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3. Which team wins tonight's Music City Bowl? (ESPN/ESPN3, 6:40 p.m. ET)

The home of country music seems like a good host for Tennessee and North Carolina. After all, no music genre handles misery quite as well as country. It hasn't been a fun season for fans of the Tar Heels, hammered early by suspensions to key players, or the Vols, rebuilding under a new coach. Who goes home happy? More picks.

• "GAMEDAY HAS FINALLY ARRIVED!!!!!!!!!!!!! First of all Congratulations to Coach Derek Dooley and the enitre Volunteer football team for turning a horrible start to the season into a great finish. Anybody that thinks T. J. Yates is a better QB than Tyler Bray is crazy. Tyler Bray who is a TRUE FRESHMEN as thrown for over half the yards T. J. Yates has this season in four games." -- SN commenter IndyColts1047

• Vote: GameDay Pick 'Em | Heisman Watch | SportsNation Top 25
• Vote on big topics: Charlie Weis' future | Auburn at Georgia
• Blogger chat wraps: ACC | Big 12 | Big East | Big Ten | Pac-10 | SEC | Others
• More wraps: Mark Schlabach | Pat Forde | Mel Kiper | Ivan Maisel | Bruce Feldman
• Special guests: Brad Edwards | Boise State cornerback Kyle Wilson

It won't be an easy weekend for BCS Cinderellas, even though they're all playing at home. Cincinnati faces No. 25 West Virginia, TCU gets the pressure of GameDay and No. 16 Utah, and Boise State deals with a surprising 7-3 Idaho (and a visiting AD who doesn't like to fly on planes with Broncos markings).

• North Carolina at Virginia Tech: Big questions for tonight's game (ESPN, 7:30 ET).

The bad news for North Carolina comes in the form of an 0-3 start in the ACC, a stretch of games in which the Tar Heels have twice failed to reach double digits on the scoreboard. The good news? Butch Davis' team is hanging right with Elon and Appalachian State in the Southern Conference after wins against Citadel and Georgia Southern.

Blacksburg is rarely a good place for a football team to visit when it needs a confidence boost, but that's where North Carolina finds itself tonight, facing a Virginia Tech team likely still smarting from last week's loss at Georgia Tech. SportsNation had high hopes for both the Hokies and Tar Heels this season, ranking them first and fourth, respectively, in the ACC preseason ranker. But if you're looking for a change of pace from the World Series tonight, you could do worse.

“

I hope you Hokies take it easy on us, your D and our O spells trouble in Tar Heel land, and Tech always plays lights out on Thursday nights. I, for one, am nervous. It is such a shame that we DO have such a good defense, and no offense to show for it. I would say lets get Renner some reps, but I don't want to throw him to the wolves this early in his career, especially not on this stage.

” -- Dave Morris844

“

Both teams are hungry for a win, and UNC isn't going to just lay down because they'll be playing in Lane Stadium. If our defense can stay focused for 4 quarters it will be a fairly close game.

” -- JustKeepingItReal

“

Looks like the pollsters still respect the Hokies as the best 2 loss team... if we keep winning we should be in a BCS bowl....

” -- hokiestats

• Rankings: What's your predicted order of finish in the ACC this season?

ESPN.com's college football writers and bloggers will be going conference by conference in the coming weeks to preview the season ahead, and we're looking for your rankings along the way. Things roll on with the ACC, where blogger Heather Dinich's rankings suggest an injury to running back Darren Evans may not prevent Virginia Tech from maintaining control.

1. Virginia Tech
2. Georgia Tech
3. Florida State
4. NC State
5. North Carolina
6. Miami
Check out Dinich's complete ACC rankings.

• Chat: Dinich takes your ACC questions at 3 p.m. ET.

Columbia, South Carolina, meet Newcastle, England. You probably have some common ancestors. You both have frequently indecipherable, yet highly amusing, accents. And you both love football, if of slightly different varieties. You've also both been relegated. Sorry about that.

Fortunately for fans of the Gamecocks, their relegation is only hypothetical (longtime Premier League mainstay Newcastle's is more alarmingly real for its fans, who will kick off their season Saturday cheering on their lads against West Bromwich Albion in the Championship, English soccer's equivalent of the old I-AA gridiron designation on this side of the Atlantic).

South Carolina ended up on the wrong side of the cut line when SportsNation voted for the 40 teams that should make up Pat Forde's new and improved top flight of college football. Then again, maybe SportsNation mistakenly let its director of operations cast its vote instead. These things have been known to happen.

Things won't become official until Forde, Ivan Maisel and Mark Schlabach conduct a draft for their 40 teams Tuesday, but here's how things look in SportsNation's relegation zone.

Last Five In: Colorado, Pittsburgh, Utah, Illinois, Oregon State
First Five Out: South Carolina, BYU, Louisville, Kansas, North Carolina

• Tebow-gate aside, voters say Steve Spurrier has been good for South Carolina.
• Pick your own top 40 teams for a college football revolution
• Groups: South Carolina Gamecocks | Southeastern Conference | Oregon State Beavers

“

Awesome idea, but how about the winner of the lower division gets thrown in the mix of the national championship. America loves an underdog...

” -- orangebloodmike8

“

You just hit everything right on the HEAD! You got it right. Absolutely right. Promotion/relegation in college football would be amazingly popular!! The conferences are dated. Most teams in power conferences don't deserve to be there. Conference championships are TERRIBLE!! I have been boycotting bowl games since I realized that true champions are not crowned in this terrible system. My team is the Indiana Hoosiers, and the NCAA should take a lot of stock in the fact that even I am for this set up 100 percent.

” -- JRWambach1983