Hard as it may be to believe, the final regular-season weekend of the 2019 college football season is upon us. This weekend is followed by conference championship weekend, and the College Football Playoff field will be set on December 8.
Odds courtesy of OddsShark.com
So what is the best rivalry in college football? Some might say Alabama vs. Auburn in the Iron Bowl, but that largely only matters to fans in that state. USC-Notre Dame is a national rivalry but there is never a conference championship at stake. Likely the best, then, is Ohio State vs. Michigan, and the two face off from Ann Arbor this Saturday at noon with the Buckeyes No. 2 in the AP Top 25 and Michigan 10th.
Michigan’s Jim Harbaugh is one of the best football coaches on the planet, but he has one big monkey on his back: an 0-4 record against Ohio State. UM was a rare favorite in Columbus last year but was blown out 62-39, the Buckeyes’ seventh straight win in the series. Only pride is at stake for the Wolverines this time as OSU already is in the Big Ten title game. A loss, though, would knock the Buckeyes out of the College Football Playoff’s top spot. They are 9.5-point favorites and have covered five of their past seven in Ann Arbor.
Who will Ohio State play in the Big Ten Championship Game? That will be decided on Saturday in a 3:30 p.m. ET kickoff as No. 13 Wisconsin visits No. 9 Minnesota in the biggest home game for the Golden Gophers in decades. The winner takes the West Division but would be a huge underdog against Ohio State. Minnesota ended a 14-game losing streak in this series last year with an upset in Madison. The Badgers are -2.5 but 1-4 ATS in their past five Big Ten games.
Georgia Tech has not had a good season under first-year coach Geoff Collins with a 3-8 record, but growing pains were expected as Collins shifted from an archaic option offense under former coach Paul Johnson to a more modern scheme. The Yellow Jackets won’t play in a bowl game, but Saturday at noon ET is their bowl as they look for the upset of No. 4 Georgia. Might the Bulldogs be looking ahead to a matchup next Saturday against top-ranked LSU in the SEC title game? UGA is a 28-point favorite for this one and has amazingly covered its past 10 trips to Georgia Tech.
