Going on hiatus

Hello everyone.

I just wanted to let everyone know (who reads this blog) that I will be going on hiatus. To put it bluntly, my life is a bit of a mess right now. There are many things I have to deal with so it is best for me to take a step away from a lot of things I’ve been doing right now to at least try and focus on what matters. That includes this blog.

This blog has been good for me in the past. Originally it was to organize my own college football viewing habits back in the day when I had a decent-but-limited PVR set up. It has grown since then into what I would consider the one spot on the Internet that has college football schedules for Canadians. Back in 2013, when this blog started, there was nothing of its kind. About nine years later….well not a whole lot has changed in that regard. For me, on the other hand, I ditched cable and went the IPTV route and it was a great move on my part. Yes, there are times what I’m watching lags behind what is happening in real time but the fact that I can watch almost any channel I want is pretty awesome.

The other reason this blog was good for me was because it was an escape of sorts. I could sit down at the laptop and start typing up the next post and be immersed in this different sort of world. Kept me from what was happening in my actual life with its ups and many downs. So it was therapeutic in a way. But, like therapy, there is only so much it can help. And, as I said, getting my life in order is much more important than continuing this blog.

So for everyone who has read this blog over the years, I thank you. I’m not saying I won’t be back…it’s just that I don’t know when that will be. I figured I would do this on a day where not a whole lot was happening in the football world so enough people would see this AW SHIT TOM BRADY RETIRED? Dammit. Well there goes that idea.

Anyway, thanks for reading. My hope is that this is not good bye, but more see you later. Enjoy the football everyone.

So how are they going to follow that?

Last weekend’s games were the most ridiculous set of playoff games ever.  In history.  Nothing comes close.  I won’t get into the fact that the NFL’s overtime rules are crap but nevertheless, it was exciting football from the start of the Bengals-Titans game to the end of one of the greatest playoff games of all-time, the Bills-Chiefs game.  Can they follow it up with something even more special?  Not fucking likely but even if it came close it would be something to behold.  Here’s the sked:

Sunday

AFC Championship: Cincinnati at Kansas City (3:00)	All affiliates		All affiliates
NFC Championship: San Francisco at LA Rams (6:30)		All affiliates	All affiliates

A few notes

• You see the times there.  They get such good ratings (and no complaints from fans as far as I know) that they do it on Divisional Round Sunday as well.  I can’t remember the article off hand, but someone proposed at least one NFL regular season week having these timeslots.  It would also include two or three games at 11:30 and one starting at 10:00 (all times EST).  Interesting proposal and I wouldn’t mind seeing it happen once just to see how it goes.
• As per usual, CBS and FOX have the conference championship games.  This won’t change until the contracts for either CBS or FOX (or both) are up.  CTV has both games as well which is the norm of the past little while as well.
• For the third year in a row, NFL Primetime will air on TSN2 at 10:00.  No, it’s not quite the NFL Primetime of old but still not bad.  I wish they would take it off ESPN+ and put it on regular cable somewhere so we can watch it up here but oh well.

I am a bit sad that the Buffalo Bills aren’t going back to the AFC Championship.  What a game it was, though.  I think my blood pressure was off the charts for the final part of that game.  And yes, I have not liked the NFL overtime rules since they changed them so it’s not just because the Bills lost.

When it comes to the college game, it’s time for weird all-star games!  Bizarre rules but still, it’s football and this is where you start to learn about many of the draft-eligible players.  This Saturday is the NFLPA Collegiate Bowl at 6:00.  It is on the NFL Network and is played in the Rose Bowl.  On Thursday, at 8:00, the East-West Shrine Game is on the NFL Network.  And then on Saturday February 5th, there are two all-star games.  The Senior Bowl starts at 2:30 and that is followed afterwards by the HBCU Legacy Bowl.  Both games are on the NFL Network as well.  And then….no more college football.  I’m sure I’ll shed a tear at that point.

Alright, everyone enjoy the games this weekend!

2021 NFL Divisional Playoff Schedule

I guess that was technically a set of playoff games last weekend (and Monday night).  Mostly blowouts, one being a perfect offensive game by the Bills.  Other than the Raiders-Bengals game (I won’t talk about the so-called “controversy” here) and the Niners-Cowboys game (with the awful playcall at the end) it was just meh.  But it was football.  It’s the playoffs.  So it has that air of importance to it.  So now let’s get to the next round, the Divisional Playoffs.

