College football’s undefeated teams duel Saturday

Six undefeated schools will lose Saturday.

That’s not a prediction, that’s a fact. The pruning process features 12 of the 33 remaining unbeaten schools playing each other.

This isn’t a four-out-of-seven sport, it’s cutthroat.

Others may also fall. The “0” in USC’s record is at risk at 2-1 Arizona State. Clemson has to host one-loss Florida State.

California is 3-0 but is playing at Washington this week, not home against Presbyterian.

Wisconsin should be 4-0 after mowing over a South Dakota team with a coach, Ed Meierkort, who says he’s going to ask Badgers quarterback Russell Wilson for his autograph.

Six schools with hopes for perfection, though, will get dinged.

The Southeastern Conference West, college football’s premiere division, absorbs a mandatory hit when Arkansas plays at Alabama.

Arkansas can’t be what it wants to be until it gets over Alabama. Razorbacks Coach Bobby Petrino is 0-3 against Alabama’s Nick Saban.

The high-powered offense Petrino promotes always comes to a stop against Wall-abama. Arkansas has averaged 13.7 points per game in three Crimson Tide defeats. The Hogs had a 20-7 lead last year at home and blew it.

“We’ve had our chances to get in the end zone,” Petrino said this week. “It’s up to us to score more points.”

Victory catapults Arkansas feet first into the national title discussion. Defeat might prompt Petrino to request a transfer to the SEC East.

Arkansas and Alabama aren’t the only SEC West teams on stage. Louisiana State puts its No. 2 ranking on the line with another huge nonconference test at No. 16 West Virginia.

LSU has already taken down Oregon in a neutral-site opener at Arlington, Texas, and it knocked not-ready-for-prime-time Mississippi State to the bottom of the cowbell rung.

LSU, playing its third game away from Baton Rouge, has strayed from the usual SEC formula of scheduling easy in nonconference. West Virginia almost counts as an extra league game.

“They say it’s a wonderful place to play,” Coach Les Miles said of taking his team into Morgantown. “Very much like an SEC opponent and venue.”

Wonderful?

Fire officials have ordered hundreds of people to remove flammable furniture from their properties. West Virginia fans have a long tradition of torching couches to celebrate victories.

The best fire retardant at the fire marshal’s disposal will be LSU’s defense. The Tigers have the look of something special. They have given up 1.6 yards per carry and 4.4 yards per pass. Mind you, two of the opponents in this equation were Oregon and Mississippi State.

West Virginia is the latest high-tech attack to risk its reputation. First-year Mountaineers Coach Dana Holgorsen is known as a prolific play producer. West Virginia’s 42 points-per-game offense, though, meets a defense that gives up 12.

Holgorsen swears LSU has 13 defenders on every play.

“They are wherever the ball is,” he said. “They get there really fast, and they’re pretty impressive once they get there.”

Losing a first game isn’t easy, but for some it’s inevitable.

Will it be San Diego State (3-0) breaking into the top 25 with a shocker at Michigan (3-0), or the Wolverines taking another step toward redemption?

Vanderbilt’s daydream gets challenged when it plays at 3-0 South Carolina, although Steve Spurrier, as the Gamecocks’ coach, is only 4-2 against the Commodores.

Vanderbilt is off to its best start since opening 5-0 in 2008. South Carolina is looking for its first 4-0 start under Spurrier.

In other matchups of unbeatens, Oklahoma State plays at Texas A&M in a battle of Big 12 title contenders.

How will night-owl Oklahoma State adjust to this week’s 3:30 p.m. EDT start? Last week, the Cowboys’ game at Tulsa ended at 3:35 a.m. CDT.

North Carolina, scandal-plagued yet 3-0 under interim coach Everett Withers, has the unenviable task of attempting to slow Georgia Tech’s triple-option offense. The Yellow Jackets lead the nation with a 59.3 scoring average and 675 yards per game in offense, including an average of 427 yards rushing.

The strangest undefeated matchup, though, is Nebraska at mile-high Wyoming. Nebraska doesn’t want to get caught napping in advance of next week’s huge Big Ten game at Wisconsin.

The odds favor Nebraska. Wyoming, seeking its first 4-0 start since 1996, has lost 14 consecutive games — by an average of 34 points — to ranked opponents.

chris.dufresne@latimes.com

twitter.com/dufresnelatimes