How about I rank the bowl games now that they are complete?

Posted on January 8, 2024 by guelphbossman

Wait, WAIT! Look you’ve read some of my longer posts on here so don’t leave now. Honestly, this won’t be as long as some of the crazy-ass long posts I’ve done in the past. Plus, we can re-live some of Bowl Season’s greater moments together. Because let’s be honest: this wasn’t exactly the best Bowl Season ever. Not the worst mind you; but yeah, definitely not the best. So how about we just dive in and get started, OK?

Rose Bowl (Michigan 27 Alabama 20 (OT)) – This was one of the greatest College Football Playoff games of all-time. And funny enough, it still wasn’t exactly the cleanest game. Sloppy play by both teams made it so neither team could pull away. And in the end, the issue that caused Bama fits all game, poor snaps from center, came back to haunt them one final time. The low snap on 4th and Goal caused Jalen Milroe to panic and run up the middle to try and score. The play that was drawn up would have had a good chance of working if the snap had been perfect. Michigan finally erases so much CFP pain and will now have their chance at a national championship.
New Orleans Bowl (Jacksonville State 34 Louisiana 31 (OT)) – This feels like the validation of Jax State’s ascent to the FBS level. For some reason, some schools make it work and others (see UMass) can’t figure it out. The thing about this game is that it felt like the Gamecocks were throwing it away, literally. Three defensive touchdowns by the Cajuns kept them in the game. All it did though, is delay a backup kicker, who rarely played, kicking the game winning field goal for the Cocks. This is the perfect argument for why bowls do, and should in the future, exist.
Sugar Bowl (Washington 37 Texas 31) – The second of the two semi-final games was easily the worst…if you just watched the first 58 minutes or so of the game. Then the Huskies decided that maybe, juuuuuuuuuuuust maybe, they didn’t feel like going to the national championship after all. U-Dub was able to hold on when Texas almost seized that final chance and will now play for all the glory. Also, some people were actually introduced, truly, to Michael Penix Jr. for the first time. And I include people who report on college football as they were astounded by what he did despite the fact he did that in half the games this season.
Gator Bowl (Clemson 38 Kentucky 35) – Put your hand up if you thought Kentucky would be in one of the best bowl games of the year. Now put your hands down, you filthy liars. No one, not even Kentucky fans, thought that would be the case. That insane fourth quarter alone, with 42 points scored between the two teams, was enough to put this game in the upper echelon of this year’s Bowl Season.
Famous Toastery Bowl (WKU 38 Old Dominion 35 (OT)) – And the award for the most stupidly awesome bowl game of the year goes to this one. The Hilltoppers were down 21-0 just seven minutes in. I actually stopped watching for the next hour. I come back to see what’s going on and see the first touchdown of what would be the fourth-greatest comeback in bowl game history. How did it end? A blocked field goal in the fourth quarter, followed by another blocked field goal in overtime, leading to a walk-off field goal and then toast angels on the field. How can you not love college football?
Arizona Bowl (Wyoming 16 Toledo 15) – If you had said this bowl game would have been the one out of the two on at the same time to be the better bowl game I would have…well maybe not laughed but been intrigued by your logic. This game went up against the blowout that was the Orange Bowl so it was easy to tune into this game. This is the second straight year the Arizona Bowl has been a great game and Wyoming, this time, is on the better end of the score. A perfect end to Craig Bohl’s coaching career.
ReliaQuest Bowl (LSU 35 Wisconsin 31) – This ended up being a great battle, something that many thought wouldn’t be the case. The Badgers certainly showed up for this one after a lacklustre season. The Tigers didn’t even have the lead until their final touchdown with a little over three minutes to go. A good college football start to 2024.
Camellia Bowl (Northern Illinois 21 Arkansas State 19) – This falls under “It’s So Bad, It’s Good” territory. Not exactly the best of the best but the final portion of the game makes up for it with its sheer insanity. ASU went the entire length of the field to get within two, missed the two-point conversion, then recovered the onside kick! But it was flagged for offside in one of the biggest botched calls of the entire season which made Butch Jones go as red as a ripe tomato. Entertainment…that’s what we want from our bowl games, right?
Quick Lane Bowl (Minnesota 30 Bowling Green 24) – Minnesota threw for 26 yards and won this game. Hilarious. It helps that they could hand the ball off to Darius Taylor who went off for over 200 yards. Fun fact: the Gophers have now won seven consecutive bowl games. That has to be tops, no?
Pinstripe Bowl (Rutgers 31 Miami 24) – A good game at Yankee Stadium. Now I’m not huge on regular season games at baseball stadiums (as in they should be banned) but I am totally fine with them during bowl season. There was more scoring than many thought there would be but there was no stupidity from Mario Cristobal, which was also expected (by me).
Cure Bowl (Appalachian State 13 Miami-OH 9) – This game was played in atrocious weather. I fucking loved it. It was just a bunch of silly backyard-style football fun, if your backward was a swimming pool. At one point it felt like they were going for the bowl game fumbles record. Combined, the two teams ended up with 12. How either team got a kick off, I will never know.
Peach Bowl (Ole Miss 38 Penn State 25) – Most thought it would be a great matchup between the seriously up tempo Rebel offense against the Nittany Lions’ stout defense. It was not to be. The Fighting Kiffins shredded PSU and pulled away in the second half. So Lane is safe in the fans’ minds in Oxford. James Franklin…well I am sure there are many unhappy people in…(Un)Happy Valley.
Pop Tarts Bowl (Kansas State 28 NC State 19) – Let’s be honest here: all we wanted to see was what would happen at the end with the mascot. And it was fucking glorious. Whoever thought of this should get a MASSIVE bonus. Also, the game was pretty good with it being close nearly the entire way.
Alamo Bowl (Arizona 38 Oklahoma 24) – Man, the Wildcats are going to be a load in the Big XII next year. They went blow-for-blow with the Sooners and ended up leaving them in their dust thanks to causing six turnovers. Gotta hand it to Jedd Fisch: not many thought he would get the program to this point this fast. So is he the best coach out of the Bill Belichick coaching tree? Oh wait, Nick Saban did a few years under Belichick. So yeah Jedd you will always be second in this case.
Guaranteed Rate Bowl (Kansas 49 UNLV 36) – Speaking of teams who could be really good next year in the Big XII, the Jayhawks overcame being called for over 200 yards worth of penalties to almost put up a 50-burger. Jason Bean has been a god-send considering Jalon Daniels was injured most of the season. And he showed it in his final game throwing for six touchdowns. This was KU’s first bowl win in 15 years. Incredible. And don’t shortchange the Rebels who also had a pretty good game and great season.
LA Bowl (UCLA 35 Boise State 22) – Look, I think most were interested to see if Chip Kelly’s team would show up for what was basically a home game for them. And they sure did. The Bruins were able to stick with Boise until the second half and then pulled away for a relatively easy victory and a tiny bit of momentum going into the Big Ten next season.
Texas Bowl (Oklahoma State 31 Texas A&M 23) – Somehow, the Aggies, with all sorts of players not playing (for various reasons), came back from an 18-point halftime deficit to make things very interesting late. Also, Mike Gundy has won 10 games in a season EIGHT TIMES? Really? Wow. This guy should get more credit for what he’s done in Stillwater.
Armed Forces Bowl (Air Force 31 James Madison 21) – Some called it bad and I think it’s because the Dukes lost. Air Force showed why they were the Group of Five favourite heading into November. JMU tried to make a game of it but the Falcons’ run game was way too much for them. A perfectly good bowl.
Holiday Bowl (USC 42 Louisville 28) – Miller Moss took advantage of Caleb Williams opting out of this game by throwing for a Holiday Bowl record six touchdowns. I will be honest by saying that the amount of people online saying we have an early Heisman frontrunner irked me. This isn’t preseason hype: this is the end of the previous season hype. Ridiculous. Not saying he won’t be good but I wish some in college football media would pump the brakes sometimes since they sound like idiots every so often.
Gasparilla Bowl (Georgia Tech 30 UCF 17) – The slightly weird start time didn’t detract from a pretty good bowl game. Despite the loss and the 6-7 finish, you have to think the Knights thought this season was a success. Their first as a Power Five team and they showed they could compete. As for the Ramblin’ Wreck, well, I am sure they sent a postcard to Mario Cristobal for gifting them that win that essentially put them in this bowl game.
Birmingham Bowl (Duke 17 Troy 10) – I tend to rank closer games higher than offensive shootouts that end with one team winning by like 21. That’s just me. Very little is more exciting in college football than a chance for a team to tie or win a game late. Both teams had interim coaching staffs so we can use that as an excuse for this one although it feels like it’s happening more and more these days. Not a good trend.
Las Vegas Bowl (Northwestern 14 Utah 7) – A great ending for the Wildcats who wildly exceeded expectations this season. Utah just didn’t have the players to contend in this one. If you liked defense…well, you still might not have liked this one since it was more the offenses struggling than anything.
Liberty Bowl (Memphis 36 Iowa State 26) – There were some high hopes for this one. Iowa State was a better-than-advertised Big XII school and Memphis was at home. And it wasn’t a bad game but it felt like the Tigers were in control for most of it which kind of sucks the life out of a bowl game in the latter stages.
Hawaii Bowl (Coastal Carolina 24 San Jose State 14) – Pretty good game but drops a few notches because it wasn’t on Christmas Eve WHERE IT BELONGS.
Fenway Bowl (Boston College 23 SMU 14) – It was cold. It was wet. It was fun…for me to watch. Not for the players, coaches and fans, I’m sure. Well, at the time it was probably not too bad. I’ve played in games like that and it was fine until after the game. Then you feel like shit. You might feel less shitty if you win…but you still feel like crap. Anyway, this is a conference game next season! A-C-C! A-C-C! A-C-C! A-C-C!
Independence Bowl (Texas Tech 34 California 14) – After a full opening day of bowl games I was hoping this one would be good. Or fun. Or weird. It was none of the three. It was fine until about halfway through the second quarter and the Red Raiders rode away with it. Lack of drama drops this way down.
Military Bowl (Virginia Tech 41 Tulane 20) – This was a nasty weather game so you’d think I would rank it higher. There were a lot of fumbles and chaos so you’d think I would rank it higher. I don’t know what it was but this felt like not a very fun game to watch. I kind of stopped paying attention in the second half. I really didn’t think the Green Wave was in it nor did they care much to be there. And that can happen sometimes when your coach leaves for another school. Maybe that was the case here, I don’t know. Either way, it was meh.
Cotton Bowl (Missouri 14 Ohio State 3) – I was kind of hyped for this one, not gonna lie. I was thinking this would be quite the prove-it game for Mizzou and we would see if no Kyle McCord would be an issue for tOSU. I was right, for the most part, on both fronts, yet this game sucked. Luckily for the Buckeyes, their awesome defense kept them in it going into the fourth quarter but their offense was painful to watch. They should have found a student in the crowd to play quarterback since it would have been just as good.
Frisco Bowl (UTSA 35 Marshall 17) – Would this have been better if 14th-year senior Frank Harris had been able to play? It would have been a blowout rather than a relatively easy victory for the Roadrunners, that’s about it. Biggest take from this game? The starting quarterbacks were Cole Pennington for Marshall (Chad’s son) and Owen McCown for the Roadrunners (Josh’s son). I feel seriously fucking old.
First Responder Bowl (Texas State 45 Rice 21) – Not the greatest game to be honest as the Bobcats were in control for most of it. It was definitely helped, though, by the fans (especially the Texas State ones) who were jacked for this one. So jacked that they ran out of beer at the game. Five minutes into the third quarter. Yeah.
Idaho Potato Bowl (Georgia State 45 Utah State 22) – The Aggies looked pretty damn flat in this one. The Panthers, on the other hand, overcame their late-season collapse and get back to that early season form. Almost 650 yards of offense for GSU and they were way too much for USU. Even with the french fry bath, this was a bottom tier bowl game this season.
Myrtle Beach Bowl (Ohio 41 Georgia Southern 21) – A bit of a ho-hum affair kicked off Bowl Season this time around thanks to the Bahamas Bowl having to move to Charlotte. Ohio went up big and kept the lead the entire game. Nothing super interesting with this one.
Music City Bowl (Maryland 31 Auburn 13) – This game was over early and was done without Taulia Tagovailoa. So it was impressive. Just not interesting to watch after the first quarter.
New Mexico Bowl (Fresno State 37 New Mexico State 10) – I thought this would be a good game. I had high hopes for NMSU in this one. It was not to be. Fresno State cranked it up late and ran away with this one but even earlier on it didn’t really feel close as the Bulldogs showed the form that had them the favourite for about seven days to be the Group of Five representative in the New Year’s Six. Oh well.
Duke’s Mayo Bowl (West Virginia 30 North Carolina 10) – Props to West Virginia for completing a good season, much better than most thought would happen. Neal Brown got mayo dumped on him. And that’s about it. The game was forgettable.
Sun Bowl (Notre Dame 40 Oregon State 8) – Boy, for a game that was sold out quicker than I think any other Sun Bowl ever, this game was an absolute dud. Notre Dame’s backups beat the ever-loving shit out of Oregon State’s backups. Ugh.
Fiesta Bowl (Oregon 45 Liberty 6) – I think we’ve found our new BYU. No, I don’t mean weird religious institution (even though they are). I mean a team that’s probably too good (most of the time) for their conference but not really good enough to be in the Power Five (or maybe even a better conference). Didn’t help that Oregon came in looking pissed off and after the Flames took a 6-0 lead it was all Ducks. 45 unanswered points and Bo Nix left as a record-setting quarterback. This was a trainwreck, really.
Citrus Bowl (Tennessee 35 Iowa 0) – Geez, where do I begin with this one? This was one of the most Iowa games of the season which is saying something. The offense was awful. The Brian Ferentz Experience has come to an end and I am positive most in Iowa City are thankful for that. What made it worse was two other games on at the same time. So I watched almost none of the second half. And I don’t feel bad about that at all.
68 Ventures Bowl (South Alabama 59 Eastern Michigan 10) – I am starting to wonder why this bowl even exists. Even by ESPN Events standards, this is shit. I love more football but good God. The Jags just ran the Eagles off the field in another boring 68 Ventures Bowl which was called…like seven other things before this. This is perfect fodder for the Too Many Bowl Games crowd.
Boca Raton Bowl (USF 45 Syracuse 0) – This was one of the biggest beatdowns in bowl game history. Well at least I thought that until…I’ll get to that in a second. Anyway, I figured the Orange would show up. They did…technically. They were the opposition…technically. Other than that, USF, a middle-of-the-road American Conference team who played out of its mind for new coach Alex Golesh, beat the brakes off of Cuse. It was a pathetic performance, regardless of who was missing from the lineup. And speaking of players missing from the lineup…
Orange Bowl (Georgia 63 Florida State 3) – This picture encapsulates this game perfectly:

