It’s the Final Mock Draft!

…..the final Mock Draft!

Yep, not kidding. This is it. I’m not going to do like four in a matter of six days or something ridiculous like that. I have a job and a life (sort of) outside of this blog. I also know things may change on the day of the draft (or more like opening day of the draft). Nothing I can do about that. Let the experts deal with it. Between ESPN and the NFL Network there has to be about 70 mock drafts ready to go in the half hour before the draft begins. So without further adieu, let’s get to l’ébauche finale:

First Round

1	Chicago	Caleb Williams, QB (USC)
2	Washington	Jayden Daniels, QB (LSU)
3	New England	Drake Maye, QB (North Carolina)
4	Arizona	Marvin Harrison Jr., WR (Ohio State)
5	LA Chargers	Malik Nabers, WR (LSU)
6	NY Giants	Dallas Turner, EDGE (Alabama)
7	Tennessee	Terrion Arnold, CB (Alabama)
8	Atlanta	J.J. McCarthy, QB (Michigan)
9	Chicago	Laiatu Latu, EDGE (UCLA)
10	NY Jets	Joe Alt, OT (Notre Dame)
11	Minnesota	Bo Nix, QB (Oregon)
12	Denver	Brock Bowers, TE (Georgia)
13	Las Vegas	Olu Fashanu, OT (Penn State)
14	New Orleans	Rome Odunze, WR (Washington)
15	Indianapolis	Quinyon Mitchell, CB (Toledo)
16	Seattle	Troy Fautanu, G (Washington)
17	Jacksonville	Taliese Fuaga, OT (Oregon State)
18	Cincinnati	J.C. Latham, OT (Alabama)
19	LA Rams	Kool-Aid McKinstry, CB (Alabama)
20	Pittsburgh	Byron Murphy II, DT (Texas)
21	Miami	Jer’Zhan Newton, DT (Illinois)
22	Philadelphia	Jared Verse, DE (Florida State)
23	Minnesota	Chop Robinson, EDGE (Penn State)
24	Dallas	Amarius Mims, OT (Georgia)
25	Green Bay	Cooper DeJean, S (Iowa)
26	Tampa Bay	Michael Penix Jr., QB (Washington)
27	Arizona	Darius Robinson, EDGE (Minnesota)
28	Buffalo	Brian Thomas Jr., WR (LSU)
29	Detroit	Jackson Powers-Johnson, G (Oregon)
30	Baltimore	Graham Barton, G (Duke)
31	San Francisco	Tyler Guyton, OT (Oklahoma)
32	Kansas City	Jordan Morgan, OT (Arizona)

Second Round

33	Carolina	Xavier Legette, WR (South Carolina)
34	New England	Kingsley Suamataia, OT (BYU)
35	Arizona	Nate Wiggins, CB (Clemson)
36	Washington	Zach Frazier, C (West Virginia)
37	LA Chargers	T.J. Tampa, CB (Iowa State)
38	Tennessee	Patrick Paul, OT (Houston)
39	Carolina	Ennis Rakestraw Jr., CB (Missouri)
40	Washington	Troy Franklin, WR (Oregon)
41	Green Bay	Chris Braswell, EDGE (Alabama)
42	Houston	Ruke Orhorhoro, DT (Clemson)
43	Atlanta	Ladd McConkey, WR (Georgia)
44	Las Vegas	Christian Haynes, G (UConn)
45	New Orleans	Marshawn Kneeland, EDGE (Western Michigan)
46	Indianapolis	Xavier Worthy, WR (Texas)
47	NY Giants	Cooper Beebe, G (Kansas State)
48	Jacksonville	Adonai Mitchell, WR (Texas)
49	Cincinnati	T’Vondre Sweat, DT (Texas)
50	Philadelphia	Kamari Lassiter, CB (Georgia)
51	Pittsburgh	Edgerrin Cooper, LB (Texas A&M)
52	LA Rams	Kamren Kinchens, S (Miami)
53	Philadelphia	Ricky Pearsall, WR (Florida)
54	Cleveland	Michael Hall Jr., DT (Ohio State)
55	Miami	Keon Coleman, WR (Florida State)
56	Dallas	Trey Benson, RB (Florida State)
57	Tampa Bay	Ja’Lynn Polk, WR (Washington)
58	Green Bay	Sedrick Van Pran, C (Georgia)
59	Houston	Cam Hart, CB (Notre Dame)
60	Buffalo	Kris Jenkins, DT (Michigan)
61	Detroit	Javon Bullard, CB (Georgia)
62	Baltimore	Roman Wilson, WR (Michigan)
63	San Francisco	Austin Booker, DE (Kansas)
64	Kansas City	Braden Fiske, DT (Florida State)

Third Round

65	Carolina	Cedric Gray, LB (North Carolina)
66	Arizona	Payton Wilson, LB (NC State)
67	Washington	Bralen Trice, EDGE (Washington)
68	New England	Jonathan Brooks, RB (Texas)
69	LA Chargers	Ja’Tavion Sanders, TE (Texas)
70	NY Giants	Caelan Carson, CB (Wake Forest)
71	Arizona	Leonard Taylor III, DT (Miami)
72	NY Jets	Tyler Nubin, S (Minnesota)
73	Detroit	Adisa Isaac, EDGE (Penn State)
74	Atlanta	Brandon Dorius, EDGE (Oregon)
75	Chicago	Christian Mahogany, G (Boston College)
76	Denver	DeWayne Carter, DT (Duke)
77	Las Vegas	Mike Sainristil, CB (Michigan)
78	Washington	Junior Colson, LB (Michigan)
79	Atlanta	Justin Egoigbe, DT (Alabama)
80	Cincinnati	Max Melton, CB (Rutgers)
81	Seattle	Tommy Eichenberg, LB (Ohio State)
82	Indianapolis	Calen Bullock, S (USC)
83	LA Rams	Spencer Rattler, QB (South Carolina)
84	Pittsburgh	Roger Rosengarten, OT (Washington)
85	Cleveland	Kiran Amedagije, OT (Yale)
86	Houston	Malachi Corley, WR (WKU)
87	Dallas	Jermaine Burton, WR (Alabama)
88	Green Bay	Blake Fisher, OT (Notre Dame)
89	Tampa Bay	Cole Bishop, S (Utah)
90	Arizona	Zak Zinter, G (Michigan)
91	Green Bay	Nehemiah Pritchett, CB (Auburn)
92	Tampa Bay	Javion Cohen, G (Miami)
93	Baltimore	Jaylen Wright, RB (Tennessee)
94	Kansas City	Blake Corum, RB (Michigan)
95	San Francisco	Elijah Jones, CB (Boston College)
96	Jacksonville	Kris Abrams-Draine, CB (Missouri)
97	Cincinnati	Johnny Wilson, WR (Florida State)
98	Pittsburgh	Jonah Ellliss, LB (Utah)
99	LA Rams	Jalyx Hunt, EDGE (Houston Christian)
100	Washington	Jalen McMillan, WR (Washington)

There are some strong opinions out there about this draft (like every draft) so let’s go through a few of them:

• The Vikings are going to trade up. This is a likely option but I don’t put trades in my mock drafts because I think dreaming up the trade packages would be insane. Saying that, I wouldn’t be surprised if they traded up to #4 or #5 to get J.J. McCarthy.
• The Cardinals are fielding a lot of trade offers. The top three picks are mostly set even though Drake Maye and Jayden Daniels seem to flip-flop in the second and third spots. The Cards are probably fielding a few offers but not as many as some might think. It will take a lot for them to trade down as they know they would get, arguably, the best overall player of the draft at a position they need.
• The Giants might be the toughest to figure out in the Top 10. Absolutely. They have all sorts of needs so there are probably 10-12 players on their board that they could conceivably take. I still like Dallas Turner at that spot but Terrion Arnold, Laiatu Latu, Brock Bowers, Quinyon Marshall and, hell, even Bo Nix could be picked at #6 by the Geeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee-Men (done in extreme Chris Berman voice).
• If Brock Bowers isn’t picked Top 10 he will fall…FAR. I don’t think so. The Broncos, Colts, Bengals and Dolphins might all take a gander at the big man if he is still sitting in the back room after the tenth pick (which I think he will be).

Other than that there are questions that mostly don’t have answers at this point. Like will the Bills make a surprising leap up the draft now that Stefon Diggs has been dealt? Is Michael Penix Jr. poised to have the biggest leap up the draft boards in the past couple months? Will there be actual players involved in any of the trades over the next few days? It’s a crapshoot and not my expertise so I will steer clear of most of those questions (possibly, possibly and probably are my answers).

Reminder that the draft starts tonight at 8:00 and is emanating from Detroit. Moving the draft around has been fun so let’s see what it’s like in the Motor City. As per usual, ESPN and NFL Network will be doing the entire draft…all seven rounds. I have the ESPN draft pick is in ringtone on my phone but I am still debating which network to watch, at least for night one. I have leaned NFL Network in the past but I have done both over the past decade. It’s a game-time decision.

Finally, on the Twitter Machine (fuck you, Elon) I will be live-tweeting at least the first round and am hoping to do ALL SEVEN this year. Can I do it? Who the fuck knows. Around halfway through round five is where things usually go off the rails and I might struggle to keep going at that point. I mean I will but who knows if I will be posting tweets at that point or semi-conscious, staring at the bag of pretzels on my desk and wondering about important questions in life like “Would Nathan Peterman be successful in the CFL?”

Anyway, enjoy the draft, however much you watch of it.

Time for Mock Draft 3.A.0-5

The A stands for April. Or Awesome. Or Asshole. Whatever.

Mock draft time! And it’s three glorious rounds of (probably) incorrect picks. Lovin’ it! Let’s go!

