Let’s bid farewell to a couple of legends – Week 11 College Football TV Schedule

Posted on November 7, 2023 by guelphbossman

I don’t think we have ever seen two football minds like this get let go within a week of each other. It is crazy to think this could happen, but it did. Two legends who didn’t get their proper sendoff on here. So here we go.

*deep breath*

Ladies and gentlemen, it is time to say farewell to two of, arguably……….the worst coordinators in recent Power Five football history. Brian Ferentz, son of Iowa head coach Kirk Ferentz, had to be put on a points minimum to be able to keep his contract after this season was over. And Alex Grinch, one of Lincoln Riley’s loyal soldiers. Two men who undoubtdedly pushed football back 50 years with their horrendous playcalling and obvious lack of attention to detail.

Ferentz wasn’t even allowed to take a shot at the points amount (it had to be at least an average of 25 a game). He was told by interim Iowa athletic director Beth Goetz, who obviously knew his chances of hitting that mark were slim, that he would not be retained for the 2024 season. So technically he is still around although he’s in a lame duck position. Not so for Grinch who wasn’t allowed to continue putting out awful defense after awful defense, something that has almost killed USC’s chances of anything but going to a bowl game. Riley had no choice in the end but to axe him.

Realistically, these two guys should have been let go weeks ago. It was apparent to anyone with some knowledge of college football that these two weren’t cutting it. But nepotism and loyalty can go a long way in this sport and we have seen it time and again in the past. And it will continue to do so. Hopefully head coaches learn to take a step back and look at a situation from a bird’s-eye view so that they can honestly assess it. Otherwise you hurt the team and, potentially, yourself.

Alright, enough of fired coaches. Let’s get to the damn schedule!

Tuesday

		US	Canada
Ball State at Northern Illinois	7:00
Central Michigan at Western Michigan	7:00
Ohio at Buffalo	7:30

Iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit’s MACTION!!!!!!! Second week of MACtion and boy do I love it. Also, the College Football Playoff rankings come out a few minutes into the early games so I am sure the announcers will stick to calling the games and not mention anything about the rankings. I’m sure of it.

Wednesday

		US	Canada
Bowling Green at Kent State	7:00
Eastern Michigan at Toledo	7:00
Akron at Miami-OH	7:00

EMU-Toledo is easily the biggest game here. Depending on a few other results, the Rockets could clinch the MAC West with a win.

Thursday

		US	Canada
Virginia at #11 Louisville	7:30
Southern Miss at Louisiana	7:30

Louisville’s potential run to the New Year’s Six might have some potholes. This shouldn’t be one of them. Thing is, it’s either that, the Fun Belt game or one of the worst Thursday Night Football games ever. I’ll stick with the ACC matchup as long as I can (with some check-ins on the Southern Miss-Louisiana game of course).

Friday

		US	Canada
North Texas at SMU	9:00
Grambling at Arkansas-Pine Bluff	9:00

The Mustangs feel like a bit of a surprise team at the top of the American Conference and they shouldn’t be. Some had them at least getting to the conference championship. Take the over with this one.

Saturday Early

Absolutely colossal matchup in the early window. Yes, I am talking about ~~Indiana-Illinois~~ Michigan-Penn State. The second of the three-game Big Ten East round robin of Fun and Frolic lands in State College. Should this be under the lights with a Penn State Whiteout? Yeah, probably. But FOX is adamant that Noon is their big game. Big Noon Saturday. It’s not called Big Evening Saturday for a reason.

Saturday Afternoon

		US	Canada
NC State at Wake Forest	2:00
#21 Arizona at Colorado	2:00
Miami at #4 Florida State	3:30
Pittsburgh vs. Syracuse (in the Bronx)	3:30
Rutgers at #22 Iowa	3:30
#13 Tennessee at #14 Missouri	3:30
UAB at Navy	3:30
#15 Oklahoma State at UCF	3:30
NC Central at Howard	3:30
#18 Utah at #5 Washington	3:30
Minnesota at Purdue	3:30
Washington State at California	4:00
Auburn at Arkansas	4:00
Stanford at #12 Oregon State	5:30

Utah-Washington. Big game. Tennessee-Missouri. Big game (but not as big as the first one). Miami-FSU. Big game, mostly for one team. So there are some important games in this timeslot. It’s rare to see a November Saturday timeslot not to have an important game at all. Now, all games are not equal. Let’s be honest: very few will give a shit about Pitt-Cuse even if it is at Yankee Stadium.

And on that note, can we quit with putting football games on in baseball stadiums? Look at last week’s shitshow at Wrigley. I mean the game was hilariously bad as is considering the two teams playing. But the turf was in shambles. At one point they were trying to fix a patch that looked to be about two feet long and one foot wide. Like, seriously? Want to go to new places? Play in more NFL stadiums. Play in big high school stadiums. Hell, go to Barrow, Alaska and play on their field that borders the Arctic Ocean. Just stay away from the baseball stadiums or otherwise one day some guy is going to get seriously hurt.

Saturday Primetime

		US	Canada
San Diego State at Colorado State	7:00
#9 OIe Miss at #2 Georgia	7:00
West Virginia at #17 Oklahoma	7:00
Georgia Southern at Marshall	7:00
#7 Texas at TCU	7:30
Mississippi State at Texas A&M	7:30
Rice at UTSA	7:30
Michigan State at #1 Ohio State	7:30
Florida at #19 LSU	7:30
Duke at #25 North Carolina	8:00

You are going to notice that TSN (other than TSN+) is barely appearing this Saturday. Well, just like last week, the CFL has their playoff games on a Saturday. I guess it makes sense from a viewer perspective since I am sure they lose viewers to the NFL on Sunday and would lose less viewers going up against college football. I think it has become apparent that TSN is pushing college football (among a few other live sports properties) to TSN+ and putting much less on their actual television networks. Sad for fans who either don’t want to spend more money on an online platform or just would struggle figuring out the online platform to begin with. Sure, live sports on TV is still a huge thing and will be for a long time but slowly…SLOWLY…more and more things are moving online. Give it, let’s say, 20 years and I could see a big difference in what you see now.

Anyway, the actual schedule has Ole Miss-Georgia as the main game and a few other games that could have been huge if certain teams hadn’t shit the bed. Take Duke-UNC. UNC losing on the CW to Virginia and then to Georgia Tech made this game an afterthought. Same with WVU-Oklahoma. The Sooners’ upset losses to Kansas and then Oklahoma State in the final Bedlam have killed the hype for this matchup. It happens every season.

Saturday Late Night

		US	Canada
Arizona State at UCLA	9:00
Iowa State at BYU	10:15
Fresno State at San Jose State	10:30
USC at #6 Oregon	10:30

FOX quadrupleheader! Gotta love when they do this. I wish ABC would just do it once. I think they’d be surprised how many people would tune in to a late night game on ABC. USC could put a massive wrench in Oregon’s plans of at least getting to the New Year’s Six with a win here and Fresno State needs to keep winning to have any hope of having the same kind of plans.

Hey, Watch This

Michigan at Penn State (Noon, FOX) – This is easily the most hyped game of the weekend and rightly so. Penn State (and James Franklin) has a chance to do what many have been waiting for them to do: take that final step towards the CFP. This is their final chance this season. Lose this and perhaps even an NY6 spot is gone. Lose and The Game becomes so massive it may overshadow last year’s affair and maybe even 2006’s Game of the Century. Win and they move up the rankings and then pray for a Michigan victory over Ohio State. Then they would head way down the tiebreaker list to see who wins the division. Oh, and the last tiebreaker? A random draw. I am not joking. Wouldn’t that be insane television? ESPN and FOX would go nuts.