Mike Norvell looks like he wants to be anywhere other than where he was at that moment. This game is THE biggest win in bowl game history. So Georgia one-upped themselves. This game, and everything leading up to it, was a completely fucking mess of a shitshow and is a big part of what’s wrong with college football today. Florida State (and to a lesser extent, Georgia) being left out of the College Football Playoff, some even saying that FSU should boycott the game, some politician trying to force the CFP to put the Noles in (somehow), then all sorts of players opting out or transferring out (from both sides mind you). It all led to this travesty of a game. Even Kirby Smart, during the post-game press conference, told everyone “if this doesn’t show that there needs to be some change, then I don’t know what does.” I’m paraphrasing but he’s right on the money. When players can transfer, when coaches can leave a school to get hired somewhere else, what happens to a player’s NIL when they opt out of a bowl game…all this stuff needs to be dealt with. If it doesn’t, these bowl games will get less and less important. And this is after the playoff has already eroded the bowl system (a bit).

See? Not my longest post ever. So no complaining.

Well we’ve hit the end my friends. One last game. The national championship is tonight and, other than the weird all-star games with their weird rules, it’s the final college football game of the season. Cherish it. Even if it’s a blowout. Remember: the wait for the next season can be long and arduous. Enjoy the game everyone!

That was a nice appetizer. Now the real fun begins! Your Week 1 College Football TV Schedule

Posted on August 31, 2023 by guelphbossman

Alright, we fucking made it! Well, we mostly made it last week. The appetizer. The scallops if you like watching Hell’s Kitchen. But this is the main course coming up. The true start of the season for the rest of college football. I still agree with some people that either Week Zero has to be bulked up a bit to give it some extra oomph to start the season or just start calling it Week One since Week Zero is honestly a dumb name. Well, if I was college football commissioner…

…ha ha like they’d give that title to a Canadian. That would be blasphemy, especially in the states on the southern end of the spectrum, geographically (and educationally) speaking.

OK enough is enough! It’s schedule time. I have to get back into posting mode and what a way to do it than to wade in the shallow end a bit last week and then plunge off a dock 200 metres out into a deep lake this week. What could go wrong?

Thursday

We get right into two fairly big games on the first Thursday of the college football season. Matt Rhule gets to start proving he can turn around any college football team as his Huskers travel to Minneapolis and the question about Cam Rising and Brant Kuithe playing might be answered by the morning of the game but who knows with Kyle Whittingham. I am sure gamblers would be pissed if they had to wait until just before gametime. TSN also starts their season with the UF-Utah game.

UPDATE: Cam Rising has been ruled out for the UF-Utah game.

Friday

Hate to say it but the game of the night might end up being The Battle for Miami between the Miami of Ohio and the Miami of Florida. That is unless Mario Cristobal has truly turned the Canes around. Then it might be a bloodbath. UL-GT might end up being good but you never know which Louisville team you are going to get. Finally…it’s Hawaii Test time! Starting just an hour before midnight? Oh baby, bring it on!

By the way, UL-GT will start on TSN5 joined in progress after the NWSL game is complete, which should be around 10:00.

Saturday Early

The first true remote control portion of the season. My remote control is going to hate me. Well, hate me more. It already hates me I’m sure. We shall see how Neon Deion does in Colorado’s opener in TCU. I mean, hell, if you looked at the ads for the game, you would have figured TCU was an FCS team with how little they were shown. FSU-PU should be a fairly interesting game and a good potential for a win by the Group of Five over the Power Five. Also, UVA returns to the field for the first time since the horrific tragedy late last season where three of their players were gunned down during a school excursion.

Saturday Afternoon

		US	Canada
Portland State at #15 Oregon	3:00
Boise State at #10 Washington	3:30
Wofford at Pittsburgh	3:30
Towson at Maryland	3:30
#3 Ohio State at Indiana	3:30
USF at WKU	3:30
UMass at Auburn	3:30
Rice at #11 Texas	3:30
Tennessee State at #13 Notre Dame	3:30
California at North Texas	4:00
SE Louisiana at Mississippi State	4:00

I guess you could say things get slightly better here. Boise-Washington could end up being very important when it comes to the New Year’s Six. By the way, the new clock rules started this past weekend. The ones where the clock doesn’t stop on first down until the final two minutes of the first and second halves. A little more extreme than my suggestion of doing it for the first and third quarters but I digress. Anyway, it seems like the amount of time saved during the game was equal to the amount of commercials added on. I’ll admit it: didn’t see that one coming. Especially since baseball broadcasts are shorter with their pitch clock. Either way, to the people who said this is what ruins the game, I am sure you are the same people who thought playing freshmen and NIL were horrible things as well. Also, to the people who did the whole “I told you so” thing…unless you have the receipts you can shove that shit up your ass.

“I told you so!”

“When?”

“Uh…”

Yeah that’s right, go fuck yourself.

Saturday Primetime

		US	Canada
Nevada at #6 USC	6:30
Washington State at Colorado State	7:00
New Mexico at #23 Texas A&M	7:00
Army at ULM	7:00
South Carolina vs. #21 North Carolina (in Charlotte)	7:30
Toledo at Illinois	7:30
Texas Tech at Wyoming	7:30
West Virginia at #7 Penn State	7:30
Middle Tennessee at #4 Alabama	7:30
Old Dominion at Virginia Tech	8:00
South Alabama at #24 Tulane	8:00

This primetime schedule looks a fair amount different than most of the primetime schedules in the past. Big Ten on NBC! Mountain West on CBS! I’m sure we will get used to it very quickly. Well, maybe not the Mountain West on CBS since they only have a few games on the main network. USA-Tulane is a massive Group of Five match and the winner gets a quick leg up on the competition for that one spot in a New Year’s Six bowl game. SC-NC should be good and I hope it’s a good crowd for a neutral site since I usually don’t like college neutral site games. Finally, Wazzu and CSU meet in what could end up being a conference game starting next season.

Saturday Late Night

		US	Canada
Northern Arizona at Arizona	10:00
Idaho State at San Diego State	10:30
Coastal Carolina at UCLA	10:30

After the Hawaii Test the night before, I should be ready to tackle this set of late night games. Then again, I will be ten hours in once the NAU-U of A game starts so we shall see how I am at that point. Almost feels like I’m training for this which is absurd but I’m sure some people do it (how I don’t know). UCLA is on upset alert with the Chants coming into the Rose Bowl. A win there and the Sun Belt could look like the Group of Five conference to beat going forward.

Sunday

		US	Canada
Northwestern at Rutgers	Noon
Jackson State vs. Florida A&M (in Miami)	3:00
#18 Oregon State at San Jose State	3:30
#5 LSU vs. #8 Florida State (in Orlando)	7:30

Sunday CBS doubleheader? Sunday CBS doubleheader! That’s right, two games on CBS on Sunday including Northwestern playing their first game after all the ridiculousness about the team came out a month or so ago. And yes, I will watch that game. But the game of the day, week, and one of the games of the year goes Sunday night. Winner probably puts themselves immediately into the national title picture while the loser, while not eliminated, has to pretty much run the table the rest of the way to get a shot. High stakes in the happiest place on Earth (if you don’t live anywhere near Scandinavia).

Monday

		US	Canada
#9 Clemson at Duke	8:00

There are quite a few people who are putting Clemson on Upset Alert for this one. Really? I mean I can’t see it happening but man would it be a crazy way to start the season.

Hey, Watch This!

LSU vs. Florida State (in Orlando) (Sunday, 7:30, ABC) – Easily the game to watch for Week 1 and an early candidate for Game of the Year if it’s anything like last year’s game. Even casual college football fans should be geared up for this one. As I said above, the winner is instantly in the national title picture, the loser will have some work to do.

South Carolina vs. North Carolina (in Charlotte) (7:30, ABC/TSN2) – Neutral site games are ruling the day as the battle for which Carolina is better (that’s a pretty wordy name for a rivalry game) happens in Charlotte in primetime (said that in my head in Chris Berman’s voice) on ABC (and TSN2). Should be quite the intriguing game and I’d be shocked if it wasn’t a packed house for this one. Because if it isn’t, those two fanbases should be ashamed of themselves.

Boise State at Washington (3:30, ABC/TSN2) – The return of the Chris Petersen Bowl. Many have the Huskies and Michael Penix Jr. doing big things this season. I just have this funny feeling that the schedule will be too daunting for them to motor through. And that includes this game right here against a Broncos team that wants to get back to the New Year’s Six badly and believes they have their best shot in a long time after the American Conference exodus of their three best programs.

South Alabama at Tulane (8:00, specialty pack) – This is a big mega Group of Five matchup right here. Two of the favourites going toe-to-toe with the winner getting to the front of the G-5 pack right off the hop. Kind of wish it got a better network assignment considering the not-so-great Week 1 schedule but hey, at least we can see the game up here, right?

