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!
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!
The 2023 version of Footballgasm has arrived! Get ready for an absolute fuck-ton of college football and NFL football from Thursday through to Monday night. Why does this happen? Americans need something to do while they let all that food settle in their stomachs. I mean our Thanksgiving comes first and is pretty good but we really missed the mark. Take out green bean casserole and there’s very little to dislike about American Thanksgiving.
Alright time to unleash the college football schedule for this week, the final week of the regular season. This is done in traditional Bossman’s Blog American Thanksgiving style. Every game is listed. Some are not important. Some are very important. But every game gets their own section. College football deserves it (for the most part).
Tuesday
Bowling Green (-1.5) at Western Michigan
7:00
Does this mean anything? No. But it’s the final night of MACtion so enjoy it. Predicted score: Western Michigan 27 Bowling Green 24.
Eastern Michigan (+6.5) at Buffalo
7:30
Now this game is more important…well, at least for one team. The Eagles can become bowl eligible with a win here. The Bulls are just here to try and play spoiler. Predicted score: Buffalo 31 Eastern Michigan 21.
Thursday
#12 Ole Miss (-11) at Mississippi State
7:30
The Rebels are juuuuuuuuuuuust on the outside looking in at the New Year’s Six. Could they leapfrog Missouri or Penn State without those two teams losing? It’s doubtful but they could strengthen their case by putting a beating on Mississippi State. Predicted score: Ole Miss 34 Mississippi State 30.
Friday
Miami (-9) at Boston College
Noon
Miami destroyed any chance of doing anything this season, mostly with piss-poor coaching (although Tyler Van Dyke seriously regressed this season). The Eagles on the other hand, they played much better than expected and Jeff Hafley has saved his job. Predicted score: Miami 38 Boston College 15.
#17 Iowa (+2) at Nebraska
Noon
Big game here for the Huskers. Win and they are bowl-eligible in Matt Rhule’s first season in Lincoln. Maybe, just maybe, the sun is finally shining on Huskerland for the first time in quite a few years. To do that, though, they will have to upset the Hawkeyes who have defied every odd and probably some theories of offensive football to become Big Ten West champs. Take the under (even though the over/under is a record-low 26.5). Predicted score: Iowa 14 Nebraska 7.
Ohio (-14) at Akron
Noon
Ohio can win their ninth game of the season which is pretty impressive. Unfortunately, it won’t be enough to win the division. Akron is hoping to stay out of double digits in the loss column. Predicted score: Ohio 30 Akron 10.
Memphis (-11.5) at Temple
Noon
Memphis lost their shot at a potential American Conference championship spot last weekend. So really, this means nothing. Predicted score: Memphis 31 Temple 7.
Toledo (-10.5) at Central Michigan
Noon
The Rockets will need a win and a lot of help to somehow sneak into the New Year’s Six. The Chips are trying to get to their sixth win. Actually, quite a bit at stake here. Predicted score: Toledo 34 Central Michigan 16.
TCU (+10) at #13 Oklahoma
Noon
Huge game here for the Sooners. An Oklahoma win and they still have a shot at going to JerryWorld one last time, much to the chagrin of the rest of the Big XII members. TCU isn’t going to lie down for them, though. They have to win to go bowling. Predicted score: TCU 38 Oklahoma 26.
UTSA (+3) at #23 Tulane
3:30
Tulane gets to eleven wins with a win here. More importantly, a win here puts them in the AAC Championship game and makes them the favourite to go back to the New Year’s Six. I am honestly shocked that no team has taken a flyer on Willie Fritz, despite his age. A Roadrunners win doesn’t eliminate the Green Wave either although they would need some help from Navy. A UTSA win would put them in the conference championship and would finish one of the best conference moves (outside the Sun Belt) in recent memory. Predicted score: Tulane 29 UTSA 24.
Utah State (-7.5) at New Mexico
3:30
The Aggies go bowling if they beat the Lobos. A UNM win would put them at five for the season which, honestly, would probably save Danny Gonzales’ job and constitute one of their better seasons in a long time. Predicted score: Utah State 49 New Mexico 31.
#9 Missouri (-7.5) at Arkansas
4:00
Mizzou locks themselves into the New Year’s Six if they can defeat the lowly Hogs. Sam Pittman has already been retained for next year so no surprise shitcanning in Fayetteville like Bret Bielema got a few years back. Predicted score: Missouri 33 Arkansas 14.
Texas Tech (+13) at #7 Texas
7:30
A massive game for the Longhorns. There is honestly so much on the line here. The most important being a spot in the final four-team College Football Playoff. It’s within their grasp but they have to stop allowing teams to stick around in games. The Red Raiders, on the other hand, are playing for one thing since they are already bowl eligible: spoiling the Horns’ entire season. Predicted score: Texas 31 Texas Tech 17.
#11 Penn State (-21) vs. Michigan State (in Detroit)
7:30
Do the Nittany Lions deserve to be in a New Year’s Six bowl? It’s debatable but at this point, a win probably clinches a spot unless Ole Miss goes nuts on Mississippi State the night before. The Spartans just want to end one of the most miserable seasons in their program’s history, on and off the field. Predicted score: Penn State 49 Michigan State 28.
#16 Oregon State (+13.5) at #6 Oregon
8:30
The Ducks want a rematch with Washington for the Pac-12 Championship. The Beavers just want to spoil Oregon’s season as all teams do in rivalry games. Predicted score: Oregon 44 Oregon State 29.
Saturday Early
Kentucky (+7) at #10 Louisville
Noon
Louisville needs a win to keep their slim CFP hopes alive. That alone will make this game interesting. Kentucky has no stakes other than maybe trying not to lose too badly so that Mark Stoops can be guaranteed for 2024. Predicted score: Louisville 31 Kentucky 10.
Pittsburgh (+6) at Duke
Noon
Duke is already going bowling and are middle of the ACC standings. Pitt is pretty awful (other than playing lights out against Louisville) and are looking forward to the offseason. A lot of better options in this window. Predicted score: Duke 20 Pittsburgh 7.
Indiana (+3) at Purdue
Noon
The Old Oaken Bucket. Even with this being a rivalry game, it’s really not worth watching. Predicted score: Purdue 32 Indiana 13.
Miami-OH (-6.5) at Ball State
Noon
Redhawks are in. Cardinals are out. Let’s see if Mike Neu finally gets the axe like I’ve predicted for a few seasons now. Predicted score: Miami-OH 30 Ball State 28.
Texas A&M (+10.5) at #14 LSU
Noon
For two good teams (OK one quite good team and one OK team), this game does not mean a whole lot. The Aggies are bowling and playing under an interim coach. LSU would need a damn miracle to get into the New Year’s Six so should start packing for a Florida bowl game. Predicted score: LSU 45 Texas A&M 31.
Navy (+20) at SMU
Noon
Now with TSN pushing a lot to TSN+, games like this will almost never make it to the regular TSN channels again which sucks for people who don’t subscribe. It feels like it has finally come to the point where you have to either get one off the specialty packs, get TSN+ or go the IPTV route to see as much college football as you want as a Canadian. Anyway, Navy has two shots to go bowling and would like to close that out here. The Mustangs are in the American Championship with a win in Big D. Predicted score: SMU 48 Navy 20.
Troy (-17) at Southern Miss
Noon
Troy has no shot at the New Year’s Six and is already hosting the Sun Belt Championship. Southern Miss is home for the holidays. Meh. Predicted score: Troy 23 Southern Miss 8.
#2 Ohio State (+3.5) at #3 Michigan
Noon
Another huge version of The Game. Not a total surprise. The winner is in the Big Ten Championship and all but guarantees a spot in the playoff. And just like last year, the loser isn’t out with a loss depending on what happens on conference championship weekend. If GUS JOHNSON would ever pass out from lack of oxygen, this would be the game he would do it in. Predicted score: Michigan 28 Ohio State 24.
Saturday Afternoon
Wake Forest (+3) at Syracuse
2:00
The two worst teams in the ACC but it’s still important for one team. The Orange need a win here to somehow become bowl eligible. Wake would be just outside at five wins if they win here and could nab a spot due to their great APR score if it comes down to that. Predicted score: Syracuse 35 Wake Forest 15.
Southern vs. Grambling (in New Orleans)
2:00
Prairie View A&M has already clinched the SWAC West so this means nothing for either team other than bragging rights: both for the football teams and the bands. Predicted score: Southern 23 Grambling 18.
Colorado (+22) at Utah
3:00
Utah has been very good considering the sheer amount of injuries that team sustained. The Buffaloes season finally ends after the most hype ever given to a one-win team before the season began (and well into the season as well). Predicted score: Utah 39 Colorado 17.
BYU (+17.5) at #20 Oklahoma State
3:30
BYU needs to win here to be in a bowl game. It would be a pretty big upset if they did, but hey, crazier things have happened. The Pokes are holding on to an outside shot at the Big XII Championship. They need to win and have a few other things go their way but again, it’s not impossible. Predicted score: BYU 49 Oklahoma State 31.
Virginia Tech (-3) at Virginia
3:30
Last year’s Commonwealth Cup was cancelled after the murders of three Virginia players. Just having this game will bring back quite a few emotions I’m sure for the Cavs. For the Hokies, they can do the improbable and become bowl eligible if they beat their rivals. Predicted score: Virginia 40 Virginia Tech 35.
Northwestern (+6) at Illinois
3:30
If you had told me at the start of the season that this game would have Northwestern already going bowling and the Illini fighting for their bowl lives, I would have thought you had just went to a cannabis shop for the first time in your life and ate a few too many edibles. But here we are. The Wildcats have been amazing considering their offseason. David Braun has done a masterful job in Evanston. Bret Bielema on the other hand is still at the helm of a struggling Illini team. He will make it to 2024 but a loss here will put him on a much shorter leash. Predicted score: Illinois 31 Northwestern 23.
Maryland (-1.5) at Rutgers
3:30
I have this game showing in most homes in this area. I have no idea what will happen. Hell, I have Big Ten Network and three alternate BTNs and even then, one game usually gets left out for everyone. Why do they do this when they honestly don’t have to? Anyway, both teams are going bowling so are looking for momentum heading into the postseason and nothing else. Predicted score: Maryland 20 Rutgers 17.
#8 Alabama (-14.5) at Auburn
3:30
How close can the Tigers keep this game? The spread honestly seems way too low. Don’t even bother talking about an upset. Kind of a dud for the final SEC on CBS regular season game if you ask me. Now watch it be close deep into the fourth quarter. Predicted score: Alabama 41 Auburn 21.
#25 Liberty (-17) at UTEP
3:30
In what is feeling like a broken record, here’s another game that means very little. Sure, the Flames can finish an undefeated season with a win over the terrible Miners. Problem is they need quite a bit of help to get that coveted NY6 spot. I just can’t see it happening. Predicted score: Liberty 38 UTEP 20.
#15 Arizona (-11.5) at Arizona State
3:30
ASU is already home for the Christmas holidays. The Wildcats have to win here and hope Oregon has already lost the Civil War. So we will know going in whether this game means anything or not. Predicted score: Arizona 23 Arizona State 13.
