This is just awful (and the Week 12 College Football TV Schedule)

Posted on November 15, 2022 by guelphbossman

If you haven’t heard, there was a huge tragedy on the campus of the University of Virginia in Charlottesville. Three players on the Cavaliers, Lavel Davis, D’Sean Perry and Devin Chandler were killed in a shooting at the end of a field trip. Two other students were severely injured and are in hospital. The shooter is a former UVA football player. I have not heard anything about a motive. This is just awful. Seems like more senseless violence. I don’t know how the team is going to move on for the final two games of their season. At this point, it feels pointless to move on but many of them probably need football as a distraction to help healing and mourning the loss of their teammates and friends. Condolences to everyone at the University of Virginia. I would say hopefully lessons are learned from this but they never are, unfortunately.

UPDATE: The Virginia-Coastal Carolina game will not be played this Saturday. This does not affect Canadians and what they can watch but it is noteworthy. And also not surprising in the least. There is also no word about what will happen with the Commonwealth Cup game against Virginia Tech the following weekend.

Alright, it seems much less important this week but let’s get on with the schedule.

Tuesday

		US	Canada
Ohio at Ball State	7:00 PM
Bowling Green at Toledo	7:00 PM

A couple of big MACtion games to start the week. If the Bobcats can beat Ball State and the Rockets beat Bowling Green, then Toledo will help Ohio win the MAC East. This would mean that Ohio would go to Ford Field in a couple weeks to face…Toledo. Interesting how that works out.

Wednesday

		US	Canada
Eastern Michigan at Kent State	6:00 PM
Miami-OH at Northern Illinois	7:00 PM
Western Michigan at Central Michigan	8:00 PM

If Ohio loses the previous night, then the EMU-KSU game becomes quite a bit more important as the MAC East will still be up for grabs. Otherwise we got some bowl-eligibility issues here: Kent State, Miami-OH and Central Michigan all have to win to keep their bowl game chances alive.

Thursday

		US	Canada
SMU at #21 Tulane	7:30 PM

Only one game Thursday night (not even a game on a network Canadians can’t get). It’s a big game for the Green Wave as they absolutely need to win this one to stay alive for a berth in the AAC Championship.

Friday

		US	Canada
USF at Tulsa	9:00 PM

One game here. TSN is picking it up. I don’t know why because it means nothing. Neither team can go bowling.

Saturday Early

		US	Canada
Navy at #17 UCF	11:00 AM
Illinois at #3 Michigan	Noon
Duke at Pittsburgh	Noon
Indiana at Michigan State	Noon
UConn at Army	Noon
Wisconsin at Nebraska	Noon
Yale at Harvard	Noon
#4 TCU at Baylor	Noon
Florida at Vanderbilt	Noon

I’d say the most interesting game here is the TCU-Baylor game. It’s your classic trap game as the Bears are a good team and the game is in Waco. The other truly interesting one out of the bunch is the Wisky-Nebraska game in the Big Ten West Chaos Carnival. No one is in the driver’s seat (but the Huskers aren’t on the trip at all). All the teams are in seats on the bus trying to see who can last to the final stop. I think I got that analogy right.

Yes, you see that right. We have morning football. ESPN2 still has their quadrupleheader but it starts an hour early. I will explain more later in the post. And yes, you see that right. Yale and Harvard, once again, appearing on ESPNU. Despite the fact there are other teams that might deserve that spot, it’s nice to see ESPN embracing FCS football. I just wish they would do that when Gameday goes to an FCS school, like this Saturday when they head to Bozeman for the Brawl of the Wild between Montana and Montana State. That game is on at 2 in the afternoon on ESPN+. Ridiculous. Give it the late ESPNU spot for Christ’s sake!

Finally, a little bit about the UConn bowl situation. The Huskies are bowl-eligible. They do, however, have to hope that there are not enough teams to fill all the spots. There is no guarantee for them as they have no tie-in to any other bowl. Even worse, Liberty is in the same boat and is ranked way ahead of them so will get the first chance when a bowl doesn’t have two teams to fulfill the tie-ins. So the program is still fingers crossed to make a bowl as it’s not set in stone just yet.

Saturday Afternoon

		US	Canada
Washington State at Arizona	2:00 PM
#25 Oregon State at Arizona State	2:15 PM
Boston College at #18 Notre Dame	2:30 PM
#2 Ohio State at Maryland	3:30 PM
NC State at Louisville	3:30 PM
#11 Penn State at Rutgers	3:30 PM
#1 Georgia at Kentucky	3:30 PM
Akron at Buffalo	3:30 PM
Miami at #9 Clemson	3:30 PM
South Alabama at Southern Miss	3:30 PM
#22 Cincinnati at Temple	4:00 PM
Iowa at Minnesota	4:00 PM
WKU at Auburn	4:00 PM
Georgia Tech at #13 North Carolina	5:30 PM
Stanford at California	5:30 PM

This might be the biggest afternoon schedule I have ever seen. Saying that, it’s definitely quantity over quality as there isn’t a ton here to whet the appetite. What does this mean? We are in for something crazy. It never fails.

I talked about TCU’s trap game earlier. You could say the same for Georgia here. I like UGA’s chances more than TCU’s obviously but if the Dawgs let the Cats stay around into the fourth quarter, expect a lot of nervous Georgia fans around the country. The Big Ten West Round Robin Fun-Time Carousel continues in this timeslot with Iowa and Minnesota facing off to see if we can get some clarity going into the final regular season week.

UPDATE #2: Akron-Buffalo has been postponed due to the snowstorm that has already hit the Buffalo area and moved this weekend’s Bills game to Detroit. The game is reportedly going to be moved to Sunday but I don’t see that happening with what the area will be like through the end of the weekend.

Saturday Primetime

		US	Canada
Boise State at Wyoming	7:00 PM
#5 Tennessee at South Carolina	7:00 PM
#24 Oklahoma State at Oklahoma	7:30 PM
New Mexico State at Missouri	7:30 PM
#14 Ole Miss at Arkansas	7:30 PM
Syracuse at Wake Forest	8:00 PM
#7 USC at #16 UCLA	8:00 PM

A huge Pac-12 game that could have been one of the biggest in years if the Bruins hadn’t blown a gasket against Arizona, of all teams, last weekend. Plus the Oklahoma Sooners are in a very odd spot, at least for this program: they need a win to become bowl-eligible in November. This is a stark difference to some Bedlam games of the past decade or so where it was the Pokes who needed that win badly to play some postseason ball. The Sooners don’t need to win this one but if they lose here they only have one more shot to keep their bowl game streak going.

Saturday Late Night

		US	Canada
UAB at #6 LSU	9:00 PM
Colorado at #15 Washington	9:00 PM
Fresno State at Nevada	10:30 PM
#10 Utah at #12 Oregon	10:30 PM

So the entire reason for ESPN2 starting their schedule at 11 in the morning is so that LSU could host UAB on the station at night? Are you fucking serious? That might be one of the dumbest things I’ve heard. The schedule could have easily been shuffled around to accommodate this in a normal way but ESPN is really upping how much they kowtow to the SEC. It’s probably a good thing the Big Ten is leaving for FOX. Also here we have the other high stakes Pac-12 match of the weekend that is, once again, a little less high stakes than it could have been. Both the Utes and Ducks still have Pac-12 Championship and New Year’s Six opportunities available…well, one will after this game.

Big Games O’ The Week

USC at UCLA (8:00, FOX) – I don’t remember a time when I’ve done this blog where the Pac-12 is the conference to watch on any given week. I think every other Power Five conference has had their week to shine (with the SEC and Big Ten having a lot of weeks to shine) but this may be a first for the Pac-12 on this blog. Look, a USC win may move them up to #6 or even #5 going into the final regular season week. It clinches their spot in the Pac-12 Championship Game and possibly sets them up to return to glory. A UCLA win doesn’t fully eliminate any team but makes it a lot tougher for any team from the conference to get to the College Football Playoff. What it does do, though, is cause massive Pac-12 chaos inside the conference which is also fun…for me at least.

Utah at Oregon (10:30, TSN2) – Hey a TSN quadrupleheader! That’s nice. What’s not so nice? This is probably the high water mark for TSN college football coverage this season. I will explain later. Anyway, the other big Pac-12 game this week pits two teams who still have big aspirations which hopefully lead to a Rose Bowl spot. No matter the result, there will still be a bit of chaos left in the Pac-12 to just determine it’s title game participants. Thankfully there are no divisions this year as it’s so much better to just have the best teams in.

Illinois at Michigan (12:00, ABC/TSN2) – Most years, this has the makings of a blowout. Not this time around. Yes it’s in the Big House so the Wolverines have a big home field advantage. Other than that though, this is not a game Michigan should take lightly. Illinois still has a shot at the Big Ten West title but a few other things have to go their way. A win here REALLY helps though. Michigan is heading into The Game with Ohio State and a win here, coupled with Ohio State winning, would set up the biggest matchup since…well, you could say last year but I would say since 2016’s double overtime classic.

Georgia at Kentucky (3:30, CBS) – This could be the game of a lifetime for Mark Stoops and Kentucky if they could pull off the upset. It would also completely upset the college football apple cart with very little time left. Let’s be honest though: it’s going to take a lot for the Cats to keep this close. Hopefully they have watched UGA’s games against Kent State and Missouri to figure out the best approach.

TCU at Baylor (Noon, FOX) – Dave Aranda’s Baylor Bears could throw a huge monkey wrench into TCU’s national title plans. If they beat the Horned Frogs, that probably spells the end for TCU’s CFP hopes. TCU has to be very careful with this one. It is the very definition of a college football speed bump game.

Tennessee at South Carolina (7:00, TSN2) – So it drops off a bit of a cliff after the first five games. But this could be a sneaky good one. Tennessee is not out of the College Football Playoff conversation just yet. South Carolina could put the nail in that coffin and potentially destroy the Vols’ New Year’s Six possibilities in one fell swoop if they can pull off the upset in Columbia.

Psycho Game of the Week

USF at Tulsa (Friday, 9:00, TSN2) – The Bulls are here for a second straight week. I would call that a trend. I get that TSN2, somehow, has nothing to air that night so this goes there by default. But of all the games to show. You know what, TSN? You’d be better off showing Best of Curling or World’s Most Incredible Darts Throws or something like that. This is terrible.

Hubba Bubba Blowout of the Week

Colorado at Washington (9:00, Pac-12 Network) – Man, Colorado is bad. Worst Power Five team? It’s between them and Northwestern. Maybe they should play a bowl game to determine the worst of the worst. The Huskies should annihilate Colorado here in a game that might be long over by halftime.

The Degenerate Portion of Our Show

Time for my picks for the upcoming week of college football. Is there any basis for these picks? Not really. I mostly wing it.

Ball State (+3.5) over Ohio (and the mild upset win!)
Central Michigan (-11) over Western Michigan
Navy (+16.5) over UCF (they’ll cover but not win)
Northwestern (+20) over Purdue (the Boilermakers will win though)
Illinois (+18) over Michigan (covering but not winning)
TCU (-2.5) over Baylor
Oregon State (-8) over Arizona State
South Alabama (-7.5) over Southern Miss
Penn State (-19.5) over Rutgers
Miami (+19) over Clemson (the Canes will cover but the Tigers will win this one)
Minnesota (-2.5) over Iowa
Wyoming (+14) over Boise State (the Broncos will end up with the win)
Ole Miss (-2.5) over Arkansas
Oregon (-3) over Utah

OK an explanation about the TSN comment I made earlier. Normally, the final week of the regular season would bring at least 8 games on TSN if not up to 13 or 14. TSN would go all in because the CFL would be done for the season. Just like this year, the Grey Cup lands on Week 12 of the college football season. One wrinkle, though: the World Cup. It begins Sunday. TSN and CTV are showing every game of the tournament. If I just take a look at the schedule, it means the following:

It’s almost a guarantee that there will be on early Black Friday games aired on TSN.
TSN 2, 4 and 5 are available for afternoon/night Black Friday games.
The next day (Saturday, American Thanksgiving weekend) might be mostly out for college football games as there are World Cup games that overlap the early and afternoon windows. I can see TSN stepping up for primetime and late night games, though.

So, 14 games? Not going to happen. 10? Doubtful. Maybe they get back to that 8 mark but it will be dicey. Is this one of the reasons why the World Cup shouldn’t be in November and December? Yes. But it’s far down the list. Like WAY down the list. Remember…it’s in Qatar. That’s all you got to say.

Tomorrow you should get the bowl projection and rankings post and on Thursday the NFL post. Not guaranteeing anything but this is the time of year where staying on schedule is pretty imperative. Enjoy the games everyone!

OK that’s a new one (and the Week 4 College Football TV schedule)

Posted on September 21, 2022 by guelphbossman

Hey, remember when Lane Kiffin was fired on the tarmac while at USC? Good times. Well, Herm Edwards has just done one better.

After Arizona State’s horrible loss to Eastern Michigan, he was called over to the end zone by ASU athletic director Ray Anderson and ASU president Michael Crow. They had a brief conversation with Herm nodding a few times and then he said OK a couple of times and then was escorted off the field. It seems like he was fired in the fucking end zone after the game. That is impressive. The ASU brass are not messing around with this. I am honestly surprised Herm lasted this long. I guess he didn’t play to win the game in the end.

Coaches are getting fired left and right. It’s like the coaching hot seat is trying to out do realignment. Look, let’s just get to the games and try and move most of that shit to the offseason. Agreed?

Thursday

		US	Canada
West Virginia at Virginia Tech	7:30 PM
Coastal Carolina at Georgia State	7:30 PM
Chattanooga at Illinois	8:00 PM

Three games to start the week in college football. None of them super important. The best game actually might come from the Sun Belt as both Coastal and GSU are looking to somehow win the crowded East Division. The other game is between two Power Five teams who could be considered disappointing so far this year. The Mountaineers lost to Kansas and Tech lost to Old Dominion. I don’t know which loss is worse but they are both bad (as of this point). And with the NFL’s Thursday Night Football game being the Steelers and Browns, I can see not a lot of people watching any of these games (unless they are close, obviously).

Friday

		US	Canada
Virginia at Syracuse	7:00 PM
Nevada at Air Force	8:00 PM
Boise State at UTEP	9:00 PM

This is better than Thursday night’s sked for sure. At least here there is a team that should be ranked in Syracuse. They could be 4-0 if they can beat the Cavaliers which would feel crazy but there are always a few teams that surprise everyone and the Orange are definitely one of them. As for the other games, does anyone want to win the Mountain West Mountain Division? Boise State has looked poor and Air Force laid an egg against Wyoming last week. Utah State got destroyed by an FCS school and New Mexico and Colorado State have been predictably below-average. Maybe Wyoming is the team to beat in the division, who knows?

Saturday Early

The best early slate so far this season by a country mile. Clemson and Wake Forest square off in the first round of the ACC Atlantic round-robin, that will eventually include Florida State, NC State and possibly even Syracuse. I still believe College Gameday should have gone to Lawrence for Duke against Kansas. That would have been wild. Both teams are undefeated. I don’t want to guarantee that the winner will be ranked but they should be. Also, I am sure Nebraska is watching the Baylor-ISU game closely as Matt Campbell is one of their coaching targets, along with Mark Stoops and Gary Patterson. No, Urban Meyer is not going to coach the Huskers.

Saturday Afternoon

		US	Canada
UCLA at Colorado	2:00 PM
Notre Dame at North Carolina	3:30 PM
Middle Tennessee at #25 Miami	3:30 PM
Minnesota at Michigan State	3:30 PM
#20 Florida at #11 Tennessee	3:30 PM
FIU at WKU	3:30 PM
#22 Texas at Texas Tech	3:30 PM
Indiana at Cincinnati	3:30 PM
Toledo at San Diego State	3:30 PM
Georgia Tech at UCF	4:00 PM
#15 Oregon at Washington State	4:00 PM
Tulsa at #16 Ole Miss	4:00 PM
Arizona at California	5:30 PM

The Third Saturday in September highlights the afternoon timeslot. Too bad it’s actually the Fourth Saturday in September. Why the hell is the UF-UT rivalry even called the Third Saturday in September if you’re not going to SCHEDULE IT FOR THE THIRD SATURDAY IN SEPTEMBER? Dumb. If you had Wazzu undefeated and a challenge for Oregon, raise your hand. Now put them down because no one thought that. That could be an intriguing and close matchup on the Palouse. Somehow Cincy is favoured by more than two touchdowns against Indy. I feel a close game there. Finally, the Irish have a chance to prove that they are not going to struggle to go bowling this year although the Tar Heels are better than last season.

