Well what do you know? The 2022 Bowl Game TV Schedule

Posted on December 8, 2022 by guelphbossman

I am honestly shocked. I was not impressed with TSN’s coverage of college football this season. The World Cup didn’t help and I understand that but it seemed like TSN was hellbent on showing less college football than they had in years.

Then I find the TSN bowl game schedule and holy shit! Damn near most of the games are being shown on a TSN channel. Very impressive. I have to, for once, give TSN props for really going all in with the college football postseason: the most important but also weirdest part of the college football schedule.

Anyway, let’s get right to the sked!

Friday December 16th

Bahamas Bowl: UAB vs. Miami-OH

11:30 AM

Bowl season starts with the Bahamas Bowl in front of maybe 10,000 fans. Maybe. Probably not. This is the most extreme version of the destination bowl game. Attendance can’t be good because Thomas Robinson Stadium in Nassau only holds 15,000. And I don’t remember the stands ever being half-full for this game. But for the players and staff? Holy shit this is great. Playing football in great weather and being able to experience the GOD DAMN BAHAMAS! It’ll be a trip of a lifetime for at least 90% involved.

Cure Bowl: #25 UTSA vs. #24 Troy

3:00 PM

As I said, TSN has seriously stepped up this season. I will show how much they have stepped up after the schedule. This game is EASILY the best pre-Christmas game and it’s not even close. How the Cure Bowl got two Top 25 teams, who are also both conference champions, I will never know. But I’m glad it happened.

Saturday December 17th

Fenway Bowl: Louisville vs. Cincinnati

11:00 AM

This was always going to be an odd bowl game what with the Fenway Park configuration and the Green Monster in the background. Now with Scott Satterfield leaving Louisville to coach at Cincinnati? Ho boy this is going to be something.

Look, in my opinion, it doesn’t matter if Jackson State loses here. They are the best HBCU football team in the land by a country mile. It’s not even close. And really, the MEAC isn’t close anymore to the SWAC. Outgoing JSU head coach Deion Sanders said the SWAC and MEAC should merge into one super-HBCU conference. I agree. What would this do to the Celebration Bowl? Probably end it. However, I am of the opinion that every so often there is an HBCU school that could do serious damage in the FCS Playoffs. This year would have been Jackson State. Do I think they would have been a dark horse contender for the FCS title? Yes, absolutely. It would have also been a way to probably get more FCS playoff games on channels everyone can see (as in not ESPN+) but that’s another story.

Las Vegas Bowl: Florida vs. #14 Oregon State

2:15 PM

This was supposed to become somewhat of a premier bowl game once the SEC was tagged to replace the Mountain West here. Hasn’t happened that way. Sure, Florida is a good brand but it’s not nearly a good football team as some other SEC teams (or MWC teams for that matter). Oregon State probably deserved better. Also, this game was originally slated for ABC in primetime but because the Las Vegas Raiders are a terrible football franchise, their game the next day was flexed out of Sunday Night Football and moved back into the afternoon. It meant there wouldn’t be enough time to make sure the stadium was ready after this game. So this game swapped with the New Mexico Bowl and gets a 12:15 local start.

It’s the opening Saturday for bowl games. Will I watch this? Yes, of course. Will I pay full attention to this? Depends on other overlapping bowl games and what happens with the NFL games being played on the same day.

LendingTree Bowl: Southern Miss vs. Rice

5:45 PM

Rice got in thanks to the fact they are graduating students at a better rate than all the other football programs at the FBS level who had 5-7 records. Seems awfully specific. Anyway, it’s a bowl game so I’m there.

It’s been 42 years but SMU might finally get its revenge for one of the greatest bowl comebacks of all time: the 1980 Holiday Bowl. I remember playing that on Heisman level in NCAA Football 2005 (or was it 2004?). Talk about one of the toughest challenges to defeat. Anyway, this should be fun.

Frisco Bowl: North Texas vs. Boise State

9:15 PM

The site of the FCS Championship also hosts the Frisco Bowl and the short-lived Frisco Football Classic which we should never talk about again. I’m surprised they don’t move the FCS title game around but I guess it gets good crowds and decent weather so why mess with a good thing. Boise will definitely be the visiting team here.

Monday December 19th

Myrtle Beach Bowl: UConn vs. Marshall

2:30 PM

UConn in a bowl game! That alone is worth watching. Will anyone care that poor Marshall is there and had a pretty good first Sun Belt season? No because the UCONN HUSKIES ARE BOWLING! Now if we can somehow get UMass to go bowling…God help us all.

Tuesday December 20th

Idaho Potato Bowl: San Jose State vs. Eastern Michigan

3:30 PM

A rematch of the 1987 California Bowl. Back when these two teams were not highly regarded at all. I guess you could have said the same thing like a decade ago as well. These two programs have become relatively consistent winners and have stabilized themselves. I think many of the fans would be pulling for the Spartans here considering the tragedy that befell the team late in the season. I still wish this game was on at night so that blue turf could basically become an ice rink.

Boca Raton Bowl: Toledo vs. Liberty

7:30 PM

So why wasn’t this game put on during the day? Play in Boca in the afternoon sun? That would be good, no? Anyway, I have somewhat softened my stance on bowl games during weekdays (days!) before Christmas so when it comes right down to it, I don’t really care when it airs. I guess this is the attitude that comes about thanks to COVID and being home a lot more than we were ever used to.

Wednesday December 21st

New Orleans Bowl: South Alabama vs. WKU

9:00 PM

The first game to appear on the specialty pack. So if you had the specialty pack all year, you were thrilled because TSN didn’t exactly light it up with college football game coverage on their schedule. Bowl time…well, that’s where things fall apart for you. Yes there are a few games that head to the specialty pack but TSN ends up with the majority of the games. I guess it’s the price you pay to get a good amount of college football throughout the season.

Thursday December 22nd

Armed Forces Bowl: Baylor vs. Air Force

7:30 PM

Air Force loves to run the ball. Baylor is alright defensively but this seems to be a step below a Dave Aranda defense. Expect a lopsided time of possession battle.

Friday December 23rd

Independence Bowl: Houston vs. Louisiana

3:00 PM

Aesthetically, the Independence Bowl looks the worst now that the Gasparilla Bowl moved outdoors to Raymond James Stadium. But I like it. Gives off that 80s grungy college football old-school style that you just don’t see anymore…partially thanks to cameras that give us better than Betamax quality.

Gasparilla Bowl: Missouri vs. Wake Forest

6:30 PM

I never get why TSN does this though. Early game on a TSN station. Later game…not. I know there are other live sports contracts that TSN has to deal with but it just seems odd, especially when a game goes over that three hour, thirty minute time window.

Saturday December 24th

Hawaii Bowl: Middle Tennessee vs. San Diego State

8:00 PM

The annual Present Wrapping Bowl. Or more like Stocking Stuffer Bowl since I make sure to have all the presents wrapped before Christmas Eve. Isn’t that what we’re supposed to do during this bowl game?

Monday December 26th

Quick Lane Bowl: New Mexico State vs. Bowling Green

2:30 PM

Normally, very few would want to watch this. But it’s a Monday. And for college football fans, it’s a chance to see New Mexico State in a bowl game. At one point they were the Halley’s Comet of FBS schools when it came to bowl games but now they go every few years. Not bad. Helps to have a good coach like Jerry Kill there. Hey, how the hell did they get Jerry Kill to coach in Las Cruces in the first place?

Tuesday December 27th

Camellia Bowl: Georgia Southern vs. Buffalo

Noon

I see the Christmas Day Camellia Bowl idea died a quiet death. Probably a good thing. If I recall correctly, the only bowl game that ever worked on Christmas Day was the Aloha Bowl back in the 80s and 90s. I remember watching it at my aunt and uncle’s house one year during Christmas dinner. I don’t think you’d catch anyone watching college football during Christmas dinner in this part of the world anymore.

First Responder Bowl: Memphis vs. Utah State

3:15 PM

This is technically a bowl game. Look it’s on a Tuesday afternoon. Many people are working (although some get between Christmas and New Year’s off). It just screams low-level bowl game and is the example used by the “Too Many Bowl Games” crowd.

Birmingham Bowl: Coastal Carolina vs. East Carolina

6:45 PM

Coastal has fallen off a cliff in their last few games this season. Barely beating App State and Southern Miss and then getting destroyed by James Madison and Troy. Not a good look. Now their coach is off to Liberty. They are hoping to get some momentum going into next year against ECU. Also, I wonder when this bowl game will get a sponsor. Isn’t Pornhub looking to invest in sports?

Guaranteed Rate Bowl: Wisconsin vs. Oklahoma State

10:15 PM

Wisconsin got a great head coach hire in Luke Fickell. I don’t know if he’s coaching the team in this bowl game but I’m sure that will be most of the talk here. Otherwise, it’s a late night bowl game that everyone hopes becomes super wacky.

Wednesday December 28th

Military Bowl: Duke vs. UCF

2:00 PM

Always nice to see Duke in a bowl game. It’s funny: everyone kind of likes Duke football. Duke basketball: not so much.

Liberty Bowl: Arkansas vs. Kansas

5:30 PM

It’s the battle for Kansas (kind of)! This is a nice consolation prize for us not getting Kansas-Missouri in a bowl game. And I know Missouri said they didn’t duck the Jayhawks but you think they would admit that? It’s like Texas repeatedly dodging Texas A&M in bowl games. Like just man up and if you get a bid there, play them. Stop being such pussies.

I honestly thought the Tar Heels would give Clemson a good game in the ACC Championship. Boy, was I ever wrong. This isn’t a bad spot to land though. Bo Nix will play so I can see this being a VERY motivated Ducks team.

Texas Bowl: Ole Miss vs. Texas Tech

9:00 PM

A team that looked like an honest contender up against a team who had a good season under a fiery coach. Oh and their fans love to throw tortillas. The Lane Train vs. The Taco Express.

Thursday December 29th

Pinstripe Bowl: Minnesota vs. Syracuse

2:00 PM

I always sincerely hope it is snowing like crazy when this game is played. I remembered the Kansas State-Syracuse classic from years ago and it was a great game and fun to watch. I’m sure not pleasant at all for players or coaches or fans but who cares. It’s all about entertaining me!

Cheez-It Bowl: Oklahoma vs. #13 Florida State

5:30 PM

If this was 1992, people would be putting this game at the top of the must-watch lists. Alas, Oklahoma was as bad as its been since before Bob Stoops took over. FSU on the other hand is a fun team finally on the rise. And they will definitely be a heavy home favourite here in the 19th bowl game out of 254 played in Orlando every year (unofficially).

Alamo Bowl: #20 Texas vs. #12 Washington

9:00 PM

Almost a home game for the Longhorns and that could spell trouble for the Huskies in a packed Alamodome. The Alamo Bowl almost always has one of the top three non-CFP, non-NY6 bowl games and this year is no exception.

Friday December 30th

Sun Bowl: Pittsburgh vs. #18 UCLA

Noon

OK so now that CBS will be done with the SEC after next season…I still haven’t changed what I think about the bowl tie-ins. An SEC West team should be here. Or a Big XII team. Or hell, a Mountain West team. Against a Pac-12 team. That’s how this should work. You want fans? Do this. Guaranteed there will be plenty of good seats available for this one in El Paso for the *checks notes* 10:00 AM LOCAL KICKOFF?

Duke’s Mayo Bowl: Maryland vs. #23 NC State

Noon

So who gets the big vat of mayo dumped on them at the end of this one? I think it would be funnier if Mike Locksley gets doused in mayo rather than Dave Doeren so I will pull for the Terps here.

Gator Bowl: #19 South Carolina vs. #21 Notre Dame

3:30 PM

Two good underrated teams here at a game that hasn’t been used to getting good teams lately. So move the game to the middle of the day on December 30th and watch what happens. Supposedly, the Gator Bowl committee pushed hard to get Notre Dame. Probably a good idea instead of an ACC team.

The second year of Barstool Sports being the sponsor for this bowl game. I don’t know how many people go to Barstool Sports’ website to watch this one. I can’t see it being very high but this very much is the future of bowl games. I do kind of wish they would partner up with some network, even one like NESN, so that at least some people can watch this bowl game until it becomes a bigger deal.

Orange Bowl: #7 Clemson vs. #6 Tennessee

8:00 PM

And finally we get to the New Year’s Six bowl games and holy shit is this one orange. Orange Bowl. Orange uniforms. Orange logos. Orange everywhere. You’ll be able to see this game from space. This should be a really good game as you have two teams who weren’t that far away from being in the College Football Playoff getting that national spotlight.

Saturday December 31st

The over/under for this one is 31.5. 31.5. I repeat, THIRTY-ONE POINT FIVE. That is ridiculous. I would still bet the under. This bowl needed its own timeslot and they aren’t getting it so I see a lot of people flocking to the other game on at the exact same time.

Sugar Bowl: #5 Alabama vs. #9 Kansas State

Noon

This could be an interesting game. If both teams show up to play then I see the Wildcats giving the Tide all they can handle. I don’t know how Nick Saban will hide his disappointment in not getting into the College Football Playoff after that ridiculous halftime interview he was allowed to give to state his team’s case for the playoff. Dumb. It is also going to be weird to see the Sugar Bowl on at Noon. On New Year’s Eve.

Fiesta Bowl: #2 Michigan vs. #3 TCU

4:00 PM

So many think TCU shouldn’t have even been in this game meaning there are many who want the Horned Frogs to be blown out in this one. I could see this being closer than many people think. Also, the 2-3 matchup is almost always better, historically, than the 1-4 matchup in the College Football Playoff.

Peach Bowl: #1 Georgia vs. #4 Ohio State

8:00 PM

The Buckeyes backing into the playoff has left a sour taste in some people’s mouths. I get it but I still think there is way too much emphasis on conference championship games. Until they get rid of divisions in every conference, some of the conference championships look horrible. It is kind of weird to see this one on TSN2 when the previous game is on TSN3 but my guess is that the Canada-Sweden World Juniors game will end up on all the other TSNs other than TSN2 (which is still seen as an alternate channel to an extent).

Monday January 2nd

ReliaQuest Bowl: #22 Mississippi State vs. Illinois

Noon

Two of the more popular head coaches in college football will clash here in the former Outback Bowl. Complete contrast in styles: Mike Leach’s Run n’ Gun up against Bret Bielema’s Ground n’ Pound. Should be a good first game of the new year.

It’s always a tiny bit weird to have these college bowl games on January 2nd instead of New Year’s Day. You can’t have them going up against the NFL, though, and no one would probably even attempt it (plus TSN might be a bit miffed if that happened). So on the first day back at work for some people, they may miss some good football. I guess that’s one of the downsides of a lot of bowl games.

Cotton Bowl: #10 USC vs. #16 Tulane

1:00 PM

I find with the way the College Football Playoff has been set up, the best Group of Five team, more often than not, is in a bit of a lose-lose situation. They show up to this big bowl game and if they win, there will be piles of excuses heaped on to why (and it usually revolves around injuries). If they lose, then they didn’t belong in the first place. This is something you don’t get for Power Five teams (except in the semi-finals). I do find college football media a bit odd that way.

Rose Bowl: #11 Penn State vs. #8 Utah

5:00 PM

It is going to be really weird to watch this bowl game and realize that the next game is the national championship. No Sugar Bowl. No odd bowl game here and there between now and the title game. This is it. I think this will be the underrated bowl game of the year (or at least as much as it can be when both teams are in the Top 15).

Monday January 9th

College Football Playoff National Championship

8:00 PM

This is the one game that, at this point, is not confirmed for where it will appear on TSN. I am putting down these three channels because ESPN usually does like 43 different broadcasts for this event and TSN always picks up the main broadcast, plus one or two of the others. I sincerely hope they have the Coaches Room again and if they do, it should be a open bar for them. Free food. The works. Want to know how they really feel? That’s how you do it. Talk about ratings gold!

