Yearly Archives: 2014

Bowl Predictions 2014: Week 3

Okay, as announced previously the predictions are up. Since it’s so late in the week already I’m not going to go too deep into it this time, though there haven’t been any results that would change anything.

The Playoff
The one thing is that I don’t really care for waiting around until Tuesday for the CFP Poll to be released. Also, since I’m doing a predictive set of, well, predictions the poll doesn’t contain that much relevance to me.

What relevance I can try to glean, though, is perhaps how the committee thinks. Right now, the committee’s top 10 is:

  1. Mississippi State
  2. Florida State
  3. Auburn
  4. Oregon
  5. Alabama
  6. Texas Christian
  7. Kansas State
  8. Michigan State
  9. Arizona State
  10. Notre Dame

Which makes sense. The two undefeated teams are at the time, followed by a pretty defensible ranking of the 1-loss teams. I don’t think anyone is screaming bloody murder about this, except for maybe Notre Dame fans. (As the joke goes, though, Notre Dame’s best “win” might be their narrow loss to Florida State.)

So what can we tell, though? Well, most metrics have Mississippi State as a better team than Florida State. In fact, many advanced stats don’t think very highly of FSU at all. This definitely isn’t last year’s utterly dominant FSU team. Last year FSU had only one game decided by less than a touchdown: the win over Auburn in Pasadena.This year, they’ve had two, and Clemson took them to the brink. (If anything, Clemson probably should have won that game.) The main difference is the defense, which simply suffocated opposing offenses, while this year they have been slightly more porous.

That said, Miss State has been somewhat shaky since their dog became the top in college football. After a decisive win over Auburn in early October, the Bulldogs have since struggled a little with Kentucky and Arkansas.

But, again, these are major college football’s only two undefeated teams, and any poll conducted by humans is going to put them at the top. I can’t blame them for that.

And again, what I’m interested in is what will happen.

My prediction for the end-of-season top six is:

  1. Florida State, as the only undefeated team left
  2. Alabama, as SEC champions, having beaten Mississippi State and Auburn
  3. Mississippi State, with their only loss being to Alabama
  4. Oregon, Pac-12 champions and a win over Michigan State (and necessarily Arizona State)
  5. Michigan State, Big Ten champions (best predicted wins: Nebraska twice, Ohio State)
  6. Kansas State, Big 12 champions (best predicted wins: TCU and Baylor)

Obviously, a lot can change between then and now. But the conventional wisdom seems to be that the committee is valuing best wins over best losses, and if that holds, then I think my top six is reasonable.

Filling out the other “access bowls” remains difficult. I will probably switch out Clemson for Duke at some point. I still have East Carolina as the Group of Five representative, because I have no clue who to put there even though they lost to Temple.

I need to work on the weekend TV guide, so I will eschew the conference breakdowns this week.

The Hat Has a Great Want For You To Exercise Your Suffrage

The official transcription from Les Miles on our civic duty to vote. pic.twitter.com/C80CACKzIF
— Robert Stewart (@TigerRagRobert) November 3, 2014

We need to invent that Futurama head-in-a-jar technology for Les Miles, because I need him to coach football forever.

I keep trying to figure out how I would describe him to someone who doesn’t pay attention to college football. I think I would probably say, “he has a very interesting take on English vocabulary, syntax, and grammar”.

I’d be remiss if I didn’t link EDSBS’s take on this.

The bowl predictions are up, I’ll write about them in a bit.

This Weekend in College Football: Week 10

As usual, all times Eastern and all predictions wrong.

11:30: Air Force @ Army (CBS): Air Force should be able able to seal up their first Commander-in-Chief’s Trophy since 2011 in this one.