Saturday Primetime

		US	Canada
UNLV at Utah State	7:00 PM
#10 Arkansas vs. #23 Texas A&M (in Arlington)	7:00 PM
Northern Illinois at #8 Kentucky	7:00 PM
Iowa at Rutgers	7:00 PM
Marshall at Troy	7:00 PM
Wisconsin at #3 Ohio State	7:30 PM
Miami-OH at Northwestern	7:30 PM
Florida Atlantic at Purdue	7:30 PM
Charlotte at South Carolina	7:30 PM
Vanderbilt at #2 Alabama	7:30 PM
Boston College at Florida State	8:00 PM
Kansas State at #6 Oklahoma	8:00 PM

You’ll notice the only TSN game this week is here. And of course they simulcast the ABC game. Nice. TSN has President’s Cup golf and the CFL on during the afternoon so that meant college football is out earlier in the day. Oh and they also have curling and NASCAR pushing college football aside. I just wish they would do the ESPN game and not the ABC one for people that don’t have the specialty pack. Oh well. Wildcats-Sooners is always interesting as OU always seems to have trouble with KSU. And the Southwest Classic (I think that’s what it’s called) is in JerryWorld and this time both teams are ranked so the stakes are a bit higher this time around.

Saturday Late Night

		US	Canada
#7 USC at Oregon State	9:30 PM
Wyoming at #19 BYU	10:15 PM
Western Michigan at San Jose State	10:30 PM
#13 Utah at Arizona State	10:30 PM
Stanford at #18 Washington	10:30 PM

Wow the Pac-12 Network scored a big one. Or, you could say that USC-Oregon State was somehow relegated to the Pac-12 Network. I know they are doing this so that they can get a USC conference game early in the season since they need to show at least one of every team as per the contract. Thing is, Oregon State is probably just outside the Top 25 and USC is solidly in and may be the Pac-12’s best shot at the College Football Playoff this year. So not a good look. Well, it would be OK if the Pac-12 Network was shown in more homes but it’s not.

Big Games O’ The Week

Clemson at Wake Forest (Noon, ABC) – Many thought that this would be a huge early ACC game and they are right. Clemson, despite being ranked 5th in the nation, have looked shaky at times, especially at the quarterback position. Sam Hartman has looked great returning from injury but the Wake defense has been subpar. Why this didn’t get the ABC primetime spot, oh yes…the Big Ten. Say no more.

Florida at Tennessee (3:30, CBS) – This is the Vols’ chance to prove they are…well, at least the third-best team in the SEC East. The division is improving. The Gators are better. The Gamecocks are better. Vandy is playing well. Kentucky has been lights out so far this season. It’s not the case anymore that one team dominates and the rest kind of suck.

Arkansas vs. Texas A&M (in Arlington) (7:00, specialty pack) – I don’t know if the Aggies are still stinging from the Appalachian State loss or the video that came out of their Midnight Yell practice that made fun of App State. All I know is that the swagger might be gone from this squad. Arkansas, on the other hand, survived Petrinomania last weekend in a game that shouldn’t have been as close as it was. So, really we have two teams who aren’t playing their best against each other inside a division that is still a damn juggernaut. Should be fun!

USC at Oregon State (9:30, YouTube) – The Beavers’ 3-0 start has to be shocking some people. And they’ve looked pretty good doing it. You know who has looked even better? Yep, the men of Troy. Again, I get why this game is on the Pac-12 Network but man does it suck from a visibility standpoint for the conference. No wonder USC and, at this point, UCLA are heading to the Big Ten.

Baylor at Iowa State (Noon, specialty pack) – Baylor lost once, to BYU, but has looked good otherwise. Iowa State is undefeated thanks to a sloppy game (that’s putting it mildly) beating Iowa for the CyHawk Trophy. Both teams have sights on JerryWorld in December so games like this are almost must-win. Plus, I’m sure many in the Cornhuskers athletic department will have interest in this game, as I mentioned above. If I’m Matt Campbell, I use that interest to get a bigger deal in Ames since I don’t know if I’d want to coach in Lincoln. Now if it was me, I’d take the massive contract, not give a shit, make them buy me out, and never work again but that’s just me.

Duke at Kansas (Noon, FOX Sports One) – College Gameday, you cowards. I have to lean Kansas in this one because Duke has had success in the past decade; the Jayhawks, not so much.

Psycho Game of the Week

UNLV at Utah State (7:00, CBS Sports Network) – Utah State is quite bad. Worse than pretty much anyone thought they’d be. Sure, the Rebels are a better team this season but until they become bowl-eligible, they will be considered a below-average program at best. Too many choices in the primetime schedule to this is an easy one to avoid.

Hubba Bubba Blowout of the Week

Vanderbilt at Alabama (7:30, specialty pack) – As good as the Commodores have been so far this season, this is a whole different animal. I expect the Tide to punish Vandy all night.

Fun-Time Stats of the Week

Figured I would add another section to the blog posts. Feeling generous, I am. So here we go with some stats to send you into the weekend:

Since the Badgers upset Ohio State in 2004, Wisconsin is 0-5 in Columbus.
Oklahoma has lost six Big XII games in the last decade. Three of those have been to Kansas State.
Cincinnati is 17-5 in non-conference games since Luke Fickell was hired as head coach.

The Degenerate Portion of Our Show

9-4 this past week against the spread. That’s quite good if I say so myself. I picked WKU to lose but cover against Indiana. Same with LSU against Mississippi State. Unfortunately I also thought BYU would do that and that game wasn’t close. Can’t win em all. OK, on to this week’s picks:

Virginia Tech (+1.5) over West Virginia with the outright win
Virginia (+9) over Syracuse (but Cuse wins)
Buffalo (+6) over Eastern Michigan (but EMU wins by a field goal)
Central Michigan (+28) over Penn State (but the Nittany Lions win fairly easily)
Bowling Green (+30) over Mississippi State (the Bulldogs win by about three touchdowns)
SMU (+2) over TCU (with an outright win)
WKU (-31) over FIU
Texas (-6.5) over Texas Tech
Notre Dame (+1.5) over North Carolina with the outright win
Washington State (+6.5) over Oregon (but UO wins a close one)
Marshall (-3.5) over Troy
Iowa (-7.5) over Rutgers
Wisconsin (+18.5) over Ohio State (tOSU wins but it may be closer than we think)
Wyoming (+22.5) over BYU (Cougs win this but it’s close)

There you go. A lot of info for ya to peruse before your viewing commences. I’m hoping for another solid weekend of college football action. It’s never good when there’s a full slate of games and by the end you feel completely underwhelmed. Hasn’t happened often but when it does it’s such an empty feeling. Anyway, enjoy the games everyone!

The Fun-Time College Coaching Carousel – Week 9 College Football TV Schedule

Posted on October 27, 2021 by guelphbossman

OK this happens every year but it feels like it has been jumped up a notch or two. Like what is being talked about more right now, the coaching carousel and hot seat or the Heisman race? It’s easily the coaching situations in college football. Might as well start this with the USC sitch. The rumour mill is going crazy with potential names to be the next head coach in LA. The candidates listed since Clay Helton was fired include Luke Fickell, Matt Campbell, James Franklin and Kalani Sitake. Jeff Fisher was mentioned as a possibility and he fairly quickly refuted it, probably because it would be impossible for him to go 7-9. Mike Tomlin was also mentioned which is weird since unless the Pittsburgh Steelers are planning to fire him, I don’t know why he’d leave one of the better coaching spots in the NFL to coach at a place with high expectations like USC. With Franklin getting a new agent, my guess is he has become the odds-on favourite and if Penn State loses badly this weekend, expect that talk to heat up a lot.

So now let’s head to the Bayou and the LSU Tigers. Ed Orgeron probably doesn’t give a single solitary shit now so is off fucking co-eds and getting drunk instead of fulfilling his head coaching duties at LSU. I kid, but I’m sure he has been hungover at his desk in the morning at least once since his shitcanning. So what’s next in Baton Rouge? Campbell, Franklin and Fickell show up on this list as well but there are other, possibly more intriguing, options. Like Dave Aranda. LSU’s former defensive coordinator would be welcomed back with open arms after the job he has done at Baylor. Billy Napier has been lights out at Louisiana, making them one of the best Group of Five programs around. And the most intriguing of possibilities, Mel Tucker. Michigan State is a very unexpected Top 10 team and Tucker is a big reason why.

This will be a story that won’t go away for a while. For my money, I think it will end up being Franklin going to USC and Aranda heading to LSU. There will be other openings showing up soon I’m sure and Fickell is almost certain to get one of them. Matt Campbell, on the other hand, I could see staying at Iowa State for at least one more season, especially if they somehow make their way to the Big XII Championship. Anyway, enough coach talk, on to the schedule!

Thursday

		US	Canada
USF at East Carolina	7:30 PM
Troy at #24 Coastal Carolina	7:30 PM

Very soon we will be at the point where it’s football every day! It means that the football matchups don’t have to always be fantastic because it’s football every damn day so let’s enjoy it! What would you rather watch, football or something meaningless like poker? Other than the NFL Thursday Nighter, nothing else worth watching will be on this night. It’s a travel day for the Houston Astros and Atlanta Braves so no baseball to distract you. So unless the pro game is good, you can sit down and watch…let’s see here….oh my….um….well, it’s college football technically. With Coastal losing last week, neither of these games are really that appealing to be perfectly honest.

Friday

		US	Canada
Princeton at Cornell	7:00 PM
Navy at Tulsa	7:30 PM
UNLV at Nevada	10:00 PM

OK so things don’t get a whole lot better on Friday night. Saying that, the Battle for the Fremont Cannon is always fun and, two years ago, ended in a massive brawl. Good times!

Saturday Early

		US	Canada
Texas at #16 Baylor	Noon
Miami at #17 Pittsburgh	Noon
Indiana at Maryland	Noon
Rutgers at Illinois	Noon
Bowling Green at Buffalo	Noon
#9 Iowa at Wisconsin	Noon
#2 Cincinnati at Tulane	Noon
Texas State at Louisiana	Noon
#6 Michigan at #8 Michigan State	Noon
Virginia Tech at Georgia Tech	Noon

One game here will get all the attention and rightfully so. The Michigan-Michigan State rivalry hits a new high with both teams ranked in the Top 10. That’s not the only game here though as Iowa-Wisky could end up being interesting on the other side of the Big Ten division menu. Pitt and Baylor try to continue their magical seasons and Cincy has to beat Tulane by a lot to probably keep that lofty #2 ranking. Finally there is Techmo Bowl to see if one of the coaches coaching in the game get fired during the halftime show. I give the odds at 10-1.

Saturday Afternoon

		US	Canada
Missouri at Vanderbilt	3:00 PM
Texas Tech at #4 Oklahoma	3:30 PM
Minnesota at Northwestern	3:30 PM
Florida vs. #1 Georgia (in Jacksonville)	3:30 PM
Louisiana Tech at Old Dominion	3:30 PM
Florida State at Clemson	3:30 PM
Purdue at Nebraska	3:30 PM
TCU at Kansas State	3:30 PM
Colorado at #7 Oregon	3:30 PM
Boston College at Syracuse	3:30 PM
Duke at #13 Wake Forest	4:00 PM

I’m sure Brad Nessler would love to have an open bar for the World’s Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party. Dealing with Gary Danielson and blowouts every week has to be gnawing at him and I think he might snap, despite the fact he is very professional. I know I would. The SEC Network going with some odd timeslots this week and I don’t know if this is a test for going forward or they had to do so because of other programming. I’m going with the former until I can find something concrete that HAD to be on from Noon until 3:00. Other than that there’s not much of note here. Maybe watch Wake keep their undefeated streak going until the second quarter once they pull away from Dook or Texas Tech pretend they can stay with Oklahoma for more than 10 minutes if you want.

Saturday Primetime

		US	Canada
Boise State at Colorado State	7:00 PM
#10 Ole Miss at #18 Auburn	7:00 PM
#19 SMU at Houston	7:00 PM
Arizona at USC	7:00 PM
#12 Kentucky at Mississippi State	7:00 PM
#20 Penn State at #5 Ohio State	7:30 PM
Louisville at NC State	7:30 PM
North Carolina at #11 Notre Dame	7:30 PM

Penn State-Ohio State was going to be a huge game for ABC. Then last weekend’s nine-overtime clusterfuck happens and this game doesn’t mean nearly as much. It’s almost the same thing that happened last year as PSU lost to Indiana the week before tOSU. It’s like they’re looking ahead to the Buckeyes and taking their eye off the ball (or Franklin is checking his email every few minutes for something from a certain west coast school). And there’s no guarantee they get the most viewers in this timeslot, especially if it becomes a blowout. You have Ole Miss-Auburn which should be a dandy and SMU trying to stay undefeated, mostly for Cincinnati’s gain. You could also watch North Carolina who is way worse than some thought they would be (*AHEM* me *AHEM*), travel to South Bend and hopefully not get beaten up by the Irish.

Saturday Late Night

		US	Canada
UCLA at Utah	10:00 PM
Virginia at #25 BYU	10:15 PM
Fresno State at #21 San Diego State	10:30 PM

Late night college football returns this week after last week’s odd scheduling. The biggest match will happen in ~~San Diego~~ Carson, California where the Aztecs hope to remain undefeated against a very good Bulldogs team. CBS Sports Network really lucked out with getting this one. We also have the return of Bronco as Mr. Mendenhall brings his Cavaliers to Provo to face his old team.

Games to set your eyeballs on

Michigan at Michigan State (Noon, FOX) – Put up your hands if you figured both teams would be undefeated coming into this one. Absolutely no hands should be up right now, not even Spartans and Wolverines fans. One of these teams will have a legitimate shot at the College Football Playoff after this coming weekend. That sounds absurd but it’s very true. The winner here will have Ohio State later on in the season for what will probably be a winner-take-all game for the Big Ten East crown. Michigan is considered the slight favourite to win here. I would wonder about Sparty’s chances though. They really will all come down to what Kenneth Walker III does in this game. Walker has vaulted himself into the Heisman race and really if the season ended now he should get strong consideration to win the damn thing. Really, this should be a solid Game of the Year candidate so let’s hope it’s not a blowout…otherwise we get Sad Gus Johnson which never sounds good.

Ole Miss at Auburn (7:00, specialty pack) – Will either of these teams usurp Bama at the top of the SEC West? Not likely but this year there is at least a tiny sliver of hope. The winner of this one is in the driver’s seat to have that opportunity, especially if it’s Auburn who still has a game against the Tide. And with Lane Kiffin coaching in this game, the interviews, along with the offense, should be fun.

Penn State at Ohio State (7:30, ABC/TSN2) – If this was in State College I probably move it up to the number two spot on this list. Tough to move them up farther with neither team undefeated and Penn State suffering a horrible loss to Illinois. As I mentioned above, the Nittany Lions had the same fate last year, losing the game before the Ohio State one. Yes it was their first game of the year so take it with a grain of salt. They did end up losing to Ohio State last year (and the three games after that). Can’t see that kind of losing streak from this team this year but you never know. Either way, the winner here will face the winner of the Michigan-MSU game later in the season for the division crown and the rest of the teams will battle for the slight chance at a New Year’s Six spot.

SMU at Houston (7:00, specialty pack) – Yes SMU is undefeated but the Cougs are undefeated in the conference as well. This game pretty much determines who gets to face Cincinnati in the AAC Championship in December. This could also be the beginning of the end of Sonny Dykes in the Metroplex as there are rumours he will end up as the head coach at Texas Tech. Wouldn’t surprise me at all, what with his dad coaching there years ago.