Ole Miss at Georgia (7:00, TSN+/specialty pack) – This should be almost as hyped as the UM-PSU game but for one thing: the Rebels need Bama to lose two conference games for them to win the division. So the Fighting Kiffins’ best shot is to win out, go 11-1, and hope for some chaos around them. Then they might sneak into the playoff. As for Georgia, this is yet another prove-it game. Last week was Missouri, this week Ole Miss, next week Tennessee. Survive those then they may not even have to win the conference championship to go to the playoff.

Utah at Washington (3:30, FOX) – Man, FOX has a crazy-good set of games for their quadrupleheader this Saturday. The Huskies have been sort of hanging on lately. Almost like TCU did last year winning games late and winning games that are close. That has to be their mantra right now though: Al Davis’s popular “Just Win Baby.” As for the Utes, could they almost kill the Pac-12’s playoff hopes with a win here? Not totally but they would do a lot of damage and something tells me they would be happy doing that.

USC at Oregon (10:30, FOX) – Two ranked teams facing each other warrants a spot (most of the time) on this list. Well, ranked in the AP Poll at least (sorry, USC). USC could be just like Utah in the previous game: be the spoiler. Oregon has recovered very nicely from their close loss to Washington. Win here, don’t stumble against Arizona State and then win the Civil War over the Beavers and they get their chance at revenge (probably) on Washington.

Tennessee at Missouri (3:30, CBS) – This is an interesting one. The Vols were expected to at least be in the New Year’s Six conversation. Mizzou? Not at all. They have played out of their minds most of the season and put a scare into UGA last week. They can’t win the SEC East so they have to push to win out and give The Committee something to think about. The Vols actually can win the East but it would take the craziest of scenarios to have that happen.

Sickos Game of the Week

Vanderbilt at South Carolina (Noon, TSN+/specialty pack) – The SEC never ends up here. Nor should they. But this game has awful written all over it. It was down to this one and Pitt-Cuse but I will give this game the nod. The Pitt-Cuse game is at Yankee Stadium which is kind of cool but I am sure the field conditions will not be. But the aura of it being in a baseball stadium is what I will use to grudgingly tip the scales towards Vandy and the Cocks getting this spot. Now, if this game had been played at Vandy’s Bob the Builder Stadium then it would have been a no doubter.

Hubba Bubba Blowout of the Week

Michigan State at Ohio State (7:30, NBC) – OK hear me out. At some point, the Buckeyes have to stop with their extremely slow starts. Enough of them being in a dogfight with Rutgers or Maryland. One game it will catch up to them. I think that Ryan Day might finally push them hard to come out of the gate strong. If they do, this game will essentially be over at the half and NBC will be less than pleased with the viewers flocking elsewhere (but, that’s what they signed up for).

Wanna Bet?

I was SO close on the score of my Tennessee-UConn bet. And honestly, I wasn’t too far off with USC-Washington even if I did have the Trojans winning in an upset. And I got Bama’s points dead on. Don’t look at my Virginia pick. Let’s get to this week’s picks, shall we?

Southern Miss 29 Louisiana 28 (upset!)

North Texas 31 SMU 27 (another upset!)

Alabama 34 Kentucky 21 (no upset)

Penn State 30 Michigan 23 (yet another upset!)

Tulane 41 Tulsa 10

Wake Forest 31 NC State 27 (minor upset)

Florida State 42 Miami 32

Washington 34 Utah 14

Tennessee 45 Missouri 35

Washington State 31 California 24 (very slight upset)

Georgia 38 Ole Miss 27

UTSA 37 Rice 21

Oregon 63 USC 33

OK I picked a ton of upsets here and look at Oregon. Yeah I think they are going to have a field day with the USC defense even with Alex Grinch not there to fuck things up.

I am preparing for another day of college football, starting Saturday at Noon and going into Sunday morning. Remember, we are in November, people. We don’t have much longer to go. Soon enough it will be conference championship weekend and the schedules like these go away. So savour it. Take your time to watch a lot of football before it’s gone and the only thing to watch (after the Super Bowl is over at least) is the Xtreme United States Football Association and/or League, also known as the XUSFAL. That acronym will probably end up being better than what they come up with. I’d put money on it. Like ten bucks. Enjoy the games everyone!

The Bearcats are the real deal and the rest of the Week 5 College Football Recap

Posted on October 4, 2021 by guelphbossman

If you didn’t watch the Cincinnati-Notre Dame game this past weekend you missed the coming out party of, I would say, the best Group of Five team in the College Football Playoff era. The Bearcats showed they are for real as the 24-13 score doesn’t show how lopsided this game really was. If it wasn’t for the Bearcats kicking game, they would have won by probably 20 or so. Desmond Ridder may have even kickstarted his Heisman campaign with his performance. And Notre Dame is still a heavy favourite to go to the New Year’s Six so that will look damn good on the Bearcats’ resume. They do have to hope Indiana ends up doing well the rest of the way and they have to beat most of the teams on their conference schedule pretty easily. But this team is primed to do what no Group of Five team has really had a chance to do before: be a legitimate threat for the College Football Playoff. If they do what they need to do, then we have to see what kind of help they will get. The way this season has gone, it’s pretty much a given that at least a few more Top 10 teams will falter the rest of the way. As of this point, 32 ranked teams have lost games. That’s an average of over 6 a week. That is absurd. I can’t see that rate continuing all season but if it comes close then this will be a ridiculous season where it would make sense for a G-5 team to break through the glass ceiling. I’ve mentioned it before but I don’t have a favourite school but it would be a lot of fun to see what Cincy could do in the CFP, right?

Other than that, it was a pretty fun weekend if you weren’t fans of Ole Miss or Arkansas. Both teams looked completely outmatched against Alabama and Georgia, respectively. Let’s be honest here: the Tide and Dawgs are easily the top two teams in college football and every other program is at least a tier below them. I know it feels like we will be heading towards the inevitable Bama-UGA national championship game but the season has already been crazy so who knows.

BYU continues their undefeated march as they also have some pretty high aspirations for this season. Utah State is a pretty good team in the Mountain West this year and looked like nothing special against the Cougs. BYU is now in the Top 10 of the AP Poll and just keep plugging along. What will The Committee do with the Cougs (not to mention Cincy)? BYU still has Boise State, Baylor and USC left on their schedule and have to take care of business on their end. Even one loss would probably push them to the brink of the New Year’s Six, especially with no automatic in that the best Group of Five team gets. Much like Cincinnati, they have to take care of business and then hope the chips fall in their favour around them.

Clemson survived Boston College. The Tigers looked to be in a bit of trouble all game and were lucky that Boston College had to play their backup quarterback. Their time at the top of the ACC may be coming to an end. D.J. Uiagalelei has not been good at all which has been a massive shock to many people, especially Tiger fans. As for the rest of the ACC, it honestly doesn’t look too good but there is still…

Wake Forest! Huge victory over an improved Louisville team. They are 5-0 just like everyone thought they would be, right? Well, I had them starting 5-0 so there had to have been others. Actually, I have them getting to 8-0 and undefeated going into November. Not saying the ACC’s hopes lie with the Demon Deacons but they really do lie with the Demon Deacons. In a completely crazy season (so far), Dave Clawson has done a masterful job at Wake and it will be interesting to see what bigger Power Five team will try to poach him in the offseason.

A game that shouldn’t have been close but was went down on The Farm. Oregon played horrible for much of their game against Stanford but still had a chance to win at the end. A controversial PI call allowed Stanford one untimed down to score a touchdown to tie it and send it to overtime and they did. The Cardinal finished off the #3 team in the land in overtime and now the Pac-12 has no unbeaten teams. We are four days into October. Yikes.

Florida goes down to Kentucky! I don’t know what it is about Mark Stoops but the Gators do not like playing against that man. The Wildcats could be an interesting team this season. Picking up Wan’Dale Robinson from Nebraska could end up being the thing that pushes them up the ladder in the SEC East. I mean it still comes down to Florida having to beat Georgia in the World’s Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party to even give the Cats a chance but man wouldn’t that be something.