James Madison (-9) at Coastal Carolina
3:30
Big game in the Sun Belt and unfortunately only for one team. The Dukes are almost guaranteed a bowl slot after all the bowl eligible teams get their spots. For the Chants, because of JMU’s ineligibility for the Sun Belt title, they win this and they will face Troy for the Sun Belt Championship. Predicted score: James Madison 42 Coastal Carolina 24.
Georgia Southern (+8.5) at Appalachian State
3:30
The Mountaineers will be scoreboard-watching and trying to pay attention to the task at hand. Not easy for sure. If CCU can’t beat JMU then App State, with a win, will head to Troy and face the Trojans as the champions of the Sun Belt East. Predicted score: Appalachian State 26 Georgia Southern 10.
Vanderbilt (+27) at #21 Tennessee
3:30
This would have been at least a bit more humourous being played at Vanderbilt’s stadium with their ongoing construction issues. Predicted score: Tennessee 49 Vanderbilt 21.
Washington State (+16.5) at #4 Washington
4:00
The Apple Cup continues to produce high drama. The Huskies’ dream season could come crashing down if they get upset by the Cougs. Wazzu has to win to become bowl-eligible. This should nab a lot of viewers until it gets out of hand. Predicted score: Washington 52 Washington State 17.
Saturday Primetime
#5 Florida State (-6.5) at Florida
7:00
If this had been discussed a week ago the spread might have been over 20 points. Instead, we will find out if the Noles can continue their success without Jordan Travis. The Gators could do the improbable by going bowling with a win here. Predicted score: Florida State 36 Florida 27.
South Alabama (-6) at Texas State
7:00
Two teams that are already bowl-eligible here. Good for them but it means that the NFL Network’s final game of the year will not get a whole lot of viewers. Predicted score: South Alabama 20 Texas State 14.
#18 Notre Dame (-26) at Stanford
7:00
I’m sorry but this is fucking hilarious. The final Pac-12 Network football game ever and it will feature Notre Dame. NOTRE DAME. Irish fans are going to be so damn pissed off trying to find a way to watch this. That alone makes this fun. Not quite worth watching a lot of but still, you’ll be seeing history at the end as the worst conference network closes its football doors for good. Predicted score: Notre Dame 42 Stanford 32.
#1 Georgia (-24) at Georgia Tech
7:30
A little Clean, Old-Fashioned Hate. I love some of the names of these rivalries. There might be a bit of intrigue to see if UGA can cap off another undefeated regular season but other than that, you can avoid this one. Predicted score: Georgia 34 Georgia Tech 10.
Kansas (-6) at Cincinnati
7:30
Kansas is pretty good again this season. It’s nice to see. Cincinnati, on the other hand, may be regretting the Scott Satterfield hire although he deserves another season to see how they can truly compete in the Big XII. Predicted score: Kansas 28 Cincinnati 14.
Charlotte (+5.5) at USF
7:30
Speaking of teams playing much better than most thought they would, the Bulls are one win away from going bowling. They showed a lot in the near-upset of Alabama back in September and have scratched and clawed their way to this point. The only thing standing in their way? The bare arms of Biff Poggi and his Charlotte 49ers. Might not be as easy as USF thinks it should be. Predicted score: USF 31 Charlotte 30.
#24 Clemson (-7) at South Carolina
7:30
Gotta give Dabo Swinney from credit for turning around the team after that poor start. Either that or we give all the praise to Tyler from Spartanburg for lighting a fire under the Tigers. Either way, they come into this game as actually one of the hottest teams in the country. And they could actually make their season for a lot of fans by ruining South Carolina’s. The Gamecocks need the win to be bowl eligible. I don’t think this will be as feisty as their brawl-filled game many years ago but I could see it getting chippy. Predicted score: Clemson 41 South Carolina 24.
North Carolina (-3) at #22 NC State
8:00
North Carolina was supposed to be one of the teams to go to the ACC Championship this year. NC State was supposed to be fighting for a .500 record. Instead, they both come in at 8-3 with maybe something other than bragging rights on the line. Let’s be honest: teams would much rather go to a Florida destination than the Sun Bowl or Military Bowl. Predicted score: North Carolina 28 NC State 27.
Iowa State (+10) at #19 Kansas State
8:00
By this point, we will know if the Wildcats have any shot at the Big XII Championship. Other than that, neither team has anything to play for other than to win…FARMAGEDDON. Predicted score: Kansas State 50 Iowa State 34.
Saturday Late Night
Wyoming (-11) at Nevada
9:00
Yes, the odd CBS Sports Network Thanksgiving Saturday timeslot is back again. At least they do their best to cram in as much live sports as humanly possible into this day. Predicted score: Wyoming 35 Nevada 27.
California (+9.5) at UCLA
10:30
It’s really hit or miss with this final game of the regular season. Sometimes, it’s a massively important game that is must-watch and keeps everyone up well past Midnight. Other times we get games that have absolutely no importance. For once, it’s somewhere in the middle. Shockingly, the Bears are in line for a bowl spot if they can pull the upset on a Bruins team who might still be on a high after defeating USC for the Victory Bell this past weekend. Predicted score: UCLA 38 California 34.
That’s a lot of football. I am not complaining. At all. I would have thought TSN might have stepped up for the final regular season weekend but, alas, that is not the case. They are pushing TSN+ for college football so that is the future we have to live with. Oh well…progress, right? Ugh.
I will update the rankings when I see them. I figured I should get this post out in some form so my MACtion predictions don’t look too fishy. Enjoy the games everyone!
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
US
Canada
#10 Louisville at Miami
Noon
Michigan State at Indiana
Noon
Purdue at Northwestern
Noon
Coastal Carolina at Army
Noon
#14 Oklahoma at BYU
Noon
Chattanooga at #8 Alabama
Noon
East Carolina at Navy
Noon
SMU at Memphis
Noon
Harvard at Yale
Noon
#3 Michigan at Maryland
Noon
ULM at #13 Ole Miss
Noon
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!
I don’t think we have ever seen two football minds like this get let go within a week of each other. It is crazy to think this could happen, but it did. Two legends who didn’t get their proper sendoff on here. So here we go.
*deep breath*
Ladies and gentlemen, it is time to say farewell to two of, arguably……….the worst coordinators in recent Power Five football history. Brian Ferentz, son of Iowa head coach Kirk Ferentz, had to be put on a points minimum to be able to keep his contract after this season was over. And Alex Grinch, one of Lincoln Riley’s loyal soldiers. Two men who undoubtdedly pushed football back 50 years with their horrendous playcalling and obvious lack of attention to detail.
Ferentz wasn’t even allowed to take a shot at the points amount (it had to be at least an average of 25 a game). He was told by interim Iowa athletic director Beth Goetz, who obviously knew his chances of hitting that mark were slim, that he would not be retained for the 2024 season. So technically he is still around although he’s in a lame duck position. Not so for Grinch who wasn’t allowed to continue putting out awful defense after awful defense, something that has almost killed USC’s chances of anything but going to a bowl game. Riley had no choice in the end but to axe him.
Realistically, these two guys should have been let go weeks ago. It was apparent to anyone with some knowledge of college football that these two weren’t cutting it. But nepotism and loyalty can go a long way in this sport and we have seen it time and again in the past. And it will continue to do so. Hopefully head coaches learn to take a step back and look at a situation from a bird’s-eye view so that they can honestly assess it. Otherwise you hurt the team and, potentially, yourself.
Alright, enough of fired coaches. Let’s get to the damn schedule!
Tuesday
US
Canada
Ball State at Northern Illinois
7:00
Central Michigan at Western Michigan
7:00
Ohio at Buffalo
7:30
Iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit’s MACTION!!!!!!! Second week of MACtion and boy do I love it. Also, the College Football Playoff rankings come out a few minutes into the early games so I am sure the announcers will stick to calling the games and not mention anything about the rankings. I’m sure of it.
Wednesday
US
Canada
Bowling Green at Kent State
7:00
Eastern Michigan at Toledo
7:00
Akron at Miami-OH
7:00
EMU-Toledo is easily the biggest game here. Depending on a few other results, the Rockets could clinch the MAC West with a win.
Thursday
US
Canada
Virginia at #11 Louisville
7:30
Southern Miss at Louisiana
7:30
Louisville’s potential run to the New Year’s Six might have some potholes. This shouldn’t be one of them. Thing is, it’s either that, the Fun Belt game or one of the worst Thursday Night Football games ever. I’ll stick with the ACC matchup as long as I can (with some check-ins on the Southern Miss-Louisiana game of course).
Friday
US
Canada
North Texas at SMU
9:00
Grambling at Arkansas-Pine Bluff
9:00
The Mustangs feel like a bit of a surprise team at the top of the American Conference and they shouldn’t be. Some had them at least getting to the conference championship. Take the over with this one.
Saturday Early
US
Canada
Georgia Tech at Clemson
Noon
Virginia Tech at Boston College
Noon
Indiana at Illinois
Noon
Holy Cross at Army
Noon
#8 Alabama at Kentucky
Noon
Tulsa at #23 Tulane
Noon
Yale at Princeton
Noon
#3 Michigan at #10 Penn State
Noon
Vanderbilt at South Carolina
Noon
Absolutely colossal matchup in the early window. Yes, I am talking about Indiana-Illinois Michigan-Penn State. The second of the three-game Big Ten East round robin of Fun and Frolic lands in State College. Should this be under the lights with a Penn State Whiteout? Yeah, probably. But FOX is adamant that Noon is their big game. Big Noon Saturday. It’s not called Big Evening Saturday for a reason.
Saturday Afternoon
US
Canada
NC State at Wake Forest
2:00
#21 Arizona at Colorado
2:00
Miami at #4 Florida State
3:30
Pittsburgh vs. Syracuse (in the Bronx)
3:30
Rutgers at #22 Iowa
3:30
#13 Tennessee at #14 Missouri
3:30
UAB at Navy
3:30
#15 Oklahoma State at UCF
3:30
NC Central at Howard
3:30
#18 Utah at #5 Washington
3:30
Minnesota at Purdue
3:30
Washington State at California
4:00
Auburn at Arkansas
4:00
Stanford at #12 Oregon State
5:30
Utah-Washington. Big game. Tennessee-Missouri. Big game (but not as big as the first one). Miami-FSU. Big game, mostly for one team. So there are some important games in this timeslot. It’s rare to see a November Saturday timeslot not to have an important game at all. Now, all games are not equal. Let’s be honest: very few will give a shit about Pitt-Cuse even if it is at Yankee Stadium.
And on that note, can we quit with putting football games on in baseball stadiums? Look at last week’s shitshow at Wrigley. I mean the game was hilariously bad as is considering the two teams playing. But the turf was in shambles. At one point they were trying to fix a patch that looked to be about two feet long and one foot wide. Like, seriously? Want to go to new places? Play in more NFL stadiums. Play in big high school stadiums. Hell, go to Barrow, Alaska and play on their field that borders the Arctic Ocean. Just stay away from the baseball stadiums or otherwise one day some guy is going to get seriously hurt.
