Believe it or not, Week 12 of the college football season is already in the rearview mirror. Without further ado, let’s get into this week’s winners and losers:
Winner: O-K-L-A-H-O-M-A
The story of Oklahoma in 2025 goes like this: There was a period earlier this season when it looked like the team was going to run college football. On Sept. 6, the Sooners pushed around Michigan at home, and they pulled out a clutch win over what looked at the time like a good Auburn team two weeks later.
Any seasoned college football fan knows, however, that September is not to be trusted. Weathering injury to quarterback John Mateer, Oklahoma dropped games to Texas and Ole Miss in October. Another year in the postseason middle class looked imminent, and the Sooners' College Football Playoff chances remote.
On Saturday, somehow, Oklahoma returned. Playing filthy defense against Alabama, the Sooners won 23–21 on the road and became a living embodiment of the "it's so over/we're so back" duality.
The Sooners might just have the Crimson Tide's number. In the 21st century, Oklahoma has a) swept Alabama in a non-conference home-and-home in the early 2000s, b) upset a heavily favored Crimson Tide team in the last BCS-era Sugar Bowl, c) functionally eliminated Alabama from the CFP race in 2024, and d) downed the Crimson Tide in 2025 (Alabama won an Orange Bowl between the two teams in 2018, but only after the Sooners attempted a spirited comeback). Saturday's heroes: linebacker Kip Lewis for his pair of sacks and defensive back Eli Bowen for his first-quarter pick-six.
Loser: Duke and pro-Duke sickos
Coach Manny Diaz's Blue Devils entered Saturday 5-4 with a 4-1 record in the ACC, which wouldn't be worth noting except for the fact that its league's chaotic state made Duke a bona fide conference contender. The key word here is , past tense—that is looking like the case no longer as Virginia (led by running back J'Mari Taylor) hammered the Blue Devils 34–17. Two deranged hypothetical bubbles have probably popped: the possibility of Duke making the CFP with four losses, and the possibility of a second Group of Five qualifier leaping the Blue Devils and shutting the ACC out entirely.
Winner: Texas A&M
The comeback was impressive enough on its own—if you missed it, the Aggies turned a 30–3 halftime deficit to South Carolina into a 31–30 victory. The unwavering precision with which Texas A&M executed the comeback was something else entirely. Coach Mike Elko's Aggies did not allow a point in the final 30:02—the definition of an old belief attributed to Hall of Fame coach Bill Walsh, that clutch is just continuing to execute when one's opponent falls apart. Quarterback Marcel Reed, who threw three second-half touchdowns in a 439-yard outing, may get some Heisman love next month.
Loser: Arkansas—but not by much
The following 21st-century teams lost seven or more games by single-digit margins in one season: NC State in 2006, Army in 2015, Notre Dame in 2006, Nebraska in 2021… and the Razorbacks in 2025. After falling to LSU 23–22 Saturday, Arkansas now has the odd distinction of owning a 2-7 record and a +18 point differential (for comparison's sake, Northern Illinois has a 3-7 record with a -67 point differential). The Cornhuskers' Scott Frost-era plight might be applicable here: When you're in a name conference and the geographical chips are against you, every break counts.
Winner: Michigan and USC—Big Ten survivors
Both of these fringe CFP contenders had to leave their comfort zones Saturday. In the Wolverines' case, that meant going to Wrigley Field to play a pesky Northwestern team that forced five turnovers in an unusually physical game even by Big Ten standards. Despite outgaining the Wildcats 496–245, only kicker Dominic Zvada's 31-yard field goal at the final buzzer kept Michigan from a third loss. The Trojans, meanwhile, hosted Iowa in a game tailor-made to test their Big Ten-style roster-building. Test passed: USC held the Hawkeyes scoreless in the second half and will head north for a potential CFP loser-leaves-town game against Oregon.
Loser: Cincinnati
Texas Tech has been the Big 12's star student this season. BYU navigated a large portion of the year unbeaten, and a number of advanced metrics can't quit Utah. But Cincinnati entered Saturday with a golden opportunity to make a move in the conference standings—the Bearcats' blowout loss at Utah Nov. 1 was their only league blemish. Thanks to Arizona, that is the case no longer; the Wildcats warded off Cincinnati to win 30–24 and move to 7-3 on the year in their own right. Coach Scott Satterfield's hard-to-gauge Bearcats host the Cougars next week.
Winner: American magic and dread, again
Checking in on the American this year is a bit like checking in on a relative's troublesome child—what'd they do now? This week's dispatches from Annapolis, Md., and Greenville, N.C., are as chaotic as you've come to expect. First, hosting No. 24 South Florida, Navy—seamlessly bringing quarterback Blake Horvath back into the fold—held off the Bulls 41–38 amid a wild fourth quarter where South Florida outscored the Midshipmen 22–17. Then, East Carolina—enjoying its best season by winning percentage since 2013—downed Memphis 31–27. If you want to pinpoint potential chaos agents next Saturday, Rice hosts North Texas and Temple-Tulane with bowl eligibility on the line for both parliaments of Owls.
Loser: Massachusetts's administration
Since joining FBS in 2012, the Minutemen have won 26 games—an average of 1.9 per season. This year might be the worst of them all in Amherst, as Northern Illinois crushed winless Massachusetts 45–3 Wednesday, which the Minutemen punctuated by shooting off fireworks. The purpose of this entry is not to pick on Massachusetts or its fans—heaven knows they've suffered enough—but to put the most bizarre college athletic-department business plan of the 21st century under the microscope. To subsidize a football program punching wildly above its weight, the Minutemen moved their flagship sport—basketball—down the Division I corporate ladder from the Atlantic 10 to the MAC this season. It may make cents, but it doesn't make sense.
Winner: Jacob Rodriguez's throwback Heisman campaign
In the age before social media, Heisman Trophy campaigns were frequently objects of bombast—see Oregon taking out a Times Square billboard for quarterback Joey Harrington, or Memphis giving out toy cars adorned with running back DeAngelo Williams's likeness. In this tradition, Texas Tech is mounting an admirably aggressive campaign to promote Rodriguez's candidacy. The linebacker has now struck a Heisman pose in back-to-back games, and on Saturday rushed for a touchdown as a Wildcat quarterback to go with eight tackles and a pick. As good as Rodriguez is—and the nation's leader in fumbles forced is —he might not even be the Red Raiders' best defensive player. Linebacker David Bailey, who entered Saturday with an FBS-best 11.5 sacks, added one to his total as Texas Tech beat UCF 48–9.
Loser: Television, the Drug of the Nation
Did you think we'd anoint ESPN and YouTube TV winners after Alphabet and Disney came to an agreement Friday to restore college football to viewers across the country? Of course not. The dispute laid bare the unhealthy leverage the ESPN family of networks (and Fox, and CBS, and NBC, and Turner) have over college football. This relationship has made the sport phenomenally wealthy in recent decades—while also ripping apart or rendering unrecognizable conferences like the Southwest Conference, the WAC, the Big East, and the Pac-12. Until college football gets its house in order from a leadership standpoint, it will remain a hapless supporting character in these disputes and others.
