Oregon Ducks head coach Dan Lanning is all smiles during the fourth quarter against the UCLA Bruins at Rose Bowl. Mandatory Credit: Robert Hanashiro-Imagn Images

It’s a Friday night in October during the baseball postseason, and not a single pitch will be thrown.

There are a couple power-conference college football games on the slate, including a Big Ten contest between Michigan State and Oregon. Yeah, that sounds awkward.
It is going to take a while for it to sound real that those two schools play in the same conference.

We also have a Big 12 contest to study with Houston visiting TCU. Already seems ages ago that the Horned Frogs played in the national title game.

We’ll finish up with a WNBA playoff game between the New York Liberty and Las Vegas Aces. The two-time defending champion Aces are in a big hole.

MICHIGAN STATE AT OREGON

First-year Michigan State coach Jonathan Smith was probably stunned when the schedule came out. He spent the previous six years as head coach at Oregon State, located in Corvallis, approximately 40 miles north of Eugene on Highway 99.

He also played quarterback for the Beavers when it was OK to call the rivalry with Oregon the “Civil War.” Now Smith is trying to revamp the Spartans (3-2, 1-1 Big Ten), who started 3-0 before losses to Boston College (23-19) and Ohio State (38-7).

The Ducks (4-0, 1-0) rolled to victories over Oregon State (49-14) and UCLA (34-13) in their past two games, and new quarterback Dillon Gabriel is completing a stunning 81.5 percent of his passes. Dillon has thrown for 1,192 yards, nine touchdowns and just one interception.

Tez Johnson (four) and Traeshon Holden (three) have combined for seven receiving scores to help the Ducks average 36 points per game. The Spartans average 21.8 and quarterback Aidan Childs has thrown eight interceptions and just five touchdowns. Expect Oregon to roll to another rout.

Oregon -23.5 points, -112 (DraftKings)

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HOUSTON AT TCU

It has been nearly 21 months since the Horned Frogs were annihilated 65-7 by Georgia in the championship game following the 2022 season. Oh, that’s coach Sonny Dykes yelling, “Hey, I don’t want my recruits to read that.” Sorry, coach, we’ll go with this: “TCU is just 8-9 since the start of the 2023 campaign.

The Horned Frogs haven’t performed well since that magical season, and we certainly noticed that they lost 66-42 to SMU a few weeks back. In fact, TCU (3-2, 1-1 Big 12) has allowed at least 27 points in four of its five games.

Then we have this to factor in: Houston has yet to score in conference play and ranks last in the nation in scoring offense (10.4). The Cougars (1-4, 0-2) lost 34-0 to Cincinnati two weeks ago and 20-0 to Iowa State last week to go scoreless in consecutive games. Houston scored 33 points while beating Rice—and 19 total in its other four games.

So one team can’t locate the end zone with a compass, and the other gave up 66 points in one game. Well, the Cougars always could return a fumble for a touchdown. They are due for a field goal. Anyone for a garbage-time touchdown?

Houston to score over 16.5 points, -125 (FanDuel)

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NEW YORK LIBERTY AT LAS VEGAS ACES

The Liberty are looking to complete a sweep of the five-game series after winning the first two games at home by an average of seven points. Now the scene turns to Las Vegas, and the Aces are promising not to fold. But beating the Liberty three straight times is a huge ask.

Brenna Stewart and Sabrina Ionescu are looking to get the Liberty back into the WNBA Finals, where they lost to Las Vegas last season. Ionescu says finishing the series off in Game 3 is the goal.

The Aces figure to put A’ja Wilson on overdrive with their elimination looming. The WNBA MVP had 24 points on 11-of-18 shooting and may need to go for 30 to better her team’s chances of winning. Is 35 possible?

Simply put, Las Vegas hasn’t been as solid this season as its past two title runs. It’s hard to see them coming back to win this series. But win one at home? Yes.

Aces -3 spread, -108 (DraftKings)