Deja vu for Penn State, SMU’s ascendance headline winners and losers from Week 10 of the college football season

It’s a small sample size, so I’ll wait to draw too many outsized conclusions. But I’m starting to think the changes in college football — from the 12-team playoff to the transfer portal to NIL — have managed to increase the parity in the sport.

We’re already in the month of November, 10 weeks into the 2024 season, and we still have lots of questions about how the inaugural expanded playoff field will even look, let alone who will ultimately hoist the championship trophy at season’s end.

Week 10 didn’t answer those questions completely, though it did provide a bit more clarity in some ways, namely in the Big Ten. Ohio State knocked off Penn State yet again, keeping its Big Ten title hopes alive and likely setting up a rematch against Oregon if the Buckeyes can get past a red-hot Indiana team in a few weeks.

In the rest of the Power Four, the same isn’t exactly true. The SEC looks as wide open as it’s been in years after frontrunner Texas A&M took its first conference loss to South Carolina, while the Big 12 and ACC each saw top-10 teams — in addition to other conference title contenders — go down.

With four weeks left in the regular season, here are our winners and losers from Week 10.

Winner: Ohio State gets it done yet again

This year’s game over Penn State played out pretty similarly to last year’s for the Buckeyes. It was far from pretty, and this time, they put themselves in an early 10-0 hole thanks to an ugly pick-six from quarterback Will Howard, who was making an emotional return to his home state.

The offense wasn’t perfect, but it made plays to reassert control of the game and came up clutch when it mattered in the fourth quarter, delivering a pair of five-minute drives — one to kick a field goal to make it a seven-point game and the other to ice it in the final minutes — on its final two possessions.

For the Ohio State defense, it was largely a replay of last year’s game. Drew Allar wasn’t able to get much going at all as the Nittany Lions’ only touchdown came on the aforementioned pick-six.

But perhaps the most impressive part of the win was how well the Buckeyes ran the ball. They went for 179 yards as a team with Quinshon Judkins leading the charge with 95 yards. Ohio State’s offensive line has been the clear weakness so far this season, and there were concerns about how effectively the Buckeyes would run the ball against a strong Penn State defensive front.

They passed that test, and while the Indiana game looms large and a loss there would certainly change things for Ryan Day, he has this team on track to earn a rematch against Oregon in Indianapolis.

Loser: Penn State still just isn’t good enough

James Franklin’s tenure in Happy Valley may be the toughest to evaluate of any coach in the country.

On the one hand, this is routinely one of the 10 best teams in the nation, and the vast majority of programs around the nation would kill for Franklin’s track record. On the other hand, Penn State continues to come up short in the biggest games on the schedule, and that was the case again on Saturday as Franklin moves to 1-10 against the Buckeyes and is still searching for his first win in the series since 2016.

Even with a revamped offense led by new coordinator Andy Kotelnicki, it was largely the same result the Nittany Lions saw last year against a strong Buckeyes defense. Perhaps Kotelnicki is too clever by half at points (as evidenced by a useless offensive lineman motion at the goal line with the game hanging in the balance), but ultimately, Penn State still had a chance to win this game despite not scoring an offensive touchdown.

But it went four and out inside the 10 in the final minutes, and it never touched the ball again.

I don’t think Franklin is legitimately on the hot seat this year. This still looks like a CFP team, but unless it can improve significantly from the result we saw on Saturday, it’s not one that’s capable of competing with the best of the best.

Winner: SMU’s rapid ascendance in the ACC

The ACC had the most perplexing haul in the latest round of conference realignment, adding Stanford and Cal from the Pac-12 sinking ship while giving SMU an invite to the Power Four ranks. All three additions were lampooned when they were announced, but while its California brethren are languishing near the bottom of the ACC standings, the Mustangs are thriving.

They hosted undefeated Pittsburgh in arguably the biggest game of the program’s modern era, and it was a dominating performance — the 48-25 final score doesn’t do it justice. SMU moves to 8-1 in its debut ACC campaign, and it’s unbeaten in league play with the only loss coming to a BYU team that’s undefeated on the year.

Rhett Lashlee has done a phenomenal job with this team, especially considering he had to navigate a quarterback change from Preston Stone to Kevin Jennings when Stone, expected to be one of the ACC’s top passers, had a rough start to the season.

Looking at the remaining schedule, which features games against Boston College, Virginia and Cal, the Mustangs seem to be on a collision course to meet Miami in the ACC title game with a CFP berth on the line.

Loser: At-large chances for the ACC and Big 12

While SMU’s story has been a lot of fun to watch, Saturday’s result in Dallas may have been the worst-case scenario for the ACC given what happened elsewhere in the league. Clemson was upset at home by an unranked Louisville, likely ending its playoff hopes if it can’t get some help and sneak into the ACC title game. Pittsburgh was also undefeated before the loss to SMU, and now, with every team other than Miami having at least one loss, an at-large berth looks a bit less likely.

