Top college football matchups of Week 11

It’s an admittedly subdued batch of games this weekend, but even that includes a pair of top-20 SEC clashes, Colorado and Deion Sanders on the road in a big spot, a handful of undefeated teams with intriguing matchups and a whole lot of College Football Playoff implications.

Let’s rank the top 10 games of Week 11, starting with honorable mentions and counting down.

The fact that this game cracks the list speaks to a tepid slate, especially after Iowa State lost for the first time last Saturday. The defeat put a dent in the Big 12’s chances of sending multiple teams to the 12-team field, but for now, the Cyclones are the conference’s second-best team and still clutching to the Playoff bubble. Kansas — hosting this game at Kansas City’s Arrowhead Stadium — has been a massive disappointment, though it has played better lately, including a close loss to Kansas State a few weeks back. The Jayhawks will have a chance to play spoiler this month in facing Iowa State, BYU and Colorado over the next three weeks.

Neither team is ranked or in the Playoff picture, but let’s give some love to a pair of SEC programs that have exceeded expectations and been rather fun to watch. Vandy, coming off a road win at Auburn, is already bowl-bound and looking to surpass six wins for the first time since 2013 when James Franklin was the head coach. A victory would keep the Commodores lingering near the crowded top of the SEC standings. South Carolina, fresh off a dominant second-half performance against Texas A&M and a stellar showing by quarterback LaNorris Sellers, is looking to go bowling too.

The undefeated Black Knights are the top Group of 5 challengers for the CFP behind Boise State. Would an undefeated, AAC-champion Army close the gap on No. 12 Boise? That scenario would include a win over Notre Dame in Yankee Stadium in a couple of weeks. But first, college football’s top rushing offense will have to take care of a solid North Texas team in the midst of a brutal stretch that includes losses to Memphis and Tulane.

The Gators are massive underdogs, but they’ve also hung with Tennessee and Georgia this season. Making Texas sweat might depend on the availability of freshman quarterback DJ Lagway, who is questionable after leaving the Georgia game with an injury; redshirt freshman walk-on Aidan Warner will start if Lagway can’t go. Regardless, this game is more about which version of Texas shows up. Coming off an idle week, the Longhorns haven’t looked right for the past two games, losing to Georgia at home and fending off Vanderbilt on the road. Lagway or not, Texas has no business letting Florida hang around if the Horns are a legit top-five team and title contender. Either way, Billy Napier isn’t going anywhere.

It’s a rematch of the non-kneel-down disaster from last season when Miami and Mario Cristobal inexplicably blew a sure win by failing to take a knee on what should have been the game’s final snap. It’s probably safe to say that an undefeated Miami team, even one that has flirted with some upsets this year, won’t make the same mistake again. Georgia Tech hopes to get quarterback Haynes King back from injury, which would probably make this Miami’s toughest remaining test in the regular season, with Wake Forest and Syracuse the only other games left on the schedule.

It’s the first Holy War: Big 12 edition. Utah has won nine of the last 10 against BYU, but the Cougars claimed the most recent bout in 2021, and the Utes are nose-diving. Utah has dropped four in a row, lost quarterback Cam Rising for the season to injury, and offensive coordinator Andy Ludwig resigned. This means the pressure is all on BYU, which is undefeated and atop the Big 12 standings with a couple of quality wins, yet still got insulted by the CFP committee. The Cougars deserve better, and may very well prove as much. Beating Utah won’t do a lot to boost their resume, though the team will need to be on guard for a Utah bunch that would love to spoil its rival’s dream season.

Indiana trailed for the first time all season last week against Michigan State, down 10-0 early, then proceeded to rip off 47 unanswered points to start 9-0 for the first time in program history. Quarterback Kurtis Rourke played well in his return from injury and the Hoosiers continue to be a wagon under first-year head coach Curt Cignetti, but the first batch of Playoff rankings suggest that, like BYU, the team is still fighting some helmet bias. This is not the Michigan of last year, but it’s still a big name and the defending champs. Another resounding win by Indiana should help put some deserved respect on its name.

Colorado, fresh off an idle week — and Travis Hunter hitting the Heisman campaign trail — suddenly has a lot at stake. The Buffs are tied for second in the Big 12 after Kansas State suffered its second loss, and have a path to the Big 12 title game and CFP. For all the attention Colorado has garnered under Deion Sanders, good and bad, the program is ranked in the top 20 and performing as well as it has in a long time. Tech has been more mercurial of late, losing two in a row to Baylor and TCU (with a dash of controversy) and then claiming a massive road win over an undefeated Iowa State last weekend. The Red Raiders can light it up on offense, and the first meeting between these teams since 2010 has the potential to be a high-scoring one.

Ole Miss needs a win to stay in the Playoff race. The Rebels have mostly beaten up on those beneath them on the food chain, including last week’s nearly 700-yard thumping against Arkansas, but can Lane Kiffin and company win a must-have game against a higher-ranked opponent? The Rebels listed 26 players on the Wednesday injury report, but there’s an air of gamesmanship from Lane Kiffin on that front. The Ole Miss defense has been harassing quarterbacks of late, and Georgia quarterback Carson Beck hasn’t lived up to the Heisman-hopeful, first-round-projected expectations in the past three games, tossing eight interceptions in the process. We’ve also seen the Dawgs defense eat against high-level competition, and the Rebs have the top offense in the SEC. Georgia would still be in decent Playoff shape with a loss, but the conference race would get a lot more interesting.

This is essentially a Playoff elimination game: The path to the 12-team field gets much tougher with three losses. Both teams are coming off idle weekends, which should have provided the LSU defense ample time to prepare for Alabama quarterback Jalen Milroe and his running ability after Texas A&M’s Marcel Reed carved up the Tigers a couple of weeks ago. This article originally appeared in The Athletic.