Week 12 constitutes the penultimate week of the regular season for those conferences that have conference championship games. The Big XII still has a few games remaining on its schedule in order to ensure it's on television when other leagues are starting their post-seasons with their conference championship games.
Despite one prominent conference in the Southeast of the United States flooding its schedule with garbage games against FCS teams or weak FBS squads, several big games highlight this week's schedule. It starts tonight with Louisville's visit to Houston. It continues on Saturday with big games in the Big XII that could make for an exciting finish to that conference's season.
Let's dive into this week's schedule.
Thursday
Louisville at Houston (ESPN, 8 p.m.). This might be the most compelling Thursday night football game this season, and probably in a while. Louisville visits Houston for the return leg of a home-and-home.
Greg Ward, Jr. will look to upstage Lamar Jackson tonight in Houston. (Thomas B. Shea-USA TODAY Sports)
I'm not sure anyone thought both teams would be in the positions they are right now. Louisville was a fringe top 25 team when the season began. Almost everyone thought it would finish behind at least Clemson and Florida State in its division. Instead, Louisville routed Florida State and barely lost at Clemson. Its quarterback is the runaway favorite for the Heisman in December.
Houston, whose upset of Louisville early last year, propelled it to a one-loss season and Peach Bowl berth as the highest-ranked Group of Five conference champion. We thought Houston would be challenging for the playoff. Now it has two losses and is on the outside looking into the American Athletic West division race. It needs Navy to lose its next two games.
Louisville is an astonishing 14-point favorite in this game.
Arkansas State at Troy (ESPNU, 9:30 p.m.). Troy is ranked in the AP Poll for the first time in its program history. The 8-1 Trojans, with just the narrow loss at Clemson in Week 2, could take a huge step toward securing the Sun Belt tonight. Arkansas State is also undefeated in league play. The next win for whoever wins this contest secures the Sun Belt, which does not have a conference championship game.
Friday
Memphis at Cincinnati (CBS Sports, 8 p.m.). 6-4 Memphis takes on 4-6 Cincinnati. Cincinnati needs to win the remainder of its games to secure at least a .500 regular season.
UNLV at Boise State (ESPN2, 9 p.m.). We forget that Boise State is still ranked. It's the No. 20 team in the country per the playoff rankings. It lost at Wyoming a few weeks ago, though Wyoming did it a solid by losing a 69-66 shootout last week at UNLV.
Wyoming's loss last week gave Boise State reason to celebrate. (Brian Losness-USA TODAY Sports)
There's a three-team logjam at the top of the Mountain division with Boise State, New Mexico, and Wyoming all 5-1 in division play. Boise State still has a shot at the Group of Five invite to the Cotton Bowl, but it would need to win out, hope New Mexico beats Wyoming in two weeks, win the conference championship game, and hope Western Michigan wets the bed sometime between now and mid-December.
Incidentally, that's just to make sure it has the Group of Five invite. The playoff committee likes a one-loss Boise State more than it likes an undefeated Western Michigan at the moment.
Saturday
Texas San Antonio at Texas A&M (ESPNU, 12 p.m.). It's "Chickenshit Saturday" in the SEC. It could honestly be even worse this year. The SEC was wise to have some of its members stagger their "chickenshit" games to earlier in the season. Now, you won't notice the full extent of the SEC's chickenshit scheduling practices since several programs hid their chickenshit games in October.
Kansas State at Baylor (ESPN2, 12 p.m.). Baylor is riding a three-game losing streak after starting the season 6-0 and announcing itself as a team that the playoff committee would go to great pains to exclude from the playoff if it were somehow undefeated at season's end. It'll take on Kansas State as three-point underdogs at home.
Louisiana Lafayette at Georgia (SEC Network, 12 p.m.). It's "Chickenshit Saturday" in the SEC.
Mike Gundy's mullet game is strong. (Rob Ferguson-USA TODAY Sports)
Oklahoma State at TCU (FS1, 12 p.m.). It's subtly a big week in the Big XII. Oklahoma is undefeated in the conference while Oklahoma State and WVU have just one conference loss. Oklahoma State will take on 5-4 TCU as a four-point underdog while Oklahoma plays WVU at the 8 p.m. slot on ABC. Both Oklahoma State and Oklahoma have a bye next week before Bedlam on Dec. 3. That could be the de facto Big XII championship game.
Ohio State at Michigan State (ESPN, 12 p.m.). This is your personal game of the week, and one we hope is really, absurdly painful for Michigan State fans who already know they're not traveling to a bowl game this season. Stay tuned to Eleven Warriors for comprehensive coverage of this game.
