Week 9’s top 10 college football games: An SEC showdown for first place, upset alerts and more

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Week 9’s top 10 college football games: An SEC showdown for first place, upset alerts and more

It’s a compelling slate of games this weekend, including five ranked matchups, four of which feature double-digit spreads. (Any chance the favorites cover — or even win — all of those?) Plus a Friday night bout that could determine the Group of 5 team in the College Football Playoff, as well as an undefeated team without its star quarterback and another undefeated team that is a road underdog to an unranked opponent. And Coach Prime in #Big12AfterDark. Spooky season, indeed.

Let’s rank the top 10 games of Week 9, starting with honorable mentions and counting down.

Honorable Mention: Louisville at Boston College (Fri.), Nebraska at No. 4 Ohio State, Oklahoma at No. 18 Ole Miss, Tulane at North Texas, Texas Tech at TCU, Oregon State at Cal, Michigan State at Michigan, Kansas at Kansas State, No. 22 SMU at Duke.

(All point spreads come from BetMGM; click

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. All kickoff times are Eastern and on Saturday unless otherwise noted.)

Hoosier Hysteria has taken hold of college football. A week after getting the “Big Noon” treatment from Fox, ESPN’s “College GameDay” heads to Bloomington. Indiana is one of the best stories of the season, but this game cracks the list largely because the Hoosiers are starting Tayven Jackson in place of star quarterback Kurtis Rourke, who is out with a thumb injury. Rourke has been spectacular — first in the FBS in QB rating, second in yards per attempt, top 15 in yards and touchdowns — though Indiana has looked good enough to survive without him against Washington, which got smoked by Iowa prior to its bye.

Line: Indiana -6.5

9. No. 17 Boise State (5-1) at UNLV (6-1), Fri., 10:30 p.m.,

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Running back Ashton Jeanty has become a phenom in Boise and beyond as the Broncos attempt to ride those 9.9-yards-per-carry coattails to the Mountain West title and a Playoff spot. But the Rebels, with an offense that is also putting up gaudy numbers, have the same aspirations and are expecting a record home crowd at Allegiant Stadium.

Line: Boise State -3.5

8. No. 20 Illinois (6-1) at No. 1 Oregon (7-0), 3:30 p.m.,

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Illinois has beaten three opponents that were ranked at the time the Illini faced them (Kansas, Nebraska, Michigan) with a sound approach on offense and defense. The only time it faltered was a 21-7 loss at Penn State, which is one reason why the spread at Oregon is so high. Another is the Ducks following up their big win over Ohio State with a 35-0 road shutout against Purdue on a short week. Oregon will try to avoid becoming the fourth team this season to drop from the No. 1 spot in the AP Top 25.

Line: Oregon -21.5

7. Cincinnati (5-2) at Colorado (5-2), 10:15 p.m.,

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This should be a fun quarterback matchup between a pair of unlikely Big 12 contenders. Colorado’s Shedeur Sanders is a known commodity on all the commercials and NFL Draft boards, and Cincinnati’s Brendan Sorsby is one of the more impactful, under-the-radar transfers of the season. Both players rank top 15 in the FBS in passing yards and are averaging better than 8 yards per pass attempt. The Bearcats are improved in coach Scott Satterfield’s second season, and this is the best stretch the Buffs have had under Deion Sanders.

Line: Colorado -6.5

6. No. 21 Missouri (6-1) at No. 15 Alabama (5-2), 3:30 p.m.,

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Quite the script for Missouri last week, with quarterback Brady Cook leaving the game against Auburn, getting taken to a nearby hospital for an MRI and then returning to the game in the second half to lead a double-digit comeback. Cook is doubtful to play Saturday, which knocks this one down a few pegs, but the main storylines are still all about Alabama. Finebaum callers are circling after the 24-17 road loss to Tennessee, Bama’s second defeat in three games. The Tide haven’t lost three regular-season games since 2010, and haven’t lost back-to-back regular-season games since 2007, Nick Saban’s first year at the helm. This year’s version of Alabama still has SEC and CFP hopes to play for, but another loss will change that.

