College football winners and losers: Taking stock of the conference races as we head to November

November is almost here.

Not only does that mean the end of political ads during every commercial break on Saturdays — just one more week to go! — but it also means that conference races are entering their stretch runs. And those conference titles may mean more than ever in 2024.

Thanks to the 12-team playoff, the top four conference champions in the final College Football Playoff rankings get a first-round bye and the fifth-best conference champ is also automatically in the field. We can safely assume that the four power conference champions will occupy those top four spots, but it’s hard to predict just who those four teams will be at the moment.

Here are the contenders for each of the nine conference titles across college football as we enter the final five weeks of the season. There’s still a lot to play for.

American

• First tier of contenders: Army (6-0), Navy (4-0), Tulane (4-0)

• Second tier: Memphis (3-1)

Remember, Army vs. Navy doesn’t count for the AAC title. The Black Knights have just North Texas and UTSA remaining on their schedule. Navy, which lost to Notre Dame on Saturday, has three winnable games and a home game against Tulane on Nov. 16. That game could decide who plays Army for the league title.

ACC

• First tier: Clemson (5-0), Miami (4-0), Pitt (3-0), SMU (4-0)

• Second tier: Virginia Tech (3-1), Louisville (3-2)

There are six teams feasibly in this race but it’s hard to envision a scenario where Miami and Clemson don’t meet for the ACC title. Given the way both teams are playing, it could be a game that’s for seeding purposes only in the College Football Playoff too. Next week’s game between Pitt and SMU will go a long way to determining who can play spoiler in the conference race after the Mustangs beat Duke in overtime on Saturday night.

Big 12

• First tier: BYU (5-0), Iowa State (4-0), Kansas State (4-1)

• Second tier: Cincinnati (3-1), Colorado (3-1), TCU (3-2), Texas Tech (3-2), West Virginia (3-2)

This is potentially the most crowded title race in all of college football. BYU keeps winning as the Cougars got a victory in Orlando over UCF on Saturday. But Kansas State visits Iowa State on the final weekend of the season in what could be a semifinal matchup of sorts. While there are eight teams still in this title race (nine, if you count Arizona State), two of the preseason favorites are not in the mix: Oklahoma State and Utah.

Big Ten

• First tier: Indiana (5-0), Oregon (5-0), Penn State (4-0)

• Second tier: Ohio State (3-1)

It sure feels like a four-team race in the Big Ten. Everyone else has at least two conference losses, and it’s hard to see a team like Illinois, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota or Wisconsin getting into the mix at this point. The game of the week in Week 10 is Ohio State’s trip to Penn State, though the Nittany Lions probably need to have a healthy Drew Allar to have a chance. He left PSU’s win over Wisconsin on Saturday night with an apparent knee injury.

Conference USA

• First tier: Western Kentucky (3-0), Jacksonville State (3-0)

• Second tier: Liberty (3-1), Sam Houston (3-1)

This race will sort itself out nicely. We think. WKU has both Liberty and Jacksonville State remaining, while Sam Houston also plays both Liberty and Jacksonville State.

MAC

• First tier: Western Michigan (4-0), Miami, Ohio (3-1), Ohio (3-1), Bowling Green (3-1)

• Second tier: Buffalo (2-2), Eastern Michigan (2-2), Toledo (2-2), Ball State (2-2)

Bowling Green’s win over Toledo on Saturday could prove to be significant. WMU has both the Eagles and Eastern Michigan remaining on its schedule, while Miami has the tiebreaker over Ohio thanks to a 30-20 win earlier this month.

Mountain West

• First tier: Boise State (3-0), Colorado State (3-0), San Diego State (2-0)

• Second tier: Fresno State (3-1), UNLV (2-1), San Jose State (3-2)

Boise State is the frontrunner for the Group of Five’s playoff spot and knocked off UNLV on Friday night. CSU doesn’t have star receiver Tory Horton but has a manageable schedule remaining with three winnable games and a trip to Fresno State.

SEC

• First tier: Texas A&M (5-0), Georgia (4-1), Texas (3-1), Tennessee (3-1), LSU (3-1)

• Second tier: Alabama (3-2), Ole Miss (2-2)

We left out a lot of two-loss teams in the second tier. We’ll be stunned if the SEC title game isn’t involving two of these seven teams. Texas A&M beat LSU on Saturday night and has the easiest path to the conference title game with South Carolina, Auburn and Texas remaining. Two wins out of those three should be good enough. LSU and Alabama will play each other in November and Georgia has both Ole Miss and Tennessee.

