Thursday night humbled me. I said UTSA was for real. Florida Atlantic led the Roadrunners 60-29 late in the fourth quarter. So that’s going well. Here’s Friday, the last stop before the best Saturday of the year. All times Central.
- Kentucky at Tennessee is one sleep away. No. 6 Kentucky (7-1) at No. 13 Tennessee (6-2) in the CFP rankings, Saturday at 5:15 p.m. on ESPN. Our pick is on the record: Tennessee -6.5, the Kentucky Hat Guarantee. Pick out your orange tonight.
- No. 4 UConn vs. No. 16 Michigan, 7 p.m., TNT. Men’s basketball at TD Garden in Boston, and the best game of the night in any sport. First week of the season and we get a top-20 heavyweight fight on a neutral floor. Give me more of this and less of the buy games.
- Nebraska at Illinois, 7 p.m., Fox. Both teams are 5-3, and Nebraska is a 4.5-point road favorite. Friday night Big Ten football with bowl positioning on the line. Somebody leaves Champaign feeling a lot better about November.
- Virginia Tech at SMU, 6 p.m., ESPN. Both 6-2. SMU is favored by 6.5 at home. The Hokies have quietly put together a nice year, and a road win on a Friday night would get people talking.
- TCU at No. 22 Arizona, 9:15 p.m., ESPN. The late game. Arizona (6-2) is a 7.5-point favorite against 4-4 TCU and has to handle its business at home to stay in the CFP rankings. Before that, 7-1 New Mexico, No. 22 in the AP poll, plays at Nevada at 8 p.m. on CBS Sports Network. Stay up for the Lobos.
No new picks from us on Friday’s games. The five and the fade for Saturday are already up.
Follow along Friday night on X @fiveandafade and Instagram. Schedules, records, rankings, lines and TV from ESPN.
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Jeremy Durham is a sports columnist for TriStar Daily and the founder of Five and a Fade.
