UCF, Oklahoma, Washington St. Friday games could impact Ohio State’s future

How we doing today, fam? Recovered from your personal, gluttonous gorging yesterday? Well, it’s time to wake yourself up from your tryptophan-induced coma, because there is college football to be watched today, and a lot of this afternoon and evening’s action could directly impact Ohio State’s postseason.

There are some interesting games beginning at 12 noon ET, including No. 14 Texas and Kansas, in their last non-Les Miles game. Ohio University will play host to the Zips of Akron, Houston and Memphis will have a shootout to see who wins the American Western division, and at 3 p.m. ET, the Virginia Cavaliers will travel to Blacksburg to take on Virginia Tech.

But, from a Buckeye perspective, the action really picks up at 4:15 p.m. ET on ESPN as the No. 9 UCF Knights look to remain unbeaten through two straight regular seasons as they visit Charlie Strong’s South Florida Bulls.

On Tuesday night, UCF jumped the Buckeyes into the ninth slot in the College Football Playoff rankings following their win over Luke Fickell’s then-ranked Cincinnati Bearcats. So, if Strong, a former Urban Meyer assistant, can pull the regular season ending upset, that would clear one hurdle for the Buckeyes, should they knock off TTUN tomorrow (which in theory should eliminate a second hurdle).

Then, sticking on the worldwide leader, at 8 p.m. ET, the No. 6 Oklahoma Sooners will take the country roads to No. 13 West Virginia. Again operating under the assumption that OSU is victorious in The Game, thanks to WVU’s loss to Oklahoma State last weekend, they are effectively playing spoiler here, at least in terms of the CFP. With the Mountaineers back at No. 13, they shouldn’t pose a threat to the Buckeyes if they both win, but a second Sooner loss on the season, should clear the way for OSU to get one spot closer to the top four.

Finally tonight on FOX, we will head out west as No. 16 Washington visits No. 8 Washington State. The winner will represent the Pac-12 North next week, but the Cougs are also hoping that the dominos fall in order for them to win their way into the playoff.

However, should Chris Petersen’s team pull the upset the Apple Cup and knock off their rival for the sixth-straight year, that would by another obstacle removed from the Buckeyes’ path to a return trip to the college football final four.

Check out all of Friday’s college football action here: