It’s that time of year, the leaves have fallen and so have the hopes of the fans of most of the college football programs in the country. Some coaches are already clearing out their offices, others are hoping they don’t have to, and fans of some recently successful programs have their fingers crossed that their coaches won’t be the ones moving into those offices and bigger paychecks.
Meanwhile, with two weeks left in the college regular season there are 16 teams with 5 wins hoping that they can win at least one game out of the last two and go to some kind of a bowl game, even if it is one that fans of other schools make fun of.
Tuesday again starts the week with MACtion.
Western Michigan (4-6) at Northern Illinois (4-6) are both schools that need not just one but two wins to go bowling. One will get one of those wins and the other will be making plans for their off-season.
Toledo (9-1) at Bowling (different kind of bowling) Green (6-4) are both already qualified with Toledo guaranteed a spot in the conference championship game.
Wednesday night Miami OH (8-2) host Buffalo (3-7.) Miami would have to fall apart in the next two weeks to not get the other conference championship slot. Buffalo fell apart a long time ago so that is unlikely.
The mighty Bobcats of Ohio University (7-3) will have to settle with trying to deny visiting Central Michigan (5-5) their 6th win.
Thursday night Boston College (6-4) is at Pittsburgh (2-8.) BC had won 5 straight before losing last weekend. Pitt has lost 8 of the last 9 with the one win a surprising upset against (11) Louisville. Somehow some oddsmakers have Pitt favored in this one???
Friday night’s earlier game is South Florida (5-5) at UTSA (7-3.)
Saturday don’t expect much stress out of SEC country, or from Florida State who acts like an SEC school. This is the weekend many of them schedule teams that Nebraska might be embarrassed to schedule for an easy win and a post season warm-up. Who am I kidding, if Nebraska isn’t embarrassed about their team gear, their fat fans, their moral victories, their history of criminal players, and well, just about everything that has to do with Nebraska they aren’t going to be embarrassed about scheduling some walk-over team that ends up beating them.
(4) Florida State (10-0) has North Alabama (3-7.) (8) Alabama (9-1) has Chattanooga (7-3,) (9) Ole Miss (8-2) has Louisiana Montroe (8-2,) Texas A&M (6-4) has Abilene Christian (5-5,) Auburn (6-4) gets New Mexico State (8-2,) and in what has shown to be a surprising walk-over this season (14) Missouri gets Florida (5-5.) Other than Florida, how many of the opponent mascots can you name without looking it up? A couple of them I didn’t know had football teams.
For the “real” games
(3) Michigan (10-0) is at Maryland (6-4.) Michigan is likely to be without their coach again and their sign stealing scout but it shouldn’t matter. Maryland can still win the ugly uniform contest.
(11) Louisville (9-1) is at Miami FL (6-4) in a game that should be closer than the records indicate. There has been some grumbling about Mario Cristobal among Miami fans, a win here would quiet some of that.
Rutgers (6-4) is at (10) Penn State (8-2) who lost to (3) Michigan last week. Rutgers has lost 2 in a row and 3 out of 5. The showers in Happy Valley can be a scary place.
BYU (5-5) may be more worried about just getting back on track than getting bowl eligible. The Cougars (football version, not frustrated Utah wives) have lost 3 in a row and 5 of the last 7. It doesn’t get any easier with visiting (17) Oklahoma (8-2) before finishing at (15) Oklahoma State next week.
SMU (8-2) at Memphis (8-2) are both looking to win out and get a shot at the AAC title.
The PAC12 may be in its dying days but it gives us a good early afternoon game. (18) Utah 7-3 is at (21) Arizona (7-3.) Utah has fought through a rash of injuries. Arizona is the surprise of the league after being picked pre-season to be one of the bottom teams.
One of the top teams in recent years has been Clemson (6-4) who is hosting (24) North Carolina (8-2.) Clemson has won their last 2 including beating ranked (20) Notre Dame. Knocking off another ranked team would make their season less disappointing.
