How did the canine schools fare during Rivalry Week?
Rivalry Week also draws out the emotion, and the weirdness, of college football, and the 2019 regular season finale provided plenty of both.
As always, the dogs of Instagram were cheering on their favorite teams and wearing the appropriate T-shirts, hats, bandannas, collars or jerseys.
Also as always, Dog O’Day will recap how the canine schools of the NCAA’s Division I fared.
Rivalry Week began, for our purposes, in the Mid-American Conference on Tuesday, November 26, as Mission’s Northern Illinois Huskies topped the Western Michigan Broncos 17-14, spoiling WMU’s MAC West title hopes. NIU finished the season at 5-7 (4-4 MAC).
On Thanksgiving Night on Thursday, November 28 in the Southeastern Conference’s West Division rivalry Egg Bowl, Bully’s Mississippi State Bulldogs pulled out a close 21-20 win over the Ole Miss Rebels on ESPN to finish the year at 6-6 (3-5 SEC). But how it happened? It was strange. check out our recap for more there.
Black Friday, November 29, saw Kohl the tee-retrieval dog’s No. 20 Boise State Broncos topple the Rams of Colorado State 31-24 in a Mountain West Conference clash. Boise State is now 11-1 (8-0 MWC), while CSU, which has one of the nation’s top vet programs, finishes the season at 4-8 (3-5 MWC).
In the Pac-12 Conference, supremacy in the Evergreen State came down to the Apple Cup, as Dubs’ Washington Huskies pounded the Washington State Cougars 31-13 on Fox in Seattle. Washington improved to 7-5 (4-5 Pac-12) while WSU, another good vet school, dropped to 6-6 (3-6 Pac-12).
In the Sun Belt Conference, the Arkansas State Red Wolves fell to the Jaguars of South Alabama 34-30, which drops their record to 7-5 (5-3 Sun Belt).
On Saturday, November 29, which was simply packed with huge games, all eyes early were on the Big Ten Conference as No. 1 Ohio State went to Ann Arbor and the Big House to tackle No. 13 Michigan.
Happily for Ruger the Lab, the Buckeyes won fairly easily over the Wolverines, 56-27, in front of a nationwide Fox audience, ahead of the conference championship next week.
Reveille the Collie’s Texas A&M Aggies went to Death Valley to face the No. 2 LSU Tigers, and they were thoroughly stomped 50-7, falling to 7-5 (4-4 SEC) on the season. LSU, meanwhile, awaits Uga’s No. 4 Georgia Bulldogs in Atlanta next week.
Speaking of the Dawgs, they cruised to a win on ABC over the Atlantic Coast Conference’s Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets 52-7, the largest margin of victory ever in that series. Georgia is now 11-1 for the season.
Smokey the Coonhound’s Tennessee Volunteers rule their state for another year by sinking the Vanderbilt Commodores 28-10 in Knoxville, the Vols are now 7-5 overall and 5-3 in the SEC.
In another SEC-ACC interstate matchup, Holland the Pup‘s No. 11 Florida Gators pounded the Florida State Seminoles in The Swamp 40-17, finishing out the season at 10-2 overall.
Holland also got to explore the UF campus, which is pretty cool.
In the Atlantic Coast Conference, the North Carolina State Wolfpack were run over by the North Carolina Tar Heels 41-10. NC State has been plagued by injuries all year, which played a large part in going 4-8 (1-7 ACC).
In the American Athletic Conference, Jonathan’s UConn Huskies finished out another horrid year of football by losing 49-17 to the Temple Owls in Philadelphia. UConn finishes the year at 2-10 (0-8 American), and can now focus on basketball, which they rule at.
In Conference USA, the Louisiana Tech Bulldogs snapped a losing skid by defeating the Texas-San Antonio Roadrunners 41-27. Tech improves to 9-3 overall, 6-2 in C-USA play.
In the Big 12 Conference, it was all Bedlam all day as the No. 7 Oklahoma Sooners took on the No. 21 Oklahoma State Cowboys in Stillwater on Fox in the night game.
Koda and Roadie the Australian Shepherds showed off many a household’s dilemma as their allegiances were split.
The Sooners won for the fifth year in a row by a 34-16 score, and now look to defeat Baylor again in the rematch in the conference championship game.
In the Mountain West, the UNLV Rebels beat the Nevada Wolf Pack 33-30 in overtime to rule the Silver State; UNLV improved to 4-8 (2-6 MW) while Nevada dropped to 7-5 (4-4 MW).
The Utah State Aggies took care of the New Mexico Lobos by a 38-25 score; New Mexico has had a very difficult season, with a player passing away in midseason, and then going 2-10 overall and winless in conference.
Finally to close out Rivalry Week, the Fresno State Bulldogs were nipped by the San Jose State Spartans 17-16; Fresno State ends the 2019 season at 4-8 (2-6 MW).
Championship Saturday awaits next weekend before the bowl picture is finally settled.