Seventh Day Adventure: Alabama-Tennessee, Penn State-Michigan Lead Dazzling Slate
Enthusiasts of college football will tell you that every week is a good week, and they're not wrong. Sure, sometimes there are few marquee matchups, but most of the thrill of the sport is in the unexpected. Earlier this season, for example, Week 2 had little in the way of great games—only Kentucky-Florida and Baylor-BYU (the latter at 10:15 Eastern) were between ranked teams—but it produced a thrilling slate. Texas nearly stunned Alabama; two Sun Belt teams knocked off ranked opponents and another beat Nebraska; Iowa State snapped a long losing streak to Iowa; Kansas outdueled West Virginia; and Oregon State beat Fresno State on the last play of the game.
There's not a single game between two genuinely elite or even great teams in that list (unless you agree with the computers about Texas), but that's hardly relevant to how fantastic those games were. There's a must-watch quality to almost every week in college football, both because of chaos like that and because of the constant do-or-die nature of the sport. For the vast majority of teams, a single loss puts their College Football Playoff chances on the brink of death, and a second outright ends them. For the most part, every team is fighting for its life every week, and it's must-see stuff when that fight goes down to the wire, no matter the strength of their opponent.
That all being said ... a week like this is still pretty thrilling to look forward to. For the second time in history, three pairs of Power 5 undefeated teams with at least five wins are facing off: Penn State and Michigan, Alabama and Tennessee, and Oklahoma State and TCU. There's plenty of great football beyond that lineup, too. Minnesota and Illinois meet at noon in a game that could decide the Big Ten West, while Kansas attempts to deal the ultimate indignity to a spiraling Oklahoma. In the afternoon window, Syracuse is clinging to the best remaining chance of a divisional challenge to Clemson as they face NC State; meanwhile, Arkansas and BYU are trying to rescue their seasons following rough losses in Week 6. The evening games see LSU and Florida looking to right their ships as well, Clemson trying to bury Florida State, USC taking on Utah in a key Pac-12 showdown, and North Carolina and Duke battling for the ACC Coastal lead. Finally, if you're willing to stay up late, Washington State and Oregon State as well as Air Force and UNLV provide some fun nightcaps. This week is, you might say, appointment viewing.
What more is there to say? Sure, we don't know how many of these games will actually be close, though the fact that every game featured this week has a one-score spread is encouraging enough. But we do know that this week will give us some excellent play—perhaps the best in the regular season, or at least until Rivalry Week—and that's certainly something to get excited about. Almost every top team puts their CFP hopes to the test this week, and the free-for-all across college football should be thrilling to behold.