Week 4 of college football gives us the most stacked slate of games yet, with six ranked matchups and major stakes across all levels of the sport. Some teams are starting to enter key in-conference stretches, and this week’s results could dictate the season’s trajectory of playoff-hopeful squads.
Preseason Heavyweights in Must-Win Mode
Among the week’s headline games are two preseason top ten teams that need to turn things around before their playoff hopes begin to fade.
Oregon, after a lukewarm start, plummeted in the rankings after an embarrassing loss to Oklahoma State as heavy favorites. After blowing off steam in a record-setting 84-point victory over Portland State last week, the Ducks find themselves in a critical matchup at No. 12 USC. A signature road win is exactly what Oregon needs to catapult itself back up in the rankings. Otherwise, they’ll face an uphill battle the rest of the season saddled with two losses.
Texas A&M finds itself in a poor situation. Coming off a disappointing 31-21 loss to Kentucky at home, the Aggies also dropped in this week’s AP poll. Now, they are forced to regroup quickly for a high-stakes trip to Death Valley to face No. 10 LSU. The Tigers are also eager to bounce back following a narrow loss at Ole Miss, making it a crucial game for both one-loss teams with playoff aspirations. But between the two, Texas A&M enters the weekend as the far more desperate squad.
While neither would be outright eliminated with a loss, the path forward would be difficult with two losses, especially with one against an unranked opponent. With grueling Big Ten and SEC schedules ahead, the margin of error would be incredibly small to salvage the season, making these games feel like do-or-die so early on.
A Group of Six Matchup with Playoff Implications
Despite the many high-profile Power Four matchups scheduled for Week 4, perhaps the most important of them all is flying under the national radar.
Two prominent mid-majors made headlines early in the season after pushing elite programs to the brink, and now they’re set to square off this weekend. Boise State pushed Oregon to the brink in a 34-27 thriller, while Western Michigan only fell to Michigan after a controversial decision added an extra second to the game clock.
Those performances showed off both squads’ talent and have made them frontrunners to earn the Group of Six automatic bid to the College Football Playoff. A Week 4 victory for either carries massive postseason implications. The winner will immediately become the Group of Six favorites and likely control their own destiny heading into conference play.
UMass Earns Votes in the Rankings
Since moving up to the FBS in 2012, UMass has largely been a punchline in college football. The Minutemen have never reached bowl eligibility, their best records being 4-8 in 2017 and 2018. They cycled through six coaches, endured five 1-11 seasons, and came into this year after a dismal 0-12 campaign.
Fast forward to the present, and what once seemed impossible has happened: UMass received two votes in the Coaches’ Poll, a historic first for the program.
The turnaround began in Week 1 of the season; the Minutemen traveled to New Jersey to take on Rutgers. Betting lines had them as 29.5-point underdogs; no one expected the game to even be close. Instead, UMass trounced Rutgers 37-20 on the road in a wire-to-wire victory, stunning the College Football world.
Energized by the upset, the Minutemen went on to take care of business against two FCS opponents, putting them at 3-0 on the season. Now fans are wondering: how far can UMass actually go?
The Minutemen are slight favorites in their Week 4 game against a struggling Sacramento State program still adjusting to the FBS. A win would keep their magical start to the year alive and continue one of the most improbable turnarounds in College Football history.