If you don’t know who these guys are well….I guess that just means you never watched wrestling. That sounded like it was going to be really mean but ended up being very pedestrian. Anyway, the greatest overall stable probably of all-time (sorry NWO) had pieces that fit together almost perfectly. Almost. And they always had four members. Four Horsemen. Four Members. See? Wrestling isn’t dumb. Anyway, this fits here in two ways: a) this is the fourth, and final, installment of this series and b) each one of these weeks can fit a member (or that member’s standing) of the Horsemen. So it’s kind of a rating system. Kind of. OK I better move on here or I will confuse myself.
Final four weeks of the season. We have gone through this exercise before but we know what this last month is like. Three incredible. One shit. Here we go!
Week 10
This week is that third member of the Horsemen. Always important and still one of the best wrestlers around but not on the same level as the top two in terms of importance. So Week 10 is one of Ole Anderson, Tully Blanchard, Sid Vicious, Brian Pillman, Lex Luger, Barry Windham, etc.
Game of the Week: Penn State at Michigan (7:30, FOX) – For the first time in a long time, I don’t consider Bama-LSU as the game of the week. But it’s close. Call them 1A and 1B. This should be a HUGE Big Ten East tilt. YUGE even. And by this point we will know if we will be seeing years of Harbaughll to come or if there will be a funeral planned for the his khakis. This is one third of the massive primetime schedule as well. So PVR un-friendly. Which I don’t really have to worry about anymore (thank God).
Other Really Important Games: Alabama at LSU (8:00, CBS) – The yearly Bama-LSU primetime SEC on CBS game is upon us this week. I would say that they should spread the SEC wealth but other than perhaps TAMU-Auburn there is nothing else even remotely close to primetime worthy on the SEC schedule. And CBS only gets one of these a year so they have to make the most of it. I kind of hope LSU wins here so Ed Orgeron gets a big extension so people can be pissed off that he got a big extension. Ah, the Internet. Where everyone has an opinion/hot take.
Stanford at Washington (3:30, ABC) – Part whatever of the ongoing Pac-12 North battle for supremacy. And hey Chris Petersen. An afternoon timeslot which means an early afternoon local start. There you go. So stop pissing and moaning. I wonder if the Pac-12 will cannibalize itself again this season. It seems to be the only time we have realignment rumours is when a Power Five conference does horrendously bad. God forbid the SEC ever has a down year. The rumours would get to the point that the SEC would be a 30-team mega-conference with divisions like Major League Baseball (but with interleague play!).
Texas A&M at Auburn (Noon, TSN4) – Speaking of TAMU, I am wondering if I have them rated too highly in this exercise. I mean I know they know have Jimbo Fisher at the helm and that’s a really good thing for College Station but it does take time for a new coach (usually) to find his bearings and guide the team in his vision. Anyway, I assume with the SEC on CBS getting their primetime game this week that they would shy away from putting anything on against it on ESPN which is where the SEC usually lands in primetime. That is why it goes to the death spot at Noon. But hey at least it’s on TSN (I think).
Louisville at Clemson (8:00, ABC) – Very interested to see how the Fighting Petrinos bounce back from not having Lamar Jackson this season. I think they will still do quite well, like a normal 8-9 win season that they are used to at (shitty) Papa John’s Stadium. Seriously have you ever tried Papa John’s pizza? Overpriced and mediocre at best. I would say it’s not quality pizza at all. By the way this is somehow the worst of the three primetime matchups this week. So saddle up!
Notre Dame at Northwestern (3:30, specialty pack) – First appearance of the specialty pack this week. You know it’s a big week when the specialty pack takes a bit of a back seat to what is on, let’s call it, regular cable. I hope I haven’t overrated both of these teams but Notre Dame is a serious NY6 contender and Northwestern has to be considered a Big Ten West contender. Watch them both come into this game under .500.