Noon:

  • Wisconsin @ Rutgers (ESPN): The pain doesn’t look likely to stop for the Scarlet Knights just yet, who are presumably reeling aftre consecutive blowout losses to Ohio State and Nebraska. Fortunately for them, though, they get Indiana next week.
  • Maryland @ Pennslyvania State (ESPN2): Maryland may represent the best offense Penn State has seen all year, which isn’t really saying much, which I think leads to their inflated defensive numbers.
  • Oklahoma @ Iowa State (FS1): Oklahoma’s season is lessened by losing two out of their last three, but not so much so that they’re suddenly vulnerable to Iowa State or anything.
  • Duke @ Pittsburgh (ESPNU): Eight plays, five fumbles lost. I’ve made posts about luck on the football field in the past, but that one really takes the cake. I’ll talk about it more when I talk about Tech, though. For now, with the way Duke is playing I’m just not sure who they’re going to lose to the rest of the season. There’s nothing about Pitt that makes me think they’ll take it to Duke.
  • East Carolina @ Temple (ESPNEWS): East Carolina has taken care of business in the American so far, and while this isn’t the completely awful version of Temple from, well, most of their history, I don’t think they’ll present much of a challenge for ECU.
  • Central Florida @ Connecticut (CBSS): A team that could challenge ECU, maybe, is Central Florida, who should no issues dispatching a terrible UConn. I mean, seriously: UConn averages 14 points a game.
  • Louisiana-Monroe @ Texas Agricultural and Mechanical (SEC): Texas A&M got to the meat of their schedule three weeks ago, and they blinked. Consecutive losses to the Mississippi schools were bad enough, but then there was the complete meltdown against Alabama last week. Suffice it to say, UL-Monroe may be exactly what the Aggies need right now.
  • Northwestern @ Iowa (BTN): Neither of these schools scores a lot of points, and neither allows a lot. It figures to be a tight, low-scoring contest, which I figure probably favors Iowa.

12:30:

  • North Carolina @ Miami (ACC): UNC squeaked out a win over Virginia last week, while Miami went out and pasted Virginia Tech last Thursday. It’s hard not to favor Miami’s ability to play, like, any defense at all.
  • Boston College @ Virginia Tech (ACC): Even though they’re 4-4, VPI’s bowl streak is in very serious trouble. The only sure win on the schedule looks to be Wake Forest. I don’t think they’ll beat Boston College, but this is probably a better bet for them than UVA or Duke.

1:00: Washington @ Colorado (Pac12): Colorado isn’t as tire fire awful as they were the past few years, but man that defense is still pretty bad, and UDub is a team that is capable of taking advantage.

3:00:

  • Western Kentucky @ Louisiana Tech (FSN): The Hilltoppers will throw the ball, but they can’t defend it. Louisiana Tech is moer balanced and looks like a better team overall. It also gives them a chance to get to 5-0 in the Conference USA East division, which would really put them in control.
  • North Carolina State @ Syracuse (ACC/RSN): Boy howdy, FSU sure made NC State look good back in September, didn’t they? Of course, they’ve done that more than a few times in recent weeks, but anyway since then the Wolfpack have lost four straight and it hasn’t really been that close (even if you exclude the 41-0 shallacking from Clemson). But, again, Syracuse may be what they need. The Orange aren’t bad enough that they have no chance, it’s just from where I sit I think that NC State has a better than good chance of winning.

3:30:

  • Georgia vs. Florida (@Jacksonville, FL; CBS): Florida fans could use more than a few cocktails at this point, I’d guess. I just don’t see any chance for the Gators in this game whatsoever.
  • Purdue @ Nebraska (ABC/ESPN2): For most of this season, I’ve been stuck thinking that Purdue is as awful as they’ve been in the recent past.
  • Texas Christian @ West Virginia (ABC/ESPN2): This is, admittedly, not a game I had exactly circled on the calendar at the start of the year. I think West Virginia will give them a fight. I think they will give them a hell of a fight. But goodness me TCU’s only loss was to the only team that could keep up with them, and they only lost by three. The rest of the schedule since then is a trail of devastation. I kept checking on their game last week just to see them break 80. It was ridiculous. I like them, even in the craziness of Morgantown. (Probably a good thing for them it’s not at night, though.)
  • Virginia @ Georgia Tech (ESPNU): So, yeah, five fumbles. One calculation put the odds of forcing five fumbles in thirteen possessions at 0.00245%. Okay, so those are pretty low odds. The odds of recovering all five? Too low to be expressed as a percentage, because it’s about a 1 in 1.3 million chance.
    As for this one, well, it’s hard to say. The defense remains a huge issue, though it’s hard to say how bad they were last week what with the being up 28-0 5 minutes into the game and all. Virginia’s offense doesn’t scare anyone per se, but with how bad our defense is it doesn’t need to be scary. The Cavs are coming off two straight close losses to Duke and Carolina, so they will certainly be in the mood to get back on a winning streak, especially if they want to make a bowl.
  • Brigham Young @ Middle Tennessee State (CBSS): It’s gotten pretty ugly for the Cougars after losing their all-everything quarterback. Is it bad enough to lose to a former Sun Belt team? That’s really the big question here. BYU can still score against not so great defenses, but in their currently four game losing streak they haven’t allowed less than 30 (though one of those went to overtime). Hard to say, but tentatively taking the Stormin’ Mormons.
  • Indiana @ Michigan (BTN): Michigan’s offense is lost, lost in the woods with no compass, and a missing shoe. Their hated athletic director resigned today. A loss to Indiana, which doesn’t seem unlikely, would probably result in Brady Hoke not being too far behind.

4:00:

  • Kansas @ Baylor (FS1): Man, at least Kansas is as awful as they’ve been for most of the past few years. Makes these things easy. Baylor should be able to score however many they want here.
  • Houston @ South Florida (ESPNEWS): USF isn’t horrible, they’re just not good. I don’t think it’ll be Houston by much, but it’ll be Houston in the end.
  • Kentucky @ Missouri (SEC): Well, both these teams have beaten Vandy and South Carolina, so I think they’re actually kind of even. I’m giving a slight edge to Mizzou, though.

4:30: Southern California @ Washington State (Pac12): I don’t think USC will have a problem, per se, but I think this one might not be as comfortable as you might expect given the records.

7:00:

  • Auburn @ Mississippi (ESPN): Well, this one isn’t going to end 10-7, I feel pretty good about saying that. Auburn had a bit of trouble with South Carolina last week as well. At any rate, let’s not bury the lede too much more: this one is a fight to stay in national title contention. At Ole Miss, and with that defense, I think the Rebels may gut it out, but I think this one is pretty much even.
  • Old Dominion @ Vanderbilt (ESPNU): Vandy could very well lose this game, I’m not even kidding. I’m not going to predict that, but I wouldn’t be surprised.
  • Colorado State @ San Jose State (CBSS): The Rams are kind of legit, huh? I wonder if they want that game from Boise back in September back. They should be able to handle the Spartans.

7:15: Arkansas @ Mississippi State (ESPN2): Both these teams can score, but I think Miss State can score better, if that makes any sense. The Bulldogs should remain undefeated.

7:30:

  • Stanford @ Oregon (FOX): Stanford can’t score, and while they have an awesome defense, Oregon just figures to be too much. I expect this one to be tight at the half and then Oregon gets out to a comfortable lead by the end of the game.
  • Texas @ Texas Tech (FS1): Red Raider fans might be wondering if they can get a refund on their recent coach purchase. Alas, they cannot, and so they will charge out again with a less-than advertised offense. The Longhorns’ offense, meanwhile, is nearly nonexistent, and so I think they’ll probably lose. Maybe.
  • Tennessee @ South Carolina (SEC): Tennessee isn’t awful, but they’re still a notch below even this diminished South Carolina side.

