Hotter and fresher than even a Little Ceaser’s pizza, you can get the latest predictions here.
Thanks to some upsets last weekend, I only needed two 5-7 teams this time (as opposed to four last time). With 77 teams having already clinched eligibility, that means I don’t need a lot of upsets to get there. Let’s take a quick look at every game involving a 5-6 team heading into this weekend:
- Oregon State (5-6) @ Boise State: The Beavers won’t be favored in this one, but Boise has gotten by with closer margins the past few weeks. For now, I don’t have them in.
- Minnesota @ Wisconsin (5-6): Wisconsin is a slight favorite here, but I don’t have them in.
- Kansas (5-6) @ Baylor: KU’s vastly improved play the past few weeks isn’t completely reflected in SP+ yet, so I still have them winding up 5-7. It absolutely will not shock me if they win.
- Louisiana @ Louisiana-Monroe (5-6): hard to see ULM pulling this off.
- North Texas (5-6) @ Temple: UNT is absolutely favored here and I have them in.
- Eastern Michigan (5-6) @ Western Michigan (5-6): The Michigan MAC Trophy and bowl eligibility are on the line here.
- Coastal Carolina (5-6) @ Georgia State: CCU is absolutely favored here and I have them in.
- Auburn (5-6) @ Alabama: this would be hilarious, but no.
- Rutgers @ Michigan State (5-6): SP+ has Rutgers as about a 6 point favorite, but the Spartans could absolutely win this one.
- North Carolina State (5-6) @ North Carolina: the Pack would have to spoil Mack Brown’s swan song, so I don’t see it.
- Texas Christian @ Cincinnati (5-6): SP+ has Cincy as about an 8 point underdog, so I don’t have them in. But they could absolutely win this game.
- Virginia (5-6) @ Virginia Tech (5-6): self-explanatory.
- New Mexico (5-6) @ Hawaii: SP+ has the Lobos as an underdog, so I don’t have them in, but they could absolute win this game.
By my count, that’s 5 very plausible upsets. So we could possibly have too many bowl eligible teams. It’s happened before, and a new bowl game was invented on the spot to accommodate them, so it figures that it will happen again.
We’ll know how everything falls after this weekend, which makes the predictions next week one of the most important I do.