It’s sort of feels like scoreboard watching for the Mariners. In the case of the Washington Huskies, with a 7:30 pm kick off against the California Golden Bears Saturday night, all of the Top 10 games will have finished or will be wrapping up.
Thee Ohio State Buckeyes and Notre Dame would always be a great matchup, that Ohio State is ranked number 6 and Notre Dame is ninth accentuates the drama.
Let’s call this the zero sum game. If Ohio State wins Notre Dame falls and Washington is not affected. If Notre Dame wins, the Irish probably move ahead of Washington and Ohio State slips behind the Huskies.
Zero poll positions gained.
Florida State and Clemson is an interesting ACC opener. Clemson is currently unranked, but the game is in South Carolina so there is a bit of an advantage for Clemson. The hope is that Clemson can be Clemson and knock off the No. 4 Seminoles. If that happens, I can certainly see FSU dropping behind the Huskies.
Texas is sitting at number 3 and on the road at 2 and 1 Baylor. The Longhorns are favored by 17 and I do not expect it to be that close. Steve Sarkisian will be looking to make a statement in Texas that it is back and the best players should once again go to Austin.
Even if Texas struggles, I do not expect them to slip in the rankings enough to impact Washington’s upward mobility.
The sixth ranked USC Trojans are on the road against the Sun Devils.
Snowball meet Hell.
Number 24 Iowa is on the road to play the No. 7 Nittany Lions of Penn State. Both teams are unbeaten. A night game in the town of University Park, Pennsylvania is a recipe for disaster for most teams.
PSU has been tested already against Illinois and looked rather human for periods in the game. While, they won 30 to 13, it was still a physical B1G matchup. Iowa beat Western Michigan 41 to 10 and QB Cade McNamara Did not look particularly good, throwing two interceptions.
Physically, the Hawkeye offense is fairly banged up while its defense has looked very good all year giving up just over 12 points a game.
If Iowa can go in to Pennsylvania and beat the Nittany Lions, I would expect the Huskies to move up at least two number seven if they have a convincing win over California.
however, if the Huskies completely throttle California and other teams struggle a little bit, I could certainly see the Huskies moving up maybe a spot.
In reality, this appears to be a solid top nine teams in the country. Have fun scoreboard watching throughout the day.
