The College Football Playoff is still a long way off, but Week 2 provided an example of why every regular-season game still matters. After a Week 1 that featured several blowouts and hot-start contenders, Saturday tempered expectations with a series of close escapes and one potentially bracket-busting upset.

Here are five lessons from Week 2 of the new CFP era.

1. NIU over Notre Dame is the perfect surprise for the 12-team format.

One of the major criticisms of the new Playoff is that it devalues ​​the regular season. Notre Dame is testing that theory for two weeks. We all fooled the Irish into picking one of those 12 spots after last week’s blowout win over Texas A&M. The schedule was a big reason for that: Notre Dame looked like a favorite for the rest of the game. Then it turned a 28.5-point spread into a surprising 16-14 loss to a Northern Illinois program that finished 7-6 last season.

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Notre Dame became the expanded CFP’s first overreactionary team, and a perfect prototype for one. This is the bluest of bluebloods, with a national fan base and legions of haters, a supposed powerhouse that’s flopped on the biggest stages over the past few decades and has been deemed overrated as a result. The 12-team format was supposed to fix those blemishes, giving the Irish a better shot at playoff contention (and wins). The Irish were one of the architects of the format, with former athletic director Jack Swarbrick willing to give up a shot at a first-round bye for a clear path to an at-large bid and a home playoff game. And that’s how everyone judged it after the Week 1 win in College Station.

Instead, that poor schedule and overrated reputation have come back to haunt them. Notre Dame isn’t out of the playoff picture with a loss, but it shrinks the margin for error; the odds dropped from 73 percent to 44 percent, according to The Athletics‘s projection model. Will a two-loss resume be good enough to beat out a three-loss SEC or Big Ten team for an at-large spot? And what about the runner-up in the Big 12 or ACC? The Irish may need a win to keep their hopes alive — and Saturday’s performance raises serious questions about their potential to do so.

On the other hand, NIU has entered the chat for a Group of 5 Playoff spot. The Huskies still have a road trip to NC State in a few weeks, but if they can find a way to win the MAC and finish the season with one, maybe even two, losses, they’ll be in the mix for one of the best G5 wins of the season.

No one had the MAC champion earning the G5 Playoff bid when the season started. Everyone had Notre Dame in the field after last Saturday. But two weeks later, the CFP chaos is here and it is spectacular.

2. Texas is still back, but Michigan isn’t.

Skeptics who worried that Texas was a one-hit wonder should be convinced otherwise after the Longhorns took care of business with a 31-12 victory in the Big House. For the second time in as many seasons, quarterback Quinn Ewers went on the road and led his team to a win over a top-10 opponent. Last year, it was Alabama. This time, it was defending champion Michigan, riding a 23-game home winning streak. The Horns dominated from start to finish with Ewers at the controls, finishing 24 of 36 for 246 yards and three touchdowns. Just as important is how Ewers conducted the game, eliminating the streakiness and reckless turnovers that have hampered him in the past. The talent was never in doubt, but the maturity was on display Saturday.

That was the slump Michigan suffered, too. It’s not exactly a surprise. All offseason, the talk about this team — when it wasn’t NCAA investigations or Netflix documentaries — was about losing 13 draft picks to the NFL, along with head coach Jim Harbaugh and several key staff members. After a slow start last week against Fresno State, those limitations showed up against a Texas team that was considerably more talented and explosive. Quarterback Davis Warren’s passing numbers — 22 of 33 passes for 204 yards, one touchdown and two interceptions — weren’t a million miles off Ewers’ production (picks aside), but the eye test said otherwise.

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Texas is one of the best teams the Wolverines will face this season, likely until they travel to Ohio State to close out the regular season. It’s possible Michigan can still make some waves in the Big Ten, but the performance against a national title contender suggested its title defense is DOA.

For the Longhorns, they are currently at the top The Athletics‘s projection model with a 90 percent chance of making the Playoff.

With an impressive win against NC State, Tennessee may have established itself as a true CFP contender. (Jim Dedmon/USA Today)

3. Is Tennessee the contender no one’s been talking about?

The Vols followed up their Week 1 blowout against an FCS opponent with another drubbing in Week 2, this time against No. 24 NC State. Tennessee cruised to a 51-10 victory over the Wolfpack. Quarterback Nico Iamaleava flashed his dual-threat capabilities with 211 passing yards, 65 rushing yards and three total touchdowns, and the Vols rushed for 249 yards on the ground. But Tennessee’s defense was the most impressive unit, holding NC State to 143 total yards and 10 first downs while forcing three turnovers.

The 14th-ranked Volunteers aren’t exactly outsiders, but the SEC’s playoff focus has been on Georgia, Alabama, Ole Miss, Missouri and LSU. Those first four are all in the top 10 of the AP Top 25, but Tennessee has shown it belongs there, too. It’ll get more chances to stake that claim soon. There’s no Ole Miss, Mizzou or LSU on the schedule, but the Vols travel to Oklahoma in two weeks, host Bama in October and head to Georgia in November. They need to win at least one of those, but when it comes to the SEC and the playoff picture, there’s no smog on Rocky Top.

4. Clemson isn’t dead, but the Big 12 is going for two.

The knives were out for Dabo and the Tigers after last week’s flop against Georgia, but Saturday’s 66-20 drubbing of Appalachian State was a reminder not to bury them in the ground just yet. As Notre Dame can attest, one week doesn’t make a season. Clemson looked completely outmatched against the Dawgs, but that’s true of most teams. The Tigers may not have what it takes to win a national title, but with Florida State’s disastrous start and the losses of Georgia Tech and NC State, Clemson seems perfectly capable of making it to the ACC Championship.

If that plays out, would a second-place finish be enough to make the CFP? Going into the season, most playoff predictions gave the ACC a better chance than the Big 12 at fielding two teams. The conventional wisdom was that a top-heavy ACC would have an advantage over a Big 12 deep enough to beat each other. That may turn out to be true, but after some notable stumbles by the ACC out of the gate, it opens the window a bit more for teams like Utah, Kansas State, Oklahoma State, Iowa State and others.

5. Survive to advance.

Style points still matter, but only if you’re winning. Saturday’s slate was full of close and ugly victories for a handful of playoff contenders. No. 7 Oregon squeaked out a second straight win with a last-second field goal to beat Boise State 37-34. No. 8 Penn State trailed Bowling Green at halftime and held only a field goal advantage in the fourth quarter of a 34-27 victory. No. 15 Oklahoma needed a late safety to hold off Houston. No. 16 Oklahoma State had to come from a 14-0 deficit to win 39-31 over Arkansas in double overtime, and No. 17 Kansas State turned a 20-10 halftime deficit into a 34-27 road win over Tulane. No. 4 Alabama had the most deceptive score of all with a 42-16 final score at USF, struggling against the Bulls for the second straight season. Bama held on to a one-point lead in the fourth quarter until scoring 28 points in the final quarter.

But in the end, all the favorites won the W, and that’s all that matters at this point in the season. It was a bit of a chill on some of the hype from week 1, but if these teams can get their act together, it will all be forgotten by December.

It’s even more critical among the G5 contenders. Boise and App State lost to ranked opponents, hurting their chances a bit. Texas State beat UTSA, Memphis beat Troy and Liberty came back to beat New Mexico State, keeping all three winners in the mix.

They’re not alone. At the start of the day, NIU was a four-touchdown underdog that everyone took for granted. By sunset, the Huskies had entered the playoff hunt.

(Top photo: Brian Spurlock/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)