30. Boston College 37, USC 31 (September 13)

A week after surviving Stanford, USC traveled cross-country and ran into a buzzsaw of an option ground game. We would learn later in the season that allowing tons of rushing yards to BC wasn't the greatest shame. But at the time, this felt like a big upset.

USC went up 17-6 early in the second quarter, having forced three-and-outs on BC's first three possessions. But Tyler Murphy, Jon Hilliman, and the BC option got rolling. The Eagles scored 20 points in the second quarter and took a 30-17 lead early in the fourth. When USC cut the lead to 30-24, Murphy iced the game.

29. Arizona 31, Oregon 24 (October 2)

Between all the ridiculously close games, Arizona emerged as a Pac-12 contender, then disappeared, then sneaked back in and won the South when UCLA faltered. The wavy narrative began its crest when the Wildcats went to Eugene on the first Thursday night of October and took down the mighty Ducks.

The first half was about missed opportunities. Oregon turned the ball over on downs at the UA 31 on its first possession, then lost a fumble at the Arizona 35 in the second quarter. The Ducks led 7-3 at halftime, but they would need those lost points. Arizona made impressive offensive tweaks in the second half and not only scored on four of five possessions, but played a nice game of keepaway. The Wildcats attempted 49 snaps to Oregon's 33 in the second half.

Nick Wilson scored three third-quarter touchdowns to give the Wildcats a 24-14 lead, and tied at 24-24 midway through the fourth, Oregon's Tony Washington was given an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty (for taking a bow) following a huge third-down stop.

Given new life, Arizona scored with three minutes left to take the lead. Then Scooby Wright III recorded one of his 14 sacks, yanking the ball from Marcus Mariota in the process.

28. Ohio State 31, Penn State 24 (October 25)

A lot of people were hesitant to believe that Ohio State was a true contender, and this game gave them reason to hold off a while longer. In a performance that would only look more impressive as the season progressed, Penn State held the Buckeyes to 293 yards, 3.9 per play, in 60 minutes of regulation and two overtimes. They allowed four scoring opportunities in regulation and forced two field goals.

Unfortunately, Penn State's offense had a role to play, too. Ohio State held Nittany Lion running backs Akeel Lynch and Bill Belton to 46 yards on 22 carries, sacked Christian Hackenberg five times, and picked him off twice. Thanks to Anthony Zettel's pick six, the PSU defense scored almost as much as its offense in regulation.

The PSU offense picked up the pace in OT, but the defense had nothing left. Belton scored to make it 24-17, and J.T. Barrett responded with two touchdown runs. Down 31-24 and forced to score a touchdown, PSU had to go for it on fourth-and-5, but Joey Bosa flung a blocker into Hackenberg to finish the game off.

27. Missouri 21, Arkansas 14 (November 28)
26. Arizona 42, Arizona State 35 (November 28)

Despite a blowout home loss to Georgia, Missouri found itself with a chance to win the SEC East when Georgia was inexplicably womped by Florida. If they could survive a season-ending three-game stretch against Texas A&M, Tennessee, and Arkansas, the Tigers would take the crown. They were 3.5-point underdogs at A&M and won, 34-27. They were five-point underdogs at Tennessee and won, 29-21. And they were two-point underdogs for their first game against Arkansas in Columbia since 1906.

Arkansas led 14-6 thanks to Mizzou's miscues -- two turnovers and a blocked field goal. But when Missouri finally got its offense going, the Hogs had no answers. Maty Mauk hit Jimmie Hunt for 44 yards on the first play of the fourth quarter, then found Hunt in the end zone from four yards out; a two-point conversion tied the game. After an Arkansas punt, the Tigers went 85 yards in 12 plays (11 runs, one incomplete pass); Marcus Murphy scored with 4:38 remaining to set Memorial Stadium ablaze. And when Kentrell Brothers knocked the ball loose from Alex Collins at the Mizzou 34, Markus Golden recovered. The Tigers ran out the clock and celebrated a second division title, this one less likely than the first.

