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Originally published Thursday, November 17, 2011 at 8:00 PM

Bud Withers

Many college football heavyweights taking it easy this week

Schedule gets easy for several top college football teams this Saturday. USC at Oregon is one of the few matchups of ranked teams.

Bud Withers

Seattle Times colleges reporter

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In the South, there's an old tradition as ingrained as fried okra and frat boys wearing neckties to football games. About the third weekend of November, the big programs take a step back, call in sick and seemingly get ready for the stretch run.

Ergo, we have Chill Saturday. The Citadel visits South Carolina. Furman goes to Florida. Alabama welcomes Georgia Southern. And Auburn rolls out Samford.

With a relatively limp schedule, we take the opportunity to look at the picture in the BCS conferences:

Atlantic Coast: Clemson (9-1) has clinched a spot in the ACC title game. Virginia Tech (10-1, 6-1), a winner Thursday night over North Carolina, has the other side if Virginia (7-3, 4-2) loses at Florida State. A Cavaliers victory sets up a winner-take-all meeting with Tech next Saturday in Charlottesville.

Big East: It's a mess as big as the league's future. Cincinnati (7-2, 3-1) has the pole position, but four teams — Rutgers, West Virginia, Pitt and Louisville — have 3-2 league records. Clarity, or more chaos, awaits with Cincy's Saturday game at Rutgers.

Big Ten: In the Legends Division, Michigan State (8-2, 5-1) clinches a tie by beating Indiana, and wins outright if Nebraska also loses at Michigan.

In the Leaders (who named these divisions, Richard Simmons?), Penn State (8-2, 5-1) has control, but it's shaky with finishing games at Ohio State and Wisconsin (8-2, 4-2).

Big 12: Oklahoma State (10-0, 7-0) rules, with Oklahoma (8-1, 5-1) trailing and everybody awaiting their game in Stillwater on Dec. 3.

Pac-12: Oregon (9-1, 7-0) needs only a win over USC or Oregon State to host the conference title game Dec. 2. In the Pac-12 South, UCLA (5-5, 4-3) has a feeble grip on the proceedings, but Arizona State (6-4, 4-3) is in the wings.

Southeastern: Georgia (8-2, 6-1) gets a title-game spot if it beats Kentucky on Saturday. The West is still unsettled, with the possibility of a three-way tie if Arkansas (9-1, 5-1) can beat Mississippi State and LSU.

In that case, BCS standings would be used to eliminate the third team (LSU, Alabama and Arkansas are 1-3-6), and head-to-head result would settle it for the other two.

Best of the agenda Saturday, chronologically:

Nebraska (AP 17th) at Michigan (20), 9 a.m. (PST) — First regular-season meeting between these two since Bob Devaney's first year in Lincoln in 1962. The Wolverines have made a quantum improvement in defense, going from 35.2 points a game in 2010 to 15.5, fifth in the nation.

Wisconsin (15) at Illinois, 9 a.m. — QB Russell Wilson has a 201.6 pass-efficiency rating, well up on Colt Brennan's (Hawaii) record of 186.0 in 2006. Despite the fact Illinois (6-4) is bowl-eligible in back-to-back years for the first time since 1988-92, coach Ron Zook is against getting toasted.

Penn State (21) at Ohio State, 12:30 p.m. — Read a transcript of Nittany Lions interim coach Tom Bradley's news conference this week and you get a feel for the enormity of what he's trying to manage. Incidentally, Bradley says there will be some sort of recognition of the child-sexual-abuse scandal before the coin flip with the Buckeyes, much as there was last week. A matchup of two Big Ten heavyweights, two scandals, two interim bosses.

USC (18) at Oregon (4), 5 p.m. — The Trojans have lost five straight in the state of Oregon, and in a reflection of how power has shifted in the league, Oregon has won eight of the past 13 against USC.

Oklahoma (5) at Baylor (25), 5 p.m. — Might the Bears, 5-0 at home, have something in store for the Sooners? Robert Griffin completes 74 percent of his passes for Baylor, whose 21 punts are by far fewest in the country.

Bud Withers: 206-464-8281 or bwithers@seattletimes.com

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2011年11月18日星期五