Oklahoma could be one of the worst 5-0 teams I have ever seen. They are barely winning most of their games and not looking the true contender I (and many in the actual college football media) thought they would be. Really you can’t blame this on Spencer Rattler this time since he played well but their defense still leaves a lot to be desired. They now have the Red River Shootout to deal with and this is always a weird game so we will see how the Sooners pull this one out.

So is Jimbo going to get another contract extension? The Aggies looked dreadful at times and Will Rogers picked them apart as they drop to 3-2 and out of the Top 25. Their game against Auburn at the start of November could be to stay out of last place in the SEC West. Auburn has made it so they are not at the bottom after Bo Nix went all Johnny Manziel and willed the Tigers to a huge victory in hostile territory. Normally I don’t like the 9:00 start times for ESPN games but this was fine with very little in the late night window. A fun game that came down to the end and now Ed Orgeron is on the hot seat, yet again. It’s funny how some schools would never think of firing a successful coach even after a mediocre season or two. Then there are some schools that give not a single solitary squirt of shit about that and want to win RIGHT FUCKING NOW.

Oh, UCF. That was a tough one. The Gus Bus really never kept it on the road against a Navy team that was winless up until this point. Now I am sure people will start griping about Gus Malzahn but they have struggled with injuries and really aren’t that team that will challenge Cincinnati this season. They should still be bowl-eligible and at the very least, it assures Malzahn can’t just grab a Power Five head coaching opportunity after this season.

Did anyone pass the Hawaii Test? Well, yours truly did! Stayed up to see a great game in front of no fans in a high school stadium in Honolulu. I might have some serious problems. Anyway, Fresno State’s loss to the Rainbow Warriors has pretty much sealed the Mountain West’s NY6 fate this season.

Let’s take a look at how the seasons are going at Pittsburgh and Tennessee. They met three weeks ago in a barnburner and none of us could have known that these two teams would, for the most part, be playing very good ball at this point of the season. The Vols are 3-2 with a probable win over South Carolina next weekend. The Panthers are even better, 4-1, with a baffling loss to Western Michigan their only defeat. It wouldn’t be a shock to see both teams with at least 8 wins and causing some havoc in their conferences later on in the season.

Does the Big XII deserve a bit more respect? Baylor and Oklahoma State played in a back-and-forth affair that many people probably avoided watching because the Big XII seems like Power Five cooties to a lot of people. People would rather watch the Pac-12…yeah, I said it. Saying all that, the conference would get the last laugh if Oklahoma and the Pokes are undefeated and play in late November in Bedlam in one of the biggest games of the season.

Hey, how about The U? Ugh. A chance to beat the Fighting Mendenhalls on a chip-shot walk-off field goal and doinks it off the upright. Miami is 2-3 and looking a whole lot worse than most expected. Manny Diaz might not be able to escape the hot seat which is essentially lava now.

Finally, did you watch the game of the week? If not, it was a great one with a walk-off field goal. I, of course, am talking about UConn and Vanderbilt! As sad as it sounds, this was a really good game with a fun finish and Vandy is now at 2 wins which may be more than many thought they would get. UConn is still winless but will have a chance to rectify that in the GAME OF THE CENTURY when they face UMass.

Alright enough recappin’. Time for the Bossman Top 25. Let’s do this!

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

Yep, I have Alabama over Georgia although I took my time with that decision. I believe the difference between the two teams is razor thin. I would say the Dawgs’ win over Arkansas was a bit more impressive than the Tide’s victory over Ole Miss but not by much. Every week there has been so much change that the next two weeks could have a completely different top two. The amount of ranked teams that have lost, as I stated earlier, is absurd. And yes I have Cincy in the #3 spot. They may not hold on to it depending on what other teams do but for now I think they deserve it. The Pac-12 and ACC are inhabiting the bottom part of the Top 25 so don’t be shocked if one or two of those teams sneaks up and somehow gets to the Top 10 by the final weekend. It’s been that kind of year.

See you back on Wednesday for the college football TV schedule. Until then, enjoy your week everyone!

So now we have the Dirty Dozen

Posted on June 14, 2021 by guelphbossman

No the movie the Dirty Dozen has nothing to do with the news that the College Football Playoff will be expanding to 12 teams, probably to start for the 2023 season. But what else was I supposed to put: a carton of eggs?

So if you have been living under a rock that may or may not give you all the news you want but mutes everything college football-related, the College Football Playoff will be expanded to 12 teams. This announcement was made late this past week and was met with, well, mixed remarks. Some loved it, some loathed it, some were indifferent, some were harping on other issues in the game. We all know what they are trying to do. Capture the magic of March Madness or perhaps the NCAA baseball postseason or even the FCS playoffs. The problem is that parity really does not exist in college sports. At all. And never has. Yes teams rise and teams fall but parity is not a thing that has existed. Let’s take those FCS playoffs. North Dakota State has dominated like no team ever before by winning eight of the last ten championships. That’s not parity. Before that, Appalachian State went back-to-back-to-back in the mid 2000s, and back in the 90s, Georgia Southern, Youngstown State and Marshall reigned supreme almost every year. People want to compare opening up the possibilities to that when the possibilities weren’t there? Sure, ok. I get it. Other teams technically get their shot. They’re in the dance, so to speak. I can appreciate that. But to say that this will create parity in FBS football is laughable. It might give us an upset or two but that’s about it. That’s the reality.

So why was this really done? Come on, do I have to spell it out for you? C-A-S-H. Money. Scratch. Other terms for legal tender. That’s all it is. More money. The New Year’s Six will essentially become the playoffs. Here is how it looks like it will shape up (since I am sure more details will be forthcoming in the months ahead):

12 teams qualify for the playoffs.
The top 6 ranked conference champions, regardless of if they are Power Five or Group of Five conferences, qualify automatically.
6 at-large teams are selected from the rest. They might have won their conference championship and not have been in the top 6 conference champions.
The top 4 ranked conference champions will receive first round byes.
Notre Dame and BYU cannot be in the top 4 teams because they are not in a conference. The best they can do is be #5.
The other eight will play in first round games at on-campus sites.

That was really the only info given. So a lot is left to be stated. My guess is this is how the rest of it will look:

The first round will be #5 vs. #12, #6 vs. #11, #7 vs. #10, and #8 vs. #9. This has been implied but not actually stated.
The winner of the #5/#12 matchup would face the #4 team. #6/#11 winner would get the #3 team, #7/#10 winner would get the #2 team and the #8/#9 winner would go to meet the #1 team. This is done so people can kind of get travel plans set up and not have to wait for reseeding after the first round.
The quarter-finals would all be current New Year’s Six bowl games. Same with the semi-finals. I want to say that the Rose and Sugar would be the semi-finals but that is not a guarantee at this point.
The championship would still be at another neutral site.

Pluses

For those who really hate almost any kind of playoff and yearn for the “good old days” of college football, there are no pluses. For those who eventually want a 64-team playoff say it’s all pluses. Let me be somewhat realistic about the pluses to this:

The Group of Five is guaranteed a spot. With six conference champions guaranteed in, at least one G-5 team will get in, perhaps two. That is the biggest issue that has bothered the pro-playoff people, the lack of Group of Five teams. That worry is gone.
The New Year’s Six bowls that aren’t the semi-finals will now be very relevant. The NY6 bowls that weren’t the semi-final games in any given year meant as much as the other bowl games: not a whole lot. Fun for the players, great for the coaches, and relatively profitable to the communities and charities but other than a banner, a win there itself meant nothing. Now they will mean something because they will be quarter-final games.
Schools get another home game to make a ton of money. The 5 through 8 teams may make out the best here. They get another home game which should rack up a lot of dough for the program.
Upsets. Let’s be honest: one of the biggest reasons, other than gambling, why March Madness is so amazing is upsets. Well, now you might have relatively monumental upsets (i.e. a G-5 team beating a P-5 team). And that’s what The Committee wants.

