Cupcakes taste good, but they’re not very filling. Likewise, college football games featuring a “cupcake” opponent tend to be fun for a little while, but not very enthralling over sixty minutes. Fortunately, we were treated to some heartier fare as well. We start in Stillwater, where West Virginia saw its College Football Playoff hopes expire in a classic 45-41 Big 12 shootout loss to Oklahoma State. The Cowboys, who trailed 31-14 at the half, roared back in the second half behind the play of quarterback Taylor Cornelius. Cornelius ended up with 444 yards of total offense, including 106 on the ground, and accounted for all six Oklahoma State touchdowns (1 rushing, 5 passing). West Virginia, however, can still make the Big Twelve title game, but it must beat Oklahoma at home on Friday, something the Mountaineers have not managed to do since joining the Big Twelve in 2012.<\/p>\n
From there, we proceed to Tallahassee, where Florida State still has a chance to extend some lengthy streaks. The Seminoles managed to upset Boston College 22-21, due to a 74-yard touchdown pass from Deondre Francois to Tamorrion Terry with 1:49 left in the game. With the win, FSU is 5-6, and everything boils down to the annual showdown with Florida. If Florida State can pull off their second straight upset, it’ll extend their 36-year bowl streak (if one allows for vacated bowl appearances in 2006 and 2007) and their 41-year streak of seasons with winning records. Both are currently the longest in the country.<\/p>\n
The second-longest bowl streak is 25, held by Virginia Tech – but again, perhaps not for long. The Hokies are 4-6 (having had a game cancelled to the hurricane earlier this year). Beating rival Virginia this Saturday in the 100th Commonwealth Cup game would be satisfying, but would only move VT to 5-6 – still not bowl-eligible. What to do? In a very rare (if not unprecedented) move, Virginia Tech has agreed with Marshall (who also had a game cancelled due to the hurricane) on a game that is contingent upon the Hokies beating UVa. If the Hokies win, they and the Thundering Herd will play on December 1, and Marshall will be paid $300,000. If Virginia Tech loses, the game won’t be played, but Marshall gets a $100,000 check anyway. In addition, the teams agreed to play a future home-and-home series. It all adds up to a pretty nice deal for a Conference USA team. By the way, the Thundering Herd is 7-3 at this point, so they won’t exactly be a pushover…<\/p>\n
In small-school news, undefeated Notre Dame is looking to win the national championship. No, not that<\/strong> Notre Dame. This Notre Dame is a a small liberal arts college in Euclid, Ohio. Known officially as Notre Dame College, it has about 2,100 students, and was an all-women’s school from its inception in 1922 until 2001, when it became coeducational. The Falcons began playing football in 2009.\u00a0 They joined Division II in 2012 and the next year became part of the new Mountain East Conference. This year, they’ve outscored opponents 390-193 on their way to an 11-0 record and their first Mountain East conference championship (which gives them one more than that “other” Notre Dame). They’ll take on Hillsdale College (Michigan) this Saturday in the second round of the playoffs.<\/p>\n Congratulations to WarTiger91<\/strong>, who wins week 12 (their second weekly win!) with 250 points! HostileNoles<\/strong> was second with 248 points, and Paul Herron<\/strong> and JagAL<\/strong> each had 246.<\/p>\n Standings after twelve weeks:<\/p>\n Welcome to Rivalry Week! This weekend features the most important games of the season for many teams. Some are playing for a chance at a conference title. Others are going for a bowl (or a better bowl) bid, and some are just trying to be a spoiler. In rivalry games, just “beating those other guys” is enough reason! In any circumstance, each team will lay it all on the line this weekend. Don’t forget to get your picks in due to Thanksgiving! The first game is Thanksgiving night – the 115th Egg Bowl between Mississippi State and Ole Miss – Thursday, November 22 @ 7:30 PM ET<\/strong>, so make sure to get your picks in by then!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Cupcakes taste good, but they’re not very filling. Likewise, college football games featuring a “cupcake” opponent tend to be fun for a little while, but not very enthralling over sixty minutes. Fortunately, we were treated to some heartier fare as well. We start in Stillwater, where West Virginia saw its College Football Playoff hopes expire […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-436","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-football"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.e-systems.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/436","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.e-systems.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.e-systems.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.e-systems.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.e-systems.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=436"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.e-systems.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/436\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":437,"href":"https:\/\/www.e-systems.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/436\/revisions\/437"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.e-systems.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=436"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.e-systems.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=436"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.e-systems.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=436"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n\n
\n 1st<\/td>\n AllySun\u00a0<\/strong><\/td>\n 2,261<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n 2nd<\/td>\n JagRag\u00a0<\/strong><\/td>\n 2,258<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n 3rd<\/td>\n Paul Herron\u00a0<\/strong><\/td>\n 2,252<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n 4th<\/td>\n bamaken\u00a0<\/strong><\/td>\n 2,227<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n 5th<\/td>\n Jeff4Bama\u00a0<\/strong><\/td>\n 2,221<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n 6th<\/td>\n Pachyderm\u00a0<\/strong><\/td>\n 2,215<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n 7th<\/td>\n Crimson Gator\u00a0<\/strong><\/td>\n 2,200<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n T-8th<\/td>\n Ragnor\u00a0<\/strong><\/td>\n 2,198<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n T-8th<\/td>\n BEVO\u00a0<\/strong><\/td>\n 2,198<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n 10th<\/td>\n El Dude-arino\u00a0<\/strong><\/td>\n 2,185<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n