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Week 11 College Football TV Schedule and Big Orange Rooting Guide

In addition to rooting for the Vols, Tennessee fans should pull for South Carolina, Texas, Indiana, Baylor, Arkansas, Ole Miss, and a bunch of underdogs this week.

NCAA Football: Tennessee Tech at Tennessee Randy Sartin-USA TODAY Sports

The orange-tinged College Football TV Schedule and Big Orange Rooting Guide is back with a gleam in its eye this week. Vols fans nearly wrote off their hopes for Atlanta after the South Carolina loss, but now that Arkansas has knocked over the most unlikely domino by giving Florida one of two losses needed (ahead of a road trip to LSU for the Gators in a couple of weeks), and now that Tennessee appears to have found its legs, here we are back to legit hopes for a trip to the SEC Championship Game. Here are the current SEC East standings:

CONF OVERALL HOME ROAD
Florida 4-2 6-2 4-0 1-2
Kentucky 4-3 5-4 4-2 1-2
Georgia 3-4 5-4 1-2 3-1
South Carolina 3-4 5-4 4-2 1-2
Tennessee 2-3 6-3 4-1 1-2
Vanderbilt 1-4 4-5 2-2 2-3
Missouri 0-5 2-7 2-3 0-4

Nobody's going to make the College Football Playoff with three losses, but positioning for bowl games does depend on how crowded the field is. So for reference, here is the current Top 25:

RK TEAM REC TREND LAST WEEK NEXT WEEK
1 Alabama 9-0 @ #13 LSU W 10-0 11/12 vs Mississippi State
2 Clemson 9-0 vs Syracuse W 54-0 11/12 vs Pittsburgh
3 Michigan 9-0 vs Maryland W 59-3 11/12 @ Iowa
4 Washington 9-0 1 @ California W 66-27 11/12 vs #20 USC
5 Ohio State 8-1 1 vs #10 Nebraska W 62-3 11/12 @ Maryland
6 Louisville 8-1 1 @ Boston College W 52-7 11/12 vs Wake Forest
7 Wisconsin 7-2 1 @ Northwestern W 21-7 11/12 vs Illinois
8 Texas A&M 7-2 4 @ Mississippi State L 35-28 11/12 vs Ole Miss
9 Auburn 7-2 vs Vanderbilt W 23-16 11/12 @ Georgia
10 Penn State 7-2 2 vs Iowa W 41-14 11/12 @ Indiana
11 Oklahoma 7-2 3 @ Iowa State W 34-24 11/12 vs Baylor
12 Colorado 7-2 3 vs UCLA W 20-10 11/12 @ Arizona
13 Oklahoma State 7-2 5 @ Kansas State W 43-37 11/12 vs Texas Tech
14 Virginia Tech 7-2 5 @ Duke W 24-21 11/12 vs Georgia Tech
15 Utah 7-2 1 11/10 @ Arizona State
16 West Virginia 7-1 4 vs Kansas W 48-21 11/12 @ Texas
17 North Carolina 7-2 4 vs Georgia Tech W 48-20 11/10 @ Duke
18 Florida State 6-3 4 @ NC State W 24-20 11/11 vs Boston College
19 Nebraska 7-2 9 @ #6 Ohio State L 62-3 11/12 vs Minnesota
20 USC 6-3 NR vs Oregon W 45-20 11/12 @ #4 Washington
21 Western Michigan 9-0 2 @ Ball State W 52-20 @ Kent State W 37-21
22 Boise State 8-1 2 vs San José State W 45-31 11/12 @ Hawai'i
23 Washington State 7-2 2 vs Arizona W 69-7 11/12 vs California
24 LSU 5-3 11 vs #1 Alabama L 10-0 11/12 @ #25 Arkansas
25 Arkansas 6-3 NR vs #11 Florida W 31-10 11/12 vs #24 LSU

And with that, here is this week's TV schedule, curated for Vols fans:

Thursday, Nov. 10, 2016

MATCHUP TIME (ET) TV / ONLINE CHANCE OF THE HIGHER-RANKED TEAM LOSING
(17) North Carolina at Duke 7:30 pm ESPN / WatchESPN ~22%
(15) Utah at Arizona State 9:30 pm FS1 / FSGo ~42%

Root for the underdogs here (Duke and Arizona State), as it would help thin out the herd a bit and possibly make room for the Vols toward the end of the season.

