Once again, it’s time for the following statement!
As usual, all times Eastern and all predictions wrong.

Thursday
7:30:

• Southern Mississippi @ South Carolina (ESPN): It’s not technically the first college football game (Division II started last week) or even the first DI-A game (Buffalo starts at 7:00), but it’s the first one on national TV. Despite Spurrier’s inability to pick a quarterback, South Carolina should be able to handle this one.
• Minnesota @ Middle Tennessee State (ESPNU): With Dwight Dasher, I actually kind of liked MTSU here, but some ill-advised and somewhat illegal financial escapades have landed Dasher in some trouble, the least of which is that he won’t be playing in this game. So I’ll have to fall back to the safety of Minnesota.
• Marshall @ Ohio State (BTN): Well, if you can find the Big Ten Network on your dial, this game will be here. Then you’ll likely turn it back. Tyrelle Pryor should have a pretty solid effort here.

8:00: Northern Illinois @ Iowa State (FSN): I wouldn’t be surprised if Iowa State lost this game. But they shouldn’t. They might though.

8:30: Pittsburgh @ Utah (Versus): Honestly, this is probably the best game of the night! Of course, once again I probably won’t see any of them, but hey, them’s the breaks. Also, I have to like the Utes at home here. I think they’ll be out to prove that their Pac-10 invite isn’t based on some sort of fluke.

11:00: Southern California @ Hawaii (ESPN): It’s USC’s bowl game! Have fun, guys.

Friday

8:00: Arizona @ Toledo (ESPN): Well, presumably, there won’t be any Toledo fans in t-shirts stating their opinions on swine flu in this game. But still, I don’t think Arizona will be able to repeat Colorado’s spectacular self-destruction from last year. Also, you’re going to watch this, because it’s Friday and it’s college football dammit.

Saturday
Noon:

• Miami University @ Florida (ESPN): Pro-tip for the rest of the year on this site: U of Miami is the one you care about, and Miami U is the one in Ohio. And that’s the one Florida is bringing in for some hot MACtion. And it will be hot, because it’s noon in Gainesville.
• Western Michigan @ Michigan State (ESPN2): Spartans. It’s 3:42 AM. Let’s speed this up.
• Samford @ Florida State (ESPNU): I’m not even sure why I listed this.
• Youngstown State @ Pennsylvania State (BTN): JoePa starts a freshman! Penn State rolls anyway.
• Louisiana-Lafayette @ Georgia (SEC/Gameplan): Oh hey, it’s UGA reppin’ the UL-U-Pick ‘Em. Word to your mother. Unless she went to UGA.

12:30: Illinois vs. Missouri (@St. Louis, MO; FSN): Well, this game loses a bit of its luster this year, but it’s probably your best bet early this day.

1:00: South Carolina State @ Georgia Tech (espn3.com): It’s kickoff for GT! And I can’t wait. It’s going to be an exciting fall here at asimsports, provided the Braves make the playoffs.

3:30:

• Purdue @ Notre Dame (NBC): I feel like I have to take Notre Dame here. But hear me out! If they lose, Brian Kelly will not have my trust again.
• Kentucky @ Louisville (ABC/Gameplan): I keep forgetting how astronomically bad Louisville was last year. In a way, it’s almost like they weren’t even there, which was kind of true in a literal sense as well. I’ll take Kentucky for now though.
• California-Los Angeles @ Kansas State (ABC/ESPN2/Gameplan): Woooo – does UCLA’s Socal trust busting begin on the plains of Kansas? Perhaps. Both these teams are rebuilding big time, but I think UCLA is a little further ahead than the Wildcats.
• Connecticut @ Michigan (ABC/ESPN2/espn3.com): I’m still not entirely sure Michigan even has a quarterback, but I’m going to roll with them anyway.
• Texas vs. Rice (@Houston, TX; ESPN/espn3.com): Well, I already spent my smart-guy JFK reference in the Big 12 OOC Schedule Preview, so I don’t really have anything here other than wish they could play it actually at Rice and not in some fancy NFL stadium. And Iron Bowl should still be played at Legion Field, and the Cotton Bowl should still be played at…. you get the idea.
• North Texas @ Clemson (ESPNU): Clemson.
• Jacksonville State @ Mississippi (SEC/Gameplan): Ole Miss.

