YOU READY FOR MORE DEIONMANIA, BROTHER? (and the Week 4 College Football TV Schedule)

Posted on September 21, 2023 by guelphbossman

Actually you know what? Bad choice of theme and picture. I don’t think the Hulkster cares too much for Deionmania.

But, Deionmania is upon us. Has it got out of hand? Yes. Absolutely. There is no question about it. If we were talking about Colorado playing Oregon or USC at home then fine, it would make all the sense in the world. But they were playing Colorado State. Sure it’s a rivalry game (the Rocky Mountain Showdown for any who didn’t know the name) but it’s Colorado State. It felt like a huge case of FOMO (fear of missing out) by both networks to not strike while the iron is hot. Even the Jay Norvell hat and sunglasses comment before the game rankled Sanders to the point he was giving his signature shades to his team and that company sold more than a million dollars worth of sunglasses in just a few days.

So what did we get for the game that started at 10:00 in the Eastern time zone? It was a classic. Colorado State seemed to have figured out Shedeur Sanders. The Buffaloes’ running game was non-existent. The Rams’ offense was humming. Travis Hunter was knocked out by a dirty hit in the second quarter. Then the Buffs made their late comeback. Down 11 with four minutes to go they tied it up to send it to overtime. In the first overtime, it was shocking to see Norvell not go for two and the win. Felt like some scared coaching. Colorado ended it in the next overtime. Have to say, it was a great game.

Now…Colorado was favoured by 23 points. So they didn’t exactly look awesome. And now they lose Hunter for three weeks. So things aren’t looking rosy for their next two games. Do the networks care? No because this week they are on ABC and the following week they play in Los Angeles against USC…at Noon….in the East! A 9:00 local start time. Crazy!

OK let’s calm down from all the insanity that is anything revolving around the Colorado football program and get to what you came for: hot, nasty, college football schedules. Oh yeah.

Thursday

		US	Canada
Georgia State at Coastal Carolina	7:30
Arkansas-Pine Bluff at Alabama A&M	7:30

GSU-CCU might end up being a sleeper Sun Belt hit. Top two passing offenses in the conference. Take the over. Or go over to Amazon Prime and the other TSNs (and I think the CTVs as well) and watch the Giants get slaughtered out in San Francisco. Your choice.

Friday

		US	Canada
NC State at Virginia	7:30
Boise State at San Diego State	10:30

Two games on Friday evening (with two not airing up here). Boise-SDSU could very well be for one of the Mountain West Championship spots (with Fresno State watching this game VERY closely). The other game is your run-of-the-mill ACC Friday nighter meaning there is the possibility things could get wacky.

Saturday Early

Only one of two games on TSN appear here and it’s a simsub of the ABC game. Ugh. I would have thought FSU-Clemson would have ended up as the ABC Primetime game but Clemson isn’t exactly lighting it up and the Noles barely survived Boston College last weekend. FOX Big Noon Kickoff picking Cincinnati as their destination hours before the Bearcats get beat by Miami-OH was definitely a choice. Also, don’t sleep on WKU-Troy. Could low-key be one of the best games of the early part of the day.

UPDATE: I guess TSN forgot they had a contract to show La Liga games? The FSU-Clemson game will not be shown on TSN2 now and is being replaced by FC Barcelona hosting RC Celta de Vigo.

UPDATE #2: I should go over the entire schedule before making updates. FSU-Clemson has been moved to TSN3.

Saturday Afternoon

Business seriously picks up here. The best timeslot of the season so far and it’s not even close. Three games between ranked teams at one time doesn’t happen very often so savour it. Plus there is UTSA-UT and BYU-KU that should be added to the games to watch category. I wonder how far I can stretch it this week.

UPDATE #3: You can now also see Colorado-Oregon on TSN3.

Saturday Primetime

		US	Canada
Georgia Tech at Wake Forest	6:30
Appalachian State at Wyoming	7:00
Arkansas at #12 LSU	7:00
#14 Oregon State at #21 Washington State	7:00
Arizona at Stanford	7:00
#3 Texas at Baylor	7:30
Minnesota at Northwestern	7:30
Akron at Indiana	7:30
#24 Iowa at #7 Penn State	7:30
UAB at #1 Georgia	7:30
Memphis at Missouri	7:30
#6 Ohio State at #9 Notre Dame	7:30
Mississippi State at South Carolina	7:30
#17 North Carolina at Pittsburgh	8:00

Sweet God Damn Jesus! Three more games in this timeslot between ranked teams. Maybe this is the best timeslot. Either way, we are getting a hell of a day of college football. If you feel like also showing another game on one of your other screens, consider Appalachian State-Wyoming for the possible sheer insanity.

Saturday Late Night

		US	Canada
Kent State at Fresno State	10:30
California at #8 Washington	10:30
#5 USC at Arizona State	10:30

Another FOX quadrupleheader. Good stuff. Will it be close? Highly doubtful. Same with the other Pac-12 After Dark matchup in Seattle. Actually, to be honest, all three games shouldn’t be that close. Not gonna lie.

(An expanded) Hey, Watch This!

Ohio State at Notre Dame (7:30, NBC) – So many good games but I am putting this game at the top and the rest of this section can fight to be 2A, 2B, 2C, etc. This really is a prove-it game for both squads. Neither team has been tested yet so let’s see how Sam Hartman and Kyle McCord do against much better defenses. Don’t be surprised if this ends up being a bit of a defensive struggle, regardless of the wealth of talent both offenses possess.

Ole Miss at Alabama (3:30, CBS) – This could end up being the most exciting game of the week just for the fact that Ole Miss and Bama have played a couple of great ones in recent history and they are so closely ranked. Bama doesn’t feel like Bama. Ole Miss, on the other hand, feels exactly like Ole Miss. Which could spell a lot of trouble for the Tide if the Rebels can pile the points on because I don’t think Alabama has the offense to compete that way.

Colorado at Oregon (3:30, ABC) – In terms of most viewers, this game is going to give the rest a run for their money for sure. Oregon has a hi-octane offense and we’ve seen that Colorado can score points in bunches. Definitely take the over. And if the Buffaloes win this one, watch out since they would have to be considered a dark horse contender for at least the Pac-12 Championship game and the New Year’s Six.

Iowa at Penn State (7:30, CBS) – First time ever for the B1G on CBS to appear on this list. Huge Whiteout game so already the Nittany Lions have an advantage. Honestly, I can’t see Brian Ferentz’s offense putting up that many points against PSU but I guess stranger things have happened.

Oregon State at Washington State (7:00, FOX) – That’s right…it’s the Pac-2 Championship on FOX! Kind of wish who was announcing the game (probably Tim Brando) would start with that. The two remaining Pac-12 schools face off with both undefeated, both ranked and the winner staying in the hunt in a crazy final Pac-12 season.

UCLA at Utah (3:30, FOX) – No specialty pack. All network games. Like the good ol’ days. Kind of. Anyway, it could be argued that this is the “worst” of the six games on this list. It’s why I put it last. But these are two teams that are still serious Pac-12 contenders and are one of eight undefeated conference teams at the moment. Something has to give and I feel this is going to be the start of another season where the Pac-12 teams beat up on each other and no team comes out unscathed. Sucks for the conference but until a team gets to like 6-0 or 7-0 I won’t believe one can make it out alive, so to speak.

Sickos Game of the Week

Akron at Indiana (7:30, specialty pack) – This probably won’t end up on BTN for anyone since they have Minnesota-Northwestern on at the same time. You know it’s bad when a game featuring Northwestern is light years better than the other game. I could honestly see Akron winning here. Look, you have much better choices so don’t punish yourselves by even looking for this game.

Hubba Bubba Blowout of the Week

USC at Arizona State (10:30, FOX) – UAB-UGA would have been the easy, albeit lazy, choice. This one could end up being a lot worse since I can’t see the Trojans letting up on the Sun Devils like Georgia will probably eventually do with UAB. Forks Down.

Wanna Bet?

Interesting week last week for the Bossman. Some good picks that I didn’t follow through on (Florida to cover but not beat Tennessee) and some I absolutely regret (UConn over FIU). Anyway, maybe I will think a little harder before making these picks and not just ALRIGHT HERE WE GO!!!!!!

Boise State (-7) over San Diego State

Troy (-3.5) over WKU

Auburn (+7.5) over Texas A&M (but the Aggies to pull it out)

Temple (+23.5) over Miami (the U will win by about 10)

Duke (-21.5) over UConn

Utah (-4.5) over UCLA

Colorado (+21) over Oregon (but I do have the Ducks winning a fairly close affair)

Ole Miss (+6.5) over Alabama (Bama survives by a field goal)

Tennessee (-21) over UTSA

Wake Forest (-4) over Georgia Tech

Oregon State (-3) over Washington State

Notre Dame (+3) over Ohio State (with the big win)

Iowa (+15) over Penn State (PSU wins in the final minute)

Last I checked, everything is up except for that fact that most of the schedules I look at have FAU-Illinois going to the specialty pack rather than LaTech-Nebraska. I’ll have to watch for that on Saturday.

Look, it could end up being an all-timer of a college football weekend. Let’s hope so. Enjoy the games everyone!

Man, oh man, were there some overreactions this week…oh and the Week 2 College Football TV Schedule

Posted on September 7, 2023 by guelphbossman

Look, did Colorado surprise a lot of people this past weekend? Absolutely. No doubt about it. Deion Sanders is proving, whether you like him or not, that he can flat-out coach. And overhauling the roster like he did was not a bad idea at all. It does suck for the players that had to transfer out but unfortunately it’s football and the name of the game is winning.

Saying that………the amount of people I saw on Twitter that said Colorado will win 10 or 11 games this season was way too much. It should have been zero. Colorado may be better than advertised but they aren’t all of a sudden a New Year’s Six possibility. But hey, that’s the reactions from Week 1 of college football. Every. Single. Fucking. Year.

So let’s do it again on here! It’s overreaction time! Let’s look at some of the other overreactions you may (or may not) have heard after the Week 1 games were complete:

Ohio State is just an average team. Do we expect more from the Buckeyes against a team like Indiana? Sure. But they are bringing in a new quarterback and their best receiver was not 100%. The defense was amazing. Now the offense does have to be ready since in about a week and a half they get Notre Dame and that could get ugly if they don’t produce more points.
Colorado will have not one, but TWO Heisman finalists. What in the fuck? Who are the morons saying this? They are out there for sure. I saw them. Sure, they did great in their opening week win over TCU but calm the fuck down. TCU isn’t the TCU of last season for one and it’s only WEEK ONE. Anyway, moving on…
Gene Chizik has finally got the defense cooking in Chapel Hill. Again, it’s one game. Do the Heels look improved? Sure. But it’s not like South Carolina played well at all because, for the most part they didn’t. That, and the chain gang wouldn’t eat their hot dogs fast enough. Let’s see how UNC does when a top-notch offense is staring them in the face.
Jalen Milroe is already looking like another Alabama Jalen…that being Hurts. My God where do these people come up with this shit? Milroe looked OK but it was Middle Tennessee and he’s playing for Ala-frickin-Bama. We will see how he handles SEC competition before crowning him anything.
Washington has the best offense in the country. Could that end up being the case? Possibly. Michael Penix Jr. has already started his Heisman campaign in style. But let’s slow our roll here. There are at least four teams who looked better on offense (Colorado, Florida State, Oklahoma, Oregon) during Week 1. And I wouldn’t even say any of those teams will be the best offense in the country so why go ahead and put the Huskies at #1?
Book the Sooners for the Big XII Championship NOW! As I said, their offense was on fire but they were playing Arkansas State. We are all waiting to see if Brent Venables can have a Venables-type defense in Norman. If that happens, this could very well happen. But for now, I wouldn’t book any tickets yet if I were a Sooners fan.
Miami is BACK. Ho boy. Pump the damn brakes.

Let’s just put Week 1 behind us, shall we? Let’s move on to Week 2 which…oh my. Well, it’s better than Week 1. That’s really all I can say. But you know what that usually means. That’s right…chaos!

Thursday

Yep, that’s a new logo you see. TSN+ will be showing college football games this year. It kind of mimics the specialty pack but there are a few differences. But if you want to get TSN+ rather than the specialty pack for your college football fix, you are getting close to the same. Not a bad alternative and a good move by TSN to copy ESPN for the 10,000th time.

Friday

		US	Canada
Indiana State at Indiana	7:00
Illinois at Kansas	7:30

It kind of feels like this could be a relatively important game when the Illini travel to Lawrence to face the Jayhawks. Imagine saying that even two years ago. You’d be laughed out of whatever building you were in.