Sickos Game of the Week

Old Dominion at Virginia Tech (8:00, specialty pack) – Like last year, I will also pick a game that you would have to be a complete Sicko to watch the entirety of. I think I might qualify and if this was a standalone game then God damn it I would watch the whole fucking thing. The criteria are as follows:

The game must be not good on paper. Preferably horrifically bad on paper.
The game must be shown here in Canada in some form (no IPTV or illegal streams allowed in this section).

Yeah that’s it. Two criteria. That’s all.

Anyway, this is the pick for Week One because holy shit this could be all kinds of awful. I’m not going to go into too much depth on this one because it frankly doesn’t deserve it. Now watch it end up being a thrilling game.

Also, I am going with the term Sickos this season. Every true college football fan knows what a Sicko is and if you don’t, follow Sickos Committee on Twitter or X or whatever the fuck Elon is calling it these days. One of the best accounts on Twitter bar none. Or X. Or…something even worse.

Wanna Bet?

Now we really get into the gambling and things. And yes, I am picking against the spread since picking games straight up doesn’t make me look bad enough!

Nebraska (+7) over Minnesota (with the Gophers wininng a close one)

Florida (+4.5) over Utah (and the outright win for a mini-upset!)

Miami (-16.5) over Miami-OH

Stanford (-3.5) over Hawaii

Ball State (+26) over Kentucky (with the Cats winning relatively easily)

Virginia (+28) over Tennessee (Vols win by about three touchdowns)

Indiana (+30) over Ohio State (tOSU wins easy but a bit of a sloppy start to the season for the Buckeyes)

Washington (-14) over Boise State

Texas (-35) over Rice (why does Rice play Texas?)

South Carolina (+2.5) over North Carolina (and the outright win)

Tulane (-6.5) over South Alabama

Oregon State (-16.5) over San Jose State

Florida State (+2.5) over LSU (and the big opening night win)

Five straight days of college football coming up, people! Hopefully I am ready for it. Takes a lot of stamina to watch that much football. As far as I can tell, everything is set on the specialty packs although I did notice one schedule I look at having no ESPN games for Rogers but all the others were listed. Werid. I’m sure the ESPN games will be there for all you subscribers. I wil be on the X machine (@TheBauceman) most of the time games are on so you can check me out there if you are still OK with what that site has become. Without Tweetdeck it is infinitely shittier but I make due.

We made it. Time for you to be a crazy Canadian college football fan. I know I am. Have a great rest of your week everyone.

Oh man, here we go again

Posted on August 1, 2023 by guelphbossman

It felt like things were calm. We were all lulled into this. It was just the eye of the storm. Sure the wind wasn’t moving but about 200 metres away, a cow just went flying headlong into a barn.

What am I talking about? Realignment, of course! Another shoe has dropped…OK let me use a different analogy. Sorry Deion. We have another big move as Colorado will be going back to the Big XII starting next season. And that probably won’t be all. The rumours have at least one of Arizona, Arizona State, Utah, Oregon or Washington following the Buffaloes. Or, if no other schools leave the Pac-12, the Big XII is more than willing to dip into the American Conference (hello SMU, Memphis, Tulane) or even way out east…yes, UConn! And maybe once the Pac-12 (or more like Pac-9) gets their act together, they can start bringing in teams from the Group of Five. The same teams from the American would be in play, especially SMU. Also, the Mountain West would be watching closely as San Diego State, Boise State and perhaps Colorado State and UNLV could be looked at. There will be a lot of meetings in the next month or so to determine where this all leads.

For now let’s focus on what this post was supposed to be (and still will be). It’s time for the Power Five conference predictions. This will give a better indication on how I think things will go during this season. So let’s dive right in!

Changes are coming soon for the Ess Ee Cee. Texas and Oklahoma join the conference next season. Also, no more SEC on CBS after this year. Everything moves to ABC and ESPN. And finally, no divisions. Halle-fucking-lujah.

As for this year, all the talk is about Georgia and doing something no team has done (fully) in the AP Poll era: win three national championships in a row. It’s not like they will fall apart, despite the fact they lost their starting quarterback and a bunch of other players in the NFL Draft. Then again, I’m sure Kirby Smart has looked them all dead in the eye and told them “Everyone thinks you are going to go 5-7 and lose to Vanderbilt. Prove them wrong!” And they will believe it because college football head coaches are just a notch-and-a-half below cult leaders in the pecking order of how much they can make their “followers” drink their Kool-Aid.

Remember, though, there are other teams in the conference as well. Like those lovable underdogs from Tuscaloosa, Alabama, and the team that just reeks of success (in the classroom and on the baseball diamond), Vanderbilt. And eleven other teams. Want to find out how I think they will do? OK. I will do that. Just for you.

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

Just For You

You might think I am crazy for having UGA not run the table. I do think they will lose a regular season game and it will be to those upstart Tennessee Volunteers. It won’t keep them from winning the division though as you can see I have those same Vols losing two conference games during the regular season.
As for the SEC West, though, Bama will once again rule the roost….as long as they figure out their quarterback situation. I am thinking they will and will go undefeated and be #1 in the nation going into conference championship weekend. If they don’t get their QB situation settled…well, maybe they lose two games? Three? It’s not like they will fall to 6-6.
I could see South Carolina or last year’s SEC West champs, LSU, making a bit of a run this time around. They have the top two quarterbacks in the SEC and could each put up piles of points. Watch for the Cocks’ game against Georgia early on in the season and LSU’s post-Halloween trip to Bryant-Denny to face the Tide. Upsets in either of those games will seriously upset the apple cart.
Look, the Gators were barely .500 with who I think may be one of the most overhyped quarterbacks in recent memory. I don’t think Anthony Richardson was that great. And now they don’t even have him. Unless every other part of the roster improved (it didn’t), how do people expect this team to bounce back and all of a sudden become an eight or nine win team? Spoiler alert: they won’t.
I have Mississippi State at 6-6. They will do just enough to get a bowl game. I wonder how tough it will be after the loss of Mike Leach but I can see them straightening things out just in time late in the season.
As for the SEC Championship, SURPRISE! I have the Dawgs beating the Tide and creating a massive clusterfuck in the final College Football Playoff rankings. Fun times!
Eleven bowl teams from the SEC with two juuuuuust on the outside. That’s insane and I don’t think I will be that far off with this prediction. Next year could be even crazier with Texas and Oklahoma joining the conference that just means more.

Man have things really changed in terms of where you will see Big Ten games this season. Gone are ABC and ESPN. In is NBC and CBS. This is gonna feel weird the first time I see it. And maybe the next few times as well. I will get used to it at some point. Now if you want the opportunity to watch every Big Ten game, better find a way to get FOX Sports One and Peacock otherwise you will be shit out of luck to watch potential bangers like Northwestern-Purdue and Indiana-Rutgers (if they end up there and not the Big Ten Network).

Alright, let’s get into the final conference predictions before the B1G gives a big Fuck You to geography and brings in USC and UCLA.

	Conference		Overall
East	W	L	W	L
Michigan	8	1	11	1
Penn State	8	1	11	1
Ohio State	8	1	10	2
Michigan State	5	4	7	5
Maryland	5	4	8	4
Indiana	1	8	3	9
Rutgers	1	8	4	8
West
Minnesota	6	3	8	4
Wisconsin	6	3	9	3
Iowa	6	3	9	3
Illinois	5	4	7	5
Nebraska	2	7	5	7
Purdue	2	7	5	7
Northwestern	0	9	2	10

Geogpraphy, Go Eat a Dick

Look, I know some might look at the Big Ten East standings and think I am a bit crazy. I am not. Although that is what a crazy person would tell you. Yep, a three-way tie at the top at 8-1 between Big Blue, tOSU and PSU. Because each team will be 1-1 against the other two, the CFP Rankings will decide the winner. I believe the Wolverines will somehow win that. And yes, I think Ohio State also loses to Notre Dame. O-H! I-No.
If Sparty doesn’t make it to a bowl game, they may end up giving Mel Tucker the Herm Edwards treatment and fire him before he can leave the playing surface one game. I get they have a tough division but they should be able to do well enough against the rest of their schedule to get back in the postseason after last year’s debacle.
No, I don’t have Wisconsin winning the West division. Meaning I am different than almost every expert out there. Also, there’s the fact I’m not an expert but I digress. Again I have a damn three-way tie but no need to look at the rankings for this one as I believe the Gophers will Row the Fucking Boat all the way to Indianapolis after beating both Wisky and the high-octane Iowa Hawkeyes. See what I did there? Yeah, I don’t care that the Hawkeyes have a new quarterback in town. Until Kirk tells his son to do better, Iowa will be pushing for some 7-6 victories. Sorry. 8-6. Two field goals and a late safety to win.
Nebraska will be better but I think the Huskers are a season away from getting back to the top of the West…just in time for the West to just not exist anymore.
As for Northwestern…man. What a shitshow. Look, I played a lot of sports earlier in my life and did so at the university level. Are there fun little pranks and stupid things the rookies have to do? Sometimes. But it’s usually harmless. Carrying bags, standing up during a team dinner to get embarrassed by singing some Mariah Carey song, dumb things like that. Not getting fucking dry humped in some cultish fashion by weirdos in robes. What the fuck is wrong with that school? And yes, it’s not just the football program. Sounds like at least half the teams there have serious issues. Ugh.
Now let’s get crazy. Yeah! The Big Ten Championship will…OK who am I kidding. It won’t be close. I have Michigan plowing through Minny to clinch their spot, yet again, in the College Football Playoff.

Might as well call this the Stable Conference…for now. Just nothing happening here which is just fine for most of the teams in the ACC. Status quo isn’t a bad thing. There are some changes with where you will see games. The CW…yes, the C-Fucking-W, will have an ACC game during most of the weeks of the season. You can take the ACC out of Jefferson-Pilot (or Raycom) but you can’t take the Jefferson-Pilot (or Raycom) out of the ACC. Or something like that.

So before this conference possibly gets pillaged by the Big Ten and SEC, let’s get to the predictions followed by some deep tissue massage and/or analysis.

	Conference		Overall
	W	L	W	L
Clemson	8	0	12	10
Florida State	7	1	11	1
North Carolina	6	2	9	3
Pittsburgh	5	3	8	4
Louisville	5	3	8	4
Duke	4	4	8	4
Wake Forest	4	4	7	5
NC State	4	4	7	5
Miami	4	4	7	5
Syracuse	3	5	6	6
Boston College	2	6	5	7
Virginia	2	6	4	8
Georgia Tech	2	6	4	8
Virginia Tech	0	8	1	11

Deep Tissue Massage and/or Analysis

I should book a massage. My back is in horrible shape.
Some may scoff at me having Clemson going undefeated this season. They have the schedule to do it and if Cade Klubnik is as good as he can be this could relatively easily happen. If Klubnik struggles…well then this entire set of standings might need to be scrubbed from existence.
Reader Gord will like where I have Florida State. This team could be scary good. And at the very least, they will be near the top of the ACC standings this season. Mike Norvell has done a great job getting this team back to what it was like during the Jimbo Fisher days. I had my doubts about him but I have to admit he has been the right guy to right the ship in Tallahassee.
Hey did you notice? NO DIVISIONS! I love it.
Don’t be surprised that if Clemson or FSU stumbles that there are no shortage of teams that could get one of the two ACC title game slots. A list of seven teams could pull off a couple of upsets and be at the top and it wouldn’t be a huge surprise. A slight surprise sure. Maybe a slightly bigger surprise if it was Miami or NC State. But not a massive surprise.
Poor Virginia Tech. I think this will be their worst team since before Frank Beamer graced Blacksburg. It feels like it has been forever since the Hokies were contenders. It was only seven years ago when they were in the ACC Championship and almost upset the eventual national champions, Clemson. This team is pretty bad in almost every aspect of the game and the schedule will not be helpful to them. Other than Old Dominion I don’t see them winning any other game and the Monarchs have given VT all sorts of fits the past few years.
Look for a tiny bit of a bounce back from Virginia. Just them taking the field after what happened last year is a win in my books.
For that ACC title game, how about another game that will turn everything on its head. Yep, I think the Noles will get revenge for a regular season loss by inching out the Tigers. Chaos!

