No. 25 West Virginia looks to regain its position as the Big East favorite when the team travels to Piscataway to face Rutgers in its second-consecutive road game. Both the Mountaineers and Scarlet Knights enter Saturday’s game with 5-2 records, each holding one Big East loss (both suffered last Friday night.) West Virginia has claimed at least a share of the conference title five of the last eight years.

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An intriguing weekend across the Big East and ACC starts early with a pair of Friday night games with Champs Sports Bowl implications. All three of the conference leaders in the Big East - Cincinnati, Rutgers and West Virginia - all hit the road this week against league opponents. Tonight, the Scarlet Knights travel to Louisville and the Mountaineers visit Syracuse. Tomorrow afternoon, the Bearcats are in Tampa to meet USF. If all three maintain their unblemished conference records, we may not know our Big East options until later in the season when the three teams play each other. However, it's possible that one might stumble on this "road test weekend" and help narrow our possibilities.

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Now that the first BCS standings have been released, it's time to start up one of our (ok, my) favorite games around the office: If The Season Ended Today. We're not PROJECTING the bowls; we're treating the current poll like the final one, so you can get a better idea of how the bowl process works.

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Southern California and Notre Dame battle for the historic Jeweled Shillelagh this weekend in one of college football’s most storied rivalries. The two teams have met 82 times since 1926. USC’s eight-game winning streak was snapped last season when Trojan receiver Ronald Johnson dropped a wide-open pass in the waning moments that likely would have won the game for Southern Cal. Instead, first year Irish Coach Brian Kelly took the shillelagh back to South Bend for the first time since 2001.

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One week after Wake Forest shook up the ACC Atlantic division, the other side of the conference experienced some upheaval. Two upsets in the Coastal changed the face of the division race while the Atlantic returned (somewhat) to status quo. Meanwhile, the Big East remains in a sort of limbo as contenders continue to dance around each other.

ACC Results

Miami 30, UNC 24
Virginia 24, Georgia Tech 21
Virginia Tech 38, Wake Forest 17
Clemson 56, Maryland 45
Florida State 41, Duke 16

Big East Results

Utah 26, Pittsburgh 14
Rutgers 21, Navy 20
UConn 16, USF 10
Cincinnati 25, Louisville 16

What we learned:

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The first Bowl Championship Series standings of the season are released, and that takes us one step closer to Selection Sunday. There's still half a season to be played, but now bowl projections and possible pairings can be discussed without the Way Too Early prefix. Although really, anything prior to the last week of the season is still Too E...

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Upstart Wake Forest welcomes No. 21 Virginia Tech to Winston-Salem this week in a pivotal ACC matchup of one-loss teams. The Demon Deacons are coming off of a stunning win against then-No. 23 Florida State, the team’s first victory against a ranked opponent in five tries. The Hokies squeezed by Miami last week when quarterback Logan Thomas scored with under a minute to play in the fourth quarter.

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While we already have our first bowl-eligible teams after six weeks of play, there are far too many games left to be played to know what could be available to the Champs Sports Bowl in December. Our Team Selection Committee met on Monday to discuss the current state of our partner conference as we inch closer to Selection Sunday.

ACC Results

Wake Forest 35, Florida State 30
Virginia Tech 38, Miami 35
Georgia Tech 21, Maryland 16
Clemson 36, Boston College 14
UNC 14, Louisville 7
NC State 38, Central Michigan 24

Big East Results

West Virginia 43, UConn 16
Rutgers 34, Pittsburgh 10
Syracuse 37, Tulane 34

*Notre Dame 59, Air Force 33

What we learned:

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Both of our partner conferences are in the thick of league play this weekend as the championship races start to take shape. With current ACC division leaders Clemson (Atlantic) and Georgia Tech (Coastal) at home against Boston College and Maryland, respectively, a pair of games - Florida State at Wake Forest and Miami at Virginia Tech - are a...

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The Big East picture will become a little clearer this week as Pittsburgh travels to Piscataway to face Rutgers. Both teams top the early season standings with 1-0 records, while conference favorite West Virginia opens league play this week. Pitt beat an emotionally-drained Rutgers squad by 20 points last year. It was the Scarlet Knights first game after defensive lineman Eric LeGrand was paralyzed while attempting to make a tackle against Army. This season’s matchup possesses different story lines, as Rutgers tries to solve a quarterback quandary and Pittsburgh searches for offensive dimension.

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