Saturday Early

Is the quality there? Eh, not really. But there’s choice. A lot of it. Can’t ask for much else. Also…MORNING FOOTBAW! The ACC Network’s weird annual Week 2 quadrupleheader hits again with the odd three hour-and-fifteen-minute windows. This will be a lot easier to do next year when Stanford and California join as you know one of them will host the ACC After Dark Week 2 matchup, guaranteed.

Saturday Afternoon

Is the afternoon slate better than the Noon slate? Sure. Not by much though. Some intriguing matchups though. As per the rules, one of Texas A&M or Miami must win their game against each other. Ties were outlawed almost three decades ago. Will CyHawk feature more than 30 points? Can App State and UNC put up ridiculous numbers like last year? And this will be Tulane’s opportunity to get a huge leg up in the Group of Five. A win over Ole Miss would be massive.

Saturday Primetime

		US	Canada
Ohio at FAU	6:00
Cincinnati at Pittsburgh	6:30
#11 Texas at #3 Alabama	7:00
#13 Oregon at Texas Tech	7:00
Houston at Rice	7:00
#19 Wisconsin at Washington State	7:30
Eastern Michigan at Minnesota	7:30
Temple at Rutgers	7:30
UCLA at San Diego State	7:30
Grambling at #14 LSU	7:30
McNeese State at Florida	7:30
Charlotte at Maryland	7:30
Arizona at Mississippi State	7:30
Air Force vs. Sam Houston (in NRG Stadium)	8:00
Southern Miss at #4 Florida State	8:30

FIFTEEN GAMES! Holy shit! I think this has to be the most in one timeslot ever on this blog. I don’t feel like checking so let’s just say we have a new record! Plenty of games but most people will be watching one game in particular, that being the Longhorns and the Crimson Tide. If Texas can somehow do what they were robbed of last season and upset Bama, this season turns on its head. This game is so big that they are also showing it on ESPN2 in the US and on TSN+ and the specialty packs. But it’s not the same broadcast. It’s the Pat McAfee Show alternate broadcast. So if you like that kind of thing, have at it.

Also, you will notice we have a new network showing college football. That’s right, the CW, with such hits as 7th Heaven, Gilmore Girls, Smallville and LIV Golf (well it was a hit with the golfers who got fucking PAID with that Saudi blood money) will be showing ACC football (and later on, ACC basketball) this year. This replaces Bally which, for all intents and purposes, is flat broke. There will be games most weeks and, it looks like, at odd times. 6:30? Weird.

Saturday Late Night

		US	Canada
UC-Davis at #16 Oregon State	9:00
Auburn at California	10:30
Stanford at #6 USC	10:30

FOX quadrupleheader? Don’t mind if I do. TSN2 quadrupleheader? Yes, please. A good week if you are a Canadian as I don’t remember seeing this much college football being shown up here in a while. Maybe things are turning around. Looks like TSN finally gives a shit about things that aren’t the CFL, NFL, and NHL (which they don’t even have the national broadcasting rights to).

Hey, Watch This!

Texas at Alabama (7:00, TSN2/TSN+/specialty pack) – Unequivocally the game of the week and there’s nothing else close. That also means there will be some wild and wacky finishes that might overshadow this game. That is, unless, this is a close one and the Longhorns pull off the upset. Then it will be THE story in college football no matter what else happens.

Ole Miss at Tulane (3:30, TSN+/specialty pack) – As I mentioned above, if the Green Wave pull off a win here in front of what should be a raucous crowd in hot and humid New Orleans, there’s not a whole lot that will prevent them from a perfect regular season and another New Year’s Six spot. Normally I would say this is a lose-lose situation for any Power Five team in this situation but when the Group of Five team is ranked it can count as a big win (as long as that team doesn’t totally shit the bed the rest of the way).

Texas A&M at Miami (3:30, ABC/TSN2) – I made the joke above that one of these teams has to win, as per the rules of college football. We may actually see which one of these teams is back (for the most part) and which team still has some work to do. Now watch it be a 13-10 almost-unwatchable slog.

Nebraska at Colorado (Noon, FOX) – Alright, I’ll bite. Let’s see if the hype matches what ends up happening. Some might have put this higher but that’s crazy. It makes this list because of the talk, not because of the teams involved. And Colorado can’t just win this game by a little. That would prove nothing. If they beat the brakes off the Huskers, then we all have to take notice and maybe think the Buffs could be for real.

Sickos Game of the Week

Temple at Rutgers (7:30, specialty pack) – Look, Rutgers is probably going to start 2-0 which really doesn’t mean a whole lot considering their schedule but still, that’s something right? With everything on at this time, you would have to be a complete psychopath to watch this game. I will make sure to tune in and watch at least a few plays. I feel like I owe it to everyone and myself.

Hubba Bubba Blowout of the Week

Ball State at Georgia (Noon, TSN+/specialty pack) – Time to bring back the blowout of the week segment. And this could be the dictionary definition of blowout. I could see UGA putting up 60 on the poor Cardinals.

Wanna Bet?

Nebraska was actually a good bet. That game ended up exactly how I thought it would (for the most part). Florida, however….well the less said about that one the better. Time for my gambling picks for the second week of the college football season. Use them at your own peril.

Indiana (-30.5) over Indiana State

Purdue (+3) over Virginia Tech (and the outright win)

Ohio State (-41.5) over Youngstown State

Utah (-8) over Baylor

Nebraska (+2.5) over Colorado (and the upset win…definitely going out on a limb with this one)

Michigan (-37.5) over UNLV

Tulane (+7.5) over Ole Miss (but the Rebs will hold on for a close victory)

Texas A&M (-4) over Miami

Alabama (-7) over Texas

Washington State (+6) over Wisconsin (with the Badgers winning a tight affair)

Minnesota (-20.5) over Eastern Michigan

Mississippi State (-9) over Arizona

Stanford (+29.5) over USC (I feel a backdoor cover in this one)

I will be on the Twitter/X machine again this weekend. Even without Tweetdeck I am figuring out how to navigate fairly well. We shall see if I can make it two Saturdays in a row making it all the way to the end. Enjoy the games everyone!

The Week 5 College Football TV Schedule is important…but not as important as this

Posted on September 28, 2022 by guelphbossman

This happens almost every year. It’s hurricane season in Florida (and other parts of the southern United States). Scary times for the residents there. It’s a time where some need to make the decision of staying or leaving for a time, depending on the severity of the hurricane.

Which brings us to Hurricane Ian. It looks like it is going to batter a good part of the state. I hope the residents don’t get hit too hard with it. This does affect the college football schedule. Yes it’s a minor thing but considering the subject matter of this blog, I need to cover it. The following games have had their times and/or dates altered:

SMU at UCF has been moved to Sunday at 1:00
EWU at Florida has been moved to Sunday at Noon
SC State at South Carolina has been moved to Thursday at 7:00

More changes are coming I’m sure. The one interesting thing might be the ABC primetime game. It’s at Clemson. The Gamecocks have already moved their game from Saturday up to Thursday. This could be a very interesting scenario that hasn’t come into play ever for the big timeslot of the week.

UPDATE #3: SMU-UCF has now been moved to Wednesday night. No word if it will be shown here or not.

UPDATE #4: OK it looks like SMU-UCF will be Wednesday at 7:00 PM. The game will be on ESPN2 so there is a good chance it will be on the specialty pack as well.

Alright, let’s get to the schedule and see how this goes.

Thursday

Two games on tonight although originally it was supposed to only be the one. As I mentioned above SC State-USC was moved to Thursday because of Hurricane Ian. I don’t know why some games are being moved up and some are being moved back but I am sure there is a good reason for it. Anyway, both games should be blowouts so you can definitely check out the…wait a second…undefeated Miami Dolphins? OK then.

UPDATE: OK I see that games in Florida are being moved back because the hurricane is hitting there…well, pretty much right now. The hurricane will start moving up the east coast starting Friday night/Saturday early morning so it makes sense to move games in Georgia and South Carolina up to avoid that and allow road teams to leave the area before it hits.

Friday

A heavy Friday schedule with six games. That is quite unusual. One of these games is a rather big one as the somewhat surprising Washington Huskies travel to Los Angeles to face UCLA. Maybe the Bruins will finally get a good crowd for a game as the early attendance has been dismal. The Ivy League has their first game on ESPNU this season and we shall see if Boise State can turn around this season at all or if they will be pining for the return of Bryan Harsin the rest of the season.

Saturday Early

This is…different. It is the first time that the ACC Network has a game on multiple TSN channels. I’d have to look to see how often the ACC Network has been on TSN, period since I am sure I can count that on one hand. CBS has a doubleheader this week that starts with the first leg of the Commander-in-Chief’s Trophy and ends at the normal SEC on CBS time later on. Finally, there is one quite big game that will fall under the radar this weekend and it occurs in Oxford. Kentucky and Ole Miss are both wanting to prove they are for real. A UK win here…that would make things awful interesting in the SEC East where I figured Georgia would easily win the division.

Oh you will notice the SEC Network doesn’t have a game in this timeslot. It was the one moved to Thursday night. Will they put another game here to replace it? Probably not.

Saturday Afternoon

		US	Canada
Oregon State at #12 Utah	2:00 PM
#22 Wake Forest at #23 Florida State	3:30 PM
Virginia Tech at North Carolina	3:30 PM
Rutgers at #3 Ohio State	3:30 PM
#2 Alabama at #20 Arkansas	3:30 PM
Fresno State at UConn	3:30 PM
Northwestern at #11 Penn State	3:30 PM
Iowa State at Kansas	3:30 PM
#9 Oklahoma State at #16 Baylor	3:30 PM
Michigan State at Maryland	3:30 PM
Central Michigan at Toledo	3:30 PM
#17 Texas A&M at Mississippi State	4:00 PM
California at Washington State	5:30 PM

OK now we are getting into weeks where some timeslots are loaded with good games. This is one of them. Wake-FSU, Bama-Hogs and Pokes-BU are all big games that could shape how the season pans out. And if you can watch them live and not have to use a PVR, all the better. I am thankful I don’t have to do that anymore.

Not everything makes sense though here. And it has more to do with the specialty packs than anything. There should be four games in this window on the specialty packs. Right now I only see one confirmed: TAMU-MSU. Why? It makes no sense. We know they will end up there. So just do it all at once. Then again, maybe they won’t because things almost seem worse than ever at times with these specialty packs. Just schedule all the games you’re allowed to show. It’s easy. I don’t get why this is so complicated. Christ, I’m getting worked up and I don’t even have cable anymore.

UPDATE #2: If I just waited a few minutes, I could have looked again and saw that the specialty packs were updated and all the games that should appear there, are appearing there.

Saturday Primetime

		US	Canada
LSU at Auburn	7:00 PM
Cincinnati at Tulsa	7:00 PM
#10 NC State at #5 Clemson	7:30 PM
Indiana at Nebraska	7:30 PM
San Jose State at Wyoming	7:30 PM
West Virginia at Texas	7:30 PM
#1 Georgia at Missouri	7:30 PM
Georgia Tech at #24 Pittsburgh	8:00 PM

NC State-Clemson. A huge ACC game. And I have this funny feeling it will be moved, rescheduled, something. I mentioned it above and I will say it again. It really makes no sense for South Carolina to move their home game up two days and Clemson, a mere two hours away, is doing nothing at this point. Just feels like a disaster waiting to happen. Fingers crossed nothing bad occurs.

As for the rest of the primetime schedule, it’s alright. LSU-Auburn get an undeserved ESPN spot, Georgia is yet again on the SEC Network, and we will see if Georgia Tech learned what not to do from the Geoff Collins era.

Saturday Late Night

		US	Canada
Colorado at Arizona	9:30 PM
UC-Davis at Montana State	10:15 PM
Arizona State at #6 USC	10:30 PM
Stanford at #13 Oregon	11:00 PM

Four games in the late night sked and one really stands out like a sore thumb. Yes you are reading that correctly: the game on ESPNU will be UC-Davis against Montana State. ESPN has done this before, putting a Big Sky match on in the late night window because there wasn’t much else to put on there. This is especially the case now with ESPN not having Mountain West games. So it’s Pac-12 or bust and if any other network has Pac-12 games, it really dials back the inventory they can choose from. There’s three Pac-12 games on in this window but one is on the Pac-12 Network and another on FOX Sports One. So yeah, either ESPNU shows the FCS game, a rerun of an HBCU game (which they do from time-to-time) or something that isn’t live sports that won’t get the same ratings.

