AUBURN, Ala. (AP) — John Metchie caught a scoring pass from Bryce Young in the fourth overtime to give No. 3 Alabama a 24-22 comeback victory over rival Auburn on Saturday, rescuing the Crimson Tide’s national title hopes.
It was the first overtime in the Iron Bowl.
Freshman Kool-Aid McKinstry tipped away T.J. Finley’s pass in the final OT and Young hit Metchie just as he did in the previous one.
Alabama (11-1, 7-1 Southeastern Conference) moves on to face No. 1 Georgia in the league championship game with its College Football Playoff hopes on the line. The Tigers (6-6, 3-5) dropped their fourth straight game after smothering Young and the Tide’s prolific offense most of the way.
Young capped a 97-yard drive with a 28-yard touchdown to freshman Ja’Corey Brooks — his third catch and first touchdown this season — with 24 seconds left in regulation.
Young converted a fourth-and-7 to Jahleel Billingsley, followed by two incompletions under pressure for an offense that had been held in check for 59 minutes.
The teams traded touchdowns and field goals in the first overtime and both delivered scoring passes after lining up from the 3.
The Tigers had been trying to win their third straight Iron Bowl at Jordan-Hare Stadium, and nearly pulled it off.
Alabama was without two of its top offensive players in the overtime periods.
Tailback Brian Robinson was on the sideline with an apparent leg injury sustained earlier in the game. Star receiver Jameson Williams was ejected for targeting on punt coverage in the first half.
Bottled up most of the game, Young finished 25 of 51 for 317 yards and two touchdowns with an interception. Metchie caught 13 passes for 150 passes.
Auburn’s T.J. Finley, who started the final two games after Bo Nix’s season-ending ankle injury, was 17 of 26 for 137 yards and a pair of touchdowns.
NO. 6 MICHIGAN 42, NO. 2 OHIO STATE 27
ANN ARBOR, Mich. (AP) — Hassan Haskins scored five touchdowns, Aidan Hutchinson had three sacks and Michigan beat Ohio State to give Jim Harbaugh his first coaching victory over the Buckeyes.
The Wolverines (11-1, 8-1, No. 5 CFP) won the Big Ten East and will play in the conference title game next week with playoff hopes in hand after snapping an eight-game losing streak to Ohio State (10-2, 8-1) .
Michigan advanced to the conference championship for the first time. The Wolverines have a chance to win a Big Ten title for the first time since 2004 and a national championship for the first time since 1997.
Ohio State had a school-record winning streak in the rivalry, taking 15 of 16 to turn The Game into its game.
The Buckeyes blew their chances to continue their dominance with 10 penalties, many before the snap, and because they simply could not stop Michigan’s running game.
Haskins had 169 yards rushing on 28 carries, scoring a go-ahead touchdown late in the second half and four more after halftime to pad Michigan’s lead. Blake Corum returned from a two-plus game absence to run six times for 87 yards, helping the Wolverines gain a total of 297 yards on a ground against a rival that has pushed them around for much of this century.
Harbaugh also seemed to out coach Ryan Day, who had not lost a Big Ten game, by sprinkling in some surprise plays such as a slot-around with A.J. Henning running for a 14-yard run to cap the game-opening 10-play, 75-yard drive.
And in the end, the Buckeyes looked like they had enough when they didn’t put up much of a fight on Haskins’ 4-yard run with 2:17 left that gave Michigan a 15-point lead.
NO. 7 OKLAHOMA STATE 37, NO. 10 OKLAHOMA 33
STILLWATER, Okla. (AP) — Spencer Sanders threw for a touchdown and ran for another and Oklahoma State beat Oklahoma to keep alive its College Football Playoff chances and stop the Sooners’ streak of Big 12 titles at six.
Oklahoma State (11-1, 8-1, No. 7 CFP) snapped a six-game losing streak to Oklahoma. The Cowboys will play No. 9 Baylor next Saturday for the Big 12 championship.