7:00:

• Washington State @ Oklahoma State (FSN): Oklahoma State may be rebuilding here, but I’m pretty sure their metaphorical gun has a few more bullets than Wazzou’s.
• Memphis @ Mississippi State (ESPNU): I’m not really sure that Miss State will win here, but they should. Wait, did I use that gimmick already? Well, guess what, I just did it again! What are you going to do about it, huh? Yeah. That’s what I thought.
• Washington @ Brigham Young (CBSCS): Does Jake Locker exact vengeance on the bogus personal foul call from a few years ago? (By the way, those could get a lot more bogus next year. More on that later.) Anyway, I don’t think so. I still like BYU here.
• Arkansas State @ Auburn (SEC on FSN/Gameplan): WHOOPS (when I originally wrote this I didn’t see the “State” in “Arkansas State”). Auburn rolls.

7:30: Northwestern @ Vanderbilt (SEC/Gameplan): Godspeed, Robbie Caldwell. Now hopefully your games are as entertaining as your press conferences, as you’ll probably only begin to realize the magnitude of your task here (a.k.a., realize why Bobby Johnson just woke up one morning in the middle of this summer and said “I quit!”). Oh, and I’ll take NU here.

7:45: Texas Christian vs. Oregon State (@Arlington, TX; ESPN): It’s the first edition of football schedules in the Intergalactic Space Palace, and it should be a doozy. I like TCU here, but Oregon State should put up a great fight.

8:00: Louisiana State vs. North Carolina (@Atlanta, GA; ABC): Well, I can’t say I liked Carolina much before this “academic fraud” business started because I still have no idea how they will score any points. Now, I’m not sure how LSU is going to score points either, but they seem to have gotten pretty far in spite of themselves. I think the EDSBS Live! folks summed it up best – this will either be a “cynical game” with a final score of 8-6 or a 3-2 “thriller” a la that Auburn-Miss State game from a couple of years ago.

10:00: Cincinnati @ Fresno State (ESPN2): Cincy has a great chance to prove they can still win without their greatest coach ever, but it won’t be easy. I think they hold court in THE VALLEY, though.

11:00: Wisconsin @ Nevada-Las Vegas (Versus): Wisconsin.

Sunday
2:00: Tulsa @ East Carolina (ESPN2): Here’s some good early season C-USA goodness for ya. There should at least be a lot of points. And remember, you probably have Monday off! So just sit around and enjoy some more football. Also, I like Tulsa. (Is it just me, or am I picking a lot of away games? Hrm.)

3:30: Southern Methodist @ Texas Tech (ESPN): Texas Tech begins their shameful OOC schedule run against the Mustangs, who at least are actually better than when TTU originally scheduled this game.

Monday
4:00: Navy vs. Maryland (@Baltimore, MD; ESPN): I like this game, despite the fact there’s a very real chance Maryland will embarrass the ACC by losing it. And I actually think they will. It’s just hard to see what Maryland will be able to do this year, as one of the trio of schools with coaches who more closely resemble zombies than head football coaches.

8:00: Boise State vs. Virginia Tech (@Landover, MD; ESPN): By far the biggest game of opening weekend. Both these teams think they have a shot at the national title, and the loser is out, as neither has room for error. It should be fun, it should be intense, and it should be close. But in the end, I think VPI just a better team – their offense is sketchy, of course, but their defense is just so good. While of course Boise has had time to prepare, well, it’s not Bud Foster has been sitting on his thumbs all summer, you know?

