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Here's what we know about the conference championship matchups after this week's action.
Conference Championship Matchups
ACC: Pittsburgh vs. Wake Forest, Clemson or N.C. State
American: Cincinnati vs. Houston
Big 10: Ohio State vs. Michigan winner vs. Iowa, Wisconsin or Minnesota
Big 12: Oklahoma State vs. Oklahoma or Baylor
CUSA: UTSA vs. Marshall or Western Kentucky
MAC: Northern Illinois vs. Kent State or Miami (O)
MWC: San Diego State or Fresno State vs. Air Force, Boise State or Utah State
PAC-12: Utah vs. Oregon, Oregon State or Washington State
SEC: Georgia vs. Alabama
Sun Belt: Appalachian State vs. Louisiana
Ohio State took Michigan State to the woodshed on Saturday afternoon, annihilating the Spartans 56-8 after racing to a 49-0 halftime lead. The Buckeyes racked up 655 yards, 449 of which came through the air as C.J. Stroud completed 32-of-35 passes for for 432 yards and 6 touchdowns.
Ohio State has a trip to Michigan to look forward to next week for the Big Ten east title. The Wolverines on Saturday used a 28-point 4th quarter to distance themselves from Maryland, en route to a 59-18 win at College Park.
Wisconsin won 35-28 at home over Nebraska, and Iowa was a 33-23 home winner over Illinois. The Badgers and Hawkeyes are tied atop the Big Ten west with Wisconsin holding the head-to-head tie-breaker. The Badgers visit Minnesota next week while Iowa journeys to Lincoln.
Utah stomped Oregon 38-7 after charging to a 28-0 halftime lead. The Utes clinched the PAC-12 South while the annual Civil War rivalry will help decide the north when the Ducks host Oregon State next week after the Beavers concluded an undefeated season at home with a 24-10 win over Arizona State. Washington State is still in the chase after walloping Arizona 44-18 in Pullman on Friday night to become bowl eligible. The Cougars are 2-2 under interim head coach Jake Dickert.
Alabama's Bryce Young was 31-of-40 for 561 yards and 5 TD's, and Nick Saban's bunch needed every bit of it to overcome a strong effort by Arkansas to pull of an upset. The Tide prevailed 42-35 and will meet Georgia in the SEC Championship game in Atlanta.
Georgia vacationed its way to a 56-7 win over FCS Charleston Southern.
Cincinnati put SMU away early as the Bearcats routed the Mustangs 48-14 at home. SMU's road schedule resulted in losses to Memphis and Houston before the trip to Cincinnati gave them the Trifecta of brutal. On Friday night, Houston improved to 8-0 in the American Conference with a resounding 31-13 win over Memphis. The combination of those results sets up a Cincinnati-Houston championship game.
Also in the American, a 54-yard walk-off field goal lifted East Carolina to a 38-35 win at Navy.
UTSA remained undefeated and captured the CUSA west division with a 34-31 win over UAB in San Antonio. A 77-yard drive in the final 1:03 culminated in a 1-yard TD pass to give the Roadrunners the win over the three-time west division champions.
On the other side of the CUSA ledger, Western Kentucky destroyed visiting FAU 52-17 and will visit Marshall next week for a de facto east division championship game.
Notre Dame pasted Georgia Tech 55-0 as the Irish improved to 10-1.
Elsewhere, Oklahoma was a 28-21 home winner over Iowa State, In another Big 12 game, Texas slumped to 4-6 and West Virginia improved to that same mark with a 31-23 win over the Longhorns in Morgantown.
Later on Saturday, Baylor was a 20-10 winner at Kansas State, keeping the Bears in the running for the conference title.
Oklahoma State was a 23-0 winner in Lubbock over Texas Tech to clinch its first Big 12 championship game appearance. If the Cowboys win the Bedlam game next week Stillwater, Baylor becomes the opponent in the title game matchup at Arlington the following week. Oklahoma's in with a win over Oklahoma State and the championship game will be "Bedlam, Part Deaux".
Clemson cruised to a 48-27 win over Wake Forest to send the senior class out with a perfect record at home (34 straight). Wake still controls its own destiny to the ACC Atlantic division title and can clinch it with a win at Boston College next week. Losses by NC State and Wake would send Clemson back to the championship game.
Pitt wrapped up the Coastal with a 48-38 win at home over Virginia.
Also in the ACC, Florida State won 26-23 at Boston College to improve to 5-6 after an 0-4 start with Florida on-deck in the season finale at Gainesville next week. Miami became bowl eligible with a 38-26 win over a Virginia Tech team that fired Justin Fuente earlier in the week. The Hokies must win at Virginia next week to become bowl eligible.
South Carolina nabbed a 21-17 win at home over Auburn to become bowl eligible in Shane Beamer's first season as head coach.
Florida fell 24-23 to Missouri on a 2-point conversion pass in the first overtime. The Gators host Florida State next week with the winner becoming bowl eligible and the loser staying home for the holidays.
UCLA hung 62 on USC in a 62-33 win at the Coliseum.in the "Crosstown Showdown". Dorian Thompson-Robinson threw for 4 TD's and ran for 2 more scores, scoring to autograph a kid's hat in the end zone after his first TD run in the second quarter gave UCLA a 28-10 lead.
