This Week in College Football 10/26 - 10/29

[Bored 0]

Ya, this is a bad week. With no Saturday night game again it will be another doubleheader with three time slots on ABC.

 

Network/Basic Cable Schedule

 

THURSDAY

#12 Clemson at Virginia Tech, 7:30/4:30 PM, ESPN

 

FRIDAY

UTEP at Tulsa, 8:00/5:00 PM, ESPN2

 

SATURDAY

#9 Notre Dame vs. Navy, Noon/9:00 AM, CBS

#19 Oklahoma at #20 Missouri, Noon/9:00 AM, ABC*

Penn State at Purdue, Noon/9:00 AM, ABC*

Northwestern at #2 Michigan, Noon/9:00 AM, ESPN

Illinois at #18 Wisconsin, Noon/9:00 AM, ESPN2

 

BYU at Air Force, 2:00 PM/11:00 AM, Versus

Georgia vs. #6 Florida, 3:30/12:30 PM, CBS

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

Miami at #24 Georgia Tech, 3:30/12:30 PM, ABC*

#22 Nebraska at Oklahoma State, 3:30/12:30 PM, ABC*

#3 USC at Oregon State, 3:30/12:30 PM, FSN

 

#25 Washington State at UCLA, 7:00/4:00 PM, ABC*

Florida State at Maryland, 7:00/4:00 PM, ESPN2

#7 Texas at Texas Tech, 7:00/4:00 PM, TBS

#11 Tennessee at South Carolina, 7:45/4:45 PM, ESPN

 

SUNDAY

Connecticut at #14 Rutgers, 8:00/5:00 PM, ESPN

 

Other Cable/Gameplan Schedule

 

SATURDAY

Northern Illinois at Iowa, Noon/9:00 AM, ESPNU

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

Michigan State at Indiana, Noon/9:00 AM, GP

Syracuse at Cincinnati, Noon/9:00 AM, GP

#5 Auburn at Mississippi, 12:30 PM/9:30 AM, LF/GP

Florida International at Alabama, 3:00 PM/Noon, GP

Wake Forest at North Carolina, 3:30/12:30 PM, ESPNU

Central Florida at Houston, 4:00/1:00 PM, CSTV

New Mexico State at Nevada, 4:00/1:00 PM, GP

Louisiana-Monroe at #13 Arkansas, 7:00/4:00 PM, ESPNU

East Carolina at Southern Miss, 7:30/4:30 PM, CSTV

Idaho at Hawaii, Midnight/9:00 PM, GP

 

All Other D-IA Games

 

SATURDAY

Buffalo at #17 Boston College, ESPN360

Vanderbilt at Duke

Bowling Green at Temple

Ball State at Miami of Ohio

Colorado at Kansas

Ohio at Kent State

Army at Tulane

Kentucky at Mississippi State

North Texas at Troy

Eastern Michigan at Western Michigan

Iowa State at Kansas State

UNLV at Utah

Arkansas State at Florida Atlantic

Memphis at Marshall

Middle Tennessee at Louisana-Lafayette

New Mexico at Colorado State

Louisiana Tech at San Jose State

Arizona State at Washington

Portland State at #23 Oregon

Akron at Toledo, ESPN360

#21 Texas A&M at Baylor

Wyoming at TCU

Cal Poly at San Diego State

[Guest Princess Leena]

BYU-Air Force is my game of the day. Go Cougars.

[Art Sandusky 0]

Clemson/VT, Miami/GT, Texas/TT, Georgia/Florida, and of course Tennessee/South Carolina all interest me. I just look at weeks like this as chances for fun stuff to happen. Records, upsets, whatever.

[Vern Gagne 0]

Minnesota-Ohio St. is going to be ugly.

 

The Gophers are axepecially bad on the national stage.

[iggymcfly 0]

BYU-Air Force is my game of the day. Go Cougars.

 

The ACC's where it's at this week. Wake, Clemson, and Maryland are all woefully undervalued. Putting every dollar you can scrape together on the Wisconsin moneyline is also a sound strategy.