Saturday

Cincinnati at Tennessee (4:30)		All affiliates	All affiliates
San Francisco at Green Bay (8:15)	All affiliates		All affiliates

Sunday

LA Rams at Tampa Bay (3:00)		All affiliates	All affiliates
Buffalo at Kansas City (6:30)	All affiliates		All affiliates

A few Divisional Round notes

• This year CBS gets two games in the divisional round and FOX gives up one of theirs to NBC.  Last year it was the reverse.  I figured this might have been the year ESPN/ABC gets one.  That will have to wait a few years but it will happen at some point.
• Four seasons in a row with CTV getting all the Divisional Playoff games.  I guess that’s what we will see going forward which is fine since if you don’t get CTV you might not have a TV or a laptop or even a smartphone (which makes me wonder how you’re even viewing this).

As I said above, Super Wild Card Weekend was not exactly great for the viewer.  Was I happy the Bills won?  Absolutely.  But other than the one game, it was not great football.  I’m sure the divisional round will be better.

Hey that’s all I got!  Short and sweet.  Let’s hope for an overall better weekend coming up.  And remember those weird college all-star games (if you like that sort of thing).  Have a great rest of the week and enjoy the football!

Hey how did I do? Also, my updated NFL playoff predictions.

Basically, this is a post of how shitty my predictions are.  And some of them are BAD.

Let’s start with the college football portion of our show.  As I usually do, despite the fact I make my predictions public, I always assume some of them will be horrible.  But I made my choices, dammit, and I’m gonna stick with them.  Unlike some of you loser experts out there.  Alright let’s get going with this.

College Football Playoff and New Year’s Six

• OK then here we go.  This is gonna be bad, I can just feel it:
  • Alabama – Picked them #2 and they ended up #1.  Nice.  Good start for the ol’ Bossman.
  • Ohio State – I figured this was a no-brainer.  It wasn’t.  I had then #3 and they ended up at the Rose Bowl.  So not too bad as a lot of experts had them in their Top 4.
  • Oklahoma – I had them #1.  Then the first game of the season happened and I realized it wouldn’t happen.  Ended up outside the New Year’s Six and lost both quarterbacks to the transfer portal.  Not good.
  • North Carolina – What in the fuck was I thinking?  I did not bank on the O-line being possibly the worst in the country, that’s what I was thinking.  Anyway, they came oh so close to not even being bowl-eligible.  Completely gross pick on my part.
• How about my New Year’s Six picks?  Might as well go through them one-by-one as well:
  • I had Notre Dame going to the Fiesta Bowl.  Spot on!
  • Clemson to the Peach Bowl.  Ugh.  Not that Clemson had a terrible season but they were really never close to the New Year’s Six.
  • Cincinnati to the Peach Bowl.  They did better than I thought they would.  Congrats to them and for breaking the Group of Five ceiling.
  • Iowa State to the Sugar Bowl.  I honestly though ISU would finally break through and get that Sugar Bowl bid.  They hung in there but really were never in the Big XII race.
  • Texas A&M to the Sugar Bowl.  I figured after they beat Bama that they would be in this spot.  Man, was I wrong.
  • Wisconsin to the Rose Bowl.  Honestly, they were a tough loss to Minnesota away from the Big Ten Championship and then who knows what happens if they get there.
  • USC to the Rose Bowl.  Holy shit.
  • Washington to the Fiesta Bowl.  Double holy shit.  I whiffed so badly on my two Pac-12 picks.
• Other terrible predictions included Texas at #21 and going to the Alamo Bowl, TCU being #23 and heading to the Cheez-It Bowl and Nebraska going to a bowl at all.  I fall for it every year it seems.
• I had Georgia, Coastal Carolina and Oregon being just on the outside of the NY6 looking in.  Georgia was a huge miss on my part.  Oregon ended up pretty much right where I thought they would.  Coastal Carolina wasn’t as good but still won double-digit games.  So I would call those not so bad picks.

Heisman Trophy

• I had Spencer Rattler and Sam Howell as my #1 and #2.  Well this is a great start.
• OK this isn’t bad.  I had Bryce Young at #5.  I wondered if he could come out from under Mac Jones’ shadow and he did more than that for sure, especially in the SEC Championship where he clinched the trophy.
• Let’s look at some of the rest of my Top 10:
  • D.J. Uiagalelei at #3.  Ouch.  Despite the fact Clemson still did pretty good this season, D.J. was mediocre for much of it.
  • J.T. Daniels at #7.  Oh my.  Georgia fans are very happy that Stetson Bennett, the former walk-on, came through for them to win the title.
  • Kedon Slovis at #8.  OK then.  He’s now in the transfer portal which says all you need to know about how his season went.
  • D’Eriq King at #10.  Alright, I’m done here.

