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Yahoo Sports midseason awards: Biggest surprises, disappointments, Heisman picks, title predictions and more

College football’s midseason landscape has been reshaped by a wave of upsets and unexpected performances, with only six undefeated teams remaining in the nation’s top ranks. The top-heavy AP poll has been upended after five of the top 10 teams suffered losses in a single weekend, leaving Miami, BYU, Texas Tech, UCLA, and Utah as the lone unbeaten programs alongside unranked James Madison.

Texas, which started the season with a dominant win over No. 1 Ohio State, has since dropped two straight games to unranked Oklahoma and Florida—a first for the No.

1 team since 1990. Meanwhile, preseason favorite Oregon has collapsed out of the rankings entirely after losing key player Dante Moore, while traditional powerhouses like Penn State, Washington, Florida State, and Arizona State have all struggled with multiple losses.

The SEC, once a conference of dominance, has seen every team lose at least one conference game, underscoring a broader shift in college football’s power structure. Underdogs like Wake Forest (leading the ACC), Northwestern (with just one loss), and UCLA under first-year coach Bob Chesney have thrived, proving that parity is the defining story of this season.

With NIL and player mobility reshaping recruitment, the path to a national title now appears far more unpredictable than in past years—potentially even for teams with two or three losses by season’s end.

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