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Final BCS Bowl Projections: Sparty Saves The System

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There will be no controversy over the national championship game participants in this final year of the BCS. We’ll get a true championship game, one that requires the SEC champion to be beaten on the field by someone outside their conference, and with a clear alternative having emerged as the challenger. Florida State will play Auburn for the national title on January 6 in Pasadena and we have the Michigan State Spartans to thank for bringing us the clarity.

Michigan State’s 34-24 win over Ohio State in the Big Ten Championship Game last night ended the Buckeyes undefeated season and paved the way for one-loss Auburn to move alongside undefeated and top-ranked Florida State.


The Big Ten championship played out like a hockey game, in three distinct periods. The Spartans came out rolling, going up 17-0 in the second quarter. They were controlling the line of scrimmage on defense, not allowing Carlos Hyde to get anything going in the conventional running game and chasing down speedy quarterback Braxton Miller.

Then Ohio State got in gear, starting when Miller took off on a 48-yard run on a broken play and then later rifled a perfect 20-yard touchdown pass over the middle to Philly Brown. It was the first of what would be 24 unanswered points stretching into the third quarter. The Buckeyes had the lead, they had all the momentum and the 24-17 lead seemed much larger.

Ohio State’s defense has been a sore spot all season and it’s what would ultimately do them in. Michigan State quarterback Connor Cook has been either ineffective or inconsistent all season. But he threw two long touchdown passes in his team’s early surge and with a championship on the line, head coach Mark Dantonio put the ball in his hands.

Cook, often throwing on first down, led a drive for a field goal to slow the Buckeye momentum. In the fourth quarter, on third-and-goal, he tossed a nine-yard touchdown pass to Josiah Price. With a 27-24 lead, Michigan State’s renowned defense then came up with the sequence of the night.

Ohio State had partially blocked a punt and took over just inside midfield with a chance to at least tie up the game. Facing third-and-three, head coach Urban Meyer quite rightly ran Miller twice. Twice, Sparty stuffed him. Michigan State took over with a little over six minutes left and moved it down the field, with Jeremy Langford rumbling in from 26 yards out to seal the game.

The win cleared up the national championship picture and set up what are potentially  some good major bowl games, pending the official announcement that comes tonight on ESPN (8:30 PM ET). Here’s a look at the other big games of Championship Saturday, followed by the final installment of TheSportsNotebook’s BCS bowl projections.

Auburn 59 Missouri 42: On ESPN’s Gameday pregame show, Alabama coach Nick Saban made a guest appearance and called Missouri’s defensive front four the best in the SEC. If that’s true, than the Auburn offensive line must be akin to the Washington Redskins’ Hogs of the 1980s, or the Dallas Cowboys’ front five of the early 1990s.

Tre Mason ran wild, going for over 300 yards, while Auburn as a team rushed for 545 yards. Nick Marshall only had to throw the ball 11 times as his team blew out the scoreboard lights in the Georgia Dome.

Missouri’s offense had its share of moments themselves, with James Franklin throwing for 303 yards and Dorial Green-Beckham, the big talented receiver, making some great plays in the open field, to the tune of 144 yards on six catches. Mizzou led 34-31 at one point in the second half and only trailed 45-42 after three quarters. But they never found answer for Mason.


Florida State 45 Duke 7: Florida State futzed around for a quarter of scoreless play until taking over. Jameis Winston did not play well, throwing two interceptions and making some shaky decisions. We’ll talk about him more next week in Heisman Trophy coverage, but a landslide win for the Seminole quarterback seems a little much.

What’s not too much is talking about the overall excellence of this Florida State team. They produced 239 rush yards, with Devonta Freeman again leading the way, and the defense completely locked down the Duke offense. The Seminoles complete their first undefeated regular season since 1999, the last time they won the national title.

Bowling Green 47 Northern Illinois 27: The contenders for BCS at-large spots in power conferences rejoiced on Friday night, as Northern Illinois’ hopes landed with a thud in this MAC championship game loss. Bowling Green scored on their first possession, led 31-13 by half and quarterback Matt Johnson was 21/27 for 393 yards, five touchdowns and no interceptions.

