Weekend Watch Guide: An Oklahoma State Fan’s Guide to Week 13 of the College Football Season

It feels as if the college football season has gone by as quick as a hiccup.

It’s the last week of the regular season. Big games are galore, though. Here are quick previews for the games worth watching this Thanksgiving weekend.

Big 12 Schedule

TCU at No. 13 Oklahoma — 11 a.m. Friday on FOX
Texas Tech at No. 7 Texas — 6:30 p.m. Friday on ABC
Houston at UCF — 11 a.m. Saturday on FS1
BYU at No. 20 Oklahoma State — 2:30 p.m. Saturday on ABC
West Virginia at Baylor — 6 p.m. Saturday on FS1
Kansas at Cincinnati — 6:30 p.m. Saturday on ESPN2
Iowa State at No. 19 Kansas State — 7 p.m. Saturday on FOX

It’s a Big 12 Black Friday with two league games taking place the day after Thanksgiving.

The slate starts with TCU’s trip to Norman. A win for the Horned Frogs makes them bowl eligible. The Sooners, meanwhile, still have a shot at the Big 12 title game should they win and results elsewhere go their way.

Then the Red Raiders head to Austin for a game that picked up a bunch of publicity this offseason when Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark told a Tech crowd that he would be at this game and told Tech coach Joey McGuire to “take care of business.” If you’re an Oklahoma State fan, you’d rather the Red Raiders not take care of business because a Texas win would mean all OSU would need to do is beat BYU on Saturday to get to Arlington.

The Saturday slate kicks off with a game between Houston and UCF in Orlando. The Knights would be bowl eligible with a win. All Houston has on the line at this point is pride.

Then comes OSU-BYU. Should Texas take care of business the night before, this would be a play-in game to Arlington for the Pokes. But BYU has plenty to fight for because a win would make the Cougars bowl eligible and extend their season.

After being picked to finish last in the league, West Virginia would finish the regular season 8-4 with a win in Waco. Three of the Mountaineers’ losses have been against teams currently in the Top 20. Baylor stinks. The Bears might actually be the worst team in the league at 3-8 — just two seasons removed from winning the Big 12 and a Sugar Bowl.

Kansas could also finish 8-4 with a road win against 3-8 Cincinnati.

Lastly — should stuff go sideways elsewhere — the Kansas State Wildcats could be playing for a Big 12 title game berth when they host Farmageddon. It ought to be a fun game regardless of the results leading into it.

Thanksgiving Delight

No. 12 Ole Miss at Mississippi State — 6:30 p.m. Thursday on ESPN

Ole Miss should go into Starkville and leave victorious, but the Egg Bowl is weird — so weird it was once decided by an Ole Miss player celebrating by mimicking a dog urinating just for the Rebels to lose that game.

Food Coma Friday

No. 17 Iowa at Nebraska — 11 a.m. Friday on CBS
UTSA at No. 20 Tulane — 2:30 p.m. Friday on ABC
Air Force at Boise State — 3 p.m. Friday on FS1
No. 16 Oregon State at No. 6 Oregon — 7:30 p.m. Friday on FOX

If you want to watch two offenses stare at each other for the better part of three hours, I guess you could flip on Iowa and Nebraska — a game with an over/under of 26.5.

UTSA, Tulane and SMU are tied atop the American at 7-0 entering the final week of the regular season, so the Roadrunners’ trip to New Orleans has a lot at stake on Friday.

Air Force and Boise also have conference title implications. Both are a part of a three-way tie in second in the Mountain West at 5-2 behind 6-1 UNLV. UNLV plays San Jose State (the other team in the three-way tie for second) on Saturday.

The Civil War between Oregon State and Oregon is perhaps as hype as ever with both teams being so relevant this late into the season. Could the OSU Beavers pull an OSU Cowboys and send their more heralded in-state rival to another conference with an L?

Saturday Selections

No. 2 Ohio State at No. 3 Michigan — 11 a.m. Saturday on FOX
Tulsa at East Carolina — 1 p.m. Saturday on ESPN+
Colorado at Utah — 2 p.m. Saturday on Pac-12 Network
No. 8 Alabama at Auburn — 2:30 p.m. Saturday on CBS
No. 15 Arizona at Arizona State — 2:30 p.m. Saturday on ESPN
No. 5 Florida State at Florida — 6 p.m. Saturday on ESPN
No. 24 Clemson at South Carolina — 6:30 p.m. Saturday on SEC Network
North Carolina at No. 22 NC State — 7 p.m. Saturday on ACC Network

Ohio State and Michigan each ran through a grotesque Big Ten to get to this point unbeaten. This might be the only Big Ten game that was actually worth watching all year.

Tulsa closes out Year 1 of the Kevin Wilson era with a trip to East Carolina. The Golden Hurricane is 3-8 on the season, but ECU is actually worse at 2-9.

Colorado will not make a bowl in Year 1 of the Prime era, but the Buffaloes do close the season with a fun, future Big 12 matchup against Utah.

I almost didn’t include the Iron Bowl on this list because the Tigers lost to New Mexico State last week, but it’s in Auburn, it’s a historic rivalry, it ought to be fun (or a slaughter).

At 3-8, Arizona State has little shot of winning the Duel in the Desert, but this could be a fun time for Big 12 fans to get a look at a future conference rivalry.

Florida hasn’t lived up to expectations this season, but The Swamp ought to be a hectic place for the CFP-hopeful Seminoles to finish their regular season.

Clemson and South Carolina probably haven’t had the years they’ve expected, but the Gamecocks enter Saturday’s rivalry game a win away from bowl eligibility. So there are some stakes to this game outside of just wanting to beat your rival.

Drake Maye’s North Carolina Tarheels have also been below expectations this season, as they head to what ought to be a fun environment in Raleigh for a rivalry matchup with the ranked Wolfpack.