Well it’s about damn time. The Week 1 College Football TV Schedule Everyone!

We made it!  OK we made it last week (technically) but this is where things kick into high gear, so to speak.  Despite ESPN showing two games last Saturday they are touting this as opening weekend.  I get that this is a huge weekend in the sporting landscape but why have Week Zero if this is how it will operate?  I’m not complaining.  I got the appetizer last Saturday.  Now I’m ready for the full Italian five-course meal!

Let’s stop dilly-dallying (not dilly-dillying you Bud Light drinking yahoos) and get to the damn schedule already!

Thursday

		US	Canada
New Mexico State at Minnesota	7:00 PM
#21 UCF at UConn	7:00 PM
Wake Forest at Tulane	8:00 PM
Northwestern at Purdue	8:00 PM
Northwestern State at Texas A&M	8:30 PM

We get right down to it with two of the Big Ten West’s bridesmaids trying to start their season off on the right foot.  Honestly, any sort of trip up puts them one step behind Wisconsin this season.  It also marks TSN’s first college football game of the season.

UPDATE #2: The Northwestern State-Texas A&M game is not showing on the Bell Fibe guide so don’t know if it is appearing on other guides either.  But the game is appearing.  So no need to worry about that.

Friday

		US	Canada
Syracuse at Western Michigan	6:00 PM
Utah State at #11 Michigan State	7:00 PM
Army at Duke	7:00 PM
Western Kentucky at #4 Wisconsin	9:00 PM
Colorado at Colorado State	9:30 PM

The best game of the night might end up being that Army-Duke matchup.  Pretty closely matched right there.  A couple years ago I would have said the two games with the Big Ten teams would be big ones but USU and WKU aren’t what they used to be.  Colorado State has to play better than they did last week or this could be a long season (and make my prediction for them look like absolute trash).

Saturday Early

		US	Canada
Houston at Rice	Noon
Oregon State at #5 Ohio State	Noon
Kent State at Illinois	Noon
Texas State at Rutgers	Noon
Ole Miss vs. Texas Tech (in Houston)	Noon
James Madison at NC State	Noon
Coastal Carolina at South Carolina	Noon
Florida Atlantic at #7 Oklahoma	Noon
Furman at #2 Clemson	12:30 PM

A lot of games here.  I would say two of them are relatively important (I guess).  Ole Miss-Texas Tech is a weird neutral-site game although it was scheduled a few years back when both teams were probably much better.  FAU-OU should be something.  Don’t be surprised if the Lane Train puts a scare in Boomer Sooner (although I still honestly can’t see the Owls winning).

UPDATE #3: Alcorn State-Georgia Tech has been added to the specialty pack.  It will start at 12:30.

Saturday Afternoon

		US	Canada
Washington State at Wyoming	3:30 PM
#17 West Virginia vs. Tennessee (in Charlotte)	3:30 PM
Appalachian State at #10 Penn State	3:30 PM
Northern Illinois at Iowa	3:30 PM
#9 Auburn vs. #6 Washington (in Atlanta)	3:30 PM
Austin Peay at #3 Georgia	3:30 PM
Central Michigan at Kentucky	3:30 PM
North Carolina at California	4:00 PM
UT-Martin at Missouri	4:00 PM
Eastern Illinois at Arkansas	4:00 PM

OK looks like things get better here, especially with what I believe is undoubtedly the game of the week in Atlanta.  Auburn-Washington will definitely shape the College Football Playoff and New Year’s Six pictures and is the first mega-matchup of the season.  I’m glad to see ESPN isn’t doing the 3-hour window thing today since it is completely dumb and like 0.1% of games finish before the 3-hour mark.  A lot of good options other than AU-UW with CMU-UK, UNC-Cal, WVU-Tennessee and App State-Penn State.

Saturday Primetime

		US	Canada
Indiana at FIU	7:00 PM
Cincinnati at UCLA	7:00 PM
#14 Michigan at #12 Notre Dame	7:30 PM
Middle Tennessee at Vanderbilt	7:30 PM
Charleston Southern at Florida	7:30 PM
Stephen F. Austin at #18 Mississippi State	7:30 PM
Akron at Nebraska	8:00 PM
#1 Alabama vs. Louisville (in Orlando)	8:00 PM

Honestly it’s not a ton better in the primetime schedule than in the afternoon sked.  And that’s A-OK with me.  Michigan-Notre Dame is usually a great game with a loss definitely hurting either program (considering the schedules they are dealing with this season).  Bama should beat Louisville easily but you never know, right?  FOX gets a pretty bad schedule opening week and I am sure they don’t care.  They get some fantastic games later in the season.  Just be happy they have a tripleheader and move on.

UPDATE #4: Cincinnati-UCLA also appearing now on the specialty pack. This is odd but it is what it is.

Saturday Late Night

		US	Canada
BYU at Arizona	10:45 PM
Navy at Hawaii	11:00 PM

Unlike last year, this year as some late night fare opening weekend.  And I mean REALLY late night fare.  The Navy-Hawaii game starts at 11 so won’t end before 2:30 probably for certain.  Especially if the Fighting Roloviches toss the ball over the field like they did last week.  BYU shows how far back they really are and Khalil Tate gets to start his Heisman campaign after most normal people have gone to bed (which excludes me obviously).

Sunday

		US	Canada
NC Central vs. Prairie View A&M (in Atlanta)	Noon
#25 LSU vs. #8 Miami (in Arlington)	7:30 PM

Part of me was surprised when FOX decided against having a Sunday night affair since last year’s Texas A&M-UCLA game was bonkers.  Then I looked at what was available and immediately understood the issue: there just aren’t enough good games out there to put in this timeslot.  And going up against LSU-Miami is a different animal than going up against Virginia Tech-West Virginia (which was the ABC game last season).

Monday

		US	Canada
#20 Virginia Tech at #19 Florida State	8:00 PM		(JIP)

OK.  We know what has happened before with the Monday night college football opener and TSN.  It’s usually a shitshow.  I don’t understand how TSN can’t figure this out but they seemingly can’t.  So this is what I can determine at this point:

• The Toronto Argos-Hamilton Ti-Cats game is a Labour Day NIGHT game and on most of the TSN stations.
• That game ends at 8:30.
• It appears that TSN3 would pick up the game in progress at that point.  This would mean viewers would miss the first quarter perhaps.
• TSN2, the only TSN station not showing the Labour Day Classic, is showing US Open Tennis as per usual this time of year.

So there you go.  Looks like we will get to see the final three quarters of this game on TSN3.  Let’s pray that this ends up being the case.

UPDATE: Remember what I said about updates?  Scratch that…for now.  After seeing the guide, it looked like the game was going to the specialty pack AS WELL AS TSN3 joined in progress.  Thanks to reader Cam, this looks to be the case since TSN is, one hand, promoting the Megacast with like 10,000 feeds but is basically allowing this to also show on the specialty pack since otherwise no one would be able to see it on TV in its entirety.  Supposedly, you can see the game in its entirety on TSN.ca as well, probably on Feed #1 (of like a million).

Games to set your eyeballs on

Auburn vs. Washington (in Atlanta) (3:30, ABC/TSN2) – I believe this is the game to watch for Week 1 and many agree.  A must watch for even a casual college football fan.  Also it puts one program into the “Instant Contender” category and one into the “Maybe It’s The New Year’s Six For Us” category.  We also get to see if we get the Jake Browning of a couple years ago or the Jake Browning of last season.

Michigan at Notre Dame (7:30, NBC) – A game between two programs with coaches who many think should be on the hot seat but in reality aren’t because they’ve actually done fairly well although not compared to the legendary programs of the past.  Yeesh.  Should be intriguing though and usually games between these two teams produce exciting finishes.  This is the second of two ranked vs. ranked games this week by the way.

LSU vs. Miami (in Arlington) (Sunday, 7:30, ABC/TSN3) – Two teams that really haven’t faced each other much (12 times, last time in 2005) play in an ACTUAL NEUTRAL-SITE GAME!  Not this Auburn basically playing next door type of thing.  I am not really fond of those since they feel like cash-grabs (and probably are).  Cue the Ed Orgeron takes since I am sure we will hear a boatload of them.  Also a (probable) return of ESPN’s favourite inanimate object, the Turnover Chain!

