College football rolls out a feast for Thanksgiving weekend
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Version 0 of 1. A big, woolly college football weekend lies just ahead even beyond its unranked bouts of contempt such as Indiana-Purdue, Georgia-Georgia Tech, Virginia Tech-Virginia, Louisville-Kentucky and Kent State-Akron for the Blue and Gold Wagon Wheel. To follow all the College Football Playoff and New Year’s bowl implications, one must watch one game at noon Eastern time on Friday, one at 3:30 p.m. on Friday, one at 7:30 on Friday, two at noon on Saturday, four at 3:30 on Saturday and four around 7:30 on Saturday, and that’s ignoring altogether the Apple Cup (Washington State-Washington), never a good idea. [College football games you need to watch Thanksgiving weekend] As Ralph Russo of the Associated Press reported, this will be the first weekend since Oct. 6, 2007, that boasts seven games pitting teams ranked in the Associated Press top 25 against one another. The College Football Playoff rankings didn’t share that number, but it did come in at six. While nine of the top 13 College Football Playoff teams oppose other ranked teams, three of the four that don’t must leave home, with two — No. 1 Clemson and No. 2 Alabama — going to places — South Carolina and Auburn, respectively — where people have disliked them since roughly the beginning of time. From the view ahead of kickoff, the most daunting assignment of the four goes to No. 4 Iowa (11-0), which will go Friday at 3:30 p.m. to Nebraska (5-6), where the population is unaccustomed to yearning for bowl-eligibility. In a game of high relevance to several teams, at 3:30 p.m. on Saturday, Michigan State (10-1) will try the triple feat of beating Penn State (7-4), averting letdown from its wildly successful trip to Ohio State and winning the Big Ten East Division. Between No. 4 Iowa and No. 5 Michigan State, it’s certain that one will lose between now and Dec. 6, and it’s near-certain that the other will reach the playoff by winning two more games. On Saturday at noon and 3:30 p.m., respectively, Clemson (11-0) will go to South Carolina (3-8), trouble in many a year but not so much this one, and Alabama (10-1) will reach Auburn (6-5), where the perception of diminished trouble this time around should please Alabama Coach Nick Saban. You know you’re in a heavy weekend when Alabama-Auburn is a national afterthought. [College football kickoff: Playoff analysis and conference title scenarios] Here are the top all-ranked games, with playoff implications, and all times Eastern: 1) No. 6 Notre Dame (10-1) at No. 9 Stanford (9-2), 7:30 p.m. Saturday. Notre Dame just slipped from No. 4 to No. 6 in the rankings, owing to a softened portion of its schedule, but as the schedule toughens up again, an impressive win could vault the Irish back upward. Unlike Stanford (and others), this game ends Notre Dame’s regular season. It could give Notre Dame a third win over a ranked team to go with wins at No. 25 Temple and over No. 15 Navy (9-1), the latter outcome looking better all the time. The Irish also have the rankings’ most impressive loss, by two points at No. 1 Clemson. If Notre Dame wins and does not make the playoff, there could be long, loud national discussions about the implications of abstinence from conference membership. Fittingly for Stanford and its penchant for complex permutations, there are complex permutations in which Stanford still has a chance to leap into the four-team playoff. Those permutations are far too complex for a holiday week. 2) No. 3 Oklahoma (10-1) at No. 11 Oklahoma State (10-1), 8 p.m. Saturday. Oklahoma has the stronger position among identical records because it has wins over two ranked teams to one for Oklahoma State, and because it traveled to — and won at — Tennessee as an optional nonconference challenge. 3) No. 7 Baylor (9-1) at No. 19 TCU (9-2), 7:30 p.m. Friday. The college-football-addled likely spent August thinking this would match 10-0 against 11-0. It still matters because a TCU win knocks out both, while a Baylor win coupled with an Oklahoma State win will make Baylor the Big 12 champion, wailing to enter the playoff, just like last year, when it didn’t, and with an unimposing nonconference schedule, just like last year, it will be left out. 4) No. 8 Ohio State (10-1) at No. 10 Michigan (9-2), noon Saturday. It’s better for this game that it precedes Penn State-Michigan State, because if No. 5 Michigan State wins, these two would have to settle, as a motivator, for the depth of resentment toward one another. [Harbaugh and Meyer shift recruiting’s gravitational pull to Big Ten] 5) No. 13 Florida State (9-2) at No. 12 Florida (10-1), 7:30 p.m., Saturday. The College Football Playoff selection committee dumped Florida from No. 8 after it eluded Florida Atlantic in overtime, and it might have even sneered at how Florida prevented Florida Atlantic from improving to 3-8. The committee probably could overcome its displeasure with the Gators if the Gators could win this plus the Southeastern Conference championship game against, say, Alabama, a match that would create a perception of limited trouble for Alabama. 6) No. 18 Ole Miss (8-3) at No. 21 Mississippi State (8-3), 7:15 p.m. Saturday. This den of disdain has zero playoff implications, but if Ole Miss could win, it could reach the SEC title game with an Alabama loss at Auburn, and would delight in the havoc. Beyond that, No. 14 North Carolina (10-1) will visit North Carolina State (7-4) at 3:30 on Saturday, with the question of whether the Tar Heels could reach the playoff at 12-1 if they defeat No. 1 Clemson in the ACC championship game Dec. 5. (Answer: It’s steep.) Navy and Houston (10-1) start the weekend at noon on Friday, an outstanding lid-lifter that matters much in the pursuit of a big-six New Year’s bowl bid. No. 22 UCLA (8-3) travels down the Santa Monica Freeway to Southern California (7-4) at 3:30 on Saturday, with the winner to emerge from the gooey egalitarianism of the Pac-12 South Division to play Stanford again the next week, though not to win the Blue and Gold Wagon Wheel. |