College football has never had a Thursday night like this — though you can expect more of them in the future.
Two games with championship implications, matching four highly ranked teams.
No. 12 Oklahoma at No. 5 Baylor, with first place on the line in the Big 12, kicks off at about 7:30 EST on Fox Sports 1. Then, a few minutes after 9 p.m., comes No. 2 Oregon against No. 6 Stanford, the Pac-12 game of the year.
“A lot went into it to get us here and a lot had to break right,” said Ilan Ben-Hanan, ESPN vice president of programming and acquisitions. “Now that it’s here, we’re so fired up.”
The folks over at Fox Sports are psyched, too. OU-Baylor is one of the biggest events the fledgling all-sports cable channel has shown since it went on the air last summer. It’s the type of game that Fox officials hope can accelerate the growth of FS1 and help build a regular audience.
“We like to call them tent-pole events. This is one,” said Bill Wanger, executive vice president of research and programming for Fox Sports.
Thursday night college football has been a staple on ESPN for more than two decades, with games regularly involving ranked teams. The Atlantic Coast Conference and the Big East were among the first conferences to embrace the idea of playing televised games on Thursday nights as a way to shine a spotlight on their leagues.
ESPN’s most viewed Thursday night game is No. 3 Texas’ 49-39 victory against Texas A&M on Thanksgiving 2009. Second was USC-Oregon State in September 2008, a memorable upset of the top-ranked Trojans.
“We’ve always told our conference partners Thursday night is a big-time opportunity to gain exposure because everybody is watching,” Ben-Hanan said. “On Saturdays the games tend to wash over you. There’s something great about that too. Thursdays are different. Your teams have the stage to themselves. It becomes a really cool spotlight opportunity, and our partners have embraced it.”
The Pac-12 and Big 12 embraced it when they each signed multibillion dollar television rights contracts with ESPN and Fox.
The deal calls for each conference to make four games available to the networks for weekday broadcasts every season.
Pac-12 deputy commissioner Kevin Weiberg, who was once the commissioner of the Big 12, said the trend toward playing more night games is tied to conferences seeking “to unlock more value” in their television rights deals.
ESPN and Fox make recommendations on matchups they’d like to be made available, mindful of certain guidelines determined by each conference, and then they divvy up those games equally.
Weiberg said the Pac-12 officials didn’t think twice about playing what was potentially the conference’s most important game of the season on Thursday night.
“It was part of the normal process,” Weiberg said. “It was a game that had been requested and a game that fit.”
The NFL has now staked a claim to Thursday, too, with a weekly game on NFL Network. This week, Washington at Minnesota will kick off about an hour after the Sooners and Bears start, and about 30 minutes before Ducks-Cardinal begins.
Wanger and Ben-Hanan say they aren’t concerned about competing against the NFL. Football fans seem to have an insatiable appetite.
“Nobody is saying, ‘You know what? That’s too much football,’” Ben-Hanan said.

The picks:
• MAIN EVENTS
No. 2 Oregon (minus 10½) at No. 6 Stanford, tonight — Can Cardinal defense lock up Ducks again? ... OREGON 35-21.
• MARQUEE MATCHUP
No. 10 LSU (plus 11) at No. 1 Alabama — Tide has been tuning up for a month ... ALABAMA 31-17.
No. 12 Oklahoma (plus 14½) at No. 5 Baylor, tonight — Bears’ only victory against Sooners came two years ago, with RGIII at QB ... BAYLOR 45-38.
Virginia Tech (plus 7) at No. 14 Miami — Hokies can get right back in ACC Coastal race with win ... VIRGINIA TECH 24-20.
Houston (plus 10½) at No. 19 UCF — Cougars’ chance to get into rankings and muddle American race ... UCF 38-31.
BYU (plus 7½) at No. 21 Wisconsin — Fast-paced Cougars vs. take-your-time Badgers, but both rely heavily on power running ... WISCONSIN 35-24.
• BEST BET
No. 16 UCLA (minus 1) at Arizona — Bruins won by 56 in Tucson last year ... UCLA 45-35.
• UPSET SPECIAL
No. 17 Fresno State (minus 10) at Wyoming — Bulldogs have been living on the edge ... WYOMING 35-31.
• PLUCKY UNDERDOGS
No. 7 Auburn (minus 7½) at Tennessee ... AUBURN 35-24.
No. 23 Arizona State (minus 7) at Utah ... ARIZONA STATE 42-28.
No. 24 Notre Dame (minus 5) at Pittsburgh ... NOTRE DAME 24-17.
Kansas State (plus 2½) at No. 25 Texas Tech ... TEXAS TECH 31-30.
Tigers haven’t inspired oddsmakers to be confident in them, for whatever that’s worth. Utes look for second major upset of season. Panthers gave Irish all kinds of problems last season. Red Raiders have lost two straight.
• MISMATCHES
No. 20 Louisville (minus 28) at UConn, Friday night ...LOUISVILLE 42-10.
No. 3 Florida State (minus 35) at Wake Forest ... FLORIDA STATE 48-14.
No. 9 Missouri (minus 14) at Kentucky ... MISSOURI 38-20.
Mississippi State (plus 19½) at No. 11 Texas A&M ... TEXAS A&M 45-28
Kansas (plus 31) at No. 15 Oklahoma State ... OKLAHOMA STATE 42-14.

Last week: Record straight: 11-2; vs. points 8-5.
Season: 161-30; 85-81-3.
Best bet: 6-3-1.
Upset special: 4-5.