Week 10 Preview

October 25, 2017 by Dave Congrove

Last week Penn State destroyed Michigan and Notre Dame clobbered USC. Their reward? Penn State gets to visit Ohio State while Notre Dame hosts N.C. State. This, of course, is the final week of play before the initial College Football Playoff rankings are released on Halloween night.

According to my Congrove Computer Rankings, Penn State is ranked 2nd and Ohio State 4th, but the Nittany Lions are a 5.68-point underdog at the Buckeyes. Meanwhile, 15th-ranked Notre Dame is a 6.54-point favorite versus the No. 17 Wolfpack.

Top-ranked Alabama tops the list of 19 teams taking a bye week.

3rd-ranked Wisconsin hits the road as a huge 30.22-point pick at Illinois, and 5th-ranked Georgia has a 7.87-point computer advantage over Florida in their annual rivalry game at Jacksonville.

There are 112 games on this week's schedule which kicks off with 4 Thursday night games followed by 3 Friday night affairs.

The Friday night line-up includes Florida State visiting Boston College as an 8.20-point favorite in the Congrove Computer Rankings (CCR Top 130). A few weeks ago, this would have been considered a 'gimme' for the 'Noles but they're struggling at 2-4 while the Eagles enter the contest with a hot hand after dispatching Virginia this past Saturday 41-10 and out-pointing Louisville two weeks ago 45-42.

Other games to watch include Washington State (-9.15) at Arizona, Georgia Tech at Clemson (-6.39), TCU (-11.82) at surging Iowa State, and Oklahoma State (-9.76) at West Virginia.

FBS vs. FCS

There is just one FBS vs. FCS battle this week as Central Florida hosts Austin Peay. FBS teams are 82-9 (.901) vs. the FCS this season, and 1,212-117 (.912) since 2003.

These are the FCS victories in 2017:
September 23: Western Illinois 52, Coastal Carolina 10
September 16: North Carolina A&T 35, Charlotte 31
September 16: Idaho State 30, Nevada 28
September 9: South Dakota 35. Bowling Green 27
September 9: New Hampshire 22, Georgia Southern 12
September 2: Liberty 48, Baylor 45
September 2: Howard 43, UNLV 40
September 2: James Madison 34, East Carolina 14
August 31: Tennessee State 17, Georgia State 10.

98 FBS teams are playing 98 games vs. FCS members this year, down substantially from the 110 FBS schools that played 113 games vs. FCS squads last year.

Streaks

Alabama - Won 39 straight regular season nonconference games (FBS longest). Won 17 straight home games (FBS longest). Won 13 straight road games (tied for FBS longest). Won 22 straight conference games (FBS longest). Idle this week.

Oklahoma - Won14 straight road games (tied for FBS longest).  Hosts Texas Tech on Saturday.

South Florida - Won 12 straight overall ( FBS longest). Hosts Houston on Saturday.

Texas State - Lost 13 straight conference games (FBS longest). Visits Coastal Carolina on Saturday.

Charlotte - Snapped 11-game losing streak (FBS longest). Idle this week.

Massachusetts - Snapped 9-game losing streak (FBS 2nd-longest). Hosts Appalachian State on Saturday.

Kansas - Lost 44 straight road games (FBS longest). Visits Kansas State on Saturday.