Hello! Hello? HELLO! Don’t forget about us! Don’t forget about Conference USA. Please.

Good lord look at that map.  Look I get it.  Most conferences have ridiculous footprints now.  Can’t count the Mountain West in there because it’s not fair.  Hawaii?  Nah.  And yes the American Conference’s footprint is ridiculous.  But for a conference this low on the totem pole?  It’s insane.  I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again: Conference USA and the Sun Belt need to do some swaps to become more regionalized.  C-USA can take the Eastern teams and the Sun Belt can take the Western teams.  Or North and South.  I really do not give a shit.  But sorry, no one is getting hyped for a Rice-Old Dominion game.  And distance (and lack of history) does that.  Be smart.  Especially, with…ugh…realignment (almost getting sick of that word now) possibly going off the rails for the next year or three.  It’s more so for this conference’s benefit than the Sun Belt because hey, who doesn’t love the Sun Belt?

Maybe, just maybe, this could help with TV contracts as well.  Their deals suck.  The best they have is the 14 games that air on CBS Sports Network.  No other conference has it this bad.  I get it: it sounds like I pick on them all the time.  Go ahead and say that.  I don’t care.  But either they have to be smart about their future or pray that one of their teams gets into the New Year’s Six before the expanded playoff begins.  Anyway, let’s get into my predictions for the standings this year so I can cool off followed by some Geography Lessons:

		Conference		Overall
	East	W	L	W	L
	Florida Atlantic	7	1	9	3
	Marshall	7	1	9	3
	FIU	3	5	5	7
	Middle Tennessee	3	5	4	8
	Charlotte	2	6	3	9
	Western Kentucky	2	6	3	9
	Old Dominion	1	7	2	10
	West
	UTSA	8	0	10	2
	UAB	6	2	9	3
	Louisiana Tech	5	3	6	6
	Southern Miss	4	4	6	6
	Rice	2	6	4	8
	UTEP	2	6	4	8
	North Texas	2	6	3	9

Geography Lessons

• I will say it again: this is how I would break up the schools between C-USA and the Fun Belt (if that’s what they wanted to do at this point):
  • C-USA: Troy, South Alabama, Arkansas State, Southern Miss, ULM, Louisiana Tech, Louisiana, Rice, North Texas, UTSA, UTEP, Texas State
  • Fun Belt: Old Dominion, Appalachian State, Coastal Carolina, Charlotte, Marshall, Georgia State, Western Kentucky, Middle Tennessee, Georgia Southern, Florida Atlantic, FIU, UAB
  • If both new conferences are smart they also bring up another team or two from FCS.  James Madison and Sam Houston State are the ones I would target right off the hop.
  • This way, it’s regional, rivalries can really blossom (like the Louisiana schools being all together), and you keep travel costs down while you hopefully move into a more lucrative TV contract down the road.  Win-win-win-win in my opinion.  But hey, I’m just a guy.
• Back to this conference only, the East should again come down to FAU and the Herd.  With the Owls winning the head-to-head matchup, they should get to the conference championship meaning Willie Taggart will eventually move up the chain again at a more prominent role at a bigger school.
• In the West, things will be a lot less ridiculous than it has been the previous few years.  It’s UTSA’s time.  The Roadrunners have been slowly building to this spot and it shouldn’t be a surprise since out of all the newer FBS squads, this is one of the ones that was destined to do well and create a winning football culture (alongside teams like Appalachian State, Coastal Carolina, Louisiana, UAB and FAU).  This division shouldn’t be close.
• Old Dominion is going to have a ROUGH return to football.  Playing for the first time since 2019, it will be a long season for the Monarchs.  Charlotte, WKU and the Mean Green don’t have that excuse.  No, they won’t be as bad as ODU.  But they won’t be good and bowl games are not in their immediate future.
• As for the conference championship game, it’s probably going to be a good, close game.  I have UTSA winning their first conference title and going to….well, nowhere since the conference champ isn’t guaranteed to go to a specific bowl game.  Ridiculous.
• Only six bowl-eligible teams for the conference.  And now with these new G-5 bowl tie-ins (instead of a single conference, three bowl games just have general Group of Five tie-ins meaning any G-5 conference can send a team there), there’s less worry about filling all the bowl tie-ins.  Smart idea.

