Champs Sports Bowl Weekend Spotlight

An intriguing weekend across the Big East and ACC starts early with a pair of
Friday night games with Champs Sports Bowl implications.

All three of the conference leaders in the Big East – Cincinnati, Rutgers and
West Virginia – all hit the road this week against league opponents. Tonight,
the Scarlet Knights travel to Louisville and the Mountaineers visit Syracuse.
Tomorrow afternoon, the Bearcats are in Tampa to meet USF. If all three maintain
their unblemished conference records, we may not know our Big East options until
later in the season when the three teams play each other. However, it’s possible
that one might stumble on this “road test weekend” and help narrow our
possibilities.

Also on that side of the matchup, Notre Dame will try to keep its momentum from
a four-game winning streak alive as they host rival USC.  It’s our Game ofthe Week, and fans can win two tickets to the Champs Sports Bowl by picking thewinner on our Facebook page.  This is one of the toughest tests for the
Fighting Irish this season and they can’t afford to lose if they hope for a BCS
berth.

This weekend could also be pivotal for the ACC. The marquee game will be Georgia
Tech at Miami, where the Yellow Jackets try to rebound from their first loss
against a Hurricane team that upset North Carolina last Saturday.  The
improved play of quarterback Jacory Harris could be the difference for Miami,
who will also need to stop Tech’s explosive rushing attack.

Atlantic Division (and overall conference) favorite Clemson tries to continue
its surprise season against 5-2 North Carolina. Florida State, already down two
losses in the conference, will try to stay in the hunt as they face Maryland.
The Terps nearly upset Clemson last week and are only one overall win back from
the Seminoles.

In addition to the games above, we’ll also have representatives on location for
Wake Forest at Duke and NC State at Virginia.

Image courtesy of the Big East conference