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A pair of games involving top-ten teams take place this weekend when Ohio State visits Penn State in a pivotal Big Ten showdown, and Notre Dame hosts Stanford in an intersectional matchup.
The Buckeyes invade Beaver Stadium as the No. 1 team in the latest Congrove Computer Rankings at CollegeFootballPoll.com while the Nittany Lions rank 5th. The computer favors Ohio State by just 1.40 points. The Buckeyes and Nittany Lions have met each season as divisional opponents in the Big Ten since 1993 when the latter left the independent ranks to join the Big Ten. Ohio State leads the overall series 19-14, and has won 17 of the 25 contests played as conference foes. Penn State won the last time these two teams met in Beaver Stadium (2016) and is 7-7 at home all-time in the series.
The 8th-ranked Cardinal and 6th-ranked Irish have only met 32 times in history, but this will be the 22nd consecutive season in which they have done battle. Stanford has won 7 of the last 9, including the last 3 in-a-row. The computer takes the Irish at home by 6.03.
BYU heads to Washington in an attempt to score another road upset, but Washington is a huge 30.84-point computer pick. The last time we saw the Cougars play, they knocked of Wisconsin 24-21 in Madison. This will be BYU's third game against a PAC-12 foe after opening the season with a 28-23 win at Arizona, and losing 21-18 at home to Cal the following week. The Cougars will play a 4th PAC-12 team at the end of the year when they face state rival Utah.
Virginia Tech will try to recover from its embarrassing loss at Old Dominion last week when it travels to Duke on Saturday to face the undefeated Blue Devils. The Hokies are actually listed as the Vegas underdog in that game by 6 points, and the computer has VT on the losing end of a 7.90-point margin. Virginia Tech will be without second-year QB Josh Jackson (fractured left fibula) and will turn to Kansas transfer Ryan Willis, a junior. Apparently, a locker room incident following the loss at ODU led to Trevon Hill, perhaps the best defensive player on the roster, getting booted from the team.
Meanwhile, Old Dominion is a 4.98-point computer upset pick at Vegas-favored East Carolina (-5.5).
Other computer upset picks include Louisville at home by 3.30 over Florida State, Washington State at home by 0.61 over Utah, and Texas Tech at home by 7.93 over West Virginia.
The irony can't be lost on the computer favoring Texas Christian by 6.66 over Iowa State on Saturday.
The college football week kicks off on Thursday when North Carolina visits Miami as a huge 27.16-point computer underdog. UNC has won two conference games since November 5, 2016 and both came against Pitt. The Tar Heels won last weekend's game 38-35 in Chapel Hill, and also won 34-31 at Pitt on November 9th last season.
On Friday night, Memphis goes to Tulane for an American Conference game, and UCLA visits Colorado in a PAC-12 affair.
Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney announced early in the week that he's pulling a switch at QB and going with the freshman, Trevor Lawrence, over Kelly Bryant - a move that led Bryant to announce he will transfer to another school. The Tigers host Syracuse on Saturday as a 22.71-point computer pick. Both teams are 4-0 and the 'Cuse will be welcoming the chance to prove they're for real. There is no doubt that Syracuse has Clemson's full attention after the Tigers went to the Carrier Dome last year and were upset 27-24 for their only loss until Alabama eliminated them from the playoff.
It's a Twilight Zone moment in college football. Kentucky is 4-0 as it gets set to host South Carolina as a 1.29-point computer favorite, while Nebraska is 0-3 and a 12.11-point computer underdog to visiting Purdue.
There are 21 remaining teams with unblemished records and 16 are in Power 5 conferences - Alabama, California, Clemson, Colorado, Duke, Georgia, Kentucky, LSU, North Carolina State, Notre Dame, Ohio State, Oklahoma, Penn State, Stanford, Syracuse and West Virginia. Of the 5 undefeated schools that are in Group Of 5 conferences, 3 are from the American Conference - UCF, USF and Cincinnati. The other 2 are North Texas from CUSA and Buffalo from the MAC.
For the record, just 4 schools remain winless. They include Power 5 programs Nebraska and UCLA, and Group of 5 conference schools San Jose State and UTEP.
There are just 3 games this week that pit FBS schools against FCS programs. The FBS went 6-1 in such games last week and is now 89-7 (.927) vs. the FCS this season, and 1,308-124 (.913) since 2003.
Here are all of the FCS victories over FBS teams, so far, in 2018:
August 30: UC Davis 44, San Jose State 31
September 1: Villanova 19, Temple 17
September 1: Northern Arizona 30, UTEP 10
September 1: Nicholls State 26, Kansas 23 (OT)
September 2: North Carolina A&T 28, East Carolina 23
September 8: Maine 31, Western Kentucky 28
September 22: Illinois State 35, Colorado State 19
UCF - Won 16 straight overall (FBS longest), Won 10 straight conference games including AAC title last year (FBS longest). Hosts Pittsburgh on Saturday.
FAU - Won 9 straight conference games (FBS second-longest). Visits Middle Tennessee on Saturday.
Alabama - Won 21 straight home games (FBS longest). Hosts Louisiana-Lafayette on Saturday.
Oklahoma - Won 17 straight road games (FBS longest). Hosts Baylor on Saturday.
UTEP - Lost 16 straight overall (FBS longest). Visits on Saturday.
Ball State - Lost 13 straight conference games (FBS longest). Hosts Kent State on Saturday.
Oregon State - Lost 21 straight road games (FBS longest). Visits Arizona State on Saturday.