Ohio State plays at Illinois Saturday. That's big, in the BCS scheme of things.

Oklahoma, Texas, Iowa, Georgia and Notre Dame, all among the conga line of one-loss teams still dreaming of a shot at the national title, play as well. Those are all big.

But outside of the Fiesta Bowl vortex, the most vigorously contested game of the week might be one of the least-hyped.

Get ready for New Mexico State vs. North Texas, for the Sun Belt Conference title.

Corso, Herbstreit and Fowler might not be on location in Denton, Texas, but this is huge. Really.

Georgia Has SEC East Title On Mind

The margin for error disappeared two weeks ago in Jacksonville, leaving the Georgia Bulldogs with this down-to-the-wire assignment at Auburn: Win the game Saturday afternoon, win the Southeastern Conference Eastern Division, advance to your first SEC championship game. That simple. And that difficult. Run Mark Richt's head-coaching road record to 8-0, and the quest is complete. Play a rugged, loose and confident Tigers team the way Georgia played against Florida, and the 'Dogs' fate shifts into the Gators' hands later Saturday night against South Carolina. In the late going against Florida, Georgia played like a team burdened by what it had to gain: the school's first SEC title in 20 years, and continued pursuit of a Fiesta Bowl berth. The 'Dogs' offense collapsed under the pressure. Passes flew errantly. Balls were dropped. Blocks were missed. Strange plays were called. The running game was neglected. Georgia failed to convert a single third down all game. And lost, 20-13. The 'Dogs rebounded by beating Mississippi last week to retain control of their destiny. But now comes an Auburn team still very much in the hunt to win the West, and a team that will physically challenge a banged-up Georgia bunch that might be weary after a season of wearing the league's bull's eye. "Hopefully we'll have enough juice to get this one done," Richt said. And enough guts. Once again, Georgia must prove it can play smashmouth. Last month former Auburn coach Pat Dye rather startlingly declared that Georgia was not "man enough" to line up and defeat Alabama. The 'Dogs did just that. This time around Dye is making no predictions, but did tell the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that "the Georgia-Auburn game isn't won with with finesse." Dye should know, since his Auburn teams derailed more than one Georgia SEC title bid in the 1980s. But reading between the lines, that looks like another challenge for the 'Dogs. Auburn is as subtle as a Visigoth swinging a battle axe, ranking second in the league in rushing at 212 yards per game and first in rushing touchdowns with 28. Georgia tends toward the fancier offensive approach, ranking 10th in the league in rushing at 134.5 yards per game and tied for last in rushing TDs with just nine. If it's going to come down to blocking and tackling then it should come down to how well the Bulldogs' backs -- physical feature back Musa Smith and change-of-pace sub Tony Milton -- lay tracks. If they run well enough to control the ball and keep Auburn's pass rush in check, quarterback David Greene should be able to look for some big plays in the passing game. And despite a brutal run of injuries to Georgia's receivers -- Terrence Edwards is out with a shoulder sprain -- there are playmakers there. Fred Gibson has regained use of both hands after thumb surgery, which is a big thing. Gibson ended any potential Florida hangover with a 44-yard runback of the opening kickoff against Ole Miss, then added a 53-yard catch and an acrobatic 17-yard touchdown reception. "He's a star," Auburn coach Tommy Tuberville said. "He reminds me of Michael Irvin." Auburn has ruined a few Georgia seasons before, but not since the Vince Dooley days. Then again, the Dogs have rarely had anything this big to play for since the Vince Dooley days. It's all on the table down on The Plains. -- Pat Forde

(Unlike Kelley Washington and Craig Ochs, your friendly correspondent has not taken a recent blow to the head. I have been medically cleared to write this column.)

You want high stakes? This game has high stakes. Winner goes to the New Orleans Bowl. Loser gets nothin'.

"All the marbles are on the table," said New Mexico State coach Tony Samuel, who is widely rumored for a higher profile job after this season. "Everything we've done since January is going to boil down to this game."

That high enough?

The maligned Sun Belt is a one-bid league. Champion goes bowling, everyone else sits home and watches. It's like the old days in the Big Ten, when Michigan and Ohio State would wage cold-weather war on artificial turf for the Rose Bowl, in what used to be a single-bid league.

OK, that's a stretch. You won't see Woody and Bo -- or national television cameras -- Saturday at Fouts Field.

The better analogy is the title game in a lower Division I conference basketball tournament -- and if you've ever tuned into Championship Week on ESPN, you've seen college athletics at its most passionate. You can see what the opportunity to be part of the Big Dance means to the contestants.

