NCAA Football Week By Week

Week Five

• NC State a. Wake Forest
• Maryland v. Clemson
• Louisville v. Pitt
• Syracuse v. USF
• California v. USC
• Oregon State a. Arizona State
• Stanford v. UCLA
• Kentucky v. Alabama
• Hawaii a. Louisiana Tech
• Air Force a. Navy
• Northern Illinois v. Western Michigan

Buffalo v. Central Michigan (AF!) - While NC State/Wake Forest is a legitimate contender for this week's game to watch (and certainly will be Rochester's pick...), I decided to go off the radar. The way these SportingNews picks work is they've gone through each team's schedule and decide which would constitute the most interesting or biggest game. The first team listed is the one from whose schedule the game is picked (so Cal's biggest game is USC) which is why the list is neither consistently "versus" or "at." Rarely is the game also the biggest for the second team listed. Buffalo/CMU is one of those rare occurances. So, zango! Top of the list! This game has two things going for it: first, Central Michigan is eyeballing the MAC West title (and the conference title, following); second, Buffalo is hoping to follow up last season's dream run with another solid year. There were a bunch of people that thought Buffalo coach Turner Gill deserved a shot at the big time after last year. While a championship season isn't necessary, a winning record should sew up a few BCS conference job offers in early 2010. A 2-10 season might cause that ship to sail (uh...the sewing ship, I guess, so as to not mix metaphors). Because no respectable program would give a small school coach a shot with a 2-10 record, right?