I like football.  Especially college football.  So, here are my thoughts on this weeks games.  I am still working on the MSUFR for the MN game and hope to have that up before the weekend.

Finally early for a thread.

The MAC Attack has begun. The MAC is basically an Ohio conference with the three directional Michigan schools. It is a fun conference to watch because they don’t play defense. Games are typically high scoring.

Tuesday
Ohio at Buffalo. Ohio is vying for a shot at the MAC title game but needs to win out for that to happen. Buffalo has fallen down after winning the MAC last year. EDIT: Buffalo was driving into FG range at the end of the game when a WR dropped a pass that was intercepted. Tough way to lose.

Wednesday
Toledo at Central Michigan. Dan Lefevour leads the potent CMU offense against Toledo. Toledo’s high water mark this year is probably their blow out win over Colorado. Central is trying to get to their 3rd MAC championship in four years with Dan as the starting QB. This year he became the MAC’s all time leader in offense during a win over Michigan State.

Thursday
Bowling Green at Miami and Ball State at Northern Illinois. BG/Miami does not have much interest. Ball State had the great run last year before choking in the MAC championship. Then their QB went pro and they only have 1 win this year. NIU had a great string of 1,000 yard rushers. They were not very good last year but have bounced back this year.

Friday
Temple at Akron. Temple is 7-2 and 5-0 in conference play. The fact that Temple has a winning record is mind boggling enough, but they could have been in a discussion for being the second best team in Pennsylvania if they had not been drubbed by Penn State earlier this year. Temple is on pace to meet CMU in the MAC Championship this year.

Saturday
Western at Eastern. Eastern is one of the winless teams in the NCAA. They have played really well, I am surprised they have not gotten a win yet this year.

Thursday Night
USF is at Rutgers. The Scarlet Knights had shown a lot of promise a few years ago but have never lived up to the hype since then. Although Rutgers has 6 wins, they are not bowl eligible. They have two victors over FCS teams and only one can count. Kind of an odd scheduling. USF is 6-2 and is bowl eligible.

Friday Night
West Virginia at Cincinnati. Cincy had a close one last weekend and now hosts WVU. WVU has had problems with turnovers intermixed with an explosive offense all year. This should be a fun shoot out of a game with a Conference title and BCS games on the line.

ACC
FSU at WF. Christian Ponder is out for the year for FSU so the backup will be playing. FSU needs to win their next two games to become bowl eligible. Luckily those games are against WF and Maryland.

Miami at UNC. Butch Davis is trying to go 3-0 against his old team. UNC had started the year horribly but have played significantly better of late. Miami started the year on fire but have cooled down lately, but did blow out Virginia last week. I think this would be a great game to watch.

Big XII
There are 6 games this weekend in the Big XII, but only one is interesting. I think this is mostly due to the South being Texas and the rest. The North has the interesting game this weekend pitting Nebraska at Kansas. Kansas under the senior leadership of Todd Reesing stormed to a 5-0 mark before dropping 4 straight games in conference play. If this game was in Nebraska I am not sure it would be interesting, but on the road there is at least some intrigue. This will also be a game that puts Nebraska closer to the Big XII title game.

Big East
Notre Lame at Pittsburgh. Pitt is trying to keep its high ranking and establish itself as this year’s best team in Pennsylvania. Notre Lame is trying to salvage its season after a loss to Navy. Why anyone thought they’d be a great team is beyond me.

Big Ten
Minnesota tries to become bowl eligible against South Dakota State. Michigan does the same against Wisconsin. After starting out 4-0 the Lolverines have yakety saxed it to 5-5 with one turnover plagued game after the next. They did make an adjustment on defense putting out senior MLB and defensive liability Ezeh in favor of Fitzgerald, who is a liability because of his inexperience. I think this change is because the MLB can’t get much worse and it’ll help the defense next year. Michigan should lose this game, but can steal a win. Wisconsin isn’t an impressive club and has had to hang on this year to get a victory in a bunch of games. If Michigan is close they might rekindle some Forcier magic and still one in Madison.

Penn State recovers from last weeks loss by beating Indiana. I think they are going to play the game as a formality. Although Indiana can move the ball and score some points, they aren’t in league with PSU and unless the Lions quit, the 4th quarter will be all about killing the clock.

What would have been the marquee game for the Big Ten this week is Iowa at OSU. Stanzi is not listed on the depth chart and a RS Freshmen QB at the horseshoe is a recipe for disaster. Too bad for Iowa they ended up being cheated out of this big game. Technically this game is for an outright Big Ten Title.

Which leaves the big game as MSU at Purdue. A battle of two mediocre teams. What makes this interesting is the bowl implications. Purdue has to win their two last games to get to 6 wins. MSU needs one of two. An MSU win eliminates Purdue and helps keep Michigan alive for a bowl slot. Purdue has problems with turnovers while still being competitive in most of their games. If MSU holds onto the ball they should be able to notch a victory on the road.

C-USA
0-9 Rice is hosting Tulane. 2 win Memphis fired their head coach.

MWC
BYU is at 0-9 New Mexico. 8-1 Utah is at 9-0 TCU. Utah had a great season last year going undefeated and beat Alabama in a BCS game. This year they get a chance to prevent TCU from going to a BCS game. TCU is trying to keep their long shot odds of getting to the BCS NC game alive. A win over Utah would help their computer average.

Pac 10
As a change of pace, interesting games in the Pac 10. Stanford is at USC. The last time Stanford was at USC they were a 50+ point dog and won the game. Stanford is also coming off a huge upset over Oregon. Both teams need a W to keep their slim Pac 10 title hopes alive.

Arizona at Cal. Arizona is trying to keep pace with Oregon for the conference lead. There were rumors about firing Stoops last year, it looks like they made the right decision and kept him on for this season. Cal is a disappointment after how their year started. Their stud RB Best got TKO’ed last week and will probably still have cobwebs this week. I think the coaches intend to play him.

Oregon hosts Arizona state and should easily beat them. I am guessing those are going to be some pissed off Ducks after last weeks loss to a Christmas tree.

SEC
Kind of a dud of a week for the SEC. Florida is at South Carolina. Spurrier takes on his old program again. UF has been playing uninspired football all season. SC has played hard and lost some tough games. This should be a very interesting game.

Auburn at Georgia. I think both teams are actually in a rebuilding year even though Auburn has the new head coach. Georgia has been up and down. I’ll let Mike fill in the commentary about Auburn and what to expect out of this game.

Sun Belt
0-9 Western Kentucky at UL- Monroe. WKU fired their coach this week.

WAC
Idaho is at 9-0 Boise State. Although Boise should finish the season undefeated, they’ll probably keep dropping in the polls because they don’t play anyone else of consequence. I think they will need a lot of help to get to the BCS NC and a little help to get a BCS bid.