Saturday Primetime
US
Canada
San Diego State at Colorado State
7:00
#9 OIe Miss at #2 Georgia
7:00
West Virginia at #17 Oklahoma
7:00
Georgia Southern at Marshall
7:00
#7 Texas at TCU
7:30
Mississippi State at Texas A&M
7:30
Rice at UTSA
7:30
Michigan State at #1 Ohio State
7:30
Florida at #19 LSU
7:30
Duke at #25 North Carolina
8:00
You are going to notice that TSN (other than TSN+) is barely appearing this Saturday. Well, just like last week, the CFL has their playoff games on a Saturday. I guess it makes sense from a viewer perspective since I am sure they lose viewers to the NFL on Sunday and would lose less viewers going up against college football. I think it has become apparent that TSN is pushing college football (among a few other live sports properties) to TSN+ and putting much less on their actual television networks. Sad for fans who either don’t want to spend more money on an online platform or just would struggle figuring out the online platform to begin with. Sure, live sports on TV is still a huge thing and will be for a long time but slowly…SLOWLY…more and more things are moving online. Give it, let’s say, 20 years and I could see a big difference in what you see now.
Anyway, the actual schedule has Ole Miss-Georgia as the main game and a few other games that could have been huge if certain teams hadn’t shit the bed. Take Duke-UNC. UNC losing on the CW to Virginia and then to Georgia Tech made this game an afterthought. Same with WVU-Oklahoma. The Sooners’ upset losses to Kansas and then Oklahoma State in the final Bedlam have killed the hype for this matchup. It happens every season.
Saturday Late Night
US
Canada
Arizona State at UCLA
9:00
Iowa State at BYU
10:15
Fresno State at San Jose State
10:30
USC at #6 Oregon
10:30
FOX quadrupleheader! Gotta love when they do this. I wish ABC would just do it once. I think they’d be surprised how many people would tune in to a late night game on ABC. USC could put a massive wrench in Oregon’s plans of at least getting to the New Year’s Six with a win here and Fresno State needs to keep winning to have any hope of having the same kind of plans.
Hey, Watch This
Michigan at Penn State (Noon, FOX) – This is easily the most hyped game of the weekend and rightly so. Penn State (and James Franklin) has a chance to do what many have been waiting for them to do: take that final step towards the CFP. This is their final chance this season. Lose this and perhaps even an NY6 spot is gone. Lose and The Game becomes so massive it may overshadow last year’s affair and maybe even 2006’s Game of the Century. Win and they move up the rankings and then pray for a Michigan victory over Ohio State. Then they would head way down the tiebreaker list to see who wins the division. Oh, and the last tiebreaker? A random draw. I am not joking. Wouldn’t that be insane television? ESPN and FOX would go nuts.
Ole Miss at Georgia (7:00, TSN+/specialty pack) – This should be almost as hyped as the UM-PSU game but for one thing: the Rebels need Bama to lose two conference games for them to win the division. So the Fighting Kiffins’ best shot is to win out, go 11-1, and hope for some chaos around them. Then they might sneak into the playoff. As for Georgia, this is yet another prove-it game. Last week was Missouri, this week Ole Miss, next week Tennessee. Survive those then they may not even have to win the conference championship to go to the playoff.
Utah at Washington (3:30, FOX) – Man, FOX has a crazy-good set of games for their quadrupleheader this Saturday. The Huskies have been sort of hanging on lately. Almost like TCU did last year winning games late and winning games that are close. That has to be their mantra right now though: Al Davis’s popular “Just Win Baby.” As for the Utes, could they almost kill the Pac-12’s playoff hopes with a win here? Not totally but they would do a lot of damage and something tells me they would be happy doing that.
USC at Oregon (10:30, FOX) – Two ranked teams facing each other warrants a spot (most of the time) on this list. Well, ranked in the AP Poll at least (sorry, USC). USC could be just like Utah in the previous game: be the spoiler. Oregon has recovered very nicely from their close loss to Washington. Win here, don’t stumble against Arizona State and then win the Civil War over the Beavers and they get their chance at revenge (probably) on Washington.
Tennessee at Missouri (3:30, CBS) – This is an interesting one. The Vols were expected to at least be in the New Year’s Six conversation. Mizzou? Not at all. They have played out of their minds most of the season and put a scare into UGA last week. They can’t win the SEC East so they have to push to win out and give The Committee something to think about. The Vols actually can win the East but it would take the craziest of scenarios to have that happen.
Sickos Game of the Week
Vanderbilt at South Carolina (Noon, TSN+/specialty pack) – The SEC never ends up here. Nor should they. But this game has awful written all over it. It was down to this one and Pitt-Cuse but I will give this game the nod. The Pitt-Cuse game is at Yankee Stadium which is kind of cool but I am sure the field conditions will not be. But the aura of it being in a baseball stadium is what I will use to grudgingly tip the scales towards Vandy and the Cocks getting this spot. Now, if this game had been played at Vandy’s Bob the Builder Stadium then it would have been a no doubter.
Hubba Bubba Blowout of the Week
Michigan State at Ohio State (7:30, NBC) – OK hear me out. At some point, the Buckeyes have to stop with their extremely slow starts. Enough of them being in a dogfight with Rutgers or Maryland. One game it will catch up to them. I think that Ryan Day might finally push them hard to come out of the gate strong. If they do, this game will essentially be over at the half and NBC will be less than pleased with the viewers flocking elsewhere (but, that’s what they signed up for).
Wanna Bet?
I was SO close on the score of my Tennessee-UConn bet. And honestly, I wasn’t too far off with USC-Washington even if I did have the Trojans winning in an upset. And I got Bama’s points dead on. Don’t look at my Virginia pick. Let’s get to this week’s picks, shall we?
Southern Miss 29 Louisiana 28 (upset!)
North Texas 31 SMU 27 (another upset!)
Alabama 34 Kentucky 21 (no upset)
Penn State 30 Michigan 23 (yet another upset!)
Tulane 41 Tulsa 10
Wake Forest 31 NC State 27 (minor upset)
Florida State 42 Miami 32
Washington 34 Utah 14
Tennessee 45 Missouri 35
Washington State 31 California 24 (very slight upset)
Georgia 38 Ole Miss 27
UTSA 37 Rice 21
Oregon 63 USC 33
OK I picked a ton of upsets here and look at Oregon. Yeah I think they are going to have a field day with the USC defense even with Alex Grinch not there to fuck things up.
I am preparing for another day of college football, starting Saturday at Noon and going into Sunday morning. Remember, we are in November, people. We don’t have much longer to go. Soon enough it will be conference championship weekend and the schedules like these go away. So savour it. Take your time to watch a lot of football before it’s gone and the only thing to watch (after the Super Bowl is over at least) is the Xtreme United States Football Association and/or League, also known as the XUSFAL. That acronym will probably end up being better than what they come up with. I’d put money on it. Like ten bucks. Enjoy the games everyone!
Deion Sanders did it this past weekend. So did Pat Narduzzi. And other coaches have done it in the past.
What am I talking about? I’m talking about calling our your players during a press conference and basically running them down in front of the entire college football world. I honestly don’t get the point of it.
Let me start by being VERY clear here: I am not saying players don’t need the proverbial boot up their ass every so often. It’s part of coaching. As long as it’s not abusive, it will probably help in a player’s overall development. Players need to hear what they are doing wrong or otherwise how can they not do that thing wrong again? It’s the same with management in the rest of the working world (I won’t get into the fact that I estimate a good 70% or so of managers don’t know how to manage and that management is a skill because this blog post would end up taking you three hours to read). You have to help your team get better. It makes everything a bit easier, a bit better, and reflects well on the manager.
Saying all that, telling a ton of people that a player or group of players suck(s) is not the way to go about it. I get that coaches can be frustrated but doing that just makes you a bad manager/coach/mentor/teacher/trainer, etc. You do that in private.
Worst part of all this, in Sanders’ case, is Deion’s son is the quarterback and he verbally lambasted the offensive line in that press conference. Look, I agree: their offensive line is not good at all and Shedeur is getting his ass handed to him back there. So will these players step up and do a whole lot better or will they get pissed off and maybe allow a defensive lineman or two by a little bit easier? It’s not Shedeur’s fault but he may end up taking the brunt of this. Is it right to do this? No, but you never know how people are going to act when the coach tells everyone you suck and he has no faith in you.
As for Narduzzi’s, this may be worse. Unlike Deion, Narduzzi recruited all these players. They’re essentially his choices to play at Pitt. So if they don’t do well or don’t develop, he has to take at least a part of the blame as head coach and recruiter. So to throw them under the bus (or at least appear to) looks very poorly on him. And the players are obviously upset. Again, this really isn’t the way to push a player to do better. It may work but it would almost be out of spite rather than from Narduzzi’s choice words.
OK we are still in the midst of football EVERY DAMN DAY! So we must rejoice, no matter the quality of the games. Hey, Conference USA had a few good ones in October and now MACtion and the Fun Belt take over in the final regular season month of the college football season. Let’s get to that schedule which includes more weekday fun!
Tuesday
US
Canada
Northern Illinois at Central Michigan
7:00
Buffalo at Toledo
7:30
Ah, it’s that time of year. MACtion on a Halloween night. By the time the games start, most of the kids are finished trick-or-treating so we can sit down and watch all four of these teams play, probably in relatively frigid temperatures, all for our enjoyment. God bless college football.
Wednesday
US
Canada
Ball State at Bowling Green
7:00
Kent State at Akron
7:00
OK not nearly as good a MACtion night as the previous one but Bowling Green is way better than they probably had any right to be so far this season so there’s that.
Thursday
US
Canada
Wake Forest at Duke
7:30
South Alabama at Troy
7:30
Mississippi Valley State at Bethune-Cookman
7:30
I figured the USA-Troy game would be for the Sun Belt West title but both teams have stumbled a bit. Now, the loser is pretty much out and has no shot at a conference championship game appearance.
Friday
US
Canada
Princeton at Dartmouth
7:00
Boston College at Syracuse
7:30
Colorado State at Wyoming
8:00
Have you noticed there are never ranked teams playing on weeknights? It’s like the schedule makers understood the assignment. “Give them football but not great football teams.” Anyway, the hilariously awful bottom half of the ACC continues their march to…can’t even say mediocrity for this one. Loser will have it rough to become bowl eligible the rest of the way.
Saturday Early
US
Canada
#12 Notre Dame at Clemson
Noon
Campbell at North Carolina
Noon
Wisconsin at Indiana
Noon
#3 Ohio State at Rutgers
Noon
Texas A&M at #11 Ole Miss
Noon
Arkansas at Florida
Noon
Jacksonville State at South Carolina
Noon
#25 Kansas State at #7 Texas
Noon
UConn at #19 Tennessee
Noon
Quite a few decent games here. I figured Notre Dame-Clemson was going to be a much bigger game but Dabo decided he’s allergic to NIL. KSU-UT could decide one of the teams going to the Big XII Championship. And…if you had said Jacksonville State would be the favoured Cocks in this matchup I would have thought you were on serious drugs. Not the unserious ones.