Fresno State at San Diego State (10:30, CBS Sports Network) – Another surprising team shows up on the list here. Somehow, the Bulldogs are 6-2 and in the driver’s seat in the Mountain West West Division with a win here in Carson. Kalen DeBoer has done a fantastic job in the Valley for a team that many (myself included) wouldn’t even get to .500 this season. And look who is doing a great coaching job at SDSU. Brady Hoke is back, baby! He has proven to be a great coach at the Group of Five level and he’s doing it once again. The Aztecs somewhat surprising run to, hopefully, a NY6 spot hinges on winning games like this (and hoping Cincinnati loses at least once before the end of the season).

Honourable mention: Texas Tech at Oklahoma (3:30, ABC); Florida vs. Georgia (3:30, CBS); Virginia at BYU (10:15, specialty pack)

Wanna bet?

OK at least I got one upset pick right. I thought Air Force could somehow come back and beat San Diego State but sadly, for me, it did not happen. As for the rest of my picks, yeah there were a couple bad ones there as well. Look, let’s forget that and just move forward, OK?

Houston over SMU (let’s start with an upset)

Michigan over Michigan State

Ohio State over Penn State

BYU over Virginia

Georgia over Florida

Auburn over Ole Miss

San Diego State over Fresno State

Oklahoma over Texas Tech

Buffalo over Bowling Green

Louisiana Tech over Old Dominion

Coastal Carolina over Troy

Will I watch the approximately 24 hours of college football being served up over the next few days? It will be pretty close, not gonna lie. It’s mostly a free weekend so add in about 11 hours of NFL football and we get to the 35-hour mark. I am such a fucking degenerate when it comes to football. Kind of glad I don’t do the recaps anymore since it usually cut into in my NFL watching time. Honestly, I struggle with that kind of multi-tasking. Anyway. enjoy the games everyone!

The Student Finally Defeats the Master – Week 6 College Football Recap

Posted on October 11, 2021 by guelphbossman

Up until early Saturday evening, Nick Saban had been 24-0 against his former assistants. 24-0. That’s like an Undertaker-like streak. Completely insane. Then came the game.

The Aggies came out strong and it looked like the Crimson Tide defense was struggling. Yes we had seen this earlier in the year but it’s not like things had gone off the rails for them. But Bama’s offense could only do so much and couldn’t pull away. And even though TAMU was keeping pace, it felt to me (and I assume a lot of others) that eventually the Tide would win. Until Seth Small hit the field goal with no time left to clinch the Aggie victory, I still thought the Tide would pull it off, somehow. That’s just what they do. This time it did not happen. The field goal was good (barely) and the fans stormed the field. The mighty Alabama Crimson Tide had been defeated, 41-38 in a thriller.

For people saying this is starting to feel like 2007, you might want to tuck that away. This is shaping up as being way more volatile than 2007 could ever think to be. I’ve said something every week about this and major things continue to happen. We aren’t even halfway through the season. And this past week could have been considered one of the best Saturdays of college football in a long time. A lot of good games, a lot of close games and just a lot of shit happening that is turning the college football world upside down. If it’s chaos you want, this season is bringing it. Now let’s see what pitfall Georgia will fall victim to because we kind of know that’s coming, right?

Let’s get right to the recap as it was a fun (for the most part) 14+ hours of football.

And now for the rest of the recap

A great game down in Iowa City this past weekend. Iowa grinded out a victory over Penn State in a Top 5 matchup. Sean Clifford was knocked out of the game in the second quarter with the Nittany Lions leading 17-3 and the offense fell apart. Iowa’s defense saved the day and now the Hawkeyes have legit College Football Playoff aspirations. I think everyone agrees except for one Penn State fan who was pretty upset that I had mentioned Iowa and the CFP. He basically said I was dumb and that Iowa should be ranked 6th in the new poll, so three spots down…after a win. Riiiiiiiiiiight. I mentioned Iowa should be #3 and I will admit I was wrong. They are actually #2 now. My mistake.
An absolutely insane game went down at the Cotton Bowl for the Red River Shootout and it’s no surprise since this game is almost always nuts. Texas looked like they had Oklahoma on the ropes early. Then Spencer Rattler was benched so I assume most thought it was over. But Caleb Williams came in and did a good job in bringing the Sooners all the way back from a 21-point deficit to win the game. Let’s be honest here though: the combination of Kennedy Brooks going crazy (including what was essentially a walk-off touchdown to win the game) and the Longhorn defense self-destructing was what gave Boomer Sooner the big win. Oklahoma had looked like the worst undefeated Top 10 team in quite some time but this victory could be a turning point for a team who may not meet an equal until Bedlam in late November.
How about that game down in Lincoln? As the game went along, I really started to believe that finally the Huskers, under Scott Frost, would get that huge victory to start turning the program around. Man, was I wrong. In typical heartbreaking fashion, Nebraska blew the game late and allowed Michigan a late game-winning field goal. The Wolverines honestly looked pretty pedestrian for a good portion of the game. They really can’t be like that going forward considering how brutally difficult the Big Ten East looks. As for Nebraska, oof. Another loss, another black mark on Scott Frost’s record and unless things turn around I could see the program moving on since nothing is really improving at the end of the day.
Speaking of hot seats, there was another great game on the night, this one in Blacksburg. It felt like the Hokies would hand Notre Dame their second straight loss and almost destroy their New Year’s Six chances. Instead, Jack Coan, who played like shit early on, came on, drove the Irish down the field for the touchdown and game-tying two-point conversion and then drove them again for the winning field goal with only 17 seconds remaining. Great performance but Virginia Tech had their chances to stop the Irish as their defense had been pretty good in the second half. Unfortunately they came up short and Justin Fuente’s seat gets juuuuuuust a bit hotter.
To start Saturday there was the Arkansas-Ole Miss game which was basically drugs. So damn ridiculous and completely defense-optional. Both offenses went crazy and both teams got 50-burgers on the day. It came down to the end where Sam Pittman decided he has balls the size of coconuts and would go for 2 and the lead instead of the extra point to send it to overtime. The pass fell incomplete and the Rebels won a game that raised the blood pressure of both team’s fanbases. Now the Rebel fans can truly enjoy that popcorn.
Let history show that the Auburn Tigers were, at one point, tied with the Georgia Bulldogs 3-3. I’m sure most fans on The Plains who watched the game would love to just remember up to that point and forget the rest. Georgia proved they are the undisputed number one team in the land (for now) as they destroyed Auburn by 24. And this is with Stetson “The Mailman” Bennett at quarterback. What happens when J.T. Daniels comes back? Or do they platoon? This team has looked better than Bama all season and now they will have the #1 ranking to back that up. Their next two games against Kentucky and Florida will either prove that’s where they belong or bring them back down to Earth a bit.
I didn’t think Florida State could keep close with North Carolina. So what did they do? Just beat them fairly easily and look as good as they were back in the Jameis Winston days (OK maybe not THAT good but still pretty good). I am ruing the day I decided to be a smart guy and pick North Carolina as my chic pick to get to the College Football Playoff. I feel like an idiot. So they can now go 3-9 for all I care since it doesn’t really matter anymore (to me, anyway).
Another game that was bonkers that no one saw was the game between South Alabama and Texas State. I believe this is the longest game since they changed the overtime rules yet again. I am not a fan of the new rules. If you don’t know, starting in the second overtime, you must go for two after a touchdown and then starting with the third overtime, it becomes a two-point conversion contest. The college football equivalent of hockey’s shootout. Ugh. Anyway, this game went to four overtimes and there were so many reviews it got ridiculous. Like the replay booth was being paid per review. Texas State won after stopping USA’s two-point conversion attempt.
If I told you in, say, August of 2020 that Ed Orgeron would be on one of the hottest seats in the nation by October of 2021 you would have thought I was smoking crack. But LSU’s loss to Kentucky this past Saturday will put Coach Eaux in that seat. Look, Kentucky is a damn good team and losing to them is not a bad thing. Not looking competitive when you are a team that should be in the Top 25 range is a different story altogether. The team looks like there is a lack of effort and it shows. The next few weeks will probably help determine Eddie O’s future.
Ugh what a fall from grace for BYU. The Cougars were stunned by Boise State and are now not undefeated. Unless a lot of truly wacky things occur (and I’m not saying they won’t), BYU’s chances of the New Year’s Six are essentially gone. What does this mean? It means when they do become bowl-eligible they will be locked in to the Independence Bowl in Shreveport. Yuck. Imagine dropping from a potential Fiesta Bowl berth to that. Brutal.
Put up your hand if you thought Wake Forest…ok I am going to stop there since no one really thought much of Wake Forest this season. OK that’s not totally true. I had them going 9-3 this season and many had them in the 6-8 win range. But to think this team is the only ACC hope left for the College Football Playoff in mid-October? Yeah, no one thought that. Wake had to survive a surprisingly tough Syracuse team, in overtime, to stay undefeated. Now, with their next three games against Army, Duke and North Carolina, it looks like the Deacs could be 9-0 and firmly in the Top 10 when they host NC State in mid-November. They have Clemson and Boston College after that so they have a rough end of the season to look forward to but get through all those unscathed? They could make some history in December.
Welp, Oregon State’s time in the sun went quick. The Beavers were looking like they could make some hay in the Pac-12 with all the turmoil in the conference. Instead, they shit the bed and lost to a Washington State team who’s biggest news has been coach Nick Rolovich and his absolute refusal to get the COVID vaccine. That conference is an absolute mess.
Another great game was shockingly at the Naval Academy. No I’m not kidding. The Midshipmen played undefeated SMU very tough. The Ponies needed a fourth quarter touchdown and a couple of big defensive stops to escape Annapolis with the W. I think Navy, despite being 1-4, is probably quite a bit better than their record indicates. SMU? They are very lucky considering some of the games they’ve been in this season. If they can win their next four, a massive, probably primetime, game with Cincinnati looms large.
Louisville…ugh. They had the game won against Virginia. But instead of going for it on 4th and about 3 fairly deep in Hoos territory, they kicked the field goal. Then their defense allowed Virginia to drive the length of the field in two minutes for the touchdown and the win. Cowardly coaching from Scott Satterfield and it might cost him his job. And did anyone think this Cavaliers team would be 4-2 at this point? I highly doubt it. The ACC is another conference that’s just a dog’s breakfast (other than Wake Forest).
Finally, UTSA was able to outlast Western Kentucky’s potent offense. Quietly, the Roadrunners are 6-0, undefeated, and no one is noticing. So what happens if this team finishes undefeated? My guess is they will get no respect in the polls but they really should, despite the conference they are in.

Alright that was seriously fun. And the late night schedule was light so it made it easier to pay a bit of attention rather than have my full attention which can get tiring into the wee hours of the morning. Alright, let’s now look at the Bossman Top 25:

#1	Georgia
#2	Iowa
#3	Cincinnati
#4	Oklahoma
#5	Ohio State
#6	Oregon
#7	Alabama
#8	Michigan
#9	Penn State
#10	Ole Miss
#11	Notre Dame
#12	Michigan State
#13	Coastal Carolina
#14	Kentucky
#15	Oklahoma State
#16	Wake Forest
#17	Florida
#18	Texas A&M
#19	Arkansas
#20	BYU
#21	Arizona State
#22	NC State
#23	Auburn
#24	Clemson
#25	SMU

Yes there are a few somewhat glaring differences between my poll and the AP Poll and that happens of course. I have Alabama at #7 and they only dropped to #5 in the AP Poll. AP dropped Oregon whereas I moved them up to #6 since they didn’t play so why should they drop? You can put the #8 through #12 teams in a hat and mix them up and any combination would probably be fine. A lot is going to happen for these teams the next three weeks so no point in getting all bent out of shape about it now. And I did mention undefeated UTSA earlier. I also don’t have them in my Top 25 but they are just outside of it meaning a win next week should put them in. Finally, I got Coastal at #13 and they are #15 in the AP Poll and Coaches Poll. I have a feeling they may get to #12 or even #11 but that would be their ceiling unless a lot of crazy shit happens to the teams currently above them. Which, considering the way this season has gone, wouldn’t surprise me one bit.

WEEKDAY FUN BELT ACTION! Yes, it’s that time of year that we start getting more weekday football. And this one, between Appalachian State and Louisiana, is a pretty big game. And it’s tomorrow night! Hell yeah! God, I love Tuesday and Wednesday night college football. Kind of feels like now we can say that Autumn has truly commenced. Have a good week everyone!

Ranking the Bowl Games from First to Worst – 2019-20 Edition

Posted on January 15, 2020 by guelphbossman

Hey how did you think the bowl games went? There was definitely some good and definitely some bad. We will get to that in the rankings but overall, 2019’s college football season was much better than the 2018 season. Less disappointment that is for sure. Don’t get me wrong, I watched a bit of every game. Every single, fucking one. No matter how “useless” the game appeared to be (on paper at least). Not to the players and coaches and fans. Those games mean a shit-ton to them. And that sometimes lends to the games as the atmosphere can be great in a bowl game with a stadium that seems barely half-full.

Alright, time for reading, folks. An absolute deluge of text about bowl season. Now you can remember games that you really did not want to remember anymore. You’re welcome.