Coaching Hot Seat

I usually do pretty well with this.  Let’s see.

• Normally I do pretty well with the coaches on Almost Guaranteed Shitcanning section.  Not so this season.  Only Walt Bell was fired on this list with Jeff Brohm and Dino Babers possibly saving their jobs well into 2022.  Even the things I do well at I’m not doing well at.
• The next section I predicted better.  Two out of three.  Saying that, Jonathan Smith almost did a good enough job to be considered for other coaching openings.
• I should apologize to Jim Harbaugh though.  I shouldn’t have even put him on the list and I did in the Possible Shitcanning section.  Stupid me.  He had the best season he’s had in Ann Arbor and may end up back in the NFL in 2022.
• Honestly, most of the coaches did not get fired on my list and some actually did quite a bit better than most thought.  My excuse?  Look at how the season was.  It was insane!  How was I to know it would be this crazy?

Just A Bunch of Predictions, Good and Bad

Let’s be honest: it’s probably mostly bad but let’s go through this exercise anyway.

• Most of the teams I had with good records (at least 10 wins) did well if you don’t include North Carolina, Washington and USC, which I mentioned earlier.
• I predicted a fair amount of games on TSN during the regular season.  Boy, was I wrong.  It was very weird since TSN totally dropped the ball during the regular season.  Then come bowl season, TSN went nuts and broadcast almost every game.  They did more college games during the past few weeks then they had during the three-plus months before it.  Just bizarre.  So, in the end, I wish they would balance it out a bit more but they didn’t do too badly, I guess.
• Hey look who got the UTSA conference title win correct?  This guy…I’m pointing at myself.  They may be building something big in San Antonio with the Roadrunners.  I mean it’s in Texas, a big city with only one pro team and they are joining the best Group of Five conference, the American, for 2023.  Things are looking up for this quite new football team.
• Boise State.  Talk about being overshadowed in the Mountain West.  They haven’t looked this average in a long, loooooooong time.  I figured they would win the Mountain West, like they usually do, and it ended up they didn’t even get to the title game and had five teams legitimately better than them during the season.
• I shouldn’t have gone all-in with Oklahoma.  I think I bought the Spencer Rattler hype.  OK, I know I did.  I should have remembered him in that QB1 series.  He’s a dick.
• It still seems like no one can win at Kansas.  It looks like Lance Leipold is on the right track, especially with a win over Texas, but I nailed the pick (almost) and know it will take at least another year to get all the kinks out of the program so that Leipold can put his stamp on it.  I hope he gets that chance.
• Who did I get right in the Pac-12?  Almost none of the teams.   I had Oregon winning 10 games, Utah winning 9 and Arizona State winning 9.  Not bad.  I also had Washington winning 11 (ugh), Oregon State winning 3 (yikes) and Washington State winning 4 (oops).
• I got all 7 teams in the SEC West going bowling.  I’ll give myself a light pat on the back for that because it wasn’t a huge stretch to think that would happen.  I will say, though, that South Carolina was quite a bit better than I thought they would be.  Same with Tennessee.  Florida?  Yeah that was a surprise.  Same with the Dan Mullen firing.  Didn’t see that coming…back in July.
• Maybe I overestimated how good Coastal Carolina would be.  They still won 10 games though so I wasn’t THAT far off.
• Yeah I couldn’t see all the realignment that happened just before the season commenced.  Could anyone have foreseen this?  Probably not.  I’ll go with that.
• Hey who got the AAC Championship pairing correct?  I think I may have been one of very few to nail the Houston pick (having them be second to Cincinnati).
• The Independents were, honestly, pretty easy.  Notre Dame, Liberty, Army, BYU: good.  New Mexico State, UConn, UMass: bad.  Simple.
• Ugh, my ACC predictions.  Oof, my Big Ten predictions (although I did have Iowa in the Big Ten title game).  Oh god, my MAC predictions.  Not even fucking close.  OK enough of this.

I don’t feel like doing a Stassen score to be honest with you.  I’m not as good as some of the normal prediction mags and that’s fine.  I have fun doing the predictions, even when they end up being shitty.