North Carolina State (7-3) is at Virginia Tech (5-5.) VT has won 4 of their last 6 to salvage their season after a rough start. A win here would put them in a bowl.
Illinois (5-5) could also earn a trip to a bowl with a win at (22) Iowa (8-2.) If the Iowa cheerleaders are doing pushups after Hawkeye scores they are getting fat (fatter) because Iowa barely scores.
Biggest game of the week by the rankings is (2) Georgia (10-0) at (13) Tennessee (7-3.) This game last year at Georgia was one of the Bulldogs closer wins (27-13) but they seem to have taken being dropped to #2 in the polls as an insult blasting (9) Ole Miss by 35 last week.
Minnesota (5-5) would like to get their 6th win to go bowling. Isn’t happening this week as they are at (1) Ohio State (10-0.) This could be the blowout of the week not considering the SEC scheduling farce.
The Sunflower Showdown doesn’t sound intimidating but this battle for Kansas bragging rights has a long and intense history. Even when the teams were both terrible (most of their history) the game brought out the best in them, and sometimes the worst in the fans.
This year in a rare occurrence (25) Kansas State (7-3) and (16) Kansas (7-3) are both good, this could be a game worth watching.
The other important game of the day, again in the PAC12 has (5) Washington (10-0) trying to avoid a playoff derailing loss at (12) Oregon State (8-2.)
PAC games of note include two future Big Ten teams in the battle for LA. UCLA (6-4) at USC (7-4) in the Coliseum. Neither team is ranked except in their own minds.
(6) Oregon (9-1) is at Arizona State (3-7.) Game won’t be close but ugly uniforms will be on display.
The teams we hate are also in action.
Nebraska (5-5) is at Wisconsin (5-5.) Wisconsin this week and Iowa next week can give the nubs fans further proof that moral victories don’t count for bowl eligibility. Wisconsin is a little down this year so this may be the last real chance for the fuskers to get their fans out of their trailers for the holidays.
TCU (4-6) hasn’t been very good this year but should be good enough to send visiting Baylor (3-7) home with another loss. Both teams have lost 4 of their last 5 games and there is some talk of firing Baylor coach Dave Aranda who hasn’t been successful in recruiting good enough criminals/players to win in Waco.
Michigan State (3-7) fired their coach much earlier in the season and has now lost 7 of the last 8, and does a win over Nebraska really count? This week they will likely allow the Indiana (3-7) fans to enjoy a home win going into another year with no bowl game.
Michigan State and Indiana is a strong contender for the garbage game of the week with two bad teams going nowhere but they can’t beat the titanic need a plunger flush of UConn (the ticket buyers) (1-9) hosting Sacred Heart (2-8.) Sacred Heart is one of the worst teams in FCS (no not Northern Colorado bad but bad) and it would be no shock if they beat BCS level UConn who’s only win this year was against (Fried) Rice.
Closer to home the Sheep of Colorado State (4-6) still have faint hopes of going to a bowl. A win this week in front of their home “crowd” imitating empty seats against a bad Nevada (2-8) would keep those hopes alive.
Wyoming (6-4) had a strong start to the season before losing 3 of their last 4 games. They have a good chance to get back on track against visiting Hawaii (4-7.) Weather should be nice for Laramie in the low 50’s with mild wind which will still mean the Hawaii players in stocking caps and gloves shivering on the sidelines.
Air Force (8-2) has also had a rough couple of weeks dropping out of the rankings and the undefeated. Visiting UNLV (8-2) will be a tough opponent to get back on track against.
Northern Colorado (0-10) only has one more beating to absorb at the hands of visiting Portland State before the off-season.
Small Colleges are done with their regular season.
As expected Colorado Mines is a #1 seed in their region and has a bye before playing the winner of #4 Augustana/Minnesota State.
