This Week in College Football 10/12 - 10/15

[Bored 0]

Not only a weak schedule overall but very light on the t.v. coverage this week.

 

Network/Basic Cable Schedule

 

THURSDAY

#22 Virginia Tech at Boston College, 7:30/4:30 PM, ESPN

 

FRIDAY

Pittsburgh at Central Florida, 8:00/5:00 PM, ESPN2

 

SATURDAY

Minnesota at #25 Wisconsin, Noon/9:00 AM, ESPN

#15 Iowa at Indiana, Noon/9:00 AM, ESPN2

Iowa State at #23 Oklahoma, 12:30 PM/9:30 AM, FSN

 

Mississippi at Alabama, 3:30/12:30 PM, CBS

#1 Ohio State at Michigan State, 3:30/12:30 PM, ABC*

UCLA at #18 Oregon, 3:30/12:30 PM, ABC*

#19 Missouri at Texas A&M, 3:30/12:30 PM, ABC*

 

Baylor at #6 Texas, 7:00/4:00 PM, TBS

#2 Florida at #11 Auburn, 7:45/4:45 PM, ESPN

#4 Michigan at Penn State, 8:00/5:00 PM, ABC*

Arizona State at #3 USC, 8:00/5:00 PM, ABC*

 

SUNDAY

#20 Boise State at New Mexico State, 8:00/5:00 PM, ESPN

 

Other Cable/Gameplan Schedule

 

THURSDAY

Temple at #12 Clemson, 7:30/4:30 PM, ESPNU

 

SATURDAY

South Florida at North Carolina, Noon/9:00 AM, ESPNU

Wake Forest at N.C. State, Noon/9:00 AM, LF/GP

Purdue at Northwestern, Noon/9:00 AM, GP

Syracuse at #5 West Virginia, Noon/9:00 AM, GP

Vanderbilt at #16 Georgia, 12:30 PM/9:30 AM, LF/GP

#24 Rutgers at Navy, 1:30 PM/10:30 AM, CSTV

Northern Illinois at Western Michigan, 2:00 PM/11:00 AM, GP

Cincinnati at #7 Louisville, 3:30/12:30 PM, ESPNU

Louisiana-Monroe at Troy, 4:00/1:00 PM, GP

Hawaii at Fresno State, 5:00/2:00 PM, GP

Florida International at Miami, 7:00/4:00 PM, GP

UAB at Rice, 7:30/4:30 PM, CSTV

New Mexico at UNLV, 10:00/7:00 PM, CSTV

 

All Other D-IA Games

 

THURSDAY

Southern Utah at Florida Atlantic

Colorado State at Air Force

 

SATURDAY

Army at Connecticut

Florida State at Duke

Miami of Ohio at Buffalo

Ball State at Central Michigan

SE Missouri State at #17 Arkansas

Arkansas State at Memphis

Oklahoma State at Kansas

Jacksonville State at Mississippi State

Tulsa at East Carolina

Marshall at SMU

Utah at Wyoming

Texas Tech at Colorado

Maryland at Virginia, ESPN360

Eastern Michigan at Bowling Green

Toledo at Kent State

Arizona at Stanford

#10 California at Washington State

Utah State at San Jose State

Oregon State at Washington

Ohio at Illinois, ESPN360

Idaho at Louisiana Tech

Houston at Southern Miss

#21 Nebraska at Kansas State

Kentucky at #14 LSU

Tulane at UTEP

[Guest Princess Leena]

Games that interest me:

 

Boise St./NMSU. QB Chase Holbrook is supposed to be some stud, and he's put up impressive stats for the Aggies. This should be a fun shootout.

 

Rutgers/Navy. Here's another step for Rutgers, against a very impressive running team. FB Jeff Ballard is a player to watch. He reminds me a lot of Alstott.

 

Arizona/Stanford. If Stanford is gonna win a game, this is probably their best shot left.

 

Damn, CBS gets the raw end of the stick with Ole Miss/Bama. Pee Ooh.

[Guest]

No problem with having to miss these games. If I have to work, I'm glad it's this Saturday.

[teke184 0]

This was a good weekend for Southern Miss to have Homecoming against Houston...

 

It meant that I could skip out on LSU-Kentucky in order to go.

 

 

(LSU season tickets are expensive enough that I'd be pissed if I skipped a possible big game like LSU-Fresno State or LSU-Bama after paying so much.)

[Kinetic 0]

In what poll was Florida #2? That totally blows the whole everyone-sucks-but-the-SEC argument that I was going to make. But, realistically, this is the test for the Gators. If they can beat Auburn, they should be able to handle Georgia, South Carolina, and Florida State, and will have earned the right to play Ohio State in the National Championship Game.

[Bored 0]

AP poll but it of course is not in the BCS. Coaches' and Harris poll have USC #2. First BCS rankings will be out on Sunday.

