Army and Navy are not good this season, but watch for the history and pageantry. (ZUMAPRESS.com)

• Army vs. Navy, 2:30 p.m. ET, CBS. The Army-Navy game is always a draw, it being the Army-Navy game, but this year’s matchup looks like a bit of a letdown from a pure football perspective. This time last year, both teams had a winning record; now, the Black Knights are 3-8, the Midshipmen 4-7. It’s the first time Navy’s finished outside of bowl eligibility since 2003. Air Force has already claimed the Commander-in-Chief’s Trophy. So why tune in at all?

Because it’s the Army-Navy game, a rivalry infused with meaning that extends beyond the sidelines in a way no other series can match. Hell, if you don’t even like football, give it a glance for pure pageantry alone. (Also, why are you reading this site?) Pro Combat uniforms are hit-or-miss for any given team, but Nike’s turned each side out in fine getups, particularly Navy.

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LaMichael James and Oregon beat UCLA 60-13 when the teams met last season. (Peter Read Miller/SI)

• Pac-12 Championship Game: UCLA @ No. 8 Oregon, 8:00 p.m. ET, FOX: If this weren’t the inaugural Pac-12 title game, it wouldn’t even be worth mentioning. The Bruins are the technical South champions, but the honor of the best record belongs to the postseason-banned Trojans. Everything about this game is ridiculous: The conference’s first title match is destined to be remembered as a joke; Rick Neuheisel wraps his coaching tenure at his alma mater playing primetime cannon fodder; and for comparison’s sake, there’s a MAC championship starting an hour earlier that looks like the hot television ticket of the evening. It’s nobody’s fault, but the Bruins simply shouldn’t be here.

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QBs Chandler Harnish and Tyler Tettleton will face off in the MAC Championship Game. (ZUMAPRESS)

• MAC Championship Game – Ohio vs. Northern Illinois, 7:00 p.m. ET, ESPN2: The Bobcats and Huskies both emerged 9-3 from a wild and wooly season of conference scrabbling, and are riding hot streaks into Detroit’s Ford Field. Ohio hasn’t lost since October 15 against Ball State; NIU’s run of good fortune dates back two weeks further to an odd stumble against a not-good Central Michigan outfit. Apart from that one hiccup, NIU’s only losses have come against BCS competition, although the first was merely Kansas. NIU’s best win, for my part, came against a Toledo team fully expected to swipe the MAC title for itself. A 63-60 Tuesday shootout helped publicize the enjoyable phenomenon of weeknight MACtion. Ohio had its own baffling faceplant against Buffalo in Week 5, and fell to Rutgers at the tail end of nonconference play in September. The Bobcats played a less impressive schedule, filling their nonconference slots with such luminaries as New Mexico State and FCS nonentity Gardner-Webb and drawing the less able West Division teams in cross-conference action.

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Arkansas dropped LSU last season with a 31-23 win in Little Rock. (Danny Johnston/AP)

Treat yourself this Friday: Leave those fanatical punchy PlayStation hunters to their shivering tents, have a lie-in, do your early holiday shopping online, and hop up refreshed for … Louisville vs. South Florida at 11:00! (All right, maybe sleep until noon instead.)

Necessary events

• No. 3 Arkansas @ No. 1 LSU, 2:30 p.m. ET: Not much left to dissect about this one, is there? It’s the SEC Championship game for the winner, along with a pretty good shot at the national title game thanks to the state of this year’s SEC East, and a lesser bowl with a bitter aftertaste for the loser. Arkansas does have a recent history of dialing it up against LSU, but this year’s Bayou Bengals have displayed a remarkable resistance to the two losses that dinged the luster of Miles’ most successful Tigers squads. The quality of the Razorbacks’ many victories, as a set, may be somewhat dubious; they edged past a Texas A&M team that’s shot itself in the foot repeatedly this season and waylaid South Carolina, but were flattened by Alabama, their strongest competition and a team much like LSU in composition. Stay tuned Friday evening to SI.com proper for more game coverage from Andy Staples, who’ll be on the scene in Baton Rouge.

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Justin Blackmon and Oklahoma State have been unstoppable on offense this season. (US PRESSWIRE)

• No. 2 Oklahoma State @ Iowa State, 8:00 p.m. (ESPN): No ranked-on-ranked matchups in this flight of weeknight games, but what a treat to see the ‘Pokes in primetime. The Cyclones are OSU’s next-to-last hurdle to an undefeated regular season; the Cowboys will take a much-needed bye over Thanksgiving to prepare for Bedlam on December 3. But first they need a win in Ames, and in case of a one-loss scrum at the top of the BCS standings, it should probably be some sort of statement victory. The Cowboys are good at those.

