Week 3 NCAA football results

The GIST: After last week’s unexpected upsets, Week 3 mostly went as predicted — 22 of the Top 25 beat their opponents, and last week’s best are still sitting pretty in the Top 10. Snooze.

• To shake things up, we’re focusing on the movement that did occur and highlighting Week 3’s top unranked stories and surprises.

Ranked upset recap: Both of Saturday’s ranked matchups went to the underdog. New–No. 15 Oregon quarterback (QB) Bo Nix put up five touchdowns (TDs) to best then–No. 12 BYU 41–20, while new–No. 23 Texas A&M took down then–No. 13 Miami 17–9, who plummeted to No. 25 as a result.

Bad news for the Big Ten: In a week of non-conference play that should have seen nearly all Big Ten teams (Nebraska and their ongoing coaching woes aside) notch dubs, three took surprising losses.

• Northwestern fell to Southern Illinois in the year’s first Power Five–loss to an FCS squad, and Purdue’s undisciplined and penalty-plagued play allowed Syracuse to score a game-winning TD in the final 12 seconds.

• But the biggest upset was to the previous–No. 11 Michigan State Spartans, who dropped out of the rankings after losing 39–28 to then-unranked Washington in a game decided by defense.

Under-the-radar endings: Unranked squads brought the drama this week. UCLA kicked a last-second field goal to beat South Alabama 32–31, Maryland proved turtles are faster than Mustangs in a 34–27 win over SMU and, after losing their QB1 to injury, Florida State rallied to a 35–31 road victory against Louisville.

• And just one week after they took down legendary Notre Dame, the Marshall Thundering Herd fell 34–31 in overtime to Bowling Green in the Falcons’ first win of the season. Nothing like humble pie.

Highlight of the week: NGL, we’ve been playing Appalachian State’s epic Hail Mary pass to beat Troy 32–28 on repeat all weekend. And, not to be outdone, off the field the school gave a year’s free tuition to not one, but three Mountaineers with the best College GameDay signs. *enrolls in Sign Making 101*