Oklahoma (10-2, 7-2, No. 10 CFP) got the ball one last time at its 20- with 54 seconds remaining and no timeouts. Caleb Williams scrambled and ran 56 yards to put the Sooners in scoring range. But Oklahoma State’s Collin Oliver sacked Williams on fourth down at the Oklahoma State 32 with eight seconds remaining.
Oklahoma State coach Mike Gundy won for just the third time in 17 tries against Oklahoma. Now, the Cowboys can win their first Big 12 title since 2011.
Oklahoma State already had clinched a spot in the Big 12 title game, but the stakes remained high. With Baylor’s victory over Texas Tech earlier Saturday, Oklahoma needed a win to reach the conference championship game, giving Oklahoma State a chance to eliminate its rival.
The game turned when Oklahoma’s Eric Gray muffed a punt and Oklahoma State recovered at the Oklahoma 5. Jaylen Warren then punched it in from the 1 to give Oklahoma State a 37-33 lead with 8:54 remaining.
NO. 1 GEORGIA 45, GEORGIA TECH 0
ATLANTA (AP) — Stetson Bennett passed for 255 yards and four touchdowns, two to tight end Brock Bowers, and Georgia finished its undefeated regular season by overwhelming Georgia Tech.
Georgia (12-0) gained momentum for next week’s much-anticipated Southeastern Conference championship game against No. 3 Alabama in Atlanta. It is the first undefeated regular season for the Bulldogs since 1982, when they capped a streak of three consecutive SEC championships with tailback Herschel Walker.
Georgia, which began the day leading the nation with its averages of 7.5 points and 236 yards allowed, posted its third shutout while giving up only 171 yards.
Bowers had a 77-yard touchdown catch, and Kenny McIntosh added a 59-yard scoring run. Bowers, a freshman, also scored on a 9-yard catch. He has 10 touchdown receptions, a school record for tight ends.
Georgia Tech (3-9) finished with three wins for the third consecutive season under coach Geoff Collins.
NO. 5 NOTRE DAME 45, STANFORD 14
STANFORD, Calif. (AP) — Jack Coan threw two touchdown passes and ran for another score and Notre Dame finished off the regular season with a victory over Stanford to keep its playoff hopes alive.
The Fighting Irish (11-1, No. 6 CFP) won their final seven games following a home loss to Cincinnati but will likely need some help next week to get into the College Football Playoff for the third time in the past four seasons.
Stanford (3-9) lost its seventh straight game to end the season following an upset of then-No. 3 Oregon for its longest losing streak and most losses in a season since a 1-11 campaign in 2006. The Cardinal were outscored 173-46 over the final four games.
This game wasn’t competitive from the start as the Irish forced a three-and-out on the first possession and answered with a 74-yard drive capped by Coan’s 16-yard TD pass to Braden Lenzy.
Coan added another TD pass to George Takacs and the Irish built a 24-0 halftime lead. He finished 26 for 35 for 345 yards with the 1-yard TD run in the third quarter.
NO. 9 BAYLOR 27, TEXAS TECH 24
WACO, Texas (AP) — Blake Shapen threw for 254 yards and two touchdowns in his first start for Baylor, and the Bears held off Texas Tech — and got into the Big 12 title game Oklahoma State beat Oklahoma later Saturday.
Abram Smith ran for 117 yards and a touchdown for the Bears (10-2, 7-2 Big 12, CFP No. 8). They will face Oklahoma State in the championship game.
The Red Raiders (6-6, 3-6) still had one more chance after stopping Baylor on fourth down on its 12 with 1:18 and no timeouts left. They got in position for a 53-yard field goal attempt by Jonathan Garibay, who had plenty of leg but pushed the kick wide left on the final play. Garibay, who was 13 of- 3 on field goals before then, had a game-ending 62-yarder to beat Iowa State two week earlier.
