Four college football teams hope to find their field of dreams

Let’s be honest: This weekend is just killing time until next weekend, when a season’s field could get flipped at Tuscaloosa’s Iron Bowl and Reno’s “Biggest Little Football Game in the World,” Boise State at Nevada.

Now is time to muse, reflect, relax, and take in a ballgame at Wrigley Field.

As Ernie Banks said about ballparks hosting college football games … “Let’s play two.”

America’s pass time

Illinois and Northwestern are exchanging lineup cards Saturday at Wrigley Field. The football configuration is precarious, to say the least, with only a few feet separating the back line of the southwest end zone from a padded wall.

Aside from the safety risk, it leaves Steve Bartman ample room to interfere with a potential Northwestern touchdown pass.

In New York, Notre Dame and Army will play the first football game in the new Yankee Stadium after playing 21 times, from 1925 through 1946, at the old Bronx haunt.

Saturday also marks the 90th anniversary of George Gipp’s last game.

Hail to Victor … somebody

That cold day in hell when self-respecting Michigan State fans have to sing Michigan’s fight song … has arrived.

Sparty needs Ann Arbor’s help.

Michigan State (9-1) can’t get to the Rose Bowl in a three-way tie at 11-1 with Wisconsin and Ohio State, even though the Spartans defeated Wisconsin and didn’t play Ohio State.

The tiebreaker rule in a three-way scenario goes to the highest ranked team in the Bowl Championship Series standings. Wisconsin is No. 7 this week, Ohio State is No. 9 and Michigan State is No. 12.

And now you know why Wisconsin scored 83 points on Indiana last week.

Michigan State’s recourse is to beat Purdue and Penn State and scream, “Go Michigan!”

The Wolverines play host to Wisconsin this week before closing shop at Ohio State.

Next year, the Big Ten splits into divisions and plays a title game … big help now.

Urban and Austin

Florida and Texas are a combined 10-10 after starting the year ranked No. 4 and No. 5. Florida (6-4) recently lost at home to its 1966 Heisman Trophy winner and Texas (4-6) lost to Oklahoma State for the third time … since 1916.

Coach Mack Brown’s long-faced Longhorns need two wins to become bowl eligible a year after playing for the national title, and a lot of people in Austin have erased the circle around the W they had this week for Florida Atlantic.

“This is not something that is going to last,” Brown said this week of Texas’ woes.

You think Tim Tebow and Colt McCoy were any good?

Quarterback play is killing the Gators and Longhorns. John Brantley, Tebow’s replacement, has eight touchdown passes and seven interceptions to go with minus-101 yards rushing. Tebow left Gainesville having run for nearly 3,000 yards and with 52 rushing touchdowns.

Garrett Gilbert, McCoy’s replacement, has seven touchdowns and 15 interceptions. McCoy won 45 games in four years.

Break up the Cougars

What a week for Washington State …finally. Three days after celebrating its first Pacific 10 Conference win in years, seven Cougars made the conference’s all-academic team.

Stanford had four players named to the first team. USC had four fewer than Stanford.

Tough Pac

The nation’s eight toughest schedules, in order, according to this week’s Sagarin Ratings: Washington, Washington State, UCLA, Oregon State, Arizona State, California, USC and Stanford.

Last of the first

Georgia State concludes its start-up season with a Thursday night ESPNU game at Alabama.

Is Georgia State nuts?

Probably, but Panthers’ Coach Bill Curry can’t get beat up any more than he did when he coached Alabama in the late 1980s. The lowlight was receiving a brick through his office window following a 1988 loss to Mississippi.

“Our guys are not terrified,” Curry said this week.

Curry said he even plans to take his team on a tour of the Paul Bryant museum in Tuscaloosa.

“At Alabama, I felt Bear Bryant’s presence every day,” Curry said.

You really feel it, Curry discovered, losing three straight years to Auburn.

Joseph Gilbert, a Georgia State offensive lineman, actually likes his team’s chances, saying, “I’ve seen crazier things happen and we have a good game plan.”

Football Bureau of Investigation

The last thing Auburn needed was the FBI asking questions about the father of its star quarterback.

Unlike the NCAA, which has no subpoena power, the FBI’s guns are loaded. The bureau on Tuesday had a chat with John Bond, the former Mississippi State player who claims Cecil Newton was seeking upward of $180,000 for his son, Cam.

There has been no link to Auburn, so the Tigers are moving forward with fingers crossed and a media gag order placed on this year’s Heisman Trophy favorite.

In a related (maybe, someday) note, Auburn’s undefeated teams of 1957 and 1993 were on NCAA probation.

SEC plays it (un)safe

Only a cynic would conclude that the Southeastern Conference took no playing time away from behemoth Nick Fairley to protect Auburn’s national title interests.

After all, Fairley did not actually maim Georgia quarterback Aaron Murray last week. Film shows Fairley only planting the quarterback into the ground and rubbing his facemask on Murray’s chin until it drew blood.

And his spear shot to Murray’s back — well after the blown whistle — was a personal foul but definitely not a helmet-to-helmet blow. It only forced Murray’s head to violently whiplash backward like a crash-test dummy.

The Big (L)East

The fact that the Big East race is really exciting, and that none of its eight schools has been eliminated from contention, is not the problem.

The problem is that Pittsburgh, unranked at 5-4, still has a one-game lead in the conference race.

The problem is that the Big East champion gets an automatic BCS bid and is headed to the Fiesta Bowl.

The problem is that top-10 Stanford, at 11-1, or Texas Christian, at 12-0, might get left out of the major mix.

The BCS has sent lousy champions to major bowls before … but this year it’s really going to reek.

chris.dufresne@latimes.com