The college football season is getting closer to conference championships and that means rivalry week is here and with Thanksgiving days away, teams are getting ready for the big games against their rival teams and none is bigger in Week 14 than the Alabama Crimson Tide visiting the Auburn Tigers in the Iron Bowl.
The week starts up on Tuesday with Northern Illinois looking to stay undefeated against Western Michigan and then on Thursday there are two very solid rival games, as Texas Tech and Texas will play along with Ole Miss and Mississippi State, with the Lone Star game coming on FOX Sports 1 starting at 7:30 pm and the SEC battle coming on ESPN at the same time and streaming on the Watch ESPN website. Friday has some great matchups as well, with Iowa and Nebraska playing at 12 noon on ABC and other games after that includes Arkansas and LSU playing on CBS at 2:30 pm, while Miami will take on Pitt on ABC starting up at 3:30 pm.
Washington State and Washington will play their rivalry game on Friday afternoon on FOX starting up at 3:30 pm and that game will be at Husky Stadium. Oregon State and Oregon have one of the best rivalries and that game will be in Eugene at Autzen Stadium starting up at 7 pm and will be on fox Sports 1, while South Florida and UCF will battle at 8 pm on ESPN. Other games on Friday include Fresno State and San Jose State as well as Bowling Green and Buffalo.
The biggest game of the schedule in the SEC and for rivalry week will be down south in Alabama though, as the Crimson Tide will travel to Jordan-Hare Stadium to play against the Auburn Tigers in the Iron Bowl and that game will be at 3:30 pm and is the national SEC game on CBS. Alabama is clearly the best team in the nation and to make it into the national championship game and the SEC championship game, they will have to win against Auburn, who have been rising in the BCS over the past few weeks and now the game is a top five matchup fort Saturday in the biggest game of the year.
The rivalry between these two teams is historic and heated and on Saturday Alabama will put its perfect record of 7-0 in the SEC and 11-0 overall in what is basically an SEC semifinals game between Auburn and Bama. Alabama comes in as the best defensive team in the nation, allowing less than 10 points per game, while Auburn is the 17th ranked scoring offense with nearly 40 points scored per game and they are allowing 22 points per contest. Quarterback Nick Marshall kept the team alive with a miracle win against Georgia, but Alabama as AJ McCarron, who is going for his unprecedented third championship and he could have a Heisman as well depending on how he finishes the season and all that will start with a win in the Iron Bowl.
The game should be one of the best of the week and Saturday also includes games between Ohio State and Michigan, Baylor and TCU as well as a surprising huge game in the ACC between Duke and North Carolina, as the Blue Devils are in position to get to the championship game.
Check here for the Full Week 14 schedule from ESPN and the listings for all the top college games around the nation for Rivalry Week.