Iowa at Illinois (BTN, 12 p.m.). Fresh off ruining everything for Ohio State fans hoping for a three-way logjam in the Big Ten East, Iowa travels to Champaign as a 10-point favorite.
Maryland at Nebraska (ESPN News, 12 p.m.). Because when I think "Big Ten football", I think of the Maryland Terrapins and Nebraska Cornhuskers on a 12 p.m. kickoff on ESPN News.
Wisconsin at Purdue (ABC, 12 p.m.). The game is simple for Wisconsin: win and in. Wisconsin secures the Big Ten West if it wins its next two games, which include a trip to lowly Purdue and a home tilt against Minnesota.
Florida at LSU (SEC Network, 1 p.m.). This is the long-awaited makeup game for a matchup originally slated for the first week of October. However, Hurricane Matthew postponed it. Some hardball negotiations ultimately got the game moved from Gainesville to Baton Rouge. LSU gained a home game this year.
Florida wins the SEC East with a victory over LSU. A loss effectively eliminates it. Tennessee, which is sitting on three losses right now, finishes its schedule with 3-7 Missouri and 4-6 Vanderbilt. Tennessee has the tie-breaker.
Florida State at Syracuse (ABC/ESPN2, 3:30 p.m.). The Seminoles are playing for pride and next week's tilt against the Gators. It's a 21-point favorite in the Carrier Dome.
Buffalo at Western Michigan (ESPNU, 3:30 p.m.). Western Michigan is a 35-point favorite over a hapless Buffalo team. It will want to cover too. The playoff committee likes one-loss Boise State more than undefeated Western Michigan. Boise State would go to the Cotton Bowl if the season ended now.
San Diego State at Wyoming (CBS Sports, 3:30 p.m.). Wyoming's loss at UNLV last week may have been curtains for what otherwise looked like a promising Mountain West Mountain division championship. This, before last week, looked like a potential preview of the Mountain West Conference Championship Game. San Diego State, which had already secured the West division, will enter this game as 10-point favorites on the road.
Virginia Tech at Notre Dame (NBC, 3:30 p.m.). This matchup looked a lot more interesting in the pre-season. Instead, the intrigue here is whether 7-3 Virginia Tech could knock 4-6 Notre Dame from bowl eligibility.
Missouri at Tennessee (CBS, 3:30 p.m.). Tennessee should be fine with the rest of its schedule, including a team that's already bowl-ineligible and another (Vanderbilt) that will be bowl-ineligible soon. It just needs LSU to do it a solid earlier in the afternoon.
Texas Tech at Iowa State (FS1, 3:30 p.m.). As always, the only intrigue in any Texas Tech game is the over-under. It's 75.5 on Saturday afternoon. I'm thinking the "under" for this game.
Texas at Kansas (ABC/ESPN2, 3:30 p.m.). I don't know if Charlie Strong has done enough to save his job by season's end. An inexplicable loss to Kansas, which last beat Texas in 1938, would give us a much clearer answer to that question.
A timeless moment in the series' history between Indiana and Michigan.
Indiana at Michigan (ESPN, 3:30 p.m.). Michigan, which ruined everything forever last week with a loss in Iowa, hosts Indiana on senior day. The Wolverines, which are absolutely the worst and FUBARed everything last week, will be without Wilton Speight. Despite turning Ohio State's title hopes into a big Charlie Foxtrot last week, the Wolverines are 24-point favorites at home.
Navy at East Carolina (ESPN News, 4 p.m.). Navy wins the American West with a win over 3-7 East Carolina. This is another makeup game that was postponed by Hurricane Matthew.
Western Carolina at South Carolina OR Austin Peay at Kentucky (SEC Network, 4 p.m.). Chickenshit Saturday in the SEC.
Stanford at California (Pac-12 Network, 5:30 p.m.). The "Big Game" is this week instead of next week, which never feels right. Stanford finishes with Rice next week while California hosts UCLA next Saturday.
California, which prominently opened its season in Australia with a win over Hawai'i and beat Texas in Berkeley, is 4-6 and needs to win out to secure a .500 season.
Clemson at Wake Forest (ESPN, 7 p.m.). Clemson could've secured a repeat berth in the ACC Championship Game with a win last week against Pittsburgh. It instead Clemsoned itself. The novel way by which it Clemsoned is a fresh approach to the overall "Clemsoning" phenomenon. Seriously, that Clemsoning belongs in the Smithsonian.
It could secure a berth to the ACC Championship Game all the same with a win in Winston-Salem as a 23-point favorite.
