First off, remember this classic? It was awesome. So the powers that be decided to quash the possibility of it ever happening again. Instead, we get a nine-overtime affair that made me want to pour bleach into my eyes.
Anyway, as you can see from the pic, the Aggie faithful stormed the field after the win. It was a big win. An exhausting one, even for the fans who were there for over five hours. Now, rushing the field like this is now fined by certain conferences. And the fines can be hefty. LSU was just fined a quarter of a million dollars for their fans rushing the field after the Tigers thoroughly destroyed previously undefeated Ole Miss. It was a big win.
Here’s the dilemma from what I see: seeing fans rush the field can be, most of the time, an amazing visual. They are just so happy their team pulled off the victory. Can there be dangers to it? Absolutely. And there can be altercations. Look at that asshole Jermaine Burton who punched a female Tennessee fan after the Vols’ win over Bama. He said he was scared. Bullshit. He could have punched any fan and chose her. Funny he didn’t choose a bigger guy who might have taken offense to it and retaliated. Look, my point is this…I don’t think rushing the field should be fined. At all. That sounds crazy but I believe it. Now, if something happens when the fans rush the field, then the school should be punished (as long as it was not someone from the opposing team doing something wrong). And the fines should be hefty. Forget $250,000. Start at $500K and go up from there. And if students cause issues at games when they storm the field? Guess what? Pack your shit and fuck off to another university. Instead, we have these blanket fines that do nothing really except move money from one coffer to another coffer. Dumb.
Alright, let’s get down to some schedules, shall we?
Thursday
| US | Canada | ||
| Virginia Tech at #24 NC State | 7:30 PM |  |  |
| Louisiana at Southern Miss | 7:30 PM |  | |
| #14 Utah at Washington State | 10:00 PM |  |
Two pretty important games here. NC State has to win here to have any chance to move back up the rankings and perhaps sneak into the New Year’s Six. Utah has the same issue going for them although they are closer to the Top 10 which basically guarantees a spot. OK make it three important games since Louisiana has to keep pace with Troy and South Alabama in the Sun Belt West.
Friday
| US | Canada | ||
| Yale at Columbia | 6:30 PM |  | |
| Louisiana Tech at FIU | 8:00 PM |  | |
| East Carolina at BYU | 8:00 PM | | |
Kind of a lacklustre night to be honest. I guess you could see some importance in the Cougs’ game since a loss might actually have them struggling to make a bowl game this season.
Saturday Early
| US | Canada | ||
| Notre Dame at #16 Syracuse | Noon |  |  |
| Georgia Tech at Florida State | Noon |  | |
| Boston College at UConn | Noon | | |
| #7 TCU at West Virginia | Noon | | |
| USF at Houston | Noon | | |
| Toledo at Eastern Michigan | Noon | | |
| #2 Ohio State at #13 Penn State | Noon |  | |
| Oklahoma at Iowa State | Noon | | |
| Arkansas at Auburn | Noon |  | |
Massive early game in State College. You could still consider it a Game of the Year candidate. This is a prove-it game for Penn State. Win this and it puts all the tough games they’ve had behind them and puts them in a great spot to make the College Football Playoff. A tOSU win means it comes down to them and Michigan for any Big Ten CFP possibilities.
If you had told me that Toledo and Eastern Michigan would be facing off in late October, essentially, for the MAC West championship I would have thought you were on some great drugs. But that is the case. EMU has shocked a lot of people this year. Chris Creighton has done a great job in Ypsilanti. It also helps that every other team in the division (other than these two) has looked below-average at best.
Syracuse has a potential speed bump game to get back on track as they host the Irish and honestly it feels weird to see Oklahoma face Iowa State where neither team is ranked.
