Aight, boys and girls, football for breakfast provides no opportunity for a leisurely Saturday morning. Things get going hot and heavy from the very start this weekend, and for 'Bama any remaining BCS hopes are directly at stake in the first game of the morning with #2 Oklahoma State traveling to Lubbock to take on Tommy Tuberville and Texas Tech. Catch that one on ABC at 11:00 central.
All eyes nationally, though, will quickly turn to Happy Valley, where Nebraska takes on Penn State in the first game since the firing of Joe Paterno and since all help broke loose with the Jerry Sandusky scandal. Barring big BCS upsets -- and perhaps even then -- this figures to be the dominant story of the day, and with all of the insanity in State College the foremost concern is simply finishing this game in an orderly fashion with nothing crazy happening off the field, no small concern with Beaver Stadium already receiveing a (thankfully false) bomb threat this morning. Catch this one on ESPN at 11:00 central, or on CNN at just about any time if this powder keg gets detonated.
In SEC action, a pivotal divisional match-up takes place in Columbia at 11:00 central on CBS between South Carolina and Florida. While this game figures to be ugly either way, it is nevertheless a must-win for the Gamecocks if they want to keep their SEC East championship hopes alive, and with a loss to the Gators an appearance in Atlanta by Mark Richt and his Georgia Bulldogs will be all but booked.
In other SEC action, Vanderbilt and Kentucky square off at 11:21 central on your regional SEC provider. FX will feature Texas v. Missouri in its morning game, and ESPN2 will have Michigan State v. Iowa. Wake Forest and Clemson is on ESPNU, while Ohio State and Purdue will be on the Big Ten Network.
We'll have the 'Bama threads posted later this afternoon, but until then chime in here with all of your thoughts and comments on the early action.