Week three of the college football season was highlighted by the top-three teams in the AP poll playing true road games against ranked opponents for the first time in history. Alabama and Ohio State both took care of business while Florida State was absolutely rocked by Louisville in a matchup with major implications both in the ACC and on the national stage. We took the time to look ahead to this week’s best matchups, highlighted by four key matchups featuring top-25 teams. Here is a look at the best four televised college football games of the week.
#12 Georgia @ #23 Ole Miss
Saturday, 12:00 PM ET -ESPN
The Rebels had their string of consecutive victories over Alabama snapped in a 48-43 loss, but they once again proved they can play with any team in the country. The key now is finding a way to put away close games after building early leads, which was a problem last year and came up again in last week’s loss to the Crimson Tide. Contending in the SEC will require a home win over Georgia this week with the Rebels listed as a two-point favorite. The Bulldogs are coming off a close win over Missouri but will have a much more difficult time on the road against a talented Ole Miss side that is in a must-win situation. Ole Miss will be fairly bitter after blowing a very winnable game last week.
Pick: Ole Miss -2
#11 Wisconsin @ #8 Michigan State
Saturday, 12:00 PM ET – Big Ten Network
Michigan State is coming off another impressive road win after taking down Notre Dame last week, proving that the Big Ten title still must go through East Lansing. However, the Spartans can’t afford to let their foot off the gas pedal this week with Wisconsin in town. The Badgers had to rally back in the fourth quarter of a game that was a lot closer than it was expected to be versus Georgia State and now they begin a brutal stretch that includes trips to Michigan State, Michigan and Iowa with a home game against Ohio State sandwiched in to that mix. Wisconsin should be able to hang around for a while but eventually the Spartans will pull away for the win and the cover.
Pick: Michigan State -6
#19 Florida @ #14 Tennessee
Saturday, 3:30 PM ET – CBS
A 28-19 win over Ohio continued the trend of nothing seeming easy for a Vols side that many had predicted would contend for an SEC championship this season. Now they will face much tougher competition with the Gators in town. Florida has had the upper hand in this rivalry for more than a decade and can really shake things up with an outright win this week. That might be a little bit too much to ask of the Gators after they lost their starting quarterback in Luke Del Rio last week, but Jim McElwain’s side should at the very least be able to keep this game close.
The reason why so many college football experts will be watching this game is they’ll want to see if Tennessee is for real. Remember that they had a near disastrous opening week performance against Appalachian State in their opener (requiring overtime just to survive). Then they had an impressive win versus Virginia Tech before struggling once again against Ohio last week. Tennessee has been close, but no cigar a couple of times in previous years and a loss here would suggest that they’re still in that second tier.
Pick: Tennessee -10
#17 Arkansas @ #10 Texas A&M
Saturday, 9:00 PM ET – ESPN
The Aggies have opened with three straight wins for the third consecutive season. Now comes the hard part, which is avoiding the same types of slips that have plagued them over the past few years. A fierce pass rush and strong quarterback play from Trevor Knight should be enough to pull out a close win at home over Arkansas, but with quarterback Austin Allen playing at such a high level right now the Razorbacks will definitely have A&M on upset alert this weekend.
Pick: Texas A&M -2.5