Let’s look at the breakdown for the games:

TSN – 30 games
ABC & TSN – 5 games
FOX – 1 game
CBS – 1 game
Barstool Sports – 1 game
specialty pack – 5 games

See what I mean? TSN will be showing 35 of the 43 bowl games this season. Over 80%. Amazing. I just wish they would show more games during the season.

Alright I have started toying with a new format for the blog posts. Not saying this is set in stone but I am going to try it out for a bit and if I feel it’s working then this is what it will look like going forward (until I get bored and want to change it again). Enjoy the rest of your week everyone!

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!

Power Five….Power Four? Power THREE?

Posted on August 15, 2022 by guelphbossman

Really, who knows what we are looking at in the next few years. For sure, the two conferences on the left are the major players. I would be very shocked if neither conference went to 18 teams by 2025. As for the other three conferences, it’s a big game of conference chicken right now. I would say the Big XII has the slight upper hand at this point but that could change in an instant. So if you love realignment, ho boy, you must have a raging hard-on right now (and will for the next few years).

OK enough of that disgusting talk. Let’s get to the meat of this post. The Power Five conference predictions. All of them. Don’t lie, you liked all the Group of Five conference (and Independent) predictions in the last post, DIDN’T YOU? So one more time, I will cram as much information down your gullet I possibly can without choking you to death with college football information. Let’s begin.

Let’s start with the….well I can’t call them the undisputed king of conferences anymore because the Big Ten is making a big charge at them. Saying that, I can still call them #1…for now. Here are the predicted SEC standings followed by some grits and chitlins and other weird Southern “delicacies.”

	Conference		Overall
East	W	L	W	L
Georgia	8	0	12	0
Tennessee	5	3	9	3
Florida	5	3	8	4
Kentucky	3	5	7	5
South Carolina	3	5	6	6
Missouri	1	7	4	8
Vanderbilt	0	8	2	10
West
Alabama	8	0	12	0
Texas A&M	7	1	11	1
Ole Miss	4	4	8	4
Arkansas	4	4	7	5
Auburn	3	5	7	5
LSU	3	5	7	5
Mississippi State	2	6	6	6

Chitlins…GROSS!

Who the fuck figured out to eat the large intestine of a hog?
Yep, two undefeated teams coming from the SEC. Bama and UGA don’t play each other during the regular season. UGA has a relatively easy schedule (in an SEC sense). Yes they have Oregon in a neutral-site game to start the season but they avoid the Tide, Aggies and Ole Miss out of the West. Lucky Dawgs!
As for the Fighting Nick Sabans, damn near everyone has them running the table, at least during the regular season, and I am going right along with that prediction. Other than their matchup against TAMU (at home) and Ole Miss in Oxford, I can’t foresee any close games all season.
As for the Aggies and their weird traditions (just watch a Midnight Yell practice…it’s fucking bizarre), I see them ending up one game short of getting to the SEC Championship. Also one game short of the College Football Playoff. Critics of Jimbo Fisher will find a way to make this sound like a failure of a season if they do comfortably make it to the New Year’s Six.
As per usual, the SEC West is an absolute minefield. The worst team is Mississippi State and they wouldn’t be last in any other conference…not by a long shot. Unfortunately, Bama’s continued dominance and TAMU and Ole Miss not falling at all will mean the rest of the teams are playing for fourth.
The Tennessee Volunteers are my Drinking The Kool-Aid pick of the year. I’m buying that they will be improved enough to be on the precipice of a double-digit win season. I can see them beating Pitt and South Carolina on the road and being perfect at home. Now watch them go 5-7 and make me look like a dummy.
Conference Championship prediction: Alabama 38 Georgia 30. Closer than last year’s win by the Tide but still not enough for UGA.

When are they going to change the name of this conference? Just call it the BIG Conference now or something like that. Big Ten. For a conference with sixteen schools. Schools. Educational institutions. And they can’t count. Glorious. Anyway, here are the predictions followed by some BTN After Dark comments:

	Conference		Overall
East	W	L	W	L
Ohio State	8	1	11	1
Michigan	8	1	11	1
Michigan State	6	3	9	3
Penn State	6	3	8	4
Maryland	4	5	7	5
Indiana	1	8	3	9
Rutgers	1	8	3	9
West
Wisconsin	6	3	9	3
Minnesota	6	3	9	3
Purdue	6	3	9	3
Nebraska	5	4	8	4
Iowa	5	4	8	4
Northwestern	1	8	4	8
Illinois	0	9	3	9

BTN After Dark Comments

I am so looking forward to Rutgers travelling clear across the country to face UCLA on Big Ten Network starting at 10:30 at night.
Can The Fighting Ann Arbor Khaki Warriors repeat as Big Ten champs? To be honest, I don’t think they will even repeat as Big Ten East champs. It will come down to their big matchup with tOSU two days after American Thanksgiving. This one is in Columbus so I am giving the nod to the Buckeyes here which will be huge when it comes to what The Committee has to look at.
You know, considering how good the Terps’ recruiting has been lately, do you think they kind of wish, money aside, that they were back in the ACC? Not saying they could beat Clemson but man, they would look like a really good team there.
The Big Ten West is going to be ridiculous. I just have this feeling. Five teams within one game of each other. Yes, even Nebraska is in there. In the end, Wisconsin will win some sort of game of Spin The Bottle, except using an ear of corn, and end up getting to the Big Ten Championship where they can scare the Buckeyes for a quarter-and-a-half.
Conference Championship prediction: Ohio State 32 Wisconsin 10. As I said in the previous point, this will be close well into the second quarter and then the Buckeyes will decide enough’s enough and do away with Wisky on their way to the CFP.

I think that right there tells you all you need to know about what’s going on with the rest of the Power Five. The ACC, at this point, might as well chill since their contract with ESPN lasts for more than another decade and any change would require a hell of a lot more money to leave than what USC and UCLA will have to deal with.

Now, there are rumblings that ESPN is stepping in and trying to broker an ACC/Pac-12 merger of sorts but I can’t see that happening to be perfectly honest with you. As long as the Big Ten or SEC doesn’t decide to poach any of their members (which is still a possibility), they should be fine for the time being. Alright, let’s get to the predictions, followed by a bong hit or five:

	Conference		Overall
Atlantic	W	L	W	L
Clemson	8	0	11	1
NC State	7	1	11	1
Florida State	5	3	8	4
Louisville	5	3	7	5
Wake Forest	4	4	8	4
Boston College	3	5	6	6
Syracuse	1	7	3	9
Coastal
Miami	6	2	9	3
Pittsburgh	6	2	9	3
Virginia Tech	4	4	6	6
North Carolina	4	4	6	6
Virginia	2	6	5	7
Georgia Tech	1	7	2	10
Duke	0	8	2	10

Hey Dude

I’ve honestly thought of going to one of those cannabis shops to see what’s there. It’s basically punishable by death here (in this condo area) to have anything weed-related so I’d have to be super sneaky about it.
Hey, is Clemson back on top? Sure looks like it although NC State is going to give them a serious run for their money. Both teams look like they are a tier above the rest (sorry Miami and Pitt) and their game on October 1st will probably be for the division title. High stakes for sure.
Coastal Chaos is…not back. Speaking of the Canes and Panthers, they are also a step above all the other teams in that division. They will battle it out in another important ACC game on American Thanksgiving weekend which might just decide who gets their shit pushed in by the Tigers or Wolfpack.
I don’t consider this a Kool-Aid pick. Florida State will be better. No stupid upset losses to FCS schools. Just the slow ascent back to, potentially, the top of the ACC. Same goes for Louisville (without the FCS issue).
I did have Wake also in the ACC title hunt but the news that Sam Hartman will be out for at least a bit is a massive worry in Winston-Salem. He steers the ship and without him, sorry Deacs fans, the offense just doesn’t go like it normally does.
Remember last year when I had North Carolina bullying their way into the College Football Playoff? Yeah, not falling for that this time, Mack.
Conference Championship prediction: Clemson 47 Miami 14. Yeah this won’t be close.

OK now we get to the first of the quasi-feuding brothers (sisters? cousins?). The Big XII is adding four teams next season and is pushing hard to get the rest of the Pac-12 teams to join them. It’s almost a certainty Oregon and Washington would rather drop football than join this conference but the rest of the schools remaining could very well be up for grabs, especially the two Arizona schools and the Mountain region schools. Until the next shoe drops, though, it’s another year of the Big XII with X schools. Here are my predictions followed by musings from a pissed off Count Von Count:

	Conference		Overall
	W	L	W	L
Baylor	8	1	10	2
Oklahoma	8	1	10	2
Texas	7	2	9	3
Oklahoma State	7	2	9	3
TCU	4	5	6	6
Iowa State	4	5	6	6
Kansas State	3	6	6	6
West Virginia	2	7	4	8
Texas Tech	2	7	3	9
Kansas	0	9	2	10

ZERO! ZERO FUCKS GIVEN! AH AH AH!

Funny that if things stay as they are, the Big XII will actually get back to twelve teams so at least one conference understands preschool math.
The bottom of the Big XII looks to be the same. Kansas at the bottom. Texas Tech not far from them. And it always feels like one of West Virginia, Kansas State or TCU ending up in eighth. Will this change with the newcomers? I’m gonna say no.
Not quite their swan song in the conference but I see the Sooners, despite all the defections, getting back to the Big XII Championship. They are just too deep a team to not contend for, at the very least, a NY6 spot. I expect Baylor to continue to do well under Dave Aranda and join OU at JerryWorld.
Conference Championship prediction: Baylor 25 Oklahoma 23. Yeah I am predicting the Bears to finish the Big XII Championship State of Oklahoma sweep by beating the Sooners in a very close game.

I remember doing a post eight years ago on my Pac-12 predictions. Here is what I said in that post:

The Pac-12 has become the de facto second best conference in the land and it’s by a long shot as well.

Wow. I mean eight years is a long time but the fall off the cliff of the Pac-12 started not long after this post. It has been a near-disastrous eight years for the Conference of Champions in football and with USC and UCLA leaving for the Big Ten things are looking even worse for the soon-to-be Pac-10.

Look, let’s just get to the predictions before I make Bill Walton cry:

	Conference		Overall
North	W	L	W	L
Oregon	9	0	11	1
Oregon State	4	5	7	5
Washington	4	5	6	6
California	3	6	5	7
Washington State	3	6	5	7
Stanford	3	6	4	8
South
Utah	8	1	10	2
UCLA	7	2	10	2
USC	6	3	9	3
Arizona State	4	5	6	6
Arizona	2	7	3	9
Colorado	1	8	1	11

Bill Walton’s Tears

Hey remember I had U of A being terrible last year and I was right? Well, this year I am doubling down with the Colorado Buffaloes. I have a feeling Karl Dorrell is going to be taking a lot of ibuprofen this season. And may start drinking if he doesn’t already do so.
I see a lot of experts saying USC is going to win the Pac-12 South. They will be better, there’s no doubt about it. But win the division after going 4-8 last year? Let’s pump the brakes a bit. I think Lincoln Riley is still a season away from really pushing USC to the heights they were at during the Pete Carroll era.
So who will win the South Division? I think Utah repeats as South Division champions but it will be UCLA that will give them the toughest time. The Bruins should be really good…like New Year’s Six good. Now watch them go 4-8 and Chip Kelly get fired.
As for the North Division, Oregon should clinch by Thanksgiving…our Thanksgiving. There is no one close to them.
Conference Championship prediction: Utah 32 Oregon 20. Closer than last year but this time the Utes will destroy the Ducks’ dreams of the CFP.

There you go! All conference standings predictions complete! Next up I will put it all together and tell you who I think will win the whole thing. Have a great week everyone!

Most Important Games of the 2022 College Football Season: Prepare for Change

Posted on June 28, 2022 by guelphbossman

Alright let’s be honest here. It has been a slooooooow return for ol’ Bossman. This is partially done on purpose, though, not because I have forgotten about all of you. I am going with the less is more approach…kind of. At least in the off-season. I think an explanation is warranted here. The plan, on my part, is to post less but to put a lot more in each post. Like not going to Wendy’s as often but when you do…it’s Dave’s Triple Cheeseburger time! I think this might just work. Or it won’t. I mean you never know with these things, right? Anyway, where was I?

Ah yes: change. Change is sometimes tough but is also sometimes needed. So as it pertains to the usual four-post Most Important College Games series, it is going to go through an overhaul. This post will be just about the most important games but I won’t be going week-by-week. It will be a relatively well-thought out selection of the best 30 games of this coming year (at least at this very early point). Don’t worry, I will still rate the weeks. Can’t change everything. Then I will post again later on with some other lists of games. You know, the worst Power Five games, best Group of Five games, etc. You ready? I am. Let’s go.

Remember the rules (my rules). Most of the games after Week 3 are not set in terms of time or network. Any game that is confirmed, I will let you know that it is. This time I won’t include Canadian info because, especially with TSN, it’s a complete crapshoot. Just assume that ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, ACC Network and SEC Network games will appear on TSN or on the specialty packs.

It’s…time! IT’S….TIME! IT’S……RANKING TIME! (cue Vader theme) Alright the first piece of college football to discuss is the ranking of the weeks. We know how this usually goes and it is almost never a surprise when it comes out that way. So let’s get right to it and then I can tell you how I did this (if you didn’t know before) and all that jazz:

Week 13 (November 26 – American Thanksgiving)
Week 6 (October 8)
Week 10 (November 5)
Week 5 (October 1)
Week 9 (October 29)
Week 12 (November 19)
Week 7 (October 15)
Week 11 (November 12)
Week 4 (September 24)
Week 8 (October 22)
Week 3 (September 17)
Week 1 (September 3)
Week 2 (September 10)

Same as always, there are thirteen weeks of the regular season. Week Zero is starting to get more games as more waivers are being granted but until they have I’d say at least 30 games on the schedule that Saturday then it can’t be counted as its own week. I mean I could but it would be last place every year without a doubt. I’ve said this before but I wish they would always have fourteen weeks in a season. This way, every team gets two bye weeks and it’s perfect for the health and safety of the players (something that is sometimes put on the backburner). I’m sure the NCAA will go along with my idea by the year 2058. As for the rankings this season, not too many surprises. The final week of the regular season is back on its perch as the best weekend of college football this season. Week 1 has dropped off a cliff and doesn’t look that great but the hype around it will be off the charts, I can guarantee you that. October has a massive week as Week 6 truly starts the conference season in a big way (and you’ll see later on why I say that). Just like last year, November is great, even SEC Sleepwalk Saturday which is a middle-of-the-road week rather than the awful week of games it used to be. And of course, September is, well, September in college football. A few really good games surrounded by a lot of meh but you know what will happen. That’s right, ~~Frank Stallone~~ quite a few upsets since that’s how college football works.

Normally this would be the time I start the weekly breakdowns but those are no more (at least for this year). This is a long list but I think it will be a good list. It’s the top 30 most important games of the college football season (until some team like Northwestern comes out of nowhere and is battling for a conference title).

