Georgia on the brink. Pre-crowned as the national champions before the season started by many, Georgia will miss the College Football Playoff altogether if they lose this game. The biggest problem for No. 7 Tennessee on Saturday night (7:30 p.m. ET, ABC) is that No. 12 Georgia is keenly aware of that fact.
Tennessee hasn't won between the hedges since 2016, the tail end of the last time Kirby Smart's team lost games in consecutive weeks (ironically, those two losses were at Ole Miss and home against the Vols).
Georgia's falling from No. 3 to No. 12 was a source of great controversy this week, given that the Bulldogs have beaten No. 3 Texas and No. 20 Clemson decisively away from home and lost solely to No. 10 Alabama and No. 11 Ole Miss, both on the road.
Again, maybe this is evidence that Tennessee should wear two chin straps as they step on the field at Sanford Stadium on Saturday. And perhaps they should. We all recall Georgia stuffing a better Tennessee team in a locker in 2022. We also know no one is better at getting his team to believe they're forgotten outcasts better than Kirby.
But perhaps that schedule is, in fact, Georgia's downfall. This Bulldog team has looked like the rolling ball of butcher knives we anticipated for all of three halves this season -- the second half vs. Clemson, the second half vs. Alabama, and the first half vs. Texas. In their last two games, after an idle week, Georgia played a severely limited Florida team into the fourth quarter and was flattened by Ole Miss last week. Carson Beck throwing 12 interceptions in nine games is not an accident.
If forced to take one unit to dominate this game, I'd take Tennessee's D-line.
Again, maybe Georgia has Tennessee right where they want them. Or maybe this Georgia team has been worn down by one of the nation's toughest schedules and the Vols finish them off for good.
A de facto semifinal game in the American. Army has, deservedly, been the darling of the American in their debut season in the league. Seven games in, an AAC team has yet to play the Black Knights to within 10 points.
But the first-place Knights will need an opponent in the American Championship, and that team will more than likely be on the field at Navy-Marine Corps Stadium on Saturday.
No. 25 Tulane is 6-0 in AAC play, and clinches its third straight title game appearance with a victory in Annapolis (noon ET, ESPN2). Navy reached the championship game in 2016 but hasn't been back since. The Midshipmen began the year 6-0 but have dropped two of their last three, including a stunning 24-10 loss at Rice two weeks ago.
Navy is thought of as the better running team, but the Green Wave have hit or neared 300 ground yards in three of their last five games, including a 327-yard, 5-touchdown outburst last week against Temple. (Granted, it was Temple.)
Tulane is doing this under first-year head coach Jon Sumrall, who is 31-6 in three seasons combined at Troy and Tulane.
Colorado enters Chapter 4 of the Coach Prime era. We all watched Chapter 1, when the Buffaloes were the biggest story in American sports from the stunning opening win at TCU to the inevitable humbling at Oregon. That led to Chapter 2, when Colorado became a punch line as the Buffs stumbled through a 1-8 Pac-12 season and continued through an underwhelming opening win over North Dakota State and a miserable loss at Nebraska in Week 2 of this season.
Then came something no one expected, Chapter 3 when Colorado became, somehow, overlooked and underrated. The Buffs played quietly good football in winning six of their last seven games, five of them by double digits.
Now Colorado has legitimate championship hopes -- in the Big 12 and beyond. Big Noon gives Ohio State a break and puts its spotlight on the 17th-ranked Buffs as they host a wounded Utah team (noon ET, Fox). At 5-1 in conference play, Deion's team controls its destiny to reach the Big 12 Championship, with a trip to Kansas City to play a resurgent Kansas team next week standing as the biggest obstacle between Boulder and Arlington.
Utah has lost five games in a row,
Texas walks into the lion's, er, pig's pen. One of the hottest debates in college football right now is the juxtaposition of Texas's No. 3 ranking in the latest CFP ranking and its (lack of) strength of schedule.
