There are many great games occurring around the country during the next two days. Many have playoff implications, others are simply long-awaited match-ups. We picked our favorites for the weekend:

Best in the West: BYU @ Central Washington
The Cougars travel to the Wildcats for this DI friendly. The pair has history – 14 points separated the two during the spring championship final – and will build on that history as they both work toward the new DI Elite title this spring.

Central Washington has played a bunch of competitive matches already, and with the home-field advantage, they’re favored in what is sure to be a great match this Saturday. With that said, BYU has coped with its isolation for years and knows how to step up its performance when the pressure calls for it. The Cougars are coming off a shocking 90-5 win over New Mexico, which was supposed to be the team’s closest competition in the Mountain West. CWU spent last weekend beating Norwich and Quinnipiac.

Additionally, this game will be a place for reunions. Both squads sport young talent from California and Washington, and many of the players have competed with and against each other in the high school ranks, all-star teams, and All American tours.

Undefeated DII
There are still undefeated teams this late in the season, but this weekend will mar half of those unblemished records. The Mid-Atlantic (MARC) has pit four undefeated teams against each other. In the Tri-State Division, reigning champ Kutztown plays Delaware, while the Pennsylvania Division sees Bloomsburg and East Stroudsburg face off. Three of the four teams have guaranteed their places in the MARC semifinals. After Saturday, there’s a good chance that Delaware and St. Joe’s will be playing for that fourth spot to playoffs.

Remember that MARC received a third seed to national playoffs – since it is now participating in the Round of 32 – and will need to contest that third place game on finals weekend, Nov. 7-8.

There’s also a big game happening in the Rocky Mountain conference, as 5-0 Colorado College and Mesa State square off. Both have logged bonus-try wins against all of their opponents and secured their spots in the conference final four. Saturday’s game will award the East Division’s top seed to conference playoffs, but more importantly, it’ll offer the leaders their best competition thus far. Mesa has outscored opponents 478-20, Colorado College 336-32, so a good test awaits.

Playoffs Aplenty
The Midwest DI playoffs begin this weekend, with the higher seed hosting: #4 UW Madison @ #1 Minnesota, and #3 Northern Iowa @ #2 Iowa State. The latter is the game to watch. Iowa State beat UNI convincingly in the season-opener, and it’s taken some time for the Panthers to play some consistent ball. But it’s coming along, and we expect a good fight out of the reigning Midwest champ.

The following weekend will name the champion. The DI fall brackets have not been released yet, so it’s unclear how many seeds the region will receive to the national quarterfinals (Nov. 21-22).

In DII, the Tri-State has already begun its post-season. Last weekend, Molloy and Siena won their play-in games, defeating Fairfield 72-0 and New Paltz 24-17, respectively, and earned wild card spots in tomorrow’s quarterfinals:

Q1 - Molloy @ Vassar
Q2 - Marist @ Stony Brook
Q3 - Hofstra @ Albany
Q4 - Siena @ Rutgers

The victors will be committed to the following two weekends of play. The semifinals will be contested on Sunday, Nov. 1, with the winners of Q1 and Q2 playing each other, and Q3 and Q4 matching up. The final and third place matches will be contested at Vassar on Nov. 7, the week before the Round of 32.