LSU-Auburn has emerged as the most intriguing and consequential game of the young season

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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.

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No, next week’s undeniable heavyweight matchup will take place Saturday afternoon, on The Plains of eastern Alabama, where No. 7 Auburn (2-0) will host No. 12 Louisiana State (2-0) in both teams’ first Southeastern Conference game of the season.

Both Tigers have burned brighter than practically any other team. Each has a persuasive victory over another well-regarded team at a neutral site as well as a demolition of a weaker team at home.

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But this year, L.S.U has looked at least as good. It opened its season with a dominant 33-17 win over Miami (1-1), then ranked eighth and currently 21st, at AT&T Stadium. L.S.U. followed up this past Saturday at home with a 31-0 win over Southeastern Louisiana.

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The annual Auburn-L.S.U. game — Tigers East versus Tigers West? — has stood out recently. Two years ago, it was Miles’s final game on the sideline, after a go-ahead touchdown as time expired was overturned in part because of a late snap.

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