Let’s just call this a Scheduling Update post alright?

I’m going to be honest with you: I have no idea what is going to happen.  Let’s go through what has happened on a college football scheduling front:

• The Ivy League kicked things off by saying they would not have any fall sports.  Many in the media said this would basically make the decision for all the Power Five conferences which we all knew was bullshit because very few people care about Ivy League football.
• The Big Ten decided on a conference-only schedule.  This was the real first domino to fall as it affected many teams and their non-conference schedules, especially the MAC.  Because let’s be honest: Illinois going to play Rutgers is a lot safer than Illinois going to play Northern Illinois.  That makes sense, right?
• The Pac-12 followed suit with the conference only schedule.  Again, some of it doesn’t make sense although some games, like USC-Notre Dame, make sense to cancel.
• The MEAC became the first Division I HBCU conference to shut things down for the fall.  For us in Canada, it meant specialty packs lost a few Thursday night games.  The SWAC followed suit, officially, yesterday.
• The Patriot League has decided to not have fall sports.  Army and Navy, who are in the PL for basketball, would not be affected by this decision.
• The CAA has decided to not have football but James Madison and Elon are potentially looking at playing independent schedules for the season, with the thought that the FCS playoffs will still happen closer to winter.

The ACC is possibly going to a conference-only football schedule as well.  If this came to fruition, they would include Notre Dame in this agreement.  The SEC and Big XII have said very little on this so at this point we have to assume that it is business as usual (as much as it can be) when it comes to football.

The idea of conference-only schedules is kind of weird and, in some cases, really makes no sense.  When some of the teams would still have to travel over 1000 miles to get to some of these games means this has nothing to do with safety and everything to do with…well, I don’t know what it has to do with.

Now let’s look at how this affects what us as Canadians now will be seeing, if nothing else changes (and that includes predicted broadcast networks and times).  I am just going to look at the first three weeks, along with Week Zero.

September 5th		Colorado at Colorado State		3:30 PM
September 12th		Boise State at Air Force		3:30 PM
September 19th		Georgia at Alabama		3:30 PM

With the Pac-12’s decision to only have conference games, the Rocky Mountain Showdown has now been cancelled.  A possible replacement for that week would be Louisiana Tech-UNLV which is a weak replacement but they are almost out of potential Mountain West replacement games.

​​

September 5th		Michigan State at Northwestern		Noon
September 5th		Bowling Green at Ohio State		3:30 PM
September 5th		Alabama vs. USC (in Arlington)		7:30 PM
September 12th		Penn State at Virginia Tech		Noon
September 12th		Auburn vs. North Carolina (in Atlanta)		3:30 PM
September 12th		Tennessee at Oklahoma		7:30 PM
September 19th		Maryland at West Virginia		Noon
September 19th		Arkansas State at Michigan		3:30 PM
September 19th		USC at Stanford		7:30 PM

Weeks 1 and 3 have two games cancelled and Week 2 would have one.  Here are the possible replacements:

• BG-tOSU could be replaced by Indiana-Wisconsin if it will move from Friday.
• Bama-USC was one of the few headline matchups during Week 1.  I could see Florida State-West Virginia, that I originally had on at Noon on ABC, move from 3:30 to primetime as it is a neutral-site game.
• PSU-VT could be replaced by Mississippi State-NC State which is a non-conference game but the ACC hasn’t made the call just yet to off the non-conference schedule.
• UMD-WVU could be replaced by Vanderbilt-Kansas State which would put Vandy on ABC for the first time I think ever.
• ASU-UM could be replaced by Iowa-Minnesota if it moves off of Friday night.

USC-Stanford would be the first conference game of the year shown on ABC.

​

September 5th		Purdue at Nebraska		Noon
September 5th		Michigan at Washington		3:30 PM
September 12th		Iowa State at Iowa		Noon
September 12th		Ohio State at Oregon		3:30 PM
September 12th		Syracuse at Rutgers		7:30 PM
September 19th		Florida State at Boise State		Noon
September 19th		Buffalo at Ohio State		4:00 PM
September 19th		Arizona at Texas Tech		8:00 PM

Shit talking about a schedule being ruined.  FOX is almost to the point they might as well put everything they thought about the season into the shredder, pour a few stiff drinks and re-do everything.

• UM-UW could be replaced by USF-Texas if the Longhorn Network determines it can get a game later on in the season to air.
• ISU-Iowa doesn’t need to be replaced.  The teams are like two hours apart.  Why the fuck do this?  Anyway, this could be replaced by Kansas-Baylor since as a conference game there is a better chance this will end up staying on the schedule.
• tOSU-UO, one of the biggest games of the season, cannot be replaced by something of equal value.  Best bet could be Tulsa-Oklahoma State just to get something in that timeslot as Week 2, as a whole, looks like the biggest mess of them all.
• Oh man how many people will complain that Syracuse-Rutgers won’t air?  Again, they have almost nothing available but if they want to keep a primetime game and not just have MLB show a game, they could put UTEP-Nevada in that timeslot since CBS will not be giving up Boise State-Air Force, especially now.
• UB-tOSU could be replaced by Boston College-Kansas.  The MAC is going to suffer immensely with the loss of so many money games against Big Ten teams.
• UA-TTU could be replaced by UNLV-Iowa State.