Now, the NFL Playoffs.  I have to revise my choices from August since some teams (COUGH*Seattle*COUGH) underperformed and others were better than advertised because the NFL season was almost as crazy as the college season.  So here goes:

Wild Card Round

Buffalo def. New England

Kansas City def. Pittsburgh

Cincinnati def. Las Vegas

LA Rams def. Arizona

San Francisco def. Dallas

Tampa Bay def. Philadelphia

Divisional Playoffs

Tennessee def. Cincinnati

Buffalo def. Kansas City

LA Rams def. Tampa Bay

Green Bay def. San Francisco

Conference Championships

Buffalo def. Tennessee (revenge for the Music City Miracle)

LA Rams def. Green Bay

Super Bowl

Buffalo def. LA Rams

So I still have the Bills winning over an NFC West team.  So not a huge change, I guess.

Now that the college football season is over it’s time for the weird all-star games they have.  Some of them have bizarre rules.  But at least it’s still a chance to see some college players before they head to the NFL or an NFL practice squad or the CFL or the XFL or the USFL.  Man, there’s a lot of leagues.  You’d think the CFL would cave and put some teams in strategic NORTHERN American cities.  It worked in Baltimore, it could work again.  Just don’t put a team in fucking Shreveport.  Anyway, here is the schedule for the crazy all-star games:

• Hula Bowl – January 15th at Noon on CBS Sports Network
• NFLPA Collegiate Bowl – January 29th on NFL Network (time TBA)
• East West Shrine Game – February 3rd at 8:00 on NFL Network
• Senior Bowl – February 5th at 2:30 on NFL Network

After those games, no more college football until late August.  Prepare for the dry season.

What will the upcoming posts be?

• Spring football?  No.  Not a chance.
• The NCAA basketball conference tournament schedules will definitely return.  Those start in a little over a month so learn about some of the teams that may try and bust your brackets.
• The NFL Draft.  How many mock drafts will I do?  I don’t know.  One for sure just before the draft.  I may do others.  I may not.  Who knows.
• I’m sure there will be a random post or two in there.  You know, when I’m bored.

So as I said before we are getting into the dead period…for college football.  A sad, sad time.  Maybe one of these years I will take the time away from watching the greatest sport on Earth (after Chess Boxing) to improve myself top to bottom.  Ah, who am I kidding.  Have a great weekend everyone!

2021-22 NFL Wild-Card Weekend Schedule

Wait this is not just any Wild-Card weekend.  Oh no.  It’s SUPER WILD-CARD WEEKEND!  So super it has exactly the same amount of Wild Card games as last year.  I mean if it’s anything like Week 18 it should be a ton of fun so let’s get right to the schedule.

Saturday

Las Vegas at Cincinnati (4:30)			All affiliates	All affiliates	TSN1
New England at Buffalo (8:15)		All affiliates		All affiliates	TSN1

Sunday

Philadelphia at Tampa Bay (1:00)			All affiliates	All affiliates	TSN3, TSN5
San Francisco at Dallas (4:30)	All affiliates			All affiliates	TSN3, TSN5
Pittsburgh at Kansas City (8:00)		All affiliates		All affiliates	TSN3, TSN5

Monday

Arizona at LA Rams (8:00)			All affiliates	All affiliates	TSN2, TSN3

SUPER DUPER Wild Card Notes n’ Stuff:

• I’ve said this every year but I don’t think the best Wild Card team should be punished because they were in a division with another great team.  This year it didn’t matter a whole lot as the division winners were all good.  That doesn’t happen often though so the NFL should think about this.  They won’t.  Because they’re dicks and they don’t listen.
• CTV will be showing all six games.  Unlike last year, CTV2 gets none of the games.  TSN will also be showing all six games on various channels.
• Do I like the Monday Night Wild Card Game concept?  No.  No I don’t.  Saying that, we do get somewhat of a bonus for having that game: the ManningCast is back!  That will be on TSN2.  Depending on the guests, that could be a fun way to end this portion of the playoffs.
• Yes the Niners and Cowboys are on CBS.  I’d love to see them use the old school CBS NFL theme for this game and this game alone as an homage to John Madden and Pat Summerall.  And they get the Nickolodeon broadcast this year.  I’d be interested in seeing the ratings for that and whether they even matter since the whole point is to get kids watching football.

So there you go.  I am getting pretty geared up for this.  Hoping for some good games (and hoping the Bills win).  Enjoy the start of the NFL playoffs.

Man, what a complete shitshow this is – Week 18 NFL TV Schedule

So if you haven’t been living under a rock (in a football sense) you saw what happened with Antonio Brown this past Sunday.  There are so many angles with this story that it feels like every 12 hours another part of the story comes out.  I am not going to rehash it here because you can read all of it elsewhere. What I will say is that I truly believe that there is some mental illness involved here.  Brown needs help.  Period.  Beyond that, I am not a fan of what the Bucs’ organization as a whole has done through all this.  They knew what they were getting into with Antonio and it felt like they just thought “Ah, it can’t be that bad.”  There is no possible way that this came out of nowhere.  This built up…on both sides.  Whether we will find out the whole story, I don’t know.  What I do know is that AB should not be in the league because he needs to get his life in order.  And the Bucs, most notably Bruce Arians, need to take a look in the mirror and realize that their part in this should be treated with disdain and disgust.