Virginia Tech at Florida State (Monday, 8:00, TSN3 (kind of)) – This is a MEGACAST game so it’s good TSN3 has the game (even if it is joined in progress).  Otherwise they would have all the MEGACAST feeds but not the actual game and you wouldn’t be able to get it on the specialty pack either because TSN technically has the game and it would just be a big giant game of Fuck the Consumer.  Still waiting for a feed that has coaches at an all-you-can-eat restaurant where all the drinks are being comped.  Would be good to see Dana Holgorsen half in the bag singing Take Me Home, Country Roads and then vomiting all over Brian Kelly and Jim Harbaugh.

Florida Atlantic at Oklahoma (Noon, FOX) – I debated putting either WVU-Tennessee in NASCAR Country or Bama-Louisville here but went with the non-neutral-site game instead.  The announcers (who will definitely be Gus Johnson and Joel Klatt) will gush all over Lane Kiffin and Lincoln Riley like everyone else seems to be doing.  Gus will go apoplectic over some crazy play and Joel will do his best Abercrombie + Fitch model smoldering look while breaking down the keys to the game.  Good way to start a Saturday.

Honourable mention: Alabama vs. Louisville (in Orlando) (8:00, ABC/TSN3); West Virginia vs. Tennessee (in Charlotte) (3:30, CBS); Northwestern at Purdue (Thursday, 8:00, TSN2)

Some gambling fun and games

Back to this bullshit.  And just a reminder, I don’t pick against the spread.  My picks are bad enough as is.  Here we go:

Alabama over Louisville

Notre Dame over Michigan

Texas over Maryland (which we can’t see)

Auburn over Washington

West Virginia over Tennessee

Florida State over Virginia Tech

LSU over Miami (upset pick of the week I guess)

Duke over Army

Oklahoma over Florida Atlantic

Purdue over Northwestern

Boise State over Troy (can’t see this one either)

Again we are back to the opening salvo of five straight days of college football!  And I am ready for it.  I think.  Everything, amazingly enough, is scheduled and in the guide except for the mystery of Monday night.  But I do think what I have above is correct for the VaTech-FSU game.  For this reason I probably don’t need to do many updates if any at all.  That would be nice to be honest with you.  I will be on the Twitter machine (@LikeABauce1978) on Saturday for sure.  Maybe at other points but definitely that day.  Don’t know why I put in the 1978 since I am sure no one else had that Twitter tag.  Oh well.  I think I mentioned this before too.  Always bugs me like twice a year.

Soon enough we will get back into the same old college recap-NFL recap-college schedule-NFL schedule rotation.  Actually it will be next week.  So enjoy the games all you crazy Canadian college football fans.  I know I will.

HEY HEY! (Krusty the Clown laugh) It’s time for the…what’s that say? NFL Preview post? (Krusty the Clown groan)

Yes.  It’s that time.  For one of my worst posts of the year (usually).  I am so far off on these sometimes I can’t even believe it.  Let’s take a look at what I had for last season in the NFL:

• I had Oakland defeating Seattle for the Super Bowl.  Jesus Christ.
• New England I had losing in the conference championship.  OK this almost happened to Jacksonville of all teams.
• The other conference title match had, ugh, Tampa Bay losing.  My god what the hell was I thinking?
• I also had Arizona and Cincinnati making the playoffs.

OK enough’s enough.  No more.  How horrendous was that?  I have to do better this time around right?  I mean it’s a low bar to hurdle but I am sure I will make it.  So let’s get right to the projected standings (* means I predict them to be a Wild Card team):

AFC East	NFC East
New England	Philadelphia
NY Jets	Dallas
Miami	NY Giants
Buffalo	Washington
AFC North	NFC North
Pittsburgh	Minnesota
Baltimore	Green Bay*
Cincinnati	Detroit
Cleveland	Chicago
AFC South	NFC South
Jacksonville	New Orleans
Houston*	Atlanta*
Tennessee*	Carolina
Indianapolis	Tampa Bay
AFC West	NFC West
LA Chargers	LA Rams
Kansas City	San Francisco
Denver	Seattle
Oakland	Arizona

Notes

• I can see a fair amount of parity this season.  There are always candidates to win more than 12 games this season but I could see it where one or even no teams hit the 13-win mark.  The best candidates are the LA Rams, New England, Philadelphia and Jacksonville
• I see some great races happening in both South divisions, along with the NFC West and North.  The others won’t be near as competitive with the Patriots easily steamrolling to yet another AFC East crown.  Also, and let’s be honest here, the LA Chargers will win the AFC West because the rest of the teams just aren’t that good and probably will all be under .500.
• The NFL Wild Card race should be pretty something.  I have the Packers and Falcons getting those two spots but the Niners, Lions and even perhaps the Giants and Cowboys will have something to say about that.
• In the AFC, it almost feels like a race to get over .500 to get into the playoffs.  Or maybe just to .500.  I think the Texans and Titans will be the two Wild Card choices and to be honest, do any of the other non-qualifying AFC teams deserve to make it?  Probably not.
• Should be a three-team race for the bottom with Tampa Bay, Indianapolis and Washington vying for that #1 overall pick.  Buffalo and Cleveland should be juuuuuuuuuuuuuust good enough to not be lumped in with those three teams which is an improvement for the Browns and a bit of a disaster for the Bills (who fully look like they are attempting to tank this season).
• Last year I said Jameis Winston would win the MVP.  Good fucking lord.  This year I will select Jared Goff.  Sorry Jared.
• I am not even going to pick a Rookie of the Year.  No point.  I’ll just be wrong.

I’m just going to get right into the playoff predictions here rather than split this into two posts.  I won’t go into any details with these selections.  Just gonna show them to you.  Here we go!

Wild Card Round

(3) Pittsburgh def. (6) Tennessee

(5) Houston def. (4) LA Chargers

(3) New Orleans def. (6) Green Bay

(5) Atlanta def. (4) Minnesota

Divisional Playoffs

(1) New England def. (5) Houston

(3) Pittsburgh def. (2) Jacksonville

(1) LA Rams def. (5) Atlanta

(3) New Orleans def. (2) Philadelphia

Conference Championships

(3) Pittsburgh def. (1) New England

(1) LA Rams def. (3) New Orleans

Super Bowl

(1) LA Rams def. (3) Pittsburgh

A little revenge for the Rams for their loss about 40 years ago to the Steelers in the Super Bowl.  Not many true upsets I have in the playoffs.  I would consider the top Wild Card in both conferences (Houston and Atlanta) to be better than the worst division winners (LA Chargers and Minnesota, respectively).  I also think that perhaps this will be Ben Roethlisberger’s swan song, win or lose in the Super Bowl.  Yep, I’m calling his retirement right now.

Next up will be the first college football schedule post of the season!  Wasn’t this past Saturday great?  OK great is maybe stretching it, but it was just good to see some real live college football action for once.  I mean, hell, I watched a full game featuring New Mexico State so you know I am a true fan (and quite possibly might have a few screws loose).  Have a great day everyone!

