Orlando Sentinel: 12 Most Intriguing Non-conference Games of the Season

By Mike Huguenin

This dozen will be worth wait.

Last week, we took a look at what we consider the 12 worst games of the college football season, all involving Bowl Championship Series-league schools against I-AA programs. This week, we're looking at what we consider the 12 most intriguing non-conference games of the season not involving annual rivals (in other words, no Florida-Florida State or Notre Dame-USC on here).

Frankly, there were more games to choose from last week than this week -- mighty weak considering the addition of the 12th game. But as we pointed out last week, a lot of power-league schools used the opportunity to add another patsy to the schedule.

BCS-league schools are playing 87 non-conference games against other BCS-league schools or Notre Dame. That's out of a total of 260 non-conference games, meaning a bit more than a third of the BCS schools' non-conference games are against other BCS schools. The numbers for the five non-BCS leagues: 111 games against BCS-league schools or Notre Dame, out of 202 (that's 55 percent).

It's not surprising, of course, seeing as BCS-league schools generally like to load up on what they hope will be non-conference victories. But it is disheartening.

Anyway, here are those 12 most intriguing non-conference games:

 

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2. California at Tennessee, Sept. 2: Cal Coach Jeff Tedford takes his talented bunch across the country to open the season against the Vols, who may have been the nation's biggest underachievers last season. Look for Cal to rely on ultratalented TB Marshawn Lynch against the Vols' rebuilt defensive front seven.

 

Read the entire article at:

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/sports/local/orl-collinsider

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