Key Matchups and Upsets
| Date | Visitor | Home | Significance |
|---|---|---|---|
| August 30 | Appalachian State 13 | #7 LSU 41 | For the first time in history, the defending champions of Division I FBS and FCS face off. |
| September 6 | #8 West Virginia 3 | East Carolina 24 | With an upset over West Virginia at home and a victory over Virginia Tech the week before in Charlotte, East Carolina vaulted into the Top 25 rankings for the first time since 1999, and set a Conference USA record for being the first team to beat three top 25 teams consecutively (#24 Boise State, #17 Virginia Tech, and #8 West Virginia.) |
| September 13 | #5 Ohio State 3 | #1 USC 35 | Southern California wins the most anticipated matchup of the early 2008 schedule for its eighth straight victory over a Big Ten opponent. |
| September 25 | #1 USC 21 | Oregon State 27 | Unranked Oregon State defeated the Trojans for the third time in the Trojans' last four visits to Corvallis. |
| September 27 | Ole Miss 31 | #4 Florida 30 | Ole Miss posted its 600th win and first win over a Top 5 team since 1977 when the Rebels defeated Florida. Three of the last six times Florida has lost to an unranked team it has been to Ole Miss. The loss to Ole Miss was the only loss by Florida in the 2008 regular season.; USA Today; OleMissSports.com |
| October 4 | #13 Auburn 13 | #19 Vanderbilt 14 | In the first ever visit of ESPN's College Gameday in Nashville, the Commodores defeat the higher-ranked Tigers after a missed extra point by Auburn. The next week, Vanderbilt received its highest ranking ever at #13. |
| October 11 | #5 Texas 45 | #1 Oklahoma 35 | Texas defeats the #1 team in the nation and wins the highest scoring Red River Rivalry ever. |
| October 16 | #9 BYU 7 | TCU 32 | The Cougars entered with the nation's longest winning streak at 16 games, but the Horned Frogs also score their biggest win ever over a Top 10 team. |
| October 25 | #3 Penn State 13* | #9 Ohio State 6 | Penn State defeats Ohio State on a game ending interception, winning their first game in Ohio Stadium since joining the Big Ten in 1993. |
| November 1 | #1 Texas 33 | #7 Texas Tech 39 | Texas Tech upsets #1 Texas on a last-second TD pass from Graham Harrell to Michael Crabtree and takes the top spot in the Big 12 South. |
| November 6 | #12 TCU 10 | #8 Utah 13 | In the second of three key Mountain West games with BCS implications, the Horned Frogs jump to a 10–0 first-quarter lead, but the Utes remained unbeaten with their BCS hopes alive, scoring the winning TD on a pass from Brian Johnson to Freddie Brown with 47 seconds left. |
| November 8 | Iowa 24 | #3 Penn State 23 | Iowa kicker Daniel Murray makes a last-second field goal for the win. Joe Paterno loses for the first time in 2008. |
| November 8 | #1 Alabama 27 | #15 LSU 21 (OT) | In what was known as "Saban Bowl II", the Crimson Tide defeat LSU in Tiger Stadium. With the win, Alabama was SEC West Division Champions. |
| November 22 | #15 Michigan State 18 | #8 Penn State 49* | The Nittany Lions win their 800th game in school history, the Big Ten championship, and a trip to the Rose Bowl. |
| November 22 | #14 BYU 24 | #7 Utah 48 | In The Holy War, Utah scores 21 unanswered fourth-quarter points to win the Mountain West championship, complete an unbeaten 12–0 season, and secure its second trip to a BCS bowl. |
| November 22 | #2 Texas Tech 21 | #5 Oklahoma 65 | Oklahoma ended the Red Raiders' hopes of a national championship appearance a year after Texas Tech did the same to Oklahoma. |
| November 28 | Fresno State 10 | #9 Boise State 61 | Boise State scored 51 unanswered points to cap off their third undefeated regular season in the past five years and sixth WAC championship in seven years. |
| November 29 | #18 Georgia Tech 45 | #11 Georgia 42 | #11 Georgia hosted #18 Georgia Tech in Athens for what looked to be Georgia's 8th win in a row in the storied rivalry, Clean, Old-Fashioned Hate. However, after trailing 28–12 at halftime, Georgia Tech sprung out of the locker room erupting for 33 points in the second half, beating Georgia 26–0 in the third quarter alone. This kept Georgia Tech's streak of 8 wins in a row from 1946–1954 as the longest in the series. |
| December 5 | #12 Ball State 24 | Buffalo 42 | 12-0 Ball State tried to complete their first undefeated season in fifty-nine years in the MAC Championship Game, but Buffalo was able to capitalize on the Cardinals' mistakes to earn their first ever conference championship and secure a bid in the International Bowl, fifty years after turning down their only previous bowl invitation to protest segregation at the game's site. |
| December 6 | #1 Alabama 20 | #2 Florida 31 | First conference championship game ever to feature both the No. 1 and No. 2 teams in the AP Poll. Alabama entered the SEC Championship Game as the only BCS-conference team to finish the regular season undefeated. |
Read more about this topic: 2008 NCAA Division I FBS Football Season
Famous quotes containing the words key and/or upsets:
“This is the Key of the Kingdom:
In that Kingdom is a city;”
—Unknown. This Is the Key (l. 1–2)
“Americans are very friendly and very suspicious, that is
what Americans are and that is what always upsets the
foreigner, who deals with them, they are so friendly
how can they be so suspicious and they are so
suspicious how can they be so friendly but they just
are and that certainly has something to do with their
having tucked their capital, their capitals away.”
—Gertrude Stein (1874–1946)