We can go ahead and name Week 8 in college football Separation Saturday. The headlining games are No. 12 Oregon at No. 25 Washington State and No. 6 Michigan at No. 24 Michigan State. The former will determine who will compete with Stanford and No. 15 Washington in the Pac-12 North, while the latter will eliminate one team from running with No. 2 Ohio State in the Big Ten East.
But there's a lot more to this week than those two games.
No. 16 NC State at No. 3 Clemson might as well be a division championship game. Same for USC at Utah.
UAB can practically wrap up the C-USA West with a win over North Texas in Birmingham. Upstart Buffalo visits perennial MAC contender Toledo. Louisiana-Lafayette heads to Boone, N.C., for a possible Sun Belt Championship preview with Appalachian State.
Meanwhile, No. 9 Oklahoma plays its first game under new defensive coordinator Ruffin McNeill and No. 5 LSU looks to avoid a slip up with No. 22 Mississippi State before No. 1 Alabama comes to town in two weeks.
Let's do it.