Winners (Arizona State) and losers (*gestures at the entire SEC*) from a chaos-filled Week 13 of college football

As is often the case in college football, a week that most of us expected to be sleepy proved to be perhaps the most iconic of the entire season in Week 13.

While the SEC was taking its annual lumps for its traditional "cupcake weekend" of buy-game opponents ahead of rivalry week, it turned out to be a disastrous Saturday in the land where It Just Means More. Three teams with two losses vying for spots in the SEC championship and College Football Playoff — Ole Miss, Alabama and Texas A&M — went down on the road to unranked opponents, likely ending their postseason hopes.

The rest of the power conferences weren't entirely spared from chaos, though it was a chalky weekend at the top of the ACC and Big Ten, where Ohio State took the glisten off Indiana's success story with a dominant 38-15 win to likely set up a rematch against Oregon in the title game. In the Big 12, however, both BYU and Colorado went down, and now Arizona State and Iowa State control their destinies in a conference in which nine teams are yet to be mathematically eliminated from conference contention.

It was a wild weekend in the sport, to say the least. Let's get into the winners and losers from the penultimate week of the regular season.

Winner: Arizona State's stunning ascendance

The Sun Devils had to wait a few minutes longer than they expected as one of two (!) premature field stormings thanks to some questionable game management at the end from coach Kenny Dillingham, but they were ultimately afforded a legitimate field storming as they took down BYU and seized control of their own destiny in the Big 12.

A team that entered the season expected to be one of the worst teams in the conference in its first season as a member is now just a win in the Territorial Cup over struggling rival Arizona away from clinching a spot in the conference title game.

That this team has a clear path to the CFP in just Year 2 under Dillingham is quite an accomplishment. It's hard to understate how poor the situation Dillingham inherited in Tempe from previous coach Herm Edwards, who left the program with a depleted roster and in hot water with the NCAA.

The rebuild was expected to take quite some time, and it would have hardly been held against Dillingham if this team missed a bowl game again. Instead, it has a very real shot at reaching the playoff this fall, thanks to the emergence of players like quarterback Sam Leavitt and star running back Cam Skattebo.

Loser: Indiana falls back down to Earth

I don't think Saturday's 38-15 loss to an Ohio State team that held a vast talent advantage should erase what Indiana has accomplished in Year 1 under Curt Cignetti. With what should be an easy win over Purdue next week, the Hoosiers are in all likelihood heading for an unprecedented 11-win season — this is already the first time the program has won 10 games in a season.

Indiana looked game on the opening possession, taking an early 7-0 lead before the Buckeyes took over the contest and ultimately held the Hoosiers to just 153 yards of offense in this game as they had no answer at the lines of scrimmage.

Admittedly, a win over Ohio State would have ascended Indiana into another class of the sport, setting it up for a Big Ten title appearance against Oregon and locking it into a CFP bid. It's clear this program is not quite there yet, despite the impressive Year 1 effort under Cignetti.

But that shouldn't entirely take the wind out of the sails here. During the bye week ahead of the game, Cignetti signed a major extension that will pay him $8 million per year, and with no big-time jobs looking likely to open at the moment, he will likely be sticking around for another season at least.

And while the week of discourse leading up to the game focused on attacking Indiana's strength of schedule and playoff candidacy in the event of a loss, chaos around the sport (we'll get to that in a bit) has to have the Hoosiers feeling pretty good about their postseason chances if they're sitting at 11-1.

Winner: Notre Dame's quiet dominance

If there's one thing Marcus Freeman has proven at Notre Dame this season, it's that his team is more than capable of handling the flexbone triple option. It beat Navy 51-14 earlier this season to hand the Midshipmen their first loss of the season, and the Fighting Irish did the same to Army on Saturday night in Yankee Stadium with a 49-14 win.

Despite its undefeated record and top-20 ranking, the Black Knights were clearly overmatched in this game, as was their service academy counterpart. But for the Irish, it's yet another convincing win as this team does everything it can to erase a loss to Northern Illinois that is far and away the worst suffered by any team in the CFP conversation.

Since then, only one of Notre Dame's wins has come by less than three scores — a seven-point victory over Louisville. Since the calendar turned to October, the Fighting Irish have outscored their opponents 267-65.

The strength of schedule certainly leaves a lot to be desired and would likely doom Notre Dame if it can't take care of business against 6-5 USC to close out the regular season, but Freeman's team is practically a lock at 11-1 if it wins that game.

While Notre Dame has taken a couple of ugly losses in the Freeman era, his teams continue to respond well to them.

Loser: SEC teams in playoff contention

Before Saturday, it looked like we were heading for an SEC hater's worst nightmare in the CFP with six teams sitting at two losses or fewer. However, the nightmare turned out to be Greg Sankey's as three of the league's contenders went down to unranked opponents.