Same thing here. A bowl bid to a Sun Belt team means roughly 9,000 times more than it does to teams from the mega-conferences. Who's going to be more excited: The winner of this game or the sixth-place team from an over-indulged BCS league that shuffles off to the Huge Life Insurance Company Bowl in search of complimentary sweat suits and wrist watches?

North Texas went to the New Orleans Bowl last year, suffering the slings and arrows of national observers who were appalled at its 5-6 record. But the Mean Green wasn't apologizing for its first bowl bid in 42 years -- the longest bowl drought in the nation at that point.

This year it's New Mexico State striving to scratch the 42-year itch and owning that dubious postseason distinction. Last time the Aggies went bowling: Dec. 31, 1960, the Sun Bowl in nearby El Paso.

"I was five years old the last time they went to a bowl game around here," Samuel said. "That about sums it up."

This not only is a huge moment for the two schools, it's huge for the conference.

For starters, the winner will have at least six victories, which means there will be no sub-.500 league bowl rep this year. Second, it provides some drama for a league that has made tangible strides this year.

Last season the Sun Belt posted all of three non-conference wins against I-A opponents. This season the number is seven, including wins over teams from the Mountain West Conference, the WAC, Conference USA and the SEC.

"I think we've improved a little bit as a league," North Texas coach Darrell Dickey said. "The credibility of our league has taken a giant step forward."

The league's showcase game will boil down to New Mexico State's option-based offense against North Texas' relentless defense.

The Aggies are 14th in the nation in rushing offense at 231 yards per game. The Mean Green is third in the nation in scoring defense (12.6 points per game), eighth in total defense (274 yards per game) and hasn't allowed an offensive score the past three games.

"They keep it very simple," Idaho coach Tom Cable said of the North Texas defense. "It's not like you can't find them or you're going to get disguised. They're going to tell you where they're at."

Both teams have gotten here on the arms of redshirt freshman backup quarterbacks, after injuries to the starters.

New Mexico State redshirt freshman Paul Dombrowski stepped in for Buck Pierce and has thrown for 1,003 yards and also leads the Aggies in rushing with 747 yards and nine touchdowns. Win this game, and he could be the Sun Belt Freshman of the Year -- and Player of the Year.

North Texas lost starter Scott Hall to a torn pectoral muscle in the season opener. Since then Adam Smith has shepherded a conservative attack that relies largely on the running game and turning games over to the defense. But Hall rose to the occasion in the one game where a Sun Belt offense scored on the Mean Green, rallying North Texas for a 72-yard drive and throwing the winning touchdown pass in the final minute of a 13-10 win over Arkansas State.

North Texas has won nine straight Sun Belt games, is 5-0 at Fouts Field in Sun Belt games and is riding the momentum of four straight wins. The Mean Green is the justifiable favorite. But when the New Orleans Bowl is on the line, you might as well throw out the record books.

Really.

Around the SEC

Alabama
Since losing by two points to Georgia, Alabama has been the hottest team in the league. The Crimson Tide has stomped four straight SEC opponents by an average margin of nearly 23 points. ... Nobody is expecting a blowout this week when Alabama goes to Baton Rouge to play LSU in a game with major Western Division implications ('Bama is striving for the best record in the division, LSU is trying to win it for real). Both teams have offensive weapons and have scored plenty of points, but the defenses rule: Alabama allows just 4.2 yards per play; LSU 4.0. Tigers won the last time the two teams met in Baton Rouge, but before that the Tide had made a mockery of Death Valley. Alabama was an astounding 14-0-1 at LSU from 1971-98.

Arkansas
Razorbacks have posted two straight shutouts, the first time that's happened since 1974. Houston Nutt ran his record against Lou Holtz to 3-1 last week, which undoubtedly thrills Nutt to no end. There's no love lost between those two, dating back to Nutt's days as an Arkansas quarterback and graduate assistant coach under Holtz. ... Nutt and his staff must be doing something right when it comes to teaching ball security. The Hogs have run the ball 431 times this year, second-most in the league, but have lost a league-low two fumbles. ... Count Nutt among those disgusted by LSU's miracle win over Kentucky, since the Razorbacks were trying to stay in the SEC West race. "That made me so sick," Nutt told the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. "So sick to think they played 59 minutes and 58 seconds so perfect and you didn't take care of two seconds from 75 yards away."

Auburn
Damon Duval's on-again, off-again place-kicking saga is on again. For good. Tommy Tuberville said Duval will again be his No. 1 place kicker and punter for the remainder of the season. Duval, a hero and all-SEC kicker last year, had his placement duties yanked after a low kick was blocked against Florida, costing Auburn a huge win. But replacement Phillip Yost was just 1 for 3, including a miss from 34 yards, so Duval was reinserted against Ole Miss two weeks ago. "It would be a wonderful story if he could come in and win one or two of these games with kicks at the end," said Tuberville, whose team faces LSU and Alabama in a pair of huge games over the next two weeks.

