College football Week 13 winners and losers: Michigan again gets best of Ohio State

Ohio State and Michigan lived up the hype and delivered a high-pressure, down-to-the-wire matchup between two of the best teams in the Bowl Subdivision.

Michigan’s 30-24 win is the program’s third in a row in this series, a first since 1995-97, putting into bold and italicized text what we already knew: The Big Ten and this rivalry belongs to the Wolverines.

The win sends Michigan to the Big Ten championship game and a pairing with Iowa. A win there would make the Wolverines no worse than the second seed in the semifinals depending on what happens in the SEC championship game.

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Beating the Buckeyes keeps the spotlight off coach Jim Harbaugh, who concluded his three-game conference suspension as part of the program’s sign-stealing scandal and will be back on the sidelines for the game against the Hawkeyes. A loss would’ve made it impossible to ignore the ongoing NCAA investigation into the scandal and the fact that Harbaugh was suspended for half of Michigan’s regular-season schedule.

Michigan quarterback J.J. McCarthy celebrates with fans on the field after the Wolverines defeated Ohio State game at Michigan Stadium on November 25, 2023 in Ann Arbor.

Instead, the fallout from Saturday is reserved for Ohio State coach Ryan Day and the Buckeyes, who spent months honing a more physical style to better match wits with the Wolverines but were outmuscled in the second half.

A year ago, Ohio State lost to Michigan but still reached the College Football Playoff. Given the depth of Power Five contenders in this year’s race, the Buckeyes’ chances of finishing in this season’s top four are between slim and none.

The program will presumably head into next season with Day at the controls, though the scrutiny he’ll face after this loss could make this a moment to evaluate other opportunities, such as Texas A&M. With or without Day, it will be another offseason of intense self-reflection.

The Wolverines and Buckeyes lead Saturday’s winners and losers:

Winners

Washington

It took some luck, clutching kicking and overcoming some head-scratching play calls in the final minute, but Washington remained unbeaten with a 24-21 win in the Apple Cup against Washington State. This turns next Friday’s Pac-12 championship rematch against Oregon a playoff play-in game; the Huskies won 36-33 when the rivals met during the regular season. Washington was able to sneak past the Cougars despite another middling game from quarterback Michael Penix Jr., who completed 18 of 33 throws on just 6.2 yards per attempt. But he delivered a 65-yard scoring drive in the final two minutes that was capped by a 42-yard field goal as time expired. The Huskies have been living on borrowed time for months with a series of close-and-closer wins but is still just one victory away from a playoff berth.

Alabama

With Alabama down 24-20 and facing fourth-and-goal from the Auburn 31-yard line with under a minute left, Jalen Milroe took a shotgun snap, stood in the middle of a clean pocket for seven seconds and then found wide receiver Isaiah Bond in the back left corner of the end zone to steal a 27-24 Iron Bowl win and keep the Crimson Tide’s playoff hopes alive entering the SEC championship game against Georgia. Milroe made another late-in-the-day Heisman statement with 366 yards of total offense, including a team-best 107 yards on the ground, and two touchdowns passes without an interception. The miraculous win sends the Tide into December with just the one non-conference loss to Texas, making this season one of the most impressive of coach Nick Saban’s career.

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Oklahoma State

Down 24-6 at halftime to Brigham Young, the Cowboys rode three touchdowns from Ollie Gordon to force overtime and then topped the Cougars 40-34 in two extra frames to earn a spot opposite Texas in the Big 12 championship game. Pushed aside as a contender after September losses to South Alabama and Iowa State, Oklahoma State closed with seven wins in eight games to earn a shot at the second conference crown of the Mike Gundy era. The comeback win is heartbreaking for rival Oklahoma, which lost to the Cowboys earlier this season and needed a BYU win to earn a rematch with the Longhorns. Gordon’s 166 rushing yards and five touchdowns could be enough to get Gordon to Manhattan as a Heisman finalist.

Michigan State

The Spartans closed the regular season on Friday with a 42-0 loss to Penn State, the final chapter in what has been one of the most miserable years in program history. One day later, some good news: Michigan State officially hired former Oregon State coach Jonathan Smith, a deft rebuilder who turned the Beavers into one of the top teams in the Pac-12 and a New Year’s Six contender. This experience will pay off as he takes over a team and program in need of a bottom-to-top overhaul.

The newly bowl eligible

Several teams clinched bowl eligibility just under the wire. That includes Central Florida, which beat Houston 27-13. Virginia Tech is, back in the postseason for the first time under coach Brent Pry after a 55-17 win in the Commonwealth Cup against Virginia. Also getting a sixth win on Saturday were Rice, Marshall, Syracuse, Old Dominion, Louisiana-Lafayette and Northern Illinois.

Losers

Ryan Day

Day’s tenure is in danger of being swallowed up by his team’s failures in the game against Michigan, in the same way the John Cooper era at Ohio State isn’t remembered for two near-national championships in 1996 and 1998 but for his woeful record against the Wolverines. Day is now 56-7 overall with the Buckeyes, but three of those losses have come in this rivalry and all but one have come against teams in the top five of the playoff rankings. So these games against Michigan might be representative of a bigger issue for the program: Ohio State has feasted on lesser opponents but come up short against other members of college football’s upper crust, beginning with this bitter rivalry.

Louisville

Louisville’s playoff hopes aren’t altered too dramatically by a 38-31 loss to Kentucky — the Cardinals were almost certainly not going to make it anyway, so this just makes things official. Not to say this one doesn’t hurt. The Cardinals outgained the Wildcats by more than 100 yards but turned the ball over three times, allowed a special-teams touchdown and couldn’t stop Ray Davis, who had 127 yards of total offense and three scores. The bottom line doesn’t change too much: Louisville can lock in a New Year’s Six bid by beating Florida State in the ACC championship game or as the next-best team from the conference should the Seminoles finish in the top four. Unfortunately, the loss puts a sour finish on what had been a remarkable debut regular season for coach Jeff Brohm.

Colorado

Two months ago, Colorado was hailed as the biggest story in college football — if not the biggest story in all of sports — after opening the Deion Sanders era with wins against TCU, Nebraska and Colorado State. The Buffaloes would win just once from there, capping the regular season with quarterback Shedeur Sanders sidelined for a 23-17 loss to Utah. Playing fourth-string quarterback Luke Bottari, the Utes would make only 10 pass attempts against 53 carries for 268 yards.

The five-win club

Meanwhile, multiple teams went into rivalry weekend needing one win to land in bowl play but came up short. BYU and Washington State just missed on upsets. There’s also Navy, which trailed SMU 52-7 at halftime in a blowout loss. Minnesota couldn’t get over the hump after losing to Wisconsin for the first time in three years. Earlier this week, Mississippi State dropped the Egg Bowl to Mississippi, Central Michigan lost to Toledo, TCU was destroyed by Oklahoma and, worst of all, Nebraska lost 13-10 to Iowa to end Matt Rhule’s first season.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: College football Week 13 winners and losers: Michigan again gets best of Ohio State