The Cyclones are entering the first week of one nasty gauntlet. They draw the second-ranked ‘Pokes, No. 5 Oklahoma and No. 16 Kansas State in consecutive weeks to close out the season. These will mark their fifth, sixth and seventh ranked opponents faced since October 1. The only one they’ve managed to topple thus far was a Texas Tech team I think we can safely say was overrated at No. 19, and was promptly thumped 41-7 by the Cyclones. Iowa State has had two weeks to prepare for this OSU team. But is that enough to improve a defense allowing an average of 420 yards per game? The Cyclones are much better on paper against the pass than the run, but if they shut down Justin Blackmon — which nobody’s managed to do for an entire game in a very long time — they’ve still got Joseph Randle to deal with, and an unsteady ground defense that’s accounting for nearly half those yards allowed.

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USC receiver Robert Woods has been unstoppable in 2011 and should be an absolute force against Colorado's paltry pass defense. (Ric Tapia/Icon SMI)

• Central Michigan @ Kent State, 8:00 p.m., ESPN2: If morbid curiosity drives your consumption of college football, this Friday’s undercard is for you! The 3-6 Central Michigan Chippewas will take on the 2-6 Kent State Golden Flashes in a game seemingly designed to make you appreciate the USC-Colorado tilt even if it ends up an unseemly bloodbath in Boulder. Whatever happens, it’s what you’d rather be watching.

The Chippewas and Golden Flashes rotate back onto a collision course for the first time since 2007, with both programs in some disarray. Between them, CMU and KSU have wins against two FCS teams, Bowling Green, Akron and one weird shootout victory for the Chips against division leader NIU. Key matchup: Central Michigan’s passing game, which actually isn’t bad, versus Kent State’s pass defense of middling regard. The Flashes rank dead last nationally in total offense and will need to keep the Chippewas in close offensive check to have a prayer of staying competitive tonight. And while Anthony Garland’s had a nice little breakout at tailback for the Chips, how can he hope to compete for the hearts of fans against All-Name all-stars Zurlon Tipton and Paris Cotton?

• No. 21 USC @ Colorado, 9:00 p.m., ESPN: We knew Colorado was in for a rebuilding year under first-year head coach Jon Embree, but who predicted it would be as bad as all this? The one-win Buffs have had all the rotten breaks hurtle their way this season, with a roster rendered unrecognizable in spots by injuries and a gruesome mid-season schedule that thrust them into consecutive games against Stanford, Washington, Oregon and Arizona State. They won’t find a reprieve tonight, and probably won’t next game either, when Arizona comes to town. But get everybody off the field with their limbs still attached to their bodies and it’s a gentle downhill denouement with UCLA and Utah rounding out the dance card.

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Josh Boyce and TCU toppled BYU on their way to a Rose Bowl berth in 2010. (ZUMApress.com)

• BYU vs. TCU, 8:00 p.m., ESPN: Baseball leave you cold? (I actually ended up watching the 10th inning of last night’s World Series game because my Twitter feed blew up so vehemently at the end of the ninth that I thought there had to be a cat out on the field or something.) These two former Mountain West rivals are here to fill your Friday night, meeting at Cowboys Stadium presumably for the last time with even one squad sporting the MWC logo. The loser will not suffer a conference loss, but BYU has a tough row as an independent seeking a prestigious bowl selection, and TCU is chasing 7-0 Boise State as it is. With two losses apiece, national consequences are off the table for both the Horned Frogs and Cougars, but it’s fair to call this a must-win. And there can be only one must-winner.

Both teams are riding fat and sassy at the moment, coming off blowout wins of delicious creampuffs Idaho State and New Mexico. Last season the Horned Frogs made short work of the Cougars, 31-3, en route to a Rose Bowl berth. And while BYU is fielding yet another new face at quarterback this time around, TCU’s defense hasn’t lived up to its BCS-busting predecessor. The Frogs have played more one-sided ball this season, with a fierce offensive production unit reined in only once, scoring 27 in a slugfest win against San Diego State. TCU hasn’t scored fewer than 20 in any other week, and in its two losses to Baylor and SMU it simply got outshot. BYU’s defense is well-regarded, allowing 340 yards per game, and it’s strongest against the pass, so watching Casey Pachall work should make for good television.

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From the annals of odd: Geno Smith and West Virginia actually lost to Syracuse in 2010. (US PRESSWIRE)

Suppose it’s too much to hope for a streaker dressed as a ref to invade a game two nights in a row, right?

• No. 11 West Virginia @ Syracuse, 8:00 p.m. ET, ESPN:  I asked my Syracuse-educated producer, the divine Mallory Rubin, whether she, too, thought Geno Smith might throw for 500 yards against her alma mater this Saturday. Her response: “I’m worried he might throw for 600.” Last year on Homecoming Saturday in Morgantown, Geno Smith was intercepted three times and sacked five by the Orange. This year’s Mountaineer offensive line is allowing little more than one sack per game, and while Syracuse DB Phillip Thomas ranks in the national top 15 for picks, his interceptions have all come against Rutgers and Rhode Island. The Mountaineers have proven in recent weeks they can run (they just don’t feel like it) thanks to freshman Dustin Garrison, but up against the nation’s 86th-ranked pass efficiency defense, why would they even want to?

