(AP) Two of the three matchups of Associated Press Top 25 teams in Week 12 of the college football season take place in the Southeastern Conference, and the tightly bunched Atlantic Coast Conference and American Conference races should start untangling.
No. 10 Texas visits No. 5 Georgia in the only top-10 matchup on Saturday and No. 11 Oklahoma heads to No. 4 Alabama.
No. 9 Notre Dame goes to No. 23 Pittsburgh with an opportunity to strengthen its College Football Playoff resume. The Fighting Irish put a beat down on Navy last week for their seventh straight win, and the Panthers will be the toughest of their three remaining opponents.
In the ACC, there are five teams with one loss in conference play and two others with a pair of losses. Two of those one-loss teams square off when No. 20 Virginia visits Duke, and two-loss Miami faces a tricky home game against N.C. State, which has wins over Virginia and Georgia Tech.
There also are five one-loss teams in the American, and the jockeying now begins in earnest for spots in the conference title game and possibly the automatic CFP bid that goes to the highest-ranked Group of Five champion.
No. 25 South Florida visits Navy in a matchup of one-loss teams and two-loss Memphis goes to one-loss East Carolina. Tulane is coming off its big win at Memphis and will need to be on point when Florida Atlantic visits. North Texas, the fifth one-loss team, goes on the road to play a UAB team that upset Memphis four weeks ago.
Best game
No. 10 Texas (7-2, 4-1 SEC, No. 10 CFP) at No. 5 Georgia (8-1, 6-1, No. 5), Saturday, 7:30 p.m. ET (ABC)
Georgia beat the Longhorns twice last season, the second time in the SEC championship game, and another win here would put the kibosh on Texas’ slim hopes of returning to the title game and CFP. As it is, Texas A&M and Alabama are on a collision course to play in Atlanta on Dec. 6 if both win out.
Texas’ biggest regret will be its Oct. 4 loss at Florida. Still, the Longhorns head to Athens off four straight wins and well-positioned for an attractive bowl game.
The Bulldogs have won five in a row since their three-point home loss to Alabama, and even if they lose to Texas, they can still make the CFP.
Under the radar
No. 18 Michigan (7-2, 5-1 Big Ten, No. 18 CFP) vs. Northwestern (5-4, 3-3), Saturday, at Wrigley Field, noon ET (Fox)
The Wolverines head to the home of the Chicago Cubs needing to win out and get help to make the Big Ten championship game. If they win here and at Maryland, their home game against No. 1 Ohio State on Nov. 29 could be for a spot in Indianapolis on Dec. 6 if they prevail in other Big Ten tiebreaker scenarios.
Northwestern won’t be an easy out at Wrigley. The Wildcats are on the cusp of bowl eligibility and one of the Big Ten’s surprise teams. Michigan will be without star running back Justice Haynes (foot), though Jordan Marshall more than picked up the slack against Purdue on Nov. 1.
Heisman watch
Vanderbilt quarterback Diego Pavia isn’t getting Heisman hype to the level of Ohio State’s Julian Sayin, Indiana’s Fernando Mendoza or Alabama’s Ty Simpson, but days like he had against Auburn make him hard to ignore.
Pavia’s 489 yards of total offense in an overtime win over Auburn were a career high. He passed for three touchdowns and ran for one. His seven rushing TDs are most among SEC quarterbacks, his 21 passing TDs are tied for most, and his 70% completion rate leads the conference.
Pavia’s odds of winning the Heisman are 25-to-1, tied for fifth, according to BetMGM Sportsbook. Sayin and Mendoza are the favorites at 7-to-4, Simpson is 11-to-2 and Texas A&M’s Marcell Reed is 15-to-2.
Numbers to know
2 — Sacks allowed by Cincinnati and Maryland, fewest in the nation.
17 — FBS-leading blocked kicks by Notre Dame since 2022.
25-0 — UConn quarterback Joe Fagnano’s touchdown pass-interception ratio. He’s third in the nation in TD passes and the only full-time starter without an interception.
41-0 — Lincoln Riley’s record when his team holds the opponent to 20 points or less over his nine seasons at Oklahoma and Southern California.
32 — Tulane’s consecutive wins when entering the fourth quarter with the lead.
Hot seat
Michigan State’s Jonathan Smith is only in his second season, which would make a firing almost unthinkable in the previous era of college athletics. This is the age of the quick trigger, though, and the current athletic director and school president weren’t the ones who hired Smith.
Smith is 8-13 overall, 3-12 in Big Ten games, and he benched the quarterback he brought with him from Oregon State, Aidan Chiles, for the Minnesota game two weeks ago.
The Spartans have averaged 18.7 points per game and allowed 32.9 per game in Big Ten games under Smith, and they’ll take a seven-game conference losing streak into their home game against Penn State. If they don’t win Saturday or against Iowa (road) or Maryland (home), they would go winless in Big Ten play for the first time since 1958.
Smith’s buyout, if fired after the season, would be $34 million, according to the Detroit Free Press.
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