It was a great season for the Huskies, who like Ohio State, have just one loss. But like the Buckeyes, they let a previously unaccomplished quarterback who had ridden on the back of his defense, carve them up at the worst possible time.

Oklahoma 33 Oklahoma State 24: If you saw this one coming, then you need to do the responsible thing–quit your job and move to Las Vegas to become a full-time gambler, because you’re a friggin’ genius. Nothing in the month of November suggested the Sooners could match up on the road. But they played even up against the Cowboys throughout, got a special teams touchdown and finally got the go-ahead touchdown pass with 19 seconds left.

One more defensive TD on the final play padded the point total and Oklahoma now has an outside shot at getting chosen for a BCS at-large bid. The issue will likely be this–does the Sugar Bowl opt for the Sooners or for Oregon, presumably to match up with Alabama?

Baylor 30 Texas 10: Oklahoma State’s loss in the noon ET TV window turned this 3:30 PM ET game into a winner-take-all fight for the Big 12 title and Fiesta Bowl bid. The Baylor defense dominated the game, holding Texas to 54 pass yards and used a balanced offense to take control. Congrats to head coach Art Briles for winning this program’s first conference title since 1980, when they were in the old Southwest Conference (along with Arkansas and the seven other major schools in Texas).

Stanford 38 Arizona State 14: This was the most impressive performance of the day. Stanford did everything well. Their shutdown of Arizona State’s run game can be partially explained by the Sun Devils’ not having leading rusher Marion Grice. But there’s no explaining away the Cardinal’s complete control on offense.

Tyler Gaffney took off on a 69-yard touchdown jaunt to start the scoring and he ended with 133 yards? Can we get this kid some love in the Heisman race please? Kevin Hogan, the quarterback whose play was identified as a key to Stanford’s ultimate success, went 12/18 for 277 yards. Allowing Hogan to make this many big plays, without ever forcing him into an interception counts as a major disappointment for Sun Devil coach Todd Graham.

Elsewhere in the country, Central Florida clinched the American Athletic title and an automatic BCS slot. The Knights knew on Thursday night they were in, when Louisville beat Cincinnati in overtime. UCF still took care of their own business, winning a forgettable 17-13 game over SMU in frigid conditions down in Texas.

At the mid-major level, Rice and Fresno State closed out championship seasons, winning Conference USA and the Mountain West respectively. UL-Lafayette missed a chance to win the Sun Belt outright when they lost to South Alabama. ULL still is a co-champ along with Arkansas State and with the league having two contract bowl tie-ins, both will get a postseason opportunity.

FINAL BCS BOWL PROJECTIONS


THE FIELD
SEC: Auburn
Pac-12: Stanford
ACC: Florida State
Big 12: Baylor
Big Ten: Michigan State
American Athletic (old Big East): Central Florida
At-Large (4): Alabama, Ohio State, Clemson, Oregon

THE MATCHUPS
BCS National Championship: Florida State-Auburn
Orange: Ohio State-Clemson
Sugar: Alabama-Oregon
Fiesta: Baylor-Central Florida
Rose: Michigan State-Stanford

College Football Championship Saturday: Six Crowns On The Line

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It’s time for the best day of the year on the college football calendar, and one of the best days to be a sports fan. College Football Championship Saturday, the first Saturday of December has taken the place of New Year’s Day in the culture of college football.

While January 1 still has its run of bowl games, there are no longer championships settled. What we have in store for Saturday is different–six conference championship games will be played, another will be settled and by Sunday we’ll know who’s playing for the national title and who’s going to BCS bowls.


The only conferences that don’t have championship games are the Big 12, American Athletic and the Sun Belt. The Big 12 has the next best thing—back-to-back games between good teams that will settle its bid. TheSportsNotebook previewed the Oklahoma-Oklahoma State (Noon ET, ABC) and Texas-Baylor (3:30 PM ET, Fox) as part of our Big 12 bowl projections earlier this week.

Central Florida secured the American Athletic bid when Cincinnati lost to Louisville last night. In the Sun Belt, UL-Lafayette will go for an outright title on Saturday night in South Alabama. If ULL loses, they share the crown with Arkansas State.

