College Football Championship Week: The Games That Matter Most

Here we are at Conference Championship Week in college football. The season flew by as it always seems to. Many teams are done for the season, while quite a few others are just waiting to see where they will play in a bowl game.

Michigan and Georgia are clearly going to be in the College Football Playoff even if they lose this weekend. That’s not to say they won’t try, but it isn’t a must win spot for them. Many believe TCU would be in even if they lose, but they need to at least be competitive. USC is in a must win spot. Let’s take a brief look at a few of the contests this weekend.

Pac 12 Title Game Friday at 8 pm Eastern- Utah vs. USC (USC -3, 67) It isn’t even on Saturday, but this is really the biggest game of the weekend for several teams. USC needs a win here. Some think Ohio State would be in the CFP if USC loses and others think Alabama could even jump into the top four. 

Utah edged out USC in the first meeting in Salt Lake City 43-42. USC did average 8.1 yards per play in that loss. Utah’s Cam Rising has been good overall, but he has had a few games where he cost his team a win (Florida and Oregon this year specifically). 

Big 12 Title Game Saturday at 12 pm Eastern- Kansas State vs. TCU (TCU -2.5, 61.5) Remember Kansas State led TCU 28-10 in the second quarter in their regular season meeting at TCU on October 22nd. Adrian Martinez was hurt in that game and then Will Howard came in and dominated for quite a while. Howard then got hurt and Kansas State was forced to play a freshman third stringer for a while. 

TCU has been fantastic this year, but I think this is a really hard test for them. Kansas State’s Chris Klieman is 44-20 ATS all time and 30-15-1 at Kansas State. 

LSU had a chance to be in the playoff as well, but they blew that chance with their loss to Texas A&M on the road last weekend. Brian Kelly’s team is in an odd spot here. They of course would like to win the SEC, but they have to be highly disappointed given just a week ago they had higher aspirations. Georgia would like to get the #1 seed in the playoffs with a good performance here.

Jim Harbaugh and his Michigan Wolverines went to Columbus and impressively handled the Buckeyes in the second half last weekend. The Wolverines have at least a chance of getting the top seed with a big performance here. The Big Ten West was a clustered mess and Purdue ended up being the opponent here. 

This could definitely be called a let down spot for Michigan given the massive game from a week ago. Purdue isn’t nearly on Michigan’s level though. A very tough game to pick a side in my opinion.