2015 College Football Week 10 Viewing Guide

The football staff at OFR has, of late, been only slightly less sickly than UGA’s offense, so our sincerest apologies for the lateness of the viewing guide for Week 10. We go straight into Saturday’s action!

Bold – Make it the primary game
Italics – Make it the backup game

Big games on the docket for Saturday. Plan accordingly!

12:00

1. Duke at North Carolina, ESPN 2 – Major rivals, both still in play for their division title? Yes, please.
2. Penn State at Northwestern, ESPN U – Penn State isn’t out of the Eastern division hunt just yet. They have just one conference loss, to Ohio State, and since OSU still must play both Michigan schools, it’s possible. The Nittany Lions have played better as the year progressed, but a lot of that is due to how bad they started. Both teams are good, second tier Big Ten teams, so I expect a quality game.
3. Notre Dame at Pittsburgh, ABC – Pitt is pretty good and rested, last playing Thursday the 29th. Notre Dame is still far better, but maybe something interesting could happen.
4. Texas Tech at West Virginia, Fox Sports 1 – It’s a Big 12 game with nothing on the line, but there should be plenty of points scored, which is more fun than a low-scoring field goal fest with very little on the line. Hey, speaking of…
5. Kentucky at Georgia, SEC Network – UGA is favored by 14 points, which is really quite the expectation for defensive and special teams scores.
6. Illinois at Purdue, Big Ten Network – Vegas had this game as a pick-em.
7. Vanderbilt at Florida, ESPN – These are the only two schools that could still win the SEC East. This is not a joke.
8. UCF at Tulsa, ESPN News – UCF games now have some morbid curiosity to them. It’s not so much whether or not a team that went 31-9 over the last 3 years will suddenly go winless. It’s whether they’ll continue getting blown out on their way to 0-12.
9. Akron at Massachusetts, CBS SN – They’re not the worst teams in the MAC, but… no, that’s it.

12:30

1. NC State at Boston College, ESPN 3 – A unique matchup, since NC State is all offense and BC is all defense.
2. Syracuse at Louisville, ESPN 3 – Cardinals should be above .500 for the first time this year.

1:00

1. Stanford at Colorado, Pac 12 Network – Colorado surprisingly kept things close with UCLA last week, and Stanford nearly lost to WSU. Those aren’t trendlines; they’re blips. Expect the Cardinal to cruise.

2:00

1. UL-Lafayette at Georgia State, ESPN 3 – GSU is less than a TD underdog to a school that has, until this season, been a major player in the Sun Belt landscape. Even though this year’s line has more to do with ULL being a bit of a dumpster fire, that’s still some major progress for Georgia State.

2:30

1. Eastern Michigan at Miami OH, ESPN 3 – Oh, what a sad thing that must take place because the schedule demands it.

3:00

1. Virginia at Miami, ESPN 3 – This is the pick of the 3:00 litter. It’s not a particularly inspiring litter.
2. Colorado State at Wyoming, ESPN 3 – The FBS’ least inspiring season, Wyoming’s, has a chance for improvement. CSU hasn’t been good in Mike Bobo’s first season.
3. Idaho at South Alabama, ESPN 3 – Idaho and South Alabama are conference mates, naturally.