With that out of the way, let’s get on to business and look at some championship football games. You can watch for thirteen hours straight, and this is how the day breaks down, in sequential order…

Conference USA: Marshall at Rice (Noon ET, ESPN2): Marshall is coming off an impressive 59-28 waxing of East Carolina to claim a division title, and that explains why the Thundering Herd are a 6.5 point favorite on the road. Rice has very quietly matched Marshall’s 7-1 league record, and the Owls’ only losses outside the league were a close defeat to Houston and a 52-31 defeat at Texas A&M that was competitive into the second half.

Marshall quarterback Rakeem Cato is one of the most dynamic in the country, while Rice counters with a pretty good signal-caller in Taylor McHargue, and a solid conventional runner in Charles Ross. At the start of the season I picked the Owls to win the C-USA title. Even though they might be the underdog on Saturday, I’ve got them at home and getting points. No reason to change course now.


Missouri-Auburn (4 PM ET, CBS): The biggest game of Championship Saturday goes from the Georgia Dome in Atlanta. We know about Auburn’s magic ride–the turnaround from the 2-10 season, the upset of Texas A&M, the miracle pass to beat Georgia and finally the stunning 108-yard return of a missed field goal by Chris Davis to beat Alabama last week.

We also know about how well-coached Auburn is with Gus Malzahn, how tough a running back Tre Mason is, and how there’s a very good chance that a win here would create enough voter momentum to vault them past Ohio State and into #2, regardless of what the Buckeyes do later on Saturday night.

But do we know enough about Missouri? This is a team whose only loss came in double overtime to South Carolina when the backup quarterback was in the game. Missouri also won at Georgia–decisively no less–without starting QB James Franklin. With Franklin in the lineup, the Tigers won some tough money games the last two weeks against Ole Miss and Texas A&M to hold on to the SEC East.

Missouri likely can’t pass Ohio State in the polls without a Buckeye defeat, but Gary Pinkel’s team deserves the same consideration as Auburn. They’ve got a solid runner of their own in Henry Josey. That’s why I’m picking Mizzou to win this game–the letdown factor for Auburn is part of it, but another part is that I think Missouri is simply underappreciated.

Stanford at Arizona State (7:45 PM ET, ESPN): These teams met earlier in the year in Palo Alto and Stanford put the smackdown on ASU, a 42-28 win that wasn’t nearly that close. Arizona State hasn’t lost a conference game since, although they did drop a neutral site game in Dallas to Notre Dame. Stanford slipped up against Utah and USC–both teams that the Sun Devils beat–and that allowed Arizona State to claim homefield advantage for this game.

Arizona State will be without its best running back, Marion Grice, who is expected to miss the game with a leg injury. That’s going to put a lot more pressure on Taylor Kelly, the quarterback who will have to now carry a bigger load in the running game, as well as throwing the ball.

Stanford has no such balance problems. Tyler Gaffney is one of the best runners in the nation, a 1,400-yard back. Kevin Hogan’s been inconsistent at quarterback and the biggest fear for the Cardinal is that he makes some mistakes, especially if Arizona State gets gut pressure with nose tackle Will Sutton.

If Hogan can avoid the kind of mistakes that cost his team the USC game, Stanford is going to win. I think they’re the better team and only the fact the game is in Tempe gives me any pause at all. Oddsmakers see the teams as even, and give ASU the (-3) edge for homefield, but I’m going with the home dog.


Duke-Florida State (8 PM ET, ABC): This been a great ride for Duke, with narrow wins over Virginia Tech, Wake Forest and North Carolina keying their ride to the ACC Championship Game in Charlotte. But it’s been a dominant ride for Florida State, whose undefeated season and #1 ranking was highlighted by a 51-14 thrashing of Clemson on the road, a team who will likely end up in a major bowl game.

Florida State’s top two rushers have more yardage than Duke’s best runner. While Blue Devil coach David Cutliffe has a deserved reputation for his offensive innovation, quarterback Anthony Boone has been a little mistake-prone this year, and now faces the fastest defense he’s seen all season. Now that Jameis Winston has been cleared of sexual assault charges, there’s going to be a big burden lifted from the Seminole program.