Minuses

Now for the minuses. And there are some for sure.

The bigger regular season games aren’t as big anymore. This is undoubtedly true. The biggest games of the regular season won’t be nearly as important anymore. They can’t be. When 12 teams qualify, a game between the #1 and #5 team in the land is just for seeding purposes and byes. Not to miss the playoffs altogether.
A better chance for a bad conference champion to make the playoff. I will get to more of this later but the chances of a 7-5 team winning their conference championship and getting to the CFP is on the table. And sorry, as much as teams should have a chance to play their way in, a team with 4 or 5 losses shouldn’t be in. Period.
The other bowls mean even less. They were almost irrelevant as it is except for the communities and the charity work done there. Now these bowls will mean even less. And guaranteed at least a few of them will be eliminated (which will make the Too Many Bowls crowd happy at least).

A lot to digest for sure. I still have problems with moving to a 12-team playoff when there are other issues that have to be dealt with to set college football up to have a “proper playoff” so to speak. Eliminating divisions, having all conferences play the same amount of conference games, and eliminating preseason polls altogether are three issues that must be looked at or otherwise we could have a ton of problems with this new format. I mean some love it but they may not when there’s four SEC teams in the semi-finals and they made it there because the format allowed it, not because they “earned” it.

Alright let’s shift gears here. Many pundits are “re-doing” previous years with the new 12-team CFP structure. So I will select a few random years to see how it would set up and what we might see. Now remember, the rankings that year might not have been the rankings under this system because you have to be sure that The Committee might not see it the same way as it was back then. Also, I am going to assume the Rose and Sugar Bowls ARE the semi-finals in these exercises. Let’s begin!

1993

Let’s start with 1993. The year of the newest Game of the Century between Notre Dame and Florida State (and holy shit was it ever a great game). Florida State was able to recover from that loss to win the national championship. The Irish inexplicably fell to Boston College the following week to end their title hopes. Hell, the second spot in the championship probably should have gone to West Virginia instead of Florida State. So how would a 12-team playoff look during this season:

Byes: #1 Florida State (ACC champ), #2 Nebraska (Big 8 champ), #3 West Virginia (Big East champ), #7 Texas A&M (SWC champ)

#9 Wisconsin (Big 10 champ) at #8 Florida (SEC champ) (winner plays FSU in Orange Bowl)

#10 Miami at #6 Tennessee (SWC champ) (winner plays Nebraska in Cotton Bowl)

#11 Ohio State at #5 Auburn (winner plays West Virginia in Fiesta Bowl)

#12 North Carolina at #4 Notre Dame (winner plays Auburn in Citrus Bowl)

Interesting since Florida State being #1 means they could face Florida in the quarters at the Orange Bowl which would be a massive ratings success and could be a very tough game for the Noles. Other than if UNC beat the Irish, no other result would feel like an upset. I guess Nebraska and West Virginia (and maybe the Noles) not getting to the semis would kind of be considered an upset but really not. My guess is we would see two of the three I just mentioned in the championship game so not much would change.

2011

We leap to 2011. The year two SEC teams met in the national championship which basically was the final nail in the coffin for the BCS so we could say hello to the College Football Playoff. Also, if it hadn’t been for Iowa State upsetting Oklahoma State, the Cowboys of all teams would have found themselves facing the Tigers for the title. If the new setup was in place, that game really means nothing other than it was a cool upset to watch. Who knows if the BCS keeps going if that happens. Anyway, here we go:

Byes: #1 LSU (SEC champ), #3 Oklahoma State (Big XII champ), #5 Oregon (Pac-12 champ), #10 Wisconsin (Big Ten champ)

#8 Kansas State at #7 Boise State (winner plays LSU in Cotton Bowl)

#9 South Carolina at #6 Arkansas (winner plays Alabama in Orange Bowl)

#15 Clemson (ACC champ) at #4 Stanford (winner plays Oklahoma State in Capital One Bowl)

#18 TCU (MWC champ) at #2 Alabama (winner plays Oregon in Fiesta Bowl)

Here’s where things kind of go off the rails at the bottom of the bracket. Normally you would have had two of Virginia Tech, Michigan, or Oklahoma here. Bluebloods. Not so with the criteria. With only four conference champions in the top ten teams, Clemson and TCU get in as the next highest ranked conference champions. Houston would have been a shoo-in to go but their loss in the Conference USA championship leaves them on the outside looking in. Also, would they allow the Gamecocks to face Arkansas when they are in the same conference? I could see South Carolina ending up going to Boise (talk about your horrible weather game) and Arkansas getting Kansas State. Again, I can’t see any team outside the top three getting through this but you never know. Really, the biggest thing here would be if Boise handles Kansas State, can they somehow shock the world and beat LSU?

1987

This season ended up with Miami facing Oklahoma in a 1 vs. 2 matchup in the Orange Bowl for the national championship. Somewhat rare to have a bowl game get the top two teams back then. Syracuse was also a serious contender but ended up #4. Oh and SMU started the first year of their death penalty, something the NCAA will never give out again (and probably can’t at least in football).

Byes: #1 Oklahoma (Big 8 champ), #6 Auburn (SEC champ), #8 Michigan State (Big Ten champ), #10 UCLA (Pac-10 co-champ)

#7 LSU at #5 Nebraska (winner plays Oklahoma in Cotton Bowl)

#9 South Carolina at #4 Syracuse (winner plays Auburn in Orange Bowl)

#13 Texas A&M (SWC champ) at #3 Florida State (winner plays Michigan State in Citrus Bowl)

#14 Clemson (ACC champ) at #2 Miami (winner plays UCLA in Fiesta Bowl)

OK this DEFINITELY wouldn’t have worked back in ’87. Clemson again sneaks in because they need more conference champs. Same with Texas A&M this time around. Oklahoma State and Notre Dame miss out. Luckily back then there weren’t as many talking heads who would, you know, talk about it. But the conference champ in the top four thing can’t work back then with the amount of independents there were. This was before the Big East and before the ACC decided they needed Florida State. This means the Canes, Noles AND Orange would have to play in the first round. Brutal. This also means three of the four teams with first round byes would definitely be underdogs in the quarter-finals unless they were upsets. Crazy. Honestly, this could have been an interesting once since any one of the top 6 teams could have ended up in the final two considering this setup.

2007

BAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! The Committee would have been full-fledged alcoholics after this season. Things changed so often from week-to-week that they would have struggled to wrap their heads around the whole thing. Even Ohio State, easily the #1 team, looked horrible in a loss to Illinois (ILLINOIS!) during the season. And remember, the #2 team lost seven times in the final nine weeks, an unprecedented amount that will probably never be matched. Let’s see what this shitshow would have churned out:

Byes: #1 Ohio State (Big 10 champ), #2 LSU (SEC champ), #3 Oklahoma (Big XII champ), #5 Virginia Tech (ACC champ)

#9 Florida at #8 Kansas (winner plays Ohio State in Cotton Bowl)

#10 Hawaii (WAC champ) at #7 Missouri (winner plays LSU in Outback Bowl)

#11 West Virginia (Big East champ) at #6 USC (Pac-10 champ) (winner plays Oklahoma in Fiesta Bowl)

#12 Arizona State at #4 Georgia (winner plays Virginia Tech in Orange Bowl)

And after I saw it will be a shitshow, it ends up being clean. Absolutely clean. I mean the road to get here would have been filled with potholes but the end result was, while not perfect, quite nice. A few nicks, no outright cuts. And some of the quarter-final matchups…wow! Could Kansas somehow beat tOSU? Could Mizzou keep the magical season going against who ended up being the national champ, LSU? And either West Virginia or USC playing Oklahoma? Yes, please. If this happened we wouldn’t think that 2007 was as wacky as it actually was.

