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College football's Week 8 is already off to a wild start, with explosive games on Thursday and Friday night. That'll get us going just fine.
Below, a Saturday schedule grid with watchability rankings for every FBS game. It's based on a subjective mix of game quality, competitiveness, stakes, and what else is going on at the time.
The biggest games are all in the SEC West this time, according to the AP Poll, with Texas A&M-Alabama, Arkansas-Auburn, and Ole Miss-LSU all clocking in as ranked games. But all four other power conferences have crucial stuff going on, and three of the current top mid-majors have potentially tricky conference games.
Will it be a good college football Saturday? Pal, they're all good college football Saturdays. It's 14 hours of college football, from a couple top-10 teams getting challenged early to some #Pac12AfterDark to close the show down late.
| WATCH THIS | Maybe watch this | This is a football game | |
| Noon ET | NC State at #7 Louisville ABC, WatchESPN |
#10 Wisconsin at Iowa ESPN, WatchESPN |
North Texas at Army CBSSN |
| Indiana at Northwestern BTN, BTN2Go |
Miami (OH) at Bowling Green WatchESPN |
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| Texas at Kansas State ESPN2, WatchESPN |
Oklahoma State at Kansas FS1, Fox Sports Go |
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| CMU at Toledo WatchESPN |
Rutgers at Minnesota ESPNU, WatchESPN |
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| UMass at South Carolina SEC Network, WatchESPN |
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| UCF at UConn ESPNews, WatchESPN |
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| 12:30 | Syracuse at Boston College ACC Network, WatchESPN |
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| 2 | Hawaii at Air Force Oceanic PPV |
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| 3 | Colorado at Stanford Pac-12 Networks |
Akron at Ball State WatchESPN |
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| #22 UNC at Virginia ACC Network, WatchESPN |
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| 3:30 | #6 Texas A&M at #1 Alabama CBS, CBSSports.com |
TCU at #12 West Virginia ESPN2, WatchESPN |
Illinois at #3 Michigan BTN, BTN2Go |
| EMU at #20 WMU WatchESPN |
Purdue at #8 Nebraska ESPN2, WatchESPN |
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| Memphis at #24 Navy CBSSN |
Idaho at App State WatchESPN |
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| UT-Martin at Georgia State WatchESPN |
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| Buffalo at NIU WatchESPN |
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| Prairie View at Rice ConferenceUSA.com |
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| 3:45 | Tulane at Tulsa ESPNU, WatchESPN |
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| 4 | #19 Utah at UCLA Fox, Fox Sports Go |
MTSU at Missouri SEC Network, WatchESPN |
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| 5:30 | CSU at UNLV Root |
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| Charlotte at Marshall beIN |
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| 6 | #17 Arkansas at #21 Auburn ESPN, WatchESPN |
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| 6:30 | Oregon State at #5 Washington Pac-12 Networks |
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| 7 | #11 Houston at SMU ESPN2, WatchESPN |
ECU at Cincinnati CBSSN |
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| LA Tech at FIU WatchESPN |
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| UL-Lafayette at Texas State WatchESPN |
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| UTEP at UTSA ConferenceUSA.com |
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| ODU at WKU ASN |
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| 7:30 | Mississippi State at Kentucky SEC Network, WatchESPN |
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| Michigan State at Maryland BTN, BTN2Go |
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| Tennessee State at Vanderbilt ESPNU, WatchESPN |
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| 8 | #2 Ohio State at Penn State ABC, WatchESPN |
#16 Oklahoma at Texas Tech Fox, Fox Sports Go |
Georgia Southern at NMSU WatchESPN |
| 9 | #23 Ole Miss at #25 LSU ESPN, WatchESPN |
ULM at New Mexico Root |
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| 10 | Washington State at Arizona State Pac-12 Networks |
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| 10:30 | Fresno State at Utah State CBSSN |
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| Wyoming at Nevada ESPN2, WatchESPN |
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Notes on the WATCH THIS games:
- NC State has a solid defense and should kind of be 6-0 right now, after losing grasp of an upset at Clemson last week and dropping an even game at East Carolina earlier. But if nothing else, Lamar Jackson's in this game.
- Kinda have to clock in for A&M-Bama, even though the Tide opened the week as 16.5-point favorites and have only since become even more heavily favored. We're running out of chances for Bama to suffer its annual meaningless loss, but here's why the Aggies have a prayer.
- If that one's gone sour, Arkansas-Auburn promises madness, with two coaches who've butted heads and have kind of traded identities, in some ways. The Hogs get in weird shootouts, and the Tigers get in ugly slogs.
- Ohio State's trip to Penn State seems tougher than that 20-point spread suggests, though we said the same about OSU's trip to Oklahoma. A prime-time road game against a talented team with an improved offense a week after going through the Wisconsin wringer?
- Your close-out game: WSU at ASU, two teams that score a lot of points and currently have minor coaching beef.