Category Archives: college football

This Weekend in College Football: Week 14

As usual, all times Eastern and all predictions wrong.

Friday
8:00: Ball State vs. Buffalo (@Detroit, MI; ESPN2): We get the championship weekend started with the resurgent Buffaloes and potential hot coaching commodity Turner Gill versus undefeated Ball State. There was apparently an offer for the Cardinals to play Boise State, but out in Boise, which I agree is silly. Anyway, Ball State goes 13-0 and then off to the Motor City Bowl, most likely.

Saturday
Noon:

  • Pittsburgh @ Connecticut (ESPN): I’m going to be frank here and say this is going to be a really boring game. UConn hasn’t beaten anyone other than Syracuse in a month, so I guess I’ll go with Pitt.
  • East Carolina @ Tulsa (ESPN2): ECU has had a real roller coaster season, but they’ve been more consistent than their other C-USA East brethren. Except for two nightmare weeks, Tulsa has been pretty darn good, and with the home field advantage I’ll go with them.
  • Navy vs. Army (@Philadelphia, PA; CBS): I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. I want Army to win, but will pick Navy to do so. Also, this matches up two of the top 10 rushing offenses in the country, so there’s also that.

1:00: Virginia Tech vs. Boston College (@Tampa, FL; ABC): If the fans of the schools involved can’t be bothered to show up, why should I? Seriously, this game cannot get to Charlotte quickly enough. That said, Virginia Tech’s offense is epically bad, barely scraping out victories against a depleted Duke squad and a very mediocre UVA. I’m taking BC.

3:00: Washington @ California (FSN): Cal. Next!

4:00: Alabama vs. Florida (@Atlanta, GA; CBS): It’s Bama! It’s Florida! And my very overused cliche! Anyway, this game is very tough to predict. Florida is flat-out one of the most productive offense teams in the country and has not scored less than 38 points since the baffling loss to Ole Miss. Alabama may not be as flashy on offense, but come in sporting thirds place in total and scoring defense. It’s difficult for me to pick a team here. I was convinced that I was going to pick ‘Bama, but maybe it’s my bias or just being impressed with Florida’s offense performance this season. If there’s anything I’ve learned in life, though, your first instinct is usually right. So I’ll stick with Bama, though it pains me so.

4:30: Southern California @ California-Los Angeles (ABC): USC. Next!

8:00:

  • Missouri vs. Oklahoma (@Kansas City, MO; ABC): Honestly, while Mizzou is a good football team it has been shown several times this year they haven’t really been able to run with the elite of the Big 12 South this year. It also helps that OU has put up 60+ for a month now. Of course, this game has produced surprising results on occassion, but I’m going to stick with the favorite.
  • Arizona State @ Arizona (ESPN): ASU has to be in the conversation amoung most disappointing teams this year. As I said last night, the winner here earns a trip to the Las Vegas Bowl. ASU has won 3 straight, but against 3 of hte worst teams in the Pac-10 this year. Of course, Arizona hasn’t won since beating Wazzou a few weeks, but I’ll take them anyway, and then probably forget about the game as I’ll be watching Mizzou-OU.
  • South Florida @ West Virginia (ESPN2): Speaking of disappointing seasons, I think both of these teams have had one. WVU still has better talent, though maybe not good coaching as the Bill Stewart face has permeated the Internet this year. Nonetheles, I’m picking WVU.

11:30: Cincinnati @ Hawaii (ESPN2): Wouldn’t be hilarious if Hawaii beat the Big East Champion? It’s unlikely, though, as they only managed 24 on a very moribund Wazzou squad. I’ll take Cincy here.

Bowl Updates, Part 2

The invitations, they keep a-flowin’. The bowls are, as usual, here.

That’s all for now. Most of the action will happen on Sunday, so look for the final edition of these predictions very early Sunday. I’ll do one last sweep tomorrow night, watch Saturday’s games, and then do the last set before the dominoes fall.

