Week 8 college football picks: Alabama-Texas A&M, Ohio State-Penn State, more

Week 8 in college football is highlighted by a matchup between College Football Playoff contenders in the SEC West, Alabama and Texas A&M. Other intriguing matchups include Ohio State's trip to Penn State and West Virginia's meeting with TCU.

At this point of the season, we should have a pretty good idea of where most teams belong in the national pecking order. It’s clear squads like Alabama and Ohio State are title contenders, while others such as Michigan State and Notre Dame will struggle to reach bowl eligibility. Yet there’s another group of teams that remains difficult to classify. How good is West Virginia? Is Utah a threat to win the Pac-12? Can Nebraska make the College Football Playoff? The second half of the season will provide answers to those questions and more. This weekend’s slate of games is headlined by a showdown between top-10 teams in the SEC West (Alabama-Texas A&M), but don’t overlook other intriguing matchups in the Big Ten East (Ohio State-Penn State) and Big 12 (West Virginia-TCU). A panel of Sports Illustrated writers and editors (Andy Staples, Pete Thamel, Lindsay Schnell, Brian Hamilton, Joan Niesen, Colin Becht and Gabriel Baumgaertner) made its picks for every big game.

Midseason Superlatives: Awarding best, worst moments of first half of the season

	Staples	Thamel	Schnell	Hamilton	Niesen	Becht	Baum- gaertner
Miami at Va. Tech
BYU at Boise St.
Oregon at Cal
Indiana at NU
Wisc. at Iowa
NC St. at L'ville
Texas at Kan. St.
Colo. at Stanford
TCU at West Va.
TAMU at Alabama
Utah at UCLA
Arkansas at Auburn
Ohio St. at Penn St
Okla. at Tex. Tech
Ole Miss at LSU
Wash. St. at ASU
LAST WEEK	11-3	9-5	10-4	11-3	13-1	9-5	13-1
SEASON	69-36	67-38	75-30	71-34	69-36	70-35	70-35