College Football Saturday: Week 12

A special Saturday good morning to you Fackers. College Gameday kicks off in 60 minutes from Tucson, where Arizona hosts Oregon in match up of two teams still alive in what's a relatively wide open Pac-10. The show is starting at 8 AM local time and the game starts at 6 PM local time. It's going to be a long day out there. Thankfully, there's a full slate of games to fill the void in between.

North Carolina at Boston College, 12:00 ESPN2: Finally I get to watch a BC game - not because this game is actually on TV but because I've made the trip up to Chestnut Hill for the weekend. Tailgating! Plus, I get the added benefit of not having to listen to Pam Ward call this one. BC still has a chance to win the ACC Atlantic and head to their third straight ACC Championship Game, but they need help. They need to win out against UNC and Maryland and have Clemson lose to against a poor Virginia team. I'm not holding my breath. Up until last week - when they beat Virginia - BC was winless on the road. Entering this game, they're undefeated at home. But UNC has won three in a row, including upsets of then #13 Virginia Tech and then #14 Miami. I have a bad feeling about this one.

#10 Ohio St. at Michigan, 12:00 ABC: Three years ago this game decided who would play in the BCS Championship Game. Now Michigan is a laughingstock. Can't say I'm too broken up about that, particularly with how Lloyd Carr was unceremoniously shown the door. But, this is one of the two times a year I pull for the Wolverines (the Notre Dame game being the other of course). Derek Jeter and Nick Swisher will find themselves on opposite ends of this one.

Minnesota at #13 Iowa, 12:00 ESPN: Poor Iowa. Not only did they lose a heartbreaker in OT against Ohio St last week, costing them a trip to the Rose Bowl, but the loss dropped them below Penn State in both the AP and USA Today polls. Lest you forget, the Hawkeyes beat the Nittany Lions handily, in Happy Valley, earlier this season. And you thought the BBWAA voters were bad.

Duke at #20 Miami, 12:00 ESPNU: Miami has had a bit of an up and down season, and it was down last week as they were upset by UNC. Duke is having their best season in years. I still don't think there's another upset in the works in this one.

Louisville at South Florida, 12:00 SNY: As with last week's SNY game, I have nothing to say. Which is exactly why this game is on SNY.

Oklahoma at Texas Tech, 12:30 MSGPlus: Both head coaches will be mentioned in coaching searches this off-season; neither will be going anywhere.

Connecticut at Notre Dame, 2:30 NBC: So Charlie Weis thinks his future at ND is yet to be decided. Perhaps the fact that the university has disabled tracking of its private jet so as not to draw attention to their coaching search might be some indication that it has been decided. Despite living in Connecticut all my life I've never been a big UConn fan. In fact, I sort of dislike them because I have to hear about the men's - and even worse the women's - basketball team all damn year long. Needless to say though, I'll be a big Huskies fan this weekend. My cousin, who went to Notre Dame, and a good friend of mine, who went to UConn, are both heading out to this game. One of them is coming home unhappy; I think it'll be my cousin.

#8 LSU at Mississippi, 3:30 CBS: Rebels RB Dexter McCluster had an outstanding game against Tennessee last week, singlehandedly outgaining and outscoring the entirety of the Vols' offense. That must have made quite an impression on the boys in Vegas, because at this point unranked Ole Miss is favored by four and a half against the #8 team in the country. Also, in response the "From Dixie With Love" scandal I touched on last week, it's rumored that there may be a Klan rally on campus, both before and after the game. Only in the SEC.

#14 Penn State at Michigan State, 3:30 ABC: A couple years ago I spent a Saturday watching college football at Blondie's on the Upper West Side. I was there with a bunch of BC folk to watch the BC-Notre Dame game. The bar had booked a party of Michigan State people to take our place when our game was over. Our game ran a bit a late, and the later it got the bigger assholes the Spartans became. BC beat MSU in the Champs Sports Bowl at the end of that season. I was particularly happy about that.

Virginia at #23 Clemson, 3:30 ESPN: As above, Clemson needs to lose to keep BC's hopes alive in the ACC Atlantic. Let's go Cavs! At least give Groh one more high note on his way out the door. BC alum and sometime MSG guy Bob Wischusen is calling this one. Wonder who he's pulling for.

NC State at #15 Virginia Tech, 3:30 ESPNU: As best as I can tell, a Hokie is an oversized, maroon turkey. Thanksgiving is this coming Thursday.

Arizona State at UCLA, 4:00 MSGPlus: At this point in the season the Pac-10 is the most exciting conference in the country. This game features two teams who are entirely out of a wide open race. Thanks for nothing MSGPlus.

San Diego State at #21 Utah, 4:00 Versus: Utah got trounced by TCU last week, virtually ensuring the Utes will wind up in a second rate bowl game. So I'll go off on a bit of tangent instead. I was killing some time on You Tube this week, and decided to take a trip down memory lane by watching videos of old WWF wrestling matches. That led me to this video of former second rate wrestler "The Birman" Koko B. Ware getting inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame last year. If wrestling were like baseball, people would be going nuts about this. Koko B. Ware was never more than a midcard wrestler. But the reason I bring this up here is that if you mute the sound and just watch the video, I defy you to tell me that you don't think it's MLB Hall of Famer and former San Diego State Aztec Tony Gwynn.

Vanderbilt at Tennessee, 7:00 ESPNU: Hey, arrests of Tennessee players are down 67% this week. Great job Coach Kiffin. It's the Commodores against the Volunteers. Who you got?

#25 California at #17 Stanford, 7:30 Versus: So how good is Stanford? In consecutive weeks they've beaten then #8 Oregon and absolutely destroyed then #9 USC at the L.A. Coliseum. They have a shot at winning the Pac-10 now, and a win in this one would go a long way towards making that happen. Might coach Jim Harbaugh's alma mater come calling after that? Cal will be without Jahvid Best for the second consecutive week.

Kansas State at Nebraska, 7:45 ESPN: Somehow this is Kansas State's final regular season game. Nebraska has lowly Colorado next week and a half game lead on the Wildcats in the Big 12 North. So, essentially this breaks down to the Big 12 North Championship Game, for the right to get obliterated by Texas in the Big 12 Championship Game. More importantly, this is your Erin Andrews game for the night.

Kentucky at Georgia, 7:45 ESPN2: Tragic news out of Athens Thursday, as mascot UGA VII went to the great beyond. Rest in peace UGA. That's about the most interesting angle on this one.

#11 Oregon at Arizona, 8:00 ABC: As mentioned above, this is a big one out in the wild wild west. This is one of the rare weeks where Kirk Herbstreit doesn't have to jet from the Gameday location to his Saturday night broadcast. Will he spend his day watching games or Arizona co-eds?

Kansas at #3 Texas, 8:00 ESPN360: It's a bad week to be a morbidly obese football coach. Charlie Weis, despite pleading ignorance, is all but done at Notre Dame and now Heavyweight Champion of the World Mark Mangino is the subject of an internal investigation at Kansas over allegations that he's something of an asshole. Oh, and that he's lost five straight. This will assuredly make six. He used to be so cute and happy. Andy Reid, Eric Mangini, Rex Ryan: consider yourselves warned.

Nevada at New Mexico State, 10:30 ESPNU: Sort of a weak way to wind out the night, particularly on a station that not everyone gets. Hey, New Mexico State is just like the pros. Head coach Mike Locksley beat the shit out of one of his assistants, just like Tom Cable Now, Locksley is being mentored by super-football-mentor-extraordinaire Tony Dungy, just like Michael Vick. Does that make former New Mexico assistant J.B. Gerald a pitbull?

Enjoy the games Fackers.