I’m not going to be providing picks for games here, but each Saturday during the college season I will be highlighting the Top 25 games that I think are the most worth checking out.
Ohio (+33) at Ohio State – This one is interesting not in it’s own right, but because of what is on the horizon. Ohio State can handle Ohio in their sleep. Beanie Wells is out, though, and USC will be sitting at home watching this one, so the Buckeyes won’t be looking to show off any tricks. This will be a plain vanilla game plan and the Buckeyes will be looking to stay healthy for next week. If you don’t believe in the Buckeyes then this could be a spot to consider playing against them. They’ll win for sure, but they may not care enough to win by five touchdowns. I just hope that we get to see Terrelle Pryor play more.
Cinncinnati (+21.5) at Oklahoma – I think that Oklahoma is very good, so I expect them to be fine here. Cinncinnati is a feisty team that is extremely well coached, though. If Oklahoma isn’t ready this could be fun. Given that the spread is beyond three touchowns this is one that captures my imagination a bit. Probably not enough to play, but it’s one I’ll watch with real interest.
Oregon State (+15.5) at Penn State – I’ll watching this one for answers to a couple of questions. First, I want to know if the suspensions and the dismissal at Penn State this week are signs of bigger problems, or just an isolated thing. Second, since Oregon State was favored against Stanford but lost convincingly I want to see how they play here as an indicator of how good the Cardinal are. Stanford is a team I have on my watch list as a team on the eventual rise. If they are decent this year they would be ahead of schedule, but it’s not out of the question.
West Virginia (-7.5) at East Carolina – I have a real hard time believing that the Mountaineers are as good as people think they are. East Carolina is a very good team with a passion for killing giants, including Virginia Tech last week in a win that was no fluke. This game could be very interesting.
Louisiana Tech (+21) at Kansas – Another one that could be more interesting than expected. Louisiana Tech showed last year that they can get up for a big game, and Kansas has to prove that they can handle the burden of expectations now that they won’t sneak up on anyone like they did last year. Kansas won’t lose, but it won’t be as easy as some might think for them to cover.
UNLV (+22) at Utah – I unfortunately watched Utah beat my beloved Michigan last week. The Utes want to be a BCS buster, but to do that they’ll have to play with much more discipline and fewer mistakes. They got lucky to play against a pretty bad team last week or they would have cost themselves that game. UNLV is irrelevant to me here – I just want to see if Utah has the ability to learn from last week and correct their problems.
Texas Tech (+10) at Nevada – I’ll be watching this one just to see if the scoreboard can hold up to the abuse that will be afflicted upon it. The total is 68, and I’m not at all convinced that that is high enough. This will be an old fashioned shootout.