8:00:

  • Notre Dame vs. Navy (@Landover, MD; CBS): I think Notre Dame will lose at least one other game. This isn’t it. (But enjoy the last of a rare CBS triple-header!)
  • Illinois @ Ohio State (ABC): Don’t look, but after an upset of Minnesota last weekend Illinois is 4-4. They might even make a bowl if they’re not careful. The Buckeyes don’t have much to worry about in this one unless they get caught looking forward to Sparty next weekend.
  • Oklahoma St @ Kansas State (ABC): K-State keeps doing it… and they should keep on keeping on until they run into TCU next week.

10:30:

  • Arizona @ California-Los Angeles (ESPN): Well, one of these teams wasn’t taken to double overtime by Colorado last weekend, so I’m taking Arizona.
  • San Diego State @ Nevada (CBSS): SDSU has one of those “hasn’t played anyone with an offense” sort of high-ranking defenses, so it’s hard to cite that as a factor here. Tentatively going with Nevada in this one.
  • California @ Oregon State (Pac12): Cal might have the most exciting 4-4 record in college football, thanks to an awesome offense and a defense that can keep anyone on it. That said, Oregon State might be not good enough that they can’t score on every drive, which could be fatal.

10:45: Wyoming @ Fresno State (ESPN2): This one might be good for halftime entertainment more than anything else. Just sort of picking Fresno.

11:00: Utah @ Arizona State (FS1): This is very quietly a must-watch game. Arizona State is at the fringes of national talk, but Utah is very quietly 6-1. The numbers make these teams look about even. I’m very slightly going to give the edge to the home team.

Bowl Predictions 2014: Week 2

Okay, let’s do this right this time. As usual, the latest predictions are here.

We’ll start with the playoff.

Playoffs? We’re talking about playoffs? Are you kidding me?
Nope.

Jokes aside, we pretty much have to start here because it require me to pretty much guess what 12 people I don’t know are going to do. I did my projections again through the end of the season, and my #1 and #2 seeds wound up being pretty easy: ACC Champ Florida State and SEC Champ Alabama. From there, it gets much more difficult.

Consider the following teams: 1-loss Big 12 Champion Baylor, 1-loss Big 12 runner-up TCU, 1-loss Pac-12 Champ Oregon, and 1-loss Mississippi State. I have Baylor in as my #3, and to me for the four seed it comes down to Oregon and Mississippi State. This is an extremely tough debate for me, but at the end of the day I think Mississippi State is the better team and I gave them the nod. Fortunately for me, the next few weeks will probably change everything, though if I had to guess it’ll just be a different jumble of teams involved in the handwringing.

Anyway, as it turns out, when it comes to just predicting who goes to what bowls, that’s the easy part. I put FSU and Mississippi State in the Sugar Bowl and sent Alabama and Baylor out west. No, the hard part is figuring out who the at-large teams for the Peach, Fiesta, and Cotton Bowls are.

Here’s the deal with the non-playoff playoff committee controlled bowls. First, there’s the Orange Bowl. Since it’s not a play-off site this year, and the home of the ACC champion, it must take another ACC team. I picked ACC title-game runner-up Duke, since I don’t have them losing until then. If Duke has more than 2-losses after the ACC title game, then it’ll be Clemson. The ACC’s opponent in the Orange bowl is “the highest ranked team from the SEC, Big Ten, or Notre Dame”. Based on my projections, my guess is that even with two losses Mississippi will be the highest ranked team that meets the criteria.

So after that you still have some teams that must go to at-large slots, namely, Oregon, Michigan State, and East Carolina (as the projected highest ranking team from the “non-contract” conferences). This also means three more teams have to come from somewhere. TCU is the only remaining 1-loss team in this scenario, so we have to dip into the pool of two-loss teams. I project this pool to consist of Ohio State (Big Ten west runner-up), Nebraska (Big Ten title game loser), Arizona State (Pac-12 title game loser), and Notre Dame (I have them losing to Arizona State now).

There’s nothing that actually says the committee has to prefer TCU over any of the 2-loss teams, but to make things easier for me I picked them anyway. I then went ahead with Notre Dame and Ohio State, because really if we’re all about the money, it’s hard to beat those two.

