Coaching Carousel Time! And the Week 12 College Football TV Schedule

Posted on November 14, 2023 by guelphbossman

Yeah it’s that time of the year. The coaching carousel has begun! And what I am going to do this time around is actually compare it to my start-of-the-year predictions. I mean what could go wrong, right?

Let’s look at who has already been shown the door. Jimbo Fisher, Andy Avalos, Zach Arnett and now soon-to-be-retired Brady Hoke…none of who were on my list. Great start, Bossman. Mel Tucker was on my list in the Doubtful Shitcanning section although even I couldn’t think that the way he went out would be the way he went out. What a fucking perv. As for who is currently on the hot seat and was on my list?

Neal Brown. Now Neal probably just has to win one of his final two games to secure his job for next season. Lose both those games and end up 6-6? That would be an interesting conversation.
Dana Holgorsen. You can give them a bit of slack as they stepped up their competition by joining the Big XII. But Drunk Uncle Dana has been a hot seat regular for a while now and at some point he’s either got to prove he’s still the guy or find a coordinator position somewhere.
Danny Gonzales. One of the toughest places to be an FBS head coach, Gonzales probably would have been safe for another year. But with New Mexico State doing so well, some in the New Mexico athletic department might wonder if they should try someone else at the helm.
Tom Allen. It’s pretty damn obvious now that the 2020 season was an anomaly and that the Hoosiers are barely treading water with Allen. I doubt he makes it to 2024.

I really don’t want to talk much about certain coaches appearing my list. Guys like Jeff Hafley or Scot Loeffler or Shawn Elliott or Greg Schiano or Brent Pry or Mike Bloomgren and definitely not Eliah Drinkwitz. Nope. Got nothing. So let’s just move on and stop talking about my hot seat list, ALRIGHT ALREADY?

Ok calm down Bossman. Time to give the people what they want: hot, nasty college football TV schedules for Canadians who enjoy watching college football on their television sets.

Tuesday

		US	Canada
Akron at Eastern Michigan	7:00
Toledo at Bowling Green	7:00
Western Michigan at Northern Illinois	7:00

Toledo has already clinched a spot in the MAC Championship. Now we are looking at bowl eligibility battles. Eastern Michigan has to beat the Zips to stay alive for a bowl game. And the WMU-NIU game is a Loser Won’t Go Bowling matchup. Big stakes on MACtion Tuesday.

Wednesday

		US	Canada
Buffalo at Miami-OH	7:00
Central Michigan at Ohio	7:00

The Redhawks clinch the MAC East with a victory here and will get their rematch with Toledo in Detroit in December. And the Chippewas become bowl-eligible if they can somehow beat Ohio. Another important MACtion evening.

Thursday

		US	Canada
Boston College at Pittsburgh	7:00

Yeah this is about as unimportant a weeknight slate as you can get. One game. No stakes. Meh.

Friday

		US	Canada
USF at UTSA	9:00

This, on the other hand, is a much more important night. Both teams with a lot to play for and USF is definitely not the USF of recent years (as we could see from their near-upset of Alabama earlier in the season).

Saturday Early

A pretty heavy early slate with two ESPN+ games appearing on TSN+. I can see that being a feature all next season. As for the important games in this window I count one big one. The Mustangs and Tigers face off in a matchup that essentially eliminates the loser but doesn’t automatically guarantee the winner a spot in the American Championship. Everything else is kind of meh, although the Sooners could keep up their hopes of one final Big XII Championship appearance in JerryWorld. Finally, the annual Harvard-Yale game appears in this timeslot as per usual.

Saturday Afternoon

		US	Canada
#22 Utah at #17 Arizona	2:30
Duke at Virginia	3:00
UCLA at USC	3:30
NC State at Virginia Tech	3:30
#1 Georgia at #18 Tennessee	3:30
UNLV at Air Force	3:30
#20 North Carolina at Clemson	3:30
Bethune-Cookman vs. Florida A&M (in Orlando)	3:30
Wake Forest at #19 Notre Dame	3:30
Louisiana at Troy	3:30
Minnesota at #2 Ohio State	4:00
#23 Oklahoma State at Houston	4:00
#6 Oregon at Arizona State	4:00
New Mexico State at Auburn	4:00

UGA-UT is the big one, obviously, here. A lot of other choice with a lot of other teams looking to stay near the top of the rankings. Oregon, tOSU, and Utah are in must-win mode if they want to keep any CFP or even NY6 possibilities alive. Also, the Rebels of Nevada-Las Vegas play in what could be considered the biggest football game in school history. A win here and they all but clinch a spot in the conference title game. And this is something I never thought of. If UNLV is the #1 team, will they play at home? That game would be about 16 hours after the end of the Pac-12 Championship which is already being played at Allegiant Stadium (which I think is a dumb idea but that’s for another post). So the turnaround would be crazy for the stadium crew.

Saturday Primetime

		US	Canada
North Alabama at #4 Florida State	6:30
California at Stanford	6:30
Boise State at Utah State	7:00
#5 Washington at #11 Oregon State	7:30
Florida at #9 Missouri	7:30
FIU at Arkansas	7:30
Nebraska at Wisconsin	7:30
Kentucky at South Carolina	7:30
Syracuse at Georgia Tech	8:00
Georgia State at #15 LSU	8:00
#7 Texas at Iowa State	8:00

Speaking of big games, U-Dub has to try and win in one of the toughest small stadiums to win in, Reser Stadium in Corvallis. Lose and the Pac-12 is all but done in the College Football Playoff race and it opens up a bevy of possibilities to replace the Huskies at the top. The Longhorns are trying to do what the Sooners are also trying to do: give the Big XII one last Fuck You before leaving for the SEC by playing for their conference championship. And finally, you are not seeing things. It is true. A god damn CW DOUBLEHEADER! I hate to admit that the CW has delivered but it has. It has had some great games which has made up for some sub-par production values.

Saturday Late Night

		US	Canada
San Diego State at San Jose State	10:30

Yeah. You could probably go to bed early if you wanted.

Hey, Watch This

Washington at Oregon State (7:30, ABC/TSN2) – I think it’s been a long time since the Beavers have been in the Game of the Week. And I would honestly call this Game 1A since you could easily switch it with the next game on this list and no one would bat an eye. I just think this game has the possibility of being much closer than the other one. The Huskies put themselves in the Pac-12 Championship with a win in Corvallis but Oregon State could put the entire college football world on its head if they pull off the upset.

Georgia at Tennessee (3:30, CBS) – One of the final SEC on CBS games ever and it’s a huge one. If this game was Between the Hedges it wouldn’t be this high. But this game is on the shores of the Tennessee River and it will be one of the loudest Neyland Stadium crowds in recent memory. Another game where an upset is not crazy talk and it would also cause absolute chaos at the top of the college football food chain.

Utah at Arizona (2:30, Pac-12 Network) – Jesus Christ who made the call to get this game on the fucking Pac-12 Network? Well at least us Canadians have an easy time of getting it. Hop on YouTube and search for the Pac-12 Network channel and you’re good to go. Americans…well, they have a much tougher time if it’s not a part of their cable package. What a dumb network. Anyway, both teams have outside chances of getting to the Pac-12 Championship but they would need a lot to happen. A win here isn’t enough. Also, you have to be impressed with the job Jedd Fisch has done in Tucson. This team could be a force in the expanded Big XII next season.

Kansas State at Kansas (7:00, FOX Sports One) – Man, you know it’s kind of a fucked week when two of the top four games are on the Pac-12 Network and FS1. So yeah, can’t see this one if you are a Canadian unless you have other means. I have IPTV. There are also many streams out there to watch. Go find one. Shouldn’t be too hard. Plus, this should be the best Sunflower Showdown maybe ever. Has there been one where both teams were ranked? I don’t think so. Plus, the Wildcats have extra incentive here as they have an outside shot at spoiling a potential Texas-Oklahoma conference championship if they can win here.

Sickos Game of the Week

Michigan State at Indiana (Noon, Big Ten Network) – There are quite a few options for this spot but I will give it to a Big Ten game for once. Here are two terrible teams who will probably have a terrible game that will somehow be close near the end. Think 13-10 which means you almost have to watch because the finish could be spectacular. I almost feel dirty watching games like that.

Hubba Bubba Blowout of the Week

Chattanooga at Alabama (Noon, TSN+) – Once I saw TSN+ was showing this game I knew which game would go in this section. This will be over by halftime. The question is how long does Nick Saban leave Jalen Milroe in.

Wanna Bet?

How about we look back at my picks from last week………..alright, maybe not. I mean I got my first upset pick right with Southern Miss and then it went downhill from there. Stupid Penn State. Anyway, let’s get going with this week’s pickaroos…that sounded dumb.

Miami-OH 31 Buffalo 28

Michigan 42 Maryland 10

Ole Miss 48 ULM 20

Utah 40 Arizona 19

Duke 38 Virginia 24

Tennessee 31 Georgia 27 (yes, I am calling this massive upset)

USC 36 UCLA 26

Ohio State 51 Minnesota 16

Oregon 59 Arizona State 24

South Carolina 42 Kentucky 37

Oregon State 46 Washington 35 (yep, going out on a limb again)

Missouri 41 Florida 20

San Jose State 34 San Diego State 28

Look, normally I am up into the wee hours of the morning watching college football. And I rarely miss games. Well, rarely miss full ones. But I am looking at the Saturday late night sked and asking myself “Bossman, do you really need to watch this game?” The answer is obviously no but I have to convince my brain that that is the correct answer. We shall see how it goes this Saturday. Enjoy the games everyone!

What is wrong with the Week 3 College Football TV Schedule?

Posted on September 14, 2023 by guelphbossman

Nothing, really.

Now if you asked me what is wrong with Mel Tucker? Or Jeff Lebby? Or a host of past football coaches? I’d say plenty. I mean what the fuck is up with some people?

If you haven’t heard about ol’ Tucks, here’s a brief rundown:

Brenda Tracy, a well-known rape victim advocate (and victim herself), was hired to speak to the Spartans football team two years ago. Depending on who you believe, Tucker and Tracy became friends and then developed a bit of a romantic interest in each other. Tucker says this is true, Tracy denies this. He said, she said. Then last April, there was a phone call between the two where Tucker decided it should be phone sex (Tucker says they were both speaking in that manner) and then decided to whip it out and jerk off on the phone.

Tracy filed a formal complaint in December and then a report was filed in July to say that they should have a hearing to discuss whether Tucker violated a school policy on sexual misconduct. This hearing was to be next month. Now Tucker is suspended and probably will be fired with cause.

Crazy. And ridiculous. And even if it isn’t all true, the stuff Tucker admits paints him as a guy who can’t control himself. Then his letter on the matter makes him sound like a fucking idiot. No matter what, this is not going to turn out well for someone.

As for Jeff Lebby, he decided this was a perfect time to let his father-in-law, disgraced piece of shit former head coach Art Briles, on to the field after an Oklahoma victory on Saturday. Lebby just wanted his family on the field. Which includes Briles. I don’t know if Lebby understood the whole situation which makes him a complete dummy. He did apologize, though. Whether he meant it or did it while Brent Venables held a gun to his nuts, we will never know.

All of this is to say that there are some college football head coaches, past and present, who seem to think they can do whatever the fuck they feel like and get away with it. Again, even if Tucker is deemed not guilty, he admitted to cheating on his wife and pretty much seems OK with it. Lebby didn’t think once that “hey, my father-in-law, who has not been hired anywhere else since he was fired from Baylor for pretty fucking terrible reasons, should get to have Sooners gear on and come on the Sooners field and celebrate with the Sooners because…”…..why exactly? Oh, because he pretty much doesn’t give a shit. That’s why some of these players need to be told “Don’t be like your coach. He’s an asshole.”

Alright, enough of that nonsense. It’s schedule time.

Thursday

Nothing much of note here but I am interested in seeing Navy truly for the first time this season (after watching very little of them earlier on).

Friday

		US	Canada
Army at UTSA	7:00
Utah State at Air Force	8:00

Interestingly enough, the other two military academies play on Friday night. So all three are done before Midnight on Friday. Odd. But fun that they are all pretty much getting national play on their own.

Saturday Early

Big games? Ah no. So devoid of big games that Big Noon Kickoff decided not to stick with Champaign as the site before the Illini host Penn State. They moved it to Colorado so they can keep that Deion Boner going. I guess you got to strike while the iron is hot.

Saturday Afternoon

		US	Canada
VMI at NC State	2:00
Weber State at #12 Utah	2:00
#10 Alabama at USF	3:30
Northwestern at #21 Duke	3:30
Western Michigan at #25 Iowa	3:30
Virginia Tech at Rutgers	3:30
South Carolina at #1 Georgia	3:30
FIU at UConn	3:30
Minnesota at #20 North Carolina	3:30
East Carolina at Appalachian State	3:30
#19 Oklahoma at Tulsa	3:30
Tulane at Southern Miss	4:00
WKU at #6 Ohio State	4:00
ULM at Texas A&M	4:00
NC Central at #24 UCLA	5:00

A ton of choice here. The CW gets to show an afternoon game. Also a Pac-12 Network quardrupleheader. Well, a quadrupleheader here if you watch Pac-12 International on YouTube. See, the games on Pac-12 International are the Pac-12 Network national feed games. There are a couple other games that won’t be shown in Canada because they are regional only. Again, no big games here but we all remember what South Carolina did Between the Hedges back in 2019. If an upset of that magnitude happened again, it immediately changes the season and turns it on its head. Finally, Notre Dame is playing today…at home. But it’s on Peacock so no getting it here.

UPDATE: Thanks to reader William, I have found out about Fighting Irish TV (https://fightingirishtv.live/login). If you want to watch the game on Peacock, there’s your ticket.

Saturday Primetime

		US	Canada
Vanderbilt at UNLV	7:00
#11 Tennessee at Florida	7:00
James Madison at Troy	7:00
Pittsburgh at West Virginia	7:30
Bowling Green at #2 Michigan	7:30
BYU at Arkansas	7:30
Akron at Kentucky	7:30
Syracuse at Purdue	7:30
Georgia Tech at #17 Ole Miss	7:30
FAU at Clemson	8:00
TCU at Houston	8:00
Wyoming at #4 Texas	8:00
Hawaii at #13 Oregon	8:00

No massive games but Tennessee travelling to The Swamp to face Florida bears some interest since the Vols have struggled there a lot in years past. Still no Harbaugh on the sidelines (unless you count Jack) as the Wolverines host Bowling Green who hopes to keep things relatively close. And lookie here…the Longhorn Network? That’s right. For the first time ever (as far as I can tell), LHN can be viewed (legally) in Canada. Hopefully Wyoming can play like they did against Texas Tech and keep this game competitive.

Saturday Late Night

		US	Canada
Colorado State at #18 Colorado	10:00
Kansas at Nevada	10:30
UTEP at Arizona	11:00

Finally, the game that’s being played where both ESPN and FOX’s pregame shows were at…Colorado hosting mighty Colorado State. It must be since both networks were there. Don’t get me wrong, I totally get the hype but with two much bigger games coming up for the Buffaloes you think they would save this for the next couple of weeks. Or they might just camp out there until October. I mean why take the set down if you are just going to put it back up again a few days later?

Hey, Watch This!

South Carolina at Georgia (3:30, CBS) – Yes this is, arguably, the best game of the week. Kind of sad, not gonna lie. Saying that, if 2019 happens again, the SEC is seriously wide open. Don’t bet against the Gamecocks, even if they did look mediocre against North Carolina earlier this year. Or do because you think UGA will win. Either way.

Washington at Michigan State (5:00, Peacock) – This feels a bit icky but there is a ton of intrigue now with this one. A very good Huskies team against a team that will have to fight some adversity without their disgraced head coach. And it’s on Peacock of all places. NBC might have inadvertantly struck it rich by putting this game on the streaming service a while back.

Tennessee at Florida (7:00, TSN+/SP) – As I said above, the Vols, and many teams, have struggled in the hot and humid Swamp in Septembers past. Will it happen here? Eh, probably not. Man, how can a week be that devoid of big games?

Minnesota at North Carolina (3:30, TSN+/SP) – Um……well, it’s two undefeated teams so there’s that. Yeah, I got nothing.

Sickos Game of the Week

Vanderbilt at UNLV (7:00, CBSSN) – Look, there is a possibility that we see a 3-0 UNLV team by the end of Saturday night. So yeah, you could say the season is already a bit strange. And if Barry Odom wants a signature victory of sorts, this game is ripe for the picking. Or…OR…this could be a hilariously bad game that one team has to win. I am morbidly curious.

Hubba Bubba Blowout of the Week

Alabama at USF (3:30, ABC/TSN2) – Why is this game on ABC? Well, it’s not like there are a ton of strong contenders *waves wildly at the Games of the Week list*. Coming off a loss, Nick Saban is going to be uber-pissed. Which will make the rest of the coaches pissed. Which will make the players very angry. And they are going to take it out on a Bulls team who might not know what hit them until long after this one is over.

Wanna Bet?

Will this list be decent? After looking back at my picks last week, I am going to venture to say that’s a no.

Bethune-Cookman (+53.5) over Miami (but the U wins by 40)

Buffalo (+3.5) over Liberty (and the outright win)

LSU (-9.5) over Mississippi State

UConn (-7) over FIU

North Carolina (-7.5) over Minnesota

South Carolina (+27.5) over Georgia (and I think this will be relatively close but the Dawgs will hold on for the W)

Tulane (-13) over Southern Miss

Florida (+6.5) over Tennessee (the Vols win a VERY close one)

Vanderbilt (-4.5) over UNLV

Michigan (-40.5) over Bowling Green

Clemson (-24.5) over FAU

Oregon (-38) over Hawaii

Colorado (-23) over Colorado State

Spotty information so far for the specialty packs as I see some information but not all of it. It should all be up by tomorrow and should match what I have. Funny enough, TSN+ has their shit together and has their full schedule up (and has since Monday).

I’ll be on the TwiXter machine this Saturday (@TheBauceman) so you can interact mwith me there if you like. Or you can just sit in your favourite chair like a normal person and watch more than 14 hours of football unlike a normal person. Enjoy the games everyone!

All Aboard the Coaching Carousel! (and the Week 6 College Football TV Schedule)

Posted on October 5, 2022 by guelphbossman

The fun-time coaching carousel has been filling up a bit earlier this year. None of us are used to this many coaches being shitcanned this early on. We are just into October and many of the good horses (or the one cool love seat thing that seems to be on every carousel) are going fast. And the tickets are EXPENSIVE.

This week it started with Karl Dorrell getting fired at Colorado which is no surprise because Colorado is easily the worst Power Five team out there. No team is close to their ineptitude so far this season. But the real bombshell came later the same day when Paul Chryst, he of the 67-26 record, seven straight winning seasons before this year, six bowl victories, and two New Year’s Six triumphs, was fired by Wisconsin. I knew he might be in a bit of trouble but that was shocking. And his buyout? Remember I talked about the tickets on this carousel being expensive? Yeah, his cost is around $11 million. My god. These buyout clauses are just completely absurd now and mean nothing to these schools anymore.

Anyway, this actually may be strategic on Wisky’s part. Jim Leonhard is the interim head coach and the prevailing sentiment is that they want to see what he can do over the final seven games of the season. If he can turn the ship around, there’s a good chance he will be named the permanent replacement. If not, well he had more than half a season and that would be enough of a barometer to know they have to send a Brinks truck to Lance Leipold’s house as soon as possible after the season ends.

I know, the coaching carousel is interesting. I wouldn’t call it fun. That would be a bit morbid. But enough of that; it’s schedule time and it starts on Wednesday this week and it’s not MACtion!

Wednesday

		US	Canada
SMU at UCF	7:00 PM

Tonight, we only have the one game. Technically this is a Week 5 game but the Mustangs and Knights both have this week as a bye week so you can all it a Week 6 game if you want. This is rescheduled because of Hurricane Ian.

Friday

		US	Canada
Harvard at Cornell	7:00 PM
Nebraska at Rutgers	7:00 PM
Houston at Memphis	7:30 PM
Colorado State at Nevada	10:00 PM
UNLV at San Jose State	10:30 PM

Is the highlight here the Nebraska-Rutgers game? Sure, I guess. The Huskers could be in the first in the Big Ten West for about 17 hours if they win this one. Speaking of that game, it’s the first of a doubleheader with three-hour fucking windows. Stupid FS1. I hope the early game goes to 16 overtimes now.

Dana Holgorsen might be on the hot seat if the Cougs don’t beat Memphis, Jay Norvell is hating life in Fort Collins and UNLV continues to try to look like a contender in the Mountain West! Makes up for the night before where there is no college football. It’s like they don’t want to compete with the NFL anymore. I mean it’s not a bad idea.

