As usual, all times Eastern and all predictions wrong.

Noon:

• Oregon State @ Wisconsin (ESPN): So did you hear that Oregon State lost to Sacramento State last week? Yeah….
• Florida Atlantic @ Michigan State (ESPN2): This may end up being closer than the other noon Big Ten game. Okay, probably not, but still.
• Iowa @ Iowa State (FSN): I’m sure the Cyclones will give it the ole college try, but it’s hard to see how they will prevail in the end.
• Central Michigan @ Kentucky (ESPNU): Speaking of bad losses, did you see that Louisville lost to FIU last night? Yeah, anyway, Kentucky should still prevail here.
• San Diego State @ Army (CBSS): Army’s not off to a good start this season, and I doubt it will get better against the Aztecs.
• Toledo @ Ohio State (BTN): Comparing their depth charts, Ohio State should be able to win this with 30 players, much less 85.
• Mississippi State @ Auburn (SEC): So remember that time Auburn almost lost to Utah State? Oh, wait, that was last week. Meanwhile, the Bulldogs handled their mid-major patsy with easy, obliterating a hapless Memphis squad 59-14. Now, Auburn did rally in the 4th quarter and eventually get their act together, so presumably motivation will not be an issue in this first test of the Tigers’ mettle. I still have to go with Miss State though.

12:30:  Rutgers @ North Carolina (ACC): My thoughts on this game: “eh”. I think UNC will win.

3:30:

• Alabama @ Pennsylvania State (ABC): Okay, now things get interesting. Well, sort of. I’m going to roll with the conventional wisdom that between two teams with uncertain quarterback situations and the likely return of Alabama’s stout 2009-style defense, this will be a slow scoring affair that ultimately ends in the Tide’s favor.
• Cincinnati @ Tennessee (ESPN2): I’ve been to both Cincy and Knoxville now, and I have to say, I don’t really want to live in either. I think I liked Knoxville better though so I’ll go with the Vols.
• Nevada @ Oregon (FX): Last Saturday, Oregon entered the Les Miles Reality Distortion Field, waking up several hours later with no memory of where they had been or how they ended up with a 40-27 loss. However, someone told Chip Kelly that Chris Ault has all the answers, setting us up for a thrilling action movie style obliteration of the Wolfpack. 60+ points for the Ducks may not be out of the question.
• Virginia Tech @ East Carolina (FSN): VPI was lauded last week for actually managing to beat their DI-AA opponent in convincing fashion. So that means this week it’s back to Business as Usual for Beamerball. Hokies win 22-20 on a blocked PAT return.
• Texas Christian @ Air Force (Versus): Yeah, so about that TCU being awesome thing. While Boise took care of business against the Bulldogs, TCU lost to Baylor and had their vaunted defense shredded in the process. (Well, technically they lost to Robert Griffin III, but anyway.) Maybe they did it on purpose to spite the Mountain West moving the TCU-Boise game from Fort Worth to Boise. Anyway, damage is now done. TCU’s defense doesn’t get a rest, however, switching gears to defending Air Force’s custom triple option attack. They should come out on top this time, though.
• Stanford @ Duke (ESPNU): What’s the over/under on this game? Let’s see…. ah, 110. I would take the over if I thought Duke would put up more than 10 points. Then again, that still might not be a bad idea.
• Purdue @ Rice (CBSS): This is actually kind of a tossup. Which is more of a statement about Purdue than Rice. I mean, the Boilermakers should win, but this may be the pick I’ll be the least sure about all day.
• Eastern Illinois @ Northwestern (BTN): Thankfully, this one does not give me pause. NU wins.
• North Carolina State @ Wake Forest (ACC): Some years, Wake Forest is a plucky, hard to deal with opponent that gives the rest of the ACC a run for it’s money. I don’t think this is one of them.

4:30: South Carolina @ Georgia (ESPN): By all rights, South Carolina should win. There is a strong trend I’ve seen on other sites of not really believing the situation and that the Gamecocks can stand up to the pressure. But know this: it would be so awesome if UGA is 0-2 after today.