Texas A&M at Alabama (Week 6, 8:00, CBS) – Yes, Bama is again the favourite to win it all this season. But the Aggies might be as ready as they have ever been during the Jimbo Fisher era. Almost a guarantee this will end up as the lone CBS primetime game of the year.
Michigan at Ohio State (Week 13, Noon, FOX, confirmed) – Captain Khaki brings his Wolverines to Columbus to see if he can get his team to relive the magic of last season once again. They haven’t won at the Horseshoe in 22 years. Winner of this one most likely heads to the Big Ten Championship so huge stakes, as it usually is with this rivalry.
Notre Dame at Ohio State (Week 1, 7:30, ABC, confirmed) – As is normally the case, the Irish have a bunch of landmine games this season. No game is a bigger landmine than this one. If Notre Dame can pull this off, then the season is already turned on its head and Marcus Freeman immediately becomes a legend in his second game as head coach.
Clemson at Notre Dame (Week 10, 7:30, NBC, confirmed) – Clemson will be looking for a tiny bit of a rebound this year and retake control of the ACC. Yes, this isn’t an ACC conference game but winning this game would put every other team in the conference on notice. I am wondering, with all this realignment happening, if we may get to the point where the Irish are the only Independent team remaining. This is something I wouldn’t have said even two years ago.
Georgia vs. Oregon (in Atlanta) (Week 1, 3:30, ABC, confirmed) – Is this an early-season College Football Playoff elimination game? Could very well be. Georgia is still loaded for bear again and the Ducks are ready to make that final climb back into the CFP. This game (plus the ND-tOSU game later in the night) are the easy highlights of a relatively bland Week 1 schedule.
Notre Dame at USC (Week 13, 7:30, ABC) – It would be either a) horrible for Notre Dame fans if the Irish came in undefeated and blew a tire here against a probably good USC team or b) great for Notre Dame haters who don’t want them anywhere near the College Football Playoff (or the New Year’s Six for that matter). This could end up being a massively important game in the grand scheme of things.
Utah at Oregon (Week 12, 7:30, ABC) – This might just be a preview of the Pac-12 title game and a statement game for both teams…as long as both teams are ranked at this point. With the Pac-12 finally on the rise again (I think), this could bring in a lot of eyeballs during a week that is usually not the greatest on paper.
NC State at Clemson (Week 5, 3:30, ABC) – This is probably the game for the Atlantic Division title…the final Atlantic Division title if I get my way and divisions are abolished going forward. With all due respect to Wake Forest, unless they pull off at least one upset, they aren’t getting close to these two teams. This being in Death Valley may give the Tigers the slight edge but the Wolfpack have had some seriously huge wins on the road in their past.
USC at Utah (Week 7, 3:30, ESPN) – As I said above, I am only including American broadcast info at this point. That will change when I get to network-specific posts later in the summer. The Utes should worry about this USC team. They are finally poised to get back into Top 10 territory and an upset of Utah isn’t a crazy idea at this point. If Lincoln Riley can get the Trojans to pull this off, it may be off to the races and a return to glory in Los Angeles.
Michigan State at Michigan (Week 9, Noon, FOX) – Big brother and little brother are both good. This always make this rivalry game extra spicy. This game could honestly derail Michigan’s season before they get to the Game. This should end up on FOX which means no THERE’S A TROUBLE WITH THE SNAP! AND THE BALL IS FREE AND IT’S PICKED UP BY MICHIGAN STATE’S JALEN WATTS-JACKSON AND HE SCORES ON THE LAST PLAY OF THE GAME! All in Sean McDonough Cracked-Voice perfection.
Clemson at Wake Forest (Week 4, 3:30, ESPN2) – This might be the first game I get seriously wrong. Saying that, the ACC tends to get neglected in favour of the other Power Five conferences when it comes to game placement…especially when Wake Forest is involved. And some would still consider this a surprising pick in the #11 spot but I stand by it. Remember what I said above about the Deacs? Well this would be their chance, at home, to shock the world and announce their true arrival as contenders for at least the New Year’s Six.
Ohio State at Michigan State (Week 6, 7:30, ABC) – Another THE Ohio State University roadblock game here. Nothing would please Spartans fans (and Wolverine fans) for Sparty to knock off the mighty Buckeyes here.
Baylor at Oklahoma (Week 10, Noon, FOX) – Dave Aranda might be the most popular coach in college football and he wouldn’t give two shits about that nor would his facial expression change. He’s in Waco to coach college football, dammit, and that’s all. I’m sure his family has seen him smile before but those rumours are unconfirmed. Lincoln Riley-less Oklahoma could be an interesting team to watch this year since no one knows how they will fare. As much of a wild card as any team expected to be in the Top 25 to start the season.
Tennessee at Georgia (Week 10, Noon, ESPN) – This could very well be an SEC East title match although you never know what team will kind of come out of nowhere to cause havoc at the top. Kentucky may still be good and the rest of the teams, sans Vanderbilt, could make a run if they get an upset or three. Until further notice, though, the Dawgs are the defending champs so someone has to knock them off their perch. Who better than the Vols? I’m sure there would be many people who could give me quite a few examples.
Miami at Clemson (Week 12, 3:30, ESPN2) – If this was the 80s or early 90s or early 2000s, this wouldn’t be here because Miami would be like a 30-point favourite. I’m sure there’d be a lot more cocaine and steroids involved as well, but I digress. Instead, it’s the Tigers who could be a double-digit favourite coming into this potentially huge conference matchup for both teams.
Alabama at Tennessee (Week 7, 3:30, CBS) – Man, it took long enough to get to our first afternoon CBS game. I guess that’s what happens when Alabama is on the network all the time. So speaking of heavy favourites, the Tide will be those here. The Vols, however, are better than they have been in over a decade and with the game at Neyland, who knows. If this game is close going into the fourth quarter, watch out.
Miami at Texas A&M (Week 3, 9:00, ESPN, confirmed) – Oh god the weird three-hour windows rear their ugly head this week. Game at 6:00 followed by a game at 9:00. Can ESPN just fuck off with this horseshit? What’s the big deal putting this at 9:30? Half an hour won’t make a difference. Anyway, this should be a pretty good game I think but those FUCKING THREE-HOUR WINDOWS…OK I’m gonna stop now.
Wisconsin at Ohio State (Week 4, 7:30, ABC) – If the Big Ten abolished divisions, this would become a much bigger game. I mean it’s still huge but…OK fine I just hate divisions. I’m sure Wisky’s gameplan here is to run the ball 60 times and hope tOSU’s run defense is snoozing for most of the game.
Wake Forest at NC State (Week 10, 7:30, ACC Network) – Look, this might change between now and then but as I’ve said before, this is how little respect the Demon Deacons get. If both teams only have one loss (or less) at this point, then it definitely gets moved to ESPN or ABC. Otherwise, there’s a good chance this is where this game will end up, sadly. The winner here is probably the one and only contender to screw up Clemson’s ACC run this season.
Oklahoma State at Baylor (Week 5, Noon, FOX) – First appearance for the Fighting Mullets from Stillwater on this list. The Pokes are almost always in contention even when it feels like they aren’t. Eleventh-year starter Spencer Sanders hopes to finally find some consistency at quarterback and beat a Baylor team that could be even more special than last year’s squad.
Georgia at Kentucky (Week 12, 3:30, CBS) – Fine, I will put this game here but it’s iffy whether it belongs. It isn’t like the SEC West where even the worst team usually isn’t that bad. Saying that, UK could be good again. It wouldn’t fully shock me. The only thing on their side is this is in Lexington which is underrated for how rowdy the fans can get.
Arkansas vs. Texas A&M (in Arlington) (Week 4, 3:30, CBS) – Considering the SEC slate of games this week, it is almost a guarantee that this game will be on CBS. Last year, the Razorbacks won this game rather easily and a good thing they did since they lost three straight right afterwards. If both teams are as good as they are predicted to be, maybe JerryWorld will be at least three-quarters full this time around. I still don’t get this always being a neutral-site game but whatever.
Ohio State at Penn State (Week 9, 7:30, ABC) – Now we are getting into the games that might not look close on paper but have a history of being inexplicably close. I’ve seen the Nittany Lions make things difficult for tOSU so it wouldn’t be out of the realm of possibility for them to pull off an upset on a night that will most certainly be a White-Out.
Alabama at Arkansas (Week 5, 3:30, CBS) – See what I mean? Saying that, it’s not like this game will be relegated to the SEC Network as Sam Pittman has the Hogs looking good. Not Bama-good, but definitely a far cry from the Bret Bielema/Chad Morris years.
Oklahoma State at Oklahoma (Week 12, Noon, FOX) – BEDLAM! Normally near the top of these kinds of lists, this could be a sneaky-good game this season for once. The Sooners feel like they are in rebuild mode when they really aren’t and the Pokes always feel like they are a step behind one team every season in the Big XII. By this point, we will know if either of these teams have a hope for the Big XII Championship and a trip to good ol’ JerryWorld or not.
Penn State at Michigan (Week 7, 3:30, ABC) – Not exactly a CFP elimination matchup but it will be very important in terms of the Big Ten East Division race. Look, PSU now has Sean Clifford hopefully back for a full, healthy year. That alone makes the Nittany Lions a bit more dangerous than they were last year. Michigan is loaded for bear so this will not be easy between the two teams with the biggest stadiums in the land.
LSU at Texas A&M (Week 13, Noon, ESPN) – This could end up being a forgotten matchup by this point of the season. LSU is certainly not the Joe Burrow LSU Tigers. And Texas A&M has been hanging on the periphery of greatness for a while now. At some point, you think something has to give. My guess is there is a good possibility a NY6 spot could be on the line here.
Wisconsin at Michigan State (Week 7, 7:30, ESPN2) – At this point I would call this an underrated game as many would probably put it in the same spot I’m putting it now. The Badgers are probably the odds-on favourite to win the Big Ten West which is never on par with winning the much more difficult Big Ten East. The Spartans need to win games like this to have any chance of doing what they did last year (or even more).
BYU vs. Notre Dame (in Las Vegas) (Week 6, 7:30, NBC, confirmed) – BYU’s final year as an Independent and as usual they have loaded up. Call it a Western version of the typical Notre Dame schedule. These teams don’t play nearly enough against each other if you ask me so it’s fun when they do. And boy, will they have a TV audience, there is no denying that. The Irish love these games because it’s a recruiting bonanza. I guess the same for the Cougs. Independent supremacy is on the line in this one.
Florida vs. Georgia (in Jacksonville) (Week 9, 3:30, CBS, confirmed) – The World’s Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party. How can this not be on this list of games? I guess if both teams were bad which hasn’t happened in….well, it’s been a while. This is my seventh straight year, I believe, imploring CBS to give the broadcast crew an open bar for this one. Hey, either Gary Danielson becomes seriously fun to listen to or…he’s still Gary Danielson.

There you go. Top 30 games of the season. That wasn’t so bad, eh? There is only 60 days left until the season begins. That is much closer than I am used to when doing this post. I may have to up my game over the next two months.

I’m not going to lie, this felt like a lot of work but it also felt good to do. The craziness hasn’t stopped in my life and so this is my chance to start getting a break from “reality” by doing this blog again. I think I’ve needed it (although I had to be sure I was ready to go again). Have a great week everyone!

So….many……BOWL GAMES!!!!! The Bowl Game TV Schedule

Posted on December 12, 2021 by guelphbossman

Let’s look at this graphic. I think it’s like four or five years old. How many of these bowls don’t exist anymore? Well, let’s take a look. The Russell Athletic Bowl, Cactus Bowl, St. Petersburg Bowl, Miami Beach Bowl, Poinsettia Bowl and Heart of Dallas Bowl all don’t exist, at least under those names. I’m not even going to start on the sponsors. There have been some absurd bowl sponsors but I am sincerely hoping they get even more absurd. Like why not bring back the International Bowl in Toronto but call it the Timbit Bowl sponsored by Tim Hortons? Or get Pornhub to sponsor a bowl game. The possibilities are endless.

So supposedly TSN has at least part of their bowl schedule up. I can see a link but it links to a previous year’s bowl schedule. Hopefully it’s fixed and once it does, I can make sure the schedule is proper on this post. I would try and predict it but considering what they are doing on the first three days of bowl season, I don’t know what’s going on there. And with the World Juniors coming soon…yeah I’ll try my best but I will let you know when it’s all set.

So after last year where Bowl Season was an absolute shitshow, we are back to some normality. Now let’s hope none of these bowls get cancelled for any reason. Let’s get going with the even longer bowl schedule!

Friday December 17th

Bahamas Bowl: Middle Tennessee vs. Toledo

Noon

This may be the one case where I think it’s OK to have a game on a weekday before Christmas. I know there are logistical hurdles with this game so there’s a lot to do and also I am sure the stadium there wouldn’t be able to do a night game. So I give this bowl game a pass. Oh well, if this is like Bahamas Bowls of the past this should be good.

Cure Bowl: Coastal Carolina vs. Northern Illinois

6:00 PM

This bowl got some good Group of Five teams for once in its short history. The Chants are still a team people love and the Huskies won the MAC. It’s the passing acumen of Grayson McCall vs. the stingy defense of NIU. Nice contrast of styles. This is also only one of two bowl games on ESPN2 this season. Why not give it to CBS if that’s the case?

Saturday December 18th

Boca Raton Bowl: Appalachian State vs. Western Kentucky

11:00 AM

Morning football. We will see a lot of this for the first time ever as ESPN restructures how their bowl schedule shapes up. And what a way to wake up than with a game where we could see 100 combined points. This is a national showcase for Bailey Zappe as he is rocketing up draft boards around the NFL.

Celebration Bowl: Jackson State vs. South Carolina State

Noon

The only FCS bowl around as the rest of the teams play in the FCS Playoffs. If you really like the college bands that HBCU schools have then this is the game for you. Also, you will see one of the best HBCU teams in recent memory. I still await the time when Deion Sanders gets a legit offer to coach at the FBS level. It could come around this time considering the sheer amount of openings still around.

New Mexico Bowl: Fresno State vs. UTEP

2:15 PM

I know I am going to watch this. Yes there are other games on at the same time but I am such a channel flipper that I end up watching games that probably don’t warrant watching. Like I’ve watched at least an hour’s worth of UMass football this season. What the fuck is wrong with me? Anyway, two teams who were once WAC teams face off in this one. I wonder if this will get close to a sell-out considering UTEP doesn’t exactly go to a lot of bowls and Albuquerque isn’t too far from El Paso.

UPDATE #4: With the Raiders-Browns game being postponed, this game will also be on TSN5.

Independence Bowl: #13 BYU vs. UAB

3:30 PM

I’m wondering how much BYU fans can’t wait to be in the Big XII. This right here shows that being a college football Independent really only works if you’re Notre Dame. People can crow about their good schedule and all that crap. But your reward for almost getting into the New Year’s Six is to be in fucking Shreveport before Christmas? The bowl system is broken and this is a perfect example. Also, the Cougs are only favoured by 7? I just don’t get this.

UPDATE #3: With the Raiders-Browns game being postponed, this game will also be on TSN1.

LendingTree Bowl: Liberty vs. Eastern Michigan

5:45 PM

Two relatively average Group of Five teams. As I’ve said earlier, I watch games like this. I am hoping it is a close one to keep my attention.

LA Bowl: Oregon State vs. Utah State

7:30 PM

So let met get this straight. It’s the first ever Jimmy Kimmel LA Bowl. And instead of having UCLA there to hopefully pack a good portion of the stadium, they get Oregon State. This is completely stupid. This isn’t even about getting the best bowl matchup, as they love to say. UCLA against USU would be just as good as the matchup we see here. And this is on ABC to boot. Dumb.

New Orleans Bowl: #23 Louisiana vs. Marshall

9:00 PM

Finally, the Ragin Cajuns ascended to the top of the Sun Belt mountain. Their reward was to stay near home to play at the Superdome. This should sell quite a few tickets. They go up against a really good Marshall offense in this one to finish the first big day of bowl season (no offense to the previous day but come on).

Monday December 20th

Myrtle Beach Bowl: Tulsa vs. Old Dominion

2:30 PM

So they have this game on in the middle of the day, five days before Christmas. I get that Monday Night Football is on at night. So if that’s the case, don’t put a fucking bowl game on that day. There are ways around this and ESPN just doesn’t seem to understand that they can do that. They control the broadcasts for over 90% of the bowl games. Figure it out! On top of that, Coastal isn’t in this game so they may not even sell out the small stadium near Myrtle Beach. Ugh.

