Spec's College Nickel Package -- Week 7
October 19 -- Florida State at Clemson
The Seminoles are back in the heat of the conversation after a 63-0 thrashing of Maryland, which was their fifth straight impressive win behind redshirt freshman QB Jameis Winston.
Winston has put himself on the fringes of the Heisman discussion, a location already firmly held by Clemson QB Tajh Boyd.
Florida State has a bye week, so it's a lock to go into this game 5-0, while the Tigers must get past Boston College in order to carry a 6-0 mark into the contest.
Only the survivor would seem to have any chance of making the BCS title game.
Either team could get tripped up later, however, as Florida State will face old rivals Miami and Florida down the road, and Clemson gets South Carolina.
November 7 (Thursday) -- Oregon at Stanford
Unlike the ACC matchup above, the loser of this game might still have a shot if it is not embarrassed and things break right.
But the winner will be in much better shape, especially if it's Oregon coming out unscathed from getting emerging Washington and UCLA, plus Stanford, in a four-game stretch. And the Ducks will have a fairly easy road after the Cardinal, while Stanford must finish with Notre Dame. Then the winner appears likely get UCLA again in the Pac-12 title game.
November 9 -- LSU at Alabama
Since Texas A&M(anziel) has already lost to Alabama, LSU is actually in a position to bust into the SEC title game by sweeping the Tide and the Aggies in November. It would be an upset, but it could happen.
But the game is most likely to be noteworthy as the last, best chance to derail the Tide during the regular season.
November 30 -- Ohio State at Michigan
The Buckeyes already own a pair of hard-fought wins over Wisconsin and Northwestern, and now appear to have a fairly easy coast until much deeper into the cold-weather months.
At the end of November they must face traditional rival Michigan, and then, the week after, they are almost certain to head to the Big Ten (-ish) title game ... possibly against Michigan again (or else Nebraska or Northwestern).
The Buckeyes (and the Big Ten [-ish] in general) haven't exactly been lighting the world on fire, so they'll need to finish strong to get consideration for a title bid.
Georgia vs. Attrition, and then, probably, Alabama December 7
After their loss to Clemson, the Bulldogs can't get in to the title game on their own. Plus, they have to prevail against surprise Missouri this week and traditional rival Florida November 2.
But if they can do that, then the rest of November is downhill, and they'll start rooting for upsets that would clear some of the other contenders out of the way.
Should that happen, and the Dawgs knock off Alabama for the SEC title (as they almost did last year), then they could get their shot.
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If Alabama and the Oregon-Stanford winner remain unbeaten, then I don't think there's anything that Ohio State or the Clemson-Florida State winner can do to get into the final BCS title game. Maybe one of them could edge out Stanford, but the Cardinal would be riding in with wins over Oregon, Notre Dame and UCLA. Big Ten (-ish) and ACC schedules probably won't keep up with that.
But the Buckeyes and Clemson-Nole victor, if they finish out unbeaten, will be ready to pounce if upsets strike.
I think most folks are rooting for Alabama-Oregon, and that certainly would be a matchup with a lot of intrigue.