For the second time in three weeks, we’ve got six ranked matchups in college football.
In Provo, BYU hosts Notre Dame in the first ever top-10 matchup at LaVell Edwards Stadium, and Ohio State visits up north in a game that features the national champions from the past two years – additionally, the first time a pair of top five teams have ever met in Bloomington.
Auburn and Georgia get together in a historic SEC rivalry, and Alabama and Tennessee renew acquaintances in a game that will push the loser to the brink of the playoff picture. In the ACC, Florida State travels south to Miami, with potentially bigger consequences for Mike Norvell if the Seminoles meet their expected fate.
Some of these games are personal, too.
Arch Manning is reeling from last week’s Red River meltdown, and also has an unsettled score with Florida after a costly loss last October. Missouri is in Oxford to face Ole Miss, which certainly means something to Austin Simmons, who was the Rebels’ starter last season until an injury left him as the forgotten man in Trinidad Chambliss’ ascent to superstardom. Now, Simmons is right there with Chambliss as a potential first round pick – a status he’s eager to affirm against his former team.
Meanwhile, LSU is trying to save its first season under Lane Kiffin against Mississippi State, and Kentucky – which left the Tigers teetering after an overtime win last Saturday – can affirm itself as a genuine contender in Norman against Oklahoma.
Stakes are high, and you might as well enjoy the thin margins while you can, with the College Football Playoff nearing a deal to extend its field to 24 teams — one that’s likely to go into effect beginning next season.
Without further adieu, a look at storylines for Week 7:
Notre Dame gets its biggest test in over a year
This one has plenty of meaning, and not just for Pop Tart enthusiasts that are still bitter about Notre Dame opting out of last year’s bowl season. If the Irish lose, they’ll essentially be in must-win mode when they host Miami next month, and BYU can bolster its hopes of reaching the playoffs, as well as the Big 12’s dream of being a two-bid league for the first time since it was expanded in 2024.
Watch Notre Dame vs. BYU LIVE on TSN2, TSN.ca and the TSN App at 7:30pm ET/4:30pm PT.
Notre Dame enters having not lost in 398 days, with each of its 16 wins coming by double digits – the longest such streak since Miami won 17 straight between 2000 and 2001. After slogging out a road win over North Carolina in Week 5, the Irish jumped all over Stanford in South Bend last Saturday, hanging 37 first half points on the Cardinal in an eventual 58-7 win. After not throwing a touchdown pass in Week 3 against Michigan State, CJ Carr has thrown 10 in Notre Dame’s last three wins, and has 16 this season with just one interception. With Manning and Dante Moore in flux, Carr might be emerging as the steadiest option in this year’s quarterback class, and he’s gaining traction in the QB1 debate ahead of next April’s draft with each passing week. He’ll get his biggest challenge yet in a BYU defence that ranks eighth in the FBS in points allowed (13.4 per game) and has seven takeaways in five games.
BYU has been one of the steadiest programs in the Big 12 for some time now, having gone 18-3 in the conference since 2024, and can secure the Big 12’s biggest collective non-conference win since TCU knocked off Michigan in the playoff semifinals in 2022 (honourable mention to Oklahoma State, which beat Oregon last month). It’ll be asking a lot of second-year quarterback Bear Bachmeier, who’s been up-and-down as a passer thus far – he was 11-of-24 for 62 yards against TCU in Week 5, and followed that by throwing for 362 yards and three touchdowns against Iowa State last Friday. The Cougars are also without star running back LJ Martin – the reigning Big 12 Offensive Player of the Year – with him still expected to miss the next few weeks with an ankle injury.
Ohio State can reclaim Big Ten supremacy over Indiana
Indiana has only beaten Ohio State once since 1988, but that was in last year’s Big Ten Championship – a 13-10 hurdle that Curt Cignetti’s team used as a springboard to a dominant playoff run that ended with a national title. On Saturday, the Hoosiers will try to affirm their position as the best team in the conference – and perhaps in the nation – in a home meeting with the Buckeyes.
If we’re going off the eye test, this isn’t the Indiana team that outscored Alabama, Oregon and Miami by a combined 75 points last December and January, but it’s still undefeated, having pulled a rabbit out of its hat against Nebraska on the road last Saturday. The Hoosiers trailed 17-6 in the fourth quarter, but got a pair of Josh Hoover-to-Nick Marsh touchdowns – a combined 119 yards on the two scores, including a 44-yarder on fourth and one that stood as the winner – to escape Lincoln with a win.
Hoover has a pair of potential first rounders to throw to in Marsh and Charlie Becker, but Ohio State has what’s looking more-and-more like the runaway favourite to go first overall in Jeremiah Smith. After back-to-back 200 yard games, Smith was “quiet” last week against Maryland, catching four passes for 93 yards and two touchdowns – bringing his total to 11 in six games – in a 45-16 win. He’ll again be the focal point of the Buckeyes’ offence, and could be in store for another massive afternoon against an Indiana secondary that has a void after losing top corner DeAngelo Ponds to the NFL after last season. Last week, Nebraska’s Jacory Barney Jr. had nine catches and 108 yards against the Hoosiers.
Ohio State had a dominant road win against a ranked Iowa team two weeks ago, but has still dropped each of its last three games versus top 10 teams since last December, between Indiana in the Big Ten Championship, Miami in the first round of the playoffs and Texas in Week 2 of this season. A loss in Bloomington on Saturday, and the Buckeyes likely have to win out to make the playoffs – never an easy task, particularly with a visit to USC looming on Halloween.
