Our college football midseason awards, plus Week 8 viewer guide

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Weve seen a few exciting games already this week.

New Mexico State (2-5) beat Louisiana Tech (2-4) in double-overtime on Tuesday.

And on Wednesday, Sam Houston (5-2), which had been crafting an underrated success story in its second FBS season, lost 31-14 to Western Kentucky (5-2).

Now, lets get into the rest of the weekends schedule.

And later ...

midseason awards! Week 8 Viewer Guide The action heats up on Friday with two ranked matchups (all times in ET).

Here is this weeks heat map for every matchup with a ranked team.

The darker the shading = the higher the intrigue.

Early Afternoon Night Check out the complete Week 8 schedule .

Need tickets? Go here .

Stream the games on Fubo for free .

Midseason Awards Happy midseason! The Until Saturday podcast dispersed its Middies today.

Here are two of the categories and my thoughts on the winners.

(You can listen to the full discussion here .) Hes playing there now? award to the best transfer portal player.

Nominees: Cam Ward (Incarnate Word- Washington State -Miami); Diego Pavia (New Mexico State-Vanderbilt); Kurtis Rourke (Ohio-Indiana); Dillon Gabriel ( UCF -Oklahoma-Oregon).

The crew picked Pavia , the fifth-year QB who has rewritten Vandys legacy from the SECs easy out to the Alabama upsetters.

Dont ignore Pavia individually either: He ranks in the top 10 nationally in passing efficiency.

His impact is more than deserving of this award.

Advertisement This isnt Nick Sabans Alabama award for the most repetitive media narrative.

Nominees: Big Ten and ACC coast-to-coast travels; CFP is expanded and more teams are live; Ryan Williams is 17; Ohio State spent millions on its roster.

The crew picked Williams ...

have you heard he is only 17? I didnt have to look far back to find CFBs last 17-year-old player.

Ole Miss QB Austin Simmons reclassified from the Class of 2025 to 2023 to join the Rebels as a 17-year-old last season.

He didnt see any playing time ...

in football that is.

Simmons is also a left-handed pitcher and made 13 relief appearances with a 3.21 ERA.

Notable: His baseball appearances came after his 18th birthday.

Listen to the Until Saturday podcast here .

Plus, read Bruce Feldmans midseason superlatives awards (from breakout star to wildest storyline) here .

Best Bets Until Saturday Upset Special (2-4): Arizona State 27 (+5.5), Cincinnati 24 Both teams are coming off one of their most significant wins of the season (Cincinnatis 19-13 result against UCF and ASUs 27-19 upset of Utah ).

Arizona States task gets harder with starting QB Sam Leavitt out and backup Jeff Sims in, but the Wildcats have a strong rushing attack they should fall back on (fourth in the Big 12 with 211.1 yards per game).

The Bearcats are favored at home, but their defense has had trouble all season and is allowing 164.8 yards on the ground per game.

Im picking Arizona State to pull off an ugly win behind RB Cam Skattebo s heroics.

Quick Snaps Outside of the CFP field, how will the rest of bowl season look in December? Midseason bowl projections are back.

Overcoming Big Ten, SEC skepticism is the first hurdle for super league proposals .

Enjoy this? Sign up for our other newsletters! Scoop City | The Bounce | Full Time | The Windup | Prime Tire | The Pulse (Top photo of Quinn Ewers: Alex Slitz / Getty Images).

This article has been shared from the original article on theathleticuk, here is the link to the original article:

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5849922/2024/10/17/college-football-midseason-week-8-until-saturday/