Week 7 Football: What to Watch

NC State has a suddenly huge game on Saturday night in Durham against a Duke team that will likely be without QB Riley Leonard, or at least with a subdued version of him running the offense. The Wolfpack just had their best offensive output against an FBS team since the 2018 season, so State fans are feeling much better about things, especially in a seemingly wide-open race for the ACC Championship Game.

Before we get to that game, though, there’s a bunch more college football action happening, so let’s take a quick look at what’s ahead.

We have officially reached the point of the season where the Sun Belt and Conference-USA start scheduling a bunch of Tuesday and Wednesday games. Surprisingly, the MAC doesn’t jump into midweek MACtion until the end of October. Has anyone checked on the MAC recently? They doing okay?

That Coastal-App game on Tuesday night is likely to be the best of the weekday games, so be sure to catch it. Aside from that, Tulane-Memphis should be good on Friday night.

Saturday’s noon slate is about as poor as I can remember in some time. Georgia State and James Madison square off in a battle for Sun Belt East Division control. Those two teams are a combined 9-1 with the only loss being a Georgia Southern loss at Wisconsin. That’s the game you should be watching Saturday at noon.

Thankfully, the midday slate is much better, with Oregon-Washington being the big ticket game. Both teams are undefeated overall and off to 2-0 starts in Pac-12 play. Washington is a 2.5-point favorite, but Oregon has been the more impressive team to date. With USC already sitting at 4-0 in conference play and no other Pac-12 teams sitting with a ‘0’ in the loss column, this is a huge game.

Unless Louisville really craps themselves Saturday night on the CW, the Cardinals will be sitting at 7-0 overall and 4-0 in ACC play come Sunday morning. If they can then get by Duke, Louisville should be undefeated heading into their ACC season finale at Miami. I hope you’re all ready for Jeff Brohm as ACC Coach-of-the-Year.

Saturday evening has a bunch of great games, so I hope you have a lot of devices at your disposal.

USC at Notre Dame, Miami at North Carolina (go Canes!), Missouri at Kentucky, and UCLA ta Oregon State will all be going on while the Wolfpack take on the Blue Devils.

The Irish really need a win to stay in contention for a NY6 game while USC needs a win to show they’re better than the recent run of close games against far inferior competition.

Miami... hahahaha... Miami needs something to get everyone to stop talking about their idiotic loss last week. North Carolina needs a win because, well, this is their only non-tomato can opponent through their first nine games.

Devin Leary gets to go up against the coach who recruited him out of high school. I’m sure both player and coach are wishing the best for the other, but just hoping that best starts next week.

UCLA and Oregon State face off in more or less a Pac-12 Championship elimination game. With each team already having a conference loss (UCLA to Utah, Oregon State to Washington State) and three undefeated teams ahead of them, chances a 2-loss team makes the Pac-12 Championship Game are slim.

Should be another fun week of football!

Go Pack!

Rankings for SP+ Ratings and Sagarin Ratings listed, respectively, ahead of each team’s name.

Tuesday

108/121 Louisiana Tech @ 117/139 Middle Tennessee - 7:00pm - CBSSN

67/85 Coastal Carolina @ 82/63 Appalachian State - 7:30pm - ESPN2

72/78 Liberty @ 96/112 Jacksonville State - 7:30pm - ESPNU

Wednesday

125/144 UTEP @ 120/171 Florida International - 7:30pm - ESPN2

123/140 Sam Houston State @ 102/131 New Mexico State - 9:00pm - CBSSN

Thursday

44/35 West Virginia @ 66/81 Houston - 7:00pm - FS1

65/45 SMU @ 105/94 East Carolina - 7:30pm - ESPN

Friday

43/48 Tulane @ 54/64 Memphis - 7:00pm - ESPN

42/55 Fresno State @ 85/91 Utah State - 8:00pm - CBSSN

97/103 Stanford @ 80/61 Colorado - 10:00pm - FS1

Saturday

38/49 Syracuse @ 15/11 Florida State - 12:00pm - ABC

81/70 Georgia Southern @ 55/58 James Madison - 12:00pm - ESPN2

5/8 Oregon @ 6/9 Washington - 3:30pm - ABC

13/14 Texas A&M @ 14/10 Tennessee - 3:30pm - CBS

37/33 Kansas @ 48/40 Oklahoma State - 3:30pm - FS1

51/66 Wake Forest @ 76/79 Virginia Tech - 3:30pm - ACCN

49/42 BYU @ 33/31 TCU - 3:30pm - ESPN

41/28 Iowa @ 23/19 Wisconsin - 4:00pm - FOX

20/24 Louisville @ 53/75 Pittsburgh - 6:30pm - CW

35/32 Auburn @ 21/15 LSU - 7:00pm - ESPN

24/21 Kansas State @ 26/25 Texas Tech - 7:00pm - FS1

77/74 Marshall @ 83/88 Georgia State - 7:00pm - ESPN2

71/71 Wyoming @ 36/36 Air Force - 7:00pm - CBSSN

9/13 USC @ 12/16 Notre Dame - 7:30pm - NBC

17/29 Miami @ 18/17 North Carolina - 7:30pm - ABC

30/44 Missouri @ 29/39 Kentucky - 7:30pm - SECN

47/53 NC State @ 28/30 Duke - 8:00pm - ACCN

16/23 UCLA @ 19/18 Oregon State - 8:00pm - FOX

93/95 San Diego State @ 115/141 Hawaii - 11:00pm - CBSSN