Alabama, which had just beaten Georgia, lost to Vanderbilt. Tennessee, which had looked mostly invincible to start the season, lost to Arkansas. James Madison, the best-looking of the unbeaten mid-majors, fell to Louisiana-Monroe. Missouri no-showed in College Station, Texas. Miami trailed by 25. Hell, Ohio State led Iowa by only 7 at halftime.
Each week in this space we throw an unbeatens party, and for a while on Saturday it looked like everyone wanted to leave early. Ohio State finally hit the accelerator, and Miami charged back to win late in Berkeley, but our roster of unbeaten FBS teams plummeted from 19 to 12 in a single week. And now, each of the nine remaining power-conference teams on the list faces a major test in the next two weeks. We could lose Texas when Georgia comes to town in Week 8. We will lose either Ohio State or Oregon this coming Saturday. The party's thinning out, and it's not even mid-October yet.
For each of our 12 remaining teams, let's look at their midseason MVP, the player most responsible for their presence on this list. And for those actually interested in hanging out at the party a bit longer, let's look at the most important players for achieving that goal.
1. Texas Longhorns (5-0)
Last week's ranking: first
SP+ and FPI rankings: first and first
SP+ strength of schedule to date: 105th
Odds of reaching 12-0, per SP+: 24.0%
What the Longhorns did in Week 6: The Horns were off Saturday, and with everything else that was happening in the SEC, that was a very good thing.