Meanwhile, Arizona was taking advantage of miscues as well. On November 19, F/+ projections gave the Wildcats a 2 percent chance of winning the South. The Wildcats needed UCLA to beat USC and lose to Stanford at home, then they needed to knock off ASU in Tucson. UCLA fulfilled its duties with minimal drama, beating USC by 18 and getting walloped by Stanford. UA needed only to win the Territorial Cup.

This was a funky game. Arizona scored on a fumble return, then ASU scored on one, too. The Wildcats went up 35-21 on a 72-yard run by Nick Wilson, but ASU kept responding. Mike Bercovici threw two touchdowns to keep the Sun Devils within striking distance. Arizona went three-and-out with three minutes left, and ASU got one last chance. Following a third-and-19 pass interference penalty, the Sun Devils advanced to the UA 38. But on fourth-and-12, Bercovici couldn't connect with Jaelen Strong. Commence celebration.

25. Miami Beach Bowl: Memphis 55, BYU 48 (December 22)

Early points explosion? Check. Memphis led BYU, 17-14, after 15 minutes of what was supposed to be a defense-heavy battle.

Eventual defensive play-making? Check. BYU took the lead thanks to two interceptions. Alani Fua returned a pick 37 yards to set up a go-ahead touchdown, and after BYU scored twice to erase a 10-point, fourth-quarter deficit, Zac Stout picked off Paxton Lynch and took the interception 19 yards for another go-ahead.

Improbable comeback? Check. Two, actually! Following BYU's 17-0 run, Lynch looked like he had lost the plot. Naturally, he completed two fourth-down passes to Keiwone Malone, the second a touchdown with 45 seconds remaining.

Reprehensible clock and timeout management? Check. We need to send BYU coach Bronco Mendenhall to a seminar.

College kicker makes good? Check. After BYU's Trevor Samson nailed a 45-yard field goal in overtime, Lynch took an awful sack, and Memphis' Jake Elliott had to make a 54-yarder to tie the game. It would have been good from 70.

Fight? CHECK. Memphis scored on its second-OT possession, and DeShaughn Terry picked off Christian Stewart to finish the game. And then ... a melee.

Yeah, this had everything you could possibly want from a pre-Christmas bowl.

24. Sun Bowl: Arizona State 36, Duke 31 (December 27)

This also checked plenty of boxes, albeit without the brawl.

Punt return touchdown? Jamison Crowder took one 68 yards in the second quarter.

Double-digit comeback? Duke was down 20-3 in the second quarter and took a 31-30 lead in the fourth.

Trick plays? Are you in the market for a fake punt, a reverse pass, and almost literally every possible special teams event?

Duke lost, as Duke is prone to doing in bowls. But in a game that threatened to become a blowout, Duke scraped back in before falling thanks to a long kick return and, with 45 seconds left, an interception in the end zone.

23. TCU 34, Kansas 30 (November 15)
22. TCU 31, WVU 30 (November 1)

No team looked as malicious when hitting on all cylinders as TCU did. Not Ohio State, not Alabama, not Oregon. The Horned Frogs did nasty things to Oklahoma State, Texas Tech, Texas, Iowa State, and Ole Miss.

But this is college football; no team stays in fifth gear for long. TCU lost a three-touchdown, fourth-quarter lead like a set of keys against Baylor in Waco, and against West Virginia and Kansas, there were enough glitches to nearly knock the Frogs out of the title race.

In Morgantown, quarterback Trevone Boykin lost his efficiency. He completed 12 of 30 passes and rushed for 49 yards. The Horned Frogs trailed 30-21 early in the fourth. Down 30-28, they turned the ball over on downs with 3:48 remaining. But after forcing another three-and-out, they got one last chance. Boykin hit Kolby Listenbee for 40 yards, and with four seconds left, Jaden Oberkrom hit a 37-yard field goal for the win.