Line: Alabama -16.5

5. No. 11 BYU (7-0) at UCF (3-4), 3:30 p.m.,

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BYU is unbeaten and on the doorstep of the top 10, coming off an incredible last-second comeback over Oklahoma State. Yet UCF, which has dropped four in a row, is a narrow favorite in this one. BYU does have to travel two time zones, and the Knights seemingly had Iowa State cornered last Saturday, rushing for 354 yards behind running back RJ Harvey and new starting quarterback Jacurri Brown. But UCF has struggled to close out games, and BYU’s defense has been stellar under head coach Kalani Sitake and defensive coordinator Jay Hill. The formula for the Cougars will be to keep UCF’s ground game in check — easier said than done — get a lead and force the Knights to throw the ball.

Line: UCF -2.5

4. No. 5 Texas (6-1) at No. 25 Vanderbilt (5-2), 4:15 p.m.,

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, SEC Network

Imagine predicting this as a ranked matchup in the preseason. It no longer qualifies as a get-right game for the Longhorns, and after getting momentarily benched against Georgia, Quinn Ewers will have added scrutiny as he attempts to quiet the quarterback controversy. Vandy tends to give up yards on defense, but its plus-six turnover differential is tops in the SEC and it held Kentucky and Ball State under 15 points a piece the past two games. Beyond the big win against Bama, Vanderbilt has also taken Missouri to double-OT and bested Virginia Tech and ***. Quarterback Diego Pavia has already proven he can cause problems against more talented competition.

Line: Texas -18.5

3. No. 12 Notre Dame (6-1) vs No. 24 Navy (6-0), Noon,

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This should be closer than last year’s season-opening 42-3 rout by Notre Dame in Ireland. It’s another neutral-site matchup, at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey, but this is a vastly improved Navy squad. The Midshipmen are seventh in the FBS at 7.3 yards per play and boast more than an option offense under head coach Brian Newberry. Navy has yet to play an opponent as good as Notre Dame, but it did beat a solid Memphis team and hasn’t been challenged by anyone else. On the other side, this same Irish team lost to Northern Illinois, which should give the Mids a shot of confidence to pull off the upset.

Line: Notre Dame -13.5

2. No. 3 Penn State (6-0) at Wisconsin (5-2), 7:30 p.m.,

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All the Nittany Lions have done is go unbeaten with a top-15 defense, top-10 offense, a Top-25 win over Illinois and a big comeback over USC on the road. Quarterback Drew Allar is completing more than 70 percent of his throws at better than 10 yards per attempt under new offensive coordinator Andy Kotelnicki. Penn State is good, maybe really good. Yet James Franklin’s struggles in big games still hang over this program until proven otherwise. (And unfortunately, Penn State made news for other reasons this week.) A win over Wisconsin on Saturday won’t be enough to appease all the doubters, but the Badgers have quietly found a rhythm, winning three straight by a combined score of 117-16. None of them came against teams of Penn State’s caliber, and the Badgers got smoked last month at home by Alabama. But an improved Wisconsin is an intriguing test for Penn State before Ohio State visits next week.

Line: Penn State -6.5

1. No. 8 LSU (6-1) at No. 14 Texas A&M (6-1), 7:30 p.m.,

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Two teams that lost high-profile matchups in Week 1 and have been steadily, stealthily climbing their way back up the rankings. Texas A&M, which had to deal with an injury to starting quarterback Conner Weigman earlier in the season, recently thumped Missouri. LSU had a dramatic overtime win against Ole Miss a week later, and quarterback Garrett Nussmeier leads the SEC in touchdown passes with 18. Both sides have potential game wreckers on defense in Nic Scourton for the Aggies and ***** Weeks for LSU, and the latter could end up winning the Bednarik Award.

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— LSU Football (@LSUfootball)

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There are zero undefeated teams in the SEC, and these are the only two that are still unbeaten in conference play. Winner sits all alone atop the league standings; ****** joins the legion of one- and two-loss teams in tiebreaker *****.

Line: Texas A&M -1.5

 (Photo of LSU quarterback Garrett Nussmeier: Wesley Hitt / Getty Images)