Fast Forward

? Boston College (4-2, 8-2) at Virginia Tech (6-0, 10-0)
The Eagles have been a pleasant surprise in the Big East, but let's not get carried away. They've won five games by four points or fewer and defeated only one team with a winning record: Syracuse (6-4). One flaw the Hokies will expose: BC is 105th in the country in net punting. Can you spell b-l-o-c-k? Virginia Tech can taste the Sugar Bowl. After this game the Hokies will be playing in it.

? Arizona (3-4, 6-5) at Arizona State (4-3, 5-5)
They share more than a state and a fierce dislike of each other. Both defenses gave up 50 points to Pac-10 champion Stanford. More important, both teams started as league favorites in recent years (the Sun Devils in 1998, the Wildcats in '99) and crumbled beneath the weighty expectations. The winner goes to Hawaii for the Christmas Day bowl doubleheader. The loser stays home. We'll go with history. Arizona State coach Bruce Snyder is 0-3 at home against Arizona. Go ahead and make it 0-4.

? Georgia (7-3) at Georgia Tech (7-3)
One good thing about wins in traditional rivalries is that they salvage a season. Two disappointed teams line up at Bobby Dodd Stadium: the Bulldogs, third place in the SEC East again, and the Yellow Jackets, who fell out of contention for a BCS bowl with their loss to Wake Forest and took quarterback Joe Hamilton's Heisman chances with them. Hamilton performed his magic on Georgia last season, bringing Tech back from a 12-point deficit with 14 fourth-quarter points, but it has become apparent that the one defense Hamilton can't beat is his own. The Yellow Jackets can't stop anyone, much less anyone as talented as Dawgs sophomore quarterback Quincy Carter.