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

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

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

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

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

Wednesday

		US	Canada
SMU at UCF	7:00 PM

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

Friday

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

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

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

Saturday Early

		US	Canada
Texas vs. Oklahoma (in Dallas)	Noon
Louisville at Virginia	Noon
Purdue at Maryland	Noon
Eastern Michigan at Western Michigan	Noon
#8 Tennessee at #25 LSU	Noon
Missouri at Florida	Noon
#4 Michigan at Indiana	Noon
#17 TCU at #19 Kansas	Noon
Arkansas at #23 Mississippi State	Noon

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

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

Saturday Afternoon

		US	Canada
Virginia Tech at Pittsburgh	3:30 PM
Wisconsin at Northwestern	3:30 PM
Auburn at #2 Georgia	3:30 PM
Tulsa at Navy	3:30 PM
East Carolina at Tulane	3:30 PM
#11 Utah at #18 UCLA	3:30 PM
Texas Tech at #7 Oklahoma State	3:30 PM
#3 Ohio State at Michigan State	4:00 PM
North Carolina at Miami	4:00 PM
#21 Washington at Arizona State	4:00 PM
#9 Ole Miss at Vanderbilt	4:00 PM

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

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

Saturday Primetime

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

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

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

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

Saturday Late Night

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

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

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

Big Games O’ The Week

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

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

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

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

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

Psycho Game of the Week

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

Hubba Bubba Blowout of the Week

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

Fun-Time Stats of the Week

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

The Degenerate Portion of Our Show

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

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

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

Guess who’s back…

Back again. Bossman’s back. Tell a friend (who likes football).

That’s right I have finally decided to return to the ol’ blogosphere (do they still call it that). I’ve been off for about four months and it feels like it has been four years. Are things better for me? Meh. I guess. Now I feel I need a distraction again to keep me sane so it’s back to this thing. Not like much has happened in the football world since I was gone AW SHIT TOM BRADY DIDN’T RETIRE. Sometimes the offseason is much more entertaining than the actual season. But I digress.

I figured I would return by doing a little bit of research. I know what you’re thinking: when has this jagoff ever really delved into researching stuff? Well I have…every so often. OK not enough. Maybe this is part of my metamorphosis into a newer, better Bossman. Or, I just have a bit of time on my hands. Oh yeah, the research! I am going to research….me! More specifically my blog.

You see, over the years I have made demands or requests or said things I would like to see change about college football or the NFL. I don’t know how often I have followed up on those but I am going to venture a guess and say almost never. So I am rectifying that by going back into the vault to see some of the things I’ve said and update on what has happened with them. In some cases, quite a bit. In others, nothing at all. So strap in and let’s go on a journey…or more like one of those car trips where everything looks the same and you crave any new scenery or you’re going to veer off the road and crash into the guardrail.

August 13, 2013: I think it’s high time for them (Tulane) to move out of the Superdome and into a smaller stadium considering they wouldn’t be able to fill a Texas high school football stadium these days. First off, some Texas high school football stadiums are big. Like 10-20,000 seats big. And they damn near fill them! Insane. But anyway, this was my first, let’s call it request on this blog. And it worked! I don’t want to take credit for this but I am going to take credit for this. Tulane moved into on-campus Yulman Stadium one year after this comment. And they arguably get more fans in a stadium that, by all accounts, looks quite nice.

November 24, 2013: I still believe they need to cut down on the individual bowl tie-ins as there could be some somewhat unwatchable matchups come December that could be avoided with better flexibility. At the Power Five level, this has not changed and we could argue it has got a bit worse. At the Group of Five level, we now see a bit more flexibility with bowl bids. Some bowls just pick out of the G-5 conferences as a whole. And other bowls get a choice of two or three conferences. So it’s slightly better but really I was hoping there would be more at-large bids. Maybe I didn’t make myself clear.

October 15, 2014: I would say it makes the most sense to put all the ESPNU games, for example, on one channel throughout the day. Bell (and, presumably, Rogers) doesn’t think that way for some odd reason. And they still don’t. I don’t get it. It seems so easy but obviously someone in programming suffers from temporary brain damage when they are figuring out the schedule. IT’S THE SAME FUCKING THING FOR LIKE THIRTEEN WEEKS EVERY YEAR!

February 17, 2015: In OT, they should start farther back than the 25-yard line. Instead, the NCAA decided “Fuck it” and changed OT completely after the second overtime. That nine-overtime debacle between Illinois and Penn State should be proof that the new method is garbage. Should have listened to me guys. Even starting overtime from the 30 could have changed things radically since not many college kickers can routinely hit 47-yard field goals.