I’m starting to get a bit excited.  It’s August!  It is seriously just around the corner now!  Next up, I put it all together and let you know who I predict to go to each bowl game.  Should be fun and not have any controversy whatsoever.  Under four weeks now.  27 days.  You can feel it.

The CFL begins in four short days with the Ti-Cats and Blue Bombers opening the new, shortened season.  That same night, the NFL has their Hall of Fame game between the Cowboys and Steelers.  Football season is almost back!  Have a great rest of your Civic Holiday long weekend if you get a long weekend…I don’t.

SUPER MEGA HYPER OMNI POST! V3.0

I have done this two times before. Let’s go for number three here. Warning: this post is seriously fucking long. So grab a drink (caffeinated would be a good idea) and settle in.
Instead of doing a full recap and then a full bowl projections post, I figured I would combine them into one insanely long post! Why? I am going to tell myself it’s a great way to save time and not have to do two posts. That is completely erroneous to be truthful but I will keep telling myself that little fib. It was a fairly good weekend of college football which had two major upsets. We are headed into an exciting finish to the season.  Also this post is different and exciting to commemorate the 150th anniversary of when Rutgers could be considered a top team in college football.

Let’s start with recapping the week that was.  Some fun stuff happened and I was totally sleep deprived for Sunday.  A Fall tradition.

