The College Football Playoff selection committee reminded us on Tuesday that everything we’ve watched so far this season is meaningless, reshuffling the top-25 in the way they deemed appropriate.
Georgia and Alabama top the list, with Michigan State and Oregon rounding out the top four. Undefeated Cincinnati — ranked second in both the coaches poll and The Associated Press top-25 — comes in at No. 6 behind Ohio State.
There is still quite a bit of football to be played, and in a year where more ranked teams have lost than ever before, you can rest assured that more chaos is on the way.
The week 10 slate isn’t eye-popping, but we’ve said that before, only to have weekends with upsets galore.
Let’s take a look at which games to watch in week 10 of the college football season.
Nebraska vs No. 5 Ohio State – 12:00 p.m. ET, FOX
The Buckeyes are coming off a win over Penn State, but it was a closer game than many expected. The College Football Playoff selection committee has Ohio State ranked at No. 5, which allows Ryan Day’s squad to control their own destiny, but also means they have zero room for error.
Since their loss to Oregon in week two, Ohio State has won six straight games and their offense is averaging 50.8 points per game. Quarterback C.J. Stroud has been lights-out since week two, throwing 16 touchdowns to just one interception and planting himself firmly in the Heisman race.
Nebraska is 3-6 and has lost three straight, including a loss to Purdue last week in which quarterback Adrian Martinez threw four interceptions. But they’ve hung with some of the better teams in the Big 10 — losing to Michigan State and Michigan by a combined six points — and Day isn’t taking Scott Frost’s team lightly.
“This is a very, very good Nebraska team that we have to be ready for,” Day said Tuesday. “I don’t care what the record says. I watched the film and they’re good.”
North Carolina vs No. 9 Wake Forest – 12:00 p.m. ET, ABC
The Demon Deacons have to be the least talked about team in the country, even while holding their highest rank in the history of the program.
“The formulas out there, they always downgrade us,” head coach Dave Clawson said earlier in the year. “I don’t think it’s fair to our players that what we do is discounted, because of some recruiting rankings that came out six years ago that locks them in a certain way. Once you’re a three-star, you’re always a three-star.”
Wake Forest enters the non-conference game — more on that in a second — against North Carolina 8-0 and yet are underdogs against the Tar Heels.
“We’re a good football team, why are people surprised?” Clawson said. “This hasn’t come out of nowhere. We’ve been good. We’ve been building. It doesn’t upset me, but I just think our players deserve more credit.”
While both schools play in the ACC, Saturday’s matchup will not count as a conference game, as the two schools agreed to play a non-conference series back in 2015 after seeing that they would not play each other as often in the coming years.
UNC is 4-4 after starting off the year ranked in the top 10.
No. 6 Cincinnati vs Tulsa – 3:30 p.m. ET, ESPN2
I’ve found a new drum to bang after the CFP committee ranked the Bearcats No. 6 in their first ranking. Get used to hearing me tout Luke Fickell’s team for the playoff.
Cincinnati will need to run the table and have teams in front of them lose in order to have a chance, but they’ll need to get past a frisky Tulsa team first.
The Bearcats’ No. 6 ranking can go either one of two ways: they can overlook Tulsa and lose any hope they have of becoming the first Group of Five team to make the CFP, or they can take out their anger and dominate.
“For us and the football team, it changes absolutely nothing,” quarterback Desmond Ridder said of all the hoopla going on off the football field.
College Gameday is in town, making the spotlight on Cincinnati ever brighter. The Bearcats could use a dominant win after struggling to put away Navy and Tulane in back-to-back weeks.
No. 14 Texas A&M vs No. 13 Auburn – 3:30 p.m. ET, CBS
A massive showdown in the SEC West as both schools have their eyes on the SEC Championship game, though A&M will need a little help to get there.
The game in College Station will be the toughest test for the Aggies since taking down No. 1 Alabama in week six, and they’ll need to win these last three games in order to have a shot at the SEC West crown.
Jimbo Fisher’s offense will be tasked with trying to break through Auburn’s defense, which is ranked 24th in the county in points allowed per game.
“I think they make great adjustments during the game,” Fisher said. “They’ve always done a great job on defense, and they’re playing really well, playing really good in the red zone.”
Auburn quarterback Bo Nix is playing the best football of his career, throwing for 568 yards and completing 77% of his passes in his past two games.
“He’s picking his moments when he runs,” Fisher said. “He knows where he’s going, what he’s doing with it and getting great play action because of the run game, which gets great matchups down the field for him… and he’s just making really good decisions and being smart with the football.”
No. 2 Alabama vs LSU – 7:00 p.m. ET, ESPN
This is a game to tune into because it’s a night game between two historic rivals. That doesn’t mean you’ll have to watch all four quarters.
Alabama has won nine of the last 10 games against LSU and enter Saturday night’s matchup favored by 29.5 points. But Nick Saban isn’t taking the Tigers lightly, even if you chalk it up to “coach speak.”
“They are a very capable team, and I also think they’re a very dangerous team,” Saban said. “And I think sometimes that when you hear negative things about another team that psychologically – whether it’s your fans, your players, coaches or whatever, they don’t have the proper respect for what you need to do to get ready to play a game like that. I think it’s happened to us twice this year. Texas A&M had lost two games in a row. I don’t think we respected what we needed to do to beat them. And even in the Tennessee game, I thought we were flat in the first half.”
The last time LSU visited Tuscaloosa, they left with a 46-41 win, snapping an 8-game losing streak to the Crimson Tide.
“Oh, I think they remember it,” Saban said Thursday night. “I remember it.”
Other games to watch:
Purdue vs No. 3 Michigan State – 3:30 p.m ET, ABC
Arkansas vs No. 17 Mississippi State – 4:00 p.m. ET, SEC Network
Washington vs No. 4 Oregon – 7:30 p.m. ET, ABC
Joe Morgan is the Sports Reporter for The Daily Wire. Most recently, Morgan covered the Clippers, Lakers, and the NBA for Sporting News. Send your sports questions to [email protected].
The views expressed in this piece are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.