Anyway, I’d like to wrap up this column with a little feature looking back at 20 years ago in college football. Now, the season in 1990 didn’t actually begin until next weekend, but a few teams had played in the old “kickoff classics” the weekend before. One of them being the Colorado Buffaloes, who tied Tennessee 31-31 down in Anaheim in one of those games. They were ranked #5 in the pre-season AP poll, and would move down to #6 20 years ago this Monday. Georgia Tech was, at the time, unranked and had not yet played a game.

At any rate, enjoy the first weekend! This should be a very interesting year of college football.

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.

As usual, all times Eastern and all predictions wrong.

Friday
8:00: William & Mary @ Villanova (ESPN2): I’ll still refrain from making predictions about the DI-AA playoffs because, again, I don’t really know enough. At any rate, this semi-final is a rematch of two CAA divisional foes. Villanova won the first meeting in October 18-17, and both teams sport DI-A victories this season. And, hey, it’s Friday night – it’s not like anything else is on.

Saturday
1:00: Grand Valley State vs. Northwest Missouri State (@Florence, AL; ESPN2): This is for all the Division II marbles, folks. NW Missouri State is, from what I can tell, the Buffalo Bills of Division II – they’ve reached the title game four straight years and lost each time. This game is also a rematch of the 2005 and 2006 games.

2:00: Alabama A&M vs. Priarie View A&M (@Birmingham, AL; ESPN Classic): It’s the SWAC title game! Why the SWAC has a title game, I have no idea, but there you go!

2:30: Navy vs. Army (@Philadelphia, PA; CBS): Before the start of the UGA game a few weeks ago, my Dad said to my brother and I, “I guess I should be as nervous about Army-Navy as you guys are about this game,” or something to that effect. And indeed, Army fans haven’t had a whole to to cheer about lately. This is the first year they’ve even sniffed .500 since 1996, and they haven’t beaten Navy since 2001. And it’s not just to the losing to Navy over that span – the games haven’t really even been competitive, with an average score of Navy 39.14 and Army 10.14. Even though Navy is in a relative “down year” by their recently lofty standards, it’s difficult to pick against them.

4:00: Appalachian State @ Montana (ESPN): It’s the last game of the day, and it’s more DI-AA semi-final action. Montana is the number one overall seed and hasn’t lost since last year’s DI-AA title game, while Appy State has won three of the last four championships. This should be a good one.

Coming up next week, bowl predictions!

You should totally subscribe to my twitter feed.

As usual, all times Eastern and all predictions wrong.

Thursday
9:00: Oregon State @ Oregon (ESPN): The Civil War is back. On the line? A berth against Ohio State in the Rose Bowl. Cross-state rivalries don’t get much bigger than that. Add to the mix that this game is in Eugene, which is normally crazy but gets even crazier after dark. All year, I’ve felt that Oregon is one of the best teams in the Pac-10, with Oregon State in the echelon just slightly below the Ducks. I’ll stick to my guns here, but it could still be close. Worth watching, that’s for sure.

Friday
8:00: Central Michigan vs. Ohio (@Detroit, MI; ESPN2): (Author’s note: I just added the phrase “upset Temple” to my vocabulary so I can type the following sentence.) Ohio upset Temple Saturday to earn a berth in this game against everyone’s favorite mid-major Tebow, Dan LeFevour, as Central Michigan hopes to avoid being upset themselves a la Ball State in last year’s game. I don’t see that happening though.

Saturday
Noon:

• Cincinnati @ Pittsburgh (ABC): It’s the de facto Big East title game featuring the guy Notre Dame should hire (Brian Kelly of Cincy) and the guy whoever Notre Dame hires is likely to resemble (Dave Wannstadt). Which is to say, I just don’t see how Cincy loses here, as has been foretold by numerous message board pundits. Cincy plays decent enough defense and is light-years ahead of Pitt offensively.
• West Virginia @ Rutgers (ESPN): Despite Bill Stewart’s best efforts to the contrary, West Virginia will probably win this game.
• Houston @ East Carolina (ESPN2): This (the Conference USA title game) may be the most exciting of the noon games, in all honestly. ECU is probably one of the more mature teams in C-USA, while we know Houston’s going to score a lot of points and not play a lot of defense. This one is hard to figure, though note that the game is at East Carolina. In the end, I’ll take the flashy Houston offense, and if I were a betting man (as you might guess from the quality of my predictions, I’m not) I’d take the over on this one, whatever it is.

