Week 3 Big Ten — Know your enemy

B1G Games of the Week: UW-WSU, Alabama-Wisconsin, Indiana-UCLA

Sep 13, 2024

Know Your Enemy is an

Oregon FansEdge

series made for college football geeks like us who love to scout the Big Ten race all the way to the CFP — Get time, TV and fan gear in a weekly preview delivered to your inbox:

Game days on Facebook — live updates for every Oregon TD & B1G final scores:

JOIN OUR FACEBOOK GROUP

This week in B1G Football

This week’s Big Ten schedule includes a bit more unranked, regional action with a few intriguing B1G games this week the Oregon FansEdge team wouldn’t miss for anything: No. 4 Alabama at Wisconsin, No. 18 Notre Dame at Purdue, plus the Oregon and Washington in-state rivalry games.

No. 9 Oregon at Oregon State

(1230pm Pacific, on FOX)

A few short weeks ago, preseason expectations would have framed this as a cupcake win for Oregon. After increasing penalties, turnovers, and O-Line struggles from Week 1 to Week 2, Oregon’s narrow wins over Idaho (24-14) and Boise State (37-33) leave this in-state rivalry game in question.

Oregon-BoiseSt was the College FansEdge upset watch last week and the game came down to Oregon’s walk-off field goal, punt-return TD, and a 100-yard kickoff return for the Ducks to survive.

The 2024 Ducks are overdue for their ‘94 Gang Green step-up moment. Which way will Oregon break against its third regional, non-Power-4 opponent?

As much as two lackluster opening wins soured the polls on Oregon — down from No. 3 to No. 9 despite opening with a 2-0 start, it might take a convincing Ducks win and another round of multiple SportsCenter-worthy scoring plays to keep the Ducks in the AP Top 10 this weekend.

Oregon has more wholesale roster talent, but the 2022 edition of this matchup in Corvallis saw Oregon State dominate the fourth quarter for a 38-34 upset.

The 2024 Ducks are overdue for their ‘94 Gang Green step-up moment. Which way will Oregon break against its third regional, non-Power-4 opponent?

Hype (s)train

(Colorado at Colorado State: 430pm Pacific on CBS)

The 2023 edition in Boulder was too close — 43-35 Colorado in double-OT.

Pushing that game to a second overtime and seeing Colorado go on to finish last in the 2023 Pac-12 race can only embolden Colorado State.

Best believe CSU has been fired-up for this rematch every day of the past year — and this year it’s on their home field in Fort Collins.

The old Hype Train might just hype (s)train itself down to Upset Junction.

OREGON-LICENSED SHIRTS

#ad

SHOP SHIRTS

Spoiler-makers?

(No. 18 Notre Dame at Purdue: 330pm ET/230pm CT/1230pm PT | CBS)

In the parlance of our times, an "Irish goodbye" refers to leaving a gathering abruptly or unannounced — sort of like when 0-2 Florida State dropped from No. 10 to unranked after Week 1.

Former No. 5 Notre Dame (1-1) desperately needs a rebound from their 16-14 Game 2 loss to unranked Northern Illinois — anything less than a convincing win at Purdue could mean an early exit from the polls and the playoff race.

Join Fans-Edge.net’s subscriber chat

Available in the Substack app and on web

Apple Cup

(WashingtonSt at Washington: 1230pm Pacific, streaming on Peacock)

One of the season’s early in-state rivalries — the mid-week Vegas line favored Washington by 4.5 points.

Reality check

(No. 4 Alabama at Wisconsin: 9am Pacific on FOX)

This early SEC-B1G clash could start to reveal whether Alabama is rebuilding or reloaded, and how legit are the two conferences holding 14 spots in last week’s AP Top 25.