As usual, all times Eastern and all predictions wrong.

Saturday
Noon:

• Tennessee @ Mississippi (CBS): It’s a noon CBS game, so I guess this is their two-game package of the year. These are two teams going in opposite directions right now, so as weird as it feels I have to pick the Vols.
• Michigan State @ Purdue (ESPN): Since their upset of Ohio State and subsequent drubbing by Wisconsin Purdue is 2-0, and I have to say, if you’d told me they’d be tied with Michigan State in Big Ten play, well, I’d be pretty surprised. In fact, in terms of their actual Big Ten resumes, I’d say they’re pretty even. Still going with Sparty, though.
• Georgia Tech @ Duke (ESPN2): I think this is the most stressed out I’ve ever been for a Duke game. With a win, Tech clinches the ACC Coastal title. With a loss, well, I have no idea what happens because there would be a 4-way tie for first (but I think Miami wins the tiebreaker).
  Now, the reason for the stress is this. Duke can throw the ball. Tech cannot defend passing offenses worth a damn. Tech has to do whatever Carolina did last week in limiting Duke to 11 first downs on 125 yards passing. Carolina was able to move the ball, though had trouble getting touchdowns, so if Tech cannot defend the pass we could very easily get into a shootout. Last week the pass defense was bad, and even downright horrible throughout the first half – being done in by a bad combination of playing very far off the WRs and then defending their routes incorrectly. UNC sacked Thad Lewis 4 times and picked him off twice – Tech will need to generate pressure while rushing four. One thing in most defense’s advantage when facing Duke is their extreme difficulty in running the ball, which we need to take advantage of by perhaps switching to a 2 LB set to help defend the pass.
  As for Tech on offense, it looked, well, bad at times in the first half but recovered in the second. That said, we must press our athletic advantage over Duke and not put the ball on the ground.
  I honestly don’t know what to expect. Most observers, of course, expect an easy Tech win. However, there is nothing easy about GT football. I still recall our last divisional title, 3 years ago, when we came out flat against a bad Carolina team. We won 7-0, but as I saw later, that was the downfall of that 2006 team. We avoided a huge let down last week, and I hope we realize that avoid some of the mistakes that almost cost us.
• Texas @ Baylor (FSN): Baylor scored the surprise win at Missouri last week, but Texas should be able to take care of business.
• Florida State @ Wake Forest (ESPNU): So much for FSU getting to a bowl – I agree with the conventional wisdom that FSU without Christian Ponder (a.k.a., the FSU offense) is pretty much toast.
• Houston @ Central Florida (CBSCS): Houston should win, but expect lots o’ points. Might be worth your while – Houst @ Tulsa last weekend was certainly worth mine!
• Northwestern @ Illinois (ESPN Classic): I don’t care what happened the last two weeks, Illinois still sucks.
• Michigan @ Wisconsin (BTN): With the loss to Purdue, Michigan is in very bad shape at 5-5. I’m not projecting them to win either of their two remaining games.
• Kentucky @ Vanderbilt (SEC/Gameplan): Neither of these football teams is what you might call “good” but Kentucky does display a certain competence Vandy lacks. Should probably be close and low-scoring, though.
• Clemson @ North Carolina State (Raycom/Gameplan): As long as Clemson shows up for this one, they should have a field day.

12:30: Missouri @ Kansas State (Versus): Yeah… so…. Mizzou. You lost to Baylor last weekend. Yeah. You just violated my trust! Though I don’t think that Kansas State is really that much, if at all, better, I can’t really pick you at this point. I’m sorry.

