Picking the Big 12: Week Fourteen; D-II and FCS preseason polls; COLLEGE FOOTBALL THURSDAY TV SCHEDULE

The Lead

And here we are, at last. It's the final afternoon before real live FBS games this evening, and by a curious twist of fate it's time to reveal our staff picks for the final week of the college football season. That, of course, will be brief; there are only two games, and there were no dissents from the staff. Following that: the preseason D-II and FCS polls, and then your TV SCHEDULE FOR TONIGHT.

Texas at Baylor

West Virginia at Kansas State

The season wraps up with what, for the Big 12, should be a relatively boring Saturday. Nobody has any doubt as to what Baylor will do to Texas, and the staff is united as to the Mountaineer's grim fate in Manhattan. And that brings the regular season to close, like so:

BotC's Projected Big 12 Final Regular Season Standings

If this is how it breaks out, one would expect TCU to make the playoff, Baylor to head to the Sugar Bowl, Oklahoma the Alamo, Oklahoma State the Russell Athletic, K-State the Texas, Texas the Liberty, and West Virginia the Cactus, with the Heart of Dallas Bowl again being cut loose. But if Oklahoma also lands in the top 10, everyone else bumps up a slot, assuming automatic bids haven't eaten up at-large positions.

Division II Epilogue

The Division II preseason rankings are often just as prone to name recognition bias as FBS. That's largely because of the absence of a thriving media environment -- something that's not the case in Division III and doesn't matter that much in the NAIA due to the smaller number of teams. Ironic, then, that both the absence of a thriving media and the existence of a massive one desperate to sell narrative both result in the exact same thing, isn't it?

The preseason AFCA poll offers some course corrections from the final poll last year, but is largely still somewhat reflective. One team does seem to get ranked based on reputation more than anything, but Grand Valley State only checks in at #24. That's less fraught with peril than last year, anyway. The coaches did bring Northwest Missouri State and Ferris State back into the top ten after downgrading them both following playoff losses last winter, and both Ohio Dominican and Concord were pushed back down toward the ten-spot after receiving a ton of credit in the final poll of 2014.

And most importantly, a team which got knocked out in the quarterfinals last year is #1, rather than the team which beat them and then went on to win the national championship -- although Colorado State-Pueblo did claim exactly half of the available first place votes.

You'll want to pay some measure of attention tonight: #1 Mankato hosts #3 Duluth.

The Gulf South led all conferences with four ranked teams -- West Georgia and the 14-16 pack of Delta, North Alabama, and Valdosta. The Great Lakes IAC, Northern Sun, and Pennsylvania conferences all had three teams in the top 25. Only the Great Lakes Valley, Northeast-10, and Southern had no teams ranked; Indianapolis of the GLVC is 26th, Tuskegee of the Southern is 27th, and American International of the NE-10 is 39th. North Carolina-Pembroke, tied for 40th, was the only independent to receive votes.

FCS Epilogue

As everyone expected, North Dakota State was the unanimous #1 in the preseason coaches poll -- then went out and lost on national television last Saturday to make things very interesting. There's no updated poll until after this week's games, however, so the Bison remain #1 as we speak.

There's not much discrepancy between the coaches poll and media poll. The 24th team in the media poll is Stephen F. Austin, who sit at 27 in the coaches' ranking; the media have Eastern Illinois sitting 26th.

The Missouri Valley, by a wide margin, leads all conferences in both polls. Six Valley teams are ranked, and while South Dakota was the only other Valley squad to receive votes in the coaches poll, all ten received at least one vote from a media member. The Big Sky and CAA checked in with four ranked teams, as did the Southland in the media poll. Four conferences have no ranked teams. The SWAC comes closest, with Alcorn State the 26th team in the coaches poll, 29th in the media ballot. The MEAC's highest-ranked team isn't even without dispute. The coaches have Bethune-Cookman 31st, while the media have two MEAC teams ahead of the Wildcats at 34th: South Carolina State in 30th and North Carolina A&T 31st. Sacred Heart is the highest-ranked NEC team at 35 media/36 coaches, while the Pioneer also has a split decision: Jacksonville is 41st in the media standings, while San Diego is 46th with the coaches.

The following is the coaches poll, with the media ranking in the final column. The tail of the table refers only to the coaches poll.

Your Reward

Finally, for having read (or at least dutifully scrolled) through all that, we present your first television schedule of the season. HOORAY!

Thu, Sept 3, 2015
5:00 PM CT CBSS	FIU	at	UCF
5:00 PM CT ESPN	North Carolina	vs. (Charlotte, NC)	South Carolina
5:00 PM CT ESPN3	Lenoir-Rhyne	at	West Chester
6:00 PM CT ESPN3	Stony Brook	at	Toledo
6:00 PM CT ESPN3	VMI	at	Ball State
6:00 PM CT ESPNU	Oklahoma State	at	Central Michigan
6:00 PM CT ESPN3	Elon	at	Wake Forest
6:00 PM CT ESPN3	SE Louisiana	at	Northwestern State
6:00 PM CT ESPN3	Central Arkansas	at	Samford
6:00 PM CT ESPN3	Eastern Illinois	at	Western Illinois
6:30 PM CT ESPN3	Villanova	at	Connecticut
6:30 PM CT ESPN3	Alcorn State	at	(16) Georgia Tech
7:00 PM CT SECN	Western Kentucky	at	Vanderbilt
7:00 PM CT ESPN3	Minnesota-Duluth	at	Minnesota State-Mankato
7:30 PM CT FS1	Michigan	at	Utah
8:00 PM CT ESPN3	Ohio	at	Idaho
8:00 PM CT N/A	Southern Utah	at	Utah State
8:00 PM CT ESPN	(2) TCU	at	Minnesota
8:00 PM CT ESPN3	Fort Lewis	at	Montana State
8:30 PM CT CBSS	Duke	at	Tulane
9:00 PM CT MWC Video	Abilene Christian	at	Fresno State
9:00 PM CT N/A	New Hampshire	at	San Jose State
9:00 PM CT MWC Video	California-Davis	at	Nevada
9:00 PM CT PAC12	Texas-San Antonio	at	(22) Arizona
midnight CT CBSS	Colorado	at	Hawaii

Tomorrow

Fall camp is over, kids. Take a day off, recharge, and then get ready for some serious commentin' and analyzin' on Saturday, because your Wildcats return to the field.