Cal embarrassed Stanford it front of its home crowd, 41-11, in "The (not so) Big Game".
In Friday night action in the Mountain West, Air Force was 41-39 winner in triple-overtime at Nevada to keep its slim mountain division title hopes alive, while west division leader San Diego State improved to 10-1 with a 28-20 victory at UNLV, securing the school's third 10-win season in the last 5 years. No one has clinched a division title and it got more interesting with Utah State's 44-17 loss at home to Wyoming on Saturday night which left the Mountain division in a 3-way battle between the Aggies, Air Force and Boise State after the Broncos blanked New Mexico 37-0 on Saturday.
Southern Miss (2-9) snapped an 8-game losing streak and picked up its first win of the year over a FBS program with a 34-19 upset victory at Louisiana Tech (3-8).
QB Malik Cunningham had a video game-like performance in Louisville's 62-22 romp at Duke on Thursday night.
Cunningham's performance produced 303 yards passing and 5 TD's to 5 different receivers on an 18-of-25 night. And by the way, he added 224 on the ground on just 11 opportunities with touchdown runs of 44 and 72 yards in the second quarter.
The win improved the Cardinals to 6-5 in an up-and-down season that saw them lose three games by a total of 10 points to Wake Forest (37-34), Virginia (34-33), and Clemson (30-24).
Duke dropped to 0-7 in the ACC and is just 3-8 overall after a 3-1 start. The Blue Devils have fallen off the map in David Cutcliffe's last three seasons, going just 10-24 over-all, and a woeful 4-21 in the ACC. In fact, Cutcliffe's 14 seasons have produced 6 seasons of no more than a single ACC victory.
In early week MACtion, the Miami RedHawks completed an undefeated home slate with a 34-7 romp over a hapless Bowling Green team that somehow upset Minnesota earlier this year. Miami will visit Kent State on the 27th in a de facto MAC East division championship game. The winner of that game will face Northern Illinois for the conference title after Huskies survived their trip to Buffalo with a 33-27 overtime victory and clinched the West division. A year ago, NIU was 0-6 in the MAC.
SEE: Weekly Picks
2 teams will play 2 FCS teams this fall (UConn and UMass), and 115 teams will play 1 FCS school for a total of 117 such matchups.
The final 4 FCS-FBS matchups of the year all went to the FBS as Georgia crushed Charleston Southern 56-7, Mississippi State whipped Tennessee State 55-10, North Carolina turned back Wofford 34-14, Texas A&M smacked Prairie View A&M 52-3..
The FBS finishes the season is 105-12 vs. the FCS. Since we began tracking this in 2003, the FBS teams are 1,574-140 (.918).
Last year, 30 FBS teams played a total of just 34 games against FCS schools and the FCS won just 1 game (1-33). That honor also went to Jacksonville State with its 19-10 victory over FIU.
Here are the FCS wins in 2021:
September 2: UC Davis 19, Tulsa 17
September 2: Eastern Washington 35, UNLV 33 (2 OT)
September 3: South Dakota State 42, Colorado State 23
September 4: Holy Cross 38, UConn 28
September 4: Montana 13, Washington 7
September 4: ETSU 23, Vanderbilt 3
September 11: Duquesne 28, Ohio 26
September 11: Jacksonville State 20, Florida State 17.
September 18: Incarnate Word 42, Texas State 34.
September 18: Northern Arizona 21, Arizona 19
November 6: Rhode Island 35, Massachusetts 22
November 13: Maine 35, Massachusetts 10
This was the only FCS win vs. the FBS in 2020:
October 23: Jacksonville State 19, FIU 10
In 2019, FBS teams were 111-3 (.974) in such games. These were the only FCS wins that season:
August 29: Central Arkansas 35, Western Kentucky 28
September 7: Southern Illinois 45, Massachusetts 20
September 14: The Citadel 27, Georgia Tech 24 (OT)
GEORGIA - Won 15 straight overall-all (FBS longest).
Last: Won 56-7 at home vs. FCS Charleston Southern on Saturday, Nov. 20.
Next: Visits Georgia Tech on Saturday, Nov. 27.
OHIO STATE - Won 29 straight conference games (FBS longest), and 13 straight road games (FBS longest).
Last: Won 56-7 at home vs. Michigan State on Saturday, Nov. 20.
Next: Visits Michigan on Saturday, Nov. 27.
CLEMSON - Won 34 straight home games (FBS longest).
Last: Won 48-27 at home vs. Wake Forest on Saturday, Nov. 20.
Next: Visits South Carolina on Saturday, Nov. 27.
FIU - Lost 10straight over-all (FBS longest).
Last: Lost 49-7 at home vs. North Texas on Saturday, Nov. 20.
Next: Visits Southern Miss on Saturday, Nov. 27.
VANDERBILT - Lost 20 straight conference games (FBS longest)..
Last: Lost 31-17 at Ole Miss on Saturday, Nov. 20.
Next: Visits Tennessee on Saturday, Nov. 27.
NEW MEXICO STATE - Lost 18 straight road games (FBS longest).
Last: Lost 56-16 at Kentucky on Saturday, Nov. 20.
Next: Hosts Massachusetts on Saturday, Nov. 27
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