National Games of Interest (Week 11)

MACtion is back! Last night's games (Bowling Green over Akron 27-10, Toledo over Kent State 30-20) weren't great, but none of that matters. It's now that glorious time of year when football is on seven days a week! We sincerely hope that you took advantage of the last couple weekends' relatively uninteresting match-ups to spend some time with your loved ones. They probably won't see much of you outside of holidays from here on out. This weekend, for example, boasts two National Games of Interest: No. 9 Kansas State at No. 7 TCU (-6) and No. 16 Ohio State at No. 8 Michigan State (-3.5).

The picks: Kansas State +6 and Michigan State -3.5

Why you should care: The SEC West is about to devour itself ouroboros-style, and one of these four teams might sneak into the playoff.

Rationale: TCU is probably the best team in the Big XII, but Kansas State isn't exactly bad. This should be yet another shoot-out out West, so we're just going to take the points and enjoy the show. It's what we've done all season, and it's gotten us a respectable 10-7 record against the spread in games involving teams outside the Southeastern Conference. If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

Speaking of offensive fireworks, would you believe that only 1/10 of a point separates tOSU's and MSU's scoring offenses but that the Spartans actually outperform the Buckeyes on a per-play basis? This is an actual fact. It's also a bit surprising that Ohio State's defense has actually outperformed Michigan State's defense by some metrics. This game should be the best Big Integer game of the season, which we really don't mean as a backhanded compliment. We're taking the guys in green because their loss (to No. 4 Oregon) is a heck of a lot better than the Buckeyes' (to unranked, 4-5 Virginia Tech).

Go Dawgs!