Bold Week 11 college football predictions: 2 Top 10 teams suffer losses

Week 11 is here and the college football season is wrapping up. With three weeks remaining the games are meaning more and more, with conference titles and a spot in the College Football Playoff on the line. The second playoff rankings were released this past weekend and there were clear winners and losers.

The ‘losers’ are going to use that as bulletin board material and the first team that comes to mind is Indiana. The Hoosiers, who are the defending national champions, had a bye week, yet tumbled down the rankings — that’s not good for the rest of the Big Ten.

But Indiana isn’t the only team that has something to prove. Here are four bold predictions with a lot of playoff implications at stake.

MORE: Week 11 college football upset watch: Florida State, Florida headline road stunners

CFP rankings wake Indiana up

It’s not good to get on Curt Cignetti’s bad side, and that’s what the College Football Playoff committee has done. The Hoosiers didn’t play last week, but Indiana dropped five spots from No. 5 to No. 9. Cignetti made note of that on his X(formerly Twitter) account.

“Bad losses don’t count anymore,” Cignetti asked with laughing emojis. “Are first downs still 10 yards?,” Cignetti then asked with clown faces.

It’s a shame for USC, a team that beat Ohio State two weeks ago and got itself a statement win. Going into this week, there was talk of the Trojans going into Bloomington and upsetting the Hoosiers, but Indiana got the bulletin board material it needed. Indiana has been escaping by with wins, but the reigning national champions are still a very good team.

USC might feel the wrath of the Hoosiers this weekend.

Death Valley lives up to expectations in Texas-LSU game

Death Valley didn’t live up to expectations last weekend. LSU hosted Alabama and that was a chance for Lane Kiffin to put his stamp on the SEC and the playoff hunt. Instead, the Tigers lost 31-13 to Alabama, and the Crimson Tide further proved why the committee ranked them so high in the initial rankings.

LSU fell from No. 14 to No. 21, but the Tigers still have an outside shot of making a run. And that starts this weekend in a night game against Texas. Arch Manning and the Longhorns’ offense have been clicking. Manning is looking more like a first-round quarterback again, but we can’t forget that LSU had the top-ranked offense and defense in the SEC entering last weekend.

Death Valley is a place where teams go to die at nighttime, and that’s when LSU gets Texas. It’s a 7:30 p.m. ET kick on ABC and if Kiffin falters again, his first season in Baton Rouge is officially a disaster. No way he lets that happen, right?

Two top-10 teams suffer losses

It’s a parity-filled college football season, and every week we see upsets. This weekend shouldn’t be any different, and at least two top-10 teams will falter.

Which teams are on upset alert? No. 8 Tennessee has to travel to Texas A&M, No. 9 Indiana hosts No. 16 USC, No. 10 Baylor hosts Baylor, No. 6 Texas heads to No. 21 LSU, and No. 2 Utah travels to No. 23 Arizona.

There are so many upset bids on the line there, and we can’t forget about No. 1 Georgia hosting Missouri, but the Bulldogs appear to be another level at this point in time. If we had to choose two teams that should be very worried about being upset, that’s both BYU and Texas.

BYU is coming off a loss to Utah and the Cougars stayed in the top 12. Good for the Cougars, but they can’t be caught being relaxed with a hot Baylor team coming to town. Since Dave Aranda has been fired, the Bears are playing inspired football and they have a chance to make the Big 12 Championship Game.

We’ve already talked about Texas, and if that game were played at Noon ET or in the afternoon, the Longhorns might hold the edge. But a night game in Death Valley is going to be very, very challenging.

— Enjoy free coverage of the top news & trending stories with The Big Lead Newsletter —