UPDATE #5: This game has been moved to TSN2 with the NFL game now being on TSN1.

Tuesday December 21st

Idaho Potato Bowl: Wyoming vs. Kent State

3:30 PM

Why don’t they put this game on late and have the Frisco Bowl on in early spot? Do I have to do everything around here? Hopefully it’s a good Footbaw Weather game and we witness some crazy shenanigans because otherwise many of you will only be able to see the second half at most.

Frisco Bowl: #24 San Diego State vs. UTSA

7:30 PM

This could be the first bowl game that comes close to must-see territory. And it gets a primetime spot which is good. Both teams are two of the better Group of Five teams this season with UTSA coming within one destruction at the hands of North Texas from being undefeated this season and SDSU looking great all year except for getting boatraced by Utah State in the Mountain West Championship.

UPDATE #8: This game has been moved to TSN3 because of the WFT-Eagles game being put on TSN1.

Wednesday December 22nd

Armed Forces Bowl: Army vs. Missouri

8:00 PM

The Armed Forces Bowl with Army. Makes sense. Mizzou being here? Sure I guess although I am surprised they didn’t get a team from the state of Texas to play here against the Black Knights.

Thursday December 23rd

Frisco Football Classic: North Texas vs. Miami-OH

3:30 PM

So ESPN created a bowl game so that all bowl-eligible teams (plus Hawaii who had six wins but also seven losses) to play in bowl games this season. That is very nice of them. That’s why we get this game, the (not-so) awesomely named Frisco Football Classic. This one-off game (we think) will pit two teams who are positively average. And (this sounds like a broken record….Google what a record is, kids) this game is on in the afternoon on a weekday before Christmas. Not ideal.

UPDATE #11: This is now airing on TSN1 and TSN3.

Gasparilla Bowl: UCF vs. Florida

7:00 PM

I wonder if this game will sell out Raymond James Stadium. You have to think there’s a great opportunity here. See, this is the best of what bowl games can provide. Two teams that really never play each other and aren’t too far from each other facing off in a national spotlight game. UCF really could close the door on any debate for state supremacy with a win here.

UPDATE #12: This is now airing on TSN2.

UPDATE: This game is a sellout.

Friday December 24th

~~Hawaii Bowl: Hawaii vs. Memphis~~

8:00 PM

The Christmas Eve tradition continues! I love having this on while I finish last minute wrapping and stocking stuffer stuffing. Not going to lie to you all…I just got my Christmas tree up. Yeah I’m crawling slowly into Christmas season unlike others who have 15,000 lights on outside and have bought the 146 presents that are already sitting under the tree.

UPDATE #13: Due to COVID (and other things), Hawaii has pulled out of the Hawaii Bowl meaning this game is cancelled. Now what the hell am I going to do while I put the finishing touches on Christmas wrapping?

Saturday December 25th

Camellia Bowl: Georgia State vs. Ball State

2:30 PM

Football on Christmas Day. Will this compete with the NBA and their traditional Christmas Day games? Probably not, but it’s football so I will watch. And if it’s close, even better. Means I won’t change the channel. My remote control would be happy.

Monday December 27th

Quick Lane Bowl: Nevada vs. Western Michigan

11:00 AM

This is one of those games that the Too Many Bowls crowd would point to and say “Hey…there’s too many bowls.” I honestly don’t care because, as I have said often, it’s football so I will watch it. We’ll see how I feel about the sheer amount of morning starts during bowl season. I can see it getting old fast but who knows.

~~Military Bowl: Boston College vs. East Carolina~~

2:30 PM

Mike Houston has done a fantastic job down in Greenville with the Pirates. I don’t think anyone, including ECU fans, thought this team would be bowling this season. Instead, they have a chance to close out their season with eight wins if they can beat a very inconsistent BC squad.

UPDATE #14: This game has been cancelled because of major COVID issues with the BC football team.

Tuesday December 28th

Birmingham Bowl: Auburn vs. #20 Houston

Noon

Good to see this game has moved to UAB’s new Protective Stadium. Gets it out of Legion Field which always looked like it was about to collapse during a game. This also gets quite the good matchup. This is the kind of game I would get more of during bowl season: P5 vs. G5.

First Responder Bowl: Air Force vs. Louisville

3:15 PM

I still remember back to the 2018 version of this game between Boston College and Boise State. If you remember, the weather was so bad in the area that they had to completely cancel the game. I am honestly shocked they did that since I figured they would do anything to get a bowl game completed. I guessed wrong. Anyway, Air Force will run a lot (spoiler alert) so let’s see if the Cards’ defense can stop the Falcons attack and keep this close.

Liberty Bowl: Mississippi State vs. Texas Tech

6:45 PM

The Mike Leach Bowl! Mike Leach’s current team, the Bulldogs, face a team he used to coach and left on less-than-nice terms, the Red Raiders. If it was totally up to Leach, the game would end up 77-76 with about 1400 yards passing between the two teams.

~~Holiday Bowl: #18 NC State vs. UCLA~~

8:00 PM

FOX is now down to one bowl game, this one. At least it ended up a pretty good matchup in what could be Chip Kelly’s final game as Bruins head coach. I assume that soon enough, Wolfpack fans will be back to wanting to fire Dave Doeren but it won’t happen after this game…unless they lose by like 30.

UPDATE #19: 19 updates. Sweet Jesus. Hey, stop me if you’ve heard this before. Another bowl game cancelled. UCLA basically has almost no defensive line to play tonight (among issues with some of the other units) thanks to COVID so this game is being cancelled. This means FOX will not broadcast a bowl game this season.

Guaranteed Rate Bowl: Minnesota vs. West Virginia

10:15 PM

The former Cheez-It Bowl (the current Cheez-It Bowl is actually the old Camping World Bowl…yeah it’s confusing) isn’t exactly a sexy matchup. I think we can be assured, though, that we won’t see the TCU-Cal debacle from a few years back. At least I hope not since that was awful football.

Wednesday December 29th

~~Fenway Bowl: Virginia vs. SMU~~

11:00 AM

I am curious as to the setup of the field for this one. I would laugh if it was like the games at Wrigley where there is no room between the end line and the ivy of the outfield wall. Imagine a receiver catching a ball, taking two steps and crashing into the Green Monster?

UPDATE #15: I guess I have to wait another year to see how this will look since this game has been cancelled due to, you guessed it, ~~Frank Stallone~~ COVID.

Pinstripe Bowl: Maryland vs. Virginia Tech

2:15 PM

This should be a very close game between these two teams. Nice to see the Terps back in a bowl game as Mike Locksley has FINALLY had a good season at the helm…of any team. He was terrible as coach at New Mexico and wasn’t looking a whole lot better in College Park but has finally figured it out. The Hokies will be in a showcase game for new coach Brent Pry as any returning players will try their best to show why they should get a lot of playing time next year on a team that clearly has fallen to the middle of the pack in the ACC.

Cheez-It Bowl: #19 Clemson vs. Iowa State

5:45 PM

Does it feel like Clemson should be the 19th-ranked team in college football? They weren’t even that good this season. Despite the fact they are no longer the standard bearer in the ACC, this feels like a good spot to land because, honestly, they should have gone to a place like Shreveport to play. Hey, just checked the spread and I think I’m justified in how I’m thinking. Cyclones are favoured by 1 and not ranked. And Clemson lost both coordinators to head coaching positions elsewhere. Now watch the Tigers win by 50.

Alamo Bowl: #16 Oklahoma vs. #14 Oregon

9:15 PM

Best non-CFP, non-NY6 bowl? You could make the case here. The Sooners come in actually with a head coach as Mario Cristobal left the Ducks for Miami not too long ago. I don’t think Brent Venables is coaching this game although it would be funny if the Sooners defense is playing like shit and he just decides to show up and coach the rest of the way out of disgust.

UPDATE #2: As soon as I post this, I learn that Dan Lanning will be the next head coach at Oregon.

Thursday December 30th

Duke’s Mayo Bowl: South Carolina vs. North Carolina

11:30 AM

This bowl has so much at stake. OK it has two things at stake. One, this is the battle for Carolina Supremacy. OK more like teams with Carolina in their name Supremacy. OK fine, North vs. South (excluding NC State). The other is that the person who runs the Duke’s Mayo Bowl said he would donate $10,000 to the winning coach’s charity of choice if he is willing to have a Gatorade cooler full of Duke’s Mayo dumped on him after the win. This is what we’ve all wanted. This must happen. And please let it be Mack Brown.

Music City Bowl: Tennessee vs. Purdue

3:00 PM

Another bowl game that was smart to get at least one close team to play in it. Having the Vols play in Nashville pretty much guarantees a sellout. And with Purdue, it looks like we will see a good, relatively close game. It’s probably a good thing that college football fans aren’t like certain sets of soccer fans since seeing tens of thousands of people clad in bright orange tearing a stadium apart, attacking the other fans and taking on police officers would be a terrifying site (especially when the band plays Rocky Top and the Vol fans continue their attacks while singing).

Peach Bowl: #10 Michigan State vs. #12 Pittsburgh

7:00 PM

Alright, we finally have got to the first New Year’s Six bowl game. The Pat Narduzzi Bowl. If you had either of these two teams in a New Year’s Six bowl at the start of the season, then head to Vegas or buy a lottery ticket because you totally defeated the odds. Two of the best college football players of the season will be on display in this one: Kenny Pickett and Kenneth Walker III. I kind of wish the Heisman voting was done after bowl games because these showcases would be good for some of these players who are just outside the #1 spot and could use a great showing in front of a national audience to propel them to the top.

Las Vegas Bowl: Wisconsin vs. Arizona State

10:30 PM

Are the bars and casinos in Vegas ready for this one? Forget the game: the Badger fans (and to a lesser extent, Sun Devil fans) will wipe out the beer economy in this city if they are allowed to. The amount of puke in the streets and near the hotels (not to mention at the stadium) will be enormous. It’s gonna stink. I don’t know how good the game will be but the amount of fights in the stands has an over/under of 7.5.

Friday December 31st

Gator Bowl: ~~#25 Texas A&M~~ Rutgers vs. #17 Wake Forest

11:00 AM

One of the other candidates for non-NY6 bowl game of the season. Somehow, Dave Clawson wasn’t hired by another team. Texas A&M lost their defensive coordinator, Mike Elko, to Duke so this could be a bad day for the Aggie defense against Sam Hartman, who should have received more Heisman consideration if you ask me.

UPDATE #9: Texas A&M has major COVID issues inside the football program and will not have enough players ready for this game so they have pulled out. As of right now, Rutgers, Texas & Illinois seem to be up next using APR calculations. There is also the possibility that Marshall or Utah State, both teams already played in bowls this season, could be selected if a 5-7 team doesn’t accept.

UPDATE #10: Rutgers (RUTGERS!) will replace Texas A&M in the Gator Bowl. Oh my.

Sun Bowl: ~~Miami~~ Central Michigan vs. Washington State

12:30 PM

I will say it for what feels like the twentieth year in a row: this is where I hate the way bowls do tie-ins. The ACC does not belong in the Sun Bowl. Either put in the Big XII (which is what I would prefer) or do a Mountain West tie-in. You will struggle to fill half the stadium when an ACC team is there. And not having UTEP there makes this even worse since that would at least get 30,000 fans or so inside the stadium and create a great atmosphere for the game.

UPDATE #16: Miami has pulled out of the Sun Bowl due to ~~not wanting to go to El Paso~~ COVID protocols. I will keep you updated on if another team, maybe one that has already had a bowl game cancelled, will step up to play Wazzu.

UPDATE #18: Due to the Arizona Bowl being cancelled, Central Michigan is free to play in another bowl and has been invited to play in El Paso. I think it’s only like a four hour drive and now the Chips get a shit-ton more money to play in the postseason. Good work guys!

~~Arizona Bowl: Boise State vs. Central Michigan~~

2:00 PM

So….how can you even watch this game? I guess you have to go to the Barstool Sports website? How many people will watch this game, with the Cotton Bowl starting 90 minutes later, on New Year’s Eve, on a website that quite a few college football fans wouldn’t go to at gunpoint? This may work like 5 years or so from now but in 2021, this still doesn’t fly.

UPDATE #17: Well, Barstool will have to wait another year to broadcast their first bowl game. Boise State have way too many COVID issues to bring a team to Tucson so the bowl game has been cancelled.

Cotton Bowl: #1 Alabama vs. #4 Cincinnati

3:30 PM

OK we have got to the semi-final games. This looks like it could go one of two ways. The first way, and the one most people think it will go, is Bama absolutely annihilating the Bearcats and the game being essentially over by halftime. The other way is that Cincy keeps this game very close going into the fourth quarter and social media goes apeshit at the potential for one of the biggest upsets in college football history. I am praying for the latter.

Orange Bowl: #2 Michigan vs. #3 Georgia

7:30 PM

This is obviously the more exciting of the two semi-final matchups. And it’s in primetime on New Year’s Eve? I get sick of the Rose (and to a lesser extent, the Sugar) Bowl getting such preferential treatment when it comes to restructuring the playoff and Bowl Season. Not saying they have to move off of New Year’s Day if they absolutely don’t need to but those two bowls sticking to those times makes it impossible in a situation like this to have the College Football Playoff semi-finals on anything other than New Year’s Eve. It’s ridiculous and needs to be part of the conversation when they expand the playoff (which they will). Anyway, this is going to very interesting as other than the SEC Championship, UGA’s defense was one of the best in recent memory. Meanwhile, Michigan used the run better than almost any team in the nation and no team was really able to stop them, just maybe trip them up a bit. I believe this is basically a pick’em.

Saturday January 1st

Outback Bowl: #21 Arkansas vs. Penn State

Noon

Good for this game that it starts an hour earlier than the two games coming up next. Otherwise it would probably get very few viewers.

Citrus Bowl: #22 Kentucky vs. #15 Iowa

1:00 PM

Final candidate for best non-New Year’s Six bowl game and it is on at an awful time. I get that it gets crowded on New Year’s Day but overlapping with another game, a better game, is a recipe for disaster. And frankly, it’s unfair for the Wildcats and Hawkeyes who both had great seasons. Both teams will be looking to finish their seasons on a high note and go into the next season ranked in the preseason poll.

Fiesta Bowl: #5 Notre Dame vs. #9 Oklahoma State

1:00 PM

Now this should be interesting. Will the Irish feel slighted about not getting into the CFP or will they run through a brick wall for new coach Marcus Freeman? They are going to need everyone on point in this one going up against the OSU Fighting Mullets. One day, we will get the glory of Mike Gundy in the College Football Playoff. Maybe next year.

UPDATE #6: The Fiesta Bowl will also be on TSN5 around the start of the fourth quarter after the Outback Bowl is over.

Rose Bowl: #6 Ohio State vs. #11 Utah

5:00 PM

The Utes are in the Rose Bowl for the first time. This is huge for the program and proves the Pac-12 made the right call bringing them in (Colorado is still up in the air). They face a good Ohio State team who might be playing angry since they might feel they have been “relegated” to the Rose Bowl. The question going into this one (and during the game) will be what Kyle Whittingham decides to do after this one is over since there is a rumour out there that he might retire after the Rose Bowl, win or lose.

Sugar Bowl: #8 Ole Miss vs. #7 Baylor

8:45 PM

Dave Aranda has done a masterful job in Waco. As has Lane Kiffin in Oxford. This feels like a matchup of completely opposite head coaches, at least in terms of personality.

UPDATE #7: The Sugar Bowl will also be on TSN4 at around 11:00. I don’t get why they just HAVE to show Sportscentre after the Clippers-Nets game but obviously they do.

Tuesday January 4th

Texas Bowl: LSU vs. Kansas State

9:00 PM

Interesting that the Texas Bowl didn’t get a team from Texas to play in it. Saying that, they got two fanbases that travel very well so it would be surprising if this wasn’t at least close to a sellout. By this point, I will probably be bowled out but I will still watch because I know what’s coming shortly after this.

