Based on ESPN’s projections, there’s at least a 75 percent chance that the top seven teams in college football will make the college football playoff, leaving just five spots up for grabs for the other 130-ish teams at the FBS level. Saturday’s action should decide a lot of these swings.
Also, if you haven’t checked in yet, YouTube TV and Disney’s beef hasn’t ended yet, which means that you’ll need to go through alternative sources to watch those games this weekend. ESPN, a Disney property, also has the
Philadelphia Eagles-Green Bay Packers game on Monday night.
With that being said, let’s look at the top-25 matchups this week and their squads’ top players on the 2026 consensus draft board.
#7 BYU @ #8 Texas Tech (11 am CT, ABC)
- BYU
- #232 LB Isaiah Glasker
- Texas Tech
- #19 ED David Bailey
- #57 ED Romello Height
- #152 LB Jacob Rodriguez
- #165 DL Lee Hunter
Texas Tech boosters, after covering the program’s new $242 million football facility, spent $49 million over a year on the roster. They very much are trying to microwave a playoff-contending football team, leading to them being aggressive in the portal. For example, their top player, future first-round pick David Bailey, came to the program by way of Stanford, while their second-best player, Romello Height, was poached from USC.
Jacob Rodriguez joined the team via Virginia, while Lee Hunter was added from UCF. Still, the Red Raiders have already dropped a game this year and are going through quarterback injury struggles. To ensure that the team makes the postseason, they’ll need to beat BYU in this one. If they drop this game, there’s no promise that they make the cut.
By the way, one of Tech’s big billionaire boosters, Cody Campbell, is one of the guys trying to stop spending on college athletics at the legislative level. Essentially, he’s trying to juice Tech and then slam the door behind him. Personally, it’s hard to root for a guy like that.
#3 Texas A&M @ #22 Missouri (2:30 pm CT, ABC)
- Texas A&M
- #25 ED Cashius Howell
- #43 WR Kevin Concepcion
- #64 OL Chase Bisontis
- #94 CB Will Lee III
- #99 LB Taurean York
- #121 OL Dametrious Crownover
- #175 OL Ar’maj Reed-Adams
- #191 RB Le’Veon Moss
- #212 OL Trey Zuhn III
- Missouri
- #55 ED Zion Young
- #73 ED Damon Wilson Jr.
- #104 OL Cayden Green
- #181 TE Brett Norfleet
- #228 LB Josiah Trotter
Speaking of oil money, Texas A&M has a pretty good roster this year. A player I would keep an eye on from a Packers perspective here is tackle Trey Zuhn III, who is expected to make the transition to the center position at the NFL level. This is a very weak center class, matching up poorly with Green Bay’s needs, but sources in the scouting world have told me to keep an eye on Zuhn as a potential riser at the position, if he can prove that he can successfully make the transition this offseason.
The Packers also were in attendance for Missouri’s games in both Week 8 and Week 9, including a game against Vanderbilt — a team that is expected to have just one draftable prospect. There’s probably someone that Green Bay has its eyes on there. The Tigers’ top quarterback is going to be injured for this game, so expect 19-year-old true freshman Matt Zollers to get the start here.
This is not financial advice, but it’s surprising to me that the third-ranked Aggies are only 6.5-point favorites over a team in this sort of a quarterback situation.
#9 Oregon @ #20 Iowa (2:30 pm CT, CBS)
- Oregon
- #3 QB Dante Moore
- #21 TE Kenyon Sadiq
- #29 ED Matayo Uiagalelei
- #36 DL A’Mauri Washington
- #40 OL Isaiah World
- #46 S Dillon Thieneman
- #65 OL Emmanuel Pregnon
- #82 OL Iapani Laloulu
- #142 DL Bear Alexander
- #247 OL Alex Harkey
- Iowa
- #38 OL Gennings Dunker
- #134 OL Kade Pieper
- #187 ED Max Llewellyn
- #198 OL Logan Jones
- #215 S Xavier Nwankpa
- #245 DL Aaron Graves
Todd McShay claims that Dante Moore will be returning to Oregon in 2026, which will leave the quarterback market very weak for needy teams in the draft. At the moment, the only projected first-round quarterbacks who have had their stocks rise this season, besides Moore, are Indiana’s Fernando Mendoza, who beat Moore head-to-head, and Alabama’s Ty Simpson. Collectively, Arch Manning, La’Norris Sellers, Garrett Nussmeier, Cade Klubnik, Drew Allar and Carson Beck have not met expectations in 2025.
In this game, you’ll get to watch two of the very few draftable center prospects in the 2026 draft class in Oregon’s Iapani Laloulu and Iowa’s Logan Jones. I’ve been told that Jones is expected to go much higher than his 198th overall projection on the consensus draft board. Personally, I don’t think that Oregon’s offensive line has been as good as advertised.
If the Hawkeyes can pound the ball with their sledgehammer quarterback Mark Gronkowski, there’s a good chance of an upset here. Oregon’s wins this year have come against Montana State, Oklahoma State, Northwestern, Oregon State, Penn State, Rutgers and Wisconsin. The only time they’ve played against a team currently ranked in the top-25 this season, they were severely outclassed by Indiana. By far, this Iowa team will be the second-best squad they’ve lined up against in 2025.
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Feel free to talk about today’s action in the comment section below. We’ll keep you updated if we spot where Packers scouts have been deployed on Saturday.
