Among the litany of problems college football has created for itself in recent years, the demise of a number of once-proud rivalries doesn't engender the same frustration that myriad court cases and rampant transfers have, but it's no less problematic when it comes to undermining the things fans love most about the sport.
In the pursuit of money, realignment bloated conferences and split apart once bitter rivals. Bedlam is on hiatus. The quality of the Apple Cup has gone from Honeycrisp to Red Delicious since the Pac-12 fell apart. The Civil ConFLiCT trophy is probably just holding up a broken coffee table in Bob Diaco's man cave.
And that's perhaps the tip of the iceberg.
Imagine a year or two from now, when the seemingly inevitable 24-team playoff has taken hold, and we reach the final weekend of the regular season, when the most intensely fought rivalry games are traditionally played, and Ohio State is left with a choice: sit its starters against Michigan or risk injuries before a playoff run.
The idea seems preposterous now, but again, how many rivalries have we already sacrificed in pursuit of supposed progress?
So as we enter Week 7, it's worth appreciating the matchups on the docket in what might be considered a midseason dress rehearsal for rivalry week, smaller in scale but still full of the essentials. It's the Sammy Hagar to Rivalry Week's David Lee Roth.
The third Saturday in October always gives us Alabama-Tennessee. This year, it's a showdown between two top-20 teams, with victory cigars and playoff hopes on the line. The Tide were dealt a blow by Georgia a week ago, but Keelon Russell's hot start and a surprisingly dynamic run game have Alabama looking like one of the best teams in the country. Tennessee's offense has been spinning its wheels the past few weeks, but Xavier Gilliam & Co. have the Vols' defense playing elite football.
The Deep South's oldest rivalry also kicks off between the hedges. Georgia hosts an Auburn team looking to end a nine-game losing streak to the Bulldogs. Auburn has scored only 60 total points in its past seven visits to Sanford Stadium, hasn't topped 13 in a game there since 2009, and hasn't won in Athens since 2005. Think how many times Mark Richt lost control of the program, Mike Bobo forgot to run the dang ball, and how many players with names such as Ladd or Cash or Lucky have scored for the Dawgs since then.
Florida State heads south to visit Miami, and the Seminoles are three-touchdown underdogs after their latest drubbing at the hands of Louisville last week. Meanwhile, Mike Norvell keeps hanging around, like one of those inflatable clowns that keeps popping back up no matter how hard you punch it. Now Mark Fletcher & Co. get to feast on a Florida State defense that just coughed up nearly 400 yards on the ground to the Cardinals.
In his first post on X, Bill Belichick said his first words as a child were "Beat Duke." This certainly contradicts the popular assumption that his first words followed a controversial game of patty cake in which he explained to his mother he had already put it behind him and was "on to object permanence." Regardless, the narrative underscores the intensity of the North Carolina-Duke rivalry, where Manny Diaz has hidden the Victory Bell trophy as a reminder to his team that it has to earn it again this year.
Then there's Kansas-Kansas State, where the Wildcats have won 17 straight Sunflower Showdowns, dating to 2009. The Jayhawks' last win came during Kansas State coach Collin Klein's freshman season in Manhattan.
But the biggest game of the week features two teams facing off for the 100th time in a series that dates to 1901 -- only, it's really not much of a rivalry.
Ohio State travels to Indiana for what, until two years ago, was little more than a speed bump on Ohio State's annual race to the top of the Big Ten. Indiana lost 31 straight (plus one tie) to Ohio State dating to 1988, with only two games since 1994 decided by seven points or fewer.
Until last year.
In last season's Big Ten championship game, the entire reality of college football was upended, as Indiana handed Ohio State a 13-10 defeat before embarking on a trip through the College Football Playoff that ended with Curt Cignetti holding up the national championship trophy.
Suddenly, Ohio State-Indiana matters.
It's fitting this game comes a week after Georgia bested Alabama in a game that included ample hostilities but can't exactly be quantified as a rivalry. Instead, it has been a decade-long litmus test for SEC -- and often, nationwide -- supremacy.
That's also how Ohio State-Indiana feels now. Ohio State remains one of the most well-funded, dynamic and successful programs in the country, but the Buckeyes aren't at the mountaintop anymore. Cignetti has staked out that space, staring down at the rest of the Big Ten with a look that suggests he's not mad, he's just disappointed in them. Now, for the first time in series history, the Buckeyes are looking for revenge in a game in which both programs are ranked in the top 25.
