its 1-3 record might suggest. The Bearkats played Texas Tech tough for a half in Week 4 and have one-possession losses to both Troy and Tulsa — two solid Group of 6 schools. Quarterback Landyn Locke has been solid with 11 TDs and three picks.
Week 5 power rankings
Tracking the most impactful performances from last week’s games.
1. Alabama
2. Always having Missouri in the top 25
3. Miami
4. The SEC slowly becoming the ACC Coastal
5. The radioactive spider and/or nuclear experiment that went horribly awry and gave Jeremiah Smith super powers
6. Minnesota
7. Florida State
8. One second left on the clock (Idaho version)
9. Going for 2 and the win
10. Getting fired in the middle of the game
Unranked: Leaving your playbook at the hotel bar; losing to a team mired in a mumps outbreak; comparing teams to 2019 LSU; Louisville in close games; court cases involving Texas Tech QBs; Penn State
Heisman five
Tracking the favorites to win college football’s most prestigious trophy that isn’t shaped like a rack of ribs.
1. Ohio State WR Jeremiah Smith
Smith’s past two games: 23 catches, 423 yards, six touchdown catches. He’d be in the top 25 nationally in yards and top 10 in touchdowns if that was all he had done this season. Instead, he has four games of at least 150 yards and a touchdown in only five weeks. In the playoff era, only three power-conference receivers have had more in an entire season — DeVonta Smith, A.J. Brown and Josh Doctson. This week, Smith gets to go against Maryland’s defense. NASA scientists are currently working on discovering a new number high enough to capture how many yards he may go for Saturday.
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Jeremiah Smith hits Heisman after breaking OSU’s receiving TD record
2. Alabama QB Keelon Russell
First five starts by Total QBR
Tua Tagovailoa: 97.9
Mac Jones: 93.6
Russell: 91.0
Bryce Young: 88.6
Ty Simpson: 82.2
Jalen Milroe: 77.9
3. Miami QB Darian Mensah and 4. Indiana QB Josh Hoover
Mensah and Hoover have each started the season with near flawless production. Both are averaging better than 10 yards per pass attempt. Hoover is completing 71% of his throws, while Mensah is completing 84% of his. And combined, they’ve accounted for 33 touchdowns without a turnover.
How rare is that?
Here’s every power-conference QB with at least 16 touchdowns and zero turnovers through their first five games.
Tua Tagovailoa: 2019 (25 touchdowns)
Marcus Mariota: 2014 (21)
Mensah: 2026 (17)
Mitchell Trubisky: 2016 (17)
Hoover: 2026 (16)
Tua Tagovailoa: 2018 (16)
Baker Mayfield: 2017 (16)
First, there are a lot of Dolphins fans who are seeing those Tagovailoa numbers and throwing their phones against the wall. Second, the four QBs who managed this before this season all became first-round NFL draft picks, and two went on to win the Heisman.
5. Missouri QB Austin Simmons
Much has been made — rightfully — of Kiffin’s most recent starting QBs. Trinidad Chambliss has been exceptional again this season (71% completions, 12 TDs) and Sam Leavitt is off to a strong start at LSU (1,441 total yards, 14 touchdowns). But go back one more quarterback in the Kiffin rolodex, and you’ll find a QB putting up even more eye-popping numbers. Simmons, who opened last season as Ole Miss’s starter before giving way to Chambliss, is completing 68% of his throws, averaging 8.8 yards-per-dropback (better than Chambliss or Leavitt) with 13 touchdowns and zero turnovers. Not surprisingly, Kiffin has been texting Eli Drinkwitz repeatedly and in all caps yelling, “HE’S MINE! I CALLED DIBS!”
Two-minute drill
Maryland has lost 18 of its past 20 games against Power 4 competition and has allowed a 75.3 Total QBR to opposing QBs in that span — the second-worst mark among Power 4 defenses. Now it gets Julian Sayin and Smith. Apropos of nothing, Mike Locksley’s buyout is about $9 million.
Notre Dame is now 47-6 vs. the ACC in the past 10 seasons, and yet one of those losses cost Notre Dame a conference title (2020), one knocked the Irish out of the playoff (2018) and one kept them from the playoff altogether (2025). Cut to Jim Phillips eating popcorn and smugly noting, “That’s a shame.”
Kansas State has not given up a sack this season. The Wildcats didn’t give up a sack in their final game of last season either. They’re the sixth Big 12 team in history to go five straight games without giving up a sack (1998 Iowa State went seven straight, according to ESPN Research). K State is now at 172 straight dropbacks without the QB being taken down in the backfield.
Bear Bachmeier‘s stat line last week against TCU: 11-of-24 for 62 yards (2.6 per pass). BYU won that game. How rare is that? The Cougars are the first power-conference team since 2018 Miami (vs. Pitt) to win a game with at least 24 pass attempts and 62 or fewer passing yards.
Pitt moved to 5-0 after Virginia Tech‘s last-second field goal attempt sailed (barely) wide left, but in the process, the Panthers lost starting quarterback Mason Heintschel for the season. This scenario is as familiar to Pittsburgh sports fans as fries on a sandwich — nothing good happens without something even worse following right behind. Which, incidentally, is similar to the process of eating a sandwich with French fries as a condiment. Regardless, Pitt is now 18-2 before Nov. 1 over the past three seasons, putting them in some rarified air. But again … it’s about what comes after the good news that defines Pitt.
Best Aug/Sept/Oct records since start of 2024:
Indiana, 21-0
BYU, 20-0
Miami, 19-1
Oregon, 18-2
Pitt, 18-2
UGA, 17-2
Ohio State, 17-2— 💫🅰️♈️🆔 (@ADavidHaleJoint) October 4, 2026
George MacIntyre will get the start for Tennessee after freshman Faizon Brandon struggled in the past two weeks against Texas and Auburn. Brandon was sacked 12 times on 60 dropbacks in those two games. McIntyre was not markedly better, but he did enough to lead the Vols to a 24-14 win over Auburn, and he now offers a veteran presence in the pocket while also having the built-in advantage of getting to play Arkansas.
Duke is 4-0 and unranked. But Duke has also played four pretty bad teams — Tulane, Illinois, William & Mary and Stanford. Georgia Tech — which has lost to Colorado and Stanford already — might be worse than all of them. In the playoff era, only three other times has a 5-0 power-conference team been unranked: 2019 Minnesota, 2023 Maryland and … 2024 Duke.