Anyway, let’s get to the final week of the regular season: Week 18!  As per usual, the NFL puts as many of the most important games in the late afternoon window or in primetime.  After Week 17 destroyed a lot of the potential drama, I would say there were choices that had to be made that weren’t exactly great ones.  C’est la vie.  Let’s get right to the sked.

Saturday

Kansas City at Denver	4:30, ABC, CTV, TSN1/3
Dallas at Philadelphia	8:15, ABC, CTV, TSN1/3

Sunday Early

Indianapolis at Jacksonville
Pittsburgh at Baltimore	All affiliates		Winnipeg, Northern Ontario, Montreal		All affiliates
Tennessee at Houston
Cincinnati at Cleveland		Buffalo, Rochester, Boston	Saskatchewan, Kitchener, Toronto, Ottawa, Atlantic
Washington at NY Giants		Burlington
Chicago at Minnesota		Minneapolis		TSN1, TSN3, TSN4, TSN5
Green Bay at Detroit		Tacoma, Seattle, Spokane, Detroit	Vancouver, Alberta

Sunday Late

NY Jets at Buffalo	Cleveland, Buffalo, Rochester		Toronto	TSN1, TSN3
New England at Miami	Burlington, Boston
Carolina at Tampa Bay	Seattle, Spokane, Minneapolis, Detroit
New Orleans at Atlanta
San Francisco at LA Rams		Minneapolis, Detroit, Buffalo, Rochester, Burlington, Boston	Saskatchewan, Winnipeg, Northern Ontario, Kitchener, Ottawa, Montreal		Atlantic
Seattle at Arizona		Tacoma, Seattle, Spokane	Vancouver, Alberta

Sunday Primetime

LA Chargers at Las Vegas

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

Special Last Week of the Regular Season Notes on this Schedule

• Now, at least this year we shouldn’t see a team quit during the final week of the regular season like the Eagles did last year.  Unless a couple other things happen, this is win and you’re in, lose and you go home.  At least the NFL got something that should provide a lot of drama.  Now we have to hope it’s a relatively close game.  The last thing the league wants is for one team to have a three-touchdown lead at the half.
• Funny thing: last year in the final week of the regular season I mentioned that the audiences would be huge because most of us would be in some form of lockdown.  Guess what?  Some of us are back in some semblance of lockdown yet again.  Not as bad as it was last January but still, not great.  Not that it would have mattered to me as I would have been watching the games anyway.
• Kind of a shock that one game can dominate one of these windows.  The early window will see a lot of people on the Steelers-Ravens game which is unusual for the new way the NFL does the final week of the season.  This is the ramifications of many spots being clinched last week.
• As for the late window it is very well spread out.  Good to see that there will be many options, especially since many Canadians get more than one CTV station in their cable package and may even get more than one CBS or FOX station (an East and West option).
• Two early games and one late game not being shown here.  Can’t see them all folks but that’s pretty damn good to be honest!  It’s one of those weeks where having RedZone or Sunday Ticket isn’t a must.  Still nice to have but honestly, many cable packages would allow you to watch most of these games and flip back and forth between them, depending on what looks interesting at the time.

So this is it.  The final playoff picture look of the season:

#1 – Tennessee (clinched AFC South)	#1 – Green Bay (clinched first round bye)
#2 – Kansas City (clinched AFC West)	#2 – LA Rams (clinched playoff berth)
#3 – Cincinnati (clinched AFC North)	#3 – Tampa Bay (clinched NFC South)
#4 – Buffalo (clinched playoff berth)	#4 – Dallas (clinched NFC East)
Wild Cards:	Wild Cards:
#5 – New England (clinched playoff berth)	#5 – Arizona (clinched playoff berth)
#6 – Indianapolis	#6 – San Francisco
#7 – LA Chargers/Las Vegas	#7 – Philadelphia (clinched playoff berth)

Compare this to last week.  So many possibilities for chaos went out the window with the results from Week 17.  I’m sad for that but there is still some intrigue for this week.