 

As far as games of interest, I'm obviously all over the GT/Miami game. Even though the Clemson game was for the pride of being the best team in the conference, this week's way more important in terms of trying to qualify for the ACC title game. Whoever wins this game will take the Coastal Division barring a total collapse.

 

For national games of interest, it is a pretty bad week though. Ohio State, Michigan, and USC are all taking on cupcakes this week although Oregon State will probably manage to keep it close for three quarters. At least this is probably the end of the dull weeks. Next week, we've got West Virginia/Louisville and I think USC/Cal's the week after. Even Michigan/Ohio State's not too far out now.

[lomasmoney 0]

Michigan can't overlook Northwestern at home this week. They have to put it away early and give the starters some time to rest. They need to stay sharp and focused going into the game in Columbus

[Guest Princess Leena]

BYU is only my game of the week for betting purposes. I hope my likely overrating of BYU isn't true.

 

This is quite a bad week.

 

I only hope Missouri blows out OU. We should bring Dama back then.

[Edwin MacPhisto 0]

As a Virginia fan when the team's having a down year, I couldn't be happier about having another chance to see VT get wrecked on a Thursday night.

 

The ACC is so weird to me. Wake's gonna get to 7 wins this week and will probably finish the year with a better record than FSU. GT more or less clinches their division with a win. I love this delicious chaos.

[HarleyQuinn 0]

Several big games in the I-AA division this week... Here's hoping the upsets continue fast and furious.

 

Ohio Valley Conference Game: #14 Eastern Illinois (3-3) @ #12 Tennessee-Martin (5-1)

Gateway Conference Game: #10 Youngstown State (5-1) @ #3 Illinois State (4-1)

Atlantic 10 Conference Game: #5 James Madison (4-1) @ #13 Richmond (4-1)

Southern Conference Game: #8 Furman (4-2) @ #1 Appalachian State (5-1)

[Edwin MacPhisto 0]

Hey, Harley. How do I-AA games against I-A teams affect their rankings? Does a team like North Dakota State get a bunch of support because they almost beat Minnesota? Do teams like Montana and Maine, who've knocked off BCS conference teams in the past few years, get credit in their own rankings for that? Or are I-A/I-AA games completely unrecognized?

[HarleyQuinn 0]

I'd say there's definitely some legitimacy in terms of rising up (usually) the rankings in terms of a I-AA team squaring off against a I-A team. Very rarely do ranked teams see a huge slide (maybe 3-5 spots depending on if it's a blowout).

 

Games like Illinois State hanging with Kansas State, UMass hanging with Navy, and Weber State beating Colorado State were all impressive ranking wise but in the end, it's a I-AA division and if you don't compete well against the I-AA teams then it's all for naught (e.g. Weber State who are 2-5 on the season).

 

You'll see that a lot of I-AA vs. I-A games where games are close/upsets occur tend to involve teams that are ranked in the Top 25 in I-AA as well.

 

Just to highlight ranking help: Illinois State is currently #3, UMass is #4, North Dakota State is #6 (up from #9 last week) and New Hampshire is #11 after 2 straight losing weeks while still beating Northwestern earlier.

[Guest Agent of Oblivion]

Oh awesome, it's time for the annual Notre Dame/Navy slaughter. Are we going on what, 40 years now since Navy won?

[HarleyQuinn 0]

I was bored so I compiled a list of games where I-AA teams either won or lost by at maximum 7 to I-A teams thus far this season to help give an idea of how good I-AA teams can be.

 

Wins over I-A teams (6 games)

Montana State b. Colorado 19-10

Richmond b. Duke 13-0

Portland State b. New Mexico 17-6

New Hampshire b. Northwestern 34-17

Southern Illinois b. Indiana 35-28

North Dakota State b. Ball State 29-24

 

Losses by 7 points or less (7 games)

Kansas State b. Illinois State 24-23

Navy b. Massachusetts 21-20

Idaho b. Idaho State 27-24

South Carolina b. Wofford 27-20

North Carolina b. Furman 45-42

Iowa State b. Northern Iowa 28-27

Minnesota b. North Dakota State 10-9

 

Interesting to note that North Dakota State appeared on both lists.

