Week 4 College Football: SEC Launches With Four Ranked Matchups — SkimNews
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- Week 4 college football slate features six ranked-vs-ranked matchups — compared to just five across the entire first three weeks — with the SEC launching its first full conference weekend including four ranked showdowns.
- No. 1 Texas travels to face No. 14 Tennessee (noon, ABC) as a 4-point favorite, with freshman QB Faizon Brandon leading a Tennessee offense ranked 8th nationally in points per drive; Texas' defensive front faces an early test against RBs DeSean Bishop and Daune Morris after Tennessee allowed 127th-ranked yards per rush.
- No. 4 Ole Miss visits No. 21 Florida (3:30 p.m., ABC), with Florida installed as a 3.5-point favorite behind an offense ranked 1st nationally in points per drive — RB Jadan Baugh is on pace for 2,000 yards and QB Aaron Philo is completing 73% of passes.
- No. 23 Texas A&M visits No. 10 LSU (7:30 p.m., ABC) as an 8.5-point underdog after a humbling 10-point home loss to Kentucky exposed a passing attack that has cratered since losing KC Concepcion, with Marcel Reed now facing an LSU defense that hasn't allowed chunk plays to anyone but Trinidad Chambliss.
- No. 19 Missouri visits No. 24 Mississippi State (7:45 p.m., SECN), where the Bulldogs — favored by 6.5 despite being only 30th in SP+ — have outperformed projections by 19.0 points per game, the best mark of any power-conference team, led by early-season star Kamario Taylor.
- Oklahoma visits No. 2 Georgia (3:30 p.m., ESPN) as a 14-point underdog after scoring just 24 points combined in the past two games, with QB John Mateer throwing three picks and taking five sacks; the Sooners' elite defense gets its first real test against a Georgia offense averaging 11.9 yards per dropback.
- South Carolina visits No. 8 Alabama (7 p.m., ESPN) — a matchup that has remarkably followed the same script each of the past two seasons, with Alabama blowing a 14-point lead before needing late scores and defensive stops to survive.
Why it matters: With the SEC playing seven conference games in one weekend for the first time this year, four ranked-vs-ranked SEC matchups will reshape the College Football Playoff picture and the Heisman race — Tennessee can vault into title contention with a home win over top-ranked Texas, while Florida can announce itself as a legit Playoff threat by beating No. 4 Ole Miss. SP+ still treats Mississippi State (30th) and Tennessee (8th in points per drive) as underrated, meaning Week 4 could validate or upend preseason projections in a single afternoon.
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