February 17, 2015: Stop time after EVERY first down makes the game a little longer than most can handle. Why they haven’t dealt with this I don’t know. There is no need for the clock to stop after a first down in the first or third quarters. You could make the argument that other than the final five minutes of either half you don’t need to either and I would be fine with that too. Shave about ten minutes off the average game? Sounds like a win for the college game if you ask me.

February 17, 2015: Three-hour TV windows are dumb. I was on a roll this day (although, to be fair, the whole point of this blog post was changed I’d make). And yes, whoever thinks these make sense are morons. I’m looking at you, ESPN, since you are the only ones that do it. Well, that isn’t entirely true. The ACC Network, for one week early on in the season every year now, does the same thing. It’s stupid. Just stop it.

July 6, 2015: TSN and Sportsnet both would be smart to stop the regional channel horseshit and make one channel a full news channel (a la Headline Sports way back in the day). This hasn’t happened and probably never will. Whether it should now is a matter of debate. I don’t know how many viewers Sportscentre and Sports Central get but it can’t be nearly as many as there were back in 2015. So to have a full sports news channel would still make sense but they would both have to restructure the way there channels operate (and, in Sportsnet’s case, talk to the NHL about the archaic blackout policy).

November 19, 2015: However, in my opinion, pretty much all FBS vs. FCS games should be in September (or August if the season starts then). I have softened my stance a bit on this. Buy games are necessary for FCS teams and I understand that. I still am not a fan of seeing these games in November but having them in October would be fine as well. With more conferences going to a 9-game conference schedule, I have a feeling there will be less of these games in November but we shall see.

August 4, 2017: Let’s be honest here: Conference USA is a hodge-podge bag of crap. If they were smart they would start talks with the Sun Belt to “create” two new conferences with more of a geographical natured to them. Oh this is one of my favourite blog posts of all-time. The amount of flack I got for this from Conference USA fans was hilarious. But look what happened. The conference is on the brink of disaster now because they did nothing, thinking they were even remotely special. Fucking dumb. So let them die. Many of the teams left for greener pastures and the rest…well, sorry for your damn luck.

November 20, 2018: I look forward, though, to balanced divisions in 2020, which I believe is the year the Atlantic Schooners begin play. Oh Bossman, what were you thinking? Forget adding a tenth team: almost every year it seems like one of the current nine CFL teams is in some sense of financial peril.

January 20, 2020: I agree there should be a holiday after the Super Bowl. Hasn’t even been discussed in the U.S. so no chance of it happening here yet. At least my plea for Daylight Savings Time to end might come to fruition!

August 3, 2020: If a division winner has a worse record than a Wild Card team, they should get the #5 seed and not the #4. I have said this in previous seasons when there were only two Wild Card teams but it goes the same now with three. You shouldn’t be rewarded for winning a shitty division with a bad record. You already get into the playoffs. That’s your reward. Same the other way as a really good Wild Card team shouldn’t be punished for having the audacity to be in a division with one of the best teams in the league. It’s dumb. And won’t be changed. Dumb owners and dumb Commissioner Gingerhammer.

December 17, 2020: I will say it again for the millionth time: why bother with the conference affiliation towards either CBS or FOX? It doesn’t matter anymore. Well look at that! They are finally getting rid of the completely archaic NFC-to-FOX and AFC-to-CBS way of broadcasting NFL games. It will now be a bit of a free-for-all which, honestly, is much better. You want the best games, at the best times, with the best available crew. Many times that didn’t happen in the past because of how things were done. Not anymore!

August 11, 2021: I still believe every team should have one road, one home and one neutral-site game during the preseason but that’s a conversation I’ve had many times before that no one wants to listen to. Naw, much better to have regular season games in London, Berlin, Paris, Rome, Baghdad, rural Kazakhstan and the Maldives. And no bye week afterwards ya pussies!

Every time I did a post on if I ran the bowl games. Look, my plan would work. Or the various plans I’ve had over the years. Cut a few bowls and make it a 7-win minimum to be bowl-eligible for sure. Give as many games a national spotlight (which they almost do but they could be better at it). Put a few more games on non-ESPN networks (I don’t know when this will ever happen). And the selection show. It would work so much better and make that thing worth watching.

So there you go. I know I have made other requests or had other ideas but I think you get the picture…I’m not influential at all. Saying that, some of my ideas have come to fruition which makes me happy if not a tiny bit proud. Maybe in the next few years a few more of my ideas will come true and I will be a very happy Bossman.

