Wes Glinsmann
Political hack by day. Freelance writing superhero by night. Self-proclaimed authority on homebrewing, bacon and turning oxygen into carbon dioxide.
The University of Oregon athletic department is completely underwritten by UO alum and Nike president Phil Knight. It’s not like they’re hurting for money. They still came up with a novel approach to fundraising—allowing the general public to watch Ducks’ cheerleading tryouts for $5 apiece.
In early September, Notre Dame linebacker and Heisman Trophy candidate Manti Te’o—just days after learning of the death of his girlfriend—led the Fighting Irish to an emotional upset of then-#10 Michigan State. However, in one of the most bizarre twists we’ve seen in college football, it now appears that the whole story about a dying girlfriend was a hoax.
As expected, Notre Dame and Alabama will meet in the BCS National Championship Game to award another trophy to one of college football’s most successful programs. However, the complete bowl lineup was not without some surprises, including #15 Northern Illinois crashing the BCS party and 9-3 Louisiana Tech being left home for the holidays after their administration turned down an Independence Bowl invite.
Here is the full schedule of this year’s college football bowl games:
We’re down to the home stretch of the regular season, with most teams having just two games remaining. There aren't many big games this week, with only two top 25 matchups and five ranked SEC schools dropping down to play FCS teams. But there is still some action this week that could shake up conference-title races. #1 Oregon faces a ranked team and #2 Kansas State hits the road against one of the nation’s top offenses. Hey, after last week, anything’s possible.
Here is what to watch for this week in the top 25:
Champions from non-automatic-qualifier conferences will now have the chance to earn a spot in one of six BCS bowl games, according to a new agreement announced Monday. Under the terms of the deal, the highest-ranked champion from the "Group of Five" non-automatic conferences (Big East, Conference USA, MAC, Mountain West and Sun Belt) will be guaranteed a spot in a BCS bowl game.
While there aren't as many marquee games as last week, we have several intriguing matchups to look forward to this weekend. Saturday features four games between ranked opponents, including one top 10 game in the SEC. Additionally, 14 of the 22 ranked teams in action this weekend are playing road or neutral-site games. So this could be another weekend to be on upset alert.
Here is what to watch for this week in the top 25.