Upsets, upsets, upsets, they are what keeps the college football season one of the most interesting sports to watch week-in and week-out. Week two was the week of the upset, usually, that never happens this early in the season. Seven ranked teams lost over the weekend, with four of those losses coming to unranked teams. 

The biggest upset of the week was unranked Appalachian State receiving $1.5 million to head to College Station, Texas to take on Texas A&M and come away with the win. 

College football almost got a massive upset, falling just two mere points short. The No. 1 ranked Alabama Crimson Tide narrowly squeaked out a win against unranked Texas but were able to come out on top by a score of 20-19. 

However, we still got plenty of upsets and some great football being played, notably: 

Nebraska vs. Georgia Southern

Nebraska was unranked going into this game, but they were still mightily upset. To have Georgia Southern come to town, they coughed up $1.423 million, according to Action Network’s Darren Rovell. 

Following an offensive shootout where neither defense could buy a stop, Nebraska would fall to the visiting team 45-42. 

It does not look good for them heading forward, as they host the No. 6 Oklahoma Sooners next week in a game that is predicted to be a major blowout. 

Now for some ranked teams getting upset. 

Appalachian State vs. Texas A&M

Texas A&M paid over  $1 million to be embarrassed by an unranked team, that is not something that you see every day.

App State took the game by a score of 17-14, a low-scoring affair that came down to the wire. At halftime, the score was 7-7 with no one team having particularly good offensive nights.

The Aggies had a chance to tie the game up at 17 late with a 47-yard field goal, but the kick missed wide. Texas A&M struggled all day to get the ball moving, only managing a measly nine first downs to App State’s 22. 

Further adding to their struggles on offense were the two fumbles they lost. While not particularly impressive either, App State was able to capitalize on the mistakes made by the Aggies and hold onto their lead long enough to win the game. 

Grabbing an away win against a ranked opponent and getting paid to do so? Quite the successful night for the school as a whole, evident by the students taking to the streets to celebrate the win:

ESPN’s College Gameday is headed to Boone following the upset, as the Mountaineers host the Troy Trojans. 

Marshall vs. Notre Dame

Notre Dame is having a nightmare start to the season. After falling to a tough Ohio State squad in week one they looked to bounce back and show that they are a dominant team against unranked Marshall. 

Instead of showing everyone that they should be a team to be feared, they got outmatched and outplayed on their way to a 26-21 loss. 

In the same way that Texas A&M was haunted, Notre Dame committed untimely turnovers and was not able to truly get anything going on offense until it was too late in the game. 

Marcus Freeman is the first head coach in Notre Dame history to start 0-3, according to NBC Sports. Not the start that he envisioned to his tenure, but he should have time to turn around before getting the boot. 

In another example of why schools should save their money instead of paying schools to come to town to embarrass them, Notre Dame paid $1.25 million to host Marshall, sports business analyst Darren Rovell said in a tweet.

Maybe Marshall and App State being ranked opponents show that the Sun Belt Conference is a title contender. That would be crazy, but is it actually possible? 

Both Marshall and App state are on the cusp of being ranked, if Marshall can go undefeated on the season and take down App State on Nov. 12 there is the smallest of possibilities they sneak into the playoff. 

Texas Tech vs. Houston

It took two overtimes for Texas Tech to take the game from then No. 25 ranked Houston. 

In the closely contested matchup, Texas Tech snuck away with a 33-30 win. 

Turnovers were detrimental to both teams, a total of five interceptions were thrown, three of them by the winning Texas Tech. 

Where the Red Raiders noticeably dominated was their ability to keep drives alive and get first downs. They would tally a total of 35 first downs, 20 more than the 15 that Houston tallied.

Additionally, they had control over the ball for long stretches of time. They would finish the game with over 37 minutes of possession (37:18), compared to the 22 minutes (22:42) that Houston controlled the ball. 

Their control over the ball and ability to come up with clutch plays in overtime was the decisive factor in the win. 

Following the win, the students stormed the field to celebrate the first ranked win for the program since 2019. 

WSU vs. Wisconsin

In the last unranked team to beat a ranked team, WSU headed into Madison, Wisconsin and took down the “mighty” Badgers. Wisconsin dominated the time of possession, total yards, and most offensive stats. 

However, WSU had that one thing that Wisconsin does not have, they have that “Coug” in them and were able to grit out the win. 

Nakia Watson, a transfer running back from Wisconsin, made his return to Madison and scored a pair of touchdowns to lead the rushing attack for WSU. 

The Cougs were able to overcome a pair of interceptions from Cam Ward. Notably, after his second pick, Lincoln Victor showed grit forcing a fumble on the return to get the ball back for the Cougs on the same play. 

Late in the game, Wisconsin quarterback Graham Mertz threw an interception on the WSU half of the field that could have sealed the deal. But, they too were able to force a fumble on the return to get the ball back.

Only a few plays later, the Coug defense came up huge again forcing another fumble with under six minutes left in the game. The offense took this opportunity to drain the rest of the clock and secure one of the biggest wins in program history. 

Winning in Camp Randall Stadium is huge for the Cougs and very meaningful for head coach Jake Dickert. It is the first road win against a ranked non-conference opponent for the team since 2003. For Dickert, this win means a lot as he hails from Wisconsin and had huge familial support showing up at the game. 

College football is chaos embodied and you can never truly predict what will happen any given week. That is what makes it so electric and a joy to watch for so many people. 

With preseason predictions already in shambles, every week matters in making your case for the college football playoff. A program like Marshall could win out and have everything go their way to make the playoffs, or their flame could die next week and never win again. 

One upset to look out for in week three is No. 22 Penn State losing on the road to Auburn.