Sun Belt

• East: Old Dominion (3-1), Georgia Southern (3-1), Marshall (2-1)

• West: Louisiana (3-0), Arkansas State (3-1), South Alabama (3-1), UL Monroe (3-1), Texas State (2-1)

The Sun Belt is the only conference in college football that still has divisions. And as you can see, the West race is really, really crowded. South Alabama has the best points differential in the division so far and heads to Louisiana on Nov. 16. That’s a game that could decide the division. Old Dominion has the tiebreaker over Georgia Southern after a win earlier this week and hosts Marshall on Nov. 23.

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

Winners

Kennesaw State: The Owls got their first win ever over an FBS team on Wednesday night. And it was a huge one. Kennesaw State took down Liberty for the school’s first win of the season in its first year at the top level of college football. The Owls entered the game 0-6 on the season and were 0-10 against FBS-level teams before Wednesday night’s win as QB Davis Bryson was 16-of-20 passing for 189 yards and a TD.

Pitt: The Panthers are 7-0 for the first time since 1982 when Dan Marino was throwing passes for the school. The defense scored three touchdowns in a 41-13 win over Syracuse on Thursday night that was 31-0 at halftime. Alabama transfer QB Eli Holstein had a pedestrian game, but he’s been a big reason why Pitt is undefeated so far. Holstein has completed 64% of his passes for 17 TDs and thrown just five interceptions all season. Syracuse QB Kyle McCord threw five on Wednesday night alone.

Tulsa: It was hard to envision the Golden Hurricane being a part of this category in the third quarter on Saturday. Tulsa trailed UTSA 42-17 with 5:30 to go in the third before outscoring the Roadrunners 29-3 the rest of the way for an improbable 46-45 win. Tulsa forced three punts and a turnover on downs after UTSA took that 42-17 lead as Kamdyn Benjamin caught the final two TD passes of the game from Cooper Legas.

Indiana: The Hoosiers didn’t need Kurtis Rourke to keep on winning. No. 13 Indiana moved to 8-0 with a 31-17 home win over Washington. The Hoosiers defense picked off Will Rogers twice in the first half and put the game away in the fourth quarter after Myles Price’s 65-yard punt return inside the Washington 15-yard line. Rourke could be back sooner than later, and there’s a very good chance the Hoosiers can be 10-0 before a trip to Ohio State on Nov. 23.

Losers

Oklahoma State: It’s a disaster of a season in Stillwater. After being one of the presumptive Big 12 favorites with Texas and Oklahoma off to the SEC, Oklahoma State is now 0-5 in the conference after a 38-28 loss at Baylor. The win was Baylor’s first in nine home games against conference opponents as Oklahoma State could not stop Baylor on the ground. The Bears rushed for 343 yards on just 38 attempts thanks to Dawson Pendergrass’ six carries for 142 yards.

Liberty: The loss to Kennesaw State almost assuredly ended any chance Liberty had of making the expanded College Football Playoff. After going undefeated a season ago and losing by 39 to Oregon in the Fiesta Bowl, Liberty needed another undefeated season and some help to make the playoff in 2024. Now that the undefeated season is done, Liberty’s weak schedule means it will be on the outside of the CFP even if it finishes at 12-1.

Kyle McCord: The former Ohio State QB had one of the most nightmarish games of the season Thursday night. McCord threw five interceptions in Syracuse’s loss to Pitt and that doesn’t even tell the whole story. Syracuse’s first three drives ended in McCord interceptions and two of them were returned for TDs. Overall, Pitt had three pick-6s as Syracuse fell to 5-2.

Stanford: The Cardinal need a home win over an FBS team. Stanford is now 0-10 against non-FCS opponents at home in the Troy Taylor era after a 27-24 home loss to Wake Forest on Saturday. The Demon Deacons traveled across the country to get the win with 1:48 to go after Matthew Dennis kicked a 23-yard field goal. Stanford turned the ball over four times and the Cardinal’s chances for the win fittingly ended when Ashton Daniels was intercepted in Wake Forest territory with 10 seconds to go.