5 BOROUGH SPORTS

Intriguing Gameday Matchup This Week

We’ve now moved out of mostly non-conference battles and are starting to see some important in-conference matchups. This week we have some very nice top 25 showdowns across the country.

In College Station the Aggies play host to Oklahoma State in a top ten battle. This game should separate which team is perhaps really a top ten team, and also who will try and compete with Oklahoma for a Big 12 title this season. Without a championship game, each of these teams will need this win, and one over Oklahoma to stand a chance of breaking into the BCS and toppling the top ranked Sooners for the title.

In the ACC Georgia Tech and UNC battle in Atlanta in which should also be an early eliminator game. Georgia Tech has been more impressive early on, but UNC’s defense is far superior to those the Jackets seen so far. Both teams appear to have good squads this year and if they want to compete in the Coastal with Virginia Tech, this is a huge game to do so. While Miami was impressive last week, they are 0-1 in conference already.

Also in the ACC Florida State visits Death Valley to take on Clemson in a huge Atlantic Division matchup. It’s hard to argue this game is going to put the winner at a huge advantage for winning the division. While Maryland has looked decent so far, these two teams appear to be the class of the division and a win here would put them two games ahead of the other. Clemson’s offense has been great, as has FSU defense, but on the other side its weakness vs. weakness as both FSU’s offense and Clemson’s D have struggled early on. This should be an interesting matchup in that regard, and if FSU is unable to play guys like EJ Manuel it could be tough for them to get in the end zone.

Finally West Virginia hosts LSU in this weeks ESPN Gameday matchup. LSU has looked dominant defensively but will have their hands full with a potent Mountaineer offense. Once again this should be strength against strength and weakness against weakness like in the Clemson-FSU matchup. I expect a hostile environment in Morgantown, but will it be enough to topple the LSU Tigers of 2011?

Now onto my picks for the week.

NC State 27, Cincinnati 24

BYU 20, UCF 14

Michigan 31, San Diego State 21

Notre Dame 34, Pittsburgh 24

Georgia 28, Mississippi 17

Ohio State 20, Colorado 13

California 24, Washington 20

South Carolina 31, Vanderbilt 14

Florida 27, Kentucky 17

Oklahoma 38, Missouri 21

Oregon 41, Arizona 31

USC 31, Arizona State 28

Georgia Tech 38, UNC 24

Alabama 31, Arkansas 17

Oklahoma State 41, Texas A&M 38

Clemson 27, Florida State 20

LSU 24, West Virginia 17

This entry was posted on September 23, 2011 at 9:31 pm and is filed under College Football. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.