The Dregs: It’s November break in the SEC

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November 6, 2009

Lame game(s) of the week.

Bottom of the barrel:
Is it too much to say … the entire SEC? It’s Homecoming week for several schools in the conference, so we suppose we can’t begrudge them all their creamy-middled fun, but does it ever make for a boring, bloody weekend slate. On tap down thataway:

• Tennessee Tech (5-3) at Georgia (4-4)

• Eastern Kentucky (5-3) at Kentucky (4-4)

• Furman (4-4) at Auburn (6-3)

• Memphis (2-6) at Tennessee (4-4)

• Northern Arizona (5-3) at Ole Miss (5-3)

Very gracious of the lesser luminaries to accede the spotlight to LSU-Alabama, no? (Although, in the case of my Vols, I’m frankly grateful — with that strength of schedule and a defensive line full of holes, we could use the break, and we’re surely not the only ones.) Florida, by the way, also draws Vanderbilt this week, which isn’t exactly a cupcake game but with a five-touchdown spread might as well be.

The rest of the worst:

• Maryland (2-6) at North Carolina State (3-5)
The Terps have got some legwork to do if they’re going to magically conjure up their traditional, inexplicable seven/eight-win seasons. Of course, the way NC State’s been playing (four straight losses, including a notable thrashing at the hands of Duke in Raleigh), we wouldn’t put it past them to somehow lose twice on Saturday.

• New Mexico (0-8) at Utah (7-1)

In one corner, a New Mexico squad in complete disarray, winless and disjointed to the point of pushing the university for hush money in the wake of a coach-on-coach assault. In the other, a nondescript Utah outfit we’re absolutely positive is en route to collapse after barely surviving Air Force and Wyoming the last two weeks. One-sided Mountain West slapfight!

• Purdue (3-6) at Michigan (5-4)
Pick your wounded Big Ten pony this week: The one that was shut out in a 37-0 loss at Wisconsin, or the one that had the audacity to cede a lopsided victory to Ron Zook for its fourth straight conference loss? Wolverine fans are a characteristically somber lot, anyway, and will be potentially despondent Saturday as they watch another team trudge toward the glue factory.

• Utah State (2-6) at Hawaii (2-6)
A pair of two-win WAC teams that combined to go 1-8 in conference games in October, on pay-per-view well past primetime? Where do we sign up?

Western Kentucky Line Watch.
Tracking the odds against I-A’s newest cubs.
After giving up 60-plus points two weeks in a row to Middle Tennessee and North Texas, another hopeless slog awaits the 0-8 Hilltoppers this week, when they find themselves 24-to 25-point underdogs to the high-flying scoreboard-busters at Troy. The Trojans have won 11 of their last 12 Sun Belt games and are on their way to their fourth straight SBC title; WKU is still looking for its first league win as a full-fledged member.