Bowl Updates

A flurry of bowls have announced their bids or have tipped off the press of their intentions, so I’ve started marking predictions. As usual, the chart is here. A quick summary:

  • Navy is going to the EagleBank Bowl in DC, but their ACC opponent is unknown. The December 20th date conflicts with Maryland’s exam week and rumor has it a deal with the Motor City Bowl is in the works.
  • I was mistaken on Hawaii’s bowl qualifications, and they will be headed to their namesake bowl.
  • Confirmed ACC activity: Georgia Tech to the Peach, North Carolina to the Car Care, Florida State to the Champs, and what may be the most surprising bid this bowl season, Clemson to the Gator. FSU seemed like an obvious pick for the Gator, but Clemson’s willingness to travel and hot end to their season must have weighed heavily against a FSU team that just got blown out by their rival.
  • In other Gator news, indications seem they will take a Big 12 team this year. Provided they don’t announce before Saturday, I’ll change the Sun and Gator afterwards.
  • A side effect of the ACC picks slotting into place already means the loser of the ACC title game will fall to the Music City Bowl to face either Vanderbilt or Kentucky.
  • Lousisiana Tech accepted a bid to their local game, the Independence Bowl, which will need another at-large bid this year.
  • I was expecting Big Ten bids to be announced already, but I guess there is still a question of whether or not Ohio State will get into the BCS.
  • SEC upper-tier bids are no where near set. What I have are pretty much the best guesses of anyone, but there is some politicking going on, including Ole Miss trying to set up into the Capital One Bowl, which would send LSU to the Cotton, South Carolina to the Peach, and Georgia to the Outback.
  • Though it’s not confirmed, it’s pretty likely BYU will go back to the Las Vegas Bowl.
  • Confusion reigns in the world of Conference USA bids, since no one knows where the loser of the C-USA title game will fall.
  • I didn’t really see any rumors of where Notre Dame might end up other than the Sun if some shenanigans happen in the Big East this weekend.

Bowl Predictions, Week 7

These are the penultimate bowl predictions in the predicting-who-goes-where phase. Next week I’ll try to take a more in-depth look at this next week. For now, here’s a quick overview.

  • The SEC is going to send a very mediocre slate of teams to its bowls this year, which are (arguably) collectively the most high profile set of bowls of any conference. Alabama and Florida are both elite teams and will obviously end up in the BCS (more on that in a second, though) but after that it gets very dicey very quick. First off is the decided lack of Outback and Capital One Bowl stalwarts like Tennessee and Auburn. Georgia, expected to be among the elite this year (excuse me for a second: ahahahahahahahahaha) and in the Sugar Bowl has probably locked up the SEC’s best non-BCS Bowl (the Capital One) and will sport a 9-3 record and come off a loss. It drops off after that. The collective 3/4/5 picks (Cotton, Outback, and Peach) are particularly brutal. Ole Miss is probably the best looking team out of this group and they’re 8-4. I’ve slotted them into the Cotton. LSU and South Carolina are the only other teams with winning records, so they have to go to the Peach and Outback.
  • So the BCS. Right now, if trends hold, we’ll have Alabama and Oklahoma in the title game. But what happens if Florida beats ‘Bama? Dr. Saturday points out it’s not necessarily automatic that Florida gets in. Even so the at-large situation is very important and rather confusing.
    Provided that Alabama and Oklahoma get in, then the Sugar and Fiesta Bowls get first crack at the other available automatic qualifiers and at-large selections. They’ll probably take Florida and Texas. After that, we go in reverse order and that is where it gets interesting. The Fiesta can basically choose from Cincinnati, Utah, or an at-large team (probably Ohio State). The consensus among many professional types and Utah message board posters is that Utah will go to the Fiesta due to travel concerns. I usually tend to take a pessimistic view of the BCS selection process, but the bowl commissioners have cooperated in the past (though not last year, though I suspect Hawaii probably would not have travelled well to any bowl). So while this set of predictions has Ohio State, I’ll probably change it in next week’s edition (if not before then). So then we go to the Sugar, which will probably be left with Cincy, Ohio State, or Utah to face Florida. If Utah does go to the Fiesta like everyone thinks, then they’ll take OSU unless they really want Boise State for some reason. End result? One boring Orange Bowl, most likely.
  • Tech will go to the Peach or Gator unless they get a shaft-job of epic proportions.

Anyway, that took a lot longer than I wanted. Tune in later this week for my take on the last weekend of the regular season.