Back in preseason, many college football fans pointed to the Week 7 slate as the best of the season, and perhaps one of the best ever. Now that it's here, those projections indeed proved accurate.
This Saturday brings us six ranked matchups, four of the top eight teams in the AP poll playing each other, and those numbers don't include preseason No. 2 Oregon. As it that isn't enough, rivalries like Auburn-Georgia, Penn State-Michigan, TCU-Baylor and Florida State-Miami are there to fill out your quadbox. Two teams will unquestionably host the biggest games in their respective histories.
And, even more exciting for a certain type of fan, there's an admittedly small but still very real possibility that three preseason Playoff favorites could be booed out of their own home stadiums. Such is the magic of the 12-team Playoff. Let's enjoy it while we have it.
1. No. 2 Notre Dame at No. 8 BYU (7:30 p.m. ET, ABC): In a sport that's now in the second half of its second century, it's a rare treat to point at a singular contest and declare it the biggest a school has ever hosted. That's the case for BYU on Saturday night, who hosts its highest-ranked opponent since No. 1-ranked and defending national champion USC came to town in 2004, and it happens to be Notre Freaking Dame, visiting for just the third time ever. Oh, and BYU is undefeated and ranked No. 8, making this the first top-10 showdown ever at LaVell Edwards Stadium.
Pomp and circumstance (and there will be plenty) aside, both teams need this game. Notre Dame has the easiest path to the Playoff in college football, and the Wisconsin win has aged better than it appeared at the time, but they've played FBS's 63rd toughest schedule to date, per ESPN's FPI. The Irish need to beat BYU or Miami to feel absolutely safe about making the CFP, and they'll need to defeat both to secure a bye. BYU, meanwhile, has FPI's 86th toughest schedule to date. A win here means BYU could lose to Utah on Nov. 7 -- not that Kalani Sitake's crew is planning that, of course -- and still make the field. A loss, especially a double-digit one, opens up the possibility of the Cougars going 11-1 for the second consecutive regular season and missing the CFP both times, depending upon what happens elsewhere.
2. No. 4 Ohio State at No. 5 Indiana (noon ET, Fox): Defending national champions, owners of the nation's longest winning streak, and home underdogs to a higher-ranked team. Curt Cignetti's got the Buckeyes right where he wants 'em.
Expect this game to have more urgent vibes than the "First of multiple" feeling that hung over Georgia-Alabama last week. For one, it's the biggest home game in IU history. For another, Ohio State needs this game. At 5-2 on the season, Ohio State would have to live with this outcome for two weeks, then go into back-to-back do-or-die games at No. 19 USC, and then home the following week against how-the-heck-are-they-unranked Oregon. (Note to the idiots running college football: 2-loss Oregon at 2-loss Ohio State, both playing like their hair's on fire, would be a good thing for the sport.)
If Indiana loses, the Hoosiers are still fine, for now. Their only remaining road games are at struggling Michigan and Washington, with Minnesota, USC and Purdue still coming to Bloomington. An Ohio State victory sets up a likely rematch in Indianapolis, where the defending national champion could be in danger of missing the CFP, depending on the state of the board elsewhere.
3. No. 18 Oklahoma State at No. 20 Houston (7:30 p.m. ET, Fox): It says everything about the struggle Houston faces that, in a prime time showdown of top-20 teams, Cougars head coach Willie Fritz has to hype up his fan base to sell out their 40,000-seat stadium. This is a now-or-never moment for Houston, who already sports a ranked, conference loss at Texas Tech. Dropping to 2-2 in league play turns the Cougars into a golfer who's four back of the leader on the back nine of a Sunday major: sure, you may be able to catch the leader, but there's five other people in front of you trying to do the same thing, too. Even a win at Utah likely wouldn't be enough.
Oklahoma State currently owns the Big 12's best non-conference win, and its worst loss (Tulsa is 0-2 in AAC play). Eric Morris's team wouldn't be in such dire straits as Houston with a loss here since Texas Tech comes to Stillwater next month, but there are four other Big 12 teams currently undefeated in league play.
4. No. 13 Missouri at No. 9 Ole Miss (3:30 p.m. ET, SEC Network)
4. No. 6 Alabama at No. 14 Tennessee (3:30 p.m. ET, ABC): There are eight SEC teams with one conference loss entering Saturday (plus 4-0 Georgia). By Saturday night, that number could be as high as five and as low as three. Ole Miss has had three weeks to recover from the high of the LSU win and the low of the Florida loss, and should find their level back in front of the Vaught-Hemmingway crowd for the first time since Jaylon Braxton's interception of Sam Leavitt secured arguably the biggest regular season win in school history (which, somehow, was nearly a month ago). Mizzou has won every game by double digits, except their loss at No. 24 Mississippi State; now they seek to end a 7-game road losing streak against ranked teams. Eli Drinkwitz's team has arguably the toughest remaining schedule in the SEC, with a closing kick of No. 7 Texas, at No. 1 Georgia, No. 15 Kentucky and Oklahoma.