Sneaky-Good Underrated Game: Florida State at NC State (Noon, specialty pack) – Underrated? Probably will be even though these two rabid fanbases would say otherwise. By this point, yes, both the Seminoles and Wolfpack probably won’t be sneaking up on anyone. But unless one of these teams is undefeated (or perhaps with one loss), very few will be talking about this game (other than the fanbases I mentioned above). Also, we know what NC State tends to do to Florida State (give them fits) so this should be good.
Best Group of Five Game: Temple at UCF (Thursday, 8:00, TSN2) – UCF is basically starting to own this spot. I was going to put the Boise State game here but they play BYU and I am not so sure BYU will be quite back to normal BYU standards yet. Whereas I know Temple at least will be pretty decent and UCF might just run the table again. See this is what these weekday night games are for: national exposure for Group of Five conferences. One is plenty. Putting on like four during the week is absurd (looking at you MACtion).
Worst Power Five Game: Minnesota at Illinois (3:30, BTN) – These are the times that I am fine with not having the Big Ten Network. Although really I still do want it because COLLEJ FOOTBAW!
Week 11
This is the week that is pretty much neck-and-neck with American Thanksgiving Footballgasm Week. It doesn’t have the pizazz of that week but is still considered super important and may become, in hindsight, more like the most important week of this season (although most seasons it is still a tad behind). It really is the 1B to Week 13’s 1A. Week 11 is Arn Anderson.
Game of the Week: Auburn at Georgia (3:30, CBS) – The UGA revenge game. Not that it really mattered. Auburn beat both Bama and the Dawgs last season and their reward was being beaten pretty well by the so-called “real National Champs” UCF. Gotta win em all (or at least only lose one). Unless it’s 2007. Anyway, there are a bunch of really good games this week so I kind of took a shot in the dark as to which one I would pick. Almost all the games in the next section could qualify for this spot.
Other Really Important Games: Ohio State at Michigan State (7:30, ABC/TSN1) – There is pretty much no way that ABC/ESPN will let this one go to FOX. They already lose PSU-OSU and Michigan-OSU. Losing a third tOSU game wouldn’t be good optics for Disney. Also, most people would put this at the very top of the list. As I said above, it’s a crapshoot as to what is the best game this week. Also, this will have a ton of competition in primetime so the ESPN suits better hope this turns out to be a good game. If it is then cue Michael Geiger pumpernickel down the sidelines after game-winning kick.
Mississippi State at Alabama (Noon, CBS) – Yes most of the reason this is here is because of Evil Saban and the Fighting Crimson Tide Juggernaut Express. However, I expect Joe Moorhead to have his Bulldogs scoring a lot more points than usual. No, not Big XII levels of scoring but still a good amount. I do wonder if this game will end up here because CBS usually has the fourth pick when they have a Noon game so ESPN would get to pick two games after CBS picks their SEC on CBS afternoon game. For now I say yes since there are a few other decent SEC games this week that ESPN might bite on.
Wisconsin at Penn State (8:00, FOX) – This (I believe) will be the game that FOX gets that they will put in primetime. And it is the biggest stumbling block (along with their game in Ann Arbor a month earlier) for the Badgers towards another undefeated regular season. Not saying they will win all their other games but they will certainly be favoured. Gary Andersen has to hate seeing this. Still have no idea why he left but Paul Chryst is sure happy he did!
Florida State at Notre Dame (7:30, NBC) – Not quite Catholics vs. Convicts but FSU and Touchdown Jesus did have one of the 243 Games of the Century back in 1993. Bobby Bowden (who still may not realize that one field goal was wide right) and Lou Holtz (who thankfully no longer works the highlights desk at ESPN) in classic games with guys who did almost nothing in the NFL but were GODS on campus I’m sure. This is where this whole Notre Dame-ACC quasi-marriage thing works. Where it doesn’t work (as well) is when the Irish have to play a team having a horrible season.
