It has been A Week so I apologize for the flimsy nature of this week's column. If you are dissatisfied, I'll give you your money back.
Rutgers at Illinois (11 am, NBC/Peacock): Hey, I'll actually be at this game in person! Look for me! I'll be the middle-aged white dude wearing blue and orange!
(is handed a note)
Well, one of them, anyway.
I predicted, before the season, that Illinois would take a step back from its excellent 2024 run due having had a soffffffft schedule last season. So far that has proven right. The team isn't any worse, it might even be a bit better, but it's not showing up in the record. Still the Illini have an estimable offense, they're fun to watch, and it's not like anybody else has looked good against Indiana.
(is handed another note)
Except for Iowa.
As for Rutgers, I wonder how many more seasons it will take for them to figure out that Greg Schiano isn't going to get them back to where he once had them. Illinois 34, Rutgers 23.
Michigan State at Minnesota (2:30 pm, BTN): Ah, the cruelties of November. Minnesota sits at 4-3 with its typical 6-6/7-5 season well within grasp. They will go bowling. Any team that needs to beat two out of Michigan State, Northwestern, and Wisconsin to make the postseason can be sure of that. Sparty, meanwhile, is 3-5, winless in conference play, has only one more loss until every game is a fight against elimination, and is almost certainly not going to go 3-1 against its remaining schedule (this game, Penn State, at Iowa, Maryland), so it might as well get the next two losses over with. Though it will be hilarious for Sparty and Penn State to both be fighting for their first conference win of the season on the second Saturday of November next week. Minnesota 27, Sparty 17.
No. 23 USC at Nebraska: You are right. This would have been a much better game twenty-five years ago. As it stands now, it's the close match it would have been back then, but it's a close match of Big Ten also-rans. It's conceivable that Nebraska wins this game then wins at UCLA and at Penn State to come into the Heartland Trophy game 9-2, but USC has been improving just enough over the season that I think it can win in Lincoln. USC 30, Nebraska 24.
Photo credit: “mailbox-mail-cluster.jpg” by r. nial bradshaw, CC BY 2.0
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