Welcome to Rivalry Week! This is why we do it. Championships will be decided, awards will be settled, legacies will be forged. Entire seasons, entire careers are defined by the outcomes of this week’s games.

One game in particular stands out above the rest. A historic, bitter rivalry with postseason stakes on the line. A veteran quarterback having a bit of a down season, against a hot new gunslinger on the block. One team is slowed down by injuries to their running back stars, and the other has lost multiple excellent wideouts.

Of course, I’m talking about Appalachian State vs. Georgia Southern, Deeper Than Hate, 6 p.m. Saturday on ESPN+!! Don’t miss it, it’s the best game of the season. These two teams hate each other, and the winner goes to a bowl and the loser does not. 

Yeah yeah, I’m just joshin’ you. Michigan and Ohio State will hopefully live up to the sky-high expectations. A majority of 2022’s most-hyped games – West Virginia-Pittsburgh, Alabama-Texas, Alabama-Tennessee, USC-UCLA have all lived up to the pregame frenzy. Tennessee-Georgia was kind of a dud, and Ohio State-Notre Dame was a grind, but otherwise, these games have delivered. Here’s to another instant classic.

It’s going to be a great weekend of college football rivalries. Below I’ve listed the nationally televised games, sorted by viewing window for you to keep track. All times are Eastern, because, well, duh. Included is each team’s rank in Bill Connelly’s SP+ rankings to give you a sense of the matchup.

Let’s get it on in Rivalry Week!

Friday Noon:

(25) Baylor at (8) Texas – 12 PM on ESPN

The Longhorns are still alive for the Big 12 title game if they win and if Kansas can knock off Kansas State in primetime. Regardless of the postseason stakes, this is one of the last remaining chances to watch Bijan Robinson play college football, and those opportunities should be cherished.

(104) Central Michigan at (94) Eastern Michigan – 12 PM on CBSSN

(73) Toledo at (121) Western Michigan – 12 PM on ESPNU

(27) Tulane at (20) Cincinnati – 12 PM on ABC

The winner of this game will host the AAC Championship Game. The loser will slip into either a two-way tie with UCF (which UCF would win the tiebreak) OR into a three-way tie with Houston and UCF, which would trigger the most byzantine bylaws you can imagine. Let’s get fine-print weird in the AAC, folks!

(103) Utah State at (52) Boise State – 12 PM on CBS 

Don’t overlook this 10 a.m. local time kickoff. Have you heard of Pac-12 After Dark? This is Mountain West Mornings! 

Friday Midday:

(82) Arizona State at (84) Arizona – 3 PM on FS1

This game is being played at noon local time, on a holiday afternoon. But spiritually it is the most purely 11 p.m. EST game I can think of.

(32) Arkansas at (48) Missouri – 3:30 PM on CBS

Mizzou’s excellent defensive line against Arkansas’s bullying rushing attack will be a fantastic matchup of strength-on-strength, with added intrigue as the Mizzou stop unit tries to single-handedly drag this team into bowl eligibility. 

(47) NC State at (34) North Carolina – 3:30 PM on ABC

The quarterbacking tables turned in this game in a hurry. The Wolfpack entered the season with Devin Leary, a four-year starter and a favorite for postseason awards. But his season-ending shoulder injury and the subsequent fallout at the position has led to a rotating cast of characters with poor results. Across the state, the preseason position battle practically extended all the way to kickoff of opening week, but Drake Maye has emerged as perhaps the best signal-caller in the nation and the early favorite for the 2023 Heisman. 

(128) New Mexico at (126) Colorado State – 3:30 on CBSSN

(77) Nebraska at (19) Iowa – 4 PM on BTN

Improbably, this one-sided Iowa team is the favorite from the West to play in the Big Ten title game. This is NOT vindication for the Ferentzes (Ferentzii?) and their regressive offenses and nepotistic ways. It is just a matter of fact statement about the Big Ten West standings. 

(18) UCLA at (79) California – 4:30 PM on Fox

This is the first Petros Papadakis game.

Friday Night:

(39) Florida at (24) Florida State – 7:30 PM on ABC

I don’t know if you have noticed, but Florida State is on fire right now. The ‘Noles have rebounded from their injury-related midseason swoon and have swept their last four games by a combined score of 173 to 39. Florida State has not hosted the Gators since 2018 – I expect Doak to be rocking on Friday night.

(93) Wyoming at (64) Fresno State – 10 PM on FS1

Saturday Noon:

(59) Coastal Carolina at (56) James Madison – 12 PM on ESPNU

In the immortal words of Director Krennic, we were this close to achieving Group of Five greatness. But due to JMU’s postseason ban that keeps the Dukes out of the Sun Belt title game, and the injury to Coastal’s all-galaxy quarterback Grayson McCall, this game has been downgraded a few ticks. Instead, viewers will just have to settle for Coastal’s funky triple option offense and JMU’s own star quarterback Todd Centeio sling the ball around the yard. The winner will finish first in the Sun Belt East standings, but Coastal will be playing in the conference championship game regardless. 

(106) Georgia Tech at (1) Georgia – 12 PM on ESPN

This is the “Do You Wanna See a Dead Body?” Game of the Week. 

(3) Michigan at (2) Ohio State – 12 PM on Fox

Arch rivals, historic programs, Heisman contenders, superstar coaches, championship stakes, NFL prospects. This is THE game, the kind of game that defines a season, a decade, a legacy. Ohio State was bullied off the field by the Wolverines last year and has spent the past 364 days remodeling the team to prevent that from happening again. 

(96) Rutgers at (40) Maryland – 12 PM on BTN

This is the Traditional Unwatchable Big Ten Network Noon Game of the Week. 