Alright. First post back. Feels good. Shake the cobwebs off. I am goofing around with new themes for the site to see what works. So if you notice things changing from week to week, it’s probably my undiagnosed ADD.

It’s already June. Where does the time go? I guess that happens when the days start melting together and you have very little sense of time. Have a great rest of the week everyone.

So what is Russell Wilson’s future? Week 7 NFL TV Schedule

Have you watched the last two weeks of Seattle Seahawks football?  If so, and you’re a Seahawks fan, I feel bad for you.

If you haven’t watched any of it, I got two words for you: Geno Smith.  Honestly, Smith hasn’t been terrible.  But he’s Geno Smith and not made to be a starter in the NFL.  The Seahawks, and their fans, are used to Russell Wilson at quarterback and having Smith behind centre means the offense won’t be nearly as good.  And it isn’t.  What this has done is open up questions about Wilson’s future in Seattle.  He has two years left on his deal and I can see Seattle possibly moving him.  The reason is that this team has a lot of holes in the lineup that they haven’t been able to fill and part of the reason they couldn’t fill them is because of the contract Wilson has.  Poor money management really on the Seahawks’ part.  Trading Wilson and then drafting a quarterback in the next draft or getting another quarterback who might not be enamored with his current team (*COUGH*Aaron Rodgers*COUGH*) is probably the direction they will take.  It’s probably the best for the Seahawks and Wilson because this may allow Seattle to finally put together a roster to compete, once again, for the Super Bowl.  And Wilson can go somewhere else to try and keep his career going, hopefully with less injuries.

Alright, let’s gets to the point of this post and that’s the NFL schedule for the week (which does include the aforementioned Seahawks):

Thursday

Denver at Cleveland

8:20, FOX, TSN1, CTV Two

Sunday Early

Kansas City at Tennessee	Seattle, Spokane, Minneapolis, Detroit		Vancouver, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Northern Ontario, Ottawa		London, Toronto
NY Jets at New England	Rochester, Burlington, Boston		Montreal, Atlantic
Cincinnati at Baltimore	Cleveland, Buffalo		Kitchener, Toronto	TSN3	Atlantic
Washington at Green Bay		Tacoma, Seattle, Spokane, Minneapolis	Winnipeg		Vancouver Island, Alberta
Carolina at NY Giants		Rochester, Burlington			Ottawa
Atlanta at Miami

Sunday Late

Chicago at Tampa Bay	All affiliates		All affiliates (except Atlantic)		Atlantic
Houston at Arizona
Detroit at LA Rams		Detroit
Philadelphia at Las Vegas		Buffalo, Boston		TSN3

Sunday/Monday Primetime

Indianapolis at San Francisco	Sunday, 8:20, NBC, TSN 1/3/4, CTV Two
New Orleans at Seattle	Monday, 8:15, TSN 1/2/3

Notes and Things That Have Nothing to do with Russell Wilson

• Thank god for no early morning London game this week.  And any other week for the rest of the season.  There were only two this season; however, it seems like there will be at least one more next season with the possibility of another game being played in Germany (obviously on a different week).  Man, it’s getting to the point where Sundays are an all-day affair.  I don’t know if I can handle that.
• It’s CROSS-FLEX TIME BAYBEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!  CBS is getting the Bears-Bucs game in the late window this week and that’s the only CBS game we will get up here in that window.  FOX will get another game in a future week that normally would have been on CBS.  I think we’ve finally got to the point where very few people care about this which is a good thing.  Now we should go to everything getting scrambled up and networks basically doing a draft to pick their games.  Give them an open bar while they do it.  Who says no?
• Only two games you can’t get here, one in each window.  I’m a bit surprised TSN didn’t pick up these two games so that we could see every game up here.  Saying that, do you really want to see the Falcons and Dolphins play?  Exactly.
• Has there ever been a bye week with six teams off at the same time?  Maybe that’s normal but it feels like there are less games than usual this week.
• Both primetime games not looking exactly appealing.  We’ve got a mediocre Colts team facing an overrated Niners team (that many in the media seem to really want to be good).  Then you have the Saints who obviously miss Drew Brees against the Seahawks, who I discussed above.  But, at least this week with the Monday nighter, TSN2 will be showing the ManningCast!  I didn’t think I’d miss it that much but I did.  It’s a fun watch with those two.  Not saying the regular broadcast is bad.  It’s helped that most of the MNF games have been good this year which is a rarity since SNF became a thing on NBC.

