Thoughts on the weekend

Not a great weekend for college football fans. Florida and Alabama are taking the week off, basically. Texas plays disappointing Kansas. Ohio State-Michigan hasn't been much of a rivalry for about a decade now. Nobody in the top 10 has much of a test this weekend. I'd be stunned if the top 10 lost a single game this weekend. Maybe the top 15, in aggregate, loses 2 games, but they are probably more likely to go 11-0 than they are to go 9-2. It is not a good weekend to try to rise in the polls. Some changes will take place in the BCS standings as computers will do some fairly heavy shifting around with top 25 teams schedule-strength taking big hits.

LSU-Ole Miss highlights the SEC slate. I think in August it looked like it would be a great matchup, when Ole Miss was overrated and LSU was a potential sleeper. Alabama already has the SEC West wrapped up with 2 weeks left to be played, and it's been secure for a few weeks already! LSU wins this road game. In other SEC news, Tennessee gets bowl eligible with a win against Vandy and Georgia beats Kentucky.

In the ACC, there's nothing doing with Georgia Tech off this week and the other 3 ranked teams playing teams eliminated from bowl contention (NC State only has 6 losses, but played 2 I-AA teams so needed to go 7-5 to qualify). North Carolina is coming off a big win over over-hyped, over-ranked Miami. Boston College has quietly put together another solid campaign, but most likely finishes behind Clemson in the division. BC still wins this one though. For a conference with 9 bowls, it is looking like it may only get 7 teams eligible, assuming Florida State can beat Maryland. I'm counting Duke out which needs to win BOTH of its final two with Miami and Wake Forest. That loss to Richmond must be killing the Blue Devils!

The Big 12 should have had some good games: OU-Tech, Kansas-Texas, and even K-State at Nebraska. OU has been a disappointment. As has Kansas. Texas Tech did well for a rebuilding year, but I can guarantee you they are saddened by their record. K-State needs to win their game to get bowl eligible. And if they do win, they also win the division! Pathetic. OU, Texas, Nebraska, Missouri, and A&M come off victorious this weekend.

The Big East schedule isn't even worth mentioning.

The Big Ten provides the best OPPORTUNITY for upsets. Minnesota at Iowa, Ohio State at Michigan (yeah right), Wisconsin at Northwestern, and Penn State at Michigan State. 3 of the 4 ranked teams play on the road and the one that plays at home is Iowa, who eked out home wins over I-AA Northern Iowa, Sun Belt non-contender Arkansas State, and Michigan, and needed oodles of help from the men in stripes to pull off a home win against 4-7 Indiana. Of the 4 ranked teams, Wisconsin is playing the best football right now and is the one not playing a true rival. As far as upsets happening, Michigan State is the most likely. I'd love to Northwestern and Minnesota to pull off theirs, but I don't think so. Rich Rod is almost as big of a disaster in Ann Arbor as Charlie Weis is in South Bend. I wish we could stop hearing about both of them. Seriously.

In the non-BCS conferences, only two games put two games with winning records against each other: Northern Illinois at Ohio and Air Force at BYU. Go Bobcats. I like TCU to win convincingly in somewhat of a letdown game (still by 3 TDs though). Utah wins a struggle against an SDSU team that is fighting for its postseason life. I'm sure the Ute ego took a huge hit with that performance last week. They haven't been dominated like that since a 27-0 loss to currently coachless UNLV back in 2007. I'm curious to see how they respond. CSU edges a somewhat rejuvenated but still extremely poor 0-10 New Mexico team in the battle for last place.

The Pac 10 has two very good games. Cal at red hot, but still beatable Stanford and the Oregon Ducks on the road against the pesky Arizona Wildcats. The old adage: defense wins championships need not apply. Stanford has won games by outscoring people, as has Oregon. Look no further then their head-to-head matchup for proof of that: Stanford won 51-42. I think road teams come away victorious this weekend: Cal upsets Stanford and Oregon pounds Arizona to the tune of 500 yards and 42+ points.