[Art Sandusky 0]

No wonder Florida/Auburn is getting that Full Circle treatment, ESPN lucked into the most competitive looking game of the week. Michigan/Penn State would be a nice national night game if I wasn't expecting Michigan to destroy them. I hope Penn State avenges their sole loss from last year though.

 

Don't you people out west get tired of seeing USC on ABC every Saturday night?

[Jorge Gorgeous 0]

Games that interest me:

 

Boise St./NMSU. QB Chase Holbrook is supposed to be some stud, and he's put up impressive stats for the Aggies. This should be a fun shootout.

 

Rutgers/Navy. Here's another step for Rutgers, against a very impressive running team. FB Jeff Ballard is a player to watch. He reminds me a lot of Alstott.

 

Arizona/Stanford. If Stanford is gonna win a game, this is probably their best shot left.

 

Damn, CBS gets the raw end of the stick with Ole Miss/Bama. Pee Ooh.

 

If Jeff Ballard ends up in the NFL after his tour of duty, I hope Chris Berman has enough pop culture awareness to nickname him Jeff "Well, I'm gettin' something really special too. And by special I don't mean special like that Kleinaman boy down the street. More special like... like Special K, the cereal. Hey, what do they do with the regular K? And for that matter, what ever happend to K. Ballard? You know, if you said mallard and you had a cold, it would sound like" Ballard.

 

Its no Drew Bledsoe-much that he needed a blood transfusion, but its something.

[Bored 0]

Here's the unofficial BCS Top 25 from collegebcs.com as again there's only one computer ranking that is not public yet. This will give a good idea of what the rankings are going to look like on Sunday as outside of Auburn/Florida there isn't another game that could have a big impact on the rankings unless there is a big upset.

 

1) Ohio State 2) USC 3) Florida 4) Michigan 5) Louisville 6) Notre Dame 7) Tennessee 8) Texas 9) West Virginia 10) Auburn 11) California 12) Clemson 13) Iowa 14) Boise State 15) Arkansas 16) Missouri 17) Oregon 18) Georgia 19) Georgia Tech 20) Nebraska 21) LSU 22) Virginia Tech 23) Rutgers 24) Boston College 25) Oklahoma

[Guest Princess Leena]

Heh. That's FB Adam Ballard, btw. I have no idea why I always call him Jeff.

[Guest Smues]

No wonder Florida/Auburn is getting that Full Circle treatment, ESPN lucked into the most competitive looking game of the week. Michigan/Penn State would be a nice national night game if I wasn't expecting Michigan to destroy them. I hope Penn State avenges their sole loss from last year though.

 

Don't you people out west get tired of seeing USC on ABC every Saturday night?

 

Yes.

[cabbageboy 0]

In regards to Rutgers/Navy....Rutgers is such a joke. I mean honestly. They are 5-0 against one of the lamest schedules on earth, and two of those wins were a 5 point win over UNC (who is horrible) and a 2 point win over USF. I bet Navy takes them out, or if not Navy then Pitt will wax them the next game.

 

Of course now that I trash Rutgers watch them catch U of L napping since that is the game right after the WVU game, on the road to boot.

[Guest Princess Leena]

I'm very much the other way on the Rutgers/Navy game. All Navy will do is run, and Rutgers has completely shut down their opponents' running games, even if they've been weak teams. RU's defensive talent is much better than Navy has seen all year. Plus, Rutgers plays Navy every year, so there should be some familiarity with defending the option, also. UNC ran a bit of option, as well.

[Edwin MacPhisto 0]

I'm down with Rutgers. I watched them play Illinois and USF, and while the former sucks and the latter is just okay, Rutgers played like a complete team. I don't see them winning the Big East but I expect 8 wins out of them at this point.

[Spicy McHaggis 0]

No wonder Florida/Auburn is getting that Full Circle treatment, ESPN lucked into the most competitive looking game of the week. Michigan/Penn State would be a nice national night game if I wasn't expecting Michigan to destroy them. I hope Penn State avenges their sole loss from last year though.

 

Don't you people out west get tired of seeing USC on ABC every Saturday night?

No way... we love it! Trojan Football is LA's top sporting attraction. Saturday night games are a staple of college football season. Of course, this is coming from a bona fide Trojan himself!

 

As for Florida, I think both Michigan and USC have better claims to the #2 spot than the Gators do. The schedules of the Wolverines and the Trojans are much tougher overall than Florida's schedule.

[USC Wuz Robbed! 0]

I dunno, I'd have to give it to Florida over USC right now.

[gWIL 0]

Michigan>USC>Florida.

[Edwin MacPhisto 0]

No wonder Florida/Auburn is getting that Full Circle treatment, ESPN lucked into the most competitive looking game of the week. Michigan/Penn State would be a nice national night game if I wasn't expecting Michigan to destroy them. I hope Penn State avenges their sole loss from last year though.

 

Don't you people out west get tired of seeing USC on ABC every Saturday night?

No way... we love it! Trojan Football is LA's top sporting attraction. Saturday night games are a staple of college football season. Of course, this is coming from a bona fide Trojan himself!