If struggle was expected in Morgantown, it wasn't two weeks later in Lawrence. In cold, cloudy, windy conditions against a Kansas team that had already dumped its head coach, TCU fell down every rung of the upset ladder. They fell behind early, 13-7. They committed costly turnovers, throwing an interception from the KU 35 and losing two second-half fumbles. They were sliced up by unlucky bounces: KU's Nigel King made a circus catch of a tipped ball, and in one of the season's most "Is this really going to happen??" moments, took it 78 yards to give the Jayhawks a 27-17 lead in the third quarter.

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But TCU rallied. Cameron Echols-Luper's 69-yard punt return gave the Frogs the lead and held KU to a field goal after a costly fumble. Kansas got the ball back with four minutes left and one last chance, but Chris Hackett picked off Michael Cummings near midfield.

21. Music City Bowl: Notre Dame 31, LSU 28 (December 30)
20. Outback Bowl: Wisconsin 34, Auburn 31 (January 1)

The SEC West was the best division in college football. A bad bowl swing couldn't change that.

But damn, did the West have a bad bowl swing, going 2-5 overall. TCU massacred Ole Miss in the Peach Bowl, Georgia Tech's option taunted Mississippi State all night in the Orange Bowl, and while there was no shame in Alabama losing to eventual national champion Ohio State, it confirmed the SEC would go without the title for a second straight year.

Two other results sealed the West's fate, and man, were they fun. First, you had Notre Dame's wide-open 31-28 win over LSU in Nashville on New Year's Eve Eve. The game served as a coming-out party for both LSU's Leonard Fournette -- 11 carries, 143 yards, two scores (including an 89-yarder), and a 100-yard kick return -- and introduced what will be one of Spring 2015's most prevalent story lines: Malik Zaire vs. Everett Golson for the Notre Dame starting quarterback job. The teams were tied at 7-7, 14-14, 21-21, and 28-28 before Kyle Brindza, whose misses played roles in losses to Louisville and Northwestern, hit a 32-yard field goal at the buzzer.

Two days later in Tampa, Auburn and Wisconsin played with a similar flow. They were tied at 7-7 and 14-14, and neither led by more than seven points. Melvin Gordon scored on a gorgeous 53-yard run to put the Badgers up by four.

The teams traded scores the rest of the way until Rafael Gaglianone hit a 29-yard field goal with seven seconds left to send the game to overtime. Gaglianone hit a 25-yarder, and Auburn went three-and-out, leaving Daniel Carlson with a 45-yard attempt. It bonked off of the upright.

19. Fiesta Bowl: Boise State 38, Arizona 30 (December 31)

The best live bands are the ones that kick ass and give winks to the hardcore fans.

Boise State didn't pull off the strongest finish in bowl history, watching a three-touchdown lead almost disintegrate in a 38-30 Fiesta Bowl win over Arizona. But the Broncos did win, securing their third Fiesta title in nine seasons. And in the process, they gave one hell of a wink to college football fans. Or maybe they just played the hits early in the set.

Regardless ...

ESPN

18. Alabama 55, Auburn 44 (November 29)

Shootouts feel more exciting when they aren't supposed to happen. There was something illicit about what Alabama and Auburn did in the Iron Bowl.

The 2013 Iron Bowl, an all-time classic, felt like a shootout but finished with a 34-28 final. This one hit 33-27 midway through the third and kept going. Auburn blew chances, settling for three early field goals, but the Tigers still scored twice in the last minute of the first half and took a 26-21 lead into halftime.

A Quan Bray touchdown expanded Auburn's lead to 33-21, but Alabama had Amari Cooper and Auburn didn't. A 39-yard strike from Blake Sims to Cooper made the score 33-27; a 75-yard bomb five minutes later, complete with preemptive Lane Kiffin celebration, cut Auburn's lead to 36-34.