Big Games O’ The Week

NC State at Clemson (7:30, ABC) – One of the games of the year and, I would say, a pretty easy choice for Game of the Week. Let’s see if D.J. Uiagalelei can keep things going and play well enough to beat a very good Wolfpack team. No offense to Wake Forest but this is the Tigers’ greatest competition of the regular season. Win this and they are a win over Florida State away from going back to the ACC Championship. If the Pack win…ho boy this gets very interesting.

Kentucky at Ole Miss (Noon, TSN2) – Did I fool you there? You thought another SEC game would fall here. Not so fast. This game has a lot on the line and will send the winner into the hype zone, at least for the immediate future. Don’t want to use the terms “College Football Playoff” or “New Year’s Six” here for two teams that aren’t used to that much success (especially Kentucky) but you’ll hear that during the broadcast, I can guarantee that.

Alabama at Arkansas (3:30, CBS) – This is the game that most people would have put at least in the #2 spot and I wholeheartedly disagree. I believe Bama won’t have a ton of trouble with the Hogs. I’d love to see the Razorbacks win; mostly because I love chaos in college football. But until they show they can hang with the Tide, then I can’t believe they will get it done. Now watch them put up a 40-burger against them just to prove me wrong.

Oklahoma State at Baylor (3:30, FOX) – Yeah I’m going to go ahead and call this Okie State’s first true test of the season. No offense to Central Michigan, Arizona State or mighty Arkansas-Pine Bluff but they don’t hold a candle to the Bears. Also, I am waiting to see if Spencer Sanders truly can take this team to new heights since I have never been fully impressed with him.

Wake Forest at Florida State (3:30, ABC) – Look, Wake Forest isn’t completely out of the ACC Atlantic race just yet. To get back in the race, though, they have to win here. The Noles have finally found their footing under Mike Norvell and want the opportunity to at least play for the division later in the season.

Washington at UCLA (Friday, 10:30, TSN2) – I never would have thought I’d have this game on the list when the season started. The Huskies are better than advertised. The Bruins…well at least we can say they are undefeated. They haven’t made it look easy and they haven’t exactly played tough competition. A Friday night test for both teams.

Oklahoma at TCU (Noon, ABC) – The Sooners came crashing down to Earth last week against Kansas State…kind of. I think part of this is the horrendous non-conference schedule they had with no real competition. More teams really have to get away from that kind of thinking as it never prepares them for conference season. At least TCU had SMU last week after beating the worst Power Five team in the land, Colorado, and Tarleton State, who honestly might beat Colorado if they played each other.

Psycho Game of the Week

Colorado at Arizona (9:30, YouTube) – You have to be some kind of sick to want to watch this. Sure, the Wildcats are improved but they couldn’t have been any worse than they were last season. And the Buffs…my God. They are seriously awful. If they lose this one, the Karl Dorrell hot seat talk will be top of the list in that state (at least when it comes to college football).

Hubba Bubba Blowout of the Week

Rutgers at Ohio State (3:30, BTN) – With all due respect to the Fighting Schianos of Piscataway, this won’t be close. I am almost thinking of praying for Rutgers to keep tOSU under 60 points in this one.

Fun-Time Stats of the Week

BYU and Utah State are actually in a trophy game on Thursday. They play for the Old Wagon Wheel. The Cougs have won it 17 times since 1994.
The only team that Boise State has a losing record against in the Mountain West is San Diego State.
The Crimson Tide have won 15 in a row against Arkansas.

The Degenerate Portion of Our Show

I’m not going to delve into my picks from last week. I just won’t. You shouldn’t either. Let’s just move on to this week’s picks:

Houston (-2.5) over Tulane
UNLV (-14.5) over New Mexico
Illinois (+7) over Wisconsin (Wisky to win game)
Oklahoma (-6.5) over TCU
Oregon State (+10.5) over Utah (Utes to win game)
Fresno State (-24) over UConn
Penn State (-26.5) over Northwestern
Florida State (-7) over Wake Forest
Auburn (+9) over LSU (and the Tigers to win outright in my upset of the week)
NC State (+6.5) over Clemson (Tigers win a close one)
Pittsburgh (-22) over Georgia Tech
Arizona State (+25) over USC (USC will win the game)
Oregon (-17) over Stanford

I will keep watching and keep you up to date on anything that changes the schedule due to Hurricane Ian. It already looks bad along Florida’s west coast and the storm just hit. Hopefully there are no casualties down that way.

Someone might want to avoid airport tarmacs – the Week 2 Recap

Posted on September 13, 2021 by guelphbossman

The camera’s not on him all the time so I am sure he has that reaction a lot. And that reaction definitely came up the other night a lot. USC looked like complete garbage in most of their loss against Stanford. It feels like Kedon Slovis, after a promising start to his young career, has had his progress stall. A lot of that has to land on Helton. This team has had the talent to contend before and they have underperformed almost every season under his watch. It feels like, with ten games left in the season, that he will have to win at least eight of those to keep his job. And even then, that might not be enough. He is on one of the hottest seats right now for sure.

This week of college football really had a dearth of marquee games (other than the top two), as is somewhat usual for Week 2. But, as per usual, it overdelivered giving us a wild weekend of football. Let’s go through the week that was!

Michigan 31 Washington 10 – What a game this was for the Wolverines. Washington is, to put it one word, awful. This team should have the talent to at least be sniffing the Top 25 and they are nowhere close. Maybe that loss against Montana wasn’t an aberration after all but more a warning for things to come in Jimmy Lake’s first full season at the helm. As for Michigan, this could be an interesting year in Ann Arbor with perhaps a shot at a New Year’s Six bowl? The next few weeks will tell a lot about this team.
Texas A&M 10 Colorado 7 – A classic Big XII matchup that had an absolute dearth of offense. Yes, the defenses both played well but the offenses were pretty bad. There were a couple of opportunities for the Buffs to extend their lead and they just couldn’t do it. The Aggies survived and may have lost their quarterback Haynes King for an extended period of time. A little bit of sweating in College Station going forward.
Oregon 35 Ohio State 28 – It felt that the Buckeyes would, at some point, comeback and win this one. I mean it’s Ohio State in the Horseshoe. They almost never lose there. Even without Kayvon Thibodaux, the Ducks played very well on defense for most of the game and didn’t allow tOSU to really get their offense humming. Oregon did just enough and Joe Morehead showed he still has quite the mind for offense as he called a masterful game.
Jacksonville State 20 Florida State 17 – For fuck’s sake Mike Norvell. If everyone thought it was bad during the Willie Taggart era, then strap in for this one. The Noles allowed JSU to stay close with their offense just not playing well at all. McKenzie Milton looked off and the running game was non-existent. But it looked like FSU would still hold on for the somewhat undeserving victory. Then it happened. The Gamecocks score on the final play of the game on a pass to the 20-yard line that the receiver was able to run in. No laterals. Not a Hail Mary. Just a pass and run. Norvell didn’t think to put more players closer to the goal line because there was, and I quote, “still six seconds and they were on their own side of the field.” What in the blue hell are you talking about, Mike? They only had one play left. That was it. Yes the tackling, or lack there of, was horrible there but no excuse not to put more players back there. What a fucking disgrace. And yes, Norvell is on a seat that’s only a couple degrees cooler than Clay Helton’s.
BYU 26 Utah 17 – The Cougars celebrated their acceptance into the Big XII by beating the Utes in a game that wasn’t as close as the score indicated. BYU was superior in pretty much every aspect of the game. They look better than advertised, even with Zach Wilson gone, as Jaren Hall had a great game. Definitely quelled the worries of the Provo faithful over the quarterback position.
Coastal Carolina 49 Kansas 22 – As I’ve said before many times, I don’t have a horse in this entire college football race. I just hope to watch some exciting football and with the college game, I get that at least once a weekend during the season. Saying all that, I was kind of pulling for the Jayhawks to at least keep it close. They didn’t, but even in a 27-point loss, it felt like they have taken more strides in game two under Lance Leipold than they had in the previous two entire coaching regimes. That’s how bad things have got in Lawrence and how much ground they have to make up in the Big XII, now with extra BYU and AAC sauce.
TCU 34 California 32 – Now let’s go to a game that very few people watched but probably should have. I am not being facetious here. This was just a fantastic game from start to finish. Don’t think TCU played poorly or down to the Bears. They are a good team and could start moving up the rankings soon. California has had a rough start. Two good games played and no wins to show for it. Yes, starting with Nevada and TCU isn’t exactly a recipe for sure success but it has to be a bit frustrating to not be at least 1-1 at this point. I expect they will still be a bit of a player in the Pac-12 North though.
Alabama 48 Mercer 14 – Alabama beat Mercer. Ho hum. It was fun, though, to turn to TSN2 (yes this game was actually aired on TSN2) and see Nick Saban getting seriously pissed off at his squad after they went up 31-0. Only Saban.
Notre Dame 32 Toledo 29 – Toledo almost upset Notre Dame. In the hindsight is 20/20 department, it would have made more sense for Toledo’s quarterback, instead of running for that 30+ yard touchdown late in the game, to fall around the 1 and then drain the clock to allow the Rockets to kick the winning field goal. But they didn’t and Toledo’s defense decided to get a flag on almost every play, and the Irish made them pay. If Brian Kelly wanted to execute his team last week, I can’t imagine what he is thinking today. And all this was over on the ‘Cock! Yep, that’s right, it was on NBC’s streaming service, Peacock, not on NBC proper. I’m sure no one was upset by this at all because college football fans tend to be rational people, right?
Miami 25 Appalachian State 23 – It was quite the exciting game down at Hard Rock Stadium and I wasn’t that surprised by it. People getting on the Canes have to realize that the Mountaineers are quite a good team. So not totally shocking for it to go almost down to the end. The most exciting thing to happen there that game, though, had nothing to do with what was happening on the field. A cat all of a sudden was shown dangling from the upper deck. No, I do not know how it got there or why it was dangling there. All the fans in the area were watching and hoping the cat didn’t get hurt or die by falling. The cat did fall…right into a guy holding an American flag who caught the cat in the flag. On the 20th anniversary of 9/11. Don’t be surprised if there’s a 30 for 30 Short on that one day.
Iowa 27 Iowa State 17 – Um, could this finally be the year that Kirk Ferentz takes the Iowa Hawkeyes to the Big Dance? This team is looking seriously good. No mistake that they looked overpowering compared to Iowa State on Saturday. And don’t think the Cyclones are out of it just yet. I think their College Football Playoff hopes, however slim, are probably squashed but a New Year’s Six spot is still theirs if they can win out the rest of the regular season. Don’t be surprised if both of these teams are playing on conference championship weekend in games that mean a whole lot.
Rutgers 17 Syracuse 7 – Don’t look now but the 2021 version of the Rutgers Scarlet Knights football team is 2-0. And looking pretty good doing it, especially on defense. Yes it’s early and yes the Scarlet Knights might be in the second toughest division in college football but things are finally looking up for a team that has been not a lot better than hot garbage since joining the Big Ten.
Arkansas 40 Texas 21 – Oh boy is Texas not back. The Longhorns were boatraced by Arkansas in a game that may not even been as close as the score indicated. I’m mistaken. Texas is back…..back bacon.
Pittsburgh 41 Tennessee 34 – At times this game was like snorting coke off a hooker’s ass, then taking a shot of absinthe, then getting on a motorcycle and gunning the engine to jump out of a plane. It was that ridiculous. At times both teams did everything they could to win, then not minutes later both teams would be trying their darndest to lose. Completely bonkers. In the end, it was a Volunteering that happened, not a Pittening. I’m sure fans on Rocky Top are not happy right now because Tennessee? Not back.
Oklahoma State 28 Tulsa 23 – I know people love to use the College Football Transitive Property. Team A beat Team B who beat Team C so Team A is better than Team C. It was almost to the point in this one where we’d have to say that UC-Davis was better than Oklahoma State because of that. Now Vanderbilt’s victory over Colorado State probably does fit. East Tennessee State beat Vanderbilt who beat Colorado State. So ETSU is better than CSU. Which may be true because the Rams got trounced by South Dakota State in Week 1. Ouch.
Houston 44 Rice 7 – Hey, who was possibly the only guy on the Internet to pick Rice to win this one? That would be me. And it’s a lesson to all you out there that I have mentioned multiple times before: do not use my picks to gamble with. You are playing with fire if you do so.
Army 38 Western Kentucky 35 – It seemed fitting that Army won on the anniversary of 9/11. WKU did not make it easy as they have a seriously prolific passing game with Bailey Zappe under centre. But Army’s option offense is, much of the time, too difficult to defend against because they don’t deviate from it, ever. Georgia Southern and Navy and Air Force, they have times were they pass the ball a decent amount. Hell, Georgia Tech has abandoned it altogether. Not the Black Knights. The option. That’s it. And it works most of the time.
Purdue 49 UConn 0 – The Huskies have not scored a point since Randy Edsall quit/retired. Not that they scored a lot of points anyway during his second tenure in Storrs. This is going to be a looooooooooooong season for that fanbase.