Time for my Heisman ballot…

OK I get it.  I’m awful at this.  However, I did have Baker Mayfield as the runner-up last season so at least I was close.  That’s gotta count for something, right?  No?  Fine, fuck you all.  Here’s my Heisman ballot for this season:

My (Probably) Absolutely Disgusting Heisman Ballot

1. Bryce Love, Stanford – Love is pretty much the odds-on favourite coming into the 2018 season to win the Heisman.  This means two things: 1) he probably won’t end up winning it because Stanford isn’t as good or he gets injured and 2) a few people out there will be adamant about Love not being anywhere close to the Heisman favourite.  You know, to be different.  Also makes those people look like stubborn assholes who probably just want attention.
2. Jonathan Taylor…….Thomas (ahahaha), Wisconsin – A little Home Improvement humour right there.  Anyway, the other hyped running back coming into this season is shockingly (and by shockingly I mean not shocking at all) from Wisconsin, a school that churns out top-tier running backs like they just put them in the photocopier and PRESTO!  Out one comes!  Anyway, expect him to get a boatload of yards, especially against lesser competition as Wisconsin is, again, the favourite in the Big Ten West.
3. Trace McSorley, Penn State – Yes I know.  Saquon Barkley is gone to the NFL.  But that means this is Trace’s time to shine now.  He is the man of the Penn State offense.  Most everything will go through him.  If Penn State is successful this season (and I think they will be), McSorley will be a big part of it and remember, Heisman voters love players on really good teams.
4. Will Grier, West Virginia – Of all the PEW! PEW! PEW!ing going on in the Big XII this season, Mr. Grier here will be doing the most of it.  Interesting how he was given a one-year suspension for PEDs, and then Florida let him transfer and now the Gators are desperate to find a good QB.  The Mountaineers’ Big XII hopes lie on Grier and that is why he will get a lot of consideration.
5. Tua Tagovailoa, Alabama – This will be an interesting season for the Tide and maybe in ways they don’t want.  An actual quarterback competition in Tuscaloosa!  It appears that Tua will have the inside track here and if he starts all the games this season he is almost a shoo-in to be in the Heisman competition.  But Tagovailoa starting means they may end up losing Jalen Hurts who may want to transfer instead and who would blame him?  And if Tagovailoa goes down to injury early on or plays poorly does this mean Hurts is in the Heisman hunt?
6. Jake Fromm, Georgia – I debated who to put here because D’Andre Swift could easily go here as well.  To be honest, both could enter the race at some point this season.  I think Fromm is the safer bet here and if Georgia repeats what they did last year (with one obvious exception) then Fromm will rocket up the rankings for sure.
7. Khalil Tate, Arizona – Can’t say East Coast bias to me.  First, I have Bryce Love at #1.  And second, I stay up and watch Pac-12 After Dark so I see as much college football as I can from around the country.  I think defenses will be a bit more prepared for Tate this season.  He will still be the main reason Arizona contends for their first-ever Rose Bowl berth this season and that alone puts him on this list.
8. Justin Herbert, Oregon – The sixth quarterback on this list and it’s a guy from Chip Kelly’s old stomping ground.  Oregon is a much better team with Herbert in the lineup than without so the hope is that he is injury-free all season.  He would have to come up with an all-timer of a season though to look like a better Heisman candidate than Love or Tate.
9. Jarrett Stidham, Auburn – Will Stidham be the second coming of Cam Newton?  No.  Will he throw the ball all over the field and have Auburn somewhat abandon their run offense?  Perhaps.  To be honest, if Auburn plays second fiddle to Bama (and I believe they will) then Stidham will get very few looks unless he’s tossing for 350 a game.
10. Ed Oliver, Houston – I really wanted Eddie to be higher on this list.  I did.  But the chances of a defensive player winning the Heisman these days is almost nil.  He would have to have a ridiculously good season, Houston would have to be the Group of Five representative in the New Year’s Six and a few of the guys above him would have to have down seasons for him to be in the conversation.  Sad, but true.

Honourable Mention

• J.K. Dobbins, Ohio State
• Kelly Bryant/Trevor Lawrence, Clemson (whoever ends up getting the starting QB job)
• Dwayne Haskins, Ohio State
• Jake Browning, Washington
• Drew Lock, Missouri
• McKenzie Milton, UCF
• Cam Akers, Florida State
• Nick Fitzgerald, Mississippi State
• D’Andre Swift, Georgia

There’s the list!  Now I have to hope that at least one of these names wins.  I said I would retire the post last year if that happened and lucky for me, my #2 pick Baker Mayfield won it.  Same promise this time around.

Now let’s see…what’s up next.  Oh that’s right…MOTHERFUCKING COLLEGE FOOTBALL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  It is about damn time.  And yes, it isn’t exactly great college football but it’s college football nonetheless.  It’s the kind of games I would watch but not pay a ton of attention to unless it was the only game on or if it was close.  Instead, I will stay glued to it the entire time.  I am that depraved.

Alright so I have talked to one Bell customer service rep.  I know, after last year’s debacle, that the chances of the ESPN games showing up this Saturday are almost zero.  But I have to make sure right.  So I talked with this person and they said the games started on Sunday.  Sunday.  Yeah.  I asked them twice if that was the correct day because they are being played live on Saturday.  He assured me it was Sunday.  So there you have it.  No one knows.  So my best guess is that if you get CBS Sports Network you will see Hawaii-Colorado State.  The two ESPN games (North Carolina A&T vs. Jacksonville State at 7 and Wyoming at New Mexico State at 10) will probably not be shown in this area but stranger things have happened.  If I find out any more updates I will let you all know.

UPDATE: Good news!  After a few readers have mentioned that they are seeing the ESPN network games on their guides tonight, my cable box finally woke the hell up and now they are appearing as well.  WOOHOO!!!

Next up will probably be an NFL preview of sorts since I do that every year despite the fact I am rarely right with those predictions.  Everyone have a great week!

The 2018 College Football Coaching Hot Seat List – Sponsored by these two jamokes

You know, it was a relatively quiet college football offseason.  It really was.  Then these two became stories and all that went to shit.  Personally, I think universities have to take it upon themselves to hold these coaches to a high standard.  Otherwise this stuff happens and, more often than not, the head coach comes out relatively unscathed and many others are thrown under the bus in his stead.  Durkin should be gone and I would be shocked if he wasn’t.  I also believe Urban should be fired even if you want to say it’s just for the optics of the program.  Hell, Jim Tressel was fired for less and people acted like he was the devil.

HOT SEAT TIME!  This post has been actually fairly accurate over the years.  Hopefully I can keep it up because let’s be honest, it’s not like my predictions, as a whole, are setting any records here.

Let’s just get to the list shall we?  This is ordered (like every year) from most likely to be fired to least:

Almost Guaranteed Shitcanning

1. D.J. Durkin (Maryland) – Things were looking up for the Terps.  Then we find out that this guy is a shitbag bully…well, more of a shitbag bully than your average college football coach.  Let’s be honest: most college football players have thick skins.  But this guy went WAY over the line and often.  Needed to keep his job – Maryland admin to put their heads in the sand.  Prediction – Will be gone before the season even commences leading to a gongshow of a season for the Terrapins.
2. Scottie Montgomery (East Carolina) – ECU is wanting to step into the way-back machine and not fire Ruffin McNeill.  It has been an unmitigated disaster since he left.  That’s not all on Montgomery but man it’s been tough to watch how things have deteriorated in Greenville.  Needed to keep his job – Bowl eligibility at the very least.  Prediction – Will be gone mid-season and will end up as a position coach in the next year or two somewhere.
3. Lovie Smith (Illinois) – I think this experiment is about dead.  No offense to Lovie but it’s different than coaching in the NFL (you hear that Herm Edwards?) and they still don’t have the players needed to compete in the Big Ten.  Needed to keep his job – Bowl eligibility, plain and simple.  Prediction – He will either be fired late in the season or will coach the last one or two games as a lame duck coach.  So yeah, he’ll get to November but that’s where it will be the end of the line for ol’ Lovie.
4. Brad Lambert (Charlotte) – This is a tough one…kind of.  Charlotte has been awful since becoming a football program.  To be frank, they should have stayed in FCS for another few years if not a decade.  Instead they move right into Conference USA and get pummeled every season.  This year should be no different for the only coach the 49ers have ever known.  Needed to keep his job – Creeping towards bowl eligibility so like 4 or 5 wins.  Prediction – Lambert will slink back to FCS (if not lower) after they fire him at season’s end.