(33) South Carolina at (10) Clemson – 12 PM on ABC

South Carolina needs to lose here to complete the second half of one of the all-time self-owns: beating Tennessee to give Clemson a backdoor spot in the College Football Playoff. Tough look. 

(70) West Virginia at (28) Oklahoma State – 12 PM on ESPN2

(63) Western Kentucky at (90) Florida Atlantic – 12 PM on CBSSN

Saturday Midday:

(FCS) Grambling vs (FCS) Southern (in New Orleans) – 2 PM on NBC

Southern has a lot to play for in this spot and can clinch a rematch against Jackson State in the SWAC Championship Game. 

(31) Louisville at (36) Kentucky – 3 PM on SECN

Both of these teams play excellent defense, and both are football schools now. 

(44) Troy at (102) Arkansas State – 3:30 PM on ESPNU

Troy needs to hold serve and win to clinch the Sun Belt West title in its first year in the division since sliding over in the conference remodel, and also in head coach Jon Sumrall’s first season. The Trojans should be able to do that against an Arkansas State team that has one of the youngest overall rosters in FBS and has choked away four different fourth quarter leads this season.

(54) Auburn at (4) Alabama – 3:30 PM on CBS

It’s a stroke of bad luck that this game isn’t in Auburn this year. The way Tigers fans and players have totally bought into Cadillac Williams and how they are happy riding out this weird season as a celebration of the Auburn family after they got that crabby West Coast weirdo outsider out of the building. Wouldn’t that have been some juice: having this game on The Plains, this oddball underdog Auburn team with Cadillac firing everyone up, against this Alabama squad that struggles mightily in every road game? Man. That would have been a scene. Instead Alabama will win casually by 17. Whatever.

(23) Illinois at (111) Northwestern OR Purdue at Indiana – 3:30 PM on BTN

Split regional coverage of two games you weren’t gonna watch anyway. Lou Gehrig once described batting after Babe Ruth as “I could have stood on my head and no one would have known the difference.” 

(71) UAB at (120) Louisiana Tech – 3:30 PM on CBSSN

(41) Memphis at (58) SMU – 3:30 on ESPN2

SMU has been playing defense-optional football for about a month now. Memphis and head coach Ryan Silverfield will have to take advantage to keep him off the hot seat entering the coaching carousel season.

(17) Minnesota at (43) Wisconsin – 3:30 PM on ESPN

These two arch-rivals both had high hopes for a division crown this year, but both will be watching from home this season while those jerks from Iowa get whipped by 40 at the hands of the East champion. For Wisconsin, the disappointment was a slow burn; we learned too late the failings of recruiting over the last few years of the Paul Chryst era. For Minnesota, it was a spectacular October swoon from a dominant September. 

(9) Oregon at (26) Oregon State – 3:30 PM on ABC

This game, like the Apple Cup later, features a highly ranked offense-forward favorite with a very leaky defense going on the road to play a more physical, defense-oriented archrival home underdog. We know how these games go! One of Washington or Oregon – or both! – is in for a miserable time in these spots.

(37) Wake Forest at (57) Duke – 3:30 on ACCN

(50) Iowa State at (7) TCU – 4 PM on Fox

Matt Campbell, don’t you dare ruin this beautiful, storybook, picture-perfect Cinderella TCU season. Don’t you even dare.

(12) Utah at (123) Colorado – 4 PM on Pac-12 Network

Colorado’s nightmarish 2022 finally, mercifully limps to a close, but not before one last top-20 offense comes to town to hang 50 on the Buffs’ overmatched defense. 

(66) Michigan State at (6) Penn State – 4 PM on FS1

This game is for a bizarre trophy called The Land Grant Trophy, but I think for the next few years we should call it the Battle of the Buyouts.  

Saturday Evening:

(13) LSU at (51) Texas A&M – 7 PM on ESPN

If this game is normal, it will be very disappointing. Let’s get weird, you two. 

(30) UCF at (119) South Florida – 7 PM on ESPN2

The Knights’ infuriating habit of dropping loseable games has already bit them three times this year and has taken them from virtual locks for the AAC title game to potentially needing a little help from Boo Corrigan and his boardroom buddies. As a UCF 2022 futures ticket holder, I totally understand now why Auburn fans wanted to get off of that ride for a half-decade.

(38) Notre Dame at (14) USC – 7:30 PM on ABC

Will a Pac-12 team invite in a guest for the traditional late-season playoff cannibalization? That would be in the Thanksgiving spirit. 

(16) Oklahoma at (49) Texas Tech – 7:30 PM on FS1

(5) Tennessee at (80) Vanderbilt – 7:30 PM on SECN

If Tennessee loses to Vanderbilt in this spot, is that the swiftest one-week collapse in college football history? Can you imagine anything more drastic? 

(95) Tulsa at (46) Houston – 7:30 PM on ESPNU

(60) Kansas at (11) Kansas State – 8 PM on Fox

The Jayhawks have made this game intriguing for the first time in a while, but I think they get smoked here. Kansas State’s offense is on fire right now, and the Jayhawks’ defense is quite forgiving. Check back in 2023.

(45) Pittsburgh at (72) Miami – 8 PM on ACCN

Saturday Late Night:

(53) Air Force at (76) San Diego State – 9 PM on CBSSN

(21) Washington at (35) Washington State – 10:30 PM on ESPN

These teams have had a very bizarre rivalry the last few years, from Chris Peterson’s domination of Mike Leach to the dueling washouts of their respective successors. (Jimmy Lake at Washington and Nick Rolovich at Wazzu). It will be nice to have just a good ol’ fashioned normal Apple Cup for once!

(81) BYU at (91) Stanford – 11 PM on FS1

This is the second Petros Papadakis game.