If you followed my brilliant advice last week, you got to watch FSU get curb stompted by Syracuse, which was hilarious. Then you got to watch LSU eek out a win over Auburn, and later on Arizona State lose in a heart-breaker. So sometimes I can pick out an enjoyable game here and there!

We’re starting to edge into full conference play, but we’re not quite to the point of having a full day of great games. Still, there’s a few decent options here. Here’s the schedule I’m looking forward to.

(#8) Notre Dame @ Wake Forest 1200 ET (1100 CT), ABC

Wake isn’t a great team, but it’s better than a lot of people think. Our ACC brothers are similar to us in the regard that people overlook them way more than they should. Notre Dame is still a top ten on paper, but even their own fans now recognize they’re not playing like one. Notre Dame’s defense will keep them in a lot of games, the question is when is their offense going to fail them. Because it will fail them and not just against Stanford next week. Wake stands about as good of a chance as we had at an upset. There’s little else on during this time slot, so unless you want to watch Buffalo @ Rutgers, this is what you get.

(#22) Texas A&M @ (#1) Alabama 1530 ET (1430 CT), CBS

Because of course. Aggie played every bit like a top five team against Clemson a few weeks ago, and it was only due to a bad “fumble” at the end that they lost. On the other side we have the seemingly unstoppable juggernaut that may somehow be the best Bama team ever. Two score spread in this game, which is the odds-makers being kind given most people’s expectations going into this game. I argue that given Aggie’s play against Clemson, this stands to be a good early test game against the Tide. Though as you’ll see in tomorrow’s pick’em thread, I still took Bama to cover.

(#7) Stanford @ (#20) Oregon 2000 ET (1900 CT), ABC

While Oregon has played no one of consequence as of yet, Stanford looked pretty darn good last week against Southern Cal. The Pac-12 is looking to have a lot of solid teams this year and this game has tremendous implications for the playoff picture. More than that, the winner of this game puts themselves in a prime position to win the North division. Both teams still have to get through Washington, the third of the possible playoff contenders. Of the three, I think Stanford has the best chance, and this is going to tell us if that’s a good feeling or not.

Backup Game: Is Florida @ Tennessee 1900 ET (1800 CT), ESPN. The added benefit of this is that it starts an hour earlier and so you’ll likely be able to catch some of it between the CBS game and the Stanford-Oregon game. UF-UT is one of those huge rivalries that always is worth watching... but this year it’s going to be an unwatchable cripple fight. The big reason why you should be interested in this game is for armchair quarterbacking about our chances of beating them later this year.

Arizona State @ (#10) Washington 2230 ET (2130 CT), ESPN

The only late game worth mentioning, and thus the Pac-12 Degenerate Game of the Week! Arizona State may have fallen to a crushing (and hilarious) upset last week, and as noted above UW is a playoff contender. On paper, it looks as if this game couldn’t could be that good. That is probably correct, but what are you going to do, watch Hawaii? UW just seems to be entirely too good to let ASU pull another upset special, but it’s not impossible. Like last week, this is a good game to wind down the night with.