In the fourth, Auburn ran out of gas. Two passes to Cooper set up a Blake Sims touchdown run to give Bama a 42-36 lead, and after an Auburn three-and-out, Sims found DeAndrew White for a six-yard score. When Derrick Henry rumbled first for 49 yards, then for a 25-yard score, it was 55-36, a 10th-round knockout. But it was a hell of a 10-round fight.

17. Hawaii 37, UNLV 35 (November 22)

This was a 21-14 game between two struggling Mountain West programs. UNLV scored twice to go up 28-24 with 4:51 remaining, but it was still your standard close game. But then Hawaii scored with two minutes left to take the lead again. And then UNLV scored the sure game-winning touchdown with 15 seconds left.

But UNLV committed two unsportsmanlike conduct penalties and kicked off from its 10. And then Ikaika Woolsey found Donnie King for 22 yards. With one second remaining, Hawaii had one more chance to score. And the Rainbow Warriors gave the great Robert Kekaula a reason to freak the hell out.

16. Rutgers 41, Maryland 38 (November 29)

There were plenty of huge games on November 29, plenty of reasons not to pay attention to two first-year Big Ten squads putting on an amazing show.

For the first 29 minutes, it didn't seem like Rutgers was paying attention either. Brandon Ross scored two touchdowns, and C.J. Brown threw for two and rushed for another. When Brown found Deon Long for a nine-yard score with 2:52 left in the second quarter, the score was 35-10.

But then the game changed. Andre Patton scored with nine seconds left in the half to bring the score to 35-17.

Janarion Grant returned the second-half kickoff 71 yards to set up a short, easy touchdown. 35-24.

Rutgers forced a punt and drove 70 yards in four and a half minutes. 35-31.

Maryland made a 50-yard field goal, but Rutgers needed seven plays to go 71 yards. Patton's second touchdown tied the game at 38-38 five seconds into the fourth quarter, completing an almost nonchalant, 16-minute, 28-3 run. Kyle Federico made a 25-yard field goal with six minutes left, and Rutgers was forced to make back-to-back stops. Maryland missed a 54-yard field goal with 3:45 left, but Rutgers lost a fumble two plays later. And on fourth-and-1 from the Rutgers 36, Delon Stephenson and Kemoko Turay stuffed Brandon Ross for no gain, securing a stunning comeback.

15. Ole Miss 23, Alabama 17 (October 4)

Between Katy Perry and the goalpost tour, this was going to be memorable even if it was awful. But it was fantastic.

Alabama took a 14-3 lead into halftime after a controversial fumble return by Cyrus Jones. Bama's Adam Griffith bombed in a 44-yard field goal to give the Tide a 17-10 lead.

But in front of a delirious home crowd, Ole Miss owned the final period. The Rebels and Crimson Tide traded points, but Bo Wallace found Vince Sanders for a 34-yard score to tie the game. Christion Jones fumbled the ensuing kickoff, and Wallace hit Jaylen Walton for a 10-yard score with 2:54 left.

But A'Shawn Robinson blocked the extra point. It was only 23-17. Alabama was going to drive down, score, and win the game, 24-23.

Right?

Interception. Chaos.

14. Texas A&M 35, Arkansas 28 (September 27)

Great games remain great even if their meaning changes. When Texas A&M took Arkansas down on September 27, it moved the top-10 Aggies to 5-0, positioned to continue their darkhorse SEC West run and keep quarterback Kenny Hill in the Heisman race. It dumped Arkansas to 3-2 and continued what would become a 17-game conference losing streak. It kept A&M up and Arkansas down.

Never mind what we now know, that A&M would lose five of seven, suspend and demote Hill, and eventually lose him to transfer; that Arkansas would finish the season winning four of six and shutting out LSU and Ole Miss in November. This was a barn-burner.

Arkansas punter Sam Irwin-Hill pulled off as beautiful a fake punt as you'll ever see, racing 51 yards to give the Hogs a 21-14 halftime lead. A 44-yard touchdown from Brandon Allen to tight end AJ Derby made it 28-14.

