And on the eighth Saturday of the college football season, the last two unbeaten SEC teams shall meet.

It’s the old bully Bama and surging Texas A&M.

The league and national stage will be theirs during a Week 8 with seven games on the SEC docket, as the Tide and Aggies play to see who will own the inside track in the SEC West for the rest of the fall and who will be playing from behind.

UMass at South Carolina, noon (ET): OK, this is it for the Gamecocks, who are coming off a bye and absolutely have to win this game if they are to retain any hope of being bowl eligible. South Carolina is 2-4, with Tennessee, Florida and the rivalry game against Clemson still on its schedule. Gulp. That’s why this is a must-win.

And there’s no reason South Carolina shouldn’t win. The Gamecocks’ respectable defense should be able to hold down a bad UMass team that’s 1-6, has lost four in a row and just gave up 56 points — to Louisiana Tech, at home. This could and should be the week Will Muschamp’s team finally scores more than 20 points for the first time in 2016.

UMass has already played two SEC teams this season, scaring Florida at The Swamp in the season opener but also giving up 47 points to Mississippi State in Week 4. Put South Carolina down for 30.

Texas A&M at Alabama, 3:30 p.m. (ET): The combatants in the aforementioned showdown of showdowns (so far at least) in the SEC in 2016 stayed where they were in the new Associated Press poll Sunday, with the Aggies at No. 6 and the Tide in its rightful No. 1 spot. Bama finally gets to play a showdown game at home, having done all of its heavy lifting away from Tuscaloosa this season against USC, Arkansas and Tennessee, making those sizable wins even more impressive.

Oct 8, 2016; College Station, TX, USA; Texas A&M Aggies defensive lineman Myles Garrett (15) and defensive lineman Reggie Chevis (13) in action during the game against the Tennessee Volunteers at Kyle Field. The Aggies defeat the Volunteers 45-38 in overtime. Mandatory Credit: Jerome Miron-USA TODAY Sports

Credit: Jerome Miron-USA TODAY Sports

This is the third of a four-game gauntlet for the Tide, who travel to LSU in two weeks. The Aggies, on the other hand, will be fresh if nothing else, coming off a bye after that double-overtime win over Tennessee. The question is if A&M will act a bit out of its league against a Bama team that can smell an undefeated regular season. The Aggies will be playing their first road game of the year against a team that was ranked at the time, and this is no ordinary ranked team.

Texas A&M has pulled this off before though, going into Bryant-Denny Stadium in 2012 and winning the game that helped launch Johnny Manziel’s celebrated college career. That was a No. 15 vs. No. 1 showdown. But the Aggies already had two losses going in. They have far more to lose four years later.

Middle Tennessee at Missouri, 4 p.m. (ET): The Tigers still haven’t won an SEC game this season, falling to 0-3 after losing at Florida last week. But that’s OK, since Mizzou is stepping out of conference again to face the Blue Raiders from Conference USA.

Middle Tennessee is hardly a pushover at 4-2, having scored at least 30 points in five of its six games. But the one game the Blue Raiders were shut down came against an SEC defense, with Vanderbilt holding them to 24 points in a 47-24 loss.

Arkansas at Auburn, 6 p.m. (ET): A national-TV stage greets this matchup of two ranked teams. The No. 17 Hogs finally got that first SEC win, outlasting Ole Miss at home, while the 21st-ranked Tigers are rested off a bye and haven’t lost since Sept. 17. Neither team has the time to still climb past Bama and Texas A&M in the SEC West, but the winner will be knocking on the door of the Top 10 and that’s nothing to sneeze at.

Arkansas’ only two losses this year, by the way, are to the SEC’s last unbeaten teams, Bama and Texas A&M. But the Hogs are still having offensive line issues. Austin Allen and his SEC-high 18 TD passes will be up against it in a road, night game at Jordan-Hare with a rested Auburn defense that’s only allowed 20 points once this season. And a lot more of Kamryn Pettway (below) will mean a lot less chances for that surging Hogs offense.

Oct 8, 2016; Starkville, MS, USA; Auburn Tigers running back Kamryn Pettway (36) runs the ball during the second quarter of the game against the Mississippi State Bulldogs at Davis Wade Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Matt Bush-USA TODAY Sports

Credit: Matt Bush-USA TODAY Sports

Tennessee State at Vanderbilt, 7:30 p.m. (ET): “I told our young men this morning that if we wanted to do something epic, we needed to make sure we took the fight to them.” Not quite Tim Tebow after that loss in 2008, but Vandy coach Derek Mason’s quote last week after his guys got him his first SEC road win in his three-year tenure was pretty inspiring.

The Commodores’ stunning victory Between The Hedges allows them to think of themselves differently, at least for now. Suddenly, a bowl bid isn’t a crazy thought. But hold on: Vandy taught Georgia a lesson last week. Now we’ll see how the Commodores handle that ultimate rarity: success. It’s their job to make sure that success isn’t fleeting.

Yes, Tennessee State plays in the Ohio Valley Conference. But the Tigers are 5-1. They are used to that winning feeling, unlike Vandy. And they have put up over 30 points in every game this year, led by senior quarterback Ronald Butler. The Commodores aren’t exactly a scoring machine, although they have put up 47 and 31 points in their two games this season against non-Power 5 teams.

Mississippi State at Kentucky, 7:30 p.m. (ET): This is one of those midseason SEC survival games for two teams trying to claw to that six-win mark and bowl eligibility. The Bulldogs showed tremendous heart on a short week before falling in double overtime at BYU. The Wildcats, coming off a bye, have been on a nice little run, winning three of their past four, with the only loss in that span coming at Alabama. Smells like a game where the first team to 20 points wins.

Ole Miss at LSU, 9 p.m. (ET): The Ed Orgeron Bowl will be staged at Death Valley in a game that won’t end until past midnight eastern time. So it’s going to be a late night in Baton Rouge, and it’s likely going to be wild in front of a national TV audience. Rebels fans would like to forget Orgeron’s time in Oxford, and now they’ll be hoping to beat him to salvage anything substantial from this season.

The Tigers have tiptoed back into the Top 25 and are suddenly scoring points, putting up 42 and 45 in their past two games sandwiched around the Florida postponement, and that was without Leonard Fournette, who’s been out for a month with an ankle injury.

Derrius Guice went for 162 yards in Fournette’s place against Southern Miss, and Danny Etling even put up big numbers with 276 yards passing and three TDs as LSU improved to 2-0 since Orgeron took over for Les Miles.

LSU’s defense hasn’t seen an offense anywhere close to Ole Miss’ level this year. The Rebels’ 30 points last week at Arkansas were a season-low, for heaven’s sake.

Then again, the Tigers’ defense hasn’t given up more than 20 points in any game this year. So something has to give here. With the intensity, the stakes and the noise, it might just be the stands at Tiger Stadium.