• The only ranked-on-ranked game of the week had Ohio State outlast Penn State.  The difference here was basically one guy: Chase Young.  His return from his stupid suspension was a boon for the Buckeye defense as he was all over the Nittany Lion backfield.  He is a lot like Ndamukong Suh was at Nebraska; the best player in the nation who won’t get true Heisman hype.  The tOSU offense did just enough as Justin Fields, who is the second best player on the team, may have booked his trip to New York City in December.  In the end, though, it won’t mean nearly as much if they can’t extend their winning streak against The Team Up North this Saturday.
• LSU beat Arkansas easily.  Alabama beat Western Carolina even easier during SEC Sleepwalk Saturday.  The Tide have to be rooting for the Tigers to win this Saturday and at the SEC Championship and hopefully win big both times.  It’s Bama’s best chance to get in if the Fighting Orgerons look like a dominant #1 team (or at least something to include in the argument for them to be included in the CFP).
• You all saw it I’m sure.  The students from Harvard and Yale doing a protest just before the second half was to begin in the annual game between the two Ivy League stalwarts.  I can honestly say this is something I have never seen before during a game.  And of course Twitter, being full of very level-headed people, went crazy.  People aligned themselves on one side or the other which is what happens in situations like this nowadays.  Here is my take on this.  Are protests a fabric of both the United States and Canada?  I believe they are.  Saying people can’t protest makes us a lot more like China than the countries we are.  Does this also do a disservice to the people involved in the football game?  Absolutely.  Both of these things are, and can be, true.  If these students truly understood the issues surrounding climate change and Harvard and Yale’s role in it, then great.  It’s very rare that this is the case as I have seen many protests in this country where many really have no idea what they are truly protesting and just want to be loud and want to belong.  I think the police did as good a job as they could and didn’t let it become something violent.  I do wish the students that wouldn’t leave unless they were arrested just left.  Being arrested will probably just be something they can yell and scream about when in reality, no one gives a shit because the protest is over at that point.  On top of all this, the game was played at the Yale Bowl which does not have lights and after an hour-plus delay, went to double overtime.  If it had gone any farther the game probably would have had to end in a tie since darkness was quickly settling in.  Just a bizarre day in college football to say the least.
• Georgia’s offense basically took the day off on Saturday.  If it wasn’t for hipster kicker Rodrigo Blankenship, the Dawgs may have blown it against Texas A&M.  A 19-13 victory over the Aggies doesn’t exactly inspire confidence in the team going into the SEC Championship.  They play like this and LSU will put a 50-burger on them and the game will essentially be over by 5:00 Eastern.
• Oregon blew it against Arizona State.  I guess they didn’t play to win the game.  This is bad, not just for the Ducks but for Utah as well (and the Pac-12 as a whole).  Now Utah beating Oregon will not be them beating a Top 10 team.  Chances are Oregon will be a Top 15 team which makes a difference.  It’s also what is needed for the Bama backers who desperately want their team in the College Football Playoff.
• The other huge upset of the day was FIU beating Miami.  Yes this isn’t the Canes of early this century but good God is this team not very good.  And in a pretty bad ACC.  And now they lose to former head coach Butch Davis on the field that was built on the old Orange Bowl grounds.  Yeah this is about as bad as it gets for The U.  Manny Diaz will be on a seriously hot seat to start next season and now some have to look back and take back their thoughts of basically poaching him from Temple as the Owls are doing great under Rod Carey while Miami struggles.
• Some would include Colorado’s victory over Washington as an upset as well.  I do not.  This is easily Chris Petersen’s worst team in all his years of coaching college football.  Mel Tucker has brought the Buffs back to, at least, respectability.  They now have a chance to go bowling.  All they have to do is *checks the schedule* beat Utah.  Aw man.  Sorry guys.
• Cincinnati beat Temple in a very close one.  It all turned on one play.  Temple had an extra point blocked and returned for two points.  So a three point swing on one play.  The Bearcats ended up winning by 2 and seem to be sharing the Group of Five seat with Memphis at the moment.
• If you missed it, there was an absolutely bonkers Pac-12 After Dark affair up in eastern Washington.  It was on the Pac-12 Network (or DAZN up here) so very few would have watched it but it was fantastic.  A back and forth affair where Oregon State scored 29 points in the fourth quarter and LOST!  Wazzu pulled out with a touchdown with 2 seconds left to win 54-53.  So now Oregon State has to *checks the schedule* beat Oregon in the Civil War to become bowl-eligible.  Ugh.  Washington State is now bowl-eligible again and Mike Leach in the postseason is always fun.
• Oklahoma is going to the Big XII Championship!  They clinched their spot by BARELY getting by TCU.  I’m sorry but the Sooners will struggle with Baylor if they play like that (the Bears beat Texas handily).  Then again, if Boomer Sooner wins, do you really want them in the CFP?  I don’t know.
• Wisconsin and Minnesota both won so they are slated to play for the Big Ten West this weekend.  And College Gameday is heading to Minneapolis (finally).  So it is going to be a huge day for the Golden Gophers and if they win they basically clinch no worse than the Rose Bowl in my opinion.
• What a great way to have the Bud Foster send-off.  Virginia Tech whitewashed Pitt and were dominant on defense.  Awesome for Foster’s final game at Lane Stadium.
• Great story of the weekend?  Charlotte becoming bowl-eligible for the first time.  Will Healy did wonders at Austin Peay which was such a terrible FCS program they went almost four years without winning a game and he arrives and they almost go to the playoffs.  Now he does amazing things in his first year in North Carolina and gets the 49ers to the promised land (probably).  Watch them get picked up by the American Conference in a few years to replace UConn.

Now let’s move on to how the conference championships are shaping up as we are down to the ultimate week of the regular season.

It’s the second annual Sun Belt Championship game and I honestly believe Mountain Dew or Peterbilt or something like that should sponsor it.  This is set.  Appalachian State and Louisiana have won their respective divisions and will face off in the championship game at the home of the Mountaineers in Boone, North Carolina.

Conference USA is going to have an exciting race towards the end of the season in the West.  In the East, Florida Atlantic has clinched their spot in the title game.  As for the West, it’s between UAB, Louisiana Tech and Southern Miss and it’s messy.  So on Saturday:

• If all three teams win, Southern Miss wins the division.  Same thing if all three teams lose.
• If Louisiana Tech wins and UAB loses, Louisiana Tech wins the division.
• If UAB and Southern Miss win, Southern Miss wins the division.
• If only one of the three teams wins, that winning team obviously wins the division.

Good lord.  But at least it means it will be a fun final Saturday for this oft-ignored conference.

The MAC title tilt is halfway set.  Miami-OH has already clinched the MAC East.  The MAC West could be finished off tonight.  If Western Michigan beats Northern Illinois, they will go to Detroit to face the Redhawks.  If they lose then Central Michigan has a chance to clinch on Black Friday in their Noon game against Toledo.

This is easy.  Boise State clinched with their crushing of Utah State and then a bit of a shock as Hawaii clinched the West Division as they beat San Diego State in an low-scoring affair.  The game will be on the blue turf in Boise.

Alright Cincinnati is already in.  The West is also easy.  Memphis beats Cincy in the season finale they will have a rematch against the Bearcats also at home.  If they don’t win, and then Navy defeats Houston on Saturday night, the Middies will be heading to Cincinnati.  If both teams lose, Memphis will go to southern Ohio and play Cincinnati quite possibly for the Cotton Bowl spot.

It’s Clemson up against the winner of the Commonwealth Cup.  This is the most important game in the battle for Virginia possibly ever.

This has been set.  The surprising Baylor Bears get their chance at revenge on Oklahoma at JerryWorld.

Oregon is in for the game which starts at 5 local time yet again.  The Pac-12 has, by far, the shittiest set of TV contracts for the Power Five.  This is atrocious.  Now, if Utah wins they face Oregon but if Colorado pulls off the upset then it will be USC, of all teams, going against the Ducks.

Ohio State clinched a tough Big Ten East and will await the Wisconsin-Minnesota winner in Indianapolis.

LSU and Georgia.  No Bama.  The way things are going, though, UGA is going to get boatraced by the Tigers.

So there you go.  Coming up later in the week, we have the massive American Thanksgiving post which is, you guessed it, massive.

Alright, on to my bowl projections as of this today:

Fiesta Bowl	CFP Poll #2 vs. CFP Poll #3	Clemson vs. Ohio State
Peach Bowl	CFP Poll #1 vs. CFP Poll #4	LSU vs. Utah

No changes here.  Utah’s resume took a hit with Oregon’s loss but I still see them holding on to this spot (which means I will probably be wrong).

Has anything changed in the New Year’s Six?

Sugar Bowl	SEC #1 vs. Big XII #1	Alabama vs Baylor
Rose Bowl	Big Ten #1 vs. Pac-12 #1	Michigan vs. Oregon
Orange Bowl	ACC #1 vs. SEC #2/Big Ten #2/Notre Dame/G-5 #1	Wake Forest vs. Georgia
Cotton Bowl	CFP At-Large vs. CFP At-Large/G-5 #1	Oklahoma vs. Boise State

One change.  I’ve put Michigan in the Rose Bowl, replacing Penn State which I am sure no one will bat an eye at, right OK let’s move on.  A LOT could very well change on this section this coming week and I kind of expect it to but I have to go with my gut at this point.  The Orange Bowl spot for the ACC champ is still hilariously sad and I think that might be the big change during the next CFP contract and not a move to expand to eight teams (although a move to five would be fine by me to be honest).

Now the rest of bowl season which is a gongshow because even bowl tie-ins mean nothing anymore but not in a good way.