For Ole Miss, it was a similar story to its other three losses. It probably played the better game and certainly had more than enough opportunities to win but just couldn't take advantage of enough of those chances. All three losses have come by a razor-thin margin, but the cumulative effect will probably cost Ole Miss a playoff spot in a very hyped season under coach Lane Kiffin.

Like Ole Miss quarterback Jaxson Dart, who threw two interceptions as his team was driving to tie in the final two minutes, Alabama's Jalen Milroe also cost his team dearly with his turnovers, of which he had three. Both came early in the third quarter, with one setting up a touchdown and the other returned for one.

Meanwhile, Texas A&M just couldn't shake Auburn despite overcoming a 21-0 deficit early. The Tigers took the Aggies to overtime and ultimately outlasted them on a dueling two-point conversion shootout in four overtimes.

The SEC's hopes of getting four or even five teams in the field appear to be dead, and these outcomes were a godsend to teams in other leagues hopeful to snatch up at-large spots, namely Indiana and a non-ACC champion, such as Clemson.

Quick Hitters - Winners

• Florida: It feels like we may have entered a new era of the Billy Napier era in Gainesville. After many thought he was a dead man walking earlier in the year, he has now notched back-to-back ranked wins for the first time at Florida since 2008.

• SMU: The Mustangs took care of business against Virginia on the road and are now just one win against Cal away from securing a matchup against Miami in the ACC title game.

• Florida State: FSU finally got back in the win column for the first time since September with a win over Charleston Southern. Are the Bucs a 1-11 FCS team? That's irrelevant. What matters is that Florida State will avoid a 1-11 season itself and now has the chance to ruin its rival's good vibes next weekend.

• Kansas: The Jayhawks are easily the best 5-6 team in the country, and I don't say that sarcastically at all. With wins over Iowa State, BYU and Colorado in recent weeks, this looks like a team no one wants to play right now. Kansas can get bowl-eligible with a win over Baylor.

• Nebraska: They've finally done it. After a 5-1 start turned into four-straight losses, the Cornhuskers managed to arrest the slide in a dominant win over Wisconsin, reaching bowl eligibility for the first time since 2016.

• Cal: It's been a brutal season for the Golden Bears, who have suffered three losses by two points or less. But they reached bowl eligibility with a win over rival Stanford, and quarterback Fernando Mendoza's emotional postgame interview shows why college football is still the absolute best.

• East Carolina: The Pirates fired Mike Houston after a 3-4 start, but they've now won four in a row under interim coach Blake Harrell, which was enough for ECU to take the "interim" tag off his title on Monday.

• Oregon State: The Beavers captured the Pac-12 championship, winning the lone conference game of the season in upset fashion over Washington State. The field at Reser Stadium was stormed in one of quite a few stormings we saw on Saturday.

• LSU: It's still a disappointing season in Baton Rouge, but holding on to beat Vanderbilt could prove to be the difference between a frustrating finish and a full-on fan revolt against Brian Kelly.

• Auburn: The Tigers' brutal luck in close games finally turned, and the offense looked the best it has all season as it held on to potentially ruin Texas A&M's season in four overtimes.

• Iowa State: The Cyclones held on to win a back-and-forth game against Utah, and despite a couple tough losses seemingly taking them out of contention, they now control their destiny in the Big 12 once more ahead of the season finale against Kansas State.

• Oklahoma: The Sooners haven't had a fun debut season in the SEC, but knocking off Alabama in front of the home crowd is certainly something they'll remember for a while.

Quick Hitters - Losers

• Kent State: The Golden Flashes needed to win over 2-8 Akron to have a real shot at avoiding 0-12 in a brutal campaign. They lost that game 38-17.

• Colorado: It's been quite the improvement in Boulder this season, but it's clear the Buffs just aren't there yet after Kansas' offense had them tied in knots all night.

• Oklahoma State: The Cowboys are an unbelievable 0-8 after a shootout loss to Texas Tech. This veteran-heavy team was expected to compete for the Big 12 this season, and instead, it's been the worst in the league.

• Tulsa: A blowout loss to South Florida was enough for the Golden Hurricane to pull the plug on the Kevin Wilson era in less than two seasons. It's a hire that didn't really make sense from the start, and it ended predictably in Tulsa.

• Pittsburgh: A season that began with such promise has really gone by the wayside down the stretch. The Panthers fell to 7-4 with a demoralizing 37-9 road loss to Louisville.

• Army: It's been a special season for Army, but its outside College Football Playoff hopes rested on pulling the top-10 upset over the Irish.

• Premature field stormings: At the risk of sounding like an old man yelling at a cloud, this is getting out of hand. There have been so many field stormings in college football this season that I can't even keep track of them, and fans have gotten so overzealous that not once, but twice on Saturday we saw them storm the field before the clock hit zeroes, leading to lengthy delays and fines for the schools in question. Folks, knock it off.

This article originally appeared on For The Win: Winners (Arizona State) and losers (*gestures at the entire SEC*) from a chaos-filled Week 13 of college football