The college football season has hit the halfway point with 11 teams still undefeated. Only two of them, UNLV and Navy, are not in The Associated Press Top 25 poll this week.
UNLV has flown under the radar while starting 6-0 in Dan Mullen’s first season. A road win this week against Mountain West standard bearer Boise State would change that.
No. 19 South Florida, No. 22 Memphis, Tulane and, until last week, North Texas — all from the American Conference — have generated most of the discussion about Group of Five candidates for the 12-team College Football Playoff. UNLV and Navy have been after-thoughts.
The American is about to start eating its own with head-to-head matchups that will thin its herd. Navy is likely on borrowed time. Its last three wins all have been by one score, and it still has to play conference opponents North Texas, USF and Memphis and a nonconference road game against No. 13 Notre Dame.
UNLV, on the other hand, will be in strong position to finish the regular season undefeated if it can beat Boise State.
Assuming no team in the American goes unbeaten and UNLV does by winning out through the Mountain West championship game, it would be a situation similar to 2017. That was the year UCF was 12-0 after winning the American — there was no G5 automatic CFP qualifier then — and didn’t get one of the four playoff spots because of what the committee judged to be an unimpressive schedule. UCF beat Auburn in the Peach Bowl to finish 13-0.
No one would argue UNLV has played one of the weakest schedules in the country. The Rebels’ home win over UCLA is aging better than expected given what the Bruins have done the last two weeks. Still, their past opponents are a combined 11-20 and their future opponents are 18-19. In their last game, UNLV had to come from behind five times before beating what now is a 1-5 Air Force team.
A lot would have to go UNLV’s way for it to make the playoff. The way Mullen sees it, the Rebels have accomplished a lot already. They returned only two starters from the Barry Odom-coached team that went 11-3, and Mullen brought in 33 transfers from power-conference schools.
Virginia transfer Anthony Colandrea has the highest passer rating in the MWC, returning running back Jai’Den Thomas is on track to rush for 1,000 yards and the offense has scored at least 30 points in the first six games for the first time. The defense is tied for second nationally with 14 takeaways.
The Rebels had the fourth-most voting points among teams outside the Top 25 on Sunday, the closest they’ve come to cracking the rankings for the first time this season.
“It’s not like you walked into this loaded roster,” Mullen said. “You walked into some guys who wanted to stick around and believed in the university. We brought in a lot of guys who believed in what we were going to try to do. Thankfully, we brought in some really good guys.”
Hoosier hoopla
Speaking of teams that could go unbeaten in the regular season, no one has a better chance than Indiana. The No. 3 Hoosiers, whose 30-20 win at Oregon earned them the highest ranking in program history, have no ranked opponents left.
Indiana’s defense was one of the best in the country statistically before the Oregon game. Everyone could see it against the Ducks.
Oregon had allowed just one sack through five games and Indiana finished with six. The Ducks managed just 267 total yards, their fewest under fourth-year coach Dan Lanning.
Indiana’s linebackers were dominant. Aiden Fisher and Rolijah Hardy each made 13 tackles. Fisher had 1.5 sacks and Isaiah Jones had his first career interception and tied his career high with eight tackles.
Streaking Cincinnati
Cincinnati’s Scott Satterfield was 8-17 after a season-opening loss to Nebraska and his job security was tenuous. The Bearcats have reeled off five straight wins, are tied with Texas Tech and BYU atop the Big 12 standings and Sunday made their first AP poll appearance since 2022 at No. 24.
Brendan Sorsby is one of the nation’s most dependable quarterbacks, accounting for 19 touchdowns with just one turnover. The defense is middling in most categories and is one of four in the nation yet to intercept a pass, but it ranks among the Big 12 leaders in stopping opponents in the red zone.
“We’ve got to keep the pedal down and just keep being aggressive,” Satterfield said.
Extra points
Nebraska is 5-1 for the second straight season and the Cornhuskers made their 2025 poll debut at No. 25. It’s their first ranking since early last season. Since 2017, they have appeared in only five of a possible 136 polls. They hold the all-time record for consecutive weeks in the poll with 348 from 1981-2002. … Southern California’s 18-point win over Michigan was its most lopsided against a Top 25 opponent since it beat a then-No. 23 Stanford by 25 in 2019. … A sign of how high No. 17 Vanderbilt is held in the esteem of college football observers nowadays, specifically oddsmakers: the Commodores are 2 1/2-point favorite at home against No. 10 LSU, according to BetMGM Sportsbook. LSU won 24-17 in Baton Rouge last year and is 14-1 against the Commodores since 1976.
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