Week 14 Preview: Saturday

11:00 AM
MAC Championship
Central Michigan (7-5) vs. Miami of Ohio (6-6)
MAC PARITY! HOORAY! This really could go either way - MAC teams are horribly hard to predict, but I'll actually go with the underdog here. Miami of Ohio's a better team than that 6-6 record, and CMU's both scuffling a little and not really all that great.
My Pick: Miami of Ohio
Confidence: 1

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12:00 PM

Army (3-8) vs. Navy (7-4)
Army's bad. Navy's not! Anything can happen in a rivalry game, but yeah, Navy's far superior.
My Pick: Navy
Confidence: 3

C-USA Championship
Central Florida (9-3) vs. Tulsa (9-3)
Even. Very very even. I still have some uneasiness about Tulsa after hemorrhaging yardage against Rice, a horrible team with an offense that can rack up yardage. And UCF's Kevin Smith remains a beast on the ground, so I'll call for him to have a big day in what could be a very very fun pointfest.
My Pick: Central Florida
Confidence: 1

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1:00 PM

ACC Championship
#6 Virginia Tech (10-2) vs. #22 Boston College (10-2)
Virginia Tech's been living up to their reputation lately; after being unimpressive for most of the year, they've been excellent on defense and perfectly fine on offense. BC remains a pretty good team, and not much more or less - they have a shot, but VT almost beat them at a time when the Hokies were playing much worse.
My Pick: Virginia Tech
Confidence: 2

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2:00 PM

Florida Atlantic (6-5) @ Troy (8-3)
For the Sun Belt title, and rightfully so - FAU's a solid team, which goes a long way in the Sun Belt, while Troy has been the class of the league. And that last clause is the key - Troy's the class of the league, and the Trojans are at home.
My Pick: Troy
Confidence: 3

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4:00 PM

SEC Championship
#4 LSU (10-2) vs. #25 Tennessee (9-3)
Someone's getting exposed! LSU's defense has slipped enough where Erik Ainge could rack up some yards, so I guess the Vols could pull off a Kentucky-esque upset, but I'm pretty skeptical - LSU should be motivated, and Tennessee's fine and all, but they're not an upper tier SEC team.
My Pick: LSU
Confidence: 3

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4:05 PM

Louisiana Tech (5-6) @ Nevada (5-6)
Louisiana Tech being close to bowl eligibility just confuses and frightens me. But, well, while Louisiana Tech's fine, Nevada? Very good. Somewhat unlucky. Should win pretty easily. Offense! Should be fun.
My Pick: Nevada
Confidence: 3

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4:30 PM

UCLA (6-5) @ #5 USC (9-2)
Yeah, they're not letting it happen again this year. So, I wonder who the new UCLA coach will be.
My Pick: USC
Confidence: 3

Oregon State (7-4) @ Oregon (8-3)
Oregon might be the worst team in I-A until evidence to the contrary. I mean, after their game against UCLA, just wow.
My Pick: Oregon State
Confidence: 3

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6:30 PM

#20 Brigham Young (9-2) @ San Diego State (4-7)
Yawwwwwn. BYU's easily the class of the conference, the winner of the conference always goes undefeated, SDSU's not too good, moving on...
My Pick: Brigham Young
Confidence: 4

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7:00 PM

California (6-5) @ Stanford (3-8)
Rivalry game, anything possible, so on and so on. Cal's sliding a little bit, but this still seems like a mismatch, as Stanford's just so far removed for...even anything approaching mediocrity.
My Pick: California
Confidence: 3

North Texas (2-9) @ Florida International (0-11)
And they are every bit 0-11.
My Pick: North Texas
Confidence: 3

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7:45 PM

Pittsburgh (4-7) @ #1 West Virginia (10-1)
I want to. I really really want to. But WVU is a legitimately excellent team in a season mostly devoid of them, and they're not just backing into the title game by default or anything. That said, since this is 2007, an upset would absolutely not surprise me.
My Pick: West Virginia
Confidence: 4

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8:00 PM

Big 12 Championship
#3 Missouri (11-1) vs. #9 Oklahoma (10-2)
OU's almost like Clemson - they look very good most of the time, but can just implode. And much like Clemson games, that makes this almost worthless to predict. Missouri's had some games go worse than others, but their defense has only been mediocre at the worst times, and that offense has always been excellent throughout the season. I'll trust in Chase Daniel.
My Pick: Missouri
Confidence: 1

Arizona (5-6) @ #10 Arizona State (9-2)
More even than you might think, honestly. I'll call for the rivalry game upset to finally get Arizona back into a bowl - that offense is improving, and ASU's actually somewhat due for a loss to a team a level below them.
My Pick: Arizona
Confidence: 1