This is where I believe the schedules could end up being put in a blender and all sorts of games moving to earlier weeks.

September 3rd		Eastern Washington at Florida (TSN5)		7:00 PM
September 3rd		BYU at Utah (TSN5)		10:15 PM
September 4th		North Carolina at UCF (TSN5)		8:00 PM
September 5th		Clemson at Georgia Tech (TSN2)		Noon
September 5th		UTSA at LSU (TSN2)		7:00 PM
September 5th		TCU at California (TSN2)		10:30 PM
September 6th		Notre Dame at Navy (TSN2)		2:00 PM
September 6th		Ole Miss vs. Baylor (in Houston) (TSN2)		7:30 PM
September 7th		Georgia at Virginia (TSN1, TSN4, TSN5)		8:00 PM
September 12th		Tennessee at Oklahoma (TSN2)		7:30 PM
September 18th		UCF at Georgia Tech (TSN2)		8:00 PM
September 19th		Maryland at West Virginia (TSN1, TSN4)		Noon
September 19th		Rutgers at Temple (TSN3, TSN5)		Noon

Huh, how about that?  My predicted TSN schedule isn’t altered that much.  That kind of surprises me.

• The Holy War being cancelled is dumb.  They are so close, you could probably shoot a cannon between the two schools and hit the campus…I think.  I don’t know.  All I know is that they are in the same state so cancelling this game but allowing Utah to travel to southern California is OK.  Alright then.  Anyway, this could be replaced by Georgia Southern-Boise State if that game gets moved from FOX Sports One to an ESPN channel.
• TCU-Cal could be replaced by probably nothing.  I am guessing TSN just doesn’t show a college football game in that timeslot.  It’s a late night timeslot so it’s not really a huge deal for most people.  UPDATE: TCU will now play UNLV during Week Zero.  Whether this game is on TSN is up in the air.
• UMD-WVU could be replaced by Auburn-Ole Miss which is appearing on ESPN.
• RU-TU could be replaced by NC State-Troy which is appearing on ESPNU.

I will not bother with the other schedules since there will be loads of changes.  I would drive myself nuts as I am still trying to edit out just the games that won’t be happening.  I will try and send an update to this post if another conference, mostly the ACC, makes a decision that alters the schedule before any games are moved back into September which is what I assume will happen.

Anyway, at this point, Week Zero is still on although there will only be a few games, at most.  As of right now we are 39 days away from the college football season starting.  What it will look like I have no fucking idea.  I have a better chance of finding a single specific bolt in an IKEA store.  Have a great rest of the week and let’s cross our fingers and hope for at least some semblance of team sports (not including soccer) returning soon.

Well, shit. What now?

News has come down that the Big Ten and ACC are looking at conference-only schedules for the 2020 season.  Other conferences are waiting a bit to make any decisions on the season but are also probably watching to see what these two conferences will end up doing.  As much as the sports media wanted the Ivy League cancelling their football season to be the first domino to fall, that just won’t be the case.  This is where the real dominoes start.  If either conference moves to conference only it will deeply affect the entire schedule for this season.  So before I embark on this scheduling journey, I will let you know that I am going to put non-conference games in italics.  This way you might have an idea of all the games that could be jettisoned this season.  Just a complete shitshow.  2020 continues to amaze and disappoint.  Alright let’s just get to the schedule before I start drinking to forget all this.

A seriously long schedule to begin with here.  CBS Sports Network is home to the American Conference, Mountain West Conference, Conference USA, and the MAC.  So most of the Group of Five has games here.  You always get some crazy games and always get at least a few Power Five teams travelling to a Group of Five teams in games that don’t end the way you think they will.  Like when Virginia Tech travelled to Old Dominion two years ago and lost.  You can’t sleep on the CBSSN schedule, nor should you so let’s take a gander at this:​​​​​​​​​​​