Hawaii Bowl (Hawaii 38 BYU 34) – I don’t think this has ever happened before but yes, the Christmas Eve tradition was the best bowl game. Damn was it ever fun to watch. The Hawaii Bowl is rarely this exciting. It felt like an old school WAC game. The closest thing to a really good boxing match where both boxers traded haymakers for most of the match.
Belk Bowl (Kentucky 37 Virginia Tech 30) – Should I make this number one? It’s a tough call. It was the only walkoff touchdown of bowl season which is fun (not so much for gamblers). A great back-and-forth affair in Bud Foster’s final game at VaTech. Another great game to watch. Lynn Bowden Jr. going off and cementing his draft status. Also, it’s the final Belk Bowl. So it was a bit bittersweet as well. Everything a bowl game should be.
Fiesta Bowl (Clemson 29 Ohio State 23) – Now this is the kind of semi-final game we kind of want all the time. This kind of proves that no matter what conference you are in, if you are a good team, you are a good team, period. Anyway, big plays, drama, ref issues, controversy. Sounds like a good time to me.
Rose Bowl (Oregon 28 Wisconsin 27) – Seeing the Badgers piss this one away was like a trainwreck: you couldn’t look away. The Ducks were absolutely dominated in this one. But they did enough off the Wisky turnovers to pull out the victory. We also found out that Justin Herbert has some wheels.
Outback Bowl (Minnesota 31 Auburn 24) – Considering Michigan and Alabama were playing at the exact same time, this is a good thing for both programs, especially the Gophers. Minnesota has brought the fun all season and P.J. Fleck’s energy can be infectious so I definitely look forward to seeing them play. This also showed that maybe, just maybe, Minnesota has arrived in the college football world. Also, I assume the Fire Gus rumblings will prevail well into August yet again. Poor guy.
Frisco Bowl (Kent State 51 Utah State 41) – Over 1000 yards of offense. One of the better college football games of the year, period. Nice to see the underdog Golden Flashes keep up with USU. And let’s give Sean Lewis some credit here. This team has done almost nothing for, well, the entire time the program has been around. And now Lewis, a young head coach (younger than me at least), comes along and is already turning this program around. The MAC is pretty wide open so don’t be surprised if Kent State is a conference contender next season. We also might have to get used to seeing Jordan Love on Sundays because that guy was special in this one. Too bad his defense wasn’t.
Liberty Bowl (Navy 20 Kansas State 17) – Talk about a close game! The Midshipmen and Wildcats played a tight game that wasn’t high on offense. Navy put together a Navy-like drive to set up the game-winning field goal which felt fitting in this one.
Quick Lane Bowl (Pittsburgh 34 Eastern Michigan 30) – One of the barnburners of the season and it was very unexpected. Basically what ended up being a walkoff punch by Eastern Michigan’s quarterback ended a very exciting (and surprisingly so) Quick Lane Bowl, a bowl that is usually forgotten about.
Cotton Bowl (Penn State 53 Memphis 39) – Yet again, the Group of Five representative in the New Year’s Six brought their A Game. But man Penn State was something else. In the end, Penn State’s passing game was better than Memphis’s running game and pulled away for the win. It helped that there was a terrible bowl game on at the same time as the eyeballs stayed here.
Orange Bowl (Florida 36 Virginia 28) – OK I will admit when I was wrong. I figured the Hoos had no chance but this turned into quite the competitive game. I mean Florida had control of the game most of the time but Bryce Perkins made it so you thought maybe, just maybe, the Cavaliers could pull this out. In the end, the Fighting Mullens were too much.
Texas Bowl (Texas A&M 24 Oklahoma State 21) – Thrilling? Not exactly. It felt like the Pokes were going to run away with this one, much to the chagrin of the many Aggie fans in attendance. Anyway, this game’s score doesn’t tell the whole story as other than early and very late, Texas A&M controlled the pace of the game. But it was close. So there’s that.
Gator Bowl (Tennessee 23 Indiana 22) – I thought this was a pretty sexy matchup for bowl season. A resurgent Vols team against an up-and-coming Hoosiers team. Normally the games after New Year’s aren’t watched (other than the National Championship) but this was one fantastic. It was kind of painful to watch Indiana blow this game that they really did have in the bag. Now I await Tennessee’s inclusion in the preseason Top 25 for next season.
First Responder Bowl (Western Kentucky 23 Western Michigan 20) – Is it First Responder or First Responders? Anyway, this had a crazy finish to a rather mundane game. Western Michigan was flagged for too many men on the field on a WKU Hail Mary on the last play of the game. The Hilltoppers then decided to go for the 52-yard field goal and hit it to walk it off. I think many are just glad that this bowl game was actually played after last year’s cancellation.
Camellia Bowl (Arkansas State 34 FIU 27) – Surprisingly fun to watch! The Panthers made it quite the game with their late comeback (that came up just short). Not much else to say about a bowl that is historically ignored and poorly attended.
Pinstripe Bowl (Michigan State 27 Wake Forest 21) – I was really looking forward to this game as it had two teams that, for some reason, can bring it during bowl season. Honestly, most thought this would be boring and they were part-correct. It wasn’t super exciting but it was close and it was a game you had to watch to the end. Now the Mark Dantonio watch begins as the rumours are swirling on his status in East Lansing.
National Championship (LSU 42 Clemson 25) – This was a pretty damn good game for about 2.5 quarters. Then Joe Burrow. That’s it. Can we call it the greatest season by a player in college football history? It’s easily Top 10 for sure.
Peach Bowl (LSU 63 Oklahoma 28) – Basically this game was over early. If it wasn’t for the fact it was a semi-final and Joe Burrow going crazy in the first half it would have been unwatchable. Oklahoma might just want to decline their invite next year if they are selected for the College Football Playoff.
Sun Bowl (Arizona State 20 Florida State 14) – This game looked like the Redbox Bowl from last year for over a half. It was like neither team really wanted to win. It did lead to a fairly wild finish though which is one of the things we like as college football fans. I am sure Noles fans want to put James Blackman into a cannon and fire him straight into the transfer portal after his performance. Also, nice touch with Herm Edwards getting the Frosted Flakes dumped on him at the end. This needs to continue even during the regular season.
Cheez-It Bowl (Air Force 31 Washington State 21) – Ah, the hilarious Cheez-It Bowl. This year’s edition was much less hilarious and much less exciting. I mean Wazzu made it close early in the fourth quarter but the Falcons’ rushing offense ground the Cougs defense into dust, as most of us thought would happen. Realistically though, the final score doesn’t portray how much Air Force dominated this.
Music City Bowl (Louisville 38 Mississippi State 28) – No real stars in this one didn’t help this bowl game but it was another case of a game where the score does not indicate how not close this game was. Louisville looked dominant most of this one. If it wasn’t for the Joe Moorhead rumours (which turned out to be true) this game might have gone down a few notches.
Cure Bowl (Liberty 23 Georgia Southern 16) – Not exciting. Not terrible. Kind of in the middle. Which is where it ranks. Nice to see Liberty win their first bowl game ever, I guess.
Sugar Bowl (Georgia 26 Baylor 14) – Look this went exactly as most people thought it would go, no offense to Baylor. Really it was not very memorable and, to be honest, it was so late on New Year’s Day that I was getting tired (plus I had to work the next day).
Boca Raton Bowl (Florida Atlantic 52 SMU 28) – This was set up to be one of the better bowl games between the two great Power Five teams. So good that it was being aired on ABC. I thought it would be really close and it ended up being anything but. Plus all the Lane Kiffin talk really got to be too much by the second half. We get it: he left the Owls. Let’s move on.
Holiday Bowl (Iowa 49 USC 24) – Everything was going great for this game until Kedon Slovis got injured. Then it went to shit for the Trojans and the fans watching at home. The only good thing is that we were able to actually see this game in Canada despite it being on FOX Sports One.
Mobile Bowl (Louisiana 27 Miami-OH 17) – This game was the final bowl game before the national championship. The only reason to watch is if you weren’t bowled out yet and kind of missed Monday Night Football. I have to get the game credit since a botched snap near the goal line for the Redhawks was all that separated this from moving up the chain. Also, I guess this is now called the LendingTree Bowl. Ugh.
Citrus Bowl (Alabama 35 Michigan 16) – Michigan was in this exact same spot last year. And they scored one more point than last year’s bowl game. The Wolverines were boatraced by Bama in the second half, just like last year’s game against Florida. The Outback Bowl, on at the same time, was a much more satisfying game to watch and so that’s where I spent most of my time.
Redbox Bowl (California 35 Illinois 20) – I was hoping for Lovie Smith to pick up a bowl win but hey, the Illini just getting to a bowl game is huge enough. If it wasn’t for this possibility, this may have gone farther down the list as Cal never seemed to be out of control of the game.
Gasparilla Bowl (UCF 48 Marshall 25) – I guess it’s good this game isn’t at Tropicana Field anymore. Otherwise, this game was over early.
New Orleans Bowl (Appalachian State 31 UAB 17) – All UAB early, All App State late. Hell, the Mountaineers even almost covered the spread. They didn’t though (considering the spread was like 16.5).
Idaho Potato Bowl (Ohio 30 Nevada 21) – The score makes it seem like it might have been close. It wasn’t. The only exciting thing about this game, other than how much Ohio might win by, is Frank Solich getting showered in french fries after the bowl win.
Armed Forces Bowl (Tulane 30 Southern Miss 13) – I will be completely honest…after the first half I watched very little of this game. Came back with about half the fourth quarter to play, saw Tulane was handily in front, and felt good about my decision. I guess sometimes morning football isn’t that great.
Military Bowl (North Carolina 55 Temple 13) – Was there really anything good about this game? Now we have got a lot of people on the North Carolina bandwagon for 2020. Sam Howell could end up being a darkhorse Heisman contender if the Heels contend in the ACC.
Las Vegas Bowl (Washington 38 Boise State 7) – The only intriguing part of this game is seeing how Washington would fare in the Chris Petersen farewell game. Looks like they did well.
New Mexico Bowl (San Diego State 48 Central Michigan 11) – The normally first FBS bowl game of the year was a dud. Maybe because they weren’t the first bowl game of the season. Either way it was not exciting after about the 12 minute mark of the first quarter. Jimmy Mac’s great season in Mount Pleasant ends in a dud. And, shock of all shocks, Rocky Long retired so that was his last game as well.
Bahamas Bowl (Buffalo 31 Charlotte 9) – This was the first bowl game of the season, on a Friday afternoon. So I barely watched any of this one. But the fact this is Charlotte’s first bowl game and Buffalo’s first bowl win ever keeps it from falling even further (even though there isn’t far to fall from here).
Alamo Bowl (Texas 38 Utah 10) – Maybe the Utes were honestly that crushed with losing the Pac-12 title game and their chance at the College Football Playoff. This was pretty non-competitive and now I am sure we will hear about Texas being in the preseason Top 25 like almost every year. Let’s not give in to the media peer pressure folks!
Camping World Bowl (Notre Dame 33 Iowa State 9) – God this was awful. Notre Dame is that weird team that is probably better than playing in any bowl game except when it gets to the New Year’s Six where they play terrible and are “exposed” as a not-so-good team.
Independence Bowl (Louisiana Tech 14 Miami 0) – This should have been a better game. Miami, who is usually at least not too bad and LaTech who is a good Group of Five team. This ended up being a mess of a game and showed how bad Miami really is. The entire program will be under the microscope for the next season.
Birmingham Bowl (Cincinnati 38 Boston College 6) – Hey remember what the Birmingham Bowl has been like in recent years? Forget all that. This was shit. It would be the worst bowl game this season if it wasn’t for the next horrific, forgettable game.
Arizona Bowl (Wyoming 38 Georgia State 17) – On CBS Sports Network. When other bowl games were on. And it was boring. It’s the bowl game shitfest trifecta. I think I watched one minute of this.

So in the end, better than last bowl season but not awesome by any stretch of the imagination. This weekend we have some college all-star games. The East-West Shrine Game and the NFLPA Collegiate Bowl are on the NFL Network on Saturday at 2:00 and 6:00 respectively. Yes they tend to have some weird rules but it’s still college football (technically).

Your very short NFL schedule will be coming your way either tomorrow or Friday. Have a great hump day everyone!

2019 Bowl Game Rankings and Predictions!

Posted on December 18, 2019 by guelphbossman

It’s almost Christmas. Meaning it is bowl season! And then college football is over. This is sad. Maybe this is the year I finally get ripped in the offseason. Haha, I will believe it when I see it.

I’ve decided to stick with the College Football Broadcast Ranking System for the bowls this year. It works well. It separates the games that even the most casual of college football fans will watch from the ones that only the complete maniacs like myself would watch. Let’s begin.

10 out of 10! This is Saturday Night on ABC kind of games

Game of the week quality. So the College Football Playoff and the best two New Year’s Six games land here.

Fiesta Bowl – Ohio State vs. Clemson (Dec. 28, 8:00, TSN3/TSN5) – Chase vs. Trevor. Defense vs. Offense. Which isn’t quite true since tOSU’s offense is spectacular and the Tigers’ defense is still Top 10. But this really is the face-off that many want to see. This should be a very close, very exciting game between two undefeated teams. Now watch it be a blowout. My pick: Clemson 40-33.

Peach Bowl – LSU vs. Oklahoma (Dec. 28, 4:00, TSN3/TSN5) – They should never have the semi-finals on New Year’s Eve again. This day is perfect. Even when the College Football Playoff expands they shouldn’t do that. It also allows avoidance of many of the World Juniors games this year since the WJHC is in the Czech Republic (or is it called Czechia now?). Both semi-finals are good games but this will be the lesser of the two. Sorry Sooner fans. My pick: LSU 44-24.

Rose Bowl – Wisconsin vs. Oregon (Jan. 1, 5:00, TSN1/TSN3/TSN4/TSN5) – I am glad this is getting quite a bit of hype. These two teams are fun to watch for very different reasons. And it’s the Rose Bowl…doesn’t it have to be a great game by default? My pick: Oregon 32-24.

Cotton Bowl – Penn State vs. Memphis (Dec. 28, Noon, specialty pack) – It’s not the Rose and Sugar at the top of the New Year’s Six list this year. This game is much more intriguing than the Sugar Bowl. Memphis is in the NY6 for the first time and we will see the first game where they are Norvell-less. It used to be these games were a no-win situation for the Power Five team but this is becoming less of an issue as the playoff gets older. Also, it’s James Franklin and hearing James Franklin makes you want to run through a brick wall. Very few guys can motivate like he can. My pick: Penn State 42-27.

9 out of 10! This is the SEC on CBS quality…normally

Arguably the biggest game of the day but goes here because the SEC is never on ABC (at least as the home team).

Outback Bowl – Auburn vs. Minnesota (Jan. 1, 1:00, TSN2) – One team is the team that ended Bama’s chances at competing for another national championship. The other team was very close to being this season’s Cinderella squad. Row The Boat vs. The Gus Bus. I am sad that this is going to be totally overshadowed by the Citrus Bowl starting at the exact same time. Why didn’t they schedule this to start at Noon? My pick: Minnesota 30-27.

Citrus Bowl – Alabama vs. Michigan (Jan. 1, 1:00, ABC) – This is the best non-New Year’s Six game (along with the Outback Bowl). Not surprised the Wolverines are in this game. But Alabama? It is honestly a bit of a shock to the system to see the Tide in a game like this. If they lose this game, could this be the worst season of the Saban era (other than his first in Tuscaloosa)? My pick: Alabama 34-30.

Las Vegas Bowl – Washington vs. Boise State (Dec. 21, 7:30, ABC) – And yet again this is the best pre-Christmas bowl game. And it is the much-ballyhooed Petersen Bowl. Final game for ol’ Chris Petersen before he returns in a few years because he missed coaching. I think the Huskies might keep this closer than many believe it will be as they will playing on a lot of emotion. My pick: Boise State 20-17.

Sugar Bowl – Georgia vs. Baylor (Jan. 1, 8:45, TSN1/TSN3/TSN4/TSN5) – Normally this is the kind of game that would be the worst of the NY6 bunch. Not so this season. It should be a decent game and hey, it’s Baylor in a huge bowl game although I know that won’t sit well with some. Well tough shit. My pick: Georgia 26-16.

8 out of 10! I’ll call this ESPN…on Saturday…or maybe Thursday night…but not always Saturday late night

Still really good games. Must-see for college football fans at this point.

Alamo Bowl – Texas vs. Utah (Dec. 31, 7:30, specialty pack) – This could be higher but hear me out. Texas was supposed to better than this and are limping into this bowl game. Utah was on the precipice of going to the CFP and now aren’t even in the NY6. So I can see one, or both, of these teams not really caring as much as they should that they are in this particular bowl game. Also it’s the final college football game of 2019 and the time is not ideal for TV watchers. My pick: Utah 20-13.

Holiday Bowl – Iowa vs. USC (Dec. 27, 8:00, FloSports) – First season where we can see all the bowl games…legally! I know that FOX is trying to bolster FS1 by putting the better of their two bowl games on there but it still feels weird for this to be here. But at least they won’t be talking as much about coaching controversies or, hopefully, players sitting out this bowl game so they can actually call the damn game. And if it’s GUS and Joel then that’s even better. My pick: USC 26-10.

Camping World Bowl – Iowa State vs. Notre Dame (Dec. 28, Noon, ABC) – Notre Dame probably doesn’t want to be here. That’s too fucking bad though. If you think this sucks, hire Charlie Weis and get back to me with how it goes. Let’s hope the players, at least, are up for this one because the Clones definitely will be. My pick: Iowa State 20-7.

Liberty Bowl – Navy vs. Kansas State (Dec. 31, 3:45, specialty pack) – Navy is good again and Kansas State is also good again. I hope Chris Klieman has taught his guys how to stop the run. My pick: Navy 46-34.

7 out of 10! This is FOX territory. You could move this up 1 if GUS JOHNSON! is calling the game

Most college football fans should watch these games but we are getting eerily close to the equivalent of a game where Rutgers is involved (despite the fact they are in a Power Five conference).

Orange Bowl – Virginia vs. Florida (Dec. 30, 8:00, TSN3) – This might be the worst New Year’s Six game ever. No offense to the Cavaliers but they really don’t belong here. This is the shitty part of bowl tie-ins. Yeah you can figure out which teams are going where (for the most part) but then we get instances like this. Now watch the Hoos mop the floor with the Gators and prove me wrong. My pick: Florida 27-14.

Cheez-It Bowl – Air Force vs. Washington State (Dec. 27, 10:15, TSN1/TSN5) – The team that was one loss against Boise State away from being in the New Year’s Six conversation will face off against the Fighting Mike Leachs of the Palouse. How Troy Calhoun did not get any Coach of the Year consideration is baffling to be honest. Again, it’s another contrast of styles game so we shall see if the run or the pass reign supreme. My pick: Air Force 54-41.

