Week 10 College Football Saturday Viewing Guide & Open Thread

As we enter the final third of the college football season, you may ask yourself “where did the time go”? I haven’t an answer for that. But I offer you more college football as recompense.

There are four teams that are still legitimate College Football Playoff contenders who are favorites of under a touchdown (including your Huskies). It seems likely that at least one of those teams ends up going down today and all of them except Washington already have a loss. So any defeat by Texas, Oklahoma, or Alabama likely knocks them out of consideration. And if Washington passes their test today in Los Angeles then next week’s viewing guide will officially turn into a rooting guide.

SUGGESTED VIEWING GUIDE (all times PT)

9:00 AM: #23 Kansas State (6-2) at #7 Texas (7-1), FOX

DraftKings Betting Line: Texas -4

We saw one upset from a Kansas team over a Big 12 hopeful last weekend. We’ll find out if we get another this week. Texas looks like they will still be without QB Quinn Ewers and while they may have one of the deepest QB rooms in the country from a recruiting perspective, we’ll see if Maalik Murphy can dissect the KSU defense. A win by the Wildcats would suddenly knock Texas out of the Big 12 title game for now and erase what looked like a certainty after Red River: that Texas and Oklahoma would waltz to a rematch before skipping town for the SEC.

12:30 PM: #12 Missouri (7-1) at #1 Georgia (8-0), CBS

DraftKings Betting Line: Georgia -16

I’m not sure which is the better pop culture reference here when I keep putting Georgia games on the viewing guide against potentially decent teams. Is it Charlie Brown having the football pulled away or Tobias saying “No it never works...but it might work for us?” Georgia has been about a two-touchdown favorite in recent weeks against Kentucky and Florida and obliterated both of them. Now they get to face a Missouri team that might be their biggest threat in the SEC East. We’ll be here again next week too when they host Ole Miss and then in a couple of weeks when they travel to Tennessee as they surely coast to another undefeated regular season.

Alternate Game: #9 Oklahoma (7-1) at #22 Oklahoma State (6-2), ABC

DraftKings Betting Line: Oklahoma -6

Anything can happen in Bedlam. Except an Oklahoma State victory. We’ll see if that’s the case this year. The Sooners are coming off an upset loss at Kansas and now get their other remaining difficult game in the regular season. A Cowboys win would be one helluva sendoff after Oklahoma left them behind in the Big 12.

That’s possible because of OSU RB Ollie Gordon II. The Cowboys looked dead in the water earlier this year but then Gordon started getting the ball. In Oklahoma State’s last 4 games (4-0) Gordon has 851 rushing yards and 8 TDs on the ground plus another 100+ yards and a TD through the air. If he plays like this for another 4 games and they finish 10-2 then Gordon will be a legitimate Heisman candidate.

4:30 PM: #5 Washington (8-0) at #20 USC (6-2), ABC

DraftKings Betting Line: Washington -4

Duh.

Alternate Game: #14 LSU (6-2) at #8 Alabama (7-1), CBS

DraftKings Betting Line: Alabama -3

It’s Halloween week and this Crimson Tide team is Michael Myers. It looked like Texas may have killed Bama back in Week 2. Then they only put up 14 points against South Florida. But Alabama has turned things around a bit with narrow wins over Texas A&M and Arkansas then a big comeback over Tennessee. This is the only game against a ranked team left on the schedule. If Alabama wins this game they will almost certainly play Georgia in the SEC title game. Again. The scenario is still out there for Alabama to win that game and 12-1 Alabama and 12-1 Georgia to each make the College Football Playoff. Please LSU. Get it done. (If they do then Jayden Daniels will have a good shot to pull ahead of Penix in the Heisman race).

7:30 PM: #19 UCLA (6-2) at Arizona (5-3), FS1

DraftKings Betting Line: UCLA -2.5

We saw Washington head to Arizona for a night game and the Wildcats vastly exceeded expectations to hold the Huskies within a single score. Then last week Oregon State entered Tucson as a field goal favorite and left as a 3-point loser. It’s UCLA’s turn to see if they can avoid an upset in the desert. The Bruins still have a very outside shot at a Pac-12 championship berth that requires winning out and having several other results go their way (for example: Washington wins out, Oregon State and USC both beat Oregon). We’ll see if redshirt freshman sensation Noah Fifita can navigate the devastating Bruins pass rush though.

Odds/lines subject to change. T&Cs apply. See draftkings.com/sportsbook for details.