What to Watch: Week 11

Well, week 10 sucked. There's no two ways about it. The good news is the pollsters recognize that we are a top notch squad and we only dropped to #3 in the BCS poll. The next several weekends will find Alabama fans hoping we take care of business against Mississippi State, Georgia Southern and (especially) Auburn. We are no longer in control of our own destiny though and will require help along the way from other teams if we are to have any prayer of a New Orleans rematch with LSU. In the coming weeks, we're probably going to zero in on the contests that matter the most to us as Alabama fans and the rest of the football world can pretty much take a long walk off of a short pier. All times listed are central and rankings are those of the BCS.

FLORIDA at SOUTH CAROLINA (13) - 11:00 a.m. - CBS

This is one of two games today that will decide who wins the SEC East. South Carolina holds the tiebreaker over Georgia, but with two conference losses, they need some help getting back to Atlanta. South Carolina was eviscerated by Arkansas last week, but they've been scraping out wins against crap teams and while Florida has certainly been crap at times this year, they've had injuries o' plenty contributing to that. They're getting healthy again, so the Gamecocks will have to do better than the minimum to win. If Florida wins, Georgia's all but guaranteed a trip to Atlanta.

OKLAHOMA STATE (2) at TEXAS TECH - 11:00 a.m. - ABC / ESPN-GP / ESPN3

Hey Tuberville, you think you could work some of that magic you dropped on Oklahoma on Oklahoma State too? I mean, they're from the same state...and you've gotten slaughtered two weeks in a row. Time for a rebound don't you think? We all know the Sooners are our best bet for taking the Cowboys down, but for now, pretty much every Okie St. game is on the watch list as we hope against hope that they slip up. Needless to say, Go Raiders! (Texas Tech really is a YouTube gold mine.)

AUBURN (20) at GEORGIA (15) - 2:30 p.m. - CBS

The help the Gamecocks need along the way? They need an Auburn win here (because Kentucky certainly isn't going to beat Georgia next week.) If the Gamecocks win and the Teagles win, then SoCar has locked Atlanta down. If Georgia wins here, they need only beat Kentucky next week to lock down an opportunity to be decapitated by LSU. Who would've thought Georgia would control its own destiny after their dismal 0-2 start? Not me, and not you either...liar. I personally don't care who wins the East, and never like for Auburn to win, but the Barn could help taint Boise's strength of schedule by devaluing their win over Georgia (and Georgia Tech should go ahead and beat them too for good measure.)

TCU at BOISE STATE (5) - 2:30 p.m. - Versus

At the beginning of the season, everybody said Boise was playing a two game schedule against Georgia and TCU. Nobody's really thinking TCU has the ability to play spoiler anymore after losses to Baylor and SMU. That being said, TCU is undefeated in the conference and whoever wins this will likely be the Mountain West winner, so TCU has plenty to play for still and would no doubt like to thumb their nose at everyone else on their way out the door to the Big XII. Let us hope against hope that the Horned Frogs can pull the upset here and take Boise out of the equation of our possible rematch with LSU.

OREGON (7) at STANFORD (4) - 7:00 p.m. - ABC

As our poll yesterday insinuated, outside of our game, this is the big one for us this weekend and it's unfortunate that it kicks off a mere 15 minutes after our game starts (why does that always seem to happen?) Have your "last channel" button set to ABC to check in on this one between commercials or make it a two TV night. I will probably head to the sports bar for this one so I can have both on simultaneously. We said it in January, and we'll say it again here, "Roll Ducks Roll!"