There you go.  Here’s hoping it’s another good week of NFL football as the weather starts getting cooler outside (or in some areas of Canada, snow appears).  Have a great rest of the week everyone!

Not surprised this happened – Week 4 NFL TV Schedule

So as you probably know by now, the game between Tennessee and Pittsburgh has been postponed to later in the season (Week 7) thanks to some positive COVID-19 tests on the Titans.  I was waiting for this to happen and to see how the NFL would deal with it.  I hate to say it’s kind of lucky this happened early on but it is.  Reason being that both teams still have a bye week so they may be able to figure something out there.  Whether this is the only time this happens this season is a different question but it wouldn’t surprise me if it did.  Don’t want to say that the NFL is playing a bit of a dangerous game but they are.  Not having a bubble or bubbles for games to be played makes it more likely for this to happen.  Look at the sheer amount of games that have been postponed or outright cancelled in college football.  Fingers crossed this is the one and only scheduling issue for the NFL this season but I wouldn’t get your hopes up there.

Also, and I will be perfectly honest here, this plays havoc with some people’s fantasy football teams.  It sucks but it is the risk (and it is a TINY risk) you take playing fantasy football in 2020.  OK let’s get to the schedule and follow that with some Probably Non-COVID Related News:

UPDATES: Check below.  There are a lot of them.

Sunday Early

LA Chargers at Tampa Bay	Seattle, Spokane, Buffalo, Rochester, Burlington, Boston, Minneapolis, Detroit		Saskatchewan, Toronto, Montreal, Atlantic		Vancouver Island, Alberta
Indianapolis at Chicago	Minneapolis, Detroit			TSN5
Baltimore at Washington	Cleveland
Jacksonville at Cincinnati
Cleveland at Dallas		Buffalo, Rochester, Boston	Northern Ontario		London, Toronto, Ottawa, Atlantic
New Orleans at Detroit		Detroit	Kitchener, Ottawa
Seattle at Miami		Tacoma, Seattle, Spokane	Vancouver, Alberta
Minnesota at Houston		Minneapolis	Winnipeg	TSN5
Arizona at Carolina

Sunday Late

New England at Kansas City	All affiliates (except Buffalo & Rochester)		Vancouver, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Winnipeg, Northern Ontario, Ottawa, Montreal		Atlantic
Buffalo at Las Vegas	Buffalo, Rochester, Tacoma, Seattle, Spokane, Cleveland, Burlington, Boston		All affiliates (except Atlantic)		Atlantic
Indianapolis at Chicago	Minneapolis, Detroit			TSN4, TSN5
NY Giants at LA Rams		Burlington

Sunday/Monday Primetime

Philadelphia at San Francisco	Sunday, 8:30, NBC, TSN 1/3/4/5, CTV Two
New England at Kansas City	Monday, 7:00, CBS
Atlanta at Green Bay	Monday, 8:50, TSN 1/3/4/5

Probably Non-COVID Related News

• Guess what?  It’s CROSS-FLEX TIME BAYBEE!  I can’t wait for the thousands of tweets about this.  One game has been moved from CBS to FOX: Browns-Cowboys.  Nothing going back the other way this week so I am sure it will be evened up down the line.  People still go crazy for this but slowly, this is becoming less of a complaint.  But still, for like the fifth season in a row, I will say this: stop with the AFC on CBS/NFC on FOX split that has to be followed.  Who gives a shit anymore.  Let them draft the games.  Having TV executives (with an open bar of course) barter over games to air on their networks would be interesting.  It will never happen but it would be better than any other schedule reveal I’ve seen before.
• TSN not doing much with the NFL this Sunday.  Early we get one game on TSN5.  Late we get one game on both TSN4 and TSN5.  That’s it.  Not great especially with no CFL to fill the schedule with.
• The only big-time game (in terms of TV airing) is the Patriots-Chiefs game.  It takes most of the CBS affiliates and CTV affiliates.  The rest of the people get the Bills and Raiders which isn’t a bad game at all either.  Oh wait, the people who get their FOX affiliate out of Burlington (Vermont, not Ontario) somehow get the Giants and the Rams.  Yuck.
• Only two early games not being shown unless you have DAZN, Sunday Ticket or some other way of seeing these games.  And I doubt anyone is clamoring to watch that Jaguars-Bengals game unless you are a serious Joe Burrow or Gardner Minshew fan.

