Texas Christian v. W. Virginia

I don't like watching college football on Thursday night, and I'm annoyed that Texas Christian scheduled two Thursday night games in the same season.  But here we are, as the Horned Frogs prepare to defend the Big Gold Trophy for the 13th time.  It's the first home game for Texas Christian in 26 days, so I expect a big turnout in Fort Worth.

Here's where everything stands in the Big XII (numbers in parentheses represent AP ranking):

(2) Baylor:  4-0, 7-0
(5)  Texas Christian:  4-0, 7-0
(12) Oklahoma St:  4-0, 7-0
(14) Oklahoma:  3-1, 6-1
Texas:  2-2, 3-4
Texas Tech:  2-3, 5-3
Iowa St:  1-3, 2-5
W. Virginia:  0-3, 3-3
Kansas St:  0-4, 3-4
Kansas:  0-4, 0-7

Kudos to the schedule-makers in the Big XII, who are saving all the big games for the end.  After tonight's game with West Virginia, Texas Christian will play three of its last four games against teams ranked in the top 14 -- and two of those games (against the Oklahomas) will be on the road.

So Texas Christian has a lot of work before it can take the Big Gold Trophy to the NCAA Playoffs.  But tonight, they have to beat that they took the title from last year -- West Virginia.  That game was a hum-dinger -- a 31-30 donnybrook in the rain in Morgantown, W. Va.  That WVU team went 7-5 in the regular season, before losing to Texas A & M in the Liberty Bowl.  This year's team got off to a 3-0 start in non-conference play, with easy wins over Georgia Southern, Liberty, and Maryland.  But the Big XII schedule has been brutal for the Mountaineers -- their first four conference games are against four ranked teams, and three of those games are on the road.

WVU, being WVU, has given it the old college try, but the competition has been too tough for them.  Oklahoma beat them 44-24 in Norman, Okla., and then Oklahoma State beat them 33-26 in overtime up in Morgantown.  WVU's last game was a 62-38 loss at Baylor, which is the sort of thing that could happen to almost anyone.  Tonight the Mountaineers will end this obstacle course at Texas Christian, and my guess is that their fans will be happy to see some unranked opponents after that.

The Frogs are favored by 13 1/2 points in a game where the oddsmakers expect 74 points to be scored.  That would work out to something like a 44-30 win for Texas Christian.  I will be surprised and impressed if WVU keeps it that close.