Gameday - Week #6

For the first time in 18 years, ESPN's College Gameday is broadcasting from Evanston, Illinois, home of Northwestern University.  This evening, the #16 Northwestern Wildcats will play #4 Ohio State Buckeyes in a game that features the highest nationally ranked teams from both Big Ten divisions (8PM - ABC).  Today's slate also features two more games between ranked opponents.  At noon on ESPN, #25 Maryland will play #8 Florida State and the #15 Washington Huskies face the #5 Stanford Cardinals (10:30PM Eastern, ESPN) in a game that could determine who wins the PAC-12 North division.

As for other notable games, today's match-up between #3 Clemson and Syracuse will mark the first time the Tigers play in upstate New York's Carrier Dome (3:30PM ABC/ESPN2 check local listings).  Minnesota plays #19 Michigan (3:30PM ABC/ESPN2 check local listings) in a Big Ten trophy game for The Little Brown Jug, which looks like this:

Minnesota has not won this game since 2005.

#6 Georgia plays Tennessee at 3:30 on CBS, #10 LSU will play Mississippi State at 7PM on ESPN, TCU plays #11 Oklahoma at 7:00 PM on FOX. West Virginia, after last week's big upset over Oklahoma State, will play #17 Baylor at 8PM on FOX Sports 1.  #22 Arizona State faces Notre Dame in South Bend at 7:30 on NBC.  Illinois journeys to Lincoln to play the Nebraska Cornhuskers (noon, ESPNU) and my Indiana Hoosiers will host the Penn State Nittany Lions on the Big Ten Network at Noon.  I would also like to mention that the service academies will play their games as scheduled, and they will not be impacted by the government shutdown.  In fact, the first televised game today is Air Force vs. Navy (11:30AM - CBS) while Army plays Boston College at 1:00 PM.   I plan to be online at noon providing scores and news updates throughout the day.

Today's fan question:  What is your favorite rivalry trophy?

Enjoy the day, everybody!

Just In:  Minnesota head coach Jerry Kill suffered a seizure earlier today and will not coach the Minnesota-Michigan game.  His defensive coordinator Tracy Claeys will coach the game instead.