College Football - Week 14 (Nov. 29)

[Andy]

Top 25 games

(1) Ohio State at (15) Michigan (12 pm, FOX) 

(2) Indiana at Purdue (7:30 pm Friday, NBC)

(3) Texas A&M at (16) Texas (7:30 pm Friday, ABC)

(4) Georgia vs (23) Georgia Tech - at Mercedes-Benz Stadium (3:30 pm Friday, ABC)

(5) Texas Tech at West Virginia (12 pm, ESPN) 

(6) Oregon at Washington (3:30 pm, CBS)

(7) Ole Miss at Mississippi State (12 pm Friday, ABC)

LSU at (8) Oklahoma (3:30 pm, ABC)

(9) Notre Dame at Stanford (10:30 pm, ESPN)

(10) Alabama at Auburn (7:30 pm, ABC)

UCF at (11) BYU (1 pm, ESPN2) 

(12) Miami at (22) Pittsburgh (12 pm, ABC) 

(13) Utah at Kansas (12 pm Friday, ESPN) 

(14) Vanderbilt at (19) Tennessee (3:30 pm, ESPN) 

UCLA at (17) USC (7:30 pm, NBC) 

Virginia Tech at (18) Virginia (7 pm, ESPN) 

(25) Arizona at (20) Arizona State (9 pm Friday, FOX) 

(21) SMU at California (8 pm, ESPN2)   

Charlotte at (24) Tulane (7:30 pm, ESPNU) 

 

Othe natioonally available games
Tuesday

Bowling Green at UMass (4:30 pm, ESPNU)

Western Michigan at Eastern Michigan (7:30 pm, ESPN2)

Thursday

Navy at Memphis (7:30 pm, ESPN)

 

Friday

Iowa at Nebraska (12 pm, CBS)

Ohio at Buffalo (12 pm, ESPNU)

Kent State at Northern Illinois (12 pm, CBSSN)

Air Force at Colorado State (3 pm, FS1)

Temple at North Texas (3:30 pm, ESPN)  

San Diego State at New Mexico (3:30 pm, CBSSN)

Army at UTSA (3:30 pm, ESPN+)

Boise State at Utah State (4 pm, CBS)

 

Saturday TV

Colorado at Kansas State (12 pm, FS1) 

Houston at Baylor (12 pm, TNT) 

Iowa State at Oklahoma State (12 pm, ESPNU)

Clemson at South Carolina (12 pm, SEC Network)

Kentucky at Louisville (12 pm, ACC Network)

Ball State at Miami (OH) (12 pm, CBSSN)

Boston College at Syracuse (3 pm, CW)

Cincinnati at TCU (3:30 pm, FOX)  

Wisconsin at Minnesota (3:30 pm, FS1)

Penn State at Rutgers (3:30 pm, BTN)

Missouri at Arkansas (3:30 pm, SEC Network)

Wake Forest at Duke (3:30 pm, ACC Network) 

Kennesaw State at Liberty (3:30 pm, CBSSN)

James Madison at Coastal Carolina (3:45 pm, ESPNU) 

Florida State at Florida (4:30 pm, ESPN2) 

Oregon State at Washington State (6:30 pm, CW)

Maryland vs Michigan State - in Detroit (7 pm, FS1)

Northwestern at Illinois (7:30 pm, FOX)

North Carolina at NC State (7:30 pm, ACC Network)

UNLV at Nevada (9 pm, CBSSN)

Fresno State at San Jose State (10:30 pm, FS1)

 

Saturday Streaming (all ESPN+)

East Carolina at Florida Atlantic (12 pm) 

FIU at Sam Houston (12 pm)

Toledo at Central Michigan (12 pm)

UTEP at Delaware (12 pm)

Louisiana Tech at Missouri State (1 pm)

Western Kentucky at Jacksonville State (1 pm)

Georgia Southern at Marshall (1:30 pm)

Georgia State at Old Dominion (2 pm)

Middle Tennessee at New Mexico State (2 pm)

Arkansas State at Appalachian State (2:30 pm)

South Alabama at Texas State (3 pm)

UAB at Tulsa (3 pm)

UL Monroe at UL Lafayette (3 pm)

Troy at Southern Miss (3:30 pm)

Rice at South Florida (7 pm)

Edited November 29, 2025 by Andy

[Derwood]

With a win against Rutgers, Penn State is bowl eligible. Give me that Pop Tarts Bowl, baby!

