Bill Connelly Oct 30, 2026, 06:00 AM ET Close Bill Connelly is a writer for ESPN. He covers college football, soccer and tennis. He has been at ESPN since 2019.
On Halloween night in 2015, Miami beat No. 22 Duke with one of the greatest (and most gloriously illegal) plays in college football history. On a cold Halloween night in 1998, unranked Texas ended Nebraska's 47-game home winning streak, 20-16. In 1981, unranked Miami upended No. 1 Penn State 17-14 in a rainy and windy Orange Bowl.
In 2009, Chip Kelly's Oregon rushed for 391 yards on No. 4 USC and sent Pete Carroll scurrying to the pros. In 1959, LSU's Billy Cannon ripped off the greatest punt return in college football history against a damn-near untouchable Ole Miss team. In 1936, Northwestern ended Minnesota's nearly four-year unbeaten streak and replaced the Golden Gophers at No. 1.
Halloween can produce some SPOOOOoooo OOOOky developments. And now it arrives at the end of one of the spookiest Octobers on record. In the last three weeks alone, we've seen 21 ranked teams go down, more than half to unranked opponents.
A top-2 team lost to an unranked foe each week. How will this haunted month end? Here's everything you need to follow. All times Eastern.
Can Northwestern and Ohio State QB Julian Sayin successor meet the moment? The Big Ten is in an odd place. UCLA and Ohio State are unbeaten in conference play but are dealing with long-term quarterback injuries, and Indiana barely got to 4-1 with a limited QB last week. Oregon is out of the race, having fallen apart after QB injury.
This week we finally get a look at Ohio State's Julian Sayin successor of choice, and Oregon and Indiana will help determine whether 3-1 Northwestern and Minnesota are contenders. No. 2 Ohio State at USC (7:30 p.m., NBC) In more than a decade since Ohio State won the national title with third-string QB Cardale Jones, the Buckeyes have had pretty good quarterback injury luck. But with Julian Sayin out indefinitely with an arm injury, their national title hopes are in the hands of either freshman Luke Fahey (likely) or sophomore Tavien St. Clair. Offensive coordinator Arthur Smith & Co. have had two weeks to prepare them for a spotlight moment.
Just throwing the ball at Jeremiah Smith, even if he's double-covered, is a pretty good fallback option for a young QB, but now would be a great time for the Buckeyes run game, which ranks 98th in yards per carry (not including sacks), to help out more, especially in potentially rainy conditions. USC has its own issues. The Trojans scored just seven points against Wisconsin -- the worst output ever for a Lincoln Riley team -- and are projected underdogs in three of their final four games.
The defense has stabilized a bit but still isn't good, especially against the pass. (That's another point in favor of "Just throw it at Smith.") The offense will still probably need 21 points or more to pull an upset, and that will require infinitely better protection for Jayden Maiava, who took five sacks and threw two picks against Wisconsin. USC running backs rushed for just 39 yards, and it felt like every drive started with the Trojans facing third-and-10. No. 20 Northwestern at Oregon (3:30 p.m., Peacock) This is a frequently predictable sport, but damn, can things change sometimes. In the preseason, SP+ projected this game as a 26.6-point advantage for Oregon.
But the Ducks suffered a bumpy start, then lost quarterback Dante Moore for the season as they were beginning to rebound. Meanwhile, Northwestern stormed out of the gates, stagnated briefly, then obliterated Rutgers last week. Legendary former Oregon head coach Chip Kelly returns as the mastermind of a resurgent Northwestern offense.
The 6-1 Wildcats are 25th in points per possession on defense (pretty typical for Northwestern) and 17th on offense (extremely efficient). Oregon has struggled with consistency despite the return of Dante Moore. The Ducks rank 50th in SP+ overall, while Northwestern sits 27th.
This matchup could be tighter than the preseason 26.6-point spread suggests. Current line: Oregon -6.5 | SP+ projection: Oregon by 7.5 | FPI projection: Oregon by 8.5.
Source: ESPN General · Summarized by HeadlinesBriefing