3:30:

• Florida @ South Carolina (CBS): And now, let’s begin a segment I call “ridiculous lines of the day”. I think Vegas phoned it in for this weekend. I mean, 17.5 point favorites? I mean, yeah, UF will win, but probably by more like 7-10. Sheesh.
• Iowa @ Ohio State (ABC/ESPN): Without QB Ricky Stanzi, Iowa could well lose this game and against Minnesota. And I won’t mind at all. Freaking Iowa. Ugh.
• Nebraska @ Kansas (Gameplan/ESPN/ABC): Nebraska, please win this game. I would like the Big 12 title game to be at least competitive. Hopefully Kansas’s offense remains hidden for one more game.
• University of Miami @ North Carolina (ESPN/Gameplan/ABC): While Miami probably won’t put 52 on UNC, the home team most certainly will not. Da U should win easily.
• Stanford @ Southern California (FSN): Speaking of lost offenses, anyone seen USC’s lately? Or their defense, for that matter? While they did hold ASU to 9 points ASU had offensive issues of their own. I think USC will win, but I fully expect Stanford to make it interesting.
• Idaho @ Boise State (ESPNU): THIRTY ONE AND A HALF POINTS? REALLY VEGAS? Boise only put up 45 against a very moribund bunch at Louisiana Tech and you’re saying that they’ll win by 5 scores against an in-state rival in the midst of their best year ever? This is crazy. Oh, and yeah, Boise still wins, but I mean, really?
• Delaware @ Navy (CBSCS): First off, you owe it to yourself to read this. Secondly, Delaware is a pretty competent DI-AA team and has given Navy fits in the past, but the Middies should pull it out. (You should also read the other posts on that blog, because it’s by far the best breakdown our (and Navy’s) offense that I’ve ever seen.)

7:00:

• Alabama @ Mississippi State (ESPN): I wouldn’t call Miss State “bad”, but I wouldn’t say they’re good either. Alabama’s defense should be able to stuff their only offensive weapon (RB Anthony Dixon) while Mark Ingram improves his Heisman stats.
• Auburn @ Georgia (ESPN2): Okay, it probably won’t happen (since they still play Kentucky) but I am giddy that there is even the possibility that Georgia could be 5-6 heading into our game. Awww yeah, savor the flavor – of schadenfreude! In addition to the heaping amount of bias I already have against Georgia, I also grew up an Auburn fan and generally prefer them to not suck, especially against UGA. And all that said, I’m also picking Auburn straight up. Hopefully the 38 points against Tennessee Tech wasn’t a fluke.
• Texas Agricultural and Mechanical @ Oklahoma (FSN): TAMU, you rolled off two straight wins and then you lost to… Colorado? How? Why? I mean, you should still beat Baylor to get bowl eligible but still. At any rate, they should also still lose to Oklahoma.
• Arizona @ California (Versus): I was having my customary celebratory burger last weekend after our game against Wake Forest. I looked up at the monitors and it happened right then and there in real time. Jahvid Best, one of the best and most exciting players in college football, was floating in the air, got hit, and lay on the ground motionless. Scary. I drove home, had a half-dozen messages from my friends and turned on the TV. He was still on the ground. He was released from the hospital earlier this week, but to give you an idea of the magnitude it’s never good when some has “just” a concussion. (The alternative being the initially feared spinal cord injury.)
  As for the game, Arizona’s a pretty decent team this year. (Apparently nowawadays all Mike Stoops does is win football games.) I expect them to win.
• Louisiana Tech @ Louisiana State (ESPNU): LSU. Next!

7:30:

• Utah @ Texas Christian (CBSCS): While Utah has only played one good team (Oregon) and lost, I don’t really understand how TCU is 20 point favorite. I’ll take TCU to win, yeah, but I mean, 20? Really?
• Troy @ Arkansas (SEC/Gameplan): Ar-kansas. Next!

8:00:

• Notre Dame @ Pittsburgh (ABC/Gameplan): Taking Pitt and the Wannstache to win anything is painful for me, but I must do so here. I just don’t like ND is that good.
• Texas Tech @ Oklahoma State (Gameplan/ABC): A win here allows TTU to salvage a measure of respect from a season marked by losses to Houston and Texas A&M. Will they? Probably not, but forecasts call for a storm of points with a chain of hail (marys).

10:15: Arizona State @ Oregon (ESPN): If that guy ASU trotted out there in the 4th quarter of the USC game as their QB is playing in this game, Oregon wins easily. Oregon’s drop below USC in the polls last week defies all logic, especially since, last I checked, the Ducks are still on track to win the conference. Madness.