But A&M's receivers finally stopped dropping passes, and its big play offense finally produced. Hill landed a bomb to Edward Pope for 86 yards with 12 minutes left, and when Arkansas' John Henson missed a 44-yard field goal with 2:29 left, A&M had one chance. The Aggies would need only two plays. Hill hit Ricky Seals-Jones for 14 yards and Josh Reynolds for 59 yards.

The Aggies' big plays continued in overtime. Hill and Malcome Kennedy connected for a 25-yard score on their first play, meaning Arkansas had to score a touchdown to keep the game going. On fourth-and-1, Julien Obioha and Deshazor Everett stuffed Alex Collins for no gain, and A&M went to 5-0.

13. Georgia Tech 30, Georgia 24 (November 29)

Justice prevailed in Athens, and Georgia Tech moved to 10-2 following a great game that featured an even greater finish.

The fireworks started after an uneventful first half. The game was tied at 7-7 when Damian Swann returned a fumble ("fumble") 99 yards for a touchdown as Tech was getting ready to score.

There was no whistle.

The stunned Yellow Jackets went three-and-out but blocked a 49-yard field goal, then drove 63 yards to tie the game. Georgia made a 19-yard field goal early in the fourth quarter, but Zach Laskey scored his second touchdown of the game to give Tech a 21-17 lead.

Tech recovered an insane, long, surprising onside kick and looked ready to put the game away. But a pump fake went awry for Justin Thomas; it was ruled a fumble, and Georgia recovered. The Dawgs drove 69 yards, and on fourth-and-goal, Hutson Mason and Malcolm Mitchell connected for a three-yard, go-ahead score with 18 seconds left.

Georgia Tech returned a short kickoff near midfield, and Thomas rushed for 21 yards, getting out of bounds with four seconds left, just enough time for Harrison Butker to try an improbable 53-yard field goal.

He gave it about 54 yards of leg. Laskey scored again in overtime, but as in Ole Miss-Alabama, Ray Drew blocked the PAT, giving Georgia an out. And as in Ole Miss-Alabama, an interception prevented the blocked PAT from becoming an issue. Tech won its first game against Georgia since 2008, paving the way for an Orange Bowl bid.

12. Armed Forces Bowl: Houston 35, Pittsburgh 34 (January 2)

Your odds of recovering an onside kick, when your opponent knows it's coming, are about 27 percent. Square that, and your odds of recovering two in a row are about 7 percent.

Houston not only did that against poor Pitt, the Cougars also discovered an offense that hadn't shown up in Fort Worth for the first three quarters.

Houston's first six possessions: punt, punt, touchdown, punt, punt, punt. UH trailed 31-6 after 46 minutes, having gained 202 yards. They gained 284 yards in the final 14.

They scored, allowed a field goal, scored again, recovered an onside kick, scored again, recovered another onside kick, and scored again. On fourth-and-13 with 1:58 left, Greg Ward Jr. found Demarcus Ayers for a 29-yard touchdown, and following the second onside recovery, he connected with Deontay Greenberry to tie. And at that point, you just say "screw it" and go for the win.

Houston couldn't stop Pitt's offense, so the Cougars won by keeping the Panthers off the field.

This was a 54-minute dud followed by six surreal minutes. But those six minutes were enough to rank this game in the top 15.

11. UCF 32, ECU 30 (December 4)

A little like UH-Pitt, with one final plot twist.

UCF owned the first three quarters, taking a 26-9 lead. But ECU's Shane Carden, who had completed 22 of 33 passes for 227 yards and two picks through three quarters, caught fire. He completed 14 of 15 for 170 yards and three scores in the fourth, and without help from onside kicks, the Pirates scored three times to take a 30-26 lead with 2:17 remaining.

But that meant UCF was going to have another chance. Two, actually. The Knights went four-and-out, but in an attempt to run out the clock, the Pirates overthought and turned the ball over on downs with 10 seconds left. And then ... magic.