We’re approaching the halfway mark of the college football season. Teams are starting to separate themselves as contenders – both on the national stage and in the conference. We’ve gotten enough of a sample size to tell if a team is dominant or just good. Here’s this week’s games to watch – both for the best of the best and the worst of the worst.
Stanford at Arizona State
One of the more surprising upsets, and more controversial ones too, from last week featured Stanford upsetting Oregon. Meanwhile Arizona State moved back into the AP Top 25 for the first time since week 3. Pac12 after dark is back and in a big way with this cross-division matchup. Stanford can score when it counts, but the Arizona State defense has allowed the second fewest points in the conference. Defense wins championships and offenses have a tendency not to travel well. Those cliches make me give the edge to Arizona State in this one.
Texas vs Oklahoma
UT and OU battle it out in the shadow of Big Tex at the Cotton Bowl. Gameday is making its way out to Dallas for this game, for some reason. The more delusional pundits are saying this will be a preview of the Big 12 championship game, but really this is the battle for the second spot in that game. Oklahoma State is still the team in the driver’s seat for that game. Neither team has been overly impressive but at least Texas has blown out an FBS team this season. Either way the win will give an overhyped victory when these teams are jostling for a postseason spot. I’ve got UT with the on paper upset, but think they’re just plain the better team.
Maryland at Ohio State
Maryland had it handed to them last week. They were flying high on an undefeated record until Iowa came in and knocked them back down to reality. Unfortunately they get to travel to the Horseshoe to face perennial powerhouse Ohio State. Ohio State, like Oklahoma is getting a little overhyped this week. I don’t see them dropping the game to Maryland, but I do think the spread will be beat and it will be a much closer game than expected.
Arkansas at Ole Miss
This time last week both Arkansas and Ole Miss were looking at making a mark in the SEC and upsetting the conference powers. A week later, both are looking to rebound from blowouts to the conference bluebloods and show their hot start wasn’t a fluke. Despite already having a conference win Arkansas has more to prove, by showing up on the road. Sure they’ve had some big wins at home but they’ll need to win on the road to be taken seriously. Mississippi is the favorite right now and I have to agree, they’ve got the more dynamic offense and a defense that, despite getting rolled last week, has played very well this season.
Georgia at Auburn
Was last week’s showdown more proof that Arkansas was overhyped or that Georgia is for real. This week we’ll have the answer to that. Auburn thus far has been very mediocre by their standards, but are performing just well enough to keep a ranking in the AP poll. To be completely frank, this one only made my list because it’s at Auburn, if it were in Athens it would just be another game. It’s a big spread at 15 points in favor of Georgia, they’ll get the win, but it will be much too close for comfort compared to last week.
Boise State at BYU
Boise State isn’t the same team they were 5, 10, or even 15 years ago. But they’re still a big name, despite not being a traditional blueblood or in a power conference. BYU needs as many of these names as they can get to keep momentum moving for them this season. They’ve got an outside chance at a playoff bid but will need some style points against the Broncos this weekend. Fortunately for them, it’s in Provo which should give them the added boost they need. It’s a small spread, and I expect a big win from BYU – take the money and take the points.
Wisconsin at Illinois
Wisconsin just announced they are changing the name of the field at Camp Randall. They’re going to honor Barry Alvarez by putting his namesake on the field. 30 years ago Alvarez turned the Badgers around into the quality program they’ve become. However, two years ago I’d argue that 30 year run started its downfall. That’s part of why I’m putting this game on here. Two years ago Wisconsin had their Playoff hopes dashed by a last second field goal at Illinois – and they’ve been on the downturn since that game. This weekend we return to the scene, will Illinois pull another upset this season and beat Wisconsin or will the Badgers get it together and salvage something from this season. I’m not high on either team, I just like the narrative and bringing up that impressive kick once again. Wisconsin is an 11 point favorite, but let’s just assume they’re terrible and will find a way to lose. I’m taking Illinois for the fun of it.
UConn at UMass
Last weekend was the battle of the unbeatens with 5 undefeated vs undefeated games on the slate. One week later we have none of those games, but we do have a winless-winless matchup. Let’s find out who the worst team in FBS is! After this week we’re guaranteed to have no more than 3 winless teams, but really the 130th team at the end of the year will come from this game. It’s UConn. They’re the worst team in football.
Penn State at Iowa
This is the game that Gameday should have gone. It’s the best game of all the games this weekend. While they’re trying to hype UT-OU as a Big 12 championship preview, this game might actually have the Big 10 Championship teams playing each other. Penn State is in the driver’s seat to win the East but Iowa thus far has looked like the toast of the Big Ten. Plus it’s at Kinnick Stadium – the Nittany Lions will be distracted waving to the kids after the first quarter and have a hard time coming together on the tight sidelines. I’ve got Iowa winning this one, and beating the 1.5 point spread easily.
Wyoming at Air Force
Don’t look now but Wyoming is undefeated. Craig Bohl was the coach that started the North Dakota State dynasty at the FCS level and maybe this is his year to finally break through and turn Wyoming into a Mountain West power. Their last outing was anything but impressive squeaking out a win over UConn, but we’ll see what they can do on the road against a 4-1 Air Force team. It’s early in the conference season but this is a big one to determine which team will win the Mountain Division at the end of the year. My heart says let’s go Cowboys, but my mind says the Falcons will take it. Either way should be a fun night game to have turned on. I’ll go with my mind in the end and say Air Force Takes it.
Michigan at Nebraska
Week 0 might be the worst time to have a bad loss. Everyone is writing off Nebraska after that loss to Illinois at home to start the season. However, since then they’ve played Oklahoma close in Norman and went on the road to narrowly lose against a ranked Michigan State team. Everyone is saying Michigan needs to prove themselves and this week will be a big test. If the Wolverines get off to a slow start expect the upset and their postseason hopes to fade quickly. However, I think they go into Lincoln and get the job done.
This week has a nice mix of upset potential, battle of titans, and even the biblically bad. No matter which games your watching there will be something worthwhile to catch.