Florida
If Florida wins and Georgia loses Saturday, Ron Zook will officially be the most vilified SEC East champion coach ever. But a guy who never lashed out during the rocky times has avoided told-ya-so comments now that his team is coming together late. "It's not something I cherished going through," Zook said, "but I honestly believe it's made us stronger and more mature. ... It's been a wild year." Even if the Gators don't win the division, Zook has to be the only coach in history to upset two top-five teams and still have people calling for your firing. ... Gators offensive lineman Shannon Snell will be sweating it out Saturday afternoon, waiting to see whether his guarantee of a couple weeks ago holds up. "I'll be an Auburn Tiger for a few hours," Snell said. "... If Georgia wins, it's going to break my heart." You might recall that Snell not only guaranteed that Florida would beat Georgia, but that Georgia would lose a second league game and the Gators would go to the SEC championship tilt.

Georgia
Backup quarterback D.J. Shockley played but did not throw a pass last week against Mississippi, running twice for 10 yards. It was his most limited role this season, other than the four games he missed due to injury. Shockley threw a costly interception against Florida that was returned for a touchdown, and two of his last 20 passes have been picked off.

Kentucky
"I don't like people that mope," says Wildcats coach Guy Morriss, explaining his determination to move past the spectacular debacle in Commonwealth Stadium last week against LSU. In a play many say ranks as the most amazing in college football since Cal's five-lateral kickoff return through the band, the Tigers completed a 75-yard Hail Mary on the final play of a 33-30 win. The pass was tipped by two Wildcats and whistled directly between the hands of a third, but the trappings of premature celebration are what made the play even more memorable. Only at Kentucky, a program steeped in late-game disaster lore, can fans be climbing on the goal post in one end zone while the Wildcats are losing in the other. Only at Kentucky can a Gatorade-soaked coach be forced to congratulate a dry coach at midfield. Only at Kentucky can celebratory fireworks be shooting off into the sky while the team is losing one for the ages. "The Kentucky Curse," was quarterback Jared Lorenzen's explanation, and nobody could dispute him. We won't see until Saturday against Vanderbilt whether the players truly are over the Cat-astrophe that befell them.

LSU
Nick Saban wants his team moving on as well, to the point that he got peeved at continued questions about the Kentucky miracle at his press conference this week. He knows that the afterglow will disappear quickly if the Tigers are beaten by Alabama. "It's like I told our team: 'Hey, we won the game by divine intervention,'" Saban said. "It is a great example of playing for 60 minutes, it is a great example of a guy (receiver Devery Henderson) making a tremendous effort on the last play. But at the same time, I want everyone to understand we have to play a lot better and learn from our mistakes." ... Marcus Randall came into the Kentucky game as a struggling backup quarterback forced into action because of injury, having thrown zero touchdowns and four interceptions on the year. He left it a folk hero. Randall said he saw a replay of the Immaculate Reception the week of the Kentucky game and was struck at how it's still getting airplay, 30 years later. "Now they'll show this play over and over," Randall said of the Bluegrass Bomb to Henderson.

Mississippi
David Cutcliffe dismissed his leading rusher, tailback Robert Williams, and receiver Travis Fryfogle from the team this week for violating unspecified team rules. Ole Miss has run the ball so poorly this year that it might not even notice the loss of Williams, who had missed five of the last six games. He began the year with a pair of 100-yard rushing efforts. ... This season simply hasn't worked out well for Eli Manning. He's thrown 14 fewer touchdowns and two more interceptions than last year, and he has five TDs and eight picks in the Rebels' current four-game losing streak. Cutcliffe said he believes Manning is trying too hard to make the big play, an affliction that has occasionally led to flurries of interceptions for big brother Peyton in the pros.

Mississippi State
State athletic director Larry Templeton gave a fairly tepid vote of confidence to Jackie Sherrill Tuesday, telling the Biloxi Sun-Herald, "I don't have any reason to believe we should be thinking about changing coaches." That's a long way from "Jackie's my coach." Sherrill himself continues to insist that his outlook is good. "I'm the kind of guy that when the daylight goes out, I'll turn the lights on to make sure we keep playing until I win." Winning isn't the only problem in Starkville. There's an NCAA investigation ongoing as well. ... At 0-5, the Bulldogs could be staring at their first winless SEC season since 1988, when Rockey Felker was the head coach. At least that team came close a couple of times, losing to Vanderbilt by four and Georgia by seven. These 'Dogs haven't come closer than two touchdowns to a league win, and have an average margin of defeat of 21 points in SEC play.

