Bill Connelly says Week 7 of college football is loaded, with top-10 battles opening and closing the Saturday slate and SEC top-15 matchups in between. Notre Dame's tougher stretch begins with a trip to Provo to face BYU, and Kentucky and UCLA face tricky hangover tests after strong Week 6 wins.
The headline game is a rematch of last season's Big Ten championship between No. 4 Ohio State and No. 5 Indiana, which Indiana won 22-game streak intact. That game was decided by fine margins, and Indiana won 16 of 27 third and fourth downs (59%). Indiana has kept winning close games this fall, including a 29-23 win over Northwestern and a 20-17 win over Nebraska, and its defense ranks third in success rate. Ohio State, however, has won 42 games by an average of 27.8 points since the end of 2022, and it has the best player in college football in receiver Jeremiah Smith.
The Big Ten undercard features a UCLA-Wisconsin game that is more intriguing than expected a few weeks ago. UCLA remains unbeaten, and the matchup is slated for 7:30 p.m. on NBC.
The slate also includes several rivalry games and a deep set of smaller-school contests, including the Anchor-Bone Classic between Ferris State and Grand Valley State in Michigan and a major Division III game in Wisconsin. Connelly calls the week potentially "awfully special."
Source: ESPN General · Summarized by HeadlinesBriefing