Oklahoma State at Oklahoma (4:00, FOX) – BEDLAM! This falls to the #5 spot for the sheer fact that I don’t think Oklahoma State will be as good as it has been in the past few years. Saying that, this game ends up being somewhat like the Red River Shootout: it has goofy results that really have nothing to do with how the two teams were doing coming into it. I also have TCU-West Virginia starting the FOX tripleheader this day so if that ends up being the case then that is a mighty fine trio of games for the network that everyone trashes.
Sneaky-Good Underrated Game: South Carolina at Florida (Noon, specialty pack) – Two teams who will most likely be better than they were last season? Sign me up! Also, because of all the decent games on even at Noon, this might be pushed to the SEC Network. I mean it doesn’t really matter to us here but still…that shows what kind of week we are looking at.
Best Group of Five Game: Fresno State at Boise State (Friday, 10:15, specialty pack) – Rematch of last year’s Mountain West Championship and the last game of the Mountain West regular season. I know the MWC didn’t plan that out but it didn’t look good that’s for sure. Anyway, the Mountain West is so unbelievably top-heavy it’s ridiculous. Beyond these two teams and San Diego State are there any teams that have even a snowball’s chance of the New Year’s Six? Most of them will be in a battle just to go bowling. It feels like a lot of Group of Five conferences are like this but the Mountain West could be the worst with Conference USA not far behind.
Worst Power Five Game: Kansas at Kansas State (Noon, specialty pack) – Yes, this is the worst game of the week. And it involves Kansas State. So yeah this is a good week to be a college football fan.
Week 12
This is the week I loathe….well as much as I can loathe a college football week (which isn’t very much really). It’s SEC Sleepwalk Week (or whatever the fuck ESPN is calling it). Many SEC teams like to schedule cupcakes the week before Footballgasm (also known as American Thanksgiving). Don’t get me wrong, a few other Power Five teams to do and it annoys me; however the SEC has made somewhat of a tradition of this. I have always been of the opinion that games against FCS schools should be in September and October (and in August if the season goes that early). The games against G5 teams are not as big a deal really. Anyway, this means that Week 12 is usually the crappiest of college football weeks. For this reason, Week 12 is Paul Roma.
Game of the Week: Miami at Virginia Tech (Noon, TSN2) – See what I mean? This would be no higher than #3 at best in any other week of the season. It’s the kind of week where if I had to miss watching games live and had to resort to going old school and using the PVR to record as many games as possible and making that very same PVR work its ass off all Saturday and well into Sunday morning it wouldn’t be a problem. Anyway, yes this is the best game but a pretty high margin. Sad.
Other Really Important Games: Duke at Clemson (Noon….we may not get this at all) – This has gone south pretty quickly. Hopefully Duke is actually a decent football team this season or this being the #2 game of the week is pretty bad for college football in general. And I say that we may not get this game at all because at this point I actually have it on the FOX Sports Regional channel that we sometimes get games from. So it’s a crapshoot as to if this will happen or not.
USC at UCLA (8:00, ABC/TSN3) – This could end up being the GOTW if Chip Kelly gets the Bruins ship righted quickly. I’m not totally counting on that and who knows with USC (although you can almost be assured of at least 9 wins from the Trojans). This will probably end up on ABC more so because the Pac-12 doesn’t exactly get many games in this timeslot on ABC during the season and because other than Miami-VT there isn’t another game that screams out ABC in Primetime. Obviously that can change if some teams are much better than predicted.
Sneaky-Good Underrated Game: Wisconsin at Purdue (3:30, ABC) – Yes only three games in the first two sections. Yikes. This could be good if Purdue exceeds their performance from last season. This could be a potentially massive speed bump for Wisconsin who seems to be a big favourite for the Big Ten West title yet again. A loss here could derail that chance and will definitely derail their College Football Playoff hopes.
Best Group of Five Game: San Diego State at Fresno State (10:30, CBS Sports Network) – This is essentially your Mountain West West Division championship right here. Honestly, no other team is close to these two. Not saying we won’t see a surprise, kind of like what Fresno State did last season. But I honestly don’t see any team being at least three wins better than what most are predicting. Going to be honest here: CBS Sports Network has a pretty decent schedule this season. Having a quadrupleheader almost every week doesn’t hurt.
