Yes, I'm posting the regularly featured college football weekend preview on Thursday, rather than Friday. I wish I could say that it was part of some larger blog re-invention, but really, I'm going to be on the road tomorrow -- I'm heading down to Miami to offer career counseling to Lamar Thomas. Moving on...If someone told you that this week's most intriguing game would be between 19th-ranked
Rutgers and should-be-ranked Pitt, you'd probably ask them where they found such high-quality crack.
And yet, here we are. Rutgers is one of a handful of unbeaten teams remaining and combines with Pitt to give the Big East a respectable four Top 25-worthy teams (Rutgers, Pitt, WVA, L'ville).
Here's where we see how legit Rutgers really is. A win here keeps the Big East title dream – if not the BCS title dream – alive.
But, more likely, the Big East is going to turn into a poor man's version of the top-heavy SEC: The teams will spend the next few weeks giving each other a BCS-crushing loss.* Welcome to what SEC fans will agree should be called "Round-Robbery."
(Meanwhile, the ACC might be down – way down – but Clemson and GA Tech are still playing for supremacy in the league, and it's the biggest ranked-vs-ranked game of the week. Isn't the absence of Miami, FSU and VA Tech refreshing? The winner should be Top 10.)
1 Ohio St over Indiana
2 Michigan over Iowa
4 WVA over at UConn (Fri.)
5 Texas over at 17 Nebraska
6 Louisville over at Syracuse
7 Tennessee over Alabama
8 Auburn over Tulane
10 Notre Dame over UCLA
11 Cal over Washington
12 Clemson over 13 GA Tech
14 LSU over Fresno St.
15 Arkansas over Mississippi
16 Oregon over at Washington St.
18 Boise St over at Idaho
*At Pitt over 19 Rutgers
20 Oklahoma over Colorado
21 Wisconsin over at Purdue
22 BC over at Florida St.
23 Texas A&M over at Oklahoma St.
24 Missouri over Kansas St.
Comments Question: What are your most intriguing college football plotlines of the weekend?
-- D.S.
Posts
21 comments:
Wow....UConn's hosting #4? Too bad they built the stadium too small, and half an hour from campus.
Maybe get Khalid El-Amin to help them "shock the world"!
I am very curious to see the Pitt-Rutgers game. Is Wannstadt for real as a college coach? He didn't seem it last year.
Rutgers will beat Pittsburgh suprisingly easily. Palko will not have time to throw and Pitt has a average run game. Rutgers 27 Pitt 13
the best story going into this weekend is how the #1 team in the land is being held hostage by ESPNU and the fans in Columbus all suffer.
more like ESPN fuckU.
You're picking the wrong team for Round-Robbery in the Big East. Pitt is a good team, but they're #4 in the conference. Instead, Rutgers will win this weekend, and also will beat the Louisville-WVU winner, putting the Big 3 teams in the conference tied atop the leaderboard with one loss each. Not to meantion putting them among the half-dozen or so one-loss teams who will all have legitimate claims to #2 at season's end. I can't wait.
more like ESPN fuckU.
There aren't sports bars in Columbus?
nyc-steelers fan said: I'm down with your pitt pick, and I'll go you one better, although this will piss off the michigan mafia that trolls this board, but i'm calling hawkeyes to have a big rebound from their look ahead loss last week, to hand the wolverines a look ahead loss of their own. And I'd give Bama a healthy shot to pull off a major upset as well.
As much as I'd love to see Michigan lose just to shut manninghamheisman and his 2 other nics he uses on here up, do you really think they're looking ahead to Northwestern? Come on.
Maher
People used to make the same complaints about ESPN2 and big college hoops games before the cable companies caved and put ESPN2 on their systems.
ESPN putting the number one team in the nation on ESPNU is smart business.
Call your cable comapny or get Directtv.
Am I the only one not completely sold on Cal yet? Probably. Regardless, I'm picking Washington over Cal as my upset pick of the weekend.
Whenever I need to pick an upset I just call up my buddy Denny Green and ask him, because teams always are who he thinks they are. This week he told me Oregon is going down.
