College Football - Week 4 (Sept. 20)

[Andy]

Top 25 games

SE Louisiana at (3) LSU (7:45 pm, SEC Network)

Florida at (4) Miami (7:30 pm, ABC)

Oregon State at (6) Oregon (3 pm, BTN)

Kent State at (7) Florida State (3:30 pm, ACC Network)

Sam Houston at (8) Texas (8 pm, ESPN+)

(9) Illinois at (19) Indiana (7:30 pm, NBC)

(22) Auburn at (11) Oklahoma (3:30 pm, ABC)

Tulane at (13) Ole Miss (3:30 pm, ESPN)

UAB at (15) Tennessee (12:45 pm, SEC Network)

(17) Texas Tech at (16) Utah (12 pm, FOX)

Temple at (18) Georgia Tech (4:30 pm, CW)

Georgia State at (20) Vanderbilt (7:30 pm, ESPNU)

(21) Michigan at Nebraska (3:30 pm, CBS)

South Carolina at (23) Missouri (7 pm, ESPN)

Purdue at (24) Notre Dame (3:30 pm, NBC)

Michigan State at (25) USC (11 pm, FOX)

 

Other nationally available games
Thursday

Rice at Charlotte (7:30 pm, ESPN)

 

Friday

Tulsa at Oklahoma State (7 pm, ESPN)

Iowa at Rutgers (8 pm, FOX)

 

Saturday TV

Arkansas at Memphis (12 pm, ABC) 

Maryland at Wisconsin (12 pm, NBC)

Syracuse at Clemson (12 pm, ESPN)

SMU at TCU (12 pm, ESPN2)

UNLV at Miami (OH) (12 pm, ESPNU)

Bowling Green at Louisville (12 pm, ACC Network)

North Texas at Army (12 pm, CBSSN)

North Carolina at UCF (3:30 pm, FOX)

James Madison at Liberty (3:30 pm, ESPNU)

Ball State at UConn (3:30 pm, CBSSN)

NC State at Duke (4 pm, ESPN2)

Northern Illinois at Mississippi State (4:15 pm, SEC Network)

West Virginia at Kansas (6 pm, FS1)

Boise State at Air Force (7 pm, CBSSN)

Washington at Washington State (7:30 pm, CBS)

Arizona State at Baylor (7:30 pm, FOX)

BYU at East Carolina (7:30 pm, ESPN2)

Stanford at Virginia (7:30 pm, ACC Network)

UTSA at Colorado State (9:30 pm, FS1)

Wyoming at Colorado (10:15 pm, ESPN)

California at San Diego State (10:30 pm, CBSSN)

 

Saturday Streaming (all ESPN+)

South Carolina State at South Florida (12 pm)

Wofford at Virginia Tech (12 pm)

Wagner at Central Michigan (1 pm)

Gardner-Webb at Ohio (3:30 pm)

UL Lafayette at Eastern Michigan (3:30 pm)

Toledo at Western Michigan (3:30 pm)

Troy at Buffalo (3:30 pm)

Arkansas State at Kennesaw State (6 pm)

Delaware at FIU (6 pm)

Duquesne at Akron (6 pm)

Coastal Carolina at South Alabama (7 pm)

Maine at Georgia Southern (7 pm)

Marshall at Middle Tennessee (7 pm)

Nevada at Western Kentucky (7 pm)

UT Martin at Missouri State (7 pm)

Southern Miss at Louisiana Tech (7:30 pm)

Nicholls at Texas State (8 pm)

UL Monroe at UTEP (9 pm)

Edited September 15, 2025 by Andy

[Derwood]

a Week 4 bye is really annoying

[soccer10k]

I'm sure some of these games will be entertaining but seems like a pretty boring slate.

[Derwood]

0-2 Notre Dame ranked ahead of 3-0 USC is certainly a choice

[champaignchris]

Biggest Illinois-Indiana football game since… ever?  

In terms of trying to make the playoffs, I think this is more of a “must win” for Illinois than Indiana. I think Illinois has to have this as a win on their resume to make it to the playoffs at 10-2, while I think Indiana could lose and still make it as a 10-2 team.

I’m presuming any 11-1 Big 10 team would be in and that neither of these two teams would make it at 9-3.

[soccer10k]

4 hours ago, Derwood said:

0-2 Notre Dame ranked ahead of 3-0 USC is certainly a choice

Looks weird but I’m fine with it. ND lost by a combined 4 points to 2 (currently) top 10 teams. USC hasn’t played anyone yet. We’ll get a datapoint this weekend since USC just played Purdue and Notre Dame plays them this weekend.

And then they play each other in a month anyway.

[Andy]

4 hours ago, Derwood said:

0-2 Notre Dame ranked ahead of 3-0 USC is certainly a choice

The last time an 0-2 team was ranked at all was 1988 Michigan (lost to ND and Miami at the buzzer to start the season), and they didn't lose again and ended up winning the Rose Bowl. I'm hoping this is a good omen.

