Week 7 offers three games between ranked teams, two of them massive, involving top 10 schools on boths sides: In the SEC, #1 Alabama come to visit #9 Tennessee, hoping to stay on course for the conference title. Meanwhile, in the Big Ten, #2 Ohio State travel to Madison, facing #8 Wisconsin, in a game they must win in order to keep up with their big Big Ten East rivals.
Here are our thoughts on the 17 games of week 7:
- Duke playing in Louisville feels like one of those games in which Lamar Jackson runs amok early on, leaving very little doubt as to the identity of the winner
- North Carolina State aren’t easy to score against, but Clemson have 98 points over the last two
- #19 Oklahoma are hosting Kansas State. The Wildcats still haven’t won on the road this season, and it’ll probably be difficult to start in Norman
- #20 West Virginia travel to Lubbock in what will no doubt be a high scoring affair. Who wins? The Mountaineers seem to have the firepower to come out on top in this one and remain undefeated
- Indiana give teams trouble, and they’ll be a handful for #10 Nebraska. But good enough to be the first to beat the Cornhuskers? Probably not
- North Carolina travelling to #16 Miami offers an intriguing ACC matchup, which will probably end in favor of the Hurricanes, who were very close to still being undefeated
- Akron hosting #24 Western Michigan presents what might be the best or second best opportunity to stop the Broncos from going undefeated in the MAC
- Wake Forest are the best they’ve been in years (5-1), but it won’t be enough to hand the third loss this season to #14 Florida State
- Kansas coming to play #11 Baylor? This will end in a blowout with the Bears smiling in the end
- #1 Alabama at #9 Tennessee is one of the two huge matchups of the weekend. While the Vols have been masters of making huge comebacks, going down early against Alabama will be impossible to recover from
- Playing in Syracuse is hardly a test or some kind, but another impressive defensive performance from #17 Virginia Tech could convince more people that they’re legitimate contenders in the ACC
- #21 Utah travel to Oregon State in a game they can’t afford to lose if they’re to finally win the Pac-12 South. They probably won’t lose it either
- Missouri are playing the bad guys of the SEC, #18 Florida, in Gainesville. Florida won’t impress, they simply don’t have the talent to, but they will win
- Tulsa coming to #13 Houston is a good opportunity for the Cougars to vent out some frustration after losing for the first time this season
- #12 Ole Miss playing at #22 Arkansas means a lot more for the Rebels, who can’t afford another loss if they’re to remain in the position of Alabama stand-ins. Arkansas have shown they’re probably not good enough to mean something in the SEC West this season
- #2 Ohio State at #8 Wisconsin is the second big event of the weekend. Can the young but super talented Buckeyes team keep themselves on par with Michigan in the Big Ten? Probably, but it won’t be easy