• Rutgers @ Louisville, 8:00 p.m. ET, ESPN2: Do not adjust your television set. That is Rutgers you see atop the Big East standings with a 5-1 record. The Scarlet Knights came by that record thanks at least in part to an extremely favorable schedule that included an FCS opener, a middling MAC team, Syracuse and a floundering Navy squad. They split their two highest-profile opponents, beating Pitt by 24 and losing to UNC by two, and should look comfortable against the Cardinals tonight. Past Week 8, the schedule takes a sharp uptick in degree of difficulty with West Virginia and South Florida paying calls, but beyond that, only Army, Cincinnati and UConn stand in the way of an extremely favorable bowl bid. The Scarlet Knights’ top 20 defense should hold up solidly against a Louisville outfit averaging 16 points per game and starting a true freshman at quarterback.

College football fans are running out of chances to watch the masterful Kellen Moore at work. (Icon SMI)

Stay up and watch the Broncos put on a clinic, unless you are of a Texan or Oklahoman persuasion, in which case, GO TO BED YOU HAVE TO BE UP AND DRUNK ON BATTER AND OIL IN LIKE SEVEN HOURS Y’ALL. (Please consume State Fair fried goods responsibly.)

Boise State at Fresno State, 9:00 p.m. ET (ESPN): Let us be quick, and to the point, so that we may get on with previewing some actual competitive Week 6 football contests. It is likely Boise will not even have to try too hard to win this one. You should watch anyway.

The Fresno tilt is the least taxing of the Broncos’ road trips thus far; they’ve already had to set up camp in Georgia and Ohio this season, and won both games handily. And looking at BSU’s schedule brings up a little-discussed point: For a non-AQ team that gets dogged in the rankings and press year in and year out for having a weak schedule, this is a pretty respectable slate of games. An SEC team for an opener, one of the most promising non-AQ opponents out there in Toledo, and a Tulsa outfit that would’ve been a far stiffer challenge had it not lost its starting quarterback to a knee injury just one week prior. Still to come are Air Force, TCU and San Diego State. It’s not a murderers’ row, but for a team in Boise’s position it’s entirely presentable.

Anyway. This is not one of the good games on Boise’s schedule. Not this Fresno team, not this year. The Bulldogs are a cut below, and haven’t beaten even the middling opponents they’ve faced, recording their only wins against hapless North Dakota and Idaho. They were handled by multiple-score margins against Cal, Nebraksa and Ole Miss. The Broncos are an above-average squad in every major statistical category but rushing offense. They’re usually better than above-average, in fact, and the case can easily be made that they’d rank higher in rushing if anybody would ever force them to stop passing. And when they do tire of having Kellen Moore wing it downfield to a stable of willing targets, there’s Doug “Muscle Hamster” Martin to take the handoff. Martin recorded 126 yards and two scores last week against Nevada, and should face little resistance from the Bulldogs’ woeful run defense.

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Chuckie Keeton and Utah State nearly upset defending champion Auburn in Week 1. (AP)

Utah State at BYU, 8:00 p.m. ET (ESPN): Remember that time BYU quarterback Max Hall set every pair of hands in the state wringing for saying he hated Utah? Don’t expect anything half so uncouth to slip from the Cougars’  camp today, but also don’t think for a second they’re not out to exact some painfully polite revenge. You might recall that last year’s BYU-USU game directly resulted in getting defensive coordinator Jaime Hill fired in early October, the day after the Cougars lost a 31-16 game in Logan. The loss snapped a 10-game winning streak in the rivalry for BYU.

This year’s Aggies squad is one of uncertain mettle. After turning heads from coast-to-coast with a nail-biting loss to the defending national champions in Week 1, Utah State gave FCS opponent Weber State a proper trouncing in Week 2, then took a bye week before falling to Colorado State by one point in overtime, 35-34. The Cougars, for their part, split their first two games against Ole Miss and Texas by a combined margin of two points before getting throttled by the hated Utes and knocking off would-be BCS buster UCF by a touchdown last Friday.

Look for some turf-churning runs out of the Aggies, who are averaging 315 ground yards per game, and who will be running against a defense that barely cracks the 50th percentile nationally against rushing attacks. And though their ground game currently ranks 116th nationally, expect the Cougars to lean on the run some as well, if only to take the pressure off sophomore quarterback Jake Heaps and see what results they can wring from the tandem of Bryan Kariya and J.J. Di Luigi.