Arch Manning and Texas are out for revenge
Saturday’s meeting with Florida is a revenge game for Manning, and not just because of the two back-breaking interceptions he threw in the fourth quarter of Texas’ Red River loss to Oklahoma in Week 6. Manning also lost to the Gators last season — the only other game in his college career where he’s thrown more than one interception – ultimately the determining factor in the Longhorns missing the playoffs last year.
Watch Florida vs. Texas LIVE on TSN2, TSN.ca and the TSN App at Noon ET/9am PT.
Manning’s latest underwhelming performance introduced a new narrative – a discussion about whether or not he’s better off returning to Texas next season rather than entering the draft next April. Despite Manning having taken a step backward after a strong finish to last season, ESPN Insider Pete Thamel said on the College Gameday Podcast this week that he’d spoken with NFL executives and that the league “hasn’t flinched” on him as a prospect, and that Manning’s physical traits and intangibles still translate at the next level.
The good news surrounding Manning’s actual performance? It wasn’t all bad against the Sooners. Prior to the fourth quarter meltdown, he had one of the best downfield passing games of his career, and finished with three touchdown passes and 260 yards through the air. He has a chance to build off that on Saturday against a Florida defence that ranks last in the SEC in passing yards allowed (268.7 per game) and 130th out of 138 FBS teams. The Gators were gashed by Simmons (340 yards, three touchdowns) in a 45-17 loss to Missouri in Week 5 and were picked apart by LaNorris Sellers in a (279 yards, four touchdowns) in a miserable beatdown in The Swamp last Saturday.
Texas took a dive in the AP Poll with that loss to Oklahoma, falling from the top spot to seventh – still firmly in the playoff picture, but with its work cut out ahead of a challenging stretch of SEC games. After Florida, the Longhorns have four straight games against teams that are currently ranked, including a home matchup with Ole Miss next Saturday. Texas can certainly weather another loss before the end of the season, and could still make a serious bid to play in December if it finishes 9-3, especially with a win over Ohio State and another in a tough road environment against Tennessee already under its belt.
Can anyone dethrone Georgia in the SEC?
Texas has been the trendy pick in the SEC each of the last two falls, and Alabama gained plenty of steam with five straight wins to open this season. But last weekend, the Crimson Tide – and really, the conference as a whole – received a humbling and all-too-familiar message: The SEC still runs through Georgia.
For all the hype surrounding Manning, and with Keelon Russell’s legend growing, it was Gunner Stockton that delivered in Tuscaloosa, passing for 249 yards in Georgia’s 20-17 win. The Bulldogs haven’t won a national title since 2022, but they’re still the stalwart in college football’s deepest conference, having won each of the last two SEC Championships and with an inside track on another berth this December.
On Saturday, Georgia is back between the hedges for a meeting with Auburn – the 131st installment of the Deep South’s Oldest Rivalry. Kirby Smart’s team has won nine straight times, and is a three-score favourite this time around against a Tigers team that hasn’t exactly turned a corner in its first season under Alex Golesh. Auburn is also without star linebacker Xavier Atkins this weekend, with Golesh noting he’s away from the team for reasons that are being kept in-house.
Georgia is optimistic about getting running back Nate Frazier back from a hip injury, with him not on the injury report this week – though there’s some caution attached to that, since Frazier wasn’t listed in Week 6 before being a late scratch against Alabama. Georgia still ran all over the Tide in Frazier and Chauncey Bowens’ absence, getting a combined 189 yards on the ground from Dwight Phillips Jr. and Bo Walker.
After Auburn, Georgia gets a bye before facing Florida and then visiting Ole Miss – the latter being a rematch of last year’s Sugar Bowl, where Stockton struggled to keep up with Chambliss in the Rebels’ 39-34 win. After taking heat for being a short throw specialist, Stockton has been throwing downfield at considerably higher rate in 2026, with an average depth of target of 8.6 yards (per Pro Football Focus) – up from 7.3 last season. Georgia also ranks first in the SEC in passes of 40-plus yards.
Keelon Russell tries to bounce back against Tennessee’s tough defence
Rivalry week isn’t technically until Week 14, but there’s another historically significant one in the SEC with sixth-ranked Alabama and 14th-ranked Tennessee getting together in Knoxville for the Third Saturday in October. The Tide lost at home to Georgia last weekend, but didn’t suffer in the AP Poll, holding steady at six after scoring 248 total points in their five games prior.
Watch Alabama vs. Tenneesse LIVE on TSN2, TSN.ca and the TSN App at 3:30pm ET/12:30pm PT.
Russell was up-and-down in his first test against truly elite competition, rallying Alabama back from a two-score first half deficit, but he took a costly sack late in the fourth quarter that pushed the Tide out of field goal range. He’ll have to deal with another dominant front this weekend against Tennessee, which leads the nation with 25 sacks in its first year under new defensive coordinator Jim Knowles, who was the architect at Ohio State in its national title season in 2024. One of the Vols’ best efforts came in their only loss thus far, when they sacked Manning six times and limited him to 201 yards in Week 4.
Tennessee has had its share of difficulty throwing the ball, currently ranked last in the SEC and 110th in the FBS in passing yards per game (186.5). True freshman Faizon Brandon was electrifying out of the gate, but suffered a shoulder injury against Texas – a game where he was limited to 145 passing yards and absorbed 10 sacks – and aggravated it a week later against Auburn. George MacIntyre will make his second straight start this weekend, but wasn’t particularly impressive last Saturday, throwing a pair of interceptions in a 24-17 win against Arkansas.
For Alabama, there’s still a very reasonable path to the playoffs, even with the loss to Georgia on its record, and even with star receiver Ryan Coleman-Williams week-to-week while dealing with head and knee injuries suffered in that game. After Tennessee, its only remaining matchup against a team that’s currently ranked is with LSU on Nov. 7 at Death Valley.