Probable Shitcanning

5. David Beaty (Kansas) – I should probably put him in the top section but Kansas is kind of weird that way.  Honestly, he should have been fired after last season’s debacle.  Lawrence is a tough place to coach football but the higher-ups at Kansas seem to be giving him a lot of chances so who knows what the plans are beyond this season. Needed to keep his job – At least four wins.  Prediction – I honestly cannot see the Jayhawks winning a conference game…maybe they’ll upset a team and win one.  So the chances of them winning four games is slim so I see him being fired after the season ends.
6. Bob Davie (New Mexico) – Things were looking up for Bobby down in Albuquerque.  The Lobos were getting better running the option offense almost like they were a military academy or Georgia Tech.  Becoming bowl contenders on the reg.  Now, a pretty bad season and reports that Davie treats his players like shit.  Great.  Needed to keep his job – Bowl eligibility and probably more since it’s New Mexico and letting that kind of crap happen can’t be good for a program that has done almost nothing in football ever.  Prediction – Under .500 and him hoping that he might be able to snag an ESPN job for 2019.
7. Everett Withers (Texas State) – Texas State.  Another FBS disaster.  Even Dennis Franchione couldn’t truly turn this program into a bowl game contender.  Needed to keep his job – Surprisingly 4 may do the job.  Prediction – Less than 4 wins and another coach search for the Bobcats.
8. Mike Neu (Ball State) – Ball State has been more of a non-factor in the MAC than any other program not named Kent State in the past five years.  Despite the fact that he’s a former Ball State QB, they may figure out that he was not the right hire to make at the time.  Needed to keep his job – Making some of the teams in the MAC West play hard to beat them.  Prediction – Will be at the bottom of the MAC West and will be let go after the season.
9. Mike MacIntyre (Colorado) – MacIntyre actually suffers from the 2016 season where the Buffaloes played out of their damn minds and won the Pac-12 South.  Other than that year, Colorado has been mostly a doormat their entire Pac-12 stay.  They won’t be in the basement this year but it might take a lot to quell a fairly unhappy fanbase.  Needed to keep his job – Bowl eligibility and being competitive against some of the upper echelon conference teams.  Prediction – Just missing out on a bowl game giving the AD and the brass a tough decision to chew on in the offseason.
10. Kliff Kingsbury (Texas Tech) – I don’t foresee any way that the Red Raiders are anything more than the one team better than Kansas in the Big XII this season.  I believe the Kute Kliff Kingsbury era is probably pretty much done in Lubbock.  Needed to keep his job – 6 wins.  Prediction – He won’t make it to 6 and it wouldn’t surprise me if he was let go with a game or two remaining on the sked so they can start the search for a new head coach early.

Possible Shitcanning

11. Randy Edsall (UConn) – His return to Storrs has not been good.  Saying that, he is trying to rebuild the program in his image the way it was in his first go-around with the Huskies.  I just think he won’t be sticking around to see what happens with his recruits.  Needed to keep his job – Any sort of noticeable improvement.  Prediction – Not a whole lot of improvement but that’s tough to judge.  This will again be a case of an AD having to take a long, hard look as to what the future of the football program should look like and who should lead it.
12. Urban Meyer (Ohio State) – This is a tough one.  Should he be fired?  Probably.  Will he be?  That’s a different story.  He left Florida a bit of a mess and looks like he is starting to do so in Columbus as well.  I think it’s very possible he will be fired but I can see it being a bit of a mid-season knee-jerk reaction type of thing rather than a “we are doing this at the start of the season” type of thing.  Because for all the good they may want to do, they remember the Luke Fickell disaster.  Needed to keep his job – For tOSU to value winning over, well, pretty much everything.  Prediction – He  will be on the sidelines for opening day at least.  Beyond that, who knows.

Doubtful Shitcanning (although it still could happen)

13. Kalani Sitake (BYU) – As patient as BYU will be, they can only show so much patience.  This is a program that is used to, at the very least, winning records.  I still think as long as there is some semblance of improvement they will give him more time.  Needed to keep his job – Get back to a bowl game.  Prediction – 6 wins, invitation to a lower-level bowl game and another year to hopefully continue improving the Cougars.
14. Mark Stoops (Kentucky) – Another place that is tough to coach because of the conference they are in.  The Wildcats haven’t too bad considered the few coaches they had previous to Big Game Bob’s brother.  Needed to keep his job – To be in contention for bowl-eligibility late into the season.  Prediction – This will be interesting.  I only have them down for four wins so this could be a borderline call here.
15. Ed Orgeron (LSU) – I honestly feel for ol’ Eddie here.  Unless the Tigers win 10 games in the regular season, his job will always be in jeopardy according to the rabid LSU fanbase.  And the fact he replaced Les Miles who was a damn good coach for most of his time in Baton Rouge doesn’t help him any.  Needed to keep his job – 8 wins at the very least.  Prediction – I have LSU winning exactly that many which means the rumblings will continue well into the 2019 season.
16. Larry Fedora (North Carolina) – Look we all know that injuries took their toll on a North Carolina team that was already going to be hard-pressed to get to even 7 wins.  But that was definitely a collapse of somewhat epic proportions last year.  Anything resembling that this season and they will tip their fedoras to Fedora and bid him adieu.  Needed to keep his job –  Improvement toward being a contender again.  Prediction – Tough to measure but the Tar Heels won’t be as bad as last season.  That’s almost a certainty.
17. Chris Ash (Rutgers) – I could have just copied what was here last year because he is in the exact same spot.  Rutgers has, again, become a terrible place to coach Power Five football.  They long for the days of the Big East that’s for sure…well, except for that Big Ten cashola, know what I’m sayin?  Needed to keep his job – He’s fine for now because no one wants to coach in Piscataway or wherever the hell Rutgers is.  Prediction – Does it really matter?  They aren’t going bowling anyway.  Maybe next year.
18. Tony Sanchez (UNLV) – As much as it has ever been in Vegas, it’s a make or break year for the Rebels.  They were one horrifically bad loss last year from going bowling.  Not going bowling this year would be disastrous considering the state of the MW West Division (other than SDSU and FSU).  Needed to keep his job – At least go bowling.  Prediction – 8 wins and possibly even a spot in the Mountain West Championship and Sanchez should get an extension of sorts.

As you may have noticed there is no mention of Brian Kelly or Jim Harbaugh on this list.  I have fully come around to the fact that unless either of these two guys shit the bed with their respective teams, they will be back next season.  Man, some fanbases are seriously harsh.  Then again, these guys are multi-millionaires so they better have thick skin and a propensity not to listen to most people.

The final post is coming up for my predictions and it is my Heisman ballot (if anyone had been foolish enough to give me a Heisman ballot).  Then the season begins!  4 days away!  Other than the game on CBS Sports Network I still have no idea what’s happening with the specialty pack.  I have a feeling I will have to figure this out over the next day or two.  At least this year I won’t be duped into fully believing that any ESPN games would appear during Week Zero and then get pissed off when they don’t.  At least that’s what I am telling myself.  Enjoy your day everyone!

CFP, NY6, and potentially other acronyms that you may like – Bowl Game Predictions

Like the acronyms tOSU.  Or LSU.  Or MSU.  Or F-U.  Acronyms are fun.

Postseason prediction time…well, postseason after the postseason that is actually conference championship week with is also technically not the regular season.  Look, you know what I mean.  It’s the time when you watch college football games you might not watch (and a lot of Americans and a few Canadians agree with you) except for the fact that it’s around Christmas and New Year’s and other than the World Juniors and drinking/eating too much, what the hell else is there to do?

Let us begin with the College Football Playoff matchups.  If you have been reading the predictions (I know…not easy) you will have an idea of who will go here.  And the rankings are where I feel these teams would be ranked going into the bowl games.  So inevitably they will be wrong (in some cases VERY wrong):

December 29th	Cotton Bowl	#2 Clemson	#3 Oklahoma
December 29th	Orange Bowl	#1 Alabama	#4 Penn State

This is almost as blueblood as this can get.  Bama and Clemson are easy picks since everyone (and I do mean everyone) is selecting those two for the CFP.  It’s the last two that are the point of contention for a lot of people.  I think Oklahoma gets in as the Big XII champ after losing just one game.  Their schedule is difficult enough and they will have a bit of an advantage that I will talk about later on.  Finally, my upset pick of sorts.  Most people don’t have Penn State in their Top 4 and some experts have them not even going to a New Year’s Six bowl.  Let me explain.  The Big Ten East will be a minefield.  No one will come out unscathed.  What this means, though, is that the division winner has the upper hand when it comes to the CFP Rankings.  I have Penn State losing one conference game but it won’t be to the other 8-1 team in the division, Ohio State.  It will be to Michigan.  Other than that, I think the Nittany Lions have the schedule to run the table (including beating the Buckeyes) and then winning the Big Ten title over Wisconsin.  Now all of this is made much easier by the fact I think Washington would be upset by USC in the Pac-12 Championship.  This means four Power Five teams left with either zero or one loss.  Perfect.  And clean.  Which means it probably won’t happen but I am sticking with this prediction, DAMMIT!