Worst Power Five Game: Iowa at Illinois (Noon, Big Ten Network) – There are a lot to choose from here. And it’s not that this is ridiculously bad. Iowa should be a pretty good team this season. Illinois is trash and Lovie Smith is, unfortunately, not long for that head coaching job. There are a lot of games like this where you have one decent team and one not-so-decent team. Or two mediocre teams. It’s a week littering with games that casual fans, for the most part, wouldn’t tune into. So we know what will probably happen. We’re going to have like eight really close games with some fantastic finishes and it will be the most exhausting, yet smile-inducing, week of the season. I’m fine with that.
Week 13
The ultimate. The footballgasm. The week most college football fans look forward to. It’s American Thanksgiving Week(end). And it is oh so glorious. I love this time so much that I usually get Black Friday off just to watch college football. Yes, I realize I am completely insane. And I don’t care! So for obvious reasons, Week 13 is “The Nature Boy” Ric Flair. WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
Game of the Week: Auburn at Alabama (3:30, CBS) – Again, CBS will not make the mistake of not having the Iron Bowl. Boy did they ever pay for that. Thanks a bunch Mississippi State and Ole Miss. Anyway, this could be considered the Game of the Year and is almost always a massive game, not only in the SEC West or SEC, but for the New Year’s Six and College Football Playoff. Last year’s game was no exception. Depending on how these teams are doing (and how Michigan and tOSU are doing) this might move to the second most important game of the week. A very important note here: there is a real possibility this game could be moved to Black Friday. Sweet fucking Jesus.
Other Really Important Games: Michigan at Ohio State (Noon, FOX) – The other potential Game of the Week/Year. If Jimmy Insane-o can get the Wolverines to play some damn good ball coming into this one, FOX might outhype the college football hype machine known as ESPN College Gameday. OK maybe that’s going a bit too far but it wouldn’t surprise me to see them do a true pre-game show on the main network to get things going for this one. Expect peak GUS JOHNSON with this one.
Notre Dame at USC (8:00, ABC/TSN1) – This is always the week where TSN goes nuts with college football. CFL is over and we haven’t quite got to those weird Saturday NFL games yet. From what I can see from the TSN schedule for this season there will be 12 games from Thursday night through Saturday night. A huge plus to the non-specialty pack people out there. And as someone with the specialty pack I don’t really care to be honest because there are some weeks where it is absolutely imperative to have it. Anyway, this game is probably at least a New Year’s Six quasi-play-in-game. Maybe they should play it in Dayton.
South Carolina at Clemson (3:45, TSN3) – The final regular season week usually has a bunch of rivalry games and some of these are non-conference affairs. It sometimes plays a tiny bit of havoc with the schedules since CBS only has SEC games on at 3:30 and if a lot of the SEC teams are on the road, we may be stuck with a hot Tennessee-Vandy game in the primetime ESPN slot on Saturday. I mean this won’t happen but we have been close before to this and have also been close to super games being put on the SEC Network or BTN. Crazy. Anyway, this should be a good one and might be Clemson’s final hurdle before the ACC Championship and potential CFP spot.
Mississippi State at Ole Miss (Thursday, 7:30, TSN2) – Last year’s Egg Bowl was equal parts somewhat pathetic and very horrific. Can’t forget what happened to poor Nick Fitzgerald in this one. The game was delayed for like 15 minutes just to get him off the field (or at least it felt that way). Hopefully we don’t get a repeat of that. I know Ole Miss isn’t going bowling but should be better than last year now that possible-bowling-professional-turned-college-football-coach Matt Luke has discarded the interim tag. And the Bulldogs could be really fun offensively with Joe Moorhead at the helm. Plus it’s either this or the Thursday Night NFL game. So yeah, I’ll choose this.