The ‘Noles are a (-29.5) favorite and the only way they don’t cover that number is if they don’t want to.

Ohio State-Michigan State (8:15 PM ET, Fox): By the time the Buckeyes take the field in Indianapolis they’ll know if they need to win with style (if Auburn wins the SEC) or if just winning will suffice (if Missouri wins). What Urban Meyer’s team can’t do is allow themselves to think about this, because Ohio State is about to face the toughest defense they, or most anyone else, has seen all year.

Michigan State has allowed fewer than 10 points in five of the last six games, and have five players that made first-team All-Conference. The matchup of Sparty’s defense against the tremendous speed the Buckeyes have on offense–from quarterback Braxton Miller to Devin Smith at receiver, is going to be a great battle for control of the edge. How successful Ohio State can be running Carlos Hyde between the tackles will likely decide if they can eventually break something on the perimeter.

Then there’s the Ohio State defense against the Michigan State offense, which is less than a titanic showdown. Ohio State just gave up 41 points to a Michigan offense that was previously noted for its incompetence, the low point for a unit whose mediocrity has been apparent all year.

Michigan State’s offense won’t exactly remind anyone of the Denver Broncos though. Sparty only put up 14 points against Purdue, and anything their offense does accomplish is often a fruit of the field position the defense sets them up with.

Ohio State is a (-5.5) favorite and I’m picking the Buckeyes. I like and respect Michigan State head coach Mark Dantonio. When it comes to Meyer, let’s just say that I’m less than admiring. But Meyer in a big game is not to be trifled with and if Ohio State’s offense can just find a few big plays with their speed, they’ll win.

Utah State at Fresno State (10 PM ET, CBS): How’s this for a contrast in styles–Fresno State lost its shot at a BCS bowl game because they gave up 62 points to San Jose State last week, while still scoring 52 themselves. Meanwhile, Utah State has given up 51 points in the last five games combined.

That five-game stretch covers the point in the season when Utah State’s all-everything quarterback Chuckie Keeton was lost for the year. While the schedule cooperated, the Aggies beat two bowl-eligible teams in UNLV and Colorado State, and Wyoming would have been bowl-eligible if not for Utah State knocking them off.

Fresno State is just a (-3.5) favorite, showing how much respect the Bulldogs lost last week–the number indicates Las Vegas sees them as barely better than Utah State on a neutral field, even without Keeton. I admire what Utah State has done all year, but in the first game without Keeton that lost decisively to Boise State and this game is a little higher in caliber. I’ll take Fresno.

Closing Weekend: College Basketball Championship Report

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Conference championships are up for grabs on this final weekend of the regular season and nowhere is the finish going to be more dramatic than in the ACC. Once again, it’s Duke and North Carolina tied for first and going head-to-head in Durham on Saturday night (7 PM ET, ESPN). The Blue Devils have the kind of team that can beat anyone on any given night, with their ability to hit the three-point shot. Seth Curry and Andre Dawkins can nail from downtown. Ryan Kelly can step out from his power forward spot. And Austin Rivers? UNC head coach Roy Williams might have a casual familiarity with the freshman guard after Rivers ripped the heart out of Chapel Hill with a game-winning trey at the end of the teams’ February 8 meeting.

But if Duke has a team that can win any individual game, North Carolina has the kind of team that can win a national championship. The Tar Heels are big and tough on the blocks, with John Henson and Tyler Zeller patrolling. Harrison Barnes is an elite talent at small forward and one of the best players in the country. And no one on Carolina is more valuable than point guard Kendall Marshall, who gets the ball where it needs to be as well as any floor leader in the country. That’s why, even though Duke won the initial meeting and has homecourt, I think North Carolina is going to win its second straight ACC crown on Saturday night. The only way the Blue Devils can beat the league’s upper echelon is to be red-hot from behind the arc. It worked the first time against Carolina. It worked last week against Florida State. It’s asking too much for that approach to work each game.

