My blog version of blind roulette: predicting the TSN schedule

Spoiler alert: this will be a gongshow.

It’s almost Canada Day meaning normally people would go out and camp and go to barbecues and get shitfaced.  Unfortunately, this year it is on a Thursday which kind of sucks since many businesses will close on the Thursday instead of the Friday, denying the employees a long weekend.  C’mon man, give ’em that long weekend!

Anyway, here’s my chance again to guess the TSN schedule.  And that’s what it kind of is: a guess.  I find I have less info as the years go on as to what the TSN schedule will look like because things change so much.  Take a look at this Fall.  The CFL is starting up again in early August and TSN airs all their games, with some showing on Saturdays.  And now with the Grey Cup being in mid-December (because of the later start to the season), it means we might not see as many college football games on TSN as we normally would late in the season.  Look, let’s just get this going and I will follow it up with some Labatt Blue notes (I’m not a fan of Labatt Blue but if someone offered me one I would gladly drink it because my favourite beer is free beer).  Any game where the station(s) has as asterisk beside it denotes it will also air on ABC:​​​​

September 2nd			Boise State at UCF	7:00 PM	TSN2
September 3rd			North Carolina at Virginia Tech	6:00 PM	TSN5
September 4th			Western Michigan at Michigan	Noon	TSN2
September 4th			West Virginia at Maryland	3:30 PM	TSN2
September 4th			Texas Tech vs. Houston (in NRG Stadium)	7:00 PM	TSN2
September 4th			BYU vs. Arizona (in Las Vegas)	10:30 PM	TSN2
September 5th			Notre Dame at Florida State	7:30 PM	TSN5*
September 6th			Ole Miss at Louisville	8:00 PM	TSN1, TSN4, TSN5
September 11th			Washington at Michigan	7:30 PM	TSN2*
September 17th			UCF at Louisville	7:30 PM	TSN2
September 18th			Cincinnati at Indiana	Noon	TSN1, TSN4*
September 25th			Texas A&M vs. Arkansas (in Arlington)	Noon	TSN1
September 25th			LSU at Mississippi State	Noon	TSN3
September 25th			Kentucky at South Carolina	Noon	TSN4
October 1st			Houston at Tulsa	7:30 PM	TSN2
October 2nd			Indiana at Penn State	Noon	TSN1, TSN4*
October 2nd			Minnesota at Purdue	Noon	TSN3
October 2nd			Memphis at Temple	Noon	TSN5
October 8th			Temple at Cincinnati	7:00 PM	TSN2
October 8th			Stanford at Arizona State	10:30 PM	TSN2
October 9th			Florida State at North Carolina	Noon	TSN2*
October 9th			Maryland at Ohio State	Noon	TSN4
October 9th			LSU at Kentucky	Noon	TSN1
October 9th			TCU at Texas Tech	3:30 PM	TSN2*
October 16th			Nebraska at Minnesota	Noon	TSN1*
October 16th			Texas A&M at Missouri	Noon	TSN5
October 16th			Tulsa at USF	Noon	TSN3
October 16th			Alabama at Mississippi State	8:00 PM	TSN2
October 20th			Coastal Carolina at Appalachian State	7:30 PM	TSN1, TSN4
October 23rd			NC State at Miami	Noon	TSN1*
October 23rd			Northwestern at Michigan	Noon	TSN5
October 23rd			Temple at USF	7:00 PM	TSN2
October 30th			Iowa State at West Virginia	Noon	TSN2*
October 30th			Miami at Pittsburgh	7:00 PM	TSN2
November 6th			Penn State at Maryland	Noon	TSN4*
November 6th			Missouri at Georgia	Noon	TSN1
November 6th			Florida at South Carolina	Noon	TSN5
November 13th			Notre Dame at Virginia	Noon	TSN4*
November 13th			Georgia at Tennessee	7:00 PM	TSN3
November 20th			Arkansas at Alabama	7:00 PM	TSN2
November 26th			West Virginia at Kansas	Noon	TSN2
November 26th			Arizona at Arizona State	3:30 PM	TSN2
November 26th			USF at UCF	7:00 PM	TSN2
November 27th			Clemson at South Carolina	Noon	TSN2
November 27th			Virginia Tech at Virginia	3:30 PM	TSN2*
November 27th			Texas A&M at LSU	7:00 PM	TSN2
December 4th			Big XII Championship Game	Noon	TSN4*
December 4th			Sun Belt Championship Game	3:30 PM	TSN2
December 4th			ACC Championship Game	4:00 PM	TSN3*
December 4th			AAC Championship Game	8:00 PM	TSN3*
December 17th			Bahamas Bowl	Noon	TSN2
December 18th			New Mexico Bowl	2:15 PM	TSN2
December 18th			LA Bowl	7:30 PM	TSN5*
December 18th			New Orleans Bowl	9:15 PM	TSN2
December 21st			Idaho Potato Bowl	3:30 PM	TSN2
December 21st			Frisco Bowl	7:30 PM	TSN2
December 23rd			Gasparilla Bowl	7:00 PM	TSN3, TSN5
December 25th			Camellia Bowl	2:30 PM	TSN2
December 27th			Quick Lane Bowl	11:00 AM	TSN5
December 27th			Military Bowl	2:30 PM	TSN5
December 28th			Guaranteed Rate Bowl	10:15 PM	TSN1, TSN5
December 29th			Pinstripe Bowl	2:15 PM	TSN3, TSN5
December 30th			Duke’s Mayo Bowl	11:30 AM	TSN3
December 30th			Music City Bowl	3:00 PM	TSN3
December 30th			Peach Bowl	7:00 PM	TSN3, TSN5
December 31st			Cotton Bowl	3:30 PM	TSN3, TSN5
December 31st			Orange Bowl	7:30 PM	TSN3, TSN5
January 1st			Fiesta Bowl	1:00 PM	TSN3, TSN5
January 1st			Rose Bowl	5:00 PM	TSN1, TSN3, TSN4, TSN5
January 1st			Sugar Bowl	8:45 PM	TSN1, TSN3, TSN4, TSN5
January 4th			Texas Bowl	8:30 PM	TSN5
January 10th			National Championship Game	8:00 PM	TSN1, TSN3, TSN5

Labatt Blue Notes

• How many people are using a vacation day on Friday?  Smart people.  I mean I can’t (just too much work to do) but it’s a smart idea to do to get you that sweet, sweet four-day weekend.
• I have 72 games going to TSN channels this season.  With the CFL back it’s less than it would have probably been last year and a bit less than it has been in the few years previous to that.  I hope this is not a trend in the wrong direction for Canadian fans.
• As of right now I have 21 bowl games and the national championship airing on TSN.  That is really close to two years ago.  Remember, all the issues after Christmas Day (except for New Year’s Day) have to do with the World Junior Hockey Championship.  TSN has a contract to show all WJHC games meaning bowls have to take a bit of a back seat.  Saying that, TSN has done quite the incredible job scheduling these bowl games around the hockey games.  Honestly, if you want to watch anything other than football or hockey in those days, good fucking luck.
• As is the norm, there are no confirmed games for TSN yet.  Chances are I won’t see anything until early August on that front.  I kind of wish they had a setup that ESPN does where you can go to a Press Room-type site and find schedules up to three months or so in advance.  Yes, it may not have details but it will say “we have college football on between this time and this time on this day.”  Which is great since at least I can know that a game for sure will be in that timeslot.
• How many ABC simsubs do I see happening?  I have 16 at this point (which includes the conference championships and the LA Bowl).  That seems like too much and a move in the opposite direction of where I think TSN should go.
• Not doing a conference breakdown.  Instead I will do a channel breakdown:
  • TSN2 – 29
  • TSN1 – 13
  • TSN3 – 17
  • TSN4 – 11
  • TSN5 – 21
• If I predict even close to correct, TSN is utilizing every channel for college football.  This is what they need to do.  To be honest they should do this with the NFL as well since most games (other than the Sunday nighter) only appear on one or two channels.  As for the networks whose games appear on TSN, count ABC, ESPN, ESPN2, and the SEC Network.  I am a bit surprised an ACC Network game hasn’t appeared on TSN but until it happens I won’t predict that it will.
• I only have TSN showing the first Thursday night game of the year and after that, nothing.  TSN shows Thursday Night Football (NFL style) throughout the season and I am assuming TSN2 won’t pick up the college games that night.  Friday, on the other hand, is a different story.  I have predicted 6 Friday night games along with a Black Friday tripleheader heading to TSN.  It makes sense for TSN to try and bulk up on those games, especially if they use TSN2 for most of them (which I believe they will).  It’s the one channel that the CFL rarely goes to which means it’s perfect for these Friday Night college games.
• Again with the CFL coming back, who knows what will happen with some of the Saturdays.  If the CFL has three games on any Saturday it could become an issue if there other sports that TSN are also contracted to show like NASCAR or the PGA.  Week 2 could be interesting but the Noon window is wide open as the first game of the CFL tripleheader that weekend starts at 4:00.  Same thing for Week 8 of the college football season.  Finally, it looks like at least for the last few weeks of the season, the CFL is going with the Friday doubleheader followed by a Saturday doubleheader which won’t interfere much with college football, especially with the fact that TSN prefers using the Noon timeslot for college football and most of the rest of the day for their other contracted sports.

I was honest above and I’ll be honest again: these are guesses.  Educated guesses based on previous seasons and info I have at my fingertips, but guesses nonetheless.  I have thought about updating it just before the season but if there are 12-day holds on games ESPN will be showing, then TSN will never have even close to a complete schedule before the season begins.  For this reason I will never do that.

I believe the next post will be the Dog’s Breakfast of Schedules post I’ve done a couple of times before.  Might as well bring it back to give as complete a picture as I can for Canadian viewers before the season begins.  Then, the conference/season predictions which I have to work on before I can even consider posting about.

Alright we are closing right in on Opening Day/Week Zero.  OK closing in is really not the phrase I should use here.  More like we have two months to go.  Two months.  Period.  Part of me wants it to go quickly but it’s the Summer so not too fast alright.  Have a great Canada Day everyone!

Maybe…just maybe…CFP on ABC?

It’s pretty much a done deal that the College Football Playoff is going to 12 teams.  I discussed this in a previous post and also looked at what it would look like in a few seasons.  Good times.  But I have another question in all this: where does ABC fit in?  I get that pretty much everything postseason in college football goes to ESPN.  I get that.  But what if they decided to put a game or two in the new expanded playoff on ABC?  Imagine the ratings.  A December version of the ABC Saturday Primetime game would be awesome.  It will probably never happen but I think ESPN needs to think this through a bit.  And think about hiring me to come up with ideas like this.  I’m not cheap, but I’m worth it.

I am not even gonna fuck around with this post.  Let’s get to the schedule RIGHT DAMN NOW!  Here is your projected ABC college football schedule for 2021 followed by some network-based ideas from a stand-up guy (I’m talking about me…I’m not joking…and no I’m not drunk):​​​​​​​​​​

September 4th			Oklahoma at Tulane	Noon
September 4th			Alabama vs. Miami (in Atlanta)	3:30 PM
September 4th			Georgia vs. Clemson (in Charlotte)	7:30 PM
September 5th			Notre Dame at Florida State	7:30 PM
September 11th			Florida at USF	Noon
September 11th			Iowa at Iowa State	3:30 PM
September 11th			Washington at Michigan	7:30 PM
September 18th			Cincinnati at Indiana	Noon
September 18th			Georgia Tech at Clemson	3:30 PM
September 18th			Auburn at Penn State	7:30 PM
September 25th			Illinois at Purdue	Noon
September 25th			Clemson at NC State	3:30 PM
September 25th			West Virginia at Oklahoma	7:30 PM
October 2nd			Indiana at Penn State	Noon
October 2nd			Boston College at Clemson	3:30 PM
October 2nd			Northwestern at Nebraska	7:30 PM
October 9th			Florida State at North Carolina	Noon
October 9th			TCU at Texas Tech	3:30 PM
October 9th			Notre Dame at Virginia Tech	7:30 PM
October 16th			Nebraska at Minnesota	Noon
October 16th			Miami at North Carolina	3:30 PM
October 16th			Oklahoma State at Texas	7:30 PM
October 23rd			NC State at Miami	Noon
October 23rd			West Virginia at TCU	3:30 PM
October 23rd			Ohio State at Indiana	7:30 PM
October 30th			Iowa State at West Virginia	Noon
October 30th			Florida State at Clemson	3:30 PM
October 30th			Washington at Stanford	7:30 PM
November 6th			Penn State at Maryland	Noon
November 6th			Clemson at Louisville	3:30 PM
November 6th			Iowa at Northwestern	7:30 PM
November 13rd			Notre Dame at Virginia	Noon
November 13rd			USC at California	3:30 PM
November 13rd			Miami at Florida State	7:30 PM
November 20th			Rutgers at Penn State	Noon
November 20th			Virginia Tech at Miami	3:30 PM
November 20th			Iowa State at Oklahoma	7:30 PM
November 26th			Cincinnati at East Carolina	3:30 PM
November 26th			North Carolina at NC State	7:00 PM
November 27th			Georgia at Georgia Tech	Noon
November 27th			Virginia Tech at Virginia	3:30 PM
November 27th			Notre Dame at Stanford	7:30 PM
December 3rd			Pac-12 Championship Game	8:00 PM
December 4th			Big XII Championship Game	Noon
December 4th			ACC Championship Game	4:00 PM
December 4th			AAC Championship Game	8:00 PM
December 18th			Celebration Bowl	Noon
December 18th			Independence Bowl	3:30 PM
December 18th			LA Bowl	7:30 PM
January 1st			Citrus Bowl	1:00 PM

Network-Based Ideas from a Stand-Up Guy (ME!)

• ABC is back with the Labour Day Sunday game!  It makes way too much sense to continue this rather new tradition as it is college football on Sunday and they have no competition except from MLB’s pennant races.  Irish-Noles has been written in with sharpie for this one.
• I wonder if ABC would ever consider a late-night game.  FOX is doing one this season, probably to test the waters to see how coaches and players react to it and, more importantly to FOX, how many viewers they get for it.  If the ratings are good (and they very well might be), it wouldn’t surprise me if ABC took the one plunge one time, maybe even next season, to put a singular late-night game on and see how it goes.
• As is the case every year, TSN gets their fill of showing ABC games as well.  The number is dwindling though compared to previous years.  I think maybe, just maybe, they figured out that many people will just tune into ABC to see these games rather than TSN and that would make advertisers a bit angry.  I only have 12 games on the list for this season where TSN would pick up the ABC feed and it could be even less than that to be honest.
• As per usual, ABC will have two games on Black Friday.  Normally these games are set by this point but really nothing is set at this point.  UNC-NCSU is almost a guarantee and if both teams are as good as many say they might be, I see it going to primetime rather than putting it at Noon.  The American Conference will get the other game and I assume it will air in the afternoon.  The AAC doesn’t exactly have a great schedule of games for the final week of the season and this is probably on purpose since there are quite a few huge games that will get a lot of interest so no point in going up against that…unless you have a game like the War on I-4 a few years back which was arguably the game of the year.
• The first three weeks are mostly set.  From what I can tell, the two earlier Week 3 games would just be waiting to see whether they are on ABC or ESPN but the times are confirmed.  The replacements (if another game is moved to ABC) would be Michigan State-Miami at Noon and Florida State-Wake Forest at 3:30 but I think my choices are better so there!
• Here is the conference breakdown for ya (if it is a non-conference game, it is considered an appearance for both conferences):
  • ACC – 19 (including conference championship)
  • Big Ten – 11
  • Big XII – 9 (including conference championship)
  • American – 6 (including conference championship)
  • Pac-12 – 5 (including conference championship)
  • SEC – 5
  • Independents – 4
• I have the ACC being WAY out in front with appearances this season on the network.  I honestly don’t know how that happened but I think the ACC will end up with very few games going to ESPN/ESPN2/ESPNU as it’s either ABC or the ACC Network for a majority of their games (especially the conference ones).  The Big Ten and Big XII (the two Bigs) have more of a balance between this and FOX.  The American…THE AMERICAN I have with more games than the Pac-12.  Good lord!  I think if CBS calls the Pac-12, they should grab it no questions asked.  Especially since it’s not like FOX is showing them a ton of love either.  They’ve fallen so far, it’s quite sad.  The SEC appears five times and I could see this going up slightly before they invade ABC with all their conference might.  And Notre Dame…take a bow.  Four times.  Nice.  So only one game not on ABC or NBC.  Good work.  Join a conference.  Whatever.
• Hey maybe this year all the bowls will be played.  Not that it matters as much to The Committee who want MORE teams in the playoff.  I don’t care since I will watch as many of these games as humanly possible.  ABC will get a tripleheader on the first bowl Saturday and then a New Year’s Day bowl.  That’s it.  That’s all.  Honestly, they should have one or two more but it’s tough to do on weeknights when ABC is busy showing amazing shows like…*checks notes*…Big Sky, Stumptown and A Million Little Things.  Some people’s viewing habits are just bizarre.
• Have you noticed what isn’t on this list?  Take your time……….OK time’s up we don’t have all day.  No reverse mirror selections!  Honestly, I know it’s out there that the idea of the reverse mirror would be coming to an end soon.  That feels like it was talked about over a decade ago.  The idea of the reverse mirror made sense years ago.  But not now.  And Canadians should hate the reverse mirror.  It’s the only time where I actually give Rogers and Bell and Eastlink no grief about decisions they make since the specialty packs struggle as it is.  Trying to figure out the right game to pick out of the reverse mirror to air on the specialty pack isn’t easy, even if it’s technically a 50/50 choice.  To be done with it would be grand for all of us.  We shall see if that’s the case.

So there’s your ABC schedule…kind of.  At least the bold choices are correct.  Next up is…well, I don’t know.  Last year fucked with everything (including my blog but more importantly my job and my mental health…but my blog as well) so it’s not like I did any other posts last year.  I’m sure I will think of something.  It will have to do with scheduling, I promise you that.

Hey remember last year in this very post I talked about that asshole that was, well, just being an asshole?  So yeah COVID is still happening but at least vaccines are starting to roll out quicker.  Unfortunately, this province (Ontario) took this long to get their shit together.  Finally we are phasing back into semi-normality.  Normality meaning there were lines everywhere to get into places, even the fucking Dollarama.  Still completely insane.  If they wanted people to stay out of indoor areas, then they should have opened up everything outdoors.  All of it.  I mean with some restrictions but still, have people be outside especially with the nice weather.  Warmer weather does a bit of damage to COVID so that would have made sense.  But I’m a nobody so can’t listen to ideas that make sense from a nobody, right?  I do believe that if we continue trending this way, that in about six weeks or so we can enjoy the rest of the summer…all three weeks of it.

63 days away from Week Zero.  I’m reading through Lindy’s preview.  I’ve got the digital version of the Phil Steele magazine which feels weird and is difficult to navigate but at least got here way quicker than the actual magazine that I wouldn’t have got for another three weeks or so.  College football is coming soon.  Just over the horizon.  This is a good thing.  Have a great rest of your weekend!

Truly welcome the Mountain West but don’t quite say goodbye to the SEC though – the CBS schedule

What conference will be slotted into that logo in a couple seasons?  I mean it won’t be the Mountain West, we know that.  They could get a slightly bigger slice of the CBS pie though when it comes to games starting in the 2024 season.  And depending on the contract signed for the next conference coming in, the MWC could get a few games in the hallowed 3:30 Eastern spot.  I just don’t think the CBS will fully get out of Power Five football.  It makes no sense.  They have the Mountain West now so why just leave that as the standalone conference, especially since a few games have to be on the main network and not jettisoned to CBS Sports Network?  Answer is they won’t.  I’d say, right now, the Pac-12 is the favourite to pick up some sort of contract with CBS, even if it’s for just a small portion of games to air on CBS.  It would give the Pac-12 that afternoon national spot that they can’t be guaranteed at this point that they have sorely wanted.

For this year though, we still have the SEC on CBS and the Mountain West a couple times on CBS.  Still some crazy good games will appear on the network.  We still have Brad and unfortunately, Gary.  I wonder what happens with those two once the SEC on CBS departs.  Do they leave as well?  I guess it depends on what CBS is willing to do to keep them since if they go low on costs for announcers, they will not even get one of the best play-by-play guys in the game (which you can probably count on one hand really).  A lot hinges on what they decide to do.

Let’s look at 2021 for now though.  I would say it’s what I know but I know little about it and have to make guesses on the rest which, some of the time, will be wrong.  I’m not going to hamstring myself by choosing Vanderbilt to be on CBS multiple times this season but still, some of the choices aren’t easy and some things you can’t predict happening.  Anyway, let’s get to the CBS college football schedule (predicted) for the 2021 season followed by some musings not related to moving:

September 11th		Air Force at Navy		3:30 PM
September 18th		Alabama at Florida		3:30 PM
September 25th		Boise State at Utah State		Noon
September 25th		Tennessee at Florida		3:30 PM
October 2nd		Auburn at LSU		3:30 PM
October 9th		Georgia at Auburn		3:30 PM
October 9th		Alabama at Texas A&M		8:00 PM
October 16th		Kentucky at Georgia		Noon
October 16th		Florida at LSU		3:30 PM
October 23rd		Tennessee at Alabama		3:30 PM
October 30th		Florida vs. Georgia (in Jacksonville)		3:30 PM
November 6th		Army vs. Air Force (in Arlington)		11:30 AM
November 6th		LSU at Alabama		3:30 PM
November 13th		Texas A&M at Ole Miss		3:30 PM
November 20th		Florida at Missouri		3:30 PM
November 26th		Boise State at San Diego State		Noon
November 26th		Missouri vs. Arkansas (in Little Rock)		3:30 PM
November 27th		Alabama at Auburn		3:30 PM
December 4th		SEC Championship Game		4:00 PM
December 11th		Army vs. Navy (in East Rutherford)		3:00 PM
December 31st		Sun Bowl		12:30 PM

SEC Departing CBS Soon Musings and Movings (Moving Fees Extra):

• This should not be a surprise but here are the SEC on CBS appearances for each team:
  • 5 times – Alabama, Florida
  • 4 times – no team
  • 3 times – Auburn, LSU, Georgia
  • 2 times – Tennessee, Texas A&M, Missouri
  • 1 time – Arkansas, Kentucky, Missouri
  • Not a single time – Vanderbilt, South Carolina, Mississippi State
• I have three teams not getting an appearance: Vandy, the Cocks, and Mississippi State.  I don’t even remember the last time Vanderbilt appeared in the afternoon game on CBS but I have this feeling they won’t ever again (research has shown it was 2013 during the James Franklin era).  South Carolina has been regressing big time the past few years so their exclusion merits no double takes.  Mississippi State could be considered a bit of an oddity not appearing on the network once this year (at least not predicted to appear) but other than the Noon game that CBS gets once a season for the SEC, they wouldn’t warrant a spot to be honest.
• Texas A&M only in two games?  Hmmm.  Going back over the games list for the SEC, it doesn’t appear that they would fit more than two times and that’s due more to their opponents than themselves.  If the Aggies are somehow running the table into November (meaning they have beaten Bama) then I could see a third and maybe even a fourth appearance on the Eyeball Network.
• The one primetime pick I believe will be used on Bama-TAMU.  It just makes too much sense and both teams should be undefeated coming into that game.  It’s the one game that I could truly say where the Tide could be upset.  Kentucky gets their one appearance thanks to how the SEC picks games when they choose a Noon SEC affair as part of an SEC doubleheader.  CBS will get their afternoon pick, then ESPN gets the next two picks and THEN CBS comes back for the Noon selection.  It is how teams like Vandy and teams in off years have got to appear on the network a lot in the past decade.
• As for the non-SEC fare this year, here is where we find something new.  Army-Navy, as has been the case for a while now, ends the regular season.  Also, for September 11th, Air Force and Navy will play in a game that will be steeped in Americana.  Finally, the Commander’s-in-Chief Trophy ends the round robin by also having Army and Air Force appear on CBS at the odd time of 11:30 in the morning.  I will be very curious to see what the crowd is like in Arlington for that one that starts at 10:30 local time.  Finally, the god damned Sun Bowl with their illogical tie-ins is again on New Year’s Eve and also gets a 10:30 local start.  I get that it’s tradition but when will the committee that runs the Sun Bowl finally go to CBS and say “Look, can you please stop fucking us over with these ridiculous kickoff times and terrible conference tie-ins?”  Probably never.
• The Mountain West now finally gets their introduction to fans who watch their college football on CBS.  They have two conference games on the main network, along with Air Force appearing twice (as I mentioned above with the CIC trophy series).  CBS was smart and selected Boise State road games for their two choices (Boise State’s home conference games are FOX property).  And looking perhaps a bit at future and how college football games get scheduled, the Black Friday game between Boise and San Diego State will start at Noon.  That’s 9:00 am in San Diego.  That’s the kind of thing I would expect for the softball tournaments I coach in (if not earlier) but not for high level college football.  I guess that’s the price the Mountain West (and the Pac-12 probably) will have to pay in the future to get games to be shown nationally.

Next up is ABC and then I get to other networks like TSN and CBS Sports Network.  Notre Dame on NBC is in there somewhere as well.  I might do another schedule or two but we shall see as it will come down to time and, the most important thing, how much of it will be seen by Canadians.  Like I won’t do the predicted schedule for FOX Sports One since we can’t see any of those games up here (well I can but you get my point…I think…look if you don’t just ask or search my posts for IPTV and that will give you a better clue).  At least this season we shouldn’t see too many cancellations although I’m curious to see how they deal with multiple COVID tests on a team.  We still might see some scheduling irregularities if vaccination doesn’t ramp up in the next two months down south.

69 (NICE!) days to go until Week Zero which I will be irrationally pumped up for.  I also started reading my first preview mag.  About 50 pages in and it just feels good to read about the upcoming college football season.  The CFL will be starting August 5th which is later than usual but it allows the league to get all their protocols set to play for the first time since 2019.  That same night, the NFL has their Hall of Fame game.  So there is absolutely no football until then so the waiting will be tough.  Hopefully it will be worth it to see the NFL have a normal season, college football have a full season, and the CFL just have a season.  For all the fathers out there, hope you had a great Father’s Day weekend and for all of you, have a good week!

OK so where does this leave FOX?

Alright so let’s look at the lay of the land here when it comes to college football TV contracts:

• The SEC on CBS will be done after the 2023 season as that conference heads fully to ESPN/ABC.  They join the ACC as fully under the ESPN/ABC umbrella in some capacity with each conference having their own network.
• The Big Ten has deals with FOX and ESPN that end after next season.
• The Pac-12’s deals with both ESPN and FOX end after the 2023 season.
• The Big XII is under contract for the longest really at this point (except for the ACC that has such a ridiculously long contract with ABC/ESPN I won’t even mention it here) as they are in their ESPN and FOX contracts through the end of the 2024 season.

I am not including the Group of Five conferences although I will say the Mountain West is in with FOX now with the MAC, American and Sun Belt conferences mostly in bed with ESPN.  Conference USA has, yet again, a bit of a hodgepodge with nothing really that great.

Here’s the thing with the SEC’s move: it creates a domino effect.  What the dominoes will be and how they will fall is a matter of conjecture at this point.  Saying that, expect a lot of noise, probably next year, as the Big Ten’s deals end with ESPN and FOX.  With the SEC almost guaranteed to get plenty of ABC primetime games, the Big Ten might look to shop a bit and talk with CBS or get something more lucrative from FOX.  Also there’s the Big XII and Pac-12 who have FOX contracts that end relatively soon.  Will they contact CBS?  Will NBC start talk of adding games so they aren’t just the Notre Dame channel?  Will FOX start doing late night games regularly so they can air more games, thus getting more money from conferences?  Will FOX add another G-5 conference to their stable?  A lot of questions that could be answered in the next twelve months.  My best guess, at this point, is that FOX starts doing more late night games on the main network, they start adding more games to FS2 and will probably try to rope in the Big Ten for something bigger than they already have.  Maybe FOX’s primetime game will become a big deal and they won’t rely on BIG NOON SATURDAY to bring college fans to the network.

OK enough of that for now, it’s time to do some scheduling!  Well not by me, I mean the networks created the schedules and I just kind of report them and make guesses.  If I talk about myself and make it seem I have little importance then any errors in the upcoming table (and boy oh boy there will be guesses that will be WAY off) won’t seem so bad.  Anyway, let’s get to the predicted schedule followed by some probably non-contract-related points (confirmed games are in BOLD this time around…trying to change things up a bit):​​​​​​​​​​

August 28th			Nebraska at Illinois	1:00 PM
September 2nd			Ohio State at Minnesota	8:00 PM
September 4th			Penn State at Wisconsin	Noon
September 4th			Louisiana at Texas	4:30 PM
September 4th			LSU at UCLA	8:30 PM
September 11th			Oregon at Ohio State	Noon
September 11th			Texas A&M at Colorado	3:30 PM
September 11th			Stanford at USC	10:30 PM
September 18th			Nebraska at Oklahoma	Noon
September 18th			USC at Washington State	3:30 PM
September 25th			Notre Dame at Wisconsin	Noon
October 2nd			Michigan at Wisconsin	Noon
October 2nd			Oklahoma at Kansas State	3:30 PM
October 9th			Oklahoma vs. Texas (in Dallas)	Noon
October 9th			Utah at USC	4:00 PM
October 9th			Oregon State at Washington State	8:00 PM
October 16th			Michigan State at Indiana	Noon
October 23rd			Oklahoma State at Iowa State	Noon
October 23rd			Oregon at UCLA	4:00 PM
October 30th			Penn State at Ohio State	Noon
October 30th			UCLA at Utah	3:30 PM
November 6th			Texas at Iowa State	Noon
November 6th			Oklahoma State at West Virginia	4:00 PM
November 6th			USC at Arizona State	8:00 PM
November 13th			TCU at Oklahoma State	Noon
November 13th			Purdue at Ohio State	4:00 PM
November 13th			Northwestern at Wisconsin	8:00 PM
November 20th			Texas at West Virginia	Noon
November 20th			Purdue vs. Northwestern (in Chicago)	4:00 PM
November 20th			UCLA at USC	8:00 PM
November 26th			Kansas State at Texas	Noon
November 26th			TCU at Iowa State	3:30 PM
November 26th			Colorado at Utah	8:00 PM
November 27th			Ohio State at Michigan	Noon
November 27th			BYU at USC	4:00 PM
November 27th			Northwestern at Illinois	8:00 PM
December 4th			Mountain West Championship Game	4:15 PM
December 4th			Big Ten Championship Game	8:00 PM
December 30th			Redbox Bowl	3:00 PM

Non-contract related points

• Hey remember what I said about the Mountain West?  After doing up this schedule I noticed that the Mountain West was not represented at all on the main network.  They have a ton of FOX Sports One games so it’s a good consolation in their first full year under the new contract (can’t count last year’s shitshow).  Will the Mountain West end up on FOX for at least a game?  It wouldn’t surprise me if it did in November if either a) one of the conferences has hit their FOX contract limit and/or b) the two teams playing are both really not that good.
• You don’t have vision problems (or maybe you do…now I feel like an asshole saying that): there is a game on FOX starting at 10:30 pm!  Stanford-USC has been confirmed for some Pac-12 After Dark on September 11th.  Interesting that FOX would do that considering news channels should get a lot of viewership on that day (if you haven’t figured it out, it’s the 20-year anniversary of 9/11 so expect a lot of American flags on your television screen that day).
• Also, FOX is wading into foreign waters by putting a Week One game on the main network on Thursday night.  The Big Ten is fine with that game but would have flat-out refused if it was a November game.  I don’t blame them to be honest.  As hilarious as it is to watch, I can’t see teams loving the idea of playing a weeknight game in below freezing temperatures.
• Looks like FOX getting three games on Black Friday will be an ongoing thing and that’s a good idea.  The Noon game is confirmed but I actually had figured it out before it was confirmed that it would be KSU-UT (should be UT-TAMU but yeah I’m not getting into it).  My guess is FOX will pick up another Big XII game for the afternoon.  And I have a feeling FOX will move WWE Smackdown to FS1 to accommodate a Pac-12 game, which I believe will be the Buffs and the Utes.  I feel safe saying this knowing that there is a precedent set with Smackdown moving to FS1 for the night.  If they were smart (and if it was possible) they should do a replay on the main network starting at like Midnight.  More viewers!  You can thank me later Vince McMahon.
• There are a bunch of games confirmed already.  All of September, Week Zero, and two games on American Thanksgiving weekend.  Very nice.  The rest…well……we shall see.
• Here is the conference breakdown for ya:
  • Big Ten – 15 (including conference championship)
  • Pac-12 – 13
  • Big XII – 11
  • Mountain West – 1…the conference championship
  • Sun Belt – 1
  • SEC – 2
  • Independents – 2
• The game totals are adjusted a tiny bit from the previous season.  The Big Ten has a few less games although I have them appearing on ABC/ESPN more so that evens things out.  As I mentioned before, the Mountain West I have with zero regular season games and only their conference championship on the main network.  The Pac-12 Championship is no longer on FOX since they got sick of the Friday night in Santa Clara garbage (and it is shitty make no mistake about it).  I got the Big XII with a couple more games this season than last year’s prediction.  And hey, the Sun Belt, SEC and even the Independents get in on the action with some appearances.
• Just like the last few years, FOX gets two bowl games and puts one on FS1.  As per usual, the Holiday Bowl goes to FOX Sports One and the Redbox Bowl is on FOX.  With the College Football Playoff semi-finals on New Year’s Eve (dammit), it makes it pretty easy for these two games to avoid going to that day.
• The only turd in the punch bowl every year for FOX’s college football coverage is FOX’s baseball coverage (you could switch out FOX for FS1 and it’s the same deal).  This is, I believe, one of the biggest reasons why they put their biggest game on at Noon and not in primetime.  MLB almost never has games that early in the day for the playoffs.  They would rather put on a game at 10 pm local time than start one at Noon.

So I switched it up this year and put FOX first.  Next up is the SEC (and the Mountain West) on CBS.  I can still say that for now.  By the way, finally got my first preview magazine.  I just decided to up and go to Indigo and pick one up.  I got the Lindy’s one since that was the only one available which kind of surprised me.  Also, I had to line up just to get into the store.  We are SLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOWLY getting back to normal….but it is slow.  Seriously slow.  Anyway, have a good weekend and a good Father’s Day for you all you Dads out there.

So now we have the Dirty Dozen

No the movie the Dirty Dozen has nothing to do with the news that the College Football Playoff will be expanding to 12 teams, probably to start for the 2023 season. But what else was I supposed to put: a carton of eggs?

So if you have been living under a rock that may or may not give you all the news you want but mutes everything college football-related, the College Football Playoff will be expanded to 12 teams. This announcement was made late this past week and was met with, well, mixed remarks. Some loved it, some loathed it, some were indifferent, some were harping on other issues in the game. We all know what they are trying to do. Capture the magic of March Madness or perhaps the NCAA baseball postseason or even the FCS playoffs. The problem is that parity really does not exist in college sports. At all. And never has. Yes teams rise and teams fall but parity is not a thing that has existed. Let’s take those FCS playoffs. North Dakota State has dominated like no team ever before by winning eight of the last ten championships. That’s not parity. Before that, Appalachian State went back-to-back-to-back in the mid 2000s, and back in the 90s, Georgia Southern, Youngstown State and Marshall reigned supreme almost every year. People want to compare opening up the possibilities to that when the possibilities weren’t there? Sure, ok. I get it. Other teams technically get their shot. They’re in the dance, so to speak. I can appreciate that. But to say that this will create parity in FBS football is laughable. It might give us an upset or two but that’s about it. That’s the reality.

So why was this really done? Come on, do I have to spell it out for you? C-A-S-H. Money. Scratch. Other terms for legal tender. That’s all it is. More money. The New Year’s Six will essentially become the playoffs. Here is how it looks like it will shape up (since I am sure more details will be forthcoming in the months ahead):

• 12 teams qualify for the playoffs.
• The top 6 ranked conference champions, regardless of if they are Power Five or Group of Five conferences, qualify automatically.
• 6 at-large teams are selected from the rest. They might have won their conference championship and not have been in the top 6 conference champions.
• The top 4 ranked conference champions will receive first round byes.
• Notre Dame and BYU cannot be in the top 4 teams because they are not in a conference. The best they can do is be #5.
• The other eight will play in first round games at on-campus sites.

That was really the only info given. So a lot is left to be stated. My guess is this is how the rest of it will look:

• The first round will be #5 vs. #12, #6 vs. #11, #7 vs. #10, and #8 vs. #9. This has been implied but not actually stated.
• The winner of the #5/#12 matchup would face the #4 team. #6/#11 winner would get the #3 team, #7/#10 winner would get the #2 team and the #8/#9 winner would go to meet the #1 team. This is done so people can kind of get travel plans set up and not have to wait for reseeding after the first round.
• The quarter-finals would all be current New Year’s Six bowl games. Same with the semi-finals. I want to say that the Rose and Sugar would be the semi-finals but that is not a guarantee at this point.
• The championship would still be at another neutral site.

Pluses

For those who really hate almost any kind of playoff and yearn for the “good old days” of college football, there are no pluses. For those who eventually want a 64-team playoff say it’s all pluses. Let me be somewhat realistic about the pluses to this:

• The Group of Five is guaranteed a spot. With six conference champions guaranteed in, at least one G-5 team will get in, perhaps two. That is the biggest issue that has bothered the pro-playoff people, the lack of Group of Five teams. That worry is gone.
• The New Year’s Six bowls that aren’t the semi-finals will now be very relevant. The NY6 bowls that weren’t the semi-final games in any given year meant as much as the other bowl games: not a whole lot. Fun for the players, great for the coaches, and relatively profitable to the communities and charities but other than a banner, a win there itself meant nothing. Now they will mean something because they will be quarter-final games.
• Schools get another home game to make a ton of money. The 5 through 8 teams may make out the best here. They get another home game which should rack up a lot of dough for the program.
• Upsets. Let’s be honest: one of the biggest reasons, other than gambling, why March Madness is so amazing is upsets. Well, now you might have relatively monumental upsets (i.e. a G-5 team beating a P-5 team). And that’s what The Committee wants.

Minuses

Now for the minuses. And there are some for sure.

• The bigger regular season games aren’t as big anymore. This is undoubtedly true. The biggest games of the regular season won’t be nearly as important anymore. They can’t be. When 12 teams qualify, a game between the #1 and #5 team in the land is just for seeding purposes and byes. Not to miss the playoffs altogether.
• A better chance for a bad conference champion to make the playoff. I will get to more of this later but the chances of a 7-5 team winning their conference championship and getting to the CFP is on the table. And sorry, as much as teams should have a chance to play their way in, a team with 4 or 5 losses shouldn’t be in. Period.
• The other bowls mean even less. They were almost irrelevant as it is except for the communities and the charity work done there. Now these bowls will mean even less. And guaranteed at least a few of them will be eliminated (which will make the Too Many Bowls crowd happy at least).

A lot to digest for sure. I still have problems with moving to a 12-team playoff when there are other issues that have to be dealt with to set college football up to have a “proper playoff” so to speak. Eliminating divisions, having all conferences play the same amount of conference games, and eliminating preseason polls altogether are three issues that must be looked at or otherwise we could have a ton of problems with this new format. I mean some love it but they may not when there’s four SEC teams in the semi-finals and they made it there because the format allowed it, not because they “earned” it.

Alright let’s shift gears here. Many pundits are “re-doing” previous years with the new 12-team CFP structure. So I will select a few random years to see how it would set up and what we might see. Now remember, the rankings that year might not have been the rankings under this system because you have to be sure that The Committee might not see it the same way as it was back then. Also, I am going to assume the Rose and Sugar Bowls ARE the semi-finals in these exercises. Let’s begin!

1993

Let’s start with 1993. The year of the newest Game of the Century between Notre Dame and Florida State (and holy shit was it ever a great game). Florida State was able to recover from that loss to win the national championship. The Irish inexplicably fell to Boston College the following week to end their title hopes. Hell, the second spot in the championship probably should have gone to West Virginia instead of Florida State. So how would a 12-team playoff look during this season:

Byes: #1 Florida State (ACC champ), #2 Nebraska (Big 8 champ), #3 West Virginia (Big East champ), #7 Texas A&M (SWC champ)

#9 Wisconsin (Big 10 champ) at #8 Florida (SEC champ) (winner plays FSU in Orange Bowl)

#10 Miami at #6 Tennessee (SWC champ) (winner plays Nebraska in Cotton Bowl)

#11 Ohio State at #5 Auburn (winner plays West Virginia in Fiesta Bowl)

#12 North Carolina at #4 Notre Dame (winner plays Auburn in Citrus Bowl)

Interesting since Florida State being #1 means they could face Florida in the quarters at the Orange Bowl which would be a massive ratings success and could be a very tough game for the Noles. Other than if UNC beat the Irish, no other result would feel like an upset. I guess Nebraska and West Virginia (and maybe the Noles) not getting to the semis would kind of be considered an upset but really not. My guess is we would see two of the three I just mentioned in the championship game so not much would change.

2011

We leap to 2011. The year two SEC teams met in the national championship which basically was the final nail in the coffin for the BCS so we could say hello to the College Football Playoff. Also, if it hadn’t been for Iowa State upsetting Oklahoma State, the Cowboys of all teams would have found themselves facing the Tigers for the title. If the new setup was in place, that game really means nothing other than it was a cool upset to watch. Who knows if the BCS keeps going if that happens. Anyway, here we go:

Byes: #1 LSU (SEC champ), #3 Oklahoma State (Big XII champ), #5 Oregon (Pac-12 champ), #10 Wisconsin (Big Ten champ)

#8 Kansas State at #7 Boise State (winner plays LSU in Cotton Bowl)

#9 South Carolina at #6 Arkansas (winner plays Alabama in Orange Bowl)

#15 Clemson (ACC champ) at #4 Stanford (winner plays Oklahoma State in Capital One Bowl)

#18 TCU (MWC champ) at #2 Alabama (winner plays Oregon in Fiesta Bowl)

Here’s where things kind of go off the rails at the bottom of the bracket. Normally you would have had two of Virginia Tech, Michigan, or Oklahoma here. Bluebloods. Not so with the criteria. With only four conference champions in the top ten teams, Clemson and TCU get in as the next highest ranked conference champions. Houston would have been a shoo-in to go but their loss in the Conference USA championship leaves them on the outside looking in. Also, would they allow the Gamecocks to face Arkansas when they are in the same conference? I could see South Carolina ending up going to Boise (talk about your horrible weather game) and Arkansas getting Kansas State. Again, I can’t see any team outside the top three getting through this but you never know. Really, the biggest thing here would be if Boise handles Kansas State, can they somehow shock the world and beat LSU?

1987

This season ended up with Miami facing Oklahoma in a 1 vs. 2 matchup in the Orange Bowl for the national championship. Somewhat rare to have a bowl game get the top two teams back then. Syracuse was also a serious contender but ended up #4. Oh and SMU started the first year of their death penalty, something the NCAA will never give out again (and probably can’t at least in football).

Byes: #1 Oklahoma (Big 8 champ), #6 Auburn (SEC champ), #8 Michigan State (Big Ten champ), #10 UCLA (Pac-10 co-champ)

#7 LSU at #5 Nebraska (winner plays Oklahoma in Cotton Bowl)

#9 South Carolina at #4 Syracuse (winner plays Auburn in Orange Bowl)

#13 Texas A&M (SWC champ) at #3 Florida State (winner plays Michigan State in Citrus Bowl)

#14 Clemson (ACC champ) at #2 Miami (winner plays UCLA in Fiesta Bowl)

OK this DEFINITELY wouldn’t have worked back in ’87. Clemson again sneaks in because they need more conference champs. Same with Texas A&M this time around. Oklahoma State and Notre Dame miss out. Luckily back then there weren’t as many talking heads who would, you know, talk about it. But the conference champ in the top four thing can’t work back then with the amount of independents there were. This was before the Big East and before the ACC decided they needed Florida State. This means the Canes, Noles AND Orange would have to play in the first round. Brutal. This also means three of the four teams with first round byes would definitely be underdogs in the quarter-finals unless they were upsets. Crazy. Honestly, this could have been an interesting once since any one of the top 6 teams could have ended up in the final two considering this setup.

2007

BAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! The Committee would have been full-fledged alcoholics after this season. Things changed so often from week-to-week that they would have struggled to wrap their heads around the whole thing. Even Ohio State, easily the #1 team, looked horrible in a loss to Illinois (ILLINOIS!) during the season. And remember, the #2 team lost seven times in the final nine weeks, an unprecedented amount that will probably never be matched. Let’s see what this shitshow would have churned out:

Byes: #1 Ohio State (Big 10 champ), #2 LSU (SEC champ), #3 Oklahoma (Big XII champ), #5 Virginia Tech (ACC champ)

#9 Florida at #8 Kansas (winner plays Ohio State in Cotton Bowl)

#10 Hawaii (WAC champ) at #7 Missouri (winner plays LSU in Outback Bowl)

#11 West Virginia (Big East champ) at #6 USC (Pac-10 champ) (winner plays Oklahoma in Fiesta Bowl)

#12 Arizona State at #4 Georgia (winner plays Virginia Tech in Orange Bowl)

And after I saw it will be a shitshow, it ends up being clean. Absolutely clean. I mean the road to get here would have been filled with potholes but the end result was, while not perfect, quite nice. A few nicks, no outright cuts. And some of the quarter-final matchups…wow! Could Kansas somehow beat tOSU? Could Mizzou keep the magical season going against who ended up being the national champ, LSU? And either West Virginia or USC playing Oklahoma? Yes, please. If this happened we wouldn’t think that 2007 was as wacky as it actually was.

So there you go. Four random seasons with varying degrees of success, so to speak. In the end, though, the cream will rise to the top. With four rounds to the playoffs, it will be rare if a team can run the table from the first round. I would expect one of the teams with a bye will end up winning the national championship. It will be interesting to see if college football continues to thrive or if they may have gone a bit too far this time. In terms of money and viewers, the sport keeps growing. Even with attendance going down slightly every season, those are the metrics they need to see grow. The next set of TV contracts will be the barometer of if this has already started to work or not.

Have a great rest of the weekend!

Most Important Games of the 2021 College Football Season – IV

If you don’t know who these guys are well….you’ve never watched the hit HBO series, Entourage.  Look, it’s a fun show that I actually really enjoyed.  If you didn’t take it seriously, it was a good watch.  I also remember it very well because I had bought the box set years ago and then decided to sell it for $100.  Exchanged the DVDs for the money in a somewhat seedy Tim Horton’s parking lot and left.  When I got home, I realized I was holding four $20 bills.  I emailed the guy and of course he never responded.  I was less than pleased.  Anyway, I am going to do a kind of rating system like I’ve done every year for the final important games post.  Hopefully you understand and perhaps even agree with who I assign to each week.  If not…well, it really doesn’t mean much since some people I know think Entourage was shit.

We’re at the end of this exercise for this season.  Final four weeks of the regular season.  And you know what?  All four are at least decent weeks with two of them being the best of the season.  I have to retire SEC Sleepwalk Saturday into the rafters of Bossman Arena (The Bossman Dome?  Oriole Park at Bossman Yards?).  Can’t use the term since that week is at least decent now.  I kind of miss it……ok I lied.  I like this better.  Let’s begin!

Week 10

This week is seriously good.  The number one weekend of college football for the 2021 season.  It doesn’t get any better than this (on paper).  So, of course, this has to be represented by the best character on Entourage, by far, Ari Gold.  If it wasn’t for Jeremy Piven’s work as the most ridiculous agent in television history, Entourage is not nearly as good of a show.

Game of the Week: LSU at Alabama (3:30, CBS) – There are four games that could inhabit this top spot and all are deserving.  This is one of the deepest non-American Thanksgiving weekends in college football in recent memory.  And it is LSU.  I know they are down from their turn as national champs but if anyone understands how to beat Bama, it’s Ed Orgeron.  Either that or this is a blowout by dinnertime.

Other Really Important Games: Oregon at Washington (10:30, specialty pack) – When a late night game is the number two game of the week, you know it’s either a really weak week or a very strong week.  Nothing in between.  Now this game could end up in a lot of different spots.  Hell, they could end up as the BIG NOON SATURDAY game and have a 9:00 am local start which I’m sure everyone at Husky Stadium would love.  This is where the schedule predictions are really a stretch unless I can use an already set game as evidence for my choice (which is usually still a bad prediction but whatever).

Texas at Iowa State (Noon, FOX) – This is the game that, at this point, I have being the BIG NOON SATURDAY game.  Obviously that could change but I would be shocked if FOX passes on this game unless ABC gets it for primetime.  This is essentially the game that will probably determine who faces Oklahoma at JerryWorld in December.  The Big XII, not surprisingly, has fewer marquee games than the rest of the conferences.  And yes, realignment and them expanding would help that.  To say it wouldn’t is laughable.  Maybe they should make a shocking first move and invite Arizona and Arizona State, just to see what they say.

Clemson at Louisville (3:30, ABC) – Louisville looked good last year.  I say this every year but one of these times, Clemson is going to be knocked off their perch for real.  None of this one loss during the season but still get out of the ACC crap.  More like possibly not even going to the ACC Championship kind of thing.  Yeah, I said it.

Ohio State at Nebraska (8:00, BTN) – Just like the Pac-12 Network, the Big Ten Network gets a great game or two every year.  It’s mostly to make sure each team gets their two games on the network (with one having to be a conference game).  But, in another way, it is to also shine a spotlight on the network to remind people that, hey, conference networks can be good sometimes as well.  So I have put this game here and it wouldn’t surprise me if it stayed here.  I am not a Husker fan but any stretch of the imagination, but I really do hope they can keep it within 30.

Auburn at Texas A&M (7:00, specialty pack) – I still think back to the Aggies playing the Tide early in the season.  Say they win that game.  They could actually be undefeated at this point and looking at the College Football Playoff!  Even with one loss this game is mucho important for the Aggies.  Probably not as important for Auburn as the Gus Bus seems to be having some transmission problems these days.  UPDATE: Man I’m really not ready for the season.  Gus Malzahn is at UCF.  Bryan Harsin is now at Auburn.  Hopefully the mass transit system in Orlando is better than it was in Auburn.

USC at Arizona State (8:00, FOX) – OK if there is a game (IF!) that would be put on BIG DAMN NOON SATURDAY from the Pac-12, this might be the one.  For now I have it in the primetime FOX timeslot since ABC will probably go with a Big Ten game meaning FOX may actually win primetime for once.  Man, it feels like I might need to change this entire week around.  I will be honest, this was probably the toughest week to map out and, as you can see, I’m still not too sure of my choices.

Sneaky-Good Underrated Game: Indiana at Michigan (3:30, specialty pack) – Don’t laugh.  I think there is almost no way Michigan is as bad as they were last season.  I hate using the fucked-up season of last year as an excuse but for the Wolverines it may be true.  Now watch them lose this one by 40 and I am off watching whatever’s on the ACC Network to pass the time.

Best Group of Five Game: Tulsa at Cincinnati (Friday, 7:00, specialty pack) – It’s either this or Tulane-UCF on Saturday.  I picked this one because this game should end up on a network we can watch whereas I have Tulane-UCF on ESPN+.  After last year’s shocking Tulsa season, it will be interesting to see if the Golden Hurricane can duplicate the feat or if Cincy shows their superiority in the American.

Worst Power Five Game: Kansas State at Kansas (Thursday, 8:00, FOX Sports One) – You know what?  This is fine.  Do I really need to see this game?  Not really (as long as there is other football on at the time and this game isn’t close).

Week 11

This week is the worst of the bunch but still pretty good.  And let’s be honest: are there any really bad characters on Entourage other than Sasha Grey?  I don’t really think so.  I would say this is LLOYD but I think he’s not this bad.  This will be Vinny Chase.  Yes, despite the fact he’s supposed to be the main character of the show, he seems like the least important, ya know?  Saying that, he is still VERY important to Entourage as this week is to the regular season.

Game of the Week: Arizona State at Washington (6:00, Pac-12 Network/DAZN) – Um……………..I don’t know what to say.  Honestly there’s a good possibility this is not on the P12N but this is a first on here.  I’d have to look but I am pretty positive no conference network has been in this spot until now.  History has been (possibly) made!  And if this doesn’t tell you this is the thinnest week of this bunch, I don’t know what will.

Other Really Important Games: Michigan at Penn State (3:30, specialty pack) – OK this fully about Penn State and almost not about Michigan at all.  I’m actually kind of curious about the Nittany Lions since they look like they should be in the Top 10 early on if not in the preseason poll.  But I’m honestly racking my brain trying to figure out what talent they have that would make it so they are that kind of contender right off the hop.  And I’m coming up with nothing.  God, I need a preview magazine.  The college football part of my brain is turning to mush.

Texas A&M at Ole Miss (3:30, CBS) – No Bama?  No Georgia?  No LSU?  And it’s still this high on the list?  Count me interested.  Really though, these are two teams to watch as both are at least New Year’s Six contenders this season despite being the horrendously tough SEC West.

Georgia at Tennessee (7:00, TSN3) – There is a part of me that hopes Tennessee can pull this off.  Just to see the reaction of fans and the media…and Twitter.  I’m sure all the discourse would be rational and everyone would take it in stride…….BAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.

Sneaky-Good Underrated Game: Northwestern at Wisconsin (8:00, FOX) – I was so close to putting this in the section above.  But I just can’t.  I have this feeling that Northwestern might not be as good as some are saying and/or Wisconsin will regress a bit towards the back end of the Top 25.  This could end up on *deep breath* BIG NOON SATURDAY because of the lack of options.

Best Group of Five Game: UCF at SMU (7:00, specialty pack) – The AAC continues to deliver and this one is no exception.  I don’t know about SMU being a contender in the AAC West this year but it does seem relatively wide open.  The East, on the other hand is UCF chasing Cincinnati and everyone else chasing UCF.

Worst Power Five Game: Duke at Virginia Tech (7:30, specialty pack) – I feel almost bad putting a Hokies game here especially when it’s in Blacksburg.  But Duke might just be that bad.

Week 12

Better than the previous week but not by a lot.  Enough for it shed it’s SEC Sleepwalk Saturday moniker.  God rest your terrible scheduling soul.  You can go two ways with this.  The first is to say this is represented by Turtle and Johnny Drama.   Two important characters who’s stories are sometimes more important than whatever the main idea of the episode happens to be.  Or you can go with Sloan and Ari’s wife.  Sloan and Ari’s wife.  Yes, please.

Game of the Week: Iowa State at Oklahoma (7:30, ABC) – This feels like almost a guarantee for ABC in primetime.  Possibly a preview of the Big XII Championship.  And really, that’s not as big of a deal as people make it out to be.  It happens so damn often that you almost expect it now.  Also, it’s a huge plus for Sooners fans since they will be able to watch their team start playing a game not before Noon!

Other Really Important Games: Texas at West Virginia (Noon, FOX) – *big deep breath* BIG FUCKIN’ NOON SATURDAY!!!!  I would laugh if somehow the Cyclones-Sooners game ends up in this timeslot but I feel pretty safe about these two picks.  By this point we will have a pretty good idea if Sark is the real deal in Austin and if not-Dana Holgorsen can keep the ‘Eers trending in the right direction.

Michigan State at Ohio State (3:30, specialty pack) – OK I am giving Mel Tucker another chance.  OK not just me.  Makes me sound way more important than I am.  I predict that Sparty will be better than last year, maybe not by much, but enough to give the Buckeyes a scare through at least two-and-a-half quarters.  If ESPN gets this game (which I predict) they have to hope for it to be close.  If that happens watch a shit-ton of people move over to the four-letter network.

UCLA at USC (8:00, FOX) – Hey maybe the Victory Bell (or at least this version of it since there seems to be a bunch) could be exciting and important this season!  Isn’t it nice when both of these teams are playing well?  Unless you’re a fan of one of the other teams in the Pac-12 South, this is a good thing for the conference.  This could be Chip Kelly’s second coming out party kinda sorta.  Or Clay Helton’s last stand.  Or neither.  Who knows?

Oregon at Utah (10:30, specialty pack) – Honestly this could move to Thursday or Friday night and be a late night offering of FS1.  That would honestly suck since it’s always nice to have a really good game on the late night sked.  Otherwise it feels like I am staying up past 2 in the morning for little reason.  I mean I’m gonna do it anyway but this at least gives me some semblance of justification for my irrational choices.

Sneaky-Good Underrated Game: Minnesota at Indiana (8:00, BTN) – Minnesota is a bit of a mystery to me.  But with the Big Ten’s version of Dana Holgorsen coaching them in P.J. Fleck, they will always be at least a bit better than advertised.  These are the kind of games that the Hoosiers have to win if they want any shot at the NY6 this season.

Best Group of Five Game: SMU at Cincinnati (Noon, specialty pack) – Yeah I had to go down the list a bit to find the best G-5 game.  This will probably end up being a blowout but it was either this or Louisiana-Liberty.  Or maybe Memphis-Houston.  Yeah, not exactly great choices here.

Worst Power Five Game: Arizona at Washington State (Friday, 9:00, Pac-12 Network/DAZN) – Very rarely do you see a Pac-12 game here but Jesus Christ this looks like it would suck-diddly-uck.  Wazzu isn’t the Wazzu we knew and loved a couple seasons ago and, well, Zona hasn’t been relevant in quite a long time.  Lucky for us, Memphis-Houston and Air Force-Nevada (and perhaps even Kansas-TCU) will be on around the same time.  OK that’s sad.

Week 13

The final weekend.  The four-day stretch where I am at my least productive possibly all year because I watching FOOTBAW.  This is nooooooooot quite the best week of the season but it might be the most important.  For that reason, this week is represented by E.  Not the drug although…no forget it.  E, Vince’s manager.  Eric.  Yeah.  I’d say the most important guy in the quartet for Entourage.  And I stand by that choice.

Game of the Week: Oklahoma at Oklahoma State (3:30, specialty pack) – This could move into the ABC primetime slot depending on what is left over for ABC to show.  If they don’t have to show a Big Ten or Pac-12 game then I can definitely see it.  I mean it’s Bedlam.  Usually good.  Usually.  And the Sooners hate going to Stillwater.  Remember that.  The Fighting Mullets could drop OU out of the Big XII Championship if the opportunity arises.

Other Really Important Games: Ohio State at Michigan (Noon, FOX) – Most years this would be at least in the running to be the Game of the Week.  Instead it drops into this section and honestly, for this season, it’s all because Ohio State is still quite good.  But without Justin Fields, how will the Buckeyes’ passing game be?  That will be the big question for this team.  If that has worked itself out by this point, look out because this could be over by 1:00.

Alabama at Auburn (3:30, CBS) – The Iron Bowl is relegated to this spot.  You can thank Auburn taking a step back for that.  Like the tOSU-UM game, this could be a blowout.  I think the one thing at least helping the Tigers is that it is at Jordan-Hare and not in Tuscaloosa.  Usually that’s not a bother for the Tide but this is Auburn.  I’m sure the fans aren’t exactly cordial to them.  I wonder if this becomes a shoo-in in a couple years when the SEC goes to ABC/ESPN to be the primetime ABC game on American Thanksgiving weekend going forward.

Texas A&M at LSU (7:00, TSN2) – There is no chance they can recreate that insane seven overtime affair from a couple seasons ago.  Makes me sad.  I mean a 3:30 game or a 7:00 game going seven overtimes?  Sure.  A late night game going seven overtimes?  God help me.  I mean I’ll stay up and try not to pass out but man that would be difficult.

North Carolina at NC State (Friday, 7:30, ABC) – Black Friday’s premier game is in Raleigh this year.  Everyone in the media wants to hop on Mack Brown’s dick (not literally) but ignore that the Wolfpack could very well sneak up the middle and cause a lot of trouble in the ACC.  The Heels are a legit CFP contender whereas Dave Doeren hopes to get a massive contract extension and he would probably get it if he can will NCSU to the New Year’s Six.

TCU at Iowa State (Friday, 3:30, FOX) – The Big XII continues to take advantage of Black Friday although the other Power Five conferences are waking up to it.  This could be the game that puts the Cyclones into the Big XII title game or ends their chances early.

Penn State at Michigan State (Noon, BTN) – Will this ultimately end up on the Big Ten Network?  Well, I was shocked to see FS1 pick up Utah State-New Mexico for the odd 1:00 start time.  So if this game stays in it’s Noon timeslot the amount of options are dwindling.  If both teams are doing well, maybe a push to get it to ABC.

Sneaky-Good Underrated Game: Kentucky at Louisville (7:00, specialty pack) – Unless one or both of these teams has an outside shot at a NY6 bid, this game will most likely fall to the ACC Network.  Kind of sad since this is the first time both of these teams will be potentially good at the same time in quite a while.

Best Group of Five Game: Boise State at San Diego State (Friday, Noon, CBS) – That is not a misprint.  This game will kickoff on Black Friday at Noon.  Which makes it a 9:00 am local kickoff.  We knew this was coming but it’s still a bit jarring to see it confirmed.  Expect FOX and CBS do this more in the future now that they have essentially split the Mountain West conference football contract between them.

Worst Power Five Game: Pittsburgh at Syracuse (12:30, specialty pack) – Don’t be surprised if this gets moved to Black Friday.  Remember when these two teams played in the Big East?  I watched a fair amount of Big East football when I was younger because the Noon Big East game was one of the few games we got in this area pretty much every Saturday.  Now, we have choice.  So I will choose not to watch this unless it’s a good game late.

Weeks 14 and 15

No point in rating these weeks.  Week 15 is Army-Navy which is always fun.  I still believe that one of these days, Navy will be 12-0, coming off a conference championship and having to play Army to finish their season.  Imagine if they lose?  Holy shit that would be massive!  Again, the Pac-12 has their conference championship on a Friday.  That conference perplexes me sometimes.  There was a time where the SEC Championship was rumoured to move to primetime on CBS.  Instead it is confirmed to be back in the afternoon at its normal 4:00 time.  I have a feeling the ACC will move their game out of primetime and go either with the Noon(ish) timeslot or up against the SEC since you have to wonder how many viewers they are losing to the Big Ten most years.

The important games blog posts are complete!  Done and dusted!  Still haven’t received my Athlon magazine.  Haven’t phoned Phil Steele to get that magazine.  Haven’t gone to Indigo to look for Lindy’s or Street and Smith.  Life has got in the way so I just haven’t had that chance.  Soon.  And then it’s probably all I will read about between now and late August when the season begins.

Next up is the network specific posts.  Remember, “Card Subject to Change”…meaning I will be wrong more than I am right…possibly.  But the fact that I am about to do these posts means we are getting a bit closer to the season.  We are 77 days away from Week Zero.  Feels like still such a long time.

Everyone have a great weekend!

Most Important Games of the 2021 College Football Season – The Third Part

It’s getting seriously hot and (at times) seriously humid outside.  Meaning summer is basically here.  Thank God this province wants us not to engage in any sports or camping or get togethers of any kind.  Think of all the money we save on sunscreen!  I need to work on this blog to get my mind off the bullshit.  So let’s just get on with this already!

Week 7

Game of the Week: Oklahoma State at Texas (7:30, ABC) – You don’t see many Big XII games in this spot anymore.  To be honest, you don’t see many Big XII games in Canada either.  Will these games mean as much when the playoff expands (which it most certainly is now)?  Who knows to be honest.  All I can say is I will continue to enjoy the games as much as I can as they try to, well, “make the postseason better.”  To be honest, expanding the playoff would be down my list a bit.  Number one on my list?  Abolishing divisions.

Other Really Important Games: Miami at North Carolina (3:30, ABC) – If Miami truly gets their act together, this could end up being the Game of the Week (and possibly a Game of the Year candidate).  Either way this is probably a huge game for both teams in the ACC.  The winner of this game gets a leg up on the division that Clemson is not in (see my point about getting rid of divisions?).

Florida at LSU (3:30, CBS) – Hey it’s one of those weeks where the main networks (ABC, CBS…let’s throw FOX in there as well) have the biggest games.  Another game that you could argue has a chance to be GOTW.  Still wondering what will happen once the SEC on CBS contract ends.  We have three more seasons of this and then all SEC games will be on ESPN/ABC (or ESPN2…or the SEC Network…or maybe ESPN+ you get the idea).  Will CBS acquire another conference’s games?  I think they’d be dumb not to.  The Pac-12 could be ripe for the picking to be honest.

UCLA at Washington (3:30, Pac-12 Network/DAZN) – Let me explain since that might look like Greek to some of you.  As of right now I have the Bruins and Huskies on the Pac-12 Network.  First of all, it’s in the afternoon so Chris Petersen shouldn’t be upset.  Secondly, Pac-12 teams have to have a minimum amount of games on the Pac-12 Network and the network usually gets a good game or two every season because it has to fill its quota.  And finally, it looks like the Pac-12 Network will be available on DAZN in Canada.  That may change by the time the season commences.  Fingers crossed it doesn’t.

TCU at Oklahoma (4:00, FOX Sports One) – This could be worse.  At first I had this game on FSN.  I honestly don’t know if FSN will even have Big XII games.  I have a feeling they won’t but who knows with the Mountain West invading the FOX networks.  Anyway, until further notice, the Sooners will continue to be the class of the conference.  At some point, though, a team is going to come along and knock them off their perch…for real.  Maybe Gary Patterson’s Horned Frogs can do the trick.

Kentucky at Georgia (7:00, specialty pack) – There are a lot of good games this week.  Unfortunately, after the top games (and a few others), it drops off a cliff.  Normally, I wouldn’t put Kentucky in the Games of the Week but, by all accounts, this seems to be a team that could cause a lot of problems inside the SEC East.  A win here and the Cats could, once again, be a contender in the SEC East.  Look, I get they are very pessimistic about their football program in Lexington but if Mark Stoops somehow gets this team to the SEC Championship, they should offer him like a 15-year deal.  No questions asked.

UCF at Cincinnati (4:00, specialty pack) – Yes a Group of Five game in the Games of the Week section!  I have a feeling this will be the only G-5 game in this section this season.  This is seriously huge too as these are the two teams that most would consider the top contenders for the Group of Five spot in the New Year’s Six (along with Boise State and maybe Coastal Carolina).  Don’t be surprised if ABC pulls the trigger and gets this game in primetime knowing it may be their best chance at getting a really good AAC game on in primetime.

Sneaky-Good Underrated Game: Ole Miss at Tennessee (Noon, specialty pack) – Don’t laugh.  Both teams could be quite good this year.  I said don’t laugh.  Either team could win nine games.  I told you not to laugh.  Both teams could win their division.  OK now you can laugh.

Best Group of Five Game: UCF at Memphis (4:00, specialty pack) – See above.

Worst Power Five Game: Texas Tech at Kansas (7:00, ESPN+) – Jesus Christ who would watch this?  This game would have to be seriously close for me to even consider watching it.  Which I can’t if I predict right and this ends up on ESPN+.  Crisis averted.

Week 8

Game of the Week: Oregon at UCLA (4:00, FOX) – Wow, ok.  Yeah this week, on paper, does not deliver.  This is easily the worst week that I will cover in these final two posts.  I mean you have to think Oregon blows the doors off the Bruins but what if UCLA has one of those crazy games they’ve had in recent years under Chip Kelly?  It would be fun to see them just go off and score like 50 on the Ducks.  They still might lose but hey…50-burger!

Other Really Important Games: Oklahoma State at Iowa State (Noon, FOX) – Hmmm…maybe this should be game of the week especially since it’s on BIG NOON SATURDAY.  I still wait for the day where Matt Campbell finally gets a job offer he can’t refuse and leaves Ames.  As horrible as it sounds for Cyclone fans, I could see Iowa trying to hire him once Kirk Ferentz decides to retire.

USC at Notre Dame (7:30, NBC) – Remember when almost every year a game between these two teams was a big deal?  Sometimes for only of these teams but a handful of times for both programs.  This may be one of those games.  The Irish will once again feed off the hatred of all non-Irish fans and hope to get into the College Football Playoff yet again, pissing off a bunch of people.  USC is in the wide open Pac-12 South and a win like this doesn’t help them inside the conference but will be a huge plus when it comes to their place in the Top 25.

Ohio State at Indiana (7:30, ABC) –  I think it every year.  Ohio State is going to visit a Big Ten East team not named Penn State or Michigan State and lose.  Haha, of course I don’t mean Michigan, silly!  The Hoosiers still look like they could make some noise in the Big Ten East but they have to hope to recreate some of last year’s magic to have any hope of beating the Fighting Ryan Days.

Sneaky-Good Underrated Game: LSU at Ole Miss (6:00, specialty pack) – Ugh, I hate the three-hour timeslots.  They serve no purpose whatsoever.  Like unless you are showing Army or Navy or any other team who might want to try the option, this won’t work.  And SEC games are not known for ending before the three-and-a-half hour mark.  So good luck to the game after this one (I have BYU-Wazzu starting at 9).  Have fun on ESPNEWS for perhaps an hour.

Best Group of Five Game: Coastal Carolina at Appalachian State (Wednesday, 7:30, TSN1/TSN4) – I don’t know if I am in the minority but I like watching Sun Belt football.  And despite App State’s success since their move up to FBS, last year’s performance by the Chants shone a huge light on the conference and proved that one of these years, their champion will make the New Year’s Six.  This is probably the Sun Belt East Division championship.  See?  Divisions suck (no offense to the Ragin’ Cajuns of Louisiana).

Worst Power Five Game: Georgia Tech at Virginia (Noon, specialty pack) – Honestly, this isn’t too bad.  For the worst of the week?  I’ve seen much worse games in this spot.  Not saying I’m watching the bulk of the game but I wouldn’t mind tuning in for a bit.  For such a not-so-good week it seems to have a good mid-card set of matches.

Week 9

Game of the Week:  Penn State at Ohio State (Noon, FOX) – Oh my.  This could be…well, this could be an amazing game.  Penn State should be finally back at least sniffing the Top 10 and tOSU is tOSU.  This is almost a shoo-in to end up on BIG NOON SATURDAY.

Other Really Important Games: North Carolina at Notre Dame (7:30, NBC) – A second consecutive week that Notre Dame on NBC will be in primetime.  If the Irish can somehow get through this rough two-game stretch they could be home-free the rest of the way.  I will admit, I am a sucker for good primetime Notre Dame football on NBC.  I don’t know what it is.  It just feels special, kind of like when the SEC has their one primetime game on CBS every season.

Florida vs. Georgia (in Jacksonville) (3:30, CBS) – THE MOTHERFUCKING GOD DAMNED WORLD’S LARGEST OUTDOOR COCKTAIL PARTY!!!!!  Perhaps you could put this at number one.  I wouldn’t argue.  I also wouldn’t argue if you said it would be the best football game played in Jacksonville all year.  I still say an open bar is the way to go for Brad and Gary in this one.  Imagine a drunk Gary Danielson crying over a call that went against Alabama three seasons ago?  Actually, maybe we should cancel the open bar.

Iowa at Wisconsin (Noon, specialty pack) – The Big Ten West Championship game?  Maybe?  Honestly these are the only two teams I would trust to win the Big Ten, despite the fact they haven’t won all the West division titles.  But would you trust Northwestern?  Minnesota?  NEBRASKA?  I thought so.

Florida State at Clemson (3:30, ABC) – OK this might be a stretch.  Especially since this is in Death Valley.  But one of these years, FSU is going to beat Clemson and everyone is going to be left with their jaw on the floor.  You might snicker at that but Pitt beat them at Clemson a few years back.  So there is hope you Nole fans.

Sneaky-Good Underrated Game: Iowa State at West Virginia (Noon, ABC/TSN2) – I am not going to make the mistake of saying Dana Holgorsen is the Mountaineers’ head coach like last time.  I mean, I miss him as WVU’s coach because he was in some big games meaning he would blow his stack more often than he does now at Houston.  I wonder if he just drinks less Monster Energy or Red Bull or whatever he has ten of before Noon.

Best Group of Five Game: SMU at Houston (3:30, ESPN+) – I had to dig a bit deeper this week for a good Group of Five game.  It was either this or Troy-Coastal Carolina.  I am sticking with this one although the Sun Belt game is on Thursday night and at least on the specialty pack where as this one I have on ESPN+.  Why?  Same problem every year when we get into mid-October towards the end of the season: so many good conference games and only so many slots to put them in.  Every so often the American gets the shaft.  This looks like it will be one of those weeks.

Worst Power Five Game: Rutgers at Illinois (Noon, BTN) – Good lord.  Just don’t.  If it plays out the way I think it will, there is probably two games at this time meaning you wouldn’t get it even if you had the Big Ten Network.  Probably for the best.

A mixed bag (as October usually is).  But still…it’s a bag full of college football games.  I am getting excited.  I’m also getting a bit nervous as I know what I am like during those Saturdays.  A completely unproductive glutton.  I can live with the unproductive part but I am trying to get back into some semblance of decent shape after gaining a lot of weight during the pandemic.  And the type of food I would eat on college football Saturdays is no bueno anymore…at least that amount of food.  I might have to do food prep Friday night just to get through the day!

Still have not got a preview magazine although I haven’t really tried.  Hoping the Athlon one (which is part of my subscription) comes in the mail soon.  At least unlike last year, Indigo is open so I can go in and check it out one of these days.  Also I am still going back and forth on whether to order the Phil Steele magazine.  It’s rather expensive and takes a while to come in the mail.  I might do the thing I did a few years back and pair it with the NFL magazine (if they do one) and get them shipped at the same time.  It sucks because it means I wouldn’t get it until early August but it’s such a great magazine that I don’t know if I can not buy it, you know?  If you have never seen the magazine before you don’t know but believe me, it’s PACKED with info.  Can I really go into the season not knowing who the Rutgers long snapper will be?

Normally, the CFL would be starting their preseason soon.  However, with the NBA and NHL seasons going into July this year and the U.S. Open coming up (yeah I watch the golf majors, don’t judge me), I won’t be missing football nearly as much.  Instead it looks like the CFL will start August 5th with a slightly shortened schedule.  And the Grey Cup will be moved into December and is in Hamilton.  The only Grey Cup I’ve ever went to was the 1996 one that has been dubbed the Snow Bowl.  It was cold, snowy, and a shit-ton of fun to watch.  Maybe I will buy tickets to this one as long as they aren’t brutally expensive.  OK so yeah I miss football.  Have a great week everyone!