The herd is thinning quickly. Two weeks ago, we had 43 unbeaten FBS teams, and now we're down to the Nasty Nineteen. We knew we would lose either Georgia or Alabama this past week, along with Penn State or Illinois, but saying goodbye to Ole Miss (loss to Kentucky) and UCF (loss to Colorado) was unexpected.
We've got three ACC unbeatens, and none of them are preseason favorites Florida State or Clemson. We've got two Big 12 unbeatens, and they aren't Kansas State or Utah -- they're Iowa State and BYU. UNLV is 4-0 and has more power-conference wins than Oregon or Ohio State.
It's an interesting group, in other words. And because of the expansion of the College Football Playoff -- and the auto-bids given to five conference champions -- even the unbeatens from the Group of 5 can entertain playoff ambitions as long as they keep winning. Anyone with a loss, even Georgia or Michigan, has to wait until the unbeatens are beaten to figure out where it stands.
So, let's rank college football's remaining blemish-free teams and talk about who's probably going to last the longest on this list.
1. Texas (5-0)
Last week's ranking: first
SP+ and FPI rankings: second and first
SP+ strength of schedule to date: 89th
Odds of reaching 12-0, per SP+: 28.4%
What the Longhorns did in Week 5: def. Mississippi State 35-13. Filling in again for the injured Quinn Ewers, Arch Manning went 26-for-31 for 324 yards and two touchdowns (plus a rushing score). The offense stumbled around with fumbles and penalties, but the defense sacked MSU's Michael Van Buren Jr. six times, and eventually the Horns remembered how to score points and put the game away.
