As usual, all times Eastern and all predictions wrong.

Noon:

• Auburn @ Clemson (ABC): It’s Tigers v. Tigers once again. Tough to predict, though. Clemson hasn’t really done much of anything at all. Auburn meanwhile has escaped by the skin of its teeth twice so far this season against bad teams (Utah State) and decent teams (Mississippi State). Coaching matchups don’t help either, as I trust Dabo and Chizik about as far as I can throw them. Complete tossup to me – I’ll give the edge to Auburn.
• Pennsylvania State @ Temple (ESPN): Meanwhile, Pitt wonders what it has to do to get some love from the Nittany Lions.
• Pittsburgh @ Iowa (ESPN2): Speaking of Pitt (seriously, I didn’t even realize this was next) they’ll take on a moribund Iowa squad that just lost to Iowa State. If the Big East will make any noise this year, it has to start with games like this. Personally, I don’t think they can do it.
• West Virginia @ Maryland (ESPNU): Well, at least Maryland will look less wacky this time around. WVU should roll.
• Eastern Michigan @ Michigan (BTN): Given what we know now, which, granted, isn’t much, at least Michigan is still playing an exciting brand of football. They shouldn’t need any excitement or last minute heroics to beat Eastern Michigan, though.
• Mississippi @ Vanderbilt (SEC): Every year it seems like this game is the game Ole Miss should win. And then they don’t! That’s why this is an underrated game to watch. That said, Ole Miss should still win though.

12:30:

• Duke @ Boston College (ACC): I think BC can manage to win this one. The fact I’m even having to think about it says a lot more about BC than it does Duke.
• Kansas @ Georgia Tech (ACC/FSN): I tried briefly to think of a way to describe this game without drawing on last year’s debacle. I can’t. Allow me to play psychologist for a moment, though. Does drawing on a loss like that really work? Or do you get your players so worked up about avoiding another debacle on that scale that they screw up again, or perhaps in an even more horrific fashion than the previous time? I suppose there’s only way to find out.

1:30: Colorado State vs. Colorado (@Denver, CO; FSN): This has to be one of the few mid-major vs. major rivalries out there, I would think. Or, at least one that forces the major portion of the equation to play it every year at a neutral site. Of course, having already suffered a 34-17 rout to a mid-major school, it’s hard to go with the Buffs in this one.

3:30:

• Michigan State @ Notre Dame (NBC): I don’t think Sparty’s going to need any last minute shenanigans to prevail over the Irish.
• Tennessee @ Florida (CBS): I might tune in to the start of this one just to hear the CBS intro music. Chills up my spine, every time. Anyway, as for the actual game, Florida’s had a couple of walkovers and so has Tennessee. For no apparent reason, I like the Gators in each of these teams’ first true test.
• Washington @ Nebraska (ABC/ESPN): Speaking of revenge games, if there’s anyone in this world who would be looking to avenge an embarrassing loss, it would be Bo Pellini. Nebraska wins going away.
• Texas @ California-Los Angeles (ESPN/ABC): Texas found a semblance of an offense last weekend. UCLA hasn’t had one of those in years.
• Texas Tech @ New Mexico (Versus): I think even Tommy Tuberville can break 50 points in this one.
• Virginia @ North Carolina (ESPNU): Both of these teams have close wins over shaky teams (Indiana and Rutgers, respectively) making this one hard to call. This should be a close slapflight of a game, probably breaking in favor of the Tar Heels.
• Northwestern @ Army (CBSS): I’ve got a sinking feeling Army’s going to straight to 0-3.
• Miami @ Minnesota (BTN): Tune in to see Jerry Kill back on the sidelines for UMN, but otherwise this is the Miami in Ohio, so even the Gophers should be able to wax those guys.

4:00: Arkansas State @ Virginia Tech (ACC/FSN): Speaking of waxing, er, let’s use another mataphor. Beatdown? That seems apropos for VPI, who won 17-10 last weekend at ECU. It’ll be physical, and perhaps uncomfortably close, but VPI will get ahead and stay ahead sometime in the early 2nd half.

6:00: Navy @ South Carolina (ESPN2): South Carolina has the kind of defensive line that gives Paul Johnson derived offenses fits. Okay, in fairness, they’ll give all sorts of offenses fits. Navy may try some unconventional tactics but I suspect Clowney will remind fans of the GT/Navy offense of the havok Da’Quan Bowers wrought for Clemson against Tech last year. Based on that, I don’t think this one’s going to be close.

7:00:

• Louisville @ Kentucky (ESPNU): I guess this used to be a mid-major vs. major rivalry, but let’s face it, this is just a warmup for basketball season anyway. Especially since the Wildcats should win this pretty easily against a banged up, not very good Louisville team.
• Arizona State @ Illinois (BTN): I have a feeling that this may get ugly, and not in a good way for Illinois.
• Kent State @ Kansas State (FCS): Ah, the Flashes are just the sort of out-of-conference opponent Bill Synder loves.

7:30:

• Ohio State @ Miami (ESPN): First off, best nickname, far and away for this game: the Ineligibowl. With that out of the way, let’s talk football. Both of these squads are depleted, yes, but only one of the managed to lose to Maryland two weeks ago and it wasn’t Ohio State. Buckeyes should be able to get up for this one and prevail.
• North Texas @ Alabama (SEC/FSN): Tide rolls.
• Troy @ Arkansas (SEC): I love it when Troy plays the “plucky, hard-to-dispatch team from the Sun Belt” role but considering their shellacking from their game with Clemson it’s hard to envision anything but a blowout against the Razorbacks

8:00:

• Oklahoma @ Florida State (ABC): Listen carefully, and you will hear the sound of a million TV remotes being pressed to their local ABC stations for this one. That said, this may be the best FSU team in 10 years. I may even root for them in the off-chance a win by them restores some measure of respect for the ACC. But realistically, Oklahoma will line up with advantages on both sides of the ball and two weeks to prepare. Thanks to home field advantage, it probably won’t be an embarrassment like last year, but it’s hard to see how the end result will be different.
• Syracuse @ Southern California (FX): Gus Johnson will try his best, but I highly doubt even he can rescue this probably snoozer in the Trojans’ favor.

9:15: Utah @ Brigham Young (ESPN2): So when both those 8:00 games are decided, flip over here for the Holy War. This game is usually a lot of fun to watch, and it’s nice to see that at least for now the game was preserved. Hard to say who’s going to win this year’s edition, but I’ll give the Stormin’ Mormons a slight edge.

10:00:

• Oklahoma State @ Tulsa (FSN): I like these late night games, though of course I am on the West Coast so they’re not really that late. What all three of these probably will be, though, are blowouts. This one probably has the best chance to not be a complete blowout.
• Hawaii @ Nevada-Las Vegas (CBSS): For instance, you see this game and you think it might be a shootout. You’d be wrong, though, as UNLV is probably one of the five worst teams in the country.

10:45: Stanford @ Arizona (ESPN): Arizona already gave up 37 points to Oklahoma State last week. Andrew Luck and Co. might double that.

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.