So these are my committee-controlled matchups:

  • Peach Bowl: Michigan State vs. Notre Dame. Traditional foes that won’t meet again for a while.
  • Fiesta Bowl: Oregon vs. Ohio State. Rematch of the 2009 Rose Bowl.
  • Orange Bowl: Duke vs. Mississippi. Well, it’s what the contract says.
  • Cotton Bowl: TCU vs. East Carolina. Well, they have to put ECU somewhere.
  • Rose Bowl: #2 Alabama vs. #3 Baylor.
  • Sugar Bowl: #1 Florida State vs. #4 Mississippi State.

 Well, if nothing else, the BCS was at least easier to predict.

ACC
With Duke in the Orange Bowl, Clemson is slam dunk for the Russell Athletic Bowl slot. From there it’s basically guessing at this point what the bowls and conference will do. I’d like to think the ACC won’t send us out to El Paso again just yet, and I could definitely see Miami getting sent to New York City for brand purposes. Other than that, the ACC won’t have enough teams to fill in its slots, but that could (and probably will) change, especially in terms of the teams from the Coastal.

Big Ten
I don’t see any way Michigan makes a bowl, which should make it easier to fire Hoke (provided that he isn’t fired before the end of the season). Supposedly in the new Big Ten lineup the Holiday Bowl is on equal footing with the Citrus and Outback bowls, but that seems really unlikely to me, so I sent Nebraska and Wisconsin to Florida and shipped Maryland to San Diego. Other than that, there’s also a weird sharing agreement with the ACC for the Music City and Taxslayer Bowls. For now, I’m just guessing that the ACC will go to Jacksonville and the Big Ten to Nashville, but that could easily change. Another oddity is the San Francisco Bowl, and I don’t mean in terms of its name (since it’s 50 miles away in Santa Clara, but at least it’ll be in a football stadium now). I figure Northwestern gets sent out west, setting up a brainy matchup with Stanford.

Big 12
Despite losing to them, I have Oklahoma getting the Alamo nod over Kansas State. Otherwise, this one was by the book. I was able to sneak in a Oklahoma State-Texas A&M game in the Liberty Bowl, though.

Pac-12
With only one playoff team, these projections actually have the Pac-12 having two extra teams. In this case, I figure California and UCLA to go 6-6 and get left behind. Any major conference at-large candidate will have somewhere to go, though, and as it turns out I only barely had enough teams anyway. Now, I didn’t say that they’d get to go anywhere cool. I matched UCLA with Houston in the Armed Forces Bowl and California with Cincinnati in the St. Petersburg Bowl (now sponsored by Bitcoin, by the way1). I don’t think you can go wrong with Arizona State versus either Oklahoma or Kansas State in the Alamo Bowl, though. Also, thanks to not having enough teams, I’m projecting Southern Cal to face Arkansas State in the Cactus Bowl. I am pretty sure whoever administers that bowl his praying that the Big 12 doesn’t get two teams in the playoff (which is why that happened).

SEC
The SEC will also be short of teams, due mostly to getting three teams into the playoff. I don’t know if the committee will be so bold as to break the two-teams-per-conference precedent set by the BCS, but as I explained with the Orange Bowl, they may not have a choice. Also, even though it says SEC 2-7, I suspect some of those bowls are “more equal” than others (especially the Outback Bowl). I have Auburn losing a couple more times and winding up there to face Wisconsin, which would definitely be a fun contrast of two teams that like to run the ball but in completely different ways.

Everyone Else
No real surprises anywhere else. I put the extra Sun Belt and MAC teams to work, but we’ll see if that holds up. If it doesn’t, it would a little fun to see what happens, but I’m not really projecting any teams to meet the “too few bowls” criteria. (Though it does remind that I need to figure out who the top five schools in APR are for this season.)

As usual, everything will probably be different next week.

