Week Nine Preview: Bounce Back

[texifornia 56526]

Pretty insane rollercoaster of a week on a personal, professional, and sports-watching level for me last week but we're so back.

All lines are Circa opening lines.

Tuesday games

Sam Houston State (-6) @ Florida International (7:30 / 6:30 ESPNU): The Bearkats head to Pitbull Stadium at Vice U. I respect FIU for doing whatever it takes to make people notice them.

UTEP @ Louisiana Tech (-6) (8 / 7 CBSSN): It's probably football!

Wednesday games

Liberty (-25) @ Kennesaw State (7 / 6 CBSSN): It's our weekly duty as college football fans to hope this Little Sister of the Poor finally extinguishes the Flames' Playoff hopes.

Middle Tennessee State @ Jacksonville State (-20) (7:30 / 6:30 ESPN2): I liked MACtion a lot more than the midweek CUSA pupu platter.

Thursday games

Georgia Southern (-1) @ Old Dominion (7 / 6 ESPN2): The Monarchs have had a pretty wild season that includes a two-degrees transitive win over Bama and being thiiis close to an actual win over South Carolina. They also contrived to lose to an ECU team that's already fired their coach. We always respect a chaos team here at Surly Horns.

Syracuse @ #19 Pittsburgh (-4) (7:30 / 6:30 ESPN): This is a good game! Pitt is ranked, Cuse is receiving votes, and it's a good old fashioned regional ACC matchup, which is all too rare these days.

Friday games

Louisville (-8) @ Boston College (7:30 / 6:30 ESPN2): Both teams were feisty early in the season and have faded a bit. Louisville will have to go to Chestnut Hill and bounce back from the ACC refs buttfucking them against Miami. Why do they keep propping that mid Canes squad that's going to get obliterated in the Playoff?

#17 Boise State (-3) @ UNLV (10:30 / 9:30 CBSSN): The regular season G5 game of the year is at 10:30 on a Friday on CBSSN. Sickos scheduling. Ashton Jeanty against Barry Odom's defense should be a delight.

Rutgers @ USC (-13) (11 /10 Fox): Rutgers heads to LA for a bizarro Pac-12 After Dark special. This Rutgers team is solid enough to give a worn out and sad USC team that just lost to Maryland fits.

Saturday games

#24 Navy vs #12 Notre Dame (-14) @ East Rutherford, N.J. (12 / 11 ABC): Get your morning suits and flapper dresses on, the Roaring Twenties are BACK. Ranked Notre Dame! RANKED NAVY! Anchors aweigh, this should be fun and the crowd should be loud as hell. Too bad it's at an NFL stadium, and a bad, bland one at that.

Oklahoma @ #18 Ole Miss (-20) (12 / 11 ESPN): Watch an angry, rested Lane Kiffin team take out all their frustrations on OU's lifeless corpse.

Washington @ #13 Indiana (-5) (12 / 11 BTN): A great time to check out undefeated, ranked-over-Alabama Indiana. Curt "it's pretty simple, I win. Google me." Cignetti is working a miracle in Bloomington.

Big Noon Saturday once again rolled over and showed its belly by picking Ohio State pummelling a shitty team (Nebraska @ #4 Ohio State (-23), 12/11 Fox), and you can continue the Mack Brown Schadenfreude Tour by watching North Carolina @ Virginia (-5) (12/11 CW).

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#21 Mizzou @ #15 Alabama (-13) (3:30 / 2:30 ABC): Which team's season completely evaporates in Tuscaloosa?

#20 Illinois @ #1 Oregon (-21) (3:30 / 2:30 CBS): How did Fox let CBS get this matchup? It's ranked-on-ranked, but this feels like one where the Ducks run away with it after the Illini had a big emotional win against Michigan last week.

#11 BYU (-1) @ Central Florida (3:30 / 2:30 ESPN): Kalani Sitake's Cougars are one of the stories of the season, grabbing hold of the Big XII from Utah and Okie Lite. However, the Bounce House can be a tough away test.

#5 Texas (-17) @ #25 Vanderbilt (4:15 / 3:15 SECN): A wounded Horns squad takes on Diego Pavia and the 'Dores. They're feisty, they beat Bama, they've also lost to Georgia State and kept it close with Ball State into the fourth quarter. A pair of teams that can be a little Jekyll and Hyde.

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#8 LSU @ #14 Texas A&M (-3) (7:30 / 6:30 ABC): Elko's boys have taken care of business against a gentle schedule after getting rolled by Notre Dame. Brian Kelly has pulled his usual solid season after losing the opening game routine, including winning one of the most statistically improbable games of the season against Ole Miss. Should be a good game!

#3 Penn State (-7) @ Wisconsin (7:30 / 6:30 NBC): Another B1G game that would have been a much better Big Noon pick. Luke Fickell finally seems to be getting Wisco back to hard-nosed respectability, and Penn State is a fragile number 3. This one could be spicy.

#22 SMU (-10) @ Duke (8 / 7 ACCN): A big game in the ACC standings! Can SMU go into Fortress Wallace Wade (tongue firmly in cheek) and come out with a victory against Manny and Maalik?

A trio of rivalry games that are always fun watches for pageantry / hatred purposes: The Battle for the Paul Bunyan Trophy determines mitten supremacy (Michigan State @ Michigan (-6), 7:30 / 6:30 BTN), we have Florida State (lol) @ #6 Miami (-20) (7 / 6 ESPN), and the Sunflower Showdown does the same on the plains (Kansas @ Kansas State (-11), 8 / 7 ESPN2).

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The Big XII continues to recreate Pac-12 After Dark for your viewing pleasure

Cincinnati @ Colorado (-4) (10:15 / 9:15 ESPN): This should be pretty straightforward for Deion. The Scott Satterfield experiment is a pretty joyless slog for Cincy fans.

Washington State (-13) @ San Diego State (11:30 / 10:30 CBSSN): Actually a fun matchup, but wow is that some timeslot.

Nevada (-1) @ Hawaii (12 / 11 Team1App): Can Chaote's Wolf Pack pass the Hawaii Test? Can any mainland viewers?

Edited October 22 by texifornia

[texifornia 56526]

 

[texifornia 56526]

Ole Miss fans want to see OU's dead body

 

[texifornia 56526]

 

[texifornia 56526]

 

[TheBryMan81 2502]

9 hours ago, texifornia said:

#24 Navy vs #12 Notre Dame (-14) @ East Rutherford, N.J. (12 / 11 ABC): Get your morning suits and flapper dresses on, the Roaring Twenties are BACK. Ranked Notre Dame! RANKED NAVY! Anchors aweigh, this should be fun and the crowd should be loud as hell. Too bad it's at an NFL stadium, and a bad, bland one at that.

Go Navy!!

I agree, this sucks that it's at an NFL stadium. Playing this series home and home would be awesome for the students.

[Kennythetiger 9335]

I enjoy these. Thank you. 

[texifornia 56526]

 

[texifornia 56526]

That's a new trophy for me

 

[texifornia 56526]

Down goes one particularly annoying Playoff pretender

 

[texifornia 56526]

 

[texifornia 56526]

[texifornia 56526]

 

[texifornia 56526]

 

[texifornia 56526]

 

[texifornia 56526]

 

[texifornia 56526]