Sure, Texas Tech-Oklahoma is (deservedly) the weekend’s most intriguing matchup by far, but here are a few others to monitor as the regular draws nears its close:

Tennessee at Vanderbilt

Seriously, when was the last time the Volunteers were an underdog in this one? They’ve clearly been mailing it in ever since a deflating Labor Day loss at UCLA, their coaching search is off to a bumbling start, and, hey, Vandy isn’t half bad - unless they’re playing Florida.

Michigan at Ohio State

This has all the earmarks of a blowout, and given Michigan’s track record this year against teams from Ohio - ahem, Toledo?? - anything else would be a complete surprise. But rivalry games are always entertaining, and if ever Rich Rodriguez’s squad is to show a pulse in his woebegone first season, it will have to be Saturday.

Washington at Washington State

This ought to be called the Lame Duck Bowl. Washington is a far more talented team and should send Tyrone Willingham out with his only victory of 2008, but it’ll be fun to see if the victors even look like they’ve done something meaningful as they walk off the field.

Ole Miss at LSU

LSU very nearly suffered an inexcusable loss last week - at home - to Troy, and thousands of their faithful(?) fans never saw their late comeback, choosing to evacuate Tiger Stadium in an exodus any hurricane would envy. The reality is that Ole Miss is a solid team, and if the Bayou Bengals take a half to get ready again, they’ll be watching Houston Nutt take a win out of Baton Rouge for the second straight year.

Michigan State at Penn State

Most observers think Penn State won’t have much trouble taking out the Spartans to clinch the Big Ten title, but I’m not so sure. Iowa is hardly a powerhouse and had enough to knock PSU out of the BCS chase, and the Nittany Lions looked feeble for a large part of the day last Saturday against Indiana. Does Indiana even pay attention to football by this time of year?

BYU at Utah

Here’s the last chance for anyone in the regular season to keep the Utes out of position to play Hawaii’s role from last year in the BCS. If Utah wins here, who’s to say it doesn’t belong playing one of the big boys - and maybe even pulling a Boise State on an unsuspecting Oklahoma?

UConn at USF (Sunday night)

Here’s where we’ll find out where the Bulls’ program really is after four straight demoralizing defeats. The Huskies aren’t a great team by any means, but neither is Rutgers, which pummeled USF last week at Raymond James. A fifth loss would do severe damage to the Bulls’ lofty hopes of traversing the Howard Frankland Bridge to play in the inaugural St. Pete Bowl; and it might do some to Jim Leavitt’s employment situation as well.

As for Texas Tech visiting Oklahoma, I say the Red Raiders’ run comes to a fairly inglorious close. OU vividly remembers getting thumped in Lubbock last year, and a couple of early turnovers should be enough to make Tech doubt it truly belongs in the national title picture.

The next step: who the heck represents the Big 12 South in the conference title game?