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College football winners and losers: Savor the significance of Week 7's chaos, because it disappears with the 24-team playoff

Week 7 of college football delivered a chaotic middle to the season, defying the usual clarity that separates contenders from pretenders. The SEC, in particular, became a wide-open race after Texas, the No.

1 team entering Week 6, suffered back-to-back losses to unranked opponents—first to Oklahoma and then to Florida, which scored 24 straight points to seal the win. Georgia, which had risen to the top spot following Texas’s first loss, saw its own momentum stall when quarterback Gunner Stockton’s costly mistakes—two interceptions and a fumble—led to a heartbreaking 27-24 defeat at the hands of unranked Auburn.

Meanwhile, Alabama, already reeling from its loss to Georgia, collapsed against Tennessee, falling to a 26-10 defeat in a game marked by sloppy play and four Tennessee field goals that proved decisive. The SEC’s unpredictability reached new heights, with every team now sporting at least one conference loss and all but four squads within a game of first place.

In the Big Ten, Ohio State’s victory over Indiana was overshadowed by quarterback Julian Sayin’s season-ending injury, forcing freshman Luke Fahey into the lineup for a critical matchup against USC in two weeks. The week’s unpredictability—highlighted by Texas’s historic two-game slide and Georgia’s sudden vulnerability—sets up a thrilling final stretch, though the upcoming expansion to a 24-team playoff may dilute the stakes of these pivotal games moving forward.

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