As usual, all times Eastern and all predictions wrong.

Friday

7:00: Sam Houston State @ Jacksonville State (C-USA Championship; CBSS): Rich Rod might turn this Jax State thing into getting the West Virginia job again. Stranger things have happened.

8:00:

• Tulane @ Army (American Athletic Conference Championship; ABC): There’s a couple things in Army’s favor here. The main thing is that this is probably the biggest home game at Michie Stadium in decades, if not ever. And on that point, it’s going to be cold in West Point tomorrow night. Tulane is rolling in from New Orleans with a bunch of southern boys who are used to running a fluid offense. That said, while Army’s offense is always a talent neutralizer, Tulane’s athletes will just be on a different level. Not as big of a gap as the Knights faced against Notre Dame, but a gap nonetheless. I like the Wave here.
• Nevada-Las Vegas @ Boise State (Mountain West Conference Championship; FOX): Boise already did it once down in Vegas. With a game in the cold confines of the blue turf, I like Boise to prevail again.

Saturday

Noon:

• Arizona State vs. Iowa State (Big 12 Conference Championship @ Arlington, TX; ABC): It’s a bit of a shame this is an early game (kicking at 11am local time, even!) as this might be the best game all day. They’re certainly very evenly matched, and this is also a very “styles make fights” type game, with the relative “meat and potatoes” Cyclones and the flashy Sun Devils. I like the Cyclones, but this is seriously a coin flip on a day that’s going to be full of coin flips.
• Ohio vs. Miami (Mid-American Conference Championship @ Detroit, MI; ESPN): Speaking of which, we have two trends facing off here. Ohio is 0-5 all-time in the MAC championship, and Miami is trying to become the first team to repeat as MAC champs since Northern Illinois did it in 2011 and 2012. So who do we like here? As with most games today, this is going to be pretty even, so while I didn’t literally flip a coin this time, I’m going with the Bobcats.

2:00:

• Southern @ Jackson State (Southwestern Athletic Conference Championship; ESPN2)
• Montana @ South Dakota State (NCAA Division I Second Round; ESPN+)
• Villanova @ Incarnate Word (NCAA Division I Second Round; ESPN+)
• Rhode Island @ Mercer (NCAA Division I Second Round; ESPN+)

3:00:

• Tarleton State @ South Dakota (NCAA Division I Second Round; ESPN+)
• Tennessee-Martin @ Montana State (NCAA Division I Second Round; ESPN+)
• Abilene Christian @ North Dakota State (NCAA Division I Second Round; ESPN+)

4:00:

• Texas vs. Georgia (Southeastern Conference Championship @ Atlanta, GA; ABC): A quick comment about last weekend. With Clean, Old-Fashioned Hate being on more or less unopposed in primetime on Black Friday, I got the sense that there were a lot of people watching it for the first time. Take it from me, someone who has been watching this game with intent every season it’s happened since 2003: it is always like that.
  So anyway, this game. It’s another rematch, but these are different teams than the last time they met. Texas has discovered the run game, and they’re the ones coming into the game with the defense that scares you. Yeah, Georgia won last Friday, but the dominate theme of the evening until like 5 minutes left the game was this Georgia team is soft. Carson Beck had a significantly better second half, but he had plenty of poor throws and even when the throws were good, his receivers dropped them. Suffice it to say, Ladd McConkey and Brock Bowers are not walking out of the tunnel at the Benz on Saturday. Texas is the team with the dudes and the motivation to go out and seize the day. Maybe I’m over-indexing on how their rivalry games went, but the Horns were in Kyle Field for the first time since 2011. There were 109,000+ people there who paid a month’s rent or more to show those snooty Austin urbanites who’s the real Texas SEC team, and the Horns just completely suffocated them. Suffice it to say, I think they can do the same thing in the Benz.
• Illinois State @ California-Davis (NCAA Division I Second Round; ESPN+)

7:30: Marshall @ Louisiana (Sun Belt Conference Championship; ESPN): I think the Cajuns are just too good in this one.

8:00:

• Clemson vs. Southern Methodist (Atlantic Coast Conference Championship @ Charlotte, NC; ABC): There’s really only one of two ways this is going to go. The first is: SMU really is that good, and they just run and pass all over Clemson and it’s over early. The other is that SMU has had a really soft schedule and lost to the by far best team they’ve played (BYU), and Clemson, while not great, is just a step above SMU and they win easily. The problem is, I watched Clemson-South Carolina and I still don’t know even with better players if Clemson is going to score enough. I like SMU.
• Pennsylvania State vs. Oregon (Big Ten Conference Championship @ Indianapolis, IN; CBS): This is the easiest game to predict. Penn State will play well, they won’t shoot themselves in the foot, but Oregon will take a 10 point lead in the 4th quarter, the Nittany Lions will kick a field goal, and then Oregon will win. It’s destiny.

9:00: Lehigh @ Idaho (NCAA Division I Second Round; ESPN+)