College Football Weekend Watch Party: USC-Oregon, Two Blue Bloods on the Way Back

This weekend's Oregon-USC fascinates me, because it features two former championship schools that always seem to get the benefit of the doubt yet somehow are tremendously underrated at the moment.

Oregon's season never really got off the ground after the Ducks lost at Michigan State early, and it looked like Oregon's dynasty was all but over after a blowout loss to Utah and a home loss to Washington State. But the Ducks muddled through those games without a healthy Vernon Adams. Oregon's quarterback has since rebounded. More important, he has been terrific. His 9.5 yards per attempt ranks fourth in the nation—this, from a guy who played in the Football Championship Subdivision last year—and he makes Oregon a much better team.

The Ducks have won four in a row, including last week's win over Stanford, in which they scored more points on the Cardinal than anyone had all season. So give this team credit. With Adams at his best, the offense is just as potent as it was in the Ducks' glory days; in its last three games, Oregon put up 61 points against Arizona State, 44 against Cal, and 38 against Stanford.

USC's season has followed a similar arc. The Trojans lost their coach early and were perplexingly terrible at times, but they're back with impressive wins over Utah and at Cal. The win over Utah was vintage USC: the Utes came in undefeated, but the Trojan offense finally looked like a unit stocked with top high school recruits, and USC's dominating 42-24 win was a far from what we saw in the school's 17-12 loss to Washington.

Now riding a four-game winning streak, the Trojans control their destiny in the Pac-12 South, with this game and a rivalry game against UCLA.

I really have no idea what's going to happen in this matchup, but no matter what it should be fun. First, there's Vernon Adams:

Then there's USC wide receiver Juju Smith-Schuster:

Oregon is ranked No. 23 and USC is ranked No. 24 based on their overall body of work. Based on how both schools playing right now, though, this is a matchup of two top 15 blue bloods, hungry to show that they're all the way back.

Let's be honest: Oklahoma State is somewhat lucky to be here. Thanks to officiating errors, the Cowboys slid by Texas and Kansas State, and then beat a TCU team that isn't as good as it first appeared. Still, OSU is a pretty talented team, and its streak of very good fortune appears intact, given that Baylor team that has one quarterback out and an injured backup in Jarrett Stidham. Stidham will play, but that doesn't mean he will be effective. This is one of two big ones in a row for Oklahoma State's Playoff hopes, and it is a must-win for Baylor, as well.

This probably won't be a super-exciting game. Wisconsin and Northwestern are two very sloppy offensive teams, which rank No. 72 and No. 116, respectively, in yards per play. However, they're playing a game in two to four inches of snow. Sign me up!

As I already mentioned, I don't think TCU is that good. The advanced stats don't, either: the Horned Frogs rank No. 29 in the S&P+ ratings. Moreover, star receiver Josh Doctson is now out for the season. Meanwhile, Oklahoma is probably the best team in the Big 12 at the moment, having beaten Baylor and gone undefeated over the past month. That said, Oklahoma also lost to Texas, and TCU is a lot better than Texas. Plus, you never know what will happen with Big Game Bob Stoops.

Heading into the year, this was supposed to be the Big Ten's Game of the Century of the Season. Thanks to MSU's loss to Nebraska, it has lost some of its luster. Nevertheless, the winner has the inside track to the Big Ten Championship, and it's still a showdown between two of the three best teams in the Big Ten East. Ohio State has to play MSU and Michigan back to back. If there were ever a time for the Buckeyes to play like they did at the end of last year, it would be now.

A month into the season, this game looked like it could have decided the SEC West. LSU was dominating everyone with star running back Leonard Fournette, who looked to be a lock for the Heisman Trophy, and Ole Miss had beaten Alabama. Both teams have fallen flat since. Ole Miss now has three losses, with blowouts to Florida and Memphis and a close home loss to Arkansas. LSU has consecutive losses to Alabama and Arkansas, and Fournette is a shell of what he once was, finishing with just 31 yards against the Crimson Tide and 91 yards against the Razorbacks—his two lowest totals of the season.

A month ago, this matchup likely would have headlined this piece. Now it's just two SEC West pretenders playing a game that doesn't really matter.