Week 8 college football: No. 7 Ole Miss visits Arch Manning's No. 19 Texas
Archived — this story has rotated out of today’s deck. It is kept here in full.
The gist
No. 7 Ole Miss travels to face quarterback Arch Manning and No.
Texas has lost two straight, and six undefeated FBS teams remain after a chaotic Week 7.
Background
Week 8 of the 2026 college football season follows a Week 7 in which fourteen ranked teams lost, five of them in the AP poll's top eight, leaving six undefeated FBS (top-division) teams entering this week. Arch Manning is the quarterback for No. 19 Texas, which hosts No. 7 Ole Miss in the weekend's standout matchup. The week's TV coverage is also being framed around a proposed 24-team College Football Playoff format.
How it unfolded
- Oct 17, 2026Tennessee beat No. 6 Alabama 26-10, snapping the 14th-ranked Volunteers' seven-game losing streak against ranked teams.
- Oct 18, 2026No. 8 BYU beat No. 2 Notre Dame 28-24, the fifth top-10 team to fall that day.
- Oct 22, 2026Week 8 opened with James Madison at Appalachian State on ESPNU and East Carolina at Memphis on ESPN2.
- Oct 23, 2026Duke beat Virginia 19-16 on a 28-yard TD pass by running back Nate Sheppard with just over a minute left; Army beat Tulsa 38-35 on Dawson Jones' 50-yard field goal on the last play; Stanford beat NC State 31-28 behind Davis Warren's 303 passing yards and four touchdowns.
- Oct 24, 2026The Top 25 slate includes No. 1 Miami (Fla.) vs. Pitt, No. 2 BYU at UCF, No. 7 Ole Miss at No. 19 Texas and No. 10 Utah vs. No. 14 Houston; ESPN's College GameDay is at Utah.
Who’s saying what
- Analysts
- Yahoo Sports and DAZN call Ole Miss' trip to face Arch Manning and Texas the standout game of Week 8.
- Caution
- CableTV.com says fans and coaches are at best indifferent to another playoff change, yet the people in charge seem determined to make a 24-team playoff happen.
- Public
- CableTV.com says last weekend's games were a reminder of why viewers keep tuning in, with a No. 1 team going down and half the AP top 10 losing.
Still unverified
CableTV.com says the people in charge seem determined to make a 24-team College Football Playoff happen, citing an ESPN report on a nearing deal; the change has not been confirmed.