[Old Style]

Well, this is it. I think I’m only joking that if A&M loses on Friday the season is a disappointment even if we win the championship. That’s how much I want to win this one. Buuuuut, I’d learn to live with it if the first scenario plays out. 

[CubinNY]

Go Broncos! If they win at Yipsi, they will be in the MAC championship. 

[I owned a Suzuki]

On 11/23/2025 at 8:39 PM, Old Style said:

Well, this is it. I think I’m only joking that if A&M loses on Friday the season is a disappointment even if we win the championship. That’s how much I want to win this one. Buuuuut, I’d learn to live with it if the first scenario plays out. 

Its probably the best game of the weekend. I think Michigan's run against OSU ends this year, and I dont think its going to be that competitive. I really think the A&M/Texas game is going to be really good. 

[Old Style]

1 hour ago, I owned a Suzuki said:

Its probably the best game of the weekend. I think Michigan's run against OSU ends this year, and I dont think its going to be that competitive. I really think the A&M/Texas game is going to be really good. 

I honestly don’t think Texas is all that great. Maybe it’s my inherent bias against them. I will say this, Arch has been MUCH better the last few weeks. But this A&M team feels different. Ever since the last second win at ND, it just seems like maybe this is the magical season I’ve been waiting 30+ years for. 

Edited November 25, 2025 by Old Style

[gflore34]

On 11/25/2025 at 10:19 AM, Old Style said:

I honestly don’t think Texas is all that great. Maybe it’s my inherent bias against them. I will say this, Arch has been MUCH better the last few weeks. But this A&M team feels different. Ever since the last second win at ND, it just seems like maybe this is the magical season I’ve been waiting 30+ years for. 

Believe A&M-Texas to be the best of Friday' games, go Aggies.

Edited November 28, 2025 by gflore34

[Derwood]

#4 seed shouldn't have the easiest quarterfinal matchup

[Rex Buckingham]

ESPN keeps projecting Miami as the ACC champ, but its not likely they will even play the ACC championship game

[Andy]

11 hours ago, Derwood said:

#4 seed shouldn't have the easiest quarterfinal matchup

For whatever it's worth, the advanced metrics really like Texas Tech. SP+ has the Red Raiders ranked #3 and a 4-point neutral field favorite over Georgia. They also completely dominated an otherwise-unbeaten BYU team (that is not getting nearly enough respect from the committee IMO), so the results back it up.

[cwood218]

59 minutes ago, Rex Buckingham said:

ESPN keeps projecting Miami as the ACC champ, but its not likely they will even play the ACC championship game

Yeah, I believe they are just using it as a place holder for the team that wins the ACC title game. Since Miami is currently ranked the highest of that turd conference they get the post it note written in pencil. Of course if Duke somehow makes and wins the ACC TG then none of them make it and we get two group of five conference champs. One of James Madison or North Texas join Tulane assuming all three continue to win.

[cwood218]

21 minutes ago, Andy said:

BYU team (that is not getting nearly enough respect from the committee IMO),

I really hope something like Auburn beating Alabama happens so that BYU can get in and then of course they will get smoked in the first round so all this nonsense stops. Even an Alabama loss probably wouldn't help them since Texas Tech is most likely beating them in the conference title game anyway.

[UMFan83]

What do you do about Conference championship games in this new era?  Asking because in the event Michigan beats Ohio State this weekend, I'm actively rooting for scenarios where Michigan does not make the Big Ten championship game.  Without making it they are probably a bubble team, maybe 60/40 to get in.  If they make the championship game, they would then have to go beat the number 1 team in the country for the second week in a row to make the CFP, because I doubt they make it with 3 losses.