NO. 11 OREGON 38, OREGON STATE 29
EUGENE, Ore. (AP) — Anthony Brown Jr. threw for 275 yards and two touchdown and ran for a score, and Oregon beat Oregon State to win the Pac-12 North Division and claim a spot in the conference championship game.
The Ducks (10-2, 7-2) will face No. 16 Utah in Las Vegas on Friday.
Oregon was coming off a 38-7 loss to Utah that dropped it from No. 3 in the College Football Playoff rankings to No. 11 and out of contention for a national title.
Washington State, which beat Washington 40-13 in the Apple Cup on Friday night, needed the Beavers (7-5, 5-4) to beat the Ducks to win the division.
NO. 12 MICHIGAN STATE 30, PENN STATE 27
EAST LANSING, Mich. (AP) — Payton Thorne threw two touchdown passes and ran for another score to lead Michigan State past Penn State.
Kennett Walker III rushed for 138 yards and a touchdown on 30 carries to help the Spartans (10-2, 7-2 Big Ten) bounce back from a 56-7 loss to Ohio State. Michigan State finished undefeated at home for the first time since 2015.
Sean Clifford threw three touchdown passes, two to Jahan Dotson, for the Nittany Lions (7-5, 4-5). Penn State closed out the regular season with five losses in its last seven games.
NO. 13 BYU 35, USC 31
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Jalen Hall passed for 276 yards and two touchdowns, Tyler Allgeier rushed for 111 yards and a pair of scores and Brigham Young rallied to defeat Southern California after blowing an 15-point, third-quarter lead.
BYU (10-2) trailed 31-28 with 11:03 remaining after Jaxson Dart’s 10-yard touchdown pass to Gary Bryant Jr. and 2-point conversion. But the Cougars regained the lead with 3:57 to go on Jackson McChesney’s 7-yard TD run.
USC (4-7) drove to the BYU 15 in the final minute, but Bryant came up a yard short on a pass from Dart on fourth-and-6 and turned the ball over on downs with 38 seconds remaining as Kaleb Hayes made the tackle.
Dart was 23 of 45 for 248 yards and a touchdown for the Trojans, who have dropped five of their last six and saw their bowl hopes dashed.
Hall completed 20 of 32 passes and was picked off twice.
LSU 37, NO. 14 TEXAS A&M 24
BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Max Johnson hit Jaray Jenkins with a 28-yard scoring pass down the right sideline with 20 seconds left, and LSU knocked off Texas A&M to give coach Ed Orgeron a triumphant send-off in his final game in Tiger Stadium.
The victory gave LSU (6-6, 3-5 SEC) two straight wins to close the regular season as a bowl eligible team. The loss likely relegated Texas A&M (8-4, 4-4) to a less prestigious bowl while ending the Aggies chance for a first 10-win season since 2012.
Orgeron, who presided over an undefeated national championship season in 2019 and has gone 11-11 since and agreed back in October to step down after this season.
NORTH TEXAS 45, NO. 15 UTSA 23
DENTON, Texas (AP) — No. 15 UTSA’s undefeated season ended in a blowout as North Texas running backs DeAndre Torrey and Ikaika Ragsdale combined for five touchdowns.
Quarterback Frank Harris had two of UTSA’s three lost fumbles among six overall before sitting the second half at rain-soaked Apogee Stadium, a 10-year-old facility where a Top 25 team had never played.
UTSA (11-1, 7-1 Conference USA), which never started with more than five consecutive wins in the program’s first nine seasons, is still hosting the conference championship game Friday night against either Western Kentucky or Marshall. No. 1 Georgia and fourth-ranked Cincinnati are the remaining undefeated FBS teams.
The Roadrunners, ranked 10th nationally in rushing defense, had given up six touchdowns on the ground all season. The Mean Green (6-6, 5-3) matched that late in the third quarter of their fifth consecutive victory that followed a six-game losing streak as UNT earned bowl eligibility.
Ragsdale, a redshirt freshman, had a career-high 146 yards and two touchdowns.