Did you watch last night’s Thursday Night Football affair?  It was actually not a bad game.  Well in terms of being close in the fourth quarter.  But what is Adam Gase doing?  Better question: what is Gregg Williams doing?  I am not unhappy that Vic Fangio decided he wasn’t going to shake the hands of any of the Jets coaches and it had nothing to do with the Coronavirus.  People might say there isn’t much out there for the Jets for coaching hires but keeping these two jabronies can’t be good for the team.  You think the one-week mutiny that happened in Miami last year was something, wait until some players wake up and realize they are playing football for these two goofs.  Anyway, enjoy the games everyone!

Most Important Games of the 2020 College Football Season – Part I

Alright it’s time to get to the good stuff finally!  Actual college football posts about the next season…whenever that may begin.  As cathartic as this feels, we really have no idea what we are looking at for the 2020 season.  The schedules are out, at least in terms of what days the games will be played.  Of course, games can, and will be, moved around, usually for national television purposes.  I haven’t got any preview magazines yet though.  I will be ordering my Phil Steele magazine soon but obviously with bookstores closed, there is no timeframe as to when I will get other magazines.  Some schools are adamant they will be pretty much fully open in the fall whereas others are hesitant.  With many other sports starting to slowly put out plans as to when they will commence play again, there are a lot of balls still up in the air.  Here’s hope that things do improve as it pertains to the Coronavirus pandemic so that we can get back to semblance of normality.

Anyway, I figured I might as well get a jump on these schedules.  I am sure many things will change and some games might be outright cancelled but I am going with what I can see at this moment.  Remember, we are in May so these lists will definitely not be correct later in the season.  As the season progresses, there are always surprises and disappointments.  It happens.  For example, we all know that for the next few years, CBS has the big SEC game of the week on at 3:30.  This has been the case for years until 2024 when they no longer will have the rights to the best SEC game of the week.  Saying that, let’s say that for some unknown reason, the Iron Bowl is not shown on CBS on American Thanksgiving weekend (this happened when the Egg Bowl moved there and it was a bit of a ratings disaster for CBS and a coup for ESPN) and in its place, the Missouri-Arkansas game is moved into that timeslot.  Two of the following three things would have had to have happened:

1. Eliah Drinkwitz continues to drink success and does the same thing he did at Appalachian State.
2. Sam Pittman becomes the most shocking coaching success story in a long time at Arkansas.
3. To the absolute joy of everyone outside of the state of Alabama, the Tide and the Tigers are both unranked.

So let’s just say I feel quite secure in putting the Iron Bowl at that time instead of the Battle Line Rivalry.  I think they need to come up with a better name than that.  Like Orgy in the Ozarks.  Wait, no, don’t do that.

Disclaimer: Just so you know, some of the broadcast info may change between now and the time I do my network-specific posts.  I say it every year and luckily no one says anything about it.  Which is great because I wouldn’t want my feelings hurt or something like that.  I am sure some people do it in private and that’s fine.  We aren’t like much of Twitter where the smallest thing ends up being a massive argument.

For the third year in a row, the Important Games list will be broken down week-by-week and then as per the following:

• Game of the Week – This is my opinion of the game of the week.  It may differ from your opinion.  That is OK.  Because the next part is…
• Other Really Important Games – See?  One of these games might be your game of the week choice.
• Sneaky-Good Underrated Game – Some games are underrated.  I will try to find one each week that could fulfill that criterion.
• Best Group of Five Game – Pretty self-explanatory but has to have TWO G5 teams involved.
• Worst Power Five Game – Just like above, except the opposite (with two P5 teams involved).

The “Other Really Important Games” section is the one section where the number of games I include may vary.  In some weeks you will only see one or two.  Others there may be like seven.  We pretty much know which weeks will have better games and which ones won’t so it shouldn’t be much of a surprise.

Let’s start with the official commencement of college football blogging season (for me): the weekly rankings.  If you were looking for something similar to every other year then ho boy are you in for a shock.  Just a reminder that I list the week and the date that corresponds to the Saturday of that week so you can follow along:

1. Week 5 (October 3)
2. Week 6 (October 10)
3. Week 13 (November 28 – American Thanksgiving)
4. Week 12 (November 21)
5. Week 2 (September 12)
6. Week 7 (October 17)
7. Week 10 (November 7)
8. Week 9 (October 31)
9. Week 4 (September 26)
10. Week 8 (October 24)
11. Week 11 (November 14)
12. Week 1 (September 5)
13. Week 3 (September 19)

