We are now at the midway point in the season, and the Week 8 schedule is loaded. Some of these games have conference title implications, some have College Football Playoff chances on the line, and some should be really entertaining showdowns. Here are the ten best (in chronological order)!
1. Louisville at Miami (-13.5) – Friday at 7:00 on ESPN
The Miami Hurricanes sat last weekend and watched other top-ten teams, such as Indiana, Alabama, Ohio State, and Texas A&M, win impressively. Since the ‘Canes were idle, it’s easy to forget about them as one of the legitimate national title contenders this season. Mario Cristobal and the Hurricanes will remedy that with an impressive Friday night showing against Jeff Brohm’s Louisville Cardinals. Louisville is 1-1 in the ACC with a narrow win and then a loss to Virginia, but the Cardinals are ill-equipped on the offensive line to handle Miami’s elite defensive front. Both teams possess some entertaining offensive weapons and schemes, but the Hurricanes have a defensive front that Louisville will likely struggle to handle.
2. LSU at Vanderbilt (-2.5) – Noon on ABC
The Vanderbilt Commodores are fresh off a bye week, and Clark Lea’s bunch was able to rest up after losing a close game in Tuscaloosa. The Commodores are averaging a nation-best 6.7 yards per carry, and they take their dominant rushing attack into a matchup with the LSU Tigers. LSU is only allowing 3.3 yards per rush, but I think that number is going to inflate a bit after Diego Pavia and the Commodores are done. Vanderbilt is a very physical team, and LSU’s offense doesn’t look capable of fixing itself. The loser of this game will have a tough time making the College Football Playoff.
3. Georgia Tech at Duke (-1.5) – Noon on ESPN
The Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets are unbeaten and have a schedule that makes an 11-0 start (before a matchup with Georgia) incredibly possible. That means not only are the Yellow Jackets a contender to make the ACC Championship Game, they are a real threat to make the College Football Playoff. Those goals are only on the table if Brent Key’s crew can make it to the Georgia game at 11-0, though. They play at Duke and are actually underdogs against Manny Diaz’s team in a clash of the running game of GT against the aerial attack of the Blue Devils.
4. Washington at Michigan (-5.5) – Noon on FOX
Bryce Underwood gets a lot of the national attention as one of the next big things in the sport, but the best quarterback in Michigan Stadium this weekend is going to be Washington’s Demond Williams. The ultra-talented sophomore had a remarkable game against Rutgers last Friday night, racking up 402 yards passing and 136 yards rushing with four total touchdowns. For those who do not excel in math, that is a total of 538 yards of offense from one player! Rutgers has a bad defense, but come on, that is incredible. Michigan got pushed around by USC, and Washington is very capable of prolonging the struggle against former Pac-12 teams. Sherrone Moore would be wise to avoid another loss here because I don’t think his job is quite as secure as most assume.
5. Ole Miss at Georgia (-7.5) – 3:30 on ABC
The Ole Miss Rebels and Georgia Bulldogs are playing for the third straight season this weekend. The Bulldogs won 52-17 in 2023, and then the Rebels responded with a 28-10 victory in Oxford last season. The rubber match will be a classic with significant stakes on the line. The Georgia Bulldogs struggle to pressure opposing quarterbacks, something Ole Miss could really take advantage of with their high-powered offense and Lane Kiffin pulling the strings. Georgia really cannot afford another loss, and Ole Miss is entering a brutal stretch of their schedule, and losses could mount quickly. Buckle up, this will be a wild one.
6. SMU at Clemson (-9) – 3:30 on ACC Network
This midseason clash is a rematch of the 2024 ACC Championship Game, but it certainly doesn’t feel like it. The Mustangs are 2-0 in the ACC and still have a real shot to return to Charlotte this season, but they are just 4-2 overall and don’t have the look of a conference title contender. Clemson is just 3-3 with conference losses to Georgia Tech and Syracuse, plus the opening defeat to LSU. They have won two in a row over North Carolina and Boston College, but do the victories over those two cellar-dwellers prove anything is truly fixed for Dabo Swinney’s bunch? I don’t think so, and they have struggled mightily against any opponent with a pulse.
7. Texas Tech (-9.5) at Arizona State – 4:00 on FOX
The Big 12 was expected to be a chaotic free-for-all this season, with at least a handful of teams with legitimate dreams to win the conference. Texas Tech has many different ideas, and it has separated itself as the alpha dog of the conference. The Red Raiders boast a formidable ground attack on offense and a dominant defense, led by a strong front seven. Texas Tech gets perhaps its last actual road test as it travels to Tempe to play the wounded Arizona State Sun Devils. It’s not entirely clear whether Sam Leavitt can play and be effective, but if so, Arizona State does have some weapons to make this at least interesting.
8. Tennessee at Alabama (-7.5) – 7:30 on ABC
After Week 1’s defeat at Florida State, Kalen DeBoer was under immense pressure, and rumors circulated about Alabama exploring the possibility of paying the buyout to remove him. Since that time, Alabama is 5-0 with wins over Wisconsin, at Georgia, Vanderbilt, and at Missouri. Ty Simpson has emerged as one of the best quarterbacks in the country, and the Crimson Tide looks like one of the best teams in the country. This is a rivalry game, and Alabama could be worn down by playing a fourth-straight match against a top-16 opponent. The Volunteers do have a passing attack that could challenge the Tide’s secondary and make this game very interesting.
9. USC at Notre Dame (-9.5) – 7:30 on NBC
The Notre Dame Fighting Irish lost the first two games of the season and fell to 0-2. Most knew what would happen next: Notre Dame would improve and take advantage of a weak schedule to start racking up wins and quickly vault up the rankings and back into College Football Playoff contention. The issue for the Fighting Irish is that they lack a quality win. Looking forward to their schedule, and the only game that could really come close to qualifying as one after this weekend is Navy. That means Notre Dame desperately needs to beat USC convincingly, and then they need the Trojans to finish the season strong. Notre Dame can take care of the first part in South Bend, but USC has playoff dreams of its own, and they are fresh off one of the best performances of the Lincoln Riley era in SoCal. They showed the kind of physicality on both lines of scrimmage that has been lacking from Riley’s teams recently, and if they can bring that same fight to South Bend, this will be a classic. Beyond the rivalry between these two blue-bloods, this could be a College Football Playoff elimination game.
10. Utah (-3.5) at BYU – 8:00 on FOX
I thought BYU’s first loss of the season was coming last Saturday in Tucson, but the Cougars escaped with an overtime victory. BYU gave up five yards per carry to the Arizona Wildcats, and they now have to take on rival Utah and its physical ground attack. The Utes will confuse freshman Bear Bachmeier and win the battle in the trenches, and BYU will fall from the ranks of the unbeaten. The winner maintains an inside track to the Big 12 Championship Game.
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