Saturday Afternoon
US
Canada
Georgia Tech at Virginia
2:00
Arizona State at #18 Utah
2:00
Army vs. #17 Air Force (in Denver)
2:30
#10 Oklahoma at Oklahoma State
3:30
Virginia Tech at #15 Louisville
3:30
Illinois at Minnesota
3:30
#14 Missouri at #1 Georgia
3:30
#4 Florida State at Pittsburgh
3:30
#23 James Madison at Georgia State
3:30
#21 Tulane at East Carolina
3:30
#9 Penn State at Maryland
3:30
Auburn at Vanderbilt
4:00
California at #6 Oregon
5:30
OK things start to pick up here. One big game against two ranked teams where Mizzou could shock the entire college football world. Plus another NINE games involving ranked teams. It’s rare to see that many ranked teams in one timeslot. Realistically, all the ranked teams should worry at least a bit as you never know when the underdog can rise up and bite you in the ass. Except for Tulane. I have a feeling they will do just fine with East Carolina.
Saturday Primetime
US
Canada
Louisiana Tech at Liberty
6:00
Marshall at Appalachian State
6:00
#22 Kansas at Iowa State
7:00
#5 Washington at #24 USC
7:30
SMU at Rice
7:30
Purdue at #2 Michigan
7:30
Kentucky at Mississippi State
7:30
#13 LSU at #8 Alabama
7:45
Miami at NC State
8:00
Ah, the annual SEC on CBS primetime matchup between LSU and Alabama. A tradition unlike any other. Well, that tradition comes to an end on this night. Other than possible Ole Miss shenanigans, this game should determine the SEC West champion. The Huskies’ game against the Trojans looked much bigger a few weeks ago but USC has struggled mightily on defense and really should move on from Alex Grinch if they are to have any chance at becoming a true contender. Finally, it will be interested to see what happens if Liberty ends up the only undefeated Group of Five team. At this point, their schedule is so weak that they wouldn’t be able to pass most of the one-loss teams if that was the case. But there is a month left so you never really know what could happen.
Saturday Late Night
US
Canada
Stanford at Washington State
9:00
Boise State at Fresno State
10:00
#16 Oregon State at Colorado
10:00
Big Mountain West game. Even with Boise starting the season off pretty badly, they still have a very good shot at getting back to the Mountain West Championship game. The Broncos will need a win down in the valley in Fresno to keep their hopes alive. The Bulldogs held on for a big win last week over UNLV and are sitting second behind Air Force for that other conference championship spot. Stakes are high.
Hey, Watch This
LSU at Alabama (7:45, CBS) – Don’t mind the bizarre start time. It may be something they are trying out for the future since even the slightest edge can help in the ratings war. This is CBS’s only primetime pick of the season and yet again, it’s the Tigers and the Tide. Unless Ole Miss makes a run, this is for the SEC West crown. LSU is going to be trying their damndest to be the first ever two-loss College Football Playoff team but they need a lot of help. First off, they need to take care of business in one of the toughest stadiums to play in as a visitor against one of the toughest coaches to ever play against. Easy, right?
Missouri at Georgia (3:30, CBS) – Both ends of the SEC on CBS doubleheader are the top two games of the week. Just like they drew it up. Mizzou has played way above their heads all season. Not saying they have talent. They do but Eli Drinkwitz has, I don’t know, finally figured things out and is doing the best coaching of his career. And if the Tigers win here, boy oh boy, there is going to be a lot of talk about this in the college football media and you probably won’t hear of anything else.
Kansas State at Texas (Noon, FOX) – This and the next game could be swapped and no one would bat an eye. This feels like a Big XII semi-final as neither team probably has a shot at going to JerryWorld if they lose here. I am sure GUS JOHNSON and Joel Klatt are praying for a close game here. They switched to the 3:30 game last week and, lo and behold, the Big Noon Kickoff game ended up being a classic. Poor guys. There’s only so much excitement you can infuse into a blowout, you know? Unless you’re Joe Tessitore and everything is exciting.
Washington at USC (7:30, ABC/TSN+) – Washington is still undefeated. It feels like they are trying not to be but they have pulled out some close ones against *checks notes* Arizona State and Stanford. OK then. Look, if the Huskies don’t put at least 40 on the board here, they should consider it a loss. USC’s defense is atrocious. Their offense, on the other hand…they can put up points in bunches so U-Dub better watch out and not fall too far behind early in this one at the Coliseum.
Sickos Game of the Week
Iowa vs. Northwestern (at Wrigley Field) (3:30, Peacock) – Look, I know. I am breaking my own rules here. We can’t this game (legally) up here. But the over/under is 29.5. TWENTY-NINE-AND-A-HALF. That is so fucking absurd. And yes, I would still consider betting the under. This feels like a game straight out of 1912. Maybe it’s a good thing we can’t see it.
Hubba Bubba Blowout of the Week
UConn at Tennessee (Noon, TSN+/specialty pack) – I think we have to consider that last season’s UConn Huskies football squad’s performance may have been a fluke. This team is not good again. Not as bad as the years before 2022. But still bad. Plus, the Vols need the warmup for when they head to CoMo the following Saturday.
Wanna Bet?
How about my two upset picks last week? Yeah, they were shit. As were my Oklahoma, Clemson and Oregon State picks. Yeesh. Let’s just get on to the new week and see if I can somehow do better.
Tennessee 56 UConn 6
South Carolina 31 Jacksonville State 17
Texas 34 Kansas State 28
Virginia 41 Georgia Tech 23
Utah 31 Arizona State 14
Florida State 43 Pittsburgh 20
Minnesota 23 Illinois 13
Georgia 30 Missouri 24
Auburn 26 Vanderbilt 19
Appalachian State 48 Marshall 21
USC 56 Washington 46 (small upset)
Alabama 42 LSU 37
Oregon State 34 Colorado 16
As is the usual, I will be on X/Twitter/Elon Musk’s money-losing venture this Saturday. I always hope to be able to interact with other college football fans because that is part of the fun of all this. It’s one thing to watch the games: bantering with others while doing it makes it more enjoyable. As long as no one acts like a complete asshat. Then it brings everyone down. That’s why I stick with college football Twitter (which is honestly OK to pretty good) compared to, say, NFL Twitter, which can be rough. Or political Twitter which is a fucking cesspool. Anyway, many hours of college football coming up for all of us. Enjoy the games everyone!
Sign stealing. Cheating or an art? Or both? Or neither?
Look, this whole University of Michigan sign-stealing controversy is sounding a bit like the Houston Astros sign-stealing horseshit of a few years back, albeit with less garbage can banging and more just buying tickets for games involving conference opponents. It isn’t just the person above who is involved though. That man’s name is Connor Stalions. For fuck’s sake. Connor Stalions. Sounds like the name of a spy in a Tom Clancy novel or a jobber in WWE.
Anyway, Stalions was just hired a little over year ago by the Wolverines after being a volunteer with the team for seven years. A volunteer for seven years? OK then. On his LinkedIn (Corporate Facebook) profile, he mentions he can identify and exploit critical vulnerabilities and centers of gravity in the opponent scouting process. OK then. And over the past three years he has bought tickets for over 30 games at eleven different Big Ten schools and that many times it’s tickets on the exact opposite side of the season where the other person can hold their smartphone up to film the home team’s sideline. OK then.
Does this sound like something that is illegal? Yes. Yes it does. Well, not illegal in a criminal sense but illegal in a “that shouldn’t happen in a sporting event” kind of way. And yes, the NCAA, as corrupt an organization as it is, prohibits doing this and rightfully so.
So the question is who else knew. Stalions isn’t buying all those tickets himself. Not on a $55,000 per year salary. Someone is doing it for him. That person should be given a hell of a lot more than a slap on the wrist. And if Jim Harbaugh knew (which is the issue EVERYONE wants to know), he should be punished as well.
Will these punishments for Harbaugh, everyone involved and the school happen this season? Are you crazy? Of course not! The Wolverines are probably the favourite at this moment to win the national championship and there’s no way they will be derailed by this. Next season, sure why not. Relegate all their games to the Big Ten Network. Fine them. Suspend everyone. Do whatever. But don’t expect to see any 2023 punishment for the Michigan Wolverines football team. Besides, won’t Captain Khaki be in the NFL next season anyway?
Well that was…interesting………Wyld Stalions AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA *ahem* sorry about that. Let’s just get to the schedules alright?
Tuesday
US
Canada
New Mexico State at Louisiana Tech
7:00
Liberty at WKU
7:30
We have a potential conference championship preview here…OK it’s pretty much going to be the conference championship unless something crazy happens in November. I guess the question will be if that game will be in Bowling Green (Kentucky) again or in Lynchburg, Virginia. Also, the Aggies look to take another giant step towards two straight years of bowl eligibility, cementing Jerry Kill as one of the most underrated head coaches this century.
Wednesday
US
Canada
Jacksonville State at FIU
7:00
UTEP at Sam Houston
8:00
Well……it’s football. Enjoy it. I just hope one of the games is close.
Thursday
US
Canada
Long Island at CCSU
7:00
Syracuse at Virginia Tech
7:30
Georgia State at Georgia Southern
7:30
South Carolina State at NC Central
7:30
We are looking at some seriously important Modern Day Hate down in Statesboro. With James Madison not eligible for the division title, the Sun Belt East could very well come down to this game. Both teams are playing well but think of this: if Georgia State wins, they would be 7-1 and could end up hosting 8-0 James Madison next weekend. Not saying College Gameday should go there (they won’t) but it’s not often that a Sun Belt game itself deserves that honour.
Also, yes, the Long Island University Sharks will be on your television screen this Thursday night. Funny how CBS inks a contract with the NEC to show their football games and they lose two of their schools just the other day with Merrimack and Sacred Heart moving on. The conference is now down to six schools and is teetering on not even having an automatic bid to the FCS playoffs which has to be up to like 60 teams or something like that now (it’s actually 24 teams but still….that’s quite a few teams).
Friday
US
Canada
Brown at Penn
7:00
FAU at Charlotte
7:30
I think it could be -4 degrees out and Biff Poggi would still wear the cut-off sleeved shirt. Got to respect that.
Saturday Early
US
Canada
#4 Florida State at Wake Forest
Noon
UConn at Boston College
Noon
Maryland at Northwestern
Noon
Indiana at #10 Penn State
Noon
UMass at Army
Noon
South Carolina at Texas A&M
Noon
Houston at Kansas State
Noon
Tulsa at SMU
Noon
#6 Oklahoma at Kansas
Noon
This schedule is not the greatest to be honest. It’s not bad. But really, nothing stands out except maybe Oklahoma travelling to Lawrence to face Kansas in what can, for the first time in a long time, be considered a speed bump kind of game for the Sooners. Other than that, there are quite a few teams playing games that could dictate whether they go bowling or not, including South Carolina, Army, and Boston College.
Saturday Afternoon
US
Canada
Clemson at NC State
2:00
BYU at #7 Texas
3:30
Virginia at Miami
3:30
Michigan State at Minnesota
3:30
Florida vs. #1 Georgia (in Jacksonville)
3:30
Miami-OH at Ohio
3:30
#20 Duke at #18 Louisville
3:30
#8 Oregon at #13 Utah
3:30
Pittsburgh at #14 Notre Dame
3:30
Mississippi State at Auburn
3:30
#22 Tulane at Rice
4:00
Prairie View A&M at Florida A&M
4:00
USC at California
4:00
We have a ton of games in the afternoon window with quite a few of the day’s best games. Oregon and Utah in another Pac-12 Cannibalization Game, the Blue Devils and Cardinals face off where the winner might have the inside track to facing Florida State for the ACC Championship and, of course, the World’s Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party. Look, maybe Gary Danielson would be a whole lot more likeable if he was shitfaced. “Brad, this is a good game and I love how Duvalllllllllllllll County smells *BURP* but I have to profess my love for the Alabama God Damn Crimson Tide. They are GOD’S TEAM GOD DAMMIT (as he points a finger in Brad’s face). But this red team here is pretty good…too……” *immediately vomits all over the broadcast booth* OK, maybe not.
