Monday, October 15, 2012

College Football, Week 8



We’re in the middle weeks of the season. Most teams have played half their games and we‘re getting a better feel for how things are shaking out.

Only a dozen teams remain undefeated and three of them are in the Big East where they will play each other in the second half of the season.  While these three teams (Louisville, Rutgers and Cincinnati) should remain undefeated this weekend, there are others that may not be so lucky.

And again there are five games that pit ranked teams against one another :

2/2/2/2 Oregon (6-0) @ NR/24/24/NR Arizona State (5-1).
3/4/3/3 Florida (6-0) hosting the #9/8/7/7 South Carolina (6-1).
4/3/4/5 Kansas State (6-0) @ 17/15//15/13 West Virginia (5-1).
6/6/6/6 LSU (6-1) @ 20/19/19/19 Texas A&M (5-1).
18/20/21/17 Texas Tech (5-1) @ NR/21/22/23 TCU (5-1).  

Here’s the full slate of teams ranked by the various panels.

(This week’s rankings from the AP, Coaches’, Harris Interactive, BCS (Projected). Rankings given last week appear in parentheses.  NR = Not Rated. Numbers in parentheses after the team’s name are the records.)

1/1/1/1 (1/1/1/1) Alabama (6-0) The Crimson Tide hit the road to play the Tennessee Volunteers (3-3).  They Volunteered to be win #7.

2/2/2/2 (2/2/2/2) Oregon (6-0) The Ducks will be on the road to play the NR/24/24/NR Arizona State Sun Devils (5-1) on Thursday night. Too many weapons on the side of the Ducks.

3/4/3/3 (4/6/6/5) Florida (6-0) The Gators will host the #9/8/7/7 South Carolina Gamecocks (6-1). The Gators haven’t looked like a complete team yet and the Gamecocks have.  SC wins this one.

4/3/4/5 (6/5/5/7) Kansas State (6-0) The Wildcats are on the road against the #17/15//15/13 West Virginia Mountaineers (5-1). Points will be scored in this one. Last team with the ball wins.

5/5/5/4 (7/7/7/4) Notre Dame (6-0) The Fighting Irish will host the BYU Cougars (4-3). Irish win regardless of who is the quarterback this week.

6/6/6/6 (9/8/8/8) LSU (6-1) The Tigers play on the road against the #20/19/19/19 Texas A&M Aggies (5-1). Do the Tigers have enough defense to stop the Aggies? Or will they have to try and outscore them? If the answer to the first question is “No” then I don’t think they can keep up.

7/NR//NR/NR (8/NR/NR/NR) Ohio State (7-0) The Buckeyes host the Perdue Boilermakers (3-3). Ohio State should win this one if they don’t screw it up.

8/11/10/8 (10/14/12/10) Oregon State (5-0) The Beavers host the Utes of Utah (2-4). Beavers win.

9/8/7/7 (3/3/3/3) South Carolina (6-1) The Gamecocks will head to the Swamp to face the #3/4/3/3 Florida Gators (6-0). Gamecocks will win.

10/7/9/9 (13/10/13/15) Oklahoma (4-1) The Sooners host the Kansas Jayhawks (1-5). Sooners beat the Kansas Jayhawks like a drum.

11/9/11/10 (11/9/10/13) Southern California (5-1) The Trojans host the Colorado Buffaloes (1-5). Ho hum. Trojans easily beat Colorado. Almost everybody does.

12/10/8/14 (12/11/9/11) Florida State (6-1) The Seminoles will head to Miami to play the Hurricanes (4-3). This one is difficult to predict. It should be a win for Florida State, but Miami is capable of pulling off an upset…when they play like they want to win.

13/12/12/11 (14/12/11/9) Georgia (5-1) The Bulldogs play on the road against the Kentucky Wildcats (1-6). Another SEC mismatch. Georgia wins big.

14/13/13/18 (16/13/14/16) Clemson (5-1) The Tigers will host the Virginia Tech Hokies (4-3). Not a good year for the Hokies. The Tigers will beat up on them in this one.

15/16/14/12 (19/18/17/17) Mississippi State (6-0) The Bulldogs will host the Middle Tennessee State Blue Raiders (4-2). It should be Mississippi State.

16/14/16/15 (18/16/18/18) Louisville (6-0) The Cardinals will host the South Florida Bulls (2-4). Cardinals win.

17/15//15/13 (5/4/4/6) West Virginia (5-1) The Mountaineers host the #4/3/4/5 Kansas State Wildcats (6-0). Points. Lots of Points. The team that gets the most wins.

18/20/21/17 (NR/NR/NR/NR) Texas Tech (5-1) The Red Raiders will go on the road to play the # NR/21/22/23 TCU Horned Frogs (5-1).  It’s nice to have some depth in the QB slot, but can the TCU defense stop the Red Raiders? Should be fun to watch.

19/17/17/16 20/19/19/19) Rutgers (6-0) The Scarlet Knights will travel to play the Temple Owls (3-2). Temple’s first year back in the Big East. Rutgers is on a mission. It won’t be high scoring…or pretty...if you’re a Temple fan. Rutgers’ defense is just too strong.

20/19/19/19 (22/21/23/NR) Texas A&M (5-1) The Aggies will play host to the #6/6/6/6 LSU Tigers (6-1). A&M could pull of an upset in this one.

21/18/18/20 (21/20/20/21) Cincinnati (5-0) The Bearcats will play at the home of the Toledo Rockets (6-1).  Munchie Legaux and company better keep their heads in the game. This could be a trap for Cincinnati if they do not.

22/23/20/21 (17/17/16/14) Stanford (4-2) The Cardinal will hit the road to play the California Golden Bears (3-4). The Cardinal will—should-win this one.

23/25/NR/NR (25/NR/NR/NR) Michigan (4-2) The Wolverines will host the Michigan State Spartans (4-3). Rivalry! Tough to pick. Go with the home team.

24/22/23/22 (24/22/22/23) Boise State (5-1) The Broncos host the UNLV Rebels (1-6). Blue carpet. It clashes with the Rebel uniforms. The Broncos win.

25/NR/NR/NR (NR/NR/NR/NR) Ohio (7-0) The Bobcats have the week off.

NR/21/22/23 (NR/23/21/20) TCU (5-1) The Horned Frogs will host the #18/20/21/17 Texas Tech Red Raiders (5-1). Should be entertaining if Trevone Boykin plays as he did last weekend, people will start saying, “Casey Pachall? Who’s he?”

NR/24/24/NR (NR/NR/NR/NR) Arizona State (5-1) The Sun Devils will host the #2/2/2/2 (2/2/2/2) Oregon Ducks (6-0) on Thursday night. Ducks make the Sun Devils quack up.

NR/NR/NR/24 (NR/25/25/24) Iowa State (4-2) The Cyclones will play on the road against the Oklahoma State Cowboys (3-2). The Cyclones should be able to win this one.

NR/NR/25/25 (15/15/15/12) Texas (4-2) The Longhorns will be hosting the Baylor Bears (3-2).  Ooo-Boy. Can the Longhorns stop Baylor’s passing game? Can Baylor stop the Longhorns? Should be determined by which team can leave their punter on the sidelines most and which team asks their place kicker to hit extra points and not field goals.

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