Penn State, Iowa State on upset alert? College football bold predictions for Week 7

You want proof that college football is full of unexpected results? Just look back and what happened in Week 6. Vanderbilt pulled its stunner of Alabama to headline a series of upsets that included three other teams ranked in the top 10.

So what about Saturday? There's several high-profile games in Week 7 to watch, including Oregon hosting Ohio State and Oklahoma and Texas square off in their annual showdown in Dallas. But there's more games of importance and matchups where favorites could fall. So when will the surprises take place and where will they happen?

That’s why the USA TODAY Sports college football staff is here. Scooby Axson, Jordan Mendoza, Paul Myerberg, Erick Smith, Eddie Timanus and Dan Wolken weigh in with their bold predictions for Week 7 of the college football season:

Alabama and Tennessee bounce back at home

Before the Crimson Tide and Volunteers meet up for their annual third Saturday in October matchup next weekend, both need to pick themselves off the canvas after two road losses that, in another year, would probably eliminate them from any national title talk. But Alabama's loss to Vanderbilt and Tennessee's defeat to Arkansas only proved that when you don't bring your best, goalposts will be removed, fans will storm the field, and the

SEC will collect meaningless checks for violating "the league’s access to competition area policy."

Florida and South Carolina will feel the brunt of that frustration as Alabama and Tennessee return to their winning ways. -- Scooby Axson

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Colorado, Arizona create more Big 12 chaos

Whoever gets the coveted first-round bye in the College Football Playoff by winning the Big 12 is anyone’s guess, and it’ll be even more unclear after this weekend. Two of the favorites – Brigham Young and Kansas State – have tough tests with the Cougars hosting Arizona and the Wildcats heading to Colorado. Arizona has had some questionable performances this season, but also shown it can take down teams like Utah. Meanwhile, Colorado is starting to look better than most people predicted. The former Pac-12 schools get big wins on Saturday throw another wrench in the conference title race, with the Buffaloes a sudden 3-0 in Big 12 play and Arizona back in the mix. Iowa St. could also be on upset alert against West Virginia. -- Jordan Mendoza

West Virginia gives Iowa State its first loss

Unbeaten Iowa State succumbs to a tough road environment and loses in prime time against West Virginia to throw the Big 12 race into even more disarray. The Cyclones looked very good against Baylor last week but WVU has played even better of late after a slow start. ISU is 2-3 in Morgantown since the Mountaineers joined the conference, most recently losing 38-31 in 2021. -- Paul Myerberg

USC spoils Penn State's West Coast road trip

James Franklin spent part of this week lamenting his team being required to bus to Harrisburg in order to deal with travel challenges to Los Angeles. While that might make for a nice anecdote, it won't have a material impact on the result for the Nittany Lions. What is more concerning is the possibility that they could be overlooking Southern California due to last week's loss to Minnesota. That would be a mistake. Yes, the Trojans offense appears overmatched against Penn State's elite defense. But that assumes the Lions are fully locked in here and not overlooking Lincoln Riley's team. Human nature is human nature, so don't be surprised if Penn State struggles on his first long-distance trip and falls in a game USC has to have to keep any semblance of Big Ten or playoff hope alive. -- Erick Smith

Iowa gets early start on Washington

Life hasn’t been good thus far for the Big Ten’s new west-coast quartet, at least when it comes to traveling east. That doesn’t apply to Oregon, as the Ducks have yet to venture out of the Pacific time zone. But the other three are a combined 0-4 in league games when required to traverse the Rockies. All of which brings us to Washington, responsible for one of those losses at Rutgers. The Huskies rebounded from that puzzling result by taking down Michigan at home, but this week they’re on the road again in Iowa City.

Iowa is a similar opponent to Washington’s first two league foes, built for toughness at the line of scrimmage and featuring a stingy defense. Granted the Hawkeyes weren’t able to do much on offense at Ohio State when last we saw them, but we suspect that’s going to be true of a lot of teams encountering the Buckeyes. It’s also a rough body clock game for the visiting Huskies with what will feel like a 9 a.m. kickoff time. The west coasters will eventually solve the travel equation, but we’ll take the Hawkeyes in this one. -- Eddie Timanus

Vanderbilt keeps momentum going at Kentucky

The oddsmakers don’t seem to be buying Vanderbilt as a legit team, even after beating Alabama. Or maybe they just really like Kentucky, who has been up and down all season. Either way, a nearly two-touchdown spread is way too much even in Lexington. In fact, I like the Commodores here to win straight up. This is a really good offensive team with Diego Pavia, and they could easily be 5-0 right now with a little luck. I think they’re just better than Kentucky, who has been getting too much credit for beating Ole Miss in a strange game a couple weeks ago. -- Dan Wolken

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: College football bold predictions for Week 7 start with Iowa State