College football Week 8: Penn State among 5 teams on upset alert
Two Big Ten teams are on upset alert in college football Week 8 as they make their debuts while two top-10 teams are also in danger of losing this week.
College football returning during the time of COVID-19 has been a blessing, especially with the ACC, Big 12 and SEC getting into the mix starting in mid-to-late September. But in college football Week 8, another Power 5 conference joins the mix: the Big Ten. Subsequently, we have more teams ranked in the top 25 that could be starting down an upset in a given week.
Unlike with the conferences that have been playing, though, we don’t have any sample size for the Big Ten teams. Subsequently, we don’t know totally what to expect. After all, many had LSU projected as one of the SEC’s better teams and, through their first three games, that has been far from the case. The same could be true in the Big Ten, which could mean early upsets — even if they don’t end up looking like upsets in the long run.
The biggest game of the Big Ten’s debut for the 2020 college football season is the primetime matchup with the Michigan Wolverines at Minnesota Golden Gophers. However, as the Wolverines are just three spots ahead in the rankings, that game isn’t eligible to be a true upset. Having said that, don’t be surprised if P.J. Fleck’s team gets the win over the higher-ranked team at home.
Where that won’t be happening is with Ohio State as Justin Fields and the Buckeyes should handle Nebraska. The Buckeyes are likely in the same category as Alabama and Clemson, which is to say that they aren’t in danger against clearly inferior opponents. Incidentally, that’s the case for the Crimson Tide and Tigers in Week 8 as they match up with Tennessee and Syracuse, respectively.
With all of that being said, not every ranked Big Ten team is safe from a possible upset this week as we’re putting two of them on upset alert. Joining them is two squads ranked in the top 10 and one team that suffered an upset loss just last week and could be in line for another. These are the five teams we’re putting on upset alert in college football Week 8.