Recap complete! As I always say, some of the worst looking weeks on paper end up being some of the best to watch and this past weekend was a ton of fun to watch. You know what? Let’s bust out the first Bossman Top 25!

#1	Alabama
#2	Oregon
#3	Georgia
#4	Texas A&M
#5	Oklahoma
#6	Iowa
#7	Cincinnati
#8	Notre Dame
#9	Clemson
#10	Penn State
#11	Ohio State
#12	Florida
#13	Coastal Carolina
#14	Wisconsin
#15	Iowa State
#16	UCLA
#17	North Carolina
#18	Virginia Tech
#19	Ole Miss
#20	Miami
#21	Arizona State
#22	Auburn
#23	TCU
#24	Arkansas
#25	Liberty

Always seem to be close to the AP Poll but there’s always interesting differences. Yes, I had Oregon moving all the way up to #2 and deservedly so. Also, I didn’t quite move Iowa into the Top 5 as many had (and AP did). Give it time and I’m sure they will get there. I try not to go crazy and overrate a team after one huge victory. That is why I only put Arkansas at #24. If they start stringing more victories together, then sure I will definitely move them up. They have to earn it right? Well, it is college football polls so “earning it” can be a very subjective measure.

Another recap done and getting in the football groove with Fall just around the corner. I will be going back to the normal college football schedule on Thursday, NFL schedule on Friday format that you all know and love (well, at least I think you love….I know you know). It’s getting slightly cooler (although it was quite humid today) and it is starting to feel a bit like football weather. I love it. Have a great week everyone!

OK so where does this leave FOX?

Posted on June 18, 2021 by guelphbossman

CFB-conferences

Alright so let’s look at the lay of the land here when it comes to college football TV contracts:

The SEC on CBS will be done after the 2023 season as that conference heads fully to ESPN/ABC. They join the ACC as fully under the ESPN/ABC umbrella in some capacity with each conference having their own network.
The Big Ten has deals with FOX and ESPN that end after next season.
The Pac-12’s deals with both ESPN and FOX end after the 2023 season.
The Big XII is under contract for the longest really at this point (except for the ACC that has such a ridiculously long contract with ABC/ESPN I won’t even mention it here) as they are in their ESPN and FOX contracts through the end of the 2024 season.

I am not including the Group of Five conferences although I will say the Mountain West is in with FOX now with the MAC, American and Sun Belt conferences mostly in bed with ESPN. Conference USA has, yet again, a bit of a hodgepodge with nothing really that great.

Here’s the thing with the SEC’s move: it creates a domino effect. What the dominoes will be and how they will fall is a matter of conjecture at this point. Saying that, expect a lot of noise, probably next year, as the Big Ten’s deals end with ESPN and FOX. With the SEC almost guaranteed to get plenty of ABC primetime games, the Big Ten might look to shop a bit and talk with CBS or get something more lucrative from FOX. Also there’s the Big XII and Pac-12 who have FOX contracts that end relatively soon. Will they contact CBS? Will NBC start talk of adding games so they aren’t just the Notre Dame channel? Will FOX start doing late night games regularly so they can air more games, thus getting more money from conferences? Will FOX add another G-5 conference to their stable? A lot of questions that could be answered in the next twelve months. My best guess, at this point, is that FOX starts doing more late night games on the main network, they start adding more games to FS2 and will probably try to rope in the Big Ten for something bigger than they already have. Maybe FOX’s primetime game will become a big deal and they won’t rely on BIG NOON SATURDAY to bring college fans to the network.

OK enough of that for now, it’s time to do some scheduling! Well not by me, I mean the networks created the schedules and I just kind of report them and make guesses. If I talk about myself and make it seem I have little importance then any errors in the upcoming table (and boy oh boy there will be guesses that will be WAY off) won’t seem so bad. Anyway, let’s get to the predicted schedule followed by some probably non-contract-related points (confirmed games are in BOLD this time around…trying to change things up a bit):

August 28th	Nebraska at Illinois	1:00 PM
September 2nd	Ohio State at Minnesota	8:00 PM
September 4th	Penn State at Wisconsin	Noon
September 4th	Louisiana at Texas	4:30 PM
September 4th	LSU at UCLA	8:30 PM
September 11th	Oregon at Ohio State	Noon
September 11th	Texas A&M at Colorado	3:30 PM
September 11th	Stanford at USC	10:30 PM
September 18th	Nebraska at Oklahoma	Noon
September 18th	USC at Washington State	3:30 PM
September 25th	Notre Dame at Wisconsin	Noon
October 2nd	Michigan at Wisconsin	Noon
October 2nd	Oklahoma at Kansas State	3:30 PM
October 9th	Oklahoma vs. Texas (in Dallas)	Noon
October 9th	Utah at USC	4:00 PM
October 9th	Oregon State at Washington State	8:00 PM
October 16th	Michigan State at Indiana	Noon
October 23rd	Oklahoma State at Iowa State	Noon
October 23rd	Oregon at UCLA	4:00 PM
October 30th	Penn State at Ohio State	Noon
October 30th	UCLA at Utah	3:30 PM
November 6th	Texas at Iowa State	Noon
November 6th	Oklahoma State at West Virginia	4:00 PM
November 6th	USC at Arizona State	8:00 PM
November 13th	TCU at Oklahoma State	Noon
November 13th	Purdue at Ohio State	4:00 PM
November 13th	Northwestern at Wisconsin	8:00 PM
November 20th	Texas at West Virginia	Noon
November 20th	Purdue vs. Northwestern (in Chicago)	4:00 PM
November 20th	UCLA at USC	8:00 PM
November 26th	Kansas State at Texas	Noon
November 26th	TCU at Iowa State	3:30 PM
November 26th	Colorado at Utah	8:00 PM
November 27th	Ohio State at Michigan	Noon
November 27th	BYU at USC	4:00 PM
November 27th	Northwestern at Illinois	8:00 PM
December 4th	Mountain West Championship Game	4:15 PM
December 4th	Big Ten Championship Game	8:00 PM
December 30th	Redbox Bowl	3:00 PM

Non-contract related points

Hey remember what I said about the Mountain West? After doing up this schedule I noticed that the Mountain West was not represented at all on the main network. They have a ton of FOX Sports One games so it’s a good consolation in their first full year under the new contract (can’t count last year’s shitshow). Will the Mountain West end up on FOX for at least a game? It wouldn’t surprise me if it did in November if either a) one of the conferences has hit their FOX contract limit and/or b) the two teams playing are both really not that good.
You don’t have vision problems (or maybe you do…now I feel like an asshole saying that): there is a game on FOX starting at 10:30 pm! Stanford-USC has been confirmed for some Pac-12 After Dark on September 11th. Interesting that FOX would do that considering news channels should get a lot of viewership on that day (if you haven’t figured it out, it’s the 20-year anniversary of 9/11 so expect a lot of American flags on your television screen that day).
Also, FOX is wading into foreign waters by putting a Week One game on the main network on Thursday night. The Big Ten is fine with that game but would have flat-out refused if it was a November game. I don’t blame them to be honest. As hilarious as it is to watch, I can’t see teams loving the idea of playing a weeknight game in below freezing temperatures.
Looks like FOX getting three games on Black Friday will be an ongoing thing and that’s a good idea. The Noon game is confirmed but I actually had figured it out before it was confirmed that it would be KSU-UT (should be UT-TAMU but yeah I’m not getting into it). My guess is FOX will pick up another Big XII game for the afternoon. And I have a feeling FOX will move WWE Smackdown to FS1 to accommodate a Pac-12 game, which I believe will be the Buffs and the Utes. I feel safe saying this knowing that there is a precedent set with Smackdown moving to FS1 for the night. If they were smart (and if it was possible) they should do a replay on the main network starting at like Midnight. More viewers! You can thank me later Vince McMahon.
There are a bunch of games confirmed already. All of September, Week Zero, and two games on American Thanksgiving weekend. Very nice. The rest…well……we shall see.
Here is the conference breakdown for ya:
- Big Ten – 15 (including conference championship)
- Pac-12 – 13
- Big XII – 11
- Mountain West – 1…the conference championship
- Sun Belt – 1
- SEC – 2
- Independents – 2
The game totals are adjusted a tiny bit from the previous season. The Big Ten has a few less games although I have them appearing on ABC/ESPN more so that evens things out. As I mentioned before, the Mountain West I have with zero regular season games and only their conference championship on the main network. The Pac-12 Championship is no longer on FOX since they got sick of the Friday night in Santa Clara garbage (and it is shitty make no mistake about it). I got the Big XII with a couple more games this season than last year’s prediction. And hey, the Sun Belt, SEC and even the Independents get in on the action with some appearances.
Just like the last few years, FOX gets two bowl games and puts one on FS1. As per usual, the Holiday Bowl goes to FOX Sports One and the Redbox Bowl is on FOX. With the College Football Playoff semi-finals on New Year’s Eve (dammit), it makes it pretty easy for these two games to avoid going to that day.
The only turd in the punch bowl every year for FOX’s college football coverage is FOX’s baseball coverage (you could switch out FOX for FS1 and it’s the same deal). This is, I believe, one of the biggest reasons why they put their biggest game on at Noon and not in primetime. MLB almost never has games that early in the day for the playoffs. They would rather put on a game at 10 pm local time than start one at Noon.

So I switched it up this year and put FOX first. Next up is the SEC (and the Mountain West) on CBS. I can still say that for now. By the way, finally got my first preview magazine. I just decided to up and go to Indigo and pick one up. I got the Lindy’s one since that was the only one available which kind of surprised me. Also, I had to line up just to get into the store. We are SLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOWLY getting back to normal….but it is slow. Seriously slow. Anyway, have a good weekend and a good Father’s Day for you all you Dads out there.

That was LSU’s Shoeper Bowl! – Week 15 College Football Recap

Posted on December 14, 2020 by guelphbossman

This is a new one. Gators’ Marco Wilson tackled Kole Taylor short of the first down marker late in the fourth quarter in Florida’s game against LSU. Then he got up with Taylor’s shoe in his hand and, in the words of the referee, threw it 20 yards downfield. This meant he got a 15-yard unsportsmanlike conduct penalty which kept LSU going and lead to Cade York’s insane 57-yard field goal into the fog at The Swamp to win the game. This could end up costing Florida even a New Year’s Six spot (as their College Football Playoff chances are gone). Horrible. And stupid. You couldn’t script this to be more ridiculous.

As per tradition, when I use the Footballgasm template, I must complete the week by doing the recap in the same manner. Let’s go!

Thursday

Southern Miss 45 Florida Atlantic 31

6:30 PM

This was a nice ending to a horrible season in Hattiesburg for the Golden Eagles. Now they can hopefully start fresh with new coach Will Hall. And to find out that even if FAU won, they wouldn’t have gone to the conference championship game was a big letdown. Oh well. Decent start to the week.

Friday

Arizona State 70 Arizona 7

7:30 PM

The Territorial Cup goes to the Sun Devils in one of the biggest beatdowns in Pac-12 history. I was definitely one who thought Arizona’s hire of Kevin Sumlin a few years back was a coup. Yeah now we know that it was his great quarterbacks at Houston and Texas A&M that really helped him along. Paging Brent Brennan!

San Jose State 30 Nevada 20

10:00 PM

OK this game was being played between the Spartans and the Wolf Pack in Las Vegas at the field being used by the New Mexico Lobos. Got it? Anyway, the Spartans win puts them in the Mountain West Championship and also puts Boise State in as well. This has been an amazing season for SJSU which means what I said above may happen…again.

Saturday Early

Penn State 39 Michigan State 24

Noon

This was actually a pretty good game into the fourth quarter and the Nittany Lions pulled away to win their first home game of the season (if you can believe that). James Franklin is going to be on quite the hot seat going into 2021 as this has to be considered nothing short of a disappointment for this team, despite what 2020 brought.

Rutgers 27 Maryland 24

Noon

Meaningless game won by Rutgers. Well maybe not meaningless to the Scarlet Knights and especially Greg Schiano. The hiring of Schiano may make Rutgers look very smart (and Tennessee very stupid for deciding not to hire him).

Northwestern 28 Illinois 10

Noon

Northwestern, already clinching the Big Ten West, put a beatdown on the Illini. And guess what happened yesterday? Lovie Smith was finally shitcanned. Oh wait, he agreed to part ways with the team. Whatever. Just a few years too late in my humble opinion.