Boca Raton Bowl – SMU vs. Florida Atlantic (Dec. 21, 3:30, ABC) – The Boca Bowl gets the ABC treatment! Nice! I still don’t know if Lane Kiffin will be coaching in this one but it is starting to look less and less likely as the game approaches. This also has SMU who is back, kinda, sorta. Being an elite Group of Five team is better than being a basement Conference USA team though, right? My pick: SMU 29-20.

Texas Bowl – Texas A&M vs. Oklahoma State (Dec. 27, 6:45, TSN1/TSN5) – Why wasn’t Texas put here? This was their best chance since the Aggies left the Big XII and the bowl organizers fucked it up. Either that or one of the programs are still little bitches and won’t allow this to happen. Anyway, Canadian Chuba Hubbard could run wild in this one. My pick: Oklahoma State 37-32.

6 out of 10. We will put NBC here because they have to go somewhere.

Let’s be honest, NBC has very few games during a college football season. Like seven of them. But one or two are REALLY big games so on average, you have to put them above some other networks right? Plus all the Notre Dame fanboys would have a shit fit if I put NBC any lower.

Gator Bowl – Tennessee vs. Indiana (Jan. 2, 7:00, specialty pack) – This was supposed to be a different SEC team. I can’t even remember who it was but I know the Vols all of a sudden decided they wanted to be here rather than the Music City Bowl. I don’t know why there were just allowed to switch or that a bowl game could have allowed that but here we are. Anyway, I am interested at how much interest there is in the bowl games between New Year’s Day and the national championship, something that is back after a short hiatus. My pick: Indiana 37-36 (2OT).

Belk Bowl – Kentucky vs. Virginia Tech (Dec. 31, Noon, TSN3) – The final Belk Bowl. The best bowl Twitter account ever is done, for now, with sponsoring a bowl game. Knowing our luck there will be some weird company that steps up to sponsor this one. Or we get a hilarious one. Maybe Skoal wants to sponsor a bowl game. The Skoal Bandit Bowl. I’m smiling just thinking about it. My pick: Kentucky 24-17.

New Orleans Bowl – UAB vs. Appalachian State (Dec. 21, 9:00, TSN2) – I don’t get this tie-in. Really you should have a Louisiana team here no matter what. It’s a way to get a good crowd into the stadium since having less than half a stadium full is bad: in the Superdome it is so much worse. As much as I like what UAB is doing, I can’t see the Mountaineers taking it easy on them after barely missing the Cotton Bowl bid. My pick: Appalachian State 44-20.

Gasparilla Bowl – UCF vs. Marshall (Dec. 23, 2:30, TSN3/TSN5) – Weekday. Afternoon. Before Christmas. What do I always say about these games? My pick: UCF 46-30.

5 out of 10. Some hot ESPN2/ESPNU/SEC Network/ACC Network action right here!

These are the networks I really love to be honest with you. They provide a shit-ton of football on the specialty pack and at least once a week you get a great game on it. Well a great finish at least which is what we might have to hope for with this group of games. Also, we add the ACC Network this year!

Sun Bowl – Arizona State vs. Florida State (Dec. 31, 2:00, CBS) – Florida State barely got into a bowl game and fired their head coach. Arizona State did about as good as everyone thought they would and Herm Edwards has done great in Tempe. Now the question is how many will actually show up for this game. I put the over/under at 25,000 and that’s only because the Sun Devils are there. My pick: Arizona State 36-17.

Birmingham Bowl – Boston College vs. Cincinnati (Jan. 2, 3:00, specialty pack) – Luckily for this bowl game, it has been usually a good game in the past. Sucks that it is played in a dump like Legion Field but it could be worse. They could be at the Trop. Back to the game, the Bearcats should have no problem with the Eagles who finally fired Steve “The Dude” Addazio. About three years to late for many BC fans. My pick: Cincinnati 31-10.

Military Bowl – North Carolina vs. Temple (Dec. 27, Noon, TSN5) – Mack Brown in a bowl game in 2019. This tells you how crazy college football can be. The Tar Heels will have their work cut out for them as Temple is one of the most complete Group of Five teams around. I kind of hope it’s snowing for this one as we don’t get near enough bad weather bowl games. My pick: Temple 28-21.

Music City Bowl – Mississippi State vs. Louisville (Dec. 30, 4:00, TSN3) – The game Tennessee should have been in. Then they switched with Kentucky but Kentucky had already played Louisville for the Governor’s Cup so they switched with Mississippi State. So yeah I figured it out a few sections after I was struggling to remember. Bowl Selection Alzheimers. My pick: Mississippi State 37-23.

4 out of 10. FOX Sports One goes here although some could argue it should be higher.

Now that we can technically get FS1 games up here, I can’t use that as an excuse to put this in the 4 spot. FS1 is kind of all over the place so many times, ESPN2 has much better games but mostly ESPNU never has better games. I may have to rethink this for next season. For now, I don’t have time so here it is!

Pinstripe Bowl – Michigan State vs. Wake Forest (Dec. 27, 3:20, TSN1/TSN5) – Again, snow here would be fun. Wake Forest should be heavily favoured here but instead we will get everyone overrating Sparty. My wonder is if it will be Mark Dantonio’s last stand as MSU’s head coach. My pick: Wake Forest 47-34.

Mobile Bowl – Miami-OH vs. Louisiana (Jan. 6, 7:30, specialty pack) – Louisiana has a great run the last two seasons. If it isn’t for App State, the Ragin’ Cajuns are the best Sun Belt team around. Anyway, they go up against Miami-OH. The Cradle of Coaches probably won’t have a chance in this one and, to be honest, I can see many people taking a break before the natty by skipping this one. My pick: Louisiana 50-23.

Bahamas Bowl – Buffalo vs. Charlotte (Dec. 20, 2:00, TSN2) – This could end up being a fantastic game. Who knows? And I barely care because I won’t be able to watch it live. Oh well I guess it’s nice to see Charlotte in their first bowl ever and getting to go to the Bahamas. My pick: Buffalo 37-29.

Hawaii Bowl – BYU vs. Hawaii (Dec. 24, 8:00, specialty pack) – This is on Christmas Eve again. Where it belongs. This is an interesting game since most of the recruits on the islands go to, I believe, either Hawaii or BYU (and BYU even has a school in Hawaii somewhere). These two used to be conference foes but if it was BYU’s choice they never would be again because BYU is above the Mountain West/WAC in football I guess. My pick: BYU 26-24.

3 out of 10. CBS Sports Network or Big Ten Network type games. The whole “it’s about quantity, not quality” rule.

BTN, for some reason, gets one really good game all year and then a bunch of Rutgers games. CBSSN just has so many games but it’s all Group of Five so they have to be ranked this low. And now I can watch all these games which is really great, right? I think I need my head examined.

First Responder Bowl – Western Michigan vs. Western Kentucky (Dec. 30, 12:30, specialty pack) – Hey maybe this game will actually be played this time around. Saying that, it would be fucking hilarious if it was cancelled again. If that happened I could see this bowl just being jettisoned since it’s obviously bad luck. My pick: Western Kentucky 35-30 (if it doesn’t get cancelled).

New Mexico Bowl – San Diego State vs. Central Michigan (Dec. 21, 2:00, TSN2) – Jim McElwain did a fantastic job at Central Michigan this season. Rocky Long has been doing amazing work at SDSU for years. Top quality coaches here. I just…I don’t know. It feels like a game that’s just meh. A game that would struggle to get out of ESPN3 territory during the regular season. Nothing special. And to answer your question, yes, I will watch it. My pick: San Diego State 31-7.

Independence Bowl – Louisiana Tech vs. Miami (Dec. 26, 4:00, TSN5) – First game after Christmas. And it’s Shreveport, everyone’s least favourite bowl destination. This harkens back to like the 80s when no one really cared about things like this. Anyway, it’s the perfect bowl game for a team like Miami that barely made it to the postseason. And Louisiana Tech is almost at home for this one so hopefully the crowd is good. My pick: Louisiana Tech 21-17.

Armed Forces Bowl – Southern Miss vs. Tulane (Jan. 4, 11:30 AM, specialty pack) – I still wait for the day where Willie Fritz is picked up by a higher profile school. What he has done at Tulane is great. They are no longer a laughing stock and an easy out. Jay Hopson isn’t a slouch either. I do like the fact this starts late morning on the Saturday of Wild Card weekend. Morning college football!!! My pick: Tulane 40-20.

2 out of 10. This is some Pac-12 Network dreck over here.

The Pac-12 Network is now easily the worst of the conference networks. We don’t have a Big XII Network yet so once we get that in like 2031 we may finally get the definitive ranking. Anyway, most games on this network are pretty bad, especially for a Power Five conference. Yes, there are games that end up being great but the schedule is atrocious.

Redbox Bowl – Illinois vs. California (Dec. 30, 4:00, FOX) – It is a nice story to see Illinois in a bowl game for the first time in a few years. They are in an odd spot since they aren’t considered the worst of the Power Five bunch (even though they are in the conversation) but they are mostly forgotten in college football these days which is sad. Lovie Smith has finally done wonders in Champaign. Really though, this bowl game is between two average programs who have a good chance to be home for next year’s bowl season. My pick: Illinois 16-12.

Camellia Bowl – FIU vs. Arkansas State (Dec. 21, 5:30, TSN2) – Former Sun Belt foes (and I use that term really loosely) face off. Good chance this will be overshadowed by other game on this day, the first Saturday of bowl season. My pick: Arkansas State 36-33.

Cure Bowl – Liberty vs. Georgia Southern (Dec. 21, 2:30, CBS Sports Network) – The Cure Bowl is almost always near the bottom of the bowl rankings and this year is no different. At least they don’t have crazy competition to get viewers but the network won’t help things here. Even Liberty being in their first bowl game ever will be shit on because people just hate Liberty or they hate the man who doesn’t understand the concept of a burner phone, Hugh Freeze. My pick: Liberty 31-24.

Quick Lane Bowl – Eastern Michigan vs. Pittsburgh (Dec. 26, 8:00, TSN5) – MAC vs. Big Ten would have been better. ACC vs. Big Ten would have been better. Big Ten here would have been better, period. Thanks to stupid bowl tie-ins they didn’t have enough teams to get down to this bowl game. Oh well, at least it’s on in primetime. My pick: Pittsburgh 31-17.

1 out of 10. Or zero. Or negative numbers Who really gives a shit here? I sure don’t.

I will watch these if I can. I am a working man after all. I am an insane college football fan and even I can only take so much. In April I will be regretting treating these bowl games like a pile of diarrhea.

Frisco Bowl – Utah State vs. Kent State (Dec. 20, 7:30, TSN2) – I like the way this bowl is set up. Small-ish stadium. Football-mad state. The actual game though? Meh. It’s football and it’s on opening night so I will watch but it’s not high up on my list and they are lucky to have the audience to themselves. My pick: Kent State 39-36.

Idaho Potato Bowl – Nevada vs. Ohio (Jan. 3, 3:30, TSN2) – I always find it interesting that they make the MAC go to bowl games like this. And the Potato Bowl is always far down both conferences’ lists of where to send teams. Let’s be honest here; it’s Boise. Yes the blue turf is fun but other than it turning into a skating rink or them playing in a blizzard, this game, which is after New Year’s on a weekday in the afternoon, isn’t exactly must watch.. My pick: Ohio 47-31.

Arizona Bowl – Wyoming vs. Georgia State (Dec. 31, 4:30, CBS Sports Network) – The worst bowl game of the bunch. CBS Sports Network seems to own this spot with this bowl or the Cure Bowl. And to top it off, this game is around dinnertime on New Year’s Eve. Geez talk about a shitty spot for a lower-tier bowl. My pick: Wyoming 37-27.

So there you go! The bowl schedule and rankings are done. So now you can enjoy the games!

And hey I am posting this before bowl season begins! Nice change from last year and it means I am on the ball (for once).

Most Important Games of the 2019 College Football Season – Part Deux

Posted on June 4, 2019 by guelphbossman

It looks like we are getting closer to this. I mean we won’t have NCAA 20 but NCAA 21 is not out of the question. And all it took is for the NCAA to realize that maybe these players should earn some money on their likeness. This would also solve the problem of stars getting the same as third-string guards. So simple yet it took so damn long to figure this out. Hopefully it pushes through and then I can get a new system to get the newest NCAA game. Oh you can bet your bottom dollar I would get whatever new system it’s on.

So for the second straight year I feel like a complete moron. I thought I was smart starting a day earlier than last year’s first CFB blog post. So what happens yesterday? A big schedule dump. ESPN. FOX. CBS. Hell, Stadium, Facebook, CBS Sports Network. So much updating (although I will admit I had some right). But the ones that were wrong…well, here are the updates for those:

I had the Northwestern-Stanford game on the on FOX Sports One. This game will now be at 4:00 on FOX. This is a good thing to be wrong about, no?
FIU-Tulane, the de facto best Group of Five game of Week 1, has been relegated to ESPN3. Wow, that’s terrible. It also means we can’t see it up here which may not be that big a loss to be honest with you.
The OSU Bowl (Oklahoma and Oregon versions) is now not on the specialty pack. It will be on FOX Sports One. Had the time right, but the network wrong. Damn.
For the second straight year, I got a USC-Stanford game very wrong. I had the game at 8 on FOX. It is now on at 10:30 on the specialty pack. Instead, FOX chose Buffalo-Penn State. Yeah I don’t get it either.
With WVU-Mizzou, I hilariously used 24-hour time to say that it was at 7:00. That is wrong. It is at noon. It will probably still be on the specialty pack though so at least that is (probably) correct…probably.
Arkansas-Ole Miss has moved to 7:30. I had it 3:30. Will still be specialty pack.
I had a feeling that Oklahoma-UCLA might be picked up FOX. And it was! It will now air at 8:00.
Stanford-UCF still will probably go to ABC but not at Noon anymore. It has been moved to 3:30 which I am sure the people who bought tickets to that game are very happy about.
We still can’t see Cy-Hawk but the time was moved from Noon to 4:00.

So to be honest it wasn’t THAT bad. Now we get to what is truly speculative as 95% of games from Week 4 on have little to no information attached to them. This is where I can REALLY screw things up. So let’s begin shall we?

Week 4

Game of the Week: Notre Dame at Georgia (8:00, CBS) – CBS gets one primetime game a season (unless they lobby for 2 but it costs them). Normally this is LSU-Alabama but this season they could not, in good conscience, let this one opportunity pass them by. You can say whatever you want about the Fighting Irish but they deliver ratings and if this game lives up to the previous game these two teams, it should be massive. It helps that the week that houses LSU-Bama is not a good week, schedule-wise, for the SEC.

Other Really Important Games: Auburn at Texas A&M (3:30, CBS) – First two games this week are CBS games. Happens pretty much never and is a coup for the network. The other thing that strikes me is this is happening and neither game involves Alabama. Which I am sure someone will mention in the hype going into these two games. Anyway, the winner keeps their shot at usurping the Tide while the loser probably hopes to go to the Outback Bowl.

Michigan at Wisconsin (Noon, FOX) – Last year, the game in this very spot was Notre Dame-Wake Forest. Seriously. Look it up if you want. This is a deadly game for both teams so early on in the season. The Big Ten is not known for having huge September conference games but here we are. This feels like it is more important for Michigan because of two obvious facts: 1) they play in the very difficult Big Ten East which should be really good again this year, and 2) Ohio State fans won’t let them forget it if they lose. I don’t know which is worse to be honest.

Oregon at Stanford (7:30, ABC) – At this point you still have to feel for the Oregon State Beavers. They play these two teams, U-Dub, Wazzu and Cal every season. They’d have to pay me a lot to even consider coaching for this program. Not that that will be an issue but it has to be one of the toughest jobs in Power Five football. This game here should be yet another classic between these two as (at one point) consensus 2020 #1 pick Justin Herbert faces off against a usually tough Stanford defense. I’d love to say the winner has a leg up in the Pac-12 North but considering what happened last year, that is not a guarantee.

Michigan State at Northwestern (8:30, FOX) – This might be overshadowed by the above-mentioned Michigan-Wisky battle. Also being on the late FOX broadcast might hurt a bit too. Not sure it will go on this late but it is in Evanston which is Central Time Zone so who the hell knows.

