With the top 10 ranked teams looking to have winnable games this week most of the interest as far as the neutral is concerned will include teams who are either on the up, or are possibly in a false position.
One game which stands out for us is Ohio State at Illinois which is a far more interesting game than the win loss would have you believe. The Buckeyes are languishing at 3-3 in the Big Ten Leaders and while Illinois are currently leading the division at 6-0. So this looks like an easy win for the Fighting Illini. However in our opinion anyway the Buckeyes are the best 3-3 team we have seen in a while, and if they could stop self destructing they could be a top 20 team at least (they are currently a lowly 66 in the CBS Rankings). Last week they were 27-6 up on a good Nebraska side in the Third, before their defense capitulated giving up 4 unanswered TD’s. The week before they also threw the game away giving up 3 turnovers and 82 yards of penalties as they lost 10-7 against Michigan State. With a bit more composure these could have been wins and they could be 5-1. Illinois are a good side but they are not convincing and they have been pushed hard in 3 of their wins. We think the Buckeyes might just pull off a shock here.
Southern Methodist have recovered well from their opening day mauling by Texas A&M and we were hugely impressed by the Mustangs OT win over TCU. A win over current C-USA leaders UCF will have SMU knocking on the door of a top 25 ranking.
Michigan at Michigan State sees the Wolverines put their 100% record on the line against their local rivals and taking the form line through Notre Dame we expect to see Michigan move to 7-0 and with a couple of easier games to follow the Wolverines should be 9-0 which they might well need given their tough finish.