We’ve started to get into the real meat of the college football season, and boy – has it been a fun season so far, or what? This weekend features a slate of important games with playoff implications and games between heated rivals.
While everyone is focusing on Nebraska-Wisconsin, Clemson-Florida State, Washington-Utah, Oklahoma State-West Virginia, the Cocktail Party, and of course, the highly anticipated Hawaii-New Mexico showdow, there’s more than a few games slipping under the radar that mean quite a bit to the teams involved and the conferences they play in.
And, I’m not talking a Baylor-Texas, Northwestern-Ohio State, or Auburn-Ole Miss level of sneaky good. I’m talking about a deep dive for football nerds like myself.
5. Appalachian State at Georgia Southern – If you read the SoBros Network, you know Big Natural loves dipping into some Sun Belt talk, and that’s exactly what I’m going to do here. Bowl bids are limited in the Sun Belt, and with Troy sitting at 6-1 overall and 4-0 in the conference, the number of teams capable of chasing them down is shrinking. That makes this a big game for both teams involved. They don’t call it the Fun Belt for nothing!
4. Maryland at Indiana – The scrappy Hoosiers deserve better than 3-4. Meanwhile, the Terrapins are having an unpredictably strong season at 5-2. Maryland is one win away from being bowl eligible (that season-closing game against Rutgers is a solid failsafe to have). For Indiana, this is a must-win game.They’ve been scrappy against the big boys all season, but it’s only translated to three wins and four losses. Rutgers and Purdue are still on the schedule, but considering those games are thrown in with dates opposite Penn State and Michigan, this game may the best chance for IU to get a sixth win.
3. Boise State at Wyoming – All in on the Broncos taking that Group of 5 New Year’s Six bowl bid, huh? No way they’re NOT running the table, right? This is a sure thing, right? Boise State is favored to win this game by 14.5 points. Well, don’t discount the damn Cowboys of Wyoming, whose only two losses have come at the hands of Nebraska and a surprisingly good Eastern Michigan team. More importantly, they’re just as undefeated in the Mountain West as Boise State is. This has ‘trap game’ written all over it.
2. Navy at South Florida – In case you’ve missed it, there’s a pretty tight race going on in the American Conference. Six teams currently sit with five or six wins, and believe it or not, if the season ended today, this would be your American Conference Championship game. Only the SEC, Big Ten, and ACC have more five-six win teams. And, hold up – no, I’m not saying the American is on par with the big conferences. I’m just saying, it’s become a much tighter race than any of us expected, considering Houston’s two losses. Navy’s next two games will define their season. If they can get past South Florida and take down Notre Dame next week, they have a shot at running the table.
1. Virginia Tech at Pittsburgh – While Clemson and Louisville are racing to the Atlantic Division title, the Coastal division is a complete log jam between the Hokies, Panthers, and the Tar Heels of North Carolina. Each team has two losses. One of those losses is an ACC loss for each team as well. North Carolina is 1-1 against Virginia Tech and Pittsburgh. So, should Pittsburgh win this game, all three teams would be 1-1 against each other. My brain hurts. The log jam starts to sort itself out tomorrow night (Thursday) in Pittsburgh.
Stoney Keeley is the editor of the SoBros Network, Tennessee Titans Featured Analyst for Pro Football Spot, Contributor to FanSided’s Bama Hammer, and covers the WWE for WrestlingNews.co. Follow on Twitter @StoneyKeeley, @PFSpot, @WrestlingNewsCo, @Bama_Hammer
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