Associated Press
The Top 25 preview …
STANFORD, Calif. ó Andrew Luck insists his dorm room doesn’t have a calendar. He doesn’t wear a watch, and his outdated cellphone doesn’t even show the day of the week.
Luck needs no reminder about Nov. 12.
Since he announced in a one-sentence news release in January that he would return to school, Luck instantly put Stanford and Oregon on a collision course for that date. Everything for both sides has been building toward the moment. Finally, it’s here.
Luck leads No. 3 Stanford against lightning-quick LaMichael James and sixth-ranked Oregon in the Pac-12’s showdown of the season tonight, shifting attention to the West Coast for a game that could decide the eventual league champion and keep the winner in the national title mix.
Stanford is riding the nation’s longest winning streak at 17 games, with the last loss coming at Eugene more than a year ago.
No. 1 LSU (9-0) vs. Western Kentucky (5-4)
Les Miles seeks his 100th victory as a head coach. He is 71-17 since his arrival at LSU in 2005.
No. 2 Oklahoma State (9-0, 6-0) at Texas Tech (5-4, 2-4)
Oklahoma State won in Lubbock last year for the first time since 1944, having gone 0-10-1 in its previous 11 trips.
No. 4 Alabama (8-1, 5-1) at Mississippi State (5-4, 1-4)
Alabama has a 14-2 record on the road since 2008. … Alabama has been ranked 59 straight weeks in the AP Top 25, the longest streak in the nation.
TCU (7-2, 4-0 ) at No. 5 Boise State (8-0, 3-0)
TCU has won a Mountain West record 21 straight games and won 11 straight conference road games. … Boise State has won 10 straight games, the second-longest streak in the nation behind Stanford.
Tennessee (4-5, 0-5 ) vs. No. 8 Arkansas (8-1, 4-1)
The Razorbacks are ranked in the AP Top 25 for the 27th consecutive week, the fifth-longest streak in school history and longest since a streak of 34 weeks from 1988-90
No. 19 Nebraska (7-2, 3-2) at No. 12 Penn State (8-1, 5-0)
The game goes on in the wake of the lurid child-sex scandal in Happy Valley that cost 46th-year coach Joe Paterno his job. Paterno leaves the game with a 409-136-3 record since he became head coach in 1966, the year before Nebraska coach Bo Pelini was born.
No. 13 Michigan State (7-2, 4-1 Big Ten) at Iowa (6-3, 3-2)
Michigan State’s last win at Kinnick Stadium came on Oct. 7, 1989, when it beat the Hawkeyes 17-14.
No. 14 Georgia (7-2, 5-1 ) vs. No. 24 Auburn (6-3, 4-2), 3
This is the Deep South’s oldest rivalry, beginning in 1892 and played every year since 1944. … The schools are close geographically (about 150 miles apart) and even tighter on the field, with only 38 points separating the teams in their 114 previous meetings (Georgia has totaled 1,809 points, Auburn 1,771).
No. 16 Wisconsin (7-2, 3-2) at Minnesota (2-7, 1-4)
Badgers RBs have gone 886 total touches in a row without fumbling, dating to the second game of 2010.
Texas A&M (5-4, 3-3 at No. 17 Kansas State (7-2, 4-2)
Kansas State has not lost three straight games since an 0-5 stretch from Oct. 18-Nov. 15, 2008.
No. 18 USC (7-2, 4-2 Pac-12) vs. Washington (6-3, 4-2)
The game is USC’s homecoming.
No. 21 Texas (6-2, 3-2) at Missouri (4-5, 2-4)
Texas is 11th in the nation in rushing with a 246-yard average. Missouri is 12th, just 1 yard back.
No. 22 Michigan (7-2, 3-2 ) vs. Illinois (6-3, 2-3)
Michigan and Illinois played a wild, three-overtime thriller last fall, which the Wolverines won 67-65.
No. 23 Cincinnati (7-1, 3-0 ) vs. West Virginia (6-3, 2-2)
The Mountaineers are 7-1 in Cincinnati.
No. 25 Southern Miss (8-1, 4-1) vs. Central Florida (4-5, 2-3)
Southern Miss is off to its best start since 1996, when the Golden Eagles were 9-1.