The day before Week 0 kicked off, what if I told you that heading into Week 7 of the 2026 college football (CFB) season, Michigan, Oregon, Penn State, and Washington wouldn't be ranked, but Northwestern and UCLA would? Would you have recommended a good psychiatrist, or asked for some of whatever I was on? No. 4 Ohio State and No. 5 Indiana have held serve, but the rest is a B1G mess. All times Pacific. AP Poll rankings. BTN = Big Ten Network. Off Week: Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, USC FRIDAY, OCTOBER 16th - 3-3 Washington +3.5 at 3-3 Purdue - 5 PM - Fox - Relax, your eyesight is fine; coming into this game, UW is the Under-Husky. Purdue is 2-1 in the Big Ten and took No. 21 Wake Forest into double OT. The conference loss came against UCLA in Pasadena; the Boilermakers' offense put up 38 points on the Bruins' defense. Against UCLA, this is better than some B1G offenses have performed. 😧 In its seven conference games east of the Rockies, UW is 1-6. This season, Washington is 0-for-the-Power 4. QB Demond Williams is Questionable and not likely to play. However, Williams' play this season has been questionable at best. --- SATURDAY, OCTOBER 17th No. 4 Ohio State -3.5 at No. 5 Indiana - 9 AM Fox The B1Ggest game of the week kicks off at 11 AM in Bloomington, Indiana. Brilliant! In its long and sordid CFB history, the Indiana Hoosiers have defeated Ohio State twice in Bloomington. The last time was in 1988. The first time was in 1904, before the Forward Pass. Unfortunately for Indiana, this Ohio State team can throw the ball and has a pretty good WR in Jeremiah Smith. The Hoosiers counter with WRs Charlie Becker and Nick Marsh. Like the 2025 Big Ten championship game, I expect this game will be another close call, and too close to call. --- No. 25 4-1 Northwestern -10 at 2-4 Michigan State - 9 AM Peacock Chip brings the Wing T to East Lansing in a homecoming for NW QB Aiden Childs, and Michigan State HC Pat Fitzgerald will be going against his alma mater for the first time since he was wrongfully fired. I know the game is on The Bird, but I hope Fitz will not give The Bird to the Wildcats like in Week 6 when he flipped off Illinois. --- The Relegation Bowl - 1-4 Rutgers +4.5 at 2-4 Maryland - 9:30 AM BTN With JMU leaving for the American Conference, there's an opening in the Sun Belt; unfortunately, only one opening. --- The Weren't You Old Dudes Supposed to Fix Things Bowl - 3-3 Penn State +5.5 at 3-2 Michigan - 12:30 PM CBS Coach Whittingham is completely behind QB Underwood and OC Beck, like he left some team in Salt Lake City behind. On the way to breaking Little Game James' record, Coach Campbell is looking for his first P4 victory at PU, er, PSU. --- 5-1 No. 26 Wisconsin +3.5 at 5-0 No. 12 UCLA - 4:30 PM NBC Wisconsin coach Luke Fickell was finally handed a decent football budget, and he has turned back the clock to the Badgers' smash-mouth days under Barry Alvarez. On both sides of the ball. This is a homecoming game for QB Colton Joseph (😍), who grew up in Newport Beach and played ball at Newport Beach High School. Joseph was not offered a scholarship by UCLA or any other P4 program and transferred to Wisconsin from Old Dominion, where he was the 2025 Sun Belt Conference Player of the Year. Joseph is averaging 5.1 yards per carry, a terrific average in CFB, where sack yardage is subtracted from a QB's rushing output. UCLA Nico Iamaleava went down in the first half of the Oregon game. Under Bob Chesney's run-first offense, Nico's passing stats were not impressive, but he did contribute to the run game. I think the winner of this game will contend for a spot in the 2026 CFB Playoffs. UCLA has an out-of-conference Power 4 win on the road at Cal. Wisconsin gave No. 2-ranked Notre Dame a battle in the first half, before the game turned on a bad review call, as later admitted by Big Ten HQ, that gave the Irish the ball deep in Wisconsin territory. A two-loss Bruins or Badgers team is odds-on to receive a Playoff invitation. After this game, UCLA has one Top-25-ranked team left on its schedule: No. 19 USC plays UCLA in Pasadena in the final week of the regular season. Wisconsin has two ranked teams left; next week USC visits Madison and the following week, the Badgers travel to No. 17 Iowa. In a close game, I think Bucky Badger upsets the Bruins. --- 5-1 No. 29 Nebraska +7.5 at No. 27 3-2 Oregon - 8 PM Fox The Fox broadcast day starts at 11 AM in Bloomington and concludes at 11 PM Eastern, 10 PM Wisconsin body-clock time. At 7:30 PM Eastern, Fox is broadcasting the OK State at Houston game. OK, both OK State and Houston are ranked in the top 25, but the broadcast times for Ohio State at Indiana and a should-be-ranked Nebraska at Oregon game mean millions fewer CFB fans will not be watching Big Ten football in Week 7. Unless Oregon defeats undefeated Ohio State in Columbus in Week 10, this is a 2026 Playoff elimination game for what would be a 3-loss OBD. Nebraska has not defeated a ranked opponent in the last 31 games. The last win against a ranked team was in 2016, when Nebraska upset No. 22 Oregon in Lincoln, 35 to 32. Like the Indiana loss in Lincoln last week, many games have been oh so close. Win this game, and the Cornhuskers will be 9-1 heading into a Week 12 game against Ohio State and a Week 13 game at Iowa. Sadly, win or lose, this game is not against a ranked Oregon team. For more on the game, check out the Forum. --- No. 2 6-0 Notre Dame -11.5 at 5-0 No. 8 BYU - 4:30 PM ABC Notre Dame is 0-9 in the last nine games a Top 10 Irish team has played a Top 10 opponent on the road. After this game, I see this record being 1-9. For the Cougars, I think this is 2025 BYU vs. Texas Tech, when BYU was blown away in two games against the Red Raiders, with one of the games played in Provo. There is no reason whatsoever for BYU to be ranked in the Top 10. And Notre Dame being ranked 2nd is based solely on the Eye Test. Man, I hope my prediction is wrong. --- No. 6 5-1 Alabama -6.5 at No. 14 5-1 Tennessee - 12:30 PM ABC I'm shocked! No. 6 Alabama lost a home game to No. 1 Georgia and remains ranked 6th. Cigars all around for the winner. --- No. 9 4-1 Ole Miss -6.5 (Of course, being Swamped by the unranked Gators doesn't count, right?) vs. No. 13 5-1 Missouri - 12:30 PM SEC Network --- No. 18 4-1 Oklahoma State +3.5 at No. 20 5-1 Houston - 4:30 PM Fox Come On Cowboys! --- No. 15 5-1 Kentucky +6.5 at 3-2 Oklahoma - 4:30 PM SEC Network Will the oddsmakers ever start believing in Will? --- No. 21 5-1 Wake Forest -7.5 at 3-3 Cal - 4:30 PM ESPN 2 After being concussed in the loss at UNLV, JK Sagapolutele was out vs. VA Tech and is questionable for this game. Backup QB Jackson Brousseau, who transferred in from Colorado State, led Cal to a 25 - 20 defeat of favored VA Tech, throwing for 321 yards and a TD. I hope Cal defeats Wake. Why Wake and SMU are ranked and not Nebraska and Wisconsin is the reason why Tony P insisted upon a 24-team PO field. --- Here's hoping Week 7 will be lucky for OBD and that Oregon will not roll craps in back-to-back home games. Husk the Huskers!