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11:30 PM

Washington (4-8) @ #16 Hawaii (11-0)
I'm buying into Hawaii, even if Washington's running game can be dangerous. It's on the island, the numbers love the Warriors, why not.
My Pick: Hawaii
Confidence: 3

Week 14 Preview: Weekdays

THURSDAY
7:30 PM

Rutgers (7-4) @ Louisville (5-6)
Louisville's an underrated team, so this could be surprisingly even. I'll give Louisville the edge at home, since they have all the motivation in the world and could make a bowl game with a win here. Plus, y'know, that offense is still very good.
My Pick: Louisville
Confidence: 1

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FRIDAY
8:00 PM

Fresno State (7-4) @ New Mexico State (4-8)
NMSU's an underrated team, so this could be surprisingly even. I'll give New Mexico State the edge at home, since, y'know, that offense is still pretty good, and Fresno's due for a bit of a correction on the year.
My Pick: New Mexico State
Confidence: 1

The TFFE Top 25: After Week 13

#1 West Virginia (#3 LW)
#2 Ohio State (#2)
#3 Missouri (#4)
#4 LSU (#1)
#5 USC (#9)
#6 Virginia Tech (#10)
#7 Georgia (#6)
#8 Florida (#7)
#9 Oklahoma (#11)
#10 Arizona State (#5)
#11 Kansas (#8)
#12 South Florida (#13)
#13 Wisconsin (#14)
#14 Illinois (#15)
#15 Virginia (#17)
#16 Hawaii (--)
#17 Texas (#16)
#18 Kentucky (#19)
#19 Michigan (#20)
#20 Brigham Young (#22)
#21 Clemson (#25)
#22 Boston College (#24)
#23 Arkansas (--)
#24 Penn State (#23)
#25 Tennessee (--)

WEEK 13 ONE-MINUTE RECAP

Since I want to get this at least addressed for completion's sake, but my schedule is insane (4:30-4:40 AM wakeup, back home around 7:30 PM), so I'll just do my usual recap, but try to limit every game to ONE SENTENCE. What a fun exercise.

Arkansas 50, #1 LSU 48 (3 OT)
Since Arkansas apparently has legitimately fine QB play, this was unsurprising, since LSU was waiting to be toppled.

#3 West Virginia 66, Connecticut 21
I expected a big win, but to do it to this degree was an absolutely amazing statement.

#4 Missouri 36, #8 Kansas 28
Pretty good performance by Kansas, but their running game wasn't too great, and Chase Daniel was absolutely off his nuts (40/49, 361, 3 TD).

#9 USC 44, #5 Arizona State 24
USC didn't forget how to do the whole "dominance" thing, they were just taking a break.

#6 Georgia 31, Georgia Tech 17
Two good running games, and neither QB was good at all, but Taylor Bennett was just much worse.

#7 Florida 45, Florida State 12
TEBOW.

#10 Virginia Tech 33, #17 Virginia 21
Very impressive, as VT was good on offense and absolutely shut down UVA on defense.

#11 Oklahoma 49, Oklahoma State 17
Allen Patrick and his 202 yards can more than replace DeMarco Murray, but I don't really trust Oklahoma all the time going forward.

UCLA 16, #12 Oregon 0
Holy fucking shit, the worst game ever.

#13 South Florida 48, Pittsburgh 37
USF was efficient in not getting much yardage, while Pitt racked up the passing yards and interceptions.

Texas A&M 38, #16 Texas 30
Texas A&M remembered they has a passing game, and Texas remembered they had a suspect passing defense.

Hawaii 39, #18 Boise State 27
The usual Hawaii story, even if this legitimizes them to the extent of "not San Jose State."

Tennessee 52, #19 Kentucky 50 (4 OT)
THROWING!

#21 Cincinnati 52, Syracuse 31
Cincinnati should probably be downgraded since Syracuse looked mediocre, not awful.

#22 BYU 17, Utah 10
Utah somehow kept this close despite being statistically annihilated.

#24 Boston College 28, Miami 14
Sigh, Miami.

#25 Clemson 23, South Carolina 21
Good Clemson showed up.

About this week.

Things are fairly insane with my schedule (again, first job out of college, all this starting and pre-training, oy, even though it'll be worth it) and such, so I really have no idea when I'll be able to get all the weekly recap stuff done. Luckily there aren't any games until Thursday, so I may be able to have stuff on the current week and on the two upcoming weekday games up by Wednesday night. The Saturday preview stuff probably won't be up by Friday night, with an outside chance of Thursday night.