Saturday Early

A couple of good ones here with UT-LSU and Gameday going to Lawrence before TCU plays Kansas. It’s too bad they decided to go to that football hotbed of Bloomington, Indiana for Big Noon Saturday rather than Kansas. What the hell was FOX thinking? Oh that’s right…they’re hard for the Big Ten.

How about the Red River Shootout having both teams come in unranked? I’m sure if I went to ESPN’s website it would tell me the last time this happened but I have a feeling it was a looooooooooooooooooong time ago. We also have a couple potential sneaky-good games with Arkansas-MSU and Purdue-Maryland. So a relatively loaded start to the day.

Saturday Afternoon

For some reason the ABC afternoon game starts at 4:00. I don’t remember the last time that has happened. I mean it all comes out in the wash anyway but it’s odd this has happened this weekend for no rhyme or reason. CBS was hoping Auburn would have won last week to set up the AU-UGA game with both teams ranked. Alas, it was not to be and I have this feeling this will be an absolute drubbing.

I find it odd that Utah-UCLA, a game between two very good teams, is the FOX afternoon game which is basically the third best game most of the time in the FOX tripleheader. I would have thought it was heading to ABC in primetime. Again, the Pac-12 seems to be getting shafted and if things don’t change, we may have to get used to less coverage from that conference in this area.

Saturday Primetime

		US	Canada
Wyoming at New Mexico	7:00 PM
Air Force at Utah State	7:00 PM
James Madison at Arkansas State	7:00 PM
#5 Clemson at Boston College	7:30 PM
Iowa at Illinois	7:30 PM
#20 Kansas State at Iowa State	7:30 PM
Washington State at #6 USC	7:30 PM
#16 BYU vs. Notre Dame (in Las Vegas)	7:30 PM
South Carolina at #13 Kentucky	7:30 PM
Florida State at #14 NC State	8:00 PM
Texas A&M at #1 Alabama	8:00 PM

Not as big as the early sked but still pretty darn good. This is the one primetime game the SEC on CBS has and it’s….well, not as good as CBS had hoped for. The Aggies have been a major disappointment and the Tide are dominant. This could be over by 10:00.

BYU has a massive game in Vegas. A must-win for them. Lose this and it’s pretty much the Hawaii Bowl on Christmas Eve. Win and they stay alive for a New Year’s Six spot. Clemson-BC is a special game in Boston as it’s the Red Bandana Game. It’s in honour of Welles Crowther, a former BC lacrosse player who headed a rescue effort on 9/11 and got a lot of people rescued. He was known for wearing a red bandana and that’s what one of the people who were saved that day saw from the guy heading up the building when everyone was escaping down. Good to see this game in a huge national spotlight.

Finally, James Madison has a national game. Sure it’s the NFL Network but the Dukes are undefeated in their first FBS season. They really need to get rid of that archaic rule that says teams can’t qualify for a bowl game in their first season in FBS, transitioning up from FCS.

Saturday Late Night

		US	Canada
#12 Oregon at Arizona	9:00 PM
Fresno State at Boise State	9:45 PM
Hawaii at San Diego State	10:30 PM
Oregon State at Stanford	11:00 PM

This is….not a good late night schedule. Which means something wacky is coming our way. That’s the way it works in college football. I don’t make the rules.

TSN has their first quadrupleheader of the season which is always nice to see, especially for the non-specialty pack people. And let’s discuss the ESPN schedule this week. Early game. VERY late game. Nothing in between. What are they showing? Ah, that’s right. They have the Wild Card games in baseball this season. So as long as the second Wild Card game doesn’t go too far into extra innings, the Beavers-Cardinal game will start precisely at…11:00 eastern. This is almost as crazy as the Hawaii Test.

Big Games O’ The Week

Utah at UCLA (3:30, FOX) – Ya know, some people are going to bristle at this choice for top game of the week. Here are the facts: Utah is ranked #11 and is still the favourite to win the Pac-12 South. UCLA is ranked #18 and is undefeated. The winner here faces USC later in the season for the de facto Pac-12 South championship and, potentially a New Year’s Six or, dare I say it, College Football Playoff spot. So yeah, this is huge.

Tennessee at LSU (Noon, TSN3/TSN5) – Are the Vols for real (I refuse to ask if they are back…aw shit, I just did)? This is a big chance for them to prove it as the Tigers have started to claw their way back after a seriously shaky start under new head coach Jim Bob Brian Kelly. Tennessee can move up towards the Top 4 with a win here and an eventual showdown with Georgia. Maybe, LSU could put a scare in some teams…even…Bama? Wouldn’t that be something…that Saban would hate.

TCU at Kansas (Noon, FOX Sports One) – In your wildest imagination, did you think this could be one of the games of the week when this season started? No. No one did. Even TCU and Kansas fans thought that would be ridiculous. But here we are. Early October. Ranked TCU. Ranked Kansas. College Gameday in Lawrence. Its put up or shut up time for both teams. And man, if the Jayhawks pull this one out, they will be safely in the Top 15 and looking at heights that haven’t been seen around those parts since the magical 2007 season.

Florida State at NC State (8:00, specialty pack) – I’m sure many feel this is a game the Wolfpack will easily win to get back on track. This isn’t the Noles of the past five or six years though. These guys can play. I have a feeling this could very close. The ACC Network with a bit of a coup getting this one at this point of the season.

Washington State at USC (7:30, FOX) – A tiny bit surprised this didn’t end up on either ABC or ESPN but FOX gets a good primetime game here that actually will match up well with CBS’s offering. USC is on a roll and it feels like nothing will stop them. That’s why this is such a speed bump game for the Trojans. Win here and their game against Utah is probably one of the Games of the Year the following week.

Psycho Game of the Week

Wisconsin at Northwestern (3:30, Big Ten Network) – Another game where, at the start of the season, I never would have thought it would end up in this particular spot in the blog post. Northwestern is thankful that Colorado exists and Wisconsin has been a shell of its former self. Should be a fun one! And by fun, I mean horribly painful to watch.

Hubba Bubba Blowout of the Week

Auburn at Georgia (3:30, CBS) – I have a feeling that this is going to get really bad, really fast for the Tigers. I also have a feeling that Bryan Harsin will not be fired after this one since everyone expects Auburn to get boatraced Between The Hedges.

Fun-Time Stats of the Week

Rutgers has lost all five of their meetings with Nebraska but every game the margin of victory has decreased. Last time they met, they only lost by 7.
Washington has lost the last seven times they traveled to Tempe to face Arizona State.
New Mexico has more wins over Wyoming than any other Mountain West team. They have beat the Cowboys 36 times.

The Degenerate Portion of Our Show

I made some picks last week. Some were good. I picked Illinois to cover the spread against Wisconsin. As for the rest don’t bother since I was horrible. Let’s just move on to this week’s picks that people should only use at Gamblers Anonymous meetings.

Nebraska (-3) over Rutgers
UNLV (+7) over San Jose State (SJSU will win in a close one)
Eastern Michigan (+5) over Western Michigan (WMU will win the battle for Directional Michigan though)
Oklahoma (+7) over Texas (and the outright victory)
Tennessee (-3) over LSU
Wisconsin (-10) over Northwestern
UCLA (+4.5) over Utah (but the Utes will win a very close affair)
Michigan State (+26.5) over Ohio State (but tOSU will win by approximately three touchdowns just to make it feel close for gamblers)
James Madison (-11.5) over Arkansas State
Wyoming (-3.5) over New Mexico
Iowa (+3.5) over Illinois (and the outright win)
Washington State (+13) over USC (Trojans win)
Oregon (-13) over Arizona

Alright we have the rare October Wednesday night game that doesn’t involve Sun Belt teams, nothing tomorrow night and then things really get into action on Friday. And it’s Thanksgiving this weekend! So enjoy the games and enjoy the turkey (or ham, if you don’t like turkey).

Texas Is Not Back. OK, Boomer (Sooner). And the Week 5 College Football Recap

Posted on October 5, 2020 by guelphbossman

That is the Big XII in a nutshell right there. The usual top teams are terrible. The only undefeated team barely survived Tulsa previously. The second-best team right now was upset by a Sun Belt team to start their season. Again, a complete shitshow. Spencer Rattler never seemed comfortable against Iowa State but that O-line is horrendous. The poor guy played well considering that…oh and the defense. Can’t forget them. Such a Mike Stoops defense this Sooners team has. Then there is Texas. Not back. Not even close. Again it felt like they were going to lose to TCU pretty much all game. You got to wonder what would happen in Austin if Gary Patterson was the coach there with all that talent. Makes you think, huh?

Other than that, it was a pretty fun weekend (not that that wasn’t fun…it was, except for Sooner and Longhorn fans).

BYU is continuing their march towards something that could be very hotly debated. Louisiana Tech is a good team, yet was no match at all for the Cougs. BYU stays undefeated, moves up in the rankings and could be looking at being undefeated late in the season. So then what does The Committee do? BYU has a cupcake schedule (and that could be an insult to other cupcake schedules). So do you put them into the New Year’s Six? Will they ever crack the Top 10? My guess is now that the rest of the conferences are slowly returning that won’t happen.

Clemson put on show against Virginia. The Tigers never looked like they were in trouble in this one. For once, though, they don’t have a super easy conference schedule. Meaning if they win out then there is almost no debate against having them probably #1 going into the College Football Playoff. I get that some people are getting sick of Clemson but they are a fun team to watch and this is probably their best offense ever under Dabo Swinney. As for UVA, my guess is they will be lucky to go bowling this season.

Hey guess what? Alabama destroyed Texas A&M. Just like everyone thought would happen. I mean Bama put a colossal beatdown on the Aggies, up 35-14 at the half and winning by 28. The Aggies couldn’t really do anything right and the Tide, consequently, looked like everything they did was near-perfect. This shows how much better the Tide (and Clemson for that matter) are compared to every other team in college football. Not saying either team couldn’t be upset this season because it very much could in this already crazy 2020 season. Oh and I am sure Aggie fans are so happy with the Brinks truck that they parked in Jimbo Fisher’s driveway.

Another game that many thought would be closer went down Between The Hedges. The Tigers were boatraced by what seems like a seriously good Georgia team. Stetson Bennett had his coming out party in this one as he proved Kirby Smart right to choose him to start this one. But Tigers fans shouldn’t be quick to put Gus on the hot seat just yet because I know they are doing it. If Malzahn wasn’t paid so much I would feel sorry for the guy.

Florida is still undefeated. They might have the best college tight end in ages in Kyle Pitts. Kyle Trask is looking like money. Saying all that, it’s not like they blew South Carolina out. Still have to consider them in a spot of trouble later in the season when they head to Jacksonville for the World’s Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party to face Georgia who, as I said in the previous paragraph, looked damn good.

Virginia Tech might just be a dark horse contender for the ACC Championship game (to get plowed by Clemson). But they have to do better than they did against Duke this past weekend. Chase Brice has not looked good and yet somehow the Blue Devils kept it close with the Hokies until late. This is not good news when VaTech gets into the meat of their ACC schedule.

What an absolutely wild game in Lexington. Kentucky and Ole Miss went to overtime. Then the poor Kentucky kicker missed an extra point after an OT touchdown. While he tried to find a spot in the turf to crawl under, the Rebels won the game with a converted touchdown. Slowly, the Lane Train is starting their journey in the SEC (well, Lane Train Version 2.0). As for Mark Stoops, he may be kicking himself for not taking better coaching offers a couple years back. He now has a very difficult job going forward with no true stars leading the way. Don’t be surprised if he is mentioned as a hot seat candidate later on in the season.

Oh, UCF. That was brutal to watch. They allowed Tulsa to stay close with an absolute deluge of penalties and undisciplined play. Now the Golden Hurricane might actually be better than we all think. They beat the Knights here and kept things close with Oklahoma State a few weeks back. But back to UCF, they can kiss that New Year’s Six opportunity goodbye unless chaos happens throughout the entire Group of Five.

North Carolina still living up to the preseason hype (that many thought was bullshit). But again, a really good team struggles with a not-so-good team. The Eagles were within two after a touchdown late. They went for the two-point conversion and the Tar Heels picked the pass off and went for a pick-two, pretty much ending the game. Some of these teams that are sniffing the Top 10 are going to have to really destroy some teams going forward or there is no way they have a chance at the CFP, even if they are getting through with no losses.

Uh, what the hell is happening with Mississippi State? Oh that’s right, it’s Mike Leach. After upsetting LSU and K.J. Costello setting the new SEC record for passing yards in a game in his first SEC game ever, the Bulldogs look like garbage and get beaten by Arkansas. Alright, the Hogs played some great defense and did just enough to win but still, this is a team MSU shouldn’t be losing to. Congrats to Sam Pittman for the win as it may end up being his only win this season.

Pittsburgh is not great. Still good, but not great as evidenced by their loss to NC State. The Wolfpack are not expected to be good this season at all yet gave the Panthers all they could handle. I kind of expect that from Pat Narduzzi these days. Beat a team or two that they should have had no right to beat and then shit the bed against an also-ran.

In more shitty Big XII action, West Virginia was able to outlast Baylor in two overtimes. Honestly, this was a terrible game. But it was close so I felt compelled to watch the last half of the fourth quarter and all of both overtimes. So yeah, Big XII football not exactly lighting the world of college football on fire.

Alright enough recappin’. Time for the first Bossman Top 25 of the season. Yes I know I had mentioned I was not going to do it but I thought, fuck it, I might as well. FOMO and all that. Anyway let’s do this:

#1	Clemson
#2	Georgia
#3	Alabama
#4	Florida
#5	Notre Dame
#6	Miami
#7	North Carolina
#8	Ohio State
#9	Auburn
#10	Oklahoma State
#11	Cincinnati
#12	Penn State
#13	Tennessee
#14	LSU
#15	Oregon
#16	BYU
#17	Texas A&M
#18	Texas
#19	Virginia Tech
#20	Wisconsin
#21	SMU
#22	Louisiana
#23	Michigan
#24	Mississippi State
#25	UCF

Yep, I have Georgia above Alabama. Look, it’s what the polls are at this time. Georgia’s win over Auburn was way more impressive than Bama’s win over the Aggies. Again, this could all change by next week at this time. It’s only October 5th. Plus with Florida and Auburn still in the Top 10, I am assuming the SEC will have a lot of change in the rankings as the season goes on. And yes, I included Big Ten teams. And Pac-12 teams. I would have included Mountain West and MAC teams if I thought they should be in the Top 25 which I don’t just yet.

See you back on Thursday for the college football TV schedule. Until then, enjoy your week everyone!

I don’t know why people are surprised by this – Week 11 College Football TV Schedule

Posted on November 7, 2019 by guelphbossman

The College Football Playoff rankings came out on Tuesday evening. And of course there is a spot of controversy. Not a whole lot though. Ohio State is considered #1 with LSU at #2. This is fine. Alabama gets the #3 spot and it’s Penn State, not Clemson, at #4 (the Tigers are #5). This is good. Clemson doesn’t deserve to be above Penn State. To be honest, I would have put Bama at #4 as well but I don’t think The Committee has balls that big (yet). Georgia is #6 which is a lot of people upset since their lone loss is a terrible one at home to South Carolina where as Oregon’s only loss is to Auburn. I’d have to look at the rest of their schedules but I have a feeling the rest of UGA’s schedule is tougher than Oregon’s so it still kind of makes sense and there is an argument for it.

The problem with this is the same problem with the AP rankings. Having pre-season rankings should be abolished. There is no reason they should be done before Week 1 is over. Hell, make a whole AP Rankings show if you want, ESPN. I don’t care. The same goes for the CFP Rankings. Honestly I think they are one week too soon. The more weeks are over, the better the rankings will be but it’s tough for The Committee, who are made up of human beings, won’t take the previous week’s rankings into account. This will lead to certain teams being ranked too high to start not falling as far as they should and some teams who are too low right now having the opposite problem if they continue to win. Maybe this is something they can think of next year. They won’t because MONEY but they should consider it as the more teams that are truly in the race, the better. And that will also lead to more money.

Another point I have to make is that we are in the middle of MACtion. It’s the same point I make every year. It is great for people watching on TV since they now have football to watch on a Tuesday night rather than having to find something on Netflix or watching Sword Wars or Bagel Wars or whatever the fuck reality show is on. The problem is the stands look empty. There is proof that less fans go to these weekday night games (Friday excepted). MACtion was the first but the Sun Belt does it as does the ACC and Pac-12. But I have noticed this year that MACtion started later in the season (as did Fun Belt) and there are less weekday night games up until now. What caused this? The biggest thing is, amazingly enough, the ACC Network. More MAC and Sun Belt games have ended up on ESPNU on a Saturday than ever before. This means that attendance will increase as well as still having national visibility on a Saturday. It really is a win-win. I wonder what would happen if the Big XII ever got their act together and created a Big XII Network.

Alright let’s get right to the schedule!

Thursday

		US	Canada
Louisiana at Coastal Carolina	7:30 PM
Temple at USF	8:00 PM

So this is football. It’s cold outside. So might as well stay in and watch some college football. I have a feeling a lot of people will be watching Thursday Night Football instead.

Friday

		US	Canada
UCF at Tulsa	7:00 PM
Washington at Oregon State	10:30 PM

The first game might be over by the end of the first quarter. Or we could get Weird Tulsa who keeps it close and frustrates the Knights all night long. The nightcap actually might be fairly entertaining considering the Beavers have improved immensely over the past few years. Still, it would be considered a massive upset if OSU upended the Huskies.

Saturday Early

		US	Canada
#4 Penn State at #17 Minnesota	Noon
Florida State at Boston College	Noon
Purdue at Northwestern	Noon
UMass at Army	Noon
Vanderbilt at #10 Florida	Noon
Texas Tech at West Virginia	Noon
East Carolina at #25 SMU	Noon
Maryland at #1 Ohio State	Noon
#12 Baylor at TCU	Noon
Western Kentucky at Arkansas	Noon
Georgia Tech at Virginia	12:30 PM

Huge game in the early window and it’s not on FOX. ABC gets the huge Penn State-Minnesota game early because Minnesota declined to have night games in November. I understand this since it is probably fucking freezing in Minneapolis on a Saturday night under the stars (and possibly snowflakes). Other than that it isn’t the greatest schedule. Baylor-TCU could be interesting but the rest is just merely OK and will only be great if the game is close going into the fourth quarter.

Saturday Afternoon

		US	Canada
Stanford at Colorado	3:00 PM
USC at Arizona State	3:30 PM
#19 Wake Forest at Virginia Tech	3:30 PM
#2 LSU at #3 Alabama	3:30 PM
UConn at #20 Cincinnati	3:30 PM
#16 Kansas State at Texas	3:30 PM
Louisville at Miami	3:30 PM
Dartmouth vs. Princeton (in Yankee Stadium)	3:30 PM
Illinois at Michigan State	3:30 PM
UAB at Southern Miss	3:30 PM
#16 Iowa at #13 Wisconsin	4:00 PM
New Mexico State at Ole Miss	4:00 PM

“WHY ISN’T LSU-BAMA ON IN PRIMETIME???????” CBS already used their primetime matchup early in the season with Notre Dame-Georgia and I assume they couldn’t get a deal to get another primetime game. Sucks but it is what it is but it does mean that the first two timeslots of the day have at least one absolute must-see game which is somewhat rare.

Iowa-Wisky is also a big game and we also see KSU-UT and Dartmouth-Princeton? Huh? Yeah I mean this is the biggest Ivy League game in a long time between two really good (FCS) teams but the fact this game got a national spot in the middle of Saturday tells you what the entirety of the week’s schedule is like.

Saturday Primetime

		US	Canada
Utah State at Fresno State	7:00 PM
Missouri at #6 Georgia	7:00 PM
Appalachian State at South Carolina	7:00 PM
Washington State at California	7:00 PM
#5 Clemson at NC State	7:30 PM
#15 Notre Dame at Duke	7:30 PM
Liberty at BYU	7:30 PM
Tennessee at Kentucky	7:30 PM
Iowa State at #9 Oklahoma	8:00 PM

Nothing really that huge in primetime which is kind of a letdown after the first seven hours of the day. Notre Dame-Duke could be good as both teams do actually have something at stake. Missouri could end the so-called CFP Rankings controversy with UGA if they can pull off the win Between The Hedges.

As for TSN, they have TSN3 showing Mizzou-UGA and show two games early which is about on par with most of the weeks this season. Let’s see what else TSN has on their schedule on this day:

October Plays/Bloopers of the Month. Good god.
Engraved on a Nation. Why are they replaying this AGAIN?
Plays of the Week.
Top TFC Moments. Ok considering the MLS Cup is the next day, this is fine.
CFL Wired. Seriously?
Under-18 Women’s National Championship. It’s hockey so I get it.
Under-17 Challenge. More hockey.
Tennis. Probably contractually obligated to do so.
NASCAR. Another thing that is contractually obligated.
UFC Fight Night from Russia. That’s why it is being shown starting at Noon.
NBA game. Yep. Contract.
SportsCentre. Of course.
Must See SC. Another worthless show.

This is almost as bad as Sportsnet showing Hockey Night in Canada replays on Sundays. I still maintain that live sports are the reason that we even have two different sports networks in this nation. That’s why the hockey and tennis and NASCAR and UFC and NBA is all fine. The rest is mostly dreck and not needed.

Saturday Late Night

		US	Canada
Wyoming at #22 Boise State	10:15 PM
Nevada at San Diego State	10:30 PM

Nothing big although Wyoming-Boise could be a fun game to watch on the blue turf. Plus if it’s frozen it will basically become a skating rink which would be hilarious to watch.

Games to set your eyeballs on

LSU at Alabama (3:30, CBS) – Now this is what I’m talking about! I get it, it would be better at night but still, this is a game fans have to watch. Both teams are playing crazy good so far this season and it’s honestly a surprise that the Tigers aren’t #1. I believe the Tide is actually an underdog for this one so Nick Saban can try and play that up for his plucky, beleaguered squad. Both teams still have challenges the rest of the way so this doesn’t clinch anything but LSU has an easier path than Bama at this point.

Penn State at Minnesota (Noon, ABC/TSN4) – Speaking of games where one team winning would cause a bit of carnage, here’s one. Everyone is expecting PSU to mop the floor with the Fighting Flecks here. Then again, this could get weird as it should be pretty damn cold in Minneapolis and if there’s snow, watch out. I wonder if The Committee would put the Gophers in the Top 10 if they win this one. Honestly, I don’t think they have the guts to do so.

Iowa at Wisconsin (4:00, FOX) – Let’s see how fucked up the Big Ten West can get. If Minnesota starts losing, then the best this division may have is a 4-loss champion. Don’t get me wrong, there are some good teams in the division. Really, only Purdue and Northwestern aren’t good at all (and Illinois and Nebraska are just OK really). Problem is, these teams beat up on each other and there may not be a single dominating team, unless the Gophers start to lose games and fast. Loser here has no shot at going to Indianapolis.

Missouri at Georgia (7:00, TSN3) – I guess I can put these here despite the fact we still don’t know if Mizzou can go bowling this year or not. If the Tigers can pull off the upset here, this throws the SEC East into potential disarray. At the very least, it means UGA will be shot like a cannon down the rankings where everyone seems to think they belong. Remember, depending on what happens, the Dawgs might be in the Top 4 come Tuesday which I am sure would make some experts’ heads explode.

Wake Forest at Virginia Tech (3:30, specialty pack) – I almost think this should have been the ACC Primetime game rather than Clemson-NC State. Wake is probably in the Top 15 and on the precipice of the New Year’s Six with a win. A VaTech win means Bud Foster’s final season is not totally in vain as at least the Hokies will be bowl-eligible. All I know is that no matter what, Dave Clawson is one of the most severely underrated coaches in college football and it will be a shock if some program throws a boatload of money at him to turn their program around (maybe Florida State should look into him).

Honourable mention: Wyoming at Boise State (10:15, specialty pack); Iowa State at Oklahoma (8:00, FOX); Clemson at NC State (7:30, ABC)

Some gambling fun and games

My picks last week were well short of fantastic. At least I got two upsets correct, even if they were minor upsets (Georgia and Memphis). I even called the Illinois win (although it was against Rutgers but hey, a win is a win. Here are this week’s possibly not-so-good picks.

Notre Dame over Duke

Clemson over NC State

Virginia Tech over Wake Forest

Boise State over Wyoming

Oklahoma over Iowa State

Georgia over Missouri

Alabama over LSU

Penn State over Minnesota

South Carolina over Appalachian State

Arizona State over USC

Southern Miss over UAB

Alright Thursday Night Football so what sad sack teams are playing…wait a minute…this isn’t the case anymore since it’s shown on FOX (as well as the NFL Network but most importantly, FOX). We get the Chargers and Raiders in what is actually a pretty big AFC West mid-season game. I find it hilarious that CBS and NBC never got games even this good when they aired TNF. Anyway, since it’s an important game, and considering the college football sked tonight, I will probably end up watching a good amount of this one in front of the rabid Raiders fanbase.

Yet again I will probably be up until 2 in the morning watching games. Maybe there’s something wrong with me. But with only three months (and a bit) of regular season college football I have to watch as much as I can. The other nine months have bowl games (good), Week Zero (not too bad), college football all-star games (with their weird rules) and then the X…………..F……………L!!!!!! At least they get Steve Levy and Tom Hart to call games with Greg McElroy, Joey Galloway and Pat Fucking McAfee with the analysis. Pretty good crews. Let’s hope the XFL is better than the AAF although I’m not holding my breath. Anyway, enjoy the games this weekend everyone!

Fear the Beard! – Week 8 College Football Recap

Posted on October 21, 2019 by guelphbossman

Look, we knew upsets were coming. But this might have been beyond crazy. What happened in Champaign this past Saturday rocked the college football world a bit, that’s for sure. Every year there is an upset in the Big Ten that seems to defy logic. This one is no different. This wasn’t Purdue’s utter destruction of Ohio State last year but still, nonetheless, impressive. Wisconsin really had no response to Illinois’ stingy defense. And the Illini came back when Wisky couldn’t put them away, setting up the game winning field goal with no time left. So another one has bit the dust. I am hoping that next week more undefeated teams lose so we can get down to single digits going into November. Because let’s be honest: the more chaos there is in the Top 25, the better the season usually is. Now with social media, any massive upset of, say, Alabama or Clemson or Oklahoma would be met with Twitmageddon.

The rest of the recap

How about them Trojans? Yeah they are all over the place. They crush Arizona and look like they might be back in the Pac-12 South race. Clay Helton may be off the hot seat in Los Angeles…well at least for six days. I still believe they won’t be able to overtake Utah to win the division despite the fact they hold the tiebreaker after beating the Utes last month. Knowing the Pac-12’s luck, USC will somehow win the division and upset Oregon for the Pac-12 title, obliterating any Pac-12 hopes for the College Football Playoff or New Year’s Six outside the Rose Bowl. Trojan fans would be temporarily happy but that’s about all the good that could come out of this.
So Jim Harbaugh mentioned that the second half would be Michigan’s “finest hour.” I mean sure, they came back from a 14-point deficit to almost tie things up. Which, in front of the Whiteout, one of the most intimidating crowds in college football, is an accomplishment. But this was a team that was supposed to be great. I had them in the CFP goddammit! Oh well, who knows about next week but they have Notre Dame so Michigan better have a finer few hours against the Irish or their chances of doing anything this season are gone.
NC State lost to Boston College. Boston College. What in the holy hell is wrong with the ACC (outside of Clemson and, perhaps, Virginia)?
Tennessee was fired up for their game against Bama and actually held the lead at one point. I mean they got smoked after that but I am sure they beat the spread. Honestly, if it wasn’t for a few gaffes by the Vols, it’s a pretty close game. And now Tua Tagovailoa is injured. He should only miss one game and it’s against Arkansas but still, Nick Saban has to be a bit worried about the health of his star quarterback.
LSU had no problem with the Mississippi State Bulldogs. Wait. No. That’s not true. There is one thing that everyone will remember about this game and it was a problem for their Heisman candidate, Joe Burrow. He was pantsed during the game and everyone could see most of his ass. Embarrassing for sure…unless you are a guy who could end up making millions in the NFL and is probably big man on campus right now. Now we await, LSU’s game with Bama as it could end up being #1 vs. #2 (unless something goes wrong before then).
Feel-good moment of the week came in the Minnesota-Rutgers game. If you haven’t heard of the story of Casey O’Brien, go look it up. A rough life for sure, with having cancer when he was younger and then having it come back on three separate occasions. He ends up getting an offer to walk on at Minnesota, the only team to give him that kind of offer. He finally got the chance to be the holder on a few extra points during the Gophers’ blowout win versus the woeful Scarlet Knights. So this team is surprisingly undefeated, looking headlong into a November matchup with undefeated Penn State that could be the biggest game in program history and now this. So many reasons to root for this team.
Oklahoma looked good in a victory over West Virginia. But no one cared. The only thing everyone cared about is that everyone involved in the Sooner Schooner crash was OK. And yes, everyone was OK. Hopefully they can figure things out since this is the second time this season the Schooner has tipped over.
How about those Vanderbilt Commodores? Yeah they have been shitty this season. I mean they’ve lost to UNLV for God’s sake. Then the Dores went out and beat a ranked Mizzou team that could have been a thorn in the side of the SEC East leaders, Georgia and Florida. And after the game, Derek Mason basically cut a promo that is one of the best post-game interviews of a college football coach of all-time. For his passion alone, he deserves another year at one of the toughest jobs in the Power Five.
Ohio State destroyed Northwestern on Friday night on a game that was moved from FS1 to BTN. This should have been at least a bit closer but, alas, it wasn’t. Is there anyone that can beat tOSU? Penn State might be the best chance during the regular season but don’t forget Wisconsin next week. They could be playing angry after their epic loss.
That was some fun FOOTBAW WEATHER Between The Hedges on Saturday. The Kentucky-Georgia game turned into one of those old-school Big Ten games where the ball rarely went in the air. I guess this made it so Kirby Smart wouldn’t have to make so many tough playcalling decisions since he doesn’t seem to be that good at those kinds of things.
Boise State is no longer undefeated and the fact they lost to BYU, of all teams, is the most shocking part here. But to lose to a guy named Baylor Romney may be even worse. BYU’s newest quarterback had some tricks in his pocket as the Cougs looked really good against a Broncos team who just couldn’t make things work and couldn’t complete the comeback. SMU and Appalachian State were VERY happy with the outcome of that game that’s for sure.
Even though very few people got to see it, Kansas almost pulled off the upset against Texas. A blocked extra point returned for two points turned out to be the difference in this one. Let’s be honest here: Kansas still isn’t that good at all. But with Les Miles there, it is only a matter of time before they are bowl-eligible and then…who knows.
We finally got to see the new NCAA rule on Saturday! Once teams hit the fifth overtime period, it becomes a two-point conversion shootout until we get a winner. North Carolina and Virginia Tech went to six overtimes before the Heels were not able to convert on a conversion and the Hokies did to end the longest game in ACC history. It was a ton of fun despite the fact there was some horrible football and questionable playcalling in the first four overtime periods. The kicking sucked too. All in all it was the most college football game of the weekend.

Man I honestly thought that weekend was going to turn out pretty crappy. And it wasn’t. Even though I missed most of the early games it turned out to be a fantastic day of college football. We need more of these. Now to the Bossman Top 25:

#1	Alabama
#2	LSU
#3	Penn State
#4	Oklahoma
#5	Ohio State
#6	Clemson
#7	Florida
#8	Oregon
#9	Notre Dame
#10	Utah
#11	Auburn
#12	Georgia
#13	Texas
#14	Baylor
#15	Wisconsin
#16	Minnesota
#17	SMU
#18	Michigan
#19	Iowa
#20	Iowa State
#21	Cincinnati
#22	Arizona State
#23	Boise State
#24	Appalachian State
#25	Wake Forest

Yes I have Clemson down at #6. I don’t care what anyone thinks about that. Let’s be honest here: if the Tigers win out they’re in, no ifs, ands or buts. I also have no Group of Five team in the Top 15. I can honestly see this being the case when the regular season ends unless there are no other undefeated teams (and even then). Considering the weaker schedule, these teams (SMU, Cincinnati, Boise State, Appalachian State) need to start blowing teams out all the time. Who gives a shit about hurt feelings. Run up the damn score! Finally, I himmed and hawed over whether to put Wake Forest or Virginia in at #25. I put the Deacs in for now knowing that Virginia will get there eventually because they may have won the ACC Coastal already (what a gongshow of a division). Remember there are ten undefeated teams remaining and it will be down to single digits by Halloween. If there is a God, the next few weeks will have us down to like one or two.

Guess what? No mid-week college football. Last time I will say that for a while. Soon we are getting into football every damn day for almost a month. Yes, it’s Footballmania! I’ll be back later this week with a full college football schedule and may discuss this a bit more. Enjoy your week everyone!

The Game…did anything else happen this past weekend? – Week 13 College Football Recap

Posted on November 28, 2016 by guelphbossman

Yes tOSU fans were pretty happy afterward

If you had believed College GameDay, there was nothing else on that day. Oh, maybe a couple coaching changes. That’s it. Nothing else. That 5-hour GameDay was absurdly long. They could have gone with 4 and it would have been plenty. Worst part is, The Game was awesome. So the hype kind of justified it. So expect longer GameDays in the future for bigger games. Speaking of The Game, did I mention it was amazing? Double overtime. Two missed field goals in regulation. Controversy over a spot in double overtime. Curtis Samuel running about 50 yards to gain a little over ten to be just short that set up the fourth down that had that controversial spot. Crazy. And so good. It’s why we watch college football: for games like these. I do think it would have been better as the 8:00 ABC game but I understand tradition has it at Noon on ABC. Remember, realignment and money has robbed the game of a lot of traditions so let’s not quibble over this one. It did make it tough to get through the rest of the day thought I will say that. Energy was an issue later on.

Warning: this post will be long. Viewer discretion strongly advised.

Tuesday

The week started on Tuesday with some MACtion. Ohio clinched the MAC East with their win over Akron. Then Miami-OH completed the most incredible in-season turnaround ever. They had started the season 0-6. With their win Tuesday night over Ball State they finished 6-6 and became bowl eligible. Very impressive.

Thursday

LSU beat Texas A&M on American Thanksgiving night and that was the secondary story. Ed Orgeron was the main story all night. Whether LSU was going to take the interim tag off or hire someone else. The intrigue would last into Saturday morning. We will get to that in a bit.

Friday

NC State ruined North Carolina’s chances of going to the ACC Championship and made the Commonwealth Cup the next day meaningless with their win over the Heels. Other than a skirmish in the middle of the game, nothing much of note here. The Wolfpack became bowl eligible much to the chagrin of the 5-7 crew.

Memphis with the mild upset of Houston. Again nothing really of note except the constant reminder that Tom Herman was probably coaching his last game on the Cougar sideline.

Missouri beat Arkansas in front of, well, a lot less than a sell-out. I kind of wonder if Mizzou fans long for the days of the Big Eight. Not the Big XII, the Big Eight.

Northern Illinois beat Kent State to go to 5-7 and start the slew of conversations about which teams had better APRs and how many spots would be available after all eligible teams were selected. I love college football, I really do. But this APR nonsense is stupid. A few less bowl games, that’s all I ask.

The Apple Cup was so incredibly non-competitive. Did Mike Leach realize it was a big game? Washington clinched their spot in the Pac-12 Championship and come very close to clinching one of the coveted four College Football Playoff spots.

Western Michigan continued their dream season, beating Toledo and clinching the MAC West title. They go into the MAC Championship undefeated and as big favourites to get the Group of Five spot in the New Year’s Six. However, we do know that the MAC Title game has been rife with upsets since it began so don’t rule anything out.

Texas played awful, again. Poor Charlie Strong.

Iowa laid a beating on Nebraska, guaranteeing Wisconsin the Big Ten West crown. At least Wisconsin’s game the next day still had meaning since Wisky is still in the hunt for a CFP spot.

Texas Tech beat Baylor and the Bears’ season will end in a whimper. Many were wishing that they didn’t become bowl eligible at all. Many should be thankful The Committee didn’t have to make any sort of decision on them. Also, Patrick Mahomes plays video game football. He should play on Sundays. Maybe the Browns need a…you know what, don’t bother.

Boise State loses inexplicably to Air Force. This means another game on Saturday, this one the Wyoming-New Mexico affair, means nothing now. Black Friday college football not helping Saturday college football any.

All Arizona State needed was a win to go bowling again. The Fighting RichRods beat them pretty handily and won the Territorial Cup. Also, one Sun Devil fan wasn’t impressed with me over Twitter. That surprises me so much since Twitter is such a bastion of friendliness and great debate that never goes over the line or gets personal. Notice the italics.

Southern Miss also pulled an upset, beating Louisiana Tech meaning they would become bowl eligible. The APR spots were dwindling FAST.

Oh and Tubs is as good as done in Cincinnati. Can’t see the Bearcats retaining Tuberville after their loss to Tulsa who came back from quite a ways down to force overtime and then win.

Saturday REALLY Early

Five hour GameDay and The Game. Oh and some coaching carousel fun. Luckily for our sanity, Charlie Strong was fired early on by Texas (no surprise). It sounds like Tom Herman was demanding around $6 million a season (or more like his agents were demanding this). LSU balked and refused to wait for any counter-offer. So they went ahead and removed the interim tag from Ed Orgeron and made him the permanent head coach. Then Texas hired Tom Herman to the surprise of no one either.

Saturday Early

The Game was good. I mentioned it above. Forgot to mention Jim Harbaugh’s rant on the officiating after the game. Epic. And will cost him some money. However, there were other games on Saturday. No really!

Rutgers lost. Again. Which made Maryland bowl eligible. The APR schools are decreasing more and more. Actually made me a smile a bit.

How about those Kentucky Wildcats? What a game against Louisville and they pull it out with a last-minute FG to upset the Cardinals. Mark Stoops has done a great job building the program in Lexington. Also, this pretty much makes it so the Fighting Petrinos will not be in a New Year’s Six bowl. Also, I don’t think Lamar Jackson is a shoo-in anymore for the Heisman. Three straight weeks of less-than-Heisman performance and some good performances by other great players has made this a race again.

Another meaningless game but considering it’s a rivalry game, it does feel somewhat important. I’m talking about Clean, Old Fashioned Hate. Georgia and Georgia Tech. And the Ramblin’ Wreck spoiled yet another COFH game by beating Georgia Between the Hedges again. Bulldog fans already wondering if Kirby Smart is the right guy for the job.

Pittsburgh beat Syracuse 76-61…in football. It shattered the previous mark for points in a regulation game by almost 20. Every time I turned back to the game, someone else had scored. It was the only reason I was watching this game. Such a defense-optional game to the extreme.

Indiana and Northwestern did what they had to do: win to become bowl eligible in their rivalry games. To be honest, I am sure very few people watched these two games.

Saturday Afternoon

What the hell is up with Notre Dame? The program is in shambles. Brian Kelly is now actually looking for other coaching possibilities despite the fact the AD hasn’t fired him or doesn’t seem to want to. One of Kelly’s captains had two egregious personal fouls that were missed and should have necessitated him being kicked out of the game. A complete mess. Worst part is, the Irish have the talent to have at least gone bowling. They need to start over and it starts with shitcanning Kelly soon. Oh and USC is good. Adoree Jackson is REALLY good.

The Iron Bowl was more of a Tin Foil Bowl. Nothing much to see. Bama won. Auburn was close for almost three quarters despite the fact they played terrible. It is obvious to anyone that after the Tide, there is no team in that conference that is even close to elite. They will have the worst New Year’s Six representative (unless Florida upsets Alabama in the SEC Championship…which I highly doubt).

In Canadian university football, Laval won the Vanier Cup again. In front of what looked like less than 10,000 fans. Not a good look for the newly rechristened U Sports. We can put part of the blame on Rogers for their piss-poor coverage up until the week of the game. Not surprising at all.

Ole Miss had a shot to go bowling but came up with egg on their face (see what I did there). They lost the Egg Bowl to Mississippi State. And by lost, I mean got destroyed. The Bulldogs now become a potential APR bowl team.

Navy put a whole whack of points up on SMU. Along with the Middies, Pitt (as I mentioned above), and Middle Tennessee all put up 70+ points on the day. Crazy.

Penn State clinched the Big Ten East by beating Michigan State easily. They are probably the worst of the three top Big Ten East teams (PSU, tOSU, Michigan) but thanks to their improbable upset of Ohio State earlier in the year, they get a chance to win the Big Ten title and put a MASSIVE monkey wrench in the College Football Playoff rankings.

Boston College is bowl eligible after beating Wake Forest. Both teams aren’t that great but were helped with soft schedules. I will say Dave Clawson has done a good job in Winston-Salem whereas Steve Addazio, not so much. I think it’s time to let him go and start fresh, especially with a lot of good head coaching candidates out there.

Saturday Primetime

Clemson laid a beating on South Carolina to win the battle of the Palmetto state. Clemson is one win away from the CFP. WILL MUSCHAMP! has done a great job in Columbia with that many freshmen and sophomores. The Gamecocks will be a LOT better next season.

Your winner….and NEW Champion of Life….the Vanderbilt Commodores! Derek Mason’s squad pulls off the upset of Tennessee and is going bowling the right way (not through the back door as many said they would). I think Butch Jones is another guy who should be fired. Whether he is or not, I don’t know. Many crowned the Vols this season’s SEC East champs back in the pre-season. I didn’t fall for it. Then again I picked Georgia. Yeah.

UCLA lost to fall to 4-8. How is Jim Mora getting no heat? This has to be one of the most disappointing seasons in college football this season.

Colorado beat Utah to clinch the Pac-12 South, meaning USC would not have a chance to beat Washington twice this season. The Buffs could also put a huge wrench in the CFP if they beat Washington on Friday.

Western Kentucky destroyed Marshall and is a very underrated Group of Five team…again. Marshall has fallen from grace fast. Doc Holliday should have pushed for another job last season when he was a hot commodity. Too late now.

It took Florida State a while but they were able to pull away and beat Florida. If they could have erased either the loss to Louisville or the loss to Clemson they would have been almost a shoo-in for a NY6 bowl. Not anymore.

Saturday Late Night

I don’t know what Wyoming and San Diego State were thinking. They still had an outside shot at the Group of Five New Year’s Six spot if they both won tonight. But they both looked awful. Worse than awful. New Mexico ran all over the Cowboys and Colorado State put 63 on the board against the Aztecs. This means the Mountain West is officially out of the G-5 race. Boise State is now kicking themselves after losing to Air Force the previous day.

Alright after a mostly great day of college football, it is clear Alabama will go to the College Football Playoff. Even if they somehow lose to Florida in the SEC Championship, they will still hold a spot. Clemson and Washington, I believe will also go with wins in their respective conference championships. It’s that number four spot. I will be doing a post later this week on what is really my final bowl projections before Conference Championship week. I honestly believe that Ohio State will end up being #4, no matter if Wisconsin or Penn State wins the Big Ten Championship. Is it right? That is up for debate. I think there will be a lot of debate this season on who the #4 team should be. This all basically goes to shit if Clemson and Washington lose. So having that happen would be a lot of fun. It means The Committee would earn their money…which is none.

Tomorrow I will have my NFL recap and then the aforementioned rankings/bowl projections post on Wednesday. Hope you all had a great weekend.

Should we hope for chaos? – Week 11 College Football TV Schedule

Posted on November 10, 2016 by guelphbossman

And does it really matter? Last week, Texas A&M had a pretty inexcusable loss to Mississippi State yet didn’t drop all that much in the College Football Playoff rankings. I get that you have to take the full schedule into account every time these rankings come out and that any of the rankings before American Thanksgiving are not that important anyway. But it does beg the question if a surprising result would result in CFP chaos? I am not so sure. Let’s say Washington loses to USC. Do the Huskies only drop a few spots? Or do they drop double digits because of what conference they are in and that their non-conference schedule isn’t as good as some other teams? Who really knows. I have to keep telling myself that this will all work out in the end. Still frustrating to see the inconsistencies leading up to that point though.

Alright, time for this week’s schedule. Only one real marquee game but a lot of good and important games this week.

Thursday

		US	Canada
#17 North Carolina at Duke	7:30 PM	ESPN	TSN2
UL-Lafayette at Georgia Southern	7:30 PM	ESPNU	SP

North Carolina has to win here or it basically gives Virginia Tech the Coastal division title. Duke isn’t as good as last year but still a bit of a dangerous team.

Friday

		US	Canada
Boston College at #18 Florida State	7:30 PM	ESPN2	TSN2

It is probably only meaningful to Boston College’s chances at a bowl game which are slim at this point. I have heard that their APR score is fairly high though so it could be the way they backdoor into a bowl game at 5-7. But they still have to get to 5-7.

Saturday Early

		US	Canada
Baylor at #11 Oklahoma	12:00 PM	ABC/ESPN2	TSN3
#10 Penn State at Indiana	12:00 PM	ABC/ESPN2	ABC/TSN1
Rutgers at Michigan State	12:00 PM	BTN	BTN
Northwestern at Purdue	12:00 PM	BTN	SP*
South Carolina at Florida	12:00 PM	CBS	CBS
Tulsa at Navy	12:00 PM	CBSSN	CBSSN
Mississippi State at #1 Alabama	12:00 PM	ESPN	TSN4
Cincinnati at UCF	12:00 PM	ESPNU	TSN2
Kentucky at Tennessee	12:00 PM	SEC Network	SP
NC State at Syracuse	12:30 PM	ACC Network	WSBK/SP
Presbyterian at Kennesaw State	12:00 PM	ASN	Peachtree
Miami at Virginia	2:00 PM	FSN Regional	SP

The very last chance for the Big XII’s CFP hopes rest on the game in Norman between Baylor and Oklahoma. Baylor wins, it all but excludes them from the party. We do have some reverse mirror shenanigans this weekend and this time it is at noon. Everyone who gets ABC out of Minneapolis and east of there will get Penn State-Indiana on ABC and BU-OU on the specialty pack. West of there (like BC and Alberta) would have the reverse. Honestly I don’t know how many people read this blog from BC but there are a few since I have had to answer their questions about why we don’t get ESPN or WatchESPN up here or why certain specialty packs are shitty and things of that nature.

Also, BTN has two games on their network at Noon. As far as I can tell, pretty much everyone will get Rutgers-Michigan State which would normally push the other game (Northwestern-Purdue) to the specialty pack. At this point, I don’t see any evidence of this. It may end up being like when the ACC Network does two games at once. One just never appears.

UPDATE #3: I wondered if this would happen. Miami-UVA, an FSN Regional game, will appear on the specialty pack starting at 2. Yes, 2:00.

Saturday Afternoon

		US	Canada
Pittsburgh at #2 Clemson	3:30 PM	ABC	ABC/TSN1
Nicholls State at Central Arkansas	3:30 PM	ASN	MyTV
#9 Auburn at Georgia	3:30 PM	CBS	CBS
Tulane at Houston	3:30 PM	CBSSN	CBSSN
#5 Ohio State at Maryland	3:30 PM	ESPN	TSN3
Illinois at #7 Wisconsin	3:30 PM	ESPN2	TSN2
Georgia Tech at #14 Virginia Tech	3:30 PM	ESPNU	SP
Army vs. Notre Dame (in San Antonio)	3:30 PM	NBC	NBC
Vanderbilt at Missouri	3:30 PM	SEC Network	SP

TSN stepping up this week with eight games (two during the week, four early, and two in this timeslot). Nice to see for people that don’t have the specialty pack. I am not always fond of TSN just broadcasting the ABC game we already get but it is what it is.

MyTV continuing with giving us odd games in our area. Why a game from the Southland? I don’t get how ASN does their regional setup. Makes no sense. Take southern Ontario for example. By all rights, we should get a MAC game every week unless ASN is not showing a MAC game. This week they aren’t. So I would figure we should get either a Conference USA game or a regional FCS game. Nope. A game from Arkansas. I am confused.

Saturday Primetime

		US	Canada
#22 Boise State at Hawaii	7:00 PM	CBSSN	CBSSN
#24 LSU at #25 Arkansas	7:00 PM	ESPN	SP
Wake Forest at #6 Louisville	7:00 PM	ESPN2	SP
USF at Memphis	7:00 PM	ESPNU	SP
Minnesota at #19 Nebraska	7:30 PM	BTN	BTN
#20 USC at #4 Washington	7:30 PM	FOX	FOX
Ole Miss at #8 Texas A&M	7:30 PM	SEC Network	SP
#3 Michigan at Iowa	8:00 PM	ABC	ABC

A lot of games featuring ranked teams here. This is where the two marquee matchups are between ranked teams. From what I saw just from the Bell schedule there is a bit of TBA in the guide although I know that these games will appear, it’s just a matter of where. And this is where TSN having more games makes it a bit of a gongshow for the specialty pack guides because they sometimes struggle to get it correct when there are hardly any games on TSN.

Saturday Late Night

		US	Canada
New Mexico at Utah State	10:15 PM	ESPN2	SP
Colorado State at Air Force	10:15 PM	ESPNU	SP
San Diego State at Nevada	10:30 PM	CBSSN	CBSSN
California at #23 Washington State	10:30 PM	ESPN	SP

Case in point with the TSN airings: New Mexico-Utah State is on SD only on Bell (as of right now) because, looking at the guide, they are obviously perplexed as to where to put the games so that as many fit on the three HD channels that they have for the U.S. College Sports Package. I mean it isn’t rocket science. It should be relatively easy to figure out. I am pretty sure that job is given to an intern’s assistant to do.

UPDATE #2: UNM-USU is now on HD for Bell. I don’t know why it all of a sudden changed. I try not to think about the process behind it because it’s probably pretty dumb. Or that there’s no real process at all.

Games to set your eyeballs on

#20 USC at #4 Washington (7:30, FOX) – I honestly do not remember the last time FOX had the most important game of the week. It’s been a while. I discussed this game above but this has to be considered the trap game of all trap games for the Huskies. Lose this one and there is a good chance one of the ACC, Big Ten, or SEC is getting two teams into the CFP. USC has been arguably the hottest team in the land since Sam Darnold took over as QB. This should be a good one.

#24 LSU at #25 Arkansas (7:00, specialty pack) – No one really has a chance to catch Alabama so this is probably just to get to a better bowl since the New Year’s Six may also be out of these two teams’ grasp. LSU’s drop in the CFP Rankings was alarming and they may play with a chip on their shoulder, especially since Ed Orgeron’s job may be on the line these last few weeks. Do well and he will probably be made the permanent head coach. If they don’t win their last four, they may look elsewhere.

#9 Auburn at Georgia (3:30, CBS) – OK I lied. Auburn has a chance. A small one. But no mistakes the rest of the way and then they must beat Bama at the Iron Bowl. This is the type of game that could trip them up. This isn’t Mark Richt’s Bulldogs but they are still a good team and you never know what will happen Between The Hedges.

