SEC ROOTING GUIDE

In which we tell you which teams you should root against in the upcoming week.

SEC for fans, especially those of Alabama, Auburn, Georgia, Mississippi State and Ole Miss, have a busy weekend. Four of those teams play actual games, while even Tide fans should get rowdy. That’s because villains Jameis Winston, coach Jimbo Fisher and the Florida State Seminoles travel to Louisville on Thursday night as just a 3.5-point favorite.

The three non-SEC teams in the top seven of the initial College Football Playoff poll both could lose, which may tilt the earth’s axis to the Southeast.

Florida State at Louisville: This can’t sound too familiar to Arkansas fans. Outside of Ole Miss, Bobby Petrino and the Cardinals have the best defense in the country. That’s thanks to coach Charlie Strong and the players he recruited before jetting to Texas, and perhaps former Georgia defensive coordinator Todd Grantham, who followed Petrino to Louisville. This game represents the last vestige of hope that FSU could lose before the national semifinals. Weekday games on the road have proven tricky the last two seasons. Is this college football’s next big upset?

TCU at West Virginia: Crimson Tide fans, I told you the weekend was busy. West Virginia has two losses, including one to Alabama. If the Mountaineers win this weekend, it will boost your resume. For SEC fans at large, TCU entered the inaugural CFP poll at No. 7, the third-highest non-SEC team. A loss by the Horned Frogs furthers the Big 12 chaos and edges the conference a little closer to self-destruction.

Utah at Arizona State: The Sun Devils are the only team at 4-1 in the Pac-12 South. Utah keeps surprising with defense and special teams, but it still seems like the Utes are living on borrowed time. SEC fans could be rooting for Utah fairly often down the stretch, as the team also hosts Oregon next week. Arizona State still has Notre Dame, Arizona and a potential Pac-12 championship game left on its schedule, so there are plenty of opportunities for it to stumble if it doesn’t happen here.

Stanford at Oregon: One would suspect this is the perfect spot for the Ducks to exact revenge for the last two years, at home against a three-loss Cardinal team with a quarterback who has plateaued too early and a defense not as menacing as it was last season. Marcus Mariota is healthy and the Oregon offensive line is protecting him well. Oregon freshman RB Royce Freeman is a superstar. But Stanford has a proven blueprint and this is the only game that matters for the Cardinal the rest of the year. An Oregon loss is cause for celebration for SEC fans.