College Football Week 13

For once I didn't have to google pictures of cheerleaders to use in this weekly posting. This was taken at the Iowa Nebraska Heroes game in Lincoln. The Iowa Cheerleaders have travelled with the Football team all over the Big Ten. Not only have the appeared on the sidelines, but they are also working for the fans at the pre-game Hawkeye Huddle. We see them weekly on the plane, but they are resorted to the last two rows of the plane - just a few back from the video staff.

Championship weekend approaches and ESPN and its family of networks is on the outside looking in. ABC was the original network to televise the SEC Championship game, but CBS won the rights many years ago. But ABC and ESPN were able to compete for viewers with the ACC, Big 12, MAC, and C-USA Championship Games. However the Big 12 no longer is able to have one as teams left to join the Pac-12 and Big Ten allowing for a Championship game in those conferences. Those conferences now showcase their premier games on FOX, while the Big 12 had to schedule other games to televise on the last weekend. The ACC game should be good as #5 Virginia Tech takes on #20 Clemson, a rematch when Clemson won in Blacksburg. That game will be on ESPN.

My game of the week will be Indianapolis. Wisconsin has a rematch with Michigan State. The Spartans won the earlier meeting on a Hail Mary as time expired. Many remembered it was ruled down inside the one, but replay reversed the call and the MSU touchdown gave Wisconsin their first loss of the year. This outcome may not come down to the last play, but it should be one of the more competitive championship games on the weekend. LSU should be able to handle Georgia in Atlanta. Oregon opened up as a 30 1/2 point favorite at home against UCLA. And that leaves the ACC Championship of the major BCS level conferences. As mentioned the ACC should be good, too. But let's see if Clemson can un-Clemson themselves with the Hokies.

As for bowl implications, we all await the outcomes of these games. Coach Fry always said, "There is no such thing as a bad bowl game." And while that is true, there are definitely advantages to some over others. What I am looking forward to are good bowl match-ups. There has been some talk of bowl giving up their alliances to conferences. That may be good at the BCS level. I've heard the Rose Bowl has no interest of giving up their conference affiliations, but I think the Orange may be interested in that. Last year I'm sure they enjoyed having Virginia Tech and Stanford, but the Cardinal didn't travel well across the country - much like UConn didn't to the Fiesta Bowl. Outside of the Title Game and Rose Bowl, let's get good, interesting match-ups in the most prestigious of bowl games.