Western Colorado got a higher seed than I expected at #2 and hosts Central Washington. Central Washington is 7-3 including a loss to FCS Weber State and their last game to #17 Texas Permian Basin
Meanwhile, with two weeks left in the college regular season there are 16 teams with 5 wins hoping that they can win at least one game out of the last two and go to some kind of a bowl game, even if it is one that fans of other schools make fun of.
Tuesday again starts the week with MACtion.
Western Michigan (4-6) at Northern Illinois (4-6) are both schools that need not just one but two wins to go bowling. One will get one of those wins and the other will be making plans for their off-season.
Toledo (9-1) at Bowling (different kind of bowling) Green (6-4) are both already qualified with Toledo guaranteed a spot in the conference championship game.
Wednesday night Miami OH (8-2) host Buffalo (3-7.) Miami would have to fall apart in the next two weeks to not get the other conference championship slot. Buffalo fell apart a long time ago so that is unlikely.
The mighty Bobcats of Ohio University (7-3) will have to settle with trying to deny visiting Central Michigan (5-5) their 6th win.
Thursday night Boston College (6-4) is at Pittsburgh (2-8.) BC had won 5 straight before losing last weekend. Pitt has lost 8 of the last 9 with the one win a surprising upset against (11) Louisville. Somehow some oddsmakers have Pitt favored in this one???
Friday night’s earlier game is South Florida (5-5) at UTSA (7-3.)
Saturday don’t expect much stress out of SEC country, or from Florida State who acts like an SEC school. This is the weekend many of them schedule teams that Nebraska might be embarrassed to schedule for an easy win and a post season warm-up. Who am I kidding, if Nebraska isn’t embarrassed about their team gear, their fat fans, their moral victories, their history of criminal players, and well, just about everything that has to do with Nebraska they aren’t going to be embarrassed about scheduling some walk-over team that ends up beating them.
(4) Florida State (10-0) has North Alabama (3-7.) (8) Alabama (9-1) has Chattanooga (7-3,) (9) Ole Miss (8-2) has Louisiana Montroe (8-2,) Texas A&M (6-4) has Abilene Christian (5-5,) Auburn (6-4) gets New Mexico State (8-2,) and in what has shown to be a surprising walk-over this season (14) Missouri gets Florida (5-5.) Other than Florida, how many of the opponent mascots can you name without looking it up? A couple of them I didn’t know had football teams.
For the “real” games
(3) Michigan (10-0) is at Maryland (6-4.) Michigan is likely to be without their coach again and their sign stealing scout but it shouldn’t matter. Maryland can still win the ugly uniform contest.
(11) Louisville (9-1) is at Miami FL (6-4) in a game that should be closer than the records indicate. There has been some grumbling about Mario Cristobal among Miami fans, a win here would quiet some of that.
Rutgers (6-4) is at (10) Penn State (8-2) who lost to (3) Michigan last week. Rutgers has lost 2 in a row and 3 out of 5. The showers in Happy Valley can be a scary place.
BYU (5-5) may be more worried about just getting back on track than getting bowl eligible. The Cougars (football version, not frustrated Utah wives) have lost 3 in a row and 5 of the last 7. It doesn’t get any easier with visiting (17) Oklahoma (8-2) before finishing at (15) Oklahoma State next week.
SMU (8-2) at Memphis (8-2) are both looking to win out and get a shot at the AAC title.
The PAC12 may be in its dying days but it gives us a good early afternoon game. (18) Utah 7-3 is at (21) Arizona (7-3.) Utah has fought through a rash of injuries. Arizona is the surprise of the league after being picked pre-season to be one of the bottom teams.
One of the top teams in recent years has been Clemson (6-4) who is hosting (24) North Carolina (8-2.) Clemson has won their last 2 including beating ranked (20) Notre Dame. Knocking off another ranked team would make their season less disappointing.
