If weekday football is your thing, Week 9 may be the week for you.
Saturday's schedule is a bit light on fireworks. Only one game this week featuring two ranked teams will be contested on Saturday, and one of those teams is Temple. No. 21 Temple hosts no. 9 Notre Dame in Saturday night's ABC primetime slot. College Gameday will be on hand too, settling on Temple over Washington State as unranked Washington State hosts no. 8 Stanford.
Still, Week 9 constitutes the start of a saturated weekday schedule for football. What follows is your viewing guide for the week while Ohio State is on its bye.
THURSDAY
North Carolina at Pittsburgh (ESPN, 7 p.m.). No one invests much in the ACC, let alone the Coastal Division. At least the Atlantic Division has Clemson and Florida State. That said, we're on the verge of November and this might be the most intriguing ACC conference game to date says a lot about how this season has unfolded.
Put another way, both North Carolina and Pittsburgh are 6-1 this year. Pittsburgh is the AP's no. 23 team and North Carolina, unofficially, would be the no. 27 team in terms of points (by ballot). Pat Narduzzi might be the coach of the year, certainly in the ACC, and Larry Fedora's hire of Gene Chizik as defensive coordinator looks like one of the great staff additions this year.
By contrast, preseason Coastal favorites Georgia Tech and Virginia Tech have fallen on hard times this season. Both are a combined 2-7 in league play.
West Virginia at Texas Christian (FOX Sports 1, 7:30 p.m.). TCU is the preaseason playoff favorite whom we kind of forgot this season. We forget Auburn because Auburn was a closet terrible team. TCU is still pretty damned good, but hasn't necessarily played like it (see: games at Texas Tech and Kansas State).
West Virginia is riding a three-game skid coming into this game. Both teams are coming off byes.
Western Michigan at Eastern Michigan (CBS Sports, 7:30 p.m.). Western Michigan is on a three-game winning streak after the 38-12 loss to Ohio State. P.J. Fleck may parlay that into one of the many head coach openings available this offseason.
Texas State at Georgia Southern (ESPNU, 7:30 p.m.). Georgia Southern's 31-13 loss last week to Appalachian State puts it behind the 8-ball in the Sun Belt. Both teams were 5-1 entering that game. Texas State could turn around its Sun Belt fortunes with an upset win in Statesboro.
Oregon at Arizona State (ESPN, 10:30 p.m.). Remember when we thought this would be a preview of the Pac-12 Championship Game this year?
FRIDAY
Louisville at Wake Forest (ESPN2, 7 p.m.). This might be a marginally more entertaining match-up in ACC college basketball than football.
East Carolina at Connecticut (ESPNU, 7 p.m.). East Carolina gave Temple all it could before two late touchdowns and a blocked punt in a 73-second span gave Temple a 24-14 win. Meanwhile, Connecticut is still all-points terrible. Its only win in its last six games came against Central Florida, which is having arguably the worst season in football this year.
Louisiana Tech at Rice (FOX Sports 1, 8 p.m.). Louisiana Tech is in first place in the C-USA West. However, a home win for Rice jumps the Owls to first place in the C-USA West.
Wyoming at Utah State (ESPN2, 10:15 p.m.). Utah State is an uninspiring 4-3 overall. Utah State has that beatdown of Boise State on its record, but followed that historic win with a 48-14 loss at San Diego State last week.
Meanwhile, Wyoming is 1-7. Beggars can't be choosers for Friday night's college football lineup.
SATURDAY
Central Florida at Cincinnati (ESPN News, 12 p.m.). Central Florida is chasing that elusive first win of the season. Danny Barrett will lead the Golden Knights into this game after George O'Leary resigned earlier in the week.
South Florida at Navy (CBS Sports, 12 p.m.). Houston, Memphis, and Temple are dominating the headlines in the American Athletic Conference. However, 5-1 Navy is the only other team undefeated in conference play. A 17-point loss at Notre Dame is Navy's only blemish in 2015.
