College Football
College football week 4: the Saturday the top fell
College football 2026 · Saturday 26 September
WEEKFOUR
Eight ranked teams went down, the number one in the country survived by three points, and the SEC admitted afterwards that the closing sequence was officiated wrongly.
Four weeks ago the whole opening weekend held one game between two ranked teams. This Saturday eight ranked teams lost at once. The number four went down in Gainesville, the number one in the country got out of Tennessee by three points, and two games turned in the final minute.
Eight ranked teams that fell
AP poll position going into week 4
Six of those eight defeats came against an opponent who was ranked as well, and that is what separates this from a genuine upset Saturday. Only Penn State and Louisville lost to a team that was not ranked at all. This was mostly the top playing each other, with one of them having to fall each time.
Five moments from college football week 4
Texas survived Neyland, and the SEC admitted an error
Texas 20 · Tennessee 17
The number one team in the country played at Neyland Stadium for the first time and got out with three points to spare. The closing sequence has become a story of its own. With 1:22 on the clock Tennessee tried an onside kick and recovered it. The SEC said afterwards that the kick was officiated wrongly: the ball left from at least a yard behind the 35, and the kicker moved to the left hash after the ball was ready for play. It should have been a five-yard penalty and a replay of the down.
Tennessee could not get far enough with it and the final hail mary fell incomplete. With any other result this would have been the story of the week.
Florida finally landed a big one
Florida 52 · Ole Miss 28
Ole Miss was ranked fourth and unbeaten. Florida ran straight over them in Gainesville with six rushing touchdowns, with Jadan Baugh and Duke Clark combining for 268 yards and four scores. Aaron Philo kept it simple and let the running game do the work.
For Florida it was a first win over a top-5 team since 2018, after twelve straight defeats. They are 4-0 and suddenly part of a very different conversation than the one the season started in.
Michigan lost on the final second again
Iowa 20 · Michigan 19
In week 1 Michigan got a second back and still beat Western Michigan. Four weeks later it went the other way, and this time Michigan did it to themselves.
On third down and twelve, Hank Brown threw one past Tony Diaz. Michigan were off the field. Then cornerback Zeke Berry shoved that same Diaz over, out of bounds and after the whistle. Unsportsmanlike conduct: fifteen yards and a fresh set of downs instead of fourth down and twelve. Iowa kept going and won on a touchdown pass to Reece Vander Zee with the last play of the game. 20-19.
Wisconsin came back from seventeen points down
Wisconsin 24 · Penn State 20
Penn State was ranked thirteenth and had the game under control with a seventeen-point lead. Wisconsin then scored two touchdowns in 2 minutes and 18 seconds, the last of them a pass to tight end Jacob Harris.
This is the kind of loss that gets recalculated in December. A team that wants to stay near the top of the rankings can afford exactly one of them.
Oregon won, and it was still about Dante Moore
Oregon 41 · USC 27
The biggest Big Ten game of the Saturday was overshadowed by a late hit to the head on Dante Moore by USC linebacker Desman Stephens II. The Oregon quarterback was taken off by cart and ambulance. Backup Dylan Raiola took over and threw for 289 yards and two touchdowns.
Oregon won 41-27. Moore was concussed, his scans came back clean and he is working through the protocol; Dan Lanning expects him back this season. Stephens was ejected and suspended one game by USC.
What else happened in week 4
LSU made a statement against Texas A&M that sat mostly on the defensive side. The Aggies managed 197 yards and Marcel Reed completed 10 of his 26 passes. At the other end Sam Leavitt threw for 312 yards with two touchdowns and Jackson Harris caught six passes for 163 yards. 35-6.
And then Mississippi State. Kamario Taylor, a sophomore quarterback, threw for 360 yards and three touchdowns and turned round a 24-17 deficit after three quarters. The decisive ball went to Sanfrisco Magee from 24 yards with 3:57 left. Fluff Bothwell ran for 122 and had a hand in two scores. 31-24 against Missouri.
It was Mississippi State's first win over a ranked team since 2014, and the first time since 1944 and 1945 that the programme has opened 4-0 in back-to-back seasons. Taylor is now part of the Heisman conversation. Alabama visit on Saturday, and then we find out what this is worth.
At the top of the rankings little went wrong. Georgia forced four turnovers against Oklahoma and won 41-13. Notre Dame pulled away at Purdue. Alabama needed only the first half, in which Keelon Russell threw four touchdown passes. Ohio State beat Illinois with Jeremiah Smith catching four touchdowns to equal a school record.
And at Miami, Darian Mensah remains the name that comes up most often as soon as the conversation turns to the first pick of the coming draft. That he played at Duke last season and arrived this summer only makes the story better. The caveat analysts add is the schedule: winning that argument gets harder when the toughest games are still to come.
Twelve games, and what one defeat costs
In college basketball you play thirty and can lose a few without it costing your season, because the NET rating and the quadrants look at the quality of your whole schedule. How that system works and why athletic directors build their entire calendar around it is something I explain in my book on college basketball.
In football you play twelve. There is no formula, there is a committee of thirteen people looking at strength of schedule, head-to-head results and results against common opponents. That makes a single defeat weigh far more here, and it also weighs who you lost it to. Ole Miss lost to a team that is 4-0, Penn State to a team that was not ranked at all. In December those are two very different lines on the same form.
What this means for the rankings
After four weeks the picture the committee works with in December is starting to form. Texas is still number one, but has had to fight twice for a result others collect without trouble. Florida was ranked twenty-first before this Saturday and became a serious candidate in one afternoon. Ole Miss, Penn State and Michigan each have one now, and cannot afford a second.
That is the appeal of this sport. A Saturday like this does not only change the rankings, it changes how much room everyone has left for the rest of the season.