Saturday Afternoon
| US | Canada | ||
| Rutgers at Minnesota | 2:30 PM |  | |
| #17 Illinois at Nebraska | 3:30 PM | | |
| #10 Wake Forest at Louisville | 3:30 PM | | |
| Florida vs. #1 Georgia (in Jacksonville) | 3:30 PM |  | |
| Temple at Navy | 3:30 PM | | |
| #20 Cincinnati at UCF | 3:30 PM | | |
| Northwestern at Iowa | 3:30 PM | | |
| #9 Oklahoma State at #22 Kansas State | 3:30 PM | | |
| #8 Oregon at California | 3:30 PM | | |
| South Alabama at Arkansas State | 4:00 PM | | |
| Missouri at #25 South Carolina | 4:00 PM | | |
No huge games but a lot of games of importance in this timeslot. OK fine you can say Oklahoma State-Kansas State is huge but there are still a lot of things that could happen in the Big XII with one possibility being that the conference cannibalizes itself and no one makes it to the College Football Playoff.
Illinois is actually on ABC! And they are the reason they are there! Bert doing a great job in Champaign and a win here puts them into a showdown with Purdue for the Big Ten West as long as no other screwy things happen…meaning something will happen. Yes there is an odd start for the Big Ten Network game and no, I don’t know why although I haven’t taken too hard a look to find that out.
Some are saying Georgia may be looking past Florida. I know I would if I was Georgia. I can’t see the Gators doing anything here but you never know as the Cocktail Party can get weird some years. Finally, South Alabama is in a nationally televised game on Saturday probably for the first time ever. They should easily beat ASU in this one. Maybe they are a dark horse for the NY6.
Saturday Primetime
| US | Canada | ||
| UAB at Florida Atlantic | 7:00 PM | | |
| #19 Kentucky at #3 Tennessee | 7:00 PM | | |
| Colorado State at Boise State | 7:00 PM | | |
| Coastal Carolina at Marshall | 7:00 PM |  | |
| #10 USC at Arizona | 7:00 PM |  |  |
| Michigan State at #4 Michigan | 7:30 PM | |  |
| Baylor at Texas Tech | 7:30 PM | | |
| Arizona State at Colorado | 7:30 PM | | |
| #15 Ole Miss at Texas A&M | 7:30 PM | | |
| Pittsburgh at #21 North Carolina | 8:00 PM | | |
In almost any week of any season, UK-UT is the SEC on CBS Game of the Week (and potentially the primetime choice). But with the Cocktail Party this week, they are “relegated” to the primetime ESPN game. Still a good slot. Plus, this game is an elimination game. Winner has a shot at the SEC East and the loser has to hope to make up ground to get a nice January bowl game.
Speaking of relegation, USC is on the Pac-12 Network this week. OK, they are at Arizona who, while improved, is still not that good a team. But when you see that Arizona State and Colorado are on ESPNU (which is slightly better if you ask me), it makes you scratch your head a bit. I know the Trojans were picked for the P12N to fulfill their contracted amount of appearances on the network and this game was as good as any to put there. Still…it feels odd to see a Top 10 team on a conference network, especially the worst conference network around.
Saturday Late Night
| US | Canada | ||
| Nevada at San Jose State | 10:30 PM | | |
| Stanford at #12 UCLA | 10:30 PM | | |
| San Diego State at Fresno State | 10:30 PM | |
The Spartans actually have a big game here. By the time the calendar turns, they might be the favourites to represent the West Division in the Mountain West Championship. Also, the Bruins look to bounce back and maybe get back into the Top 10 against the Cardinal who may have a tough decision with David Shaw ahead. Not saying Shaw will be fired this season (or even in the offseason) but something has to give here as the team has been pretty bad for a few years now.
Big Games O’ The Week
Ohio State at Penn State (Noon, FOX) – Just a reminder that this game is at Beaver Stadium so it gives the Nittany Lions more of a chance than if it was at the Horseshoe. This might not be exactly easy for the Fighting Ryan Days but a win here will put them into a one-game showdown in a month against Michigan for the Big Ten East and may put them at #1 in the first College Football Playoff poll on Tuesday.