August 29th			California at UNLV (cancelled)	10:00 PM
September 3rd			Washington State at Utah State (cancelled)	9:0 PM
September 4th			Bucknell at Army	6:30 PM
September 5th			Toledo at Tulsa	Noon
September 5th			San Jose State at Central Michigan	4:00 PM
September 5th			New Mexico State at UAB	8:00 PM
September 5th			UCLA at Hawaii (cancelled)	11:30 PM
September 11th			San Diego State at Toledo	7:00 PM
September 12th			Lafayette at Navy	3:30 PM
September 12th			Pittsburgh at Marshall	7:00 PM
September 12th			Arizona State at UNLV (cancelled)	10:30 PM
September 18th			Utah at Wyoming (cancelled)	9:00 PM
September 19th			Northern Illinois at Eastern Michigan	Noon
September 19th			Virginia Tech at Middle Tennessee	3:30 PM
September 19th			LSU at Rice	7:00 PM
September 19th			UCLA at San Diego State (cancelled)	10:30 PM
September 25th			USF at Florida Atlantic	7:30 PM
September 26th			Oklahoma at Army	Noon
September 26th			Temple at Navy	3:30 PM
September 26th			Georgia State at Charlotte	7:00 PM
September 26th			San Diego State at Nevada	10:30 PM
October 2nd			UNLV at San Diego State	9:00 PM
October 3rd			Kent State at Northern Illinois	Noon
October 3rd			Army at Miami-OH	3:30 PM
October 3rd			UMass at New Mexico	7:30 PM
October 9th			Middle Tennessee at FIU	7:00 PM
October 9th			Wyoming at UNLV	10:30 PM
October 10th			Princeton at Army	Noon
October 10th			UAB at Rice	3:30 PM
October 10th			New Mexico at Colorado State	7:00 PM
October 10th			Air Force at San Jose State	10:30 PM
October 15th			Western Kentucky at UAB	8:00 PM
October 16th			Nevada at New Mexico	8:00 PM
October 17th			Eastern Michigan at Army	Noon
October 17th			Ohio at Miami-OH	3:30 PM
October 17th			Hawaii at Air Force	7:00 PM
October 17th			San Diego State at Wyoming	10:30 PM
October 23rd			Florida Atlantic at Marshall	7:00 PM
October 23rd			Fresno State at Nevada	10:30 PM
October 24th			Buffalo at Army	Noon
October 24th			Houston at Navy	3:30 PM
October 24th			Air Force at Wyoming	7:00 PM
October 24th			San Jose State at San Diego State	10:30 PM
October 31st			Marshall at FIU	Noon
October 31st			Eastern Michigan at Western Michigan	3:30 PM
October 31st			Temple at Tulane	7:00 PM
October 31st			Wyoming at Colorado State	10:30 PM
November 4th			Kent State at Bowling Green	7:00 PM
November 7th			Air Force at Army	Noon
November 7th			Tulsa at Navy	3:30 PM
November 7th			Nevada at San Jose State	7:00 PM
November 7th			Fresno State at UNLV	10:30 PM
November 10th			Miami-OH at Buffalo	7:00 PM
November 13th			North Texas at UAB	8:00 PM
November 14th			Army at Tulane	Noon
November 14th			Memphis at Navy	3:30 PM
November 14th			Wyoming at Nevada	7:00 PM
November 14th			Boise State at New Mexico	10:30 PM
November 21st			Tulane at Tulsa	Noon
November 21st			Navy at USF	3:30 PM
November 21st			FIU at Western Kentucky	7:00 PM
November 21st			New Mexico at Air Force	10:30 PM
November 27th			Eastern Michigan at Miami-OH	Noon
November 27th			Northern Illinois at Bowling Green	3:30 PM
November 28th			Florida Atlantic at Middle Tennessee	Noon
November 28th			Louisiana Tech at FIU	3:30 PM
November 28th			Air Force at Utah State	9:00 PM
December 5th			Conference USA Championship Game	1:30 PM
December 19th			Cure Bowl	2:30 PM
December 29th			Arizona Bowl	4:30 PM

Schedule Changing Thoughts

• As you can already tell, I have put some games down as cancelled.  That’s because I found out as I am creating this point that the Pac-12 has confirmed they are going with a conference schedule.  So the games on this network involving Pac-12 teams are hereby cancelled.  Will other teams go in their place?  Who the fuck knows at this point.
• CBSSN also gets two bowl games.  The Cure Bowl is one of the few bowl games that is done for a specific charity cause and one of the most ignored.  Take out of that what you will.  The Arizona Bowl won’t be on New Year’s Eve this year which is a good thing since very few people watch the damn thing anyway.
• Black Friday seems to have its own traditions (somewhat) and one is having two games on CBS Sports Network: usually a MAC game followed by one from the other three conferences CBSSN covers.  Instead, this year I have two MAC games featured on the network.  This is what happened last year so I am going with it again.  However, there will be no game on American Thanksgiving as far as I know.  A nice thought and it’s tough to say but no one is watching a college football game over the NFL’s Thanksgiving fare.
• For the games that aren’t cancelled, I have a decent idea of what the timeslots will look like and what will be shown in each one.  Once CBSSN has an idea of what will be happening they will put out a schedule with some confirmed games and other games with at least a conference in the timeslot.  The people at CBSSN are nice that way.  Also, movement is sparse because they are usually fairly far down the pecking order in terms of picking games.
• Here is the conference breakdown for ya:
  • Conference USA – 16 (including conference championship)
  • Mountain West – 22
  • MAC – 14
  • AAC – 11
  • Army – 8
  • FCS – 3
  • ACC – 2
  • Independents – 2
  • SEC – 1
  • Sun Belt – 1
  • Big XII – 1
  • Pac-12 – ZERO
• Army still has their CBS Sports Network agreement through the 2022 season (it was recently extended).  Navy’s weird setup also continues.  The Notre Dame-Navy game, originally slated for Dublin, has been moved to Annapolis.  Unfortunately, ESPN still gets the game because…well, 2020 is weird.  If the AAC decides to invite Army this whole scheduling thing with CBS Sports Network could become really interesting.
• The Mountain West still takes precedence with the amount of games but the MAC and Conference USA aren’t close behind.  C-USA was supposed to have only 10 games (plus the conference championship game) on the network but it was more last year and should be even more this season.  Conference USA also has games on the NFL Network so at least we will be able to see many of the conference games this year which is a change from the past.