Never before have dominant wins over Michigan, Oklahoma, and Florida been spun as negatives, but when those teams are a combined 14-15, well, it is what it is. But what the surface-level analysis doesn't capture is how difficult these next few weeks are going to be for Texas in particular. There's not a person alive who has experienced the toxic stew of emotions that will swirl on the surface of Kyle Field on Nov. 30. The Aggies are putting so much into that game that Mike Elko and co. are doing their Senior Day festivities this Saturday against New Mexico State just because there's going to be so much going on against Texas. The Longhorns will be playing uphill into the snow in both directions against the Aggies that day.
Saturday's trip to Arkansas (noon ET, ABC) is similar in that regard.
"I always jokingly say this," Steve Sarkisian said this summer. "I feel like when you go to Arkansas, I almost at times feel like they hate Texas more than they like themselves. That's a real rivalry."
Don't take his word for it. "We hadn't played Texas for years, and when we played them a couple of years back, it was the most excited our fanbase has been in a while," Sam Pittman said. "So I would say he's probably right."
Arkansas has a multi-faceted offense that ran for 359 yards on nearly 10 a pop against Mississippi State and threw for 365 on 13 an attempt the next game against Ole Miss. On the season, Bobby Petrino's unit is fifth in the nation at 483.6 yards per game, with three games at 648 yards or more. Defensively, the Hogs are a boom-or-bust unit that held Texas A&M below 300 yards and shut out Tennessee in the second half, and was also absolutely shredded by Ole Miss to the tune of 63 points and nearly 700 yards.
If Texas loses this game, their season is in effect over. If they win... it'll be just another victory over a 5-5 team. But keep in mind there's more to this one than the algorithms can measure.
Additional Games:
-- No. 2 Ohio State at Northwestern (noon ET, BTN): Ohio State fans are up in arms over playing six straight noon kicks to end their season, and understandably so. This is a complicated, expensive issue that won't be solved in a paragraph, but one would think the Big Ten could at least throw Ohio State fans a morsel by playing this game on its own network at 3:30. That wouldn't solve the issue by any means, but at least it'd be something.
-- No. 20 Clemson at Pittsburgh (noon ET, ESPN): Clemson is technically in second place now over Miami by virtue of its 6-1 record, but the Tigers need help to reach their 10th ACC Championship -- either one more Miami loss or two SMU losses. The Tigers have to win here, first, though. If nothing else, a victory gives Clemson is 10th 7-1 or better ACC season under Dabo Swinney.
-- Louisiana Tech at Western Kentucky (noon ET, CBS Sports Network): At 3-6, Louisiana Tech needs a win to avoid missing the postseason for the third time in three seasons under Sonny Cumbie. WKU is 5-0 in C-USA play and needs a win to keep pace with Jacksonville State and remain one game ahead of Sam Houston.
-- South Florida at Charlotte (3:30 p.m. ET, ESPN+): Charlotte is 3-6, so a loss here cuts their season off at the end of the month. The 49ers have reached one bowl game in nine previous seasons at the FBS level.
-- Boston College at No. 14 SMU (3:30 p.m. ET, ESPN): After winning the American and then getting flattened by BC in the Fenway Bowl, we all thought SMU was in for a rude awakening in the ACC. If they couldn't hold up against an Eagles team that went 3-5 in the ACC, how could they stand a chance against Florida State? As always, we know nothing.
-- Nebraska at USC (4 p.m. ET, Fox): I've scoured the NCAA rule book and confirmed that, indeed, someone has to win this game. Nebraska has lost three straight and will be underdogs to close the season against Wisconsin and Iowa, so this might be their last, best chance to reach six wins. USC is 4-5 after starting 2-0, and would need to beat No. 8 Notre Dame (in addition to beating UCLA, which they'll need to do either way) if they lose here.
-- Baylor at West Virginia (4 p.m. ET, ESPN2): Both teams are 5-4, so the winner clinches a postseason bid. WVU is 4-2 in Big 12 plays, so they need a win to remain on the periphery of the conference title race. Six of the last eight meetings between these two have been within one score.
-- Troy at Georgia Southern (4 p.m. ET, ESPN+): Clay Helton's team wins the Sun Belt East with three more victories. The Eagles have never qualified for the Sun Belt Championship in the 6-year history of the game.