OK it’s about time the Big XII rebrands. They will have at least thirteen teams by the time the 2024 season starts and it may be as high as sixteen. So change the fucking name. They have the rights to the Big Fourteen and Big Sixteen so use one of those. It would be easy. Find a graphic design student at Kansas and have them do a new logo. Easy peasy. Why do I have to come up with everything?

Where was I? Oh that’s right, predictions. Let’s see if this conference will go all Pac-12 and cannibalize itself or if they can see a team get to the CFP once again. Also, Texas and Oklahoma will be trying their best to leave the conference on a high note much to the chagrin of the rest of the schools in the conference. So here are the Big XII standings predictions, followed by Belly Expansions.

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

Belly Expansions

No I don’t mean pregnancy. I mean eating a big meal and having to loosen the ol’ belt or just unbuckle the pants altogether. Funny enough, people in the restaurant don’t appreciate that.
Let’s start at the bottom. There won’t be one truly bad team. There will be a bunch of below-average ones. West Virginia, Iowa State, Houston, Cincinnati and BYU could all finish last and I am sure no one would bat an eye.
I see the Longhorns making their final Big XII season a special one. They have the team, the schedule and the head coach (I think) to be the top team in this conference this season. The only question will be can Quinn Ewers hold off Arch Manning. Will one of them transfer in the offseason? Remember, when you have two starting quarterbacks, you have none. I think.
How about this lukewarm take: Kansas State will be good again. Yeah really going out on a limb there Bossman. This team has become so steady-as-she-goes it’s almost boring. The people in the Little Apple are fine with this.
I do think one of the newcomers will make a bowl game and that team will be UCF. I think they are the most prepared of the newbies coming into this conference. But make no mistake about it: all four teams will be good at various points over the next few years.
I can’t see Oklahoma taking enough of a leap to get to the Big XII Championship. Nor do I think the Horned Frogs of TCU have the, uh, toads? to make it back to the conference title game. Good seasons for both, yes, but not great.
The Longhorns should win the conference title game in their final season in the Big XII. Will this get them into the CFP or will it “relegate” them to the New Year’s Six? I think you can tell from my predictions so far but you will know for sure in a different post.

So where are we going to be able to watch Pac-12 games in the future? Who the hell knows. My money is on PBS.

But seriously, the Pac-12 is quickly dropping from the Conference of Champions to almost a Group of Five conference. They are losing USC and UCLA next year to the Big Ten. They knew that already. The bombshell of Colorado leaving now has them at nine teams starting the 2024 season. And it may not end there. The only schools I haven’t heard potentially leaving are Oregon State and Washington State. That’s not to say all these rumours will be correct but I will be pretty surprised if no more teams leave for the Big XII before next season. It’s sad for a conference that really started their slide once Pete Carroll left USC for the NFL. Thanks a bunch, Peter.

Prediction time! No divisions which is one thing they are ahead of the game with, starting that last year. Let’s get to those divisionless predictions followed by some California Nightmarin’.

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

California Nightmarin’

No state will have it better this year in the Pac-12 than the state of Oregon. Both the Ducks and the Beavers look to be serious contenders and only need the ball to bounce their way one extra time to maybe get to the Pac-12 Championship. And considering the way that title game has gone, who knows what may happen after that.
The strongest team, though, should be USC. They have Caleb Williams coming back to try and do what no one other than some guy named Archie has ever done, and that’s win two Heisman Trophies. The hope there is that the sting of the two season-ending losses will motivate them to push themselves that final step into the CFP.
OK look, I know you see Washington in sixth place and you are wondering what the fuck is wrong with me. This is another case where the schedule is just flat-out against them. A slightly easier schedule and I might put this team at eleven or even, dare I say it, twelve wins. It will be that close at the top of the conference.
On the other hand, I am sure no will think I’m crazy for putting Stanford in last place. It’s been a long time since the Cardinal have been this bad and it doesn’t look like they will be ready for bowl action for another year at least.
I think I was fair putting Colorado at 4-8 for this season and playing fairly meaningful football going into November. There seems to be two schools of thought with this team. One section thinks Coach Prime has done wonders and with all the fresh faces in the lineup it will push the team over the line and into bowl-eligibility territory. The other section thinks the entire program is overhyped and they will win maybe two games. I am in the middle on this. This team won’t go bowling this year. That would be too much of a leap. But they should win more games than they did last year. If not, what the hell was all this hoopla for?
As for the Pac-12 title game, USC gets the Pac-12 Championship they probably should have won last year. Problem is that by this point there will be a lot of teams in the mix for those four College Football Playoff spots and in typical Pac-12 fashion, the league will have cannabilized itself again and missed out on the CFP again.

There you go! You now have a complete set of Bossman conference predictions. Next up, is kind of the wrap-up post where I put everything in a nice, neat little ball and let you know who I believe will win the whole damn deal. Have a great week everyone!

Hey, Let’s Rank the Bowl Games!

Posted on January 12, 2023 by guelphbossman

It’s been a bit since I’ve done this and since I’m currently unemployed and watching my bank account get redder than a super-ripe tomato I figured I have some time to do this.

College football is now over for another season and I am sad. But I have to say it was a pretty good bowl season, despite some in the college football media saying it was bad. Really? I’ve been through some not-so-good bowl seasons and this was not one of them. Then again, some just have to be the counterpoint so that they feel special and/or their life sucks. Oh well, let’s get to the rankings!

Peach Bowl (Georgia 42 Ohio State 41) – This was, without exaggeration, the greatest College Football Playoff game of all-time. It had a bit of everything from two teams throwing haymakers at each other. And when it looked like tOSU had it in the bag, UGA stormed back and took the lead late. And as the clock struck midnight on 2022, the Buckeyes’ season struck midnight as the game-winning field goal attempt went wide left. Just an amazing football game and what college football is all about.
Cotton Bowl (Tulane 46 USC 45) – For most of this game, it felt like a validation of Caleb Williams’ Heisman campaign. Then the Green Wave hit. Down 15 with four minutes to go, Tulane came back to score two touchdowns, the final one with just seconds left, to complete a great comeback and announce their arrival as the newest Group of Five power program.
Fiesta Bowl (TCU 51 Michigan 45) – This is the second of the two semi-final games that makes the best set of semi-finals ever in the College Football Playoff era and it’s not even close. Funny enough, the lead never changed in this game. TCU never trailed which is odd for such a high-scoring, close game. Still an incredible affair and a bit of a surprising result for some.
Liberty Bowl (Arkansas 55 Kansas 53 3OT) – I’ll be honest: once Arkansas went up 38-13 I went to put some laundry on and make something to eat. What an idiot I am. Kansas came all the way back to tie it up. Kansas quarterback Jalon Daniels threw for an insane 544 yards and still ended up losing. Arkansas did everything they could early on to win and everything late to lose and still ended up winning in the end. One of the wildest bowl games of the last decade and I ended up missing a decent chunk of it. Stupid.
Sun Bowl (Pittsburgh 37 UCLA 35) – This was a wild game that came down to a late Pitt field goal to win it. Honestly it was kind of ho-hum until a bit into the fourth quarter when it went completely off the rails. The Sun Bowl is weird to me: it seems like the game is always either really good or barely mediocre and nothing in between. I still think they should have a Big XII tie-in but that’s a conversation I’ve had here many times before.
Arizona Bowl (Ohio 30 Wyoming 27 OT) – If this game is on a network, a lot more people watch it. Going in, it felt like a bowl that you could forget. Wyoming with a lot of players out and Ohio’s defense somewhat decimated. Instead, it was an exciting close affair. And, to be honest, the commentary, while less informative, was hilarious, especially down the stretch with the two colour commentators being very open as to which team they were hoping to win (and had bet on).
Cheez-It Bowl (Florida State 35 Oklahoma 32) – I mean we were only told that this was a REMATCH OF THE 2001 BCS CHAMPIONSHIP a few times, right? This ended up being, unlike that 2001 affair, a great see-saw battle with the Noles kicking the game-winning field goal late to get the victory and all the Cheez-Its. In a somewhat related note, I like Cheez-Its. A lot. It’s very easy to eat a whole box of those fuckers.
Holiday Bowl (Oregon 28 North Carolina 27) – FOX ends up getting a dandy of a game for their only bowl broadcast of the season. Oregon came back in the final quarter to defeat the Heels on an extra point that doinked off the upright and in. Even then, the Tar Heels had one final shot as they somehow got the ball into Oregon territory with no time left but the Hail Mary didn’t work. Again, another fantastic game.
Gator Bowl (Notre Dame 45 South Carolina 38) – It was seriously loud in Jacksonville for this one. It felt like a huge regular season game. The fans were rowdy and it felt like both teams were desperate to win. And credit to Shane Beamer: he left nothing on the table. He threw every trick play he could at the Irish, including a fake kick/pass for a touchdown. In the end, though, Notre Dame was too much for the Gamecocks. Super fun to watch.
Hawaii Bowl (Middle Tennessee 25 San Diego State 23) – A really good game out in Honolulu on Christmas Eve (as it should be). It felt like the Aztecs were going to run away with this, going up 14 with five minutes left in the first quarter. After that, it was mostly Middle. Another game that ended with a late game-winning field goal. A nice trend to have for bowl season for sure.
Camellia Bowl (Buffalo 23 Georgia Southern 21) – This game was awful close as neither team could pull away until midway through the final stanza. I will be honest: this game would have been much lower had the Eagles not scored a late touchdown and made it interesting near the end.
New Mexico Bowl (BYU 24 SMU 23) – The 1980 Holiday Bowl this was not; however, it was still a fun game to watch…for the final quarter. Up until that point, this looked like a relatively poorly played game where one team will win because the other made too many mistakes. Instead, it was an amazing finish where SMU went for the win on a two-point conversion and came up short. I love to see teams just go for it since this is your final game of the season. Why not leave it all out on the field?
Frisco Bowl (Boise State 35 North Texas 32) – Did you know Austin Aune is 29 years old? Christ, we only heard it a million times. At least it didn’t take away from the actual game which was a really good one. A 36-point third quarter will do that after a rather blah first half.
Bahamas Bowl (UAB 24 Miami-OH 20) – How about this to start the bowl season? A very entertaining game with a wild ending, reminiscent of the Titans loss to the Rams in Super Bowl XXXIV.
Boca Raton Bowl (Toledo 21 Liberty 19) – This had the advantage of being played in FOOTBAW WEATHER. A lot of rain and muck. I keep forgetting though that, as hilarious and fun as it is to see this type of weather for a football game, it really makes the actual football tough to watch. Luckily, this came down to another great ending (there’s that phrase again) with a failed Liberty two-point conversion being the difference.
Duke’s Mayo Bowl (Maryland 16 NC State 12) – The game wasn’t the greatest, let’s be honest here. It did have a close finish and Mike Locksley got a bunch of mayo dumped on him. Those were the redeeming qualities of this bowl game.
Cure Bowl (Troy 18 UTSA 12) – On paper this was a great Group of Five matchup. Two conference champions. Troy’s defense definitely showed up for this one so if you liked defensive contests, this one was for you.
ReliaQuest Bowl (Mississippi State 19 Illinois 10) – A very emotional game as it was the Bulldogs’ first outing after the death of Mike Leach. The game wasn’t very good but again, it was close. The ending on the other hand? Insane. MSU scored on a fumble return touchdown on the last play for one of the worst bad beats of the season. Some gamblers must have been crying afterwards.
Quick Lane Bowl (New Mexico State 24 Bowling Green 19) – This was a game between two teams who had not been to a bowl game in a few years. And it showed. Both teams put it all out there and the Aggies ended up with a win in their final season as an Independent.
LendingTree Bowl (Southern Miss 38 Rice 24) – Frank Gore Jr. went off in this one, to the tune of 329 rushing yards and a new FBS bowl record. And he told his auntie to chill after the game on national TV. The best night of that young man’s life so far.
Independence Bowl (Houston 23 Louisiana 16) – Another game that languished for about three quarters and had a great finish. I still feel like an idiot for picking the Cougs as my Group of Five Cotton Bowl pick.
Gasparilla Bowl (Wake Forest 27 Missouri 17) – It was a nice send-off for Sam Hartman who will transfer next season to Notre Dame. It will be interesting to see how the Deacs fare next season with some important players leaving.
Alamo Bowl (Washington 27 Texas 20) – There were high hopes for this one and it kind of fell flat. Don’t let the close score fool you since it wasn’t really close at all.
Pinstripe Bowl (Minnesota 28 Syracuse 20) – The Gophers won pretty easily. The highlight for me was people on Twitter telling me that P.J. Fleck was an awful coach. OK then.
Guaranteed Rate Bowl (Wisconsin 24 Oklahoma State 17) – The Badgers should be better next season with Luke Fickell at the helm. They’ve already brought in a bunch of new players. None of that mattered here as they were able to outlast a Cowboys team that struggled with a capital ‘S’ down the stretch.
Rose Bowl (Penn State 35 Utah 21) – Everything was looking like a classic until Cam Rising went down with an injury. Then things all went to shit for the Utes and Penn State cruised to an easy victory.
Idaho Potato Bowl (Eastern Michigan 41 San Jose State 27) – This was a tale of two sections. The first had the Spartans dominate early, looking like they were going to blow the Eagles out of the water. The second and last section saw EMU score 33 straight points to put this one out of reach. Entertaining for a bit but not enough to warrant a better spot on this list.
Myrtle Beach Bowl (Marshall 28 UConn 14) – I was honestly hyped for this one. I thought it was going to be interesting to see how the Huskies fared in what is basically brand new territory for them. Instead, the game was rather bland and Marshall controlled for most of it.
Orange Bowl (Tennessee 31 Clemson 14) – Clemson ran over 100 plays in this one and only scored 14 points. That feels like it would be impossible to do but there you go. The offense wasn’t better with Cade Klubnik under centre rather than D.J. Uiagalelei so there may need to be significant changes in the offseason for the Tigers. This game might have ranked even lower if it wasn’t for Joe Milton tossing piss rockets all over the place like his arm was an actual cannon.
Birmingham Bowl (East Carolina 53 Coastal Carolina 29) – This looked like it would have been far up the list after the first quarter. Then Grayson McCall went down and it was kind of easy to figure out which team was going to put up the points the rest of the way (hint: not the Chants).
Texas Bowl (Texas Tech 42 Ole Miss 25) – Ole Miss looked completely flat in this one. Like they didn’t want to be there. Texas Tech, on the other hand, looked great and played hard for first-year coach Joey McGuire who has instilled a new confidence in Lubbock. The Red Raiders also did a nice tribute to Mike Leach on their first play, lining up in the Air Raid offense.
Armed Forces Bowl (Air Force 30 Baylor 15) – The classic bowl conundrum: can a team defend against a good option team. In this case it was no. The Falcons wore the Bears down and ran for almost 300 yards in a ho-hum affair.
Sugar Bowl (Alabama 45 Kansas State 20) – Hey, for a while it looked like this was going to be a fun start to college football on New Year’s Eve. Then Bama realized they are Bama and woke up and put an absolute beatdown on the Wildcats.
Military Bowl (Duke 30 UCF 13) – I thought this would be a better game. The Blue Devils ran away with this and it wasn’t even really close. A great turnaround for Duke, I must say.
Fenway Bowl (Louisville 24 Cincinnati 7) – Other than the Scott Satterfield drama, this game was pretty boring. The unique setup of this being at Fenway Park and the potential for FOOTBAW WEATHER didn’t help enough to move this up the rankings.
New Orleans Bowl (WKU 44 South Alabama 23) – South Alabama was the fairly big favorites here and the Hilltoppers ended up mopping the floor with them. This game was good for about 17 or 18 minutes and then that was all she wrote.
LA Bowl (Fresno State 29 Washington State 6) – Man, looking back, that first Saturday of bowl games was not good. Three of the worst bowl games of the season were this day. This was one of them. Wazzu just didn’t really show up for this one.
First Responder Bowl (Memphis 38 Utah State 10) – I’ll be honest: I did not watch more than one minute of the second half of this game. It was over long before that.
College Football Playoff National Championship (Georgia 65 TCU 7) – A beatdown of monumental proportions. I don’t know if I consider it a bowl game but if you do, it’s the biggest bowl game margin of victory ever. I was wondering if the Dawgs would score 80. A rough end to a damn good season.
Las Vegas Bowl (Oregon State 30 Florida 3) – The Gators resorted to kicking a field goal in the final minute of this game. Why? To preserve their record non-shutout streak. Other than that, they were run off the field by the Beavers.
Citrus Bowl (LSU 63 Purdue 7) – “See what those Tigers did? You content with only winning by 56? Let’s beat that!” – Kirby Smart, probably
Music City Bowl (Iowa 21 Kentucky 0) – I think everyone thought it would be bad. It may have been worse than what we thought. Memories of the infamous 2018 Cheez-It Bowl come to mind as this is one of the ugliest, most unwatchable bowl game of all-time.

