Local ESPN college football contest standings go through another shake-up

Jim Harbaugh

Just about everyone in the reading audience will have their eyes on the Iron Bowl this coming Saturday, and while I’ll be sure to watch that one, I’ll also be closely watching the Ohio State-Michigan game, which is scheduled to kick off at 11 a.m. in Columbus, Ohio.

Ohio State enters that game ranked No. 2, and Michigan is ranked No. 3. Ohio State is favored to win this game, but I’m pulling for Michigan to win because I’d like for it to set up a playoff showdown between Alabama and Michigan. Under head coach Jim Harbaugh, Michigan has created a lot of noise on the recruiting trails, and nothing would silence that big show like an Alabama beat-down of Michigan in the national championship game.

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The 12th weekend of our local ESPN College Football Pick ‘Em Contest wrapped up on Saturday night, and the standings went through another shake up again this week.

I barely held on to first place for the eighth week in a row being just one point ahead of Drew Skipper, who went from third place to second place. Steve Stacey dropped from second place to third place, and Robert Bozeman remained in fourth place for the second straight week.

Rod Sims and Ricky Taylor were tied for the No. 5 spot. Last week, Sims was in sixth place, and Taylor was in fifth place.

Travis Presley and Eric Talbot were tied for the seventh place spot. Presley wasn’t in the Top 10 last week, and Talbot was in eighth place last week.

Nick Watson dropped from eighth place to ninth place, and Hunter Norris remained in the No. 10 spot for the second week in a row.

We’re getting down to the short rows in the contest with just two weeks left to go. With that said, there’s still a lot of football left to be played, and I suspect that next week’s standings will look a lot different than this week’s. Only time will tell, but I’m kind of doubting that I’ll be able to hang to the No. 1 spot for the next two weeks.

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According to this week’s SEC football schedule, there are five head-to-head games between SEC teams this coming week. Today (Thursday) at 6:30 p.m., LSU will play Texas A&M in College Station, and tomorrow (Friday) at 1:30 p.m., Arkansas will play Missouri in Columbia.

On Saturday, Alabama will play Auburn at 2:30 p.m. in Tuscaloosa, and Mississippi State will play Ole Miss at 2:30 p.m. in Oxford. Tennessee will play Vanderbilt at 6:30 p.m. in Nashville.

In other games this Saturday featuring SEC teams, Kentucky will play Louisville at 11 a.m. in Louisville, Georgia Tech will play Georgia at 11 a.m. in Athens, South Carolina will play Clemson at 6:30 p.m. in Clemson, and Florida will play Florida State at 7 p.m. in Tallahassee.

Here are my predictions as to how those games will turn out. I like Alabama over Auburn, LSU over Texas A&M, Arkansas over Missouri, Tennessee over Vanderbilt, Ole Miss over Mississippi State, Louisville over Kentucky, Clemson over South Carolina, Georgia over Georgia Tech, and Florida State over Florida.

Last week: 7-3. So far this season: 80-21.