This leads us to the New Year’s Six with three of the four games actually on New Year’s Day (how about that):

January 1st	Sugar Bowl	#5 Georgia	#22 Texas
January 1st	Rose Bowl	#9 Ohio State	#14 USC
January 1st	Fiesta Bowl	#6 Virginia Tech	#8 Boise State
December 29	Peach Bowl	#7 Washington	#10 Notre Dame

I can see some debate here with these picks.  There always is.  The top 10 teams will go to either the CFP or the NY6 so that is pretty much on par with a lot of people and with CFP history.  Georgia, Virginia Tech and Washington will get in after losing their conference championships.  They should be high enough in the rankings (I wouldn’t be surprised if any of these three teams were in the top four before CCG week) that they wouldn’t fall out of the New Year’s Six.  I think Boise State will mow through their competition but with enough good teams above them, they won’t get above #8.  Notre Dame should have a really good year and because they are Notre Dame (and because they tend to have a difficult schedule) they should get a spot.  Ohio State will probably in the top 10 most of the season and even with not going to the Big Ten Championship would be sought after by the Rose Bowl.

Unfortunately, we have a 15th and 22nd ranked team here with USC and Texas, respectively.  That is due to bowl tie-ins.  The Sugar Bowl has to take the next best Big XII team since Oklahoma is in the College Football Playoff.  The Rose is contractually obligated to take the Pac-12 champion and I have USC upsetting Washington to win the conference title.  So they go there.  Georgia has to go to the Sugar; Ohio State must go to the Rose.  The rest are at-large.  It would make the most sense to have Washington and Boise State in the Fiesta Bowl; however, I highly doubt the Peach would want a rematch between Notre Dame and VaTech (who play during the regular season).  So that is why I have placed them like so.

Now for the rest of our bowl matchups:

January 1st	Citrus Bowl	#11 Mississippi State	Wisconsin
January 1st	Outback Bowl	#25 Florida	#13 Michigan State
December 31st	Gator Bowl	#23 South Carolina	Purdue
December 31st	Holiday Bowl	#18 Michigan	Arizona
December 31st	Liberty Bowl	Kansas State	Auburn
December 31st	San Francisco Bowl	Iowa	#24 Oregon
December 31st	Military Bowl	Wake Forest	#17 UCF
December 31st	Sun Bowl	Utah	Georgia Tech
December 29th	Arizona Bowl	San Diego State	#19 Arkansas State
December 29th	Belk Bowl	LSU	#20 Florida State
December 28th	Alamo Bowl	#16 Stanford	West Virginia
December 28th	Camping World Bowl	Oklahoma State	#12 Miami
December 28th	Music City Bowl	Missouri	Louisville
December 27th	Texas Bowl	Texas A&M	TCU
December 27th	Pinstripe Bowl	Nebraska	NC State
December 27th	Independence Bowl	Army*	Western Kentucky
December 26th	Cactus Bowl	California	UNLV
December 26th	Quick Lane Bowl	Maryland**	#21 Ohio
December 26th	First Responders Bowl	Northwestern	#15 Florida Atlantic
December 22nd	Hawaii Bowl	Fresno State	North Texas
December 22nd	Dollar General Bowl	Northern Illinois	Appalachian State
December 22nd	Armed Forces Bowl	Iowa State	Houston
December 22nd	Birmingham Bowl	Duke**	Memphis
December 21st	Idaho Potato Bowl	Wyoming	Toledo
December 21st	Bahamas Bowl	USF	Marshall
December 20th	Gasparilla Bowl	Temple	Middle Tennessee
December 19th	Frisco Bowl	Navy	Western Michigan
December 18th	Boca Raton Bowl	Buffalo	UAB
December 15th	New Orleans Bowl	Southern Miss	Troy
December 15th	Camellia Bowl	Miami-OH	ULM
December 15th	Las Vegas Bowl	UCLA	Colorado State
December 15th	Cure Bowl	BYU*	Georgia State**
December 15th	New Mexico Bowl	Utah State	Louisiana Tech

And they want to add more bowl games.  At this point who cares.  It’s more college football.  As long as more games don’t go to FOX Sports One then I am fine with all this.  I have made my peace with the more bowl games thing.  Alright, some notes on dem dere bowl games:

• I have only one game predicted between ranked teams: Florida vs. Michigan State in the Outback.  I don’t know if that’s good for the bowl season or not.
• One asterisk (*) means the conference tie-in couldn’t be satisfied and that Army or BYU could fill the bowl bid.  Two asterisks (**) means we have got into APR territory.  So the smart 5-7 teams get to go.  I figured Duke is smart.  Don’t know about Maryland or Georgia State though.
• Some of the better matchups include:
  • Mississippi State-Wisconsin in the Outback Bowl
  • Michigan-Arizona in the Holiday Bowl (which we won’t be able to see because it’s on FOX Sports God Damn One)
  • SDSU-Arkansas State in the Arizona Bowl
  • Northwestern-FAU in the First Responders Bowl (formerly the Heart of Dallas Bowl)
  • TAMU-TCU in the Texas Bowl
  • Stanford-WVU in the Alamo Bowl

As for the actual College Football Playoff semi-final games, I have Clemson and Alabama both winning relatively easily.  Then we get an epic matchup in the natty: Tigers-Tide III: The National Championship Rubber Match.  Unless you want to be all technical and say it’s Tigers-Tide IV because they faced off in the semis last year.  That’s fine too.  The first one just sounds a lot better.  And I think Clemson is going to win the Natty.  So there.

Next up on the list of (somewhat) amazing posts is my most accurate post (historically, at least): the College Football Coaching Hot Seat Report.  Then I follow that up with something I never get right.  Usually not even that close really.  My Heisman ballot.  At some point soon I will be doing an NFL preview post as well as the NFL season is right around the corner too.  We are FIVE days away from the start of the college football season.  I will not be doing a full schedule post for Week Zero since there may end up only being one game (depending on your cable provider) available in this area.  There were issues last year with Week Zero and the specialty packs so I think it makes no sense to do a full schedule post.  It would drive me nuts if I did and then what happened last year happens this year (although it shouldn’t since I know better).  Enjoy the start of the week everyone!

So let’s say the Independents are like the Soviet Union…

…this is how it would be:

• Notre Dame is Russia.  This is an easy one.  The biggest (by far) and best (by far…especially if you take away this century) program of the lot.  And they’ve been Independent all along and will be Independent for life.
• BYU is Kazakhstan.  A pretty big portion of the old USSR.  It has quite a bit of money (unlike what you see in Borat) and people constantly make fun of them (very much like Borat).  It is considered a pretty strong former Soviet republic though and has tough leadership that sometimes is too stubborn.
• Army is Ukraine.  For various parts of their history, the Black Knights were a great program.  They are starting to get back to that now.  Hmmm…on second thought maybe Army is Belarus then.  Either way.
• New Mexico State is the Baltic states.  I don’t know of anyone who hates New Mexico State and the same goes for the trio of Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia.  They’re just there.  And sometimes they’re good at basketball…like NMSU.
• UMass is Siberia.  Kind of the no-man’s land of FBS.  No one really wants them and they don’t fit anywhere.  Parts of Siberia are important for sure but there are vast areas of nothingness.  The Minutemen are kind of like that with football.  Every so often they come up with an important win but they are few and far between, filled with vast stretches of below average football.
• Liberty is Turkmenistan.  No one knows a whole lot about Liberty at this point.  Strong, albeit very controversial leadership.  Seems to be flashing a lot of money around these days.  And I don’t know about Turkmenistan but Liberty was allowed to move into the FBS without joining a conference so they are getting special privileges for some reason.  Probably because of money as well.

