Ohio State, South Florida, LSU Matchups

Since the South Florida game is on Thursday night, it's not too early to take a glance at the matchups that Ohio State, South Florida, and LSU have next weekend. BC has a bye week and will be playing Virginia Tech in the marque match of the ACC next Thursday night.

#1 Ohio State vs Michigan St. University

This is clearly a trap game for Ohio State. Despite nearly knocking off #9 Wisconsin and barely losing to Northwestern, Michigan St. has gained no respect in the rankings thus far. They are 1-2 in the Big 10 and 5-2 overall. I forecast that this might be a tighter matchup than Ohio State would like to see, though I still see OSU coming out with a quality Big Ten victory.

#2 South Florida vs. Rutgers

If there's a team that's been a disappointment this year in the Big East other than Louisville, it would have to be Rutgers. They started the season 3-0 and then lost 2 in a row to Maryland and #20 Cincinnati. The Scarlet Knights got back on track last week against Syracuse, pounding them 38-14 after going down 14-0 early on. Despite the lack of a ranking, Rutgers is still not going to be an easy team to knock off for an inexperienced team like South Florida. I have a good feeling about Rutgers, and that has nothing to do with the fact that I hail from Jersey.

#4 LSU vs. #18 Auburn

Despite being a let-down early on, Auburn has climbed its way towards a #18 ranking in the tough SEC west conference. Auburn already knocked off then-#4 Florida, so this should definitely be a close game. Could LSU lose 2 games in a row? Though I have some faith in this Auburn team, I know Les Miles is not going to stand for losing two straight games against SEC programs. Though Auburn has momentum going into this game, they've been too inconsistent for me to place my faith in them. An interesting side note is that they already lost to #2 South Florida.

Prediction for BC's Ranking Prior to the Virginia Tech Game: #3

Regardless of whether South Florida loses or not, I feel that this is one of the worst possible weeks for BC to have a bye week. Instead of being able to make a statement on the field, BC will have to just watch the scoreboard and hope for the best. I think that BC could go above South Florida if the game is tight enough but will not move up because LSU could easily jump us in the rankings with a pounding of Auburn.