Then on Sunday it’s the Big Ten that comes down to the wire. Michigan State has a tie for first clinched, but Ohio State can claim a share of the title if they win a head-to-head game in East Lansing. And if that happens, Michigan can make it a tri-championship if they win at Penn State. The Buckeyes-Spartans game is at 4 PM ET on CBS and gives us a big battle on the blocks, with Ohio State’s Jared Sullinger and Michigan State’s Draymond Green. The Buckeyes have the better supporting cast, and if DeShaun Thomas can help out Sullinger down low and William Buford can hit the trey, Michigan State will have a hard time keeping up. But while the Spartans don’t have the raw talent, Tom Izzo has done a superb job fitting everyone into their roles and his team held Ohio State to 26 percent shooting a couple weeks ago in Columbus. The Buckeyes have also been inconsistent this year, and I’m not ready to go with them on the road in a championship game. I see Green hungry to make himself a reputation against the more heralded Sullinger and having a big 17/12 type game and Michigan State wins another slugfest. I also need a Spartan win to save face, because I woke up the echoes of ABC News on Election Night 2000 and called this race too early, writing off Ohio State and moving Michigan into the middle class with Wisconsin and Indiana in an article earlier this week.

CHAMPIONSHIP RACE REPORT

Atlantic 10: Temple has clinched a tie for first and can wrap up the outright crown with a win at lowly Fordham. By all rights Xavier should have played its way out of the NCAAs with the Tuesday loss at second-place St. Louis, but I’ve been more negative on the Musketeers than other bracket projections. So perhaps they still have a chance when they host Charlotte. St. Louis has locked up a bid and is at Duquesne, hoping for a break in the championship race.

Mountain West:  This is the league nobody wants to win. UNLV and San Diego State have each had their moments of seeming in control. New Mexico really had it, with a two-game lead and a soft schedule the rest of the way. But here we are, with SD State and New Mexico tied for first. It’s likely to end that way, as the Aztecs are at TCU, and the Lobos host Boise State (Insert obligatory football joke right here). The most interesting story beyond the title chase if Colorado State’s drive for an NCAA bid. They beat UNLV earlier this week and go to Air Force on Saturday. If the Rams win this game and make the semis of the conference tournament next week, I think they should get in.

Pac-12: Washington is the team in control here, with a one-game lead, but a tough game on Saturday at UCLA (2 PM ET, CBS). The Bruins showed how much they were really affected by the damaging Sports Illustrated report about improprieties in the program, by blowing out Washington State last night. Oh, here’s a thought to SI—why not do some historical investigating on the role booster Sam Gilbert played in luring talent to Westwood during the John Wooden era? It might bring down the whole myth of the Wooden Dynasty if it turns out Gilbert was more than just an interested friend of the program. Back to basketball today, if UCLA gets this win over Washington, it opens the door for Cal to claim a share of the crown against Stanford on Sunday. Arizona is probably in the NCAA Tournament and just as probably could use a win over a bad Arizona State team to make sure. Oregon knocked out Colorado last night and now needs to knock themselves in by beating lowly Utah and then winning a conference tourney game next week.

WHERE CONFERENCES ARE CLINCHED

Big East: Syracuse is sailing on in to shore in the Big East race and hosts Louisville on Saturday (4 PM ET, CBS). Along with Marquette-Georgetown these are games that are more tune-ups for the tournament in Madison Square Garden next week. The big games this weekend are on the NCAA bubble. If South Florida isn’t in, I’ll scream to the heavens, and winning at home against rapidly sinking West Virginia is a good place to save my voice. Cincinnati should also be in and plays Villanova. Seton Hall and UConn look to nail down bids against DePaul and Pitt respectively. Note that all Big East games are on Saturday, an unusual step by the conference and done presumably because their league tournament begins on Tuesday in MSG.

SEC: The Kentucky-Florida game on Sunday (Noon ET, CBS) doesn’t have much impact now that the Wildcats have wrapped up the championship. UK is still going for the perfect regular season. On the bubble, there’s three interesting games Saturday. Alabama probably needs to win at least one more and they play Ole Miss. Mississippi State absolutely needs to keep winning and they host Arkansas. What’s interesting is that Ole Miss and Arkansas are just good enough to be darkhorses to steal a bid if they win here and get hot in the conference tournament—“hot” being defined as reaching the final game. The same goes for Tennessee who hosts Vanderbilt.