So there you go. Four random seasons with varying degrees of success, so to speak. In the end, though, the cream will rise to the top. With four rounds to the playoffs, it will be rare if a team can run the table from the first round. I would expect one of the teams with a bye will end up winning the national championship. It will be interesting to see if college football continues to thrive or if they may have gone a bit too far this time. In terms of money and viewers, the sport keeps growing. Even with attendance going down slightly every season, those are the metrics they need to see grow. The next set of TV contracts will be the barometer of if this has already started to work or not.

Have a great rest of the weekend!

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.

Most Important Games of the 2018 College Football Season – Part IV…..Horsemen (WOOOOOOOOOOOOO!)

Posted on June 20, 2018 by guelphbossman

If you don’t know who these guys are well….I guess that just means you never watched wrestling. That sounded like it was going to be really mean but ended up being very pedestrian. Anyway, the greatest overall stable probably of all-time (sorry NWO) had pieces that fit together almost perfectly. Almost. And they always had four members. Four Horsemen. Four Members. See? Wrestling isn’t dumb. Anyway, this fits here in two ways: a) this is the fourth, and final, installment of this series and b) each one of these weeks can fit a member (or that member’s standing) of the Horsemen. So it’s kind of a rating system. Kind of. OK I better move on here or I will confuse myself.

Final four weeks of the season. We have gone through this exercise before but we know what this last month is like. Three incredible. One shit. Here we go!

Week 10

This week is that third member of the Horsemen. Always important and still one of the best wrestlers around but not on the same level as the top two in terms of importance. So Week 10 is one of Ole Anderson, Tully Blanchard, Sid Vicious, Brian Pillman, Lex Luger, Barry Windham, etc.

Game of the Week: Penn State at Michigan (7:30, FOX) – For the first time in a long time, I don’t consider Bama-LSU as the game of the week. But it’s close. Call them 1A and 1B. This should be a HUGE Big Ten East tilt. YUGE even. And by this point we will know if we will be seeing years of Harbaughll to come or if there will be a funeral planned for the his khakis. This is one third of the massive primetime schedule as well. So PVR un-friendly. Which I don’t really have to worry about anymore (thank God).

Other Really Important Games: Alabama at LSU (8:00, CBS) – The yearly Bama-LSU primetime SEC on CBS game is upon us this week. I would say that they should spread the SEC wealth but other than perhaps TAMU-Auburn there is nothing else even remotely close to primetime worthy on the SEC schedule. And CBS only gets one of these a year so they have to make the most of it. I kind of hope LSU wins here so Ed Orgeron gets a big extension so people can be pissed off that he got a big extension. Ah, the Internet. Where everyone has an opinion/hot take.

Stanford at Washington (3:30, ABC) – Part whatever of the ongoing Pac-12 North battle for supremacy. And hey Chris Petersen. An afternoon timeslot which means an early afternoon local start. There you go. So stop pissing and moaning. I wonder if the Pac-12 will cannibalize itself again this season. It seems to be the only time we have realignment rumours is when a Power Five conference does horrendously bad. God forbid the SEC ever has a down year. The rumours would get to the point that the SEC would be a 30-team mega-conference with divisions like Major League Baseball (but with interleague play!).

Texas A&M at Auburn (Noon, TSN4) – Speaking of TAMU, I am wondering if I have them rated too highly in this exercise. I mean I know they know have Jimbo Fisher at the helm and that’s a really good thing for College Station but it does take time for a new coach (usually) to find his bearings and guide the team in his vision. Anyway, I assume with the SEC on CBS getting their primetime game this week that they would shy away from putting anything on against it on ESPN which is where the SEC usually lands in primetime. That is why it goes to the death spot at Noon. But hey at least it’s on TSN (I think).

Louisville at Clemson (8:00, ABC) – Very interested to see how the Fighting Petrinos bounce back from not having Lamar Jackson this season. I think they will still do quite well, like a normal 8-9 win season that they are used to at (shitty) Papa John’s Stadium. Seriously have you ever tried Papa John’s pizza? Overpriced and mediocre at best. I would say it’s not quality pizza at all. By the way this is somehow the worst of the three primetime matchups this week. So saddle up!

Notre Dame at Northwestern (3:30, specialty pack) – First appearance of the specialty pack this week. You know it’s a big week when the specialty pack takes a bit of a back seat to what is on, let’s call it, regular cable. I hope I haven’t overrated both of these teams but Notre Dame is a serious NY6 contender and Northwestern has to be considered a Big Ten West contender. Watch them both come into this game under .500.

Sneaky-Good Underrated Game: Florida State at NC State (Noon, specialty pack) – Underrated? Probably will be even though these two rabid fanbases would say otherwise. By this point, yes, both the Seminoles and Wolfpack probably won’t be sneaking up on anyone. But unless one of these teams is undefeated (or perhaps with one loss), very few will be talking about this game (other than the fanbases I mentioned above). Also, we know what NC State tends to do to Florida State (give them fits) so this should be good.

Best Group of Five Game: Temple at UCF (Thursday, 8:00, TSN2) – UCF is basically starting to own this spot. I was going to put the Boise State game here but they play BYU and I am not so sure BYU will be quite back to normal BYU standards yet. Whereas I know Temple at least will be pretty decent and UCF might just run the table again. See this is what these weekday night games are for: national exposure for Group of Five conferences. One is plenty. Putting on like four during the week is absurd (looking at you MACtion).

Worst Power Five Game: Minnesota at Illinois (3:30, BTN) – These are the times that I am fine with not having the Big Ten Network. Although really I still do want it because COLLEJ FOOTBAW!

Week 11

This is the week that is pretty much neck-and-neck with American Thanksgiving Footballgasm Week. It doesn’t have the pizazz of that week but is still considered super important and may become, in hindsight, more like the most important week of this season (although most seasons it is still a tad behind). It really is the 1B to Week 13’s 1A. Week 11 is Arn Anderson.

Game of the Week: Auburn at Georgia (3:30, CBS) – The UGA revenge game. Not that it really mattered. Auburn beat both Bama and the Dawgs last season and their reward was being beaten pretty well by the so-called “real National Champs” UCF. Gotta win em all (or at least only lose one). Unless it’s 2007. Anyway, there are a bunch of really good games this week so I kind of took a shot in the dark as to which one I would pick. Almost all the games in the next section could qualify for this spot.

Other Really Important Games: Ohio State at Michigan State (7:30, ABC/TSN1) – There is pretty much no way that ABC/ESPN will let this one go to FOX. They already lose PSU-OSU and Michigan-OSU. Losing a third tOSU game wouldn’t be good optics for Disney. Also, most people would put this at the very top of the list. As I said above, it’s a crapshoot as to what is the best game this week. Also, this will have a ton of competition in primetime so the ESPN suits better hope this turns out to be a good game. If it is then cue Michael Geiger pumpernickel down the sidelines after game-winning kick.

Mississippi State at Alabama (Noon, CBS) – Yes most of the reason this is here is because of Evil Saban and the Fighting Crimson Tide Juggernaut Express. However, I expect Joe Moorhead to have his Bulldogs scoring a lot more points than usual. No, not Big XII levels of scoring but still a good amount. I do wonder if this game will end up here because CBS usually has the fourth pick when they have a Noon game so ESPN would get to pick two games after CBS picks their SEC on CBS afternoon game. For now I say yes since there are a few other decent SEC games this week that ESPN might bite on.