Update (10/28): After some more research, Georgia Southern (along with Old Dominion and Appalachian State) will only be bowl eligible if there are not enough teams. Since in the scenarios for this week that is actually the case, it doesn’t affect anything, but I’ll note it properly in future weeks.

This Weekend in College Football: Week 9

As usual, all times Eastern and all predictions wrong.

Noon:

  • Texas @ Kansas State (ESPN): It’s pretty clear at this point in the season that Texas just is not a good football team, near-upsets of Oklahoma notwithstanding. In fact, at 3-4 I don’t actually have them going to a bowl, I just don’t currently see three more wins on their schedule. If they want to have a chance, upsetting K-State would be a good, but unlikely, start.
  • Rutgers @ Nebraska (ESPN2): With the rise of 14-team conferences, an issue that I think is really starting to become a problem is intra-conference scheduling. Right now the difference in the Big Ten west is that Nebraska had to play Michigan State and Minnesota will not. (See also: Duke in the ACC, which dodges both Clemson and Florida State.) Either way, Rutgers should not present a significant hurdle for the Huskers.
  • Minnesota @ Illinois (ESPNU): Speaking of Minnesota, this week they get the hapless Illini.
  • Memphis @ Southern Methodist (ESPNEWS): Memphis.
  • Maryland @ Wisconsin (BTN): Wisconsin has only played two conference games so far, which makes it difficult for me to figure out exactly how good they are. The defense appears stingy, but they gave up 24 to LSU and 28 to Illinois. Maryland, meanwhile, isn’t much easier to judge. They’ve beaten Indiana and Iowa, but got shellacked by Ohio State. So Maryland is probably safely in the mid-tier of Big Ten teams, but this game will probably show if Wisconsin can roll with Nebraska, Ohio State, and Michigan State or not. Tentatively going with the Badgers.
  • Alabama-Birmingham @ Arkansas (SEC): Don’t look, but the Blazers are 4-3. Probably won’t help them much against the Razorbacks, though.

12:30: North Carolina @ Virginia (ACC): Who’s going to win the ACC Coastal? Well, Duke, probably, but nonetheless the question isn’t quite academic yet. UVA is 4-3 but only sports an okay offense. UNC is 3-4, but they sport one of the best offenses in the country paired with one of the worst defenses. I like the Tar Heels, by a little.

1:00: San Jose State @ Navy (CBSS): San Jose State isn’t completely awful this year and this edition of Navy probably isn’t going to shock anyone, but I still like the Midshipmen.

2:00: California-Los Angeles @ Colorado (Pac12): So much for national title darkhorse UCLA, eh? Either way, they’ll get bowl eligible against the Buffs.

3:30:

  • Mississippi State @ Kentucky (CBS): Not a problem for the Bulldogs unless they’re caught looking ahead to their opponent two weeks from now.
  • Texas Tech @ Texas Christian (FOX): Based on the way they’re playing this year, this one does not look to be setting up well for the Red Raiders at all.
  • Michigan @ Michigan State (ABC): Michigan already has problems scoring points, so this is really the last thing they need to see right now. I don’t see a lot of hope for the Wolverines.
  • West Virginia @ Oklahoma State (ESPN): Two teams, opposite directions. West Virginia is 3-1 in conference, 5-2 overall, coming off a potentially season-defining upset of the fourth-ranked team in the country. (And they didn’t just beat Baylor, they controlled the game.) Oklahoma State is 3-1 in conference, 5-2 overall, and just got absolutely pasted by TCU. It’s hard not to pick WVU in this scenario.
  • Oregon State @ Stanford (ESPN2): Stanford University is one of the top research universities on the planet. 59 people associated with Stanford are Nobel Laureates. Stanford raises more money than any other school, and Stanford graduates founded several of the largest companies in the world. So, surely with those resources, they could figure out a way to score some touchdowns. Fortunately for the Cardinal this week, Oregon State doesn’t really score a whole lot either, so they should be able to eke out a victory.
  • Georgia Tech @ Pittsburgh (ESPNU): So last week, before the game, I saw some sobering stats about our defense on a pace (i.e., per-play) basis. Basically, since the offense tends to hold the ball and limit opponent’s possessions, it makes the per-game stats for the defense look better than they actually are. For instance, Miami had seven non-garbage time possessions. Baylor usually has that many possessions in a half. Well, after giving up 48 last week they aren’t fooling anyone anymore.
    On a per-game scoring basis, Pitt has the 14th ranked defense in the country. But the counter to that is they haven’t exactly been playing Oregon, Baylor, and Mississippi State. The best offense they’ve faced this season is Virginia’s at 74th nationally, and they haven’t faced anyone who runs the option. But with the tire fire that is the Georgia Tech defense right now, we can probably make anyone look good, so it will probably be up to the offense again to get ahead and stay ahead.
  • Florida Atlantic @ Marshall (FS1): I feel bad for the Thundering Herd, but while I’m pretty confident they’re going to go undefeated they just don’t play anyone. Seriously, not even, like, Vanderbilt or Colorado or someone.
  • Boston College @ Wake Forest (ACC/RSN): In three ACC games, Wake Forest has scored 20 points. Ouch.