UPDATE #14: This is not being shown on a TSN channel.

Monday January 10th

College Football Playoff National Championship

8:00 PM

The final game of the season (other than the weird All-Star games). Cherish it…even if it’s not good.

OK at this point this is what the breakdown looks like for Canadians with cable packages:

TSN – 26 bowl games (with 2 simulcast from ABC)
ABC – 4 bowl games
FOX – 1 bowl game
CBS – 1 bowl game
Barstool Sports – 1 bowl game
specialty pack – 12 bowl games

OK now I am officially confused (if this works out the way I think it will). 26 bowl games being shown on TSN? The schedule is only finalized through Christmas Day but there are 16 games up until then definitely scheduled on TSN. So after a season where TSN had very little coverage of college football at all (it felt like they had gone back about a decade), they push forward by showing more than 50% of the bowl games. Crazy. We will see how the World Juniors affects this but I have a feeling it’s pretty close to the true number.

Alright, that was a seriously long post. But it was needed as the postseason begins now…at least at the FBS level. Have a great rest of the weekend 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!

OK this is a new one – Week 4 College Football Recap

Posted on September 27, 2021 by guelphbossman

I don’t think I have ever seen something like this before. And it sounds like most of college football media had never seen it before either.

Let’s see if I can wrap my head around all that happened here. K’Vaughan Pope, Ohio State’s senior linebacker had been grumbling about lack of playing time. Totally understandable. So during this weekend’s game against Akron, Pope tried to enter the game but another linebacker waved him off. So Pope decided to head towards the locker room until someone from the Ohio State staff brought him back to the sideline. What happens next seems ridiculous. Pope gets back to the sideline, briefly argues with a coach, throws his gloves into the stands and starts taking his jersey off. He had a further conversation with another coach who then got someone to take Pope off the field and to the locker room. While the game was still happening, Pope tweeted “Fucc Ohio State.” He deleted that tweet, then tweeted “Good lucc to my teammates” (I see he did well in English class). Yesterday he apologized and instead of quitting said he was taking some time off. Ohio State removed him from the roster anyway. That is so completely insane. In a way, though, it speaks to the pressures some of these athletes are under. We don’t know how he’s doing in school or what his family life is like or anything else going on with him. Things could be going poorly away from the field. No excuses for doing what he did but there may be reasons behind it.

So yeah, some excitement at least in a game where Akron was blown out of the water by Ohio State. Normally I would do recaps of my predictions during this week’s recap but instead I will do just a straight recap of a rather insane weekend of college football. Let’s begin.

Week 4 Recap Time!

Fresno State 38 UNLV 30

Oof. For a good part of the game the Rebels were handling the Bulldogs and it felt like it would be one and done in the Top 25 for the surprising Fresno State. But they were able to get ahead and hold on for the victory and, amazingly enough, may be the Mountain West’s best hope for the New Year’s Six. I will be glad to say I was very wrong with my prediction for this team.

Oregon 41 Arizona 19

This was actually a close game a few minutes into the fourth quarter. I am not joking. Arguably, the worst Power Five team in the nation kept things close with a Top 5 team. The Ducks did make quick work of them in the final 12 minutes but still. I’d say this looks bad for Oregon and the Pac-12 but this isn’t shaping up to be a normal year.

Oklahoma 16 West Virginia 13

It was so bad this night for Spencer Rattler that Sooner fans were chanting for his backup and openly booing him. Worst part is he didn’t do that bad. One interception and a few bad passes and the fans made it out like he threw two pick-sixes in succession. I will say this though: this team does not look like a national championship contender in any way, shape or form. At least their defense was better, right?

Oregon State 45 USC 27

To the USC fans who gave me shit last week: you can all suck it. Kedon Slovis was merely pedestrian and the Trojan defense was fucking atrocious. It’s a sad state of affairs in L.A. (at least for one team). As for the Beavers, it’s a better start than most believed and they could be looking at 7-1 or even 8-1 going into November if they play like this. Another strange occurrence of this football season that is already starting to feel like the norm.

Louisville 31 Florida State 23

Oh my. It’s not a matter of if but when Mike Norvell will be shitcanned. I mean Louisville is turning out to be a decent team so no shame in losing to them. Let’s just look at the Noles schedule coming up: vs. Syracuse, at North Carolina, then vs. UMass. So they could conceivably be 0-6 when they host the Minutemen who are god awful. Will Norvell be gone by then? I think many Noles fans hope so, so that the coaching search can start sooner rather than later, knowing they will have to compete with at least one team (USC) for potential head coaches.

Washington 31 California 24 (OT)

The Huskies may actually be back in the hunt in the Pac-12 North. And it’s not like they deserved to win this one since they didn’t but the Golden Bears made enough mistakes to allow Washington to get the duke with the final mistake, a fumble near the goal line in overtime, being the difference.

Arkansas 20 Texas A&M 10

Man, the Hogs may be for real, folks. They built a 17-0 lead until late in the first half and then the defense took over. If you put money down on the Razorbacks being the team that might have the best shot to usurp Alabama in the SEC West then congratulations. Also, maybe you can help me with my NFL picks since they are, well, let’s say less than good.

NC State 27 Clemson 21 (2OT)

What a huge upset that has turned the ACC upside down…sort of. Clemson really hasn’t looked good at all so far this season and it showed here. Their offense can’t get anything going and D.J. Uiagalelei is not looking like the heir apparent that many thought he would be. As for the sort of comment, the ACC was already in a mess and this makes things worse for the conference as a whole.

Baylor 31 Iowa State 29

OK the Cyclones fooled a lot of us. Matt Campbell doesn’t look like the guy who will head to USC to try and turn around their fortunes. All this could change if ISU runs the table the rest of the way. The real surprise here is Baylor who, at the very least, looks like they will be bowl bound this season. Dave Aranda is showing why he finally deserved a shot at his own head coaching gig.

BYU 35 USF 27

BYU is slowly moving its way up the rankings. They may regret allowing the Bulls to get so close but if they keep winning then the New Year’s Six is a lock for them.

Bowling Green 14 Minnesota 10

Ouch. The same team that went toe-to-toe with Ohio State for three quarters earlier this season looked overmatched against who I (and some others) thought would be the worst team in FBS this season. This also hurts Ohio State as their win over Minnesota may mean almost nothing if the Gophers continue to struggle.

Arizona State 35 Colorado 13

Hey, the Buffaloes finally scored a touchdown! I don’t think anyone thought they’d be as good as last year’s surprise showing but the offense is putrid in Boulder. Arizona State, on the other hand, is motoring along and could luck out based on everyone else in their division struggling at times so far this season.

UTSA 31 Memphis 28

This was a great game that not many people would have ended up watching (even though they could have). The Roadrunners are the surprise Group of Five team for some but I figured they’d be really good. OK, not this good. Honestly, they may very well be a game against UAB later this season away from a perfect regular season and a potential New Year’s Six bowl. This all for a program that didn’t start playing football until 2011.

Notre Dame 41 Wisconsin 13

It looked close for three quarters. We were getting ready for a fantastic fourth quarter at Soldier Field. Then the Fighting Irish went crazy, scoring 31 points in the final frame to completely decimate the Badgers. It was a very impressive showing and proved this team could be a tough out the rest of the way.

Alright that was a fun and crazy weekend. How about a Top 25? Alright, here you go:

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

I thought of putting Boston College or Kentucky in the Top 25 but had Maryland, Wake and NC State in the final three spots. You could debate those five teams in any order and it would make perfect sense. I have the Irish at #6 and don’t understand how they are barely in the Top 10 of the AP Poll after their big win over Wisconsin. Yet Arkansas, who won by less, rocketed up 8 spots. How do you not think there’s an SEC bias of sorts when shit like that happens in the polls? I still believe polls shouldn’t start until after Week 1’s games are completed, at the absolute earliest. I am sure almost no one in college football media would agree even if some say they would because rankings are talking points and sometimes they need them when they don’t have some Tom Rinaldi-esque story to talk about.

So that was a great college football Saturday. It has been a great season so far. I hope I haven’t jinxed it by saying that. Have a great week everyone!

OK now that Clay’s gone, who’s next? – Week 4 College Football TV Schedule

Posted on September 22, 2021 by guelphbossman

Clay Helton started the Coaching Carousel for us early this year. Pair that with Randy Edsall’s resignation/retirement/whatever/bonus payment and it’s been a rough start for the Hot Seat coaches. So the question now is, who will be next. Let’s look at the candidates:

Got to start with Manny Diaz. He hasn’t exactly lit things up in Miami and brought back memories of The U. The problem is, it’s not like they have a lot of money to throw around to pay a buyout and bring in another coach. So they may be stuck at least through this season unless things get really bad in south Florida.
Mike Norvell. Good lord have the Noles been awful this year. I wonder when enough will be enough. This program doesn’t need to get back to the Bobby Bowden era but they have to get back to approaching the Jimbo Fisher era or they could have problems for years.
Geoff Collins. I know he needed time to change the team from an option team to run a pro-style offense. But when is it supposed to happen? It feels like it never will and that Collins really doesn’t deserve a chance to continue his quest in Atlanta.
Rod Carey. Let’s get out of the ACC and move to the American. Carey left a good gig at Northern Illinois to replace dental hygienist-in-training Matt Rhule at Temple and it has been an unmitigated disaster. If it wasn’t for USF they would be looking at an easy trip to the AAC basement.
Nick Rolovich. Rolovich’s problems aren’t just on the field where Wazzu has struggled mightily so far. His ideas about the COVID vaccine have rankled a lot of people and I honestly wonder if they will get rid of him just because he has become an annoying pest.
Walt Bell. Are they really going to get anyone great to come to UMass?

As you can see, I haven’t put some of the usual suspects like Frost, Brohm, Babers or Harbaugh. Probably because they have at least not done worse than expectations at this point and, in Harbaugh’s case, has exceeded them (so far). We are only a quarter of the way through the season so now that conference play is slowly beginning we will see how these coaches’ fortunes turn out.

So far after three weeks we have had a damn good season. Like a return to college football, if you will. Here’s hoping this continues. Let’s get to the schedule!

Thursday

		US	Canada
Marshall at Appalachian State	7:30 PM
Alcorn State at Arkansas-Pine Bluff	7:30 PM

Two games. Neither of them really that good. I mean, yeah, App State is still pretty good and could sneak through and cause a lot of problems in the Sun Belt. Marshall just a blew a big fourth quarter lead and lost to East Carolina. Nothing against the Pirates but yeesh that’s bad. But it is still mid-week college football which is always better than no mid-week college football. Especially if the Thursday Night Football matchup is not exactly great. And, how about that, it isn’t. The Panthers, they’re good. The Texans…yes I know they’re 1-1 but they beat the Jaguars so no, they are not good.

Friday

		US	Canada
Middle Tennessee at Charlotte	6:30 PM
Wake Forest at Virginia	7:00 PM
Brown at Harvard	7:00 PM
Liberty at Syracuse	8:00 PM
UNLV at #22 Fresno State	10:00 PM

OK this is better. Five games. And CBS Sports Network is doing a doubleheader with their weird 6:30 start time. It will be interesting to see how badly Fresno State will beat the Rebels, who now have Tate Fucking Martell as their quarterback. I really don’t get how he gets so many opportunities. Anyway, we also have the first look at Ivy League action for the first time since 2019. OK Wake-Hoos could be good so maybe put your focus on that one.

Saturday Early

		US	Canada
Texas Tech at Texas	Noon
Richmond at Virginia Tech	Noon
Ohio at Northwestern	Noon
Villanova at #6 Penn State	Noon
Boise State at Utah State	Noon
Miami-OH at Army	Noon
LSU at Mississippi State	Noon
Missouri at Boston College	Noon
Bowling Green at Minnesota	Noon
#12 Notre Dame vs. #18 Wisconsin (in Chicago)	Noon
#2 Georgia at Vanderbilt	Noon
CCSU at Miami	12:30 PM

Normally TSN would be just starting to step up with a bit more college football coverage. Not this weekend though. The Ryder Cup will dominate the TSN airwaves for a good part of Saturday so that moves all college football to TSN2 where there will be a quadrupleheader. As for the games themselves, past ND-Wisky, not a whole lot that would be considered must-watch. And you know what happens during weeks like this. So expect one of the following to happen:

Villanova comes close to upsetting Penn State but the Nittany Lions close it late.
Richmond shocks Virginia Tech in Blacksburg.
The Red Raiders throw for like 600 yards and beat Texas in a barnburner.
Mizzou and BC go to eight overtimes and maybe, just maybe, the new overtime rules aren’t as bad as I thought (they still are but anyway).

Finally, the Mountain West finally makes their way to CBS with Boise State who is just somewhat average going to Utah State who suddenly may have a prolific offense again. 1-3 start for the Broncos? Wouldn’t be a total shock.

Saturday Afternoon

		US	Canada
Rutgers at #19 Michigan	3:30 PM
Illinois at Purdue	3:30 PM
Kent State at Maryland	3:30 PM
#7 Texas A&M vs. #16 Arkansas (in Arlington)	3:30 PM
Wyoming at UConn	3:30 PM
#9 Clemson at NC State	3:30 PM
Louisville at Florida State	3:30 PM
UTSA at Memphis	3:30 PM
#14 Iowa State at Baylor	3:30 PM
Kansas at Duke	4:00 PM
Georgia State at #23 Auburn	Noon

A good old Southwest Conference showdown highlights the afternoon sked. For once, this neutral site game that Arkansas plays every year at JerryWorld is between two good teams. And Rutgers is on ABC! I was so hoping they would be on in primetime but I’ll take it. Other than that there’s not much of note unless you really need to watch Kansas and Duke play…in football. Oh and how does CBS now think about the UConn contract? This Huskies could be worse than the 2019 version which was one of the worst teams in a long time. To see some of the teams that end up on ESPN+ (or somehow worse) and then know that UConn is getting a national game many weeks is pretty sad (except for Conference USA teams who unfortunately are stuck with horrible TV contracts as it is).

Saturday Primetime

		US	Canada
Tennessee at #11 Florida	7:00 PM
Kentucky at South Carolina	7:00 PM
Navy at Houston	7:00 PM
West Virginia at #4 Oklahoma	7:30 PM
#21 North Carolina vs. Georgia Tech (in Mercedes-Benz Stadium)	7:30 PM
Akron at #10 Ohio State	7:30 PM
Southern Miss at #1 Alabama	7:30 PM
Indiana at Western Kentucky	8:00 PM

Oh man. Feels like such a drop-off from the first two timeslots. WVU-Sooners could be pretty good if the Mountaineers get their offense going early. Navy and Houston, no matter how good or bad they both are, usually put on a great show. As for the rest? Bleh.

Saturday Late Night

		US	Canada
USF at #15 BYU	10:15 PM
Arizona at #3 Oregon	10:30 PM
Colorado at Arizona State	10:30 PM

Mormon After Dark! If the Cougs play like the Cougs have played so far, that game should be done by halftime. As should the Zona-UO game. The only interesting one could be Colorado, who struggles to score, against Arizona State, who struggles to hold on to the ball. Fun times. Just a reminder, the Arizona-Oregon game will start in progress after Southern Miss-Alabama is done. Thus are the perils of hopping from network to network throughout the day and I always wonder why TSN does this.

Games to set your eyeballs on

Texas A&M vs. Arkansas (in Arlington) (3:30, CBS) – If you thought Arkansas would be in the Top 20 at this point of the season, raise your hand. Now put your hands down, you dirty liars. No one thought the Hogs would be this good. Maybe bowl-eligible. But they have looked seriously good and could put a serious damper on the Aggies’ national title aspirations and it wouldn’t be a total shock if the Razorbacks won. Also good to see Arkansas on CBS since they almost never get on there (except for the Black Friday game against Mizzou).