Alabama 52 Arkansas 3

Noon

Not surprising that the Tide won. Now we await to see what devastation they will wreak on Florida in the SEC Championship. I don’t think it will be very pretty. I’ve said it already but CBS may regret putting that game in primetime.

Utah 38 Colorado 21

Noon

The Buffs shouldn’t have had problems with the Utah offense but they did. Their loss made things super easy for the Pac-12 as now they wouldn’t be undefeated along with USC. At least we got to see some FOOTBAW WEATHER in Boulder for this one.

Georgia 49 Missouri 14

Noon

Speaking of games that weren’t close, here’s a great example. Many people, myself included, thought it would be though. For a while it looked like UGA was what everyone thought they were: a good team not deserving of a New Year’s Six spot. It was tied at 14 late in the second quarter. 35 unanswered points later, the Dawgs proved that maybe they should be put in an important bowl game.

Minnesota 24 Nebraska 17

Noon

Minnesota wins this one as they hold on to beat the Huskers. Is there anyone that can turn this program around? Not saying Scott Frost had all the pieces when he arrived but man this has been an unbridled disaster in Lincoln. Definite hot seat material for next season.

Saturday Afternoon

Buffalo 56 Akron 7

2:30 PM

Disappointing. I was hoping for Jaret Patterson to score ten touchdowns.

Army 15 Navy 0

3:00 PM

I wonder if a lot of people forgot this game was even on. Sad for a game with this kind of history but 2020 has wreaked havoc on college football (along with damn near everything else). Unfortunately the game was not good at all which meant few people would even watch to the end to see Army sing second.

North Carolina 62 Miami 26

3:30 PM

Not even close this one. The Heels really wanted this one and it showed. I think it’s about time I believe that Miami is not a College Football Playoff team under Manny Diaz. Or maybe Mack Brown is still pissed about that game against BYU years ago when Diaz was his defensive coordinator. Either way.

Oklahoma State 42 Baylor 3

3:30 PM

What a way to finish a season. Even without Chuba Hubbard, who has declared for the NFL Draft, the Fighting Mullets blew the doors of Baylor in this one. This was a rough season as the Pokes never got respect all season and could very well end up in the Top 15 at the end of it all. Probably still behind Oklahoma though which will irk all their fans but hey, can’t win em all.

Iowa 28 Wisconsin 7

3:30 PM

Slow start but the Hawkeyes pulled away in the second half to beat the Badgers and set up…an almost useless game next week. I know the Big Ten doesn’t want to overshadow the conference championship game but Iowa-Indiana would have been a huge matchup with big NY6 implications. Instead, they fucked up Champions Week. Way to go, guys.

Memphis 30 Houston 27

3:45 PM

Well the Tigers won which really meant nothing since both teams are going bowling. Now the question is will Ryan Silverfield be around next season in Memphis. He is a dark horse candidate for a couple of jobs so it will be interesting to see if he ends up heading elsewhere like his predecessors, Mike Norvell and Justin Fuente, did. As for Dana Holgorsen, he has already downed four cans of Red Bull by the time you got to this point in this post.

Tennessee 42 Vanderbilt 17

4:00 PM

Tennessee won. Sarah Fuller kicked two extra points and made many men mad. That’s about all I can say about the battle for state supremacy (no offense, Middle Tennessee).

Saturday Primetime & Late Night

Boise State 17 Wyoming 9

6:00 PM

A really slow start here by both teams and it never really got going after that. Blame all the snow that fell in Laramie as it made for a sloppy game. Honestly, they should have a bowl game there. That would be fun to watch. Probably horrible for the players and the coaching staffs though. Anyway, this meant nothing after San Jose State’s win the previous night but good to see Boise finish off the regular season with a win as they try to win yet another Mountain West conference championship.

LSU 37 Florida 34

7:00 PM

Hey at least it was a fun, close game right? Forget the Shoe Throw of Doom that I mentioned at the beginning. Florida did not look like a Top 10 team here at all. Either that or LSU looked better than their record states. Both are probably correct. The Gators needed this game and couldn’t pull away from the Tigers. Their punishment will probably be the Outback Bowl or Citrus Bowl or some close-by bowl game.

TCU 52 Louisiana Tech 10

7:00 PM

Well, at least TCU was able to get their non-conference game in.

Auburn 24 Mississippi State 10

7:30 PM

Didn’t matter. Wasn’t as close as the final score indicated. And now Gus Malzahn has finally, mercifully, been fired. He is now almost $22 million richer because of it. Ain’t college football a great sport?

USC 43 UCLA 38

7:30 PM

This ended up being one of the best finishes of the season. The Trojans, in my opinion, will not get into the CFP (fuck you ESPN Playoff Predictor). The Bruins, I have to say, have really improved (FINALLY) under Chiop Kelly. Took long enough. UCLA scored late in this one to take the three point lead and it looked like the Pac-12 was completely ruined (as opposed to mostly ruined which they are at this point). Instead, the men of Troy march down the field quickly and score a touchdown to win the game. And to the chagrin of some USC fans, I have a feeling Clay Helton will get a contract extension in the offseason.

BYU 28 San Diego State 14

10:00 PM

Nice to see the Cougars finish with ten wins since their original schedule was completely obliterated. People still like to underestimate BYU (or downright hate them) but Kalani Sitake has shown that this program is still one to watch, year in and year out. Still won’t get them a New Year’s Six spot but still has to be considered a successful season.

New Mexico 49 Fresno State 39

10:30 PM

New Mexico is quietly turning things around while they are banished to Vegas. Danny Gonzales has done a masterful job starting this turnaround. Don’t be surprised if they are over .500 next season and, perhaps, back to the Rocky Long days of prosperity.

Stanford 27 Oregon State 24

10:00 PM

This was actually a great Pac-12 After Dark game (as is tradition). Back-and-forth throughout the entire game and it meant that you had to continue to watch well into the night. Jet Toner (great name for, well, anything) hit the game-winning field goal with a little less than two minutes left. Stanford, somehow, ended up 3-2 going into whatever the Pac-12 is calling the final week of the season. That feels weird considering how they have played the past almost-two seasons.

Normally the next week is conference championship week ONLY. But man this has been such a crazy year that there are a bunch of games also scheduled. So this could end up being a bit more interesting than usual when it comes to this week in college football. Also, there’s a bowl game that day as well. Yeah, none of this makes sense.

Alright so next up is the bowl projections list with a few bowl games actually already confirming their matchups. Nice to see but really it is a necessity considering the way the bowl schedule is structured. College and NFL schedules later in the week.

Alright let’s try the Bossman tradition now – Week 15 College Football TV Schedule

Posted on December 9, 2020 by guelphbossman

Normally for American Thanksgiving weekend I do a post that is centered around a concept called Footballgasm. There is so much damn football usually from Thursday afternoon through the end of Sunday and good football, especially at the college level. I freakin’ love it! Thanks to 2020, this did not happen this year. That weekend became just another weekend in college football now that there were a few more weeks of the regular season after it.

So I will do this schedule in the style that I normally reserve for Thanksgiving, Yankee Style. Every game is not important but everything gets its own section. Good for them, right? For some teams, the highlight of their season. Let’s go!

Thursday

Florida Atlantic at Southern Miss

6:30 PM

Florida Atlantic has a chance at the Conference USA East division crown but they need to start with a win here. The Golden Eagles, on the other hand, just hired their new coach and want to forget this season ever existed. Now I find out that the Charlotte-Marshall game is cancelled so if FAU wins, they will go to the Conference USA title game.

Friday

Arizona State at Arizona

7:30 PM

These two teams have combined for….wait a minute, getting out the calculator….carry the 3….ZERO WINS this season. I can’t see either of these teams getting to go to a bowl game but you never know.

Nevada at San Jose State

10:00 PM

This is easy. A Spartans win puts SJSU in the Mountain West Conference Championship for the first time ever. A loss and Nevada could go if Boise State can win on Saturday. Huge conference implications here and probably a must-watch.

Saturday Early

~~#11 Oklahoma at West Virginia~~ Michigan State at Penn State

Noon

This tends to be the issue with this weekend of college football. Games that have very little stakes end up on big-time networks like ABC or FOX or ESPN because of contracts with the conferences. Who knows with 2020 if that is the case but I am wondering. The Sooners have already qualified for the Big XII Championship and West Virginia is wondering what bowl game they will be invited to. So yeah, no stakes at all. UPDATE: The game has been cancelled. WVU has shut everything down until next week.

UPDATE #3: Michigan State-Penn State has been moved into this timeslot.

Rutgers at Maryland

Noon

This is a massive game with a lot of different scenarios in play. Haha, just kidding. There is no reason to watch this game unless it’s close. And it might be. I mean, Rutgers is a hell of a lot better than last season and Maryland is no pushover either.

Illinois at #14 Northwestern

Noon

Northwestern has an outside chance at the New Year’s Six. They need to win here and hope for some help. Illinois is…Illinois. This may be Lovie Smith’s last game as head coach in Champaign but I have said that before and well, you know has happened.

#1 Alabama at Arkansas

Noon

TSN with a relatively weak schedule this week but don’t blame them. The schedule itself could be considered sub-part by most standards. Anyway, I would love to see Arkansas win here. Just for the chaos it would bring.

Utah at #21 Colorado

Noon

Colorado finishes undefeated this season with a win here over the Utes. That is pretty damn shocking for this Buffs team. If it wasn’t for Tom Allen and Jamey Chadwell, Karl Dorrell would get more looks for Coach of the Year. Anyway, it might not matter because if USC wins they probably win the Pac-12 South and continue to show the Pac-12 as the dumbest Power Five conference around. Glad to see FOX stepped up and moved this to Noon to replace Ohio State-Michigan. But man, a 10 am local start? Not going to be easy for either team.

#9 Georgia at #25 Missouri

Noon

A game between two ranked teams that means almost nothing to Mizzou. Georgia, on the other hand, needs the win to stay in the NY6 race. A loss and they could be toast.

Minnesota at Nebraska

Noon

Um….this is football, technically. Maybe we will get a fun football-weather game in Lincoln for this one.

Saturday Afternoon

Akron at Buffalo

2:30 PM

I wonder how much Buffalo will be favoured by in this one? I think it will be about 40.

Navy at Army

3:00 PM

Army-Navy game, but in Michie Stadium. And a bunch of other games on the same day. I hate to say it but this will not feel like the normal Army-Navy Game experience that we have had for over the past decade now.

#17 North Carolina at #10 Miami

3:30 PM

This is actually a pretty big game. Miami’s seriously slim College Football Playoff hopes will go out the window if they don’t destroy the Heels. UNC, on the other hand, could sneak into the New Year’s Six with a win. The Canes will guarantee themselves a spot in the NY6 with a win no matter what.

~~Michigan State at Penn State~~ Oklahoma State at Baylor

3:30 PM

Could this be the worst Land Grant Trophy game ever? I’m just going to go ahead and say yes. UPDATE #4: This game has been moved to Noon on ABC and TSN4.

UPDATE #10: Oklahoma State-Baylor moves into this timeslot.

~~Houston at Memphis~~

3:30 PM

A couple years ago this would have been a huge game. This year, not so much. UPDATE #11: Oh man, 11 updates. Anyway, this has been moved to ESPN2.

Wisconsin at #16 Iowa

3:30 PM

This looks weird. Not Iowa being ranked since they are ranked at least once almost every season. Wisconsin, who has had some of their season completely wiped out, not being ranked looks odd. I think they are a good example of why the Big Ten were dumb to not start their season when everyone else was. This would have allowed them to include weeks where make-up games could be, well, made up. Instead, they’ve barely played.

~~#20 Texas at Kansas~~ Houston at Memphis

~~4:00 PM 3:30 PM~~ 3:45 PM

I would love to see Kansas pull off the upset here. It doesn’t matter to Texas since they will probably go to the Alamo Bowl but it could matter to Tom Herman’s future. A Kansas win may make the first instance (that I know of) of two coaches being fired after the same game. UPDATE #2: Issues inside the Longhorns program with COVID-19 has forced this game to be cancelled.

UPDATE #7: Oklahoma State-Baylor has moved into this timeslot and it has changed from 4:00 to 3:30.

UPDATE #9: This has changed again. Now Houston-Memphis is here and Oklahoma State-Baylor moves to ESPN.

