Week 6 College Football Thread

It’s pretty obvious what I want to talk about today–Oregon’s defeat of Penn State last week! What a great win in what was a fantastic game regardless of who you wanted to win. At the end, even I was like, “I will be super bummed if the Ducks lose but my god what a game.” Plus in the playoff era, losing one game is not a killer. While Oregon basically dominated the first three quarters, they were unable to get a lot of scores and only led 17-3. I felt pretty good, but the Penn State offense woke up and scored two late TDs. Then Penn State had the ball first in OT and scored immediately and I was feeling fairly hopeless. The Ducks rallied, got a TD on their first OT possession and then another on the 2nd. So when Dillon Thieneman (a likely 1st or 2nd round draft pick at safety in 2026) picked off the overrated Drew Allar in the 2nd overtime, it was celebration time from Eugene to Providence to Lexington. Dante Moore was absolutely fantastic at QB, just a totally cool cucumber. He’s great. Meanwhile, Penn State failed YET AGAIN against a top opponent. I think they are just never going to get to the top under James Franklin. They were more talented last year and couldn’t do it and they have plenty of future NFL talent this year but….meh. They might get another playoff seed and then will lose because Penn State always loses every game against a better team.

The other story is that the Big 10 wants to invite private equity into the game. What could go wrong?

Top 10 games for the week, based on the Athletic’s rankings of teams 1-136 and then in order of when the games air:

1. #14 Iowa State at #36 Cincinnati (-1.5), 12, ESPN2. A somewhat interesting Big 12 matchup. I’m a bit surprised to see the Bearcats favored. Sure it’s at home, but this is a team that lost to Nebraska at home and barely defeated Kansas. Iowa State is 5-0 and maybe hasn’t looked like a top team in America, but has looked like a solid program that might lose a couple of games but should compete for the Big 12 title. So I like the Cyclones on the road, especially with a point on top of it.
2. #16 Vanderbilt at 10 Alabama (-10.5), 3:30, ABC. This Vanderbilt team is fun. They are outright good. But Vandy beat Bama last year in a huge upset. You think that just off of beating Georgia, they are going to sleep on Vanderbilt? No way. If this was Arkansas, sure. But not after last year. I am definitely taking Alabama by a couple TDs in a revenge game.
3. #23 Virginia at #24 Louisville (-6.5), 3:30, ESPN2. A good ACC matchup her. Virginia’s win against FSU was pretty shocking, but that program has slowly been building. It did lose to a not great North Carolina State team on the road though. Louisville is 4-0, but hasn’t been challenged by a really good team and has relatively narrow wins against James Madison and Pitt. So maybe neither of these teams is super. Given that Louisville continues to win close, I will take Virginia within a TD at least.
4. #41 Washington at #43 Maryland (+6.5), 3:30, Big Ten Network. Interesting spread here. Washington lost to Ohio State last week at home but how much can you really hold that against them? Still, it wasn’t very close and it was the first even close to a test the Huskies had. Now, how much is Maryland a second test? No one really believes in them and they haven’t been tested either, not with a laughable non-conference schedule that is equivalent to Penn State and Indiana in terms of disqualifying from any kind of borderline bonus for the playoffs, plus a road win against the worst Wisconsin team in decades. In fact, Maryland has one of the easiest schedules anywhere this year–somehow they miss Oregon, Ohio State, and Penn State in conference play, while getting Indiana and Michigan at home. So it’s two kind of unknown factors still. I’m taking Maryland within a TD. It’s a long trip for the Huskies.
5. #47 Syracuse at #42 SMU (-17.5), 3:30, ACC. That’s one hell of a spread for two teams that might be pretty similar. Syracuse is not a team without its problems. But SMU has lost both games against anyone at all and didn’t exactly dominate Missouri State either. Syracuse has been up and down all year, handing Clemson its neo-Confederate ass in Clemson and then going out to get stomped at home by Duke. So who knows what you are going to get, but I do suspect that there will be some accountability by the Orange after that pathetic performance and SMU has been way too inconsistent for me to accept a three score spread.
6. #12 Texas Tech at #44 Houston (+10.5), 7, ESPN. Two undefeateds battle, one which a lot of people believe in and one which no one believes in. Houston just won at Oregon State by 3 points. Oregon State is a horrible team. So yeah….not feeling the Cougs here. Texas Tech should win this going away and I will say by more than 10.
7. #3 Miami at #18 Florida State (+3.5), 7:30, ABC. The game of the week and it’s a pretty good one. Just how good is Florida State? Defeating Alabama certainly looks good now. But losing to Virginia does not. Meanwhile, I continue to not trust Miami for the reason that Mario Cristobal was the coach for Oregon before he left for the Hurricanes and that guy will always find a way to self-immolate when it counts, often through his own boneheaded decisions. Miami has looked awfully good this year, I grant you that. A game in Tallahassee won’t be easy for Miami either. Good game, good line, will take FSU with these points. I doubt Miami blows them out and I see a good shot for FSU to win.
8. #27 Mississippi State at #6 Texas A&M (-14.5), 7:30, SEC. The Bulldogs are one of the year’s early surprises, with a 4-1 record that includes a victory against Arizona State and a very close loss to Tennessee. It’s that latter loss that makes me feel this line is too big. A&M has looked good at times for sure, but barely defeated Auburn at home and still hasn’t put together a dominant game all season. So I am taking MSU within 2 TDs.
9. #48 Minnesota at #1 Ohio State (-23.5), 7:30, NBC. The one shot Minnesota has in covering this spread is that 24 points is a lot for the Ohio State offense to score with their true freshman QB. They put up 70 on Grambling, but c’mon, that doesn’t count. Otherwise, it’s been 14 on Texas, 37 on Ohio, and 24 on Washington. Ohio barely counts either. The Buckeyes defense is very good. The Gophers aren’t exactly an offensive juggernaut either. So I see this as a low scoring game and will take Minnesota losing by less than 24 because of the expected low score, not because I think the Gophers have a shot in hell of winning this game.
10. #45 Duke at #46 Cal (+2.5), 10:30, ESPN. Sorry Duke fans, you have to stay up late for this one. On the other hand, I will never feel sorry for Stephen Miller or Richard Spencer or any of the endless horrible Americans with ties to that school. This could be a fun late night matchup. Other than an awful performance against San Diego State, Cal has looked pretty good with their true freshman QB (who enrolled at Oregon for about 5 minutes and then realized he wasn’t going to beat out Dante Moore and transferred to Cal; gotta say, he should be starting, so good for him). Duke has been so up and down but is coming off two pretty fair wins in a row against NC State and Syracuse. So I will take Cal with the points since you get a couple in what I think is probably a pretty even game against two teams no one much thinks about.

Last week I was 6-4 against the spread, putting me at 28-26 on the season. Meh, could be worse.

This is your thread to discuss sports. Anyone popping in here to talk shit about football will be banned outright.