South Carolina
Gamecocks coach Lou Holtz made two significant statements this week: He's coming back as coach next year after being "embarrassed" by the way his 5-5 team has performed the last couple of weeks; and quarterback Corey Jenkins will see immediate time on both sides of the ball, playing defensive back as well. "We've had problems in the secondary, and I think he can solidify things there," Holtz said of Jenkins, a rugged athlete who is hardly a natural quarterback. "Also, we've got to find out about Dondrial Pinkins (the backup QB)." Jenkins has played on the punt team this year, and Holtz said he's never had a quarterback this tough. This begs the question: when was the last time major-college football had a two-way player whose primary position is quarterback? ... Holtz's experiment running the offense is over. Under his command, the Gamecocks were shut out and produced 89 passing yards. Offensive coordinator and son Skip Holtz is back at the con for Florida.

Tennessee
The fact that Casey Clausen had his right foot encased in a walking boot at practice Tuesday doesn't bode well for his availability against Mississippi State Saturday. That again leaves the Volunteers' quarterback position in the unsteady hands of James Banks and C.J. Leak, who have not risen to the occasion while filling in for Clausen against Top 10 opponents Georgia and Miami. ... The Vols have been so banged up that they barely resemble the team everyone had picked in the top five early in the year. "You've got to play the hand you're dealt," offensive lineman Will Ofenheusle told the Nashville Tennessean. "With Casey and before all the injuries, we probably had a full house. Now, we've got about a 10 or jack-high. It's just the way it goes."

Vanderbilt
Vandy has lost 15 straight SEC games, but at least gave Florida a decent game -- Rex Grossman was held to 170 passing yards and no touchdowns -- and now goes to a place where it has won before: Lexington. That's the site of the Commodores' last SEC win, in 2000.

Around the Sun Belt
Arkansas State coach Steve Roberts said freshman defensive end Brandon Rollins was moved out of intensive care Sunday night, five days after he fell three stories down a dormitory elevator shaft. ... The Indians have lost three straight league games by a total of 11 points, including a three-point loss to North Texas and a five-pointer to New Mexico State, showing how close the program is to a breakthrough. ... In a complete reversal of form, high-octane/no-defense Idaho held an opponent to 10 points last Saturday -- and was shut out. It was the first time the Vandals had been shut out since 1986. ... Idaho lost league passing leader Brian Lindgren for the remainder of the season to a broken collarbone against North Texas, so Cable said he will split time 50-50 the final two games between sophomore Adam Mallette and redshirt freshman Michael Harrington -- younger brother of Detroit Lions rookie QB and former Oregon star Joey Harrington. ... Louisiana-Lafayette quarterback Erik Rekieta made the most of his first Division I in place of injured Jon Van Cleave. The junior-college transfer completed 25 of 33 passes for 256 yards in the Ragin' Cajuns win over Arkansas State, trying the school record for single-game completions. Counting his fourth-quarter work the week before against Idaho, Rekieta has now led two comeback victories in two attempts. Life could get more difficult this week at Arkansas, however. ... Louisiana-Monroe true freshman quarterback Steve Jyles continues to resemble a star in the making. He ran his streak of passes without an interception to 149 last week against Auburn, completing 19 of 37 throws for 193 yards and a touchdown, and rushing for 53 yards as well. Jyles didn't complete 50 percent of his passes in a game in the first five contests, but has been mover 50 percent in four of the last five. ... Of the 22 players who started at Auburn, 12 were different from the beginning of this strange season, which saw head coach Bobby Keasler resign after three games. Only five starters were the same on defense. ... Middle Tennessee State closes with a three-game salvage operation at home. The Nov. 23 game against North Texas, originally scheduled as a potential championship contest, is now just window dressing for the 2-7 Blue Raiders, who have only held one opponent to less than 20 points this year. ... Samuel said New Mexico State will have No. 2 rusher Eric Higgins back for the North Texas game, though he wouldn't say whether Higgins will start. Injuries had kept the tailback out of the past three games. He has three 100-yard games on the season. ... North Texas human fire hydrant Brandon Kennedy was named the Sun Belt Defensive Player of the Week after racking up six tackles for loss against Idaho. The 5-10, 312-pound Kennedy leads the league in TFL with 21, and leads the team in sacks as well. He anchors a front four that is the catalyst for the Mean Green's vicious defense.

Pat Forde covers college football for the Louisville Courier-Journal.