The big game of college football Week 3 is Alabama-Texas A&M, and that game, along with a couple other marquee TV games, are previewed here. The SportsNotebook’s college football coverage closes out our prep for the weekend with eleven other games that are worth at least finding out the score when you get caught up on the events of Saturday.
Week 3 of the college football season is highlighted by the big Alabama-Texas A&M battle from College Station on Saturday. And bracketing that game in the early and late time slots are games featuring contenders from both the Big Ten and Pac-12. Let’s hone in on the three biggest games of Week 3, taking them in TV order…
We can make a reasonable guess at this early stage of the season that both Michigan State and Notre Dame are going to be pretty good teams. But as the Spartans and Irish get set to renew their longstanding rivalry Saturday night in East Lansing, we really don’t know how good. Is it eight wins kind of good? Or can either one make a run at a BCS game? For Michigan State the answer will ultimately be decided in Big Ten play, a conference where the ability to walk and chew gum simultaneously, all without breaking NCAA rules, might be sufficient for a Rose Bowl berth. For Notre Dame, with a brutal schedule still ahead—Michigan, BYU, Stanford, Oklahoma and USC for starters—Saturday is a must-win game.
The NFL will draw the attention of most football fans tonight with the Bears-Packers game with possible supremacy in the NFC North ultimately on the line. But for those who also like college football it’s a good night to either go to sports bar, like I’m doing, or at least be ready to audible down at commercial time, because ESPN’s Thursday night college game of Rutgers-South Florida might be the one that decides the Big East title and with it an automatic spot in a BCS bowl game.