Five matchups will take place between teams ranked in the US LBM Coaches Poll Top 25.
Key rivalry games include Ohio State at Michigan and Texas A&M at Texas.
Only one of the top 10 ranked teams, Oklahoma, will be playing at home.
Fittingly for this holiday weekend, the college football schedule offers a fully laden buffet table. Every team in the US LBM Coaches Poll Top 25 is in action, with five ranked matchups highlighting the menu that will impact the College Football Playoff. That means there are 20 games for our panel of pigskin prognosticators to ponder.
As is usually the case, the final weekend features a number of the sport’s most intense rivalries. Topping the list are No. 1 Ohio State heading up north to meet No. 15 Michigan, and No. 3 Texas A&M putting its unblemished record on the line at No. 16 Texas. In other ranked matchups, No. 4 Georgia heads to Atlanta to meet No. 19 Georgia Tech, No. 18 Tennessee hosts No. 12 Vanderbilt, and No. 13 Miami (Fla.) heads to No. 24 Pittsburgh.
Oh yeah, there are a few other notable neighborhood contests. No. 6 Mississippi braves the cowbells for the ‘Egg Bowl’ showdown with Mississippi State, No. 10 Alabama looks to avoid an upset at nemesis Auburn, and No. 5 Oregon travels to Seattle to face Washington.
In a curious quirk of the calendar, only one of the top 10 squads will conclude the regular season at home as No. 8 Oklahoma hosts LSU. Does that mean there’s a greater potential for surprises? Read on to see if our staffers think so.