College Football, Week 13 Polls and Match-ups

[UPDATE: Editted to reflect the changes made in the lower part of the BCS standings not reported until late Sunday night. Those corrections put my Rutgers in the 18th slot of the BCS ahead of Louisville which dropped to #20. RU! RAH! RAH!]

There are a ton of changes in the polls this week starting right at the top. These are, of course, due to the upset of last week’s #1 and #2 teams. The new # 1 team is the undefeated Notre Dame.  The only other undefeated team remaining is Ohio State at 11-0 but they are ineligible for post season play and, as a result, only appear in the AP poll at #4.

This week’s schedule is peppered with matches pitting ranked teams against one another and these are usually huge rivalry games as well. There are too many to list in this intro, but you spot them in the list below. Many of these games are the last of the regular season with some of these teams going into Conference Championships next week or the week after. Only one team is idle this week and that’s the #7 Kansas State Wildcats (10-1) who were knocked from their lofty #1 slot this past weekend. 

(This week’s rankings from the AP, Coaches’, Harris Interactive, BCS Standings. 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 (3/3/3/3) Notre Dame (11-0) The Fighting Irish head west to play the Southern California Trojans (7-4). They started their season in Ireland and now they end the regular season in Hollywood. Can you say “destiny”?

2/2/2/2 (4/5/4/4) Alabama (10-1) The Tide host the Auburn Tigers (3-8). Roll Tide!

3/3/3/3 (5/4/5/5) Georgia (10-1) The Bulldogs play the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets (6-5). Dogs wreck Tech.

4/NR/NR/NR (6/NR/NR/NR) Ohio State (11-0) The Buckeyes host the #20 Michigan Wolverines (8-3). Good chance for an upset in this one as OSU hasn’t exactly been lighting it up lately. 

5/4/4/5 (1/1/1/2) Oregon (10-1) The Ducks host the #16 Oregon State Beavers (8-2) in The Civil War. A lot will depend upon whether the Ducks can rebound from last week’s loss and their dreams of a National Championship. I can’t see them sinking two weeks in a row.

6/6/5/4 (7/7/7/6) Florida (10-1) The Gators play the #10 Florida State Seminoles (10-1) in another major intrastate rivalry. The Gators offense has been…well…offensive lately. They are going against the nation’s best defense so don’t expect them to get well this week. State will “upset” the Gators.

7/8/7/6 (2/2/2/1) Kansas State (10-1) Have the weekend off.

8/7/8/7 (8/8/8/7) LSU (9-2) The Tigers will hit the road to play the Arkansas Razorbacks (4-7). Tigers will eat pork this weekend.

9/10/20/9 (9/10/10/8) Texas A&M (9-2) The Aggies host the Missouri Tigers (5-6). Johnny Football will have the Aggies plowing up the field…again.

10/5/6/10 (10/6/6/10) Florida State (10-1) The Seminoles host the #6 Florida Gators (10-1). Seminoles stifle the Gators in this “upset.”

11/11/11/8 (14/13/13/13) Stanford (9-2) The Cardinal play at the home of the #15 UCLA Bruins (9-2). This will be one interesting game. Each team is coming off a big win--Stanford over Oregon, UCLA over USC.  One used defense (Stanford) the other both offense AND defense (UCLA) in their wins. Pick UCLA to win this one.

12/9/9/11 (11/9/9/11) Clemson (10-1) The Tigers host the #13 South Carolina Gamecocks (9-2). Tigers eat birds, don’t they? Clemson and Tajh win this one.

13/12/12/12 (12/11/11/9) South Carolina (9-2) The Gamecocks head to the home of the #12 Clemson Tigers (10-1) where they will get plucked.

14/13/13/13 (13/12/12/12) Oklahoma (8-2) The Sooners host the #22 Oklahoma State Cowboys (7-3). Sooners will outscore this team too.

15/16/16/17 (17/16/19/17) UCLA (9-2) The Bruins host the #11 Stanford Cardinal (9-2). Bruins win.

16/17/15/15 (15/17/16/16) Oregon State (8-2) The Beavers host the #5 Oregon Ducks (10-1). The Ducks rebound from their loss.

17/14/14/14 (16/14/14/14) Nebraska (9-2) Cornhuskers hit the road to play the Iowa Hawkeyes (4-7) on Friday afternoon. Huskers win.

18/15/17/16 (18/15/15/15) Texas (8-2) The Longhorns host the TCU Horned Frogs (6-4) on Thursday night. The Longhorns leave the Frogs in ashes.

19/18/18/20 (20/18/17/18) Louisville (9-1) The Cardinals host the Connecticut Huskies (4-6). Cardinals will win this one with Bridgewater at the helm.

20/20/20/19 (23T/23/24/23) Michigan (8-3) The Wolverines go to Columbus to play the Ohio State Buckeyes (11-0). It will be close and the Wolverines may pull off the upset.

21/19/19/18 (22/20/21/22) Rutgers (9-1) The Scarlet Knights head west to play the Pittsburgh Panthers (4-6). Rutgers’ defense has been playing lights out. The offense has been so-so but they’ve done enough. Pitt has been inconsistent all year. Big day for RU’s D. RU hasn’t lost a game on the road all year. They won’t lose this one either.

22/21/22/21 (NR/24/NR/24) Oklahoma State (7-3) The Cowboys are on the road to play the #14 Oklahoma Sooners (8-2). Should be a high scoring affair with the Sooners on top.

23/25/25/23 (25/NR/NR/NR) Kent State (10-1) The Golden Flashes host the Ohio Bobcats (8-3) on Friday. Anything could happen, but the Golden Flashes should persevere.

24/23/24/NR (NR/NR/NR/NR) Northern Illinois (10-1) The Huskies are on the road to play the Eastern Michigan Eagles (2-9). Huskies will win.

25T/NR/NR/NR (NR/NR/NR/NR) Utah State (9-2) The Aggies host the Idaho Vandals (1-10). Aggies by a lot.

25T/24/23/NR (NR/NR/25/NR) Mississippi State (8-3) The Bulldogs play on the road against the Mississippi Rebels (5-6) in another intrastate rivalry. The Bulldogs will win big.

NR/22/21/22 (NR/22/23/NR) Boise State (9-2) The Broncos hit the road to play the Nevada Wolf Pack (7-4).  This one could be a close game with Nevada’s offense butting heads with Boise’s defense. The Broncos have the better team overall, however, and should win this one. 

NR/NR/NR/24 Arizona (7-4) The Wildcats will be hosting the Arizona State Sun Devils (6-5) Friday night. Could be a good game between two pretty evenly matched clubs. Throw in the intrastate thingy and the home field advantage may play a key role. Go with the 'Cats.

NR/NR/NR/25 Washington (7-4) The Huskies take to the road to face the Washington State Cougars (2-7) in yet another intrastate game. Something's wrong in the Palouse (just ask Idaho who is situated a stones throw across the boarder) so don't expect anything less than a rout by the Huskies.