After just two weeks, there is one game this coming Saturday that has emerged as the most intriguing and consequential of the young college football season.

There are surprisingly few teams that have beyond a doubt demonstrated their dominance. If you wish to be a stickler about it, then such a team, after just two games, would have to had accomplished some combination of defeating another highly regarded team and of so badly walloping an obviously inferior opponent that it glows in the dark. Otherwise, to borrow a phrase from a former secretary of defense, we don’t know what we don’t know.

So throw out No. 11 Penn State (2-0): The Nittany Lions may have routed Pitt, 51-6, at Heinz Field on Saturday, but just a week earlier, they barely survived Appalachian State at home. No. 5 Oklahoma (2-0) may have handled U.C.L.A., 49-21, on Saturday, but because the Bruins also lost the previous week, to Cincinnati, it is not clear how impressed we should be. Both victims of No. 6 Wisconsin (2-0) were from lower-tier conferences. Even No. 1 Alabama (2-0) arguably hasn’t played anybody.

The hype for next Saturday’s matchup between No. 15 Texas Christian (2-0) and No. 4 Ohio State (2-0) at the Dallas Cowboys’ AT&T Stadium is already substantial. But the Horned Frogs’ wins came against lower-tier teams, and the Buckeyes’ wins came against two of the power conferences’ least imposing programs (Oregon State, Rutgers).