Hey that wasn’t so bad was it? Then again, I tend to be short and sweet with a lot of these. Maybe it’s because I run out of steam near the end. Who knows. Anyway, enjoy the NFL playoffs coming up and if you still have a hankering for some college football, there are a few all-star games coming up. The Hula Bowl is this Saturday at Noon on CBS Sports Network if that tickles your fancy. Hey, at least it’s something.

Injuries, Injuries, Injuries…and the Week 7 College Football TV Schedule

Posted on October 12, 2022 by guelphbossman

It happens every year. Some of the best college players get injured and teams have to go without them for a game up to an entire season. Here’s a short list of just some of the players who have gone down to injury so far this season:

Bryce Young (Alabama) – Injured his shoulder this past Saturday and is questionable for the most important game of the year so far (vs. Tennessee).
Zach Calzada (Auburn) – A shoulder injury against Missouri has knocked Calzada out for the rest of the season.
Charlie Brewer (Liberty) – Had issues with his thumb in their opener against Southern Miss and has had surgery to repair it. Could be back in a couple weeks.
Cade McNamara (Michigan) – A leg injury could have McNamara out for the season.
Chris Autman-Bell (Minnesota) – All that is known is that he had a lower-body injury that he sustained in the Gophers’ victory over Colorado that will sideline him for the rest of the season.
Tyler Buchner (Notre Dame) – The man who was supposed to start for the Irish has been knocked out for the season with a joint sprain in his shoulder.
Cedric Tillman (Tennessee) – The Vols wide receiver might return before the end of October if his ankle is strong enough.

Hell it’s got to the point that injuries are being reported that the players are denying. There was a report that Kansas quarterback Jalon Daniels would be out for the season with a shoulder injury: a report that Daniels thought was interesting and news to him. He’s still doubtful for the Jayhawks’ next game but he is disputing that he would be done for the season.

Also, there are some teams that are suffering because of the sheer amount of injuries. Want to know why Wisconsin might not be as good as had been advertised? Currently they have seventeen players out with injuries. Seventeen. Good god.

Part of the point of all this is to say football is a contact sport. Players will get hurt. So for the powers that be to essentially want to add games to the schedule makes the season more of a war of attrition than anything. Until North Dakota State started their run of FCS championships, that’s what the FCS playoffs was. The healthiest team won and they were almost never the best (or second-best or third-best or fourth-best, etc.) team going in. And we know what college football media can be like. They will be all over the injury angle if, say, the top three teams in an expanded College Football Playoff don’t win it all because of injuries to important players. It’ll happen. You just watch.

OK that was enough of a rant. Time for what you came here for. Some hot college football schedule action. Or more like slightly warm since the weather has started to change.

Wednesday

		US	Canada
Louisiana at Marshall	7:30 PM

Hey, we have our first instance of Fun Belt football this season! I figured both of these teams would be better than they have been so far. Marshall is trying to make a name for itself in its first season in the Sun Belt, whereas Louisiana is trying their hardest to get back to the Sun Belt Championship for a fourth consecutive time.

Thursday

Neither of these games should be close; however, we know what Thursday Night Football has been like so far this season so pick your poison.

Friday

		US	Canada
Brown at Princeton	7:00 PM
Navy at SMU	7:30 PM
UTSA at FIU	8:00 PM

Woof. This is….technically a schedule with three football games on it. Hopefully one of them is close.

Saturday Early

Alright now this is what I’m talking about. If there was a ever a need for a college football-style RedZone channel, this would be the week for it. The sheer amount of good-to-great games this week is staggering. And it starts here with PSU-Michigan in a massive Big Ten East game. Kansas gets to prove that they really are for real this season against an average Sooners team. And how about Coastal Carolina? It may be the first of a bunch of national games for them if they keep winning.

Saturday Afternoon

		US	Canada
California at Colorado	2:00 PM
#8 Oklahoma State at #13 TCU	3:30 PM
#15 NC State at #18 Syracuse	3:30 PM
#3 Alabama at #6 Tennessee	3:30 PM
Ohio at Western Michigan	3:30 PM
Arkansas at BYU	3:30 PM
Maryland at Indiana	3:30 PM
Vanderbilt at #1 Georgia	3:30 PM
Tulane at USF	4:00 PM
Wisconsin at Michigan State	4:00 PM
Arizona at Washington	5:30 PM

Great early schedule is followed by an even better afternoon schedule, if you can believe it. I guess you could say the highlight is Bama-UT but you also have the Pokes and Horned Frogs as well. Undefeated teams falling everywhere by force! The fact that NC State-Syracuse is on the ACC Network has made no one bat an eye. Normally, people would be a bit outraged by this. But there’s nothing you can do about it. That’s how good this schedule is in this timeslot. Oh and Vandy-UGA might be essentially over by 4:15 if you are a sadist.

Saturday Primetime

		US	Canada
Utah State at Colorado State	7:00 PM
LSU at Florida	7:00 PM
ULM at South Alabama	7:00 PM
#4 Clemson at Florida State	7:30 PM
Nebraska at Purdue	7:30 PM
Memphis at East Carolina	7:30 PM
Stanford at Notre Dame	7:30 PM
#16 Mississippi State at #22 Kentucky	7:30 PM
North Carolina at Duke	8:00 PM
#7 USC at #20 Utah	8:00 PM

And then we have yet another huge game. The Trojans get a huge test heading to Utah. Win this and they might be headed for a Victory Bell showdown with UCLA that has CFP implications. Maybe Florida State can prove something against Clemson and upset the ACC apple cart while doing it.

One game I am looking forward to is the battle for first place in the Big Ten West between…Nebraska and Purdue? Yep! Oh my. Oh and who thought putting Stanford and Notre Dame in primetime was a good idea?

Saturday Late Night

		US	Canada
Washington State at Oregon State	9:00 PM
Air Force at UNLV	10:30 PM

Annnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnd the week ends with a thud. I guess there’s always a Hawaii Test if you feel the need to stay up extremely late.

Big Games O’ The Week

Alabama at Tennessee (3:30, CBS) – So many games could be the Game of the Week but I went with this one mostly because the Vols are really good and if Bryce Young doesn’t end up playing, this is ripe for a huge upset. If you had said at the start of the season that there was even a possibility of an undefeated Georgia having to beat an undefeated Tennessee to win the SEC East I would have laughed. Well, who’s laughing now? Uh…not me, I guess. Bama doesn’t want to lose because it brings all the teams that are essentially eliminated in the SEC West back into play along with Ole Miss who is nipping at their heels. Huge stakes.

Penn State at Michigan (Noon, FOX) – Let’s call it 1B to Bama-Tennessee’s 1A. Or more like 1E because it is a bit down the list from that game. Luckily it’s in the Big Noon Saturday spot…or more like Big Blue Saturday. Seriously, what is FOX’s deal with Michigan? They in love or something? Anyway, winner faces Ohio State for the Big Ten East title. Loser, though, is still not out of the race for, well, anything really.