So now you know that there is something I am worse at than predicting college football standings: my understanding of the Soviet Union (and Russia in general).  Let’s get to the Independent predictions followed by some Independent thoughts:

 

		Overall
		W	L
	Notre Dame	10	2
	Army	8	4
	BYU	6	6
	UMass	4	8
	New Mexico State	4	8
	Liberty	4	8

Some Independent Thoughts

• Notre Dame is going to be, at the very least, contending for a New Year’s Six spot and will also save Brian Kelly’s job for a while…or until the fanbase gets antsy again.  They do not have an easy schedule but I have them at 10-1 going to play USC in the final week of the regular season.  At this point I have them losing but a 10-1 Irish team would be EASILY in the Top 10 if not in the Top 5 and garnering some serious College Football Playoff chatter.
• Army is having their best stretch of football in a VERY long time.  Gone (for now) are the days of wondering if they would hit double-digit losses again.  Now, people wonder how high they can climb and if they can close out some games against talented teams, do they hit double-digit wins instead?  Let’s be honest here: the only definite loss (well, as definite as you can make it in the crazy world of college football) is against Oklahoma.  Every other game is probably winnable.  I have them losing to Duke, Buffalo and Navy as well but the Black Knights could beat them too.  11-1 Army getting some New Year’s Six talk?  That would be crazy and a lot of fun to watch.
• Will BYU be good?  Not exactly.  But they shouldn’t be as bad as they were last season.  For a program that is used to at least being over .500 on a yearly basis, that was a bit of a shock.  BYU’s problem, the same problem they have had every year since they left the Mountain West, is their schedule is VERY front-loaded.  Four of the first five games are against Arizona, Cal, Wisconsin and Washington.  Yeesh.  They also have trips to Boise State and Utah.  They have to win every one of their winnable games to go bowling and I think they will do just that.  This will also save Kalani Sitake’s job (for now).
• UMass will be somewhat competitive again but I see them falling short, yet again, of a bowl bid.  Honestly, other than the games against Ohio and Georgia, every other game is not a definite loss.  It would very much surprise me if they won 10 games but it wouldn’t surprise me too much if they could sneak to six wins and become bowl-eligible.  I still believe that at some point they will need some sort of conference affiliation since they have no real ties in the FBS and not a conference to lean on (unlike, say BYU with the Mountain West or New Mexico State with the Sun Belt).  Soon enough this might become too large a mountain to climb and they had back to FCS.  Wouldn’t shock me in the least.
• New Mexico State made it to a bowl game last year for the first time in almost six decades.  At some point I wondered if they even wanted to continue having a football program.  Anyway, now that they are kicked out of the Sun Belt, they had to pick up quite a few games.  Luckily, some Sun Belt teams needed some non-conference opponents.  Problem is they now have the first home-and-away single-season series in college football history (at least to my knowledge) with Liberty.  If that doesn’t show the problems some of these schools have with scheduling I don’t know what does.  In the end, they won’t be as good as last season but with an upset or two, who knows.
• The other part of this weird scheduling doubleheader is Liberty, the newest member of the FBS.  I don’t know how they will react to the initial hazing to this fraternity which comes in the form of complete beatdowns and humiliations on the field.  Fortunately for the Flames, they have a decent team already and the schedule is quite pleasant.  Not like there are a ton of guaranteed losses there other than Auburn for sure and probably Army, North Texas, Troy and Virginia.  Technically they can become bowl-eligible if they win the requisite six games and the Cure Bowl doesn’t get representatives from the American and Sun Belt conferences (and also don’t take Army or BYU).  So it’s possibly.  Not likely though.

Hey guess what?  We’re done conference predictions!  WOOHOO!  I wondered if I would even get them done before the start of the season which is, by the way, TEN DAYS AWAY!  We’ve almost made it.  At some point I will have to make the painful call to Bell to ask about the specialty pack and see when it actually starts since I am sure I would get some wildly different answers.  Not that it’s a huge deal since there are only two games that would be added if we got the specialty pack to commence on the 25th (and one is an FCS game).  There’s still Hawaii-Colorado State on CBS Sports Network and I will watch it because it’s college football and I have waited months for the new season to begin.  And because I might have a screw loose but anyway.

Next up will be when I tie this all together with a bow (maybe) as I predict all the bowl games, including the New Year’s Six and the College Football Playoff.  Have a great day everyone!

PEW! PEW! PEW! PEW! PEW! PEW! Big XII predictions, y’all.

I was going to put a picture of some guns and some tie-in to the Big XII but other than a few of the team’s logos or mascots I figured it would be in bad taste.  Saying that, this is still about shootouts and lack of defense and games that last way too long.  If it sounds like I’m complaining I’m not…unless it messes up the FOX schedule and games go to FS1 or FS2 or FOX Business Channel or some other FOX channel I’ve never heard of since we get none of those.  OK I shouldn’t say I’m not complaining.  Games are too long but it has nothing to do with the firepower, especially in the Big XII, on offense but the rules.  I still believe that in the first and third quarter the clock should not stop after a first down.  There’s no reason for it and all it does is prolong a game.  That should save about ten minutes at least.  You might not think that’s much but it is actually fairly significant.  There are other rule changes being floated around to speed up games but we don’t want to change things too much all at once since I am sure that would spell disaster (to an extent).

Now time for the Big XII predictions which should be relatively obvious but I will do some explanations after the fact anyway:

		Conference		Overall
		W	L	W	L
	Oklahoma	8	1	11	1
	West Virginia	7	2	9	3
	Texas	6	3	9	3
	Oklahoma State	6	3	9	3
	TCU	6	3	8	4
	Kansas State	5	4	7	5
	Iowa State	4	5	6	6
	Baylor	2	7	5	7
	Texas Tech	1	8	4	8
	Kansas	0	9	1	11

(Possibly) Obvious Explanations

• Kansas will finish last and Oklahoma will finish first.  Ho hum.
• If it wasn’t for conference expansion issues and Baylor being a cesspool, there aren’t many takes people can have about this conference.  So here’s a lukewarm take (or a hot take at one point that has been left on the counter to cool): Kliff Kingsbury won’t survive the season.  There.  Not exactly breaking news.
• At least the Big XII is doing it right with not having divisions.  I think the idea of divisions is tired and old.  Get the best two teams at the end of the season and have them play for the championship.  Simple.  So what if they already played during the season.  It happens in other conferences as well so it’s not like the Big XII is the only league that has that “issue.”
• As for this year’s title game, I have the Sooners going back-to-back by beating West Virginia.  I think past the Sooners it will be a dogfight among four schools just to get there with Texas, Oklahoma State and TCU nipping on the Mountaineers’ heels to go to JerryWorld.  And don’t count out Kansas State or Iowa State, especially after what the Cyclones did last year in conference play.
• I believe seven of the ten teams will go bowling this season in the Big XII.  Baylor has a long climb and will fall just short and, as I said above, the Kliff Kingsbury era in Lubbock will come to an end.  And then there’s Kansas.  See, this is why we need promotion and relegation in college football.
• As for the always-talked-about expansion possibilities in the Big XII, they might as well wait at this point.  Both their ESPN and FOX contracts go through the 2024 season so there is a lot of time between now and then to figure out what the hell to do.  So now that it’s the time to wait and no reason to expand, I can see the Big XII doing the exact opposite and expanding anyway.  College football really is the best TV drama around.

I’ll be honest with you: it feels like I haven’t put my best effort forward with these conference prediction posts.  Not that my heart isn’t in it, just that life interferes and sometimes makes things you want to do more difficult to accomplish.  Usually I will spend some time actually putting some thought into my posts but looking back I can see I have mailed it in a few times.  Case in point: I almost forgot to change the logos on this post.  I am sure that very quickly someone would point out that Oklahoma doesn’t start with the letter A and that the Kansas State Wildcats logo became a hell of a lot more red and angry.  I honestly will try to do better, especially with the schedule posts since that is the bread and butter of this site.

Guess what?  We are almost done!  One more conference to go and it’s not a conference: it’s those Independent teams that kind of just sit around a table, not really talking to each other.  Weird.  Anyway, enjoy the day everybody!

Iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit’s FUNBELT time!

