College football winners and losers: Alabama’s dramatic win over Georgia shows regular season still has juice in expanded CFP era

The first top-five matchup of the 2024 season showed why college football is an amazing and incredibly chaotic sport.

No. 2 Alabama looked well on its way to an easy win over No. 4 Georgia as the Crimson Tide rushed out to an early 28-0 lead. But the Bulldogs somehow clawed their way back into the game throughout the second half and took their first lead of the game when Carson Beck hit Dillon Bell for a 67-yard TD with 2:31 to go.

Common sense would dictate that Beck’s bomb to Bell would serve as the highlight of the night. But college football is not bound by the rules of common sense. Freshman Ryan Williams caught a 75-yard TD pass from Jalen Milroe on Alabama’s first offensive play after Bell’s TD to give the Crimson Tide a lead they knew they wouldn’t relinquish after freshman corner Zabien Brown picked off Beck with 43 seconds to go and seal a 41-34 win.

Alabama’s win came in the Tide’s first home game as an underdog in 17 years and snapped a 42-game regular-season winning streak for Georgia that dated back to Nov. 7, 2020. The only team to beat Georgia during that streak: Alabama, as the Tide beat Georgia in both the 2021 and 2023 SEC championship games.

Both of those contests served as quasi-College Football Playoff quarterfinals in the four-team era. Since there was just one other one-loss power conference team, the Bulldogs were able to still get in the playoff in 2021 and got their revenge on Alabama in the national title game. A season ago, Alabama’s win over Georgia knocked the Bulldogs out of the playoff entirely and Georgia had to take out its frustration on an undermanned Florida State team in an Orange Bowl blowout.

This year, the 12-team College Football Playoff is upon us. Thanks to the expanded field, Georgia still has an excellent chance to make the postseason even with another loss. Saturday night’s game wasn’t set up to be the playoff setback that it could have been in years past.

And that’s just fine. Nothing from Saturday night’s game was devalued because the loser had a great shot of making the playoff. Bryant-Denny Stadium was still sold out and tickets were going for four figures on the secondary market. Do you really want to try to tell a Georgia or Alabama fan that this game didn’t matter as much simply because the playoff field is bigger?

There was still plenty at stake when it comes to the playoff. The win gives Alabama a big advantage in the race to get to the SEC title game and the chance for a first-round bye. While Georgia needs to likely win at both Texas and Ole Miss to get back to the SEC title game, Alabama may now be able to afford a loss at Tennessee or LSU and make the championship game.

Yes, the postseason stakes for regular season games may not be as significant as they once were. But that doesn’t detract from what we saw on Saturday night. This Alabama victory is going to be remembered for a long, long time for reasons that have nothing to do with the playoff.

Here are the rest of this week’s winners and losers.

Winners

UNLV: The Rebels made quite the statement in their first game without starting QB Matthew Sluka. UNLV demolished Fresno State 59-14 as Hajj-Malik Williams totaled four touchdowns in his first start. Williams threw for three scores and rushed 12 times for 119 yards and another TD days after Sluka said he wouldn’t play any longer for the Rebels over an alleged unfulfilled $100,000 NIL promise.

A sportsbook executive offered to make that payment this week and UNLV wide receiver Ricky White III said after the game that there would be a better use of that money. White had 10 catches for 127 yards and two scores.

Indiana: The Hoosiers should be ranked in the AP Top 25 on Sunday after a 42-28 win over Maryland. Indiana is now 5-0 and a win away from bowl eligibility as Kurtis Rourke threw for 359 yards and six different Hoosiers scored a touchdown. Indiana will be a road favorite at Northwestern in Week 6 and a win there will set up an intriguing game between an undefeated Indiana and a potential one-loss Nebraska on Oct. 19.

Tulane: After a non-conference schedule that included games against Kansas State and Oklahoma, Tulane opened conference play with a dominating 45-10 win over South Florida at home. QB Darian Mensah was 18-of-22 for 326 yards and three TDs while former Oklahoma and USC wide receiver Mario Williams caught two touchdown passes. The Green Wave have a very manageable AAC schedule and should be in the mix for the conference title — and a potential spot in the College Football Playoff — all season long.

Duke: The Blue Devils scored 21 second-half points in a 21-20 home win over North Carolina. The Tar Heels led 20-0 in the third quarter before Duke scored three times in the final 21 minutes. A late decision to punt on fourth-and-1 was dangerous for Manny Diaz’s team, but Duke pinned the Tar Heels inside the 10 with less than two minutes to go and Tre Freeman intercepted Jacolby Criswell with 30 seconds to go. Duke is now 5-0 in Diaz’s first season ahead of a Week 6 trip to Georgia Tech.

Losers

Baylor: The Bears were unable to bounce back from their crushing loss at Colorado. BYU jumped out to a 21-0 lead in the first quarter and held on through the second half for a 34-28 victory in Waco. Sawyer Robertson appears to have unseated Dequan Finn as the Bears’ starting QB, but the defense has been a real issue. BYU scored TDs on its first four drives of the game and only one came on a short field following a turnover. Games at Iowa State and Texas Tech over the next three weeks could prove vital to coach Dave Aranda’s future.

Auburn: Who will Hugh Freeze blame this week? After QB Hank Brown started the last two games for the Tigers, Freeze re-inserted Payton Thorne into the starting lineup against Oklahoma on Saturday and Kip Lewis’ pick-6 with 4:06 to go proved to be the decisive points in a 27-21 win for the Sooners. Auburn outgunned Oklahoma 482-291, had 26 first downs to Oklahoma’s 11 and had fewer penalties. Oh, the Sooners were missing their top five wide receivers, too. But that didn’t matter as true freshman QB Michael Hawkins rushed 14 times for 69 yards and a TD along with a two-point conversion.

Oklahoma State: The No. 20 Cowboys have a hole to dig out of after an 0-2 start to Big 12 play. OSU was blown out 42-20 at Kansas State on Saturday and will assuredly drop out of the Top 25 on Sunday. Kansas State QB Avery Johnson totaled five touchdowns as Kansas State averaged 8.8 yards per rush. Ollie Gordon II, a 2023 All-American, had his best game of the season against an FBS opponent on Saturday with 15 carries for 76 yards. But that’s clearly not good enough.

UAB: The Blazers dropped to 1-3 with a 41-18 home loss to a Navy team that rushed all over Memphis in Week 4. The Midshipmen averaged over five yards a carry but QB Blake Horvath also carved up the UAB defense for 225 yards passing and two TDs on just 11 attempts. UAB is now just 5-11 since Trent Dilfer took over in 2023. One of those losses came to Louisiana-Monroe and coach Bryant Vincent, the Blazers’ interim coach in 2022 who was passed over for the job. Vincent’s Warhawks are now 3-1 this year after a 13-9 win at Troy on Saturday night.