We are coming down the home stretch, America. Five weeks left in the season and we still have seven undefeated teams. We also will have a new Pac-10 champ for the first time since 2002 thanks to the USC defense deciding that umbrella coverage and no pressure would be the best way to stop Oregon. Oh well. Now it is time to move into November and hope that Iowa loses soon.

Thursday, November 5^th

America get ready we could be getting a World Series game 7 against ESPN overloading their networks with college football on Thursday night. (Or the Yankees could win tonight and then the only sport worth watching would be College Football because no one needs to watch the NBA or NHL in November.) Now we get the Virginia Tech revenge game against East Carolina on Thursday night and Lou Holtz calling Skip’s biggest game at home. Again, mute the game and hope Virginia Tech blows them out.

• Virginia Tech @ East Carolina (ESPN, 7:30pm) – Rece Davis, Mark May, Lou Holtz, Todd Harris
• Eastern Michigan @ Northern Illinois (ESPNU, 7:30pm) - Charlie Neal, Jay Walker

Friday, November 6^th

Please, please, please, Louisiana Tech: Pull the upset so that everyone stops talking about Boise State. Thank you, that is all.

Boise State @ Louisiana Tech (ESPN2, 8pm) – Dave Lamont, Rod Gilmore

Saturday, November 7^th

Another Saturday and another Iowa game at Noon on ESPN; how does the Big Eleven Network never get the important conference games? FSN will give America Texas’ return game with Central Florida and if they don’t blow them out by 40 they will fall out of the Top 2.

• Northwestern @ Iowa (ESPN, Noon) - Dave Pasch, Bob Griese, Chris Spielman
• Central Florida @ Texas (FSN, Noon) - Bill Land, Gary Reasons, Emily Jones
• Syracuse @ Pittsburgh (ESPNU, Noon) - Clay Matvick, David Diaz-Infante
• Wisconsin @ Indiana (BTN, Noon) - Craig Coshun, Glen Mason, Mike Hall
• Illinois @ Minnesota (BTN, Noon) - Matt Rosen, Ron Johnson, Ron Johnson
• Western Michigan @ Michigan State (BTN, Noon) - Ari Wolfe, Rod Woodson, Kenny Jackson
• Purdue @ Michigan (BTN, Noon) - Wayne Larrivee, Chris Martin, Charissa Thompson
• South Carolina @ Arkansas (SEC Network, Noon) - Dave Neal, Andre Ware, Cara Capuano (Will Air on MSG, FS Detroit, CSN California)
• Louisville @ West Virginia (Big East Network, Noon) - Mike Gleason, John Congemi, Quint Kessenich (Altitude, CST, MASN, SNY)
• Virginia @ Miami (Raycom, Noon) - Steve Martin, Rick Walker, Mike Hogewood
• Kansas @ Kansas State (Versus, 12:30pm) - Ron Thulin, Kelly Stouffer, Lewis Johnson
• Tennessee Tech @ Georgia (CSS PPV, 1pm) -Matt Stewart, Buck Belue, Sandra Golden
• Eastern Kentucky @ Kentucky (Big Blue PPV, 1pm) - Rob Bromley, Tim Couch, Dick Gabriel
• Maryland @ North Carolina State (ESPN360, 1pm) - Ryan Rose, Danny Kanell
• Texas A&M @ Colorado (FCS Central, 1:30pm) -Dan McLaughlin, Yogi Roth, Samantha Steele
• Furman @ Auburn (CSS PPV, 1:30pm) - Andy Burcham, Cole Cubelic, Melissa Lee
• Brigham Young @ Wyoming (MTN, 2pm) - James Bates, Todd Christensen, Andrea Lloyd

In the afternoon window it begins with Navy’s return trip to South Bend were they look to extend their winning streak to two. Then at 3:30pm Eastern Verne and Gary travel to Tuscaloosa for the biggest game of the season in the SEC West as LSU comes to town looking to ruin America’s dream game between Florida and Alabama on December 5^th. I think only Alabama can beat Florida, so I may have to root for Alabama this weekend (even though I hate Nick Saban and Les Miles). ABC’s regional coverage is still ruining my weekends as I never seem to get the good mirror game and Big 12 games are terrible this year. (Oh, and why was the USC/Oregon game not on ESPN2 last week here in Texas??? I was promised HD coverage on ESPN2 all day and yet the game was blacked out, WTF? I am glad that it was in standard def on a random ESPN alternate channel because I was not upset when I turned it off when Oregon scored for the 8^th time).

