Best College Football Games Today on TV | Week 8 2024

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Watch Alabama vs. Tennessee | ABC/ESPN+

This year’s edition of the Third Saturday in October looked like an SEC heavyweight matchup a few weeks ago, but the hype train’s taken a few detours since then.

On Alabama’s end, fans are apoplectic after the Tide followed up their Vandy loss with a by-the-skin-of-their-teeth win over South Carolina. (If you want a barometer for the level of fan hollering in Tuscaloosa, people are calling into Finebaum and griping about things like Kalen DeBoer wearing a T-shirt on the sideline. And they’re doing this when Bama’s 5-1 and ranked no. 7!)

As for Tennessee, quarterback Nico Iamaleava’s going through some freshman growing pains. He’s thrown only a single touchdown during the Vols’ last three games, and Tennessee needed overtime to get past Florida last week. Both teams are in the thick of the SEC title race, but with virtually zero margin for error, this week’s matchup will come down to two things: can Tennessee can work through their issues and what’s the level of Messy Alabama^* we get in this game?

^{*Which Washington fans are intimately familiar with! The Kalen DeBoer Fourth Quarter Conference Game Experience is like an uncle who just got some fireworks—you might be watching an awesome show, or your car might explode from a rogue M-80. We’re living dangerously, y’all.} 

Watch Miami vs. Louisville | ABC/ESPN+
Watch Virginia vs. Clemson | ACC Network
Watch Notre Dame vs. Georgia Tech | ESPN

The ACC standings are starting to get clarified, which means it’s a perfect time for some chaos to happen:

• Undefeated Miami and Chaos Agent Cam Ward will host a Louisville team that followed up a narrow SMU loss with an equally narrow win against Virginia last Saturday.
• Speaking of the Hoos: quarterback Anthony Colandrea was enjoyably chaotic last year, but Virginia fans don’t mind trading his lower DETMER score for a higher win total—Virginia’s a respectable 4-2 and could be in play for a bowl bid this year. That said, it likely won’t come this week against a buzzsaw of a Clemson team.
• Notre Dame has a full-blown passing game! Last week, Riley Leonard broke 200 passing yards and multiple passing touchdowns for the first time this season in a 49-7 win against Stanford. But between running back Jamal Haynes and quarterback Haynes King, Georgia Tech’s explosive enough to keep pace with the Fighting Irish.

Watch North Texas vs. Memphis | ESPNU

Army and Navy have been the bee’s knees in the AAC this season, but the conference’s middle tier is full of equally watchable teams.

North Texas’s a solid 5-1 overall and 2-0 in conference thanks to a pass-happy offense that ranks fourth nationally in passing yardage and second in passing touchdowns. Memphis is a game behind North Texas in the AAC standings thanks to a tough 56-44 loss to Navy, but they bounced back with blowout wins over Middle Tennessee and South Florida.

Watch Iowa vs. MSU | NBC/Peacock

Spartans head coach Jonathan Smith led an impressive rebuild at Oregon State, and his work at Michigan State has been similarly impressive so far. To be clear, does this mean Michigan State’s been good? Absolutely not! (Getting Ohio State and Oregon back-to-back was a brutal draw for MSU, who got atomized in both games.)

But considering what Smith inherited in East Lansing, getting MSU up to “just bad” is downright Herculean. They’re a perfectly fine 10th in the Big Ten in defensive yardage allowed and have a decent core of young offensive talent like quarterback Aidan Chiles and receiver Nick Marsh.

As for Iowa, they welcomed Washington to the Big Ten last weekend with a classic defensive chokehold of a game. The 40-16 blowout featured ample production from running back Kaleb Johnson (21 carries for 166 yards and two touchdowns), and it was the first time Iowa had broken 40 points in a game since 2017. Iowa should be able to handle the Spartans but keep the game in your 7:00 p.m. quad box to see if MSU can keep things interesting.

Watch LSU vs. Arkansas | ESPN
Watch Oregon vs. Purdue | FOX
Watch Hawai’i vs. Washington State | The CW
Watch New Mexico vs. Utah State | truTV/Max

By Week 8, we should have enough data points to see which teams are Actually Good or Actually Bad. But this week’s schedule has more than a few games with a high potential for weirdness and/or messiness:

1. LSU vs. Arkansas: An LSU team that’s sky-high on post-big win vibes plays a Schrodinger’s Feral Hog of a 4-2 Arkansas team. Are they good or bad? They simply are, and if you contemplate this for over a minute, your brain will start crumbling out your nose like cottage cheese.
2. Hawai’i vs. Washington State: A Hawai’i game being played in the daytime in PST, and it’s on The CW? Burn sage ahead of kickoff.
3. Oregon vs. Purdue: The Ducks travel cross-country on a short week to face a Boilermakers team that just learned how to score points again. Additional shoutouts to Purdue head coach Ryan Walters—he installed himself as offensive coordinator and helped Purdue score more points against Illinois (49 points) than they had up to this point against FBS competition (44 points over their last four games).
4. New Mexico vs. Utah State: This matchup features two teams with high-flying offenses, turnstile defenses, and the week’s highest over/under at 78.5 points.