First Round

1	Chicago	Caleb Williams, QB (USC)
2	Washington	Drake Maye, QB (North Carolina)
3	New England	Jayden Daniels, QB (LSU)
4	Arizona	Marvin Harrison Jr., WR (Ohio State)
5	LA Chargers	Quinyon Mitchell, CB (Toledo)
6	NY Giants	Dallas Turner, EDGE (Alabama)
7	Tennessee	Olu Fashanu, OT (Penn State)
8	Atlanta	Malik Nabers, WR (LSU)
9	Chicago	Rome Odunze, WR (Washington)
10	NY Jets	Joe Alt, OT (Notre Dame)
11	Minnesota	Laiatu Latu, DE (UCLA)
12	Denver	Terrion Arnold, CB (Alabama)
13	Las Vegas	Nate Wiggins, CB (Clemson)
14	New Orleans	Jared Verse, DE (Florida State)
15	Indianapolis	Brian Thomas Jr., WR (LSU)
16	Seattle	J.J. McCarthy, QB (LSU)
17	Jacksonville	Jackson Powers-Johnson, OG (Oregon)
18	Cincinnati	Brock Bowers, TE (Georgia)
19	LA Rams	Bo Nix, QB (Oregon)
20	Pittsburgh	Troy Fautanu, OG (Washington)
21	Miami	Cooper DeJean, S (Iowa)
22	Philadelphia	Adonai Mitchell, WR (Texas)
23	Minnesota	Chop Robinson, EDGE (Penn State)
24	Dallas	Taliese Fuaga, OT (Oregon State)
25	Green Bay	J.C. Latham, OT (Alabama)
26	Tampa Bay	Xavier Worthy, WR (Texas)
27	Arizona	Kool-Aid McKinstry, CB (Alabama)
28	Buffalo	Jer’Zhan Newton, DT (Illinois)
29	Detroit	Byron Murphy II, DT (Texas)
30	Baltimore	Kamari Lassiter, CB (Georgia)
31	San Francisco	Amarius Mims, OT (Georgia)
32	Kansas City	Tyler Guyton, OT (Oklahoma)

Second Round

33	Carolina	Zach Frazier, C (West Virginia)
34	New England	Jordan Morgan, OT (Arizona)
35	Arizona	Darius Robinson, EDGE (Minnesota)
36	Washington	Xavier Legette, WR (South Carolina)
37	LA Chargers	Michael Hall Jr., DT (Ohio State)
38	Tennessee	T.J. Tampa, CB (Iowa State)
39	Carolina	Keon Coleman, WR (Florida State)
40	Washington	Graham Barton, OG (Duke)
41	Green Bay	Tyler Nubin, S (Minnesota)
42	Houston	Chris Braswell, EDGE (Alabama)
43	Atlanta	Michael Penix Jr., QB (Washington)
44	Las Vegas	Kingsley Suamataia, OT (BYU)
45	New Orleans	Ladd McConkey, WR (Georgia)
46	Indianapolis	Kamren Kinchens, S (Miami)
47	NY Giants	Ennis Rakestraw Jr., CB (Missouri)
48	Jacksonville	Patrick Paul, OT (Houston)
49	Cincinnati	Troy Franklin, WR (Oregon)
50	Philadelphia	Edgerrin Cooper, LB (Texas A&M)
51	Pittsburgh	T’Vondre Sweat, DT (Texas)
52	LA Rams	Bralen Trice, EDGE (Washington)
53	Philadelphia	Marshawn Kneeland, EDGE (Western Michigan)
54	Cleveland	Ruke Orhorhoro, DT (Clemson)
55	Miami	Ja’Lynn Polk, WR (Washington)
56	Dallas	Trey Benson, RB (Florida State)
57	Tampa Bay	Adisa Isaac, EDGE (Penn State)
58	Green Bay	Cooper Beebe, OG (Kansas State)
59	Houston	Malachi Corley, WR (WKU)
60	Buffalo	Max Melton, CB (Rutgers)
61	Detroit	Christian Haynes, OG (UConn)
62	Baltimore	Roman Wilson, WR (Michigan)
63	San Francisco	Brandon Dorius, EDGE (Oregon)
64	Kansas City	Jalen McMillan, WR (Washington)

Third Round

65	Carolina	Cedric Gray, LB (North Carolina)
66	Arizona	Sedrick Van Pran, C (Georgia)
67	Washington	Payton Wilson, LB (NC State)
68	New England	Ricky Pearsall, WR (Florida)
69	LA Chargers	Ben Sinnott, TE (Kansas State)
70	NY Giants	Kris Jenkins, DT (Michigan)
71	Arizona	Leonard Taylor III, DT (Miami)
72	NY Jets	Devontez Walker, WR (North Carolina)
73	Detroit	Caelan Carson, CB (Wake Forest)
74	Atlanta	Cam Hart, CB (Notre Dame)
75	Chicago	Ja’Tavion Sanders, TE (Texas)
76	Denver	Javon Bullard, CB (Georgia)
77	Las Vegas	Jonathon Brooks, RB (Texas)
78	Washington	Austin Booker, DE (Kansas)
79	Atlanta	Braden Fiske, DT (Florida State)
80	Cincinnati	Kiran Amedagije, OT (Yale)
81	Seattle	Christian Mahogany, OG (Boston College)
82	Indianapolis	Mike Sainristil, CB (Michigan)
83	LA Rams	D.J. James, CB (Auburn)
84	Pittsburgh	Roger Rosengarten, OT (Washington)
85	Cleveland	Junior Colson, LB (Michigan)
86	Houston	Kris Abrams-Draine, CB (Missouri)
87	Dallas	Renardo Green, CB (Florida State)
88	Green Bay	Khyree Jackson, CB (Oregon)
89	Tampa Bay	Beau Brade, S (Maryland)
90	Arizona	Andru Phillips, CB (Kentucky)
91	Green Bay	Jalyx Hunt, EDGE (Houston Christian)
92	Tampa Bay	Dominick Puni, OG (Kansas)
93	Baltimore	McKinnley Jackson, DT (Texas A&M)
94	Kansas City	Braelon Allen, RB (Wisconsin)
95	San Francisco	Kalen King, CB (Penn State)
96	Jacksonville	Johnny Wilson, WR (Florida State)
97	Cincinnati	Josh Newton, CB (TCU)
98	Pittsburgh	Jeremiah Trotter Jr., LB (Clemson)
99	LA Rams	Calen Bullock, S (USC)
100	Washington	James Williams, S (Miami)

The top few picks seem set in stone. Maybe on in that specific order but those top four will, most likely, be the top four come draft night. As for some of the other picks, man there were some huge drops. Like Kris Jenkins. Only a few weeks ago, a fair amount of mocks had him in the first round. I don’t think he’s even being considered as a first rounder anymore. Almost the same with Byron Murphy II. I had him going fifth to the Chargers which may have been a bit high in retrospect. But for him to drop to almost completely out of the first round is an alarming drop. Sometimes it’s fairly easy to find out what has happened to lower a potential draftee’s stock and sometimes…well, sometimes who the hell knows. It just happens.

Potential Draft Day Trades

OK so these would include trades coming up toward the draft as well, not just the ones on draft opening night. And no, I can’t see the Bears or the Commanders trading their picks so let’s start with the #3 pick.

New England (#3) – Chances of the Patriots trading this pick are slim but considering the haul that some teams have received for a top 3 pick in NFL history, the right package might come along to entice them to trade down. I have a feeling it would take at least two first-rounders, two second-rounders, and at least one other pick.

NY Giants (#6) – Probably the highest pick with true potential to be dealt is the Giants at #6. The Giants desperately need help on both lines but there are a few options available meaning they could trade down a few spots and still get one of the guys they covet. A first-round pick swap would have to happen and the team trading with the G-Men couldn’t be far below the #16 spot for this to work. Other picks would come the Giants way as well.

Tennessee (#7) – This becomes a possibility if the Patriots trade down. The reason is, one of Drake Maye or Jayden Daniels would be available and there are a few teams that would love to trade up to get one of the two. That includes the Falcons, Vikings, Broncos and Raiders. Knowing that, the Titans could get a larger pick haul than the Giants even though the pick would be later.

NY Jets (#10) – The Jets are hoping that Aaron Rodgers will be healthy this year. And to help with that, they want an offensive lineman desperately. The hope is that one of Olu Fashanu or Joe Alt fall to them. If neither of them are available, I would fully expect the Jets to shop the pick and they could drop a fair way if they wanted to.

The Vikings feel like the most likely pick to move up since, for some reason, many are saying they really want J.J. McCarthy. I think it would be crazy to trade up because I think McCarthy, at least at this point, would be available to the Vikings at #11. Maybe I’m wrong with that. They would most likely just trade picks but they have one bargaining chip that some teams might not be able to ignore: Justin Jefferson. If the Vikings can’t extend Double J, then they might include him in a trade to see what they could get. Arizona would be a trading partner if (and only if) this was a possibility.

In non-draft news, the UFL has commenced their season. Not exactly a ton of fans for a couple of these games but some wacky shit happened. Jake Bates hit a 64-yard field goal to help his Michigan Stags beat St. Louis. Funny enough, it was on the same uprights that Justin Tucker kicked his NFL-record 67-yarder to beat the Lions a couple years ago. Then you had San Antonio punter Brad Wing throwing a 40-yard touchdown pass on 4th and 11 to the team’s centre Alex Mollette. So at least it’s entertaining, you have to give it that. And it’s football. A tiny appetizer before the CFL, then college football, then NFL season starts. So embrace it. Or don’t. I don’t care. I realize March Madness was on this past weekend so I can see why people might not watch.

OK I will do one more mock draft closer to actual draft day (which starts April 25th). And even then, most of my picks will be wrong. At least I can take solace in the fact that I will have close to the same record as the so-called experts have.

The college schedule is coming into form. It’s kind of tough with the changes coming up this season so for good parts of the schedule I have nothing to compare it to. So we shall see how that goes when I start doing my most important game posts. Anyway, I hope you all had a great Easter long weekend and have a great first week of April.

The ALL-NEW Mock NFL Draft Version 2 Dash 2024 along with a look-back

That intro sounds like when The (Big Money!) Match Game 1976 would air on Game Show Network. Why did they need to put the year in? When people were watching it live, were they so fucking stoned that they had to be reminded what year it was?

