Week 11 Football: What to Watch

This post is a day after the college football week started, but with the start of college basketball season - including for both the Wolfpack men’s and women’s teams - I figured nobody was really tuning in to see some MAC games last night.

For those wondering, Miami (OH) beat Buffalo 45-18, Western Michigan beat Akron 45-40 (this was the only one that was worth watching), and Ohio beat Eastern Michigan 34-26.

Now, on to the remainder of the week...

Wednesday features, well, more MACtion. Toledo is the best MAC team by the advanced metrics, but they’re the only team playing Wednesday night without conference title hopes thanks to three conference losses by a combined 8 points. I’m most interested in the Ball State game against Dave Doeren’s former program.

On Thursday night, we’re all Pitt fans. Go Panthers! You can also tune in to watch Jacoby Brissett and the Dolphins take on the Ravens.

Friday should be a couple blowouts. USF is really bad and Cincy badly needs a statement blowout win, while Boise State is playing really well right now and Wyoming has lost four of their last five.

Saturday’s going to be a great day for football, so park your tail in front of the TV and enjoy!

Oklahoma-Baylor is going to be fantastic, especially featuring a Dave Aranda defense against a Lincoln Riley offense. Mississippi State vs Auburn surprisingly has a lower Over/Under than that Sooners-Bears game, but I’d bet there’s more scoring in it.

Speaking of offense, I wouldn’t expect a lot of it in the Michigan-Penn State game. Big Ten football: now featuring fresh offense from the 1980’s!

Clemson is going to murder UConn. You’re going to need to go to Sunday confessional if you watch that one.

I’m very interested in that Syracuse-Louisville game. Dino Babers looked like he was on his way out at ‘Cuse, but they’re playing pretty good of late. Meanwhile, the Cards... are not. Is Scott Satterfield going to make it there?

Tennessee is going to be an interesting test for Georgia. Purdue just knocked off Michigan State in an impressive performance - their 2nd victory over a Top 5 team this year - so they’ll follow it up by getting their doors blown off by Ohio State.

Just as John Swofford imagined it back in the early 2000’s, the Miami-FSU game doesn’t move the needle on the ACC level, let alone the national stage. yawn

There’s only one primetime game State fans care about this week, which is nice because there aren’t a lot of other marquee matchups anyways. The Pack and Deacs will have the eyes of the ACC on them with no other Saturday night ACC games going on.

LET’S GO, STATE!

Rankings for SP+ Ratings and Sagarin Ratings listed, respectively, ahead of each team’s name.

Wednesday

70/77 Toledo @ 113/144 Bowling Green - 7:00pm - CBSSN

102/86 Ball State @ 104/92 Northern Illinois - 7:00pm - ESPN2

98/93 Kent State @ 94/95 Central Michigan - 8:00pm - ESPNU

Thursday

25/40 North Carolina @ 10/20 Pittsburgh - 7:30pm - ESPN

[NFL] Ravens @ Dolphins - 8:20pm - FOX/NFLN

Friday

8/10 Cincinnati @ 110/122 South Florida - 6:00pm - ESPN2

73/91 Wyoming @ 44/23 Boise State - 9:00pm - FS1

Saturday

9/4 Oklahoma @ 18/22 Baylor - 12:00pm - FOX

31/31 Mississippi State @ 27/14 Auburn - 12:00pm - ESPN

5/5 Michigan @ 11/11 Penn State - 12:00pm - ABC

83/82 East Carolina @ 71/79 Memphis - 12:00pm - ESPN+

128/195 UConn @ 7/16 Clemson - 12:00pm - ACCN

56/64 Syracuse @ 46/58 Louisville - 12:00pm - ESPN3

54/53 UCF @ 42/47 SMU - 12:00pm - ESPNU

1/1 Georgia @ 20/36 Tennessee - 3:30pm - CBS

43/27 Purdue @ 2/3 Ohio State - 3:30pm - ABC

29/35 Minnesota @ 19/18 Iowa - 3:30pm - BTN

111/136 Charlotte @ 107/118 Louisiana Tech - 3:30pm - STADIUM

55/85 UAB @ 37/62 Marshall - 3:30pm - CBSSN

28/37 Miami @ 48/72 Florida State - 3:30pm - ESPN

63/73 Boston College @ 72/81 Georgia Tech - 3:30pm - ESPN3

97/115 Duke @ 50/68 Virginia Tech - 3:30pm - ACCN

6/7 Texas A&M @ 17/13 Ole Miss - 7:00pm - ESPN

23/19 NC State @ 34/21 Wake Forest - 7:30pm - ACCN

13/8 Notre Dame @ 35/45 Virginia - 7:30pm - ABC

67/48 Washington State @ 15/15 Oregon - 10:30pm - ESPN

68/46 Nevada @ 39/55 San Diego State - 10:30pm - CBSSN

96/78 Utah State @ 78/101 San Jose State - 10:30pm - FS1