I couldn't possibly care any less whether or where ND is ranked because unless several of their future opponents end up much better than they're projected to be, I don't think they're making the playoff anyway. The power structure of the sport feels determined to rectify whatever strength of schedule "glitches" (I use this in quotes because I had no problem with the field) gave us SMU and Indiana last year.

Edited September 15, 2025 by Andy

[Transmogrified Tiger]

1 hour ago, soccer10k said:

Looks weird but I’m fine with it. ND lost by a combined 4 points to 2 (currently) top 10 teams. USC hasn’t played anyone yet. We’ll get a datapoint this weekend since USC just played Purdue and Notre Dame plays them this weekend.

And then they play each other in a month anyway.

Is it really too much to ask for a team to have one (1) victory in order to be proactively ranked as one of the best teams in the country in Week 3

[soccer10k]

1 hour ago, Transmogrified Tiger said:

Is it really too much to ask for a team to have one (1) victory in order to be proactively ranked as one of the best teams in the country in Week 3

If someone wants to keep them out of the top-25, that’s fine too. I’m not arguing they should or shouldn’t be in the top-25. I was just comparing them to USC, who beat a team in their first year at the FBS, a Sun Belt team and a Big 10 team that went 1-11 last year.

[Ding Dong Johnson]

From coach of the year to tanking the Wisconsin program has been a fun ride for Badgers fans I’m sure. Todd Lickliter is still too fresh in my mind.

[Andy]

So Clemson is straight up atrocious now huh? 

[UMFan83]

Gonna sound like an old man but I miss when a majority of the college schedule was at 11am. I know there’s Big Noon so there’s usually a decent game but I just looked and there are 8 P4 games going on right now, 11 in the next window and 14 at night. 

[CubColtPacer]

1 hour ago, UMFan83 said:

Gonna sound like an old man but I miss when a majority of the college schedule was at 11am. I know there’s Big Noon so there’s usually a decent game but I just looked and there are 8 P4 games going on right now, 11 in the next window and 14 at night. 

I honestly don't remember that time.  My impression was always the mid afternoon window used to be the biggest.  But the Big 10 tended to put several of their bad games on in the early window, so that might have influenced perceptions.

[Hot Sauce]

2 hours ago, UMFan83 said:

Gonna sound like an old man but I miss when a majority of the college schedule was at 11am. I know there’s Big Noon so there’s usually a decent game but I just looked and there are 8 P4 games going on right now, 11 in the next window and 14 at night. 

I actually was thinking about this the other day. I prefer to tune in earlier in the day, take a break to knock out some tasks afterward, and then come back in the evening for a game. 

[Derwood]

Are we in "Dabo might get fired" territory yet?

[I owned a Suzuki]

1 hour ago, Derwood said:

Are we in "Dabo might get fired" territory yet?

I know Dabo is reluctant on using the portal, but what are Clemsons NIL capabilities? 

Watching some of the Michigan/Nebraska game. For some reason I thought the camera work, cinematography was great. 

[Andy]

1 hour ago, I owned a Suzuki said:

I know Dabo is reluctant on using the portal, but what are Clemsons NIL capabilities? 

Watching some of the Michigan/Nebraska game. For some reason I thought the camera work, cinematography was great. 

CBS' game presentation has long been the gold standard for me. They do a great job. It's a pity they usually don't get the caliber of games to live up to it these days.

[I owned a Suzuki]

Indiana wow! This game isnt even as close as the score

[I owned a Suzuki]

21 minutes ago, Andy said:

CBS' game presentation has long been the gold standard for me. They do a great job. It's a pity they usually don't get the caliber of games to live up to it these days.

I used to think their SEC game every week was well done. They just had some really great camera angels today. Play by play was very solid also. Now that Gus Johnson has lost several steps, the CBS game might be the best

[Derwood]

Guess PSU has 3 hard games this year, not just 2

[gflore34]

7 minutes ago, Derwood said:

Guess PSU has 3 hard games this year, not just 2

Indiana is good but, they're not Ohio State, Penn State or Oregon good.  PSU game vs. Indiana is a home game, they'll roll the Hoosiers.

Edited September 21, 2025 by gflore34

[UMFan83]

58 minutes ago, gflore34 said:

Indiana is good but, they're not Ohio State, Penn State or Oregon good.  PSU game vs. Indiana is a home game, they'll roll the Hoosiers.

*3 more touchdowns later*

[Hot Sauce]

[gflore34]

38 minutes ago, UMFan83 said:

*3 more touchdowns later*

Do you think they'll hang with any of OSU, Oregon or PSU?  There playing a decent but, highly overrated Illinois team.  This supposedly good OL of Illinois was having trouble with likes of Western Michigan and Duke hell, they even had trouble blocking Western Illinois at times.  On few downs tonight Indiana rushed only three and still instantly got to Altmyer.  And there's nobody on the Indiana defense that special.

Edited September 21, 2025 by gflore34

[Tryptamine]

Honestly Illinois arguably shouldn't even be in the top 25 after this. That was just a huge embarrassment.