Bold predictions for Week 12 in college football

The USA TODAY Sports college football staff — Nicole Auerbach, Paul Myerberg, George Schroeder and Dan Wolken — weighs in with some bold predictions for Week 12 of the college football season:

Nicole Auerbach

West Virginia will knock off Oklahoma at home and stay alive as the Big 12’s best Playoff hope. It’s unclear why the Mountaineers have not been getting as much respect from the committee as Oklahoma has — brand name bias, perhaps? — but after literally beating the Sooners, West Virginia will jump over them and into an outside shot to make the four-team Playoff.

Paul Myerberg

Look for the top teams in the Playoff hunt to put on a show on Saturday. That means Ohio State will blast Michigan State, Clemson will rebound against Wake Forest, Michigan will take out its frustration on Indiana and Washington will revert to form against Arizona State.

Style points do matter at this point, particularly for those teams without a clear path to the Playoff.

George Schroeder

TCU has been inconsistent this season, but a big win over Baylor showed the Horned Frogs might've gotten things together in time to play spoiler in the Big 12 race. In Fort Worth, they upset Oklahoma State, giving the inside track in the conference to the Oklahoma-West Virginia winner.

Dan Wolken

Notre Dame gets off the mat this week and beats Virginia Tech to at least give themselves a chance at bowl eligibility. This has been a miserable year but water usually finds its level and Notre Dame is far better than it has played.

There were some signs last week that the Irish are coming to life against Army, and even though it's way too late to matter, I would be surprised if this team didn't play good football in its final two games. Plus, I don't really trust turnover-prone Virginia Tech right now and the game that really matters to the Hokies is next week against Virginia with a chance to clinch the ACC Coastal.

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