Sunday, November 13, 2011

Week 12: Games to watch

We're at an interesting spot this week.  On the face of things, it doesn't appear that a lot can be clenched.  We already know the Big 12 is coming down to the Oklahoma/OKSt. game next weekend.  The Big East is still chasing each other, and will probably only keep making a mess of their conference standings.  The other conferences don't have any winner-take-all matches, so if any teams clench, it will be as a result of multiple games.

But, there's still a few interesting matchups out there.

Thursday Night
8 PM:
North Carolina at Virginia Tech, ESPN.  VT football is always must see TV for me.  A few storylines for Tech in this game - avenging the home Thursday night loss from two years ago, getting the 10th win of the season to keep that streak alive, and winning to make it that much harder for UVA to take the division away.

Friday Night
8 PM:
Oklahoma State at Iowa State, ESPN.  OK State just demolished Texas Tech.  I'd be curious to see if they do the same here.  Nothing on the line here, unless Iowa State upsets, and that can through the BCS into a tizzy.
Toledo at Central Michigan, ESPNU.  This has no bearing on anything else in college football, but Toledo has scored over 60 points in each of its last two games.  This game has to be worth at least checking out in the second half for the potential of a shootout.

Saturday
Noon:
Nebraska at Michigan, ESPN.  Big Ten conference hopes on the line here.  While neither team completely controls their own destiny, the loser would effectively be out of the race altogether.

3:30 PM:
Penn State at Ohio State, ESPN/ABC.  More Big Ten contention.  An Ohio State win would open it up for more teams, a loss would eliminate several.

7:30 PM:
Virginia at Florida State, ESPN2.  Both are playing to better their bowl position, and UVA could be fighting to stay alive in the division depending on how the Tech game goes.

8 PM:
USC at Oregon, ABC.  Oregon will clench their division with a win.  And USC's not playing for anything other than pride, although they would be leading the South if they were eligible.

I didn't see too many novelty games listed (which just means any games that don't really have any bearing on standings but are interesting matchups).  Any that I might have seen were terrible mismatches, and probably won't make for good games overall, unless you like the winning team, or hate the losing team.

Week 13 should have plenty of action to make up for it, though.

1 comment:

  1. A great Thursday night it was! The Hokies win, securing their 8th straight 10-win season, and allows Frank Beamer to pass Lou Holtz on the all-time wins list.

    Also interesting from Thursday night was UAB's upset of Southern Miss. It might not be obvious, but that might have an impact on the BCS bowl pitcure.

    Had Southern Miss won out, finishing 12-1 after the Conference USA Chapionship Game, they may have passed TCU, been in the Top 16, and higher than the Big East Champ - netting an automatic BCS Bowl bid. Now, USM's almost certain to be out of BCS contention, even if they do win out.

    That takes the BCS non-AQ race down to Houston and TCU. I highly doubt TCU drops either of their last 2 games (Colorado State and UNLV), but Houston has a challenge ahead of them with SMU and Tulsa (and if they beat Tulsa, the C-USA Championship Game). Could we see a year without a non-AQ in a BCS Bowl game?

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