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The college football week kicks off tonight (Wednesday) with a pair of Conference USA games. Upstart Jacksonville State (4-1, 2-0 CUSA) visits Middle Tennessee (1-4, 0-1) in the more interesting one of those contests with the Blue Raiders favored by 3-1/2 while the computer takes the Gamecocks by 2.16. The other contest has New Mexico State (2-3, 0-1) hosting FIU (3-2, 0-2).
There are two more CUSA games on Thursday, followed by a pair of Friday night collisions that get the Big 12 and B1G in on the act with Kansas State at Oklahoma State, and Illinois being cleared to host Nebraska after a small fire on Tuesday night.
There is no rivalry quite like the Texas-Oklahoma series, which is being played for the 119th time this Saturday at 11 a.m. CT/12:00 p.m. ET on ABC. Only Texas A&M (118 times) has played the Longhorns on as many occasions. Since 1900, the only years Texas and Oklahoma have not played were 1918, ‘20, ‘21 and 1924-28.
The Longhorns opened as 6.5-point favorites, and they get a much larger 10.64-point edge from the computer. These teams both have QB's that are among the Heisman Odds Leaders with Oklahoma's Dillon Gabriel tied with Florida State's Jordan Travis at No. 6 and Texas' Quinn Ewers tied with Oregon's Bo Nix in 3rd. Gabriel leads the Big 12 in passing yards per game (318.6) and touchdown passes with 15 against just 2 INT's.
As the only remaining undefeated teams over-all in the conference, they are the top two favorites to win the Big 12 with Texas at -130 and Oklahoma at +200. Both schools enter with perfect records of 5-0 over-all and 2-0 in their final Big 12 season before moving to the SEC next year.
In fact West Virginia and Kansas State are the only other teams in the Big 12 that haven't already lost a conference game.
Texas blasted Oklahoma 49-0 in last year's game to end a 4-game losing streak to the Sooners, and stretched their series lead to 63-50-5. The 'Horns are the only Big 12 program with a winning record against the Sooners. One of those Oklahoma wins came in the only meeting between the two schools outside of the regular season when they staged a rematch in the 2018 Big 12 Championship game with the Sooners prevailing 39-27 after losing 48-45 at the fairgrounds.
Last season's matchup was the first since 1998 that neither Oklahoma or Texas were ranked in the AP poll when facing each other.
That changes dramatically this season as Texas comes in with the No. 3 ranking in the AP, No. 4 in the Coaches' Poll, and No. 2 in the FWAA/NFF Super 16 Poll. Texas is ranked 6th by the computer.
Oklahoma enters with the No. 12 ranking in all three aforementioned voter polls, and is ranked 15th by the computer.
These two programs first faced-off in 1900. It has been played in Dallas since 1912, and at the State Fair since 1929. Saturday marks the 101st time the game will be played at a neutral site in Dallas.
After the 1924-'28 pause in the series, it resumed in 1929 in an old wooden structure called Fair Park Stadium. A newer Fair Park Stadium was built in time for the 1930 matchup, and was renamed the Cotton Bowl in 1936. The first Texas-OU game played at “The Cotton Bowl” was in 1937. This year’s Red River Showdown will be held in the Cotton Bowl for the 87th consecutive year.
There are actually three trophies awarded to the winner. There is the Red River Rivalry Trophy and the Governor's Trophy, but there is also the "Golden Hat" which is a gold 10-gallon cowboy hat mounted on a large block of wood that was first awarded when the State Fair of Texas donated it in 1941. It was originally a Bronze (Brass) Hat until it was reworked in the 1970s. We tried to find the first year of the transition, but could not.
(20) Kentucky at (1) Georgia
(12) Oklahoma vs. (4) Texas at Dallas
(11) Notre Dame at (25) Louisville
(23) LSU at (22) Missouri
This is a list of ranked teams playing schools that are also receiving votes.
(26) Maryland at (3) Ohio State
(10) Alabama at (28) Texas A&M
(14) Washington State at (30) UCLA
A whopping 24.8% of the 133 FBS teams are idle this week. That's 33 teams that won't be seeing action, including 6 of the Top 25 schools in the Coaches' Poll - (6) Penn State, (8) Washington, (9) Oregon, (18) Tennessee, (19) Utah, and (21) Duke.
Of the 100 teams will be on the field, only 2 are facing a FCS school as Northwestern hosts Howard, and Virginia welcomes William & Mary. The Congrove Computer Rankings at CollegeFootballPoll.com don't give the Bison much of a shot against the Wildcats and favor the home team by a comfortable 18.85, but that's nearly 11 points under the opening spread of 29.5 at most sportsbooks.
Conversely, the Weekly Picks suggest that Virginia may be on Upset Alert as the computer only favors the Cavaliers by 6.64 over the Tribe, slashing the opening 13-point line in half. William & Mary is ranked 4th in the FCS version of the computer rankings, even after a 14-6 upset loss at Elon this past Saturday. The Cavs (0-5 overall, 0-2 ACC) are the second-lowest ranked Power 5 team in the FBS at 123.
This season has 117 of the 133 FBS schools facing one FCS opponent, and Army playing two such games for a total of 118 FBS-FCS matchups.
Of the 16 FBS schools that do NOT play a FCS program, 7 are in the B1G (Illinois, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, Purdue, Wisconsin). 6 more are evenly split between the Big 12 (Houston, Oklahoma, Texas) and Pac-12 (Colorado, USC, Washington). The other three are Liberty (CUSA) , UTSA (American), and Virginia Tech (ACC).
FBS schools were 3-0 this past weekend as Colorado State beat Utah Tech 41-20, North Texas got past Abilene Christian 45-31 and Rutgers rolled 52-3 over Wagner.
The FBS programs are 104-4 this year against the FCS schools. Over-all, the FBS is a collective 1,790-152 (.922) since we began tracking this in 2003.
There are 2 such games this week. Virginia hosts FCS No. 4 William & Mary as the Tribe will try to regroup after a 14-6 upset loss at Elon. In the other game, Howard visits Northwestern.
Here are the FCS wins in 2023, so far:
September 9: Idaho 33, Nevada 6
September 9: Southern Illinois 14, Northern Illinois 12
September 9: Fordham 40, Buffalo 37
September 16: Sacramento State 30, Stanford 23
GEORGIA - Won 22 straight home games, 22 straight over-all, and 12 straight true road games.
Last: 27-20 win at Auburn on Saturday, September 30.
Next: Home vs. Kentucky on Saturday, October 7.
MICHIGAN - Won 17 straight conference games.
Last: 45-7 win at Nebraska on Saturday, September 30.
Next: Visits Minnesota on Saturday, October 7.
NEVADA - Lost 15 straight over-all, 15 straight to FBS teams, and 7 straight home games.
Last: 27-9 loss at Fresno State on Saturday, September 30.
Next: Home vs. UNLV on Saturday, October 14.
NORTHERN ILLINOIS - Lost 7 straight home games.
Last: 35-33 loss at Toledo on Saturday, September 30.
Next: Visits Akron on Saturday, October 7.
NORTHWESTERN - Lost 13 straight road games.
Last: 41-10 loss at home to Penn State on Saturday, September 30.
Next: Hosts FCS member Howard on Saturday, October 7.
NEW MEXICO - Lost 13 straight conference games.
Last: Lost 35-26 at Wyoming on Saturday, September 30.
Next: Hosts San Jose State on Saturday, October 14.