Notre Dame vs. Wisconsin (in Chicago) (Noon, FOX) – So the first two games on this list are neutral-site games. In late September. I mean they are great games and I am looking forward to them but I find all these neutral-site games usually take away from the pageantry and specialness of games in actual college football stadiums. It’s part of what sets it apart from the NFL. Anyway, the Irish continue their schedule hoping to win a game without struggling…..BAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. That was a good one. This should be close which will make Irish fans sweat once again.

West Virginia at Oklahoma (7:30, ABC) – Is this the PEW! PEW! PEW! matchup of the week? Considering the Sooners defense and the Sooners offense, I would put the over/under at about 90. One of the worst Top 5 teams I’ve seen in a while. At some point, they are going to either blow a team out and remind them what they are really about or will lose a game they probably shouldn’t have and confirm what many think about them. Don’t count the ‘Eers out of this one as long as their offense plays like they did early against Virginia Tech and not late.

Rutgers at Michigan (3:30, ABC) – Fuck, yeah! Rutgers, baby! They haven’t been 3-0 in so long and haven’t been in a relatively important game on ABC in a long time as well. And they have a challenge because Michigan is also playing better than many believed. The winner stays alive in a seriously competitive Big Ten East. But the way things are going, both teams will be going bowling and maybe, just maybe, all seven teams in the division will be in the postseason as well for the first time ever.

Iowa State at Baylor (3:30, FOX) – No specialty pack games on the Games of the Week list, which is good for many Canadians. Yes, Iowa State was expected to be good and they have been underperforming. And Baylor has not been good since Matt Rhule left. Things, however, are changing in Waco with Dave Aranda in charge as they have started 3-0. And ISU should still have quite a good season so this could be a darkhorse great game.

Honourable mention: Clemson at NC State (3:30, TSN2); Tennessee at Florida (7:00, TSN2); Kansas State at Oklahoma State (7:00, not able to be seen in this country)

You wanna bet?

Eight out of eleven isn’t too bad. I mean it’s not awesome but hey I’ve had much worse weeks. Yes I picked Arizona State. Yes I picked UCF (which most others did) and yeah I also picked Miami (which most others did as well). So really not that bad I think OK fine let’s just get to this week’s picks already:

Michigan over Rutgers

Wisconsin over Notre Dame

Florida over Tennessee

Texas A&M over Arkansas

Clemson over NC State

Iowa State over Baylor

Oklahoma State over Kansas State

Oklahoma over West Virginia

Charlotte over Middle Tennessee

Arizona State over Colorado

Houston over Navy

OK here’s hoping we have another solid weekend of college football action. Enjoy the games everyone!

Most Important Games of the 2021 College Football Season – Part I (plus a blurb about the NFL Draft)

Posted on May 24, 2021 by guelphbossman

It’s been too damn long since I’ve written a post directed solely to college football. Annnnnnnnnnnnnnnnd….this won’t be one either. I did not do a full NFL draft review post because, honestly, I didn’t feel like it. There are enough reviews of the draft so I can put a paragraph or two at the end of this post and that should suffice. I will say it was nice to watch that. And then to watch some actual college football? An absolute delight. The FCS, as a whole, has got a lot of publicity with this Spring season. To play games on ESPN and even ABC is huge for some of those teams. Don’t be surprised when realignment talk starts again (and oh it will), that some of these teams that got big national audiences in April and May surface as possible FBS teams.

Anyway, now to the task at hand: the upcoming 2021 college football schedules. At least this year I am almost 100% positive that games won’t be cancelled except for reasons that aren’t COVID-related but those rarely happen. I’m doing this a tiny bit later than I normally do so if for some reason you were waiting for these posts, I apologize. As the saying goes, life sometimes gets in the way. I will say the same thing I have said every year I have done this. Very few of the games are confirmed. I will try and note if they are in these important game posts. A lot more should be set by the time I get to network-specific schedule posts but even then, it’s really a crapshoot once October comes around.

Saying that, there are a few probables. Like let’s be honest here: the Iron Bowl will be on CBS. The only way this doesn’t happen is if both teams are somehow under .500. I’d bet everything I have (which isn’t much) on that not being the case. So you can be rest assured some things will be the same as they’ve always been.

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

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

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

SOUND THE TRUMPETS! Hear ye, hear ye! It’s time for the commencement of the Bossman’s Blog college football blog posting season: the ranking of the weeks. If you were looking for something similar to every other year then ho boy are you in for a shock…again. For all that stays the same with college football, these weekly rankings have been changing a fair bit lately. Just a reminder that I list the week and the date that corresponds to the Saturday of that week so you can follow along at home:

Week 10 (November 6)
Week 13 (November 27 – American Thanksgiving)
Week 5 (October 2)
Week 9 (October 30)
Week 1 (September 4)
Week 7 (October 16)
Week 12 (November 20)
Week 11 (November 13)
Week 8 (October 23)
Week 6 (October 9)
Week 3 (September 18)
Week 4 (September 25)
Week 2 (September 11)

First off, same as last year there are thirteen weeks to the regular season. Do I like this? I have not changed my stance from last year that no I do not like this. Honestly I would prefer 14 if not 15 weeks in a season. I understand there are issues there when it comes to the schools and players’ courses but for the health and safety of the players, this is a no-brainer. Which means the NCAA will take another decade to figure this out. For the first time since they did that Sunday night Notre Dame-Texas thriller years ago, Week 1 is really good. Top 5 even! There are some great games to start the season and that is what college football needs this season: a strong start. American Thanksgiving moves up to second but still hasn’t regained its crown. Weeks 10 looks ridiculously good. Honestly, all of November is great, even the former SEC Sleepwalk Saturday which I really can’t call it that anymore because it’s a good week now. October is a big drop from last year as it feels like we are really easing into the end of the season and then building to the November crescendo, if you will. Then there’s September. Ouch. After Week 1 it’s a bit of a shitshow. As per usual, there are a couple of potential games of the year in there with a lot of crap surrounding it. Meaning at least one of those weeks will end up being the most exciting week of the year. Why? It’s what the college football universe has decided. I don’t make the rules.

Now it’s time for the weekly breakdowns. Many of the TSN times will be wrong but hey, it’s May. If the game time has been confirmed it will be in bold. Let’s GO!

Week 1

Game of the Week: Georgia vs. Clemson (in Charlotte) (7:30, ABC) – Wow this is quite the game of the week to start the season. College football is seriously not fucking around. I mean don’t get me wrong, it’s a neutral-site game which I am not the fondest of but I understand the reasoning behind them (spoiler: it’s money). You can honestly say this game is a Game of the Year candidate right off the hop. Let’s also be honest here: when the College Football Playoff expands to 8 teams, you could make the argument that this game isn’t nearly as big since a loss doesn’t even close to eliminate either of these teams from contention. It will be interesting to see who gets the bigger start on the road to topple Bama from their throne. Clemson is the favourite here but there will be a lot of questions after losing Trevor Lawrence and Travis Etienne in the NFL Draft. Both teams are at least New Year’s Six or bust but the winner takes a step up in their bid for the College Football Playoff which is still four teams.

Other Really Important Games: Alabama vs. Miami (in Atlanta) (3:30, ABC) – Maybe the ACC and SEC should do an opening week ACC-SEC Challenge from now on. Who the hell says no to this? I mean yes it means that you will get a Duke-Vanderbilt game possibly somewhere but if you don’t want to head to the ACC or SEC Network then don’t. No one is forcing you to. But with the annual Labour Day game that seems to always end up being the SEC and ACC to opening up the day before Labour Day for college football and neutral-site games all over the place, this might be a good idea. I’m sure there’s a party pooper out there that would say it’s a dumb idea but that might also be the same person who thinks scheduling games two decades out makes sense. Anyway, Bama will probably win by three touchdowns. NEXT!

Penn State at Wisconsin (4:00, FOX) – At least FOX has realized that opening weekend is a good weekend to at least try and get a good slate of games on. Now if they can just realize that for the rest of the weeks during the regular season that only getting one good game to show with two mediocre ones after is not the greatest approach to grow a fanbase. It looks like the Big Ten will be a huge part of FOX’s opening week which is no surprise since the B1G is to FOX like the SEC is to CBS (almost). Both of these teams looking to rebound from bad years (at least for each of these programs). The Big Ten West is always wide open so the Badgers have as good a chance as any team not named Illinois. The Nittany Lions will be looking up once again at Ohio State so every game is huge and these are the games they have to win to have a shot at a division title. I wish they would just do away with division titles but let’s not start that talk again. Speaking of the Buckeyes…

Ohio State at Minnesota (Thursday, 8:00, FOX) – Will this be close? Probably not but it’s an early Big Ten game on a night that Ohio State is not used to playing. And now with no Justin Fields, we shall see if it’s steady as she goes for Ryan Day or a bit of stress and a higher blood pressure for Ryan Day. See what I mean about FOX really stepping up this opening weekend? This is the first Thursday night FOX college football regular season game ever if I’m not mistaken.

Indiana at Iowa (Noon, FOX) – The third straight FOX game and the third straight Big Ten game. The Big Ten may have a good idea here with putting a few big conference games during Week One when pretty much no other conference is doing so. I guess that’s the advantage of having nine conference games instead of eight. Both of these teams have to be considered dark-horse contenders this season. No one will put them in their College Football Playoff predictions. Hell, I’m sure most won’t put either team in their New Year’s Six predictions. I haven’t done my predictions yet but I have a feeling that will be the case with me. And that’s fine since I wouldn’t mind either of these teams surprising a lot of people and being in contention late into November.

LSU at UCLA (8:00, FOX) – Four of the most important games of the week are on FOX (from what I believe). That’s FOX’s entire weekend schedule. Seriously impressive. And something ABC does rarely and ESPN does never. Here’s to hoping LSU is at least not worse than last year’s team (which they have the reasons why so I can give them that) and that UCLA is better than what they’ve been the past few years. Many believe both those things will be true so we could be in for a great end to at least the Saturday portion of the 5-day Labour Day College Football Fiesta.

Sneaky-Good Underrated Game: Ole Miss at Louisville (Monday, 8:00, TSN1/TSN4/TSN5) – Maybe some will consider this not so underrated. Louisville was much better under Scott Satterfield this past season and, well, Lane Kiffin is Lane Kiffin. But until either or both of these teams shows some serious Top 25 consistency, I can’t buy that we would be looking at one of the best games of the week. Both teams have almost no chance to win their conference considering the teams on top but they could certainly put a scare in those same top teams if they are better than advertised. We may look back at this game and realize this was, in actuality, a huge game in the battle for a New Year’s Six spot.

Best Group of Five Game: Boise State at UCF (Thursday, 7:30, TSN2) – Interesting that I have the chance to watch games on all sorts of different networks now and the best games of Week One will all be available quite easily in Canada. C’est la vie. Boise State has a very interesting part of the Mountain West’s new television deals (which started last year but really do come into play starting this season). FOX gets ALL of Boise State’s home games on the season so there’s a good chance at least one time that the Broncos will get to the main network which would be huge for the conference. CBS gets all of Boise State’s conference road games. I don’t know if any of those will be shown late night on CBS (which is the plan at least once this season) but if I were them I would try and do so. As for the other couple games that Boise State has, they can be shown anywhere. Like this one, which will probably be on ESPN. Bizarre? Not really for a team that should have been picked up by the Big XII by now and is somewhat stuck in a Group of Five conference. A good Group of Five conference but a G-5 conference nonetheless.

Worst Power Five Game: Oregon State at Purdue (3:30, Big Ten Network) – I had to go through a lot of games to find this one. The next worst game? Stanford and Kansas State in Arlington. And this isn’t a part of Week One having a much better schedule than normal. Week One is not really known for too many P5 vs. P5 games so it’s slim pickings trying to find a really bad one. We will really see if either of these teams are worse than what they were last year: probably near the bottom of their conferences but honestly not that bad and a couple of breaks away from a bowl game.

Week 2

Game of the Week: Oregon at Ohio State (Noon, FOX) – Hey, how about that? Same two teams occupy the Game of the Week spot for Week 2 and have to be considered a Game of the Year candidate. I will not refer to the Oregon Ducks as the defending Pac-12 North champions. They didn’t fucking win the division. They only went to the Pac-12 Championship because Washington couldn’t due to COVID. See this would have been a great year for USC to have been Top 5 and looking at a College Football Playoff spot and it’s ruined by a 4-3 team. Considering what some people want, Oregon would have to also be put in the CFP. How stupid is that? It’s really fucking stupid.

Other Really Important Games: Washington at Michigan (7:30, ABC/TSN2) – Not fully confirmed for TSN2 but it will be on at least one TSN channel. This could be a lot better than the two teams have been as of late. Washington hasn’t hit the heights from early on in the Chris Petersen era. And, Michigan is Michigan under Jim Harbaugh. Usually good for at least 8 wins and a loss to Ohio State. Big Blue can’t be as bad as they were last year can they? No one thinks that but you never know. This shows how bad Week 2 is since this may not even be an important game in the New Year’s Six story of the season.

Iowa at Iowa State (3:30, FOX) – Iowa State should be back in the Big XII title mix this season. And Iowa has one of the longest tenured head coaches, Kirk Ferentz, who is good for at least one Ferentzing every season. It’s why he gets these crazy contracts and great bonuses for a team that is almost never a Top 10 team. Saying that, I would love to see one of these two teams on the precipice of the CFP because it needs some new blood, especially from non-blue blood programs.

Texas at Arkansas (7:00, specialty pack) – The first appearance of the specialty pack in this year’s important games series. Not quite the Game of the Century of 1969…ok not even close to that. But Arkansas is somehow trending in the right direction with one of the more popular coaches in college football nowadays and we get to see what Steve Sarkisian is really all about. I sincerely hope he does well and doesn’t fall off the wagon again. Now that doesn’t mean I want Texas to win the national championship. I just mean I want Sark to have a good time in Austin and for people in Austin to give him a chance. OK, I’m now officially worried for his well-being.

Sneaky-Good Underrated Game: Missouri at Kentucky (7:30, specialty pack) – This will be buried in the schedule but could end up being a gem for the SEC Network. We have two teams that really are on the rise (and in the Cats’ case, again). It’s never the case that the SEC East is wide open but you need to win games like this to have a shot at the division title. Kentucky knows that from a few years back when they still had a shot in November to clinch a spot in the SEC Championship. I kind of wish this somehow gets to ESPN or ESPN2 but I doubt it. And no, it won’t go to CBS, I’m almost certain of it.

Best Group of Five Game: Liberty at Troy (2:00, ESPN+) – Yes…ESPN+. It was either this or UTEP-Boise State which I have going to FOX Sports One which, yes, is a better network. But the Broncos should win that one by about 50 whereas this game should be fairly competitive. It will be very interesting to see if the Flames are as good as they were last season. It was funny watching the begrudging respect from so-called open minded college football media members last year so I hope they do well again this season. Maybe, Conference USA finally gets their act together and invites them (unless the Sun Belt or even, dare I say, the American gets to them first).

Worst Power Five Game: Rutgers at Syracuse (Noon, ACC Network) – Funny I had these same two teams in this exact same spot last season before shit went sideways. At least this season it would go to the proper network, unlike last year where the rumour was it would be on FOX because FOX just doesn’t care about their primetime window nearly as much as they should. Again, I had other options here. The one that stood out most was Illinois-Virginia but I think that might end up being good. Just the Bronco Mendenhall-Bret Bielema coaching matchup is intriguing in itself. RU-SU has none of that intrigue. Zero.