~~Washington at Oregon~~ ~~California at Washington State~~

4:00 PM

Huge Pac-12 game. The winner here goes to the Pac-12 Championship, probably against USC. Both these teams are lucky that the conference hasn’t stepped in like the Big Ten did for Ohio State. I assume the winner here will also be ranked going into conference championship weekend. UPDATE #5: The Huskies don’t have enough players on their roster to play this weekend. Now, they don’t win the Pac-12 North yet as all other Pac-12 games would have to be played as scheduled. If not, it’s advanced trigonometry time. The game is being replaced here by Cal-Wazzu.

UPDATE #15: Easily a new record on this blog! Cal-Wazzu has been cancelled (two hours before kickoff!) due to massive contract tracing issues at Cal. What a complete mess.

Tennessee at Vanderbilt

4:00 PM

One of the worst battles between these two teams ever. Vandy is horrifically bad and Tennessee is not a whole lot better. It’s too bad TSN1 didn’t have any other options. I am sure the focus here will be on Sarah Fuller so if you want to watch potential history being made, this is your game. UPDATE #13: TSN3 will now also show UT-VU.

Saturday Primetime & Late Night

Boise State at Wyoming

6:00 PM

This game means everything to the Broncos. Win and they are going to the Mountain West Championship. It could be their final Mountain West Championship since Bryan Harsin has pushed for Boise to go independent since the MWC delayed the start of their season. A Wyoming win will set up a bit more chaos at the top of the Mountain West for sure.

LSU at #6 Florida

7:00 PM

Wow, how things have changed. Last year at this time, the Tigers were preparing for the SEC Championship. The Gators…they were waiting to see what bowl they would be invited to. Now it’s Florida with everything to gain as they hope to keep their CFP chances alive against Ed Orgeron’s bunch, who are playing for pride at this point.

Louisiana Tech at TCU

7:00 PM

This game was created so that TCU would have a non-conference game for the season like all their Big XII brethren. Could be fun to watch because LaTech is a good team but there are no real stakes here.

~~#22 Oklahoma State at Baylor~~

7:00 PM

This game means very little. Ok, I lied. It means pretty much nothing. UPDATE #8: This game has moved to 3:30 on ESPN2 due to the Texas-Kansas cancellation.

Auburn at Mississippi State

7:30 PM

If you had told me that Auburn and Mississippi State would be on the SEC Network for the final regular season weekend I would have thought you were joking. But here we are. This game means nothing but it could mean a lot when it comes to Gus Malzahn’s future as Auburn head coach. A loss here and it might be the final blow to his Auburn tenure.

#15 USC at UCLA

7:30 PM

USC must win this game to go to the Pac-12 Championship. And UCLA has actually started to show some improvement under Chip Kelly. This makes for an exciting Battle for Los Angeles. My best guess is that if the Trojans pull this out that they would be ahead of Colorado no matter what. I am sure they will want to put everything in their hands and blow the Bruins out.

~~Utah State at Colorado State~~

9:30 PM

I’m starting to wonder if CBS Sports Network should stick with these offset starting times. When they have a game with some significance, or an upset, or a huge performance, more people would go over to CBSSN than if it’s on at the same time as every other game in the timeslot. Anyway, both of these teams are not good so unless something crazy happens, it’s a game you can avoid. UPDATE #14: OK this is a bizarre one. Most of USU’s players have refused to travel to Fort Collins because of Utah State administration’s comments on the Aggies interim head coach Frank Maile and his association with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. For this reason the game is cancelled. The interesting part is that Utah State has already hired Blake Anderson to be their new head coach so this would have been Maile’s final game, at least as the head guy.

San Diego State at #18 BYU

10:00 PM

Honestly there doesn’t seem to be much importance in this game. BYU’s loss to Coastal Carolina on Saturday eliminated them from the New Year’s Six (unless almost everyone loses above them).

~~California at Washington State~~ Fresno State at New Mexico

10:30 PM

Pac-12 After Dark. So despite the fact that both teams aren’t playing for anything, this could get weird. UPDATE #6: This game has been moved to FOX at 4:00 to replace UW-Oregon. Fresno State-New Mexico moves here.

Oregon State at Stanford

~~10:30 PM~~ 10:00 PM

Another Pac-12 After Dark game. Chances of both games being mundane affairs is almost zero. So let’s see which game dives into chaos! UPDATE #12: This game has been moved up to 10:00.

Some gambling fun and games

No point in having the Games of the Week section since I went through every game that could be televised above (and some that can’t be seen up here). I have had a couple of Super Hyper Omni you know the deal type of posts lately, I don’t need more. Let’s get to the super-sized set of Bossman’s picks shall we?

Arizona State over Arizona

Utah over Colorado (upset?)

Auburn over Mississippi State

Oklahoma over West Virginia

Baylor over Oklahoma State (upset!)

Navy over Army (slight upset)

Alabama over Arkansas

LSU over Florida (huge upset)

Miami over North Carolina

Tennessee over Vanderbilt

Texas over Kansas

Missouri over Georgia (upset!)

TCU over Louisiana Tech

Memphis over Houston

Northwestern over Illinois

Nebraska over Minnesota

Wisconsin over Iowa (is this really an upset?)

Penn State over Michigan State

Maryland over Rutgers

Boise State over Wyoming

Nevada over San Jose State

BYU over San Diego State

Colorado State over Utah State

California over Washington State

Oregon State over Stanford

USC over UCLA

Oregon over Washington

Buffalo over Akron

Hopefully this weekend turns out to be super-enjoyable. I think we need a great end to the regular season. Enjoy the games everyone!

It just doesn’t feel the same this year – Week 13 College Football TV Schedule

Posted on November 25, 2020 by guelphbossman

Yeah it’s time for the American Thanksgiving Footballgasm! But it feels different this year obviously. But it’s not just the pandemic that’s causing this to feel….somewhat foreign. It’s the fact that the calibre of games this week isn’t exactly up to what we expect from Thanksgiving weekend. Now, normally this is the final week of the regular season. This is not the case this year. So that’s part of it. But it’s also just the way the schedule has ended up that this week is…not as good as some of them have been over the past month. Now, let’s hope that despite this we have a great week of games on the field. I remember a few years back we had an unreal set of games, on paper, and it was one of the worst weeks of the year in terms of entertainment value. So yeah, you just never know.

Alright let’s just get to the schedule and maybe something will stand out as better than it could be. And no, I won’t do it Footballgasm style because it doesn’t warrant it. Let’s go!

Thursday

		US	Canada
New Mexico at Utah State	7:00 PM

It starts with this. Technically it’s football. One Mountain West game that essentially mean nothing but it will be good to have thanks to the Thursday Night Football NFL game being postponed.

Friday

		US	Canada
#13 Iowa State at #17 Texas	Noon
Nebraska at #24 Iowa	1:00 PM
#2 Notre Dame at #19 North Carolina	3:30 PM
UCF at USF	3:30 PM
Central Michigan at Eastern Michigan	4:00 PM
Wyoming at UNLV	4:00 PM
Stanford at California	4:30 PM
#15 Oregon at Oregon State	7:30 PM

OK wow this gets a lot better, quickly! One of the most important games of the year, ND-UNC, is the big one of the day, along with ISU-UT. And look at TSN. Huge step up as they usually do on American Thanksgiving weekend. Just a note about the Oregon-OSU game: TSN3 and TSN5 will join that game in progress at around 9:00. If you want to watch the game from the beginning, TSN1 or TSN4 are your choices.

Saturday Early

		US	Canada
Penn State at Michigan	Noon
NC State at Syracuse	Noon
Kent State at Buffalo	Noon
Kentucky at #6 Florida	Noon
Maryland at #12 Indiana	Noon
Texas Tech at #23 Oklahoma State	Noon
~~#4 Ohio State at Illinois~~	Noon
Vanderbilt at Missouri	Noon

A lot of games here. A lot of viewing options. Are there any important games? I would say no. And if this doesn’t tell you that the bluebloods of college football will always run things, I don’t know what will. PSU-Michigan on ABC at Noon. Why? There are plenty of options yet they put an 0-5 team up against a 2-3 team who needed three overtimes to beat Rutgers. Brutal. And Indiana is relegated to ESPN2, not even ESPN. So there you go. Full disclosure: I will watch some of the PSU-Michigan game. Not gonna lie. Like watching a trainwreck.

UPDATE #7: tOSU-Illinois has been cancelled. One more Buckeyes game cancelled and they will not be eligible for the Big Ten Championship.

Saturday Afternoon

		US	Canada
~~Colorado at #18 USC~~	3:30 PM
#22 Auburn at #1 Alabama	3:30 PM
Florida Atlantic at Middle Tennessee	3:30 PM
Pittsburgh at #3 Clemson	3:30 PM
#8 Northwestern at Michigan State	3:30 PM
Louisville at Boston College	4:00 PM
~~San Jose State at Boise State~~	4:00 PM
Rutgers at Purdue	4:00 PM
Mississippi State at Ole Miss	4:00 PM

I’ll say it again: it’s nice that TSN is really stepping up this weekend. It allows Canadians to watch more college football and that is a good thing (in my opinion). The Iron Bowl headlines this timeslot but it isn’t the only important game. USC has to avoid a trip up as they host the Buffaloes and Northwestern looks to keep their (possibly) historic run going against MSU. Now with Wisconsin’s game against Minnesota cancelled, Wisky is no longer eligible for the Big Ten Championship. This means the Wildcats have, in essence, a two lap lead in this race in the Big Ten West. Finally, even though the Egg Bowl is on Saturday and not Thursday, don’t be surprised if there is more insanity in this game (as their has been in the past few years).

UPDATE #3: Colorado-USC cancelled due to COVID issues inside the USC program. Colorado will now host San Diego State at 5:00 on the Pac-12 Network.

UPDATE #4: Due to CU-USC being cancelled, Pitt-Clemson has been moved to ABC and NW-MSU has been moved to ESPN. Whether that changes what happens on TSN is yet to be seen.

UPDATE #5: NW-MSU has been moved to TSN1. It will also air on TSN3 as was originally scheduled.

UPDATE #8: SJSU-BSU, unfortunately, has been cancelled.

Saturday Primetime

		US	Canada
Memphis at Navy	7:00 PM
LSU at #5 Texas A&M	7:00 PM
Kansas State at Baylor	7:00 PM
Arizona at UCLA	8:00 PM
TCU at Kansas	8:00 PM

Ho boy. This kind of drops off a cliff and I don’t mean just in sheer quantity. ABC lost their primetime game as Oklahoma-West Virginia was postponed. FOX isn’t doing a ton better with UA-UCLA. Anyway, LSU-TAMU could be interesting if LSU can figure things out and get back some of the magic from last season. Memphis-Navy might end up being for third place in the American unless Tulsa fucks up. I wonder if TCU can put a 70-burger on the terrible Jayhawks. Oh and Kansas State faces Baylor. Yeah, got nothing for that one.

UPDATE: Well that was quick. Utah-Washington has been moved into the ABC primetime spot. It will kick off at 7:30 pm.

UPDATE #6: TSN1 will join Georgia-South Carolina in progress after the end of the Virginia Tech-Temple basketball game. Should be around 10:00. It will also appear on TSN4 in full.

Saturday Late Night

		US	Canada
~~Utah at Washington~~	10:30 PM

One game in the late night timeslot? And it’s a game that was created because of two other cancellations. It’s Pac-12 After Dark so it could end up being fun. And if not, then we can go to bed early.

UPDATE #2: Since Utah-UW was moved to the ABC primetime spot, there will be no late night college football this weekend (unless you can get the Hawaii game). There is also no TSN2 game in this time slot, obviously.

Games to set your eyeballs on

Notre Dame at North Carolina (Friday, 3:30, ABC/TSN5) – This is one of the most important games of the season. At one point, it was looking like this was going to be a possible Game of the Year candidate but the Heels have lost two games along the way. ABC has a great lineup on Black Friday, for once, and it’s actually better than the next day’s line up which is kind of odd. Anyway, if Notre Dame wins, they essentially clinch their spot in Charlotte. If the Tar Heels pull off the upset (and it would be an upset if they won), then the Miami Hurricanes keep their hopes alive to get to the ACC Championship (somehow). The Heels also need the win to keep their slim New Year’s Six hopes alive.

Auburn at Alabama (3:30, CBS) – Not as big a game as it normally is but let’s make no mistake about it: Auburn could be a dangerous team for the Tide to play right now. I mean sure, let’s call it a speedbump game for Bama. They clinch the SEC West with a win here and get ever close to clinching a spot in the College Football Playoff. A Tiger win, however, puts the CFP in chaos and that is kind of what I am hoping for. This opens the door for teams like the ACC Championship loser, Cincinnati and maybe even the Pac-12 or the Big XII. But if Bama wins, we start looking at possibly two SEC teams and two ACC teams (technically) in the College Football Playoff which would piss everyone off I’m sure.