Illinois at Penn State (ESPN2, 12 p.m.). Tim Beckman made this series more interesting than it otherwise would be when he tried to raid Penn State's roster in 2012 and came up (basically) empty. Without him, there are no real pressing storylines to this contest.
Nebraska at Purdue (ESPNU, 12 p.m.). Again, imagine the lifelong Nebraska fan who is at least 30 years old, who sees a schedule that previously included familiar programs like Colorado, Missouri, and Oklahoma replaced with yearly contests against programs like Illinois and Purdue.
There are some stakes to this game. A Purdue loss makes the Boilermakers bowl-ineligible. A Nebraska loss drops the Cornhuskers to 3-6 in Mike Riley's first year.
Rutgers at Wisconsin (BTN, 8 p.m.). God bless Wisconsin for drawing the short stick in the first two years of the 14-team Big Ten. Rather than play Michigan, Michigan State, Ohio State, or indeed any familiar team in the B1G East, the Badgers get both Big Ten newbies (Maryland and Rutgers) in 2014 and 2015.
Ole Miss at Auburn (ESPN, 12 p.m.). Ole Miss got on the winning track again last week with a 23-3 win over Texas A&M. Auburn is just 4-3 this season and last-place in the SEC West.
South Carolina at Texas A&M (SEC Network, 12 p.m.). Texas A&M wilts in October with the tree leaves every year. However, a win over South Carolina seems in the cards.
Syracuse at Florida State (ABC, 12 p.m.). That a blocked field goal returned for a touchdown is what it took to give Florida State its first ACC loss in over three years is kinda remarkable. However, the real intrigue for Florida State is not how it responds this week, but looking ahead to next week. The Noles visit Clemson in what amounts to the de facto ACC Championship.
USC at California (FOX, 3 p.m.). USC ran wild over Utah last week in an upset over the no. 3 team in the Coliseum. California will be a different animal, though.
Colorado at UCLA (Pac-12 Network, 3 p.m.). Colorado scored its first Pac-12 win since November 2013 last week against Oregon State. It travels to a UCLA team that handed California a 40-24 loss last week in the Rose Bowl.
Clemson at NC State (ABC/ESPN2, 3:30 p.m.). Clemson is only an 11-point favorite in this game, which is curious. The real intrigue, though, is next week's home game against Florida State. The winner of that game has won the ACC in the past four years.
Georgia at Florida (CBS, 3:30 p.m.). Earlier this month, this could've been the biggest "Cocktail Party" since Urban Meyer was still Florida's coach. Florida, for its part, is still chugging along without its starting quarterback. Georgia, meanwhile, has fallen off the map. A 9-6 win over an impotent Missouri team spared Georgia a three-game losing streak entering this contest.
Oklahoma at Kansas (FOX Sports 1, 3:30 p.m.). Kansas, the unquestioned worst Power Five team in football this year, is showing signs of improvement. However, that won't spare it against the no. 14 Sooners.
Oklahoma State at Texas Tech (ESPN, 3:30 p.m.). We forget Oklahoma State is undefeated this year, and pretty damn good. The Cowboys are the country's no. 21 total defense and lead the country in sacks per game.
Maryland at Iowa (ABC/ESPN2, 3:30 p.m.). Iowa finishes with Maryland (and its interim coach), at Indiana, Minnesota (and its interim coach), Purdue, and at a potentially bowl-ineligible Nebraska team. Iowa is looking at a possibly undefeated regular season (and ten-win season at the worst).
Boise State at UNLV (ESPNU, 3:30 p.m.). Boise State has that ugly loss at Utah State on its record, but still, effectively, controls its destiny in the Mountain West Mountain division. UNLV, meanwhile, is 2-5 and still has this game against Boise State and another game at San Diego State to go. Tony Sanchez will probably not make a bowl game in UNLV in his first year in charge of the program.
San Diego State at Colorado State (CBS Sports, 3:30 p.m.). The Aztecs are just 5-3 this season, but are the last undefeated team in Mountain West play. It also has a two-game lead on San Jose State (with a tiebreaker too).
