The Highest-Stakes College Football Games of Week 4

The Playoff may dominate much of the national conversation — and there are plenty of postseason implications on the menu this Saturday — but that’s not the only thing on the line for many teams in Week 4. These 11 games all have something juicy at stake for both teams.

Florida State-Clemson (12:00 PM Eastern, ABC): Florida State’s beloved sod cemetery hasn’t been gifted a new piece of Clemson turf since 2013, and the Seminoles haven’t beaten Clemson since 2014. That’s also the last season FSU made it to the ACC Championship; Clemson took their place as the kings of the Atlantic Division, and even though the conference left divisions behind, this is FSU’s chance to formally retake that throne.

For Clemson, the urgency is to avoid an unfamiliar stumble. The Tigers haven’t started 0-2 in conference play since 2010. That’s also the last year they lost three or more ACC games. If they fall to the Seminoles, that possibility looms large with Miami, Notre Dame and UNC all still to come.

Rutgers at Michigan (12:00 PM Eastern, Big Ten Network): This game might not normally stand out on Michigan’s schedule, but this year it just happens to be the return of NCAA political prisoner Jim Harbaugh. Michigan quarterback J.J. McCarthy had a very uneven outing against Bowling Green last week, throwing three interceptions on just 13 attempts.

Rutgers has never beaten Michigan in the Big House, and its only defeated the Wolverines once during its 2014 Big Ten debut season. The Scarlet Knights have played well against the run so far this year (albeit against some very un-Michigan opponents), holding them to under 2.5 yards per carry. They’ll need that trend to continue if they want to start 4-0 for the first season since 2012. 

SMU at TCU (12:00 PM Eastern, Fox Sports 1): How can you not love a trophy that was specifically implemented to get both sets of fans to stop damaging property after the game? With the news that this rivalry will take a pause after the 2025 season, there’s a little more emotional weight to the last few editions. The last three games have been decided by a single score, and SMU has won the last two that were played in Fort Worth. 

Virginia Tech at Marshall (12:00 PM Eastern, ESPN2): Marshall’s in the middle of a seven-game win streak stretching back to last season, and it hasn’t won eight games in a row since 2014. There’s the added allure of possibly beating a Power 5 opponent for the second consecutive year after the Thundering Herd beat Notre Dame last season. Virginia Tech’s Brent Pry really needs this win if the Hokies are going to make a bowl in his second year; the ACC schedule could be worse since it doesn’t have Miami, UNC, Duke or Clemson on it, but winning five out of eight conference games would still be an uphill battle.

UCLA at Utah (3:30 PM Eastern, Fox): In a great year for the Pac-12, these might be the most nationally slept-on teams. Utah’s gone 3-0 with two Power 5 wins out of conference despite not having last year’s quarterback, Cam Rising, play a single snap. UCLA hasn’t trailed in a second of its three wins and has gotten some promising performances out of freshman QB Dante Moore, who’s second in the Pac-12 in yards per pass attempt and third in quarterback rating. There’s some good revenge motivation for Utah as well. Last year, UCLA’s offense lit up the Utes, gaining more yards per play (8.23) than any other regular-season opponent.

Ole Miss at Alabama (3:30 PM Eastern, CBS): Forget the College Football Playoff. Ole Miss needs to start by winning the SEC West for the first time in school history, and that road gets significantly easier if it can beat Alabama to start conference play. The Crimson Tide are trying to avoid something they haven’t done in a single season since 2007: losing two games at home. There’s a lot of good crossover beyond Lane Kiffin, former Alabama offensive coordinator, too. Alabama special teams coordinator Coleman Hutzler spent the 2021 season working for Kiffin in Oxford, and Bama’s defensive line coach, Freddie Roach, held the same position for three years at Ole Miss (all under Kiffin’s predecessor, Matt Luke). On the Ole Miss side, Kiffin made two hires with deep Alabama ties this offseason — defensive coordinator Pete Golding spent the last five years running that side of the ball for Nick Saban, and safeties coach Wes Neighbors III either played or served as a staffer under Saban for a decade. 

Colorado at Oregon (3:30 PM Eastern, ABC): Every possible remaining doubt about Colorado — Is Shedeur Sanders a legit Heisman contender? Can the defense carry its share of the burden? Have the Buffs just beaten bad teams? — can be answered in this game. Win, and the Deion Sanders Doubter Brigade will find itself grasping at straws. Lose, and the money Oregon spent on Bo Nix Heisman advertising looks very much justified. 

Beyond the hype, Oregon’s only lost to Colorado once since the Buffaloes joined the Pac-12. The average final score in the eight Duck wins: 50-14.

Oregon State at Washington State (7:00 PM Eastern, Fox): The Pac-12 Survivor Bowl is the obvious angle here, but even absent the infighting between the Beavers and Cougars and the rest of their soon-to-be-former colleagues, there are two intriguing elements to this matchup. First, this is the first time both Oregon State and Washington State are ranked entering this game. Like, ever; since the Pac-12’s formation in 1968, there have only been three seasons where both these teams finished above .500. 

Second, you’ve got the intersection of two very different transfer quarterback stories. Oregon State’s DJ Uiagalelei was supposed to be the next in Clemson’s line of quarterback succession. He looked great in his first-ever start on the road in South Bend, carrying the Tiger offense into double overtime before Notre Dame emerged victorious. But the promise of that night didn’t pan out in 2021 or 2022, as Uiagalelei threw 31 touchdowns against 17 picks and Clemson missed the playoffs after six straight appearances. Washington State’s Cam Ward, on the other hand, only got one scholarship offer out of high school — to Incarnate Word. He won the starting job as a freshman and, as a sophomore, led all of FCS with 47 passing touchdowns before transferring to Washington State last season.

Memphis vs. Missouri (7:30 PM, ESPNU): Mizzou hasn’t gotten off to 4-0 start since 2013, when it wound up winning the SEC East. It needed an incredible kick to get to 3-0, and now it’ll face fellow 3-0 team Memphis in the former home of the Rams during their St. Louis days. Memphis is off to a hot start for the third year in a row, starting 2021 with a 3-0 record and beginning 2022 with four wins and one loss. But both seasons fell apart after that and ended with six regular-season victories; beating Missouri would be a good sign that this year will be different.

Ohio State at Notre Dame (7:30 PM, NBC): This is only the fifth post-WWII meeting of the Buckeyes and Fighting Irish, and Ohio State has won all five. Last year’s game in Columbus showed the limits of the Notre Dame offense; it called 30 runs and just 18 pass plays and punted on every possession in the second half in a 21-10 loss. This season, the Irish have a top-five passing attack and the 14th-best run game in yards per attempt. (Plus, if they can’t beat Ohio State again, they’ll have to hear it from Michigan fans who insist it’s really not that hard.)

The Buckeyes beat their first three opponents (Indiana, Youngstown State, and Western Kentucky) by an average of 33.7 points. But that’s what Ohio State’s supposed to do, and a highly-ranked Notre Dame team is the kind of opponent that will really establish what the ceiling for the Buckeyes looks like.

Iowa at Penn State (7:30 PM, CBS): Iowa’s won the last two games in this series, and the last time the Hawkeyes came to State College, they hung 41 points on the Nittany Lions. The leading Penn State rusher in that game was Will Levis with 34 yards, to give you a sense of how things went on the ground. But excluding that twenty-point blowout, Iowa and Penn State have played a ton of close games recently. Four of the last five matchups have been decided by less than a touchdown.