4:00:

  • Nevada-Las Vegas @ Utah State (ESPNEWS): I feel for the Aggies, but after a tough, low-scoring loss to Colorado State last week the schedule softens up considerably is before they face Boise State in what will probably be a pivotal Mountain West matchup.
  • Vanderbilt @ Missouri (SEC): Vandy picked up their second win of the season last week, beating Charleston Southern 21-20. In short: what the hell happened in Nashville? I just feel like this can’t be explained by a coach leaving.

5:00: Temple @ Central Florida (CBSS): I hope you don’t like points, because neither of these teams are especially inclined to score and generally inclined to play defense. I’ve got UCF winning like 10-7.

6:00: Arizona @ Washington State (Pac12): I actually kinda think Wazzou will ruin someone’s Pac-12 season in the same way I think Arkansas is going to ruin someone’s in the SEC, though obviously via completely different methods of attack. But until such a time, it’s pretty hard to actually pick them to win, you know?

7:00: Syracuse @ Clemson (ESPNU): I feel pretty good about Clemson’s chances in this one.

7:15: Mississippi @ Louisiana State (ESPN): On traditional stats, these two teams look pretty similar, but man the advanced metrics love Ole Miss the same way a tailgater in the Grove loves bourbon. Nonetheless, it’s the first of many potential pitfalls in the knife-fight SEC West, but looking at the numbers, it’s pretty hard to pick against them at this point.

7:30:

  • Alabama @ Tennessee (ESPN2): The Third Saturday in October is on the fourth Saturday this year, but those are just the breaks in this modern era of conference scheduling. Neither date would make much difference in the likely outcome, though.
  • South Carolina @ Auburn (SEC): I just hope that after he retires, sportswriters continue to to go to Steve Spurrier for snarky quips about his rivals. He had this to say about Auburn, AL earlier this week: “The loveliest village on the plains is what they used to call it.” Seriously, one of those Stanford guys should also figure out the Futurama head-in-a-jar technology while they’re at it.
    Anyway, while Spurrier will almost certainly win the battle of snarky quips, his team’s odds of winning the football contest are pretty slim.

8:00: Ohio State @ Pennsylvania State (ABC): That Ohio State loss to Virginia Tech back in September is starting look pretty weird now, right? That’s the thing with September losses, though. Either way, Penn State is reeling after consecutive losses to Northwestern and Michigan, and the fact that this your ABC primetime game says more about the quality of the last this week more than anything else.

10:00: Southern California @ Utah (FS1): I think this going to be my standard boilerplate for USC this rest of the season: on paper they should win this game, it’s just a matter of their starters holding up because the Trojans have basically no depth.

10:45: Arizona State @ Washington (ESPN): This should be a fun, late-night contest for you folks out East, but I think in the end Sun Devils will win.