Can't Wait For Saturday | Never a dull moment thanks to the SEC

Greetings from "Can't Wait For Saturday," your morning morsel of college football, courtesy of longtime Illini beat writer, AP Top 25 voter and Heisman state rep Bob Asmussen. He'll give you his views each day on the game he loves.

Last weekend featured a string of college football thrillers that shook up The Associated Press Top 25. Will it happen again? Eventually, but probably not this week.

The headliner is in the Big Ten, No. 5 Ohio State at No. 14 Iowa. Never easy to beat Kirk Ferentz in Iowa City. The oddsmakers don't believe, installing the Buckeyes as two-TD favorites. We'll see.

The second- and third-most watchable games of the weekend are in the SEC, which currently includes nine ranked teams. No. 7 Alabama visits No. 16 Mississippi State. The Crimson Tide are about where they were projected. But the undefeated Bulldogs are one of the surprise teams in the country with a blowout win at Minnesota and an upset of ranked Missouri. Beat Alabama and Mississippi State takes a serious leap into the College Football Playoff mosh pit.

There is one other matchup of ranked teams this weekend: Florida at Missouri. The Gators flew up the rankings after dominating Mississippi. Missouri held on to the final spot in the Top 25 after the loss to Mississippi State.

The Tigers are in the middle of a rough stretch with four games left against ranked teams, including No. 1 Texas and No. 2 Georgia.

From the source Bob Asmussen is a college football reporter and columnist for The News-Gazette. He can be reached at 217-393-8248 or [email protected].