Iowa State at Texas (Friday, Noon, ABC/TSN5) – Seriously huge game in the Big XII. An ISU win clinches their spot in the Big XII Championship. Texas could put a huge monkey wrench in all this with the win as they would throw their hat in the ring to head to JerryWorld. I am sure there are some convoluted Big XII tiebreakers after head-to-head which would end up being one win each for these two teams and Oklahoma. And don’t forget Oklahoma State either. What a mess. I love it.

Pittsburgh at Clemson (3:30, TSN2) – Hey the Panthers as one of the games of the week! It seems ridiculous but remember what Pitt did a few years back to Clemson to keep them from an undefeated season. This is one of the MANY games TSN is showing and I am delighted by it. Honestly, TSN could have done at least one more game every week up until now and chose not to. It makes you wonder if there is something in the contract that allows a maximum amount of college football games on TSN stations. Anyway, Pitt could play spoiler again and it would be great for…the Miami Hurricanes. Man, The U has to have their eyes on a couple of big games this weekend.

Colorado at USC (3:30, ABC/TSN1) – ABC has really hit it big this coming week. This is another pretty big game and the winner is in the driver’s seat in the Pac-12 South. Now the Pac-12 offices will not pick favourites but they desperately want USC to win this one. A Buffs win makes it so Oregon is the only chance left for the Pac-12 to get into the CFP. Honestly, the Pac-12 is a longshot anyway and needs a lot to happen above them to warrant inclusion.

Honourable mention: Maryland at Indiana (Noon, TSN3); Kent State at Buffalo (Noon, CBS Sports Network); Ball State at Toledo (Noon, ESPN3)

Some gambling fun and games

Don’t bother going back to see my picks from last week. They were mediocre at best. However, I called the NC State win over Liberty so I did well there. Yeah I got my other two upset picks wrong but whatever. Look, let’s just get to this week’s picks alright?

Texas over Iowa State (upset?)

North Carolina over Notre Dame (MASSIVE UPSET!!!!!)

Alabama over Auburn

Clemson over Pittsburgh

Indiana over Maryland

USC over Colorado

Toledo over Ball State

Buffalo over Kent State

Navy over Memphis

Boise State over San Jose State

Florida Atlantic over Middle Tennessee

Alright let’s hope this weekend turns out to be awesome like it normally does (from a football standpoint). Enjoy the games everyone!

It’s time for CRAZY bowl projections (that may not be that crazy).

Posted on November 17, 2020 by guelphbossman

I have done this three times before. I wonder if I should go back and check how close those crazy projections were. I might just do that one day but today is not that day. Today is the day for stupidly ridiculous projections that actually follow some sort of logic.

Every time I have done this exercise in the past I have done all the bowl games. Except for last year where I decided that was stupid. So this will not happen this time around again. I will just do the College Football Playoff and New Year’s Six games because there’s no real point in doing the rest of the bowl games to be honest with you. So let’s….get………CRAZY!

Sugar Bowl	CFP Poll #1 vs. CFP Poll #4	Florida vs. Cincinnati
Rose Bowl	CFP Poll #2 vs. CFP Poll #3	Indiana vs. Miami

Jesus Christ, what the fuck happened? Let me explain how I get to this point:

Alabama loses to Auburn and also to Arkansas. Texas A&M sneaks up from behind, running the table and shockingly winning the SEC West. Who else runs the table the rest of the way? Florida, with Heisman hopeful Kyle Trask leading the way. In a very close game, Florida beats Texas A&M to claim the SEC Championship, the #1 seed in the College Football Playoff rankings, and relegates TAMU to the New Year’s Six.
Clemson loses to Virginia Tech as their second loss. Notre Dame also loses…twice! Once to North Carolina and then, in an upset, to Wake Forest. This allows The U to make their way back into the Top 4 by winning out. Miami beats Notre Dame in another close conference championship game, and claims the #3 spot in the College Football Playoff.
Ohio State loses to Indiana, while the Hoosiers win out. So the Fighting Tom Allens finish 8-0 and win the Big Ten East and get undefeated Northwestern (who beats Wisconsin). The Hoosiers beat the Wildcats pretty handily to win their first Big Ten Championship and a trip to the Rose Bowl.
Colorado (yes, Colorado) wins out and easily wins the Pac-12 South. Washington upsets Oregon along the way to winning the Pac-12 North. The Buffs beats the Huskies to capture the Pac-12 Championship but thanks to the Pac-12’s late start (and both teams losing a game to COVID), they fall short of getting into the College Football Playoff.
Iowa State runs the table, including a win over Texas, then takes loses to Oklahoma in the Big XII Championship. Oklahoma goes 9-2 which is obviously not enough for a spot in the CFP.
Cincinnati runs the table and with all that happened around them, ascends to #5. They win the AAC Championship in an absolute romp over Tulsa and wait to see what happens on the rest of conference championship weekend.

All this means Florida is your new #1, Indiana gets in at #2, Miami takes the #3 spot. The #4 spot has been a tough one since the College Football Playoff came to fruition. Controversy almost every year. This year it’s a bit easier as Cincinnati becomes the first Group of Five team to ever get into the College Football Playoff thanks to the Aggies loss to the Gators in the SEC Championship (which is in primetime this year). I assume the 8-team playoff talk will be deafening because only Florida and Miami could be considered close to college football bluebloods in this scenario. Hopefully they stick to their guns and wait at least a few more years before discussing an expansion (and that that expansion only goes to five teams as I have explained before). Alright, let’s see how nuts the New Year’s Six is.

Orange Bowl	ACC Champ vs. SEC #2	Clemson vs. Texas A&M
Fiesta Bowl	CFP At-large vs. CFP At-large/G5 #1	BYU vs. Colorado
Peach Bowl	CFP At-large vs. CFP At-large/G5 #1	Ohio State vs. Coastal Carolina
Cotton Bowl	CFP At-large vs. CFP At-large/G5 #1	Oklahoma vs. Oregon

I mean this doesn’t look as nuts as the College Football Playoff. Time to explain:

BYU is #5 since they are the best team not to go to a conference championship since, you know, they aren’t in a conference at all. They end up winning out and making it so The Committee has to put them in a NY6 game.
Colorado will be #6 since the Pac-12 gets a spot in the NY6 bowls no matter what (unless they have a team in the CFP). They are slotted in the Fiesta Bowl as the Pac-12’s best team after their win over Washington. I assume they would end up playing BYU there as they two of the three western-most teams here.
Remember I told you that Texas A&M somehow gets to the SEC Championship after Bama’s collpase? Yep, considering the chaos, even with a conference championship loss they land at #7 and the Orange Bowl as the SEC’s second-best team.
Oklahoma will be #8 which is damn high for the Big XII this season considering what has happened with that conference. They head to the Cotton Bowl.
This is going to be controversial but Ohio State ends up at #9. They don’t even get to the Big Ten Championship thanks to their loss to Indiana but finishing with only one loss gives them the Peach Bowl spot.
In a bit more controversy, Oregon ends up behind Ohio State at #10. They get the other at-large spot to go to the Cotton Bowl to face Oklahoma.
Even though Clemson lost and was left out of the ACC Championship, you think The Committee is leaving them out of the NY6? Close losses to Notre Dame and Virginia Tech allowing them to move into the #11 spot. This puts them in the Orange Bowl as the ACC representative because Miami is in the CFP.
The final spot. Who to send? There’s really only one team that probably should be there considering their season. And that team is the Coastal Carolina Chanticleers. I have two assumptions here: a) the Group of Five still gets a representative in the New Year’s Six even though Cincinnati is in the Top 4 and b) the Chants go undefeated and destroy every team the rest of the way. Remember, BYU cannot qualify as a Group of Five team for the New Year’s Six and this is why this would work.

What in the hell? Again, I don’t care about the rest of the bowl games in this exercise. Let’s be honest: what are the chances that all the other bowl games are played? The answer is fucking zero.

Alright tonight we got some MACtion! Hey it’s college football on a Tuesday so let’s rejoice about that. Also more football the next night as well. We have football every day between now and the day before American Thanksgiving. Oh yeah!

Enjoy the rest of your week everyone!

ARE….YOU……..READY? – Week 14 College Football TV Schedule

Posted on November 28, 2019 by guelphbossman

Footballgasm 2019 has arrived! There is so much god damn football between American Thanksgiving and the end of the weekend. I freakin’ love it! Pretty damn sweet if you ask me. I wish Canadians would do this as well but I can’t see them corresponding Thanksgiving with football unless it’s like two CFL games. Definitely no college football that is for sure.

The schedule will be done in the annual Thanksgiving Footballgasm style. Every game is not important but everything gets its own section. Yeah. I know. Crazy, right? And if you don’t remember, first logo is the American network and the second logo is where you can see the game in Canada. You should know that by now though. Let’s get started!

Thursday

Ole Miss at Mississippi State

7:30 PM

Ole Miss will not be going bowling this year again but this time it’s because of their record, not being under some sort of sanctions. The Bulldogs, on the other hand, need this Egg Bowl win to be bowl-eligible. A Rebels win would make the season a success for many Rebels fans.

Friday

#24 Virginia Tech at Virginia

Noon

Winner of the Commonwealth Cup gets their opportunity at the ACC Goliath, Clemson. There’s also a decent chance that the winner here will get the Orange Bowl slot no matter what happens in the ACC Championship.

Texas Tech at Texas

Noon

Big game here…haha, just kidding. This means absolutely nothing as Texas is bowl-eligible and Texas Tech can’t qualify for the postseason. Poor choice by FOX but I have a feeling they were very limited here. You have to wonder about Tom Herman’s future in Austin after this season that is a huge disappointment.

Miami-OH at Ball State

Noon

Ball State is playing for pride since the best they can do is go 5-7. Miami-OH clinched the MAC East last week so they are just looking for momentum in this one going into the MAC Championship.

Toledo at Central Michigan

Noon

A Central Michigan win here clinches the MAC West crown A loss and Western Michigan will represent the MAC West in Detroit despite their loss earlier this week to Northern Illinois.

#17 Iowa at Nebraska

2:30 PM

This game means everything for the Huskers as a win has them bowl-eligible. They will have a tough time here at Faux Farmageddon against a tough Hawkeyes team who really doesn’t have a shot at the New Year’s Six despite sitting at #17 in the CFP Rankings.

Missouri at Arkansas

2:30 PM

So after posting the bowl projections I find out that the NCAA upheld Missouri’s postseason ban. So this means 1) I have to change my bowl projections and 2) this game means nothing. Who knows what will happen with Barry Odom after the season but I can pretty much guarantee that he won’t get the Bret Bielema treatment that Bielema got two years ago after this very same game.

#19 Cincinnati at #18 Memphis

3:30 PM

Game of the year for the Group of Five. The winner here is way out in front for the Cotton Bowl bid. Also if the Tigers win, they clinch the AAC West title aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand a rematch with Cincinnati back in Memphis. A Cincinnati win here, coupled with a Navy win over Houston and the Middies complete their incredible comeback from last year’s disastrous season and will head to Cincy for the AAC Championship although probably not a Cotton Bowl bid (although they still have a chance if a few other things happen). If it’s anything like a couple of the important American Conference games of the past few years, it should be a wild one.

#20 Boise State at Colorado State

3:30 PM

Boise State is hoping that the winner of the previous game will end up losing the conference championship game as that would leave the Broncos as, probably, the team going to the Cotton Bowl. That’s if they can get by Colorado State who will not be going bowling this year but at least improved on last season.

Washington State at Washington

4:00 PM

For the first time in a long time, this game means nothing. Both teams sit at 6-5, are going bowling, and have no chance in the Pac-12 North. FOX is 0-for-2 today with their selections.

West Virginia at TCU

4:15 PM

TCU needs this one as they are at five wins. The Mountaineers are at four so will be home for the holidays. So it really is all about the Horned Frogs and if they can slip into bowl season.

UCF at USF

8:00 PM

In the past this had been one of the games of the weekend. This year, instead, we get a game that has no bearing on anything. UCF is going bowling; USF is not. Charlie Strong might be out as Bulls head coach after this one so that will be discussed a mere ten thousand times during the telecast. This is part of the doubleheader on TSN2 on Black Friday which constitutes the only games on TSN on Black Friday.

Saturday Early

#4 Georgia at Georgia Tech

Noon

This tends to be the issue with this weekend of college football. Games that have very little stakes end up on big-time networks like ABC or FOX or ESPN because of contracts with the conferences. My guess is this is the case here. Georgia needs to win but probably will anyway but their spot in the College Football Playoff hinges more on the SEC Championship game against LSU. Also, with The Game at Noon as well, no point in putting a huge matchup here on ABC.

