Under the Radar Games: Week 11

Well, the season-defining week appears to be upon us.  Compared to LSU-Bama, Oregon-Stanford, and Oklahoma-Baylor, all of the other games this week could be considered "under the radar".  I'll up the ante - no broadcast TV games or Top 10 teams...but these should still be good and/or meaningful in some way or another.

1. Central Michigan at Ball State.  MACtion's back!  With Fresno State and Northern Illinois in the thick of a BCS-Buster battle, there also exists one non-AQ team with a single loss: Ball State.  Their showdown with NIU is just around the corner, and NIU would love nothing more than for the Cardinals to enter Dekalb with just that one early-season loss to North Texas (huh?!?!?) and subsequent smashing of UVA.  Can the Cardinals avoid an obvious look-ahead, and handle an obviously inferior Chippewas squad?

2. NC State at Duke.  The Wolfpack are winless in the ACC, while the Blue Devils still have a shot at winning their division.  One might think this is a bizarre type of statement, but consider two things: one, Duke has an all-time winning record vs NC State (40-36-5); two, Duke has a more recent ACC Championship (1989) than NC State (1979).  Duke has already clinched bowl eligibilty for the 2nd straight year, and a win this week would secure their first winning season since 1994.

3. ODU at Idaho.  With the Commonwealth of Virginia getting a third FBS team in ODU, this is their last "official" year of being an FCS team (they'll be a transitional FBS team next year, and able to contend for a bowl game in 2015).  This is probably their best shot at beating a full-fledge FBS team this year, and Idaho is not a good team!  With a possible NFL quarterback lining up for the Monarchs, I'll be interested to see if the FCS-over-FBS count goes up by one this late in the season, and if ODU can keep the momentum going as a still-relatively-young program.

4. Houston at UCF.  A huge matchup in the American Conference - both teams with no league losses!  Almost no chatter about this one, and it will be opposite LSU-Alabama in Primetime, but this game is absolutely pivotal in determining one of the ten BCS Bowl spots!  Plus, with UCF already having a win over Louisville, it'll be almost impossible for the Knights not to take the league title...and its automatic BCS Bowl spot.

5. Fresno State at Wyoming.  With so much focus on the National Championship chase this week, this is also a key weekend throughout the BCS (see Houston-UCF above).  Laramie, WY is not an easy place to play (Fresno is 0-3 all time there) - certainly a big geographical change from Fresno, CA.  And the Cowboys know how to score some points (4-4 record, with at least 21 points scored in all 8 games).  I suspect the Bulldogs roll, but I'm curious to see if they can continue to handle the inevitable target on their backs as they continue to get the best out of their Mountain West competition.