Sunday
8:15: East Carolina @ Tulsa (ESPN): It’s late, I’m tired, and our game is in less than 6 hours. ECU.

As usual, all times Eastern and all predictions wrong.

Saturday
Noon:

• Northwestern @ Iowa (ESPN): Can Northwestern end our long, national nightmare championship game scenario? Probably not! Iowa wins 15-11.
• Central Florida @ Texas (FSN): This is the Priceline of football games. Congratulations Colt McCoy, you can name your own score!
• Syracuse @ Pittsburgh (ESPNU): Should I even bother waking up at 9 for these games? I mean, I usually sleep through the first half anyway, but this is ridiculous.
• Purdue @ Michigan (BTN): I’m willing to chalk up the loss UIUC as a fluke. If Michigan loses to Purdue they’ve got problems.
• Virginia @ University of Miami (Raycom/Gameplan): You know, I almost want UVA to win this game, because it would make it that much more difficult to fire Al Groh. (Now that GT has the UVA monkey off it’s back, I can go back to treating UVA as the terrible team they are.)
• South Carolina @ Arkansas (SEC/Gameplan): I bet the Visor is playing lots of golf these days. Hitting drives, chipping on to greens, making putts. Trying to figure out exactly what he did to deserve this. Sure, South Carolina is 6-3, but they have no offense. How does a man, know for such a thing, deal with that? Whatever the case, they can still beat Arkansas.

12:30: Kansas @ Kansas State (Versus): Both of these teams are so bad, but I’ll go with the team that managed to beat Colorado.

2:30: Navy @ Notre Dame (NBC): Notre Dame isn’t great, but has begun an unfortunate rise in the polls. Hopefully Navy keeps it close.

3:30:

• Louisiana State @ Alabama (CBS): I’m actually willing to accept that Alabama is a good football team at this point. In fact, they’re damn good, and I’m willing to downgrade my hatred to “loathing” to set up a match against Florida in the Georgia Dome next month. Okay, I still hat them, but I want to see that game.
• Ohio State @ Pennsylvania State (ABC/ESPN2):I’ve already heard several times this week that this game will “decide the Big Ten”. That should tell you how much everyone hates Iowa. At any rate, if Ohio State calls this game like they did their other big game this season (against USC) they will lose. Of course, we still don’t really know anything about Penn State. I still like them to win, though.
• Oklahoma State @ Iowa State (ABC/Gameplan): Somehow, I don’t see Iowa State holding OSU to 14 points.
• Wake Forest @ Georgia Tech (ESPN2/ABC/Gameplan): Having expectations placed on your team is weird.
  At any rate, last week we did exactly what I said we couldn’t do (allow Vandy to stay in the game) but then Vandy started to play like, well, Vandy and we pulled away to a 56-31 win. Wake, however, will not rollover so easily. While Vandy isn’t incompetent, Wake probably does have slightly better players and are led by 50th year senior Riley Skinner. (Despite suffering a concussion last week against Miami, he will be starting.) Wake is always a tough assignment for Tech – our last meeting was in the 2006 ACC title game, which Wake won 9-6. (Though it did get Patrick Nix fired and then hired (for some reason) by Miami, which worked out great for us over the next two years.) And with the way the defense is playing, no doubt older Tech fans (and by “older”, I mean “a few years older than me”) are having PTSD-flashbacks to 1999, where the offense scored 38 points a game and still lost 4 time. The 3rd loss was to Wake Forest, dropping Tech to 7-3 and likely ruining any chances Joe Hamilton had of winning the Heisman.
  So, suffice it to say, Tech will need to do all it can to avoid a repeat of history.
  By the way, the other three losses that year? @FSU, @UVA, and to Miami in the Gator Bowl.
• Oregon @ Stanford (FSN): Well, Stanford, you’ve had a good year so far. 5-3 overall, 4-2 in the Pac-10. Not bad, especially by Stanford standards. The problem with this rosy outlook? This game, @USC, vs. Cal, vs. Notre Dame. That 6th win may prove to be elusive, and they probably won’t find it here.
• Duke @ North Carolina (ESPNU): Fun fact: even if Duke loses, they can still beat Tech next week and have a shot at the ACC title. That’s said, there’s little about this UNC team on defense or offense that has particularly impresses me. They still allowed nearly 400 yards passing to FSU. If Duke puts up similar numbers – and they should – they have a pretty good shot to win here.
• Army @ Air Force (CBSCS): The battle for the Commander-in-Chief’s trophy continues in Colorado. Unfortunately, it’s hard to pick an Army team that was outscored 56-23 by Temple and Rutgers to win here.
• Washington State @ Arizona (FCS Central): Why did I list this? I have no idea. Arizona.
• Washington @ California-Los Angeles (FCS Pacific): (see above) U-dub.