MINNESOTA 23, NO. 18 WISCONSIN 13
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Tanner Morgan overcame an interception that was returned for a first-half touchdown, leading Minnesota on three scoring drives after halftime to surge past Wisconsin, take back Paul Bunyan’s Axe and give Iowa the Big Ten West Division title Saturday.
Morgan, who went 11 for 16 for 199 yards and a third-quarter touchdown pass to Chris Autman-Bell, led the Gophers on the sprint into the end zone to hoist the 73-year-old trophy on their home field for the first time since 2003.
The Gophers (8-4, 6-3) delivered the kind of inspired and stifling performance by their defense that the Badgers (8-4, 6-3, No. 14 CFP) were used to demoralizing their opponents with. They held freshman standout Braelon Allen to 47 yards on 17 rushes and forced Graham Mertz to throw throughout the second half to favorable results.
Mertz went 21 for 38 for 171 yards and an interception.
NO. 19 HOUSTON 45, UCONN 17
EAST HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — Clayton Tune threw for 301 yards and four touchdowns and Houston completed its regular season with a victory over UConn in cold and windy conditions.
Nathaniel Dell caught two touchdown passes, and Jake Herslow and Jeremy Singleton each topped 100 receiving yards to go with a TD apiece for Houston (11-1, 8-0 American Athletic Conference). The Cougars will play at No. 4 Cincinnati for the conference title next Saturday.
Freshman Alton McCaskill had a 31-yard touchdown run, his 16th of the year for the Cougars, but left the game in the second quarter holding his right shoulder. He finished with 54 yards on the ground.
The Cougars led 21-10 at halftime and scored on their first four possessions of the second half to put the game away. Tune completed 20 of his 31 passes in three quarters of work.
UConn (1-11) introduced new coach Jim Mora at a news conference before the game. The former NFL and UCLA coach takes over the program on Monday.
NO. 20 PITTSBURGH 31, SYRACUSE 14
SYRACUSE, N.Y. (AP) — Kenny Pickett threw for four touchdowns to break the Pittsburgh school record for scoring passes in a season.
Pickett boosted his season total to 40 touchdown passes, three more than the previous record set by Dan Marino in 1981 and matched by Rod Rutherford in 2003, and his career total to 79, equaling Marino’s mark. Pickett finished 28 of 38 for 209 yards with one interception.
Pittsburgh (10-2, 6-1 Atlantic Coast Conference, CFP No. 20) won its fourth straight and finished the regular season 5-0 on the road. It’s the Panthers’ first 10-win season since 1981.
Syracuse finished 5-7 overall and 2-6 in the ACC.
NO. 21 WAKE FOREST 41, BOSTON COLLEGE 10
BOSTON (AP) — Sam Hartman threw three touchdown passes and ran for a score to help Wake Forest beat Boston College for a spot in the Atlantic Coast Conference championship game.
The Demon Deacons (10-2, 7-1) will attempt to claim their first league title since 2006 when they face No. 20 Pittsburgh on Dec. 4.
Hartman completed 20 of 32 passes for 236 yards and ran 11 times for 51 yards.
BC finished the season 6-6 overall and 2-6 in the ACC.
NO. 23 LA.-LAFAYETTE 21, LA.-MONROE 16
LAFAYETTE, La. (AP) — Emani Bailey scored on a 2-yard run to give Louisiana-Lafayette a double-digit lead in the third quarter, and the Ragin’ Cajuns held off Louisiana-Monroe.
The Ragin’ Cajuns (11-1, 8-0) won their school-record 11th straight game after a season-opening loss at Texas and went unbeaten in Sun Belt Conference play for the first time. Lafayette will host Appalachian State in the conference championship game next Saturday.
The Ragin’ Cajuns also extended their winning streak against Sun Belt West Division opponents to 17 games under fourth-year coach Billy Napier.
But the Warhawks (4-8, 2-6) made it a one-score game with 1:35 left when Malik Jackson, who ran for 112 yards, broke up the middle for a 12-yard run.
