Amid the cries for College Football Playoff expansion, all the speculation surrounding who will be in, and everything that's right or wrong with the selection committee, we seem to have missed something that's kind of important.

The College Football Playoff has already started.

Those so busy begging to see the postseason format stretched to include six, eight, 16 or even more need to stop worrying about what we don't have and start appreciating what's happening right in front of us. I mean, you saw Week 11, right? It might as well have been called the CFP quarterfinals.

The heart of the night, both racing and broken, could be found in the frantic half-hour from 10:30-11 p.m. ET:

Just past 10:30, Oklahoma running back Samaje Perine busts off a 55-yard TD run to give the Sooners a 34-20 lead over undefeated No. 6 Baylor.

At nearly the same time, Minnesota scores to cut fifth-ranked Iowa's lead to 33-28 late in the fourth quarter.

Minutes later, undefeated Houston scores to take its first lead of the game over Memphis, 35-34 with 2:33 remaining.

Minutes later, seventh-ranked Stanford is driving but quarterback Kevin Hogan fumbles for the second time in two series. Oregon recovers.

Seconds later, Memphis misses a would-be game-winning 48-yard field goal attempt. Houston wins.

Minutes later, Iowa scores to lead Minnesota 40-28.

At 10:47 p.m., Hogan hits Greg Taboada for a TD strike, now trailing Oregon 38-36 with 10 seconds left.

Simultaneously, freshman QB Jarrett Stidham launches a 23-yard strike that puts Baylor on the Oklahoma goal line.

At 10:49 p.m., Hogan can't connect on a two-point conversion. Oregon wins.

Minutes later, the first quarter ends in Tucson, Arizona, with No. 10 Utah trailing unranked Arizona 17-7.

Minnesota scores, chopping Iowa's lead to 40-35 with 45 seconds remaining.

At the same time, Stidham hits gigantor tight end LaQuan McGowan with a TD pass, cutting Oklahoma's lead to 34-27.

Iowa recovers an onside kick by Minnesota to remain undefeated and take the Floyd of Rosedale Trophy.

And finally, at 10:59 p.m., Oklahoma's Zack Sanchez intercepts Stidham and returns it to the Baylor 28-yard line. The third quarter ends with OU up by a touchdown and about to tack on a field goal.

Again, that was all in only 30 minutes.

Sure, the top four teams in the playoff rankings all won by double-digit scores (though it wasn't quite that easy, right Clemson?). But everyone behind them in the top 10 were either upset or feeling upset about nearly being upset. Iowa won but had to hold off Minnesota. Oklahoma State won but had to come from behind -- again -- to do it in Ames (much more on that coming up). Those two escaped by a combined nine points.

Baylor, Stanford, LSU and Utah, ranked sixth, seventh, ninth and 10th, respectively, all lost. When the new rankings are revealed Tuesday night, they will be replaced, either by the teams that defeated them or by some other school suddenly scrambling up the standings.

In other words, these were all elimination games. They will be followed by more elimination games next weekend, rolling right into the Thanksgiving rivalries and then the conference championship matchups during the first weekend of December. I mean, you see it, right? This is totally a bracket, and it's a ladder that contains way more than the four teams we all obsess over. Even better, new teams continue to pop up on that bracket all the time. And those that fall by the playoff wayside still have plenty to play for, whether it's a division title, a conference title, a top-shelf bowl or merely to ruin the postseason prayers of a rival that still has a chance at the final four.

It's hard to imagine making the regular season any more intense. Certainly not by widening the door that everyone is trying to get through. We don't need everyone getting in. Not eight or 16 or especially not six. (NFL-ish byes? Really? Gross.)

For the second consecutive November, it's becoming even harder to keep calling this a "regular season."

Come on, we're right. Admit it. So let's get on with Flipping the Field.

The academies deserve honorable mention for their show of support for France. AP Photo/Mike Groll

Still supporting their original ally, after all these years.