Oklahoma State at TCU (3:30, ABC/TSN2) – I am praying for people who have to rely on their PVR this weekend. Decisions, decisions. Who would have thought there would be three games between undefeated teams this week. Nobody. Especially this game. Realistically, this could end up being a Big XII Championship preview if things shake out right for both teams. Either way, big New Year’s Six implications with this one.

USC at Utah (8:00, FOX) – For the first time in quite a while, USC is in a game that truly matters. The Utes are used to these kinds of games now and the MUSS is no joke for visiting teams. The Trojans can continue to drive a final stake in the Pac-12 heart with a win here. Poor Conference of Champions.

NC State at Syracuse (3:30, specialty pack) – The Wolfpack’s only loss is to Clemson and the Orange have made it through the first part of their schedule unscathed. The winner here still has a shot at usurping Clemson at the top of the ACC Atlantic, especially Syracuse. I don’t know if either team is ready for College Football Playoff conversation but it will be there for the winner.

Mississippi State at Kentucky (7:30, specialty pack) – The Wildcats have stumbled a bit since their hot start while MSU is soaring under Mike Leach as Will Rogers throws the ball like fifty times a game. At some point Rogers’ arm will fall clean off but until then, Leach will ride him as the captain of the offense. If the Bulldogs can win this one, is a New Year’s Six spot in their future? They will be in the conversation for sure.

Minnesota at Illinois (Noon, Big Ten Network) – The Illini in the Games of the Week list? Wow, this year has been crazy but this might be over the top. A win here and Bert’s Boys would be the odds-on favourite to win the Big Ten West and get absolutely slaughtered by whoever wins the Big Ten East. Fun times. I can’t wait for divisions to be abolished for good.

Clemson at Florida State (7:30, ABC/TSN2) – Holy crap we’re still going with this. So many good games. Now, to be honest, this might not be as good as the rest on this list but if the Noles decide to show up and cause problems, you never know. This could cause the greatest earthquake in the rankings if FSU pulls off the upset.

Psycho Game of the Week

California at Colorado (2:00, Pac-12 Network) – Good lord, why would you torture yourself with this? I mean with this game you have to put forth more effort to even watch it. This is definitely for psychos.

Hubba Bubba Blowout of the Week

UTSA at FIU (Friday, 8:00, CBS Sports Network) – Most would put Vandy-Georgia in this spot but may I present to you this affair. UTSA is a good Group of Five team. FIU, despite winning two games this season, is not a good team. At all. The Roadrunners will make the Golden Panthers look like then Wile E. Coyotes in this one.

Fun-Time Stats of the Week

Nick Saban is 15-0 vs. Tennessee.
Mack Brown has won 11 straight Victory Bells over Duke during his two stints at North Carolina.
Oklahoma has won 17 straight games over Kansas but has failed to cover the spread in three of the last four meetings.

The Degenerate Portion of Our Show

Oh god I picked Oklahoma last week to win. OK let’s just get going on this week’s picks. I can’t believe I did that.

Baylor (-3.5) over West Virginia
Coastal Carolina (-12) over Old Dominion
Michigan (-7) over Penn State
Ole Miss (-14.5) over Auburn
Maryland (-11.5) over Indiana
BYU (+1.5) over Arkansas (and the outright victory)
Michigan State (+7.5) over Wisconsin (and the upset!)
Washington (-14) over Arizona
ULM (+17) over South Alabama (but the Jaguars will win a close one)
Kentucky (+4) over Mississippi State (and the win!)
Nebraska (+14) over Purdue (but the Boilermakers will win the game)
North Carolina (-7) over Duke
UNLV (+10) over Air Force (the Falcons will grind this one out but it won’t be easy)

We are finally into true mid-week college football! And this is shaping up to be a monster week, one that could shape the rest of the season. Enjoy the games everyone!

Let’s get ready to FOOTBALLGASMMMMMMMMMM!!! – Week 13 College Football TV Schedule

Posted on November 24, 2021 by guelphbossman

Remember last year’s Thanksgiving, American Style? From a college football perspective it was just….another weekend. Nothing special at all. This year, however, that warm and fuzzy feeling is back. It’s now the final weekend of the college football regular season and starts what is known on this blog as the Footballgasm. Footballgasm is a crazy amount of football over a four-day span. Almost 50 hours of football, college and pro, will be on the airwaves and computer screens starting Thursday just after Noon and going into Sunday just before Midnight. It’s like a college football fan’s Christmas. And it’s back after a one-year hiatus. And while Canadians don’t have Thanksgiving tomorrow, we can still celebrate with Americans by watching copious amounts of football. Hell, even make a turkey if you want.

To embrace this, it’s time to go back to the Footballgasm format. Every game gets its own paragraph. I’m not saying all the games are important but because of the special nature of this time, they all deserve it. Let’s get on with the schedule shall we?

Thursday

#9 Ole Miss at Mississippi State

7:30 PM

Ole Miss has no chance at the College Football Playoff, but they pretty much clinch their New Year’s Six spot if they win the Egg Bowl. The Bulldogs have rebounded well this season and if Leach can keep this team improving, don’t be surprised if next season they are the ones aiming at a NY6 berth.

Friday

Boise State at #21 San Diego State

Noon

An absolutely massive game in the Mountain West and…wait, a 9:00 LOCAL START??? Look, I get that the conference has to do some things they don’t want to do (ugh this is sounding like gross casting couch shit) but this is absurd. I guess the players can watch the sunrise during the warmup. Both teams need wins here. An Aztecs win clinches the division and might hand the Mountain Division to Utah State. A Broncos win gives Fresno State a shot at winning the West Division and puts Boise in a great spot to join them in the Mountain West Championship. A lot at stake.

Ohio at Bowling Green

Noon

This is easy. Both teams aren’t going bowling this season so you can say this is for pride but it may not even be for that. Definitely not a must-watch.

Eastern Michigan at Central Michigan

Noon

I guess if you are big MAC fan this could be fun to watch. Otherwise, the Battle for Directional Michigan is not important in the slightest since both teams are going bowling and with seven wins, neither team is in jeopardy of being left out of the party.

Kansas State at Texas

Noon

Do the Longhorns have a chance to go to a bowl game? Surprisingly yes but they need a couple of things to go their way. First they would need to beat KSU here which is no easy task. Then the Horns have to hope for most of the 5-6 teams trying to become bowl-eligible to lose. This would mean that not enough teams qualify and bowl committees would have to look at some 5-7 teams and their APR scores. This is where Texas would shine. Now, whether they accept an invite or not is a different story. The Wildcats are playing for nothing except destroying the last slim hope that Texas has.

#16 Iowa at Nebraska

2:30 PM

This game means a bit for the Ferentzs since a win here could move them up the rankings enough to get them into a New Year’s Six at-large spot. Other than that, Faux Farmageddon means nothing as the Huskers are just not that good.

#4 Cincinnati at East Carolina

3:30 PM

This is big. The Bearcats have finally got into a spot that many thought no Group of Five team could ever get to: the Top 4. There is one more hurdle before the AAC Championship, however. And the East Carolina Pirates are no pushover as they have won more games this year than in any season since their first season in the American back in 2014. Mike Houston is building something formidable in Greenville and a win here would end Cincy’s chance at glory and be Houston’s signature coaching victory.

Missouri vs. #25 Arkansas (in Little Rock)

3:30 PM

The traditional Mizzou-Hogs Black Friday game again has no real stakes. This is a good thing, though, this time. Both teams are going to bowl games and have two of the most popular coaches in the game at the helm. It is fun football times in CoMo and Fayetteville.

UNLV at Air Force

3:30 PM

UNLV has actually played some inspired football this season. It hasn’t led to many wins but it should give Marcus Arroyo another season as head coach in Vegas. On the other hand, the Falcons have a great 8-3 mark on the season and will want to finish off their season on a high note by beating the Rebels. This would also help their MWC Mountain Division title hopes.

USF at UCF

3:30 PM

Usually the War on I-4 is a big game although lately it has been anything but. As has been the case the past little while, this game means nothing other than the Bulls hoping to pull off an upset of their cross-state rivals.

Colorado at #19 Utah

4:00 PM

The Rocky Mountain Showdown means a whole lot of sweet fuck all this season. Not the greatest choice by FOX but I have a feeling Black Friday was limited with choices anyway.

North Carolina at #20 NC State

7:00 PM

If you had told me in August that this game would mean everything to the Wolfpack and nothing to the Tar Heels I would have laughed at you. But it’s true. NC State still has a chance to win the ACC Atlantic and get to the NY6 whereas UNC is just looking to maybe get a better bowl bid with a seventh win.

Saturday Early

#1 Georgia at Georgia Tech

Noon

There’s a lot of football on this weekend but it is sometimes tough to see games like this, which have very little stakes, on ABC at Noon whereas other games are relegated to worse timeslots or networks. In this one, the Ramblin’ Wreck is trying to figure out if the Geoff Collins Experiment should continue. The Dawgs should win this easily so just have to avoid injuries before the SEC Championship. So yeah, you can probably just scoreboard watch this one to see if UGA covers the spread.

UPDATE: This has been switched to TSN2.

Maryland at Rutgers

Noon

Hey, this game has serious stakes! Winner goes bowling. Loser is home for the holidays. That’s it. I have a feeling this is going to end up being a sneaky good game.

#24 Houston at UConn

Noon

A Houston win actually benefits Cincinnati more than Houston to be honest. UConn is terrible so, yeah, you can probably skip this one.

Florida State at Florida

Noon

Now this is one that no one could have predicted. A Gators-Seminoles game where the stakes are bowl eligibility. For many, including myself, it seems insane. But it’s the facts. I actually agree with TSN picking up this one since this will get a LOT of attention.

UPDATE #2: This has been moved to TSN4. I don’t know the reason for the switch.

#18 Wake Forest at Boston College

Noon

At one point, Wake was the darling of the college football world, even more than Cincinnati I would say. Then the wheels fell off a bit with a non-conference loss to North Carolina (I’m serious) and a loss to Clemson. That loss to the Tigers means they have to win this game against BC to still stamp their ticket to the ACC Championship. A loss and they could be in trouble for that. The Eagles also had a good start to their season but they are limping to the finish line. Already bowl-eligible, this is just to make them look more valuable to bowl committees.

Navy at Temple

Noon

Oof. Pass.

#2 Ohio State at #5 Michigan

Noon

Game of the Week right here. At the very least it’s the Game of the Year in the Big Ten if not all of college football, at least for the regular season. This may end up being Jim Harbaugh’s shining moment. He gets the Wolverines to upset the Buckeyes and he would probably get a lifetime contract and a statue outside Michigan Stadium. tOSU wants to keep erasing the memory of that Oregon loss and winning here puts them one step closer to going back to the CFP. I assume most people will be watching this game and why not? This smells like an instant classic.

Miami at Duke

Noon

And from the previous game we get to this one. Unless Miami pulls of an amazing (albeit controversial) multi-lateral last-second touchdown to beat the Blue Devils, you can avoid watching this game.

Saturday Afternoon

Penn State at #12 Michigan State

3:30 PM

This is actually a pretty big game…for one team. Sparty’s hopes for the College Football Playoff are gone but they still have a chance at the New Year’s Six. It is imperative they look impressive in a win over PSU. The Nittany Lions are only playing for maybe a better bowl game now that their head coach, James Franklin, has received a 10-year contract extension.

Northwestern at Illinois

3:30 PM

Um….this is football, technically. Hopefully the weather turns really bad and the football is sloppy since that would be the only reason I would watch.

#3 Alabama at Auburn

3:30 PM

Bama has seen this story before. An upstart Auburn squad destroying their season in the Iron Bowl. I honestly can’t see it happening here but you never know. If Bo Nix does what Bo Nix has done a couple of times earlier this season, this could get interesting. The Tide need a win here to stay in this #3 spot and set up their CFP opportunity next week in Atlanta.

