Who'd a Thunk It: Illinois is good, Texas is bad

It's time for our weekly installment of college football Who'd a Thunk It?

1. Who'd a thunk Iowa State had an easier schedule when it added Oklahoma, Texas and Texas Tech (7-8 in the Big 12) and lost Baylor, Oklahoma State and Texas A&M (9-4)?

2. Who'd a thunk this was the first year the Cyclones would have a winning record against the South since .2005?

3. Who'd a thunk Illinois would have a chance to go 9-3 entering November. The Illini are 5-3 and don't have an opponent left (Michigan, Minnesota, Northwestern, Fresno State) that they can't beat.

4. Who'd a thunk a national Game of the Week would be between Mountain West Conference teams? TCU at Utah. You pick it. I have no idea.

5. Who'd a thunk Tulsa over Notre Dame, Baylor over Texas, and Virginia over Miami on the same day, let alone the same decade?

6. Who'd a thunk Temple vs. Florida International in the GoDaddy.com Bowl would be an actual bowl projection and an actual bowl? That's from Mark Schlabach of

ESPN.com, who also has Iowa State playing Penn State in the Dallas Football Classic and Iowa facing Arkansas in the Outback Bowl.