Dri Archer and Kent State could be playing for a possible BCS berth. (Diamond Images/Getty Images)

Sports fans, you have two conference championship games to savor on the eve of the last college football-filled Saturday of the regular season. We’re sure you have so many questions. 

No. 18 Kent State vs. No. 19 Northern Illinois

Shouldn't the MAC Championship be played on Tuesday or Wednesday? Wouldn't that be keeping it real?

—
Tom Fornelli (@TomFornelli) November 26, 2012

• What information do I, the discerning sports fan, require in order to consume this game? The Huskies and Golden Flashes are scheduled to kick off at 7 p.m. ET at Ford Field in Detroit. The game will be televised on ESPN2 and streamed on WatchESPN.

• What’s at stake here? A possible BCS bowl trip, though as ever with teams from non-AQ leagues, the shot is an outside one. Stewart Mandel has the Golden Flashes in the GoDaddy.com Bowl in his latest projections (oh, the ad campaign they’ll make for that one) and the Huskies returning to Detroit for the Little Caesars Bowl.

But there’s victory in this already, for one side: Wherever Kent State goes, it’ll be the program’s first bowl game in 40 years.

• For whom are we to be watching? The Golden Flashes have a nasty running threat, particularly in the return game, in Dri Archer and another back, Trayion Durham, who cannot be left unattended. Archer is the nation’s top kick return threat, averaging more than 38 yards an attempt. He also leads the MAC in scoring and is the FBS’ fifth-ranked all-purpose runner heading into Week 14.

The Huskies have Jordan Lynch, and a bunch of other guys, and not to diminish their efforts at blocking for him or catching his passes, but Jordan Lynch is sort of overshadowing everything else at the moment. Right now, NIU’s quarterback is averaging more than 134 rushing yards per game, and he needs to gain just 92 tonight to set a new NCAA record for most rushing yards by a quarterback. Racking up 250 passing yards at Ford Field would also make him the first 3,000-1,500 player in FBS history. Friday MACtion, don’t let us down.

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LOLZ Air Force has AIR in the name but never puts the ball in the AIR! Amirite, Connor Dietz? (AP)

A couple selections of college football-like substances are on offer this evening in prime time viewing hours. We’re sure you have so many questions. 

Florida International at Florida Atlantic

• What information do I, the discerning sports fan, require in order to consume this game? The Owls and Golden Panthers are scheduled to kick off at 8 p.m. ET in Boca Raton. The game will be televised on ESPNU and streamed on WatchESPN.

• What’s at stake here? Florida-based Sun Belt program bragging rights and little else. Both teams are out of postseason contention and occupy two of the three bottom slots in the SBC standings.

• Wasn’t Florida International supposed to be good this year? We certainly thought so! But instead of contending for top honors in a very deep Sun Belt, the Panthers have only just notched their first conference win of 2012, a 28-20 defeat of transitional South Alabama on November 3.

• Is this the stadium with the Schnellenberger statue? It absolutely is. We wait with breathless anticipation to see how it will be outfitted with a perma-puffing pipe and Santa hat for the upcoming holiday season. Schnelly Claus!

Hawaii at Air Force

• What information do I, the discerning sports fan, require in order to consume this game? The Warriors and Falcons are scheduled to kick off at 9:30 p.m. ET in Colorado Springs. The game will be televised on ESPN2 and streamed on WatchESPN.

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Your FBS football options this Friday night consist entirely of 4-5 Pitt versus 3-6 UConn. We have some feelings to work out.

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The Panthers and Huskies kick off at 8 p.m. ET. The game will be televised on ESPN2 and streamed on WatchESPN.

Keith Price and Washington topped Cal last year and will look to emerge victorious again Friday night. (Getty Images)

• What information do I, the discerning consumer, require in order to consume this game? The Huskies and Golden Bears are scheduled to kick off at 9 p.m. ET at Memorial Stadium in Berkeley. The game will be televised on ESPN2 and streamed on WatchESPN.

• What’s at stake here? Bowl eligibility for the Bears, who, at 3-6 overall, must win out to earn any kind of postseason invitation. The pressure is much lower for the Huskies, who sit at 4-4 but are headed into the easiest stretch on their 2012 schedule: Their remaining opponents (Cal, Utah, Colorado and Wazzu) are a combined 9-24.

