Allen Bored
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Week 8 Featured Games
Thursday
#10 Miami at North Carolina, 7:30/4:30 PM, ESPN
Spread: Miami -8
Announcers: Rece Davis, Jesse Palmer, David Pollack
All-Time Series: North Carolina leads 9-7
Last Meeting: 10/13/12 North Carolina 18, Miami 14
Reason to Watch: Boys and girls, The U is back! In the Top 10! Okay it’s debatable if they really belong there or not. Outside of their win over Florida they don’t have much of a resume. But they should be sticking around the Top 10 into early November when they have a daunting back-to-back against Florida State and Virginia Tech. North Carolina was supposed to compete for the ACC Coastal title but they have been dreadful, especially on defense. This would be a season saving win for them if they could pull off an upset as the remaining schedule is very manageable.
Friday
UCF at #8 Louisville, 8:00/5:00 PM, ESPN
Spread: Louisville -12
Announcers: Carter Blackburn, Danny Kannell
All-Time Series: First Meeting
Reason to Watch: This is it, Louisville’s biggest game of the year. And it’s against UCF at home, on a Friday night. Yuck. Remaining schedule after this is South Florida, Connecticut, Houston, Memphis, and Cincinnati. A playoff is coming one year too late for Louisville as there is no realistic scenario that gets them in Top 2 with that schedule. For all the attention Teddy Bridgewater gets it’s actually the defense that has been the stronger unit this year. Weak schedule or not holding your opponents under 10 points per game in college football in 2013 it is pretty damn impressive.
Early Saturday
TCU at #21 Oklahoma State, Noon/9:00 AM, FOX
Spread: Oklahoma State -7
Announcers: GUS JOHNSON, Charles Davis
All-Time Series: Oklahoma State leads 12-9-2
Last Meeting: 10/27/12 Oklahoma State 36, TCU 14
Reason to Watch: My #2 ranked game of the week is in this timeslot but most of you won’t be able to see it. The television schedule for this week was set the week before last and no one at CBS and ESPN thought Missouri was going to beat Georgia so their huge SEC East game against Florida is off to syndication and ESPN3.com. So instead tune over for GUS on FOX for Big XII action. It’s been a rough year for TCU but they’re better than their 3-3 record indicates. They gave LSU a tough game to open the season, lost a bizarre game against Texas Tech, and came up three points short at Oklahoma. Oklahoma State is ranked in the Top 25 primarily due to their preseason ranking as they’ve been very unimpressive so far.
Back Up Game: #15 Georgia at Vanderbilt, Noon/9:00 AM, CBS
Mid-day Saturday
#9 UCLA at #13 Stanford, 3:30/12:30 PM, ABC/ESPN2
Spread: Stanford -6
Announcers: Sean McDonough, Chris Spielman
All-Time Series: UCLA leads 45-35-3
Last Meeting: 11/30/12 Stanford 27, UCLA 24
Reason to Watch: This game could have competed with FSU/Clemson for Game of the Week but then Stanford decided to lay an egg in a trap game against Utah. But this is still a huge game especially for Stanford as a second loss would effectively eliminate them from the conference title race. UCLA is the frontrunner in the Pac-12 South and can survive a loss here although they would probably be staring a second straight loss in the face next week at Oregon. Man between them and Washington having to do the Stanford/Oregon back-to-back as well the Pac-12 schedule makers were real assholes this year.
Back Up Game: #24 Auburn at #7 Texas A&M, 3:30/12:30 PM, CBS
Primetime Saturday
#5 Florida State at #3 Clemson, 8:00/5:00 PM, ABC – ***GAME OF THE WEEK***
Spread: Florida State -3
Announcers: Brent Musburger, Kirk Herbstreit
All-Time Series: Florida State leads 18-8
Last Meeting: 9/22/12 Florida State 49, Clemson 37
Reason to Watch: This is the first Top 5 game of the year and one the biggest ACC games ever. The conference hasn’t had a conference champ with less than two regular season losses since Maryland in 2001 and hasn’t had a team reach the BCS title game since Florida State in 2000. The winner will be the undisputed #3 team in the country and have a realistic chance of running the table. Outside of a lackluster first half against Boston College, both teams have had odd struggles with them, the Seminoles have looked dominating. Clemson is probably getting underappreciated even despite being ranked higher. I think everyone just expects them to pull a Clemson at some point this year. I like the Noles here probably just because an early November battle of the unbeatens against Miami would have everyone beatin’ like it was 1991.
Back Up Game: #6 LSU at Mississippi, 7:00/4:00 PM, ESPN2
Late Night Saturday
Washington State at #2 Oregon, 10:00/7:00 PM, FOXS1
Spread: Oregon -38.5
Announcers: Craig Bolerjack, Joey Harrington
All-Time Series: Oregon leads 44-33-6
Last Meeting: 9/29/12 Oregon 51, Washington State 26
Reason to Watch: Last week I was playing up the fact that Wazzu had a shot at bowl eligibility. Then late Saturday they had a 24-17 lead on Oregon State entering the 4th quarter, oh so close to a very important 5th win of the year. 15 minutes and 28 Beaver points later it was over. This bloodletting won’t end this week with a trip to Eugene. This is not going to be a good game, Wazzu might cover the spread, but what are you going to do watch Cal instead? Besides the internets are speculating the Ducks might either be wearing pink or glow in the dark uniforms this week or maybe both.
Back Up Game: Oregon State at California, 10:30/7:30 PM, ESPN2
Week 8 Game Rankings
1. Florida State at Clemson
2. Florida at Missouri
3. UCLA at Stanford
4. Washington at Arizona State
5. Auburn at Texas A&M
6. LSU at Mississippi
7. TCU at Oklahoma State
8. Georgia at Vandrebilt
9. UCF at Louisville (Fri.)
10. Iowa at Ohio State
11. Indiana at Michigan
12. Utah at Arizona
13. USC at Notre Dame
14. South Carolina at Tennessee
15. Texas Tech at West Virginia
16. Washington State at Oregon
17. Wisconsin at Illinois
18. Arkansas at Alabama
19. Syracuse at Georgia Tech
20. BYU at Houston
21. Miami at North Carolina (Thur.)
22. Minnesota at Northwestern
23. Navy at Toledo
24. Iowa State at Baylor
25. Duke at Virginia
26. Maryland at Wake Forest
27. Oregon State at California
28. Oklahoma at Kansas
29. SMU at Memphis
30. Nevada at Boise State
31. Colorado State at Wyoming
32. Purdue at Michigan State
33. Northern Illinois at Central Michigan
34. UNLV at Fresno State
35. Kent State at South Alabama
36. Connecticut at Cincinnati
37. North Texas at Louisiana Tech
38. Utah State at New Mexico
39. Army at Temple
40. Ohio at Eastern Michigan
41. Ball State at Western Michigan
42. Massachusetts at Buffalo
43. Akron at Miami-OH
44. Rice at New Mexico State
45. Southern Miss at East Carolina
46. Georgia State at Texas State
Featured Image Credit: Keith Srakocic/AP
