Week 4 college football open thread: Little numbers naturally link

After a week without a ranked team meeting another, Week 4 in college football delivers on the thirst for that sort of marquee matchup on a few different levels.

First, at noon, comes the first Big Ten showdown of the season, with a rising Wisconsin team taking on Michigan. The Badgers have yet to allow a point through two games, while Michigan has been taxed by Army and did not exactly stomp Middle Tennessee. We likely won’t be watching that here unless Florida dusts Tennessee, but Jim Harbaugh’s seat could get hot in a hurry if Wisconsin wins big today.

In the 3:30 p.m. window, we have one of the season’s first SEC West clashes, as Auburn travels to Texas A&M. The Aggies have to be a little tired of seeing Tigers, what with their annual meetings with Auburn and LSU being supplemented these last two years by games against Clemson, but they might need more than cinnamon — this is a joke from a movie that is 15 years old — to tame the bunch from the Plains.

And, finally, in primetime, Georgia hosts Notre Dame in a game that is set to decide whether Georgia Is Finally Back. One hopes the answer is no, thanks to a loss, because that would be a fun thing to bring up to Georgia fans who insist that little things like making the College Football Playoff and then the National Championship Game constitute being “back.”

Not so fast, my friends. Can you defend home turf against Brian Kelly and a program that has habitually lost almost every big game it has played in recent years? If so, maybe we can grant you some benefit of the doubt in regards to backness.