Mobile Bowl	MAC vs. Sun Belt	Miami-OH vs. Arkansas State
Armed Forces Bowl	Big Ten vs. MWC	Indiana vs. Utah State
Idaho Potato Bowl	MWC vs. MAC	Nevada vs. Ohio
Gator Bowl	SEC vs. Big Ten	Tennessee vs. Minnesota
Birmingham Bowl	SEC/ACC vs. American/ACC	Liberty* vs. Memphis
Outback Bowl	SEC vs. Big Ten	Auburn vs. Penn State
Citrus Bowl	SEC vs. Big Ten	Florida vs. Wisconsin
Alamo Bowl	Big XII vs. Pac-12	Iowa State vs. USC
Arizona Bowl	MWC vs. Sun Belt	San Diego State vs. Arkansas State
Liberty Bowl	SEC/American vs. Big XII/American	Mississippi State vs. Oklahoma State
Sun Bowl	Pac-12 vs. ACC	California vs. Notre Dame
Belk Bowl	SEC vs. ACC	Texas A&M vs. Virginia
Redbox Bowl	Big Ten vs. Pac-12	Illinois vs. Arizona State
Music City Bowl	SEC vs. ACC	Kentucky vs. Virginia Tech
First Responder Bowl	Big XII vs. C-USA	Kansas State vs. Florida Atlantic
Camping World Bowl	Big XII vs. ACC	Texas vs. Miami
Cheez-It Bowl	Big XII/MWC vs. Pac-12/MWC	Hawaii vs. Southern Miss*
Holiday Bowl	Big Ten vs. Pac-12	Iowa vs. Washington State
Texas Bowl	SEC vs. Big XII	Missouri vs. TCU
Pinstripe Bowl	Big Ten vs. ACC	Nebraska vs. Pittsburgh
Military Bowl	ACC vs. American	Louisville vs. Navy
Quick Lane Bowl	Big Ten/MAC vs. ACC/MAC	Western Michigan vs. Florida State
Independence Bowl	SEC/C-USA vs. ACC/American	Marshall vs. Cincinnati
Hawaii Bowl	BYU vs. American/MWC	BYU vs. Wyoming
Gasparilla Bowl	American/ACC vs. C-USA/ACC	UCF vs. UAB
New Orleans Bowl	C-USA vs. Sun Belt	Louisiana Tech vs. Louisiana
Las Vegas Bowl	Pac-12 vs. MWC	Washington vs. Air Force
Camellia Bowl	MAC vs. Sun Belt	Central Michigan vs. Georgia Southern
Boca Raton Bowl	American vs. MAC	SMU vs. Buffalo
Cure Bowl	American vs. Sun Belt	Temple vs. Georgia State
New Mexico Bowl	MWC vs. C-USA	Army* vs. Western Kentucky
Frisco Bowl	American vs. MAC/C-USA	Tulane vs. Eastern Michigan
Bahamas Bowl	MAC vs. C-USA	Toledo vs. Charlotte

A few notes for your perusal:

• No 5-7 teams.  And no teams left out at 6-6.  Everything fits perfectly like a puzzle with all the pieces actually in the box.  We all know what will happen right?  Certainly not this.
• I am sticking with the tie-ins as best I can.  I don’t know why though since the bowls don’t seem to care themselves sometimes.
• Hawaii, as far as I know, is not locked in to the Hawaii Bowl now that they are bowl-eligible.  Still a good chance they end up there but I have this feeling they will hit the mainland for their bowl game this season.
• Look at Charlotte!  I have them kicking off the bowl season by going to the Bahamas!  Talk about a great season for those players and staff.
• As for tie-ins that don’t work, I have Army filing in to the New Mexico Bowl thanks to Boise State going to the Cotton Bowl, Southern Miss going to the Cheez-It Bowl because the Big XII and Pac-12 don’t have enough eligible teams (thanks to me putting Utah in the CFP) and Liberty heading to the Birmingham Bowl due to the SEC and ACC not having enough eligible teams.  These split tie-ins are so weird and even dumber when they don’t even work out.  When two conferences can’t fill a single bowl slot you know there’s an issue.

Other than those few items, not much to talk about specifically about the bowl projections.  Nothing much changed except some of my opinions.  That might change starting tonight.  Ohio has a chance to become bowl-eligible and, at the same time, Akron could be the only winless team this season in the FBS.  The game is on ESPN+ so none of us can see it.  The other game, between WMU and NIU, is important for the Broncos as a win there clinches a trip to beautiful Detroit for the MAC Championship which isn’t on Friday night this season.  Then Wednesday, take a deep breath.  There is no football at all.  Don’t drink too much but maybe take the time to do something around the house.  Go out.  Catch up on some Netflix.  Something.  Because you will need the rest to prepare for FOOTBALLGASM 2019!

A couple of quick Canadian football notes:

• The Grey Cup occurred this past Sunday.  I am a bit sad that Hamilton lost but at least it was to Winnipeg who had an even longer Grey Cup drought at 29 years!  Plus, a fan who said, in 1990, he wouldn’t wear pants until the next time the Blue Bombers won the Cup again, can wear pants again!  Which is good in Winnipeg since it is seriously fucking freezing there.
• The Vanier Cup occurred.  I have no idea where it was on.  I think CBC online?  Ridiculous.

Alright that is it.  No more.  A seriously long post is complete.  American Thanksgiving Footballgasm post will show up later this week along with the NFL sked post.  Have a good week everyone!