Ranked teams lost 5 times to unranked opponents in Week 8, the most this season

Ranked teams lost 5 games to unranked opponents in Week 8, the most of any week this season, per SportStrata's count of every completed FBS game on ESPN's scoreboard. They went 10-5 in those matchups, a loss rate of 33.3%. Across Weeks 1-7 they lost 12 of 118, or 10.2%.

The 5 losses

• No. 2 BYU lost to UCF, 39-31
• No. 8 Texas Tech lost to Cincinnati, 37-24
• No. 11 Tennessee lost to South Carolina, 27-24
• No. 15 Iowa lost to Minnesota, 13-10
• No. 16 USC lost to Wisconsin, 24-7

The AP poll moved accordingly: BYU fell from No. 2 to No. 8, Texas Tech to No. 13 and Tennessee to No. 16, and Iowa and USC dropped out of the Top 25.

Every loss came on the road

All 5 losses came in the unranked team's stadium. Ranked teams went 7-0 at home against unranked opponents in Week 8 and 3-5 away. Over Weeks 1-7, ranked road teams lost 3 of 34 such games, or 8.8%.

Not just a bigger slate

The count isn't a product of a crowded slate. Week 8 had 15 ranked-vs-unranked games, fewer than 4 of the 7 weeks before it; Week 1 had 24 and Week 2 had 23. The previous single-week high was 4 losses, in Week 6, from 17 games.

The caveat

15 games is a small sample, and 8 road games is smaller. The winners weren't bottom-feeders either: each now has a winning record, at 4-3 or 5-2. What can be said: Week 8 was the worst week of the season for ranked teams against unranked ones, and it fell entirely on the teams that traveled. Whether that's a pattern or a single Saturday, the data can't say yet.