So let’s get right down to the scenarios.  As I’ve done most years, I will do it on a game-by-game basis so you too can follow along as you watch:

Kansas City at Denver

• Kansas City clinches a first round bye with a win AND a Tennessee loss

Indianapolis at Jacksonville

• Indianapolis clinches a playoff berth with a win OR (a LA Chargers loss AND a Pittsburgh loss AND a Miami win)

Pittsburgh at Baltimore

• Pittsburgh clinches a playoff berth with a win AND an Indianapolis loss AND (a Las Vegas loss OR a LA Chargers loss)
• Baltimore clinches a playoff berth with a win AND an Indianapolis loss AND a LA Chargers loss AND a Miami loss

Tennessee at Houston

• Tennessee clinches a first round bye with a win OR (a Kansas City loss AND a Cincinnati loss AND a New England loss) OR (a Kansas City loss AND a Cincinnati loss AND a Buffalo win)

Cincinnati at Cleveland

• Cincinnati clinches a first round bye with a win AND a Tennessee loss AND a Kansas City loss AND (a New England loss OR a Buffalo win)

NY Jets at Buffalo

• Buffalo clinches the AFC East with a win OR a New England loss

New England at Miami

• New England clinches a first round bye with a win AND a Buffalo loss AND a Tennessee loss AND a Kansas City loss
• New England clinches the AFC East with a win AND a Buffalo loss

New Orleans at Atlanta

• New Orleans clinches a playoff berth with a win AND a San Francisco loss

San Francisco at LA Rams

• LA Rams clinch NFC West with a win OR an Arizona loss
• San Francisco clinches a playoff berth with a win OR a New Orleans loss

Seattle at Arizona

• Arizona clinches NFC West with a win AND a LA Rams loss

LA Chargers at Las Vegas

• LA Chargers clinch a playoff berth with a win
• Las Vegas clinches a playoff berth with a win OR (an Indianapolis loss AND a Pittsburgh loss)

There is one other bizarre scenario that comes up that I wouldn’t normally list.  If the Colts lose and the Chargers and Raiders tie, the Chargers and Raiders are BOTH in the playoffs and the Colts are eliminated.  So if that Sunday nighter went to overtime I have a feeling an absolute shit-ton of viewers would turn to that game to see what happens..

I hope you’ve had a good Christmas holiday and had a good New Year and have started 2022 on the right foot.  I was hoping 2021 would have been better than 2020.  Maybe 2022 will be my year!  Have a great weekend, folks!

Poll n’ Bowl? Poll n’ Bowl!

I’ve tried to remake the bowl system.  I’ve gone farther and tried my hand at fixing the postseason in college football.  Now let’s go back to the sport’s roots (kind of) and do a Poll n’ Bowl version!  What’s Poll n’ Bowl?  Well it was the way things were before the BCS.  Let’s even go before conference championships.  The final regular season poll was followed by bowl games.  That’s it, that’s all.  And then the national championship was selected after the bowls were done.  Easy peasy.

Now it’s time to do a little math.  I decided to just pick a season at random and determine the amount of bowl games and Division 1-A (not FBS yet) teams.  There were 110 teams and 18 bowl games in the 1985 season.  That meant that approximately 1/3rd of teams would get into a bowl game.  Not even close to the percentage this season which was over 60%.  So bowls were much more important back then because they were a bit more prestigious.  Couldn’t go 6-5 a lot of times (only a 11-game regular season back then) and make it into a bowl game.  With 130 teams, that would mean about 44 teams should qualify meaning there should be 22 bowl games if we are treating this like we would have in the 80s.

So I have to come up with some criteria here because a .500 record isn’t enough to get to a bowl game.  So I have decided to make it so a team would need 8 wins to be bowl-eligible.  This will make it a bit more difficult for Group of Five teams to qualify but that’s the way it was in the Poll n’ Bowl era.  Saying that, it also meant that a team from a non-power conference that made a bowl game was actually really good.

Also I need to go back and find some historic bowl games from the past.  No more Bahamas Bowl.  Say good bye Frisco Football Classic.  Playing in the LA Bowl?  Not anymore.  To get back to the roots (so to speak) we need to use the same vernacular as you saw back in the 80s and 90s when it came to bowl season.

Hey, remember when all the bowl games weren’t on ESPN?  Well it’s time to, kind of, go back to that.  Give the other networks a game or two and spread the wealth so to speak.  And put the fucking Rose Bowl back on ABC…and the Sugar Bowl while you’re at it!

