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Bama & Clemson return to the field; USC travels to Utah

Nick Knudsen
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The Big Ten race will take center stage heading into the weekend before Thanksgiving.

SEC

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Contender: Alabama, Florida and Texas A&M

Eliminated: Georgia, Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee, South Carolina, Vanderbilt, Auburn, Arkansas, LSU, Mississippi State, and Ole Miss

Florida followed up its massive win against Georgia with another quality performance. QB Kyle Trask may have cemented his status as the Heisman front runner after a six-touchdown performance last weekend.

Alabama is more than a four-touchdown home favorite against Kentucky. The Tide return to action after last week’s LSU game was postponed.

Texas A&M and Ole Miss has been postponed.

This Week:

ACC

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Contender: Notre Dame

Perfect run needed: Miami and Clemson

Eliminated:  North Carolina, NC State, Virginia Tech, Boston College, Wake Forest, Pittsburgh, Louisville, Florida State, Virginia, Syracuse, and Duke

Miami continues to hang in after another close ACC road win. The Canes had their final three games rescheduled due to a COVID outbreak. The ACC pushed their final game against Georgia Tech to December 19, the same day as the conference championship game. The writing is on the wall – it’s almost certain to be Notre Dame and Clemson.

Clemson will come back with a vengeance this weekend. If you’re up for some FSU schadenfreude, tune in to see if the Tigers can run up 70 on the Noles.

Notre Dame is off this week, but has an intriguing road trip to North Carolina next weekend.

This Week:

Big XII

Eliminated: Oklahoma State, Kansas State, Iowa State, Oklahoma, Texas, West Virginia, Baylor, Texas Tech, TCU, and Kansas.

Big Ten

Contender(s): Ohio State, Indiana, Wisconsin, and Northwestern

Eliminated: Purdue, Michigan, Rutgers, Maryland, Michigan State, Penn State, Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, and Nebraska.

The best in the West and the beasts of the East will meet in de facto semifinal games to decide each division in the Big Ten this weekend.

Indiana continues to surprise in dominating fashion. The 4-0 Hoosiers shutout Michigan State a week after clocking Michigan. Say what you will about the state of the Big Ten, but 4-0 is quite an accomplishment for Tom Allen in Bloomington. Ohio State should handle Indiana, but the Bucks defense has been suspect for stretches in three games this season. If Hoosiers QB Michael Penix Jr. can jump on OSU early, things could get interesting quickly.

Northwestern made it to the halfway point unscathed. The 2018 West division champs welcome the defending champs of the West, Wisconsin, into Evanston. The Wildcats tend to play better on home turf. Let’s see if a solid Northwestern defense can do anything to slow down a Wisconsin attack that has looked good in both games .

This Week:

Pac-12

Contender(s): Oregon, Washington, USC, Utah, and Colorado

Eliminated: Cal, Washington State, Arizona, Oregon State, Stanford, Arizona State, and UCLA

Who had Colorado at 2-0?

First year head coach, Karl Dorrell, hired to take over for Mel Tucker after his sudden departure to Michigan State in February. The ex-UCLA head coach and the unbeaten Buffs will carry that zero in the loss column into next week since Saturday’s game with Arizona State has been cancelled.

Oregon trailed Washington State, but the Ducks put together a good run in the second half to pull away. For the second week in a row, USC scraped by an Arizona team. Not impressed with what I’ve seen from the Trojans thus far. They’ll go to Salt Lake City for a matchup with Utah next. Washington shut out Oregon State in the second half to secure a six point victory to give new head coach Jimmy Lake his first regular season win.

This Week:

Group of Five

American Athletic Conference

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Luke Fickell had a nice midfield chat with East Carolina head coach Mike Houston after the Bearcats  ran a fake punt up big in the fourth quarter. Fickell apologized and insisted the call was made on the field, not by the coaches, however, it does beg the question, will Cincinnati require BCS-era style points against lesser competition to impress the playoff selection committee? The Bearcats will have a good opportunity to make their case on Saturday at UCF in the 3:30 PM timeslot.

Independent

BYU is still trying to pick up another game and now that we’ve seen major conferences allow some flexibility in scheduling, don’t be surprised if the Cougars find another game. It’s tough to stress how much the Notre Dame upset over Clemson impacted the BYU’s playoff hopes. The Cougs will need a complicated mix of factors in addition to a flawless finish to find their way into the playoffs.

This Week: (Group of Five):

Acknowledgements, but no need to expand upon

Hugh Freeze  (Liberty) and Jamey Chadwell (Coastal Carolina) both leading contenders for the South Carolina job.

My College Football Playoff Picture

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Featured imaged used under Creative Commons license courtesy Indiana Public Media
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