12:30: Fresno State @ Illinois (BTN): Fresno should be able to put the Illni out of their misery.

3:30:

• Arizona @ Southern California (ABC): Perhaps USC has its mojo back after Pete Carroll did everything but literally flip the bird to Rick Neuheisel last weekend? Can Arizona shake off the excitement from its own rivalry game (which they won on a last second FG)? I think USC will come out on top and salvage a Holiday Bowl bid in the process.
• Carson-Newman @ Grand Valley State (ESPN): More playoffs (playoffs?!?), this time brought to you by Division II. If nothing else, they’ll give you something to watch until…

4:00: Florida vs. Alabama (@Atlanta, GA; CBS): And so it has come to pass. Florida versus Alabama. Atlanta. SEC title game. Is there anything that I can say about this game that hasn’t been said already? Those of you who’ve tracked my bowl predictions throughout the year have no doubt noted that I’ve projected Alabama to the title game in most of them. For most of the season, this made sense. My perception has been that Alabama has sort of cooly and professionally sailed through their SEC schedule while Florida has looked vulnerable several times and was willed to win by a stingy defense and Tebow-ian moxie. Of course, then rivalry weekend happened, and Alabama found itself trailing to Auburn most of the game while Florida took Bobby Bowden and FSU out behind the woodshed.
The funny thing about perceptions, though, is sometimes (read: most of the time) they’re not always accurate. In SEC play, Florida outscored its opponents by 15.625 points per game. Alabama outscored its opponents by 15.375 points per game. Both are in the top quarter of the conference in scoring and are, by far, the two stingiest defenses (10.625 pts/game for Alabama 12 pts/game for Florida) in the SEC.
So what does this mean? This means the game will probably live up to its billing: tight, low-scoring, yet exciting. And, somehow, writing this is making me renege on my bowl predictions. I’m picking the Gators.

8:00:

• Nebraska vs. Texas (@Arlington, TX; ABC): I think we all know the expected result. Colt McCoy goes out there, completes 75% of his passes and runs for a bunch of yards. Yet while I’m fully aware of the disclaimers surrounding rivalry games (you might say I’m acutely aware of such things this year), Texas did struggle to put away Texas A&M and didn’t play that great of a defense. And, indeed, if there is any team in the Big 12 that can actually slow down Texas it would have to be Nebraska. The problem for Nebraska, of course, is that they themselves cannot score against Big 12 defense, which is pretty bad when you consider that they don’t get to play themselves. It’s hard to for me to go against the grain here.
• Georgia Tech vs. Clemson (@Tampla, FL; ESPN): So, as you may or may not know, I am actually leaving SFO at 12:30 AM to go to Tampa for this game. I’ll try to update as I go along.
  At any rate, when Clemson lost to (and by “lost to”, I mean “got shellacked by”) South Carolina on Saturday I was ecstatic. With a victory over Georgia, Tech would have all the advantages going into the ACC title game and could be reasonably expected to win.
  Yeah, well, so much for that.
  So instead we have two teams coming off losses to bitter rivals (though at least Tech’s offense showed up, unlike Clemson’s) playing for a berth to the Orange Bowl. So you have to assume both teams are going to be ready to play. Tech won the first meeting, 30-27, by building up an early lead (24-7 at the half), squandering it, and then kicked a late field goal to win it in regulation. Since then, both teams have an appropriate number of all-conference players (Tech has the 1st team QB, RB, WR, and DE, Clemson has the ACC Player of the Year) and so there doesn’t figure to be a lack of offense for this game, especially given Tech’s major issues on defense.
  Speaking of said defense, so far the wisdom in Tech circles what used to be a decent rush defense (the pass defense has been a known liability all year, and indeed that was mechanism for Clemson’s rally in the first game) relates to mostly two things. The first is overpersuit by the linebackers, and the second is our defensive tackles just got manhandled. Suffice it to say, both have been known issues all year, but they really manifested themselves last weekend. So what can Tech do to counter Clemson’s weapons? Well, keep them off the field, for starters. Secondly, this means doing whatever South Carolina did to limit CJ Spiller to 18 yards on 9 carries (and 19 yards on 3 receptions). Tech was able to “contain” Spiller on the ground (87 yards on 20 carries), but got gashed through the air (4 receptions for 69 yards) the first time.
  At any rate, we’ll see how it goes. This weekend promises to be crazy, regardless of the result.
• South Florida @ Connecticut (ESPN2): I’m as glad as anyone that UConn beat Notre Dame last weekend. (Indeed, if anyone deserved to get a win last weekend, it was UConn.) Unfortunately for them, they have to play USF this weekend, and I have to say I like the Bulls here.