Kentucky at Tennessee (7:00, specialty pack) – I’m sure there are many who wished this game would have been on TSN instead of the Michigan State-Michigan game but yeah, a good Big Ten game will almost always rate higher for TSN than a game from any other conference. As I said above, this is an SEC East elimination game so the stakes are high. It will be interesting to see if the Vols have a letdown after their big win over Alabama a couple weeks ago or if the Cats can get up for this game, dealing with a loud Knoxville crowd.
Oklahoma State at Kansas State (3:30, FOX) – FOX has quite the lineup this week. I know some marvel when I say that but it honestly doesn’t happen often. It probably helps that it’s only two games this week that lead into the World Series which starts after this game. This is part of the Big XII gauntlet that is happening before our eyes that involves more than half the conference (and maybe not even Oklahoma). FOX is probably hoping this game doesn’t go to a bunch of overtimes since we know it would be moved to like FOX Business Network or some channel no one in the world gets.
Notre Dame at Syracuse (Noon, ABC/TSN5) – The Cuse looks to rebound from their tough loss to Clemson. Meanwhile, Notre Dame continues their roller coaster first season under Marcus Freeman. A win by Syracuse here still keeps them in the hunt for…something. A New Year’s Six at-large spot perhaps? The Irish are just trying to make their season feel like it’s less of a failure than it has been and one where 2023 looks optimistic.
Cincinnati at UCF (3:30, specialty pack) – It feels like most years this is a battle between the top two teams in the American. I would have said Houston at the start of the season but yeah I whiffed on that one pretty hard. Tulane may have something to say about that first sentence and they may get their shot in the AAC Championship if they can keep playing as well as they are. Until then, this feels like the winner is in the driver’s seat for the Cotton Bowl spot.
Psycho Game of the Week
Arizona State at Colorado (7:30, specialty pack) – You have got to be some sort of masochist to spend more than one minute watching this one. I guess maybe hoping for some weird score like 5-3 could get you interested in this but otherwise, it is so easy to avoid this abomination.
Hubba Bubba Blowout of the Week
Georgia Tech at Florida State (Noon, specialty pack) – This might seem like a bit of a surprise but I have this feeling that the Noles will come into this one a bit angry and ready to beat the absolute shit out of whoever they face. The Ramblin’ Wreck are playing better not under Geoff Collins but at some point their lack of talent will come to the forefront. This is the game that will happen.
Fun-Time Stats of the Week
- Last time UAB traveled to Boca Raton to face FAU they were embarrassed 49-6.
- This is the first time in four years that Ole Miss has had to play back-to-back road games.
- NC State has lost five straight to the Hokies.
The Degenerate Portion of Our Show
For some reason I can delve into picking NFL games (which I still do from time to time on top of fantasy football) but when it comes to college football I draw a blank. I can’t seem to come up with a way to pick games other than just pick them off the top of my head for the most part. That’s something I would never say when my late night betting show commences. I wonder what the most ridiculous channel to put that on would be. OMNI?
- Louisiana (+1) over Southern Miss (and the outright win…why is Southern Miss even favoured here?)
- Louisiana Tech (-6.5) over FIU
- Toledo (-7) over Eastern Michigan
- Boston College (-7.5) over UConn (only 7.5? Who is making these odds?)
- Oklahoma (-1) over Iowa State
- Minnesota (-14) over Rutgers
- Navy (-13.5) over Temple
- Louisville (+3.5) over Wake Forest (big upset pick!)
- Florida (+22.5) over Georgia (UGA will cover but the Gators will make things interesting for about three quarters)
- Kentucky (+12.5) over Tennessee (the Vols will win a tight one)
- Coastal Carolina (+2.5) over Marshall (and they will win outright)
- Ole Miss (-2.5) over Texas A&M
- UCLA (-16.5) over Stanford (only 16.5? Yeah I’m not getting some of these)
Let’s see how much of a tool I look like with these picks. Anyway, I will be on the Twitter machine for most of the day (I think) so catch me there if you want. Hey, I got a secret for ya. Come closer….
There’s football every day between tomorrow and November 22nd!
Oh. Hell. YEAH! Enjoy the games everyone!
Bossman's Blog 