Tulsa at Southern Methodist (ESPN News, 4 p.m.). Both teams are looking for their first conference win this season.
Tennessee-Martin at Arkansas (SEC Network, 4 p.m.). Don't exert yourself too hard in this game, Bert.
Tulane at Memphis (CBS Sports, 7 p.m.). Memphis, a 32-point favorite, should have no problem with Tulane this game. Next week's game against Navy in the Liberty Bowl should be a good one.
Oregon State at Utah (Pac-12 Network, 7 p.m.). Utah had a rough go in the Coliseum last week but should rebound quite nicely against Oregon State. Oregon State is 2-5 (0-4 in the Pac-12) and unquestionably the worst team in the Pac-12 this year.
Vanderbilt at Houston (ESPN2, 7 p.m.). No. 18 Houston could have victories this season over an ACC team (Louisville) and an SEC team (Vanderbilt) in Tom Herman's first year. That's not necessarily the best non-conference résumé, but it's not nothing either.
Miami at Duke (ESPNU, 7 p.m.). By this point ten years ago (when the ACC first split into the Atlantic and Coastal divisions), Duke was 1-7 en route to a moribund 1-10 campaign. Miami, meanwhile, was 6-1 with just a 10-7 season-opening loss at Tallahassee on its record.
Now, Miami sacked its head coach for a program-worst 58-0 loss at home to Clemson, while no. 22 Duke is 6-1 and undefeated in ACC play.
The difference that ten years make.
Michigan at Minnesota (ESPN, 7 p.m.). Tracy Claeys takes over as interim coach for the recently resigned/retired Jerry Kill. His first assignment: Michigan off a bye. The next week: Ohio State, coming off its own bye.
Texas at Iowa State (FOX Sports 1, 7 p.m.). Iowa State fired its offensive coordinator (which happened to be Mark Mangino) after a three-game skid. Iowa State sits at 2-5 and hosts a Texas team that has put together two wins after a 50-7 loss at Texas Christian.
Tennessee at Kentucky (SEC Network, 7:30 p.m.). The fan bases for both programs are a little angst-ridden at the moment. Tennessee had fourth-quarter leads over Alabama and Florida (both on the road) and squandered both opportunities. The Volunteers are 3-4 this season but still lack a signature win in Butch Jones' third year in Knoxville. We can only wonder what the pulse would be in Knoxville if Tennessee did not have that win over an injury-depleted Georgia team.
Kentucky is 4-3, but that may not be terribly informative. Two wins came over South Carolina and Missouri. Kentucky even trailed Eastern Kentucky by two touchdowns in the fourth quarter before a furious rally resulted in an overtime win for the Wildcats. Kentucky could still plausibly finish 2015 with a 6-6 record in Mark Stoops' third year.
Put another way, I would not want to be the coach that loses this game.
Notre Dame at Temple (ABC, 8 p.m.). This is the ABC primetime game of the week. The overnight ratings for this should be fun/ghastly.
By the way, this was my prediction for this game in early August when Notre Dame was heralded as a playoff team that, somehow, would not lose at Clemson.
ND is a double-digit win team this year, but will we be hyping them for the playoff when they need 2 OTs to fart out a win against Temple?
— Vico (@ourhonordefend) August 5, 2015
Feel free to hold me accountable for this #take on twitter-dot-com.
Air Force at Hawaii (CBS Sports, 10:30 p.m.). Air Force is 3-1 in the Mountain West and controls its destinty for the conference championship game. It also still has Boise State and Utah State to play.
Stanford at Washington State (ESPN, 10:30 p.m.). Washington State has its first three-game conference win streak since 2003. A fourth straight win puts Washington State into pole position in the Pac-12 North.
A Stanford win may be even more decisive, though. Stanford would be two games clear in the Pac-12 North with just three league games left to play.
Arizona at Washington (FOX Sports 1, 11 p.m.). Both programs already have three league losses on the record. Arizona is not eliminated from Pac-12 South contention at the moment, though it could use some help going forward. A loss here would doom Arizona's chances to make the title game in Santa Clara.