#1 Ohio State at #13 Michigan

Noon

This is a massive game (as it has been recently) with a lot of different scenarios in play. An Ohio State win almost guarantees that they would be in the CFP no matter what happens in the Big Ten Championship. It also makes it so TTUN has no chance of being in the NY6. A Wolverine win may put Michigan into the New Year’s Six and may knock the Buckeyes down to the NY6. tOSU has won the Big Ten East already so they may still end up in the CFP even with a loss here. So much riding on this game. This is arguably FOX’s Game of the Year and, of course, in the Noon timeslot. I am surprised College Gameday hasn’t started already although since it’s in Minneapolis they will probably just do the normal three hours.

Indiana at Purdue

Noon

This game means nothing except that it’s for the Old Oaken Bucket. Purdue is out, Indiana is in. INdiana if you will. Otherwise there’s no other stakes here.

#3 Clemson at South Carolina

Noon

TSN with a really weak schedule considering what they have done in the previous few years. This sucks for people that don’t have the specialty pack. South Carolina is strictly playing for pride here. They beat Clemson here and they have state supremacy and make it so Clemson has no chance at the College Football Playoff. Clemson has to win out no matter what.

FIU at Marshall

Noon

Both of these teams are bowl-eligible but will not go to the conference championship game. There are better options at this timeslot unless this game is close late.

Tulsa at East Carolina

Noon

Sweet Jesus. Both teams are home for the holidays. I wouldn’t bother. I mean I will end up somehow watching at least three minutes of it but I don’t recommend it to anyone.

Louisville at Kentucky

Noon

Again, another game that means very little except state pride. Nice to see the Cards playing well again as Scott Satterfield has to be considered a Coach of the Year candidate.

Northwestern at Illinois

Noon

How the tables have turned. This time around it’s the Illini that are bowl-eligible and the Wildcats who are out of the fun. I wonder if Pat Fitzgerald is now on the hot seat in Evanston, a sentence I didn’t think I would ever say.

Wake Forest at Syracuse

12:30 PM

Wake needs the win here to have any chance of getting into the New Year’s Six in the Orange Bowl spot. Syracuse was a massive disappointment and are not bowling this season. Don’t see this game up yet but it should show up on the specialty pack soon enough.

Saturday Afternoon

UConn at Temple

3:00 PM

Good God really? Temple is in, UConn is most definitely not. Look elsewhere.

#12 Wisconsin at #8 Minnesota

3:30 PM

This is for the Big Ten West. College Gameday is in Minneapolis. This really is the biggest game in Minnesota Golden Gophers history (unless they win and it will be next week’s game). The loser of this game is probably eliminated from the New Year’s Six as well. Minny needs this for any shot at the College Football Playoff.

#5 Alabama at #15 Auburn

3:30 PM

I kind of hope the Tigers can keep things close here just so CBS has a good game to air. Auburn winning means they have a good chance at the New Year’s Six. A Bama win has to be convincing since it is their last game before whatever bowl they go to. It’s their only chance (other than chaos above them) at the CFP.

Miami at Duke

3:30 PM

Man a lot of these games mean nothing. This is another one. Unless there is another eight-lateral-kickoff-return-touchdown at the end, this may not be your best option.

#9 Baylor at Kansas

3:30 PM

Baylor’s last regular season game and a must-win to keep their slim College Football Playoff hopes alive. Kansas, despite improvement, is not bowl-eligible.

Rutgers at #10 Penn State

3:30 PM

A Penn State win here probably clinches a bid to either the Rose Bowl or Orange Bowl. Rutgers is Rutgers.

Boston College at Pittsburgh

3:30 PM

Hey a game that actually means something, at least for one team. The Eagles need a win or else they do not play in a bowl game and it might be the end of Steve Addazio in Chestnut Hill. Pitt has nothing to play for and at least they aren’t going to the ACC Championship somehow.

Maryland at Michigan State

3:30 PM

For the first time in a long time, the Spartans are fighting for their bowl lives on the final weekend of the season. Maryland, who was in the Top 25 at one point this season, will finish 3-9 with a loss.

Southern Miss at Florida Atlantic

3:30 PM

The Conference USA West Division title hinges quite a bit on this game (but not all of it). FAU is already going to the Conference USA Championship for the second time in three seasons. But Southern Miss has to win this and hope Louisiana Tech loses. If that happens, they will replay this game the following weekend. If they lose, LaTech and UAB both have a chance to win the division title where the tiebreaker is probably a game of rock, paper, scissors.

Tulane at SMU

4:00 PM

Both teams here are bowl-eligible. SMU, despite their breakout season, will not be going to the AAC Championship. Neither will Tulane obviously as improvement is slow-going in New Orleans.

#16 Notre Dame at Stanford

4:00 PM

Do the Irish have a chance to go to the New Year’s Six? Yes but it’s slim. A huge win over Stanford here would help. The Cardinal are home for bowl season for the first time in quite a few years. Actually it has never happened under David Shaw and it was way back during Jim Harbaugh’s second season on The Farm.

Vanderbilt at Tennessee

4:00 PM

Tennessee could end up 7-5. That feels wrong. But they have done well under Jeremy Pruitt and they may have finally found their way back up to the top of the SEC East. Vandy will have to make a decision on Derek Mason after the season is over.

Oregon State at #14 Oregon

4:00 PM

The Civil War! On Pac-12 Network. Alright then. The Beavs have to be heartbroken after last Saturday’s loss to Washington State. But they can make up for it with a win here that would make them bowl-eligible and they would do it against their state rival. Oregon doesn’t need a win here, per se, but it would basically guarantee them the Rose Bowl spot.

Saturday Primetime & Late Night

North Carolina at NC State

7:00 PM

This game means everything to the Tar Heels. Win and they are going bowling which is a huge turnaround from the last two years of Larry Fedora’s term as head coach. Mack Brown has done wonders with the program and infused it with a sense of confidence not seen in a long time. The Wolfpack will try to play spoiler as they have seriously disappointed this year and will not be going to a bowl game.

Texas A&M at #2 LSU

7:00 PM

Chances are LSU romps in this one. No way it will be the 74-72 slugfest of last year and not only because the overtime rules have changed. Who am I kidding, there’s always a chance. But it’s a very slim one as the Aggie defense has to stop the potent LSU offense in what will probably end up being a tune-up for the Tigers on their way to Atlanta for the SEC Championship.

Navy at Houston

7:00 PM

This could be massive…if Memphis loses to Cincinnati on Black Friday. Otherwise it means nothing has Navy and Houston are going in opposite directions this season.

#23 Iowa State at Kansas State

7:00 PM

Two 7-4 teams playing in weather that will be frigid at best. There’s a chance for footbaw weather and if that’s the case would probably be a fun watch.

ULM at Louisiana

7:30 PM

The one time Louisiana gets a primetime national spot and it’s for a game that means little. They have clinched the Sun Belt West division and will meet Appalachian State in the Sun Belt Championship. For ULM it’s a big deal since a win means bowl eligibility as they continue to improve under Matt Viator.

Florida State at #11 Florida

7:30 PM

Wow. If you had told me that Florida State and Florida would end up on the SEC Network on the final weekend of the season I would have thought you were trying to troll the fans of those two schools. But here we are. Game means little except for pride and perhaps the final push for Odell Haggins to keep the head coaching position on a permanent basis.

Colorado at #6 Utah

7:30 PM

Colorado must win this game to become bowl-eligible. Of all games, this one. Up against Utah who has dreams of the College Football Playoff dancing in their heads. Can’t see a bump up from #6 unless something happens above them (or the Utes throttle the Buffs) so really it all comes down to next Friday night’s Pac-12 Championship game. Win that and, in my opinion, they have to garner serious consideration for the Top 4. No guarantees though.

#7 Oklahoma at #21 Oklahoma State

8:00 PM

FOX has done a lot better with their games today than on Black Friday that is for sure. The Sooners need this win badly if they want to have any chance at the College Football Playoff. Hell, a loss here even hurts their New Year’s Six chances so a lot on the line here for them. For the Pokes, it’s spoilin’ time.

BYU at San Diego State

9:00 PM

So for like the fourth straight year, CBS Sports Network shows college basketball after their afternoon game and then goes to this odd timeslot in the evening. And they have always been unlucky with it as everyone of those games have been unimportant. This one is no different as both teams are bowling anyway with the Cougs already slotted into the Hawaii Bowl.

Arizona at Arizona State

10:00 PM

Usually the Territorial Cup has something to it other than bragging rights. Like a broken record, I will reiterate that this game is really not that important in the grand scheme of things.

Fresno State at San Jose State

10:30 PM

Both teams are not going bowling so not much in terms of stakes here. Not that people have other great options so if it’s close it will get some eyeballs.

California at UCLA

10:30 PM

Man I know the end of this day is usually a mild ending but this is ridiculous. There’s like no games that mean anything but I guess it does allow people to get to bed after all that football they have watched.

Army at Hawaii

12:30 AM

Uh, check the starting time. 12:30 in the morning. AFTER midnight! Wow. If you stay up and watch this you are a true college football fan. I’ll see if my body can handle doing this since that means being up until almost 4 in the morning.

Some gambling fun and games

No point in having the Games of the Week section since I went through every game that could be televised above. With the amount of games that do have stakes this post would be so ridiculously long, even longer than my last post that was long on purpose. I called the Navy win over SMU last week which I am proud of but goofed on the Texas over Baylor pick. Hey, you can’t win em all right? This is a special few days so you get more picks from the Bossman. Here we go.

Mississippi State over Ole Miss

Virginia over Virginia Tech

Toledo over Central Michigan

Nebraska over Iowa (upset!)

Memphis over Cincinnati

Boise State over Colorado State

TCU over West Virginia

Georgia over Georgia Tech

Michigan over Ohio State (yes, I am going out on a massive limb here)

Clemson over South Carolina

Wake Forest over Syracuse

Wisconsin over Minnesota

Alabama over Auburn

Baylor over Kansas

Penn State over Rutgers

Pittsburgh over Boston College

Michigan State over Maryland

Florida Atlantic over Southern Miss

Notre Dame over Stanford

Oregon over Oregon State

NC State over North Carolina

LSU over Texas A&M

Navy over Houston

Louisiana over ULM

Utah over Colorado

Oklahoma over Oklahoma State

Army over Hawaii

Plan your days accordingly. Otherwise you will get nothing done. In the end though…FOOTBAW!

NFL Turkey Day games are here as well! Here are your details of these three games today:

Chicago at Detroit (12:30, FOX, CTV2, TSN4/5)
Buffalo at Dallas (4:00, CBS, CTV2, TSN4/5)
New Orleans at Atlanta (8:00, NBC, CTV2, TSN4/5)

I am so damn excited for all this football. Hope you are too. Enjoy the games everyone!

SUPER MEGA HYPER OMNI POST! V3.0

Posted on November 26, 2019 by guelphbossman

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!

		US	Canada
Charleston Southern at #25 Clemson	2:15
#23 Texas A&M at Miami	3:30
UTEP at Northwestern	3:30
Richmond at Michigan State	3:30
UNLV at #2 Michigan	3:30
Wagner at Navy	3:30
#20 Ole Miss at #24 Tulane	3:30
Iowa at Iowa State	3:30
Marshall at East Carolina	4:00
Kent State at Arkansas	4:00
Tulsa at #8 Washington	5:00
Appalachian State at #17 North Carolina	5:15

Thursday

Friday

Saturday Early

Saturday Afternoon

Saturday Primetime

Saturday Late Night

(An expanded) Hey, Watch This!

Sickos Game of the Week

Hubba Bubba Blowout of the Week

Wanna Bet?

Thursday

Friday

Saturday Early

Saturday Afternoon

Saturday Primetime

Saturday Late Night

Hey, Watch This!

Sickos Game of the Week

Hubba Bubba Blowout of the Week

Wanna Bet?

Thursday

Friday

Saturday Early

Saturday Afternoon

Saturday Primetime

Saturday Late Night

Thursday​

Friday

Saturday Early

Saturday Afternoon

Saturday Primetime & Late Night​

Thursday​

Friday

Saturday Early

Saturday Afternoon

Saturday Primetime & Late Night​

Thursday​

Friday​​​​​

Saturday Early​

Saturday Afternoon​

Saturday Primetime

Saturday Late Night

Thursday

Friday

Saturday Early

Saturday Afternoon

Saturday Primetime & Late Night

Thursday

Saturday Primetime & Late Night

Thursday

Saturday Primetime & Late Night

Thursday

Friday

Saturday Early

Saturday Afternoon