8:30: California (PA) @ Northwest Missouri State (CBSCS): Just pushing more DII playoffs here, folks.

11:30: Wisconsin @ Hawaii (ESPN2): Hawaii could throw a spanner into the WAC bowl works by pulling off the upset here to get bowl eligible, but they probably won’t as long as Wisconsin takes their vacation at least somewhat seriously.

Like I said, I will be in Tampa this weekend! I may do a series of posts on my weekend, or maybe sign up on Twitter or something. We’ll see!

As usual, all times Eastern and all predictions wrong.

Noon:

• Clemson @ South Carolina (ESPN): Much was made over the past month of Clemson’s propensity of blowing late-season divisional leads, but they avoided any disappointment and clinched a trip to Tampa. South Carolina, meanwhile, has continued their own streak of November swoons, having not won since Oct. 24 against Vandy. Clemson, meanwhile, has won six straight and has found their offense while South Carolina hasn’t shown anything resembling one all season. Tigers win.
• North Carolina @ North Carolina State (ESPN2): This NC State team is just awful. Nothing embodies this more than the fortunes of QB Russell Wilson, who went into the season with a nearly year-long streak of interception-free games. After this and his other qualities were beginning to be noticed nationally, he’s been, well, less good—since Oct. 3, he’s thrown 11 picks. UNC has really rallied to get to 8-3 over the past couple of months, and I think they’ll go to 9-3.
• Mississippi @ Mississippi State (SEC/Gameplan): Ole Miss behind Dexter McCluster has put themselves firmly in control of 2nd place in the SEC West, and I don’t see this changing barring a huge upset by Miss State.
• Wake Forest @ Duke (Raycom/Gameplan): This is a tough game to pick. Neither of these teams have athletes that are necessarily superior to the other. Both are relatively close, losing consecutive games to mostly superior competition. I still like Duke’s offense overall, but Wake should be smarter defensively and Riley Skinner is probably the superior QB. I’ll take the Deacs.
• South Carolina State @ Appalachian State (ESPNU): Yes that’s right folks, we’re going to talk about the Division I-AA playoffs. Appy State has one of the most prolific offenses in all of I-AA, averaging 6.75 yards per play, against SC State’s highly ranked defense. No pick on this since I don’t really know enough, but I think these I-AA can be worth watching.

12:30: Oklahoma State @ Oklahoma (FSN): It’s bedlam! Though for the first time since I can remember, OSU will be favored. It feels a little bizarre, but it’s hard to dispute, especially after Oklahoma’s flop against Texas Tech.

1:30: Southern Mississippi @ East Carolina (CBSCS): This is for all the C-USA East marbles right here, and the winner will most likely face Houston next week in the C-USA title game. I think at this point ECU’s the slightly better team, though USM can probably put up the points to keep it interesting.

