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!

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.