None of that is to suggest this game will suddenly supersede the showdown with that team up north at season's end, but in this ever-changing era of college football, when even the most sacred of objects might be sold for the right price, Ohio State-Indiana -- and Week 7 as a whole -- offers us something worth cherishing.
You don't have to love all that has happened in the sport lately, but you have to savor every moment you have to truly hate another team.
Jump to:
Top games | Under-the-radar
Upset alert | Power rankings
Heisman five | Two-minute drill
Best of the rest of Week 7
Three weeks ago, these were two of the hottest teams in the country. Now, this is effectively an elimination game for both. Florida is reeling after back-to-back losses, including last week's shocker against South Carolina. Texas flubbed the Red River Rivalry game, handing a win to Oklahoma in a game in which 17 of the Sooners' 27 points came off turnovers and a blocked punt. Meanwhile, Arch Manning has been frustratingly mediocre all season, and his two picks last week were egregious missteps.
In fact, compare Manning's output through five games this season to what he had done at the same point last year and it's stunningly similar -- and in some areas, worse.
2025: 53.4 QBR, 60% completions, 8.5 yards-per-dropback, 11 TD passes, five interceptions
2026: 58.2 QBR, 63% completions, 7.7 yards-per-dropback, 10 TD passes, five interceptions
So, now we can all suggest Manning is cooked, move on to better stories, and then look up at the end of the year and realize he still threw 35 touchdowns.
After last week's overtime loss to Kentucky, Lane Kiffin complained that an official had told him a delay in blowing dead a Wildcats' fourth-down run from the 1-yard line was because there was "too much at stake," and frankly, Kiffin does not condone anyone stretching the boundaries of the rules because there's a lot on the line. Kamario Taylor's status for the game is uncertain for Mississippi State. Sam Leavitt's eight interceptions lead the country. The quality of QB play for this game could vary wildly. Most notably though, this is a must-win for an LSU team that already has two losses, or Kiffin could be opting out of coaching in the playoff much earlier than usual.
Indiana has the best record in college football since the start of the 2024 season. But Nos. 2 and 3? They'll face off in Provo, Utah, on Saturday as Notre Dame (30-4 over the past three seasons) visits BYU (28-4) with obvious playoff implications on the line. The Irish have finally found a spark in their running game behind freshman Jonaz Walton, who has run for 301 yards -- and nearly 9 yards per carry -- over the past two games. BYU is without its star tailback, LJ Martin, but still got a spark on the ground last week against Iowa State from quarterback Bear Bachmeier, who ran for 109 yards in addition to throwing for 329. That put Bachmeier in rare company. He's just the 14th QB in the playoff era to post multiple touchdowns and no turnovers while eclipsing 300 passing yards and 100 rushing yards in a power-conference game -- a list that includes three Heisman winners and two runners-up. Unfortunately, the QB matchup between Bachmeier and CJ Carr is also prime fodder for middle-aged dads.
Previewing the QB matchup in ND-BYU this week... (Thank you for allowing me to make this dad joke.) https://t.co/oLwSRQFXBx
— 💫🅰️♈️🆔 (@ADavidHaleJoint) October 14, 2026
The Wildcats and Sooners both pulled off stunning upsets in Week 6, but there are still plenty of questions about both teams. Kentucky needed 2-point conversions in overtime for back-to-back 35-34 wins over SEC foes. Oklahoma got a needed win over Texas but still mustered only 238 yards of total offense and was outgained by the Longhorns by nearly 150 yards. The Sooners are averaging just 4.4 yards per play in three games vs. Power 4 competition and haven't topped 400 vs. a power-conference opponent since Week 2 of last year.
Austin Simmons and Trinidad Chambliss have combined for an 81.0 QBR, 30 touchdowns and five interceptions so far, and both have their teams in the playoff hunt. Last season, they were on the same depth chart at Ole Miss, with Simmons now repping Missouri.
Week 7's under-the-radar games
In the ACC this year, late-game kicking catastrophes have become an epidemic.
In Week 1, Georgia Tech missed a last-second field goal try in a 14-13 loss to Colorado. In Week 5, Virginia Tech sailed a last-second kick just outside the left upright in a 35-33 loss to Pitt. Last week, the Hokies missed two field goal attempts in a 25-20 loss to Cal, including one to start the fourth quarter that would've given Virginia Tech a 17-13 lead. At the same time, Georgia Tech came away with a narrow 28-25 win after Duke also missed a last-second field goal attempt.