I’m going to have to take a few liberties with the bowl tie-ins.  Older bowl games won’t obviously have the same tie-ins as they do now.  Hell, the American Conference didn’t exist until about a decade ago.   Don’t worry, some matchups will still exist.  The Big Ten and Pac-12 champions will face off in the Granddaddy of them All, the Rose Bowl.  That will not change.  But a lot of the rest will, I’m not going to lie.

So here is what the structure would look like.  Obviously there could be some tweaks but I want to have national spotlights for every bowl game:

January 10, 2022	8:00	National Championship	ESPN	#1	#2
January 1, 2022	8:45	USF&G Sugar Bowl	ABC	SEC Champ	at-large
January 1, 2022	5:00	Rose Bowl presented by AT&T	ABC	Big Ten Champ	Pac-12 Champ
January 1, 2022	1:00	Tostitos Fiesta Bowl	NBC	Big Ten	Big XII
December 31, 2021	7:30	FedEx Orange Bowl	NBC	ACC Champ	at-large
December 31, 2021	3:30	Mobil Cotton Bowl	ESPN	Big XII Champ	SEC
December 31, 2021	Noon	Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl	ESPN	at-large	at-large
December 30, 2021	9:00	Bluebonnet Bowl	FOX	Big XII	at-large
December 30, 2021	5:30	Buffalo Wild Wings Citrus Bowl	ESPN	SEC	ACC
December 30, 2021	2:00	Hall of Fame Bowl	ESPN	Big Ten	ACC
December 29, 2021	7:00	Mazda Gator Bowl	CBS	American Champ	at-large
December 29, 2021	3:00	John Hancock Sun Bowl	CBS	Pac-12	at-large
December 28, 2021	8:00	St. Jude Liberty Bowl	ESPN	at-large	at-large
December 25, 2021	3:30	Roady’s Humanitarian Bowl	ESPN	MWC Champ	at-large
December 24, 2021	8:00	All-American Bowl	ESPN	C-USA Champ	at-large
December 24, 2021	4:30	Poulan Weed Eater Independence Bowl	ESPN	Sun Belt Champ	at-large
December 22, 2021	8:00	Pacific Life Holiday Bowl	FOX	Pac-12	at-large
December 21, 2021	10:30	EA Sports Las Vegas Bowl	ESPN	MWC	at-large
December 21, 2021	7:00	GoDaddy.com Bowl	ESPN	at-large	at-large
December 18, 2021	9:30	Alamo Bowl presented by MasterCard	ESPN	at-large	at-large
December 18, 2021	6:00	Little Caesar’s Bowl	ESPN	MAC Champ	at-large
December 18, 2021	2:30	Blockbuster Bowl	ABC	American	at-large
December 18, 2021	11:00	Gaylord Hotels Music City Bowl	ABC	at-large	at-large

Alright this will look quite a bit different than the normal bowl schedule you see these days.  Let’s get into the details:

• There are a lot of at-large bids, more than you would normally see.  Remember, there were always quite a few Independent teams back in the 80s so you can’t tie all the bowls into a conference.
• I can’t do what I do with my postseason fixes and that’s make sure the Group of Five conference champions get to face a Power Five team in a bowl game.  That’s just not possible.  Not saying it won’t happen but it’s not guaranteed.
• There’s one thing I would do differently than used to be done.  I would pit the top two teams against each other AFTER all the bowls are completed.  That would be the true national championship.  The site can be rotated and does not have to be a bowl game site.  Like this year in Indianapolis.
• ESPN isn’t broadcasting 90% of the bowl games here.  I have definitely spread the wealth including what I said earlier in the post: putting the Rose and Sugar Bowls back on ABC.
• I even put in some of the old sponsors.  Some of these businesses don’t even exist anymore!  But man, to hear Brent Musburger say, one more time, “This one is for all the Tostitos” would be great.

Alright this is where it gets a little weird.  Because we only have a few Independent Teams now and some of them are horrible (UMass, UConn), many teams from conferences will have to fill the at-large spots.  This is fine.  What isn’t fine is getting all the tie-ins completed and then doing the at-large bids.  It would mean that the way I have set things, the Sugar Bowl would always get one team that isn’t exactly New Year’s Day worthy if you know what I mean.  To get around this, we will just start from the top and work our way down.  If a bowl committee has an at-large bid and wants a team that’s not an Independent, they can just invite them.  The only thing that’s set here, really, is the conference champion slots.  Those cannot be changed.  Clear as mud, right?  Alright, let’s just fill these in the way I have a feeling they would have been filled in (given the rankings this year):