Oklahoma State at Texas (7:00, specialty pack) – Will Texas be as good as last season? There’s a good possibility yes so Tom Herman and his fancy grill can keep smiling at this point. But you can never count out The Mullet. Mike Gundy almost always has good teams and this year’s Cowboys should be better than last year’s so an upset is not impossible. Sooner fans will be watching this one in earnest.

Tennessee at Florida (7:00, specialty pack) – It’s not “Is Texas Back?” anymore. It’s “Is Tennessee back?” Now that the Longhorns are good again, many are craving for the good ol’ days of the Vols being good as well. Maybe once they apologize for shitcanning Phil Fulmer they can truly turn the corner since they have never really recovered from that. No longer the Champions of Life, the Vols will try to eek out a new existence under second-year coach Jeremy Pruitt who will try to become another Kirby Smart. Oh yeah, and Florida is in this and they will be good and have one of the best coaches in the land but who cares about that right?

Utah at USC (Friday, 9:00, FOX Sports One) – Can’t win em all right? This may still move although it seems to be cemented on Friday night. With no ESPN game on that night, it may appear there so who knows. Even though it is Week Four it is still rather early to figure some of these things out.

Sneaky-Good Underrated Game: South Carolina at Missouri (Noon, TSN1) – This may essentially end up being an early season SEC East elimination game. The loser here will have pretty much no shot at going to Atlanta on December 7th. Also, this should be a pretty evenly-matched game. Now watch it be a blowout. Look it was either this or Cal-Ole Miss for this spot. My options were thin.

Best Group of Five Game: Air Force at Boise State (Friday, 9:00, specialty pack) – You know, after one bad Air Force season many people, including myself, figured the Falcons would be that way for a while. So what did Troy Calhoun do? Just coach them to back-to-back good seasons. And I am sure this year will be no different. It is on the blue turf in Boise which is tough for any team but the AFA has done fairly well here in the past.

Worst Power Five Game: West Virginia at Kansas (3:30, FOX Sports One) – Let’s be honest: it will take a lot more than hiring Les Miles to turn this program around. Even the hype of him arriving isn’t leading many to anoint Kansas as an up-and-coming team just yet.

Week 5

Game of the Week: Ohio State at Nebraska (8:30, FOX) – Not a bad week but not a great one as you can see by my choice of GOTW. No earth-shattering potential games of the year this week (barring any upsets of course). However, there is a caveat here: if Scott Frost can somehow make this Husker team an 8 or 9-win team this season then watch out because this could be a prime candidate for a massive upset and season-changing game. Or it could end up being a blowout. Who knows.

Other Really Important Games: Mississippi State at Auburn (3:30, CBS) – CBS really racking up the good games early on in the season. Brad Nessler must be so happy…now he just needs a close game to call, for once. I wonder what these two programs would be like if they didn’t have Alabama in their division. I am sure these fanbases have thought of that many times before as these two teams should be firmly in the Top 20 by this point of the season.

Virginia at Notre Dame (3:30, NBC) – The Fighting Irish’s ACC-heavy schedule continues this season (and will for the next 18 years I believe) with a game against the Hoos. Remember the last time these two teams met? A last-minute long touchdown pass by the Irish followed by that one fan just hanging over the wall to show his despair. Many tried to emulate that student in subsequent games in Charlottesville but he was the original. Anyway, I am sure many college football fans around the country would love to see the Irish faithful look that way after this game.

Washington State at Utah (9:15, specialty pack) – There were a couple of weeks last year where ESPN did not have a 3:30 game and instead ran a 6:00 and 9:15 game instead. I have a feeling this will be one of those weeks. Don’t ask me why though since it’s more like “they had one in September last season so I am sure they will have one in September this season”. As for the two combatants, this should be some really good Pac-12 After Dark action between teams that are looking to make a bigger mark on the conference and win a conference title.

Northwestern at Wisconsin (Noon, ABC) – This feels like your typical early-afternoon Big Ten game. A lot of offense although much of it will be on the ground. Great defense, especially on the Wisky side of things. And potentially a Big Ten West elimination game depending on how these two teams fare the rest of the way. Should be good.

USC at Washington (7:30, ABC) – The Pac-12 always gets a couple of primetime ABC games and so does the Big XII. Honestly it sometimes feels weird to put anything other than a Big Ten game there since they get way more games in that timeslot. I figured this is one of the better games as long as USC is already playing better. Let’s be honest: if the Trojans aren’t doing well at this point it might be the end for Clay Helton since that shit won’t fly (for very long) in southern California.

Sneaky-Good Underrated Game: NC State at Florida State (7:00, specialty pack) – Even when the Noles were really good, they seemed to have problems with the Wolfpack. This becomes potentially one of the more important games of the week if A) NC State doesn’t lose too much with the graduation of Ryan Finley and B) Willie Taggart truly has the Seminoles firing on most, if not all, cylinders.

Best Group of Five Game: Houston at North Texas (8:00, Facebook) – Yes. Facebook. We are living in a bit of a new age my friend. I watched a few minutes of a game on Twitter a couple years back and it wasn’t bad to be honest. I prefer watching it on TV but sometimes you take what you can get. Here we have Houston who should once again be trying to usurp UCF as the American Conference’s top dog and North Texas who should, once again, be a contender in Conference USA. On paper this looks good. Let’s hope it lives up to that and it will be interesting to see what it’s like to watch a game on Facebook. I am intrigued I gotta tell ya.

Worst Power Five Game: Wake Forest at Boston College (3:30, specialty pack) – And honestly this isn’t even that bad a game. It’s just one of those weeks with quite a few decent games but no eye-openers.

Week 6

Game of the Week: Michigan State at Ohio State (7:30, ABC) – There is a small possibility that this moves to FOX at Noon so this, like most of this post, is not set in stone yet. Two Big Ten East contenders. Two Big Ten contenders. Potentially, two CFP contenders. Now if it does go to FOX, there’s a possibility of seeing GUS JOHNSON lose his voice or have an aneurysm. Neither of which would be nice to see at all.

Other Really Important Games: Auburn at Florida (7:00, TSN2) – Many would say this should be the game of the week. And I wouldn’t say you were wrong. Both teams look good heading into the season and there’s always talk about Gus Malzahn being shitcanned so that is fun for people who like that kind of thing.

Virginia Tech at Miami (3:30, ABC) – Hey remember when these two teams were in the Big East and it was awesome? Miami is finally back to a level where they are competing for a Top 10 spot and VaTech takes a big dump for a couple years. This could be the first year in a long time that both teams are very good and should compete for the ACC crown (yes, even with Clemson in the conference). Ya know, I kind of wish the Big East was back. It was a fun conference.

Washington at Stanford (7:30, FOX) – The four-team round-robin of doom and destruction for the Pac-12 North (say that five times fast) continues here. The Pac-12 needs one of those four to just break out and win every game so they don’t look like a terrible conference yet again. And also it’s not late night so Chris Petersen has to be happy. Now watch it get moved to like an 11:00 pm timeslot.

Georgia at Tennessee (3:30, CBS) – The “Is Texas Back?” game is now being replaced with the “Is Tennessee back?” game. And it may be just as annoying. Despite the fact Florida looks like a bonafide SEC East contender and despite the fact Kentucky, Missouri and South Carolina just need a couple of breaks this season to seriously contend, many college football experts will be telling everyone who will listen how the Vols are the real scary team in the SEC East. Uh, they have to show it first. The former Champions of Life need to prove they compete. This may end up as a game that shouldn’t have been in this section but for now I am going with the fact that Tennessee, at the very least, will be quite improved this season.

Iowa at Michigan (3:30, TSN2) – FOX seems to be taking a back seat to Disney this week with their (predicted) selections. Then again, they may surprise me and take this game and not Northwestern-Nebraska for their Noon start. Man, the Pac-12 has to be pissed that FOX said that their best games will be on at Noon. I am sure, at some point, someone will ask if 9:00 am start times out on the West Coast are feasible.

TCU at Iowa State (3:30, specialty pack) – I would love to have them mic up the coaches for this game. Not as much for Matt Campbell (he’s a great, young coach with a bright future), but more for Gary Patterson. I’m sure that guy would be a ton of fun to listen to and he has shown that during those ESPN Super-Duper-MegaCast things. Plus I am sure some stathead could come up with a metric that shows how much of his voice Gary loses during a game since it sounds like he has bronchitis every time he does an interview after a game.

Texas at West Virginia (4:00, FOX) – These are the times when I wonder if Sportsnet will ever get back into the college football game. I know they, for some reason, have hockey games on at 2:00. If they were ever able to push that afternoon game to 3:30 then they could simsub a game from FS1 perhaps (although we all know it would be a simsub of the FOX game instead) at Noon. Anyway, I am quite interested to see how a Holgorsen-less Mountaineers squad does this year. They also don’t have Will Grier but that might be less of an issue. And Texas is (back) Texas.

Northwestern at Nebraska (Noon, FOX) – There are a lot of pretty good games this weekend. Considering that, it is still only the 7th best week of the college football season. And only the fifth-best before November. Oh man I am getting stoked for this season. So let’s see if Coach Frosty and his merry band of Huskers can improve this season and go to a bowl game or if it has just become the norm in Lincoln to have a team that does not, in any way, resemble those crazy-good teams of the 80s and 90s.

Sneaky-Good Underrated Game: Arizona at Colorado (4:00, Pac-12 Network) – Both of these teams could put a huge monkey wrench in the often-ridiculous Pac-12 South. And I guess some of you can watch this game if you have the means to watch the Pac-12 Network this year (I am working on that myself).

Best Group of Five Game: UCF at Cincinnati (Friday, 8:00, specialty pack) – This could end up being the game that decides the Group of Five New Year’s Six spot. UCF is UCF and has been good for a few years now and the Bearcats have had a resurgence under Luke Fickell. And they get most of the national spotlight on the Friday night so a lot of people will again be reminded that football in the American Conference can be pretty damn good when it doesn’t involve UConn.

Worst Power Five Game: Maryland at Rutgers (3:30, BTN) – Ah Rutgers back in the Rutgers spot. I might even struggle to put Kansas here with the hiring of Les Miles. Oregon State is still shitty but less people watch those games because of that damn East Coast bias and the fact that the majority of their games are on a network (Pac-12 Network) that most people in Canada don’t get. So by default, Rutgers is the garbage juice of the Power Five this season until further notice.

Week 7

Game of the Week: Alabama at Texas A&M (3:30, CBS) – The SEC has a huge week this week. And this is the biggest game of a huge bunch. Jimbo might have his Aggies ready to go for this one and Kyle Field should be shaking (literally). A Bama loss turns the College Football Playoff on its head. I am sure that will mentioned a few hundred times early on in the game by Brad and Gary.

Other Really Important Games: Florida at LSU (7:00, TSN2) – Basically GOTW 1B to Bama-TAMU’s GOTW 1A. Considering both of these teams are legitimate dark horse contenders for the CFP and the Gators are in the SEC’s easier division, this should be great and means, at least in the SEC’s mind, they own the late afternoon and early timeslots. Sometimes it does just mean more, you know what I’m sayin?

Oklahoma vs. Texas (in Dallas) (Noon, FOX) – It’s the God Damn Red River Shootout! Can we call this Game of the Week 1C? Sure we can! I hate the pussified version of the rivalry name because they don’t want you to use the word shoot. Give me a fucking break. Such a complete overreaction. I would like to know the amount of times someone brought that up when they accused of some sort of gun-related violence. “Yeah officer I wasn’t going to shoot but then I saw the rotten corpse of what used to be the great Cotton Bowl and remembered the Red River Shootout is still played there and I couldn’t help myself so I shot the guy eighteen times.”

Michigan State at Wisconsin (3:30, FOX Sports One) – Every year, FOX Sports One gets at least a couple of games that would easily be candidates for the main FOX network. They are put there to raise the profile of FS1 and try to get more Americans to add the channel to their cable packages. Unfortunately that leaves us Canadians out in the cold. Let’s just be thankful that the College Football Playoff wasn’t moved to FS1. I have no idea why that would happen but the uproar would be massive.

South Carolina at Georgia (Noon, TSN2) – Man this week is packed with good games. No wonder it’s the second best week of the college football season (and the best before November). That this is the fifth-best game of the week says it all. I am still waiting for South Carolina to finally win the SEC one of these days. They have been to one SEC Championship, back in 2010, and got absolutely crushed by Auburn. It would definitely make for a good story if they made it back to Atlanta this year. Of course the Bulldogs don’t care about good stories and Kirby Smart wants another shot at the top prize after the heartbreaking loss two years ago in the National Championship.

Virginia at Miami (Friday, 8:00, TSN2) – The Hoos are good again! Helps to have a guy who takes no bullshit, uh, I mean, bull-phooey like Bronco Mendenhall in charge. He didn’t take long to turn the Cavaliers around but now with guys actually being drafted it will be interesting to see the encore. Miami has a new QB in oft-transferred Tate Martell. He was in that Netflix show QB1: Beyond the Lights. A good show if you want something to watch.

Florida State at Clemson (7:30, ABC) – It is rare that the ABC Primetime game would be this low on the list. This is more of a classic matchup than the current huge games and rivalries. Until the Noles prove that they are truly back, this should go down as an easy Clemson win. But that’s why you play the game (as Clemson fans hark back to their upset loss a while back to Syracuse).

USC at Notre Dame (7:30, NBC) – This feels like a trap game. For both the Irish and us fans. First of all, the Irish have to expect to come into this game as the relatively heavy favourites even if the Trojans turn it on to start the season. Touchdown Jesus has a tougher schedule this season so they can’t take games like this likely or otherwise they can forget the CFB or even the NY6. As for us fans, this could end up being a primetime blowout which feels like the worst kind of blowout. The hype coming in gets crushed quickly. At least this week there are other options during the same timeslot.

Penn State at Iowa (Noon, ABC) – You know what? I just love that Iowa Wave. Just wanted to say that.

Sneaky-Good Underrated Game: Syracuse at NC State (Thursday, 8:00, specialty pack) – Rarely does the college football week start of with a really good Thursday nighter. I mean it’s happened before and these contests are hyped to the tits! Until Clemson falters, these games will always feel a bit second-rate though but it should be a nice matchup for a Thursday night for sure.

Best Group of Five Game: Cincinnati at Houston (3:30, specialty pack) – I have this down as one of the very few reverse mirrors of the season and one of the very few AAC games on ABC. Depending on what the other game is (right now I have Michigan-Illinois) we might get this game in our area as the ABC game. Highly doubtful though. Possible move to TSN could happen as well and I can’t even guess that at this time. I am very intrigued to see Drunk Uncle Dana with the Cougs. I wonder if he parlays this new job into a G5 NY6 spot.

Worst Power Five Game: Louisville at Wake Forest (4:00, specialty pack) – This is around the time the ACC Network will regress like the SEC Network does. They get the shittier games every week and with a 12-day hold on most of them, there’s almost no chance they get a big game unless a team needs to make an appearance on the network to satisfy one of the criteria. I feel almost sad that Wake Forest has now appeared in this spot twice. They aren’t even a bad team. But when they face teams like North Carolina and Louisville there’s not a whole lot they can do, right?

We are halfway through the season now (with these posts). 14 weeks this year! WOOHOO! And remember that networks have the options for 12-day holds on selecting games to show. This means many of these could be wrong because of that. That’s who I will blame if this happens. Not myself. No sir.

I have not picked up a college football preview magazine yet. Are there any out? I haven’t seen any yet but then again I haven’t been in many places that would have them. I have ordered the Phil Steele magazine (as I have mentioned before) and will probably get Street & Smith’s, Athlon and Lindy’s. Enough reading for the summer to set me up for college football season which is…still 82 days away. Ugh. Have a great week everyone!