For the season, ACC kickers are just 1-of-5 on final-possession kicks when trailing by three points or fewer. On either of their final two possessions, they're 2-of-9. And in the fourth quarter when trailing by three or fewer, ACC kickers are just 3-of-10. And it's a problem that dates to 2025, where ACC kickers are connecting on just 53% of their last-possession kicks when trailing by three or fewer.
And though it might make sense to assume high pressure situations have a negative effect on accuracy for all kickers, it's actually just an ACC problem. Only three other Power 4 games have come down to a final kick, but all three have gone through the uprights. Non-ACC Power 4 kickers are 8-of-11 on kicks in their final two possessions of a three-point game.
But the ACC leads the way in both close games and painful endings for kickers.
With Dante Moore still not clearing concussion protocol, we'll see Dylan Raiola take on his former team in a must-win game for Oregon. That's a pretty horrifying sentence if you're a Ducks fan, particularly after Raiola turned the ball over three times in a loss to UCLA last week. Oregon might also turn to Brock Thomas, who finished out the UCLA game by completing 11-of-15 passes for 156 yards and a touchdown -- a markedly better performance than the Ducks got from Raiola. Weighing the pros and cons of sticking with the higher-paid and once highly touted recruit in Raiola or turning the offense over to someone who might be able to competently run the playbook is a pain Nebraska fans know all too well.
The two teams the Big Ten added in 2014 on what we assume was a teen rom-com-style dare to turn another conference's doofus into prom king, hasn't gone well. They're a combined 39-148 in Big Ten play when not facing each other, and both have been absolute disasters this season. Mike Locksley and Greg Schiano are on some of the hottest seats in the country, and whichever team loses here will have a good case as the worst team in the Power 4. If only college football had promotion and relegation, this would be high drama.
Washington State at Oregon State
Fun fact: In each of the previous two seasons, this game determined the champion of the Pac-12. Even more fun fact: Oregon State freshman wide receiver Jesse Legree is putting up Jeremiah Smith-like numbers -- 155 yards per game and 12 touchdowns, both tops in the country -- even if no one seemed to notice until five days ago.
Georgia State at James Madison
James Madison is 5-0 and angling for the Group of 6 playoff berth, but this week's matchup with a red-hot Georgia State -- 4-1 behind one of the country's most explosive offenses -- could be a potential road block. Still, the bigger story of the week is that James Madison is joining the American Conference, a move announced just five years after the Dukes left the Colonial Conference. And, frankly, we think that historic interval in which a founding father went from Colonial to American would be great fodder for a hip-hop retelling on Broadway. It's an idea whose time has come.
Week 7 upset alert
Houston (home vs. Oklahoma State)
Oklahoma State has won four straight and might have the most coveted quarterback prospect in the country in Drew Mestemaker, yet it's Houston that is favored here. Why? Well, the Cougars have a solid QB of their own. Conner Weigman leads all Power 4 QBs (and is second in FBS) in total touchdowns with 21. This shouldn't be as big a surprise as it seems. In his career, Weigman is 24-8 as a starter with a 73.5 Total QBR, 64% completions and 78 touchdowns to only 19 turnovers. Is there a less-discussed star in college football -- a former No. 27 overall recruit, no less -- than Weigman? He's the Weezer of college quarterbacks -- utterly forgotten until you see him play when you suddenly realize, "Oh, right ... I like a lot of these tunes!"
Vanderbilt (home vs. Arkansas)
After Arkansas opted to punt while down seven with 1:45 to play against Tennessee last week, we can't rule out the possibility that the Razorbacks are mistakenly attempting to tank for a No. 1 draft pick. Still, it's hard to write off Arkansas' chances against a Vanderbilt team that, if not for one of the most disastrous miscues in recent history by NC State, would have nothing on its résumé beyond a single-digit win over Delaware this season. Diego Pavia isn't walking through that door, and Jared Curtis still looks a long way from living up to his potential for the Commodores.
UCLA (home vs. Wisconsin)
That this line is so low only underscores the obvious: UCLA is coming off a signature win, will be without its starting quarterback, and also might be playing just a bit over its head at 5-0. Wisconsin, on the other hand, is flying entirely beneath the radar. The Badgers are off to a 4-1 start -- their lone loss to Notre Dame -- and have held three straight opponents to fewer than 250 yards of offense.