If Miami were to finish 12-0 and lose in the ACC championship, it would have to feel pretty good about its at-large chances. But a two-loss ACC runner-up would have pretty long odds of making the CFP.

The Big 12 now faces a similar dilemma after unbeaten Iowa State and one-loss Kansas State both suffered losses to Texas Tech and Houston respectively. BYU is now in the Big 12 driver’s seat, but if the Cougars manage to win the league, any other team earning at-large spot looks pretty bleak.

There are still seven at-large spots to fill, so it’s not unthinkable that one or both of these leagues could still get multiple teams in, especially with the uncertainty in the Big Ten and SEC, but Saturday made the path a bit trickier.

Quick Hitters – Winners

• UConn: UConn is one of the toughest programs to win at in the FBS, but Jim Mora has now secured bowl eligibility for the Huskies for the second time in three years on the job.

• Boise State: The Broncos continue to roll through Mountain West play, and if they continue on this path, they could push for a higher seed than No. 12 in the CFP.

• Ole Miss: Ole Miss needed a dominant win over a solid team, and it did just that, earning its first win in Fayetteville since 2018 with a 63-31 victory in which Jaxson Dart threw for more than 500 yards and six touchdowns.

• Minnesota: The Gophers continue to impress this season, and they added another ranked win by taking down Illinois on the road.

• Syracuse: The Orange reached bowl eligibility in coach Fran Brown’s first season by beating a resurgent Virginia Tech team.

• UAB: It’s been a miserable season for the Blazers, and the writing is likely on the wall for Trent Dilfer. But UAB got a nice blowout win against an even more moribund Tulsa team.

• Indiana: The Hoosiers faced some adversity early against Michigan State, falling in a 10-0 hole. How did they respond? With 47 unanswered points, of course.

• Houston: This team has quietly improved a ton during the season, and now it has a marquee win in Year 1 under coach Willie Fritz after taking down Kansas State.

• Arizona State: The Sun Devils are one of the most improved teams in the nation, and they’re still a factor in the Big 12 race sitting at 6-2 after a convincing road win against Oklahoma State.

• UCLA: It’s been a rough Year 1 for Deshaun Foster at UCLA overall, but the Bruins have now won back-to-back games in Big Ten play, both on the road and this time against a 5-3 Nebraska team.

• Louisville: Jeff Brohm has once again built a quietly strong ACC team in 2024, and he has managed to take down a big-name opponent for the second year in a row after beating Notre Dame last year.

• South Carolina: The Gamecocks came close against LSU and Alabama, and they finally got the big win they’ve been looking for in a thorough domination against Texas A&M at home.

• Baylor: Dave Aranda is making a pretty strong case for earning another season at Baylor after the Bears took down rival TCU on a late field goal.

Quick Hitters – Losers

• Liberty: The Flames were expected to compete for the G5 CFP spot this season, but those hopes are completely dead in the water after back-to-back losses to Kennesaw State and Jacksonville State.

• Purdue: It’s just been a brutal few weeks for the Boilermakers. A shutout loss to Oregon was sandwiched between heartbreaking overtime losses to Illinois and Northwestern. What’s next for Purdue? That would be Ohio State on the road. Oof.

• Memphis: Another preseason playoff contender who hasn’t lived up to expectations, Memphis fell on the road against UTSA in what was its second loss of the season.

• Auburn: This Auburn offense just can’t do much of anything right now. It managed only a touchdown in a 17-7 loss to Vanderbilt that dropped the Tigers to 3-6 in Year 2 under Hugh Freeze.

• Florida: The Gators had Georgia on the ropes early, forcing three Carson Beck interceptions, but the upset bid was spoiled by several injuries, including one to quarterback DJ Lagway, who was carted off the field with a hamstring injury.

• Kansas State: The Wildcats’ Big 12 hopes are all but over after an embarrassing loss to a Houston team that has been a free win for most above-average conference opponents this year.

• Nebraska: Failing to become bowl-eligible for the first time since 2016 after a 5-2 start would be absolutely brutal for the Cornhuskers, but it’s a real possibility after the UCLA loss.

• Arizona: It’s easy to forget the Wildcats were seen as a preseason Big 12 contender. They’re now 3-6 after an embarrassing 56-12 loss to a UCF team that entered at 3-5.

• Navy: Well, it was fun while it lasted. The Notre Dame loss was one thing, but playoff contenders don’t lose by two touchdowns to an interim coach-led Rice team.

• Texas A&M: The Aggies had the inside track to the SEC championship, but now the entire conference race is in flux after their 24-point loss at South Carolina.

• USC: The Trojans have just about played their way off the winners and losers list. At 4-5 coming off a loss to Washington, it’s time to accept this is just a pretty mediocre team. 6-6 looks like the ceiling here in 2024, which is less than ideal for Lincoln Riley.

This article originally appeared on For The Win: Deja vu for Penn State, SMU’s ascendance headline winners and losers from Week 10 of the college football season