Big 12: Kansas has the championship wrapped up. Missouri, Baylor, Iowa State and Kansas State are all in the NCAAs. But Texas, while looking good, can’t be resting securely and they go to Kansas for ESPN’s Saturday night  showcase (9 PM ET, ESPN). I’m sure the Longhorns can play their way in by winning a less difficult first-round tournament game in Kansas City next week and might not even need that. But they could eliminate all doubt with a road shocker in Phog Allen Field House.

MIDMAJOR CONFERENCE TOURNAMENT S

We’ll start to see some automatic bids go up on the board this weekend, so for those of you playing Bracket Manager over at CBS Sportsline, expect to see UNC-Asheville win the Big South and become the first qualifier. The Missouri Valley also plays its tournament over the next three days and it’s a place to watch for possible bracket-busters. Wichita State is a mortal lock for the tournament. Creighton is probably in too. But if someone else can sneak in and steal the title, then the power conference bubble teams can start sweating early. And in that same vein, the power teams need to pull for Murray State in the Ohio Valley tournament, where the Racers play a semi-final game tonight and the presumably the championship game tomorrow. Anyone other than Murray State winning turns the OVC into a two-bid league.

The Colonial will probably be a one-bid league this year, although my podcasting colleague Greg DePalma over at PrimeSportsNetwork.com (where I’ll be on at 3 PM ET on Friday and the same time again on Monday) is still thinking that perhaps two of the Drexel, Virginia Commonwealth, George Mason, Old Dominion quartet might get in. The quarterfinals of this tournament start Saturday and if the four favorites win, Sunday’s semi-finals should provide the good people of Richmond a great show. Any of these teams can be cutting down the nets on Monday night (this coming Monday night, not the big Monday night on April 2).

And we conclude with the West Coast Conference, which has BYU looking to play its way in tonight against San Diego. If the Cougars win it sets up a semi-final date with Gonzaga tomorrow (the Zags and St. Mary’s are automatically seeded to the semis as part of an extended bracket process the conference uses). Loyola Marymount isn’t an at-large threat but is good enough to steal this tournament title. They’re looking to earn a date with St. Mary’s in tomorrow’s semis. The championship  game will go on Monday night.

College Basketball Weekend Preview

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ESPN’s Gameday crew will be in Vanderbilt on Saturday night anticipating the visit from #1 Kentucky, and while I can’t deny the caliber of that game, there’s three others that stand out even more, in terms of a directly impacting a conference championship. The biggest game of the day is Michigan State-Ohio State, which is at least on right before Kentucky-Vandy, tipping off at 6 PM ET on ESPN from Columbus. The other two won’t grab national attention, but first place goes on the line in the Mountain West with San Diego State-UNLV and in the Atlantic 10 with Xavier-Temple (9 PM ET, ESPN2). With these three games as the centerpiece of TheSportsNotebook, here’s a breakdown of how things shape up around the country….

BIG TEN: Ohio State has a chance to all but wrap up a second straight conference title in this one. They’re in sole possession of first and Michigan State is the only team within a game of first place. The Spartans live and die with power forward Draymond Green, but even in a one-on-one game, he’s not as good as Jared Sullinger, and the Buckeye star has more help, with DeShaun Thomas able to rebound and score and William Buford being solid on the perimeter. Both teams have good quarterbacks running the offense in Aaron Craft for Ohio State and Keith Appling for Michigan State, but the Buckeyes are the more talented team and they’re at home. And as many rabbits as Tom Izzo can pull out of his hat, the man on the other sideline in Thad Matta is nobody’s fool. No reason to think Ohio State doesn’t get it done here.

On Sunday, Illinois goes to Michigan (1 PM ET, CBS). TheSportsNotebook has been sounding the alarm bell about Illinois for a couple weeks and they lost again on Thursday to Indiana. There’s a meltdown going down in Champaign and a road win in Ann Arbor is badly needed.