Up north in Knoxville, Alabama is 17-2 against Tennessee since Nick Saban's arrival twenty seasons ago: 0-2 against Josh Heupel's teams in Knoxville, and 17-0 in every other circumstance. This was supposed to be a showdown of 5-star freshmen, but Tennessee's Faizon Brandon has since given way to redshirt freshman George MacIntyre. The Volunteers haven't exactly soared since the near miss against then-No. 1 Texas, beating Auburn by 10 and Arkansas by 7. But, they won those games, and now they're here. Both teams have relatively light second-half schedules after this one. In fact, unless you think the committee has the guts to leave out a 10-2 Alabama, a win here means Kalen DeBoer's team would simply have to sweep Texas A&M, Vanderbilt, Chattanooga and Auburn to make the CFP for a record 10th time.
6. Nebraska at Oregon (11 p.m. ET, Fox): You wouldn't know it from the national chatter coming out of last weekend, but the 1A or 1B preseason national champion pick is now in grave danger of missing the College Football Playoff altogether. Losses to Oklahoma State and UCLA have turned every Oregon game into a must-win, and now Dan Lanning is holding a quarterback competition with Dante Moore still recovering from the concussion he suffered against USC and Dylan Raiola recovering from an absolutely dreadful outing against the Bruins (6-of-19 for 43 yards, 2 INTs). Because of that, the "Raiola vs. Nebraska" storyline is currently TBD. Still in search of a signature win, it would be perfectly Nebraska for Matt Rhule to finally get said signature win against the preseason No. 2 team in their house -- except it still wouldn't end the Huskers' 31-game losing streak against ranked opponents, because Oregon is unranked itself.
7. Florida at No. 7 Texas (noon ET, ABC): Coming off of a horrific loss away from Austin to an unranked team, it would be somewhat surprising if Texas did not play a sharp, focused game against Florida, a year after suffering a horrific loss away from Austin to an unranked Florida team. However, considering Steve Sarkisian's team has committed a league-high 19 penalties, is minus-4 in turnover margin, and its punt team has surrendered two touchdowns in two SEC games thus far, it would be surprising if they played a sharp, focused game against air at this point. If this game goes sideways, Texas will set the college football record for "Fastest a team has ever gone from being ranked No. 1 in the nation to being booed at home."
8. No. 16 Mississippi State at No. 22 LSU (noon ET, ESPN): Speaking of being booed at home, that's what could happen to LSU, a preseason top-10 team that some say owns the most expensive roster in the sport, if the Tigers fall to 1-3 in SEC play. State has beaten LSU in Baton Rouge twice in the last 35 years: once with Dak Prescott at quarterback, and once with Mike Leach doing his Mike Leach thing against an Ed Orgeron-coached Tiger outfit played under a covid fog and possibly still hungover from the 2019 national title celebration. It'll take a Super Kamario Taylor effort for the visitors, and right now it's uncertain if he's even going to play.
9. Wisconsin at No. 12 UCLA (7:30 p.m. ET, NBC): Considering how dire things in Westwood seemed not that long ago, it hasn't been very long at all since UCLA has been ranked, and ranked highly. The 2022 team touched the top-10, and the 2023 squad was in the top-20 entering November. However, it's been a while since UCLA football has felt this: genuine excitement around its football program. If Ty Diffenbach -- a Pitt signee whose only experience prior to Saturday came at Cal Poly -- can keep the vehicle on the pavement, the Bruins can make the Playoff.
10. No. 15 Kentucky at Oklahoma (7:30 p.m. ET, SEC Network): Oklahoma is on the opposite end of the spectrum as their Red River rivals. The Sooners will set the unofficial record for largest gap between fan receptions on Saturday, returning to Gaylord Family Memorial Stadium with a hero's welcome on Saturday night compared to the tepid golf claps they would've received at 2-3 with a third straight loss to Texas. The Cardiac Cats will try to win this one in regulation, where a win sets them up to be firmly in the CFP and SEC races heading into November (UK gets Vanderbilt and then Bye over the rest of the month). And let's not discount Oklahoma, either. They've played FPI's toughest schedule to date, and the back half is a relative breeze, ranking just 21st nationally. A word of caution, though: Just as Red River has a history of producing surprising results, it's also historically a false signifier of what's to come. In 2023 and '25, the loser made the CFP while the winner did not.