This Weekend in College Football: Week 7

As usual, all times Eastern and most predictions wrong.

Noon:

• Georgia Tech @ Miami (ESPN): I don't know what to say about GT anymore. Hopefully Tenuta gets the last laugh over Patrick Nix.
  
• Illinois @ Iowa (ESPN2): The chance of me watching this game is pretty much somewhere around 0%. Illinois should win handily, but with the Zookinator at the helm anything can happen.
  
• Virginia Tech @ Duke (Raycom/Gameplan): Duke will be a soothing salve for VPI's offensive woes.
  

12:30:

• Texas @ Iowa State (FSN): Stranger things have happened. And not in the distant past, either, but this very year. That said, Texas would have to be really reeling to lose to this throughly terrible Cyclone bunch.
  
• Alabama @ Mississippi (LF/Gameplan): I'll give you two reasons to watch this game. The first is because since it starts 30 minutes later, this game will be going on while the noon games are still in half time. The other is always the outside chance someone interview The Orgeron, which is a treat in and of itself. As for the game, 'Bama should (unfortunately) win.
  

3:30:

• Boston College @ Notre Dame (NBC): Perhaps ND got it together last week at UCLA. However, Boston College is a seriously good team, and although it would fit into the calculus of this season there is really no way they should lose to Notre Dame.
  
• Louisiana State @ Kentucky (CBS): I can't help but think Kentucky has been feasting on a diet of delicious cupcakes. LSU meanwhile, has pretty much the best defense in the country hands-down. South Carolina held them to 23, and I expect LSU to do worse. That said, I also don't expect LSU to score a whole bunch, so it'll be a tight game that the Tigers win in the end.
  
• Wisconsin @ Penn State (ESPN/ABC): Woo? Wisconsin isn't nearly as good as their 5-1 record might lead you to believe, but Penn State has lost to Illinois as well. Let's just take the home team and move on.
  
• South Carolina @ North Carolina (Gameplan/ABC/ESPN): Okay, moving on to this may not have been such a good idea. South Carolina is pretty darn good, UNC is not. From an OOC scheduling standpoint, I like the game, but otherwise not so much.
  
• Arizona @ Southern California (ABC/Gameplan): I cannot fathom a way USC loses this game. Then again, I would have said the same last week as well. If I had a hat, I'd put it on the line here, because if USC loses to another crappy team I would eat my hat. If I had one.
  
• Texas Agricultural and Mechanical @ Texas Tech (Gameplan/ABC): This is a pretty important Big 12 South title - not too often schools not named "Texas" or "Oklahoma" get to say that. It's hard to say who's better here, both have what I consider to be not-so-great losses (Miami for TAMU, Oklahoma St. for TTU). I think if Tech can pile up the points early, and they probably should, they will win. Of course, if it's a shootout, that also favors TTU. So I guess what I'm trying to say here is that Texas Tech should win.
  

6:00: Georgia @ Vanderbilt (ESPN2): I am desperately rooting for two in a row here. Vandy got torched at Auburn last week, however, and may have a hard time picking themselves back up. Also, UGA probably isn't too happy about losing their homecoming game last year. Take the mutts, but root for the Commodores.

6:30: Missouri @ Oklahoma (FSN): By playing absolutely no one, Mizzou is 5-0. OU has already lost to a Big 12 North team - can the Tigers tilt the balance completely in favor of the north this year? I don't really think Missouri is better than Texas, to be completely honest, and I also think the Sooners should win.

7:00: Oregon State @ California (Versus): Thanks to last week, the Versus game will now get a mention here. That said, Cal shouldn't really have any issues here.

7:45: Auburn @ Arkansas (ESPN): After losing to Miss. State, Auburn has really gotten its act together. Rediscovering the concept of "offense" against NMSU, they beat Florida and whipped Vandy. After their initial two SEC losses, Arkansas has played absolutely no one, putting the screws on North Texas and UTC. I look for the revitalized Auburn offense to put Arkansas in a hole, a position they have a really had time recovering from with their anemic passing game. Look for the Tigers to get up early, and then Arkansas to attempt a rally but never quite pass Auburn.

9:15: Colorado @ Kansas State (ESPN2): Just another day at the office for the crazy-as-hell Big 12. Despite two losses, CU is 2-0 in the conference and K-State has a loss after a hard fought game with their rival last week. So, once again, a game you might not expect to have a great deal of importance does. Being from Kansas and angered by the fact that despite needing 5-downs to beat Missouri and having a loss the Colorado sports publicist claimed this week they were the "true" champions of 1990, I'm going to go with KSU. (Sorry for the run-on sentence there.)

10:15: Washington @ Arizona State (FSN): Washington is, unfortunately, not as good as many of us thought early in the season. Saddled with 3 losses now and 0-2 in the Pac-10, UW is one the ropes. This is sort of a trap game for the Sun Devils, though - they have a bye next week before facing Cal. At 6-0 and 3-0 in the Pac-10, they can hardly afford to trip up against the Huskies. That said, the 6-0 is barely legitimate, I would say their best victory is probably the one over Colorado. Then again, there's something to be said this year about actually being about to beat patsies (that's pretty sad, if you ask me, but hey). The Sun Devils win, and will get to 7-0 (4-0), which will hopefully set up a pretty epic clash with against Cal in two weeks.

That's all, folks. Also, the first BCS standings of the year come out on Sunday, so look for my initial bowl predictions then!