Michigan-Penn State highlights a good week
College football's Week 8 arrives with a good array of interesting games that could impact the College Football Playoff and the New Year's Six bowl lineup.
Here are the top 10 non-Big 12 games, plus a coach on the hot seat in Aggieland and an upset special from the American Conference:
1. Michigan at Penn State, 6:30 p.m. Saturday, ABC:
These bluebloods never played until the Nittany Lions joined the Big Ten; now the Wolverines lead the series 14-8.
2. Oregon at Washington, 2:30 p.m. Saturday, ABC:
The Huskies' last stand. Win this game, and UW remains a Rose Bowl contender. Lose, and the Ducks own the Pac-12 North.
3. Temple at SMU, 2:30 p.m. Saturday, ESPN2: Can the Mustangs stay unbeaten and create a dream season. Maybe. But what if Temple is the best team in the solid American Conference?
4. Florida at South Carolina, 11 a.m. Saturday, ESPN:
The Gamecocks were slogs early in the season, but winning at Georgia puts a whole new lease on life.
5. Arizona State at Utah, 5 p.m. Saturday, Pac-12
Network: The 5-1 Utes have flown under the radar, their only loss 30-23 at Southern Cal. Win here, and Utah at least stays on the fringes of College Football Playoff consideration.
6. Duke at Virginia, 2:30 p.m. Saturday, ACC Network: ACC Coastal showdown matching two underrated coaches — UVA's Bronco Mendenhall and Duke's David Cutcliffe.
7. Ohio State at Northwestern, 7:30 p.m. Friday, Big Ten Network:
A power play to get more people signed up for the Big Ten Network — play on Friday night, when the next-best viewing option is Pitt-Syracuse.
8. Arizona at Southern Cal, 8:30 p.m. Saturday, Pac-12 Network: The winner is tied for first place in the Pac-12 South. 9. Tulane at Memphis, 6 p.m. Saturday, ESPN2: Both teams can lay claim to being in contention for the mid-major New Year's Six bowl berth. But the loser is out. 10. Clemson at Louisville, 11
a.m., ABC: This is a major mismatch, but when a team has struggled, by its standards, as Clemson has, conference road games get interesting, and Louisville is coming off a road win that knocked Wake Forest from the ranks of the unbeaten.
Coach on the hot seat
Jimbo Fisher is not getting fired. We're pretty sure. Fisher is the second season of a 10-year, $70 million contract that includes no buyouts.
Barring NCAA irregularities, Fisher will be owed the full value of the contract if he's fired, and he can leave at anytime without owing A&M a penny.
But don't think the Aggies haven't thought about a change. They are 3-3 this season, with losses to Clemson, Auburn and Alabama, and a survival of Arkansas in Arlington.
The Aggies were a solid 9-4 last season, Fisher's first since jumping from Florida State. But this is sort of what A&M football is: 9-4, 8-5, 9-4.
The Aggies haven't played in a major bowl since winning the Big 12 in 1998. They've reached double-digit victories one time since, 2012, the year Johnny Manziel won the Heisman Trophy.
The Aggies paid Fisher to get them out of their good-not-great cycle, but so far that hasn't happened.
Saturday, A&M plays at Ole Miss, a decent team but nothing special. A loss would drop the Aggies to 3-4 and make A&M wonder even more why it's paying Fisher so much money.
Upset special
In 1984, SMU went 10-2, ending a fouryear run in which the Mustangs went 41-5-1.
Soon enough came the death penalty — SMU did not field a football team in 1987 — and the breakup of the Southwest Conference and decades of Mustang irrelevancy.
Since 1984, SMU has posted seven winning seasons, and only in 2009 and 2011 did the Mustangs win as many as eight games.
But the 2019 Mustangs are 6-0 and ranked 19th in the AP poll. A Cotton Bowl appearance is not out of the question.
But Saturday, SMU hosts Temple, and the Owls might be the American Conference's best team. Temple has beaten Maryland, Georgia Tech and, last week, Memphis 30-28. Temple inexplicably lost 38-22 at Buffalo.
The Owls have been a solid program for several years — Matt Rhule, anyone? — and go to Dallas a 7½-point favorite.
Temple is accustomed to big games. Is SMU? Let's go with Temple in the upset.