Eastern Michigan has won three straight -- including toppling mighty UMass -- while Toledo is fresh off an ugly performance in which the Rockets were flagged for 15 penalties and turned the ball over three times in a 23-8 loss to Buffalo. Sure, Eastern Michigan's four wins this season have come against an FCS team and SP+ Nos. 106, 131 and 135, but no one walks into Ypsilanti without expecting a fight or at least a possibly rabid raccoon.
Post-week 6 power rankings
The biggest movers and shakers from last week's action.
1. Georgia
2. Anyone who has ever coached at James Madison
3. Jonaz Walton
4. Lane Kiffin actually needing those pro players
5. Hot-seat Shane Beamer
6. Georgia Tech's Ramblin' Reck helmets
7. Oregon State
8. Billy's Cesspool
9. Rivalry trophies shaped like barbecue items
10. The possibility that Jake Dickert is an actual wizard
Unranked: Florida State fans' coping skills; Big Ten officiating; Syracuse's QB depth chart; ACC teams complaining about being unranked; the possibility of Arch Manning being upgraded from the kids' table at Thanksgiving dinner.
Heisman five
Checking in on the race for college football most sought-after honor (not counting any comparisons to hotel breakfasts).
1. Ohio State WR Jeremiah Smith
Smith had four catches for 93 yards and two touchdowns in what constitutes a bad game for him last week against Maryland, while also offering perhaps the most substantive proof yet that we're actually living in an advanced Matrix-like simulation of reality.
But if Smith is holding out for a real Heisman moment, Week 7 might be the time to deliver, as the Buckeyes head to Indiana for a showdown of the Big Ten's best two teams. In last season's 13-10 loss to the Hoosiers, Smith had eight catches for 144 yards, but he was kept out of the end zone, earning Indiana its first Big Ten title since 1967.
2. Miami QB Darian Mensah
Mensah's stat line for the season is already eye-popping: 84% completions, 17 touchdowns, no turnovers, 10.8 yards-per-pass and a 92.5 Total QBR. Now he gets to go up against a Florida State defense that has replaced its official depth chart with a "Gone Fishin'" sign.
3. Georgia QB Gunner Stockton
Stockton is 18-3 as a starter in his career with the three losses coming to teams ranked Nos. 3, 6 and 17. He has completed nearly 71% of his passes in his 21 starts, with 50 touchdowns and seven turnovers. He runs hard, he has the obvious respect of his teammates, and he just toppled Alabama in Tuscaloosa in one of the best games of the season. And yet, Stockton remains woefully underrated. Perhaps it's his soft-spoken nature, his 0-2 record in the playoff or the fact that he seems like someone you'd hire to paint your house. But did we learn nothing from Stetson Bennett? Georgia is at its best when it has a QB who has already identified the exit off US-29 where his future Ford dealership will be located.
4. Notre Dame QB CJ Carr
It's not that Carr wasn't already a star, but over the past two weeks, the Irish also have gotten a run game going, opening the door for their QB to shift from "pretty good" to "our insurance provider won't cover us for the damage he's inflicting." Carr's past two games against North Carolina and Stanford: 71% completions, eight touchdowns, no turnovers, no sacks, 91.7 QBR. Unfortunately for his Heisman campaign, stats against Stanford's defense are considered entirely for entertainment purposes only and should not be counted toward actual award eligibility.
5. Oregon State WR Jesse Legree
The Beavers' freshman has racked up 932 yards and 12 touchdown catches in the first six games of his career, including 376 yards and three scores in two games against ranked opponents, Houston and Texas Tech. Last week, he caught 10 balls for 191 yards in a 66-14 win over San Diego State before sitting out the fourth quarter after the Aztecs promised to give him their lunch money for the rest of the school year.
Two-minute drill
A quick around-the-horn of the rest of Week 7's action.
The Demon Deacons cracked the AP top 25 this week, which by ACC rules requires they now slip on a banana peel and run face first into the side of a mountain that has been painted to look like a train tunnel. On the other hand, perhaps Wake can supersede the ACC's dismal history of maintaining success in the midst of mild praise. After all, this Deacons team has shown a genuine level of competence that has set the program apart, despite its modest budget and recruiting history.
In a week in which Bill Belichick noted that he didn't "know how important things were to" players who left UNC after last year, the Heels' 2025 QB is putting on a show for Wake Forest.