LSU at Texas A&M (Noon, TSN2) – See? I had to put either this or GT-UGA on the SEC Network. Luckily I am sure TSN will pick this game up since there are so many games they will have, even an SEC Network game looks good. This could be Ed Orgeron’s last (regular season) stand so let’s drink it all in. Watch LSU win, the players put Orgeron on their shoulders and walk off the field, and the AD gives Cajun Boy a six-year extension. Some people would lose their damn minds.
Oklahoma State at TCU (3:30, TSN2) – Could be a Big XII Championship play-in game. Pair it with ND-USC you got a great First Four on a Tuesday night on truTV. Now the biggest challenge: find out what truTV even is. Anyway, this is our pew-pew game of the week, even more so than Oklahoma-West Virginia.
Washington at Washington State (Friday, 8:00, FOX) – The Apple Cup is almost always a joy to watch. And now that it will be on Black Friday it will be a nice cap to the appetizer for Footballgasm Weekend. I’m sure Mike Leach will be doing something completely nuts at this point and Chris Petersen won’t complain about kickoff time. Good stuff! Also, if Wazzu does win this, it may clinch another year of the Pac-12 being terrible with no teams going to the College Football Playoff. OK that’s not quite true: the Pac-12 is good. They just have so many upper-tier teams (not elite-tier) that they cannibalize themselves and no one comes out alive.
Sneaky-Good Underrated Game: Wake Forest at Duke (7:00, specialty pack) – Among all the good games this week, this one will fly so under-the-radar it will be considered a submarine. But make no mistake about it; this should be a good matchup. And there’s the possibility one (or both) of these teams will be playing for their bowl lives. That always ratchets up the excitement at this time of the season.
Best Group of Five Game: UCF at USF (Friday, 3:30, ABC) – A rematch of what was the (regular season) Game of the Year. Not just in the Group of Five. But overall. This was an unreal game and if you watched it you were glued to it. Couldn’t take your eyes off it because you wanted to see what happened next. Which is something for someone like me who likes to college-football-channel-surf like I have severe ADHD. This will probably be the best Group of Five game of the week again unless fellow conference foes Houston and Memphis steal their thunder earlier on Black Friday.
Worst Power Five Game: Colorado at California (4:30, Pac-12 Network) – I was tempted to put Tennessee-Vanderbilt here but I will be able to see that one whereas Colorado-Cal I can’t see without a subscription to the (sub-par) Pac-12 Network. So to make myself feel better about this spot (and the whole week in general), I made my choice. And yes, very little can dampen my spirits about this week of college football.
Weeks 14 and 15
Shouldn’t probably rate these to be honest. It’s all conference championship games. And then Army-Navy in Week 15. Very important games for sure and really it’s the bow that ties the season together. The glue, if you will. So let’s say the last two weeks are J.J. Dillon.
Not going to do parse these games out since I don’t know who will be in them. It is a new world now with all conferences enjoying the payouts of conference title games despite the fact some of these conference title games are underwhelming and may not bring in the audience that networks hope for. Nonetheless, it really does put all conferences on an even playing field with regards to the 13th game argument. Which means expect more Alabama in 2017 situations in the future since conference championship games will be more likely to knock a team out of the CFP than put them in it.
Army-Navy is always huge. People who say otherwise are, well, I don’t know. I think they’re just barking up the wrong tree if they think it’s not special. And I still hope that one day Navy comes in undefeated, after winning the American Conference championship, with an absolute shit-ton on the line. Think of the ratings. Or even Army. Hell, Army would have more on the line because a loss if they came in undefeated would give them absolutely no shot at the New Year’s Six. Maybe this will be the year. Probably not, but we can always hope.
I have finally completed this monumental task. OK maybe not so much monumental but long. Very long. And if you got this far, then congratulations! You are almost as crazy about college football as I am. Which is pretty damn crazy.
Next up is the network specific posts and this year I will actually be able to do a somewhat accurate post for TSN. How about that? I mean I will still end up being relatively wrong the farther into the year we get but all I can do is try my best. It also means we are getting that much closer to college football season officially starting. 66 days away!
Anyway, all of you have a great rest of the week!
Bossman's Blog 