Week 3 College Football Saturday Viewing Guide & Open Thread

Last week provided a number of very interesting matchups, particularly for Pac-12 teams. The slate this Saturday is decidedly underwhelming. If you need to get some chores done in order to carve out space for Week 4 which looks like an extremely loaded lineup, this might be the weekend for that.

SUGGESTED VIEWING GUIDE (all times PT)

9:00 AM: #14 LSU (1-1) vs. Mississippi State (2-0), ESPN

DraftKings Betting Line: LSU -9.5

LSU wasn’t able to keep up with Florida State in the opener but the Seminoles look like legitimate national title contenders so far. Now they have to go on the road to open up SEC play against a Mississippi State team that just barely squeaked by Arizona in overtime. That this is still the most interesting game of the time slot speaks to it being a pretty underwhelming slate. Also speaking to that fact: Colorado State is part of the Gameday matchup (even though it’s all because of Deion).

12:30 PM: Minnesota (2-0) at #20 North Carolina (2-0), ESPN

DraftKings Betting Line: North Carolina -7.5

This is a matchup of power conference teams that are both 2-0. On this Saturday that’s about the best you can hope for. The Tar Heels barely escaped Appalachian State in overtime after UNC shanked a short field goal at the end of regulation. Minnesota needed a stunning comeback in week one to beat a Nebraska team that got shellacked by Colorado the following Saturday. It’s not clear that either of these teams is all that good but one of them will be 3-0 at the end of it.

2:00 PM: #8 Washington (2-0) at Michigan State (2-0), Peacock

DraftKings Betting Line: Washington -16.5

Yes, it’s on Peacock. If you don’t have it, you can pay $6 for the month to gain access and then cancel your subscription afterwards.

This game will end up getting even more national attention than it would’ve normally because of the Mel Tucker story. It’s still one of the more interesting games on the overall college football slates. Go Dawgs.

4:00 PM: #11 Tennessee (2-0) at Florida (1-1), ESPN

DraftKings Betting Line: Tennessee -6.5

There weren’t a lot of great options for this timeslot but I also considered BYU at Arkansas mostly because what a weird matchup of teams. The Volunteers looked very underwhelming in a surprisingly narrow win over FCS Austin Peay last week. Florida took care of their cupcake game in more decisive fashion but obviously looked helpless on offense at Utah in week one. If Tennessee wants to seriously consider themselves challengers to Georgia this year then they need to come out and win this game by multiple scores. A win for the Gators would take a ton of the pressure off an under siege Billy Napier.

7:30 PM: Fresno State (2-0) at Arizona State (1-1), FS1

DraftKings Betting Line: Fresno State -3

The Gameday game is Colorado State at Colorado at the same time but I really don’t find the matchup very compelling considering CSU got blown out at home by Wazzu already. This is a chance for Fresno to assert themselves as potentially the best G5 team in the country despite the loss of Jake Haener. They barely scraped by FCS Eastern Washington last week but upset Purdue the week before. Notching a pair of P5 wins (even if over Purdue and ASU) would potentially get the Bulldogs into the rankings as they head into Mountain West play.

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