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College football Week 10 preview: Penn State-Ohio State gets November off to hot start

James Franklin and Penn State get another chance to break through against Ohio State in Saturday's marquee game. Scott Taetsch/Getty Images

It's officially November. College football's greatest month is upon us and will give us five wild Saturdays, followed by the most impactful Championship Week we've seen in this sport.

The first November Saturday is a bit of an odd one. We start with the latest Game of the Century of the Week -- Ohio State at Penn State -- followed by a grab bag of upset opportunities and key ACC clashes led by the biggest SMU-Pitt game ever.

There's a lot to track, as always. Here's everything you need to follow for November Saturday No. 1. (All times are Eastern; lines are from ESPN BET.)

Jump to a section:
The latest Big One | Top-15 road concerns?
ACC clarity? | Big 12 business as usual?
Chaos superfecta | Week 10 playlist
Small-school showcase

The latest Big One

No. 4 Ohio State at No. 3 Penn State (noon, Fox)

Penn State plays well, and Ohio State eventually wins. That's been the predominant theme of the OSU-PSU rivalry of late. After a thrilling 24-21 Penn State win in 2016 -- one that prompted a Big Ten title run in James Franklin's third season in charge -- Ohio State won the next two games by 1 point each, then won the next five by an average of 33-22.

Franklin has engineered lovely consistency with PSU. The Nittany Lions have finished in the AP top 15 five times in the past eight years, the first such run for the school since the 1990s, and if a 12-team College Football Playoff had been in existence a decade ago, they would have made it about half the time. But there's always someone better in the Big Ten. The Nittany Lions have won 27 straight regular-season games against teams not named Ohio State or Michigan but haven't beaten either of the big dogs since 2020.