• How fired is Cal coach Jeff Tedford at this point — fired, or SUPER-fired? Tedford, the Golden Bears’ all-time winningest coach, actually still has a job as of this morning, but for how much longer is anyone’s guess. It’s been an unfortunate decline for Tedford, who was hailed as a savior for taking a Cal program that had cratered under Tom Holmoe and returning it to respectability with three straight Top 25 finishes. That was six years ago, though, and today Tedford is on track for a second losing season in three years. When you’re the highest-paid state employee in California, people expect better.

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We share your bemusement at your stat lines, Tino Sunseri, and offer our sincere congratulations. (AP)

You have two college football games to choose from, this fine Friday evening — and, we assume, several burning questions about them. We’re not here to help you with those questions, for the most part.

Pitt @ Syracuse

• What information do I, the discerning consumer, require in order to consume this game? The Panthers and Orange kick off at 7 p.m. ET in the Carrier Dome. The game will be televised on ESPN and streamed on WatchESPN.

• Why should I care about two teams with a combined record of 3-5 when I could be doing things in the real world on my Friday evening? In fairness to Syracuse, and not just because our boss went there, we’re going to point out that the Orange had to play a tougher first two games than many of their AQ brethren, facing Northwestern and USC in Weeks 1 and 2. Right, and what about losing to Minnesota and beating Stony Brook by only 11 points? NOW THERE. Stony Brook just beat Army! Show some respect, or something.

As for Pitt, at this point we’re tuning in because we’re afraid not to. Watching Panthers football this season has been one series of duck traffic moments after another — as in, it’s like sitting at a stoplight, glancing around and seeing a duck driving a car. That duck, in this case, is Tino Sunseri, right? Correct, and what a majestic waterfowl he’s turned out to be. Pitt has lost to an FCS team and a conference opponent and beaten Virginia Tech and another FCS foe. Through it all, nothing is so jarring as seeing Sunseri put up top-15 pass efficiency numbers.

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Sole hope for Friday: That Utah’s student section rushes the field, despite the absence of any Ute football players. (AP)

Hawaii and BYU play a single game tonight that makes up the entirety of your Friday college football viewing schedule. We’re sure you have so many questions.

• What information do I, the discerning consumer, need to consume this game? The Cougars and Warriors are scheduled to kick off at 8 p.m. ET in Provo, Utah. The game will be televised on ESPN and streamed on WatchESPN.

• Why am I spending my Friday night watching two teams with a combined record of 3-4 play football? Why did George Mallory dream of scaling Mount Everest?

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Nick Florence, welcome back. We need to talk about your touchdown celebration fundamentals. (AP)

Baylor and Louisiana-Monroe play a single game tonight that makes up the entirety of your Friday college football viewing schedule. We’re sure you have so many questions.

• What information do I, the discerning consumer, need to consume this game? The Bears and Warhawks kick off at 8 p.m. ET in Malone Stadium. The game will be televised on ESPN and streamed on WatchESPN.

• Hang on. Malone Stadium is in Monroe. It is! Tonight’s meeting is both the first ever Warhawks-Bears contest and the first half of a home-and-home series — and it’s in Funroe. Next year, ULM travels to Baylor for its season opener on Aug. 31. The way the Warhawks have been playing this season, it’s hard to argue that they don’t deserve the home game.

• Did preseason prognostications reflect this sort of early burst of awesomeness for ULM? Ours most certainly did not, but that’s half the fun, isn’t it? We had the Warhawks pegged for a mid-conference finish thanks to what looked, at the time, like a brutal nonconference schedule and the perceived strengths of teams like FIU, Arkansas State, Western Kentucky and Louisiana. (The Sun Belt rolls deep this year, doesn’t it?) We did not expect ULM to get right up in the facemasks of two SEC teams in two weeks. But this time last year we were pretty sure we’d give our imaginary Heisman vote to T.Y. Hilton. Lots of football still to come, and tonight may pose the Warhawks’ most formidable challenge.

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UNLV hosts Washington State tonight at Sam Boyd Stadium, where we were once trapped after a Las Vegas Bowl. (AP)

Washington State and UNLV play a single game tonight that makes up the entirety of your Friday college football viewing schedule. We’re sure you have so many questions.