Saturday Primetime
US
Canada
Marshall at Coastal Carolina
6:00
#19 Air Force at Colorado State
7:00
#21 Tennessee at Kentucky
7:00
Colorado at #23 UCLA
7:30
#3 Ohio State at Wisconsin
7:30
Vanderbilt at #12 Ole Miss
7:30
#17 North Carolina at Georgia Tech
8:00
Cincinnati at Oklahoma State
8:00
Old Dominion at #25 James Madison
8:00
Washington State at Arizona State
8:00
Hmmm….one of the weaker primetime schedules since early September. I don’t think anyone thought it would be that way, though. Many would have picked Tennessee-Kentucky as a huge game and tOSU-Wisky as another super important game. Not saying it isn’t important at all but probably a whole lot less important than it was predicted to be.
Saying all that, just remember the old college football adage: the weaker the window, the more chaos we see.
Saturday Late Night
US
Canada
New Mexico at Nevada
10:30
#11 Oregon State at Arizona
10:30
The Beavs cannot afford to lose here against a pretty good Wildcats team. The other game is borderline-unwatchable. Remember, Nevada beat San Diego State 6-0 last week. Yawn.
Hey, Watch This!
Oregon at Utah (3:30, FOX) – Is there any doubt that this is the Game of the Week? Well there would have been about a month ago but now we’re here and this is the easy choice. With both teams at 3-1 in the conference, there is a very good chance that the loser here has their hopes dashed of a Pac-12 Championship game berth. Forget the College Football Playoff. Forget the New Year’s Six. It’s off to like the Holiday Bowl or something like that. Not bad. But not what they played this season for.
Oklahoma at Kansas (Noon, FOX) – I think we have all figured out that you can’t sleep on Lance Leipold’s Kansas Jayhawks. Last season was a revelation and this year it continues as they are just getting better which is bad news for the rest of the Big XII. The Sooners were going along quietly until they beat Texas and held off UCF at the end. Now, everyone is watching. I said it above: this is a big speed bump game for OU. Win and you head to Stillwater and Bedlam for the biggest game of the season. Lose and the playoff might be just out of reach.
Duke at Louisville (3:30, TSN+/specialty pack) – I do wish that TSN had picked this game up. To put it on their online platform seems like a bit of a slap in the face to both programs. But, for once, it feels like every channel is showing live sports and big-time properties from NASCAR to Formula 1 to the CFL to the Rugby World Cup. So I understand. Look, the Cardinals are not out of this race yet. Win out and they probably head to Charlotte for the ACC Championship. Duke also has an opportunity if they run the table but they will need some help.
Ohio State at Wisconsin (7:30, NBC) – Please don’t be Jac Collinsworth, please don’t be Jac Collinsworth, please don’t be Jac Collinsworth…..hey Noah Eagle is calling the game! Good. Eagle is good. Comes by it honestly with his dad one of the best at calling the NFL. Jac on the other hand is fucking terrible. He is there because his name is Collinsworth and not something else. Hopefully, NBC does the right thing and puts him elsewhere next season. As for this game, the Buckeyes should not take the Badgers lightly as an upset loss here would screw over a potential 1 vs. 2 matchup in The Game in late November.
Sickos Game of the Week
UConn at Boston College (Noon, TSN+/specialty pack) – The battle for Northeastern supremacy starts and ends with this game since UMass sucks. Amazingly enough, if the Eagles win here they are 5-3 and closing in on bowl eligibility. That’s huge for Jeff Hafley who started the season on a massive hot seat. That doesn’t take away from the fact that the bottom half of the ACC is not good and last season’s UConn might be an aberration.
Hubba Bubba Blowout of the Week
Indiana at Penn State (Noon, CBS) – A lot of people are questioning whether James Franklin is the guy that can get Penn State over the hump and into the CFP. Next year will be the ultimate test. If they can’t get in with an expanded field, they should move on. Putting all that aside, the Nittany Lions played awful last week and will be taking out their anger on the lowly Hoosiers, I can pretty much guarantee that.
Wanna Bet?
Man, looking back most of my picks fucking sucked. UAB over Memphis? Woof. UNC over Virginia? Yikes. USC over Utah. Oh no. I would say let’s keep the ball rolling but the ball, at this point, is a square. Need to start over and get some of these picks right.
FIU 40 Jacksonville State 27 (upset pick!)
Georgia State 26 Georgia Southern 21
FAU 38 Charlotte 7
Oklahoma 43 Kansas 30
Kansas State 34 Houston 23
SMU 44 Tulsa 9
Clemson 49 NC State 16
Louisville 23 Duke 19
Utah 24 Oregon 17 (slight upset)
Auburn 37 Mississippi State 20
Air Force 32 Colorado State 6
Ohio State 31 Wisconsin 17
Oregon State 49 Arizona 35
The Bossman Top 26
It’s time for another rousing version of the Bossman Top 26. OK, it’s the second time doing this many teams. Let’s just get going with it.
#1
Michigan
#2
Georgia
#3
Ohio State
#4
Florida State
#5
Washington
#6
Alabama
#7
Oklahoma
#8
Texas
#9
Oregon State
#10
Utah
#11
Oregon
#12
Ole Miss
#13
Penn State
#14
Notre Dame
#15
LSU
#16
Missouri
#17
Louisville
#18
North Carolina
#19
Tulane
#20
UCLA
#21
Tennessee
#22
Air Force
#23
Duke
#24
USC
#25
James Madison
#26
Liberty
Yep, I have added Liberty in at the final spot. Sure, their schedule is arguably the easiest in the land; but if they run the table and get some help they might sneak into the New Year’s Six much to the chagrin of many college football fans. James Madison continues to wait for a waiver that may never come but at least we know that if there aren’t enough bowl eligible teams, they would be the first call to fill a bowl spot. And yes, I have Michigan in the top spot. Despite their cheating ways (it seems), they still look like the best team in college football, even better than UGA. I know SEC fans will scrunch their noses at that since they think their conference is the be-all-and-end-all and that the CFP should be Georgia, Alabama, Ole Miss and LSU. Well you know what? Fuck you. This is my rankings. Make your own.
Getting these blog posts out before the Tuesday night games is basically impossible for me. Not complaining since it means there’s Tuesday night football. It’s still not easy though. Enjoy the games everyone!
Last year I decided to do some looking ahead in the middle of the season. Did it work out then? Eh. So why not try it again? What’s the worst that could happen? Why so many questions?
Will one of the surprise Group of Five teams keep things going into November? Air Force realistically has a clear path to 10-0 now. They end up with UNLV and Boise State and that’s where their mettle will be tested. If they don’t get there undefeated then they may not deserve that Group of Five New Year’s Six spot. James Madison, at this point, really has nothing to play for although that could be scary. They could run the table almost to spite the NCAA at this point. Finally, if things go awry for the AFA, JMU (and Liberty), watch out for Miami-Ohio. Quietly they are 6-1 and have the biggest game of the MAC season against the other 6-1 team in the conference, Toledo. Win that and they could conceivably go 11-1 and pout a lot of pressure on the top G-5 teams.
Is there anyone who will stop a Georgia-Alabama SEC Championship? Are there some small landmines left on UGA’s schedule? Sure. And now with Brock Bowers out for the season, any one of Tennessee, Missouri and, yes, Florida could upend the apple cart so to speak. Out in the SEC West, Bama has a much tougher road to hoe but if they can get through their next two games against the Vols and LSU, it might be clear sailing to Atlanta.
Can Penn State finally push through in the Big Ten East? Yes. This might be their best chance ever. They have to show that, though, this coming Saturday. Lose to Ohio State and forget about it. Win and they will make all Michigan fans nervous until their mega-matchup. This next month will define James Franklin’s tenure at State College.
Which conference will miss the College Football Playoff? Or will it be conferences…plural? If UGA and Bama make it to conference championship weekend undefeated then it will be two conferences being left out almost guaranteed. If not, then it will be a dogfight but I still worry about the Pac-12 and what feels like the inevitable cannibalization which has kind of already started. Washington is their best best but absolutely cannot lose more than one game the rest of the way.
The biggest upset the rest of the way will be…I am going to go with Oklahoma losing to either Oklahoma State in Bedlam or TCU on Black Friday. Something tells me they will not get through unscathed.
Now who will win the Heisman? Caleb Williams isn’t out of the race but man he looked awful in South Bend. Michael Penix Jr. is now the frontrunner but he will have to basically outlast Bo Nix, Jordan Travis, Drake Maye and J.J. McCarthy of all people who is slowly and efficiently powering Michigan through everyone on their schedule. This might be one of the tightest races in recent memory.
OK enough Nostradamusing….it’s sked time!
Tuesday
US
Canada
Middle Tennessee at Liberty
7:00
Southern Miss at South Alabama
7:30
WKU at Jacksonville State
7:30
Time for some CU(SA) Next Tuesday action as the two conference favourites play…in two separate games. Some Fun Belt action alongside it as well. I am so loving football every day for damn near two months.
Wednesday
US
Canada
FIU at Sam Houston
7:00
New Mexico State at UTEP
9:00
Maybe, just maybe, Sam Houston can finally get their first FBS win. Also, the Battle of I-10 (now a conference game!) is later on as the Aggies and Miners play for the Silver Spade. I also love these less-well-known trophy games. You can always tell it means a lot to these teams even if they don’t mean much in the grand scheme of things.
Thursday
US
Canada
James Madison at Marshall
7:00
Rice at Tulsa
7:00
NC Central at Morgan State
7:30
Easily the highlight of the weeknight games is the Dukes travelling to Huntington to face off against the Thundering Herd. I hope that JMU can get a waiver to go bowling because if they keep going like this they deserve it. Also, the first of two HBCU games this weekend that you can see up here. Other than Week Zero that is something that almost never happens.
Friday
US
Canada
SMU at Temple
7:00
Look, there’s nothing else on…maybe baseball. So hopefully this one gets weird.
Saturday Early
US
Canada
UCF at #6 Oklahoma
Noon
Boston College at Georgia Tech
Noon
Rutgers at Indiana
Noon
#22 Air Force at Navy
Noon
Western Michigan at Ohio
Noon
Mississippi State at Arkansas
Noon
Memphis at UAB
Noon
Norfolk State at Howard
Noon
#7 Penn State at #3 Ohio State
Noon
The absolute main course of the week goes off at noon hour with PSU and tOSU facing off. Many hate the fact these big games are on at Noon but I saw a tweet that said this is a good way to get people to watch college football all day as since they introduced the ABC Saturday Night game, viewers shifted their viewing habits and were watching the games starting 3:30 and after way more than the Noon games. Not anymore.
