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As Keith Jackson would have said after taking a glance at this week's college football schedule, "Whoa Nellie!". Have we got a slate for you.
Using the Coaches' Poll as our guide, the highest-ranked team that will be facing another Top 25 school this week is No. 3 Ohio State which hosts No. 6 Penn State.
Top-ranked Georgia has the week off as the 'Dawgs get set to battle Florida next week in Jacksonville.
2nd-ranked Michigan has its annual showdown with Michigan State in East Lansing in a rivalry matchup where many a strange thing has happened in the past. This will be the 116th meeting in a series that the Wolverines lead 72-38-5, even though the Spartans have taken 10 of the last 15.
Meanwhile, No. 4 Florida State takes on 17th-ranked Duke in Tallahassee, while 5th-ranked Washington seems to have a reprieve by stepping way down from last Saturday's date with Oregon to host Arizona State (1-5, 0-3 PAC-12).
No. 7 Oklahoma welcomes Big 12 newbie UCF which has yet to win a game against a conference foe (0-3) and is 3-3 over-all.
No. 8 (tie) Texas also takes on a Big 12 newbie on a visit to Houston. The Cougars are also 3-3 overall, but 1-2 in conference play after last Thursday night's dramatic Hail Mary walk-off win over West Virginia.
The other team tied at No. 8, Alabama (6-1, 4-0), welcomes 15h-ranked Tennessee (5-1, 2-1). Last October 15, the Vols snapped a 15-game losing streak to the Tide with a 52-49 win in Knoxville on Chase McGrath's 40-yard walk-off field goal.
No. 10 North Carolina, like Washington, seems to have pass by welcoming Virginia (1-5, 0-2 ACC) to Chapel Hill, but the Cavs took 4 straight from 2017-2020 and only lost last year's game by a 31-28 count. The meeting will tie Auburn-Georgia as the 2nd-most played rivalry with 128 meetings since 1892. UNC leads the series 65-58-4.
No. 11 will host Washington State in a game where both schools will be extra hungry for a win. The Ducks are coming off the narrow loss at Washington, and the Cougars are licking their wounds from a 44-6 beatdown issued by Arizona that its home crowd had to witness.
No. 12 Ole Miss goes to Auburn which has beaten the Rebels in 35 of 47 games played. Lane Kiffin's squad won last year's meeting 48-34 in Oxford to end a 6-game losing streak to the Tigers, but Mississippi has won two in-a-row over Auburn since 1951-1952.
No. 13 Oregon State is idle.
No. 14 Utah draws a road date with No. 16 USC which will pit the Utes' No.9 nationally-ranked defense against the Trojan's No. 9 offense. USC is looking to recover from a big 48-20 loss at Notre Dame where they've lost six straight. After a week off, the Utes rebounded from their September 29 loss at Oregon State with a 34-14 win over Cal. Keep in mind that USC's loss was out-of-conference and the Trojans are still undefeated (4-0) in the PAC-12, along with Washington (3-0).
The 5-day college football week gets underway tonight with a pair of CUSA matchups as Western Kentucky visits Jax State, and MTSU goes to undefeated Liberty. There is also a Sun Belt clash with Southern Miss at South Alabama.
On Wednesday, there are two more CUSA games as FIU visits Sam Houston, and New Mexico State visits UTEP.
Thursday finds unbeaten James Madison visiting Marshall. A second game on that day has Tulsa hosting Rice in an AAC contest.
Another AAC game on Friday sends SMU to Temple.
In addition to the other Saturday games outlined, we also get Air Force-Navy as the undefeated Falcons begin their defense of the Commander-In-Chief's Trophy. The round-robin competition among the three academies continues with Army at Air Force on November 4, and ends with Army-Navy on December 9th at Gillette Stadium, the home of the New England Patriots in Foxborough.
(6) Penn State at (3) Ohio State
(15) Tennessee at (8) Alabama
(17) Duke at (4) Florida State
(14) Utah at (16) USC
(1) Georgia, (13) Oregon State, (18) Notre Dame, (21) Louisville,
(SEE: Weekly Picks/Scores)
Fourteen teams entered last week undefeated and three went down to defeat as Washington edged Oregon in a battle of unbeatens, USC lost at Notre Dame, and Louisville fell at Pitt.
The only team on this list that the computer projects to lose is Penn State at Ohio State in this week's battle of unbeatens.
ACC
Florida State, 6-0 (-13.5) by 14.76 vs. Duke
North Carolina 6-0 (-23.5) by 31.82 vs. Virginia
B1G
Michigan, 7-0 (-24.5) by 27.11 at Michigan State
Ohio State, 6-0 (-4.5) by 3.09 vs. Penn State
Penn State, 6-0 (see above)
Big 12
Oklahoma, 6-0 (-18.5) by 7.18 vs. Central Florida
CUSA
Liberty, 6-0 (-14.5) by 5.52 vs. Middle Tennessee
MWC
Air Force, 6-0 (-10.5) 14.54 at Navy
PAC-12
Washington, 6-0 (-27.5) by 41.02 vs. Arizona State
SEC
Georgia 7-0, idle
SUN BELT
James Madison 6-0 (-3.5) by 6.92 at Marshall
There are two remaining winless teams, but the computer expects that to change this week as it takes the Bearkats at home over FIU, but has Nevada losing once again on the road.
CUSA
Sam Houston 0-6 (-5.5) by 11.88 vs. Florida International
MWC
Nevada 0-6 (+15.91) at San Diego State (-13.5)
This season has 117 of the 133 FBS schools facing one FCS opponent, and Army playing two such games for a total of 118 FBS-FCS matchups.
Of the 16 FBS schools that do NOT play a FCS program, 7 are in the B1G (Illinois, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, Purdue, Wisconsin). 6 more are evenly split between the Big 12 (Houston, Oklahoma, Texas) and Pac-12 (Colorado, USC, Washington). The other three are Liberty (CUSA) , UTSA (American), and Virginia Tech (ACC).
No FBS-FCS games are scheduled this week.
The FBS programs are 106-4 this year against the FCS schools. Over-all, the FBS is a collective 1,792-152 (.922) since we began tracking this in 2003.
Here are the FCS wins in 2023, so far:
September 9: Idaho 33, Nevada 6
September 9: Southern Illinois 14, Northern Illinois 12
September 9: Fordham 40, Buffalo 37
September 16: Sacramento State 30, Stanford 23
GEORGIA - Won 23 straight home games, 24 straight over-all, and 13 straight true road games.
Last: 37-20 win at Vanderbilt on Saturday, October 14.
Next: After a bye week, plays Florida in Jacksonville on Saturday, October 28.
MICHIGAN - Won 19 straight conference games.
Last: 52-7 home win over Indiana on Saturday, October 14.
Next: Visits Michigan State on Saturday, October 21.
NEVADA - Lost 16 straight over-all, 16 straight to FBS teams, and 8 straight home games.
Last: 45-27 home loss to UNLV on Saturday, October 14.
Next: Visits San Diego State on Saturday, October 21.
UMASS - Lost 8 straight home games.
Last: Lost 63-0 at Penn State on Saturday, October 14.
Next: After bye week, visits Army on Saturday, October 28.
NORTHWESTERN - Lost 13 straight road games.
Last: 23-20 home win over FCS member Howard on Saturday, October 7.
Next: Visits Nebraska on Saturday, October 21.
NEW MEXICO - Lost 14 straight conference games.
Last: 52-24 home loss to San Jose State on Saturday, October 14.
Next: Hosts Hawaii on Saturday, October 21.