We’re now in the double-digit phase of college football’s regular season, which to me means two truths are now more self-evident than ever. One, we no longer need the pretense of polls to determine which games are worthy of prime TV time slots and attention. The body of work in September and October is what determines what is really worthy of such prime real estate in November, and what happens in this month will solely determine who plays meaningful games in December and January. And two, all of those other polls are no longer worthy of more than just a passing glance. This is the only one that matters, for how it eventually shakes out determines which dirty dozen will actually be playing games of consequence a month from now and which ones will be headed for boondoggle bowls that will help fill the void of holiday afternoons (and most evenings) on the ESPN family of networks.
Which means all of the attention we’ve paid to the SEC of late needs to pivot, and there was no more prime example of that on display that yesterday when the storied hamlet of Lubbock, Texas had Pat McAfee and team descend upn it as a reward for an almost forgotten Lone Star State program not in that premiere conference that all of a sudden has as much of a chance at glory as either their rivals in Austin or College Station have merited. The anonymous ASSOCIATED PRESS brought us up to speed:
Texas Tech linebacker Jacob Rodriguez indicated he was somewhat coerced by teammates into striking a Heisman Trophy pose during another dominating defensive performance by the ninth-ranked Red Raiders. After Rodriguez had 14 tackles and two takeaways for the Red Raiders in their 29-7 win over previously undefeated No. 8 BYU on Saturday, three-time Super Bowl MVP quarterback Patrick Mahomes — who was at the game during a bye week for the Kansas City Chiefs — posted on social media: “Get him to New York! @HeismanTrophy.”
And as the ever-reliable ATHLETIC recappers Jason Kirk and Alex Kirshner waxed in this morning’s UNTIL SATURDAY newsletter:
This was a complete physical domination, and the score would have been worse if not for a series of red-zone shenanigans by the Red Raiders’ offense. In Tech’s biggest moment since 2008’s Michael Crabtree game (you know the one), the program showed off its weight-room superiority.
It’s commonly said that Tech “bought a team” this year, and I’m not here to deny that. Their oil billionaire and his pals did indeed spend millions of dollars on transfers. But it would be more accurate to say Tech bought a roster and has done a lot of other work to build a title-contending team. Tech opted for a moneyball approach at QB, retaining the cromulent Behren Morton instead of taking a big swing. With the savings, it invested in a bunch of great linemen, led by star edge rusher David Bailey. Joey McGuire has also done the old-fashioned work of player development.
And by reinforcing a claim to a pole position between #5 and #8 it increases the odds that McAfee could return to Lubbock next month with Tech being able to host a home playoff game, hence making them a full-on equal to the more prolific Aggies and the more click-baitable Longhorns. Because THAT poll is now all that matters.
With, of course, one exception. That’s that Group of Five bid which the NCAA was somehow able to cajole the Power Four into accepting when they expanded the field from four to twelve last year. And thanks to some missteps by some alleged contenders in what typically is the best of the rest we all of a sudden have a candidate from the Sun Belt that’s worthy of attention, as Mr. X of AP (not necessarily the same Mr. X who was reporting on Lubblock) also reported yesterday:
Alonza Barnett threw three touchdown passes including an 80-yard strike to Jaylan Sanchez that proved to be the winning points in James Madison’s 35-23 win over Marshall on Saturday. The Thundering Herd (4-5, 2-3 Sun Belt) got within five points on Carlos Del Rio-Wilson’s 4-yard pass to Tracy Stephens and Lorcan Quinn’s third field goal of the game. But Barnett connected with Wayne Knight for a 49-yard catch-and-run TD with 2:16 remaining to seal the seventh straight win for the Dukes (8-1, 6-0).
And why that matters is borne out in the detailed analysis that THE ATHLETIC’s Austin Mock shared earlier this morning in what will apparently be a weekly prognostication of THAT poll, which unlike others’ is not released until Tuesday night in prime time, thus giving pundits and yentas two full days to join him in speculation. But Mock has the benefit of data behind him, and the fact that JMU now has THE highest likelihood of any FBS team winning their conference while those in the American are still in a dogfight elevates them to much more than the mere longshot winning a conference that includes Kennesaw State might otherwise make them.
Still, even they couldn’t provide the kind of excitement we saw in Happy Valley (well, at least for road teams), which has kept alive the dream of a new powerhouse perhaps winning it all, which commanded Kirk and Kirschner’s top story slot:
No. 2 Indiana’s 10-point lead at Penn State had evaporated, with the 3-5 Nittany Lions leading the undefeated team 24-20 in the final two minutes. It felt almost as if something was reasserting itself, as if the sinister powers that’d doomed the Hoosiers to lose so many close games in previous years were deciding to remind the new-football-money Hoosiers of their place in the Big Ten. Instead, this happened: 
That came after Indiana’s defense had gotten the offense one last shot in the two-minute drill, needing 80 yards and a touchdown to avoid collapsing against a team that’d fired its coach weeks prior. Fernando Mendoza’s winning touchdown pass to Omar Cooper, a 7-yarder on third-and-goal, will be on so many shirts.
All that likely cements that the Hoosiers will remain on the list of upstarts that matter throughout this month and beyond. Just like James Madison and Texas Tech. Take that, SEC.
Courage…