We also have a big Group of Five matchup as Air Force looks to continue their undefeated run in a Commander’s-In-Chief Trophy game against Navy. Finally, Rutgers (RUTGERS!) could clinch bowl-eligibility with a win over the lowly Indiana Hoosiers.
Saturday Afternoon
US
Canada
Washington State at #9 Oregon
3:30
Pittsburgh at Wake Forest
3:30
Northwestern at Nebraska
3:30
#17 Tennessee at #11 Alabama
3:30
USF at UConn
3:30
Oklahoma State at West Virginia
3:30
North Texas at #23 Tulane
3:30
Minnesota at #24 Iowa
3:30
South Carolina at #20 Missouri
3:30
Toledo at Miami-OH
4:00
#8 Texas at Houston
4:00
Could the Vols upset the Tide? It’s entirely possible considering how average Bama has sometimes been. Wazzu and Oregon face off in a Pac-12 elimination game of sorts. The two most surprising teams in the Big XII will try and keep their surprising runs going. Imagine one of Texas or Oklahoma loses out on a Big XII Championship spot in their final year in the conference because of Oklahoma State? Or even worse, West Virginia? Big XII fans would never let either school live it down.
Saturday Primetime
US
Canada
Virginia at #10 North Carolina
6:30
Utah State at San Jose State
7:00
#13 Ole Miss at Auburn
7:00
TCU at Kansas State
7:00
Appalachian State at Old Dominion
7:00
#16 Duke at #4 Florida State
7:30
#2 Michigan at Michigan State
7:30
Army at #19 LSU
7:30
Clemson at Miami
8:00
Georgia State at Louisiana
8:00
#14 Utah at #18 USC
8:00
The biggest game of the night is…*checks notes*…Florida State hosting Duke? DUKE? Yep. This could be a massive upset if the Blue Devils can pull it off. Also, let’s not understate that if the Noles win it counts as a big win and gives them another big push towards the College Football Playoff.
The rest of the primetime schedule features another Pac-12 elimination game. Imagine saying that the Trojans and Caleb Williams are eliminated from the Pac-12 race over a week before Halloween? Say that at the start of the season and some would have thought you were crazy.
Also, we have a potential Fight Night II as Michigan heads to East Lansing to face Baby Brother, the Spartans. If there’s even a sniff of a potential brawl it will get a lot of attention. I’m sure Captain Khaki will tell his players to steer clear of any of that shit because they have national championship aspirations and any suspensions could cause serious problems.
Saturday Late Night
US
Canada
#25 UCLA at Stanford
10:30
Montana State at Sacramento State
10:30
Wow this is….this is technically the late night schedule. Look, if the Montana State-Sac State game is anything like the Montana-Idaho game last Saturday night then this could be a fun one to watch.
Hey, Watch This!
Penn State at Ohio State (Noon, FOX) – There is no other game that could occupy this top spot. This is one of the three-team Big Ten East Round Robin Games of the Year (along with the games against Michigan) where one or even two teams will be eliminated from the CFP conversation for having the audacity to be in the same division as the other teams. A loss here doesn’t fully eliminate either team from contention as you will know from my preview posts back in August.
Duke at Florida State (7:30, ABC) – The Blue Devil Dream Season could hit a crescendo at around 11:00. Weeks after, arguably, their biggest win in program history over Clemson they could one-up that if they pull off the monumental upset here. On the other hand, Jordan Travis could re-introduce himself into the Heisman race if he can put on a big performance and lead FSU to victory.
Tennessee at Alabama (3:30, CBS) – Gee, I wonder who Gary Danielson will be pulling for in this one? Look, I am sure there are some people who are surprised that the Vols are only 6 spots behind the Tide in the rankings. You shouldn’t be. As I said above, Bama has looked entirely average at times this season (see their game against USF). Saying all that, this is still the Alabama Damn Crimson Tide and you know Nick Saban will have the players up for this game so UT can’t afford a slow start here.
Utah at USC (8:00, FOX) – If USC hadn’t played poorly last Saturday in South Bend and if the Utes hadn’t looked terrible against Oregon State a couple weeks back, this game could have been close to number one on the list. Instead, both squads will be fighting for their Pac-12 lives which is something no one figured for this game considering there is still more than a month left in the season.
Sickos Game of the Week
Northwestern at Nebraska (3:30, Big Ten Network) – This is why conference networks exist. To bury games like this far away from many eyes while still being able to say it’s being broadcast to a fairly wide audience. I can’t see there being much interest in this game anywhere, except for Wildcat and Cornhusker fans (and even then).
Hubba Bubba Blowout of the Week
Army at LSU (7:30, TSN+/SP) – There are speed bump games and then there is this. Unless LSU shits the bed, this is not going to end well for the Black Knights. So no, this is not a speed bump game or a lookahead game or anything else you want to call it. It will probably end up being a good old fashioned beatdown.
Wanna Bet?
Who called the Pitt upset? This fucking guy….I’m pointing at myself. Enough said. Let’s get on to this week’s picks!
UTEP 29 New Mexico State 23
Ohio State 34 Penn State 24
Air Force 39 Navy 38
Ohio 20 Western Michigan 16
Arkansas 21 Mississippi State 14
UAB 38 Memphis 35 (upset!)
Oklahoma State 27 West Virginia 23
Alabama 31 Tennessee 28
North Carolina 41 Virginia 33
Michigan 45 Michigan State 17
Florida State 30 Duke 13
USC 20 Utah 16
Louisiana 25 Georgia State 24
The Bossman Top 26!
It’s baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaack! Yeah, I figured it was about time to whip out the Bossman Top 25 so here it is in all its….well, glory might be too strong a word…wait hold on…oh no. Not the Top 25. I’m going one better. Top 26, motherfuckers! Let’s ride!
#1
Georgia
#2
Michigan
#3
Ohio State
#4
Washington
#5
Florida State
#6
Penn State
#7
Oklahoma
#8
Alabama
#9
Oregon State
#10
Texas
#11
North Carolina
#12
Oregon
#13
Ole Miss
#14
Notre Dame
#15
Utah
#16
Tennessee
#17
USC
#18
LSU
#19
Duke
#20
Missouri
#21
Louisville
#22
Tulane
#23
UCLA
#24
Iowa
#25
Air Force
#26
James Madison
“Bossman, why don’t you have Michigan at #1?” “Bossman, why do you have Bama up at #8?” “Bossman, why don’t you have James Madison in the Top 25?” Look, I try to base this on how good a team is, their record, and who they have played. You could exchange Air Force and JMU and it makes not a lick of difference. You could flip flop Georgia and Michigan. You could have Oregon State above Alabama. You could do all these things, sure. And it may end up working out that way. I find it much easier (now) to start the rankings in the middle of the season because I have a better idea of where most of the teams should be. Plus I know that all the big games coming up will actually alter how the season plays out, something that can’t be done with a preseason poll.
Football every day, folks. FOOTBALL….EVERY DAMN DAY! Until American Thanksgiving Eve. Embrace it. Everyone have a great rest of the week and enjoy the games!
If you missed it this past Saturday, one of the most egregiously bad coaching decisions in college football history occurred.
Miami had Georgia Tech beat. All they had to do was kneel down with 33 seconds left in the game and they would have escaped with a win over the Yellow Jackets. Tech had no timeouts. This is about the easiest call to make. A horrible high school football coach could figure it out. Not Mario though.
The Canes instead ran the ball and fumbled. The fumble was close. Honestly, if it had been called not a fumble and the runner down initially, I think it would have stayed that way. Instead, Georgia Tech got the ball back and went down the field and scored a touchdown with only a couple of seconds left (that play alone was ridiculous as Haynes King seemed to scramble forever and then found a relatively wide open Christian Leary for the TD pass).
Immediately, some harkened back to Cristobal doing almost the exact same thing when he was the head coach at Oregon. Kind of the same situation where a kneel down would almost certainly have got them the win over Stanford. Instead, the Ducks ran a play, fumbled, Stanford recovered and would go on to win in overtime.
Whether Cristobal survives this is debatable. Even with Miami still at 4-1, some Canes backers will want him gone unless they can at least be ranked at the end of the season. Either way, that set of events will go down in college football infamy.
OK enough of Fumblegate or Kneelgate or Cristogate or whatever some idiot will come up with for this. It’s schedule time!
Tuesday
US
Canada
Louisiana Tech at Middle Tennessee
7:00
Coastal Carolina at Appalachian State
7:30
Liberty at Jacksonville State
7:30
Here we go. Conference USA weekday action. All October. No Saturday games. It’s like somewhat southern fried MACtion except not as good. Also throw in a Fun Belt game and you got a decent night of football.
Wednesday
US
Canada
UTEP at FIU
7:30
Sam Houston at New Mexico State
9:00
The latter half of the first early week Conference USA set of games. Nothing super important here although we will see if Sam Houston can get their first FBS victory in program history.
Thursday
US
Canada
Wagner at St. Francis
7:00
SMU at East Carolina
7:30
Fort Valley State at Benedict
7:30
This is easily the weirdest schedule segment I have ever put on my blog. The first ever NEC game appears as Wagner travels to St. Francis. Also, a rare Division II matchup between Fort Valley State and Benedict. Why is this D-II game on this Thursday night? Hell, if I know but it’s football so I will watch.
Friday
US
Canada
Tulane at Memphis
7:00
Fresno State at Utah State
8:00
Stanford at Colorado
10:00
TSN going with the late game and not the early game is certainly a choice. Two things though: CFL football is on in the early window and TSN probably wants to get in on the Colorado ratings early-season juggernaut.
Saturday Early
US
Canada
Syracuse at #4 Florida State
Noon
Michigan State at Rutgers
Noon
#1 Georgia at Vanderbilt
Noon
Kent State at Eastern Michigan
Noon
Arkansas at #11 Alabama
Noon
Georgia Southern at James Madison
Noon
Temple at North Texas
Noon
Indiana at #2 Michigan
Noon
This is not as good as your normal Nooner schedule. It’s surprising since most networks are trying to avoid going up against USC-Notre Dame in the primetime window and Oregon-Washington in the afternoon window. And yet still, the best game in this timeslot is arguably Syracuse-FSU (although I think Georgia Southern-JMU will be the better game).
UPDATE: Syracuse-FSU has been added to TSN+.
Saturday Afternoon
US
Canada
California at #16 Utah
3:00
#8 Oregon at #7 Washington
3:30
Wake Forest at Virginia Tech
3:30
UMass at #6 Penn State
3:30
Texas A&M at #19 Tennessee
3:30
Troy at Army
3:30
BYU at TCU
3:30
FAU at USF
3:30
Illinois at Maryland
3:30
Florida at South Carolina
3:30
Ohio at Northern Illinois
4:00
Iowa at Wisconsin
4:00
OK now this is a timeslot. A ton of choice. The undisputed game of the week lands here along with a bunch of other tasty college football platters for our consumption. UW-UO is that big game of the week (year?) and will have a huge impact on the Pac-12 going forward (and even the national championship picture). TAMU-UT could be low-key good and Iowa-Wisconsin might just be for the Big Ten West title. Let’s see if Iowa can put up some offense for once.
