Close finishes excited college football fans last weekend, with the exception of one big game. The standings remained basically the same, with Jon Hillard pulling back into a tie for first place at 33-15, with another 6-0 week. The games offered up this week again feature 12 teams who are all ranked–on top of the fact that most have conference or even national title implications.
This week’s featured game takes us to Knoxville, Tenn., for the “Third Saturday in October” game between Alabama and Tennessee. It’s been seven years since ‘Bama last celebrated a win over the Vols, and coach Dennis Franchione is determined to make the streak end this season.
Everyone can agree that the Ohio State Buckeyes are on fire and have a good chance at finishing undefeated, especially when they have big games like the one against Penn State this weekend at home. The Nitany Lions are coming off a 49-0 trashing of Northwestern last week.
Notre Dame travels to Tallahassee, Fla., this weekend to take on a team that used to be unbeatable at home–Florida State. The undefeated Irish are third in the BCS and appear to be on the fast track to the Fiesta Bowl if they go undefeated.
After losing at home to Arizona State 45-42 last weekend, the Oregon Ducks need a win against the USC Trojans in Eugene this weekend to jump back into the Pac-10 race. USC’s Carson Palmer has a chance to put up some big numbers against an Oregon defense who has shown weakness at times this season.
Losing 49-3 at Oklahoma has not seemed to dampen the spirits of the Iowa State Cyclones, as they travel to Austin, Texas, to take on the Texas Longhorns, who are coming off an impressive road win at Kansas State. ISU is still in contention for the Big 12 North Division title, and a win in Austin will go a long way to helping them reach Houston.
Our final game takes place at the big house this weekend, pitting Michigan against the Iowa Hawkeyes. Iowa has already managed to upset Penn State in State College, and is looking for another big road win this weekend in Ann Arbor, Mich.