Welcome to the meaty heart of the college football season, on this Saturday, which will go along way towards separating the contenders from the pretenders. The early slate is the best we have seen all season, bar none, including:
12 p.m. | No. 6 Miami (Fla.) at Louisville | ABC/ESPN+
The Cardinals have looked sneaking good at points this season, and Miami has looked sneaky inconsistent. This one is a real chance to see if the hurricanes can handle their early season success
12 p.m. | Virginia at No. 10 Clemson | ACCN
Dabo’s boys have quietly crept back into solid playoff position after the opening loss to Georgia. But one more loss, especially to an unranked opponent, would be bad news.
12 p.m. | Nebraska at No. 16 Indiana | FOX
This isn’t usually the space for parenting advice, but today I feel the need to make an exception. I encourage you to talk to your children about undefeated and bowl eligible Indiana before they learn about it on the streets.
12 p.m. | Auburn at No. 19 Missouri | ESPN
either we get confirmation that Hu freeze doesn’t have Auburn headed in the right direction, or we get confirmation that Missouri was a playoff pretender all along. Either way, as the youths say, I am here for it.
12 p.m. | East Carolina at No. 23 Army | ESPN2
Army and Navy are both undefeated and ranked this week, and are each playing extremely entertaining football. I think there would be nothing more fitting at the advent of the 12 team playoff than for it to result in one of the service academies making the first playoff with the chance to theoretically compete for a national title. Let’s party like it’s 1949.
3:30 p.m. | No. 7 Alabama at No. 11 Tennessee | ABC/ESPN+
The third Saturday in October finds ancient SEC rivals competing with playoff aspirations on the line. Plus, one of them has to lose and that makes me very happy.
3:30 p.m. | No. 12 Notre Dame vs. Georgia Tech (Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta) | ESPN
An acquaintance of mine once described this on again, off again rivalry as “boring people playing boring football.”
That’s it. Thats all the analysis.
3:30 p.m. | No. 24 Michigan at No. 22 Illinois| CBS
Come for Illinois throwback, Red Grange outfits, stay for the specter of Michigan fans having an utter meltdown
3:30 p.m. | Charlotte at No. 25 Navy | CBSSN
Again, I find the notion of navy going anchors away all the way to the playoff, perhaps the ideal story of this season.
3:30 p.m. | NC State at Cal | ACCN
The Cal Bears appear to be on the verge of doing that most unique of college football things: getting everyone in America excited about your team only to finish with the 7-5 record we expected you to have in the first place. Personally, I blame capitalism.
we will obviously be back with a new thread for this evening’s main event in Austin. Until then, enjoy your football Saturday and…
Go ‘Dawgs!!!