Alabama puts No. 1 ranking on the line against Tennessee

Tennessee (3-3) at No. 1 Alabama (7-0)

Saturday, 12:30 p.m., Channel 2

Billed for years as the “third Saturday in October,” this rivalry lost some luster when the Southeastern Conference’s split into divisions in 1992 necessitated sometimes playing on October’s fourth Saturday. You’d say “Alabama all the way” in this one, except Tennessee may have discovered something in its 45-19 romp over Georgia. The pick: Alabama.

Boston College (5-2) at Notre Dame (4-2)

Saturday, 12:30 p.m., Channel 4

Streaks with Notre Dame no longer involve fast players such as Rocket Ismail running down the field. The big streaks now are losing streaks: One week after losing their eighth straight to USC, the Irish hope to halt a six-game skid against Boston College.

The pick: Notre Dame

No. 10 Texas Christian (6-0) at No. 16 Brigham Young (6-1)

Saturday, 4:30 p.m., Versus

ESPN’s GameDay crew is headed to Provo for this Mountain West Conference matchup even though the game will be televised on another network. Did you know there were other networks? Cheering hard for Brigham Young will be Boise State, which is trying to hold off TCU for an automatic BCS bowl berth. The pick: Brigham Young.

-- Chris Dufresne