After a long wait, this weekend brings us closer to a full college football season. The Big Ten conference kicks things off this weekend, with a very intriguing slate of games.
Big Ten West power Wisconsin officially opens the conference season on Friday night, hosting Illinois. Ohio State, the conference favorite and a potential College Football Playoff team, hosts Nebraska on Saturday afternoon. Purdue and Iowa face off on Saturday evening, and College GameDay is in the Twin Cities for a big game between Minnesota and Michigan on Saturday night.
Elsewhere in the college football world, we have a ranked in-state clash between UNC and NC State, Tennessee hosts an Alabama team riding high off of its win against Georgia, Oklahoma State and Iowa State play in a potential Big 12 title game preview, and SMU hosts Cincinnati in a very promising AAC game, between two teams in the Top 16.
We’re still waiting on the Pac-12 to begin play among Power Five leagues. They’re up in two weeks. Adding the Big Ten really beefs up the weekly schedule though.
Things got a bit tighter at the top of our rankings after last week. Andrew McCarty posted a week-best 14-3 record in Week 7, nailing tough picks like Coastal Carolina over UL Lafayette, Liberty over Syracuse, and Wake Forest over Virginia. There are just three games separating first and fifth place, though there’s some stratification setting in between the top and bottom halves.
With the Big Ten back in action, it could add some more variance here as we move forward.
Here’s where things stand after last week’s picks:
1. Matt Hladik: 76-28
2. Andrew McCarty: 75-29
T-3. Dan Lyons: 74-30
T-3. Tzvi Machlin: 74-30
5. Chris Rosvoglou: 73-31
T-6. Andrew Holleran: 70-34
T-6. Steve Driscoll: 70-34
T-8. Matt Lombardi: 69-35
T-8. Alek Arend: 69-35
Here are our picks for Week 8 of the 2020 college football season:
Each week, we pick every college football game involving Power Five and/or ranked teams. Check back as we update our standings.