Wisconsin at Penn State (8:00, FOX) – This (I believe) will be the game that FOX gets that they will put in primetime. And it is the biggest stumbling block (along with their game in Ann Arbor a month earlier) for the Badgers towards another undefeated regular season. Not saying they will win all their other games but they will certainly be favoured. Gary Andersen has to hate seeing this. Still have no idea why he left but Paul Chryst is sure happy he did!

Florida State at Notre Dame (7:30, NBC) – Not quite Catholics vs. Convicts but FSU and Touchdown Jesus did have one of the 243 Games of the Century back in 1993. Bobby Bowden (who still may not realize that one field goal was wide right) and Lou Holtz (who thankfully no longer works the highlights desk at ESPN) in classic games with guys who did almost nothing in the NFL but were GODS on campus I’m sure. This is where this whole Notre Dame-ACC quasi-marriage thing works. Where it doesn’t work (as well) is when the Irish have to play a team having a horrible season.

Oklahoma State at Oklahoma (4:00, FOX) – BEDLAM! This falls to the #5 spot for the sheer fact that I don’t think Oklahoma State will be as good as it has been in the past few years. Saying that, this game ends up being somewhat like the Red River Shootout: it has goofy results that really have nothing to do with how the two teams were doing coming into it. I also have TCU-West Virginia starting the FOX tripleheader this day so if that ends up being the case then that is a mighty fine trio of games for the network that everyone trashes.

Sneaky-Good Underrated Game: South Carolina at Florida (Noon, specialty pack) – Two teams who will most likely be better than they were last season? Sign me up! Also, because of all the decent games on even at Noon, this might be pushed to the SEC Network. I mean it doesn’t really matter to us here but still…that shows what kind of week we are looking at.

Best Group of Five Game: Fresno State at Boise State (Friday, 10:15, specialty pack) – Rematch of last year’s Mountain West Championship and the last game of the Mountain West regular season. I know the MWC didn’t plan that out but it didn’t look good that’s for sure. Anyway, the Mountain West is so unbelievably top-heavy it’s ridiculous. Beyond these two teams and San Diego State are there any teams that have even a snowball’s chance of the New Year’s Six? Most of them will be in a battle just to go bowling. It feels like a lot of Group of Five conferences are like this but the Mountain West could be the worst with Conference USA not far behind.

Worst Power Five Game: Kansas at Kansas State (Noon, specialty pack) – Yes, this is the worst game of the week. And it involves Kansas State. So yeah this is a good week to be a college football fan.

Week 12

This is the week I loathe….well as much as I can loathe a college football week (which isn’t very much really). It’s SEC Sleepwalk Week (or whatever the fuck ESPN is calling it). Many SEC teams like to schedule cupcakes the week before Footballgasm (also known as American Thanksgiving). Don’t get me wrong, a few other Power Five teams to do and it annoys me; however the SEC has made somewhat of a tradition of this. I have always been of the opinion that games against FCS schools should be in September and October (and in August if the season goes that early). The games against G5 teams are not as big a deal really. Anyway, this means that Week 12 is usually the crappiest of college football weeks. For this reason, Week 12 is Paul Roma.

Game of the Week: Miami at Virginia Tech (Noon, TSN2) – See what I mean? This would be no higher than #3 at best in any other week of the season. It’s the kind of week where if I had to miss watching games live and had to resort to going old school and using the PVR to record as many games as possible and making that very same PVR work its ass off all Saturday and well into Sunday morning it wouldn’t be a problem. Anyway, yes this is the best game but a pretty high margin. Sad.

Other Really Important Games: Duke at Clemson (Noon….we may not get this at all) – This has gone south pretty quickly. Hopefully Duke is actually a decent football team this season or this being the #2 game of the week is pretty bad for college football in general. And I say that we may not get this game at all because at this point I actually have it on the FOX Sports Regional channel that we sometimes get games from. So it’s a crapshoot as to if this will happen or not.

USC at UCLA (8:00, ABC/TSN3) – This could end up being the GOTW if Chip Kelly gets the Bruins ship righted quickly. I’m not totally counting on that and who knows with USC (although you can almost be assured of at least 9 wins from the Trojans). This will probably end up on ABC more so because the Pac-12 doesn’t exactly get many games in this timeslot on ABC during the season and because other than Miami-VT there isn’t another game that screams out ABC in Primetime. Obviously that can change if some teams are much better than predicted.

Sneaky-Good Underrated Game: Wisconsin at Purdue (3:30, ABC) – Yes only three games in the first two sections. Yikes. This could be good if Purdue exceeds their performance from last season. This could be a potentially massive speed bump for Wisconsin who seems to be a big favourite for the Big Ten West title yet again. A loss here could derail that chance and will definitely derail their College Football Playoff hopes.

Best Group of Five Game: San Diego State at Fresno State (10:30, CBS Sports Network) – This is essentially your Mountain West West Division championship right here. Honestly, no other team is close to these two. Not saying we won’t see a surprise, kind of like what Fresno State did last season. But I honestly don’t see any team being at least three wins better than what most are predicting. Going to be honest here: CBS Sports Network has a pretty decent schedule this season. Having a quadrupleheader almost every week doesn’t hurt.

Worst Power Five Game: Iowa at Illinois (Noon, Big Ten Network) – There are a lot to choose from here. And it’s not that this is ridiculously bad. Iowa should be a pretty good team this season. Illinois is trash and Lovie Smith is, unfortunately, not long for that head coaching job. There are a lot of games like this where you have one decent team and one not-so-decent team. Or two mediocre teams. It’s a week littering with games that casual fans, for the most part, wouldn’t tune into. So we know what will probably happen. We’re going to have like eight really close games with some fantastic finishes and it will be the most exhausting, yet smile-inducing, week of the season. I’m fine with that.

Week 13

The ultimate. The footballgasm. The week most college football fans look forward to. It’s American Thanksgiving Week(end). And it is oh so glorious. I love this time so much that I usually get Black Friday off just to watch college football. Yes, I realize I am completely insane. And I don’t care! So for obvious reasons, Week 13 is “The Nature Boy” Ric Flair. WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

Game of the Week: Auburn at Alabama (3:30, CBS) – Again, CBS will not make the mistake of not having the Iron Bowl. Boy did they ever pay for that. Thanks a bunch Mississippi State and Ole Miss. Anyway, this could be considered the Game of the Year and is almost always a massive game, not only in the SEC West or SEC, but for the New Year’s Six and College Football Playoff. Last year’s game was no exception. Depending on how these teams are doing (and how Michigan and tOSU are doing) this might move to the second most important game of the week. A very important note here: there is a real possibility this game could be moved to Black Friday. Sweet fucking Jesus.

Other Really Important Games: Michigan at Ohio State (Noon, FOX) – The other potential Game of the Week/Year. If Jimmy Insane-o can get the Wolverines to play some damn good ball coming into this one, FOX might outhype the college football hype machine known as ESPN College Gameday. OK maybe that’s going a bit too far but it wouldn’t surprise me to see them do a true pre-game show on the main network to get things going for this one. Expect peak GUS JOHNSON with this one.

Notre Dame at USC (8:00, ABC/TSN1) – This is always the week where TSN goes nuts with college football. CFL is over and we haven’t quite got to those weird Saturday NFL games yet. From what I can see from the TSN schedule for this season there will be 12 games from Thursday night through Saturday night. A huge plus to the non-specialty pack people out there. And as someone with the specialty pack I don’t really care to be honest because there are some weeks where it is absolutely imperative to have it. Anyway, this game is probably at least a New Year’s Six quasi-play-in-game. Maybe they should play it in Dayton.

South Carolina at Clemson (3:45, TSN3) – The final regular season week usually has a bunch of rivalry games and some of these are non-conference affairs. It sometimes plays a tiny bit of havoc with the schedules since CBS only has SEC games on at 3:30 and if a lot of the SEC teams are on the road, we may be stuck with a hot Tennessee-Vandy game in the primetime ESPN slot on Saturday. I mean this won’t happen but we have been close before to this and have also been close to super games being put on the SEC Network or BTN. Crazy. Anyway, this should be a good one and might be Clemson’s final hurdle before the ACC Championship and potential CFP spot.

