If you think there are more ranked college football matchups than usual Saturday, your eyes aren't deceiving you. Week 4 will have the most packed slate of games featuring two teams ranked in the AP poll in years.
This weekend, just under half of the teams ranked in the AP's Top 25 will face off on the gridiron -- 12 teams across six games. But while six ranked games in one week is rare, it's not unprecedented. According to ESPN Research, the last time it happened was less than three years ago, during the conference championship week of the 2023-24 season.
To say that week -- which featured one ranked game Friday and five more Saturday -- lived up to the hype would be an understatement. Two of the six games were decided by just three points. Two teams projected to be in that season's College Football Playoff, the final edition of the four-team playoff system, would find themselves out of the picture the next day. A legendary coach won his final game and a 29-game winning streak came to a close.
Will this week match the drama of the last time we had six ranked games? Well, probably not, given this weekend's games won't decide conference titles or playoff spots (at least not directly). But with the parallels in ranked game quantity, it's still worth revisiting one of the most consequential slates in recent college football history.
A bittersweet Pac-12 championship provides a rivalry classic
A memorable weekend got off to a hot start early -- the fireworks started Friday, not Saturday, as Washington and Oregon went down to the wire in Las Vegas. In what was the final Pac-12 championship game (at least as the conference was then constituted), the two Pacific Northwest rivals delivered a top-five clash worthy of deciding a Sunday playoff spot.
The Huskies raced out to an early 20-3 lead, but the Ducks didn't go away, cutting their deficit to 10 points just before halftime, then surging into a 24-20 third quarter lead. In the final frame, however, Washington re-discovered its mojo to the tune of two touchdown drives exceeding 10 plays and 75 yards. Traeshon Holden offered Oregon a lifeline with two minutes to play via a 63-yard catch-and-run score, but it wasn't enough. The Huskies won the game -- and the de facto playoff play-in.
The eventual national champions cruise
There were plenty of iconic games during 2023's conference championship weekend, but Michigan's Big Ten title game coronation against Iowa was not one of them. It wasn't the most thrilling offensive display by the Wolverines -- a pair of Blake Corum touchdown runs accompanied four field goals to make up the game's scoring -- but a suffocating defensive display held the Hawkeyes to just 155 total yards and three turnovers as Michigan, who would go on to hoist the national championship weeks later, locked up their spot in the College Football Playoff in shutout fashion.
Saban's final win has playoff implications
Occupying a primetime Saturday night spot, Dec. 2's SEC championship featured a marquee matchup between Nick Saban's Alabama and Kirby Smart's Georgia. Billed as a "master vs. apprentice showdown," Smart's Bulldogs entered with a consensus No. 1 ranking and riding a 29-game winning streak that included back-to-back national championships ... but their last loss had come against the Crimson Tide in the 2021 edition of the SEC title game.
History repeated itself. Alabama won 27-24, setting the stage for a subsequent jump from No. 8 in the CFP rankings into the field. Georgia fell from the projected top seed out of the playoff entirely. Saban would announce his retirement in January 2024 following the Tide's semifinal loss to Michigan, marking this triumph over his old pupil and the Bulldogs as his final one.
The Seminoles win ... but lose the next day
Florida State's 2023 ACC championship victory and the weekend it occurred on will likely live in the memories of Seminoles fans for a long time. Facing off against Louisville in Charlotte, Mike Norvell's squad weathered a struggled performance by third string quarterback Brock Glenn -- filling in after star starter Jordan Travis was lost for the season by a leg injury and backup Tate Rodemaker was sidelined with a concussion -- by leaning on a dominating defensive display to secure a 16-6 win.
Despite the positive result, the College Football Playoff selection committee wasn't impressed. The next day, the Seminoles were dropped from No. 4 in the committee's rankings to No. 5, leaving Florida State out of the final four-team field despite an undefeated record.
Texas positions itself for a late rise
The Longhorns' win over Oklahoma State wasn't particularly eye-catching in itself -- Texas surged past the Cowboys behind an offensive outpouring that included 662 total yards, but what was happening off the field added some extra significance.
For one, this would be the Longhorns' final Big 12 game, as they'd officially leave the conference for the SEC that offseason, so the win offered some final bragging rights. More notably, however, the results of the weekend had put Texas right where it wanted to be for a late rise -- the Longhorns won, the Pac-12 championship eliminated one potential playoff team, a win by an Alabama squad Texas has already beaten strengthened the Longhorns' résumé, and Florida State's plodding offensive performance displeased the committee.
Texas had been No. 7 in each of the committee's five weekly rankings throughout the final weeks of the season. It jumped to No. 3, and into the field, Sunday.
SMU leaves the American in style
Lost in the commotion of all the playoff implications throughout the weekend was another ranked-on-ranked conference championship upset pulled by another team playing its final conference game: the SMU Mustangs.
The Mustangs, set to depart the American for the ACC in the ensuing offseason, left their former conference on top, taking down Tulane 26-14 behind a balanced offensive attack (203 passing yards by Kevin Jennings, 193 total rushing yards).
