It's the week between Christmas and New Year's, the time we spend reflecting on the year that was while also looking forward to what's to come.
And so I thought it was time to rank the best games we've seen so far. Why nine? Why not?
9. Iowa 13, Nebraska 10 (Nov. 24)
Call this the Sickos Game of the Year: 25 possessions, 14 punts, three missed field goals, one fumble, two interceptions, two touchdowns. Needing a win to reach a bowl game, Nebraska snared an interception that gave the Huskers the ball near midfield in a 10-10 game with 31 seconds to play. What could go wrong?
Chubba Purdy threw a pick two plays later, allowing Iowa to boot a 38-yard game-winning field goal as time expired. Neither team should be this bad offensively next year. We can only hope.
8. Oklahoma State 27, Oklahoma 24 (Nov. 4)
A fitting end to Bedlam for everyone but the Sooners. Oklahoma State marched 97 yards to regain the lead with 8:17 to play, then extended it to 27-21 after a Dillon Gabriel fumble on the next play from scrimmage. That field goal would prove crucial: it allowed the Cowboys to keep the lead after the Pokes were bailed out by a good-riddance no-call of clear pass interference on OU wideout Drake Stoops, turning a 1st-and-goal for the Sooners with 4:53 to play into a 36-yard field goal.
7. Colorado 43, Colorado State 35 in 2OT (Sept. 17)
Nearly 10 million people tuned in on a late Friday night to watch the climax of Season 1 of The Coach Prime Show.
A minor jab about sunglasses decorum ignited one of the dirtiest games of the season (Colorado State was penalized 17 times for 182 yards), and it took heroics from both Sanders boys to get the win: Shilo took a pick back 80 yards to open the scoring, and Shedeur nailed Jimmy Horn, Jr., for a 45-yard score to force OT with 36 ticks to play, then hit Michael Harrison for what turned out to be the game winner to open double OT.
6. Ohio State 17, Notre Dame 14 (Sept. 23)
Pretty much the inverse of the game below this one. Notre Dame didn't score until the 3:35 mark of the third quarter, but found itself protecting a lead, with the ball, with 4:12 remaining. Notre Dame couldn't kill the final 1:26, and then Ohio State somehow ripped off 15 plays in the next 85 seconds.
The Buckeyes converted a 4th-and-7 and a 3rd-and-19, and two incompletions somehow did not expire the game's final seven seconds. That allowed Chip Trayanum just enough time to rush through a curiously unoccupied gap for the game-winner. Where is your god now, Lou Holtz?!?!?
5. Ole Miss 55, LSU 49 (Sept. 30)
Great offense or atrocious defense? How about both? The teams collaborated for eight straight scoring drives in the first half, and four straight in the second half. Jayden Daniels put up 513 yards and five touchdowns on 51 combined rushes and passes -- in a losing effort.
Ole Miss threw for 389 yards and rushed for 317 more, but had to resist LSU inside their own red zone in the final 12 seconds to secure the win.
4. Oklahoma 34, Texas 30 (Oct. 7)
The first six minutes of Red River saw: an interception on the second play from scrimmage, a touchdown, a 20-yard fake punt conversion, a 25-yard wildcat pass on 4th-and-1, an interception at the goal line, and a blocked punt for a touchdown. The game never really calmed down after that.
Texas rallied from a 27-17 deficit to take a 30-27 lead with 1:17 to play (while also overcoming a turnover on downs at the goal line), but OU moved 75 yards in five plays to score the game-winner with 15 seconds remaining.
3. Washington 36, Oregon 33 (Oct. 14)
Washington led by 11 points deep into the fourth quarter, yet all game long it felt like it was Oregon's to win. In fact, ESPN's analytics gave Oregon a 96.6 percent chance to win with 2:21 to play, right before Dan Lanning went for a 4th-and-3 near midfield. He knew what ESPN's algorithm did not -- if Michael Penix and company stepped on the field again, a Washington touchdown was all but guaranteed. And so the Ducks turned the ball over on downs for the third time of the day, and Washington notched the game-winning touchdown two plays later.
2. Michigan 30, Ohio State 24 (Nov. 25)
We wrote ahead of time that there will never be another regular-season college football game like Ohio State-Michigan, and reality met the hype. In the sport's most historic rivalry, with the winner advancing to the Playoff and the loser's season ruined, Ohio State had the ball in Michigan territory with a chance to win the game in the game's final half minute. No regular season game -- in any sport, including college football -- will ever surpass that level of drama for the rest of our lives.
1. Alabama 27, Auburn 24 (Nov. 25)
When Jalen Milroe first let go of the ball, I thought he overthrew it. No way, my brain reasoned to itself, it's too far, and he put too much on it. But as the CBS camera tracked the flight of that football, I realized I was wrong. Milroe had done the impossible; he'd put the ball on a pinpoint from 46 yards away. For its part, Auburn football did the impossible as well -- they'd allowed a receiver to shake eight different defenders to get open in the end zone.