Obvious answer is don't lose 2 games in the regular season, but still any model where you have teams wanting to avoid playing for a conference title seems wonky.  Would it make sense to lock the CFP teams in before the conference title games and only use those games for seeding purposes?

Edited November 26, 2025 by UMFan83

[cwood218]

18 minutes ago, UMFan83 said:

What do you do about Conference championship games in this new era?  Asking because in the event Michigan beats Ohio State this weekend, I'm actively rooting for scenarios where Michigan does not make the Big Ten championship game.  Without making it they are probably a bubble team, maybe 60/40 to get in.  If they make the championship game, they would then have to go beat the number 1 team in the country for the second week in a row to make the CFP, because I doubt they make it with 3 losses.

Obvious answer is don't lose 2 games in the regular season, but still any model where you have teams wanting to avoid playing for a conference title seems wonky.  Would it make sense to lock the CFP teams in before the conference title games and only use those games for seeding purposes?

There is actually a real possibility in the SEC of a major horsefeathers show RE: selection similar to what your talking about.

If Alabama beats Auburn they will be 10-2 ( 7-1 ) and would obviously be in the playoff if their season ended there. However, by virtue of winning the Auburn game they automatically advance to the SEC Championship game. A loss to A&M is a very real possibility. If a 10-2 SEC team ( going into the game ) is blocked from the playoff because of an extra loss due to the conference title game do they cancel the game going forward? 

Edited November 26, 2025 by cwood218

[CubColtPacer]

1 hour ago, UMFan83 said:

What do you do about Conference championship games in this new era?  Asking because in the event Michigan beats Ohio State this weekend, I'm actively rooting for scenarios where Michigan does not make the Big Ten championship game.  Without making it they are probably a bubble team, maybe 60/40 to get in.  If they make the championship game, they would then have to go beat the number 1 team in the country for the second week in a row to make the CFP, because I doubt they make it with 3 losses.

Obvious answer is don't lose 2 games in the regular season, but still any model where you have teams wanting to avoid playing for a conference title seems wonky.  Would it make sense to lock the CFP teams in before the conference title games and only use those games for seeding purposes?

It is strange.  I am not sure Michigan is the best example of that though.  Because I think they really need the conference title game to get in.  The combination of multiple close wins against bad teams, both losses not being particularly competitive, and no notable win besides Ohio State would be a problem.  I think there's a chance they get in as an at-large, but it's more like 20/80 rather than 60/40.  So I think they would want to go to the conference title game.

[Andy]

11 hours ago, UMFan83 said:

What do you do about Conference championship games in this new era? 

You get rid of them because their only function ever was being a money grab and now that the playoff is inviting several teams per year that don't play in one anyway that's been laid more bare than ever.

But if it helps, 2017 Wisconsin was the only team to fall out of the playoff after losing a conference title game in favor of a team that didn't win one (Alabama, of course).

Edited November 27, 2025 by Andy

[UMFan83]

36 minutes ago, CubColtPacer said:

It is strange.  I am not sure Michigan is the best example of that though.  Because I think they really need the conference title game to get in.  The combination of multiple close wins against bad teams, both losses not being particularly competitive, and no notable win besides Ohio State would be a problem.  I think there's a chance they get in as an at-large, but it's more like 20/80 rather than 60/40.  So I think they would want to go to the conference title game.

Ehh we'll see (or we won't see if OSU wins like they're supposed to). I think the fact that the committee moved Michigan up 3 spots this week after a blowout win over a bad Maryland team was telling and put them in a more advantageous position to move into the field if they beat the number 1 team.  They have no bad losses (they lost to the CFP number 8 and 17 teams on the road).  Their wins were mediocre but they do have a road win over a pre-Raiola injury Nebraska and a 17 point win over Washington who is currently 15th in SP+ (though the committee probably doesn't rely too much on this as they aren't in the CFP field right now).  A win over OSU would really boost their resume IMO and put them right on the cut line.

Honestly I haven't done a deep dive on the resumes of the teams UM would have to jump to get into the field since the entire scenario relies on Michigan beating Ohio State so if they can do that I'll look into it more lol.

