Keeping track of top-25 schedules and results, with notes on each game.

Week 8 probably won’t be as bonkers as Week 7 (fingers crossed), but we’re now into the portion of the college football schedule in which every weekend looks clearly consequential. Quite a few top-25 teams are on byes, but we’ve got plenty of stakes elsewhere.

Below, we’re keeping track of each top-25 game’s impact, both before and after final scores, mostly paying attention to CFB committee stuff, not highlights or fun plays.

Remember the things the committee has mostly demonstrated it rewards: wins over final top-25 teams, wins over bowl teams, road wins, dominant wins, weirdly excusable losses, being Alabama, and not being a mid-major. It does not care what your opponent’s AP ranking was at kickoff.

All rankings AP, for now. All times ET on Saturday unless noted. All final scores in bold.

Probably important

Games in which the winning team will likely have a pretty high-quality Week 8 victory by season’s end. Or: really meaningful upsets.

• No. 3 Clemson (6-0) vs. No. 16 NC State (5-0), 3:30, ESPN: The winner’s very likely walking away with the ACC Atlantic. NC State has played Clemson really tough two years in a row.
• No. 5 LSU (6-1) vs. No. 22 Mississippi State (4-2), 7, ESPN: An LSU win sets up MANBALL CHRISTMAS against Alabama yet again. Either way, the winner’s eventual game against Texas A&M could determine the SEC West’s second best team and a New Year’s Six spot.
• No. 6 Michigan (6-1) at No. 24 Michigan State (4-2), noon, Fox: The Wolverines have perfectly handled business for six weeks, but the committee needs to see them finally beat archrivals.
• No. 12 Oregon (5-1) at No. 25 Washington State (5-1), 7:30, Fox: The Pac-12 North race might lose a contender, but that thing’s way too crowded to declare the winner a clear favorite.

Maybe important

Games in which the winner will probably have beaten a decent bowl team. I’m being somewhat generous to a few of these unranked teams, as far as chances of making a bowl go.

• No. 1 Alabama (7-0) vs. Tennessee (3-3), 3:30, CBS: Who would’ve expected this to be a chance for Bama to beat a team with a final 6-6 record? Again, the Tide’s strength of schedule is actually fine, not that the Tide tend to need it to be.
• No. 2 Ohio State (7-0) at Purdue (3-3), 7:30, ABC: Really close to being much more important, due to Purdue’s many close losses. The Buckeyes could use a really dominant road win, since I’m guessing the committee will have questions about OSU’s defense, but the Playoff path is obvious either way.
• No. 9 Oklahoma (6-1) 52, TCU (3-4) 27: OU’s likely still making the Big 12 Championship and not really out of the CFP yet. This could hold up as a nice road win, but the Frogs are reeling. (Remember when this was Ohio State’s marquee win?)
• No. 15 Washington (5-2) vs. Colorado (5-1), 3:30, Fox: Again, refraining from any confident statements on the Pac-12. A win would be good for the winner. Ommmmmmmmm.
• No. 18 Penn State (4-2) at Indiana (4-3), 3:30, ABC: PSU can still claw its way back to the NY6 again.
• No. 19 Iowa (6-1) 23, Maryland (4-3) 0: Speaking of Big Ten teams with NY6 aspirations, I thought the Hawkeyes had a real shot even before they pitched this shutout.

Important for the Group of 5 race

Since the committee’s essentially showed non-power teams aren’t eligible for the Playoff, let’s have a separate section for the race to be the top-ranked mid-major champ. I’m not including every one-loss G5 team at this point.

• No. 10 UCF (6-0) at East Carolina (2-4), 7, ESPN2
• Temple (5-3) 24, No. 20 Cincinnati (6-1) 17 in OT: Down goes another unbeaten.
• No. 21 USF (6-0) vs. UConn (1-5), 7, CBSSN
• Appalachian State (4-1) vs. UL Lafayette (3-3), 3:30, ESPN+: S&P+ loves App State.
• Fresno State (5-1) at New Mexico (3-3), 7:30, ESPNU: S&P+ also loves Fresno.
• Houston (5-1) at Navy (2-4), 3:30, CBSSN
• San Diego State (5-1) vs. San Jose State (0-6), 10:30, CBSSN
• Utah State (5-1) at Wyoming (2-5), 2:30, MWC

Probably not important

The committee tries not to care about your wins over teams that finish with bad records, though you can get some credit for winning on the road or really laying it to folks. So for the ranked teams here: just don’t lose!

• No. 4 Notre Dame: Idle
• No. 7 Texas: Idle
• No. 8 Georgia: Idle
• No. 11 Florida: Idle
• No. 13 West Virginia: Idle
• No. 14 Kentucky (5-1) vs. Vanderbilt (3-4), 7:30, SECN
• No. 17 Texas A&M: Idle
• No. 23 Wisconsin (5-2) 49, Illinois (3-4) 20