[Guest Princess Leena]

Navy would have given ND a tougher game if Hampton's leg didn't fall off. I still think they'll be able to run, and likely keep it somewhat close.

 

I wish there were more I-AA games on TV. Other than the occasional playoff games that ESPN shows, and Idaho bumfuck games shown on Alternate Sports Channel #6.

[Art Sandusky 0]

USC fans around here have let having Steve Spurrier as a coach delude them. I've gotten nothing but shit from everyone who sees me wearing a Tennessee cap or the T magnet on my car. It's an annual thing, but they're super cocky this year. Haha, cocky. Anyways, Tennessee is going to rip out and devour the spine of South Carolina this Saturday. Last year was an abberation, and they struggled to beat a Vol team that never even made a bowl.

 

On the bright side, this is the one time of year my fan gear isn't confused with Clemson.

[iggymcfly 0]

I wish there more less I-AA games on TV. Every time a major national game is pre-empted for Montana State vs. UC Davis, I want to gouge my eyes out.

[Guest Princess Leena]

I feel for you. I watched some of Idaho St. vs. someone that was played in a basketball stadium, it looked like. It would blow if that replaced a big afternoon game.

[Der Kommissar 0]

I remember watching the end of Hofstra/Delaware last year. That was awful.

 

Despite having one of the better running backs in the league, Delaware didn't even bother trying to get him the ball when they had a 2nd goal at the Hofstra 1, while being down 10-6 late in the game. Sure, he was having a bad day on the ground, but I think I'd trust my big time running back to be able to punch it in from the 1. They didn't, apparently, as they threw three passes that went nowhere. Just utterly baffling coaching late in that game.

[Art Sandusky 0]

Clemson's having a really hard time getting anything going tonight, down 17-7 in the third quarter. The VT defense came to play.

[Bored 0]

You could almost see this coming. Clemson coming off a great performance and having to come in on a short week against a team having a down year but who is usually very tough at home. This will give BC a huge advantage in the Atlantic division.

[Vern Gagne 0]

Clemson can probably kiss any shot of making the ACC championship game goodbye.

[Art Sandusky 0]

At least they continued the fine tradition of a South Carolina school losing the very week it cracked the top ten. The teams' schedules that were shown early in the third showed just how much Thursday games favor the home team. To think, I almost picked VT in the pick'em. Damn.

[Guest Vitamin X]

Florida International at Alabama, 3:00 PM/Noon, GP

What the hell was FIU thinking before they made this year's schedule, seriously?

 

Portland State at #23 Oregon

 

Hey, school I'll be attending in two months vs. school I'll be attending afterwards. Not fair on Oregon to beat up on my poor Vikings!

[Guest Princess Leena]

If you're a lowly team, you may well get some cash out of it. Buffalo's doing the same this year, as they'll lose by 40 to BC this week.

[iggymcfly 0]

If you're a lowly team, you may well get some cash out of it. Buffalo's doing the same this year, as they'll lose by 36 or less to BC this week.

 

Hate to have to fix all your posts, but I think this one's important.

[Bored 0]

 

[Guest Princess Leena]

If you're a lowly team, you may well get some cash out of it. Buffalo's doing the same this year, as they'll lose by 36 or less to BC this week.

 

Hate to have to fix all your posts, but I think this one's important.

Heh. I'm with Buffalo this week, also. Supposed to be really nasty weather in Boston tomorrow. Plus, BC just doesn't seem to have the offensive style to run up the score.

[snuffbox 0]

The fuck's going on in Madison?

[naiwf 0]

This Michigan/NW game is another shining example of why football usually sucks in the midst of a driving rain. No one can really mount much of an offense, there is essentially no special teams play because no one can risk botching a return. Field position battles just don't capture my attention.

 

As I post this Breaston muffs a punt. That guy needs to realize he's not fucking Superman. When you're up 10 and would get the ball at midfield why would you even try to catch a bouncing, wet ball with a defender bearing in on you? Fucking Douche.

[Guest Princess Leena]

Go Navy.