7:00:

• Brigham Young @ Texas (ESPN2): Narrow, offensively-challenged 14-13 victories over Ole Miss do not inspire much confidence heading into Austin.
• Texas-El Paso @ Southern Methodist (FSN): Let’s see… UTEP had to go to OT to beat Stony Brook last week, meaning they should rout SMU this week.
• New Mexico @ Arkansas (ESPNU): I think the most interesting aspect of this game is that’s a home game at Arkansas’s other stadium, War Memorial Stadium in Little Rock.
• Fresno State @ Nebraska (BTN): I still admire Pat Hill’s willingness to play anyone, anywhere, but I doubt after the welfare fraud thing that broke the other day that this game is going to improve his mood much.
• Alabama-Birmingham @ Florida (SEC): BLAZERS. GATORS. FEEL THE EXCITEMENT. Well, excitement-like-substance anyway.

7:30:

• Utah @ Southern California (Versus): Oh, right, this is a conference game now. Well, Utes, you wanted to sit at the table with the big boys. Time to prove you belong. Trojans should still win.
• Connecticut @ Vanderbilt (SEC): Well, they both beat their DI-AA opponents last week so I can’t really tell how bad or not bad these two teams are. I’ll go with Vandy ’cause I like them better.
• Georgia Tech @ Middle Tennessee State (ESPN3): Meanwhile, mere miles outside of Nashville will be supposedly the first sellout in the history of MTSU DI-A football. GT still had plenty of mistakes last week. Bad snaps are one thing – I’m still mad about the sloppiness on special teams, including two boneheaded plays on punts on a blocked field goal. I find the carryover of one of last year’s biggest problems a troubling concern. Outside of that, it was fun to see this, if only for a little while:
  

  Anyway, it’s hard to make an overall judgement about the team at this point. Last year, this is where we faltered. Will we stand up to scrutiny this time?

8:00:

• Notre Dame @ Michigan (ESPN): This was supposed to be an EPIC CLASH and two midwestern powers RETURNED TO GREATNESS. A funny thing happened on the way here, though, namely that ND went and lost to South Florida. Whoops. The Wolverines dispatched their directional school opponent (though, in fairness, USF could beat Western Michigan every day and twice on Sundays) with ease. Notre Dame probably won’t go down as easy, but it’s hard to imagine the Irish getting the stops they need or the offense they need either. Brian Kelly may spontaneously combust, though. So there’s a reason to watch.
• Boston College @ Central Florida (CBSS): I have a bad feeling about this. You don’t just walk into Bright House Networks Stadium and expect to leave without a fight. Also, UCF scored 62 points last year, which BC may not score for another 2 or 3 games.

Apologies for the lateness, it’s been a busy week. For me, at least, this is my first full Saturday of football, and believe me, I am looking forward to it. For my musings as the day goes on, you could do worse than subscribe to my Twitter feed. Much worse. Until then.

I meant to include this in my bowl post but I completely forgot! Probably because I won’t be able to watch these games, but alas I will do my duty and bring them to you here.

Right now, of course, there’s Eastern Washington and defending champs Villanvoa on ESPN2 in a semifinal match.

As usual, all times Eastern and all predictions wrong.

11:00: Delta State vs. Minnesota-Duluth (Division II Championship @ Florence, AL; ESPN2): All the marbls here once again in Florence. Both these teams are prior champions (Delta St. in 2000, Duluth in 2008) so they’ve got the credentials.

Noon: Georgia Southern @ Delaware (ESPNU): This is the other DI-AA semifinal. Supposedly due to the confluence of Christmas and New Year’s Day on consecutive Saturdays this year the title game won’t be held until January 7th. Whatever you say, NCAA. Anyway, this will be Southern’s 4th game to Delaware’s 3rd, a consequence of the 20 team bracket this year (in which Delaware was also the third seed).

3:30: Wisconsin-Whitewater vs. Mount Union (Division III Championship @ Salem, VA; ESPNU): Business as usual in the Division III final. These two have met every year since 2005, and both have been dominant in their runs to the title game once again.