Saturday Primetime
US
Canada
#14 Louisville at Pittsburgh
6:30
Wyoming at Air Force
7:00
Auburn at #22 LSU
7:00
Marshall at Georgia State
7:00
Arizona at #19 Washington State
7:00
#25 Miami at #12 North Carolina
7:30
#10 USC at #21 Notre Dame
7:30
Missouri at #24 Kentucky
7:30
NC State at #17 Duke
8:00
UAB at UTSA
8:00
#18 UCLA at #15 Oregon State
8:00
I already mentioned the big USC-Notre Dame game that appears here alongside UCLA-Oregon State which is another Pac-12 cannibalization game that I believe will keep the Pac-12 out of the College Football Playoff once again. You will notice that UF-SC is not on TSN+ even though it probably should be. I wonder if it’s an error in the current schedule as otherwise it would make absolutely no sense but would be right up TSN’s alley when it comes to college football broadcasting gaffes of the past.
UPDATE #2: Normally I would chastise myself for not waiting but didn’t have time to wait (thanks a bunch, Conference USA). Anyway, Mizzou-UK has been added to TSN+ as I thought would happen.
Saturday Late Night
US
Canada
Montana at Idaho
10:30
San Diego State at Hawaii
11:00
Ho boy. Is it an interesting schedule? Sure. But there isn’t much meat on the bone here. It does give Canadians the rare opportunity to participate in the Hawaii Test though.
Hey, Watch This!
Oregon at Washington (3:30, ABC/TSN+) – I have mentioned the Pac-12 and how they tend to cannibalize themselves often. It’s happened a few times in the past few years already. And it’s already rearing its ugly head again. Wazzu beat Oregon State and then promptly lost to UCLA. So yeah, no guarantees for the winner here except the fact they should be in the Top 5 with a win and will remain among the (quickly shrinking) land of the undefeated.
USC at Notre Dame (7:30, NBC) – This might have been considered for Game of the Week if the Irish had been able to beat Louisville last Saturday. A Trojan win here keeps them in at least of a share of the driver’s seat to go to Las Vegas for the Pac-12 Championship and conference supremacy. An Irish win and the Trojans cost themselves greatly and Caleb Williams’ chance at history could take a huge hit.
UCLA at Oregon State (8:00, FOX) – Man, this is truly the Pac-12’s week to shine. Five of the six teams in the games of the week reside in a conference that will be dead very soon. How sad. Anyway, the Beavers could put UCLA out of the mix at this point if they get the victory here. The Bruins would be the shock of the college football world if they could somehow make it to the Pac-12 Championship. It would also validate (finally) Chip Kelly’s hiring.
Missouri at Kentucky (7:30, specialty pack) – I mentioned above that this game was not on TSN+ and only on the specialty pack at this point. That should change but until I see it I won’t post it. Anyway, this section drops off a bit of a cliff after the top three games. Both of these teams had their chances last week to make serious noise in the SEC. The Wildcats got blasted by Georgia and the Tigers couldn’t outlast one of the other Tigers in the conference (LSU). The winner here still has an outside shot at the New Year’s Six with the loser being relegated to the third tier of the SEC East behind the winner and, of course, UGA.
Sickos Game of the Week
Wake Forest at Virginia Tech (3:30, TSN+/specialty pack) – Every conference network has their share of, let’s say, not-so-good games and this is certainly one of them. The Demon Deacons aren’t nearly as good as they have been in recent years and the Hokies are bordering on awful. Luckily for these two teams, Virginia and Boston College exist in the ACC. Honestly, there really aren’t too many seriously bad games that we can watch here so this will look better than most of the games that appear in this spot this season.
Hubba Bubba Blowout of the Week
UMass at Penn State (3:30, Big Ten Network) – Good god. I wonder if the Nittany Lions can put an 80-burger on the board in this one. This will be bowling shoe ugly for sure.
Wanna Bet?
Look, I had Texas-Oklahoma being close. And it was. A great Red River Shootout as it almost always is. Some of my other picks….well…I’m looking at that Miami over Georgia Tech pick and shaking my head. Not because it was a bad pick: it’s because of what you saw at the top of our show. So let’s move on to this week and not dwell too much on the past.
New Mexico State 24 Sam Houston 21
Florida State 49 Syracuse 14
Michigan 54 Indiana 27
James Madison 47 Georgia Southern 10
Texas A&M 33 Tennessee 24 (mild upset)
FAU 45 USF 25
Washington 34 Oregon 31
TCU 35 BYU 21
Wisconsin 30 Iowa 10
Pittsburgh 31 Louisville 22 (fairly big upset!)
Kentucky 27 Missouri 21
Notre Dame 38 USC 35 (OT)
Oregon State 31 UCLA 19
Alright we shall see how busy I get. I am sure to wtch a fair amount of college football on Saturday but it might not be my usual all-day affair. I hate to say I hope for somewhat shitty weather on Fall Saturdays sometimes but I do. It gives me all the excuses I need to stay inside and be a slob and watch football.
Also, small apology for the blog post coming out after the games commenced this week. Starting the week on a Tuesday certainly creates a time crunch even with a holiday Monday. Anyway, enjoy the games everyone!
What do I mean? Oh, I will tell you what I fucking mean. Starting today, there will be either college football or the NFL for 49 straight days.
FORTY-NINE. STRAIGHT. FUCKING. DAYS.
If I am not mistaken, this is the longest string of days with football in the history of ever. So embrace it. Drink it in. Enjoy yourself. This might be one of the greatest times ever to be a football fan.
And with that in mind, let’s get right to the college football schedule for this week, Week Six.
Wednesday
US
Canada
Jacksonville State at Middle Tennessee
8:00
FIU at New Mexico State
9:00
This starts Conference USA’s October of Weekdays! No games on Saturday. None. I’m not kidding. It’s not MACtion or Fun Belt but football on a Wednesday night is always welcome in the Bossman home.
Thursday
US
Canada
Sam Houston at Liberty
7:00
WKU at Louisiana Tech
8:00
More ConFUNerence USA action. Actually, no that sucks. I’m not using that again.
Friday
US
Canada
Cornell at Harvard
7:00
Kansas State at Oklahoma State
7:30
The weekday sked? More like weak-day sked am I right? Ugh. Anyway, we have some Ivy action in Haw-vud and the possibility that Captain Mullet himself, Mike Gundy, could be put on a serious hot seat if his Cowboys don’t show up for this one.
Saturday Early
US
Canada
#12 Oklahoma vs. #3 Texas (in Dallas)
Noon
William & Mary at Virginia
Noon
Boston College at Army
Noon
#23 LSU at #21 Missouri
Noon
Toledo at UMass
Noon
Maryland at #4 Ohio State
Noon
Western Michigan at Mississippi State
Noon
One of the biggest Red River Shootouts of all-time and the final one for both teams in the Big XII headlines the early slate. Really, nothing else comes that close to the RRS but LSU-Mizzou will also have their share of eyeballs as it’s a huge game for the Tigers. See what I did there?
Saturday Afternoon
US
Canada
Marshall at NC State
2:00
Howard at Northwestern
3:00
#13 Washington State at UCLA
3:00
Virginia Tech at #5 Florida State
3:30
Wake Forest at Clemson
3:30
#11 Alabama at Texas A&M
3:30
North Texas at Navy
3:30
Syracuse at #14 North Carolina
3:30
Kent State at Ohio
3:30
Texas State at Louisiana
3:30
USF at UAB
4:00
UCF at Kansas
4:00
Vanderbilt at Florida
4:00
A lot of games in the afternoon schedule with no real breakout games. Saying that, the Aggies could do the most ridiculous thing so far this season if they can upend the Tide. Seeing Wake and Clemson relegated to the ACC Network afternoon slot is jarring to say the least. Florida State has to better than they have been lately even if it is just the Hokies. And the most fun team in this timeslot? That would be the Texas State Bobcats who could take a major step towards bowl eligibility with a win over Louisiana.
Saturday Primetime
US
Canada
Colorado at Arizona State
6:30
#20 Kentucky at #1 Georgia
7:00
Florida A&M at Southern
7:00
#10 Notre Dame at #25 Louisville
7:30
#2 Michigan at Minnesota
7:30
Arkansas at #16 Ole Miss
7:30
Georgia Tech at #17 Miami
8:00
San Jose State at Boise State
8:00
Texas Tech at Baylor
8:00
#24 Fresno State at Wyoming
8:00
I believe FOX is finally putting their main event on in primetime. The Mountain West on actual FOX! Love to see it. And this may essentially be a Group of Five elimination game with both teams playing great football to start the season. That’s not to belittle ND-UL and UK-UGA which will also be huge games in a pretty damn loaded timeslot. I will say though that it is a bit odd to see FAMU-Southern on actual network television in a group of games like this. We are seeing more Group of Five and FCS games ending up on network television because of Peacock and conference networks. I’m not complaining. At all.
Saturday Late Night
US
Canada
#15 Oregon State at California
10:00
Arizona at #9 USC
10:30
Normally I would say this looks like a bit of a piss-poor Pac-12 After Dark slate. But we see what happened last week with Arizona keeping it very close with Washington. So either we get a good game or two or an early bedtime! Sounds like a win-win.
Hey, Watch This!
Oklahoma vs. Texas (in Dallas) (Noon, ABC/TSN3) – This is going to be possibly the most heavily hyped Red River Shootout ever. Both teams having legitimate national championship aspirations (if they win this game) and in their last season in the Big XII Conference. And both teams with not exactly tough schedules the rest of the way. I honestly can’t see there ever being the same amount of hype again when they both go to the SEC. They will always be a bit buried in the sheer amount of good SEC games every year.
Kentucky at Georgia (7:00, TSN+/specialty pack) – Too bad TSN couldn’t pick this up but we know how it is until the CFL is finished for the season. And with the CFL doing Saturday playoff games it will be extended a couple of weeks. Anyway, this is a chance for the Wildcats to shed the basketball-school moniker (possibly for good) and shut the naysayers up with a win here. And man, a win would be epic and earth-shattering (in a college football sense). After this, the Dawgs have an easy one with Vanderbilt then four relatively tough games so a win here is imperative to keep atop the SEC East.
Notre Dame at Louisville (7:30, ABC/TSN+) – The way things are looking the Irish will have this game and next week’s game against USC as their final two true tests of the season (especially with Clemson Clemsoning hard this year). So this game becomes very important. Win the next two and they can, unless they shit the bed, pretty much lock up a New Year’s Six spot. The Cards, on the other hand, haven’t felt like this good of a team since Lamar Jackson was under centre. This would be Jeff Brohm’s signature win in his first year back at his alma mater.
LSU at Missouri (Noon, TSN+/specialty pack) – Who would have thought Mizzou would be here at this point of the season? Probably nobody, let’s be honest. Now this is their chance to really prove they are the second-best team in the SEC East and the biggest threat to Georgia. This is the first of a four-game minefield for this team and if they even go 3-1 they are in great shape. LSU needs to win to have any shot of making waves in the SEC West.