Mississippi State at Ole Miss (Thursday, 7:30, TSN2) – Last year’s Egg Bowl was equal parts somewhat pathetic and very horrific. Can’t forget what happened to poor Nick Fitzgerald in this one. The game was delayed for like 15 minutes just to get him off the field (or at least it felt that way). Hopefully we don’t get a repeat of that. I know Ole Miss isn’t going bowling but should be better than last year now that possible-bowling-professional-turned-college-football-coach Matt Luke has discarded the interim tag. And the Bulldogs could be really fun offensively with Joe Moorhead at the helm. Plus it’s either this or the Thursday Night NFL game. So yeah, I’ll choose this.

LSU at Texas A&M (Noon, TSN2) – See? I had to put either this or GT-UGA on the SEC Network. Luckily I am sure TSN will pick this game up since there are so many games they will have, even an SEC Network game looks good. This could be Ed Orgeron’s last (regular season) stand so let’s drink it all in. Watch LSU win, the players put Orgeron on their shoulders and walk off the field, and the AD gives Cajun Boy a six-year extension. Some people would lose their damn minds.

Oklahoma State at TCU (3:30, TSN2) – Could be a Big XII Championship play-in game. Pair it with ND-USC you got a great First Four on a Tuesday night on truTV. Now the biggest challenge: find out what truTV even is. Anyway, this is our pew-pew game of the week, even more so than Oklahoma-West Virginia.

Washington at Washington State (Friday, 8:00, FOX) – The Apple Cup is almost always a joy to watch. And now that it will be on Black Friday it will be a nice cap to the appetizer for Footballgasm Weekend. I’m sure Mike Leach will be doing something completely nuts at this point and Chris Petersen won’t complain about kickoff time. Good stuff! Also, if Wazzu does win this, it may clinch another year of the Pac-12 being terrible with no teams going to the College Football Playoff. OK that’s not quite true: the Pac-12 is good. They just have so many upper-tier teams (not elite-tier) that they cannibalize themselves and no one comes out alive.

Sneaky-Good Underrated Game: Wake Forest at Duke (7:00, specialty pack) – Among all the good games this week, this one will fly so under-the-radar it will be considered a submarine. But make no mistake about it; this should be a good matchup. And there’s the possibility one (or both) of these teams will be playing for their bowl lives. That always ratchets up the excitement at this time of the season.

Best Group of Five Game: UCF at USF (Friday, 3:30, ABC) – A rematch of what was the (regular season) Game of the Year. Not just in the Group of Five. But overall. This was an unreal game and if you watched it you were glued to it. Couldn’t take your eyes off it because you wanted to see what happened next. Which is something for someone like me who likes to college-football-channel-surf like I have severe ADHD. This will probably be the best Group of Five game of the week again unless fellow conference foes Houston and Memphis steal their thunder earlier on Black Friday.

Worst Power Five Game: Colorado at California (4:30, Pac-12 Network) – I was tempted to put Tennessee-Vanderbilt here but I will be able to see that one whereas Colorado-Cal I can’t see without a subscription to the (sub-par) Pac-12 Network. So to make myself feel better about this spot (and the whole week in general), I made my choice. And yes, very little can dampen my spirits about this week of college football.

Weeks 14 and 15

Shouldn’t probably rate these to be honest. It’s all conference championship games. And then Army-Navy in Week 15. Very important games for sure and really it’s the bow that ties the season together. The glue, if you will. So let’s say the last two weeks are J.J. Dillon.

Not going to do parse these games out since I don’t know who will be in them. It is a new world now with all conferences enjoying the payouts of conference title games despite the fact some of these conference title games are underwhelming and may not bring in the audience that networks hope for. Nonetheless, it really does put all conferences on an even playing field with regards to the 13th game argument. Which means expect more Alabama in 2017 situations in the future since conference championship games will be more likely to knock a team out of the CFP than put them in it.

Army-Navy is always huge. People who say otherwise are, well, I don’t know. I think they’re just barking up the wrong tree if they think it’s not special. And I still hope that one day Navy comes in undefeated, after winning the American Conference championship, with an absolute shit-ton on the line. Think of the ratings. Or even Army. Hell, Army would have more on the line because a loss if they came in undefeated would give them absolutely no shot at the New Year’s Six. Maybe this will be the year. Probably not, but we can always hope.

I have finally completed this monumental task. OK maybe not so much monumental but long. Very long. And if you got this far, then congratulations! You are almost as crazy about college football as I am. Which is pretty damn crazy.

Next up is the network specific posts and this year I will actually be able to do a somewhat accurate post for TSN. How about that? I mean I will still end up being relatively wrong the farther into the year we get but all I can do is try my best. It also means we are getting that much closer to college football season officially starting. 66 days away!

Anyway, all of you have a great rest of the week!

Week 10 College Football TV Schedule – Sponsored by the Game of the Century (of 2015)

Posted on November 5, 2015 by guelphbossman

Let’s be honest. LSU-Alabama is a game many were waiting for. And now that the College Football Playoff rankings are here we see the Tigers are at #2 and the Tide are at #4 meaning this could end up being the best regular season matchup between two teams this season. Let us all hope it is not the 9-6 shitshow a few years back that led to Bama getting back into the title game that led to the CFP in the first place. Unfortunately with these types of mega-games, they usually exceed expectations (somehow) or fall flat. Never in between. Let’s hope for the former.

You know, on weeks I can sit down and watch college football from noon until 2 in the morning, I desperately want staggered start times since it would make things so much better. Basically from 2:30 on you could always find a game in the fourth quarter and most of the time you would find at least one close game in there as well. But when I have to beat my PVR into submission (like this coming weekend), staggered times are the last thing I want because you can only record so many games at a time and when you aren’t watching it live, you can’t flip back and forth like you normally would (or more like how I normally would…my remote control hates me). It’s a tough internal struggle. Once my kids are old enough and don’t care if I am around on a Saturday or not (they are getting close to that age now), then I just won’t care and will watch college football all day and be a slob. Maybe I will even share some of the delicious (and highly unhealthy) takeout I usually get. Who knows? Anyway…..I don’t think there was a point to this paragraph.

Alright, on to the cable schedule for this weekend (and the couple days before):

			ROGERS	FIBE	SATELLITE
Ball State at Western Michigan (Thu)	7:30 PM	CBSSN	X	X
#20 Mississippi State at Missouri (Thu)	9:00 PM	TSN2	X	X	X
Rice at UTEP (Fri)	8:00 PM	CBSSN	X	X
BYU at San Jose State (Fri)	11:30 PM	CBSSN	X	X
#5 Notre Dame at Pittsburgh	12:00 PM	ABC/TSN4/TSN5	X	X	X
Princeton at Penn	12:00 PM	MyTV	X	X
Illinois at Purdue	12:00 PM	BTN	X
Akron at Massachusetts	12:00 PM	CBSSN	X	X
Vanderbilt at #10 Florida	12:00 PM	TSN1	X	X	X
Duke at North Carolina	12:00 PM	TSN3	X	X	X
NC State at Boston College (also on specialty pack)	12:30 PM	WSBK	X	X	X
#16 Florida State at #1 Clemson	3:30 PM	ABC	X	X	X
Rutgers at #17 Michigan	3:30 PM	BTN	X
Arkansas at #18 Ole Miss	3:30 PM	CBS	X	X	X
Utah State at New Mexico	3:30 PM	CBSSN	X	X
#8 TCU at #14 Oklahoma State	3:30 PM	FOX	X	X	X
USF at East Carolina	7:30 PM	CBSSN	X	X
#12 Utah at Washington	7:30 PM	FOX	X	X	X
Minnesota at #3 Ohio State	8:00 PM	ABC	X	X	X
#2 LSU at #4 Alabama	8:00 PM	CBS	X	X	X

Normally Florida State-Clemson would be the game of the week but not with LSU-Alabama, on CBS, in primetime, is lurking at the end of the day. Quite a good schedule on top of those two. Since it’s November, it’s the best part of the college football season so many games have a lot of implications…even USF-East Carolina.