I too like Nebraska's changes at home to knock off Texas.
I'm very biased but I don't know what jo fer has seen out of Bama that makes him think they can stop UT (must have been that OT win over Ole Miss last week - ha!) I do look for it to be close however because of it being a rivalry game.
...and on another Tenn. note,
Of all the criticism for the BCS poll, how come no one mentioned Cal being #10 and Tenn #11 despite the total beatdown the Vols laid on them earlier this year.
Michigan plays Ohio State in November? Are we sure about that? I watched the Penn State-Michigan game last week and I didn't hear the announcers mention it at all in the second half.
I find it overly amusing that the BCS Championship Series TV ads show all the players trying to climb a LADDER. That's right, they all know about my ladder rankings!
Oh cool Lenny's back, how did that game last week against Indiana work out?
If Penn State's porous secondary couldn't slow down a Manningham-less Wolverine passing attack (oh, great, another third and long converted thanks to yet another zone), how exactly will Iowa's equally horrendous fare any better? Good luck with that front four is all I can say.
Ohio State fans don't know how to be rational. The team can be 2-6 and they would whine that not all their games are on TV.
I want to see how Oklahoma fares this week. I'm picking Nebraska in the upset.
I can't wait until it happens to your team raffy. now go do some 'roids.
I actually wrote an article for a sportswriting contest about the OSU game not being on "regular tv" in columbus...here's the link for anyone interested! and vote if you feel so inclined!
http://columbusalive.com/games/games.php?story=columbusalive/2006/1012/ga-clash1.php
i think rutgers is gonna beat pittsburgh. i was surprised by the way their defense shut out navy (5-2!) last weekend. Pittsburgh is great too...they're both in my top 25.
You are on crack Dan... :D
Biggest game of the week for me is Georgia Tech/Clemson... top 2 teams in the ACC.
nyc-sf -
I'm not at all surprised to hear that, nor am I upset. I couldn't agree more about Iowa's look-ahead loss, but fortunately, my Wolverines don't have much to look-ahead to right now (anyone want to suggest Lloyd runs a loose enough ship that his players are thinking a full month ahead? That's your own petard.)
Meanwhile, Iowa's ground game is not going to exist this weekend, and poor Drew is probably going to have a rough afternoon running away from big guys in winged helmets.
Also, don't tell me about Iowa's great D - Indiana only scored, what, 31? Demetrius McCray was held to only 84 yards rushing, to take his season total to... 185? I think Hart, Breaston, and Arrington can find their way around and through these guys.
maher -
the story here is actually how you are blog-spamming about some slight you have invented, after ESPN has been granting OSU consensus, uncontested #1 status all season long. That's even better than DS has treated you.
And actually, your team is not being held hostage. I believe it is the most lopsided game of the afternoon that is being held hostage in this situation.
Go to a bar. Guy with family - go to BW3 (get there early).
everybody -
Is it just me, or is Rutgers really the 'dog here, despite the ranking? Does anybody except rukrusher have any idea how Rutgers is actually playing this year? Don't get me wrong, anybody - I like them, and I know they deserve some poll love for their accomplishments at this point in the season, but is Vegas, for instance, actually favoring Rutgers here?
I just think it's not the boldest upset for Dan to predict, if an upset at all. But that's cool. I gotta finish this, it's time for work.
maher...
My team is on TV maybe 2-3 times a year if I'm lucky. Oh well, I watch other better games that are on.
Indiana? cmon. Suck it up, get some exercise on your way to the car, and drive to a bar.
Like an article stated in teh dispatch..There are HUNDREDS of tickets for sale for this game..if you really wanted to see the game, you could just buy a ticket. Otherwise...go play in front of moving traffic.
I agree that Pitt should be a favorite, any time you play an even team at home you should be favored. However, I think what Vegas is seeing is the speed and discipline of the RU defense. Pitt has put up good numbers this year but against very suspect defenses. Plus Michigan State ran all over Pitt and RU has a top 20 running game. If Pitt puts 8 in the box to stop the run I think Teel can do the same thing he did to Navy, 2-3 TD's and 200 + yards.
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