Conference championships preview

Here's what we can look forward to this weekend in college football.

Pac-12:  UCLA at Oregon

UCLA is only in because USC is still sanctioned.  Otherwise, we'd be getting a rematch of a game that Oregon lost just two weeks ago.  As it stands, UCLA will either go to the Rose Bowl with a win, or no bowl with a loss.  Either way, their coach is fired.

SEC:  LSU vs. Georgia

An undefeated team against a team that started 0-2 and had fans calling for the coach to be fired.  There could be an upset here, but LSU wouldn't care, since they have enough of a stranglehold on the #1 spot in the BCS rankings that they're virtually assured of a trip to New Orleans.  Then again, so is Georgia if they win, but on a different day.

ACC:  Virginia Tech vs. Clemson

A rematch of a home blowout for VT.  They feel they've learned from that and developed as a team.  They also see an outside chance at getting to New Orleans.  Besides, VT is no stranger to ACC title game grudge matches, having revenged losses to Boston College two years in a row.  Clemson has been on a downslide the last few weeks, and has actually managed to hurt the ACC as a whole.  If they had won their last two games, this would have been a matchup of two top six teams, and the Orange Bowl would have been guaranteed a top five team for once.

However, the Orange Bowl can still get a heck of a matchup if West Virginia comes out on top of the Big East, and VT wins this game, and that old rivalry can be renewed once more.

Big Ten:  Michigan State vs. Wisconsin

There are two Big Ten games that I really enjoyed watching this year, enough to put in my top five games of the year perhaps.  One was Ohio State-Michigan.  This was the other.  It had a crazy enough ending to be regarded as legendary.  Can they repeat that legendary performance in Indianapolis?