Five College Football Games to Watch During Ohio State’s First Bye Week of 2025

After starting with an appetizer of two intraconference games last week, Big Ten play ramps up with five games between conference teams. Both of the Big Ten’s Pacific Northwest teams will be playing their in-state rivals. Across the nation, Saturday’s slate includes three ranked vs. ranked matchups.

Can’t decide which games you should watch on Saturday with the Buckeyes off? We’ve highlighted five of the best games to watch this weekend – all of which will air on national broadcast networks – with some thoughts on what makes each of them compelling, followed by our picks for how each game could play out.

No. 9 Illinois at No. 19 Indiana (7:30 p.m., NBC)

Line: Indiana -6.5

Imagine reading this sentence two years ago: The marquee game in college football this weekend is a matchup between Illinois and Indiana.

The Hoosiers are looking to make it back to the College Football Playoff for a second straight year, while the Illini are a trendy pick to make the CFP this season. Saturday’s battle between Curt Cignetti and Bret Bielema’s squads in Bloomington will give us our first real look at whether their teams are true playoff contenders.

Indiana has started the season in dominant fashion, outscoring their first three opponents by an average score of 52-8, but Saturday will bring a huge step up in competition after the Hoosiers started their season against Old Dominion, Kennesaw State and Indiana State. Illinois is a bit more battle-tested, having already earned a Power 4 road win over Duke (45-19), yet the Hoosiers are favored by nearly a touchdown.

Saturday’s matchup will feature two of the Big Ten’s top quarterbacks (Luke Altmyer and Fernando Mendoza), two of its top receivers (Hank Beatty and Omar Cooper Jr.) and two of its best defensive players (Gabe Jacas and Mikail Kamara). Both teams enter the game ranked in the top 15 nationally in both scoring offense and scoring defense – but we’ll learn on Saturday night how well that early success translates to playing a team of similar ability.

Washington at Washington State (7:30 p.m., CBS)

Line: Washington -19.5

As Ohio State prepares to play Washington next week, Ryan Day will be watching this game on television just like the rest of us.

“When you have an opponent that you're playing the next week, you certainly want to watch that game,” Day said Thursday on his radio show. “Watch the TV copy, pick up on things that maybe you wouldn't, just get to know the team a little bit better. Kind of how the commentators are talking about the players. You get to see those types of things.”

On paper, this game shouldn’t be close. Washington State is coming off a 59-10 loss to North Texas – yes, you read that correctly – last week. But Ohio State fans don’t need much reminder that rivalry games don’t always play out the way they’re supposed to. Each of the last two Apple Cups has been decided by five points or fewer, and it will be the biggest stage so far this season for the Huskies, who opened the year with games against Colorado State and UC Davis.

Washington’s offense led by quarterback Demond Williams Jr., running back Jonah Coleman and wide receiver Denzel Boston has already proven capable of putting up huge numbers this season, which should make this game an entertaining watch regardless of how it plays out. For Ohio State’s coaches, it will serve as the kickoff to the Buckeyes’ fourth game week of the year as they watch the Huskies to get a better idea of what to expect from their opponent next weekend in Seattle.

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No. 21 Michigan at Nebraska (3:30 p.m., CBS)

Line: Michigan -2.5

Dylan Raiola didn’t follow through with his commitment to Ohio State as a high school recruit, but he’ll have all of Buckeye Nation rooting for him again for just one weekend.

Outside of watching Ohio State win, there’s nothing Buckeye fans enjoy more than watching Michigan lose. Given that, it’s likely this will be the highest-rated game of the day in Columbus, especially if Nebraska threatens to win the game.

Since Michigan already has one loss to Oklahoma, the Wolverines’ Big Ten opener already carries major playoff implications. Lose to the Cornhuskers, and Michigan will likely need to win all eight of its remaining regular-season games to make the CFP.

It’s also the second big road test for ballyhooed freshman quarterback Bryce Underwood, who struggled mightily by completing just nine of his 24 passing attempts in the loss to the Sooners. And the Wolverines will have to make this road trip without head coach Sherrone Moore, who’s serving the second game of his two-game suspension for deleting text messages related to Connor Stalions’ illegal sign-stealing scheme.