There would be no United States of America had the French not had our back during the American Revolution. Our military branches have certainly never forgotten that. On Saturday, the service academies showed their support for the people of Paris. Army took the field at Michie Stadium beneath the French flag. The Navy's Brigade of Midshipmen observed a pregame moment of silence as the 16th Company flew the flag. And as the Wings of Blue parachute team sailed into Air Force's home game with Utah State, they carried that same flag over and into the Rockies.

Keenan for Heisman.

If you're a regular reader of Flipping the Field (and who isn't, am I right?) you know we've been tracking Navy QB Keenan Reynolds all season. On Saturday against SMU, he finally broke the record he'd been toying with for weeks, breaking Montee Ball's mark for FBS rushing touchdowns. He scored four in all, his fifth career four-TD day, and moved the mark to 81 (which also inches him closer to Ball's record for total TDs at 83). He's also now within striking distance of Navy's career rushing mark of 4,179 yards set by Napoleon McCallum. For those of you who don't know, McCallum is second only to 1963 Heisman Trophy winner Roger Staubach when it comes to being The Man in Navy football history. This Navy team is the first since that '63 squad to start a season 8-1. And oh, by the way, Staubach gave the pregame speech to Reynolds and the Middies on Saturday.

Sooner QB Baker Mayfield had another huge day, finishing with 270 yards passing, 76 yards rushing and four touchdowns. AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez

In fact, make that five for Heisman.

Reynolds is part of a growing group of players who need to start receiving serious consideration for invitations to New York now that early favorites Leonard Fournette, Trevone Boykin and Corey Coleman have suddenly descended to mere mortals. So in addition to the obvious choices such as Alabama's Derrick Henry and Ohio State's Ezekiel Elliott (and according to FSU's Dalvin Cook, Dalvin Cook), here are five who need to become a regular part of the bronzed-man discussion:

Keenan Reynolds, QB, Navy: I don't need to repeat what I just wrote, do I? Baker Mayfield, QB, Oklahoma: His numbers are better than previous Oklahoma winners Sam Bradford (2008) and Jason White (2003). Deshaun Watson, QB, Clemson: He's on some short lists but not enough. Best player on the No. 1 team. Take him away and see if the Tigers are still No. 1. Luke Falk, QB, Washington State: Entering Saturday night's game at UCLA, he had accounted for 81 percent of his team's total offense, tops in FBS. Then he got knocked out, came back and won in dramatic fashion. Jason Vander Laan, QB, Ferris State: There's nothing that says the guy who wins it has to be from the FBS. Yeah, yeah, I know ... but Google him. Or read what I wrote a few weeks ago. He's a beast.

Horseshoes, hand grenades and Hoosiers.

Indiana lost to Michigan in double overtime, meaning it has now played the Wolverines, Ohio State and Iowa all to within one score, pushed Michigan State into the fourth quarter and had a win against Rutgers slip through its grasp ... and are now 0-6 in Big Ten play.

Hey, Notre Dame students!

Stop throwing marshmallows everywhere. I'm trying to write here.

The Frank Reich Comeback of the Week Award: Houston

A little of the luster seemed to have been taken off Houston's big American matchup with Memphis after the Tigers' loss to Navy a week earlier. And the start of the game did feel as if the Cougars were indeed suffering from a letdown. That changed. Houston trailed by 20 with less than two minutes remaining in the first half, and again only nine seconds into the fourth quarter. Then the Cougars scored 21 unanswered points, capped off by a TD and PAT that gave Houston a 35-34 lead with 1:27 left, followed by a missed field goal attempt from Memphis barely more than one minute later. The victory was the first from 20 points down for an FBS team this season, and it kept Houston at 10-0 and still in the lead for the Group of Five's New Year's Six bowl berth.

Kyle Postma completed 21 of 33 passes for 236 yards and a TD in relief of starter Greg Ward Jr. He also ran for the winning score to keep the Cougars undefeated. AP Photo/David J. Phillip

The Backup QB of the Week Award (also named for Frank Reich): Kyle Postma, Houston

Oh yeah, did I mention the Cougars did all of the above with their backup QB, having taken over for Greg Ward Jr., who left because of an ankle injury late in the second quarter? And oh, yeah, did I mention he's a sophomore who before Saturday night had thrown a whopping six passes in his entire college career?

