College

Former University of Texas head football coach Darrell K Royal passed away Wednesday morning. He was 88.

Three Big 12 quarterbacks were named finalist for the Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Award Thursday.

Last week's showdowns knocked several teams from the ranks of the unbeaten and shook up the rankings. This week, we get two of the biggest games of the season, with Alabama-LSU and Oregon-USC setting the stage for conference- and national-championship runs. But the excitement doesn't stop there. Here is what to watch for around the top 25:

This week’s rankings will look very different when the new AP Poll comes out following a Saturday full of upsets. Four Top Ten teams fell this week and five ranked teams suffered their first losses of the season. Meanwhile, Collin Klein and Manti T’eo boosted their Heisman chances while Alabama, Oregon, Kansas State and Notre Dame continued to make their case for a shot in the national title game.

It's always a sad moment when you realize that college football's regular season is more than halfway done, but it should still be a fun week with lots of exciting games on tap. Six of the top 10 teams in the country play ranked opponents, and 13 top 25 teams face challenges on the road. Here is what to watch this week in college football:

Notre Dame head coach Brian Kelly named quarterback Evert Golson the starter when the No. 5 Fighting Irish visit No. 8 Oklahoma on Saturday.

For most teams, we’ve reached the halfway point of the regular season and the conference title races are starting to take shape. Last week gave us exciting finishes and monster upsets, and we’ve got another good slate of games this week with three big games between ranked teams and 11 ranked teams playing on the road. Here is what to watch for this week in college football:

The Texas Tech Red Raiders showed up in this season's first set of BCS rankings. Alabama is back in the driver's seat for another chance at the BCS National Championship

Oklahoma State will join a number of Big 12 teams playing a neutral site game in 2013

While there aren't as many marquee games as last week, we have several intriguing matchups to look forward to this weekend. Saturday features four games between ranked opponents, including one top 10 game in the SEC. Additionally, 14 of the 22 ranked teams in action this weekend are playing road or neutral-site games. So this could be another weekend to be on upset alert. Here is what to watch for