#5 Ohio State at Maryland (3:30, TSN3) – Maryland has been much better than everyone thought. They could become bowl-eligible with a win this Saturday. Not likely to happen but you never know. A Buckeye loss destroys any CFP chances and also makes The Game in two weeks a bit redundant.

Pittsburgh at #2 Clemson (3:30, ABC/TSN1) – The chances of Pitt winning are slim. But they are still there. Clemson would be in rough shape for the CFP with a loss here. A Pitt win makes them bowl-eligible but they do have two more chances (Duke and Syracuse) to do that so it is not imperative to win here to go bowling.

Baylor at #11 Oklahoma (Noon, TSN3) – I have mentioned this above but the Sooners’ (and the Big XII’s) chances at the CFP ride on Oklahoma winning out. If they do, there’s a chance but other things have to happen. Baylor wins this and the Big XII is toast.

Some gambling fun and games

Here a few picks for this week. Warning: these picks may be just as good as the consistency of the CFP Rankings…meaning I wouldn’t put TOO much money on it.

Washington over USC

LSU over Arkansas

Georgia over Auburn (got to have at least one upset, right?)

Ohio State over Maryland

Clemson over Pittsburgh

Oklahoma over Baylor

Boise State over Hawaii

Appalachian State over Troy

West Virginia over Texas

Oklahoma State over Texas Tech

There you go! I did notice last night that Bowling Green-Akron, which was on ESPNU, was not shown, at least on Bell. This happened the previous night with Rogers customers not getting Western Michigan-Kent State for no reason whatsoever. Again, it comes down to the fact that we all pay for a service. The ones that pay for the specialty pack are paying extra to be able to have the opportunity to watch more college football games than what would be normally offered. So to have ANY game appear on the guide and not be shown is complete bullshit. Unfortunately, not a whole lot will change until the current idea of watching TV changes. And with pick and pay, it still hasn’t changed enough. Rogers and Bell (and to a lesser extent, Eastlink, Cogeco, and other smaller cable providers) better hope that things like WatchESPN don’t become available to Canadians because that could change the game for them forever.

Tomorrow is the NFL sked. Enjoy the games everyone!

UPDATE: I totally forgot that the Ravens and Browns play tonight. So yeah there’s that as well. I guess it does have that trainwreck quality as it becomes more and more exciting the longer this Browns losing streak goes on.

Before we get to the SEC predictions, can someone please explain these supposed southern “comfort foods” to me (oh and some Big XII expansion talk later as well)

Posted on July 21, 2016 by guelphbossman

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And I’m not talking about the good stuff like barbecue and cornbread and fried chicken. I’m talking more about the weird ones like:

Grits. I have had polenta before and thought it wasn’t that great. The texture is awful. It sounds like people like to add things to their grits. Maybe if I add a pound of bacon to a bowl of grits it’ll taste alright. Kind of like when you add bacon to poutine it becomes fantastic. Mmmmmmm….bacon.
Fried green tomatoes. I don’t mind tomatoes if you dice them up on a sandwich or in a wrap. Or some good chunky salsa. And of course, pasta sauce. But fried green tomatoes just seems wrong. Why fry them? It’s like frying bologna. Bologna is bad enough, frying it won’t make it THAT much better.
Greens. I’ve learned that there are a lot of greens, not just collard greens. Turnip greens, mustard greens, etc. It all looks like cooked poverty spinach. Don’t get me wrong: some nice leafy spinach on a sub is great. But cooked spinach is gross in my opinion. If I wanted cooked veggies there are so many other types out there, why go for that?
Chitlins. Good fucking lord.

Alright, let’s get to the real reason we are here: the SEC. God’s conference (or so people in the southeast would make you think). I have to admit that over the last decade they have been the premier conference in college football. I will also admit that having access to SEC Network games makes me a bit happier than I would be if I had the Big Ten Network instead (sorry Rogers customers). To be truly honest, I want it all though (including the Pac-12 Network dammit!). But that is probably a pipe dream, especially when discussing anything related to FOX (which has to change now that the Big Ten is going there as well, at least partially).

As for the SEC, how about I just show you my predicted standings, followed by some potential HOT TAKES:

	Conference		Overall
East	W	L	W	L
Georgia	7	1	11	1
Florida	5	3	8	4
Tennessee	5	3	9	3
Missouri	2	6	5	7
Kentucky	2	6	5	7
Vanderbilt	1	7	3	9
South Carolina	1	7	4	8
West
LSU	8	0	12	0
Ole Miss	7	1	10	2
Alabama	6	2	10	2
Mississippi State	4	4	7	5
Auburn	3	5	6	6
Arkansas	3	5	6	6
Texas A&M	2	6	6	6

Potential HOT TAKES

Again we have a clean sweep in the SEC West. All teams being bowl-eligible. It helps when most of those teams go either 4-0 or 3-1 in the non-conference schedule. And it’s not like it’s easy non-conference scheduling. No Baylors in this crowd.
HOT TAKE #1: Tennessee will not win the SEC East. I have the Vols losing three conference games. You could debate the Florida game and I would totally understand someone taking a different view. But I would be shocked to see them win either of the Georgia or Alabama games, especially since they play the Dawgs Between the Hedges. I do believe they are arguably the most talented team in the SEC East but their schedule does them no favours.
BLISTERING HAWT TAKE #2: This would piss people off if Bama fans actually read this blog. Alabama will not be in the College Football Playoff. In fact, I think they will lose two games this season, both of them road games meaning they would BARELY get to the New Year’s Six. Again, the argument could be made that the Tide could beat either Ole Miss or LSU but not both. Not a chance. If they do, consider it Evil Saban’s greatest coaching feat ever.
Mark Stoops is probably a goner if he doesn’t get to six wins this year. So I’m saying he’s gonna be shitcanned.
I see Georgia having a great season. Correction, I see Nick Chubb having an amazing season and somewhat carrying the Bulldogs on his shoulders. Kirby Smart is going to look like a genius (think Tom Herman) taking his team to the SEC title game where they will lose to…
An undefeated LSU. This is SCORCHING HAWT TAEK #3! I have this feeling no one will have LSU undefeated this season. After The Miles and the Restless took over Baton Rouge last season, this season will be a welcome site since the drama should be at a minimum. They have the favourable schedule to run the table. Mississippi State, Ole Miss, and Alabama all have to come to Death Valley. The only big road test for the Tigers will be when they travel to the Swamp (or the HBC Field or whatever they call it now). I’m going to look like Einstein if this turns out to happen. If not, we will never speak of it again.
I do have 12-0 LSU beating 11-1 Georgia in the final SEC Championship at the Georgia Dome. I honestly think they should move the game to the Superdome for a few years. That’s just my opinion though.

We’re coming down to the wire (for my prediction posts at least). Next up is the SEC’s developmentally delayed cousin, the Sun Belt Conference. The season is a little over a month away. And I think I have made the decision not to get CBS Sports Network this season. As much as it adds football games, which is usually good, for $7 a month (for only that one channel) the value just isn’t there. For essentially an extra $18 a month (if you don’t include the college basketball portion of the package), I am getting a ton of better Power Five conference games. I don’t need a bunch of Tier 2 American, Mountain West, and Conference USA games (along with the odd MAC game). I will still put up schedules for CBSSN though just to be fair to people who still get it because that’s the kind of guy I am.

Lastly, before I leave you (from this post), it looks like two things happened over the past 48 hours that may change the college football landscape yet again. First off, the ACC announced that they will have a full ACC Network, like what the SEC, Big Ten, and Pac-12 already have. The actual full network will be ready by 2019 but the digital network starts soon. This is pretty huge news as, on top of that, they have now basically locked up their schools for almost the next two decades. So what this means that the only changes, chances are, will be additions and not losses for the ACC. Notre Dame will have to join the ACC if they decide to stop being independent any time before 2034. Several factors could force the Irish’s hand in this but the biggest thing will be what NBC wants to do once their current contract with Touchdown Jesus comes to an end in at the conclusion of the 2025 season. If they choose to want to expand their college football offering, it could spell the end to Notre Dame’s exclusive hold on NBC’s college football broadcasts and signify major changes for the school.

The other item that occurred is that the Big XII has finally decided that expansion WILL happen now. You can’t tell me that the ACC Network announcement had nothing to do with this. The Big XII is scared. First will be expansion and then it will be conference network talks. That is pretty much a guarantee. So let’s go back to the game that everyone loves (to hate), WHEEL…….OF……CANDIDATES!!!!!!! Let’s go through them, in order of who I believe is the best choice:

BYU – I don’t believe in almost anything they believe in there. But who gives a shit anyway? Let’s be honest here: they have a great football team and a pretty good basketball team. The whole no games on Sunday thing is overblown. They have a rabid NATIONAL fanbase (which is something at least half the Big XII teams cannot boast). Just invite them and reap the rewards.
Cincinnati – The other program that seems like almost a shoo-in. The Bearkats have made no bones about the fact they want a seat at the big boys table. With their recent upgrades to Nippert Stadium and the fact their basketball team is almost always good, this seems like a no-brainer.

So far, we have two schools that have overall excellent football AND basketball programs. Now we deviate a bit from that with the rest of the candidates:

Houston – I think Houston would be way down the list if it wasn’t for the Baylor shitstorm occurring now. Houston is a strong football program and not a weak basketball program. Plus it’s Texas and as much as they say they don’t want to add Texas programs, they love Texas programs.
UConn – Their basketball team is what keeps them this high on the list. Bob Diaco is salivating at the thought of so many NEW RIVALRY GAMES!!!!
UCF/USF – I can’t foresee a way that one of these programs is selected but not the other. This would purely be for network reach and recruiting purposes.
Colorado State – A new stadium has them on the cusp of something bigger. Problem is they might not be a big enough program for the Big XII.
Boise State – As much as I would like Boise to complete their journey into the Power Five, I can’t see it happening. Their basketball team isn’t that great, their academics aren’t up to par to almost any P5 school, and until they get rid of the smurf turf I can’t see a big-time conference taking them seriously.
Memphis – They could be anywhere from 4 to 10 in this listing. It depends on how much sway FedEx will have (and it could be a lot).
Air Force – Unless they also get Navy I can’t see this happening.
Navy – Unless they also get Air Force I can’t see this happening.
North Dakota State – Crazy…or is it? No it is crazy but the Bison need to be invited to the Mountain West like yesterday.

So there you go. I see four teams eventually being invited with BYU and Cincinnati the obvious first two. The rest will have to sell their souls to get one of those final two spots.