I also wanted to comment on UMass saying they’re trying to join the MAC for 2013. That’s a long ways off, but the MAC goes to 14 teams that could resolve some of their infamous scheduling issues with 13 teams. To create balanced divisions, I suspect one of the Ohio teams would be asked to move to the west. But, still, the NCAA has to lift its moratorium for schools trying to make the jump to I-A (which is also an issue for the schools the WAC wants to invite).

With one DI-A game this weekend various sorts of playoffs, I figured I would go ahead and write up a post for this weekend. I’m just going to do a cursory overview of most of these games, because above all I really just want you to watch them. People say this weekend is dead-football wise and I couldn’t agree less. I think one of my favorite games last year was the Appalachian State-Montana playoff game, and that’s what’s great here: a real, honest-to-goodness playoff.

As usual, all times Eastern and all predictions wrong.

Friday 
8:00: New Hampshire @ Delaware (ESPN2): We’ll start with a pair of DI-AA quarterfinals (the other two won’t be televised). This particular match features a pair of CAA rivals that did not play this past season. The quick overview here is that UNH has 3 DI-AA losses on the year, which Delware only has two, and those two were narrow losses to fellow conference foes (and tournament teams) Villanova and conference champ William & Mary.

Saturday
Noon: Villanova @ Appalachian State (ESPN): Speaking of the Wildcats, here’s probably the DI-AA team most people have heard of: Appy State. I was hoping there’d be some snow for this game, but maybe better luck next round as the high in Boone, NC will projected to be a balmy 43 degrees Saturday. Anyway, while the Mountaineers are the #1 seed in the tournament both teams are coming off blowouts of their competition from the previous round. I would expected a pretty decent game here.

2:00:

• Alabama State vs. Texas Southern (SWAC Championship @ Birmingham, AL; ESPN Classic): Again, I’m not sure why the SWAC plays a championship game. Okay, I actually do know why (it’s tradition) but in the process they forfeit their bid to the playoffs, making them and the Ivy League the only conferences to do so.
• Delta State @ Shepard (CBSCS): Yes, that’s right, it’d Division II semifinal action, only on CBS College Sports! Catch the fever!

2:30: Navy vs. Army (@Philadelphia, PA; CBS): Army has to come into this year’s edition more optimistic than ever. This is the first year since 1996 they’ve qualified for a bowl, and it’s the first time in forever that Navy isn’t playing to clinch the Commander-in-Chief’s trophy (as Air Force already has). Oh, another fun fact: this is also the first time ever all three academies have qualified for a bowl in the same year. (Note that the Air Force Academy has only existed, in football terms, since 1957.) At any rate, I still have to favor Navy here, statistically and subjectively they still appear to be the better team.

6:00: Minnesota-Duluth @ Northwest Missouri State (CBSCS): More DII action! Hey, it’s still college football, and in the end, that’s all that really matters, right?

Also, recommended viewing Saturday night is ESPN’s last “30 for 30” feature, Pony Excess, detailing the pay-for-play scandal that lasted the better part of the 80’s at SMU. I haven’t seen it, of course, but I suspect that there will be even more people wondering how Craig James is still employed at ESPN afterward.

As promised, this weekend’s guide. I’ll do another normal one for next weekend (for Army-Navy and the NCAA playoff games), and then we’ll get into our bowl coverage.

As usual, all times Eastern and predictions wrong.

Noon:

• Rutgers @ West Virginia (ABC): Well, here’s one part of your Big East conference champion scenario. West Virginia should win, though, which eliminates Pitt from contention.
• Pittsburgh @ Cincinnati (ESPN): As much as I make fun of the Big East (again, this is generally in the same way we made fun of Mississippi back in Alabama), they did provide us the thrilling Pitt-Cincy game last year for the conference crown. This year’s edition, though, will likely prove less exciting as Cincy was 4-7 on the year an a meager 2-4 in Big East play. That said, as mentioned above WVU victory eliminates Pitt from the Big East running, so that may dampen the Panthers’ spirits a bit. They should still win, though.
• Southern Methodist @ Central Florida (Conference USA Championship; ESPN2): SMU has been inconsistent, but they did come out on top of the C-USA’s west division somehow. UCF had no such issues, though, with only a minor bump in the road against USM while they for the most part pounded their C-USA comrades. Of course, this logic didn’t do me any good for the MAC title game, but UCF does have home field advantage and should be able to take advantage of it.