January 10, 2022	8:00	National Championship	ESPN	#1	#2
January 1, 2022	8:45	USF&G Sugar Bowl	ABC	SEC Champ	at-large	#1 Alabama	#5 Notre Dame
January 1, 2022	5:00	Rose Bowl presented by AT&T	ABC	Big Ten Champ	Pac-12 Champ	#2 Michigan	#11 Utah
January 1, 2022	1:00	Tostitos Fiesta Bowl	NBC	Big Ten	Big XII	#6 Ohio State	#9 Oklahoma State
December 31, 2021	7:30	FedEx Orange Bowl	NBC	ACC Champ	at-large	#12 Pittsburgh	#3 Georgia
December 31, 2021	3:30	Mobil Cotton Bowl	ESPN	Big XII Champ	SEC	#7 Baylor	#8 Ole Miss
December 31, 2021	Noon	Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl	ESPN	at-large	at-large	#10 Michigan State	#17 Wake Forest
December 30, 2021	9:00	Bluebonnet Bowl	FOX	Big XII	at-large	#16 Oklahoma	#13 BYU
December 30, 2021	5:30	Buffalo Wild Wings Citrus Bowl	ESPN	SEC	ACC	#21 Arkansas	#18 NC State
December 30, 2021	2:00	Hall of Fame Bowl	ESPN	Big Ten	ACC	#15 Iowa	#19 Clemson
December 29, 2021	7:00	Mazda Gator Bowl	CBS	American Champ	at-large	#4 Cincinnati	#22 Kentucky
December 29, 2021	3:00	John Hancock Sun Bowl	CBS	Pac-12	at-large	#14 Oregon	#24 San Diego State
December 28, 2021	8:00	St. Jude Liberty Bowl	ESPN	at-large	at-large	#20 Houston	#25 Texas A&M
December 25, 2021	3:30	Roady’s Humanitarian Bowl	ESPN	MWC Champ	at-large	Utah State	Central Michigan
December 24, 2021	8:00	All-American Bowl	ESPN	C-USA Champ	at-large	UTSA	Minnesota
December 24, 2021	4:30	Poulan Weed Eater Independence Bowl	ESPN	Sun Belt Champ	at-large	#23 Louisiana	Wisconsin
December 22, 2021	8:00	Pacific Life Holiday Bowl	FOX	Pac-12	at-large	Arizona State	Fresno State
December 21, 2021	10:30	EA Sports Las Vegas Bowl	ESPN	MWC	at-large	Air Force	UCLA
December 21, 2021	7:00	GoDaddy.com Bowl	ESPN	at-large	at-large	Western Kentucky	Nevada
December 18, 2021	9:30	Alamo Bowl presented by MasterCard	ESPN	at-large	at-large	UAB	SMU
December 18, 2021	6:00	Little Caesar’s Bowl	ESPN	MAC Champ	at-large	Northern Illinois	Purdue
December 18, 2021	2:30	Blockbuster Bowl	ABC	American	at-large	UCF	Appalachian State
December 18, 2021	11:00	Gaylord Hotels Music City Bowl	ABC	at-large	at-large	Coastal Carolina	Army

So how does the national championship game get filed?  Here are the scenarios:

• Alabama is in if they win the Sugar Bowl.
• Michigan is in if they win the Rose Bowl or if Georgia or Alabama lose.
• Georgia is in if they win by a good margin and Michigan does not (or outright loses) or if Alabama loses.
• Cincinnati is in if they blow the bricks off of Kentucky and if Michigan, Georgia, and Ohio State all lose.
• Notre Dame is in if they beat Alabama and if one of Michigan or Georgia loses.

Other than complete chaos, there are no other scenarios for the national championship game in my opinion.

Alright is that better?  I honestly don’t know.  The Cotton Bowl is the same matchup as what we got but some of the other bowl games are wildly different.  I think the addition of the Plus-One is what was always missing from that era and they let it go by the wayside with the introduction of the Bowl Alliance and then the BCS.  Now you can’t put the toothpaste back in the tube and we are headed for an expanded playoff.  Will this kill off the bowl games?  Not unless they don’t bring in the viewers which they still do at this point…to the tune of millions per game in some cases.  Doesn’t mean the system will be good, it just is what it will end up being.

Just a note: the FCS National Championship is Saturday.  You can see it on TSN2 before the Saturday NFL games start.  And then the College Football Playoff is Monday night.  It’s on every TSN channel except TSN5.  As far as I can tell, the normal broadcast will be on TSN1 and TSN4 and the Megacast broadcast will be on TSN2 and TSN3.  And then that will be it for college football for the season (except for the weird all-star games).  So cherish it.  Have a great rest of the week!