Sports' Week 3 college football staff is leaning into the upset board, and the picks reach from Clemson to Florida. John Brice sees UNC falling at Clemson, Matt Hayes says Louisville will not let an opening slip against Ole Miss, and Jordan Mendoza goes further, picking Ole Miss to storm out and win by a double-digit margin.
That is the kind of Saturday that makes the college football schedule today search feel urgent in September, with only one more weekend left in the month after this one. Paul Myerberg has West Virginia knocking off No. 25 Virginia in Charlotte, North Carolina, while Erick Smith has Florida winning at Auburn in the SEC opener between a pair of 2-0 teams under new coaches.
Pat Fitzgerald is part of the discussion because he knows a thing or two about upgrading a defense, and Michigan State has given him a short list to work with. The Spartans have allowed just a couple of long plays from scrimmage in their first two outings, which is why the line on No. 3 Notre Dame is not as clean as the ranking suggests. The staff says none of the top-five teams will lose this week, but it also says Notre Dame will have a hard time putting away Michigan State, and both things can be true in a season that is still sorting itself out.
That is what makes Week 3 matter beyond the upset calls themselves. Earlier in September, Oregon and Oklahoma looked shaky, Michigan had been down and up, and Ohio State and Texas played a matchup that Texas won, all of it feeding the early College Football Playoff race. The SEC and Big Ten are still expected to secure their playoff spots before the ACC and Big 12 fight for the limited at-large places, so every result this Saturday carries more weight than the calendar might suggest. If even a few of these predictions land, the first real separation in September arrives fast.
