SEC college football

Plenty of playoff contenders suddenly find themselves dealing with major injuries in the college football season. Mertz and Pili both got injured in No. 11 Tennessee’s 23-17 overtime victory over Florida. Pili’s ACL injury leaves the Volunteers without one of their team captains as they prepare to host No. 7 Alabama on Saturday.

The leaders of the SEC and Big Ten want to see how the first year of the expanded College Football Playoff works before deciding what comes next. The presidents and athletic sidrcot met at a Nashville hotel with SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey and Big Ten Commissioner Tony Petitti going over the changing landscape of college athletics.

Alabama’s stunning loss was splashed across headlines and screens nationwide. South Carolina didn’t get quite so much attention but is trying to bounce back from its own embarrassing performance in a 27-3 loss to No. 9 Mississippi. It’s time to see how they both respond on Saturday at Bryant-Denny Stadium.

An Alabama Law student and Alabama Military Law Society president will lead his company in a four AH-64 Apache helicopter flyover for the Alabama vs. South Carolina football game on Oct. 12 at Bryant-Denny Stadium. The University of Alabama is announcing Kyle Wise is taking to the sky.

The Southeastern Conference’s biggest shakeups haven’t come courtesy of newcomers Oklahoma and Texas so far, but from more unlikely culprits. Think Kentucky over Mississippi, Arkansas over Tennessee, Texas A&M over Missouri. And the ultimate shocker: Vanderbilt over then-No. 1 Alabama for the first time in 40 years.

For Nick Saban, it was Louisiana-Monroe. Kalen DeBoer also has now endured a stunning loss in his debut season at Alabama with a loss to Vanderbilt that dealt a massive but not necessarily fatal blow to the now seventh-ranked Crimson Tide’s playoff and Southeastern Conference title hopes.

Alabama safety Malachi Moore has apologized for his late-game outburst in a loss to Vanderbilt. The two-time team captain shoved Vanderbilt quarterback Diego Pavia's head toward the ground at the end of a play, threw his mouthguard and drew an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty for kicking the football in the 40-35 upset that cost the Crimson Tide the No. 1 ranking.

Longtime Associated Press Top 25 voter Kirk Bohls of the Houston Chronicle said this week's ballot was the most difficult he's had to fill out. Six unranked teams upset Top 25 teams. Texas returned to No. 1 after a week’s absence. The biggest questions were how far to drop Alabama for losing to Vanderbilt and what to do with Georgia.

It was a week of upheaval in The Associated Press college football poll. Texas returned to No. 1 after a one-week absence following Vanderbilt’s monumental upset of Alabama. The Commodores’ win over Alabama on Saturday caused the Crimson Tide to drop from No. 1 to No. 7.

Vanderbilt’s stunning upset of No. 1 Alabama that led to crazed fans marching the goal posts through the streets of Nashville was just the appetizer. Saturday proved to be one of the wildest days in the AP poll in years. Four teams ranked in the top 11 in the latest poll were upset by unranked teams, the first time that happened on a single day since 2016, when five teams did it.