October may be the so-called “middle child” of the college football season, but that doesn’t mean that it soils the sport’s gloriously chaotic vibe.
With the weather only getting colder, Halloween on the way, and fall decorations in full swing, October truly is a fantastic month. But while all that stuff is fine and dandy, what really sets the mood are the plethora of college football games it provides us with on a weekly basis.
By being the home of Weeks 6-9, October truly is the heart of the season, and holding such an image should hopefully mean that it has some epic battles in store. However, we won’t know just how epic they are until we take a look for ourselves.
We’ve already done this for both August and September, and they amounted to a vast array of iconic matchups worth keeping an eye out for (said matchups can be found broken down in detail here). Today, it is our duty to decide if October belongs in that same fraternity.
With all of that said, here are my picks for the best CFB game in each week of October.
Week 6: Alabama at Texas A&M (Oct. 7)
This one certainly seems like a weak start to the list at face value, as it involves a team that was widely regarded as the most disappointing of 2022. But, to anyone who is aware of the beef that these two SEC powers have shared in recent memory, this matchup was always a clear favorite to win the title of “Week 6’s Best Game.”
To truly grasp what all is playing into this affair though, we need to approach it from the perspectives of both teams involved.
Giving Alabama credit where it’s due, the Nick Saban dynasty has typically avoided defeat in its “upset alert” situations. When combining that with just how sorry of a note that Texas A&M is entering this season on, it’d normally be hard not to pencil this game into the false hope category. But is the hope really so false this time?
Despite sucking last year, the Aggies were just one play away from topping the Crimson Tide in Tuscaloosa. The year before that, they actually did so successfully in College Station—where this upcoming meeting will be taking place.
Oh, and it also feels important to acknowledge that this installment will not feature quarterback Bryce Young, who was Bama’s savior in their most recent close calls (of which there have been several). Yikes.
While nothing discussed here can promise a result as exciting as the previous couple, this game’s characteristics equate to a valid cause for concern in the Crimson Tide’s eyes, and that’s enough to cement its spot on this list.
Week 7: Oregon at Washington (Oct. 14)
When taking in all of the games that it has to offer, Week 7 stands as a symbol of what college football is all about; the sheer depth of its Saturday lineup makes for what should ultimately be one of the season’s wildest weekends.
With pairings like Iowa/Wisconsin, UCLA/Oregon State, NC State/Duke, Louisville/Pittsburgh, Kansas State/Texas Tech, and USC/Notre Dame, Oct. 14 should be circled on calendars nationwide regardless of the one matchup I choose for this spot. However, the favorite of the bunch is still indisputable: Oregon at Washington.
Both the Ducks and Huskies deserve praise for sitting amongst the Pac-12’s strongest squads, as the former won 10 games in 2022 while the latter won 11. With that in mind, their collision could be one of the more sizable when dictating the conference’s playoff hopes.
That fact would make the meeting one to highlight regardless of its competitiveness, but based on that of last year’s, I would say that there isn’t much to worry about in that department anyway.
The affair came down to a tie-breaking field goal attempt that gave Washington a slim 37-34 advantage with under a minute to go, permanently escaping a deficit that it had been fighting for a good portion of the game. It’s a safe bet that every seat in Autzen Stadium was drenched in sweat after such a finale, and that’s something that can only be said about the most suspenseful.
So to summarize, Oregon/Washington will likely be a tight contest between two of the West Coast’s biggest brands, having the potential to make a nationally relevant impact on the postseason. If that doesn’t sound like an instant classic waiting to happen, I don’t know what does.
Week 8: Tennessee at Alabama (Oct. 21)
When covering important college football clashes from the month of October, a Southeastern rivalry known as the “Third Saturday in October” feels worthy of some recognition for what should be obvious reasons—and those reasons become even more obvious when looking at the teams that partake in it, Tennessee and Alabama.
SEC football fans are probably happy to be back in an era where this showdown actually means something, as before 2022, it had been on a horrendously cold streak (the Crimson Tide had won the last 15). The blame for such a severe lack of competitiveness falls on head coach Nick Saban, as the Tide’s uninterrupted stretch of domination began back in 2007, his first season in Tuscaloosa.
Luckily for all of Knoxville, Tennessee HC Josh Heupel managed to turn the once-great program back around overnight and, in just his second season with the Vols, led them to a 52-49 victory over Bama.
Similarly to the aforementioned deathmatch between the Huskies and Ducks, it all came down to a tie-breaking field goal. But, the circumstances were even better this time around, as the ball awkwardly twirled through the uprights just as the final second ticked off the clock.
This year’s edition of the rivalry will be in the Tide’s neck of the woods and neither teams’ star QB will be returning to play in it, making for what will hopefully be anyone’s game. And as we said with September’s South Carolina/Tennessee matchup, this has the potential to shake up the postseason landscape of college football’s best conference—if a game can have that kind of influence, it deserves to be in this kind of conversation. End of story.
Week 9: Oregon at Utah (Oct. 28)
It appears that October is the month to beat for Ducks fans just as much as it is for Tide fans, as the teams have been granted half of its spotlight each, but what is it about a visit to Utah that justifies giving Oregon that extra attention? Simply put, it’s just how great Utah has been.
From 2018 to now, the Utes have amassed 43 wins and have gone 2-2 in the Pac-12 title game, with the two victories coming from 2021 and 2022. That level of consistency makes them villains in the sights of all their conference foes—including Oregon.
The Ducks stand out for having been able to topple the Utes last November and, in the process, hold them to what ended up being the least amount of points they’d score in a game all season (17). That feat makes them a top team to watch in the Pac’s mission to dethrone Utah once and for all.
And especially when considering that the schools are set to face Washington and USC at other points in their schedules, the outcome of this encounter can/will play a pivotal role in both their conference’s standings and postseason footprint. Just like it’s been with the previous couple of games on this list, that is the deciding factor that puts Oregon/Utah above the rest of Week 9’s headliners.
These games prove that the magnitude of the year’s implications will be at an all-time high even with several weeks of the regular season remaining, and that should get us all the more excited for the fourth and final month in this series: November. If its Weeks 10-13 are anything like October’s 6-9, then there is still much of the college football hype train left to take on.