Notre Dame on NBC.  One of the few instances of college football we have received up here for decades.  But now with more choices, less people watch the Peacock Network on Fall Saturdays…even when Notre Dame is coming off a perfect regular season.  Here is the now-not-confirmed-at-all schedule:​​​​​

September 12th			Arkansas at Notre Dame	2:30 PM
September 19th			Western Michigan at Notre Dame	2:30 PM
October 3rd			Wisconsin vs. Notre Dame (in Green Bay)	7:30 PM
October 10th			Stanford at Notre Dame (cancelled)	7:30 PM
October 31st			Duke at Notre Dame	3:30 PM
November 7th			Clemson at Notre Dame	7:30 PM
November 21st			Louisville at Notre Dame	2:30 PM

Only one primetime game this year now that the Stanford game has been cancelled.  What will happen with the Wisconsin game is a question as who knows what the Big Ten will now do.  The ACC will probably step in to replace Stanford in the schedule as they have decided to include Notre Dame in any new scheduling arrangement for 2020.  NBC going with the 2:30 start times more often so that the games are done by 6 and so that it’s really its own timeslot.  Probably a smart move to keep enough eyeballs on the network.

Alright…now the conference that kind of started this potential schedule shitshow.  If the Big Ten goes ahead with just conference games (and now with the Pac-12 doing it I can’t see why they wouldn’t) this whole fucking thing could change.  Does Bell carry the Big Ten Network now?  Hopefully they do but considering what may happen this year, you may not miss much.  Man this is depressing.  Alright let’s just get to the damn schedule already:​​​

September 3rd			Florida Atlantic at Minnesota	8:00 PM
September 4th			Illinois State at Illinois	8:00 PM
September 5th			Kent State at Penn State	Noon
September 5th			Monmouth at Rutgers	3:30 PM
September 5th			Towson at Maryland	3:30 PM
September 5th			Northern Iowa at Iowa	7:30 PM
September 12th			Southern Illinois at Wisconsin	Noon
September 12th			Ball State at Michigan	Noon
September 12th			Tennessee Tech at Minnesota	3:30 PM
September 12th			UConn at Illinois	3:30 PM
September 12th			Western Kentucky at Indiana	7:30 PM
September 12th			Northern Illinois at Maryland	7:30 PM
September 19th			South Dakota State at Nebraska	Noon
September 19th			Central Michigan at Northwestern	Noon
September 19th			Ball State at Indiana	3:30 PM
September 19th			Appalachian State at Wisconsin	3:30 PM
September 19th			Bowling Green at Illinois	7:30 PM
September 19th			Toledo at Michigan State	7:30 PM
September 26th			Northern Illinois at Iowa	Noon
September 26th			Rutgers at Ohio State	Noon
September 26th			BYU at Minnesota	3:30 PM
September 26th			Cincinnati at Nebraska	8:00 PM
October 3rd			Illinois at Rutgers	Noon
October 3rd			Minnesota at Maryland	3:30 PM
October 10th			Rutgers at Purdue	Noon
October 10th			Maryland at Indiana	7:30 PM
October 17th			Indiana at Rutgers	Noon
October 17th			Purdue at Illinois	Noon
October 17th			Maryland at Northwestern	3:30 PM
October 24th			Nebraska at Rutgers	Noon
October 24th			Northwestern at Iowa	3:30 PM
October 31st			Rutgers at Maryland	Noon
October 31st			Northwestern at Purdue	3:30 PM
November 7th			Iowa at Illinois	Noon
November 7th			Maryland at Michigan	3:30 PM
November 7th			Wisconsin vs. Northwestern (in Chicago)	8:00 PM
November 14th			Morgan State at Northwestern	Noon
November 14th			Michigan at Rutgers	3:30 PM
November 14th			Ohio State at Maryland	8:00 PM
November 21st			Rutgers at Michigan State	Noon
November 21st			Maryland at Penn State	3:30 PM
November 27th			Minnesota at Nebraska	2:30 PM
November 30th			Michigan State at Maryland	3:30 PM

All the games start at either Noon, 3:30, or 7:30 except for six: the Black Friday game between Minnesota and Nebraska (not the Iowa-Nebraska Faux Farmageddon that they used to show), the November 14th game between tOSU and Maryland, the November 7th game in Chicago, Cincinnati’s visit to Lincoln  and the opening Thursday and Friday night games.  To be honest, much of this is a guess but at least most of the times should be good, for now.  As for games on BTN at the same time, in the States there is a BTN Alternate Channel.  Of course we don’t get that up here and if you are with Bell you don’t get the Big Ten Network at all as far as I know.  For the readers that get their specialty pack through Rogers or Eastlink, you should get the alternate games (i.e. the games not appearing on BTN in your guide) to go to the specialty pack.  Rarely are there two decent games on at the same time so it really isn’t that big a deal but still, you get the specialty pack for a reason (some of you) and that’s to get ALL the games you might not possibly get (that the CRTC approves of and that appear on one of the ESPN-owned networks or the BTN Alternate channel in this case).

Alright that’s it that’s all.  The Pac-12’s announcement and the domino effect will begin very soon I assume.  This means most of what I have done is for naught but whatever.  I was bored so I figured I’d give it a shot for now.  Next up would be the conference predictions but I am putting a hold on those since I don’t know what will happen with the schedules, how many games each team will play, what the schedule will even look like, hell, even the bowl game tie-ins might change.  2020, everyone!  So have a good weekend and I will do a post next week.  I promise.  What it will be about, I don’t know yet.

Predicting the TSN college football schedule: like picking the 99-1 longshot at the Kentucky Derby

Sometimes I wonder why I even bother.  I never get it right.  Ever.  But hey, I have predicted pretty much the entire schedule so I might as well do a brain dump here to, I don’t know, entertain you?

This may get a little more attention since there is nothing fucking going on these days except Coronavirus rearing its ugly head and America plunging into chaos.  I pray this is a nice distraction and that the season actually goes off on time (it won’t be without a hitch that is for sure).  Look, this is not an easy exercise.  I have to piece it together using information from the previous couple years and some gut instinct.  That’s about it.  At least ESPN has all the timeslots pretty much mapped out whereas with TSN, you never know when That’s Hockey has to be shown instead of a college football game.

So let’s just get into the schedule followed by some thoughts blasted into the atmosphere with fireworks (as an homage to the near full week of fireworks in my area).  Oh the asterisk means I have it airing on ABC so you can see it there as well:​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

September 3rd			Eastern Washington at Florida	7:00 PM	TSN5
September 3rd			BYU at Utah	10:15 PM	TSN5
September 4th			North Carolina at UCF	8:00 PM	TSN5
September 5th			Clemson at Georgia Tech	Noon	TSN2
September 5th			UTSA at LSU	7:00 PM	TSN2
September 5th			TCU at California	10:30 PM	TSN2
September 6th			Notre Dame at Navy	2:00 PM	TSN2
September 6th			Ole Miss vs. Baylor (in Houston)	7:30 PM	TSN2
September 7th			Georgia at Virginia	8:00 PM	TSN1, TSN4, TSN5
September 12th			Tennessee at Oklahoma	7:30 PM	TSN2*
September 18th			UCF at Georgia Tech	8:00 PM	TSN2
September 19th			Maryland at West Virginia	Noon	TSN1, TSN4*
September 19th			Rutgers at Temple	Noon	TSN3, TSN5
September 26th			Ole Miss at LSU	Noon	TSN1
September 26th			South Carolina at Kentucky	Noon	TSN3
September 26th			Colorado State at Vanderbilt	Noon	TSN4
October 1st			Memphis at SMU	8:00 PM	TSN2
October 3rd			Penn State at Michigan	Noon	TSN1, TSN4*
October 3rd			Missouri at Tennessee	Noon	TSN3
October 3rd			Nebraska at Northwestern	Noon	TSN5
October 9th			Miami at Wake Forest	7:00 PM	TSN2
October 9th			Colorado at Arizona	10:30 PM	TSN2
October 10th			Oklahoma vs. Texas (in Dallas)	Noon	TSN2*
October 10th			Minnesota at Wisconsin	Noon	TSN4
October 10th			Fresno State at Texas A&M	Noon	TSN1
October 10th			Iowa State at Oklahoma State	3:30 PM	TSN2*
October 17th			Iowa at Penn State	Noon	TSN1*
October 17th			Georgia at Missouri	Noon	TSN5
October 17th			SMU at Tulane	Noon	TSN3
October 17th			Mississippi State at Alabama	8:00 PM	TSN2
October 21st			Arkansas State at Appalachian State	8:00 PM	TSN1, TSN4
October 24th			Syracuse at Clemson	Noon	TSN1*
October 24th			Minnesota at Illinois	Noon	TSN5
October 24th			Wisconsin at Maryland	7:00 PM	TSN2
October 31st			Oklahoma at TCU	Noon	TSN2*
October 31st			Wake Forest at NC State	7:00 PM	TSN2
November 7th			Indiana at Ohio State	Noon	TSN4*
November 7th			Louisville at Virginia	Noon	TSN1
November 7th			Tulane at East Carolina	Noon	TSN5
November 14th			Nebraska at Iowa	Noon	TSN4*
November 14th			Missouri at Florida	7:00 PM	TSN3
November 21st			Iowa State at Texas	Noon	TSN5*
November 21st			Georgia at Kentucky	Noon	TSN3
November 21st			Baylor at West Virginia	Noon	TSN2
November 21st			USC at UCLA	3:30 PM	TSN5*
November 21st			Iowa at Purdue	3:30 PM	TSN3
November 21st			Pittsburgh at Virginia	3:30 PM	TSN2
November 21st			Ohio State at Illinois	7:00 PM	TSN3
November 21st			Oregon at Washington	7:30 PM	TSN5*
November 26th			Mississippi State at Ole Miss	7:30 PM	TSN2
November 27th			NC State at North Carolina	12:30 PM	TSN2
November 27th			West Virginia at Iowa State	4:15 PM	TSN2
November 27th			UCF at USF	8:00 PM	TSN2
November 28th			South Carolina at Clemson	Noon	TSN2
November 28th			Kansas State at Baylor	3:30 PM	TSN2*
November 28th			Kentucky at Louisville	7:00 PM	TSN2
December 5th			Big XII Championship Game	Noon	TSN3*
December 5th			AAC Championship Game	3:30 PM	TSN3*
December 5th			ACC Championship Game	7:30 PM	TSN3*
December 18th			Bahamas Bowl	2:00 PM	TSN2
December 18th			Frisco Bowl	7:30 PM	TSN2
December 19th			New Mexico Bowl	2:00 PM	TSN2
December 19th			Camellia Bowl	5:30 PM	TSN2
December 19th			New Orleans Bowl	9:00 PM	TSN2
December 21st			Gasparilla Bowl	2:30 PM	TSN3, TSN5
December 22nd			Independence Bowl	8:00 PM	TSN5
December 23rd			Quick Lane Bowl	8:00 PM	TSN5
December 26th			Military Bowl	Noon	TSN5
December 26th			Pinstripe Bowl	3:20 PM	TSN1, TSN5
December 26th			Texas Bowl	6:45 PM	TSN1, TSN5
December 26th			Cheez-It Bowl	10:15 PM	TSN1, TSN5
December 28th			Music City Bowl	4:00 PM	TSN3
December 29th			Belk Bowl	Noon	TSN3
January 1st			Citrus Bowl	1:00 PM	TSN2
January 1st			Rose Bowl	5:00 PM	TSN1, TSN3, TSN4, TSN5
January 1st			Sugar Bowl	8:45 PM	TSN1, TSN3, TSN4, TSN5
January 2nd			Fiesta Bowl	4:00 PM	TSN3, TSN5
January 2nd			Orange Bowl	8:00 PM	TSN3
January 5th			Idaho Potato Bowl	9:30 PM	TSN2
January 11th			National Championship Game	8:00 PM	TSN1, TSN3, TSN5

Thoughts Blasted Into the Atmosphere with Fireworks

• Fireworks were fun when I was a kid but other than those special shows set up by groups for special events, I’m not a fan of fireworks anymore.  I get the point of them but when people start blasting them off six nights before Canada Day they become less special and more annoying to your neighbours.
• I have 80 games going to TSN this season.  And it could be more.  As was mentioned by reader Gordo, if the CFL doesn’t go ahead with the 2020 season, TSN will have to fill the airwaves with something.  Putting repeats of the best plays of 2004 in the CFL won’t satisfy viewers I have a feeling.
• As of right now I have 20 bowl games and the national championship airing on TSN.  That would be very similar to what we saw last season.  The issues of broadcasting the games, at least after Christmas Day, is competition with the World Juniors.  TSN shows every game of the WJHC and has to fit in these bowl games where they can.  I know the World Juniors isn’t until December but the way things are going, who knows if teams will be able to travel to the host site (or sites in the case of this year’s version as it is in Edmonton and Red Deer).
• I have not seen a single confirmed game for TSN which is usually the norm but considering almost nothing is confirmed so far this season, I wouldn’t be surprised if we didn’t see anything until early August or so.
• The amount of ABC simsubs that I have predicted is 17 which includes the AAC, ACC and Big XII Championship games.
• Not doing a conference breakdown.  Instead I will do a channel breakdown (which may be just as useless but whatever):
  • TSN2 – 32
  • TSN5 – 23
  • TSN3 – 19
  • TSN4 – 10
  • TSN1 – 15
• Again TSN2 is truly the Canadian home for college football.  Saying that, the other TSNs have their fair share of games as well so it is nicely spread out.  Plus these numbers could go way up, especially on TSN2 where you rarely see the CFL.
• TSN will show some of the Thursday Night college football games when they occur.  Week 2 is the only week that ESPN doesn’t have a Thursday Night game.  However, most of the other weeks, TSN chooses not to show the Thursday Night affair, probably because of Sportsnet already showing an NFL game those nights.  Not saying the NFL game is always the better game but it will always beat college football in the ratings.
• There isn’t a week where TSN doesn’t show at least one game which is the same as last year but different than what was done previously.  Anytime the CFL had a tripleheader, college football just wasn’t shown.  Sometimes this happened with CFL doubleheaders, depending on the times of the games.
• If you noticed, I have the Notre Dame-Navy game on TSN and it is NOT on during Week Zero.  It has been moved to Week 1 as there is no way at this point that the teams would be able to travel to Ireland for this game.  So it is now being played at Navy.  This has to piss CBS off since the agreement is when the game is at Navy, they get to broadcast it.  Since these are extenuating circumstances, ESPN will still get the game (as far as I know).

Let’s see how this works out.  I am guessing it won’t.  I said last year I might update it before the start of the season if I knew a lot more.  I didn’t know much more so I didn’t bother.  My worry this year is that I will have to update this point in August to stay that a lot of games have been postponed or outright cancelled.

Next up is the Dog’s Breakfast of Schedule posts.  A lot of schedules and quite a long post.  I might break it up but more than likely I will get it all done in one fell swoop to just get it over with.

Alright we are closing in on Opening Day folks, I hope.  As of right now, we are 54 days away from the college football season starting.  Let’s hope that is the case.  Yesterday there were zero deaths related to COVID-19 in Ontario.  This is a good sign…for here.  In the States it is a completely different story as some states are bordering on disaster.  Who knows what we will be looking at next month when college football teams should be in full practice mode getting ready for the season.  Either way, stay safe everyone and enjoy your week.

This could turn out to be something interesting for FOX

If you don’t know what that is, it’s the USGA on FOX.  Events like the U.S. Open, the U.S. Senior Open, the U.S. Women’s Open and various other amateur events under the USGA umbrella were to be only shown on FOX.  With the U.S. Open being moved to September this year, it forced FOX to make a difficult choice.  In the end, though, they were not picking golf over college football and the NFL.  Instead of figuring something out, they decided to just end their contract with the USGA, allowing it to go to NBC.  This means FOX has more time in their schedule (not a big deal since it’s the summer) but more money available for other sports properties.  Now the SEC still hasn’t officially gone back to ABC/ESPN starting in 2024.  There is still a possibility that FOX steps in and picks up the property which would be massive for the network.  They would have to determine what to do with the other four conferences they show (yes, four…Big Ten, Big XII, Pac-12 and, new this year, the Mountain West).  My guess is that one of the Pac-12 or Big XII would be the odd man out since FOX would have Big Noon Saturday and the mid-afternoon SEC game overshadowing any possible game in primetime.  Anyway, it is just conjecture at this point so who knows what will happen.  But make no mistake about it: any big sports property moving networks can start a domino effect.  This may be one of them that effects college football.

OK enough opinion, more schedule!  Well….it’s what I believe it will be at least…so this is still kind of an opinion piece.  And maybe, just maybe, I will do a FOX Sports One schedule since it is available to Canadians.  Holy shit, last year I said this would never happen and now it’s here.  Insane.  Alright, here’s the schedule followed by some thoughts unrelated to golf:​​​​​​​​​

September 5th			Purdue at Nebraska	Noon
September 5th			Michigan at Washington	3:30 PM
September 12th			Iowa State at Iowa	Noon
September 12th			Ohio State at Oregon	3:30 PM
September 12th			Syracuse at Rutgers	7:30 PM
September 19th			Florida State at Boise State	Noon
September 19th			Buffalo at Ohio State	4:00 PM
September 19th			Arizona at Texas Tech	8:00 PM
September 26th			Wisconsin at Michigan	Noon
October 3rd			Oklahoma State at TCU	Noon
October 3rd			San Jose State at Boise State	3:30 PM
October 3rd			California at Washington	7:30 PM
October 10th			Iowa at Ohio State	Noon
October 10th			Illinois at Nebraska	4:00 PM
October 10th			Utah at Washington	8:00 PM
October 17th			Oklahoma at Iowa State	Noon
October 24th			Oklahoma State at Oklahoma	Noon
October 24th			TCU at Baylor	4:00 PM
October 31st			Illinois at Wisconsin	Noon
October 31st			Baylor at Texas	3:30 PM
November 7th			Penn State at Nebraska	Noon
November 7th			Stanford at Washington	4:00 PM
November 7th			USC at Oregon	8:00 PM
November 14th			Michigan State at Penn State	Noon
November 14th			Wisconsin at Purdue	4:00 PM
November 14th			Kansas State at Oklahoma	8:00 PM
November 21st			Indiana at Michigan	Noon
November 21st			Northwestern at Minnesota	4:00 PM
November 21st			Utah at Arizona State	8:00 PM
November 27th			Texas at Oklahoma State	Noon
November 27th			Washington at Washington State	4:00 PM
November 27th			UCLA at California	8:30 PM
November 28th			Michigan at Ohio State	Noon
November 28th			Illinois at Northwestern	4:00 PM
November 28th			Utah at Colorado	8:00 PM
December 4th			Pac-12 Championship Game	9:00 PM
December 5th			Mountain West Championship Game	4:30 PM
December 5th			Big Ten Championship Game	8:00 PM
December 28th			Redbox Bowl	4:00 PM

Thoughts that have nothing to do with golf

• I know you see it, don’t lie.  It’s true, the Mountain West conference has a deal with FOX meaning at least a couple of games will end up on the main network.  Meaning Boise State will be featured at least a couple of times on the main network.  If you want to know how important this deal is to the conference: Boise State is playing Florida State at 10 AM local time.  That is crazy but it shows you that in college football, money talks.
• It looks like FOX will end up with some pretty good games this season.  I say looks like since none of their games are confirmed and none of them will be before they know that the season will for sure be starting on time.  Mixing in a couple of Mountain West games has to concern the Pac-12 as they don’t get the Big Noon Saturday games (obviously) so they have two timeslots to hopefully get their games on and every week doesn’t have those two timeslots.
• This year I have FOX getting three Black Friday games.  None of the games are confirmed although I made some pretty educated guesses to determine what would land there.  Texas-OSU will be at Noon (although they could take another Big XII game).  The Apple Cup will go at 4:00 almost certainly.  Yes, I know WWE Smackdown is on Friday nights but I have this feeling they will move that to FOX Sports One for this one night so FOX can get another game in.  I could be wrong and honestly I don’t know what the contract states between FOX and WWE but I believe this is allowed.
• Nothing is confirmed but there are some games that are almost guaranteed to appear on the network.  The Game on American Thanksgiving weekend is a given, along with Ohio State heading to Oregon to face the Ducks.  Other than that, it is a crapshoot and will continue to be so until things improve.
• Here is the conference breakdown for ya:
  • Big Ten – 18 (including conference championship)
  • Pac-12 – 12 (including conference championship)
  • Big XII – 9
  • Mountain West – 3 (including conference championship)
  • ACC – 1
  • MAC – 1
• The game totals are adjusted slightly this season obviously.  Again, some games may move from FS1 up to FOX and vice versa so this may change.  The Mountain West has games on the network as per their new contract.  And, as far as I know, the Pac-12 Championship will be back on FOX this season even though I thought they had opted out of that.  There still could be an issue with WWE appearing on Friday nights so I may be wrong here but for now I have it as the only Friday conference championship game (which is dumb to begin with but that’s another story).  I have the Pac-12 getting a few more games and the Big XII getting a few less as the Big XII is on FOX Sports One a lot.
• Just like the last few years, FOX gets two bowl games and puts one on FS1.  It’s the same as normal (Redbox on FOX, Holiday on FS1) but now you can get both of them so it’s not so bad.  If they are smart they also avoid New Year’s Eve since most people would not watch if that was the case.
• Now when it comes to MLB, it is always difficult to ascertain where college football can fit.  Putting their most important game (most of the time) at Noon alleviates this problem to an extent.  Baseball will not put playoff games on that early on FOX.  TBS and the MLB Network?  Sure.  Even FOX Sports One perhaps.  But not FOX.

The three main networks for college football are complete…well other than ESPN which we don’t get.  Next up I have the TSN schedule which could be really up in the air depending on what happens with the CFL.  If the CFL cancels their season, TSN could put a few more college football games on their network (as reader Gordo stated).  Other schedules will follow as I will have to determine what to post and what to leave for now.  I am sincerely hoping the college football season begins on time but now that Navy has had a game cancelled (Lafayette will not be playing), we now are getting into the very real possibility of games being cancelled, postponed, moved or god knows what else.  Anyway, have a good weekend and avoid the heat if you are, like I am, in an area under a heat warning.