State College Football Predictions, Week 12: The Calm Before The Storm

With the final week of the regular season next weekend set to offer a huge display of fireworks, this weekend can only mean one thing: an explosion while setting up next week's planned display. 

After sliding to a season worst 3-3 last week (bringing my season total to 45-16), I feel confident of two things: 1) No matter how I pick a CMU game, the opposite will happen, and 2) ESPN's College Gameday's appearance in Kalamazoo has been WAY over covered.

Get your witty signs ready, kiddies, here's this week's prognostications.

Indiana (5-5) at Michigan (9-1) -- Michigan Stadium, Ann Arbor, Saturday, 3:30pm

This is NOT a trap game. Indiana can be explosive offensively, and there's no way, after last week's lackluster performance in Iowa City, that the Wolverines are looking past the Hoosiers, not with a second string quarterback (John O'Korn) starting. If Michigan loses this game, everything they've worked hard for is gone. It's that important.

M 37, Indiana 20

Ohio State (9-1) at Michigan State (3-7) -- Spartan Stadium, East Lansing, Saturday, noon.

Even with their bandwagon looking shabby and not very full, this game could make the Spartans season. Last year, Mark Dantonio game planned very well and knocked the Buckeyes off with a second string quarterback, Tyler O'Connor. Now O'Connor is the starter, and not very well thought of in East Lansing. He could turn that around Saturday, but he won't. The Buckeyes win big in an attempt to scare the Wolverines before next weekend's showdown.

OSU 47, MSU 16

Buffalo (2-8) at Western Michigan (10-0) -- Waldo Stadium, Kalamazoo, Saturday, 3:30pm

OMG! ESPN Gameday is coming! Make a sign! Yell and scream! A better choice would have been next weekend's honestly tough game with Toledo, but that's during Rivalry Week (tm), so it's this sad game that gets featured. Nothing to see here, just another MAC West team kicking the poop out of a MAC East team.

WMU 47, Buffalo 12

Central Michigan (6-5) at Eastern Michigan (6-5) -- Rynearson Stadium, Ypsilanti, Tuesday, November 22, 7pm

Much was made about every FBS college team in Michigan (except Michigan State) becoming bowl eligible last week. That doesn't necessarily mean they're all going to get a bowl bid, which makes this game even more interesting. I would say that with the number of bowl eligible teams in the MAC this season, there's a good chance the loser of this game may not go bowling. If Central comes with the same fire they played with last week, they should win this game handily, but alas, predicting CMU games has been my albatross.

CMU 32, EMU 30

Midwestern State (8-2) at Ferris State (9-2) -- Top Taggert Field, Big Rapids, Saturday, 12 noon

Ferris is on a roll, having closed out the regular season with five straight wins. The Mustangs, meanwhile, dropped two of their last four after getting out of the gate 6-0. It's the first round of the NCAA Division II playoffs, and this will be a tough battle in rough conditions, with the forecast for wind driven rain and snow and temps in the 30s. The edge goes to the home team.

Ferris 30, Midwestern 27