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College football coaches often preach about controlling the controllables, yet they rank among the sport's most obsessive micromanagers. That urge to control everything sometimes extends to relying on commercial airlines—recall the story of former Alabama coach Nick Saban arranging a Christmas flight home for offensive lineman Dominick Jackson in 2014.
But on Friday, the sport's power brokers had no control. They were at the mercy of the Federal Aviation Administration, which issued only the third nationwide ground stop in history due to a massive communication outage. The stoppage wreaked havoc on team travel, forcing Colorado State to hold a walkthrough on a tarmac, among other oddities. Here's hoping your team made it from Point A to Point B in one piece ahead of a chilly Saturday across the country.
Welcome to Week 11's live winners and losers. These will be updated throughout Saturday. Please refresh the page for more updates.
Winners: College Football Travel Support Staffs
The most famous supporting character in American television history was a sports travel support staffer, but he did little to dignify the profession. That was not the case Friday, as these unsung heroes worked quickly under difficult circumstances to largely preserve this weekend's games. It's actually remarkable that only one game (Mississippi-Oklahoma, a certified fiasco) is being pushed to Sunday. From scouring various programs' directories, a big hand for Kerry Callender and Mary Marsden (Utah's travel consultants), Laura Barlow (Tennessee's travel specialist), Wayne Langbein and Nicole Wood (Washington's travel coordinator and manager), and many others at many other schools—now, get some rest.
Loser: Wisconsin
Even in a year where many teams' performances one week have seemed to have little to do with their performances the next week, the Badgers stand out. Entering Saturday, Wisconsin's last five games included a blowout win over Michigan State, a 17-7 loss at UCLA, a 24-7 win over USC that looked like a breakthrough, a 30-0 no-show against Iowa and a 31-10 victory over Rutgers. Then came Maryland—the Terrapins, playing with new fire under interim coach Aazaar Abdul-Rahim, rallied from a 10-0 deficit to almost certainly end the Badgers' faint Big Ten title hopes. Wisconsin's quarterback situation remains unsettled, but something has to be done about that defense after Maryland quarterback Cardell Williams completed 21-of-23 passes for 183 yards and a touchdown (to go with two on the ground).
Winner: Wake Forest
Barely favored to beat SMU and unlucky No. 13 in this week's CFP standings, the Demon Deacons cloaked themselves in the disrespect they've been afforded and used it to defenestrate SMU in Texas. Wake Forest led the Mustangs 42-0 at the half—a margin not so different from last Saturday's 49-0 halftime lead against Merrimack—and converted a sizzling 12-of-18 third- and fourth-down attempts. Demon Deacons coach Jake Dickert, quickly joining Jim Grobe and Dave Clawson as recent school coaching titans, uttered the coldest quote in college football this year when he said SMU had nowhere to hide at halftime. The sport will be the lesser if this team misses the CFP, even with a hypothetical second ACC championship loss to Miami.
Loser: Northwestern
Every team that loses to the worst Ohio State team in 15 years from here on out is blowing an opportunity, but the Wildcats—who haven't won in Columbus since 1971—really blew an opportunity Saturday. Yes, Northwestern was without (genuine) star quarterback Aidan Chiles, but it failed to capitalize on three takeaways and demonstrated remarkably little play-calling aggression for a Chip Kelly-coordinated offense. Considering the gulf between their play last season and this year, the Wildcats' 2026 record simply cannot look like their 7-6 2025 mark. With Minnesota and Illinois on deck, that's a possibility.
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Patrick Andres is a staff writer on the Breaking and Trending News team at Sports Illustrated. He joined SI in December 2022, having worked for The Blade, Athlon Sports, Fear the Sword and Diamond Digest. Andres has covered everything from zero-attendance Big Ten basketball to a seven-overtime college football game. He is a graduate of Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism with a double major in history. Follow PAndres2001.