Auburn Beat No. 1 Georgia on the Last Play, and the Top of College Football Fell Over
Five of the AP's top seven lost on the same regular-season Saturday for the first time. Georgia had won 53 straight against unranked teams. Then it hadn't.
By the Heckle Desk · · 2 min read
On Saturday in Athens, unranked Auburn beat No. 1 Georgia 27-24 when Alex McPherson kicked a 34-yard field goal as time ran out. Georgia was favored by twenty and a half points, had won 53 straight games against unranked teams, and hadn't lost to Auburn at home since 2005. Quarterback Gunner Stockton threw two interceptions and fumbled in the final minute, which is a lot of giving for a team that's supposed to be on the receiving end of the trophies.
It was the second straight week the No. 1 team lost to an unranked opponent, after Oklahoma beat Texas the Saturday before, and The Associated Press says that hadn't happened since 1990. Auburn's coach, Alex Golesh, said the rebuild would go one game at a time, which is what coaches always say, and which happens to be the only way anything gets done, including getting fired.
That was only the first domino. No. 2 Notre Dame lost at BYU. Ohio State beat Indiana 19-15 in Bloomington, ending Indiana's 22-game winning streak when a would-be touchdown on fourth down in the last minute was wiped out because the receiver had stepped out of bounds; a season, it turns out, can be measured in inches of chalk. Tennessee beat Alabama 26-10, and Florida beat Texas 27-24 in Austin, handing the Longhorns their first back-to-back regular-season losses since 2021. The AP says it was the first time five of its top seven lost on the same regular-season day. Georgia, Alabama and Texas hadn't all lost on the same Saturday since 1996.
I love a day like this the way a man who rents canoes loves a flood. The sport spent years building a playoff big enough that the best teams could lose and still get in, and the best teams appear to have read the brochure. Somewhere in Athens a donor who pays for this program the way other people pay for a boat is learning what every boat owner learns: the happiest two days are the day you buy it and the day Auburn sinks it.
The rankings come out Sunday, and the voters will do what voters do, which is look at a pile of wreckage and confidently rank the pieces. Miami, which won in double overtime, may be the last thing standing, and the last thing standing in college football is usually just the next thing to fall.
The meek shall inherit the earth, the Bible says, but on an October Saturday they'll settle for a 34-yard field goal in somebody else's stadium.