For the first time in FBS history, every conference will hold a championship game, making ten in total. In order of their kickoff, here’s a quick preview of each (all times ET):<\/p>\n
MAC Championship:<\/strong><\/span> Northern Illinois vs. Buffalo, November 30 @ 7 PM. The Huskies are 7-5 overall (6-2 in the MAC), but are entering the championship on a two-game losing skid, having dropped close games to Miami (OH) and Western Michigan. The 10-2 Bulls are coached by Lance Leipold, who is perhaps best-known for coaching Wisconsin-Whitewater to six Division III national titles before making the jump to Buffalo.<\/p>\n Pac-12 Championship:<\/span><\/strong> Utah vs. Washington, November 30 @ 8 PM. This is the first of six rematches in conference title games; the Huskies took the regular-season meeting 21-7 in Salt Lake City on September 15. Both teams are 9-3 and have won their last three games. The teams feature the two best defenses in the Pac-12; the Huskies are 8th nationally in points allowed at 16.5; the Utes are 17th, at 19.3. Washington is 13th in yards allowed per game; Utah is 15th.<\/p>\n Big 12 Championship:<\/strong><\/span> Texas vs. Oklahoma, December 1 @ noon. The second of the rematches, Texas gave OU their only regular season loss in a classic 48-45 Red River Shootout game. Oklahoma is led by Kyler Murray, a Heisman hopeful; he commands an offense that is averaging 50.3 points per game, #1 in the nation. Tom Herman has brought Texas to the brink of their first conference championship since 2009, but they’ll have to bring down their nemesis twice in one season to win it. Their three losses this year have come by nine total points.<\/p>\n Sun Belt Championship:<\/strong><\/span> Louisiana vs. Appalachian State, December 1 @ noon. The third of the rematches. App State beat Louisiana 27-17 in their earlier meeting. The Ragin’ Cajuns have a balanced offensive attack that averages 218 yards passing and 230 yards rushing per game. The Mountaineers feature a tough defense that is only allowing 15.4 points per game, fifth-best in the country, which contributes greatly to their almost 22 point per game average margin of victory, good for 7th overall.<\/p>\n Conference USA Championship:<\/strong><\/span> UAB at Middle Tennessee, December 1 @ 1:30 PM. The fourth of the rematches. The teams played this past weekend, also in Murfreesboro, Tennessee. The Blue Raiders won 27-3. Nevertheless, UAB coach Bill Clark is leading a program no one thought would be here so soon. After only two years since being restarted, UAB has their first division title, their first national top-25 ranking, and a 9-3 record going into this game. Can they follow it up with their first conference crown? They’ll have to figure out the Blue Raiders’ defense better this time around; the Blazers were held to eight first downs and 89 total yards last weekend.<\/p>\n AAC Championship:<\/strong><\/span> Memphis at UCF, December 1 @ 3:30 PM. The fifth rematch; UCF pulled out a 31-30 win in Memphis on October 13. The Tigers have Darrell Henderson, a potential first-team All-American at running back. He’s one yard short of 1,700 this year for Memphis’ attack that is averaging 43.8 points per game, sixth-best in FBS. UCF comes into the game having to replace their all-everything quarterback, McKenzie Milton, after a devastating injury in last week’s game against South Florida. Their backup, Darriel Mack, played quite well against USF, but the Knights were held to a season low in points against the Tigers in their earlier meeting; is this where the 24-game winning streak finally ends?<\/p>\n SEC Championship:<\/strong><\/span> Alabama vs. Georgia, December 1 @ 4 PM. The game featuring the highest-ranked opponents, a rematch of last year’s national title game, an almost-certain Heisman Trophy finalist, Saban vs. Smart Part II…there’s plenty to digest about this game. But let’s start with this tidbit: the Crimson Tide is the first team since Yale in 1888<\/em> to win its first twelve games of the season by over twenty points each. On the other hand, in each of its victories, Georgia has outscored its opponents by at least two touchdowns. In its loss, LSU beat UGA by twenty, so neither have played a close game…since last year’s title game against each other.<\/p>\n Mountain West Championship:<\/strong><\/span> Fresno State at Boise State, December 1 @ 7:45 PM. The sixth rematch; Boise State won 24-17 against the Bulldogs on November 9. The rivalry between the two schools is played for the Milk Can, but that won’t be on the line this time. Instead, there’s a very real possibility that this game might be for a New Years’ Six berth (provided UCF loses to Memphis earlier in the day). The Broncos’ dual threats of Alexander Mattison (1,215 yards rushing) and Brett Rypien (3,580 yards passing) face a Fresno State defense that has allowed 13.5 points per game this year, second-best in FBS.<\/p>\n ACC Championship:<\/strong><\/span> Clemson vs. Pittsburgh, December 1 @ 8 PM. Clemson is a huge favorite in this game, and for good reason. The Tigers have won by an average of 31.7 points per game, and only two games were closer than twenty points. They’re 5th in scoring offense, 3rd in total offense, 4th in scoring defense, and 7th in total defense. Pittsburgh…is 7-5 and has been beaten by over twenty points three times this year. But take heart, Panthers fans! The 2016 national champion Clemson team had a 14-1 record. The one? A 43-42 loss…to an 8-5 Pittsburgh team.<\/p>\n Big Ten Championship:<\/strong><\/span> Northwestern vs. Ohio State, December 1 @ 8 PM. Northwestern has the strangest record of any Power 5 conference championship game participant: 8-1 in-conference, 0-3 outside of it. The Wildcats lost to Duke, Akron, and Notre Dame out of conference, but have only a 20-17 loss against Michigan in Big Ten play. If Northwestern wins, they’ll take their first trip to the Rose Bowl since 1995, when Pat Fitzgerald was not the coach, but rather the star linebacker. Meanwhile, the Buckeyes are 11-1, but not necessarily with a bullet; they lost by 29 to Purdue and have single-digit wins over both Nebraska and Maryland. Is that team the one that shows up, or the one that just won 62-39 against Michigan?<\/p>\n In small school news, there is a conference championship game to be played in the FCS as well. The SWAC Championship features Southern against Alcorn State. This game is also a rematch of a regular season contest; Alcorn State beat Southern 20-3 on September 29. Alcorn State’s offense is the best the SWAC has to offer, averaging 471.3 yards per game (14th in FCS); Southern comes into the game on a five-game winning streak since that loss to Alcorn State, including a 38-28 win over rival Grambling in the Bayou Classic last weekend. The game was originally scheduled to be played at Birmingham’s Legion Field, but due to the potential of UAB playing the Conference USA championship game there on the same day, the conference made the decision to play it on the campus of the team with the highest ranking. Therefore, the game will be played on the campus of Alcorn State in Lorman, Mississippi. The winner of this game will face North Carolina A&T in the Celebration Bowl on December 15; the winner of that game is considered the de facto<\/em> HBCU national champion.<\/p>\n Congratulations to Crimson Gator<\/strong>, who wins week 13 with 200 points! JagRag<\/strong> took second with 199, and AllySun<\/strong> was third with 198.<\/p>\n Standings after thirteen weeks:<\/p>\n It all comes down to this. Conference championship week. Just eight little games. The overall season championship looks to be a two-picker race, but there’s individual week honors up for grabs, and people can still improve their standings, so do your best! The first game this week is the Pac-12 Championship, Friday, November 30 @ 8 PM ET<\/strong>, so make sure to get your picks in by then!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" For the first time in FBS history, every conference will hold a championship game, making ten in total. In order of their kickoff, here’s a quick preview of each (all times ET): MAC Championship: Northern Illinois vs. Buffalo, November 30 @ 7 PM. The Huskies are 7-5 overall (6-2 in the MAC), but are entering […]<\/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-438","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-football"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.e-systems.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/438","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=438"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.e-systems.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/438\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":441,"href":"https:\/\/www.e-systems.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/438\/revisions\/441"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.e-systems.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=438"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.e-systems.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=438"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.e-systems.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=438"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n\n
\n 1st<\/td>\n AllySun\u00a0<\/strong><\/td>\n 2,459<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n 2nd<\/td>\n JagRag\u00a0<\/strong><\/td>\n 2,457<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n 3rd<\/td>\n Paul Herron\u00a0<\/strong><\/td>\n 2,442<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n 4th<\/td>\n bamaken\u00a0<\/strong><\/td>\n 2,418<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n 5th<\/td>\n Jeff4Bama\u00a0<\/strong><\/td>\n 2,406<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n 6th<\/td>\n Crimson Gator\u00a0<\/strong><\/td>\n 2,400<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n 7th<\/td>\n Ragnor\u00a0<\/strong><\/td>\n 2,391<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n 8th<\/td>\n BEVO\u00a0<\/strong><\/td>\n 2,364<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n 9th<\/td>\n El Dude-arino\u00a0<\/strong><\/td>\n 2,359<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n 10th<\/td>\n Pachyderm\u00a0<\/strong><\/td>\n 2,358<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n