The Tim Tebow Backup QB Who Doesn't Really Feel Like a Backup QB Award: J.W. Walsh, Oklahoma State

Confession time: I had already written a gorgeous paragraph about the Cowboys as winners of Comeback of the Week, but just as I was running it through spell check, the Houston finish happened. Still, what the Pokes continue to do on a nearly weekly basis is wacko. The nation's eighth-ranked team trailed the three-win Cyclones by as many as 17 and was down 31-21 in the fourth quarter. But for the fifth time this season, OSU rallied from a second-half deficit to win ... and, yes, the Cowboys are still undefeated. Making it even more amazing is that they've done it while willingly utilizing a two-quarterback system (a la Florida in '06 with Chris Leak and Tebow, thus the name of this award). Walsh came off the bench to kick-start the second half, converting a crucial fourth-and-1 with a 3-yard dive and keeping alive a drive that ended with a Walsh TD. Then it was Walsh who put the exclamation point on both fourth-quarter drives, scoring on a 16-yard run and tossing a 7-yard screen pass that wound up being the winner. Add that to the performance of starter Mason Rudolph -- 24-of-36, 327 yards, one TD -- and this 1-2 punch is becoming awfully difficult for the playoff selection committee to keep holding at arm's length.

I got it! No, you got it! No, I got it!

Watch this interception from the Georgia State-Texas State game. By my count, it touched seven dudes across both teams before someone finally hauled it in.

Mike Leach and Wazzu finished 6-3 in the Pac-12 in 2015. AP Photo/Young Kwak

The Tommy West Best News Conference of the Week Award: Mike Leach, Washington State

It actually happened during the middle of last week, but the Cougars' head pirate, um, coach, concluded his weekly meeting with the media with a history lesson on disco and hippie rock. The question was, Hey, Coach, what about Neil Young interests you so much? "See, when I was in high school, music was evolving toward disco and that was a very dark time. And because it was a horrible, horrible period. To all the disco people out there I'm going to offend, I don't care. I really don't care. If you're a disco person, your music's awful. And the damage that it's done to music, we still haven't fully recovered, OK? And, so anyway, as the bottom's melting out of the music world your choice is to hold your breath toward the future, or you have to go backwards. So a lot of us, we went way back." He went on to talk about the rise of punk and a bunch of other stuff, but ultimately concluded, "I don't imagine he loves meeting people very much, but nevertheless, yeah, Neil Young's always been toward the top of my list." It would be an interesting meeting. Who knows? They might even be from the same planet.

You might be having a bad day ...

But it probably isn't an Illinois' field goal attempt kind of bad day. And if it is, watch this and memorize kicker Taylor Zalewski's "It's OK, guys" hand clap as he walks back to the sideline. You can utilize that the next time you screw up that boardroom presentation.

The guy you should know about but probably don't: Jalen Robinette, WR, Air Force

Keenan Reynolds wasn't the only service academy player to have a ginormous day. Robinette, a 6-foot-4, 210-pound junior, entered the Falcons' game against Utah State with 11 catches, 273 yards and two TDs on the season. On Saturday, he had seven catches for 210 yards and a TD. It was only the third 200-yard receiving day for an Air Force player, and the first since 1978, capped by -- naturally from Air Force -- an aerial masterpiece of a 19-yard catch.

The guy(s) you should know about but probably don't, defensive edition: Yannick Ngakoue and Quinton Jefferson, Maryland

It has been a forgettable season in College Park, but while the Terps are playing out the string (and looking for a coach), a couple of monsters are quietly racking up numbers, not to mention quarterbacks. Maryland is the only team in the nation with a pair of players who have notched at least 6.5 sacks this season. Ngakoue, a 6-foot-2, 255-pound junior defensive end, has recorded 12, only one shy of the school record, and Jefferson, a 6-3, 299-pound junior tackle, has 6.5. They've also combined for 25 tackles for loss. Cheer up, fellas, your win-loss record might not be so great, but keep up the sacking and you'll get to do it on Sundays, too.