3:30:

• Florida State @ Florida (CBS): Florida.
• Arizona @ Arizona State (Gameplan/ABC): Last I checked, Arizona state’s straight-from-10th-grade freshman QBs are still terrible. So I’ll go with Arizona here.
• Missouri vs. Kansas (@Kansas City, MO; Gameplan/ABC): There is just no way Kansas wins this game, with the blowout last week and all the chaos surrounding the program. No way.
• University of Miami @ South Florida (ABC/ESPN/Gameplan): I think USF may be able hang in there, but overall Miami should take care of business.
• Virginia Tech @ Virginia (ESPN/ABC): Well, I’m 0-1 in my “so fired” pool, with Dan Hawkins inexplicably coming back next year. So what able Al Groh? UVA has to get rid of him notwithstanding the result of this game (where UVA is going to lose), right? Right?
• Boston College @ Maryland (ESPNU): Will the Fridge get fired? My 8-ball says “reply hazy, try again” so I’m not sure. I don’t need a magic 8-ball to tell me that Boston College should win this game, though.

5:00: Utah @ Brigham Young (CBSCS): It’s the MWC Runner-Up game! I like Utah here, personally.

6:00: Texas Tech vs. Baylor (@Arlington, TX; FSN): Well, Baylor gave it a good effort this year, but they still have at least another year or two of Robert Griffin. Texas Tech should take care of business over in Jerry Jone’s Intergalactic Space Palace.

7:00:

• Arkansas @ Louisiana State (ESPN): It’s the battle for the boot! I still think LSU is the better team, just not necessarily the better coach. They should win, but it may be interesting.
• Tennessee @ Kentucky (ESPNU): Hey, this Kentucky team is (very quietly) not terrible! Kiffin gets to bowl eligibility in his first year, but probably not much more.

8:00:

• Notre Dame @ Stanford (ESPN2/ABC): Completing the possible “so fired” trifecta is a one Charlie Weis. I feel pretty confident that he’s going to get canned, but perhaps the Domers should consider this is the best they can do? At any rate, Stanford should be able to blow them off the ball and control this game.
• Georgia @ Georgia Tech (ABC/ESPN2): To Hell With Georgia.

10:00: California-Los Angeles @ Southern California (FSN): UCLA got on a nice little 3-game win streak to get to bowl eligibility against the three worst teams in the conference. Despite USC’s recent efforts, they’re still better than the Wazzou’s and U-Dub’s of the world.

10:30: Navy @ Hawaii (ESPNU): Hawaii’s trying to make a late season push to be invited to their own bowl game, but I don’t like their odds. Especially since they should probably lose to Navy here.

As usual, all times Eastern and all predictions wrong.

Noon:

• Ohio State @ Michigan (ABC): Bright and early, the way they like it up and Big Ten country. Or perhaps they just want to get it over with? Ohio State should be able to roll against this defense.
• Minnesota @ Iowa (ESPN): While I’m sure we’d all like Iowa to lose again, they should manage to beat a now-hapless (but bowl eligible!) Minnesota squad. 13-9 sounds about right.
• North Carolina @ Boston College (ESPN2): It’s been erroneously reported Clemson has already clinched the ACC Atlantic. Not quite true, as BC should win out, but they would need Clemson to lose to have a shot. I like BC’s odds of winning out, but not so much the odds of Clemson winning.
• Duke @ University of Miami (ESPNU): After last week’s game, I’m okay with saying that this Duke team is better than years past. That’s also not saying much, but it’s a start. Miami should still win, though.
• Mississippi State @ Arkansas (SEC/Gameplan): Speaking of improved squads, Miss State is a lot better than years past, but again it says a lot about how bad they were that they’re still 4-6 and probably going to lose to Arkansas.
• Maryland @ Florida State (Raycom/Gameplan): FSU can get bowl eligible as long as they avoid falling to an utterly dreadful Maryland team. Since the rumors of the death of FSU’s offense seemed to be greatly exaggerated, they should be able to get it.

12:30: Oklahoma @ Texas Tech (FSN): Well, Oklahoma probably won’t win 65-21 this time around. Heck, they may even not win overall. It’s hard to tell at this point. I think I’ll take OU.

2:30: Connecticut @ Notre Dame (NBC): Ahahahahahaha. Anyway, ND should actually still win, as loathe as I am to admit. If there’s a team that deserves a break, it’s UConn.