4:00: Texas Christian @ San Diego State (Versus): SDSU is on a roll, by their standards, but TCU should still be able to take care of business here.

7:00:

• Oregon State @ California (FSN): Cal’s rolled off 3 straight against the worst of the Pac-10, while Oregon State has pretty much lost when they were supposed to and win when they were supposed. That said, Cal is still having issues getting the ball to its best player and needed a last minute FG to get past Arizona State. I actually kind of like the Beavers here.
• Memphis @ Tennessee (ESPNU): Mmm, delicious cupcakes.

7:15: Vanderbilt @ Florida (ESPN2): Too detailed prediction: Vandy hangs tough through the first quarter to make everyone go, “Hey, Florida’s only leading Vandy by 3 points” but the Tebow gets on track and is out of the game by the end of the 3rd quarter.

7:30:

• Houston @ Tulsa (CBSCS): This game was supposed to be for the C-USA West title, but Tulsa’s sort of fallen off the wagon and has lost 3 straight, including losses to completely schizophrenic UTEP and also to SMU. Since their inexplicable loss to UTEP, Houston has won 4 straight mostly via a way we’d entirely expect: offense. I expect a lot of points in this game (akin to Houston’s shootout last weekend with Southern Miss) but the Cougars to prevail in the end.
• Northern Arizona @ Mississippi (SEC/Gameplan): Ole Miss. Next.

7:45: Florida State @ Clemson (ESPN): It’s the Bowden— oh, right. At any rate, FSU really needs this to make itself relevant in the ACC Atlantic race again, while Clemson controls its own destiny, and in terms of that destiny FSU represents the last major hurdle (Clemson’s remaining ACC games are @NCSU and at home against UVA). We could see a reenactment of the Clemson-Miami game (if it’s half as exciting as that game was, well, this will be a pretty exciting game), but I don’t see a different outcome.

8:00:

• Southern California @ Arizona State (ABC/Gameplan): Okay, so our illusions have been shattered, USC is mortal, blah blah. But let’s face it, USC should still be favored to win all their remaining bids and get themselves to a BCS game, and that process starts here.
• Connecticut @ Cincinnati (Gameplan/ABC):Although this will almost certainly doom them, I really do think Cincy is “that good”, at least against their Big East compatriots. And this is the home stretch for the Bearcats, a win here and next week against WVU sets up the de-facto Big East championship game December 5th at Pittsburgh.
• Oklahoma @ Nebraska (Gameplan/ABC): I’m not sure why, but the Big 12 doesn’t have a fix-opponent system for its divisions, and it really hurts here. (Of course, this is probably the only major intra-divisional rivalry in the Big 12, so that’s probably why.) At any rate, while Oklahoma probably won’t put up 68 (that’s not an exaggeration) like they did in last year’s beatdown, they’ll probably still win handily.

10:30: Fresno State @ Idaho (ESPNU): Ah, the late WAC game. You know you love it. At any rate, Idaho is bowl eligible for the first time since 1999 (as well as guaranteed their first winning season since 1999) versus usual suspect Fresno State, which sits at 5-3. This is at least worth watching for a bit because it’s in THE KIBBIE DOME. That said, I like Fresno to win.

Sunday
8:30: Nevada @ San Jose State (ESPN): I wonder how cheap I could get tickets to what will most likely be the Colin Kaepernik show? Nevada should win easily.