First off, we are back to thirteen weeks.  Do I like this?  No I do not.  Honestly I would prefer 14 if not 15 weeks in a season.  I understand that the way the Saturdays fall makes this a difficult venture but it is tough on the players to go through these three-plus months with only one bye week.  This year’s Week 1 is much like last year’s Week 1: weak.  It should be called Weak One.  Really, the Notre Dame-Navy Week Zero game is almost better than any other game in the Week 1 schedule.  American Thanksgiving falls to third…THIRD!  Weeks 5 and 6 are the big weeks so far on paper.  I don’t remember a time when the October schedule has been this good but here we are.  But here’s the craziest thing.  SEC Sleepwalk Week is NUMBER FOUR!!!!!!!  And no I am not high saying this.  I can’t even call it Sleepwalk Week anymore which does kind of make me sad.  There are a lot of good conference games this week including a couple in the SEC.  For the first time, Week 3 is the worst week of college football.  It’s a lot like many worst weeks in the past.  At least one potential game of the year.  Maybe another good game or two and then it falls off a massive cliff.  It’s when you get past the first three or four games of a week where you find out how good a day of college football it will be and man, this is not shaping up to be a good one.  In the end, it is college football, which I am craving right now, so I will watch as much as I can.  Also, last year the networks stepped up and Week Zero football appeared in Canada.  Nice.

Now it’s time for the weekly breakdowns.  I will be guessing with quite a few of them, especially when it comes to TSN coverage.  Again, keep in mind there is a lot that could change here, especially with this season kind of being up in the air.  At least the lists of games I will be presenting should, for the most part, be important games throughout the 2020 college football season.  Let’s begin.

Week 1

Game of the Week: Alabama vs. USC (in Arlington) (7:30, ABC) – Remember, it’s all 7:30 games for the ABC Primetime game, not just something for the Big Ten because it might get chilly.  Honestly, it could start at 9 and it wouldn’t matter to me since I am up through 2 in the morning watching college football so I may just have a problem.  About five or six years ago this would be a game of the year candidate.  Not so much this time around and it shows that Week One is back to being what it used to be:  the introduction to the season that gets everyone excited but rarely has huge matchups.  Saying all this, a USC win here would be huge for Clay Helton’s future in Los Angeles.  You also wonder how Bama is feeling after playing in the Citrus Bowl last year which might as well have been the Independence Bowl in Shreveport for all they care.  It’s always New Year’s Six or bust for this program.

Other Really Important Games: Georgia at Virginia (Monday, 8:00, TSN1/TSN4/TSN5) – The annual Labour Day SEC-ACC Football Challenge takes on more importance this year thanks to the Hoos actually being good now.  Bronco Mendenhall has done wonders in Charlottesville and this might be the year they put it all together and make a real run at the ACC title.  It’s a lock that the Dawgs will be a great team again this year despite their losses on offense.  With it being in Virginia, this could be a big test for Georgia and could affect their CFP plans.  UVA could throw the first staple in the shredder for this season if they pull off the upset.

Michigan at Washington (3:30, FOX) – FOX steps up on opening weekend unlike, well, any year before now.  A game between two teams that many believe underachieve most seasons.  How many times will we hear that Jim Harbaugh’s job is on the line in this one?  I put the over/under at 12.  As for the Huskies they are now in the post-Chris Petersen era.  Jimmy Lake takes over and has a lot of pressure right out the gate.

Florida Atlantic at Minnesota (Thursday, 8:00, BTN) – I am not joking with this one.  Minnesota should still be really good rowing that boat.  And FAU should still be good despite the fact the Lane Train departed for Oxford.  Now watch both teams be about .500 so I look like a moron.

Indiana at Wisconsin (Friday, 8:00, FloSports) – This is the first instance of me including FloSports in the important games posts.  It means that this game will be on FOX Sports One.  I used to hate when these games ended up on the list since it meant I couldn’t see it, nor could any Canadians.  Now, we have the means.  This is good.  Progress.  The more we are allowed to see, the better.  It’s not about giving us all the games, it’s about giving us the avenues to watch these games legally.  And it’s becoming more and more that way.  Anyway, it looks like four of the five nights on opening week have big games so at least you can say it’s spread out and not all in one or two timeslots.

Sneaky-Good Underrated Game: BYU at Utah (Thursday, 10:15, TSN5) – This is going to be an interesting year for the Utes.  They came within one poor performance at the Pac-12 Championship from getting into the College Football Playoff.  This is the kind of high-profile game they need to win.  On the other side of the field is their Holy War rivals, the Cougs.  Unfortunately for them, the only way for them to even get into the New Year’s Six is to lose no more than one game on the season.  For their sake, a win here gets them into the conversation.

