3 AP Top 25 teams under the most pressure to win this weekend

We've passed the halfway point of the college football regular season, which means it's time for things to get tense. The implications of each game are heightened, as a loss in the latter half of the season might create too large of a mountain for a team to overcome with just a few games remaining.

Plenty of teams are desperate for wins, but these three might need wins the most — for a variety of reasons.

3 top 25 teams under the most pressure this weekend

Texas Longhorns

Losing to Georgia is fine — most teams do it, honestly. Even losing to Georgia by two touchdowns isn't the end of the world for Texas, as long as it can rebound this weekend against Vanderbilt. That's part of the problem, though, as Vanderbilt is playing with house money at the moment.

The Commodores are ranked in the top 25 for the first time in over a decade and have already surpassed even the loftiest expectations for this season, so there's virtually zero pressure on Vandy even in this top 25 matchup.

Texas went from looking unbeatable to looking very beatable in the course of a week, and the loss to Georgia has folks second-guessing just how dominant Texas really is, considering the Longhorns don't have a single win against a team currently ranked in the top 25. A convincing win against Vandy would ease some fears about this team (for now) but a loss would bring a deluge of questions.

Ohio State Buckeyes

Ohio State losing to Oregon feels like a lifetime ago because so much has happened in college football since then, but that's still the Buckeyes last game played. Dropping a game before a bye week can't be fun, and Ohio State's extra week could have done one of two things.

Firstly, it could have given the Buckeyes time to rest and prepare for Nebraska this weekend, who is coming off a blowout loss to Indiana. There's a chance that Ohio State comes out and does the same thing to Nebraska that Indiana did. But there's also a chance that Ohio State looks rusty and overlooks Nebraska, instead looking ahead to Penn State next weekend and trips up again.

Losing one game in the Big Ten shouldn't be a problem for Ohio State, especially because that loss was against the undefeated Ducks. If the Buckeyes can run the table the rest of the way, a path to the Big Ten Championship and the CFP is pretty clear. But with another loss, things start to get a little murkier. The Buckeyes need to win convincingly in Columbus this weekend.

Alabama Crimson Tide

This one is obvious. Alabama is currently 5-2 and should feel lucky to not be 4-3, as the team barely escaped its game against South Carolina with a win in between both of its losses. With two straight ranked opponents coming up (Missouri and LSU) the Crimson Tide's season could either get right back on track or completely fall off the rails.

Talk about a test in season number one for Kalen DeBoer. The first-year Bama head coach is quickly losing support among Alabama fans but can put a lot of those doubts to rest with a big win against a Missouri team that's had some struggles of its own. He doesn't have many other options, frankly.

3 top 25 teams under the least pressure this weekend

On the other end of the pressure spectrum is the aforementioned Vanderbilt, along with Navy and Indiana. The Commodores play a top-10 team in Texas that they're not expected to beat, and fans will just be happy to see the number 25 by the team name on Saturday.

Navy plays Notre Dame, and a loss to the Fighting Irish would sting but it certainly wouldn't be a knockout blow for Navy's season. Putting up a fight and losing a close game would be a totally fine outcome — of course, a win would rocket the Midshipmen up the rankings, but hope for the CFP will remain even if Notre Dame comes out on top.

And of course, the Hoosiers just keep winning, and each win takes more pressure off of Curt Cignetti, who is already miles ahead where anyone expected him to be in year one in Bloomington. The only pressure on this team is pressure to make the College Football Playoff, which is a crazy sentence to write.