Anyway, I am starting this post a couple days after Selection Sunday. Now I am not an avid college basketball watcher but I know they screwed some of these picks up. And remember, when a conference gets a team in, they get more money. That’s important. The ACC got five teams in and Virginia was one of them and they may be one of the worst at-large choices ever. A few teams that were left out, most notably Oklahoma and Indiana State, were, by most metrics, better choices. But the ACC is THE big basketball brand and only having four teams in would look disastrous. Fully deserved, mind you. But still disastrous. Luckily, I don’t care as much as I do with college football but these tournament committees are fucking terrible in every sport.

Let’s get to the root of this post: the next mock draft. I know…two mock drafts before the end of March? Haven’t done that in quite a while. And, of course, quite a bit changed thanks to the Kreepy Kombine and scouts changing their minds as much as they change their underwear (so about once every four days). Here’s the newest mock draft, now expanded to two rounds for your pleasure.

First Round

1	Chicago	Caleb Williams, QB (USC)
2	Washington	Drake Maye, QB (North Carolina)
3	New England	Jayden Daniels, QB (LSU)
4	Arizona	Marvin Harrison Jr., WR (Ohio State)
5	LA Chargers	Byron Murphy II, DT (Texas)
6	NY Giants	Dallas Turner, EDGE (Alabama)
7	Tennessee	Joe Alt, OT (Notre Dame)
8	Atlanta	Malik Nabers, WR (LSU)
9	Chicago	Rome Odunze, WR (Washington)
10	NY Jets	Olu Fashanu, OT (Penn State)
11	Minnesota	Laiatu Latu, DE (UCLA)
12	Denver	Jared Verse, DE (Florida State)
13	Las Vegas	Quinyon Mitchell, CB (Toledo)
14	New Orleans	Brian Thomas Jr., WR (LSU)
15	Indianapolis	Nate Wiggins, CB (Clemson)
16	Seattle	Bo Nix, QB (Oregon)
17	Jacksonville	Terrion Arnold, CB (Alabama)
18	Cincinnati	Brock Bowers, TE (Georgia)
19	LA Rams	Cooper DeJean, S (Iowa)
20	Pittsburgh	Troy Fautanu, OG (Washington)
21	Miami	Kris Jenkins, DT (Michigan)
22	Philadelphia	Xavier Worthy, WR (Texas)
23	Houston	Jer’Zhan Newton, DT (Illinois)
24	Dallas	Jackson Powers-Johnson, OG (Oregon)
25	Green Bay	Graham Barton, OG (Duke)
26	Tampa Bay	J.J. McCarthy, QB (Michigan)
27	Arizona	Zach Frazier, OG (West Virginia)
28	Buffalo	Tyler Nubin, S (Minnesota)
29	Detroit	Darius Robinson, EDGE (Minnesota)
30	Baltimore	Adonai Mitchell, WR (Texas)
31	San Francisco	Taliese Fuaga, OT (Oregon State)
32	Kansas City	J.C. Latham, OT (Alabama)

Second Round

33	Carolina	Chop Robinson, EDGE (Penn State)
34	New England	Tyler Guyton, OT (Oklahoma)
35	Arizona	Kool-Aid McKinstry, CB (Alabama)
36	Washington	Xavier Legette, WR (South Carolina)
37	LA Chargers	Kamari Lassiter, CB (Georgia)
38	Tennessee	Cam Hart, CB (Notre Dame)
39	NY Giants	Michael Hall Jr., DT (Ohio State)
40	Washington	Payton Wilson, LB (NC State)
41	Green Bay	Amarius Mims, OT (Georgia)
42	Minnesota	Michael Penix Jr., QB (Washington)
43	Atlanta	Ennis Rakestraw Jr., CB (Missouri)
44	Las Vegas	Jordan Morgan, OT (Arizona)
45	New Orleans	Kingsley Suamataia, OT (BYU)
46	Indianapolis	Kamren Kinchens, S (Miami)
47	NY Giants	T.J. Tampa, CB (Iowa State)
48	Jacksonville	Ladd McConkey, WR (Georgia)
49	Cincinnati	Keon Coleman, WR (Florida State)
50	Philadelphia	Chris Braswell, EDGE (Alabama)
51	Pittsburgh	Edgerrin Cooper, LB (Texas A&M)
52	LA Rams	Bralen Trice, EDGE (Washington)
53	Philadelphia	Mike Sainristil, CB (Michigan)
54	Cleveland	Braden Fiske, DT (Florida State)
55	Miami	Troy Franklin, WR (Oregon)
56	Dallas	Paul Patrick, OT (Houston)
57	Tampa Bay	Cooper Beebe, OG (Kansas State)
58	Green Bay	Javon Bullard, S (Georgia)
59	Houston	Roman Wilson, WR (Michigan)
60	Buffalo	T’Vondre Sweat, DT (Texas)
61	Detroit	Christian Haynes, OG (UConn)
62	Baltimore	Ruke Orhorhoro, DT (Clemson)
63	San Francisco	Marshawn Kneeland, EDGE (Western Michigan)
64	Kansas City	Ricky Pearsall, WR (Florida)

Are there some changes? Absolutely? Are they Earth-shattering? Not really. Although you can expect at least one of these current second-rounders to rocket up draft boards for reasons that are sometimes, well, unknown or make no sense. By this point teams should know what they see in a player. So unless that player does something negative, they shouldn’t go from a consensus low-second rounder to a mid-first round pick in a matter of a little over a month. But hey, what do I know.

Also, what is with the sudden J.J. McCarthy hype? It has that feel of some people wanting McCarthy to go higher so they are basically willing it to happen. Any team that would consider drafting McCarthy in the Top 10 is obviously fine with extreme risk. Not saying McCarthy won’t end up being good but his college career has shown nothing that says he will be a top-end starter.

OK so years ago (nine to be exact), I used part of a mock draft post to talk about sites I enjoy. And it was definitely also about helping my blog in a way since I was still pretty green at the time (two years in). Let’s look back and see if I still feel the same way about these sites.

Matt’s College Sports Media Blog – Along with Matt’s College Sports on TV is still the premier site for college football and college basketball TV scheduling news and notes. I think he still likes Formula One racing which is great if you like that. He’s also a Bills fan which is pretty damn awesome.

Phil Steele – Still the best college football preview magazine. There are other good ones out there but nothing comes close. And his site fills in the gaps. I am assuming many hardcore college football fans subscribe to his site to get a lot of great stats and gambling info. I tried it for a couple of years and it was almost overwhelming. Still…worth it just to peruse all the free stuff he does put up, which is a lot.

A Rouge Point – This site does not exist anymore. Actually, it ceased to exist not even a year after I published this original post. It’s too bad since it was a great look at sports media coverage in Canada and posted NFL and NHL schedules for Canadian viewers.

Deadspin – Speaking of sites that are no longer around, this site might as well be. At one point it was one of the great sports sites on the net. It wasn’t long after I made the original post that things started to go downhill. A site that used to be brash and willing to take on all comers became a bunch of writers who thought they were the moral compass of a good portion of the Internet (especially sports fans). Even their best writers became insufferable. Then they all got fired/walked out in late 2019 when a company told them to stick to sports which made the site even worse. Now, it looks like they have been bought out, the staff was fired (again) and they look to be getting into the sports gambling industry. Ugh.

Awful Announcing – A site that used to absolutely skewer announcers (and sometimes athletes and sports organizations in general) has gone away from their bread and butter. They still throw up the occasional great article but aren’t as good as they were in their heyday.

LSUfootball.net – The first site I came upon when figuring out the sheer amount of games available for college football viewing…in the United States. Still a very informative site.

Alright another mock draft and post in the books. I assume most of you have March Madness brackets going. Chances of me going perfect ended at the end of the first game and I’ve already lost one of my Final Four picks. Good times. Have a great rest of the weekend everyone!

2024 NCAA Basketball Conference Tournament TV Schedule

Holy shit that came up fast. It felt like only a week ago we were a ways away from conference tournament time. Then BOOM! Here we are. Even with a leap year, March crept up on me.

This is my eighth time doing this. This will be some of the last games of any sport shown on the Pac-12 Network so indulge yourself. Or don’t. Not like it’s a great conference network or anything. Alright, let us begin.

March 8th	OVC Semi-Final #1	8:00
March 8th	OVC Semi-Final #2	10:30
March 9th	MVC Semi-Final #1	3:30
March 9th	MVC Semi-Final #2	6:00
March 9th	OVC Championship	8:00
March 9th	WCC Quarter-Final #1	10:00
March 10th	WCC Quarter-Final #2	12:30 AM
March 10th	Big South Championship	Noon
March 10th	MVC Championship	2:00
March 10th	A-Sun Championship	2:00
March 10th	Patriot League Semi-Final #1	2:00
March 10th	SoCon Semi-Final #1	4:00
March 10th	Patriot League Semi-Final #2	4:00
March 10th	SoCon Semi-Final #2	6:30
March 11th	CAA Semi-Final #1	6:00
March 11th	Horizon Semi-Final #1	7:00
March 11th	SoCon Championship	7:00
March 11th	Sun Belt Championship	7:00
March 11th	CAA Semi-Final #2	8:30
March 11th	WCC Semi-Final #1	9:00
March 11th	Horizon Semi-Final #2	9:30
March 11th	WCC Semi-Final #2	11:30
March 12th	ACC First Round #1	2:00
March 12th	ACC First Round #2	4:30
March 12th	America East Semi-Final #1	5:00
March 12th	Southland Semi-Final #1	6:30
March 12th	ACC First Round #3	7:00
March 12th	NEC Championship	7:00
March 12th	CAA Championship	7:00
March 12th	Horizon Championship	7:00
March 12th	Big Sky Semi-Final #1	8:30
March 12th	WCC Championship	9:00
March 12th	Summit Championship	9:30
March 12th	Big Sky Semi-Final #2	11:00
March 13th	ACC Second Round #1	Noon
March 13th	Big XII Second Round #1	12:30
March 13th	ACC Second Round #2	2:30
March 13th	Pac-12 First Round #1	3:00
March 13th	Southland Championship	5:00
March 13th	Pac-12 First Round #2	5:30
March 13th	ACC Second Round #3	7:00
March 13th	SEC First Round #1	7:00
March 13th	Patriot Championship	7:00
March 13th	Pac-12 First Round #3	9:00
March 13th	SEC First Round #2	9:30
March 13th	ACC Second Round #4	9:30
March 13th	Big XII Second Round #4	9:30
March 13th	Big Sky Championship	11:30
March 13th	Pac-12 First Round #4	11:30
March 14th	ACC Quarter-Final #1	Noon
March 14th	Big Ten Second Round #1	Noon
March 14th	Big XII Quarter-Final #1	12:30
March 14th	American Second Round #1	12:30
March 14th	SEC Second Round #1	1:00
March 14th	ACC Quarter-Final #2	2:30
March 14th	Big Ten Second Round #2	2:30
March 14th	Big XII Quarter-Final #2	3:00
March 14th	American Second Round #2	3:00
March 14th	MWC Quarter-Final #1	3:00
March 14th	Pac-12 Quarter-Final #1	3:00
March 14th	SEC Second Round #2	3:30
March 14th	MWC Quarter-Final #2	5:30
March 14th	Pac-12 Quarter-Final #2	5:30
March 14th	Big Ten Second Round #3	6:30
March 14th	ACC Quarter-Final #3	7:00
March 14th	Big XII Quarter-Final #3	7:00
March 14th	American Second Round #3	7:00
March 14th	SEC Second Round #3	7:00
March 14th	Big Ten Second Round #4	9:00
March 14th	MWC Quarter-Final #3	9:00
March 14th	Pac-12 Quarter-Final #3	9:00
March 14th	ACC Quarter-Final #4	9:30
March 14th	Big XII Quarter-Final #4	9:30
March 14th	American Second Round #4	9:30
March 14th	SEC Second Round #4	9:30
March 14th	MWC Quarter-Final #4	11:30
March 15th	Big Ten Quarter-Final #1	Noon
March 15th	C-USA Semi-Final #1	12:30
March 15th	American Quarter-Final #1	1:00
March 15th	SEC Quarter-Final #1	1:00
March 15th	Big Ten Quarter-Final #2	2:30
March 15th	American Quarter-Final #2	3:00
March 15th	C-USA Semi-Final #2	3:00
March 15th	SEC Quarter-Final #2	3:30
March 15th	MAC Semi-Final #1	5:00
March 15th	Big East Semi-Final #1	5:30
March 15th	MAAC Semi-Final #1	6:00
March 15th	Big Ten Quarter-Final #3	6:30
March 15th	ACC Semi-Final #1	7:00
March 15th	Big XII Semi-Final #1	7:00
March 15th	American Quarter-Final #3	7:00
March 15th	SEC Quarter-Final #3	7:00
March 15th	MAC Semi-Final #2	7:30
March 15th	Pac-12 Semi-Final #1	8:00
March 15th	MAAC Semi-Final #2	8:30
March 15th	American Quarter-Final #4	9:00
March 15th	Big Ten Quarter-Final #4	9:00
March 15th	ACC Semi-Final #2	9:30
March 15th	Big XII Semi-Final #2	9:30
March 15th	SEC Quarter-Final #4	9:30
March 15th	MWC Semi-Final #1	9:30
March 15th	WAC Semi-Final #2	11:30
March 15th	Big West Semi-Final #2	11:30
March 16th	MWC Semi-Final #2	Midnight
March 16th	America East Championship	11:00 AM
March 16th	Ivy League Semi-Final #1	11:00 AM
March 16th	A-10 Semi-Final #1	1:00
March 16th	Big Ten Semi-Final #1	1:00
March 16th	SEC Semi-Final #1	1:00
March 16th	MEAC Championship	1:00
March 16th	American Semi-Final #1	3:00
March 16th	SEC Semi-Final #2	3:00
March 16th	A-10 Semi-Final #2	3:30
March 16th	Big Ten Semi-Final #2	3:30
March 16th	American Semi-Final #2	5:00
March 16th	SWAC Championship	5:30
March 16th	MWC Championship	6:00
March 16th	Big XII Championship	6:00
March 16th	Big East Championship	6:30
March 16th	MAAC Championship	7:30
March 16th	MAC Championship	7:30
March 16th	ACC Championship	8:30
March 16th	C-USA Championship	8:30
March 16th	Pac-12 Championship	9:00
March 16th	Big West Championship	9:30
March 16th	WAC Championship	11:30
March 17th	Ivy League Championship	Noon
March 17th	A-10 Championship	1:00
March 17th	SEC Championship	1:00
March 17th	American Championship	3:15
March 17th	Big Ten Championship	3:30
March 17th	Selection Sunday	6:00

Some Greg Gumbel-ish notes

• Hey what happened to the Selection Sunday show being on TBS every other year? They tried it once, realized it was one of the dumbest ideas in recent college basketball broadcasting history and turfed it. Greg Gumbel (and his Selection Sunday pals) belong on CBS at 6:00 after the Big Ten Championship. Period.
• There are still so many conference tournaments in the New York City and Las Vegas areas. I find it hilarious that some of these conferences, despite not even having NYC or Vegas in their conference footprint, continue to put the tournaments there and then wonder why they aren’t selling out games. Mindblowing.
• So it looks like if you don’t have TSN+ you aren’t watching much conference tournament action. Damn near every game that TSN is showing is going to their new streaming platform. Is it surprising? Not really. Now, if TSN+ starts getting a shit-ton of everything, including more college basketball and football, junior hockey, maybe some Canadian university sports as well, then I can say it may be worth the cost. It’s the path we are heading towards so if you are a big-time cablehead and don’t want to move off of it then get ready to be frustrated.
• As I mentioned above, this is the last few months of the Pac-12 Network, which we have more access to than most Americans. How stupid is that conference. Or was that conference…*pause to shed a tear*…Anyway, the final Pac-12 Network basketball game ever will air on March 15th so if you want to, um, witness some history, watch that game. Then all that will be left, in terms of team sports, is baseball and softball. Then no more Pac-12 come the summer. What a quiet, sad end.

I am under the assumption that the First Four will also go to TSN+. I would be shocked if it didn’t. As for the first round games, with TSN’s wraparound coverage on a few different channels, you should be able to see portions of every single game so no problems there. I will keep things updated here if any conference tournament games magically get pushed from TSN+ to one of the TSN stations (although I don’t see that happening).

The Kreepy Kombine is over so I will be putting up another mock draft. Maybe I will add another round in there. Who knows!

I am slowly putting together the schedule for this upcoming season and it is quite difficult since so much has changed that there are some things I can’t compare to previous years. Hell, the MAC hasn’t even put out their schedule yet so that makes it damn near impossible to complete this puzzle (the MAC finally announced their schedule yesterday). I mean I would I love to put out schedule-based posts in May? Sure. I may even do that and not worry about broadcast information at that point. Everything is up in the air. Have a great week everyone!

If I had the power to change things – UPDATED VERSION!

I did this post over nine years ago. Crazy, right? I went over some of the things I would do if I was put in control of college football. So maybe it’s about time to see how I did and then look at a few more things I would do. Let’s fucking go with this potential bullshit!

1. In OT, they should start farther back than the 25-yard line. OK they still haven’t changed this and they have made it worse by going to the 2-point shootout after the second overtime period. That is so ridiculous. Either take out the gimmick (which reminds me of the penalty shootout at the end of regular season hockey games which also drives me nuts) or make it so teams can tie after two overtime periods like in the CFL. College football had the greatest overtime format and they have somehow been overtaken by the NFL who, for all the good they do with rule changes, spent years fucking up their overtime games and basically stumbled upon rules changes thanks to the Bills and…well, I don’t want to talk about it.
2. Stop time after EVERY first down makes the game a little longer than most can handle. They listened! THEY LISTENED! Kind of. I had proposed doing it in the final five minutes of each half or even in the second and fourth quarter only. They do it all game now. Which is good? Problem is, some of that saved time has gone to more ad breaks. That is not so good. All in all, we will call this a push but it definitely leads into my next point that I had made…
3. Three-hour TV windows are dumb. This is still the case. And it’s done even more than it was back then. ESPN does it a few times a year with their evening games by pushing them to 6:00 and 9:00 so that the late SEC game isn’t TOO late. Now the ACC Network also does this one week, usually Week 2. They have so many games for their teams that they have to do this. At least they are smart enough to start at 11:00 and this past season, moved to three hour, fifteen minute windows for some of the games. That’s a perfect compromise. Expect other conference networks to potentially try this with conferences becoming bloated.
4. Can we stop with the games against FCS schools outside of the first month? No, it seems like they can’t. The SEC has dialed it back a bit. Only about half their teams (if that) play those games during the penultimate weekend of the regular season. But now we have the ACC doing it now. Stop it. Please. Play them in October. November should be for the biggest games, not Western Illinois (no offense to the Leathernecks) going to Georgia to get their asses handed to them for three-quarters of a mil.
5. Start Division 4 right now. I think I need to tweak this idea since a fuck-ton of realignment has happened in nine years. I am going to change this into football becoming its own special college sport and not totally following conference alignments in the rest of the sports. Don’t get me wrong, some of the realignments have been good but many have been weird, head-scratching, money-hungry or just plain dumb. So let football have their own conference alignments and allow the rest of the sports to go back to having the Southwest Conference or the Metro Conference or maybe other, better, more geographically sensible conferences since even in basketball, going halfway across the United States for a Tuesday night conference game is beyond ridiculous.
6. Is it time about time that CIS teams move south so to speak? At the time, I used Simon Fraser being in D-II as a starting point. Now, SFU doesn’t even have a football team thanks to their athletic department being a complete dumpster fire (not to mention much of the administration). Rogers still has their NHL contract for another few years (and there seems to be a bit of regret on their end which I mentioned would happen) so any CIS football, especially OUA, won’t be shown on their network any time soon. Maybe TSN can step up a bit with TSN+. Putting even one game a week (to start) on the streaming platform would be a good beginning to get eyeballs back on university football in this country. So, do I still think CIS teams should join the NCAA? Not nearly as much as I used to but some programs (I’m looking at you, York) need to seriously think about whether continuing having a football program is worth it.
7. Let us all be able to get the ESPNs, FOX Sports 1, etc. Yeah not even close. The amount of games available to us up here is still the same, if not a bit less now. Peacock has joined the fray and we cannot get those games up here. Still can’t get any of the FOX, FS1 or, now, FS2 games up here in Canada. I’ve always said (and I will continue to say it) that the death of cable (which still will happen regardless of all these streaming services teaming up in a way) will partially come down to not giving the customers what they want to see, especially if they are willing to pay for it. I had mentioned years ago that I would pay a few hundred bucks a season if I could have access to have every FBS game on TV. Every one. I don’t care about news or movies or TV shows or much else. Those I can watch when I want on Netflix or Hulu or Amazon Prime or some other streaming service if I really want to. But college football is the one thing I would want all of and should have the ability to get but I have the god damn audacity to be Canadian. What a dick I am. So yeah, this should still happen.
8. Do not put out the CFP poll until the bowl games are being selected. Because The Committee is filled with people who know college football but struggle with logic, you get situations like you got this past season. It easily (and I mean FUCKING EASILY) could have been rectified if when they had dropped Florida State to #5 after Week 13, they kept them there after Week 14, even though they knew one of Michigan and Ohio State was going to lose. Sure it wouldn’t have been that well received but then they wouldn’t have looked like complete assholes when they dropped them in the final poll to destroy their national championship hopes. If they wait until just as the bowl games and playoff seedings are being selected, then there’s not nearly as much of a problem. Debate all you want but at least you don’t compare it to previous weeks’ polls which make The Committee look like fucking idiots.