Western Kentucky at Marshall

3:30 PM

Winner-take-all for the Conference USA East Division. This basically comes down to the prolific WKU offense against Marshall’s stingy defense. Should be a good one.

Oregon State at #11 Oregon

3:30 PM

This is one of the biggest Civil War games ever. The Ducks win and they go to the Pac-12 Championship. The Beavers have to win and then hope Washington beats Wazzu to gobble up the division title. Huge Pac-12 stakes which mean you might want to watch this game.

Virginia Tech at Virginia

3:45 PM

Alright this game means something once again…for one team. The Hokies need a win to become bowl-eligible which would actually be a shock considering how poorly their season has gone. UVA is already going bowling so humiliation is their only goal here.

Vanderbilt at Tennessee

3:45 PM

This game means nothing which seems to be the norm these days in the battle for SEC Tennessee. Vandy is bad but not as bad as they had been the previous few seasons. Tennessee has looked good this season yet is only 6-5 so they would love a win here and then in a bowl game to make Josh Heupel’s first season as head coach of the Vols an unmitigated success.

Tulsa at SMU

4:00 PM

If the Golden Hurricane can pull off the upset here, they would get their sixth win and be able to go to a bowl game. Either way, we can almost guarantee this will be a close game because that’s what Tulsa does…every single time.

ULM at Louisiana

4:00 PM

Louisiana has already clinched the Sun Belt West and ULM is not going bowling. NEXT!

#14 Wisconsin at Minnesota

4:00 PM

Huge game in the suddenly sloppy Big Ten West. Wisky’s path is clear: win and they get a ticket to Indy. The Gophers have a muddier path. They must win here and hope for an Iowa loss AND a Purdue win. Funny how tiebreakers work sometimes.

Saturday Primetime & Late Night

#15 Texas A&M at LSU

7:00 PM

Coach Eaux’s Last Stand. I am sure he wants to get the Tiguhz to a bowl game in his final regular season game as head coach. Especially one in Florida so he can find some hot women on the beach. The Aggies have a really outside shot at the New Year’s Six but would need at least a couple of teams above them in the rankings to lose this week for them to have any chance.

#10 Oklahoma at #7 Oklahoma State

7:30 PM

BEDLAM! It’s the Pokes who already know they are in the Big XII title game which is a bit of a change from the usual. The Sooners will need a win here to qualify. I have to assume that Baylor will beat Texas Tech so an Oklahoma loss here would mean we would have a Big XII Championship without Oklahoma. Good Ol’ JR would be rolling in his grave if he were dead.

#17 Pittsburgh at Syracuse

7:30 PM

Pitt has nothing really to play for since they are already in the ACC Championship. Basically their role should be to make sure Kenny Pickett doesn’t get hurt. The Orange, on the other hand, have everything to play for. At five wins, they know what they have to do against their old Big East rivals. It also could be the difference between Dino Babers keeping his job for 2022 or getting shitcanned.

Kentucky at Louisville

7:30 PM

Honestly, there is no real importance to this game. Both teams are bowl eligible with no hope of getting into a New Year’s Six bowl.

Tulane at Memphis

7:30 PM

Surprisingly, the Tigers need a win here to become bowl-eligible. They’ve had a rough season but should be able to close out the Green Wave to get that all-important sixth win.

#23 Clemson at South Carolina

7:30 PM

If you had told me that these two teams would be on the SEC Network in this final week, I would have laughed. But here we are. This game does mean quite a bit for Clemson since they can still clinch the ACC Atlantic with a win and losses by NC State and Wake Forest. South Carolina’s only goal is to destroy Clemson’s chances.

#6 Notre Dame at Stanford

8:00 PM

This game is all about Notre Dame. They need to win and win big here to keep their faint CFP hopes alive. A big win would also, ironically, help Cincinnati’s CFP hopes.

Nevada at Colorado State

9:00 PM

This game means nothing. Nevada is bowl-eligible. Colorado State is not. It’s the only game starting at this time so if it’s close it may be worth a watch but otherwise, don’t bother.

#13 BYU at USC

10:30 PM

This game has some serious stakes. For the Trojans, they need to win this game to set up an opportunity for bowl-eligibility during conference championship week against Cal. BYU, on the other hand, could crash the New Year’s Six party in a big way with a win here. Moving up even one spot puts them in a great spot for an at-large berth, probably to the Fiesta Bowl.

Wanna bet?

As per usual, no Games of the Week section since I went over every game available up here in the Great White North. There are a few other important games that we won’t get but hey, take it up with TSN, who’s coverage has gone to shit this season. Seriously terrible. And they wonder why people keep cutting cable. Anyway, off to the biggest picks section of the season where I do picks for every damn game above. Oh yeah. Here we go!

Cincinnati over East Carolina

Houston over UConn

Memphis over Tulane

SMU over Tulsa

Temple over Navy (who cares)

Air Force over UNLV

Boise State over San Diego State (upset!)

Nevada over Colorado State

Ohio over Bowling Green

Central Michigan over Eastern Michigan

Notre Dame over Stanford

Oklahoma over Oklahoma State

Texas over Kansas State (slight upset)

Boston College over Wake Forest (upset!)

Clemson over South Carolina

Miami over Duke

North Carolina over NC State (slight upset)

Pittsburgh over Syracuse

Virginia Tech over Virginia (to become bowl-eligible)

Florida over Florida State (close)

Georgia over Georgia Tech

Kentucky over Louisville

Tennessee over Vanderbilt

Alabama over Auburn

Arkansas over Missouri

LSU over Texas A&M (upset to become bowl-eligible)

Ole Miss over Mississippi State

Oregon over Oregon State

USC over BYU (upset)

Utah over Colorado

Louisiana over ULM

Marshall over Western Kentucky

Ohio State over Michigan

Penn State over Michigan State (slight upset)

Rutgers over Maryland

Iowa over Nebraska

Northwestern over Illinois

Wisconsin over Minnesota

Wow, that’s a lot of games. This should be a lot of fun. A great way to end an amazing regular season. Enjoy the games everyone!

SUPER MEGA HYPER OMNI POST! V5.0

Posted on November 23, 2021 by guelphbossman

I’m going to warn you again. This post is stupidly long. So if you are reading this on the toilet, I hope you have a massive shit brewing so you have the time to read it all. I won’t even rate this but it would be an NC-17 post if it had to be rated…which means I just technically rated it. Dammit. Oh well, viewer discretion is advised.

This is the fifth version of this ridiculously long post.

It is going to be different this year without the recap portion. But there will be my Top 25, plus bowl projections, plus conference championship scenarios, PLUS different versions of the playoff. This is going to take forever. I don’t know why I put myself through this to be honest.

Let’s going with the Bossman Top 25 which has obviously had some changes after yet another crazy week.

#1	Georgia
#2	Ohio State
#3	Alabama
#4	Cincinnati
#5	Michigan
#6	Notre Dame
#7	Oklahoma State
#8	Ole Miss
#9	Baylor
#10	Oklahoma
#11	BYU
#12	Utah
#13	UTSA
#14	Oregon
#15	Michigan State
#16	Iowa
#17	Texas A&M
#18	Wisconsin
#19	Houston
#20	Pittsburgh
#21	Louisiana
#22	Wake Forest
#23	NC State
#24	San Diego State
#25	Penn State

Well looky here. Cincinnati finally gets into the Top 4. And they finally figured things out, thrashing SMU in a game they desperately needed to win by a lot. Saying that, it mostly helped that Oregon got destroyed by Utah. And with Notre Dame laying waste to Georgia Tech, the big Bearcat win over the Irish keeps looking really good as we get to the final week of the regular season. The Irish, Wolverines, and Pokes are laying in the weeds, just waiting for the current top teams to lose but I honestly can’t see that happening this coming weekend. What I will be interested in is BYU’s possibility of a New Year’s Six spot. I have them higher than the College Football Playoff rankings but still, they win this coming week and a few other things happen, they could be ranked high enough to make The Committee at least ponder what to do with them.

Now it’s time to get to something I didn’t do last year: conference championship scenarios. Last season was a mess so there was no point in doing it but we are back to mostly normal (at least in the college football world) so it’s time to do these.

The MAC title tilt has one team qualified. Northern Illinois has clinched what turned out to be a very good MAC West divisional race. The MAC East race will end on Saturday. Miami-OH and Kent State face off in a winner-take-all showdown for the right to face the Huskies.

Much like the MAC, Conference USA has one part of their title game set up. In the West, UTSA has clinched the division. As for the East, one final game between Western Kentucky and Marshall for the division.

After not getting a Sun Belt superclash between Louisiana and Coastal Carolina last year, we get it this year…with one exception. Coastal will not be there. Appalachian State and Louisiana have won their respective divisions and will face off, yet again, in the Sun Belt title game, this time in Lafayette.

This is quite interesting. San Diego State has only one loss this year; problem is it’s to the team one game behind them, Fresno State. If the Aztecs take care of business on Black Friday against Boise State, they will host the Mountain West Championship. Before that occurs, Fresno State goes to San Jose to face the Spartans. The Bulldogs lose, SDSU clinches the division. If the Bulldogs win, the Aztecs must win.

In the Mountain Division, it’s even more confusing as there is a current three-way tie between Boise State, Air Force and Utah State. Here’s how this works:

Boise State clinches the division if they beat San Diego State and Air Force loses to UNLV.
Utah State clinches the division if they beat New Mexico and Boise State loses to San Diego State.
Air Force clinches the division if they beat UNLV and Utah State loses to New Mexico.
In the case of a three-way tie, the winner of the division would be, you guessed it, ~~Frank Stallone~~ Air Force.

Alright this is simple. Houston finished the conference schedule undefeated. Cincinnati, if they defeat East Carolina on Friday, will also finish undefeated. They are both locked in to the conference title game. The only thing left to figure out is who hosts. Obviously, it comes down to the Cincy-ECU result.

Utah is in for the ridiculous Friday early evening start time. I wonder if that changes after this season since that is so ridiculous. As for the North, it’s still a bit interesting. Three teams still with a chance to go face the Utes in Santa Clara. Here are the scenarios:

Oregon clinches the division if they beat Oregon State.
Oregon State clinches the division if they beat Oregon and Washington beats Washington State.
Washington State clinches the division if they beat Washington to win the Apple Cup and Oregon State beats Oregon in the Civil War. It would go to tiebreakers. Head-to-head would produce nothing as all three teams would have 1-1 records against the other two. Division record is next, where Wazzu’s 4-1 mark would best Oregon and OSU’s 3-2.

The Cougs going to the Pac-12 Championship would be the cherry on a ridiculous cake after having to fire their coach earlier this season.

Somehow, the ACC Coastal has already been clinched. No chaos! Pittsburgh has already booked their flights to Charlotte. As for the ACC Atlantic, it’s down to three teams: Wake Forest, Clemson and NC State.

Wake Forest has the easiest way. Win over Boston College and they win the division.
NC State has it slightly harder. They need Wake to lose to BC and they need to take care of their own business and beat North Carolina to win the division.
For Clemson to head to Charlotte in a little less than two weeks, they need Wake and NC State to lose. They are done their conference schedule and face South Carolina in their annual rivalry game this weekend.

Oklahoma State is already set to head to JerryWorld. Oklahoma has to beat the Pokes in Bedlam to clinch the other spot. If they lose, and Baylor beats Texas Tech then it will be the Bears facing OSU in the Metroplex.

The winner of the The Game clinches the East Division. In the West, it’s….complicated. Here goes nothing:

Wisconsin beats Minnesota they are in.
Iowa is in if they beat Nebraska and Minnesota defeats Wisconsin.
Minnesota goes to Indianapolis with a win over Wisconsin, an Iowa loss AND a Purdue win in the Old Oaken Bucket over Indiana.

Purdue cannot get in but can play spoiler to help the Gophers get in.