Arkansas at Mississippi State (ESPNU, 7 p.m.). A battle of bottom feeders in the SEC West with the loser taking a commanding lead for last place in the division. Mississippi State, incidentally a two-point favorite at home, becomes bowl-ineligible with a loss.
UT Chattanooga at Alabama (ESPN2, 7 p.m.). Alabama gets its "Chickenshit Saturday" as a 7 p.m. kickoff on ESPN2. That seems like a frivolous use of a time slot.
South Florida at Southern Methodist (CBS Sports, 7 p.m.). Southern Methodist is trying to avoid a sixth loss while South Florida needs to win out and hope Temple finds another loss somewhere in its remaining two games. South Florida and Temple are on top the American Athletic East division, but Temple has the tie-breaker.
Alabama A&M at Auburn (SEC Network, 7:30 p.m.). Chickenshit Saturday in the SEC.
Arizona State at Washington (FOX, 7:30 p.m.). Notwithstanding last week's loss to the Trojans, most things are still in front of Washington. It could secure a berth in the Pac-12 Championship Game if it wins out. It would probably be a favorite against whomever it would play (either Colorado or Utah) in that game. However, it's going to need some help if it wants in the playoff. Basically, it needs chaos in the Big XII and the Big Ten for the Pac-12 champion Washington Huskies (with as weak a schedule as it has) to be a viable option for the playoff committee.
Washington is 27-point favorite at home. Next Friday's Apple Cup in Pullman looms large, though.
Ole Miss at Vanderbilt (SEC Network, 8 p.m.). 5-5 Ole Miss travels to Nashville to play 4-6 Vanderbilt with absolutely zero implications for anything.
Penn State at Rutgers (BTN, 8 p.m.). Penn State will finish its regular season with 2-8 Rutgers and 3-7 Michigan State, which is as much an F7U12 scenario as Ohio State can get at this point. One of those two jokers needs to do Ohio State a solid before the Big Ten Championship Game.
Oklahoma at West Virginia (ABC, 8 p.m.). This is ABC's game of the week and one with interesting implications for the Big XII championship.
Oklahoma is undefeated in league play, though it has two losses out of conference (Houston, Ohio State). West Virginia started the season 6-0 but lost to Oklahoma State by 17. Oklahoma State has one conference loss (Baylor) and one really bad non-conference loss (Central Michigan).
Should any team from the Big XII represent the conference in the playoff, it would have to be West Virginia. That's at least conventional wisdom. The Mountaineers' one loss is far more forgivable than Oklahoma or Oklahoma State's two losses. Yet, the odds seem long for WVU to pull that feat off. It closes its regular season with two winnable games (at Iowa State, Baylor), but it's a three-point underdog at home.
Oklahoma get a bye next week before Bedlam on Dec. 3. A win in Morgantown, coupled with an Oklahoma State win earlier on Saturday, makes that rivalry game the de facto Big XII Championship Game.
The 2014 clash between these two was an all-timer. Oklahoma won 45-33 in a game that featured a bit of everything.
Tulsa at Central Florida (ESPN News, 8 p.m.). Tulsa can help Ohio State look better on the margins if it continues to win even if the probability that Tulsa wins the American West (over Houston and Navy) is almost zero. Tulsa's two other loss (beyond Ohio State) were to Houston and Navy, who would need total collapses down the stretch to propel the Golden Hurricane to the conference championship game.
New Mexico at Colorado State (ESPN2, 10:15 p.m.). New Mexico is actually still alive in the Mountain West Mountain division. It would need to win out (including a season-ending win over Wyoming) and hope Boise State (which beat it by 28 points earlier in the season) has a loss somewhere on the remainder of its schedule. Still, a 7-3 record this late into the season is pretty good for New Mexico "footbaw" coach, Bob Davie.
USC at UCLA (ESPN, 10:30 p.m.). USC has major wind in its sails after beating Washington in Seattle last week. It's also in a great position to inflict serious pain on its two rivals to finish its regular season. It could hand UCLA a seventh loss on Saturday night and, should Notre Dame beat Virginia Tech, make the Irish bowl-ineligible in the Coliseum next week.
Things are a little bleaker for USC berth into the conference championship game. It needs one of the following quasi-realistic scenarios in addition to the win over UCLA:
- Utah loses at home but beats Colorado in Boulder to end the regular season. Utah is a 14-point favorite over a seven-loss Oregon team, though.
- Colorado loses at home to Washington State (probable, even if Colorado is a five-point favorite) but rebounds to beat Utah.
Air Force at San José State (CBS Sports, 10:30 p.m.). 3-7 San José State hosts a 7-3 Air Force team in a game to watch when USC-UCLA is on a commercial break.