North Carolina State (7-3) is at Virginia Tech (5-5.) VT has won 4 of their last 6 to salvage their season after a rough start. A win here would put them in a bowl.
Illinois (5-5) could also earn a trip to a bowl with a win at (22) Iowa (8-2.) If the Iowa cheerleaders are doing pushups after Hawkeye scores they are getting fat (fatter) because Iowa barely scores.
Biggest game of the week by the rankings is (2) Georgia (10-0) at (13) Tennessee (7-3.) This game last year at Georgia was one of the Bulldogs closer wins (27-13) but they seem to have taken being dropped to #2 in the polls as an insult blasting (9) Ole Miss by 35 last week.
Minnesota (5-5) would like to get their 6th win to go bowling. Isn’t happening this week as they are at (1) Ohio State (10-0.) This could be the blowout of the week not considering the SEC scheduling farce.
The Sunflower Showdown doesn’t sound intimidating but this battle for Kansas bragging rights has a long and intense history. Even when the teams were both terrible (most of their history) the game brought out the best in them, and sometimes the worst in the fans.
This year in a rare occurrence (25) Kansas State (7-3) and (16) Kansas (7-3) are both good, this could be a game worth watching.
The other important game of the day, again in the PAC12 has (5) Washington (10-0) trying to avoid a playoff derailing loss at (12) Oregon State (8-2.)
PAC games of note include two future Big Ten teams in the battle for LA. UCLA (6-4) at USC (7-4) in the Coliseum. Neither team is ranked except in their own minds.
(6) Oregon (9-1) is at Arizona State (3-7.) Game won’t be close but ugly uniforms will be on display.
The teams we hate are also in action.
Nebraska (5-5) is at Wisconsin (5-5.) Wisconsin this week and Iowa next week can give the nubs fans further proof that moral victories don’t count for bowl eligibility. Wisconsin is a little down this year so this may be the last real chance for the fuskers to get their fans out of their trailers for the holidays.
TCU (4-6) hasn’t been very good this year but should be good enough to send visiting Baylor (3-7) home with another loss. Both teams have lost 4 of their last 5 games and there is some talk of firing Baylor coach Dave Aranda who hasn’t been successful in recruiting good enough criminals/players to win in Waco.
Michigan State (3-7) fired their coach much earlier in the season and has now lost 7 of the last 8, and does a win over Nebraska really count? This week they will likely allow the Indiana (3-7) fans to enjoy a home win going into another year with no bowl game.
Michigan State and Indiana is a strong contender for the garbage game of the week with two bad teams going nowhere but they can’t beat the titanic need a plunger flush of UConn (the ticket buyers) (1-9) hosting Sacred Heart (2-8.) Sacred Heart is one of the worst teams in FCS (no not Northern Colorado bad but bad) and it would be no shock if they beat BCS level UConn who’s only win this year was against (Fried) Rice.
Closer to home the Sheep of Colorado State (4-6) still have faint hopes of going to a bowl. A win this week in front of their home “crowd” imitating empty seats against a bad Nevada (2-8) would keep those hopes alive.
Wyoming (6-4) had a strong start to the season before losing 3 of their last 4 games. They have a good chance to get back on track against visiting Hawaii (4-7.) Weather should be nice for Laramie in the low 50’s with mild wind which will still mean the Hawaii players in stocking caps and gloves shivering on the sidelines.
Air Force (8-2) has also had a rough couple of weeks dropping out of the rankings and the undefeated. Visiting UNLV (8-2) will be a tough opponent to get back on track against.
Northern Colorado (0-10) only has one more beating to absorb at the hands of visiting Portland State before the off-season.
Small Colleges are done with their regular season.
As expected Colorado Mines is a #1 seed in their region and has a bye before playing the winner of #4 Augustana/Minnesota State.
Western Colorado got a higher seed than I expected at #2 and hosts Central Washington. Central Washington is 7-3 including a loss to FCS Weber State and their last game to #17 Texas Permian Basin
