College Football Viewing Guide: Week 11

College Football Playoff hopes? Gone. Big Ten West title and trip to Indy hopes? Gone. Special season hopes? Gone.

A lot of dreams have dies for the Iowa Hawkeyes over the last couple weeks. What once appeared to be a potentially great year now requires Iowa to win out to salvage what most would consider a good season avoid the dread of mediocrity. That begins this week with a matchup against the - gulp - Big Ten West leading Northwestern Wildcats.

But with little more than the hope of escaping mediocrity left to play for, this season become much more about entertainment than rooting for certain teams to win or lose to help our cause. We no longer have a cause. So let’s take a look at which games might offer so good old fashioned entertainment, shall we?

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

Thursday Game

We only get one game on Thursday this week as the MAC has fully taken over the early week action. Tonight feature #14 NC State hosting Wake Forest. Kickoff is at 6:30pm CT on ESPN

Friday Games

Tomorrow night we get a pair of games. Neither is fantastic, but both feature a ranked team so maybe worth a check in. At 6pm you’ve got #13 Syracuse...

Yes, that’s right - Syracuse is up to #13 in the latest CFP rankings, despite playing two teams with a pulse all season (Clemson and NC State) and losing to one of them (Clemson). And this week they’re hosting putrid Louisville team on ESPN2.

That’s followed up by #23 Fresno State at Boise State at 9:15. That’s also on ESPN2.

Saturday Games

As usual, there’s a full slate on Saturday this week. There are a couple of potentially really good matchups, but mostly just a bunch of OK games with some fluff left over.

Things get kicked off at 11am CT and frankly, most of the good stuff is happening in the Big Ten. on FOX, you’ve got #10 Ohio State at #18 Michigan State. I’ll leave the debate around how MSU went from unranked to 18th with a win over Maryland last week for another day as I think things will sort themselves out here. Either they beat OSU and deserve to be around the top 15 or they lose and they deserve to be around #25. I’m not sure how good OSU is at this point either so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

At the same time, you’ve got Wisconsin at #20 Penn State on ABC. Once upon a time we were rooting for Penn State in this one. Now I just want to drink bleach.

ESPN has #15 Florida hosting South Carolina. TCU is at #9 West Virginia on FS1. CBS gets an early game with Ole Miss at Texas A&M. And the BTN is splitting up Illinois at Nebraska and Maryland at Indiana. Yuck.

In the 2:30 time slot, of course you have Northwestern visiting our beloved Hawkeyes. Frankly, I don’t think Northwestern is that good, but with the way Iowa has found new ways to lose the last couple weeks, we probably find another one this week. Sigh.

If the going gets tough, get going on over to CBS as #16 Mississippi State will see if they can stay within 20 of top-ranked Alabama. ABC will air Bedlam as Oklahoma State travels to #6 Oklahoma. Baylor is at #22 Iowa State (LOL) on FS1. And #8 Washington State will be at Colorado on ESPN.

In the evening slate, ESPN kicks us off at 6pm CT. They’ve got #24 Auburn at #5 Georgia. That should be a decent game. ESPN2 has Miami at Georgia Tech.

Then at 6:30, FOX brings us #19 Texas at Texas Tech. I’m still not on the Texas train. NBC has #3 Notre Dame’s destruction of Florida State.

At 7pm ABC brings us Clemson’s last real test before the ACC title game as they travel to #17 Boston College.

In the night cap, ESPN has Cal at USC starting at 9:30. ESPN2 has UNLV at San Diego State and Colorado State is visiting Nevada on ESPNU. It’s football.

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

On the beverage front, I have preemptively removed all household cleaners from the house in preparation for what could be the final straw on this season. However, I’m making my triumphant return to Kinnick after missing the Maryland game (for those counting at home, that means I haven’t been to the mecca in a month and a half). It’s also likely my last trip this season due to family obligations on Thanksgiving (though are they really family if they don’t want to go to Kinnick with you?).

All that spells tailgate to me. It also spells a lot of beverages. We’re talking quantity here. What better way to get some quantity than a Buschel of beer.

Wait, what?

Yes. This needs to happen.

And now, in the midst of a season on the brink of collapse, we all have a goal for Saturday. Go forth, Hawkeye fans, and find some way to enjoy what’s left of football season.