All-Time Best College Football Rivalry Week Games

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6. No. 20 Oklahoma State 40, BYU 34 (2OT)

OSU absolutely, positively refuses to do things the easy way. The Cowboys spotted Arizona State a 15-7 lead, then won 27-15. They rolled to a 26-7 lead on Kansas State but won just 29-21. They gave up a 25-7 midgame run to Kansas, then finished it on a 15-0 run to win. They watched a double-digit lead turn into a deficit against Oklahoma but won 27-24. They spotted Houston a 23-9 lead, then went on a 34-7 run.

On Saturday came their masterpiece. Needing a win to bowl, BYU pulled out all the stops in Stillwater -- surprise onside kick, fake punt and more -- and turned a 6-0 deficit into a 24-6 halftime lead. Naturally the Cowboys charged back, and Ollie Gordon's third touchdown, with 53 seconds left, gave them the lead. But BYU blocked the PAT, then hit a game-tying 48-yard field goal at the buzzer. The Cougars then took the lead in overtime.

No worries! Another Gordon score tied the game, and a fifth one gave the Pokes the lead in OT No. 2. Trey Rucker then ripped the ball out of tight end Isaac Rex's hands and fell on the fumble.

The win means that, somehow, OSU is going to the Big 12 championship game to play Texas. With the way the Cowboys' season has gone, I would be floored if they didn't either win outright (probably after falling behind by double digits) or lose by 50.

7. Syracuse 35, Wake Forest 31

8. Southern 27, Grambling 22

Walk-off touchdowns are cool. So are walk-off goal-line stands.

First, Syracuse clinched bowl eligibility with a final-minute, fourth-down stop.

Then Southern won its fifth Bayou Classic in six tries by doing the same thing with 1:11 left.

 

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5. Old Dominion 25, Georgia State 24

ISU-KSU was the strangest game, but ODU-GSU gave us the strangest, most glorious ending.

A. Down 24-14 (after trailing 21-0 early on) and needing a win for bowl eligibility, Old Dominion scored on a tackle-eligible pass to Chris Adams, but he was called for a face mask penalty while stiff-arming a defender, and the Monarchs settled for a field goal.

B. Georgia State barely recovered a squib/onside kick combo but was called offside. ODU squibbed the next kick, and GSU recovered at its own 10. ODU stuffed Darren Grainger for a 6-yard loss and then, after a high snap, sacked him in the end zone for a safety with 1:18 left.

C. After the free kick, Grant Wilson hit Reymello Murphy for a 43-yard gain to the GSU 6. Three plays gained just three yards, however, setting up a fourth-and-goal with two seconds left.

D. On the final play of the game, Wilson scored from three yards out.

 

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4. Iowa State 42, No. 19 Kansas State 35

The snow alone was worth the watch, but even beyond the white stuff, Farmageddon was easily the strangest game of the week. K-State snapped the ball 102 times to ISU's 35, and the Cyclones didn't run a single play inside the Wildcats' 30. Blowout win for KSU? Not so much. Eight of Iowa State's 35 snaps -- four rushes by Abu Sama III, two catches each by Jaylin Noel and Jayden Higgins -- gained 455 yards. Six of those went for touchdowns, and the Cyclones took their second straight win in Manhattan.

 

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3. No. 4 Washington 24, Washington State 21

The thought of a potential win-and-you're-in Pac-12 championship game this coming Friday night -- No. 4 Washington vs. No. 6 Oregon in Vegas -- is certainly tantalizing, and it eventually came to fruition. But damned if the thought of Washington State pulling one over on its Apple Cup rivals, who are leaving the Pac-12 and dooming Wazzu to an uncertain future, felt pretty appealing too.

The Cougs all but pulled it off, getting 317 passing yards from Cam Ward, tying the game with 5:58 left and driving into Huskies territory in the final two minutes. But a late stop by the Washington defense and the most incredible fourth-and-short call of the weekend set up Grady Gross' game-winning (and scholarship-winning) field goal.

 

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2. No. 3 Michigan 30, No. 2 Ohio State 24

There are few things better than when a hugely anticipated game meets the hype. This one most certainly did. And Ohio State has to be aching about letting it get away. The Buckeyes generated more yards (378-338), yards per play (6.5-5.6) and first downs (21-18) and won a majority of the game's third downs, going 4-for-9 to Michigan's 3-for-12.

Michigan won, however, with little things. The Wolverines won the field position battle by 9 yards per drive. They won the special teams battle with awesome punting and better place-kicking. They won the fourth-downs battle -- stand-in head coach Sherrone Moore & Co. were assertive in the first half, going 3-for-3 on fourth-and-short conversions (fourth-and-goal from the 1, then two more on an eventual TD drive), while Ohio State punted on a fourth-and-1 from its 46 in the first quarter and let more than 30 seconds run late in the half to set up an ill-fated 52-yard field goal on fourth-and-2.

Most importantly, Michigan won the turnover battle, setting up the game's first points with an interception and ending the game with another pick.

This wasn't the narrative-defining, second-half domination of the past couple of years -- it was just one team playing slightly cleaner ball than the other (and one staff, without its head coach, doing a better job of playing to win).

 

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1. No. 8 Alabama 27, Auburn 24

The Iron Bowl is typically only good every other year -- average score of the past six games in Tuscaloosa: Bama 46, Auburn 20; average score in Auburn: 28-28 -- but when it's good, it remains the absolute best. And while 2013's Kick Six remains the greatest game the rivalry has produced, this game might have been the best since, or very close to it.


You certainly couldn't tell that Auburn was coming off of a 31-10 shellacking at the hands of New Mexico State. The one dimension of the Tigers' one-dimensional offense shined, producing 244 rushing yards, two explosive passes to Ja'Varrius Johnson and what ended up being a 24-20 lead heading into the final minute. But Bama recovered a muffed punt with 4:48 left and somehow managed to take more than four minutes to go 30 yards for the game-winning touchdown.

Sorry, the fourth-and-31 touchdown.

Alabama's CFP odds aren't great, but Jalen Milroe-to-Isaiah Bond kept them from dropping to 0.0%.