Big stops: Big House, Death Valley, A&M, NW, South Bend
Get your worth watching guide right here, and settle in for at least 13 hours of Top 25 college football games — and a few surprising midseason coaching debuts thrown into the mix.
From an early start in Waco, Texas (West Virginia at No. 2 Baylor, 11 a.m. local) to at late conclusion in Salt Lake City (Arizona State at No. 4 Utah, ends about 1 a.m. EST), four of Saturday's 14 games involving Top 25 teams match ranked against ranked.
At South Carolina, Steve Spurrier resigned a few days before his Gamecocks (2-4, 0-4) host Vanderbilt (2-3, 0-2), SEC Network, 3:30 p.m. Co-offensive coordinator Shawn Elliott steps up to run a team that appears headed in the wrong direction.
The Trojans, upset by Washington in their last game in a lackluster effort, play intersectional rival, No. 14 Notre Dame, NBC, 7:30 p.m. Quarterbacks coach Clay Helton is the interim coach.
[...] on to a few games that should take us a step or two closer to narrowing the list of College Football Playoff contenders:
A win by Iowa over Northwestern sets up the Hawkeyes for a run at an unbeaten regular season and a spot in the Big Ten title game.
A loss by Alabama would badly damage its league title and playoff hopes.
Florida is the surprise team in the SEC, and an upset puts them in a strong position to make a run at not only a league title, but a national crown.
The Heisman hopeful — perhaps leading contender — already has more than 1,000 yards rushing in five games, with LSU averaging 346.4 yards per game on the ground.