Alright now we get to the Sun Belt conference, home of FunBelt, their version of MACtion.  It doesn’t roll off the tongue like MACtion but still provides us with some weekday football.  The Sun Belt is in an interesting position.  They are the bottom tier in terms of conference power in the FBS; however, it is tough to say they are a lot worse than the MAC or Conference USA.  They tend to be the conference that most FCS schools would look at when looking at moving up the chain.  I figure that will eventually happen with Liberty but for now they get the Super Special Independence clause I guess.  They also share a conference footprint with C-USA which could provide possibilities down the road.  I have already gone over what I believe would be a perfect conference split between the two conferences (which garnered me some flack).  This is seriously something they should look at it, depending on the TV contract situation down the road.  Only problem is the Sun Belt has the longest contract right now not containing the words ‘Notre Dame’ and ‘NBC.’  It ends after the 2027 football season so they may be left in the dust by that point (not to mention what the college football TV landscape will look like at that point).  So decisions may have to be made before then.

Look, the Sun Belt had no issues in the off-season.  None.  So did most of college football until Urban Meyer and then D.J. Durkin decided that it was too boring and became VERY newsworthy.  Look, sometimes boring is fine.  As long as it is during the off-season.  So now with the conference predictions followed by Fun-time Fun Belt Opinions and such:

 

		Conference		Overall
	East	W	L	W	L
	Appalachian State	7	1	10	2
	Troy	7	1	9	3
	Georgia State	4	4	5	7
	Georgia Southern	2	6	4	8
	Coastal Carolina	1	7	2	10
	West
	Arkansas State	8	0	11	1
	ULM	5	3	6	6
	Louisiana	3	5	5	7
	South Alabama	2	6	3	9
	Texas State	1	7	3	9

Fun-time Fun Belt Opinions and such

• Hey!  Divisions!  Cool.  Kind of.  Not really.  But at least now they will have a conference championship game…which you didn’t really need divisions for anyway.  If the Sun Belt, for some reason, goes to nine conference games then this will have been the most pointless exercise ever.  And it will inevitably lead to a 6-6 team winning the conference.
• Arkansas State should have an easy time in the West.  Their biggest competition will be ULM.  This is why divisions shouldn’t have happened here.  And honestly, divisions may be played out at this point in college football as a whole.  Just have the two best teams in the conference play for the conference title and be done with it.
• As for the East it’s at least somewhat compelling.  Appalachian State and Troy are a tier above the other three teams in the division.  They play on the final week of the regular season which should be a good game meaning we will not see it at all because it will be on ESPN3 or some shit like that.  Anyway, I predict the Mountaineers to win that one to break the tie-breaker between the two squads.
• In the inaugural Sun Belt Championship Game (sponsored by Mountain Dew…probably), I think Arkansas State defeats App State and finishes 12-1.  Pretty impressive.  Unfortunately they won’t get much play at all in the College Football Playoff rankings and will get almost no consideration for the New Year’s Six spot.  Such is life in the SBC.
• At this point, four teams would be bowl-eligible.  This means one tie-in could not be filled.  This is where having smarter students comes into play so perhaps one of the 5-7 teams would be smart enough to be eligible for that one bowl game that needs a team.
• So in the end, what does the Sun Belt champ receive?  Sweet fuck all, that’s what.  They should get their shot against a Power Five team but that makes too much sense so no one would go for it.

First we had Urban Meyer, now we have D.J. Durkin.  What the fuck is in the water at Big Ten schools?  Anyway, in summary, it sounds like Durkin is a complete asshole and really buys into the whole idea of pushing his football players to the limits.  Physically, mentally, emotionally.  You name it, he does it.  And after hearing what happened when Jordan McNair died a couple months ago from practice, it may be high time to start charging some of these coaches for the shit that occurs.  I get it.  I went through difficult practices where you just wanted it to end because you were tired and sore and felt like you were breathing through a straw.  But to see those lengths taken makes me think that some of these coaches just love their power trips and honestly couldn’t give two shits about their players, especially the farther down the depth chart you go.

Alright we are very close to ending this mini-series.  Next up will be the conference that can’t seem to figure out what is best for themselves, the Big XII.  Have a great Monday everyone!

How has Ohio gone that long without a MAC title? And the rest of the MAC preview.

50 years.  Five.  Oh.  That seems incredible for a team that lately has had the pedigree of the Ohio Bobcats with one of the MAC’s best ever coaches, Frank Solich.  But it’s true…THE University of Ohio has not won a conference title since 1968.  They’ve been close a couple times but this seems to be the year they could put it all together.  And, if other issues befall the G5 New Year’s Six contender, the Bobcats could sneak up the middle and grab that bid.  With the schedule they have, they do have an outside shot of running the table.  September will tell us a lot about Ohio.

Alright, let’s just get right to the conference predictions followed by some CRAZY MACtion!

		Conference		Overall
	East	W	L	W	L
	Ohio	7	1	11	1
	Buffalo	6	2	8	4
	Akron	4	4	5	7
	Miami-OH	4	4	6	6
	Bowling Green	1	7	2	10
	Kent State	0	8	1	11
	West
	Northern Illinois	8	0	8	4
	Toledo	7	1	9	3
	Western Michigan	4	4	6	6
	Eastern Michigan	4	4	5	7
	Central Michigan	2	6	4	8
	Ball State	1	7	2	10

Crazy MACtion!

• Let’s take a quick look at Ohio’s schedule.  Their conference schedule is rather pedestrian.  Their only seemingly tough game is away to DeKalb to play Northern Illinois.  So 7-1 seems to be the absolute floor in conference.  Non-conference is not difficult at all.  Howard, Virginia, Cincinnati and UMass.  So it shouldn’t surprise anyone if Ohio goes to the MAC Championship undefeated.  Either way, I still believe Ohio is winning the East rather easily.
• The West Division will be slightly different with two teams being the cream of the crop.  Northern Illinois is back near the top after a few rebuilding years.  Toledo never seems to leave the top tier.  Their matchup in mid-November will probably be the de facto MAC West Championship.  I have the Huskies prevailing.
• Beyond the three teams discussed above, the quality falls off a bit of a cliff.  Buffalo, Miami-OH, Akron, Western Michigan and Eastern Michigan will all be battling for bowl eligibility.  Buffalo could be a surprise considered the offensive players they return this season.  But other than an upset here or there, these programs will be the midcard of the MAC.
• Kent State and Ball State again bring up the rear.  Not a surprise at all.
• I have NIU beating Ohio during the regular season and then Ohio returning the favour in the MAC Championship and potentially being in the New Year’s Six mix.  My assumption is that they will fall short but they will keep it interesting deep into the season.
• Six bowl teams from the MAC with a possibility of two more.  Eight bowl-eligible teams would be something for this conference.

I will be fully honest with you all.  I won’t be paying a ton of attention to the MAC until MACtion begins in late October.  Speaking of MACtion, there are still rumblings about the amount of games mid-week during conference season.  It’s an issue that a few conferences are having with scheduling of their games but, at this point, if the MAC wants to continue to have a lot of games on ESPN, ESPN2 and ESPNU then they better play ball.  I can see a change though when the contract ends.  Unfortunately that is nine years from now.  So MACtion it is!  Hey, I’m not complaining.

Next up is the other conference that dips their toes into mid-week football throughout the season, the Sun Belt!  We are down to three sets of conference predictions and then we get into the final sets of predictions before the season begins.  And we are only 17 days away!  Have a great week everyone!

And now it’s time for predictions about Boise State…………and a bunch of other teams (MW Preview)

Let’s be honest here: no matter what happens this season or next season or the season after, Boise State is still the class of the Mountain West by a country mile.  It’s not even close.  They are so much better than every other program that they have their own separate deal with ESPN.  Boise State to the Mountain West is a little like Gonzaga to the West Coast Conference.  There are always a couple of contenders every season and Boise doesn’t win all the time but they are ALWAYS near the top.  Always.

