We're approaching the most hotly anticipated Saturday of this college football season, one with too many ranked-on-ranked showdowns to name. But while everyone is rightfully focused on heavyweight clashes between Alabama and Georgia, LSU and Ole Miss and Oregon and Penn State, it's worth noting that the undercard this weekend is also absolutely stacked — and those are far from the only top teams who should be on high alert.
Below, we've picked out five additional teams ranked in this week's AP Top 25 who sure look to be on upset alert this weekend. We're not predicting all or even any of these upsets to take place; but if they do come to pass, well don't say you weren't warned.
For more news and rumors, check out MLB Insider Robert Murray’s work on The Baseball Insiders podcast, subscribe to The Moonshot, our weekly MLB newsletter, and join the discord to get the inside scoop during the MLB season.
1) No. 1 Ohio State at Washington
Ohio State has flipped it into cruise control since that opening win against Texas, with easy wins over Grambling and Ohio followed by a bye last weekend. It's time to get back into gear, though, because Big Ten play is set to begin on Saturday with a doozy of a road trip out west.
If you're not familiar with Washington quarterback Demond Williams yet, odds are you will be by the end of the weekend. He can make some awfully risky decisions, and he takes a ton of sacks, but the flip side of those occasional negative plays is a dual-threat skill set that's a threat to score a touchdown from anywhere on the field. Add in bowling-ball running back Jonah Coleman and a true No. 1 wide receiver in Denzel Boston, and you've got one of the more underrated and explosive offenses in the entire country — one that's averaged over 55 points per game in easy wins over Colorado State, UC-Davis and Washington State.
It feels strange to say about a team that's already notched a win over Steve Sarkisian, but based on what we've seen from Arch Manning and the Horns so far, this really might be the toughest test that Matt Patricia and this Buckeye defense has faced this season. It'll also be Ohio State's first road game of the year, and the first of Julian Sayin's career as a college starter. We'll learn a lot about just how high this team's ceiling is on Saturday.
2) No. 9 Texas A&M vs. Auburn
Texas A&M got a much-deserved bye week to rest up after that thrilling win in South Bend a couple of Saturdays ago, but now the conference slate begins, and they'd do well not to overlook Jackson Arnold and a wounded Auburn team.
The Tigers fell just short in their previous attempt at an upset against Oklahoma last weekend. But this is still a dangerous running game and a very solid defense, two things that figure to keep Auburn in a lot of games this season. The A&M offense has looked awfully explosive so far, but they've also sprung a few leaks in the secondary; if Marcel Reed can't hit quite as many big plays in the passing game on Saturday, this one could get hairy. If nothing else, Auburn figures to match up well in the trenches here.
3) No. 11 Indiana at Iowa
Okay, this one is admittedly a bit of a stretch. On paper, there isn't much to suggest that Iowa can hang with the Hoosiers, considering that Indiana is fresh off a 63-10 evisceration of Illinois while the Hawkeyes just barely survived a trip to Rutgers last week. Fernando Mendoza and this Indiana offense is firing on all cylinders, and this doesn't look like the typical Iowa defense we've grown accustomed to under DC Phil Parker.
And yet ... well, let's just say it wouldn't be the first time that a highly ranked Big Ten team rolled into a night game at Kinnick Stadium and left with a truly baffling loss. The fact that this comes sandwiched between the Illinois game and a trip to Oregon on Oct. 11 just adds to the trap-game vibes. Indiana should be able to throttle Mark Gronowski and a struggling Iowa offense; and if Curt Cignetti's team handles business like they're supposed to here, it'll be just one more piece of evidence suggesting that they're very much for real.
4) No. 14 Iowa State vs. Arizona
Call this a shot in the dark, but I can help but feel like there might be something afoot here. The last time we saw Arizona in action two weeks ago, they were bullying Kansas State to the tune of a 234-105 advantage in rushing yardage. In case you forgot, that's the same Kansas State team that outgained Iowa State by more than two yards per play in the season-opener last month in Dublin.
This isn't your older brother's Arizona football, is what we're saying, and Iowa State feels a bit ricketier than their 4-0 record and No. 14 ranking would suggest. The Cyclones just got everything they could handle from Arkansas State last weekend, after all. In what could be a lower-scoring affair than you think, Arizona probably has the edge on the ground here, and Rocco Becht has been known to throw up the occasional clunker. Plus: It's the Big 12, where anything can happen on any given Saturday.
5) No. 22 Notre Dame at Arkansas
It feels awfully hard to believe that Notre Dame will really start this season at 1-3, and CJ Carr looks more comfortable at the controls of this offense with each passing week. But man, the Irish defense still looks rough under new coordinator Chris Ash — even in last week's blowout win over Purdue, they allowed 30 points and a healthy 5.6 yards per play to a thoroughly mediocre offense.
That's not where you want to be heading into a matchup against Hogs QB Taylen Green, who's busy doing his best Lamar Jackson impression under the tutelage of OC Bobby Petrino. Green's accounted for 14 total touchdowns and 1,500 total yards already, making huge strides as a passer while always a threat to break loose from the pocket if the defense doesn't have eyes on him.
Yes, Arkansas just lost at Memphis last weekend, and yes, Sam Pittman might be out of a job in a matter of weeks. But this Razorbacks team also put quite the scare into Ole Miss earlier this year, and the Memphis loss required a blown 28-10 lead and a fumble deep in Tigers territory with less than two minutes to play. This remains one of the best offenses in America, and if Notre Dame hasn't gotten its act together, expect plenty of big plays just like we saw in the A&M game.