ATLANTIC 10: Xavier is similar to Ohio State in that they were a heavy favorite to win their conference, got tripped up early and now can really take back control. In the case of Xavier they still trail Temple by a half-game so it’s not quite as cut-and-dried, but you get the feeling that the cream is rising in the A-10. The guards define both teams. Xavier’s Tu Holloway is one of the country’s best and he’s paired up Mark Lyons, while Temple has a trio of Khalif Wyatt, Ramone Moore and Juan Fernandez. But Fernandez is struggling with a hip injury and may miss Saturday’s night rumble in Philadelphia. He’s the three-point shooter of the group, so that’s a big weapon out of the Owl attack. Furthermore, Xavier’s Kenny Frease is the most capable frontcourt player on the floor. It’s going to take a big-time effort for the Musketeers to get this one on the road, but I think they pull it out.

St. Louis is also giving chase in the A-10 and if they beat a respectable LaSalle team, the Billikens could potentially join in a three-way tie at the top if both they and Xavier win. For some reason, ESPNU chose to televise the George Washington-Richmond game at 5 PM ET over St. Loo-LaSalle, giving it the honor of worst programming decision of the weekend.

MOUNTAIN WEST: San Diego State and UNLV are each ranked in the Top 20, yet their battle for the top of their league isn’t on national TV anywhere. Since there’s no other Mountain West games, I can’t go too crazy since I’m not sure of contractual situations with conferences, but whatever caused this, someone please fix it. They’re not on, while George Washington-Richmond is. Enough said. As to the game itself, Aztec coach Steve Fisher has done a yeoman’s job in rebuilding this team after heavy graduation losses and making it a contender again, as they hold a one-game lead on both UNLV and New Mexico. But this game’s in Vegas and in the end I think the Rebels have more talent. Oscar Bellfield is a playmaker who deserves more national attention. Mike Moser controls the post. Chase Stanback is a solid wing player and Anthony Marshall completes a solid Core Four, that I’m waiting to step up and seize control of this league. Saturday’s their chance to do it.

New Mexico has a tough game of their own with surprising Wyoming, who’s threatening to become the fourth MWC team in the NCAA Tournament. The Cowboys beat UNLV and can now play spoiler with Steve Alford’s Lobos.

Elsewhere around the country…

ACC: Duke’s thriller over North Carolina and Florida State’s upset loss at Boston College threw the top of this league back into a three-way tie and Miami and Virginia are in hot pursuit With Miami-Florida State and Virginia-UNC on tap, the potential exists for more chaos if the leaders don’t defend their home floor. As for Duke, they host Maryland (4 PM ET, ESPN) against a respectable Terps team that comes off a clutch win over Clemson, needs to get more and, at least under Gary Williams, rarely showed fear of the Cameron Crazies.

BIG EAST: After Syracuse’s survival game over Georgetown, Marquette is the only team left within two games of the Orange. Syracuse hosts UConn (1 PM ET, CBS), with the Huskies coming off a blowout loss to Louisville and looking to avoid a February meltdown. Marquette hosts Cincinnati (3 PM ET, ESPNU), and West Virginia badly needs a win when Louisville comes to Morgantown.

SEC: Kentucky-Vanderbilt means more for what it will tell us about the Commodores than it does about the Wildcats. We already know UK is elite. Vandy has the talent to be a great team, but they’ve shown a tendency for coming up small in big moments, like last week’s close loss at Florida. Now I want to see if they can defend the home floor in front of rabid fans in a really big game. The other televised game is Alabama-LSU (7 PM ET, ESPN2), who somehow wangled their way back on national TV after that hideous football game they subjected us to back on January 9.

BIG 12: Like Vanderbilt, Baylor has come up small in big moments and never more so than Wednesday night at home against Kansas when they were blown out. I saw the Bears as a national championship contender, and I’ll still probably talk myself into doing something stupid with them in March, but they are realistically not championship-level. They go to Missouri, who’s now in a straight two-team race with Kansas for the Big 12 crown. A big battle on the bubble is Kansas State-Texas (2 PM ET, ESPN) with the Longhorns gaining steam, but still needing more wins.

PAC-12: Right after I sung Washington’s praises on Thursday morning, they got hammered at Oregon that very night. The Huskies are dropped into a first-place tie with Cal, and Arizona nipping at their heels. Cal has the toughest game of the three this weekend with a visit to UCLA.