Best Group of Five Game: Georgia Southern at Boise State (9:00, FloSports) – This is why it is important that we get FOX Sports One games here now.  The Mountain West inked a new deal with FOX meaning some games end up on the main network and also FS1 (FS2 as well but we won’t discuss that).  Part of the deal is that Boise State games are to appear on either FOX or FS1.  Meaning it is imperative that we get to view FS1 games because otherwise we would miss the blue turf every season for the next several years.  As for the game, the Broncos are again looking to break through into the CFP whereas Georgia Southern is trying to just win the Sun Belt for once after being very close for most of their seasons up in the FBS.

Worst Power Five Game: Purdue at Nebraska (Noon, FOX) – These are two teams that are never supposed to end up in this spot.  But really, the Huskers have been no better than average for a long time now and the Boilermakers, other than one good season, have been pretty bad since Drew Brees was quarterback there.  Worst part is that the other choice for worst P5 game is another Big Ten game, Michigan State and Northwestern.  Really, the bottom part of the Big Ten is not looking good and could be considered the worst of the Power Five conferences (if you include Rutgers and Maryland).  I will watch part of it, I know I will.  It’s just that there are other options so unless this game is close I won’t be clocking in much more than a few minutes here.

Week 2

Game of the Week: Ohio State at Oregon (3:30, FOX) – Last year this was the worst week, on paper, in the college football season.  This year it is way up the list and has an early candidate for game of the year.  The Ryan Day Buckeye Juggernaut Express rolls into Eugene for this one and tOSU is going to try and do what they always do…win big games.  An Oregon win here probably blows the national championship race wide open and cements Mario Cristobal as one of the upper tier coaches in the game.

Other Really Important Games: Texas at LSU (7:00, specialty pack) – I kind of wish CBS would pick up games like this but they never do.  Probably due to the contract that they can only show two SEC teams.  I, am, however glad that this game is at night in Death Valley.  One, it is arguably the best atmosphere in college football.  And two, if this was at Noon, the temperature would be approximately lava.  Hey let’s find out if Texas is back here.  God am I ever glad that horseshit is over.  Saying that, the Horns are good and are the first speed bump for the Tigers defending their national championship.  Without Joe Burrow this could be a very interesting matchup.

Tennessee at Oklahoma (7:30, ABC/TSN2) – Tennessee should be back in the mix this season.  And Oklahoma has one of the brightest head coaches around, Lincoln Riley, at the helm, so they will be good as well.  As much as the Vols are improved I would be shocked if they pulled off a win here.  If they did it would be another grenade thrown on the national championship race.

Kentucky at Florida (Noon, specialty pack) – Now that the streak is over and Kentucky finally got their victory over the Gators a couple seasons ago, the Wildcats have gained a modicum of respect in the college football world.  Unfortunately, they have to travel to Gainesville and play a game on a field that will be slightly cooler than the surface of the sun.  Without Lynn Bowden, the Cats could be in real tough here for a team that has to be considered a legitimate SEC title contender.

Louisville at Clemson (7:30, specialty pack) – We all desperately need more ACC contenders.  I, for one, am getting tired of Clemson and the Thirteen Dwarfs.  The Cardinals might not be quite there yet but they had a young team last year and one of the better coaches around so who knows.  The Tigers have had at least one early season struggle the past couple years (Texas A&M and then North Carolina) so this could be that game that gets the Tiger faithful’s heart racing.

Penn State at Virginia Tech (Noon, ABC) – Does anyone realize that this could have ended up as a conference matchup?  Check out my what-if post on the Big East and you will learn why.  This is one of those matchups you never get and, as a college football fan, is a real eye-opener.  I am so looking forward to this one as it should be a great match.  Now watch one team blow out the other.

Sneaky-Good Underrated Game: Iowa State at Iowa (Noon, FOX) – This is quite a good week when this is considered an underrated game.  Cy-Hawk has been a fantastic game the past few years despite the fact that the Hawkeyes continue to dominate the rivalry.  This is definitely a statement game for the Cyclones as this is one of the humps they can’t seem to get over.  The other is the Big XII title (or at least getting into the Big XII title game).  I am positive this will end up with a score of like 16-15 and Kirk Ferentz will do something Ferentzian to somehow help Iowa to the W.

Best Group of Five Game: Boise State at Air Force (3:30, CBS) – No that is not a misprint.  The Mountain West’s new contract with CBS calls for games to appear on the main network three times a season.  Huge for the conference as this allows it to compete with the American for the title of best Group of Five conference (and believe me, that does mean something).  This may be the biggest Mountain West conference game of the season and hearing Brad and Gary call it will be all kinds of weird but fun at the same time.

