With most regular seasons coming to an end and a bevy of rivalry matchups in college football Week 13, these five teams should be on upset alert.
It’s that time of year in college football. The 2017 regular season is coming to a close and, as per usual, nothing is definitive just yet. With conference championship matchups looming and number of big rivalry games on the schedule in Week 13, shakeups could happen across the country in droves throughout the week.
When it comes to rivalry games, anything could happen. It doesn’t matter if one team is still striving for bowl eligibility while the other is eyeing a spot in the College Football Playoff. The nature of this type of matchup and feud is rooted in unpredictability. That’s what makes this time of year in the sport one of the most exciting of the entire season.
As such, though, predicting upsets or potential upsets can ultimately be a bit difficult. After all, if anything can happen, how is one supposed to look at the landscape and predict all of the madness that could potentially ensue? I’m not entirely sure, but we’re going to try and do that anyway. Just know that anyone could go down in college football Week 13, but that these are the most likely candidates to fall.
Here are the five college football teams on upset alert in Week 13.
5. Wisconsin Badgers
Rank: 5, Opponent: Minnesota Golden Gophers
So after all of that talk about these being the teams “most likely” to be upset this week, you might be shocked to see the undefeated Wisconsin Badgers on here. After all, the big question about this team was how they would respond when actually being tested. They answered that question emphatically with a dominant win over the Michigan Wolverines last week. Now they face a Minnesota Golden Gophers team with just two wins in the Big Ten, so this should be a cake-walk, right?
In terms of talent and quality, yes, Wisconsin should ultimately come out on top in this one. However, the bigger thing for the Badgers here that worries me is the situation. When you look at everything surrounding this game, there’s reason to be worried. And that starts with the schedule. Not only is Wisconsin coming off a big game against Michigan, but they are also now looking ahead to the Big Ten Championship. So even with this being a rivalry game, that could create some turmoil for the Badgers.
What’s more, I’m never going to count P.J. Fleck out for a big game. His first season with the Golden Gophers may not have gone quite as well as he’d hoped to this point, but he’s undeniably a fantastic football coach and one that has a fair amount of talent at his disposal. It wouldn’t be a shock to see him pull out all the stops on Saturday and use them to shock the world and Wisconsin with a massive upset victory.