Now on to the obviously not complete specialty pack schedule:

		ROGERS	FIBE	SATELLITE
Arkansas State at Appalachian State (Thu)	7:30 PM	X	X	X
#20 Mississippi State at Missouri (Thu)	9:00 PM	X	X	X
Nevada at Fresno State (Thu)	10:30 PM	X	X	X
#22 Temple at SMU (Fri)	8:00 PM	X	X	X
Penn State at #21 Northwestern (not appearing on specialty pack)	12:00 PM	X	X	X
Kentucky at Georgia	12:00 PM		X	X
Virginia at Miami	3:00 PM	X	X	X
#9 Iowa at Indiana	3:30 PM	X	X	X
Cincinnati at #25 Houston	3:30 PM	X	X	X
Army at Air Force	3:30 PM	X	X	X
South Carolina at Tennessee	4:00 PM		X	X
#7 Michigan State at Nebraska	7:00 PM	X	X	X
Navy at #13 Memphis	7:00 PM	X	X	X
Iowa State at #15 Oklahoma	7:00 PM	X	X	X
Auburn at #19 Texas A&M	7:30 PM		X	X
Arizona at USC	10:30 PM	X	X
California at Oregon	10:30 PM	X	X

OK so full disclosure here…I talked with a Bell customer service rep again. A tier 2 rep. I really do wonder if the guy knew what college football was but anyway. He mentioned to me that every station sends their programming info to Bell (and I guess to Rogers and all the rest) and that is how the guide is populated. I asked how the specialty pack would work then since it’s not truly a station, it’s just Bell/Rogers getting the access to games and then shutting back down when they’re done. He said it’s done pretty much the same way. So it kind of sounds like ESPN is sending the schedules and is late most of the time. Part of me is skeptical since a few games are filled in and others are not on Saturdays. I can’t see ESPNU getting their sked to Bell/Rogers on time (like last week) and ESPN2 getting it so late. Also, where do they get the ESPN2 feed from? Maryland-Iowa ended up on both ABC and the specialty pack here (as far as I know) so the feed must be from out west or something. Odd. Anyway, I still think Bell and Rogers are fucking lazy with this. Hopefully we can just get ESPN one day (fat chance I know).

Getting back to the schedule, I will try to contain my rage, knowing what I just told you. Yes, the asterisks means the information is not up on any guide. Pretty infuriating to be honest. I don’t know what to make of it. All I know is that however they do things, they make it difficult on anyone who would EVER want to record a game. But hey, what do I know. UPDATE #2: All the games are now appearing on the Rogers SSP. Most of the games are appearing on Fibe and Satellite but not all. They should be finalized by tonight. Also, the two ACC Network games, NC State-Boston College and Syracuse-Louisville have been added to the specialty packs. UPDATE #3: Wow, did I ever jump the gun. It’s 8:15 right now and there is no info on the Bell Fibe specialty pack guide. I had checked online yesterday and saw a lot of the games scheduled in. I should have known better than to consider everything finalized. They have a little more than three-and-a-half hours to fix this. Every damn week. I really do not get it at all. UPDATE #4: I am seriously considering finding a new way to get college football games. It is complete horseshit that Bell Fibe can’t get all the information for the games. Unfortunately in Canada consumers are treated like garbage when it comes to TV. So if anyone has a reasonable way to get these games, let me know. Anyway, I am just ranting after yet another talk with another CSR from Bell. Sometimes I wonder why they even have the U.S. College Sports Package when they fuck it up so often. It’s 11:00 so hopefully in the next hour we get the info. UPDATE #5: Info on the guide is FINALLY up. Ridiculous that it took this long. I was just about to give up for today. Penn State-Northwestern, for some reason, not appearing anywhere.

Games of the Week

#2 LSU at #4 Alabama (8:00, CBS) – Duh. Of course this one is the game of the week. The funny thing is in the end, this game may mean a whole lot of sweet fuck all if Ole Miss runs the table. If that happens, then Ole Miss is in Atlanta in early December and the Tigers and Tide will sit at home and pray that they somehow still get in the College Football Playoff. As I said before, let’s hope this game turns out to be awesome. Doesn’t have to be Kick Six awesome. Just really good will suffice.

#16 Florida State at #1 Clemson (3:30, ABC) – The first CFP rankings come out and Clemson is #1. And I have them running the table. Good stuff. Really this is their only true test until, perhaps, the ACC Championship. Win this one and it is smooth sledding.

#8 TCU at #14 Oklahoma State (3:30, FOX) – Now we get to see the meat of the Big XII schedule. I am amazed at everyone who is amazed at the fact that the highest Big XII team right now in the rankings is at #6 (Baylor). Why are people surprised? None of them have really played anyone. This starts the Big XII playoffs in essence. Loser here may be gone although it’s not a foregone conclusion. With the way things are going, a one-loss Big XII champ may still have a shot at the CFP.

#5 Notre Dame at Pittsburgh (Noon, ABC) – OK it looks like the cable schedule is a tiny bit more stacked than the specialty pack schedule. This has to be considered a trap game for the Irish. They seem to struggle with Pitt for some reason. Who knows why but it has to be something Notre Dame is thinking about. If they win out, I can’t see The Committee not picking them. It would be a ratings bonanza…not that that comes into their thought process (yeah, right).

#9 Iowa at Indiana (3:30, specialty pack) – This may be the Hawkeyes toughest game the rest of the season. It would not surprise me one bit to see Iowa run the regular season table to get to 12-0, then go into the Big Ten conference championship game STILL outside the top four. They need to destroy these next four teams and it starts here. The Hoosiers’ defense is hot garbage so Iowa should be able to put up at least 40 on them without trying. They’re going to need all the help they can get to get in the good books of The Committee.

Arkansas at #18 Ole Miss (3:30, CBS) – I could have picked a lot of other games for the last spot here (Minny-tOSU, Navy-Memphis, Cincy-Houston) but I am going with this one because an Ole Miss win here continues the monkey wrench in the SEC West picture. They are honestly an LSU win and an Egg Bowl win away from destroying the SEC’s chances of putting two teams in the CFP. They do have to get by the Fighting Bielemas who are having a ridiculous season. Losing to Toledo. Beating Auburn in four overtimes. Crazy. They know they need to somehow win two of their next four to go bowling and it will not be easy by any means.

Gambling…you know, if I did that sort of thing

I wouldn’t go as far as call it my locks of the week because there are some very good games here. Plus I am not one of those greasy late night pick show hosts. The kind of guy I wouldn’t allow in my house let alone take advice on who to take this week. Anyway, here we go:

LSU over Alabama

Clemson over Florida State

Oklahoma State over TCU (upset to cause a little Big XII chaos)

Notre Dame over Pittsburgh (barely)

Iowa over Indiana

Ole Miss over Arkansas

Ohio State over Minnesota

Memphis over Navy

Houston over Cincinnati

Auburn over Texas A&M (other upset pick o’ the week)

Tonight there is the obligatory NFL Thursday nighter and FIVE college football games, two on cable (one for Satellite…sorry guys) and three on the specialty pack. Should be a good two nights and one full day of football coming up. UPDATE: I have to learn how to count. Four college games tonight. Mississippi State-Missouri only on TSN2.

Bossman's Blog

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

Tag Archives: Game of the Century