If that wasn’t a statement, then I don’t know what is – Week 10 College Football Recap

Posted on November 5, 2018 by guelphbossman

The Alabama Crimson Tide put an absolute beatdown on LSU this past weekend to the tune of 29-0. This game wasn’t even close unless you count the first quarter where it was a bit of a defensive struggle. After that, nothing but Crimson Tide. On what ESPN dubbed “Statement Saturday”, Bama had the biggest statement with this win. No matter what Clemson or Notre Dame do the rest of the season, as long as the Tide keep winning, they will remain #1 going into the College Football Playoff. There is no way anyone could have a realistic way to put Clemson or the Irish ahead of them if Alabama keeps winning. Now if they somehow lose to either Mississippi State or Auburn then all bets are off (and all hell may break loose with The Commmittee). Until then, Bama’s the team and Saban’s the man (whether you like it or not). Anyway, the Tide clinched the SEC West and two major things happened with their quarterback, Tua Tagovailoa: he threw his first interception of the season and actually played in the fourth quarter. Crazy, right?

Other recap points!

Speaking of beatdowns, how about the one that Michigan laid on Penn State? It feels like a case of Michigan is for real and Penn State isn’t as good as first thought (at least by me). After a slow and shaky start to the season by Shea Patterson, he has heated up and the defense, like usual, is cookin’ for sure. They will, chances are, go into The Game as the favourite over Ohio State for the first time in a long time. College Gameday is going to be ten hours long for that weekend.
It looked like Texas Tech was going to come back and at least tie things up with the Sooners in the fourth quarter. Then the Red Raiders went for two and the tie game and the Sooners returned it for their own two points. That essentially ended things although Oklahoma did not look nearly as dominant and considering the way the Big XII has been this season, that’s not a good sign for the league as a whole.
Speaking of the Big XII, what a game it was in Austin. West Virginia came back to score a touchdown very late in the game to get within one. So this is what Dana Holgorsen (on probably his 15th Red Bull by then) said to Will Grier: “You want to win the game? Let’s go win the game.” So that’s what they did. Grier ran in the two-point conversion which propelled the Mountaineers to a huge win over Texas. Now it’s a three-team race for the Big XII Championship between these two teams and Oklahoma. Should be fun with no defense whatsoever.
Boston College continued rolling along. The Eagles are finally getting some much deserved respect after beating Virginia Tech. Now they will host College GameDay this Saturday in Chestnut Hill as Clemson comes to town. This may be Clemson’s last hurdle and after they put 77 points up on hapless Louisville they seem to be ready for this fight. A Boston College win puts the ACC in a bit of College Football Playoff turmoil.
Let’s get back to the SEC and talk about the other half of that huge doubleheader CBS had. On paper, two MASSIVE games. On the field, two not-very-close games. For the SEC East crown, Georgia had a relatively easy time with Kentucky, clinching the division in early November. So now it will be UGA-Bama for the SEC title….in four weeks.
It looked like Notre Dame was running away with their game against Northwestern. Then a blocked punt that turned into a touchdown. Then another drive by Northwestern for another touchdown. All of a sudden the Wildcats are within one score and things are getting tense in Evanston. The Irish pulled the game out in the end thanks to a touchdown run by Ian Book but this is really feeling a hell of a lot like 2012, which is not a good sign for people that want competitive CFP semi-finals.
Florida State’s bad season (by their standards) continued as they lost to NC State in a game that was never close. They will now have to win two of their last three games of the season to be bowl-eligible. And their games are against Notre Dame, Boston College and Florida. Good luck.
Virginia was in the driver’s seat in the ACC Coastal. Yes, Virginia. That all changed when Pitt pulled the slight upset of the ranked Cavaliers. So now Pittsburgh is in the driver’s seat in the ACC Coastal. Yes, Pittsburgh. I wonder if we could get a 6-6 Pitt team in the ACC Championship against Clemson. That always plays havoc with bowl eligibility.
The Pac-12 North will go through Pullman this season. Washington State’s game winning touchdown in the final minute to beat Cal kept them as the Pac-12’s lone hope to get to the College Football Playoff. Really, it probably comes down to the Apple Cup as to whether a) Wazzu gets to the Pac-12 Championship and b) Wazzu can get to the CFP. A lot can happen in the next two weeks but I can’t see anything major enough to diminish this game in primetime on Black Friday.
Is anyone going to win the Pac-12 South? Utah seemed to be the team to do it and then stunk up the joint against Arizona State. So just like the ACC Coastal, we could have a pretty bad division winner in the Pac-12 South going to a conference championship game.
Ohio State continues to not look like a CFP contender. They struggled all day with Nebraska. They were able to win but only by 5 against a horrible Husker team. What this game did give us is arguably the worst kickoff/onside kick attempt ever. If you haven’t seen it, find it and check it out. I don’t know what the Nebraska kicker was doing but…yeah it was pretty bad and good for a laugh.
UCF beat Temple but it wasn’t easy. Their chances of getting to the College Football Playoff are basically zero now so if they win out they go to either the Peach or Fiesta Bowl.
Don’t forget about Fresno State in the Group of Five race. After their pummeling of UNLV, they are a few wins away from giving UCF a real run for their money (if the Knights lose a game).
Florida played like the Florida from last season in their loss to Missouri. It was almost like it was just a matter of time when that team would implode and that was the day. Not to say Mizzou is not good because they are a pretty good team but this Gators team with Dan Mullen taking the helm was supposed to be a lot better than last year’s disaster. They are. But not as much as some people may think.
Great game in West Lafayette as Purdue knocks off Iowa in the final seconds. Other than Northwestern (somehow), no one in the Big Ten West looks that great this season. Seems to be a trend among quite a few divisions.
Iowa State won pretty easily over Kansas. The shocking thing is that the next day, the Jayhawks fired David Beaty. Don’t know why that was the straw that broke the camel’s back and not the inexcusable losses from previous games but still. Sounds like Jim Leavitt would be a candidate to go to Lawrence which would be huge and maybe a game changer for Kansas.
Army will end up with at least a share of the Commander-in-Chief’s Trophy after holding Air Force off with a defensive stop late in the game. This means they retain it (since they won it last year) and could win it outright if they beat Navy in a game they will surely be the favourite in.

That was a fun weekend of college football. Now for the Bossman Top 25!

#1	Alabama
#2	Clemson
#3	Georgia
#4	Michigan
#5	Notre Dame
#6	Oklahoma
#7	West Virginia
#8	Washington State
#9	UCF
#10	Ohio State
#11	LSU
#12	Syracuse
#13	Kentucky
#14	Boston College
#15	Utah State
#16	Fresno State
#17	Texas
#18	Penn State
#19	Washington
#20	Florida
#21	Mississippi State
#22	Michigan State
#23	Utah
#24	Cincinnati
#25	NC State

Yes I have Georgia at #3 ahead of Michigan and Notre Dame. If the Dawgs run the rest of the regular season table then they are almost certainly going to be in CFP consideration. Michigan sneaks past Notre Dame into #4. Don’t worry Irish fans: win out and there’s no way you’re out. West Virginia gets a huge bump to #7 and still could end up left out of the Big XII Championship. LSU and Kentucky didn’t fall far considering who they lost to. Also, watch out for Utah State as well as Fresno State (whom I mentioned earlier). Any misstep by UCF and these two teams have the best shot at going to what would probably be the Fiesta Bowl.

OK it’s that time of year folks! MACtion Tuesdays. And MACtion Wednesdays! Tomorrow night will see Kent State face the MAC’s best team in Buffalo. That game is on the specialty pack. Wednesday night’s games are also both on the specialty pack:

Ohio at Miami-OH at 7:00
Toledo at Northern Illinois at 8:00

Also the CFP Rankings show is on at 9:00 tomorrow night on TSN3. It might be delayed depending on how long the first college basketball game on TSN goes. Oh yeah college basketball starts up again as well. So there’s that. Tomorrow I will have a true bowl projections post (not like the crazy one I posted last week). Have a great week everyone!

What is this? – Week 10 College Football TV Schedule

Posted on November 1, 2018 by guelphbossman

No real outrage over the first College Football Playoff rankings? What sorcery is this? What will ESPN talk about? Oh…..yeah maybe the issues at Maryland and Rutgers. I’m sure the Big Ten is very happy to have invited those two programs now.

Anyway, the first rankings from The Committee came down and it was meh. Nothing crazy. The only thing I could slightly be surprised about was Washington State and Kentucky being 8 and 9 and UCF being 12. Other than that, everything makes sense. For now. We know that all it takes is for one surprise result and The Committee goes crazy and ends up somehow putting Florida State at 25.

We are in the midst of almost a month straight of FOOTBAW on every day! Rejoice all you college football hooligans! This is when the weeks starting getting quite stacked and this is the first of a few (you know, except for SEC Sleepwalk Saturday). Let’s get to the schedule shall we?

Thursday

		US	Canada
Northern Illinois at Akron	7:00 PM
Ohio at Western Michigan	7:00 PM
Temple at #12 UCF	7:30 PM

UCF tries to stay perfect with a rather good Temple team coming to Orlando. Also, WMU could make Buffalo’s MAC East title hopes much easier if they can knock off Ohio.

Friday

		US	Canada
Penn at Cornell	6:00 PM
Pittsburgh at #25 Virginia	7:30 PM
Western Kentucky at Middle Tennessee	8:00 PM

Yes, the Cavaliers are ranked and leading the Coastal. However, Pitt still has a chance to win the division. Seriously. If they pull the upset here they get very close to being one of the craziest ACC Championship Game teams ever.

Saturday Early

		US	Canada
Louisville at #2 Clemson	Noon
Nebraska at #10 Ohio State	Noon
Air Force at Army	Noon
Rutgers at Wisconsin	Noon
#20 Texas A&M at Auburn	Noon
Michigan State at Maryland	Noon
Memphis at East Carolina	Noon
South Carolina at Ole Miss	Noon
Georgia Tech at North Carolina	12:30 PM

Not a ton here as it really is the appetizer to the rest of the day which is pretty frickin awesome. Nebraska and Louisville should have huge troubles in the early games. Texas A&M-Auburn could end up being good. Other than that, it’s football and that’s all that counts at this point.

UPDATE: Syracuse-Wake Forest has been added in this timeslot.

Saturday Afternoon

		US	Canada
Florida State at #21 NC State	3:30 PM
#6 Georgia at #9 Kentucky	3:30 PM
#13 West Virginia at #17 Texas	3:30 PM
Tulane at USF	3:30 PM
Minnesota at Illinois	3:30 PM
#16 Iowa at Purdue	3:30 PM
Navy at Cincinnati	3:30 PM
#22 Boston College at Virginia Tech	3:45 PM
#14 Penn State at #5 Michigan	3:45 PM
Missouri at #11 Florida	4:00 PM
Charlotte at Tennessee	4:00 PM

Now this gets good. Three games between ranked teams. Another four involving a ranked team. Plus Cincinnati and USF who aren’t that far outside the Top 25. Makes for a VERY good afternoon slate. UGA-UK dominates this timeslot to an extent but PSU-UM and WVU-UT are also huge games with massive ramifications for all involved. Now we are getting into the nitty-gritty of the season and it shows with this type of schedule.

And yes, you are not seeing things…we have an ACC Network doubleheader to make up for the game they lost earlier in the season due to a hurricane. So that’s good, right?

Saturday Primetime

		US	Canada
UConn at Tulsa	7:00 PM
Duke at Miami	7:00 PM
Houston at SMU	7:00 PM
#4 Notre Dame at Northwestern	7:15 PM
UCLA at Oregon	7:30 PM
UTSA at UAB	7:30 PM
Louisiana Tech at #18 Mississippi State	7:30 PM
#7 Oklahoma at Texas Tech	8:00 PM
#1 Alabama at #3 LSU	8:00 PM

If it wasn’t for Alabama-LSU which, at this point, is the game of the year, the primetime timeslot wouldn’t be as good as the afternoon timeslot which seems to be happening with more and more regularity. ND-NW should be a good one as this could be the Irish’s last tough game of the regular season (since I don’t think USC would be considered that tough to play against at this point). Your PEW! PEW! game of the night will probably be the Oklahoma-Texas Tech game. Don’t be surprised if we see 100 points and 1000 yards of offense in this one. Finally, Chip Kelly returns to Eugene and not many care. How sad is that.

Saturday Late Night

		US	Canada
BYU at Boise State	10:15 PM
San Diego State at New Mexico	10:15 PM
#23 Fresno State at UNLV	10:30 PM
California at #8 Washington State	10:45 PM

One fairly massive game is the Pac-12 After Dark affair. All the Cougs have to do is keep winning. Easier said than done as Cal has been a tough out this season. Fresno State continues their probably march to the Mountain West Championship and surpisingly, BYU-Boise isn’t even close to the big game of the night. A bit of an indictment there on two (normally) good programs.

Games to set your eyeballs on

Alabama at LSU (8:00, CBS) – This has become somewhat of a tradition. To have the Bama-LSU game on in primetime on CBS, CBS’s only primetime pick (for the SEC) in a season. This happens even when LSU isn’t that great because the Tide have been great for years now. To say this is huge is a vast understatement. LSU could really turn the whole season on its head with a win this Saturday night. A Bama win eliminates LSU (probably) from CFP contention although the New Year’s Six may be the floor for both of these programs. Should be electric in Death Valley.

Georgia at Kentucky (3:30, CBS) – So many games to choose from for the #2 spot. I will choose this one here. Why? Honestly, because it’s Kentucky and the Wildcats are NEVER the #2 game of the week and rarely even sniff the game of the week list. This is for the SEC East as well so it’s huge. CBS got the mother of all doubleheaders with this game and the Bama-LSU game at night. I would struggle to find a bigger doubleheader in the past few seasons better than this one. Plus if Kentucky wins, the experts HAVE to talk about Kentucky being in the College Football Playoff, like I did with my 1984-esque bowl projections post (and no, I don’t mean the George Orwell book).

Penn State at Michigan (3:45, specialty pack) – 3:45 is a bit of an odd time but there are probably two reasons for this. One, Notre Dame-Northwestern was slated for either 7:15 or 7:30 (for some unknown reason). They didn’t get the ABC primetime spot (that was smart on Disney’s end) so they had to go to the ESPN spot that was now fifteen minutes later. Two, Kirk Herbstreit has to fly from Baton Rouge to Detroit and get to the game so that Chris Fowler doesn’t have to do everything by himself like some sort of Joey Styles/college football mashup (“Throw over the middle by McSorley and OH MY GOD!”). Actually that sounds kind of fun.

West Virginia at Texas (3:30, FOX) – Honestly this feels like the Big XII semi-final match and that the winner gets Oklahoma at JerryWorld in a month. Looking at the other two FOX games, I would be more than shocked if GUS JOHNSON and rankings-hater Joel Klatt wasn’t on the call here. This is actually only the third best game in this timeslot so it makes me wonder why this wasn’t put on at Noon. Maybe they didn’t want to start their broadcast day with having to say “Ya know…Texas may not be back all the way yet” and then follow that up with Ohio State pummeling the ever-loving snot out of Nebraska and the sad Chip Kelly reunion in Eugene.

California at Washington State (10:45, specialty pack) – Wazzu at #8. I am surprised someone didn’t say they hated them being in that spot and that most of it had to with an irrational hate of Mike Leach. This is the kind of speed bump game that many teams looking to contend run into. Don’t be surprised if at about 2 in the morning, this game is coming down to the wire. Either that or we see 70s porn star Gardner Minshew throw like 70 times in typical Coug fashion and Washington State is running away with it.

Honourable mention: Temple at UCF (Thursday, 7:30, specialty pack); Boston College at Virginia Tech (3:45, ACC Network); Notre Dame at Northwestern (7:15, specialty pack); Oklahoma at Texas Tech (8:00, ABC); Pittsburgh at Virginia (Friday, 7:30, specialty pack…yes I couldn’t just do three this week since many of these games are important)

Some gambling fun and games

How about my Oklahoma State over Texas pick! And my Houston over USF pick! Just ignore most of the rest of my picks last week though. But hey we are on to a new week with new picks so let’s do this!

Notre Dame over Northwestern

Washington State over California

Georgia over Kentucky

Alabama over LSU

Pittsburgh over Virginia (upset!)

Virginia Tech over Boston College (mini-upset?)

Oklahoma over Texas Tech

Texas over West Virginia

Michigan over Penn State

UCF over Temple

Fresno State over UNLV

You know what? Everything is up on the guides! WOOHOO! I shouldn’t have to cheer about this but we are still at the point where it is not a given that all the already scheduled games won’t be up on the channels that are set aside for the very purpose of showing college football games.