Worst Power Five Game: Syracuse at Rutgers (7:30, FOX) – As per tradition, at least once a year FOX absolutely shits the bed for a primetime choice and to be honest, I don’t think they even care.  This is what happens with more of these conference networks in play: you will get a terrible game or two on FOX or ABC.  I just wonder about the fact that there are other better options.  The only thing I can think of is that they would have to fulfill their Big Ten total games on the main network for the year and this is a relatively easy way to do it.  I mean I would have picked WKU-Indiana or Memphis-Purdue or even Ball State-Michigan but I am not a network exec so I obviously don’t know what I’m talking about.

Week 3

Game of the Week: Georgia at Alabama (3:30, CBS) – This will have serious national championship implications but I don’t need to tell you that.  Now I did have a choice as to whether this game would end up as the lone SEC on CBS primetime affair.  I did not choose this one and I will explain it in a later blog post.  I think you will hear a hundred-some-odd times that Kirby Smart will need this win to get over the Nick Saban’s assistant hump.  Nick Saban destroys his assistant coaches and probably relishes doing so.  Also, if you noticed above, this is the worst week of the season and you will see why in a bit.

Other Really Important Games: Iowa at Minnesota (Friday, 8:30, FloSports) – See?  It’s already starting to go downhill.  Saying that, this could be the de facto Big Ten West Championship depending on what happens in Madison this season.  This is another big test for a Gophers team that likes to schedule difficult in non-conference knowing they are going to probably get a brutal Big Ten schedule anyway.

Appalachian State at Wisconsin (3:30, BTN) –The number two and three games on this list are a Friday night FOX Sports One affair and a mid-afternoon Big Ten Network matchup.  Good fucking God.  To be honest, the bigger deal here is obviously the Mountaineers.  I have this feeling that this might be the season App State makes a serious run to becoming the first Sun Belt team to reach the New Year’s Six.  If this wasn’t a non-conference matchup I might have considered it elsewhere and I still think it might end up on FOX seeing what the week three schedule is like.  Plus it’s not like ABC has a stellar schedule on this week so it may be a week to bring eyeballs over to FOX.

Hawaii at Oregon (6:30, DAZN) – Some of you may be asking what DAZN is.  It is another site that, like FloSports, allows Canadians to get games on a channel we won’t normally get.  In this case it’s the Pac-12 Network.  This week is such a shit sandwich.  Now watch it be one of the most exciting weeks in college football history because if it isn’t, it may be one of the worst.

Sneaky-Good Underrated Game: Florida State at Boise State (Noon, FOX) – Boise State on FOX!  This is thanks to the new Mountain West contract with FOX but man, Boise making some serious concessions with this game going off at 10 AM.  Ten…in the morning.  I honestly do think this is underrated because of the Noles but you never know with this team.  If they ever get a good quarterback this team could be relatively dangerous.

Best Group of Five Game: Navy at Tulane (3:30, specialty pack) – To be honest, the early season doesn’t usually give us a bunch of good G5-on-G5 violence.  The previous week has a huge AFA-Boise matchup.  The first week got, well Boise State again, that time against Georgia Southern.  These two teams have been two of the most exciting recently which I know sounds weird when we talk about Navy but I like watching them play.  Tulane is like a pseudo-Navy where they also pass the ball more but run the option as well.  This game could be over by dinner.

Worst Power Five Game: Maryland at West Virginia (Noon, ABC/TSN1/TSN4) – This may be the only time you ever see an ABC game in this section.  I could see TSN deciding not to show this game so they can show a repeat of Motoring 2017.  Look the ‘Eers may end up being good soon with Neal Brown at the helm.  Maybe the Terps can turn it around with Mike Locksley, the hometown boy, in town and starting to recruit his own brand of team.  But as of right now, neither team is very good and there are other, somewhat less shitty options in this timeslot.  OK remember what I said about TSN not airing this game?  I wonder if instead of ABC this goes to FSN and we don’t get to see it at all here.

There you go.  The first three weeks are complete.  And it’s the first official blog post for what could be a very weird 2020 college football season.  I’d love to say we are getting close but are we?  Nobody knows.  As of right now there is only 97 days until the start of the season.  That could very well change.  I mean I love college football but if there isn’t a way to do it at that point then better to delay the start of the season.  Saying that, it’s more than three months away so anything more than two weeks into the future should really not be speculated on since no one has an idea of how things will go.  Hopefully you have a great rest of the weekend with this nicer weather (at least in my part of the world).