This Weekend in College Football: Week 11

As usual, all times Eastern and all predictions wrong.

Noon:

• Florida @ South Carolina (CBS): Why is this game on CBS? Who knows! Suffice it to say, if this game ends up 9-6 it will be a pretty safe bet to chalk it up to offensive ineptitude than to defense. Florida has speed but no apparent idea of how to use it, while South Carolina is decimated by injuries, suspensions, and dismissals. In the end, though, I still expect the Gamecocks to prevail.
• Oklahoma State @ Texas Tech (ABC): I think we pretty thoroughly know the answer to which Texas Tech team showed up against Oklahoma: not the one that has showed up for their other 8 games. Cowboys roll.
• West Virginia @ Cincinnati (ABC): Flip a coin. The coin has about as much of an idea about the Big East as I do at this point. I'll take Cincy for the sake of my bowl predictions.
• Texas @ Missouri (FX): I don't think either TAMU or Mizzoui's Big 12 finales are going quite how they expected. Texas should get one last parting shot.
• Nebraska @ Pennsylvania State (ESPN): All I can say about this is: Nebraska has advantages both on the field and off, losses to Northwestern notwithstanding.
• Michigan State @ Iowa (ESPN2): The Big Ten is almost as befuddling as the Big East. I, uh, I'll take Sparty here I guess?
• Marshall @ Tulsa (FSN): Marshall doesn't score a lot and can give up points in bunches. Not good things against Tulsa.
• Wake Forest @ Clemson (ESPNU): This Wake team can bite you, but the Tigers shouldn't really have any issues.
• Ohio State @ Purdue (BTN): Buckeyes, I guess.
• Rice @ Northwestern (BTN): This is not a good Rice team. Northwestern should roll.
• Kentucky @ Vanderbilt (SEC): It's your yearly SEC East slapfight! Both enter at 4-5, but Vandy has generally at least been able to hang with the SEC powers this year while Kentucky has, for the most part, been getting blown out. I like the Dores to get to 5-5.

12:30: North Carolina State @ Boston College (ACC): This BC team is just plain hapless. Wolfpack should roll.

3:00: Duke @ Virginia (ACC/FSN): Virginia Tech can clinch the Coastal now with a UVA loss, but despite me being generally down on UVA I don't think they'll lose to Duke.

3:30:

• Auburn @ Georgia (CBS): I personally thought that putting Texas A&M in the SEC East is really lame. The only reason, it appears to me, that the SEC has "designated rivals" is because Alabama wants to play Tennessee every year and Auburn wants to play UGA every year. Why not just move Auburn and Alabama to the East and scrap the designated rivals thing altogether? It'll be made up for because then the divisions will cycle through each other more quickly. Anyway, I guess I have to take Georgia here.
• Miami @ Florida State (ABC/ESPN): Boy, this is sure isn't what it used to be, eh? FSU should roll.
• Michigan @ Illinois (ABC/ESPN): Well, Michigan looks to regain its offensive mojo once again. Luckily for them, Illinois has been especially hapless as of late.
• Texas Agricultural and Mechanical @ Kansas State (ABC): TAMU looks suddenly vulnerable defensively, but I'm not really sure K-State has the offensive talent to take advantage. Nonetheless, TAMU's second half woes are well documented at this point and so only with some hesitation I'm picking them.
• Navy @ Southern Methodist (FSN): SMU has looked pretty good against the teams they've been expected to beat whilst getting clobbered by the powers of Conference USA. Meanwhile, Navy just hasn't been, well, good this year at all. I like the Mustangs here.
• Texas Christian @ Boise State (Versus): It's kind of funny that the Mountain West bent over backward to move this game from Fort Worth to Boise in response to TCU's then-move to the Big East. In the meantime, Boise is now probably going to move to the Big East, so in the end it sort really didn't matter. Either way, I don't really like TCU this year at all - so I'll take Boise to continue their run.
• Rutgers vs. Army (@New York, NY; CBSS): Because the world needs more football games at baseball stadiums! Rutger's never ending quest to become New York City's college football team continues as they should probably win easily over Army.
• Wisconsin @ Minnesota (BTN): Minnesota's shown some signs of life over the past couple of weeks, but I can't really comprehend how they can beat Wisconsin.

3:45: Washington @ Southern California (FX): U-dub put forth a valiant effort against Oregon last weekend. Will a valiant effort be enough against USC, though? I'm not really sure. I like the Trojans a lot at this point, though their lack of depth is always a concern.

6:00: Tennessee @ Arkansas (ESPN2): Tennessee has no offense. Like, I think they just let the other team play offense the whole time and hope to run back punt returns and interceptions. This is not a good recipe against what looks like the most competent offense in the SEC.

7:00: Western Kentucky @ Louisiana State (ESPNU): I think LSU's going to win this one. I know I'm going out on a limb here, but...

7:30:

• Louisiana Tech @ Mississippi (SEC): Ole Miss might not win this one. After all, we need Houston Nutt's last ride around the SEC to be as hilarious as possible, and so they need to be as bad as possible when they play LSU next weekend. And, with losses to Miss State and Southern Miss already, can LaTech afford to go 0-3 against the state of Mississippi? I think not. Bulldogs maybe pull off the upset. Probably. Well, perhaps.
• Maryland vs. Notre Dame (@Landover, MD; NBC): I meant to look up if this was really a neutral site game or just a Maryland home game played over in Landover. Either way, I like the Irish here as Randy Esdall's dismantling effort continues. (I assume that's the oppose of a rebuilding effort, right?)

7:45: Alabama @ Mississippi State (ESPN): Yeah... yeah... Alabama will rain fire down upon the Bulldogs on this night, and blow them out... 24-3.

8:00:

• Oregon @ Stanford (ABC): Okay, here's the main event folks. And, frankly, all season I've liked the Ducks better. Stanford's year should have been last year, when they were more well-rounded on both sides of the ball. Stanford has been challenged really only once all year, when they needed Andrew Luck to just about singlehandedly beat USC. Now, if you had to pick a guy who do that for you, you could could certainly do worse than Andrew Luck. But I just don't think it will be enough against Oregon.
• Central Florida @ Southern Mississippi (CBSS): UCF picked a good week to have a good old-fashioned recruiting scandal. Regardless, USM should continue their march to the C-USA title game.

9:15: Idaho @ Brigham Young (ESPN2): Idaho is not very good and stuff. The BYU team isn't exactly awe-inspiring or anything but they should still win easily.

10:15: Hawaii @ Nevada (ESPNU): Now here's the WAC-tion you want right here. Expect points, and lots of them, but also expect the Wolfpack to emerge victorious at the end.

10:30: Arizona State @ Washington State (Versus): Arizona State losing to UCLA may be one of the more inexplicable upsets of the year. Will Sun Devils get upset again in Pullman? Well, probably not.