Free Republic

For like the fifth weekend in a row, college football’s got a light-looking schedule. We’re really piling up big games for the latter half of the season, it seems! That’s OK, though, because we’ll keep having fun along the way. Week 7 also feels totally out of order, and not just because Oklahoma-Texas/Texas-Oklahoma/the Red River Rivalry/the Red River Shootout/the Red River Showdown/etc. isn’t an 11 a.m. local kick. Most of the best games are in Saturday’s early half, so be sure to clock in early.

JANUARY 4, 2017 —Fans in the stands at the Allstate Sugar Bowl in New Orleans Jan. 2 might have wondered where everybody went. The announced crowd of 54,077 fell far short of the seating capacity of the cavernous Mercedes-Benz Superdome, which holds more than 76,000. Vast swaths of seats sat empty. The attendance figure was the lowest for the Sugar Bowl since 1939. But it was hardly alone. The Camping World Independence Bowl, held each year in Shreveport, La., brought just under 29,000 fans through its turnstiles, its worst attendance since 1988. The Goodyear Cotton Bowl Classic in Arlington, Texas,...