• Navy @ Notre Dame (NBC, 2:30pm) - Tom Hammond, Pat Haden, Alex Flanagan
• Rice @ Southern Methodist (Mustang Sports, 3:30pm) - Brad Sham, Allen Stone
• Louisiana State @ Alabama (CBS, 3:30pm) - Verne Lundquist, Gary Danielson, Tracy Wolfson
• Ohio State @ Penn State (ABC/ESPN2, 3:30pm) -Sean McDonough, Matt Millen, Holly Rowe
• Oklahoma State @ Iowa State (ABC, 3:30pm) -Bob Wischusen, Brian Griese
• Wake Forest @ Georgia Tech (ABC/ESPN2, 3:30pm) - Pam Ward, Ray Bentley
• Oregon @ Stanford (FSN, 3:30pm) - Barry Tompkins, Petros Papadakis, Rebecca Haarlow
• Duke @ North Carolina (ESPNU, 3:30pm) - Todd Harris, Charles Arbuckle
• Army @ Air Force (CBS College Sports, 3:30pm) -Dave Ryan, Jason Sehorn
• Washington State @ Arizona (FCS Pacific, 3:30pm) - Dave Sitton, John Fina, Glenn Howell
• Washington @ UCLA (FS Regional, 3:30pm) - Bill MacDonald, James Washington, Brooke Olzendam, Courtney Jones (Will Air on FSN Northwest; Prime Ticket, FCS Pacific)
• Louisiana-Lafayette @ Arkansas State (Sun Belt TV, 3:30pm) - Todd Kalas, Derek Rackley (Will Air on CSS, CST)
• Texas-El Paso @ Tulane (ISP Sports, 3:30pm) -Sam Smith, Roger Schultz (Will Air on FCS Atlantic)
• Texas Christian @ San Diego State (Versus, 4pm) - Tim Neverett, Glenn Parker, Lindsay Soto
• New Mexico @ Utah (MTN, 4pm) - Dan Gutowsky, Blaine Fowler, Sammy Linebaugh

The best game in the evening window is Oregon State at Cal. The ABC regional 8pm Eastern nightmare is just a mess. 20% of the country gets SC @ ASU, Big 12 country gets OU @ Nebraska and the Northeast gets their first look at Cincinnati as they host UCONN. You might care that Cincinnati could go undefeated but they should roll over UCONN without much effort. FSU @ Clemson is no longer the Bowden Bowl but now it could just be another loss for Bobby as C.J. Spiller should go nuts running the ball with the announcement of Mickie Andrews’s retirement. I will watch all of this but having a Pac-10 game getting the National spotlight on FSN is a big deal; of course Mike Pawlawski as the color man in the booth could be interesting as he was the last good Cal QB.

• Oregon State @ California (FSN, 7pm) - Steve Physioc, Mike Pawlawski, Drea Avent
• Memphis @ Tennessee (ESPNU, 7pm) - Eric Collins, Brock Huard
• Vanderbilt @ Florida (ESPN2, 7:15pm) - Mark Jones, Bob Davie
• Houston @ Tulsa (CBS College Sports, 7:30pm) -Tom Hart, Aaron Taylor
• Northern Arizona @ Mississippi (SEC Network, 7:30pm) - Bob Rathun, Dave Archer, Jenn Hildreth (Will Air on CSS, CST, Comcast Network)
• Florida State @ Clemson (ESPN, 7:45pm) - Brad Nessler, Todd Blackledge, Erin Andrews
• USC @ Arizona State (ABC, 8pm) - Mike Patrick, Craig James, Heather Cox
• Connecticut @ Cincinnati (ABC, 8pm) - Brent Musburger, Kirk Herbstreit, Lisa Salters
• Oklahoma @ Nebraska (ABC, 8pm) - Ron Franklin, Ed Cunningham
• Colorado State @ Nevada-Las Vegas (MTN, 8pm) - Bill Doleman, Robert Griffith, Molly Sullivan
• Utah State @ Hawaii (Oceanic PPV, 10pm) - Jim Leahey, Russell Yamaoha
• Fresno State @ Idaho (ESPNU, 10:30pm) - Charlie Neal, JC Pearson

Sunday, November 8^th

I probably would watch the Cowboy and Eagles instead of this. I know that people in Reno and NoCal might watch but even that is sketchy at best.

Nevada @ San Jose State (ESPN, 8pm) - Terry Gannon, David Norrie

Have a great weekend, enjoy the games and thanks to Awful Announcing for the week’s TV Schedule.