College football Flop 10: Cross-country travel sucks, so does Michigan's offense

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Conference realignment has brought college football plenty of fun new matchups. It has also brought something nobody was exactly begging for: conference games requiring a flight plan, multiple time zones and possibly a neck pillow.

Week 8 offered a reminder that all that travel might not be such a great thing.

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Teams crossing at least two time zones for conference games went an ugly 1-9 over the weekend. Sure, plenty were underdogs. Maybe it’s all coincidence. But there were enough surprising results mixed in to make you wonder if sending teams on cross-country business trips every Saturday is really peak conference scheduling.

Toppmeyer: Arch Manning struck a powerful pose. Texas saved season, in a dramatic way

Either way, the Flop 10 is happy to honor the weary travelers.

Teams collecting frequent-flier miles and losses make up a healthy chunk of this week’s list. Turns out realignment comes with baggage.

BYU

There’s nothing like finally earning everybody’s respect with a major win and then giving it all back seven days later.

BYU looked like it was still nursing a Notre Dame hangover when it stumbled into Orlando, which turned out to be far from the most magical place on Earth. UCF did at least provide a roller coaster of an ending on the way to a 39-31 upset and the Knights’ first top-five victory.

The real kick in the teeth came in the second overtime. UCF appeared to settle for a field goal, only for a roughing-the-kicker penalty to keep the Knights’ offense alive. They turned the second chance into the eventual game-winning touchdown.

Nothing like turning a field goal into a touchdown for the other team.

Brutal.

Lincoln Riley and USC

Apparently, leaving the Pacific Time Zone remains one of Lincoln Riley’s greatest adversaries.

USC suffered arguably the worst loss of the Riley era at Wisconsin, scoring just seven points in a 24-7 beatdown that put the Trojans’ once-promising season on life support and sent calls for Riley’s firing into overdrive.

The Trojans are now 4-6 in the Central and Eastern time zones since joining the Big Ten in 2023. And with a November trip to Indiana still waiting, that record could get even uglier.

Suddenly, USC having no road nonconference games scheduled for 2027 and 2028 feels less like a coincidence and more like a survival strategy.

Michigan

If you thought Tommy Carr was going to ride in and rescue Michigan’s offense, well, dream big.

The Wolverines’ offensive misery continued in a 13-6 loss to Indiana in which they failed to score a touchdown. The painful part is Michigan had a prime opportunity to change the game, only to outsmart itself at the worst possible moment.

On 3rd-and-goal from the 1, Michigan decided pushing forward one yard was apparently too boring. Instead, the Wolverines dialed up a play-action bootleg, and Tobi Osunsanmi was waiting to blow it up for a 13-yard loss. Trey Butkowski then missed the field goal, completing the disaster.

Kyle Whittingham admitted, “That was not a good call.”

Sometimes the Flop 10 just writes itself.

Oregon

Welp, Oregon's season is over. The Ducks reached a new low in a 21-10 loss to Illinois for their third loss of the season that eliminates any playoff consideration.

The big issue has been the offense under first-year offensive coordinator Drew Mehringer, which hasn't been able to produce anything that replicates the flashy Oregon offense everyone knows. But that led to Mehringer still trying to be edgy with a formation in the third quarter that looked rather bold.

The result? A tackle for loss.

Hard times in Autzen.

Texas Tech

Texas Tech spent much of the season flirting with trouble. Cincinnati finally made the Red Raiders pay.

The result was Texas Tech’s first regular-season loss in more than a year, and it wasn’t exactly a graceful fall. The Bearcats took control and never gave the Red Raiders much hope of pulling off another escape.

Things got bad enough that prominent donor Cody Campbell declared “there is no excuse or reason to lose a game like this.” That, naturally, opened the door for everyone to dunk on the big-money booster whose expensive team had just face-planted, particularly after Campbell had previously promised “retribution” over the Brendan Sorsby situation.

Turns out the retribution came with a receipt.

Auburn fan

Lightning didn't strike twice for Auburn to pull off a ranked win. In fact, there was only an embarrassing home loss to LSU, which raced out to a 31-10 halftime lead before it cruised to a 38-17 result.

Given the Tiger fans weren't treated to much at Jordan-Hare Stadium, the stands cleared out rather fast, and this resulted in one of the worst shots for any team: the sad, lonely fan still there.

Never a fun place to be.

Tennessee

Maybe there was too much smoke from all the celebration cigars from last week for Tennessee. The Volunteers fumbled against a hungry South Carolina team that notched another upset with a last-second field goal.

That wasn't the worst thing to happen.

Gamecocks fans rushed the field afterward, and in the midst of the chaos, Vols linebacker Jeremiah Telanderappeared to throw a punch at a South Carolina player on the field.

While we don't know the full story of what led to the incident, no one likes a sore loser.

NC State

The weekend’s cross-country travel horror show got an early start Friday night.

NC State flew all the way to Palo Alto, California, only to watch Stanford suddenly discover an offense. Davis Warren threw for 303 yards and four touchdowns as the Cardinal handed the Wolfpack a 31-28 loss.

The good thing about a long flight home after a loss is that there’s plenty of time to think. Apparently, NC State’s decision-makers did just that. With the Wolfpack sitting at 3-4, the school fired Dave Doeren after 14 seasons. USA TODAY Sports reported the team landed early Saturday morning, meetings followed later that day and players eventually learned a coaching change was coming.

Other teams flew across the country, lost and went home miserable.

NC State did all that and fired its coach.

Halftime leads

Cal and Colorado haven’t had much to celebrate this season, but at halftime Saturday, there was reason to believe things might finally be looking up.

Cal led SMU 20-17. Colorado led Oklahoma State 24-23.

And then both offenses apparently decided to call it a day.

Neither team scored another point. SMU erupted for six second-half touchdowns to turn a three-point deficit into a 59-20 demolition, while Oklahoma State transformed its one-point halftime deficit into a 57-24 rout that sent Colorado to its fifth consecutive loss.

Thirty minutes from hope to humiliation.

It’s the hope that kills you.

Bowl elimination

We’ve reached the second half of the season, which means it’s officially time to start holding funerals for bowl hopes.

Week 8 gave us the first five casualties: Northern Illinois (0-7), Rice (1-7), Akron (1-7), Sacramento State (1-7) and Washington State (1-7). Maybe there’s still some mathematical miracle involving a shortage of bowl-eligible teams, but have you watched these teams? Best not to get your hopes up.

And remember how teams making those ridiculous cross-country conference trips went 1-9 this weekend?

Guess who provided the one.

Hawaiʻi traveled 4,255 miles, the farthest an FBS team has ever traveled for a conference game in the United States, and still found enough energy to demolish Northern Illinois 56-21.

Imagine traveling 4,255 miles and finding a team having a worse day than you.

At least the Rainbow Warriors earned themselves one happy flight home.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: College football Flop 10: Cross-country travel sucks, so does Michigan's offense

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