Meanwhile, Nebraska enters this game looking to prove it’s ready to reemerge as a Big Ten and CFP contender. Raiola’s off to an excellent start in his second year as the Cornhuskers’ quarterback, completing 72 of 94 passes for 829 yards and eight touchdowns with zero interceptions in Nebraska’s first three games, though the Big Red had to battle to a three-point win over Cincinnati in their only Power 4 game so far.

Much like Illinois at Indiana, this game will serve as a strong early-season litmus test of how good both of these teams actually are. At a minimum, it gives Buckeye fans a game to hate-watch, even if that means gritting their teeth to root for a quarterback who decommitted from Ohio State (though we’d say that’s working out just fine thanks to Julian Sayin).

No. 17 Texas Tech at No. 16 Utah (12 p.m., FOX)

Line: Utah -3.5

With no Ohio State to stick in the Big Noon slot this week, FOX’s 12 p.m. game forgoes the Big Ten in favor of a matchup between two top-20 teams from the Big 12. While Buckeye fans who’ve grown tired of early-afternoon games called by Gus Johnson and Joel Klatt could be inclined to skip this one, it is the best matchup of Saturday’s early slate of games, at least in terms of rankings.

Texas Tech and Utah have been two of the best offensive teams in the country through the first three weeks of the season. The Red Raiders lead the entire FBS entering Week 4 with 58 points scored per game, while Utah also ranks in the top 15 nationally in both scoring and total offense. Texas Tech has paid tribute to the Mike Leach era with its passing proficiency through its first three games, averaging 387.7 passing yards per contest, while Utah quarterback Devon Dampier has emerged as an early Big 12 Player of the Year frontrunner with his playmaking ability as both a passer and runner.

Like with Indiana and Illinois, this game will be a big step up in competition for both of these 3-0 teams. The only Power 4 team either of them played is UCLA, which followed up its 43-10 season-opening loss to Utah by losing its next two games and firing head coach DeShaun Foster.

That said, whichever team wins this game will position itself as one of the early frontrunners to win the Big 12 and a CFP contender, making this a game worth watching for Buckeye fans for potential playoff ramifications down the line.

Michigan State at No. 25 USC (11 p.m., FOX)

Line: USC -18.5

As it turns out, Big Ten teams can play a Saturday night game on FOX – it just has to be really late at night. Spartan fans are even less happy about this kickoff time than Buckeye fans are about Ohio State’s frequent nooners, but it will provide a rare Big Ten After Dark opportunity for night-owl college football watchers.

Statistically, USC’s offense has been the best in the country through three games, leading the FBS with 604 yards per game. On the other side, Michigan State has one of the Big Ten’s most fun-to-watch quarterbacks in Aidan Chiles, who’s thrown for 656 yards and six touchdowns and run for another 123 yards and a touchdown through three games.

The Trojans are favored to win by three scores, and there’s a definite possibility that this game won’t be worth staying up for after halftime. But Lincoln Riley’s side hasn’t earned the benefit of the doubt that it will win the games it’s supposed to win with how it’s performed the last two years, and Michigan State will be the best team USC has played after an opening stretch of Missouri State, Georgia Southern and Purdue.

Michigan State needed two overtimes to beat Boston College in its only Power 4 non-conference game, and it only beat Western Michigan and Youngstown State by 17 points each. That doesn’t inspire a lot of confidence in the Spartans being a Big Ten contender this season, but upsetting a ranked team on the road after a cross-country trip would certainly change the narrative.

If nothing else, this game offers the sickos among us a rare opportunity to spend Saturday watching 14 straight hours of Big Ten football (if you start your day watching Maryland at Wisconsin), and that’s why this game rounds out our list of games to watch during Ohio State’s bye week.

Our Picks

It hasn’t been a great start to the year for the Eleven Warriors beat team’s weekly picks of games around the nation – Chase Brown and I are 7-8, while Andy Anders is 6-9 – so you probably don’t want to use our picks as gambling advice. But just as this is an “improvement week” for the Ohio State football team, we’re hoping the bye week will serve as an opportunity for all three of us to get back on the right side of .500.

We’re all in agreement on how four of these five games will play out – at least in terms of who will win against the spread – but I’m the lone wolf picking the team up north to win in Lincoln.

Our against-the-spread picks for Week 4: