It really could be the end of an era soon – Week 4 NFL TV Schedule

You probably already know this but Soldier Field is, by far, the oldest football stadium in the NFL.  Yes it has been renovated a few times with the Bears playing as recently as 2002 in Champaign at Memorial Stadium while Soldier Field was being fixed up.  What you may not know is that it is almost a guarantee that a few years from now, the Bears will no longer play at Soldier Field.  They have agreed to purchase a huge parcel of land in Arlington Heights, a suburb of Chicago, for the purpose of building a new stadium.  This would be the end of an era that most sports don’t see: the oldest stadium in the league being replaced.  There have been a lot of historical moments at Soldier Field and, by all accounts, it is a great place to watch football.  But the stadium is the smallest in the NFL now and the Bears want to change that, knowing they will sell out most of the seats in a bigger stadium (and can probably charge more for fans to get in).  Not saying anything about the economic impact of the stadium since that kind of math is murky at best.  All I know is that with all these new stadiums coming out, the days of the old stadium are numbered.  Highmark Stadium in Buffalo will probably be replaced over the next five years and expect some chatter about Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City as well.  I am sure Lambeau Field won’t be replaced so it will become the granddaddy stadium in the NFL once Soldier Field closes.

Alright, enough stadium talk.  Let’s get to the meat of the post: the Week 4 schedules.

Thursday

Jacksonville at Cincinnati

8:20, NFL Network, TSN1/3/4, CTV Two

Sunday Early

Houston at Buffalo	Buffalo, Rochester, Burlington		Kitchener, Toronto, Montreal
Indianapolis at Miami
Cleveland at Minnesota	Minneapolis, Detroit, Cleveland		Winnipeg, Northern Ontario, Ottawa		London, Toronto
Tennessee at NY Jets
Kansas City at Philadelphia	Seattle, Spokane, Boston		Vancouver, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Atlantic
Washington at Atlanta
Detroit at Chicago		Detroit			Ottawa
NY Giants at New Orleans		Rochester, Burlington
Carolina at Dallas		Boston		TSN1, TSN5	Vancouver Island, Alberta, Atlantic

Sunday Late

Baltimore at Denver
Pittsburgh at Green Bay	All affiliates		Saskatchewan, Winnipeg, Northern Ontario, Kitchener, Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal		Atlantic
Seattle at San Francisco		Tacoma, Seattle, Spokane	Vancouver, Alberta
Arizona at LA Rams		Minneapolis, Buffalo		TSN1, TSN5

Sunday/Monday Primetime

Tampa Bay at New England	Sunday, 8:20, NBC, TSN 1/3/4/5, CTV Two
Las Vegas at LA Chargers	Monday, 8:15, TSN 1/3/4/5

Sirloin…no FILET notes!  Yeah, filet notes.  Nice.  I’m hungry.

• Oh man, get ready for Sunday night.  Al and Cris will be in their glory.  Tom Brady returning to Foxboro.  The amount of times his name will be said will be in the hundreds during this broadcast, never mind the days leading up to the game.  The media may even forget that Rob Gronkowski also played in New England and was a star there but who gives a shit because TOM BRADY IS RETURNING TO FOXBORO!  I’m already getting annoyed with this game and it’s a few days away.  This is the kind of game that needs the ManningCast.  Hearing Peyton and Eli pick apart everything that Brady does wrong would be fantastic.  Instead we have a month of no ManningCast ahead of us.  That seriously sucks.
• Glad TSN at least tried to pick up games that aren’t being shown in very many Canadian locales.  Picking Panthers-Cowboys and Cardinals-Rams is a good call.  Oh wait, TSN doesn’t give a shit about that.  They just picked two good games and probably didn’t care what was happening elsewhere.  I guess they have to think about their ratings but when they show a game that’s almost everywhere in Canada, why would people watch it on TSN when they can watch it on CTV or the CBS or FOX channel it’s already on?
• The only big-time game (in terms of TV airing) is the Steelers-Packers game in the late window.  It takes all of the CBS affiliates and most of the CTV affiliates.  The other two games being shown up here in that window aren’t bad either so it’s a good schedule.  Hell, even the one game not being show has two good teams playing although I wonder about the Broncos considering their opponents’ records so far are 0-9.  If they can beat the Ravens then we can start giving them some credit for a great start to their season.
• Three early games are also not being show in Canada (except for the Sunday Ticket people or IPTV people like myself).  Nothing big you’re missing although I am sure some would replace the Thursday Night Football affair with any of those games.  Yeesh.  That’s the kind of game we used to get all the time until a few years back when they started bulking up the TNF schedule a bit.

That’s about it for this.  Not much more to say, although I am a bit ticked off with the new app I have to use for my IPTV.  The one I was using was compromised (I guess there was some odd activity on my account so someone was probably trying to hack in) so they made it so I couldn’t use it and had to convert to this new app.  Not nearly as user-friendly for sure.  The channel buttons are basically useless on this now so I am guessing the down-arrow key will conk out when I least expect it (and at a time that would maximize my anger).  First world problems for sure and I guess that’s what I get for the low cost.  I’ll stop complaining now.  Enjoy the games everyone!

This week could change everything – Week 5 College Football TV Schedule

We’ve got through most of September now.  And you don’t expect to have great weeks of college football early on.  We have truly lucked out with how quality the first part of the season has been.  Which leads us to this week.  This is looking like one of the best non-Thanksgiving weeks in a long time.  So many matches between ranked teams.  Still a few unranked teams that are undefeated and playing in important games.  It’s the kind of week that can put the entire season on its head.  You have to expect at least one upset if not more.  This week, as it says in the title, could change everything.  Maybe we finally get some new blood in the College Football Playoff picture.  The college football world would do well to hope for that as well.  It puts more teams in the mix without resorting to expansion of the playoff (which is now being hotly debated among the ten conferences and Independents).

OK, let’s get to the task at hand which is getting you the college football schedule TV information for what looks like an awesome Week 5.

Thursday

		US	Canada
Virginia at Miami	7:30 PM
Arkansas-Pine Bluff at Prairie View A&M	7:30 PM

Virginia might be not bad.  Miami is looking worse than advertised and Manny Diaz is on the hot seat.  This has the potential to be a crazy game.  The other options are a SWAC game or Thursday Night Football featuring the Jacksonville Football Jaguars.  So what I’m saying is, your options are limited.

Friday

		US	Canada
Dartmouth at Penn	7:00 PM
Houston at Tulsa	7:30 PM
#13 BYU at Utah State	9:00 PM

NOW we get into some stuff, kinda, sorta.  BYU continues their run to try and go undefeated and get to the New Year’s Six.  Utah State is a good team and may cause the Cougs some problems with their firepower on offense.  A win here would make the Aggies an instant Mountain West contender.  Houston is going to try and be that second team in the AAC Championship Game that gets fucking hammered by Cincinnati.  They need to win games like this over Tulsa to do so.

Saturday Early​

		US	Canada
Texas at TCU	Noon
Pittsburgh at Georgia Tech	Noon
Charlotte at Illinois	Noon
Minnesota at Purdue	Noon
Western Michigan at Buffalo	Noon
#8 Arkansas at #2 Georgia	Noon
Duke at North Carolina	Noon
Memphis at Temple	Noon
#14 Michigan at Wisconsin	Noon
Tennessee at Missouri	Noon
Louisville at #24 Wake Forest	12:30 PM

Oh my.  This is quite the early schedule and a harbinger for what we are all in for this Saturday.  If you want to know how special Arkansas’s season is shaping up to be, realize that Chris Fowler and Kirk Herbstreit are calling this game.  Yes, Fowler and Herbie are calling a Noon game for the first time ever.  That is insane.  Pair that with GUS JOHNSON calling a game where Michigan could win and continue to move up the rankings and you got a great pair of games.  Add Louisville-Wake, WMU-Buffalo, and Texas-TCU and this is a seriously loaded early slate.  Buckle up.

Saturday Afternoon

		US	Canada
#7 Cincinnati at #9 Notre Dame	2:30 PM
#3 Oregon at Stanford	3:30 PM
Syracuse at Florida State	3:30 PM
#11 Ohio State at Rutgers	3:30 PM
#12 Ole Miss at #1 Alabama	3:30 PM
UCF at Navy	3:30 PM
Texas Tech at West Virginia	3:30 PM
#6 Oklahoma at Kansas State	3:30 PM
Troy at South Carolina	3:30 PM
USF at SMU	4:00 PM

And the amazing schedule continues.  Holy moly it’s been a while since I’ve seen two timeslots in a row that were this good.  Where do I begin?  Let’s start with Cincinnati and their road to glory.  They beat the Irish and there is no reason for this team to not be in the Top 4 by Sunday afternoon.  The Sooners get Kansas State and you know how well they tend to do in Manhattan (spoiler: not very good).  Also, Lane Kiffin gets another shot at Bama.  You will notice there are no TSN games in this timeslot, nor the next one.  Nothing until the late night sked which is odd considering what ESPN is doing today with the 6:00/9:00 games.  Unfortunately, TSN’s contracts with UFC, MLS, CFL and NASCAR usurp anything college football-related.  I get it.  I just don’t like it.

Saturday Primetime

		US	Canada
#10 Florida at Kentucky	6:00 PM
Liberty at UAB	7:00 PM
#21 Baylor at #19 Oklahoma State	7:00 PM
Mississippi State at #15 Texas A&M	7:00 PM
Indiana at #4 Penn State	7:30 PM
Boston College at #25 Clemson	7:30 PM
Western Kentucky at Michigan State	7:30 PM
Northwestern at Nebraska	7:30 PM
UConn at Vanderbilt	7:30 PM

OK not as good as the first two timeslots but still a solid set of games.  It’s highlighted by, you guessed it, UConn-Vandy Baylor-OSU.  And expect UF-UK to be a sneaky good game and an important SEC one.  I think ABC might be a bit miffed now to have picked Indy-PSU considering the Hoosiers’ start to the season.  Maybe they can push the Nittany Lions to the limit in this one.  And if you like pain, yes, UConn against Vanderbilt on the specialty pack.  I just don’t get it.  How many games could have been put there and then you can send this game to ESPN+ but no.  Somehow we are going to get a lot of UConn football on our TV sets this year and that’s not a good thing.

Saturday Late Night

		US	Canada
#22 Auburn at LSU	9:00 PM
Montana at Eastern Washington	10:30 PM
#18 Fresno State at Hawaii	11:00 PM

This is an…interesting way to finish off the day.  I guess it’s a nice cooldown compared to the pure insanity we will receive all day.  The fact that TSN2 has 10:30 as a game to be determined is interesting since the only game available at that time is Montana-EWU.  UPDATE: TSN is now not showing a college football game, going with Must See SC.  I guess they saw the game and decided not to bother.  It would be the first non-Week Zero, non-FCS Playoff game on a TSN station ever (I believe).  Also, another Hawaii Test as Fresno State heads to a high school field in Honolulu for a game that will end around 2:30 or so in the morning.

Games to set your eyeballs on

Arkansas at Georgia (Noon, TSN3) – There is not an easy choice for Game of the Week with four games between ranked teams on the docket.  I do believe with the top ABC/ESPN crew going to Athens for this one, it pushes it to the top.  This is a massive game for both teams but really a bigger one for the Hogs.  If the Razorbacks can pull this one out, you might want to at least pencil Sam Pittman in as Coach of the Year already since this is already the best coaching job we’ve seen in quite some time.  It would also set up a crazy Bama-Arkansas game later on in the year between possibly two undefeated teams the week before American Thanksgiving.  Giddy up!

Cincinnati at Notre Dame (2:30, NBC) – Still no respect for this Bearcats football team.  The fact this is a day game shows what many still believe about Cincinnati and the Group of Five as a whole.  Let’s be honest: this is Cincinnati’s best chance ever to make some noise in college football.  I know they went to a BCS bowl in the past (where they were blown out by Florida).  But this is their one true shot to get into the College Football Playoff before it expands, whenever that ends up happening.  They need to win this because there are a few games on their American Conference schedule that will not help them at all, even if they win big.  I kind of hope it happens only to make The Committee’s job difficult.  I still wonder if they need an open bar when they have their meetings.  Could be fun to watch one member who goes way too far and ends up puking before inexplicably stumping for UConn to be in the New Year’s Six.

Ole Miss at Alabama (3:30, CBS) – Normally a game with the Tide in it has a shot at being the GOTW.  On almost any week this would end up being the case.  It’s still going to be a good game I think as Lane Kiffin and his offense figured out the Tide last year, putting 48 points up on the board against them.  Expect the same against a team that is not as good as last year’s.  Nick Saban’s squad is still a heavy favourite but we know what the Rebels have been able to do in the past to them.  Another game that could upset the balance in college football if an upset occurs.

Baylor at Oklahoma State (7:00, specialty pack) – If you thought this was going to be a game between two ranked teams at the start of the season, I would have taken you to Vegas to bet on roulette.  The Cowboys are a bit of a shock at this point but the Bears are a full-blown surprise.  Kind of surprised this didn’t end up being the ABC Primetime game but it does show what ABC/ESPN thinks of the Big XII (and it won’t get any better in a couple years).  Anyway, both of these teams have a serious chance to be the team that gets to surprise everyone and get to go to JerryWorld for the Big XII Championship.  With the conference being a bit of a mess right now, nothing says either of these teams can’t go all the way.

Oklahoma at Kansas State (3:30, FOX) – There are quite a few games that could go in this spot.  We know about the Sooners’ struggles in Manhattan.  Kansas State has looked good so far this season going 3-1 so it’s a team just outside the Top 25 here.  Don’t be surprised if the Sooners defense struggles yet again.  Or their offense.  Who knows with this team.  Now watch Oklahoma win by like 50 and prove me wrong.

Honourable mention: Iowa at Maryland (Friday, 8:00, FOX Sports One); BYU at Utah State (Friday, 9:00, CBS Sports Network); Louisville at Wake Forest (Noon, specialty pack); Oregon at Stanford (3:30, ABC); Florida at Kentucky (6:00, specialty pack); Ohio State at Rutgers (3:30, Big Ten Network); Indiana at Penn State (7:30, ABC); Boston College (7:30, specialty pack); Auburn at LSU (9:00, specialty pack); Arizona State at UCLA (10:30, FOX Sports One).  I told you there were a lot of good games this weekend.

You bet!

My picks were not that good although they were all upset losses.  That makes me feel at least a bit better.  I have a feeling I will do better this week.  I am adding more picks just for this week just because of the sheer number of great games.  Alright *deep breath* let’s go!

Florida over Kentucky

Georgia over Arkansas

Alabama over Ole Miss

LSU over Auburn

BYU over Utah State

Notre Dame over Cincinnati

Oregon over Stanford

UCLA over Arizona State

Clemson over Boston College

Wake Forest over Louisville

Penn State over Indiana

Iowa over Maryland

Ohio State over Rutgers

Oklahoma State over Baylor

Oklahoma over Kansas State

Alright it seems like the specialty pack schedules are still a bit slow in coming out.  I haven’t seen any definitive information for the Saturday games on any of the schedules I have looked at.  I’m sure the info will come up shortly but really this info should be ready pretty much the day after the previous week’s games are done.  I don’t buy the whole idea that it’s up to ESPN to “release” games to the cable companies.  That’s horseshit.  You have the contract, you show the games.  It’s not like you get all the ESPN and ESPN2 games this week but next week, nope, only ESPNU games.  Like, fuck off.

I went against my own advice (kind of) and did do the Twitter thing last weekend and it wasn’t bad at all.  I guess I shouldn’t judge it based on one day but I know what Twitter can be like if you get into the wrong part of Twitter…the Twitter on the other side of the tracks.  Enjoy the games everyone!

OK this is a new one – Week 4 College Football Recap

I don’t think I have ever seen something like this before.  And it sounds like most of college football media had never seen it before either.

Let’s see if I can wrap my head around all that happened here.  K’Vaughan Pope, Ohio State’s senior linebacker had been grumbling about lack of playing time.  Totally understandable.  So during this weekend’s game against Akron, Pope tried to enter the game but another linebacker waved him off.  So Pope decided to head towards the locker room until someone from the Ohio State staff brought him back to the sideline.  What happens next seems ridiculous.  Pope gets back to the sideline, briefly argues with a coach, throws his gloves into the stands and starts taking his jersey off.  He had a further conversation with another coach who then got someone to take Pope off the field and to the locker room.  While the game was still happening, Pope tweeted “Fucc Ohio State.”  He deleted that tweet, then tweeted “Good lucc to my teammates” (I see he did well in English class).  Yesterday he apologized and instead of quitting said he was taking some time off.  Ohio State removed him from the roster anyway.  That is so completely insane.  In a way, though, it speaks to the pressures some of these athletes are under.  We don’t know how he’s doing in school or what his family life is like or anything else going on with him.  Things could be going poorly away from the field.  No excuses for doing what he did but there may be reasons behind it.

So yeah, some excitement at least in a game where Akron was blown out of the water by Ohio State.  Normally I would do recaps of my predictions during this week’s recap but instead I will do just a straight recap of a rather insane weekend of college football.  Let’s begin.

Week 4 Recap Time!

Fresno State 38 UNLV 30

Oof.  For a good part of the game the Rebels were handling the Bulldogs and it felt like it would be one and done in the Top 25 for the surprising Fresno State.  But they were able to get ahead and hold on for the victory and, amazingly enough, may be the Mountain West’s best hope for the New Year’s Six.  I will be glad to say I was very wrong with my prediction for this team.

Oregon 41 Arizona 19

This was actually a close game a few minutes into the fourth quarter.  I am not joking.  Arguably, the worst Power Five team in the nation kept things close with a Top 5 team.  The Ducks did make quick work of them in the final 12 minutes but still.  I’d say this looks bad for Oregon and the Pac-12 but this isn’t shaping up to be a normal year.

Oklahoma 16 West Virginia 13

It was so bad this night for Spencer Rattler that Sooner fans were chanting for his backup and openly booing him.  Worst part is he didn’t do that bad.  One interception and a few bad passes and the fans made it out like he threw two pick-sixes in succession.  I will say this though: this team does not look like a national championship contender in any way, shape or form.  At least their defense was better, right?

Oregon State 45 USC 27

To the USC fans who gave me shit last week: you can all suck it.  Kedon Slovis was merely pedestrian and the Trojan defense was fucking atrocious.  It’s a sad state of affairs in L.A. (at least for one team).  As for the Beavers, it’s a better start than most believed and they could be looking at 7-1 or even 8-1 going into November if they play like this.  Another strange occurrence of this football season that is already starting to feel like the norm.

Louisville 31 Florida State 23

Oh my.  It’s not a matter of if but when Mike Norvell will be shitcanned.  I mean Louisville is turning out to be a decent team so no shame in losing to them.  Let’s just look at the Noles schedule coming up: vs. Syracuse, at North Carolina, then vs. UMass.  So they could conceivably be 0-6 when they host the Minutemen who are god awful.  Will Norvell be gone by then?  I think many Noles fans hope so, so that the coaching search can start sooner rather than later, knowing they will have to compete with at least one team (USC) for potential head coaches.

Washington 31 California 24 (OT)

The Huskies may actually be back in the hunt in the Pac-12 North.  And it’s not like they deserved to win this one since they didn’t but the Golden Bears made enough mistakes to allow Washington to get the duke with the final mistake, a fumble near the goal line in overtime, being the difference.

Arkansas 20 Texas A&M 10 

Man, the Hogs may be for real, folks.  They built a 17-0 lead until late in the first half and then the defense took over.  If you put money down on the Razorbacks being the team that might have the best shot to usurp Alabama in the SEC West then congratulations.  Also, maybe you can help me with my NFL picks since they are, well, let’s say less than good.

NC State 27 Clemson 21 (2OT)

What a huge upset that has turned the ACC upside down…sort of.  Clemson really hasn’t looked good at all so far this season and it showed here.  Their offense can’t get anything going and D.J. Uiagalelei is not looking like the heir apparent that many thought he would be.  As for the sort of comment, the ACC was already in a mess and this makes things worse for the conference as a whole.

Baylor 31 Iowa State 29

OK the Cyclones fooled a lot of us.  Matt Campbell doesn’t look like the guy who will head to USC to try and turn around their fortunes.  All this could change if ISU runs the table the rest of the way.  The real surprise here is Baylor who, at the very least, looks like they will be bowl bound this season.  Dave Aranda is showing why he finally deserved a shot at his own head coaching gig.

BYU 35 USF 27

BYU is slowly moving its way up the rankings.  They may regret allowing the Bulls to get so close but if they keep winning then the New Year’s Six is a lock for them.

Bowling Green 14 Minnesota 10

Ouch.  The same team that went toe-to-toe with Ohio State for three quarters earlier this season looked overmatched against who I (and some others) thought would be the worst team in FBS this season.  This also hurts Ohio State as their win over Minnesota may mean almost nothing if the Gophers continue to struggle.

Arizona State 35 Colorado 13

Hey, the Buffaloes finally scored a touchdown!  I don’t think anyone thought they’d be as good as last year’s surprise showing but the offense is putrid in Boulder.  Arizona State, on the other hand, is motoring along and could luck out based on everyone else in their division struggling at times so far this season.

UTSA 31 Memphis 28

This was a great game that not many people would have ended up watching (even though they could have).  The Roadrunners are the surprise Group of Five team for some but I figured they’d be really good.  OK, not this good.  Honestly, they may very well be a game against UAB later this season away from a perfect regular season and a potential New Year’s Six bowl.  This all for a program that didn’t start playing football until 2011.

Notre Dame 41 Wisconsin 13

It looked close for three quarters.  We were getting ready for a fantastic fourth quarter at Soldier Field.  Then the Fighting Irish went crazy, scoring 31 points in the final frame to completely decimate the Badgers.  It was a very impressive showing and proved this team could be a tough out the rest of the way.

Alright that was a fun and crazy weekend.  How about a Top 25?  Alright, here you go:

#1	Alabama
#2	Georgia
#3	Oregon
#4	Oklahoma
#5	Penn State
#6	Notre Dame
#7	Iowa
#8	Cincinnati
#9	Arkansas
#10	Ohio State
#11	Florida
#12	Texas A&M
#13	Coastal Carolina
#14	BYU
#15	Ole Miss
#16	Michigan State
#17	Michigan
#18	Fresno State
#19	Auburn
#20	UCLA
#21	Oklahoma State
#22	Baylor
#23	Maryland
#24	Wake Forest
#25	NC State

I thought of putting Boston College or Kentucky in the Top 25 but had Maryland, Wake and NC State in the final three spots.  You could debate those five teams in any order and it would make perfect sense.  I have the Irish at #6 and don’t understand how they are barely in the Top 10 of the AP Poll after their big win over Wisconsin.  Yet Arkansas, who won by less, rocketed up 8 spots.  How do you not think there’s an SEC bias of sorts when shit like that happens in the polls?  I still believe polls shouldn’t start until after Week 1’s games are completed, at the absolute earliest.  I am sure almost no one in college football media would agree even if some say they would because rankings are talking points and sometimes they need them when they don’t have some Tom Rinaldi-esque story to talk about.

So that was a great college football Saturday.  It has been a great season so far.  I hope I haven’t jinxed it by saying that.  Have a great week everyone!

Let’s do some pro overreaction time – Week 3 NFL TV Schedule

If you don’t read the college football schedule posts (and why aren’t you?) then you will know I do an early season overreaction post looking at what some college football media people are overreacting to (and boy do they love to overreact).  I figured “Hey, Bossman, why not do this for the NFL?”  I can’t see a reason why not to do this so let’s go!  Here’s a list of overreactions you may have seen:

• The Raiders are serious contenders.  Let’s just pump the brakes there.  They are in a division with the Chiefs and Chargers who are automatic playoff contenders, along with an improved Broncos squad.  Yes they have looked good so far but it’s not like they are blowing anyone out of the water.
• The Panthers are serious contenders.  Again, hold up.  Actually let’s pair this with the following overreaction…
• Sam Darnold is the real deal.  It’s two games.  And to be honest, Darnold has looked good but not great in any stretch of the imagination.  The Saints played horrible (and may come back down to Earth a bit after opening weekend) and the Panthers’ first game was against the Jets.  The only reason Carolina would be considered a team to watch is if the Saints are as bad as Week 2 showed us and because they have the woeful Falcons in their division.
• Carson Wentz is done.  This depends on how his ankles hold up to be honest.  If they do, then he should be fine and should lead the Colts to a decent record.
• The NFC West will get four playoff teams.  Yeah, I doubt this.  I’d love to say it just because it would be cool to see but it won’t happen even if all four teams are playing good so far (except for the Seahawks in the fourth quarter last Sunday).
• Houston may not be that bad.  No, the Texans will be that bad.  Saying that, the Jaguars could be worse so at least they have that.
• Deebo Samuel could be a Top 5 receiver this year.  He looks improved but Top 5?  No way.
• Lamar Jackson/Josh Allen/Justin Herbert are showing us what they’re really like.  I have seen these a few times, especially with Allen, and am wondering if these people are serious or if they just hate the Ravens/Bills/Chargers.  These three are good and will be near the top of the quarterback ratings at some point.

There are others I’m sure.  Is it as bad as in college football?  No, not even close but some of these can look ridiculous.  Now, if the same things are happening going into, say, Week 8 then maybe there’s an issue there.  Until then we just have to calm down and not either want your team to tear it all down or want your team to plan the parade route.

Let’s get to the Week 3 schedule that won’t include any true overreactions from yours truly:

Thursday

Carolina at Houston

8:20, NFL Network, TSN1/3/4/5, CTV Two

Sunday Early

LA Chargers at Kansas City	Seattle, Spokane, Minneapolis		Vancouver, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Winnipeg	TSN3, TSN4
Baltimore at Detroit	Detroit		Northern Ontario, Ottawa		London, Toronto
Indianapolis at Tennessee
Cincinnati at Pittsburgh	Rochester
Atlanta at NY Giants		Burlington
Chicago at Cleveland		Tacoma, Seattle, Spokane, Minneapolis, Detroit			Vancouver Island, Alberta, Ottawa
Washington at Buffalo		Buffalo, Rochester	Kitchener, Toronto		Atlantic
New Orleans at New England		Boston	Montreal, Atlantic
Arizona at Jacksonville

Sunday Late

NY Jets at Denver	Burlington, Boston
Miami at Las Vegas	Cleveland, Buffalo
Tampa Bay at LA Rams		Detroit, Buffalo, Rochester, Burlington, Boston	Northern Ontario, Kitchener, Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal	TSN3, TSN4	Atlantic
Seattle at Minnesota		Tacoma, Seattle, Spokane, Minneapolis	Vancouver, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Winnipeg

Sunday/Monday Primetime

Green Bay at San Francisco	Sunday, 8:30, NBC, TSN4, CTV Two
Philadelphia at Dallas	Monday, 8:15, TSN 1/3/5

Notes sans overreactions

• Only two games not being seen anywhere in Canada (other than for the Sunday Ticket people).  I’d say the Colts-Titans game sure looks interesting but I find AFC South games are rarely seen in this country unless they are playing a national game or a team that’s popular in specific regions (Seattle on the West Coast, Buffalo in southern Ontario, New England on the East Coast, etc.).
• CBS has the single broadcast window this week.  If you don’t know how this works, FOX and CBS alternate as to who gets a national doubleheader and who gets just a single game for the week.  That’s why you will see, like this week, that all the CBS affiliates get one game, either early or late whereas the FOX affiliates all get one early and one late game.  How this will work late in the season I don’t know as it used to be that the two networks alternated every week and Week 17, both networks got the doubleheader.  With 18 weeks on the schedule, I am under the assumption that Weeks 2-17 they will alternate and Week 18 will see dual doubleheaders but don’t quote me on that.
• Of course we get an NFC East showdown in primetime.  Of course.  It totally feels like the division will, yet again, have their winner be under .500 this season as none of the teams look particularly good.  But you will watch it because this division somehow delivers ratings.  I know I will.
• Part of me wonders if my enjoyment of the NFL is helped or hindered by fantasy football.  Same with gambling on it.  But I refuse to do it at the college level.  For some reason I think I would enjoy it less.  Yeah I don’t get it either and it’s my own mind.
• For people who hate the Buccaneers, saddle up because I think we are seeing a lot of them this season.  Yes it’s odd to see an NFC South team get so much coverage up here but they will be in a ton of national broadcasts this season so the amount of weeks they won’t be shown up here will be quite low.  So get ready to hear the name “Tom Brady” a lot whether you like it or not.

Anyway, I am debating what to do with Twitter this coming weekend.  I’m usually pretty involved but we shall see.  Not just what I’ve dealt with Twitter conversations because some on Twitter are complete assholes.  But also just how things are going personally.  Not that I won’t watch the games but there are times I look at it and go “Why bother being on there when it can be so shitty?”.  I’m sure some of you have gone through that with social media and it sucks.  I wish it was always a positive medium but that’s just not always the case.  So we’ll see.  I still want to wish everyone a happy end of the week and a good weekend as we get into the Fall.

OK now that Clay’s gone, who’s next? – Week 4 College Football TV Schedule

Clay Helton started the Coaching Carousel for us early this year.  Pair that with Randy Edsall’s resignation/retirement/whatever/bonus payment and it’s been a rough start for the Hot Seat coaches.  So the question now is, who will be next.  Let’s look at the candidates:

• Got to start with Manny Diaz.  He hasn’t exactly lit things up in Miami and brought back memories of The U.  The problem is, it’s not like they have a lot of money to throw around to pay a buyout and bring in another coach.  So they may be stuck at least through this season unless things get really bad in south Florida.
• Mike Norvell.  Good lord have the Noles been awful this year.  I wonder when enough will be enough.  This program doesn’t need to get back to the Bobby Bowden era but they have to get back to approaching the Jimbo Fisher era or they could have problems for years.
• Geoff Collins.  I know he needed time to change the team from an option team to run a pro-style offense.  But when is it supposed to happen?  It feels like it never will and that Collins really doesn’t deserve a chance to continue his quest in Atlanta.
• Rod Carey.  Let’s get out of the ACC and move to the American.  Carey left a good gig at Northern Illinois to replace dental hygienist-in-training Matt Rhule at Temple and it has been an unmitigated disaster.  If it wasn’t for USF they would be looking at an easy trip to the AAC basement.
• Nick Rolovich.  Rolovich’s problems aren’t just on the field where Wazzu has struggled mightily so far.  His ideas about the COVID vaccine have rankled a lot of people and I honestly wonder if they will get rid of him just because he has become an annoying pest.
• Walt Bell.  Are they really going to get anyone great to come to UMass?

As you can see, I haven’t put some of the usual suspects like Frost, Brohm, Babers or Harbaugh.  Probably because they have at least not done worse than expectations at this point and, in Harbaugh’s case, has exceeded them (so far).  We are only a quarter of the way through the season so now that conference play is slowly beginning we will see how these coaches’ fortunes turn out.

So far after three weeks we have had a damn good season.  Like a return to college football, if you will.  Here’s hoping this continues.  Let’s get to the schedule!

Thursday

		US	Canada
Marshall at Appalachian State	7:30 PM
Alcorn State at Arkansas-Pine Bluff	7:30 PM

Two games.  Neither of them really that good.  I mean, yeah, App State is still pretty good and could sneak through and cause a lot of problems in the Sun Belt.  Marshall just a blew a big fourth quarter lead and lost to East Carolina.  Nothing against the Pirates but yeesh that’s bad.  But it is still mid-week college football which is always better than no mid-week college football.  Especially if the Thursday Night Football matchup is not exactly great.  And, how about that, it isn’t.  The Panthers, they’re good.  The Texans…yes I know they’re 1-1 but they beat the Jaguars so no, they are not good.

Friday

		US	Canada
Middle Tennessee at Charlotte	6:30 PM
Wake Forest at Virginia	7:00 PM
Brown at Harvard	7:00 PM
Liberty at Syracuse	8:00 PM
UNLV at #22 Fresno State	10:00 PM

OK this is better.  Five games.  And CBS Sports Network is doing a doubleheader with their weird 6:30 start time.  It will be interesting to see how badly Fresno State will beat the Rebels, who now have Tate Fucking Martell as their quarterback.  I really don’t get how he gets so many opportunities.  Anyway, we also have the first look at Ivy League action for the first time since 2019.  OK Wake-Hoos could be good so maybe put your focus on that one.

Saturday Early

		US	Canada
Texas Tech at Texas	Noon
Richmond at Virginia Tech	Noon
Ohio at Northwestern	Noon
Villanova at #6 Penn State	Noon
Boise State at Utah State	Noon
Miami-OH at Army	Noon
LSU at Mississippi State	Noon
Missouri at Boston College	Noon
Bowling Green at Minnesota	Noon
#12 Notre Dame vs. #18 Wisconsin (in Chicago)	Noon
#2 Georgia at Vanderbilt	Noon
CCSU at Miami	12:30 PM

Normally TSN would be just starting to step up with a bit more college football coverage.  Not this weekend though.  The Ryder Cup will dominate the TSN airwaves for a good part of Saturday so that moves all college football to TSN2 where there will be a quadrupleheader.  As for the games themselves, past ND-Wisky, not a whole lot that would be considered must-watch.  And you know what happens during weeks like this.  So expect one of the following to happen:

• Villanova comes close to upsetting Penn State but the Nittany Lions close it late.
• Richmond shocks Virginia Tech in Blacksburg.
• The Red Raiders throw for like 600 yards and beat Texas in a barnburner.
• Mizzou and BC go to eight overtimes and maybe, just maybe, the new overtime rules aren’t as bad as I thought (they still are but anyway).

Finally, the Mountain West finally makes their way to CBS with Boise State who is just somewhat average going to Utah State who suddenly may have a prolific offense again.  1-3 start for the Broncos?  Wouldn’t be a total shock.

Saturday Afternoon

		US	Canada
Rutgers at #19 Michigan	3:30 PM
Illinois at Purdue	3:30 PM
Kent State at Maryland	3:30 PM
#7 Texas A&M vs. #16 Arkansas (in Arlington)	3:30 PM
Wyoming at UConn	3:30 PM
#9 Clemson at NC State	3:30 PM
Louisville at Florida State	3:30 PM
UTSA at Memphis	3:30 PM
#14 Iowa State at Baylor	3:30 PM
Kansas at Duke	4:00 PM
Georgia State at #23 Auburn	Noon

A good old Southwest Conference showdown highlights the afternoon sked.  For once, this neutral site game that Arkansas plays every year at JerryWorld is between two good teams.  And Rutgers is on ABC!  I was so hoping they would be on in primetime but I’ll take it.  Other than that there’s not much of note unless you really need to watch Kansas and Duke play…in football.  Oh and how does CBS now think about the UConn contract?  This Huskies could be worse than the 2019 version which was one of the worst teams in a long time.  To see some of the teams that end up on ESPN+ (or somehow worse) and then know that UConn is getting a national game many weeks is pretty sad (except for Conference USA teams who unfortunately are stuck with horrible TV contracts as it is).

Saturday Primetime

		US	Canada
Tennessee at #11 Florida	7:00 PM
Kentucky at South Carolina	7:00 PM
Navy at Houston	7:00 PM
West Virginia at #4 Oklahoma	7:30 PM
#21 North Carolina vs. Georgia Tech (in Mercedes-Benz Stadium)	7:30 PM
Akron at #10 Ohio State	7:30 PM
Southern Miss at #1 Alabama	7:30 PM
Indiana at Western Kentucky	8:00 PM

Oh man.  Feels like such a drop-off from the first two timeslots.  WVU-Sooners could be pretty good if the Mountaineers get their offense going early.  Navy and Houston, no matter how good or bad they both are, usually put on a great show.  As for the rest?  Bleh.

Saturday Late Night

		US	Canada
USF at #15 BYU	10:15 PM
Arizona at #3 Oregon	10:30 PM
Colorado at Arizona State	10:30 PM

Mormon After Dark!  If the Cougs play like the Cougs have played so far, that game should be done by halftime.  As should the Zona-UO game.  The only interesting one could be Colorado, who struggles to score, against Arizona State, who struggles to hold on to the ball.  Fun times.  Just a reminder, the Arizona-Oregon game will start in progress after Southern Miss-Alabama is done.  Thus are the perils of hopping from network to network throughout the day and I always wonder why TSN does this.

Games to set your eyeballs on

Texas A&M vs. Arkansas (in Arlington) (3:30, CBS) – If you thought Arkansas would be in the Top 20 at this point of the season, raise your hand.  Now put your hands down, you dirty liars.  No one thought the Hogs would be this good.  Maybe bowl-eligible.  But they have looked seriously good and could put a serious damper on the Aggies’ national title aspirations and it wouldn’t be a total shock if the Razorbacks won.  Also good to see Arkansas on CBS since they almost never get on there (except for the Black Friday game against Mizzou).

Notre Dame vs. Wisconsin (in Chicago) (Noon, FOX) – So the first two games on this list are neutral-site games.  In late September.  I mean they are great games and I am looking forward to them but I find all these neutral-site games usually take away from the pageantry and specialness of games in actual college football stadiums.  It’s part of what sets it apart from the NFL.  Anyway, the Irish continue their schedule hoping to win a game without struggling…..BAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.  That was a good one.  This should be close which will make Irish fans sweat once again.

West Virginia at Oklahoma (7:30, ABC) – Is this the PEW! PEW! PEW! matchup of the week?  Considering the Sooners defense and the Sooners offense, I would put the over/under at about 90.  One of the worst Top 5 teams I’ve seen in a while.  At some point, they are going to either blow a team out and remind them what they are really about or will lose a game they probably shouldn’t have and confirm what many think about them.  Don’t count the ‘Eers out of this one as long as their offense plays like they did early against Virginia Tech and not late.

Rutgers at Michigan (3:30, ABC) – Fuck, yeah!  Rutgers, baby!  They haven’t been 3-0 in so long and haven’t been in a relatively important game on ABC in a long time as well.  And they have a challenge because Michigan is also playing better than many believed.  The winner stays alive in a seriously competitive Big Ten East.  But the way things are going, both teams will be going bowling and maybe, just maybe, all seven teams in the division will be in the postseason as well for the first time ever.

Iowa State at Baylor (3:30, FOX) – No specialty pack games on the Games of the Week list, which is good for many Canadians.  Yes, Iowa State was expected to be good and they have been underperforming.  And Baylor has not been good since Matt Rhule left.  Things, however, are changing in Waco with Dave Aranda in charge as they have started 3-0.  And ISU should still have quite a good season so this could be a darkhorse great game.

Honourable mention: Clemson at NC State (3:30, TSN2); Tennessee at Florida (7:00, TSN2); Kansas State at Oklahoma State (7:00, not able to be seen in this country)

You wanna bet?

Eight out of eleven isn’t too bad.  I mean it’s not awesome but hey I’ve had much worse weeks. Yes I picked Arizona State.  Yes I picked UCF (which most others did) and yeah I also picked Miami (which most others did as well).  So really not that bad I think OK fine let’s just get to this week’s picks already:

Michigan over Rutgers

Wisconsin over Notre Dame

Florida over Tennessee

Texas A&M over Arkansas

Clemson over NC State

Iowa State over Baylor

Oklahoma State over Kansas State

Oklahoma over West Virginia

Charlotte over Middle Tennessee

Arizona State over Colorado

Houston over Navy

OK here’s hoping we have another solid weekend of college football action.  Enjoy the games everyone!

Are we looking at chaos? – Week 3 College Football Recap

After this past week, you have to wonder.  Clemson, Notre Dame and Oklahoma all won but they were close games against teams they should have blown out of the water.  Cincinnati struggled for a little over a half with Indiana but was able to pull away late.  Virginia Tech and UCLA lost.  Even Alabama almost allowed Florida to come all the way back to beat them.  Remember what I said last week about Bama?  You can scratch that…kind of.  I still think Alabama, and probably Georgia, are a cut above the rest.  But it’s not like they are unbeatable.  And the rest of the Top 10, at this point, has looked vulnerable.  Many in the college football media are already looking at possibly comparing this season to 2007.  It may be a bit too soon to say that but there has been more chaos than normal through three weeks.  Usually, as Fall officially begins, you can still look at like 10-15 teams and say they are serious contenders and they are in that tier above everyone else.  This season?  Yeah, might want to put the brakes on that idea.  I hope it does end up that way because it’s always fun to see some college football chaos!  I mean unless you’re a college football coach and fans of certain teams.

Alright, enough comparisons.  Let’s get to the action from the weekend of college football!

Fun-Time Crazy Recap!

• Well, the Buckeyes sure didn’t look too sharp against Tulsa.  Luckily they had TreVeyon Henderson go off for over 250 yards on the ground since other than that, no one would be scared of the rest of the Buckeyes that played this past Saturday.  Remember, this is the Tulsa team that lost to UC-Davis.  It totally fits in to what I mentioned above with teams having fairly big questions already in the season.  Now that I say that, watch them blow through the rest of their schedule to finish 11-1 and be #1 at some point.
• If you missed the Arizona State-BYU game, boy did you miss a good one.  Just look up this one play.  Jaren Hall throws an ill-timed interception as he’s falling down.  Arizona State picks it up and the defender runs down the sidelines.  Then Tyler Allgeier catches up to him, jumps over his back and knocks the ball out of his hands and back into play.  After all that, Jaren Hall is the one that recovers the fumble.  Absolutely insane.  The Cougs would win this one and are now 3-0 against the Pac-12.  The Pac-12 had a pretty horrific weekend unless you talk about to the people I encountered on Twitter…
• So I made a tweet during the third quarter of the USC-Washington State game.  The score was tied at 14 and I said “I see the Clay Helton firing really got the Trojans going.”  Then Kedon Slovis goes down with an injury and Jaxson Dart replaces him and plays amazing and the Trojans score 31 unanswered.  So yeah, the tweet did not age well and I said that.  That wasn’t enough for some USC fans.  Some mentioned the same thing and I am fine with it.  Someone called me “son” for some reason.  And some buffoon put a pic that said “I don’t even have a meme for this kind of fuckery.”  Really?  Very classy.  I don’t mind normal discourse on Twitter which a few of them did (and rightfully so) but why go over the line?  To make themselves feel better.  Maybe because their lives are shitty so they want to take it out on someone else.  Who knows.  It’s the one major thing I hate about Twitter (and social media in general): people can’t help but be assholes to others just because they can.  As Mike Tyson said, “Social media has made acceptable to say things to people that they would never say to their face.”  So true.  By the way, Mike Tyson Mysteries?  Hilarious show (RIP Norm MacDonald).
• College Gameday was in State College this past weekend.   The whiteout was in full effect and it showed during their primetime game with Auburn.  The offense struggled at times with the crowd noise.  They still didn’t play poorly as if it wasn’t for a couple of miscues, the Tigers would have had a chance to win.  I think both teams could be en route to the New Year’s Six if they keep playing like that (especially against lesser teams).
• I did not pass the Hawaii test.  I just couldn’t.  I assume the game didn’t end until 4 in the morning and I was already feeling kind of crappy by 11 so I felt good just to get to the end of the normal late night slate.
• A horrible blown call (one of quite a few this past weekend) cost Boise State a touchdown against Oklahoma State and, eventually, the game.  I mean not that either team really wanted to win after the first half since there was absolutely no scoring in the second half.  None.  Very un-Boise and un-Poke like for sure.  I’m surprised Mike Gundy’s mullet didn’t start shedding from the panic.  Also, I can’t remember the last time Boise State started 1-2.  I assume it was in Division 1-AA (remember that?).
• Uh, what the hell happened in Clemson?  I get that a two-hour lightning delay can mess up a team’s flow.  But how do they allow Georgia Tech, who is still learning how to live without the option, almost beat them at home?  I would say that maybe their run at the top of the ACC is done but then I see what Virginia Tech did in their loss to West Virginia and, even worse, how Miami got beat up by Michigan State and realize they’re still fine for now.
• Oh, UCLA.  The Bruins were looking pretty damn good through their first two games this season.  Then in comes Fresno State to the Rose Bowl, a team I figured would suck this season.  Boy was I (along with many others) wrong.  This was an amazing game that had four lead changes in the final eight minutes that ended with injured Bulldog quarterback Jake Haener willing his team to the winning touchdown and the upset.  After getting off the hot seat it seemed for the rest of the season, Chip Kelly maybe feeling a tiny bit of a temperature hike now.
• Alabama plays Ole Miss in two weeks.  Considering what Ole Miss did to Tulane (yes the same Tulane that almost beat Oklahoma), the over/under for this one should be 100 and I think I’m being conservative with that number.
• I don’t like the new overtime rules.  After one overtime, it becomes a two-point conversion contest.  The equivalent of hockey’s shootout (which I also despise).  It may have finally got to the point that the NFL somehow has the better overtime system (and it’s still not that great).  Can there be a perfect system for overtime?  I don’t know to be honest but it feels like college football is going backwards.
• How about what went down in The Swamp?  Early on it looked like yet another Bama rout as they were up 21-3 14 minutes into the game.  So I stopped watching for a bit and focused on other games.  I would see in the ticker that Florida got a touchdown.  Then another.  The Tide responded but then the Gators got another TD to get it within 5.  Florida would score a touchdown with three minutes to go but couldn’t convert on the two-pointer and that was the margin of victory.  So the Fighting Sabans aren’t so dominating it seems.  This is a very interesting turn of events for this already crazy 2021 season.
• In another episode of “Refs Make The Darndest Calls,” Memphis’ Calvin Austin scored on a questionable punt return where the back official seemed to have signaled for the clock to stop but the play kept going.  In the end, Mississippi State had a chance to tie it on a two-point conversion but failed, losing by the same 31-29 score as the game in the previous point.  Look, I get that officials aren’t perfect.  And this is fine.  It is what it is.  But when something happens that becomes a turning point or the reason (at the end) that one team wins or loses, then it’s tough to swallow.  Let’s not even get into the gambling aspect of what this can do.
• It looked like Louisiana Tech was going to get a huge home victory over a good SMU squad.  But LaTech allowed SMU one final shot and they took advantage with a 33-yard Hail Mary touchdown pass on the final play of the game.  This was a game with almost 750 yards passing combined from two former Oklahoma quarterbacks.  How are the Sooners losing these quarterbacks?  I get that Spencer Rattler is really good but it’s not like the two starters in this one, Austin Kendall and Tanner Mordecai, aren’t.  It’s nice to see these guys get their shot at other programs.
• Finally, speaking of Oklahoma, that was yet another less than impressive showing by the Sooners.  They barely got out with a win yesterday over Nebraska.  Yes, the same Nebraska that has struggled for a few years now and lost to Illinois to start their season.  Scott Frost had to be happy with his team’s performance and the fact that his hot seat will get slightly cooler.  Oklahoma, on the other hand, does not look like the national title contender I thought they were going to be and that has to be a bit concerning in Norman.  Conference play will show all of us what this Sooners team is really made of.

So another great weekend of college football.  My remote control suffered as I believe I watched portions of almost 40 games.  As for my Top 25, well, here it is!

#1	Alabama
#2	Georgia
#3	Oregon
#4	Oklahoma
#5	Texas A&M
#6	Penn State
#7	Cincinnati
#8	Iowa
#9	Notre Dame
#10	Clemson
#11	Ohio State
#12	Iowa State
#13	Florida
#14	Coastal Carolina
#15	Wisconsin
#16	Ole Miss
#17	BYU
#18	North Carolina
#19	Arkansas
#20	Michigan State
#21	Michigan
#22	Auburn
#23	TCU
#24	Liberty
#25	Fresno State

Is it really truly fair to rank teams this early in the season?  That’s debatable but everyone else is doing it so I might as well, too.  Nice to see Cincinnati, Coastal Carolina, Liberty and Fresno State in the Top 25 with a few other Group of Five teams lurking just outside.  Should be an exciting race to the Group of Five spot in the New Year’s Six.  Also, are we heading to undefeated Michigan State playing undefeated Michigan the night before Halloween?  Can you even imagine the media hype, let alone the fan banter?  I’m almost getting sick of it already.

Have a good week everyone.

IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIT’S……TIME…… for the Week 2 NFL TV Schedule

Did you watch that Monday Night Football game between the Ravens and the Raiders?  Man, what an absolutely crazy game!  Fun to watch, which is starting to become somewhat of a staple of MNF again.  You can count on at least a few great games for a game that started to become not really important and filled with normally crappy teams.  It did help that you had the first NFL game at Allegiant Stadium with fans.  That place was noisy from the time Bruce Buffer pumped the fans up to the final touchdown in overtime that (finally) ended the game after a close call and some supremely Raider-esque football that almost cost them.

For the most part it was a good start to the season, even for some of the teams that lost.  The Lions almost completed a crazy comeback which they really shouldn’t had to do in the first place.  The Dolphins beat the Pats but really the Pats played poorly enough to cost themselves at the end with a turnover.  I was hoping for a good start for the Bills but they played three quarters of decent football and one quarter of poor football, really.  Joe Burrow’s return sparked a victory on the final play of overtime over the Vikings even though many were probably hoping for a tie at that point.  Overall, though, good.  Nice to see the NFL back.  We missed you.  I missed you…..let’s just get to the schedule before I have to wipe the tears away.

Thursday

NY Giants at Washington

8:20, NFL Network, TSN1/3/4/5, CTV Two

Sunday Early

Houston at Cleveland	Cleveland
Denver at Jacksonville
New England at NY Jets	Buffalo, Boston		Montreal, Atlantic		London, Toronto
Las Vegas at Pittsburgh	Seattle, Spokane, Minneapolis, Detroit, Rochester		Vancouver, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Winnipeg, Northern Ontario, Ottawa
New Orleans at Carolina
Buffalo at Miami		Buffalo, Rochester	Kitchener, Toronto		Atlantic
LA Rams at Indianapolis		Tacoma, Seattle, Spokane, Detroit		TSN1, TSN3, TSN4	Vancouver Island, Alberta, Ottawa
Cincinnati at Chicago
San Francisco at Philadelphia

Sunday Late

Tennessee at Seattle	Seattle, Spokane		Vancouver, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Winnipeg
Dallas at LA Chargers	All affiliates (except Seattle & Spokane)		Northern Ontario, Kitchener, Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal		Atlantic
Minnesota at Arizona		Minneapolis
Atlanta at Tampa Bay		Burlington, Boston		TSN1, TSN3, TSN4, TSN5*

Sunday/Monday Primetime

Kansas City at Baltimore	Sunday, 8:15, NBC, TSN 1*/3/4/5, CTV Two
Detroit at Green Bay	Monday, 8:15, TSN 1/3/4/5

Some Notes

• You will notice asterisks on the schedule this week.  Yes, these are new.  Yes, I will explain them.  Two different games have asterisks beside a TSN schedule.  For the Falcons-Bucs game, the game will start to appear on TSN5 after horse racing from Woodbine is done, so sometime around 6:00.  As for the Sunday nighter, the Chiefs-Ravens game will be joined in progress on TSN1 at about 11:00…when it’s almost done.  They have to wait for the MLS game to be completed first.  Why the hell don’t they just go to Sportscentre at that point?
• Very interesting that Raiders-Steelers gets the most viewers early on.  Oh wait, looking at the CBS early schedule it makes perfect sense.
• CROSS-FLEX!  Cross-flex haters will be pretty pissed off at this week since it’s a bit insane and honestly, I’m good with it.  Two AFC games have gone to FOX with one NFC game going back to CBS.  This should mean that another NFC game will move to CBS at some point later in the season.  I mean it all has to even out in the end, right?  Anyway, the Bills and Dolphins are on FOX together for the first time ever I believe.  I can hear the complaints now as Bills Mafia members put other Bills Mafia members through tables possibly in anger this time at this.
• The early audience misses four games.  And, really, other than the Saints and Panthers which could be quite interesting, we’re not missing much.  I will say I can understand why people get RedZone as I also get it now.  I love flipping channels all day on Saturdays for college football and would gladly do it on Sunday as well.  RedZone does it for me which I am sure my remote control is thankful for.
• For Monday Night Football there will, again, be two different broadcasts.  One is the normal broadcast that ESPN does.  The other one is the ManningCast.  Peyton and Eli Manning (and sometimes a guest) analyze the game as it is going on.  Honestly, for the Week 1 game, I liked it.  I always find it very interesting to hear these old pros pick apart games that normally don’t (and probably can’t) happen during a normal broadcast.  It’s kind of like the Coaches Room they did a few times for high profile college football games.  Hearing them analyze a game was fantastic and educational as well.  You learn about things you didn’t even know about.  I can understand why some may not like it because they sometimes talk over a play if they are continuing analysis or a story but for the most part, I think it flows quite well.  Anyway, you can see this version on TSN3.

Week 2 schedule complete.  Compared to college football, there has been a whole lot less drama in the NFL so far.  This seems to be becoming a trend.  But it also means that later on in the season something will happen that will boggle the mind and you’ll think (or openly say) “Only in the NFL.”  Anyway, enjoy all the games!

Can anyone upend Bama? Week 3 College Football TV Schedule

I mean you have to say yes, right?  Not much feels worse than knowing the outcome (or having a very good idea of it) early on in the season.  And so far, Alabama has looked a whole lot better than any other college football team in the land.  Now if you recall my SEC preview, you will remember me saying Bama will drop a game during the regular season.  Some of you may scoff at that right now since it looks like they won’t lose at all until well into the 2022 season.  That’s the interesting thing about college football though: it is easily the most random of the well watched sports over here in this part of the world.  Many early polls look like complete ravings of dummies when at least 20% of the teams end up being terrible.  But there are always a few constants and that is that if you see a team in the Top 10, don’t be surprised if they win it all at the end of the season.  And that means Bama is always a contender these days.  And will be until Nick Saban decides to retire, probably when he’s like 91 years old.

Let’s stop talking about the Alabama Crimson Tide…well, specifically since they show up later in this post.  How about a look at the schedule for Week 3?  Isn’t that why you’re here?  I sure hope so because other than that (and my witty banter) I don’t know why you’d read this.

Thursday

		US	Canada
Alabama A&M at Bethune-Cookman	7:30 PM
Ohio at Louisiana	8:00 PM

Two games.  One is the introduction of a new member to a conference.  The other a game between a team just outside the Top 25 and one who just lost to an FCS school.  Bethune-Cookman has it’s first SWAC conference game after joining the conference along with Florida A&M.  Look, you can think what you want about Deion Sanders but he made a good point about this realignment the other day.  He said that the MEAC should consider joining forces with the SWAC to make one HBCU mega-conference in FCS.  Honestly, it’s not a bad idea, especially if they decide to allow their champ to go to the FCS playoffs once again.  As for the other game, I will just assume Louisiana will be up by about 30 by halftime.

Friday

		US	Canada
UCF at Louisville	7:30 PM

Only one game tonight.  This could be one that Scott Satterfield absolutely needs to keep his job.  Not saying the Cards are going to win but they have to stay close.

Saturday Early

		US	Canada
Michigan State at #24 Miami	Noon
Albany at Syracuse	Noon
Northern Illinois at #25 Michigan	Noon
UConn at Army	Noon
#8 Cincinnati at Indiana	Noon
#16 Coastal Carolina at Buffalo	Noon
Boston College at Temple	Noon
Nebraska at #3 Oklahoma	Noon
Western Michigan at Pittsburgh	Noon
New Mexico at #7 Texas A&M	Noon

Whoa!  TSN has games on every one of their channels to start the day.  Very impressive.  The expectation, at this point, is that the Albany-Syracuse game would be the one game not on a TSN channel (that could be put on there) but that could change.  I’m glad they are going this route because it means they aren’t relying on just showing the ABC game on multiple TSN channels since it kind of defeats the purpose of even having the contract to be able to show ABC/ESPN network games.  Honestly, the schedule isn’t great but that’s when you get some crazy good games so watch out for ones like MSU-Miami and Coastal-Buffalo.  As for Huskers-Sooners?  I don’t think this will harken memories of the old Big Eight.

Saturday Afternoon

		US	Canada
Purdue at #12 Notre Dame	2:30 PM
Georgia Tech at #6 Clemson	3:30 PM
Delaware at Rutgers	3:30 PM
Kent State at #5 Iowa	3:30 PM
#1 Alabama at #11 Florida	3:30 PM
SMU at Louisiana Tech	3:30 PM
Florida State at Wake Forest	3:30 PM
USC at Washington State	3:30 PM
Northwestern at Duke	4:00 PM
Mississippi State at Memphis	4:00 PM
Colorado State at Toledo	4:00 PM
Georgia Southern at #20 Arkansas	4:00 PM

Possible Game of the Year?  If Florida can keep this close after three quarters then watch out.  Also, Notre Dame gets the opportunity to be upset on regular NBC this week so that more people can watch.  I do wonder how many people signed up for Peacock for the one reason that one Notre Dame football game was on there this season.  If they can prove that a lot of people signed up for that then maybe it was all worth it.  Until I see evidence of that, I still believe streaming services really have no hope of competing with television channels.  That will most certainly change in the next decade but it’s slow moving for sure and will be for a while.  Oh, remember what I said about TSN in the first timeslot?  Yeah they are now down to one game in this timeslot (and then none after this).  Oh well, it’s still CFL season so have to expect those games to be shown on all the channels.  Between that, UFC, MLS and (ugh) NASCAR, there is no room for college football for the most part after the Noon timeslot until into November really.  It is what it is.  Kind of why I wish Sportsnet would figure out a way to get in on the action but they won’t because HOCKEY!

Saturday Primetime​

		US	Canada
Utah at San Diego State	7:00 PM
South Carolina at #2 Georgia	7:00 PM
#22 Auburn at #10 Penn State	7:30 PM
Virginia at #21 North Carolina	7:30 PM
Furman at NC State	7:30 PM
Central Michigan at LSU	7:30 PM
Tulane at #17 Ole Miss	8:00 PM
Stanford at Vanderbilt	8:00 PM

The Tigers-Nittany Lions game should be a good one and was a good choice by ABC to show in primetime.  Expect a few other games to be pretty good.  No UGA should mop the floor with the Gamecocks.  But many of the rest could be relatively close.  Utah-SDSU should be fun, UVA-UNC could be surprisingly close unless the Tar Heels are back to the form many thought they would be in and Stanford-Vandy are two schools that have high academic standards…OK that last one should be a blowout as well.

Saturday Late Night

		US	Canada
#19 Arizona State at #23 BYU	10:15 PM
#14 Iowa State at UNLV	10:30 PM

Actually this is pretty good…well, except for one team.  Can’t win ’em all right?  ASU-BYU should be a barnburner and we will see if the Cougars are for real.  Iowa State should put away the Rebels by midnight.

Games to set your eyeballs on

Alabama at Florida (3:30, CBS) – Huge Game of the Year possibility here and possibly a harbinger of what the SEC season will look like (until Bama and Georgia meet up).  And it’s on the SEC on CBS which means we get….ugh….the return of Gary Danielson.  I believe Brad Nessler is one of the greatest college football play-by-play guys in history.  Danielson is just…not that good at his job.  His obvious love for everything Alabama I’m sure will shine through again in this one and his analysis of the game is lacklustre at best.  Honestly, it’s time to put him out to pasture and bring up Aaron Taylor and be done with it.

Auburn at Penn State (7:30, ABC) – How often do the top two games of the week end up in the two most important slots?  Surprisingly enough, I think it’s rare.  But this is classic college football for sure.  I can just see the old CFA logo on the top of the screen during the intro as this would be one of those matchups that you never see, even in bowl season.  Anyway, this will be the first big test for Bryan Harsin as he finally gets some serious competition in a potentially underrated Penn State team (if you can believe it).  With the Ohio State loss this past weekend, the Big Ten is a bit more open than people may have thought it would be this year so Penn State has to capitalize on these opportunities.

Arizona State at BYU (10:15, specialty pack) – Would it be an upset if the Cougs beat ASU?  Not really.  BYU might be almost as good as last year’s team which is scary, especially with a better schedule.  Could this team somehow make their way into the Top 10?  If they win games like this one, absolutely.  On the other foot, Arizona State has every opportunity to cease control in the Pac-12 South with USC being an utter mess.  Yes they still have UCLA and Utah to contend with but these kinds of games are important as well.  I’ll be honest: even though it’s BYU I’m surprised this game wasn’t put in primetime or the afternoon timeslot.  I guess at least this way most of the eyeballs will be here for college football fans so it’s a win for ESPN in that regard.

Cincinnati at Indiana (Noon, TSN3) – Sure the Bearcats weren’t that impressive against Murray State but it was Murray State so who cares.  This is one of the games that Cincy absolutely has to win if they want to have a fighter’s chance at the College Football Playoff.  They also have to have Indiana be really good so the Hoosiers starting 1-2 wouldn’t make that very easy for them.  It’s quite the conundrum Cincinnati is in really.  Indiana is really still looking to bounce back from being trounced by Iowa in Week 1 (although if Iowa ends up in the CFP, Hoosiers fans shouldn’t feel too bad about that).

Michigan State at Miami (Noon, ABC/TSN4) – Put your hand up if you thought the Spartans would look this impressive early on.  Now put them down because pretty much no one did.  Yes, their big win is over Northwestern who could actually be merely mediocre but still, things are looking a whole lot better after Mel Tucker’s debut last year.  This is the first test (in a lot of tests this season) and if they win this, they are easily in the Top 25 and have to be considered dangerous the rest of the way.  The Canes need something since they have had a rocky start to the surprise of no one.  Get boatraced by Bama?  Check.  Win a close one over App State?  Check.  Like they are following a script.  The script says they should win this easily but who knows.

Honourable mention: Purdue at Notre Dame (2:30, NBC), Nebraska at Oklahoma (Noon, FOX), Coastal Carolina at Buffalo (Noon, TSN1)

You bet!

I know.  I picked Houston over Rice, Iowa State over Iowa, USC over Stanford and Texas over Arkansas.  Sweet Jesus.  I did pick Oregon over Ohio State but who gives a shit with that track record.  Here are this week’s picks to hopefully take that awful taste out of the gambling mouth:

Coastal Carolina over Buffalo

Alabama over Florida

Penn State over Auburn

Arizona State over BYU

Notre Dame over Purdue

Cincinnati over Indiana

Miami over Michigan State

Oklahoma over Nebraska

SMU over Louisiana Tech

Texas A&M over New Mexico

UCF over Louisville

Again this is not the greatest schedule, on paper.  We know how that generally works out.  So buckle up because this should be good and you don’t know when the next great finish will be.  Enjoy the games everyone and have a great weekend!

Someone might want to avoid airport tarmacs – the Week 2 Recap

The camera’s not on him all the time so I am sure he has that reaction a lot.  And that reaction definitely came up the other night a lot.  USC looked like complete garbage in most of their loss against Stanford.  It feels like Kedon Slovis, after a promising start to his young career, has had his progress stall.  A lot of that has to land on Helton.  This team has had the talent to contend before and they have underperformed almost every season under his watch.  It feels like, with ten games left in the season, that he will have to win at least eight of those to keep his job.  And even then, that might not be enough.  He is on one of the hottest seats right now for sure.

This week of college football really had a dearth of marquee games (other than the top two), as is somewhat usual for Week 2.  But, as per usual, it overdelivered giving us a wild weekend of football.  Let’s go through the week that was!

• Michigan 31 Washington 10 – What a game this was for the Wolverines.  Washington is, to put it one word, awful.  This team should have the talent to at least be sniffing the Top 25 and they are nowhere close.  Maybe that loss against Montana wasn’t an aberration after all but more a warning for things to come in Jimmy Lake’s first full season at the helm.  As for Michigan, this could be an interesting year in Ann Arbor with perhaps a shot at a New Year’s Six bowl?  The next few weeks will tell a lot about this team.
• Texas A&M 10 Colorado 7 – A classic Big XII matchup that had an absolute dearth of offense.  Yes, the defenses both played well but the offenses were pretty bad.  There were a couple of opportunities for the Buffs to extend their lead and they just couldn’t do it.  The Aggies survived and may have lost their quarterback Haynes King for an extended period of time.  A little bit of sweating in College Station going forward.
• Oregon 35 Ohio State 28 – It felt that the Buckeyes would, at some point, comeback and win this one.  I mean it’s Ohio State in the Horseshoe.  They almost never lose there.  Even without Kayvon Thibodaux, the Ducks played very well on defense for most of the game and didn’t allow tOSU to really get their offense humming.  Oregon did just enough and Joe Morehead showed he still has quite the mind for offense as he called a masterful game.
• Jacksonville State 20 Florida State 17 – For fuck’s sake Mike Norvell.  If everyone thought it was bad during the Willie Taggart era, then strap in for this one.  The Noles allowed JSU to stay close with their offense just not playing well at all.  McKenzie Milton looked off and the running game was non-existent.  But it looked like FSU would still hold on for the somewhat undeserving victory.  Then it happened.  The Gamecocks score on the final play of the game on a pass to the 20-yard line that the receiver was able to run in.  No laterals.  Not a Hail Mary.  Just a pass and run.  Norvell didn’t think to put more players closer to the goal line because there was, and I quote, “still six seconds and they were on their own side of the field.”  What in the blue hell are you talking about, Mike?  They only had one play left.  That was it.  Yes the tackling, or lack there of, was horrible there but no excuse not to put more players back there.  What a fucking disgrace.  And yes, Norvell is on a seat that’s only a couple degrees cooler than Clay Helton’s.
• BYU 26 Utah 17 – The Cougars celebrated their acceptance into the Big XII by beating the Utes in a game that wasn’t as close as the score indicated.  BYU was superior in pretty much every aspect of the game.  They look better than advertised, even with Zach Wilson gone, as Jaren Hall had a great game.  Definitely quelled the worries of the Provo faithful over the quarterback position.
• Coastal Carolina 49 Kansas 22 – As I’ve said before many times, I don’t have a horse in this entire college football race.  I just hope to watch some exciting football and with the college game, I get that at least once a weekend during the season.  Saying all that, I was kind of pulling for the Jayhawks to at least keep it close.  They didn’t, but even in a 27-point loss, it felt like they have taken more strides in game two under Lance Leipold than they had in the previous two entire coaching regimes.  That’s how bad things have got in Lawrence and how much ground they have to make up in the Big XII, now with extra BYU and AAC sauce.
• TCU 34 California 32 – Now let’s go to a game that very few people watched but probably should have.  I am not being facetious here.  This was just a fantastic game from start to finish.  Don’t think TCU played poorly or down to the Bears.  They are a good team and could start moving up the rankings soon.  California has had a rough start.  Two good games played and no wins to show for it.  Yes, starting with Nevada and TCU isn’t exactly a recipe for sure success but it has to be a bit frustrating to not be at least 1-1 at this point.  I expect they will still be a bit of a player in the Pac-12 North though.
• Alabama 48 Mercer 14 – Alabama beat Mercer.  Ho hum.  It was fun, though, to turn to TSN2 (yes this game was actually aired on TSN2) and see Nick Saban getting seriously pissed off at his squad after they went up 31-0.  Only Saban.
• Notre Dame 32 Toledo 29 – Toledo almost upset Notre Dame.  In the hindsight is 20/20 department, it would have made more sense for Toledo’s quarterback, instead of running for that 30+ yard touchdown late in the game, to fall around the 1 and then drain the clock to allow the Rockets to kick the winning field goal.  But they didn’t and Toledo’s defense decided to get a flag on almost every play, and the Irish made them pay.  If Brian Kelly wanted to execute his team last week, I can’t imagine what he is thinking today.  And all this was over on the ‘Cock!  Yep, that’s right, it was on NBC’s streaming service, Peacock, not on NBC proper.  I’m sure no one was upset by this at all because college football fans tend to be rational people, right?
• Miami 25 Appalachian State 23 – It was quite the exciting game down at Hard Rock Stadium and I wasn’t that surprised by it.  People getting on the Canes have to realize that the Mountaineers are quite a good team.  So not totally shocking for it to go almost down to the end.  The most exciting thing to happen there that game, though, had nothing to do with what was happening on the field.  A cat all of a sudden was shown dangling from the upper deck.  No, I do not know how it got there or why it was dangling there.  All the fans in the area were watching and hoping the cat didn’t get hurt or die by falling.  The cat did fall…right into a guy holding an American flag who caught the cat in the flag.  On the 20th anniversary of 9/11.  Don’t be surprised if there’s a 30 for 30 Short on that one day.
• Iowa 27 Iowa State 17 – Um, could this finally be the year that Kirk Ferentz takes the Iowa Hawkeyes to the Big Dance?  This team is looking seriously good.  No mistake that they looked overpowering compared to Iowa State on Saturday.  And don’t think the Cyclones are out of it just yet.  I think their College Football Playoff hopes, however slim, are probably squashed but a New Year’s Six spot is still theirs if they can win out the rest of the regular season.  Don’t be surprised if both of these teams are playing on conference championship weekend in games that mean a whole lot.
• Rutgers 17 Syracuse 7 – Don’t look now but the 2021 version of the Rutgers Scarlet Knights football team is 2-0.  And looking pretty good doing it, especially on defense.  Yes it’s early and yes the Scarlet Knights might be in the second toughest division in college football but things are finally looking up for a team that has been not a lot better than hot garbage since joining the Big Ten.
• Arkansas 40 Texas 21 – Oh boy is Texas not back.  The Longhorns were boatraced by Arkansas in a game that may not even been as close as the score indicated.  I’m mistaken.  Texas is back…..back bacon.
• Pittsburgh 41 Tennessee 34 – At times this game was like snorting coke off a hooker’s ass, then taking a shot of absinthe, then getting on a motorcycle and gunning the engine to jump out of a plane.  It was that ridiculous.  At times both teams did everything they could to win, then not minutes later both teams would be trying their darndest to lose.  Completely bonkers.  In the end, it was a Volunteering that happened, not a Pittening.  I’m sure fans on Rocky Top are not happy right now because Tennessee?  Not back.
• Oklahoma State 28 Tulsa 23 –  I know people love to use the College Football Transitive Property.  Team A beat Team B who beat Team C so Team A is better than Team C.  It was almost to the point in this one where we’d have to say that UC-Davis was better than Oklahoma State because of that.  Now Vanderbilt’s victory over Colorado State probably does fit.  East Tennessee State beat Vanderbilt who beat Colorado State.  So ETSU is better than CSU.  Which may be true because the Rams got trounced by South Dakota State in Week 1.  Ouch.
• Houston 44 Rice 7 – Hey, who was possibly the only guy on the Internet to pick Rice to win this one?  That would be me.  And it’s a lesson to all you out there that I have mentioned multiple times before: do not use my picks to gamble with.  You are playing with fire if you do so.
• Army 38 Western Kentucky 35 – It seemed fitting that Army won on the anniversary of 9/11.  WKU did not make it easy as they have a seriously prolific passing game with Bailey Zappe under centre.  But Army’s option offense is, much of the time, too difficult to defend against because they don’t deviate from it, ever.  Georgia Southern and Navy and Air Force, they have times were they pass the ball a decent amount.  Hell, Georgia Tech has abandoned it altogether.  Not the Black Knights.  The option.  That’s it.  And it works most of the time.
• Purdue 49 UConn 0 – The Huskies have not scored a point since Randy Edsall quit/retired.  Not that they scored a lot of points anyway during his second tenure in Storrs.  This is going to be a looooooooooooong season for that fanbase.

Recap complete!  As I always say, some of the worst looking weeks on paper end up being some of the best to watch and this past weekend was a ton of fun to watch.  You know what?  Let’s bust out the first Bossman Top 25!

#1	Alabama
#2	Oregon
#3	Georgia
#4	Texas A&M
#5	Oklahoma
#6	Iowa
#7	Cincinnati
#8	Notre Dame
#9	Clemson
#10	Penn State
#11	Ohio State
#12	Florida
#13	Coastal Carolina
#14	Wisconsin
#15	Iowa State
#16	UCLA
#17	North Carolina
#18	Virginia Tech
#19	Ole Miss
#20	Miami
#21	Arizona State
#22	Auburn
#23	TCU
#24	Arkansas
#25	Liberty

Always seem to be close to the AP Poll but there’s always interesting differences.  Yes, I had Oregon moving all the way up to #2 and deservedly so.  Also, I didn’t quite move Iowa into the Top 5 as many had (and AP did).  Give it time and I’m sure they will get there.  I try not to go crazy and overrate a team after one huge victory.  That is why I only put Arkansas at #24.  If they start stringing more victories together, then sure I will definitely move them up.  They have to earn it right?  Well, it is college football polls so “earning it” can be a very subjective measure.

Another recap done and getting in the football groove with Fall just around the corner.  I will be going back to the normal college football schedule on Thursday, NFL schedule on Friday format that you all know and love (well, at least I think you love….I know you know).  It’s getting slightly cooler (although it was quite humid today) and it is starting to feel a bit like football weather.  I love it.  Have a great week everyone!

It’s OVERREACTION time! Oh, and the Week 2 College Football TV Schedule.

Isn’t this almost the worst tradition in college football?  When college football media and fans go to ridiculous extremes after one week of college football (shut up, Week Zero).  So let’s get right to those reactions that are probably overreactions (at least at this point):

• “UCLA is gonna win the Pac-12!”  Look it’s quite a good start for the team in sissy blue.  But they still have their entire conference schedule to go through.  Could they be better than I thought (which was .500)?  Absolutely.  But to say they will win 9 or 10 games.  Let’s just pump the brakes a bit.
• “The ACC is terrible!” Yeah, no.  They aren’t.  Yes, the conference as a whole had a bad first week.  But North Carolina lost to what looks like could be a really good Virginia Tech team and Clemson lost to national title contender Georgia.  Not much else of note but give them some time.  Now if the highest ranked team in the ACC is at like #18 going into October then yes, they should start to panic.
• “Cincinnati or UCF is the Group of Five team to go to the New Year’s Six!”  Don’t book it just quite yet.  Yes, UCF’s victory over Boise State was impressive and Gus Malzahn may have brought something to the program that they slightly lost the past couple years.  And Cincy is Cincy.  But there are still a bunch of teams that have opportunities and you never know what surprise Group of Five team will be out there.
• “Oklahoma has no shot now.”  Wait, what?  First off, they won.  Yes, it was closer than it should have been and it was Tulane but they still won.  I can see their defense needs work but if they can figure it out, they have the offense to beat every team on their schedule.
• “Well, Indiana sucks again.”  One game against what looks like a seriously good Iowa team shouldn’t mar the Hoosiers’ season.  Let’s see how they do the rest of the month before saying they are coming back down to Earth a bit (yeah, like Tom Allen is going to allow that to happen).
• “Spencer Rattler and Sam Howell aren’t Heisman contenders at all.”  Howell has fallen farther than Rattler in many people’s minds but they are still near the top of the Heisman contender list.  Remember, some players really have won the Heisman in November so let’s chill here.
• “Randy Edsall is going to get shitcanned.”  HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.  So silly.  He quit instead.

Another tradition seems to be a quite bad Week 2 schedule (on paper) that somehow gets one really good Game of the Year candidate.  Unfortunately, this is not an overreaction.  It happens damn near every year.  Oh well, if it sets us up for better weeks, then fine.

Friday

		US	Canada
Kansas at #17 Coastal Carolina	7:30 PM
North Carolina A&T at Duke	8:00 PM
North Dakota at Utah State	9:00 PM

UNDEFEATED KANSAS!  UNDEFEATED COASTAL CAROLINA!  Irresistible force, immovable object, and all that jazz.  If it’s anything like last year’s Chants game against BYU, the crowd will be rocking which is amazing since there aren’t many seats in their stadium.  There are also two other games you can watch but really, we all know what you’ll be watching.

Saturday Early

		US	Canada
Illinois at Virginia	11:00 AM
Western Kentucky at Army	11:30 AM
Youngstown State at Michigan State	Noon
Indiana State at Northwestern	Noon
Pittsburgh at Tennessee	Noon
South Carolina at East Carolina	Noon
Miami-OH at Minnesota	Noon
#12 Oregon at #3 Ohio State	Noon
Kennesaw State at Georgia Tech	Noon
Alabama State at #25 Auburn	Noon
#13 Florida at USF	1:00 PM
Rutgers at Syracuse	2:00 PM

Jesus Christ that is a lot of games in the Noon timeslot.  And oh man, morning football!  It’s funny: I like morning college football but early morning NFL games in London?  Not so much.  Probably because I am up until like 2 or 3 into Sunday morning and getting up like six hours or so later to watch NFL football is actually too much for me.  And yes, there is a weird start time for the game on ABC.  If you have been living under several rocks, you might not have realized that this Saturday is the 20th anniversary of 9/11.  So there will be a lot of shows on in the morning about it, which makes a lot of sense considering when that tragedy occurred.  ABC is running a special until 1:00 meaning college football is waiting a little bit to start on there.  No big deal really and to many Americans it’s a huge thing this day so we can all wait an other for a game featuring…USF?  Yeah definitely not a big deal then.

Saturday Afternoon​​

		US	Canada
Purdue at UConn	3:00 PM
Buffalo at Nebraska	3:30 PM
Air Force at Navy	3:30 PM
UAB at #2 Georgia	3:30 PM
California at TCU	3:30 PM
#5 Texas A&M vs. Colorado (in Denver)	3:30 PM
Mercer at #1 Alabama	4:00 PM
#10 Iowa at #9 Iowa State	4:30 PM
South Carolina State at #6 Clemson	5:00 PM

Here is our Game of the Year candidate, funny enough (well the second one after Oregon-tOSU earlier).  Would you ever have thought that CyHawk could be Game of the Anything?  It’s such a huge game this year that College Gameday is there as well.  You will notice that the Notre Dame home game against Toledo is not on NBC.  That’s because it’s on Peacock, the streaming app for NBC.  Meaning, I am pretty sure none of us will be able to watch it.  Slowly, these streaming platforms are getting into the sports game.  Soon enough there will be multiple big games every week on like Hulu and will be shit out of luck if you don’t have Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hulu, Peacock, and whatever else is out there.  Two final things here: yes, TSN2 is showing a game featuring the Mercer Bears.  And yes, the ACC Network is doing their three-hour broadcast window thing.  Stupid, but they can’t have games starting at 10:00 pm locally so they do what they feel like they have to do.

Saturday Primetime

		US	Canada
Houston at Rice	6:30 PM
#15 Texas at Arkansas	7:00 PM
Appalachian State at #22 Miami	7:00 PM
NC State at Mississippi State	7:00 PM
Howard at Maryland	7:30 PM
Idaho at Indiana	7:30 PM
Georgia State at North Carolina	7:30 PM
Missouri at Kentucky	7:30 PM
Washington at Michigan	8:00 PM
Jacksonville State at Florida State	8:00 PM

Yeah there really isn’t much here in terms of hugely important games.  But see?  The ABC started at 1pm “issue” worked itself out and we get the normal-for-about-a-decade 8:00 start in Ann Arbor where Washington might be the underdog?  No TSN games in this timeslot which kind of sucks but it’s not like they are going to grab any ratings hits here.  Texas-Arkansas might be the most interesting game here although there could actually be a fair amount riding on Mizzou-UK as the winner could actually contend in the SEC East (as long as Georgia falters at least once inside the conference).

Saturday Late Night

		US	Canada
Vanderbilt at Colorado State	10:00 PM
#21 Utah at BYU	10:15 PM
UNLV at #23 Arizona State	10:30 PM
Stanford at #14 USC	10:30 PM

FOX Pac-12 After Dark?  FOX Pac-12 After Dark!!!  It’s too bad that Gus Johnson will be calling the Big Noon Saturday game because Gus After Dark would have been tons of fun.  It’s unfortunate Stanford looked like shit on opening weekend but, hey, remember what I said about overreactions?  Now watch the Trojans blow them out by like 40.  Also, we have the Holy War between Utah and the soon-to-be-in-the-Big XII BYU Cougars.  TSN is smart to pick up this once since it should be a raucous crowd in Provo.

Games to set your eyeballs on

Oregon at Ohio State (Noon, FOX) – One of, surprisingly, two Game of the Year candidates.  And both teams looked, well, a bit off during Week 1.  The Ducks struggled with Fresno State and needed a late score to win and the Buckeyes took quite a long time to finally shake off Minnesota and get the victory.  This should be good and should be close.  This game has been hyped since last year when people were already looking forward to this season.  Let’s hope it matches the hype.

Iowa at Iowa State (4:30, ABC) – This has quickly become a massive game and could actually be a big part of the College Football Playoff story.  The winner here may vault into the Top 5 depending on what else happens.  The loser isn’t out of anything though and could still be in a good spot to get to a New Year’s Six bowl.  This is easily the biggest and most important version of CyHawk ever.

Utah at BYU (10:15, TSN2) – OK so it doesn’t drop off too much after the first two.  The Holy War is always a hotly contested matchup.  College football is always good when rivalries have two good teams playing.  Like if Alabama and Auburn are both good or if Michigan and Ohio State are both good.  This one is no different.  Utes are in the Top 25 and the Cougs are just outside it.  This game is in Provo which has arguably the craziest crowd in the Mountain or Pacific time zones except for the one in Salt Lake City.  As I said above, TSN was smart to pick up this one and it should be the gem of the late night window.

UAB at Georgia (3:30, specialty pack) – OK now it falls off a cliff.  Don’t me wrong.  UGA is a fantastic team and UAB has been a great story since reviving their team a few years back.  But this probably won’t be close and as the fourth-best game of the week it doesn’t really scream quality to be honest with you.

Kansas at Coastal Carolina (Friday, 7:30, TSN2) – Aw fuck it why not?  Kansas is in the Games of the Week list, BAYBEE!  Let’s be honest: the Chants will probably mop the floor with the Jayhawks.  But what if Kansas keeps it close through three quarters?  Man, that would be quite the interesting final segment and bring in a lot of viewers…way more than Kansas football is used to.

Honourable mention: Texas at Arkansas (7:00, specialty pack), Stanford at USC (10:30, FOX), Appalachian State at Miami (7:00, specialty pack).

You wanna bet?

Only the most degenerate of gamblers will bet on these Week 2 games.  I mean if it was NFL I’d for sure be doing it but not college.  I’ve told you all my reasons, I won’t rehash them here again.  Here are the picks!

Oregon over Ohio State

Iowa State over Iowa

Miami over Appalachian State

Coastal Carolina over Kansas

USC over Stanford

BYU over Utah

Texas over Arkansas

Georgia over UAB

Rice over Houston (big upset!)

Nebraska over Buffalo (Upset?  Ahahahahahahahahahahaha…no wait….really…….Upset?)

Navy over Air Force (kind of an upset)

From what I can tell, everything is up on the specialty pack.  Only thing I haven’t seen anywhere is the second BTN games at Noon and 7:30 but I’m sure that will be sorted out.  As for the Pac-12 Network, no it is not on DAZN.  Frustrating.  So I won’t be listing those games on the schedules since there is no real point to doing so.  Hopefully they scrap the current setup and then be smart and pair up with FOX or CBS and set up a proper conference network like the ACC, Big Ten and SEC have.  It would be the best thing for that conference for sure and bring in some more money.

I assume by now you’ve heard the news: the Big XII is (finally) expanding.  BYU, Cincinnati, Houston and UCF are expected to be voted in to the conference today sometime after they all sent in their applications a couple days ago.  The vote is a no-brainer.  The question will be when will the teams join and what happens to the American Conference now.  The last thing I have heard is that BYU is probably moving for next season.  The three AAC teams would then move the following year.  Whether Oklahoma and Texas will still be around by then is anybody’s guess although I’d be shocked if they weren’t in the SEC by 2023.  As for the AAC, I expect that they will look to expand.  They would be down to eight teams with not exactly a murderer’s row of football programs.  The schools that have already been bandied about include Marshall, Appalachian State, UAB and even Boise State and San Diego State (although I am sure the Mountain West will do everything they can to hold on to their new spot at the top of the Group of Five).  So yeah, realignment news isn’t going anywhere after those four teams officially join.

Once I get back home, hell yes I will be watching football the rest of the weekend (sometime near the end of the Noon timeslot).  Will I be watching football past midnight?  Does a bear shit in the woods?  I’ll catch up on sleep maybe in February.  Enjoy the games everyone!

So is there anyone who really wants this guy? – Week 1 NFL TV Schedule

Hey, it’s time for the professional football league south of the border to commence play!  Let us rejoice!  Well, most of us.  Not the guy in the picture above.  He is in a heap of shit and has been for months now.  Accused of sexual assault against 22 women.  Twenty-two.  Remember: if it looks like shit and smells like shit, it’s probably shit.  Yes, innocent until proven guilty, but holy moly would it be a bad look if Deshaun Watson played this season and then he is found guilty of even one of these charges.  But…that may not become an issue.

The Houston Texans will not have them as their quarterback.  Sounds like they are willing to pay him quite a bit of money to sit at home.  They would rather trade him, obviously, so that they don’t have to pay him and they don’t have to deal with him as an organization.  As much as you might think the Texans are not a well-run organization (which would be true), this is smart on their part.  And it looks like teams are interested!  Crazy.  Remember though: it’s all about winning.  In professional sports, winning cures (almost) all.  Same with college sports if you think about it.  Where could he end up?  The Dolphins seem to be the favourite which destroys the “Tua is our guy” narrative that they’ve had all offseason.  The Eagles are also fairly interested which destroys the “Jalen deserves a full shot as the number one QB” narrative that they are peddling.  It’s all ridiculous and all very NFL.

Anyway, enough of that.  Let’s get to the Week 1 schedule followed by Un-Texan Comments (not meant to be a slight against the state of Texas itself):

Thursday

Dallas at Tampa Bay

8:20, NBC, TSN1/3/4, CTV Two

Sunday Early

Pittsburgh at Buffalo	All affiliates		Saskatchewan, Northern Ontario, Kitchener, Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal, Atlantic		Vancouver Island, Alberta
Arizona at Tennessee
LA Chargers at Washington
NY Jets at Carolina
Jacksonville at Houston
Philadelphia at Atlanta		Buffalo, Rochester, Burlington, Boston			London, Toronto, Ottawa, Atlantic
Minnesota at Cincinnati		Minneapolis	Winnipeg	TSN3, TSN5
San Francisco at Detroit		Detroit
Seattle at Indianapolis		Tacoma, Seattle, Spokane	Vancouver, Alberta

Sunday Late

Cleveland at Kansas City	All affiliates (except Burlington & Boston)		All affiliates (except Montreal & Atlantic)
Miami at New England	Burlington, Boston		Montreal		Atlantic
Green Bay vs. New Orleans (in Jacksonville)		Tacoma, Seattle, Spokane, Minneapolis, Detroit, Boston		TSN3, TSN5
Denver at NY Giants		Buffalo, Rochester, Burlington

Sunday/Monday Primetime

Chicago at LA Rams	Sunday, 8:20, NBC, TSN 1/3/4/5, CTV Two
Baltimore at Las Vegas	Monday, 8:00, ABC, TSN 1/3/4/5, CTV Two

Un-Texan Comments…Houston Texans, I mean

• That franchise is a complete mess.  Somehow.  They had Deshaun Watson and J.J. Watt for years and couldn’t make it work.  I don’t get it.  Oh wait, I do.  Part of it rhymes with Till O’Flyin.
• The season begins, as always, with the defending champs.  I believe this is the second team the Super Bowl champ is playing their first game of the next season in the same place they won the Lombardi Trophy.  I await about nine years from now when, if I’m still doing this blog, I’m talking about Tom Brady in his fifties still playing pretty damn good at quarterback.  You kind of know that will happen, right?
• You WILL watch the Steelers-Bills game and you will FUCKING LIKE IT!  That seems to be the message from CBS and CTV/TSN, for the most part.  At least it’s a national doubleheader so there are at least a couple of good games in both Sunday afternoon timeslots.
• There are, however, four games in the early sked not showing in Canada without Sunday Ticket.  That seems like a lot for one timeslot because it is.  Ridiculous, really.
• ESPN is not doing two Monday Night Football games this season for the first time in years.  I mean I understood the idea behind them but I’m glad it’s gone.  Why?  Having a game finish at 1 in the morning that isn’t a college football game…sorry, that’s no bueno.
• Unfortunately, the people of Burlington get stuck with, I assume, a lot of New York Giants football games again this year.  I mean it’s great if you are a Giants fan or have a crush on Daniel Jones or something.  Otherwise?  Some sad people in Vermont (and a good part of Quebec and Eastern Ontario).
• As you notice, the Packers-Saints game is in Jacksonville.  Obviously this is because of Hurricane Ida but some have asked why the game wasn’t held closer to New Orleans in an area that wasn’t affected very much by the hurricane.  The only reason I could find is that to do it in an NFL stadium means all the camera setups for FOX would be the same as normal.  If they had to go to a college stadium, it might not work.  FOX also does college football so I don’t understand this logic but there may be some merit to it since I am sure they put more money and production value into the NFL games than the college ones.
• I won’t say anything about my fantasy team.  I promise.  OK I might slip something in from time to time but I don’t want to be that guy that drones on and on about it.  In the end, even other fantasy football players don’t really care unless they are in your league.  Then they may care way too much.
• I have a feeling I am correct with the CBS and FOX affiliates.  I have thought of breaking out the CTV affiliates a bit more but it’s very rare that, say, all the CTV Atlantic stations don’t have the same NFL game on at one time.  But I will watch out for it.

There you go.  All you NFL fans, we’ve made it back.  Now let’s hope any new wave of COVID-19 doesn’t cause issues like it did last year at times.  Fingers crossed.  Alright, enjoy the games everyone!