There are only two Top 25 matchups in Week 4, and one includes Alabama, which just dusted a respectable division opponent by 55 points on the road last weekend. Still, plenty of traps lie hidden for favorites as conference play brings a new layer of familiarity—and sometimes animosity. Beleaguered first-year head coaches Scott Frost and Jimbo Fisher enter their much-anticipated league openers as clear underdogs, while heavyweights Georgia, Clemson and Washington take on conference foes that have given them trouble in the recent past.
If nothing else, last week was a lesson in the dangers of consensus: All eight of our pickers were burned by Auburn and Houston and had to sweat out Oklahoma, Notre Dame and Ohio State’s tightly-contested wins.