Edit: Also the close wins over bad teams is really just a 2 week stretch of scraping by Purdue and Northwestern.  They only beat MSU by 11, but it's a rivalry game, on the road, and MSU had a garbage time TD to turn it from a laugher to a comfortable win.  Outside of that they blew out 2 bowl bound NC opponents (albeit their names are New Mexico and CMU lol), won a close road game vs Nebraska, then blew out Wisconsin and Washington.

Of course I'm just playing my role as an annoying UM fan here, but that's how I see it 🙂

Edited November 26, 2025 by UMFan83

[bukie]

Honestly the best example of the conference championship being unnecessary is probably Ohio State, both last year and this year potentially.

Last year, they lost to Michigan, fell a couple spots in the playoff, and then ran through everyone to the title having played one fewer game than most.

This year, they could probably lose to Michigan and still get a bye, making the conference championship even more pointless for them.

[bukie]

The more SEC I watch, the more convinced I am that there are no top 5 teams in that conference, but there are about 8 top 20 teams.

Right now, the top 5 teams in some order are Indiana, Ohio State, Texas Tech, Oregon, and Notre Dame (which has 2 losses yes but right now are better than either team they lost to)

[Andy]

It'll be very interesting to see where Texas is ranked next week if this holds. Without looking much up, my guess would be either right behind or ahead of Alabama, but I'd believe almost anything.

Edited November 29, 2025 by Andy

[Derwood]

22 minutes ago, Andy said:

It'll be very interesting to see where Texas is ranked next week if this holds. Without looking much up, my guess would be either right behind or ahead of Alabama, but I'd believe almost anything.

announcers seem to think there's a 0% chance Texas makes the playoffs

[Old Style]

11 wins means nothing right now. So horsefeathers pissed. 

[soccer10k]

1 hour ago, Andy said:

It'll be very interesting to see where Texas is ranked next week if this holds. Without looking much up, my guess would be either right behind or ahead of Alabama, but I'd believe almost anything.

I would think they're behind Bama still.

Bama lost at Florida St. Texas lost at Florida. These seem to be relatively comparable losses.

Bama lost by 2 at home to Oklahoma. Texas lost by 7 at Ohio St and by 25 at Georgia. Seems to be advantage Bama there.

Bama won at No. 4 Georgia, vs. No. 14 Vandy, vs. No. 19 Tenn. Texas won home to No. 3 A&M, neutral vs. No. 8 Oklahoma, vs No. 14 Vandy. Bama also won at Missouri who is barely outside the top-25 so if they win they could be ranked next week. So I'd say slight advantage Texas there, though Bama does have a ranked road win (over the No. 4 team).

So Texas having an extra loss, a loss by 25 points and Bama having the best win gives them the nod to me.

[CubColtPacer]

Agreed on soccer's Alabama/Texas analysis.  To add one thing, Alabama only had one more significant scare against a mediocre/bad team (comeback against South Carolina).  Texas had two of those in a row with the Kentucky/Mississippi State games both going into OT.

The first thing I thought of after the game last night was the byes.  If Texas A&M had won, the byes were pretty straightfoward.  The three undefeated teams would almost certainly get byes even if they lost their conference title game, and the only question would be if Georgia would hold off Texas Tech but that seemed likely as well.

But now it's a little bit of chaos.  Does 1 loss Texas A&M deserve a bye without appearing in the conference championship? Does Georgia potentially lose the bye by losing in the conference championship?  You can see scenarios where Texas Tech, Oregon, and Ole Miss all be talked about in terms of getting those last two byes now.

[I owned a Suzuki]

 

I think one of the biggest flaws of the 12 team playoff is that we are going to debate if a 3 loss Texas should get in over a 3 loss Alabama or a 2 loss Vanderbilt or a 2 loss Utah. A 2 loss OSU won last year. Heck losing to Michigan may have done them good.

Point being it is really diluting regular season games. I get that expanding playoffs does dilute regular season, no way around it. I also get that it probably really benefitted a program like Indiana. I just get grumpy about arguing which 2 or 3 loss team should get in.