Saturday, Nov. 12, 2016

The Noon Slate

MATCHUP TIME (ET) TV / ONLINE CHANCE OF THE HIGHER-RANKED TEAM LOSING
Kentucky at Tennessee Noon SECN / WatchESPN ~11%
South Carolina at Florida Noon CBS / Stream ~15%
(16) West Virginia at Texas Noon FS1 / FSGo ~49%
(10) Penn State at Indiana Noon ABC/ESPN2 (RM) / WatchESPN ~20%
Baylor at (11) Oklahoma Noon ABC/ESPN2 (RM) / WatchESPN ~21%

The biggest key here, obviously, is Tennessee getting the win over Kentucky. ESPN currently gives Kentucky a mere 11% chance of ruining things for Tennessee.

The next thing to watch is whether South Carolina can make Florida's later trip to LSU irrelevant by going ahead and giving them their third SEC loss, which would be wonderful for Vols fans. According to ESPN, though, there's only a 15% chance of that happening.

After that, it's just hoping for the crowd to disperse a bit, rooting for Texas over West Virginia, Indiana over Penn State, and Baylor over Oklahoma. Of the three, Texas is most likely to get it done.

The Afternoon Slate

MATCHUP TIME (ET) TV / ONLINE CHANCE OF THE HIGHER-RANKED TEAM LOSING
(9) Auburn at Georgia 3:30 pm CBS / Stream ~19%
Georgia Tech at (14) Virginia Tech 3:30 pm ESPNU / WatchESPN ~22%

Assuming Tennessee gets to the SEC Championship Game and that we'd rather play Auburn than Alabama, root for Auburn to do the expected to Georgia.

Oh, what to do with Virginia Tech? Normally, we'd want them to keep winning to make the Vols' earlier victory over them look better. And yet, we'd also want them to lose to thin out the herd in front of us. But here's what I'm rooting for right now, since it's actually still in play: Tennessee goes to Atlanta, plays Auburn, and wins. Meanwhile, Virginia Tech goes to the ACC Championship and beats either Clemson or Louisville. Even with three losses, an argument that Tennessee not only won the SEC but also beat three other conference champions (the other two being Appalachian State in the Sun Belt and Ohio in the MAC) has to carry some weight. It's a long shot, but all of that is still in play, so that's what I'm rooting for. Go Vols and Go Hokies.

The Evening Slate

MATCHUP TIME (ET) TV / ONLINE CHANCE OF THE HIGHER-RANKED TEAM LOSING
(24) LSU at Arkansas 7:00 pm ESPN / WatchESPN ~22%
Minnesota at (19) Nebraska 7:30 pm BTN / BTN2Go ~32%
Ole Miss at (8) Texas A&M 7:30 pm SECN / WatchESPN ~30%
USC at (4) Washington 7:30 pm FOX / FSGo ~21%
(12) Colorado at Arizona 10:00 pm FS1 / FSGo ~13%
California at (23) Washington State 10:30 pm ESPN / WatchESPN ~15%

There aren't many compelling games in the evening, but there are several positioned for upsets, most notably Ole Miss at Texas A&M and Minnesota at Nebraska. Arkansas could also get LSU. Root for Arkansas and Ole Miss to improve the SEC bowl selection pecking order for the Vols. Apart from that, I don't know that any of those other games really matter to Vols fans, but at this point I think we're all just rooting for upsets, so Go Chaos.