Week 3

Game of the Week: Alabama at Florida (3:30, CBS) – This will have serious national championship implications but I don’t need to tell you that. Now could this end up as a primetime game for CBS? Possibly and it wouldn’t surprise me if they do it just for the fact that it would then be on at night and not in the afternoon where the players (and fans) would bake in the Gainesville sun. This is a rematch of the SEC Championship where the Gators honestly looked like they could beat the Tide which is surprising considering how good Bama was last year. It was the only time where the Tide looked like they were in trouble. I wouldn’t even mind seeing a Bama loss here as it would make the SEC season, if not the entire college football season, a lot more interesting.

Other Really Important Games: Auburn at Penn State (7:30, ABC) – OK we’re still doing good with the high-profile games. A definite step down from the Game of the Week but still a great game. It was also really the only choice for ABC in primetime, especially since Boise State can’t be on the network for any of their home games and I can’t see them putting Cincinnati-Indiana on in that spot (although that would be a great idea in my opinion). Two teams who have definitely taken a step, or two, back from previous seasons. This should be a highly heated matchup as a loss could be devastating and portend not-so-good things to come on their season.

Nebraska at Oklahoma (Noon, FOX) – The story of this game was almost too good to be true. Nebraska was trying desperately to get out of this game. Social media found out and, predictably, took a huge creamy dump all over the Huskers organization. In the end, they relented and kept this game on the schedule. This is Scott Frost’s biggest chance since coming to Lincoln to put a huge stamp on the program and show that they are turning the corner. A win here, as unlikely as it seems, would be the jolt the program needs to get back to prominence. Now watch the Sooners win by 60.

Cincinnati at Indiana (4:00, FOX) – I would say FOX is kicking ABC/ESPN’s ass early on. I mean they are but when it’s a week like this it doesn’t exactly mean a whole lot. It’s a pretty good drop from the second best game of the week which was already a drop from the Game of the Week. Much like last year’s Week 3 (or what it was supposed to be) this week is such a shit sandwich. Meaning there is a very good opportunity for it to be an exciting and crazy week of college football, something that happens at least once a season.

Sneaky-Good Underrated Game: Oklahoma State at Boise State (3:30, FOX Sports One) – Could this end up on the main FOX network? If they take all of their broadcast windows seriously, then yes. Which is why I have this game on FS1. At least it’s not like last season when the Broncos were slated to host Florida State on FOX at Noon Eastern, 10:00 in the morning local. Not saying they won’t have to do that in the future to get that big national audience but it’s a tough introduction to Big Noon Saturday (if it had ended up happening). Hey, maybe this game will end up at Noon. May be a better option than Nebraska-Oklahoma even if it’s just to promote the Mountain West.

Best Group of Five Game: Coastal Carolina at Buffalo (3:30, ESPN+) – Look I’m going to be honest again here. I go through the season, setting up these schedules based on what I believe will happen by using current TV contract info and what has happened over the past year or two. This does not mean that all the “choices” I make are good ones or ones that I agree with. I may change my mind even before I start doing these posts. This feels like a game, if it were in October, would easily be on ESPNU if not ESPN2. So between now and the network-specific posts, I may change my mind. This will be the first test to see if the Chants are as good as advertised and potentially a Group of Five favourite for the NY6 spot.

Worst Power Five Game: Baylor at Kansas (Thursday, 8:00, specialty pack) – This is more for Kansas than it is for Baylor. Not saying the Bears are great because it was a struggle last year in Dave Aranda’s first season in Waco. But until the Jayhawks show they can contend for a bowl game on a consistent basis, they will be treated like the Big XII’s ugly redheaded stepchild. The hope is that the hire of Lance Leipold to coach the team will be a good one. It should be but we won’t see any of that good stuff this season. They should feel lucky that they get to be on ESPN, even if it is on a Thursday night up against the NFL.

There you go. The first three weeks are complete. And it’s the first official blog post for what should be a much more normal college football season. 96 days to the start of a regular regular season. With fans in the stands. Maybe not full stadiums but man, hearing fans is so much better than the empty arenas.

Now, let’s have that quick talk about the draft. It was nice to see fans there in Cleveland despite the chilly weather. It was nice to see Roger Goodell there even though him in his barcalounger was pretty damn funny. I wonder how many fans just farted their brains out on that chair on stage. I followed along with my mock draft and saw it was crap after the first few picks, as per usual. I got a couple right later on but was way off on some. It is what it is. I won’t do a recap. There are too many out there and I might be repeating what they say. The Jags got Lawrence. The Jets got Wilson. The 49ers reached for Lance (in my opinion) but it was a better choice than Mac Jones who ended up a Patriot. The Bears may have made the smartest move in the draft. Yes the same Bears who traded up to get Mitchell Trubisky traded up this time to get Justin Fields in a trade that most everyone thought was brilliant. The team I cheer for, the Buffalo Bills, did alright. Not great but then again, they didn’t have serious needs. They just needed to shore up some areas. All in all, it was a good watch and I enjoyed it, even watching Mel Kiper try valiantly to keep his blood pressure from going through the roof with some of the picks.

Alright this felt good. It’s a bit cathartic to do this post. I’ve been through a pretty crazy last 15 months and now that my life (and hopefully, soon, life in this province) is getting back to normal, this is one of the final parts that need to return, so to speak. Make my life as whole as it was before my life turned upside-down (not that it’s an amazing life but it wasn’t bad at the time). Anyway, have a great Victoria Day, whatever you decide to do and have a great (and short!) work week as well…unless you don’t work Monday to Friday. In that case, still have a good week even if you aren’t working all those days.

SUPER MEGA HYPER OMNI POST! V4.0.1

Posted on November 30, 2020 by guelphbossman

This post is really long. Like seriously fucking long. So if you are not fully awake or have some caffeine in your system, you might want to wait to read this. Viewer discretion is strongly advised.

I have done this three times before. It’s time for number four!

Instead of doing a full recap and then a full bowl projections post, I figured I would combine them into one insanely long post! Why? To save time! That is complete bullshit but that is what I have told myself every year so I will continue to do so. It was an…let’s call it an OK week of college football that contained a few exciting games. We are headed into an exciting finish to the season. Now we can see how COVID will wreak havoc on it since it will most certainly happen. We just don’t know when and to what team(s).

Let’s start with recapping the week that was. There were a few fun things that happened and I slept in way too long Sunday morning. A Fall tradition.

One of three ranked-on-ranked games on the week had Iowa State outlast Texas. The difference here was mostly one guy: Breece Hall. His work on the ground was a boon for the Cyclone offense as he was able to help ISU milk a lot of clock in this one. He is a lot like a Clone legend: Troy Davis. A great player who won’t get any Heisman hype because of the team he plays for. So now Iowa State has almost clinched their ticket to JerryWorld which will be a nice change from seeing mostly bluebloods in the Big XII Championship since it returned.
Florida beat Kentucky easily. Georgia beat South Carolina even easier this past weekend. The Dawgs have to be rooting for the Vols to win this Saturday over Florida to have any chance at being in the SEC Championship. I can see many UGA fans having a bad taste in their mouth for having to root for Tennessee but it is what it is. You know what? Blame it on COVID. It will make it feel a bit better.
You all saw it I’m sure. Sarah Fuller became the first woman to play in a Power Five football game. That, in and of itself, is a huge accomplishment. And of course Twitter, being full of very level-headed people, went crazy over it. Many loved it but there were some that said it was nothing but a PR stunt. Here is my take on this. Vandy had no kickers. They needed to find someone to kick the damn ball during their game against Missouri. Was Fuller the best option? Who knows but she was at least a decent option as she played for the Dores’ SEC Championship women’s soccer team. So let’s get to her kicking off to start the second half of the game which was her first opportunity to kick the ball. It was a squib kick that went a little over 30 yards. For people that don’t think it was a squib kick, give me a fucking break. The ball wasn’t on a tee, it was held by a player and the Commodores overloaded on the right side, where the squib went. They wanted to do something different to hopefully get anything going for them in this game. That was Fuller’s only kick of the game as Vandy was shutout 41-0 by Mizzou. I think people have to realize something about all this. Vandy is straight trash this season. No COVID excuses here: they are just awful. This felt like trying something different to try something different. That it was historic is icing on the cake. Now there seems to be other issues as Derek Mason was just fired and it sounded, from the words of Fuller, a few players and a couple of coaches, that there was no energy on the sideline most of the season and it’s like many had given up before the season had started. They need a jolt in Nashville to get this team at least being competitive in the SEC. And that might involve a complete rethinking of the football program at Vanderbilt. Thank you for coming to my college football Ted Talk.
LSU’s offense basically took the day off on Saturday. If it wasn’t for a late touchdown they would have been shutout by Texas A&M. It’s funny that a 20-7 dominating win over the defending national champions does very little to move the needle for the Aggies. I still think they have an inside shot at the College Football Playoff but will need to run their next two opponents off the field to convince The Committee.
Oregon blew it against Oregon State. But that wasn’t the story. The story was the Pac-12 officiating crew calling the game. Oregon goes offside (that anyone could see) and it’s not called. The Beavers scored a touchdown but it was called short. This meant another play had to be run where their quarterback got injured. This was all in the final minute. And the officials seemed to have no idea how to call anything. It was atrocious. I am sure they will get a pay raise for it.
In almost-upset news, Iowa almost gakked their game away to Nebraska in the annual Black Friday CornHub game. And this is not really a good Huskers program these days. They really have not been a contender for a long time (and no I don’t include that time they started 7-0 a few years back and then were terrible the rest of the way). I am sure they long for the days of Bo Pelini. Hell they may desire the Bill Callahan days! Scott Frost will be on a seriously hot seat to start next season and now some have to look back and take back their thoughts of basically poaching him from UCF as the Knights are still doing quite well under Josh Heupel.
The game that was created mere days in advance, put on late night on ESPN because of other cancellations, then moved into the ABC primetme spot due to MORE cancellations, did not disappoint. It was all Utah in the first half and then all Washington in the second half. The Huskies ended up holding on for the victory after taking a late lead and stay undefeated. This may only lead to a possible New Year’s Six bid but at this point I am sure Pac-12 teams are very happy to be playing (when they get the opportunity to play that is).
SMU got boatraced for most of the game by *checks notes* East Carolina? What the hell? It was 45-7 at the half for the Pirates. So either ECU is much better than most of us figured or the Mustangs are not nearly as good as many of us thought. I’m going to go with the latter so this doesn’t seem like a massive upset.
If you missed it, history was made in western New York. Buffalo Bulls running back Jaret Patterson went off on Kent State. Patterson scored eight rushing touchdowns, tying Howard Griffith’s 30-year-old record! He also came within 18 yards of Samaje Perine’s single-game record of 427 rushing yards. An absolutely unreal performance. And get this: Bulls head coach Lance Leipold had no idea he had tied the record and took him out for their final drive (where Patterson’s backup scored a touchdown). Worst part is Patterson will get no Heisman hype at all. But some NFL team will be very happy to have him on Sundays (and Thursdays and Mondays and sometimes Tuesdays).
A game that almost no one would have watched had a great finish in Big XII country. Baylor finally got their second win under first-year head coach Dave Aranda. It was a wild fourth quarter against Kansas State where 31 points were scored and the Bears scored with no time remaining. Hey remember early on in the season when the Wildcats were getting some contender hype? Yeah, neither do I.
Penn State and Michigan played football on Saturday. That’s almost all I can say about that. At least the Nittany Lions got their first win of the season.
Let’s get back to some insane football, Big XII Style. Oklahoma State and Texas Tech put on an (offensive) performance for the ages during the third quarter of their game. The two teams combined for five touchdowns in six minutes of play. Crazy! That included the Cowboys getting a touchdown off a Red Raider onside kick. The Pokes ended up winning, keeping their very slim Big XII Championship hopes alive.
And now to look at something that was not so good. Late in their game against NC State, Syracuse quarterback Rex Culpepper gets sacked on third and long. So now, with no timeouts, they have to run a play as there is less than 10 seconds remaining. Instead, he gets under centre, gets the ball, and spikes it. That is really the perfect example of Syracuse’s season.
Finally, a week after Northwestern beat Wisconsin to take full control of the Big Ten West, they get upset by Michigan State and look terrible doing it. College football, everybody!

Normally I would look at the conference championships and give out scenarios as to what may happen. With two weeks left, I won’t be doing that. Also, the fact most of the conference races are a mess doesn’t help. I will try and bring you this next week..

Alright, on to my bowl projections as of this moment, which may have no worth to them:

Sugar Bowl	CFP Poll #1 vs. CFP Poll #4	Alabama vs. Ohio State
Rose Bowl	CFP Poll #2 vs. CFP Poll #3	Notre Dame vs. Miami

Clemson out, Notre Dame in. I think the Irish win the rematch in the ACC Championship to clinch the #2 spot. Ohio State’s resume took a hit with the cancellation of their game but I still see them holding on to the #4 spot.

Which means the New Year’s Six has changed. But how has it changed?

Orange Bowl	ACC Champ vs. SEC #2	Clemson vs. Texas A&M
Fiesta Bowl	CFP At-large vs. CFP At-large/G5 #1	USC vs. Oklahoma
Peach Bowl	CFP At-large vs. CFP At-large/G5 #1	Florida vs. Cincinnati
Cotton Bowl	CFP At-large vs. CFP At-large/G5 #1	Iowa State vs. Georgia

A lot of changes. I already mentioned Clemson losing to Notre Dame again but with Miami in the Top 4, they are slotted in the Orange Bowl as the ACC representative. I have decided that Texas A&M might be picked instead of Florida for the Orange Bowl. I don’t know why, I just thought that. So that moves Florida to the Peach Bowl. Oklahoma, losers of the Big XII Championship, would still be high enough to get the Fiesta Bowl bid since The Committee obviously doesn’t want to put BYU in. Iowa State, now Big XII champions in my projections, go to the Cotton Bowl and face Georgia who replaces Texas as the final team in.

Now the rest of bowl season which is a shitshow with the pandemic and every team being bowl-eligible and no one knowing the criteria anymore and man I think I need to make myself a drink.

Outback Bowl	SEC vs. Big Ten	Kentucky vs. Northwestern
Gator Bowl	SEC vs. ACC	Ole Miss vs. NC State
Citrus Bowl	SEC vs. Big Ten	Auburn vs. Indiana
Birmingham Bowl	SEC/ACC vs. G5	Mississippi State vs. BYU
Texas Bowl	SEC vs. Big XII	Missouri vs. TCU
Liberty Bowl	SEC vs. Big XII	Tennessee vs. West Virginia
Arizona Bowl	MWC vs. MAC	Nevada vs. Buffalo
Sun Bowl	Pac-12 vs. ACC	Colorado vs. Boston College
Armed Forces Bowl	Big XII vs G5	Baylor vs. Liberty
LA Bowl	Pac-12 vs. MWC	Arizona State vs. San Jose State
Music City Bowl	SEC vs. Big Ten	LSU vs. Iowa
Duke’s Mayo Bowl	Big Ten vs. ACC	Wisconsin vs. North Carolina
Alamo Bowl	Big XII vs. Pac-12	Texas vs. Oregon
Cheez-It Bowl	Big XII vs. ACC	Oklahoma State vs. Virginia Tech
Military Bowl	American vs. ACC	Memphis vs. Virginia
Guaranteed Rate Bowl	Big XII vs. Big Ten	Kansas State vs. Nebraska
Independence Bowl	Army vs. Pac-12	Army vs. Utah
LendingTree Bowl	Sun Belt vs. G5	Appalachian State vs. SMU
First Responder Bowl	Big XII/ACC vs. G5	Texas Tech vs. Louisiana
Cure Bowl	G5 vs. G5	Florida Atlantic vs. UCF
Gasparilla Bowl	SEC/ACC vs. G5	Wake Forest vs. Miami-OH
Camellia Bowl	G5 vs. G5	UTSA vs. Fresno State
New Mexico Bowl	MWC vs. G5	Air Force vs. Louisiana Tech
Montgomery Bowl	ACC vs. American	Pittsburgh vs. Tulsa
New Orleans Bowl	C-USA vs. Sun Belt	Marshall vs. Coastal Carolina
Boca Raton Bowl	G5 vs. G5	Central Michigan vs. Charlotte
Idaho Potato Bowl	MWC vs. MAC	Boise State vs. Western Michigan
Myrtle Beach Bowl	G5 vs. G5	Ohio vs. San Diego State
Las Vegas Bowl	SEC vs. Pac-12	Arkansas vs. Washington
Frisco Bowl	G5 vs. G5	UAB vs. Troy

A few notes for your perusal:

Did you notice the missing bowl? I am guessing probably not. The Pinstripe Bowl has been cancelled due to concerns over COVID-19 and I have a feeling it won’t be the last.
The tie-ins actually work better this year with the pandemic parameters (pandameters?). Putting all the G5 teams into a pool after the conference tie-ins are satisfied and having all teams eligible makes it easier to fill in the bowls. Now the chances of me being right have gone way down because of it but that’s a different conversation.
Army, as far as I know, is still the only team that has accepted a bowl bid. They accepted it over a month ago. I am not joking.
I still have no idea if the Las Vegas Bowl is being run. The website says the 2020 Las Vegas Bowl will be run but it doesn’t mention a date. So I will keep it in until I find out otheriwse.
I still don’t understand the idea of split tie-ins. Just pick a conference and go with it. Or have a pool of teams to pick from like they have done this year (and I hope they do in the future). That would at least make more sense. Then again, nothing much makes sense this year.