Sickos Game of the Week
Howard at Northwestern (3:00, Big Ten Network) – Nebraska-Illinois is lucky that it’s on FOX Sports One and we can’t see it up here. I have to have rules for this section, otherwise it would be a shitty ESPN+ game every week. Normally, I wouldn’t include an FCS team in this section but I am making an exception here. You have to be some kind of sicko to watch any more than, let’s say, one minute of this game.
Hubba Bubba Blowout of the Week
Virginia Tech at Florida State (3:30, ABC/TSN+) – I still think the Hokies are one of the worst teams in the FBS and I have a feeling that the Noles are going to take out a lot of their frustrations of the past few weeks on VaTech in this one.
Wanna Bet?
So I tried doing scores last week. I think I am going to continue with it. I mean it’s no worse than me picking against the spread since I was average at best at that. So now let’s get to the section that you gambling heathens love.
Liberty 17 Sam Houston 14
Kansas State 33 Oklahoma State 20
Army 35 Boston College 21
LSU 28 Missouri 19
Texas 56 Oklahoma 54 (5OT)
Mississippi State 30 Western Michigan 26
North Carolina 24 Syracuse 21
Ohio 38 Kent State 24
Navy 45 North Texas 16
UAB 37 USF 35
Georgia 41 Kentucky 30
Notre Dame 42 Louisville 29
Miami 28 Georgia Tech 14
Reader Gordo asked me on Saturday why Texas A&M-Arkansas wasn’t on the specialty pack. So I figured I would ask a customer service rep about it since it should have been. The response from the CSR? “It looks like Texas is only available on ESPN.” I give up with Rogers/Cogeco/Eastlink/any other companies using the Super Sports Pak. Same with Bell and their college sports package. They don’t understand so no point in asking.
I will be live-tweeting…live-Xing? That sounds dirty. Anyway, I will be online on Saturday and for good portions of the other three weeknights. Should be another fun week of college football. Enjoy the games everyone!
Hey Miami fans, remember this guy? It’s Al Golden (and Al Golden’s tie)! He parlayed a fairly decent run at lowly Temple (I mean they were really bad before he got there) into a head coaching job at Miami where he was absolutely mediocre. Canes fans couldn’t wait for this guy to get shitcanned and they finally got their wish in 2015 after four-and-a-half seasons in Coral Gables.
So where’s Al been since? He spent six seasons in the NFL before getting hired to be Marcus Freeman’s defensive coordinator at Notre Dame. The move made sense. As a DC, he was pretty good. One of those guys who probably fits best as a coordinator but should never be a head coach.
Which brings us to what happened this past Saturday in South Bend. Good god. I will say, it was a good defensive battle although both offenses did their part in the low scoring affair. Ohio State got one last chance to drive for the win. On the final two defensive plays for the Irish, they had ten men on the field. OK…to have that happen once, it sucks and chances are a player missed an assignment. For it to happen TWICE IN A ROW? What in the hell? Marcus Freeman took the blame for it. As he said, he is the head coach so it falls on him. Admirable. But not fully correct. Golden has to know what the fuck is happening and it seems like he had no clue.
Will Golden be the defensive coordinator beyond this season? Quite possibly. It was a huge fuckup that cost them a win but the Notre Dame defense has been pretty damn stout otherwise so it will take more than that for him to get fired. That’s no consolation to Irish fans who saw their team snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. Also, a reminder of a not-so-good era in Miami Hurricanes football that they are still struggling to recover from.
OK enough about that. Time to think of the future. Week 5 to be exact. Let me get you your Canadian college football television information for the upcoming Saturday (and I’ll throw in Thursday and Friday for no charge).
Thursday
US
Canada
Middle Tennessee at WKU
7:30
Temple at Tulsa
7:30
Jacksonville State at Sam Houston
8:00
Interesting start to the week. Conference USA begins their no-Saturdays schedule with these games on Thursday night. It is feeling like WKU and Liberty will end up in the Conference USA Championship game but watch out for newcomer Jacksonville State. The Fighting RichRods are playing WAY better than anyone thought they would and could surprise.
Friday
US
Canada
Louisville at NC State
7:00
Columbia at Princeton
7:00
Louisiana Tech at UTEP
9:00
Cincinnati at BYU
10:15
Hey, Louisville is pretty good although they better not look ahead to their huge showdown with Notre Dame. NC State has a knack for making teams struggle in games like that. Also first game between new Big XIIers (Big XII-ites?) as Cincinnati travels to Provo to face the Cougs.
Saturday Early
US
Canada
Clemson at Syracuse
Noon
Louisiana at Minnesota
Noon
#6 Penn State at Northwestern
Noon
Utah State at UConn
Noon
Texas A&M vs. Arkansas (in Arlington)
Noon
UAB at Tulane
Noon
South Alabama at James Madison
Noon
#8 USC at Colorado
Noon
#22 Florida at Kentucky
Noon
You read it correctly: USC and Colorado are playing at Noon. 10:00 am local time in Boulder. I guess that’s the price the Pac-12 has to pay to be in early games. Although that ends this year so not too much of a deal to do it once. A few other intriguing games with Clemson playing Syracuse and almost feeling like an underdog and Florida facing Kentucky where Kentucky feels like they should be the favourite.
Finally, there’s the story of James Madison. Huge game against USA here. As of right now, the Dukes are ineligble for the Sun Belt Championship and a bowl game. Would the Sun Belt push for them to become eligible if they end up running the table the rest of the way? It’s possible since it would put them right in the mix for that one Group of Five spot (and would be the first Sun Belt team to earn that spot if it happens). A big question as long as JMU stays undefeated.
Saturday Afternoon
US
Canada
Virginia at Boston College
2:00
Arizona State at California
3:00
#24 Kansas at #3 Texas
3:30
Bowling Green at Georgia Tech
3:30
Indiana at Maryland
3:30
Wagner at Rutgers
3:30
#1 Georgia at Auburn
3:30
USF at Navy
3:30
Northern Illinois at Toledo
3:30
#2 Michigan at Nebraska
3:30
Boise State at Memphis
4:00
#23 Missouri at Vanderbilt
4:00
Yep, it’s time for the SEC late doubleheader ESPN windows which means no ESPN game at 3:30. I guess with the clock changes the three-hour windows would work except for the people who believe that they’ve cut 17,000 plays from every game because of the new clock rules.
KU-UT is obviously the standout game here but watch for UGA heading to Auburn and Boise State facing off against Memphis. Those two games could be sneaky good.
Saturday Primetime
US
Canada
#13 LSU at #20 Ole Miss
6:00
#9 Oregon at Stanford
6:30
Coastal Carolina at Georgia Southern
7:00
#11 Notre Dame at #17 Duke
7:30
Charlotte at SMU
7:30
Michigan State at Iowa
7:30
South Carolina at #21 Tennessee
7:30
Pittsburgh at Virginia Tech
8:00
San Diego State at Air Force
8:00
West Virginia at TCU
8:00
Alright things get better but it’s not like it’s a huge jolt and a bunch of great games in the primetime slot. Two games containing ranked-on-ranked violence, two more games involving ranked teams and SDSU-AFA which will be huge in the Mountain West with no divisions this season. I still don’t agree with the short ESPN window but there’s a light at the end of the tunnel. This is the final year of these SEC tripleheaders. The reason? No exclusivity around the CBS 3:30 window now that the SEC is moving fully back to ESPN and ABC and the Big Ten will pick up the afternoon mantle going forward. Thank fucking God. My prayers have been answered!
Saturday Late Night
US
Canada
#12 Alabama at Mississippi State
9:00
#7 Washington at Arizona
10:00
An extremely light schedule. Doesn’t happen too often. Both games feature ranked teams. Might be an early bedtime (for college football season) if the latest game goes the way most believe it will.
Hey, Watch This!
Notre Dame at Duke (7:30, ABC/TSN+) – A lot of good/not great games this week. I will put this one at the top but it could really be anywhere in this section. This should be the most-watched football game in Duke history and if they can pull off the upset, the rest of the ACC will have to take notice. The Irish, however, might want to take out last week’s frustrations on the Blue Devils.
Kansas at Texas (3:30, ABC/TSN+) – I honestly don’t know why the ABC games are also being shown on TSN+. For completion’s sake I guess? Anyway, this could end up being the most exciting of the games this weekend just for the fact that almost every college football fan remembers “that upset” that the Jayhawks had over Texas a few years back. And now that the Jayhawks are actually good, the Horns cannot overlook them with the Red River Shootout coming up next week.
Utah at Oregon State (Friday, 9:00, FOX Sports One) – Well it’s about time a game that we couldn’t get up here would appear on this list. It happens less than ever but it makes sense it would happen at least a few times this season. And it’s a big Pac-12 game although any game with two of the top seven teams in the conference will be a big game this year. The Beavs probably can’t lose this game because, with two conference losses, it would pretty much eliminate them from any chance at the Pac-12 Championship game (unless true chaos happens which, considering it’s the Pac-12, could very well occur).
LSU at Ole Miss (6:00, TSN+/specialty pack) – I remember back in the days when I had to set up my PVR because I would be busy doing stuff with my kids. And this is the type of situation that would infuriate me because I’d either have to record this game and leave a bunch of games out or just forget this one because it didn’t follow the normal TV windows. This actually may be a big game for the Rebels as the rumour is that the locals are souring a bit on Lane Kiffin. As silly as it sounds, he may end up on a serious hot seat if they can’t at least keep things close with a very good Tigers squad.
Sickos Game of the Week
Virginia at Boston College (2:00, The CW) – Hey, the CW! This is the first time the CW appears on this list (or any list for that matter). Many feel this is the first leg of the ACC Basement Round Robin which also involves Virginia Tech. I still believe the Hokies are the worst of the bunch but these two teams don’t look a whole lot better so far.
Hubba Bubba Blowout of the Week
Penn State at Northwestern (Noon, Big Ten Network) – The Wildcats have somehow won two games this season. I don’t think they win any more to be honest with you and that streak will start here. Sure, the Cats beat a Minnesota team that played super-poorly last week but this is the Nittany Lions we are talking about. If this is within 40 by the end I will be shocked.
Wanna Bet?
Yeah that wasn’t the greatest showing for me last weekend that’s for sure. Good thing I don’t bet actual money on college football (anymore). Let’s move on to this week’s picks which may or may not be any better. And you know what? I’m going to do something different. I’m actually going to post my predicted final score. This will go well, right?
Tulsa 42 Temple 14
NC State 26 Louisville 25
Utah 28 Oregon State 20
Kentucky 35 Florida 13
James Madison 30 South Alabama 24
USC 52 Colorado 23
Boston College 27 Virginia 21
Maryland 39 Indiana 7
Navy 44 USF 34
Texas 45 Kansas 16
Ole Miss 34 LSU 31
Coastal Carolina 35 Georgia Southern 14
Notre Dame 44 Duke 28
As far as I can tell, everything is up as far as the specialty packs are concerned. I have to watch for what BTN shows and I’m starting to wonder if it makes a difference where you are in Canada as to which game you get. It probably shouldn’t but you never know. This is Rogers/Bell/Eastlink/Shaw/Cogeco we are talking about.
I will be on the Twitter machine on Saturday and probably Thursday and Friday night as well so follow along or join there for some college football banter and try your best to avoid the assholes (it’s a fun game albeit sometimes frustrating). Enjoy the games everyone!