College Football 2019: Top 5 games with playoff implications in Week 4

5. UCF at Pitt (Sept. 21 at 3:30 p.m. ET – ABC/ESPN2)

You either love them or hate them, but UCF doesn’t seem to be going away anytime soon. The Knights just stomped Stanford last weekend and got a stellar performance from freshman quarterback Dillon Gabriel. Pitt isn’t much of an opponent for UCF, but aside from a road game against Cincinnati, this is perhaps the last test for UCF before we start talking about whether it deserves a spot in the College Football Playoff for the third year in a row.

A loss surely eliminates UCF from contention, however, anything less than a resounding win just might do it too. It’s an entirely different and complex discussion to have about how fair that is, but UCF needs to keep steamrolling teams if it wants a shot to make the final four.

Pitt just narrowly escaped victory last weekend against in-state rival Penn State while not having a single player rush for more than 10 yards. This may say more about Penn State than it does about Pitt though. The Panthers have shown they can play spoiler in the past and absolutely plan to this weekend.

The interesting thing about this game is how the transitive property will be brought up. If UCF blasts Pitt the way it did Stanford there will be a lot of comparisons between UCF and Penn State as they share a common opponent. Likewise, if Stanford even gives Oregon a game then the comparisons between UCF and Oregon will run wild.