 

As for Florida, I think both Michigan and USC have better claims to the #2 spot than the Gators do. The schedules of the Wolverines and the Trojans are much tougher overall than Florida's schedule.

I'm not really sure that I buy that. Arkansas is a much different (and far better team) now than they were in the opener. Which is not to say that I'd discount the win or anything. The Pac 10 looks like it's full of good-but-not-great teams (both Washington schools fit that bill) and right now I don't think anyone in the country has as good a resume as Tennessee/LSU/Alabama.

 

Plus, having watched all three teams, Florida's just executing a lot better than USC right now. More balance all around. I'd have USC at #3 or #4 and USC or Michigan may develop to be better than Florida by the end of the season, but I think the Gators are a step above them now.

 

Does anyone think Ohio State isn't #1 right now? I think I could make a strong pro-Gators argument, but overall OSU still seems to be operating more crisply and confidently than anyone in an extremely balanced system.

[Guest Princess Leena]

I'd make a case for Michigan, although OSU is still #1, IMO. The only question I have with OSU is how talented their offense is... because it was hardly dominating vs. Penn St. or a banged up Texas secondary. I think Michigan has a fair shot against them in Columbus if Henne has a good game.

[Urban Warfare 0]

As for Florida, I think both Michigan and USC have better claims to the #2 spot than the Gators do. The schedules of the Wolverines and the Trojans are much tougher overall than Florida's schedule.

 

Haha.

[Bored 0]

I wouldn't laugh. On collegebcs.com they post strength of schedule rankings based on the BCS' old formula for calculating strength of schedule that is no longer factored and USC currently has the toughest schedule in the country to this point with Florida in 3rd.

[Guest Princess Leena]

USC has played quite a tough schedule. Arkansas and Nebraska only lost to USC. Wazzu and UW are 4-2.

[nogoodnick 0]

With 4-1's Oregon, Cal, Notre Dame and UCLA coming up to finish the season it certainly isn't an easy road for USC.

[Crimson Platypus 0]

Well you guys won't have to worry about Ohio State being number one after Saturday when the Spartans... bah I can't even type that sarcastically, it just doesn't work.

 

 

The sad thing is that I have a fairly strong source that says that MSU can't afford to buy out Joke L.'s contract anytime soon. Looks like we are stuck with him for 2 more years.

[lomasmoney 0]

Typical state..... and I don't think that anyone could say that Michigan or USC has a tougher schedule than Florida. After the next two weeks, Michigan doesn't play anyone with a pulse leading up to the OSU game. USC played a pretty good (now) Arkansas team and beat them bad. They beat Nebraska in a game that seemed like the Huskers were more worried about not getting blown out than winning. Now they have pretty tough stretch with Cal,ND,Oregon, but they are playing two teams (Oregon and ND) that should have two losses already if it wasn't for the ineptitude of the Pac-10 refs and John L. Smith. Which call team will show up? Who knows. That should be SC's only legit challenge the rest of the year. If Michigan ate up ND's corners, then with Jarrett and Smith, USC should have a field day passing the football downfield

[Art Sandusky 0]

Florida would beat USC thanks to a shocking Arkansas run-in.

[Jorge Gorgeous 0]

Typical state..... and I don't think that anyone could say that Michigan or USC has a tougher schedule than Florida. After the next two weeks, Michigan doesn't play anyone with a pulse leading up to the OSU game. USC played a pretty good (now) Arkansas team and beat them bad. They beat Nebraska in a game that seemed like the Huskers were more worried about not getting blown out than winning. Now they have pretty tough stretch with Cal,ND,Oregon, but they are playing two teams (Oregon and ND) that should have two losses already if it wasn't for the ineptitude of the Pac-10 refs and John L. Smith. Which call team will show up? Who knows. That should be SC's only legit challenge the rest of the year. If Michigan ate up ND's corners, then with Jarrett and Smith, USC should have a field day passing the football downfield

 

I don't understand how you can say that when Washington and Washington State were legitimate challenges. The cursory "well, every great team goes through one tough game a year" is no longer applicable. While UW and WSU have outdone everyone's expectations, they're still not on the same level team as Oregon and Notre Dame. I don't expect either team to beat USC, but I'm certainly not confident enough to put any money on it.

[Kinetic 0]

In the event that Florida does sweep their October schedule, does it lose some luster with both Auburn and Georgia now having one loss? I mean, they managed to leapfrog West Virginia by beating a highly-regarded one-loss team in LSU, but I'm a little concerned that they've hit the ceiling if USC or Ohio State don't end up losing somewhere along the line.

[iggymcfly 0]

Yeah, I don't see how they'd end up in the BCS championship game over an undefeated USC team. Even if they move up to #2 after beating Auburn next week, USC will just take the spot back if they beat Oregon, Cal, and Notre Dame.

[Guest Princess Leena]

Florida is definitely fucked if OSU and USC (and probably Michigan) finish undefeated. Even more so because they both have their biggest national games of the year in late November.