3:30:

• Louisiana State @ Mississippi (CBS): I’m comfortable with saying LSU is probably a little better with this defense thing than Tennessee is. I refuse to be fooled by Ole Miss’s and McCluster’s sudden display of competence, or the fact that LSU at one point was losing to Louisiana Tech. LSU.
• Pennsylvania State @ Michigan State (ABC/ESPN): It’s pretty bad when you reasons is over because you lost to the only decent games you played. Michigan State made a late charge to bowl eligibilty, but I think PSU can pull this one out, as they have been all year.
• Virginia @ Clemson (ESPN/ABC): If BC loses to UNC in the early game, this game is moot. Otherwise, Clemson needs only to avoid a terrible loss to clinch the ACC Atlantic and meet us for a re-match in Tampa. They should be able to take care of business.
• North Carolina State @ Virginia Tech (ESPNU): Though VPI fans may be off the bandwagon, they should still beat NCSU.
• Air Force @ Brigham Young (CBSCS): This is pretty much a battle for bowl pecking order in the Mountain West. It’s hard to judge because these teams have both lost to TCU and BYU will probably lose to Utah (as AF already has). I like BYU better, I think AF will give them all they can handle.
• Wisconsin @ Northwestern (BTN): Mike Kafka says he wants the elusive 8th win, but deep inside the ennui of existence in the face of the world triumphs. Wisconsin keeps on doing what they do, which is win 9-10 games but not the Big Ten.

4:00:

• Arizona State @ California-Los Angeles (FSN): So Arizona State’s starting their 3rd string QB this weekend. I still think both of their backups look like they stepped out of a JV high school game and onto the field, but hey, whatever works for them. Well, except it’s not working terribly well. Meanwhile, UCLA is on a 2-game roll… against the two worst teams in the conference. So this could be good, in a sad sort of way. I’ll go with UCLA at this point.
• San Diego State @ Utah (Versus): Utah rolls.

7:00: Vanderbilt @ Tennessee (ESPNU): Sigh, I wish Vandy could win this game. It would be so great to see the calls for Kiffin’s head after a loss to Vandy. Sadly, Vandy just can’t score points this year. UT rolls.

7:30:

• California @ Stanford (Versus): It’s the Big Game! Cal put forth a valiant effort in the win against Arizona last weekend, but how can you pick against Stanford at this point? I sure can’t.
• Tulsa @ Southern Mississippi (CBSCS): Don’t look, but Tulsa has lost five straight. Hard to believe. But they just got absolute owned by ECU last weekend, and while USM probably won’t do the same, I have to like the dudes from Hattiesburg this weekend.

7:45

• Kansas State @ Nebraska (ESPN): I apologize to the entirety of my Mom’s side of the family (including two cousins of mine who are alums, including one who was on K-State’s football team) and the state of my birth but I have to hope Nebraska wins this to even make the Big 12 Title Game remotely interesting. Also, if K-State loses they won’t be bowl eligible at 6-6 thanks to the Bill Synder scheduling philosophy.
• Kentucky @ Georgia (ESPN2): I promise I won’t make any jokes about UGA VII dying. At any rate, Kentucky is on a roll, but this “roll” consists of victories over Auburn, UL-Monroe, EKU, and Vandy (and includes a loss to Miss State). Georgia’s trajectory is similar, which is pretty consistent with the rest of the mediocre center of the SEC. Also, Georgia managed to pull it out last week, which ruined the chance of us making them 5-7. So I’ll take UGA here.

8:00:

• Kansas @ Texas (ABC/Gameplan): Texas rolls.
• Oregon @ Arizona (Gameplan/ABC): Well, this is the de facto Pac-10 title game here. Oregon already kind of hurt their changes in that loss to Stanford but unless Masoli pulls a Dennis Dixon (sigh) they should be able to take care of business.

10:30: Nevada @ New Mexico State (ESPNU): Nevada. Now, sleep!