Alright, that was the list nine long years ago. I was in my 30s. And, looking at my body, a lot fitter. I hate the fact that injuries can happen due to nothing but air and movement these days. Other than what I see in the mirror, a lot has changed in college football as well since then. So I guess I have to come up with a few more things I would change. Here we go.

1. Someone other than the NCAA has to put forth strict NIL rules and regulations. This feels like a no-brainer. When NIL started, it was great. Great stories of these players getting some nice deals and some players even sharing the wealth with their teammates. Awesome. Then, to the shock of absolutely no one, things got out of hand. Quickly. Now players are making hundreds of thousands of dollars (which is fine) but it has nothing to do with their name, image or likeness. All it has to do with a booster (or group of boosters) ponying up a bunch of money to buy a player’s loyalty (for at least a year). Isn’t this the same kind of shit SMU got the death penalty for? There has to be rules to all this and keeping boosters out of the player payment business would be first and foremost on that agenda. Start there, draft something up, tell all the teams they will abide by it or there will be penalties. Keep going against the rules, you will give up the one thing they all covet: money. If a program is fined millions of dollars, they will think twice of allowing some of these boosters, who think they can do whatever the fuck they feel like, from digging their claws into some of their roster.
2. Football players (if not players in other sports) should be able to drop down to a part-time course load during the season. Playing college sports is not easy. You have to organize your time. I remember when I was a university athlete. I couldn’t get things right. I found it too difficult to commit to a sport AND a full-time course load. I am sure other athletes feel the same way. And the way college athletics are going, these students don’t need to finish their degrees before they leave school. They should be able to finish when they can. This may also push some student-athletes to be in more difficult programs. I mean there can only be so many communications jobs out there, right?
3. Targeting HAS to be figured out. Does anyone really know what targeting is? Hell, the officials struggle to figure it out so I am not surprised everyone else is perplexed by it. Most of it seems to centre around hitting a player with the crown of your helmet. And yes, it’s dangerous. I still remember getting speared in practice in high school by a guy who had never been on special teams before. It knocked the wind out me something fierce. It’s a player safety issue and has to be taken seriously. Splitting the penalty into Targeting 1 and Targeting 2 penalties is a good start in my opinion. Targeting 2 can be reserved for the egregious penalties where the player deserves to be ejected. And hell, throw a 20-yard penalty on to it instead of a 15. Hopefully that helps a bit. Targeting 1 can still be 15 yards but the player stays in the game. The coaches and players may understand this better and we can see how it goes for a few years before looking into it again and adjusting it where need be.
4. If there are going to be more superconferences (and less conferences in FBS in general) it’s time all conferences go to nine conference games. A few years back I would have railed against this idea but I didn’t realize that conferences might hit the 20-team mark in the next few years. Give it a decade and there is no way there will be nine conferences like there are now. At least one, if not multiple, conferences will cease to exist. With upwards of 18 teams at this point, putting an extra conference game makes all the sense in the world. Many Power Five teams can still have their one FCS non-conference game (which gives some FCS teams a much needed infusion of cash), along with a Group of Five non-conference game. Add a P5 non-conference game and there you go. See how easy that is? Do I have to figure everything out for you guys?

Are there other things needed to “fix” college football? Of course. It feels like college football is barreling down (in one of those Japanese bullet trains) towards no return. Where it will look not a whole lot different than the minor league of the NFL. It kind of is already but in 2030 I have a feeling we will look at even just before COVID and say “college football wasn’t like that, was it?”

The combine is occurring and I am glad to see some players saying “Fuck that noise.” If scouts can’t figure things out from the absolute avalanche of game film on these guys then they should find another line of work. No, instead we have to do drills that, as much as some want to say otherwise, don’t mean a whole lot compared to how they play the game. Tom fucking Brady just ran the 40 faster at 46 years old than he did when he was at the Combine. If that doesn’t tell you that the Combine is just basically Scouting Bonerfest, I don’t know what will.

Anyway, the UFL is coming up at the end of the month and I am less than mildly interested. I’ll watch but I won’t be really watching. Now, this European League of Football…if I could get that it would be interesting. It looks like if you had MACtion in Germany. I love it. Anyway, everyone have a great week.

Yes, it’s already the first mock draft of the year (along with some network change news)

Do I have time to do this? No. So why am I doing it? I honestly don’t know. I think I just feel I should put a bit more into the offseason portion of my blog. I mean it is half the year and there have been times I have gone dark for like a month. What will people read? The newspaper? Get the fuck outta here.

Honestly, I feel that even though this blog will turn 11 in a few months, I haven’t tried enough to take it to the next level, so to speak. Maybe not more posts but better posts. More informative stuff. It almost feels like this may be a make-or-break twelve months for me. With all the shit I have to do to get my career to the next step, it means there will be less and less time to do stuff I enjoy, like this blog. I always have to remind myself why I started this in the first place: to organize my own college football viewing. It allowed me to watch more college football than ever before and be efficient with it as well, while still making time for my kids. Then again, I ended up separated four months after the blog started so…..yeah.

So let’s just get on with the first mock draft of who knows how many leading up to the draft and hey how about that, look who’s going first overall.

1	Chicago	Caleb Williams, QB (USC)
2	Washington	Jayden Daniels, QB (LSU)
3	New England	Drake Maye, QB (North Carolina)
4	Arizona	Marvin Harrison Jr., WR (Ohio State)
5	LA Chargers	Brock Bowers, TE (Georgia)
6	NY Giants	Byron Murphy II, DT (Texas)
7	Tennessee	Joe Alt, OT (Notre Dame)
8	Atlanta	Malik Nabers, WR (LSU)
9	Chicago	Rome Odunze, WR (Washington)
10	NY Jets	Olumuyiwa Fashanu, OT (Penn State)
11	Minnesota	Dallas Turner, OLB (Alabama)
12	Denver	Laiatu Latu, DE (UCLA)
13	Las Vegas	Bo Nix, QB (Oregon)
14	New Orleans	J.C. Latham, OT (Alabama)
15	Indianapolis	Nate Wiggins, CB (Clemson)
16	Seattle	Kris Jenkins, DT (Michigan)
17	Jacksonville	Quinyon Mitchell, CB (Toledo)
18	Cincinnati	Michael Hall Jr., DT (Ohio State)
19	LA Rams	Kamren Kitchens, S (Miami)
20	Pittsburgh	Jordan Morgan, OT (Arizona)
21	Miami	Troy Fautanu, OG (Washington)
22	Philadelphia	Jared Verse, DE (Florida State)
23	Houston	Kamari Lassiter, CB (Georgia)
24	Dallas	Brian Thomas Jr., WR (LSU)
25	Green Bay	Cooper DeJean, S (Iowa)
26	Tampa Bay	Xavier Legette, WR (South Carolina)
27	Arizona	Terrion Arnold, CB (Alabama)
28	Buffalo	Kool-Aid McKinstry, CB (Alabama)
29	Detroit	Cam Hart, CB (Notre Dame)
30	Baltimore	Xavier Worthy, WR (Texas)
31	San Francisco	Tyler Guyton, OT (Oklahoma)
32	Kansas City	Tallies Fuaga, OT (Oregon State)

I am firmly in the camp that says that the Bears will trade Justin Fields. Whether it’s before the draft, during the draft, or after the draft, I don’t know. I just can’t see them passing up on Williams when they could get him AND a really good receiver for their first two picks. On top of that, they could get more picks that will help them later in the draft or in the following year’s event. Not quite a win-win but damn near close. The Commanders and Patriots also need quarterbacks desperately so they will be watching what the Bears do very closely…and possibly even calling them to inquire about how much it would take to trade for that top pick of theirs. Other interesting notes from this first kick at the can:

• The first team that doesn’t need a quarterback is the Cardinals and they are very much hoping the Bears take Caleb Williams since it will mean that Marvin Harrison Jr. will fall into their lap. Pairing him with Kyler Murray could be quite something for a moribund Cards’ offense.
• The Chargers need almost everything that isn’t the quarterback position. If I am them, I nab Bowers, pick another receiver up later on, and bulk up the offense. Win games in true Big XII fashion this coming season. It may be their only hope at getting close to a playoff spot.
• Any potential steals here? Not really but the Saints nabbing Latham at #14 would be good value as would the Eagles picking up Jared Verse at #22.

Will I do more mock drafts? Of course. When? I have no clue.

Now let’s look at the changes coming to conferences and broadcast networks in the Fall. There really is only one major change but it does have a domino effect. The SEC is now fully on ABC/ESPN/SEC Network/ESPN2/ESPNU (if they absolutely have to be) and ESPN+ because they are contractually obligated to be once a season (at least that’s the way the previous SEC contract played out). With the SEC on ABC, they will easily get the majority of the Saturday night games. Not all, but with 14 weeks worth of games, the SEC will get no less than ten of those.

So that domino effect…SEC had every evening ESPN game last year. I can’t see that being the case since that would compete directly with the game on ABC. So they should get a lot less of those and they should get filled with the ACC and Big XII. The American might end up actually getting more games on ESPN with this new arrangement which seems crazy but with the ACC and, to a lesser extent, the Big XII getting hurt by this from a Disney/ESPN perspective, the American Conference is ready to pick up a few pieces here and there.

The Big XII won’t cry about this though. For everything they will end up losing from ESPN/ABC, they will gain more than that quite possibly from the FOX side of things. Sure, the Big Ten will get many of the Big Noon Kickoff games. But beyond that? Remember, the Big Ten has a game a week on CBS, a game a week on NBC and eight games on Peacock. Also, you might see a couple of late night Big Ten affairs on the Big Ten Network. So there will be plenty of spots on FOX and FOX Sports One for the Big XII to fill in since there is no more Pac-12. The other conference that wins here? The Mountain West. They should get a lot more FS1 games with how things are shaking out.

So even though the SEC and Big Ten will start to dominate the landscape of college football, we might get more chances than ever to watch other conferences. Now if they can just figure out how to get FS1 games up here legally and Canadians won’t have any reason to complain about access to CFB games in the future ever again (other than the one Notre Dame game a season on Peacock and weird stuff like the Hawaii Tests).

Alright more posts to come but no football for over a month. The UFL starts in late March and I’m…honestly not that excited about it but it’s football so I am sure will watch some at some point since it’s football and I love football. Better than watching the news, right? Have a good weekend everyone!

Time for the Superest of Bowls (in theory)

Let’s be honest: this is not the Super Bowl matchup that most wanted. Most wanted the darlings of the NFL, the hapless Detroit Lions, to finally ascend the big game for the first time in franchise history. Who did many want as their opponent? Not the Kansas City Chiefs. It wouldn’t have mattered who the Chiefs were up against, most would have wanted the other team to win. Alas, neither thing happened

The Ravens decided to play their worst game of the season at the most inopportune time, abandoning their running game in rainy weather because…well I don’t know why. Some say the Chiefs had the Ravens number but Baltimore ran the ball only sixteen times. Idiots. The Lions, on the other hand, allowed a pretty damn big comeback from the Niners to lose their shot at glory. Now, we can all debate whether Dan Campbell’s penchant for being uber-aggressive and going for it on fourth down twice was the right call (I lean to the second time, at least, being a spot where you try the field goal, if not both but that’s just me). In the end, however, they missed on both of those plays, the Niners took advantage and Mr. Irrelevant gets a chance to hoist the Lombardi Trophy. Which isn’t a bad backup feelgood story, no?

Anyway, last year I did a bit of a Super Bowl preview post. Then again, I was off work at the time so I had plenty of time to do so. But…..let’s just do another one, for old time’s sake. (Short) Breakdown of the game:

Offense – Very close. Both teams have arguably the best offenses in the league. They can be fun to watch and tough to defend. I think the Chiefs have the slight edge with the better offensive line but this is almost a push.

Defense – Not quite as close but maybe closer than you think. The Niners have the better defense but the Chiefs looked awfully good against the Ravens a couple weeks back.

Special Teams – Tough call here. Harrison Butker is one of the best kickers in the league but the Niners have a great return game. Call it a wash once again.

Coaching – It’s Andy Reid, folks. Despite his sometimes questionable clock management skills, he is still one of the best coaches of all-time. Kyle Shanahan is good too but has already lost once to Reid and everyone remembers the Falcons debacle back at Super Bowl LI.

So what did we learn? Absolutely nothing. This should be a close one. The Bossman’s prediction…

*drum roll please*

Niners 30 Chiefs 28.

Now watch it be a blowout. Anyway, where can you watch the game? It’s on CBS this year so you get some “Hello, Friends” along with a lot of “I DON’T KNOW JIM!” from our pals Nantz and Romo. For people who are just itching to see what Tim Horton’s has done for the next mediocre commercial, the game is on all CTV affiliates and all the TSNs (including TSN+) except the ugly duckling, TSN2.

Then…that’s it. No more football. Well, that’s not true. The new UFL starts late next month and then the CFL starts in early June. I’m sure there’s some arena football in there too and I see there’s even a European League of Football that we probably can’t get here (legally). So we won’t be totally starved of football but it is a long six-and-a-half months until the start of the college football season. So savour this one final game of the year, even if it does end up sucking. For the final time this season, enjoy the game everyone.

It’s Conference Championship Time!

I would have put more exclamation marks in the title but I can’t be as excited as I would have been thanks to Wide Right II – Pro Edition.

Let’s just get right to this Bills-less conference championship weekend schedule, shall we?

Sunday

Kansas City at Baltimore	3:00, CBS, CTV, TSN 1/3/5/+
Detroit at San Francisco	6:30, FOX, CTV, TSN 1/3*/5/+

Quick Notes!

• (The now) classic 3 and 6:30 start times for the games. Having the late game end between 9:30 and 10:00 is honestly pretty fucking awesome I have to say.
• TSN3 will be getting to the NFC Championship game late. After the AFC Championship, the Raptors face the Hawks. That game should end around 8:30 or so meaning TSN3 should join in progress around the start of the fourth quarter. Now I have no clue who only has one TSN (along with TSN2 which has always been the “alternate” TSN) in this country anymore but for the ones out there that only get TSN3, there you go.
• There’s a chance it will be a completely sloppy NFL Sunday. Baltimore will be hosting yet another super wet playoff game (do they think they are Seattle or something?) and there is a decent probability for rain in Santa Clara as well. I want to say rain and other non-sunny weather evens the playing field but I am not sure anymore (and chances are there are analytics that refute that notion).
• My prediction for the Super Bowl…Ravens-Lions.

Look, all we can hope for is at least one good game this weekend, right? If we get two? Very nice.

Since I won’t be doing a blog post between this one and the Super Bowl, might as well clue you in on the few college football all-star games there will be coming up. Thursday night will be the East-West Shrine Bowl, now taking place in Frisco at The Star which is where I believe they also do the Conference USA basketball tournament on two separate courts with games going on at the same time. Leave it to C-USA to do something wacky like that. Then next Saturday it is the Senior Bowl. The Shrine Bowl begins at 8:00 on Thursday and the Senior Bowl kicks off at 1:00. Both games have slightly altered rules but it is kind of fun to see some players who are getting draft-ready. Both games will be on the NFL Network.

Alright, have a great weekend and hopefully things dry up a bit. It’s one thing to just have snow on the ground; another to have slush and water. Ugh. Anyway, enjoy the games everyone!

And now we have the Divisional Playoffs Schedule

So how about Super Wild Card Weekend? Yeah, it was a dud. I mean I was happy the Bills won and the Rams-Lions game was great but other than that? Meh. Not so super. Let’s hope the divisional playoffs are better (could they be worse…wait, don’t answer that). Here’s the schedule:

Saturday

Houston at Baltimore	4:30, ABC, CTV, TSN 3/5/+
Green Bay at San Francisco	8:00, FOX, CTV, TSN 3/5/+

Sunday

Tampa Bay at Detroit	3:00, NBC, CTV, TSN 1/3/4/+
Kansas City at Buffalo	6:30, CBS, CTV, TSN 3/4/+

A few Non-Super (I guess) Divisional Round Notes

• It is kind of nice to see all four networks share the divisional round. It should be like this forever. It won’t be because I am sure Amazon is itching to get playoff games on Prime and the NFL will definitely do it for the right amount of money.
• Not gonna lie: I watched a decent portion of Monday’s games on CTV. But I muted things when commercials came on. I don’t care what shitty shows CTV is highlighting for the next few months. I will watch none of them. No, I don’t care that Tim Horton’s has something new to sell because I rarely go there. Commercials, for the most part, suck now. They have an even worse track record than stand-up comedians (only 25% at any one time are funny) and podcasts (maybe 15% of them are worth listening to). It’s frightening that there is so little creativity in advertising these days. Maybe all the good ideas have been taken? Seems to have happened with movies.
• Can Patrick Mahomes win on the road in the playoffs? This will, if you can believe it, his first ever true road playoff game. For it to be in the not-so-friendly confines of the Ralph in Buffalo is a tough way to get his road playoff game cherry popped.
• Shades of the NFC Central: the Bucs and Lions playing in a playoff game? Almost every year in the history of either of these franchises you could never say that with a straight face. Add the Packers in the other NFC game and you have the makings of a great division, albeit one that doesn’t exist anymore.

Not going to say much about Wild Card weekend that I didn’t say above. The situation in Orchard Park was ridiculous but what can you do, right? Except put all the Wild Card games on the weekend. Can’t do that, though, because ESPN paid a lot of money to get a Monday Night Football Wild Card game. And this may become a more common thing if the NFL buys a part of ESPN. Yes, this could happen. And it would be ridiculous and most likely not good for the game but who cares because MONEY!

OK everyone, no more college football except for the wacky all-star games that remain. I guess it’s better than nothing. Then it’s no college ball until August. Brings a tear to my eye. In the meantime, let’s hope the NFL can entertain us more than it did during SUPER Wild Card Weekend. Enjoy the games everyone!

It’s time for another SUPER Wild Card Weekend

Playoff time is here! And what a last week it was in the regular season. Fun times! And for what feels like the first time in a long time, there really isn’t a true Super Bowl favourite. The #1 seeds, San Francisco and Baltimore, have their issues and have been exposed already this season. Plus, until Lamar Jackson can do his normal Lamar Jackson things in the playoffs, it’s tough to trust the Ravens. Even the other division champs have their wrinkles. The Bills, Cowboys, Chiefs and Lions have all looked bad at times this season. So who knows? Maybe we get the worst division champ coming out of it all smelling like roses. Maybe we see the first ever seventh seed Wild Card win. It’s all up in the air. So let’s get down to what could truly end up being a SUPER Wild Card Weekend.

Saturday

Cleveland at Houston	4:30, NBC, CTV, TSN 1/3/+
Miami at Kansas City	8:15, CTV, TSN 1/3/+

Sunday

Pittsburgh at Buffalo	1:00, CBS, CTV, TSN 4/5/+
Green Bay at Dallas	4:30, FOX, CTV, TSN 4/5/+
LA Rams at Detroit	8:00, NBC, CTV, TSN 4/5/+

Monday

Pittsburgh at Buffalo	4:30, CBS, CTV, TSN 3/5/+
Philadelphia at Tampa Bay	8:00, ABC, CTV, TSN 3/5/+

Juuuuuuuuuuuuust a Few Wild Card Notes

• I don’t know how many years I have been saying this but I will keep saying it: division winners should not be guaranteed a home playoff game. Period. End of story. It’s like saying it’s Philadelphia’s fault for being in a division with Dallas. How dare they. See how stupid that sounds? Well that’s what the NFL says.
• It is going to be one of the coldest NFL games on record on Saturday night in KC. Tickets are now going for $33 which is completely fucking insane for an NFL playoff game. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve been to some crazy weather games, including the 1996 Grey Cup, better known as the Snow Bowl. I don’t think I’ve ever been to one that, as of right now, looks like it could dip to a windchill of -34 Celsius by the end of the game. That’s too cold for even my blood.
• Other weather issues will come about in Buffalo. Right now, as I type this, the snow has just started here in the Guelph area and I can’t see across the street. I can just imagine what Buffalo might look like by Sunday morning. The issue shouldn’t be the snow that has already fallen as they are getting people to start shovelling now. It’s the fact that there is supposed to be a good amount of snow just before and during the game. That’s when the chaos happens. This is great fodder for the “Buffalo should build a dome for their next stadium” people.
• The ManningCast will be back for the Monday night playoff game…but only if you have TSN+ (or another way of getting it that may or may not be illegal).
• Back to the Dolphins-Chiefs game, you will notice it is the only one without an American network listed. That’s because it will air on Peacock. And yes, it is pissing off a lot of Americans. Lucky for us we have a few different options to watch but down there? Nope. I hear Peacock is a pretty decent streaming service but still, to have to subscribe to it to get this one game is insane. Then again, Amazon Prime has their own night of the week for pro football so we can’t be too surprised at this point.

UPDATE: Due to the snowfall that has hit the Buffalo area and the snow still to come, New York Governor Kathy Hochul has declared a State of Emergency for the area to go throughout the weekend. This means that the Steelers-Bills game will now be played at 4:30 on Monday (think of the ratings!) on CBS, CTV and a couple of TSNs. You know, they could have avoided this by, oh I don’t know, HAVING ALL THE GAMES ON SATURDAY AND SUNDAY! This way you could have used Monday night but oh no, can’t do that. Money over brains. Every time.

Like last year am I going to add my updated predictions. Actually, my original prediction of Niners-Chiefs in the Superb Owl could still hold up. The biggest disappointment from my original playoff picks? Jacksonville. What a fucking collapse in a relatively easy division. Alright so let’s get to the updated Bossman Playoff Picks of Passion and Probable Disappointment.

Wild Card Round

Cleveland def. Houston

Kansas City def. Miami

Buffalo def. Pittsburgh

Green Bay def. Dallas (yes, a big upset)

Detroit def. LA Rams

Philadelphia def. Tampa Bay

Divisional Playoffs

Baltimore def. Cleveland

Buffalo def. Kansas City

San Francisco def. Green Bay

Detroit def. Philadelphia

Conference Championships

Baltimore def. Buffalo

San Francisco def. Detroit

Super Bowl LVIII

San Francisco def. Baltimore

Would I love to see the Bills win? Absolutely. It would make my year already. Even with the chaos that this year’s playoffs is bringing, I don’t think they quite have the team to do it. I still believe the Niners will win it all but the Chiefs I just don’t have as much faith in as I did at the beginning of the season. Lamar Jackson finally looks good in the playoffs even with a Super Bowl loss and gets a lot of people off his back about his poor playoff performances of the past.

So….it looks like pretty much all of Canada is going to be either snowy or cold or somehow both. So why not stay inside and watch some football? Enjoy the games everyone!

How about I rank the bowl games now that they are complete?

Wait, WAIT! Look you’ve read some of my longer posts on here so don’t leave now. Honestly, this won’t be as long as some of the crazy-ass long posts I’ve done in the past. Plus, we can re-live some of Bowl Season’s greater moments together. Because let’s be honest: this wasn’t exactly the best Bowl Season ever. Not the worst mind you; but yeah, definitely not the best. So how about we just dive in and get started, OK?

1. Rose Bowl (Michigan 27 Alabama 20 (OT)) – This was one of the greatest College Football Playoff games of all-time. And funny enough, it still wasn’t exactly the cleanest game. Sloppy play by both teams made it so neither team could pull away. And in the end, the issue that caused Bama fits all game, poor snaps from center, came back to haunt them one final time. The low snap on 4th and Goal caused Jalen Milroe to panic and run up the middle to try and score. The play that was drawn up would have had a good chance of working if the snap had been perfect. Michigan finally erases so much CFP pain and will now have their chance at a national championship.
2. New Orleans Bowl (Jacksonville State 34 Louisiana 31 (OT)) – This feels like the validation of Jax State’s ascent to the FBS level. For some reason, some schools make it work and others (see UMass) can’t figure it out. The thing about this game is that it felt like the Gamecocks were throwing it away, literally. Three defensive touchdowns by the Cajuns kept them in the game. All it did though, is delay a backup kicker, who rarely played, kicking the game winning field goal for the Cocks. This is the perfect argument for why bowls do, and should in the future, exist.
3. Sugar Bowl (Washington 37 Texas 31) – The second of the two semi-final games was easily the worst…if you just watched the first 58 minutes or so of the game. Then the Huskies decided that maybe, juuuuuuuuuuuust maybe, they didn’t feel like going to the national championship after all. U-Dub was able to hold on when Texas almost seized that final chance and will now play for all the glory. Also, some people were actually introduced, truly, to Michael Penix Jr. for the first time. And I include people who report on college football as they were astounded by what he did despite the fact he did that in half the games this season.
4. Gator Bowl (Clemson 38 Kentucky 35) – Put your hand up if you thought Kentucky would be in one of the best bowl games of the year. Now put your hands down, you filthy liars. No one, not even Kentucky fans, thought that would be the case. That insane fourth quarter alone, with 42 points scored between the two teams, was enough to put this game in the upper echelon of this year’s Bowl Season.
5. Famous Toastery Bowl (WKU 38 Old Dominion 35 (OT)) – And the award for the most stupidly awesome bowl game of the year goes to this one. The Hilltoppers were down 21-0 just seven minutes in. I actually stopped watching for the next hour. I come back to see what’s going on and see the first touchdown of what would be the fourth-greatest comeback in bowl game history. How did it end? A blocked field goal in the fourth quarter, followed by another blocked field goal in overtime, leading to a walk-off field goal and then toast angels on the field. How can you not love college football?
6. Arizona Bowl (Wyoming 16 Toledo 15) – If you had said this bowl game would have been the one out of the two on at the same time to be the better bowl game I would have…well maybe not laughed but been intrigued by your logic. This game went up against the blowout that was the Orange Bowl so it was easy to tune into this game. This is the second straight year the Arizona Bowl has been a great game and Wyoming, this time, is on the better end of the score. A perfect end to Craig Bohl’s coaching career.
7. ReliaQuest Bowl (LSU 35 Wisconsin 31) – This ended up being a great battle, something that many thought wouldn’t be the case. The Badgers certainly showed up for this one after a lacklustre season. The Tigers didn’t even have the lead until their final touchdown with a little over three minutes to go. A good college football start to 2024.
8. Camellia Bowl (Northern Illinois 21 Arkansas State 19) – This falls under “It’s So Bad, It’s Good” territory. Not exactly the best of the best but the final portion of the game makes up for it with its sheer insanity. ASU went the entire length of the field to get within two, missed the two-point conversion, then recovered the onside kick! But it was flagged for offside in one of the biggest botched calls of the entire season which made Butch Jones go as red as a ripe tomato. Entertainment…that’s what we want from our bowl games, right?
9. Quick Lane Bowl (Minnesota 30 Bowling Green 24) – Minnesota threw for 26 yards and won this game. Hilarious. It helps that they could hand the ball off to Darius Taylor who went off for over 200 yards. Fun fact: the Gophers have now won seven consecutive bowl games. That has to be tops, no?
10. Pinstripe Bowl (Rutgers 31 Miami 24) – A good game at Yankee Stadium. Now I’m not huge on regular season games at baseball stadiums (as in they should be banned) but I am totally fine with them during bowl season. There was more scoring than many thought there would be but there was no stupidity from Mario Cristobal, which was also expected (by me).
11. Cure Bowl (Appalachian State 13 Miami-OH 9) – This game was played in atrocious weather. I fucking loved it. It was just a bunch of silly backyard-style football fun, if your backward was a swimming pool. At one point it felt like they were going for the bowl game fumbles record. Combined, the two teams ended up with 12. How either team got a kick off, I will never know.
12. Peach Bowl (Ole Miss 38 Penn State 25) – Most thought it would be a great matchup between the seriously up tempo Rebel offense against the Nittany Lions’ stout defense. It was not to be. The Fighting Kiffins shredded PSU and pulled away in the second half. So Lane is safe in the fans’ minds in Oxford. James Franklin…well I am sure there are many unhappy people in…(Un)Happy Valley.
13. Pop Tarts Bowl (Kansas State 28 NC State 19) – Let’s be honest here: all we wanted to see was what would happen at the end with the mascot. And it was fucking glorious. Whoever thought of this should get a MASSIVE bonus. Also, the game was pretty good with it being close nearly the entire way.
14. Alamo Bowl (Arizona 38 Oklahoma 24) – Man, the Wildcats are going to be a load in the Big XII next year. They went blow-for-blow with the Sooners and ended up leaving them in their dust thanks to causing six turnovers. Gotta hand it to Jedd Fisch: not many thought he would get the program to this point this fast. So is he the best coach out of the Bill Belichick coaching tree? Oh wait, Nick Saban did a few years under Belichick. So yeah Jedd you will always be second in this case.
15. Guaranteed Rate Bowl (Kansas 49 UNLV 36) – Speaking of teams who could be really good next year in the Big XII, the Jayhawks overcame being called for over 200 yards worth of penalties to almost put up a 50-burger. Jason Bean has been a god-send considering Jalon Daniels was injured most of the season. And he showed it in his final game throwing for six touchdowns. This was KU’s first bowl win in 15 years. Incredible. And don’t shortchange the Rebels who also had a pretty good game and great season.
16. LA Bowl (UCLA 35 Boise State 22) – Look, I think most were interested to see if Chip Kelly’s team would show up for what was basically a home game for them. And they sure did. The Bruins were able to stick with Boise until the second half and then pulled away for a relatively easy victory and a tiny bit of momentum going into the Big Ten next season.
17. Texas Bowl (Oklahoma State 31 Texas A&M 23) – Somehow, the Aggies, with all sorts of players not playing (for various reasons), came back from an 18-point halftime deficit to make things very interesting late. Also, Mike Gundy has won 10 games in a season EIGHT TIMES? Really? Wow. This guy should get more credit for what he’s done in Stillwater.
18. Armed Forces Bowl (Air Force 31 James Madison 21) – Some called it bad and I think it’s because the Dukes lost. Air Force showed why they were the Group of Five favourite heading into November. JMU tried to make a game of it but the Falcons’ run game was way too much for them. A perfectly good bowl.
19. Holiday Bowl (USC 42 Louisville 28) – Miller Moss took advantage of Caleb Williams opting out of this game by throwing for a Holiday Bowl record six touchdowns. I will be honest by saying that the amount of people online saying we have an early Heisman frontrunner irked me. This isn’t preseason hype: this is the end of the previous season hype. Ridiculous. Not saying he won’t be good but I wish some in college football media would pump the brakes sometimes since they sound like idiots every so often.
20. Gasparilla Bowl (Georgia Tech 30 UCF 17) – The slightly weird start time didn’t detract from a pretty good bowl game. Despite the loss and the 6-7 finish, you have to think the Knights thought this season was a success. Their first as a Power Five team and they showed they could compete. As for the Ramblin’ Wreck, well, I am sure they sent a postcard to Mario Cristobal for gifting them that win that essentially put them in this bowl game.
21. Birmingham Bowl (Duke 17 Troy 10) – I tend to rank closer games higher than offensive shootouts that end with one team winning by like 21. That’s just me. Very little is more exciting in college football than a chance for a team to tie or win a game late. Both teams had interim coaching staffs so we can use that as an excuse for this one although it feels like it’s happening more and more these days. Not a good trend.
22. Las Vegas Bowl (Northwestern 14 Utah 7) – A great ending for the Wildcats who wildly exceeded expectations this season. Utah just didn’t have the players to contend in this one. If you liked defense…well, you still might not have liked this one since it was more the offenses struggling than anything.
23. Liberty Bowl (Memphis 36 Iowa State 26) – There were some high hopes for this one. Iowa State was a better-than-advertised Big XII school and Memphis was at home. And it wasn’t a bad game but it felt like the Tigers were in control for most of it which kind of sucks the life out of a bowl game in the latter stages.
24. Hawaii Bowl (Coastal Carolina 24 San Jose State 14) – Pretty good game but drops a few notches because it wasn’t on Christmas Eve WHERE IT BELONGS.
25. Fenway Bowl (Boston College 23 SMU 14) – It was cold. It was wet. It was fun…for me to watch. Not for the players, coaches and fans, I’m sure. Well, at the time it was probably not too bad. I’ve played in games like that and it was fine until after the game. Then you feel like shit. You might feel less shitty if you win…but you still feel like crap. Anyway, this is a conference game next season! A-C-C! A-C-C! A-C-C! A-C-C!
26. Independence Bowl (Texas Tech 34 California 14) – After a full opening day of bowl games I was hoping this one would be good. Or fun. Or weird. It was none of the three. It was fine until about halfway through the second quarter and the Red Raiders rode away with it. Lack of drama drops this way down.
27. Military Bowl (Virginia Tech 41 Tulane 20) – This was a nasty weather game so you’d think I would rank it higher. There were a lot of fumbles and chaos so you’d think I would rank it higher. I don’t know what it was but this felt like not a very fun game to watch. I kind of stopped paying attention in the second half. I really didn’t think the Green Wave was in it nor did they care much to be there. And that can happen sometimes when your coach leaves for another school. Maybe that was the case here, I don’t know. Either way, it was meh.
28. Cotton Bowl (Missouri 14 Ohio State 3) – I was kind of hyped for this one, not gonna lie. I was thinking this would be quite the prove-it game for Mizzou and we would see if no Kyle McCord would be an issue for tOSU. I was right, for the most part, on both fronts, yet this game sucked. Luckily for the Buckeyes, their awesome defense kept them in it going into the fourth quarter but their offense was painful to watch. They should have found a student in the crowd to play quarterback since it would have been just as good.
29. Frisco Bowl (UTSA 35 Marshall 17) – Would this have been better if 14th-year senior Frank Harris had been able to play? It would have been a blowout rather than a relatively easy victory for the Roadrunners, that’s about it. Biggest take from this game? The starting quarterbacks were Cole Pennington for Marshall (Chad’s son) and Owen McCown for the Roadrunners (Josh’s son). I feel seriously fucking old.
30. First Responder Bowl (Texas State 45 Rice 21) – Not the greatest game to be honest as the Bobcats were in control for most of it. It was definitely helped, though, by the fans (especially the Texas State ones) who were jacked for this one. So jacked that they ran out of beer at the game. Five minutes into the third quarter. Yeah.
31. Idaho Potato Bowl (Georgia State 45 Utah State 22) – The Aggies looked pretty damn flat in this one. The Panthers, on the other hand, overcame their late-season collapse and get back to that early season form. Almost 650 yards of offense for GSU and they were way too much for USU. Even with the french fry bath, this was a bottom tier bowl game this season.
32. Myrtle Beach Bowl (Ohio 41 Georgia Southern 21) – A bit of a ho-hum affair kicked off Bowl Season this time around thanks to the Bahamas Bowl having to move to Charlotte. Ohio went up big and kept the lead the entire game. Nothing super interesting with this one.
33. Music City Bowl (Maryland 31 Auburn 13) – This game was over early and was done without Taulia Tagovailoa. So it was impressive. Just not interesting to watch after the first quarter.
34. New Mexico Bowl (Fresno State 37 New Mexico State 10) – I thought this would be a good game. I had high hopes for NMSU in this one. It was not to be. Fresno State cranked it up late and ran away with this one but even earlier on it didn’t really feel close as the Bulldogs showed the form that had them the favourite for about seven days to be the Group of Five representative in the New Year’s Six. Oh well.
35. Duke’s Mayo Bowl (West Virginia 30 North Carolina 10) – Props to West Virginia for completing a good season, much better than most thought would happen. Neal Brown got mayo dumped on him. And that’s about it. The game was forgettable.
36. Sun Bowl (Notre Dame 40 Oregon State 8) – Boy, for a game that was sold out quicker than I think any other Sun Bowl ever, this game was an absolute dud. Notre Dame’s backups beat the ever-loving shit out of Oregon State’s backups. Ugh.
37. Fiesta Bowl (Oregon 45 Liberty 6) – I think we’ve found our new BYU. No, I don’t mean weird religious institution (even though they are). I mean a team that’s probably too good (most of the time) for their conference but not really good enough to be in the Power Five (or maybe even a better conference). Didn’t help that Oregon came in looking pissed off and after the Flames took a 6-0 lead it was all Ducks. 45 unanswered points and Bo Nix left as a record-setting quarterback. This was a trainwreck, really.
38. Citrus Bowl (Tennessee 35 Iowa 0) – Geez, where do I begin with this one? This was one of the most Iowa games of the season which is saying something. The offense was awful. The Brian Ferentz Experience has come to an end and I am positive most in Iowa City are thankful for that. What made it worse was two other games on at the same time. So I watched almost none of the second half. And I don’t feel bad about that at all.
39. 68 Ventures Bowl (South Alabama 59 Eastern Michigan 10) – I am starting to wonder why this bowl even exists. Even by ESPN Events standards, this is shit. I love more football but good God. The Jags just ran the Eagles off the field in another boring 68 Ventures Bowl which was called…like seven other things before this. This is perfect fodder for the Too Many Bowl Games crowd.
40. Boca Raton Bowl (USF 45 Syracuse 0) – This was one of the biggest beatdowns in bowl game history. Well at least I thought that until…I’ll get to that in a second. Anyway, I figured the Orange would show up. They did…technically. They were the opposition…technically. Other than that, USF, a middle-of-the-road American Conference team who played out of its mind for new coach Alex Golesh, beat the brakes off of Cuse. It was a pathetic performance, regardless of who was missing from the lineup. And speaking of players missing from the lineup…
41. Orange Bowl (Georgia 63 Florida State 3) – This picture encapsulates this game perfectly:

Mike Norvell looks like he wants to be anywhere other than where he was at that moment. This game is THE biggest win in bowl game history. So Georgia one-upped themselves. This game, and everything leading up to it, was a completely fucking mess of a shitshow and is a big part of what’s wrong with college football today. Florida State (and to a lesser extent, Georgia) being left out of the College Football Playoff, some even saying that FSU should boycott the game, some politician trying to force the CFP to put the Noles in (somehow), then all sorts of players opting out or transferring out (from both sides mind you). It all led to this travesty of a game. Even Kirby Smart, during the post-game press conference, told everyone “if this doesn’t show that there needs to be some change, then I don’t know what does.” I’m paraphrasing but he’s right on the money. When players can transfer, when coaches can leave a school to get hired somewhere else, what happens to a player’s NIL when they opt out of a bowl game…all this stuff needs to be dealt with. If it doesn’t, these bowl games will get less and less important. And this is after the playoff has already eroded the bowl system (a bit).

See? Not my longest post ever. So no complaining.

Well we’ve hit the end my friends. One last game. The national championship is tonight and, other than the weird all-star games with their weird rules, it’s the final college football game of the season. Cherish it. Even if it’s a blowout. Remember: the wait for the next season can be long and arduous. Enjoy the game everyone!