WEEK 9 SLATE PREVIEW

After last week's phenomenal week of college football, there will be a pretty significant drop in the hype meter this weekend. Week 9 is the first of a couple of popular weeks for bye weeks so this does not come as much of a surprise. The slate does feature another Top-10 matchup with UCLA at Oregon, but 2 of the 3 slates do not feature many marquee games if any.

A pretty weak slate with the featured game being Syracuse at Clemson. Even though the game is a Top-25 matchup featuring 2 undefeated teams, Clemson comes in as a 13.5 point favorite and the style of gameplay will not get many people excited.

In the preseason, Cincinnati at SMU was viewed as a huge game to the group of 5 landscape. Unfortunately, SMU comes into this game 3-3 and Cincy, still ranked, has certainly taken a step back from last year's playoff team.

The third feature game is probably Kansas at Baylor. The Kansas hype train has gone off the rails after losing QB Jalon Daniels and losing their last two games. Defending BIG12 champion Baylor comes in at 3-3 as their disappointing season rolls on.

The Middle Slate is the only thing that gives this weekend any hope at this point. A Top-10 matchup being UCLA and Oregon should have plenty of fireworks. A huge game for the PAC12 landscape should have the hype high enough, but a spread of less than a touchdown with a total in the 70s has things set up for a close and exciting matchup.

Oklahoma State tries to regroup and keep their BIG12 championship hopes alive as they welcome in Texas. Texas is a 6.5 point favorite in another game that should feature plenty of offense and fireworks.

The last featured game is Ole Miss traveling to LSU. A Top10, undefeated Ole Miss team is now a 1.5 point underdog. This game should also have plenty of offense and should be another great game.

Overall, this middle slate has a nice solid core with 3 games that should feature offense and close games.

Alabama will look to bounce back from their thrilling loss last week as they have Mississippi State this week. Historically, Alabama has destroyed Mike Leach Miss State teams and Bama comes in as a 20.5 point favorite.

Coming off an OT thriller win, TCU will look to stay undefeated in a pivotal BIG12 matchup against Kansas State. The atmosphere should be rocking at night at TCU and their offense will hopefully keep rolling to please that atmosphere. A close spread and a pretty high total points to another exciting game.

Lastly, a probable low-scoring affair between Minnesota and Penn State. Both QBs come in banged up if playing at all in Tanner Morgan's case. It is also white out week so the atmosphere will be a nice boost to what may be a pretty boring game otherwise.