The guy you used to know about but forgot you should know about again: Vernon Adams Jr., Oregon.

The much-ballyhooed transfer from FCS Eastern Washington thrilled over the first two weeks, but a broken right index finger against his old team in Week 1 worsened, and he found himself on the sideline in Eugene and off the radar of the nation. But since his return under center, the Ducks are 4-0. He posted 300-plus-yard passing games in wins over Arizona State and Cal and even added a summersault TD dive vs. the Bears. On Saturday night, he sliced through Stanford's top-ranked Pac-12 defense with precision (10-for-12, 205 yards, two TDs) and led Oregon's offensive attack to a chunky clip of 9.1 yards per play. Amazingly, the Ducks are still in the Pac-12 North hunt. Even if they don't pull that off, their one-year QB helped sink Stanford's playoff hopes. That's a long way from the team that only one month ago was 3-3, both hopeless and Adams-less.

Clemson better not overlook the Tar Heels. Grant Halverson/Getty Images

The team you should know about but probably don't: North Carolina

Yeah, we already gave you a heads-up about these guys a few weeks ago, but the Heels keep getting better. So we need to keep warning you to keep an eye on them. Larry Fedora's squad is now 9-1 after scorching Miami 59-21. The Heels have now won nine straight, the most for a UNC team since winning 10 in a row in 1914. Their 125 combined points against Duke and The U sets a school record for points scored over a two-game stretch, also set by the 1918 squad (big wins over Virginia Medical and Wake Forest). UNC now travels to Virginia Tech and NC State knowing that a win in either of those games (or a Pitt loss) means it'll clinch the ACC Coastal and face top-ranked Clemson in the conference title game. That'd be in Charlotte, where UNC started the season with a gross loss to South Carolina, a game the Heels lost by throwing two end zone interceptions.

The game you should be psyched for but probably aren't: UNC at Virginia Tech (noon ET, ESPN)

Besides all the stuff you just read about Carolina as a possible playoff crasher, this will also be Frank Beamer's final home game at Lane Stadium in Blacksburg. Even if you loathe the Hokies, it's impossible not to respect what Beamer has accomplished since taking over at his alma mater in 1987. The Hokies have won seven conference titles (three Big East, four ACC). A win against either UNC or the following weekend at Virginia will clinch the team's 23rd consecutive bowl game, a streak that includes four visits to both the Sugar and Orange bowls. If you know your college football history, building such an empire in Blacksburg was every bit as unexpected and impressive as what Bill Snyder has done in Manhattan, Kansas. And both are beloved throughout the sport. This will be the last chance to watch an "Enter Sandman" entrance during the Beamer era, and an upset of UNC would be the final great accomplishment of a Hall of Fame career.

Extra point: Down in NCAA Division III, where they don't award athletic scholarships, Amherst College knocked off the Williams Ephs 17-7 in the 130th edition of "The Biggest Little Game In America." No, that's not a typo. They've really played 130 times, the most in D3 history and six more than any FBS rivalry (Wisconsin and Minnesota have played 124 times). From 1884 through 1981, the series stayed shockingly even, but the balance was tipped by Amherst when it won six in a row. The Williams Ephs answered with a 12-0-1 streak, but Amherst has now taken six of the last seven meetings. Amherst's victory Saturday was its 19th straight and clinched a second consecutive New England Small College Athletic Conference championship. By the way, if you're waiting for me to tell you Amherst's mascot, that's not happening. The school doesn't have one. It used to be Lord Jeff, named for Lord Jeffrey Amherst, the 18th century war hero whom the town and college are named for. But he has been pushed out because it was revealed he once suggested getting rid of some Native Americans by giving them disease-rigged blankets. So now the school's looking into a moose, but that's still up for debate. The Purple & White's success on the field, however, is not.