• What information do I, the discerning consumer, need to consume this game? This is all the football you get for tonight, so do pay attention: The Cougars and Rebels kick off in Sam Boyd Stadium at 9 p.m. ET. The game will be televised on ESPN.

• This is in Las Vegas? It is, but not Vegas Vegas. The stadium is several miles from the Strip, negating the possibility of leaping wide receivers and defensive backs being distracted from watching the ball by the roller coaster at New York-New York. And though we have been accidentally locked into it before, we are rather fond of Sam Boyd Stadium. The Las Vegas Bowl is there. It’s a pretty nice venue, especially for a program this size.

• What have we seen from these teams so far, in terms of actual football? Not a whole lot to write home about. Wazzu is undergoing the sort of fits-and-starts growth you’d expect with a wholesale regime change. The Cougars lost their season opener at BYU, 30-6, and came uncomfortably close to losing to an FCS opponent in Week 2, beating Eastern Washington 24-20. The Rebels actually did lose their FCS game, falling 17-14 to Northern Arizona, after dropping a triple-overtime loss to Minnesota in Week 1.

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Utah and Utah State play a single game tonight that makes up the entirety of your Friday college football viewing schedule. We’re sure you have so many questions. We’re here to help.

• Is this it for tonight? It is, yes. No channel flipping is necessary if you want to watch FBS football.

• What information do I, the discerning consumer, need to consume this game? The Utes and Aggies kick off at 8 p.m. ET. The game will be televised on ESPN2.

• Reader question!

@nastinchka If a Ute and an Aggie met in the wild who would win? What’s a Ute? What’s an Aggie?

— Baby$loth (@WoodyVirgin) September 7, 2012

If last year’s Friday night games were any sort of indication, the 8 p.m. slot is very much “the wild”, so we’re about to find out. As for your second and third questions, Utah sports information is here to help! “The school uses the nickname with permission of the Ute Tribal Council. A Ute is member of the Indian tribe believed to have originally settled Utah. Two of the more common definitions of Ute are ‘top of the mountains’ and ‘people of the mountains.’”  The Aggies’ nickname refers back to the school’s time as Utah State Agricultural College.

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Just try and tell us there’s not a hand turkey drawn on there somewhere, Tyler Bray. (AP)

Tonight in your living rooms and on your laptops: Two storkish quarterbacks, two stone-faced coaches and a reason to watch San Jose State besides geography, for once.

The opening act

7:30 p.m.: Tennessee vs. NC State (ESPNU). All summer long, we have pointed to the likely length of this game as its greatest attraction factor. Between Tyler Bray, Mike Glennon and the recent history of both teams’ ground attacks, this first game in the Georgia Dome could easily stretch until Auburn and Clemson faithful begin setting up their Saturday tailgates.

The natural matchup to watch tonight is the Vols’ aerial offense against State’s secondary. Of the two combatants, Tennessee’s passing game gets more attention on account of Justin Hunter, the highly publicized departure of Da’Rick Rogers and Tyler Bray being Tyler Bray. But SEC types remain unfamiliar with Wolfpack cornerback David Amerson at their own peril: The junior in the No. 1 jersey led the nation in interceptions last season, and will presumably be dogging Hunter all night long. For added flaky layers of uncertainty, Hunter’s game tonight will be his first since tearing his ACL in Week 3 against Florida last year; Rogers replacement Cordarrelle Patterson is a brand-new juco transfer, and tight end Mychal Rivera is recovering from an ankle sprain. Oh, and State dings its own depth by holding senior cornerback C.J. Wilson out of tonight’s action with an unspecified “eligibility issue.”

Look at us, building this up to be a shootout. After last season, which was almost entirely useless for data-mining purposes, we’re uncomfortable betting on Tennessee either way. For all we know, Rajion Neal could have a breakout game at running back for the Vols behind a solidified offensive line, Mustafa Greene could blow up for the ‘Pack after missing all of 2011 due to injury and this thing could finish 21-20 on a special teams facepalm.

We suspect not. But we’ve been wrong before, and will be again. We’ll also be in the Georgia Dome tonight to find out in person.

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