College Football Viewing Guide: Week 13

Happy Thanksgiving Hawk fans! While things could always be better (this ain’t Bama, ya know), we have a lot to be thankful for this time of year. Somewhere near the top of the list is the wonderful Black Friday game we’ve all come to know and love. It’s a perfect way to end the season and keep a long holiday weekend rolling. I mean seriously, who else gets to kick the teeth in of one of their border rivals, whose fanbase genuinely believes their 4-win team is the best team in the country and will win every national title until the end of time? It’s glorious!

Beyond Iowa’s Black Friday matchup, there’s a whole slew of college football to feast your eyes on this weekend. So with that, let’s dive in to the games to watch.

Note: All times are as the good Lord intended, in the central time zone. Because we’re not savages.

Thursday Game

What, you thought Thanksgiving was just for the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade and the NFL?

Sprinkled in with the trio of NFL matchups today, we get a pair of NFL games. Colorado State is at Air Force at 2:30 CT on CBS Sports Net. Then at 6:30 we’ve got #18 Mississippi State at Ole Miss on ESPN.

Huzzah!

Friday Games

While the main feast may be on Thursday, that’s just the appetizer on the football front. Or, I suppose more accurately, it’s an appetizer to a larger appetizer. Thursday is that larger appetizer. There’s some stuff going on, but it’s not going to fill you up either.

As we’re all aware, things kick off at 11am with your Iowa Hawkeyes hosting the Nebraska Cornhuskers on FOX. Once that gets out of hand, feel free to check out ABC, where you can find Houston at Memphis. FS1 is carrying #14 Texas at Kansas.

In a staggered start, CBS is carrying Arkansas at Mizzou starting at 1:30 CT.

At 2:30, ABC has Virginia at Virginia Tech. That’s... a football game. CBSSN is carrying East Carolina at Cincinnati if you get desperate. Then at 3, you’ve got Oregon at Oregon State over on FS1. Fifteen minutes later you’ve got #9 UCF at USF on ESPN.

Things get heated up in the evening slate. At 7pm, ESPN has #6 Oklahoma at #13 West Virginia. At 7:30, FOX has #16 Washington at #8 Washington State.

Here’s a look at the full slate.

Saturday Games

So here we are, the main course. I’m not going to lie, it’s much like Thanksgiving itself. The turkey is a bit dry, but it’s still worth eating. There are delicious dinner rolls, some tasty stuffing and a bunch of random sides you don’t need, but will eat nonetheless (this includes every kind of casserole known to mankind). Then, of course, we top it all off with some dessert that we know we shouldn’t indulge in, but it would frankly be rude to pass it up. So we eat it all up, baby!

Pull on the stretchy pants, ya’ll, here we go!

We come out of the gate hot with #4 Michigan at #10 Ohio State on FOX at 11am. ABC has #11 Florida at Florida State. Georgia Tech is at #5 Georgia on the SEC Network. ESPN has #20 Syracuse at Boston College.

And then there’s a slew of side dishes to choose from, including Baylor at Texas Tech on FS1, Purdue at Indiana on ESPN2 (don’t look now, but Jeff Brohm needs to beat Indiana just to get to bowl elgibility - yikes!) and Navy at Tulane on ESPNU.

At 2:30, there are a handful of games that could be interesting. CBS has Auburn at #1 Alabama. ABC is carrying Maryland at #12 Penn State. ESPN has #24 Pitt at Miami. Minnesota is at Wisconsin on ESPN2. The NCAA’s third-leading rusher, Eno Benjamin, and Arizona State are at Arizona on FS1. And Big Ten West Champion #19 Northwestern is hosting Illinois on BTN.

At 3pm, FOX is playing rutger at Michigan State. That one makes as much sense from a “why is this on a major network?” standpoint as it does a “why are these two teams playing with all the other rivalry games?” standpoint.

Things get kicked off in the evening with South Carolina at #2 Clemson on ESPN at 6. ESPN2 has #15 at the future home of Jeff Brohm, Louisville. And #25 Iowa State is actually on real TV this week as they play host to Kansas State on FS1.

At 6:30, the SEC Network has #7 LSU at #22 Texas A&M. Then at 7, ABC has #3 Notre Dame and USC while FOX has Oklahoma at TCU.

In the nightcap, FS1 has BYU at #17 Utah at 9. At 9:15, ESPN has #21 Utah State at ##23 Boise State. And things wrap up with Hawai’i at San Diego State at 9:30 on ESPNU.

And that’s it, folks. Here’s a look at the full slate for Saturday:

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As for the beverages, it’s Thanksgiving. For me, that means drinking whatever my parents happen to have today. Usually something light as there’s way too much food to make room in the pants for anything heavy.

For Friday, I’ve got a few of my favorites stocked in the beer fridge, as well as the known favorites of the in-laws as we’re hosting a small gathering.

Once we hit Saturday, it’s eggnog time baby! Out with Thanksgiving and in with Christmas.

It’s the most wonderful time of the year!

Happy Thanksgiving and Go Hawks!