Gio Lopez, through six games this season: 1,882 total yards, 19 touchdowns, one turnover. Lopez, through six games at UNC last year: 897 total yards, six touchdowns, five turnovers.
Seems like the problem wasn't Lopez.
Meanwhile, the Deacons are 12-3 over their past 15 games. Only Miami's record is better among ACC teams, and only six other Power 4 schools have a better mark over the same span.
There was a time when this would've been a big game. Instead, we're an extra second away from this being a battle between two 3-3 teams with massive quarterback issues. In six games vs. Power 4 competition this season, Penn State's Rocco Becht and Michigan's Bryce Underwood have combined for a 1-5 record with a 55.7 QBR, 56.5% completions, four passing touchdowns and six interceptions. For reference, that's just one more passing touchdown in six games than Iowa's -- yes, Iowa! -- backup QB had last week alone, and frankly Iowa fans will not tolerate this type of cultural appropriation from fellow Big Ten members.
The most under-the-radar team in the country right now might be Baylor. A failed two-point try at the end of a 17-16 loss against Auburn in the season opener is all that's keeping the Bears from a 5-0 start, and yet Baylor didn't get a single vote in the latest AP poll. DJ Lagway just had arguably his best career game in a 55-19 win over Arizona State in which he threw for 306 yards, four touchdowns and no picks. Now Baylor hosts a TCU team that has scored a grand total of 33 points in three games vs. Power 4 competition.
The Orange started former five-star recruit Malachi Nelson last week against Virginia, their third starter of the season and fifth in the past eight games. So, what happened? Nelson was injured, of course, and Syracuse was forced to turn to fourth-stringer Danny Lauter, leaving only a JUGS machine Fran Brown bought at Doug Marrone's garage sale remaining on the Orange's QB depth chart. Louisville is scoring on 51% of its drives this season, and Isaac Brown just had a career-high 235 rushing yards last week, so it probably doesn't matter who Syracuse has at QB anyway.
The Buffaloes have gone 15 straight games against Power 4 opponents without scoring more than 24 points, the longest active streak in the country and second-longest stretch since 2019 (Iowa went 17 straight from 2022 to 2024). A QB change to Isaac Wilson hasn't helped, and at this point, Deion Sanders might as well just mail Utah his offensive playbook with a note reading, "Just get it over with quickly." By the way, Utah is 16-2 since the start of last season. How many wins do the Utes have over teams that finished (or are currently) in the FPI top 40? One -- last year, by four, over a Kansas State team that finished 6-6.
Texas Tech is currently the No. 10 team in the country despite its QB1, Will Hammond, having roughly as many passing touchdowns (five) as the Red Raiders' other quarterbacks have had court appearances to determine their eligibility for this season. Hammond has accounted for six touchdowns total and six turnovers this season, and it hasn't much mattered, as the Red Raiders are 5-0 and a heavy favorite this week against a Sun Devils team that has losses to Texas A&M and Baylor by a combined 64 points.
In the playoff era, no team had managed more than 18 takeaways through five games. This season, both New Mexico and UCLA have 19. For the Lobos though, the turnover success runs deeper. New Mexico has given up only one takeaway, giving it a plus-18 margin -- four better than any other team in the playoff era through five games. The Lobos' plus-72 points off turnovers margin is the best by any team since 2004.
Synchronize your Swatches, crack open an ice cold Crystal Pepsi and get hyped to your favorite PM Dawn album. It's '90s night at Coastal Carolina, and the Chants got their uniforms straight out of Mark Paul Gosselaar's abandoned storage unit.
90s night Friday 👌 More info ➡️ https://t.co/4BbsORS6fF https://t.co/ywtAxlP1ln
— Coastal Carolina Athletics (@GoCCUsports) October 12, 2026
It's hard to believe a school so close to Myrtle Beach would engage in something so explicitly gaudy, but compared with watching these two offenses -- which rank 95th (Coastal) and 102nd (App State) in points per drive -- the '90s uniforms seem downright tasteful. So, get ready to cheer on the Chanticleers with an old-school Arsenio Hall arm pump and try not to get distracted by going down a Wikipedia rabbit hole after wondering what Dan Cortese is doing these days.
Fun fact: The top two players in the country in yards-per-dropback both play for Miami. Darian Mensah, of the Florida version, leads the way at 10.5 yards per dropback. No. 2 is Miami Ohio's David McComb, who's averaging 9.9.