Thursday Night Football is upon us again and oh my god this is awful. Oakland at San Francisco? I don’t know if I can handle that. I know at the start of the season, the execs at FOX salivated at the fact that we would have Jon Gruden in his coaching return coaching an at-least .500 Raiders team going up against Jimmy G and the Niners in a matchup between two possibly playoff-bound teams. Instead, they get this. The Raiders are hot garbage and the Niners aren’t much better. At least the Niners will have Garoppolo back next season. Then again, the Raiders will have Gruden back again next season as well. Poor Raiders fans.

I, as per usual, will be on Twitter this Saturday although I don’t tweet as much as I used to. For one, they don’t like the show the game-specific hashtags as much so tweeting out something about a specific game may be read by not many people. Which is very unlike popular members of the media would could tweet out “Da Volunteerz are diarrhea” and get 10,000 likes. Again, not doing it for the likes. I truly enjoy interacting with others on gameday. It adds something to the college football experience…more than 14+ hours of actual college football I can watch does already. Welp, enjoy the games everyone!

Week 4 College Football Recap – Sponsored by the Tip Drill

Posted on September 28, 2015 by guelphbossman

Wherever it stops, nobody knows…except that one TCU wide receiver. Check this out:

What an absolutely crazy finish in Lubbock on Saturday. And the thing was, that tip drill touchdown where the Horned Frogs’ receiver toed the line to stay inbounds wasn’t the end of it. Texas Tech almost created their own “the band is on the field” play. They came about 8 yards short. But I have to say this: Kliff Kingsbury definitely has his Red Raiders back after a pretty terrible year last year. Also, TCU has to be very careful as they continue their conference schedule. That lack of defense will not fly against Baylor, Oklahoma, or West Virginia.

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand the rest of the recap

An ugly hit tarnishes an absolutely great game. The hit that put Gunner Kiel out of the game (and out of commission period for a bit there) was technically legal. However, this is the type of hit that should probably come under the targeting rule. I get that the defender wasn’t going for the head but let’s be honest: how many players actually intend to hurt their opponent with a hit? Only the few psychopaths who may be on HGH or whatever steroid-derivative being used on college campuses these days. Anyway, other than that, this was an amazing game as Memphis held on to beat Cincy and may be the only contender to Temple in the American this season (unless Navy or Houston has anything to say about it). Much better than the NFL Thursday nighter which was a heaping pile of garbage juice.

Boise is who we thought they were. And so was Virginia. Boise State bounces back from a tough loss to BYU to thrash the Hoos. They are still in the driver’s seat for the Group of Five spot but will have to run the table to do it (I think). As for Mike London, he might as well put his house up for sale since I can’t see UVA bringing him back next season.

Before I get to Saturday’s games, I have to say something about the guide for the U.S. College Sports Package. I don’t know if Rogers or Bell Satellite customers were having the same issue but until about 2:30 or so the guide showed almost no games on the specialty pack. I don’t know if it was a technical issue (I was told it was when I called in and was sent to second-tier customer support which may not sound like much but they seem a whole lot more knowledgeable than the first-tier CSRs) but this type of crap has to stop with the specialty pack schedules. This is not rocket science. Unless there’s something I am missing, I can’t see why this is as difficult as it’s made out to be. Find out what TSN is showing then set out the schedule. It can be done by Wednesday night at the absolute latest. Just getting to be too frustrating is all. Anyway…

Now that was some fun Harbaughll. Wow, did the Wolverines ever lay a beating on BYU. I mean this wasn’t even close. Taylor Mangum P.I. had no chance to do anything all day. I will be honest, the way Michigan is playing, that game against Michigan State (October 17^th) could end up being huge in the Big Ten East race. Jimmy Football has already turned it around in Ann Arbor and the season is only four weeks old. Impressive.

Fournette Four Heisman. Leonard Fournette has crashed through everyone to become the early-season Heisman favourite. He has been the biggest reason why LSU is in the top 10 right now. The guy looks like a stronger Adrian Peterson and could be huge in the NFL. First he has to be big in a big-game atmosphere and he will have his chance in three weeks when the Tigers play Florida.

And the winner of the ACC Gongshow Division is… Let’s be honest, no one wants to win this division. No one. Everyone was touting Georgia Tech as the team to beat in the ACC Coastal. What happened? Duke beat them pretty easily in a soggy affair at Wallace Wade in front of literally a few thousand fans (at least that’s what it looked like). Duke is not exactly a world-beater. Virginia Tech played in even worse weather against East Carolina and looked thoroughly outplayed. North Carolina, Pitt, and Miami look OK early but do you trust them to win 6 or 7 games inside the conference? Other than Virginia, any of those teams could win. Let’s hope for a six-way tie.

What the hell is happening in Columbia and Orlando? Watching South Carolina and UCF was pretty painful at times. The Gamecocks have almost become the worst team in the SEC East (and with the way Vandy has played lately maybe the worst). UCF looks like a middle-of-the-road FCS team so far this season. George O’Leary should step down and just concentrate on being athletic director and start over with this program. They fell FAST. As for the HBC, will Spurrier be back next year? It’s up to him really but he may want to quit. It has to be frustrating with the team he has.

Shhhhhhhhh. Indiana is sneaking up on everyone. Indiana (INDIANA!) is 4-0. Two wins away from bowl-eligibility. And they should be able to get it considering the state of the bottom half of the Big Ten. They have looked good enough to win but we will see what they are really made of once conference play begins next week. Stay close with the Buckeyes and we know this team is for real.

Speaking of the worst game of the week… Can someone please explain this?

Kansas is flat-out awful and Rutgers wouldn’t be too bad but the program as a whole is a mess. Thank god I didn’t even get this game because I would have felt compelled to turn the channel there to at least see what was going on and then I would have had to gouge my eyes out.

I feel so bad for Charlie Strong and the Texas faithful. Wow. Another week, another special teams gaffe late in a game that costs his team the win. The punter had one job. Grab the snap and punt the ball away. If the Pokes returned it for a TD, it’s not really his fault. But what happened? That was totally his fault. Set Okie State up for the win and possibly eliminated any chance for Strong to come back to Austin next season. Poor guy.

Are the Irish for real? Who can tell. I mean it was UMass for Christ’s sake. It was exciting early on as the Minutemen kept up with the Irish but we all knew at some point the Golden Domers would run away with it and boy did they. Next week is the massive test. Clemson, at Clemson. Notre Dame wins that and then we start talking College Football Playoff.

More average play from the Buckeyes. It’s like they are playing down to these MAC opponents. Then again, Michigan State is doing the same thing. I know they are #1 (and the Spartans are #2) but the way some teams are coming on, they may continue to win only to see them drop a spot or two in the rankings (a la Florida State last season).

Well Butch, what do you say to that? Another double-digit blown lead by the Vols. There were so many questionable play calls by Jones in this one that Vols fans should be infuriated. The idea not to go for two after going up 26-14 in the fourth seems so utterly asinine. It’s the fourth fucking quarter, Butch. Almost every other coach would go for two because there is less than 15 minutes to go in the game you dickwad. All I have to say to all this is Butch, you may be rooming with Derek Dooley by the end of the season.

Hey do you want to play quarterback? How about you? I am sure Nick Saban is looking for anyone to replace Jake Coker. Coker just hasn’t been that good to start the season. If the Tide have anyone else (and I’m sure they have some freshman that they were hoping to redshirt) that person will be behind centre the next time the Tide play (this Saturday against Georgia).

The Wildcats are no longer the SEC East whipping boy. Well twin whipping boys along with Vanderbilt. Mark Stoops has slowly moved the Wildcats into contenders to make a bowl game this season and it looks like they could make a few waves in the division race with their play.

Well it was nice near the top while it lasted. Auburn is taking a slippery slip n’ slide down into the bottom part of the SEC West. Other than Arkansas (oh boy), I don’t see a team below them in the pecking order. Gus Malzahn and WILL MUSCHAMP! must have burst at least ten blood vessels in their face each at this point. First barely beating Jacksonville State and then being basically non-competitive against Mississippi State. Not good times in Auburn right now.

Should we have relegation like in soccer? I’d nominate UCF, Wyoming (who has been god-awful this season), Idaho (of course), and SMU, who came back against James Madison to take the lead and then coughed that lead up late to lose to the Dukes. Don’t get me wrong, Chad Morris has this team improved but that just shows how fucking awful SMU was last season.

Both of the #3s had problems. Ole Miss (the other #3 in the poll) struggled with Vanderbilt but were able to pull it out in the end. I will say this, Derek Mason finally (FINALLY!) has the defense playing very well. Vandy’s D should be one of the better ones in the SEC and they just flat-out haven’t been the last year or so. Maybe they might be able to play spoiler later in the season. As for Ole Miss, this won’t cut it in the SEC. Play better or they will lose their chance at the CFP (or even the New Year’s Six).

Can Arkansas go back to the Southwest Conference? Man, as bad as it is in Austin and Knoxville, what Bret Bielema is going through at Arkansas may even be worse. They blew the lead against Texas A&M in what was looking like an upset to get the Hogs back on track. They played awful down the stretch and lost in overtime. This after Kliff Kingsbury basically owned him during the week after Texas Tech’s victory over them a week previous. If it weren’t for Bielema having a hot wife, I would say he was losing at life right now.

The Rosen One has arrived. Yeah he had a few slip-ups in the previous two games but Josh Rosen stepped up in a big way on a national stage. UCLA destroyed Zona in every facet of the game and have to be considered the Pac-12 favourite in the merry-go-round that is the second best conference in the land. I don’t know where the Fighting RichRods go from here but they have to do something or they will find it tough sledding in the Pac-12 South.

And speaking of beatdowns… Holy crap did the Utes ever put the boots to Oregon. The Ducks have never lost in Eugene like that. So now, maybe we have two big-time teams in the South while the North is a bit of a shitshow with the Cal-Stanford game at the end of the season becoming huge.

OK maybe make that three big teams in the Pac-12 South. Almost forgot about USC. They throttled Arizona State to finish Pac-12 Beatdown Saturday. Things are going to be fun when USC plays the Bruins for the Victory Bell (or when they play Utah…or when UCLA plays Utah…yeah the Pac-12 South is tough).

Someone mentioned on Twitter that it feels a lot like 2007 was in college football. If you don’t remember, that was the most insane year of the BCS era and the turnover among the top 10 teams was pretty crazy almost every week. No one could stay near the top and we ended up with a 2-loss national champion. This kind of feels like it. However, until Ohio State loses we can’t go full-2007.

The first month of the season has also proved what many have said for at least ten years now….that the preseason AP poll has to go. All it does is put certain teams higher than they really should have been to begin with. Case in point? Auburn. They aren’t a top 10 team. Hell, they aren’t a top 25 team. But where did they begin the season? At #6. That’s insane. I would be very happy if they had no rankings for week one and did the first AP poll after the first set of games is done. All the talking heads and experts can have their mock polls going into the season and that is fine. But nothing official until week one is done. Makes a whole lot more sense and then makes it so some teams don’t have to lose two or three games to fall out of the top 25 in the first month of the season.

Later on in the week I will have the NFL recap, the college football and NFL schedules for next week, and a look at all the winless teams so far to see I predict them to be at the end of the season.

Week 2 College Football Recap – Sponsored by Mike London’s Tears

Posted on September 14, 2015 by guelphbossman

No words can describe the sadness

It looked like the Virginia Cavaliers were going to pull off the massive upset. Then DeShone Kizer and Will Fuller had to ruin it with that last minute touchdown. Poor Mike London. This could have been the statement game that saved his job (at least for this season). Now he’s back to square one and still on the top of the hot seat since nobody’s friend Tim Beckman got shitcanned before the season even began. And hey the Illini are 2-0 to start the season. Yes they have faced basically nobody but considering what they’ve been through going into the season, I’d say that’s pretty good.

Now I don’t know about the rest of you but Bell did not do a good job with the specialty pack this past weekend. I will say this though…all the fault on this lies on Serena Williams (or Roberta Vinci). Let me explain. Originally, TSN had pretty much all their stations covering the US Open tennis women’s final on Saturday. The reason for this is that Serena Williams was slated to become the first woman in almost thirty years to complete the Grand Slam. So what happens? She loses to this Roberta Vinci chick who isn’t even ranked in a complete shocker. So what does TSN do? They decide, fuck it, we will take some of the channels and change it to college football. The problem is, when they do this, Bell (and I assume Rogers) is obligated to take these games off the specialty pack. The problem with this is that it creates schedule gaps and I know how Bell is with schedule gaps. They go nuts figuring it out and usually fuck it up. And they did. Some games overlapped so badly that you were joined in progress to the next game and they were already well into the second quarter. The worst was the late night game when the signal changed three times between the two games (despite the fact one was already on one of the other specialty pack channels). I know ESPN isn’t doing it since why in the fuck would they put ESPN2 stuff on ESPNU even by accident? Answer is they wouldn’t since they are two totally separate channels so that’s all on Bell. So in conclusion, thanks Serena.

Remember what I said about Week 2 being the worst schedule of games? It was, so of course, that meant that some of these games had to have some really good finishes. And they did. Here’s a bit of a recap:

Let’s go back to the Irish-Cavs game since something more major than the Irish comeback at the end occurred. Another high-profile player has gone down to injury and will be out for the season. Quarterback Malik Zaire had his ankle broken in a pretty gruesome injury and is done for the year. This may hamper the Irish’s chances at getting into the New Year’s Six. And speaking of New Year’s Six…
Does BYU now replace Boise State as the predicted Group of Five representative in the New Year’s Six? I still don’t think so although BYU has played much better than I had thought they would. But the Broncos might not be the team now. It’s a crapshoot as to who could replace them but don’t sleep on Temple doing some damage in the American conference this season (especially after their win over Cincinnati).
What in the blue hell happened to the SEC this past weekend? Nick Saban has to be looking around thinking “what the fuck?” To start, Arkansas was beat by Toledo. RANKED Arkansas. Not that Toledo isn’t a good MAC team but that was painful to watch. Auburn wondered what it would be like to be 2007 Michigan losing to Appalachian State. Problem is, this year’s Jacksonville State is no Appalachian State and Auburn may be better than that Michigan squad was. To go to overtime against the Gamecocks (no, not those Gamecocks) should eliminate any chance for them to get into the New Year’s Six or the College Football Playoff. Just terrible. Then Tennessee goes and squanders a lead against Oklahoma and loses in double overtime. It would have been quite the statement game for Butch Jones. Instead, they tumble back out of the top 25 (where they probably shouldn’t have belonged to begin with). Finally, Kentucky beats South Carolina, probably completing the Gamecocks’ (yes, those Gamecocks) dive into the bottom rungs of the SEC. What a disaster. And through all this, Bama looks good enough against Middle Tennessee and Ole Miss plays Madden for a second straight week so those two will get all the headlines going into next weekend’s mega-matchup. Wow, that was a lot to handle there.
And the game of the week lived up to the game of the week hype. Oregon-Michigan State was a fantastic matchup. The Spartans have to be considered a possibility for the College Football Playoff and their game against Ohio State later this season could end up being a 1 vs. 2 matchup if things work out.
Finally, Washington State, after losing to Portland State last week (of all teams), comes out and beats Rutgers, a team in the Big Ten that made a bowl last season. Crazy.

I’m not going to do any more analysis on this past weekend since I had to PVR a lot, the PVR’d stuff didn’t all work out and I really did not get much of a chance to watch a lot of game action (like I hoped I would) and instead had to rely on highlights and other’s recaps. I’ll try my best next time (or at least better than I did this time).

After the first two weeks created much opposing results I will wait at least until Wednesday to post the college football schedule this week. First week it was set up in a fantastic manner and this past week was a bit of a shitshow. As for the NFL schedule it’s always steady as she goes and will be up by Friday at the latest but my hope there is for Thursday.

Bossman's Blog

A lot of college football (and perhaps a bit of miscellaneous crap that I think warrants a post)

Tag Archives: Cavaliers

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