College football schedule Week 3 picks and predictions for every Top 25 game
College football schedule for Week 3 and predictions for all the biggest games, including Alabama at Florida and Auburn at Penn State.
After two weeks of a return-to-normal college football season, it’s clear we’ve forgotten what great teams look like.
Two consecutive weeks of upsets in the Top 25 have led us to a bizarre world where Iowa is in the Top 5, USC is looking for a new coach, and the Pac-12 has a legitimate CFP contender.
Will Week 3 be another week of chaos? Let’s take a look at the schedule and find out.
College football Week 3 schedule and predictions
Predicted winner in bold
Saturday, September 18 (12:00 p.m. ET)
Nebraska at No. 3 Oklahoma
New Mexico at No. 7 Texas A&M
No. 8 Cincinnati at Indiana
No. 15 Virginia Tech at West Virginia
No. 16 Coastal Carolina at Buffalo
Michigan State at No. 24 Miami
Northern Illinois at No. 25 Michigan
Saturday, September 18 (2:30 p.m. ET)
Purdue at No. 9 Notre Dame
Saturday, September 18 (3:30 p.m. ET)
No. 1 Alabama at No. 13 Florida
Kent State at No. 5 Iowa
Georgia Tech at No. 6 Clemson
Tulsa at No. 9 Ohio State
Saturday, September 18 (4:00 p.m. ET)
Georgia Southern at No. 20 Arkansas
Saturday, September 18 (7:00 p.m. ET)
South Carolina at No. 2 Georgia
Saturday, September 18 (7:30 p.m. ET)
Stony Brook at No. 4 Oregon
No. 22 Auburn at No. 10 Penn State
Virginia at No. 21 North Carolina
Saturday, September 18 (8:00 p.m. ET)
Tulane at No. 17 Ole Miss
Saturday, September 18 (10:15 p.m. ET)
No. 17 Arizona State at No. 23 BYU
Saturday, September 18 (10:30 p.m. ET)
No. 14 Iowa State at UNLV
Saturday, September 18 (10:45 p.m. ET)
Fresno State at No. 13 UCLA
At first blush looking at the early games, the Miami-Michigan State game looks like a potential upset. The Hurricanes have looked very flawed, to say the least, this season. But can anyone really expect a team that made Hunter Johnson look good to do anything to stop D’Eriq King? Okay, fine. Miami does a great job of that already, but still. The ‘Canes should win this one.
Also in the early slate, Virginia Tech (dogs according to Vegas) will have their hands full. That being said, the Hokies should take care of business against West Virginia who might end up making a change a quarterback sooner than later.
The mid-afternoon games have mostly lighter fare except for the game of the week: Alabama at Florida. Apologies to Texas A&M, this is probably Alabama’s toughest regular-season game this year. Though an upset doesn’t seem likely, it will be a great litmus test for the Tide.
Night games are where all of the magic will happen this week. We will have a chance to catch two possible upsets at the 7:30 p.m. slot. First, the toughest pick this week: Penn State beats Auburn. This is less an endorsement of Penn State so much as it is an un-endorsement of Bo Nix. It’s neither an easy pick, nor a fun pick, but it has to be made. Yuck.
Second, Virginia travels to Chapel Hill and will add to UNC’s miserable 2021, giving Bronco Mendenhall yet another win over UNC. He has only lost once as UVA’s head coach, and that was in 2016. The Cavaliers keep their streak rolling this year.
Arizona State is in this weird kind of purgatory where they’re better than Arizona and usually good enough to be ranked, but just don’t have anything memorable about them.
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