2:00: Troy @ Florida Atlantic (ESPNU): Troy will actually not win the Sun Belt this year, due to their loss to eventual champion FIU. FAU has been less fortunate this year, though, as Schnelly’s lost 7 games and only boasts a now-inexplicable win over FIU. At any rate, I’m just going to keep trucking with Troy.

3:30: Oregon @ Oregon State (ABC): This game could potentially blow everything up, though really it probably won’t. The Ducks may struggle in the first half due to the crowd, but should be able to get the offense in gear in the second half and be able to put the Beavers away.

4:00: South Carolina vs. Auburn (SEC Championship @ Atlanta, GA; CBS): This game could really blow everything up. I tend to agree with the expert-types that say an Auburn loss would probably keep them in the BCS title game anyway, which I think would do more to rile folks up than Oregon losing (leading to a fairly direct TCU-Auburn matchup). That said, I don’t really see it happening.

7:00: Washington @ Washington State (Versus): It’s the Apple Cup. The Pac-10 has to be desperately be hoping Washington wins, which would give the Pac-10 a 4th bowl eligible team (assuming Oregon State doesn’t win). Fortunately for the conference, Wazzou is just dreadful enough that the desired result should be able to happen without any shenanigans. (Besides, I think the Cougars already used up their shenanigans quota when somehow beat Oregon State 3 weeks ago. Somehow, that’s also the last time they played. Perhaps their year would’ve gone a little more smoothly if they’d spread out their bye weeks a bit?)

7:45: Virginia Tech vs. Florida State (ACC Championship @ Charlotte, NC; ESPN): The ACCCG is finally where it should have been all along. While I thought last year’s game was reasonably well attended, this year’s edition will actually sell out! What a concept, having a title game somewhere most of the member schools can drive to in probably the only state that actually really cares about the ACC! Anyway, VPI has been an unstoppable juggernaut in ACC play, reeling off 10 straight wins (8 in conference) since the JMU debacle. Florida State’s had a fine year, but they really backed into this game. Sure, they did just score a big win over their in-state rival, but they still needed Maryland to upset NC State last weekend to even get in. I really like VPI here.

8:00:

• Nebraska vs. Oklahoma (Big 12 Championship @ Arlington, TX; ABC): I can’t help but think that when the Big 12 divisions were first drawn up that the folks in both sides of this rivalry thought that this was how it was going to be every year, to make up for the loss of their classic Big 8 rivalry that was played every year from 1929 to 1997. Alas, these two sides have met in the Big 12 title game only once, in 2006 when OU won 21-7. (That said, boy am I pissed off if I’m a Texas A&M fan, since TAMU beat both of these teams this year.) Anyway, Nebraska’s had a few dicey encounters this season, with occasional offensive outages and a defense that doesn’t measure up to the standard set by last year’s. Oklahoma’s been more consistent on both sides of the ball and I think they’ve gotten their mojo back, so to speak. I think the Sooners will win the last Big 12 Championship Game.
• Connecticut @ South Florida (ESPN2): For simplicity’s sake, UConn should win this game. A loss, along with losses by WVU and Pitt, could set up a potential 5-way tie atop the Big East. I think they’ll win as well, but if you really want chaos on this day and are disappointed by the results in Corvallis and Atlanta, this is your last shot.

10:30: Southern California @ California-Los Angeles (FSN): Well, the football monopoly in LA hasn’t exactly been busted, but both the established monopoly and the pesky upstart have both had bad years this year. That said, UCLA’s offense has been AWOL since the 42-28 win back in October over Wazzou. I’ve got USC winning here.

Well, pay attention to the twitter feed and this site throughout the evening tomorrow night as I line up the final bowl predictions before the BCS and ESPN reveal all Sunday night. Until then, enjoy the last real weekend of the regular college football season!