Our panel of pigskin prognosticators returns to weigh in on the college football contests involving the Top 25 in the US LBM Coaches Poll. The Week 8 slate skews heavily toward SEC country, but opinions might differ on several other games as well.

There are three ranked-on-ranked pairings in the SEC alone, headlined by the top-10 clash matching No. 5 Mississippi and No. 7 Georgia between the hedges. Elsewhere in ‘just means more land,’ No. 6 Alabama hosts No. 11 Tennessee in their traditional third Saturday in October encounter, and No. 10 LSU heads to No. 18 Vanderbilt.

OF course, there are other locales where the games this weekend also mean a lot. It’s Holy War week in the Beehive State as No. 22 Utah visits No. 14 Brigham Young. There is also the annual showdown between No. 15 Notre Dame and No. 21 Southern California, with this year’s version likely to serve as a playoff eliminator.

In the ACC, No. 2 Miami (Fla.) gets a jump start on the weekend hosting a Friday night tilt against Louisville, and No. 12 Georgia Tech puts its perfect record on the line at Duke, which is also off to a 3-0 start in conference play. Here’s how our staffers think all the action will unfold.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: College football predictions, picks for Week 8 schedule include SEC showdowns

Reporting by Eddie Timanus, USA TODAY / USA TODAY

USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect