College Football

Break out the chips and cold drinks but let Chris Dufresne handle the remote. Each Friday, the Times' national college football writer handicaps what's worth watching, and skipping, on Saturday's menu of games. MORNING Kent State (0-0) atNo. 2 Alabama (0-0) 9 a.m. KDOC This is the first game at Bryant-Denny since the deadly April 27 tornado that killed 50 people in Tuscaloosa. The twister flirted with wiping out the campus and stadium, so emotions will be heavy.

Matt Barkley gets his first real taste of the NFL when the Philadelphia Eagles' rookie mini-camp opens Friday. Many fans and NFL draft prognosticators were shocked when new Eagles Coach Chip Kelly drafted the former USC quarterback. But USC Coach Lane Kiffin was not. Kiffin said Monday that Kelly spoke with him about Barkley "early on" in the evaluation process and later sent the Eagles' quarterbacks coach to Southern California to work out the Trojans' four-year starter.

Alabama versus Louisiana State is like Romney and Perry: It's going to get settled. You say LSU has (Coach) Les, I say 'Bama has (A.D.) Moore. And it's OK to have OK at No. 3. Alabama and LSU are headed toward a Nov. 5 Southeastern Conference showdown in Tuscaloosa; broadcasters Lundquist and Danielson, right then and there, might claim a sixth straight national title for CBS/SEC. Florida notches up only one spot this week but lurks ominously with upcoming games against Alabama and LSU. Poll watchers ask: Where's Michigan?

UCLA needs 1,700 from a running back. Not on the SATs. On the ground. It doesn't take a Stanford degree to work this equation. Johnathan Franklin is gone. So too are his cuts, jukes and flat-out sprints that made quarterback Brett Hundley's life so much safer. Franklin gained a UCLA record 1,700 yards last season. The first phase of finding his replacement ended Saturday with the Bruins' scaled-back spring game in the Rose Bowl. "There was a calmness on the field that we had," Hundley said.

Break out the chips and cold drinks, but let Chris Dufresne handle the remote. Each Friday, the Times' national college football writer handicaps what's worth watching, and skipping, on Saturday's menu of games. MORNING No. 24 Northwestern (5-0) at Penn State (3-2) 9 a.m., ESPN The Big Ten is down report: Northwestern is the only undefeated team in the conference eligible to compete for this year's Bowl Championship Series title. If Northwestern keeps up the good work and wins the Legends Division, we could be looking at a title-game showdown against Purdue for the Rose Bowl bid. Penn State is to be commended for having a winning record this deep into a season the NCAA had hoped to destroy.

Play it forward Five things to watch this week in college football. 1. Louisiana State at Mississippi State is a Thursday night gem featuring two of the top teams from the best division in college football — the Southeastern Conference West. The game is almost must-win for Mississippi State after Saturday's heart-breaking loss at Auburn. 2. No. 1 Oklahoma plays at No. 5 Florida State in a game with huge national implications. Oklahoma is No. 1 in the Associated Press poll for a record 100th time while Florida State is out to avenge last year's humiliating 47-17 loss in Norman.

Games to watch this week in college football: Georgia (5-5) at No. 2 Auburn (10-0) Saturday, 12:30 p.m., Channel 2 Auburn tries to preserve its perfect season and national title hopes against the backdrop of pay-for-play allegations regarding star quarterback Cam Newton. Georgia has won four of its last five since a 1-4 start that included a ghastly loss at Colorado. The pick: Auburn. San Diego State (7-2) at No. 3 Texas Christian (10-0) Saturday, 1 p.m., Versus Is it possible TCU will be flat after last week's emphatic win at Utah?

Five things to watch this week in college football: 1. Penn State Coach Joe Paterno easily notched career victory No. 395 with Saturday's 44-14 home victory over Youngstown State, but getting No. 396 this weekend is going to be a Bear because the Nittany Lions travel to Tuscaloosa to challenge No. 1 Alabama. Paterno was 0-4 against former Crimson Tide coach Bear Bryant and says this Alabama team compares favorably to the great squads of yesteryear. 2. No. 13 Miami visits No. 2 Ohio State in rematch of the 2002 season's BCS championship game in the Fiesta Bowl.

Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas, will play host to the first championship game in the new College Football Playoff. "The stadium itself was the biggest determiner," Bowl Championship Series Executive Director Bill Hancock said after the announcement Wednesday. "It's still THE stadium with a capital 'T'. " It helped immensely that Cowboys Stadium can seat 103,000 for football. The game will be staged Jan. 12, 2015, and marks the start of a Super Bowl-like venue rotation.

College football commissioners were going to end their three-day unity conference in Pasadena with a round of "Kumbaya" at the hotel's valet carport. That was before the consulting firm that dreamed up "College Football Playoff" suggested something more generic from "The White Album. " Ob - la - di, Ob - la - da. Kidding aside, it was a good week, mostly, to be the kings. The leaders from the power five conferences, led by the Southeastern Conference's Mike Slive and the Big Ten's Jim Delany, were masterfully able to convey the illusion of symbiotic overhaul.

UCLA's spring game Saturday was going to cost UCLA students $7 for the bus ride to the Rose Bowl. Then Bruins Coach Jim Mora stepped in. And then athletic department officials rethought the matter. Mora had volunteered to pay for students' bus fare to the game, Josh Rebholz , UCLA associate athletic director of development, said on his Twitter account Wednesday night. On Thursday afternoon, athletic department officials decided to pick up the tab for the trip to the Rose Bowl.

UCLA football is embracing a high-tech future. The Bruins unveiled a new gizmo Wednesday: the CoachComm Tempo, a system that includes two Led Zeppelin-ready speakers and that can run the clock and scoreboard, simulate crowd noise, play music and be used to amplify the instructions of coaches. "A lot of teams around the country are using this," Coach Jim Mora said. "Oregon uses it; Chip Kelly bought one when he went to [coach] Philadelphia. We talked to five or six coaches and they all said it would help practice efficiency.

The last vestiges of the controversial Bowl Championship Series, conceived years ago on a cocktail napkin, will be phased out this week at a swank Pasadena hotel. College football power brokers are meeting in Southern California to tie up loose BCS ends as they pin down the particulars for a new four-team playoff beginning in the 2014 season. "We've done a lot of the heavy lifting," BCS Executive Director Bill Hancock said. On this week's agenda for the BCS commissioners: • Picking a name for the new system.

The name for college football's new playoff system is … "College Football Playoff. " "Brand X" and "Your Name Here" apparently were already taken. College football commissioners meeting in Pasadena this week were looking for simplicity in replacing their sometimes tainted "BCS" label. Mission accomplished. Commissioners actually paid a consulting firm to help come up with the new name. The Tuesday launch also included a website to house the new system: collegefootballplayoff.com.

The new name for college football's new playoff was so inspirational and earth-shattering it could not be contained to its originally planned release date of Tuesday afternoon. Um, not exactly. It leaked out through ESPN , which owns the contract rights to the new four-team playoff system that begins in 2014, that the new name to replace Bowl Championship Series will be College Football Playoff. We will pause here to let those goose pimples settle. Not that exciting?