College Football Preview (Nov. 17)

We’re deep into the college football season at this point and we have a really good idea of how the college football playoffs will shape up.  There are still plenty of big games to be played that will alter that, but you won’t find too many of them occurring this Saturday.  This is the weekend that, for whatever reason, the SEC decides to take off every year by scheduling cupcake opponents.  I guess they figure their schedule is grueling enough throughout the year that they need a “bye week.”  For example we have:

The Citadel @ Alabama

Idaho @ Florida

Middle Tennessee @ Kentucky

UMass @ Georgia

Liberty @ Auburn

UAB @ Texas A&M

Rice @ LSU

These matchups severely hinder the college football schedule for tomorrow, because nobody cares about any of these games.  I look for Ohio State to roll against Maryland, who is 5-5 overall.  Northwestern is a 23rd ranked team who shouldn’t have much trouble with an average Minnesota team, but this matchup draws very little interest for the average college football fan.  Nebraska will play Michigan State, two big names, but neither performing as well as they usually do.  Baylor and TCU would’ve been a good game five years ago, but not anymore.  Florida State will play Boston College with BOSTON COLLEGE being the one that is ranked!  Virginia Tech and Miami might be a sneaky good game, but one that won’t have too much of an influence going forward.  USC and UCLA will battle to be the king of LA, but they both are as non-exciting as the local middle school team.  So, overall there are not many games to look forward to.  These will be my top 3 matchups of the week:

3. #24 Cincinnati @ #11 UCF

              Please someone don’t tell UCF they have two 1’s beside their ranking.  They live in their own little world and consider themselves not only the best team in the nation, but probably the best sports team that has ever existed.  I don’t know much about Cincy, but they are 9-1 with a weak schedule.  Not really an exciting game, but considering this week’s schedule, they come in a #3

2. #16 Iowa State @ #15 Texas

              Texas is a hard team to figure out.  One week they look like a top 7 team, and another week they look like maybe a 20-25 ranked team.  But I still think they’re very good.  Iowa State comes in at 6-3 and seems to be a solid team.  They made their mark when they trumped West Virginia 30-14

1. #12 Syracuse @ #3 Notre Dame

              Absolute CRAZY that this is the number one game of the week, but without a doubt it has to be.  This game will be played at Yankee Stadium, which is always cool.  We are all trying to figure out if Syracuse is for real, or a pretender.  It’s hard to tell because the ACC is down this year, possibly inflating their record.  And Notre Dame definitely seems to be the real deal.  The problem is, they have seemed that way before, just to embarrass themselves late in the season.  Notre Dame must win in order to almost secure themselves a spot in the final four.  Syracuse is trying to prove a point to the country.