Which brings me to something I touched on in the American Conference post.  What happens when the American’s deal with ESPN ends after next season?  Because lo and behold, the Mountain West’s deal ends at the exact same time.  And we know that the four-letter network likes to engage in conference realignment because, really, they still have most of the power when it comes to college football broadcasting (and will for the foreseeable future).  So does ESPN push for Boise State to move on from the Mountain West?  Maybe another couple of teams go with them to the American.  It could happen.  It almost did with the Big East a while back.  The Mountain West is in a tough spot here.  They hate having a bunch of games on late at night on the East coast.  But if they don’t stick with having those late night affairs, they end up on Stadium or Facebook or AT&T Sportsnet or some other platform that doesn’t nearly have the reach that ESPN does (yes I know Facebook is huge but live sports on Facebook is in the newborn stage at this moment).  Now do more daytime games really affect attendance?  That’s the other sticking point.  If some of these teams can get an extra 10,000+ fans a game for playing in the afternoon rather than the evening, maybe it’s kind of worth it to at least scale back on the late night ESPN games.  It’s a tough situation they are in and it is going to stare the conference right in the face in a little over a year’s time.

Anyway, let’s get on to the conference predictions followed by some Freezing Cold Nighttime Takes:

		Conference		Overall
	East	W	L	W	L
	Boise State	8	0	12	0
	Colorado State	7	1	9	3
	Wyoming	5	3	7	5
	Utah State	5	3	7	5
	Air Force	2	6	3	9
	New Mexico	0	8	2	10
	West
	Fresno State	6	2	9	3
	San Diego State	6	2	9	3
	UNLV	6	2	8	4
	Nevada	2	6	4	8
	San Jose State	1	7	2	10
	Hawaii	0	8	2	11

Freezing Cold Nighttime Takes

• Many agree with this first point: Boise State is the overwhelming favourite to win the Mountain Division.  I believe they will win out completely and win by some large margins.  I honestly think that other than their game in Stillwater against Oklahoma State and maybe their home games against CSU, FSU and SDSU, I can’t see them not winning by double digits.  I think this year the mystery will be in how many points they end up scoring.
• Hey we will have competition in the West Division now!  After what seemed like quite a few years of San Diego State being at or near the top with no one else that close, Fresno State blew everyone’s expectations (including my own) out of the water last season and are back to being, at least, a yearly chance at being bowl-eligible.  Let’s add UNLV to that mix.  They should be better this season and, other than that inexplicable loss to Howard last year, they would have gone bowling.  This year they may even pick up a division title which would be something for a program that has struggled its entire existence.
• I see quite a few experts saying Nevada will be a contender for the division crown.  I honestly don’t see it.  I think the Runnin’ Rebels will surpass the Wolfpack for State of Nevada supremacy (as much as that means in college football) and it might be that way for a few years.
• Hawaii and San Jose State will not be that good.  But New Mexico may be a wreck.  And I don’t see Bob Davie surviving after this season (or maybe the season itself).
• I don’t see an upset in the Mountain West Championship.  Boise State should mop the floor with whoever comes out of the west (here I have Fresno State after a complex tiebreaker involving alphabetical order) and move on to the New Year’s Six.  How high they are ranked will be the only thing we have to wonder about I believe.
• Seven bowl teams from the conference.  Sounds like the status quo but if the Broncos do get the NY6 bid, then the conference will have enough tie-ins to go around.

I got nothing else to add here.  I discussed the TV contract situation above.  And there are no Urban Meyer updates.  So yeah, that’s about all.

Next up is the conference that gives a boatload of mid-week football (that they may want to scale back on now): the MAC!  MACtion is fun but I can understand their plight with mid-week football more than the Pac-12 and the Mountain West with their issues with the late night football games.  The attendance can almost never be good for a mid-week game (and it shows) whereas games on Saturdays (or even Friday nights), I assume, would bring in a lot more fans.  Anyway, it’s a conversation for another time.  We are 22 days away from real live college football!  Have a great long weekend, everyone!

Time for the 2018 AAC predictions – Home to your 2017 College Football National Champions (BIG ASTERISK)

I did kind of chuckle at first when UCF named itself the national champs last season.  Now it’s starting to get a bit annoying though.  I get it: that team was damn good.  Probably the best Group of Five team in the College Football Playoff era.  Should they have got a shot at winning the whole shebang?  Perhaps.  At the very least it pushed the 8-team playoff narrative forward quite a bit.  It wouldn’t surprise me if, even before the current CFP contract ended, they moved to 8-teams.  And they can thank Scott Frost (who jettisoned to Nebraska at the first opportunity) and the University of Central Florida Knights for that.

As for the rest of the conference, not a whole lot happened in the offseason.  Ed Oliver, the top defensive Heisman candidate, has already stated he will declare for the NFL Draft after this season.  Josh Heupel takes over for the aforementioned Scott Frost down in Orlando.  And…..well……..not a whole lot else.  Then again, seeing what is happening in the Big Ten with Urban Meyer should tell conferences and programs that a lot of times, no news is good news.  Let’s get to the conference predictions followed by some Big East Musings:

		Conference		Overall
	East	W	L	W	L
	UCF	8	0	11	1
	USF	6	2	9	3
	Temple	4	4	6	6
	Cincinnati	3	5	4	8
	East Carolina	1	7	2	10
	UConn	0	8	2	10
	West
	Houston	7	1	9	3
	Memphis	6	2	9	3
	Navy	6	2	10	3
	SMU	3	5	4	8
	Tulsa	2	6	3	9
	Tulane	2	6	3	9

Big East Musings

• Even with Frosty the Huskerman gone to Lincoln, UCF is still that damn good.  They do have a few landmines on their schedule and I am certain one of them will be their undoing.  Two games against ACC teams (North Carolina & Pitt), Florida Atlantic (one of their main competitors for the Group of Five New Year’s Six spot) and, of course, the War on I-4 against USF are all tough games.  Having two of those on the road doesn’t help either.
• Unlike most others, I do not have Memphis repeating as West Division champ.  I have Houston, who should bounce back from a not-so-good season (by their recent standards).  The only thing that might derail them is the fact that they play Navy and Memphis away from home.  Either way, we have a big three-team race here.
• Unfortunately for SMU, I think the loss of Chad Morris will hamper them…this season.  They still seem to be on the up-and-up but a brutal schedule to start the season (at North Texas, TCU, at Michigan, Navy) will have them trying desperately to dig out of a hole the rest of the season to make it back to a bowl game.  And I don’t see them being able to do it.
• I feel bad for Tulane.  I outlined how I feel they were jobbed out of a win in their last game in 2017 and should have gone bowling.  Instead, they are probably on the way down and mostly because they are in a tough division more than anything.  At some point though, Willie Fritz is going to have this team playing Navy in an Optiongasm Winner-Take-Tall game for the West Division title.
• I don’t think USF would have an easy out in the AAC Championship Game if they got Houston.  Or Memphis.  Or even Navy.  Then again, the Knights barely outlasted USF (in the best regular season game of the year) and then needed overtime to dispatch Memphis.  I still think UCF wins the American for a second straight season but it will be difficult.  And probably will not include a New Year’s Six bid.
• With the Knights not going to the NY6, the American would have six bowl-eligible teams.  Only half the conference.  Not a good look if you want to consider yourself one of the power conferences.

The AAC’s TV contract with ESPN (and the subcontracting of games to CBS Sports Network) ends after next season.  So we might see another round of conference realignment.  If the American wants to truly be considered as part of a new Power Six (or at least the unquestioned best G5 conference), they should consider expanding.  Maybe go back to see if Boise State is actually interested this time around.  How about BYU?  Maybe a couple other Mountain West teams to fill things out.  All of it will have to do with what the American can get in their next contract.  If, with new teams, they could get quite a bit more money then they would be dumb not to expand.  It’s not like this is some historic conference or anything.  They need to think for themselves since I can’t see the next round of contract talks being any more lucrative with the current program roster.

Urban Meyer Update!  He has now been placed on paid administrative leave and will probably be fired soon enough.  Ohio State really can’t keep him on now.  The optics would be seriously bad.  Now who knows who will actually replace him but let me put a name out there: Bob Stoops.  Last time I checked he isn’t doing anything.  And he’s one of the greatest coaches of the last two decades.  Not a bad call if you ask me.

We are past the halfway hump!  Next up is the other conference that keeps me up at night, the Mountain West.  And we are 23 days away.  Soon enough we will be down to single digits.  Fuck yeah!  Have a great day everyone!