It’s A College Football Bonanza

This is college football’s big weekend, the one that will decide which four teams compete for the national championship, which play on New Year’s Day and which will complain about getting hosed.

Hey, no system is perfect.

Your Weekend Six-Pack will be cracked open on Friday night with the Pac-12 championship game between No. 12 Stanford (10-2) and No. 10 USC (10-2). ESPN carries this at 8 p.m. ET

Saturday is truly “heiner in the recliner” day. We’ll omit some of the conferences simply because, well, we can … we’re sticking with the matchups that influence the eventual national title.

So you can start your Saturday with the Big 12 title game, featuring No. 11 TCU (10-2) against No. 3 Oklahoma (11-1). Fox shows this one at 12:30 p.m.

At 4 p.m., it’s the SEC title game, and who figured Alabama would not be in it? It’s No. 6 Georgia (11-1) vs. No. 2 Auburn (10-2), which has beaten both Alabama and Georgia. 4 p.m., CBS.

At 8 p.m., you go picture-in-picture, haul in an extra TV or remove your heiner from the recliner and head for the nearest sports bar. No. 7 Miami (10-1) plays No. 1 Clemson (11-1) for the ACC title and No. 8 Ohio State (10-2) battles No. 4 Wisconsin (12-0) for the Big Ten championship. Catch the ACC on ABC and the Big Ten on Fox. Thank you, nitwit networks.

The College Football Playoff Committee sorts this all out and begins making bowl announcements at noon on Sunday on ESPN. This is a four-hour show – you know the good stuff will be last.

Your NFL selections? As always, check local listings. We like the Carolina Panthers (8-3) at the New Orleans Saints (8-3) in a critical NFC South matchup on Fox at 4:25 p.m. And the Philadelphia Eagles (10-1) clinch the NFC East with a road win against the Seattle Seahawks (7-4) at 8:20 p.m. on NBC.

In the immortal words of Flounder, the Animal House frat pledge: “Oh boy, this is gonna be great.”

 
 
Post By: Larry Weisman, a longtime sportswriter for USA TODAY, blogs for Twistity.com. Follow him on Twitter @MrLarryWeisman