Other than those few items, not much to talk about specifically about the bowl projections. A fair amount has changed in terms of what I am projecting but they aren’t wild changes. That might change starting this coming weekend. With only two weeks left in the regular season (kind of), much will happen over this time. The problem is, with all teams bowl eligible, I can’t see many accepting bowl bids until conference championship weekend.

UPDATE: The Sun Bowl, one of the longest running bowl games in college football, has been cancelled this year. See what I mean?

Now I figured instead of doing the conference championship scenarios, I will look into potential scenarios of the future and what they would like in this crazy 2020 season (using the current AP poll rankings).

The five-team CFP

I have advocated for one more team to be added to the College Football Playoff instead of going to eight which is what many want. What would that do this season? This:

Peach Bowl (play-in game): #4 Clemson vs. #5 Texas A&M
Sugar Bowl: #1 Alabama vs. Clemson/TAMU winner
Rose Bowl: #2 Notre Dame vs. #3 Ohio State

I would dig this. Doing the Peach Bowl on the opening day of bowl season would allow this to happen. Now, other things would have to take place because the schedule is a fucking mess but if it had been set up properly, this could occur. Ratings, baby!

The six-team CFP

Two teams added. OK. Let’s see how this could work out:

Orange Bowl: #3 Ohio State vs. #6 Florida
Peach Bowl: #4 Clemson vs. #5 Texas A&M
Sugar Bowl: #1 Alabama vs. lower-ranked winner from play-in weekend
Rose Bowl: #2 Notre Dame vs. higher-ranked winner from play-in weekend

Again, I could go for this for sure. Is it adding a game for two teams possibly? Yes. There are ways around this for sure. Like get rid of conference championships? Oh wait, that’s money in the conference’s pockets. Can’t do that. And yes, I have ISU predicted at #6.

The eight-team CFP

This is what people want. OK what would it look like for this season?

Peach Bowl: #1 Alabama vs. #8 BYU
Fiesta Bowl: #2 Notre Dame vs. #7 Cincinnati
Orange Bowl: #3 Ohio State vs. #6 Florida
Cotton Bowl: #4 Clemson vs. #5 Texas A&M

I mean this gets Cincinnati and BYU in so that would be a plus. I still kind of don’t like the idea of moving to eight teams but I know it will happen for the new CFP contract.

G-5 Playoffs

What if the Group of Five decided “Fuck it we are having our own tournament to crown a champion.” They won’t but I could see a lot of people watching these games. The quarter-finals would look like this:

Cincinnati vs. Buffalo
BYU vs. Liberty
Coastal Carolina vs. Tulsa
Marshall vs. Louisiana

I would watch the hell out of this, not going to lie. Now I assume that, at least for the quarter-finals, the higher-ranked teams would play at home but who knows.

Alright that is it. No more. A seriously long post is complete. Later this week I will try and piece together the college and pro schedules. I think I have a better chance of herding squirrels. Have a good week everyone!

Another proposal from yours truly – Week 11 College Football Recap

Posted on November 16, 2020 by guelphbossman

You probably know this already but over 15% of the college football games this past weekend were postponed or outright cancelled. Unfortunately this is not a surprise considering we are in the throes of the second wave of COVID-19. College football doesn’t get exempted from this. And to be honest, it feels like even though the powers that be are doing the best they can, they are screwing things up. Considering it’s the kind of year it has been you have to be flexible with a lot of things these days. College football is doing that as well. Just look at the Pac-12 with UCLA and California. They both had their games cancelled so on Friday, set up a game for yesterday. This has never been done before in the history of college football considering some teams schedule non-conference games 25 years out. So it shows you don’t need weeks to prepare for scheduling changes. Which brings me to my proposal.

Just so you know, this is something that has been bandied about by quite a few people in and out of the college football mediasphere. Really, it is the same thing I have said about the NFL: create a week (or two) at the end of the season (or near the end) to fill in these games that have been lost to allow for a fuller season to be played. The SEC has kind of done that as during conference championship week, teams can reschedule lost games if they can’t find an open week any other time. A good idea but mine would be better. Just move conference championship day to Boxing Day. Now you have December 19th for make-up games which could end up being very important. And don’t start bowl season the day of the conference championships. I mean way to make those two teams playing that bowl game feel like shit. Start the bowls on the 28th, and move the damn Rose Bowl and Sugar Bowl back. Many are saying you can’t but have you noticed how fucked up everything is these days? Is the most important thing to get the season finished properly? Oh that’s right, it’s not. It’s about money. Just not for the players.

Alright enough of my awesome plan to help college football (yet again). On to the recap of what was a pretty good week of college football. It wasn’t the best week and I think a lot had to do with all the games cancelled. My only hope is that the last month of the regular season is better (fingers crossed).

Recap

Nebraska had a nice win over Penn State in a battle of winless teams. Scott Frost has to be relieved. It was a huge victory that has been mired in a slump not seen in this part of the country in decades. Not saying this makes it so the Huskers now have a shot at the division title because they really don’t. Saying that, it’s not like their schedule is super difficult. Illinois, Iowa, Purdue, and Minnesota left for them. Win out and they are 5-2 and with some help who knows. As for PSU, wow the bottom has dropped out for them. Only winless team left in the Big Ten. This is not looking good for them and for James Franklin.
NC State is quietly at 5-3 on the season after their win over the hapless Florida State Seminoles. The game wasn’t even as close as the 38-22 score would make you believe. FSU being relegated to the ACC Network says all you need to know about the state of that program. They are in dire straits meaning Mike Norvell will be on a hot seat starting next season for sure.
A very slow start for Cincinnati turned into an absolute rout when they scored 28 second quarter points on East Carolina to pick up the win. They still have two more big games against UCF and Tulsa coming up that could put other teams back in the race to get to the American Conference Championship. The Bearcats would have to lose at least one of those, if not both, though and I honestly can’t see that happening.
No big matchups this day but there was the Red Bandana Game at Boston College. If you haven’t heard about it, it’s in honour of Welles Crowther. He was a lacrosse player at BC who ended up moving to New York City to become an equities trader. The other thing he was was a volunteer firefighter. He ended up helping people get out of the South Tower during 9/11 and ended up dying. One of the people who survived talked about being saved by a man who wore a red bandana and that man was Crowther . So this game was created annually and it’s a great tradition that was created in Boston. And then Notre Dame came in and beat the Eagles pretty badly. Actually that may have been a little bit of an exaggeration but the Eagles were never really close. The Irish were too much for BC and Ian Book may have pushed himself into the Heisman conversation. Notre Dame continues their run to the ACC Championship but have to get through North Carolina first which could be a very interesting game.
In Big XII news, Texas Tech BARELY beat Baylor. It was looking for a while there that the Bears had the Red Raiders’ number. Tech needed a FG late to win this one and got it. Neither team is doing any good, especially Baylor who has only won against Kansas and may not win another game this year. Rough start for Dave Aranda in Waco.
Illinois had an actual great game against Rutgers and no, I am not joking. It looked like the Scarlet Knights were driving for the winning score until an unfortunate interception. Huge for the Illini. This allowed them to hit a long field goal with almost no time left to get their first win of the season. And with all teams bowl-eligible, Lovie Smith could take his team to a bowl game in two consecutive seasons. The last time that happened in Champaign? 2010 and 2011 in the last two years under Ron Zook. Yeah.
Appalachian State ended up with what ended up as a huge win as they beat Georgia State in a close one. This makes it so their game against Coastal Carolina is still huge and for the Sun Belt East division crown. The Mountaineers have no real shot at the New Year’s Six so now their goal is to kill the Chanticleers’ chances. It wouldn’t surprise me if they were the favourite when those two teams meet up this coming Saturday.
Could the Florida Gators somehow be a true factor in the CFP race? They sure could. I mean their offense took Arkansas to the woodshed and now Kyle Trask has to be considered a real Heisman candidate. And the Hogs aren’t bad this year. The Gators still need to truly figure out their defense since the entire conference has decided to become the Big XII East. A game against Vanderbilt coming up should help them figure things out before the final stretch of games.
Are the Wisconsin Badgers a juggernaut? They mopped the floor with Michigan dropping 49 relatively easy points on them. Their path to the Big Ten Championship is now very simple. Beat Northwestern this Saturday, don’t lose anymore games to COVID and they are headed to Indianapolis.
So what can we make of the Kentucky Wildcats this season? They looked OK, I guess, against Vanderbilt and were able to eek out a win. They’ve been all over the place this season and no one can quite figure them out. Unfortunately for them, their next two games against Alabama and Florida. Good fucking luck.
SMU lost to Tulsa. No New Year’s Six for you!
There were no games between ranked teams this past weekend. The closest we probably got is Miami’s thrilling victory over Virginia Tech. A back-and-forth affair that came down to the wire with The U pulling out the win with a touchdown with six minutes to go and a defensive stand shortly after that. The Canes need to keep winning to move up the chain and hope that one of Clemson or Notre Dame loses down the stretch so they can get back into the ACC Championship.
Maybe we should call them Windiana. Are the Hoosiers ready for real pressure? They have it coming up. They went way out in front against Michigan State and cruised to the shutout this past weekend to move themselves squarely into the Top 10. Now they have, arguably, the biggest game in program history as they play Ohio State this coming Saturday. They win that and they have to be considered, amazingly enough, a true College Football Playoff contender. Amazing.
It looked for a while that Oregon was not going to be able to pull through in their game against Washington State. A 22-point fourth quarter helped them to the big win. At this point, other than maybe USC, the Ducks are feeling like the only Pac-12 hope for the CFP. And struggling to beat a team like Wazzu just doesn’t cut it.
Marshall beat Middle Tennessee. I would honestly be shocked if the Thundering Herd don’t get to 10-0 going into the Conference USA Championship.
Is the ACC the new Big XII? North Carolina and Wake Forest both put up 50-burgers in their defense-optional matchup. Both teams are the epitome of the ACC mid-card. Good teams but none of them seem like contenders, even if they are ranked as such. Both of these teams are good and it wouldn’t surprise me to see them both ranked at the end of the season but neither of them look like they could contend with Clemson or Notre Dame. Now watch the Heels beat the Irish.
Finally, USC and Arizona had a fun match out in Pac-12 land. Another back-and-forth match with three touchdowns in the final four minutes. The Trojans keep rolling with the win and are looking like the only challenger to Oregon in the entire Pac-12.

Normally at this point of the season we would be heading into SEC Sleepwalk Saturday followed by Footballgasm Weekend and that would end the regular season. Instead, we have a good week coming up, followed by American Thanksgiving, followed by two more weeks of the regular season. So yeah these games are important but still not as important as those final regular season games. Anyway, let’s get to my Top 25 which may or may not be of any importance:

#1	Alabama
#2	Notre Dame
#3	Florida
#4	Ohio State
#5	Cincinnati
#6	BYU
#7	Clemson
#8	Texas A&M
#9	Oregon
#10	Miami
#11	Wisconsin
#12	Indiana
#13	Oklahoma State
#14	Georgia
#15	Marshall
#16	Coastal Carolina
#17	USC
#18	Iowa State
#19	Oklahoma
#20	Auburn
#21	Texas
#22	Northwestern
#23	Louisiana
#24	Liberty
#25	North Carolina

Not much has happened at the top but there should be a lot to come in the last few weeks of the regular season. Unless something weird happens, both Georgia and Auburn won’t get to the CFP. Alabama is almost a shoo-in at this point unless they don’t just shit the bed but fill the bedroom with diarrhea. Notre Dame wins out and they are essentially a lock. Ohio State is probably the same. I can’t see a game that Ohio State would lose the rest of the way. I am going to continue to drink the Kool-Aid and say Cincinnati and BYU are going to make things very difficult for The Committee. The most important thing here though? Indiana is in the Top 10 in the AP Poll but not quite in my poll. They beat tOSU though, they are easily in the Top 10 if not the Top 5 in both of those venerable polls. And let’s not forget about Coastal Carolina. And Marshall. Two Group of Five teams who are playing well, haven’t lost, and could cause other issues for The Committee. I would love to see Indiana win out and get in the conversation for the College Football Playoff because I like the discomfort of a team that is not a college football blueblood being in the mix. The media, as much as they they say otherwise, do not want these non-traditional football powers in these big games. Except for the ones who love controversy like it’s crack. Those are the people I like.

We got some MACtion tomorrow night! Buffalo and Bowling Green tussle starting at 7:00 on CBS Sports Network and Akron faces off against Kent State starting at 7:00 on ESPNU (if you can get that). Ohio and Miami-OH were supposed to play but they are the first MACtion game to be cancelled due to the Coronavirus. Even MACtion can’t handle the virus. Then the next night is another set of MACtion games with one of them being on CBSSN: Toledo-Eastern Michigan.

Tomorrow we got some bowl projections (which aren’t early anymore). Wednesday, I will try and get the weekend-plus of college football and its TV schedule up. Finally, the NFL gets the sked treatment on Thursday (hopefully). Wish me luck and enjoy your week (and the games) everyone!

Bossman's Blog

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

Tag Archives: Dave Aranda

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

Tuesday

Wednesday

Thursday

Friday

Saturday Early

Saturday Afternoon

Saturday Primetime

Saturday Late Night

OK now that Clay’s gone, who’s next? – Week 4 College Football TV Schedule

Thursday

Friday

Saturday Early

Saturday Afternoon

Saturday Primetime

Saturday Late Night

Friday December 16th

Saturday December 17th

Monday December 19th

Tuesday December 20th

Wednesday December 21st

Thursday December 22nd

Friday December 23rd

Saturday December 24th

Monday December 26th

Tuesday December 27th

Wednesday December 28th

Thursday December 29th

Friday December 30th

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Monday January 2nd

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Tuesday

Wednesday

Thursday

Friday

Saturday Early

Saturday Afternoon

Saturday Primetime

Saturday Late Night

Friday December 17th

Saturday December 18th

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Thursday December 23rd

Friday December 24th

Saturday December 25th

Monday December 27th

Tuesday December 28th

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Thursday​​

Friday

Saturday Early​​

Saturday Afternoon

Saturday Primetime​​

Saturday Late Night​​

Thursday

Friday

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Saturday Afternoon

Saturday Primetime

Saturday Late Night

Thursday

Saturday Early

Saturday Primetime

Saturday Late Night