3:30

1. TCU at Oklahoma State, FOX – TCU is better, but that hasn’t stopped them from already letting teams like Minnesota, Texas Tech, and Kansas State take them down to the wire. Oklahoma State has also had scares against mediocrity. Any time unbeatens play in November, it’s must-watch football.
2. Florida State at Clemson, ABC – I think, because of which team is undefeated, we tend to think this game is closely matched or some kind of toss-up, but Clemson is by far the better team this year. Better teams can lose, though, and FSU knows that as well as anybody, so it still bears watching. Just know that if Clemson wins by 3 scores, we haven’t learned anything new about the Tigers. They’ve been this good for a while.
3. Arkansas at Ole Miss, CBS – The Rebels should win, but they should’ve won last year too, and the Fighting Berts won that one 30-0.
4. Iowa at Indiana, ESPN – The undefeated Hawkeyes hit the road. It’s habitual to call any road game against a mostly average team a trap game for an unbeaten, but this one qualifies. Iowa has long enjoyed one of college football’s biggest home field advantages, mostly because of how average they tend to look on the road. Indiana didn’t get its big upset earlier against Ohio State, but they would happily settle for ruining Kirk Ferentz’ perfection.
5. Cincinnati at Houston, ESPN 2 – Cincy has slipped by the wayside in the very fun AAC this year. The Bearcats aren’t entertainingly awful, like UCF, they’re not a young team coached by an up-and-comer like SMU, they’re not breaking through like USF, and they’re not contending on the national level like the ones we hear about the most. The Bearcats are merely respectable at 5-3. They were preseason favorites to win the East, and while that doesn’t look like it’ll happen, they’ll be looking to play spoiler for those looking for bigger rewards, and they’re capable of it too.
6. Arizona State at Washington State, Fox Sports 1 – They rank 61st and 60th, respectively, in the F/+ combined rankings, so this has the makings of a good game, though not a meaningful one.
7. Wisconsin at Maryland, Big Ten Network – This is why you don’t really need the Big Ten Network.
8. Rutgers at Michigan, Big Ten Network – This too.
9. Utah State at New Mexico, CBS SN – I… I got nothing.
10. Army at Air Force, ESPN U – Commander-in-Chief’s Trophy “action”
11. UL-Monroe at Troy, ESPN 3 – Some years, this is an exciting game that helps decide the Sun Belt. This isn’t one of those years.

4:00

1. South Carolina at Tennessee, SEC Network – UT is better, but SC’s performance against A&M last week was weirdly solid.
2. Connecticut at Tulane, ESPN News – Watch this if, like me, you completely forgot Tulane built their own stadium and kind of don’t fully believe it’s true.
3. New Mexico State at Texas State, ESPN 3 – One of THE pillow fights of the year.

4:30

1. UCLA at Oregon State, Pac-12 Network – Nope.

7:00

1. Navy at Memphis, ESPN 2 – For weeks I’ve been warning about how Navy could play spoiler to some of their unbeaten conference foes. No bigger chance than in this one. Memphis gives up points, and Navy can score them. Navy’s only loss is to Notre Dame, and they’re probably on par with Memphis. This is one to watch.
2. Michigan State at Nebraska, ESPN – At 3-6, it hasn’t been Nebraska’s year at all, but 5 of the losses were by a total of 13 points. The Huskers are 5 plays away from an 8-1 record. That’s not to excuse those plays or pretend they actually happened, but Nebraska is more a threat to Michigan State’s unblemished record than the 3-6 indicates. Spartans should still win, but at least monitor this one.
3. Iowa State at Oklahoma, ESPN U – By the power of common opponent results, Iowa State shut out Texas, who beat Oklahoma, so ISU should win this! That is completely logically sound!

7:30

1. Utah at Washington, FOX – Despite the difference in records (Utah is 7-1; UW is 4-4), this could be a very evenly matched, competitive game. This game would be useful in the late slot or as a noon game, but it’ll be ignored at 7:30.
2. Auburn at Texas A&M, SEC Network – Rather unbelievably, the loser of this game will get some hot seat talk, and the rest of the conference will be better off if those frustrated actually make a change happen.
3. South Florida at East Carolina, CBS SN – Nah.

8:00

1. LSU at Alabama, CBS – Verne and Gary after dark + Leonard Fournette + Derrick Henry = 
2. Minnesota at Ohio State, ABC – Hey look, another ABC 8:00 game featuring Michigan State or Ohio State, without any real regard for who the opponent is.
3. Kansas at Texas, Longhorn Network – No prouder moment for the LH Network that showing Texas having to beat winless Kansas to keep bowl eligibility likely.

10:30

1. California at Oregon, ESPN 2 – Y’all, Oregon may be figuring some things out. They’ll finish stronger than they started.
2. Arizona at USC, ESPN – Before the game they can discuss who is more embarrassed by losing to Washington – USC in a close one where the coach was reportedly inebriated, or Arizona, whose 49-3 loss was the 2nd worst of the Rich Rod era.