College Football Week 13 Thread

As always, this is a list of the top 10 games of the week, based on the Athletic’s ranking of teams from 1-134. And no politics.

1. #5 Indiana at #2 Ohio State, 12, FOX. Look, Indiana has had an astounding season. All hail Curt Cignetti. This is maybe the best coaching job of all time. But Indiana has beaten no one because the Big 10 fucking sucks this year. There are only 4 good teams in the entire conference and Indiana doesn’t play Oregon or Penn State. So it’s been feasting on the soft underbelly that is the rest of the conference. Moreover, the Hoosiers did not look very good against Michigan. They held on, and as an Oregon fan watching us nearly blow it at Wisconsin last week, sometimes you have an off game and just have to hold on. That’s what good teams do. The problem with Indiana is that we have so little else to work with. Plus, this game is in Columbus. Like everyone else, I just have a hard time seeing the Hoosiers win this. If they do, it will be a blast. I am absolutely rooting like hell for them. But Ohio State -13.5 seems about right to me.
2. #7 Ole Miss at #43 Florida. 12, ABC. Well, Florida salvaged something out of a lost season last week by beating LSU. They need one more win to get to a bowl. They have Florida State (LOL) coming up so they will probably get that. And Ole Miss is still very much in the playoff race. But any Kiffin team is going to be inconsistent and that’s been the case with the Rebels (a sickening name) this year. So I don’t know. I don’t actually think Florida is going to win here. In fact, Ole Miss -10.5 seems just about right. But I dunno, could see something weird happening in Gainesville.
3. #28 Illinois at #51 Rutgers, 12, Peacock. Borrrring. Will be quite boring to watch too given the offenses involved. But Illinois is only -1. Give me the Illini here any day. Rutgers doesn’t suck, but Illinois is better.
4. #11 BYU at #20 Arizona State, 3:30, ESPN. FRAUD ALERT!!!! BYU completely failed against Kansas and good. Not only do I hate BYU for many reasons, including growing up around a lot of obnoxious Mormons in my high school, but they were so obviously a bullshit team from the beginning. Meanwhile, Kenny Dillingham would have a strong case for Coach of the Year if it wasn’t for Cignetti (or arguably Deion). He has turned around ASU fast and they just beat Kansas State last week. The only reason BYU is ranked this high is that they still only have one loss, while ASU has two. But ASU is favored by 3 at home and I’d definitely take the Sun Devils on that one. Like Iowa State and Pitt, this is the time of the year to eliminate the clowns from the playoffs.
5. #4 Penn State at #41 Minnesota, 3:30, CBS. Upset alert!!!!!! How good is Penn State actually? They’ve done what they always do–take care of the worse teams on their schedule and lose any game that matters. So it suggests that they should handle the Gophers. And they probably will. However, Minnesota is not that bad and PJ Fleck is a good coach. At home, I like the Gophers +12.5 at least.
6. #29 Pitt at #32 Louisville, 4, ESPN2. Louisville was on a nice run. People were even talking about crappy Ducks castoff Tyler Shough as a potential NFL QB, which I mean, c’mon now……Then they went out and completely blew the game against Stanford in embarrassingly stupid fashion. Can they recover? On the other hand, I still think Pitt is basically a mediocrity. Despite the relative ranking, Louisville is -8. I think that’s too high and would take Pitt here. But I do expect Louisville to win at home.
7. #18 Army vs. #9 Notre Dame at Yankee Stadium, 7, NBC. Army is a nice story. Any decent American, which as it happens coincides with anyone who isn’t Irish, will be rooting for Army. Otherwise, you might as well cheer for Ireland to conquer the United States. But c’mon, Army hasn’t played anyone and while Notre Dame does have that bizarre season-opening loss to Northern Illinois, they’ve looked good since. It’s fair to say that this is one of Notre Dame’s easiest schedules ever. Its ACC alliance isn’t exactly helping its strength of schedule at this point. But I cannot see Army really hanging with them here. Notre Dame -14.5 and I might go with the Irish to beat that. But like the Indiana game, I’d love to be wrong.
8. #6 Alabama at #53 Oklahoma, 7:30, ABC. Two things come to mind about this game and the SEC. First, the conference wants to add these elite programs. Well, OK, but that means someone has to lose these games. This year, that has very much meant Oklahoma, which just isn’t very good and kind of hasn’t been for a couple years now. The Sooners look completely overmatched in the SEC. The other thing this makes me think of is that despite being a superconference, all these conference mediocrities are fighting like crazy to stay at 8 conference games so they don’t have to play that many tough games. What this is going to mean eventually is a top SEC team that has done nothing but feast on crap and then we will hear nothing but how the SEC IS REAL FOOTBAWL. But Alabama is not that team. They have a tough schedule and they haven’t totally handled it. But they seem to have figured it out and Oklahoma isn’t good enough to hang with them, even at home. Give me the Tide -13.5.
9. #31 Vanderbilt at #26 LSU, 7:45, SEC. This game doesn’t mean a lot at this point, but it has the potential to be quite interesting. Vanderbilt may not be that good but they have shown they can beat anyone. Meanwhile, LSU is in collapse. LSU is unquestionably the better team. And they are at home. But a team this down after losing three in a row, do they really show up? Are they even listening to Brian Kelly anymore or are they just trying to not be the next of his players to die? LSU is only -7.5, which suggests that I am not the only one thinking along these lines. But I think I’d actually Vanderbilt to get closer than that. It’s just going to mean a lot more to the Commodores.
10. #52 Virginia Tech at 39 Duke, 8, ACC. With most of the SEC playing their late season games against Northern Alaska and West Central Indiana Tech, we have to dig deep to get to the top 10 games this week. So this is one of them. Virginia Tech just never has been able to turn it around and recreate their success under Frank Beamer. They are firmly in mediocre land these days. Meanwhile, Duke, thanks to good coaching, has managed to take advantage of the crappiness that is the ACC and be pretty respectable most seasons. But the Hokies are still playing for bowl eligibility and Duke has a strong scrappiness to it. Virginia Tech is -3.5 and I dunno about that one. Give me Duke.

Ducks are off this week, which is good, because they are tired. That game at Wisconsin last week was a little stressful! It was also the 8th week in a row they’d played, they are really beat up, and it was the 3rd trip east in 5 weeks. So let’s get right and rested and then beat up on the goddamn Huskies next week. Go Ducks!