Georgia against Alabama. It’s set.

OK it’s bowl projection time now!

Orange Bowl	CFP Poll #1 vs. CFP Poll #4	Georgia vs. Notre Dame
Cotton Bowl	CFP Poll #2 vs. CFP Poll #3	Ohio State vs. Cincinnati

Oregon is now out and Notre Dame is in. I think with what happens around them, the Irish should clinch the #4 spot which would guarantee the Bearcats the #3 spot. Ohio State needs to beat Michigan or else The Committee will have a much tougher time with this.

Alright let’s see how the New Year’s Six has changed.

Sugar Bowl	SEC #1 vs. Big XII #1	Alabama vs Oklahoma State
Rose Bowl	Big Ten #1 vs. Pac-12 #1	Michigan vs. Oregon
Fiesta Bowl	CFP At-Large vs. CFP At-Large/G-5 #1	Oklahoma vs. Michigan State
Peach Bowl	CFP At-Large vs. CFP At-Large/G-5 #1	Pittsburgh vs. Ole Miss

Definitely some changes in the past couple weeks. I already mentioned Oregon being out after their loss to Utah but I think they avenge it in the Pac-12 Championship after winning the Civil War. I don’t think Wake Forest will get to the ACC Championship and then Pitt would beat Clemson to get to the Peach Bowl. Oklahoma has struggled as of late but even losing the Big XII title game won’t drop them below the NY6. I’m sure The Committee wants to avoid putting BYU in until they are actually in the Big XII so Michigan State will get the nod there. I believe Ole Miss wipes the floor with Mississippi State to win the Egg Bowl and also grab an at-large spot.

Now the rest of Bowl SZN. I’m sure this won’t be correct by the end of Black Friday.

Texas Bowl	SEC vs. Big XII	Auburn vs. Baylor
Citrus Bowl	SEC vs. Big Ten	Kentucky vs. Wisconsin
Outback Bowl	SEC vs. Big Ten	Tennessee vs. Iowa
Arizona Bowl	MWC vs. MAC	Nevada vs. Central Michigan
Sun Bowl	ACC vs. Pac-12	Louisville vs. Washington State
Gator Bowl	SEC vs. ACC	Texas A&M vs. Clemson
Las Vegas Bowl	Big Ten vs. Pac-12	Penn State vs. Arizona State
Music City Bowl	SEC vs. Big Ten	Arkansas vs. Purdue
Duke’s Mayo Bowl	SEC vs. ACC	South Carolina vs. Wake Forest
Alamo Bowl	Big XII vs. Pac-12	Iowa State vs. Utah
Cheez-It Bowl	Big XII vs. ACC	Texas Tech vs. Virginia
Pinstripe Bowl	Big Ten vs. ACC	Minnesota vs. Miami
Fenway Bowl	ACC/C-USA vs. American	Boston College vs. East Carolina
Guaranteed Rate Bowl	Big Ten vs. Big XII	Florida* vs. Texas**
Holiday Bowl	ACC vs. Pac-12	NC State vs. Oregon State
Liberty Bowl	SEC vs. Big XII	Missouri vs. Kansas State
First Responder Bowl	2 from Big XII, ACC, Pac-12, American	USC vs. Memphis
Birmingham Bowl	SEC vs. American	Mississippi State vs. Houston
Military Bowl	ACC vs. American	Virginia Tech vs. UCF
Quick Lane Bowl	Big Ten vs. MAC	Rutgers vs. Kent State
Camellia Bowl	Sun Belt/C-USA vs. MAC	Coastal Carolina vs. Northern Illinois
Hawaii Bowl	American vs. MWC	SMU vs. Air Force
Gasparilla Bowl	2 from SEC, ACC, Pac-12, American	LSU vs. North Carolina
Armed Forces Bowl	2 from Big XII, Pac-12, C-USA, Army	Army vs. Florida Atlantic
Frisco Bowl	2 from Group of Five	Fresno State vs. UAB
Idaho Potato Bowl	MWC vs. MAC	Boise State vs. Western Michigan
Myrtle Beach Bowl	American/MAC/G-5 vs. Sun Belt	Miami-OH vs. Appalachian State
New Orleans Bowl	Sun Belt vs. C-USA	Louisiana vs. UTSA
LA Bowl	Pac-12 vs. MWC	UCLA vs. San Diego State
LendingTree Bowl	Sun Belt vs. MAC	Georgia State vs. Eastern Michigan
Independence Bowl	BYU vs. C-USA	BYU vs. Marshall
New Mexico Bowl	MWC vs. C-USA	Utah State vs. UTEP
Boca Raton Bowl	2 from Group of Five	Liberty vs. San Jose State
Cure Bowl	2 from Group of Five	Wyoming vs. Ball State
Bahamas Bowl	C-USA vs. MAC	Western Kentucky vs. Toledo

A few notes after that deluge of information:

BYU is already locked in to the Independence Bowl but Army has a few options. The Armed Forces Bowl seems the most likely place for them.
I like the fact some of the ESPN Events bowl games have looser tie-ins. Putting all the G5 teams in a bowl tie-in makes for easier placement.
You will notice Florida has an asterisk (*) beside it. They are filling in at the Guaranteed Rate Bowl because the Big Ten will not have enough bowl-eligible teams to fill this slot.
Texas has two asterisks (**) beside its name. I have it that the bowl games will be one team short of fulfilling all the bowl slots. So a 5-7 team would have to fill in. I am assuming Texas would have as good a shot as any program because it is based on APR score (Academic Progress Rate) and last time I checked, UT-Austin is a really good school.

I am assuming a bit more will be known after this week’s games. I’m just glad that all the bowl games are back after last year with the pandemic cancelling about half of them. It’s a mess we don’t need to see repeated.

And now the final part of this hilariously long post that has drained me of my mental energy. It’s time to look at what various different playoff scenarios would look like. I will use the current AP Poll rankings since the CFP ones won’t be out until tonight.

The six-team CFP

I used to advocate for one extra team to be including in the CFP to bring it to five teams. That definitely won’t happen so I will look at what adding two teams does to this. Let’s go:

Rose Bowl: #4 Cincinnati vs. #5 Notre Dame
Sugar Bowl: #3 Alabama vs. #6 Michigan
Orange Bowl: #1 Georgia vs. lower-ranked winner from play-in weekend
Cotton Bowl: #2 Ohio State vs. higher-ranked winner from play-in weekend

Since this solely based on current AP rankings, it would have Cincy facing the Fighting Irish in a rematch. I doubt that would happen in reality but we are going to go with it here. I’m sure the Rose Bowl would be adamant about their bowl game staying with their current New Year’s Day timeslot so this would extend the season out to Monday January 17th which is seriously late but I think we are approaching that anyway with an expanded playoff.

The eight-team CFP

Orange Bowl: #1 Georgia vs. #8 Ole Miss
Sugar Bowl: #2 Ohio State vs. #7 Oklahoma State
Cotton Bowl: #3 Alabama vs. #6 Michigan
Rose Bowl: #4 Cincinnati vs. #5 Notre Dame

Now we got eight teams which seems to be a popular idea out there. Here’s the thing: I am not including all Power Five conference champions. That is fucking absurd with only eight teams.

This would mean some teams might play four postseason games if you include the conference championship games. Would this be smart? I don’t know but it feels like the wave of the future. I guess the powers that be think that now that students get NIL money they can surely play an extra game or two.

The twelve-team CFP

Oh boy. I think this is where we are headed so let’s dive in!

Las Vegas Bowl: #7 Oklahoma State vs. #9 Baylor
Citrus Bowl: #6 Michigan vs. #11 Oregon
Peach Bowl: #8 Ole Miss vs. #10 Oklahoma
Fiesta Bowl: #5 Notre Dame vs. #20 Pittsburgh
Orange Bowl: #1 Georgia vs. Ole Miss/Oklahoma winner
Cotton Bowl: #4 Cincinnati vs. Notre Dame/Pitt winner
Sugar Bowl: #3 Alabama vs. Michigan/Oregon winner
Rose Bowl: #2 Ohio State vs. Oklahoma St./Baylor winner

I can’t make Oklahoma State and Oklahoma play three weeks in a row. That would be completely ridiculous. Now with this setup, all Power Five conference champions get in. Pitt is the best ACC team right now. Sad, but true. So they get in over current #12 Michigan State. The brackets would have to be set up beforehand because I can’t see how they could re-seed teams after the first round. Also, I am assuming they would use bowl games for the playoffs so that is why I included the Citrus Bowl (I’m sure it was between them and the Peach when originally coming up with the New Year’s Six) and the Las Vegas Bowl (because they would want a splashy bowl in a brand-new stadium). This wouldn’t be bad but I wonder if it would feel like overload.

G-5 Playoffs

Let’s go back to an idea that has been brought up before. One that would see the Group of Five run their own eight-team playoff. The quarter-finals would look like this:

Cincinnati vs. Air Force
BYU vs. Appalachian State
UTSA vs. Louisiana
Houston vs. San Diego State

I would love to watch this. Imagine these four games being on in one day? Cincinnati at Noon, Houston at 3:30, UTSA at 7:00, BYU finishes off the day at 10:30. Brilliant.

Poll-and-Bowl

Let’s go back to the 80s and early 90s shall we? A simpler time…ok maybe not simpler overall, but in terms of how teams were picked for bowl games it was. No committees. Just teams go to the bowls they are tied in to based on their conference. Let’s look what the top teams would do in these case. I’ve had to take some liberty with some of the bowl games:

Orange Bowl (ACC champ vs. SEC #2): #5 Notre Dame vs. #3 Alabama
Cotton Bowl (Big XII #2 vs. Pac-12 #2): #9 Baylor vs. #16 Utah
Sugar Bowl (SEC champ vs. Big XII champ): #1 Georgia vs. #7 Oklahoma State
Rose Bowl (Big Ten champ vs. Pac-12 champ): #2 Ohio State vs. #11 Oregon
Peach Bowl (Big Ten #2 vs. ACC #2): #6 Michigan vs. #20 Pittsburgh
Fiesta Bowl (Big XII #3 vs. ACC #3): #10 Oklahoma vs. #13 BYU
Citrus Bowl (SEC #3 vs. Big Ten #3): #8 Ole Miss vs. #12 Michigan State
Las Vegas Bowl (Pac-12 #3 vs. G-5 #1): Oregon State vs. #4 Cincinnati

The one caveat here is that Independent teams like Notre Dame can be slotted anywhere. It’s only fair. That’s why I put the Irish in the Orange Bowl. Would this give us some lopsided bowl matchups? Absolutely. Teams like Texas A&M, UTSA, Iowa and Wisconsin would be left out in the cold (kind of) for a team like Pitt or Oregon State. Wow, the ACC really sucks this season (and the Pac-12 isn’t a whole lot better). So in this scenario, it really comes down to three games: the Orange, Sugar and Rose Bowls. Georgia wins they probably are voted champs unless they win close and Ohio State wins big. Now if both Georgia and Ohio State lose, it’s up for grabs to the Irish and Tide. Interesting. Would it work? Who the hell knows.

OK I’ve had enough. I can’t do anymore. I’m worded out (is that even a thing). More posts later this week. Footballgasm is upon us. Oh, wait, one more thing: MACtion tomorrow night! Western Michigan and Northern Illinois will be on the specialty pack. Buffalo-Ball State is on ESPN+ and not available to us Canadians. Have a great week everyone!

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

Posted on September 27, 2021 by guelphbossman

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

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

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

Week 4 Recap Time!

Fresno State 38 UNLV 30

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

Oregon 41 Arizona 19

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

Oklahoma 16 West Virginia 13

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

Oregon State 45 USC 27

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

Louisville 31 Florida State 23

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

Washington 31 California 24 (OT)

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

Arkansas 20 Texas A&M 10

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

NC State 27 Clemson 21 (2OT)

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

Baylor 31 Iowa State 29

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

BYU 35 USF 27

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

Bowling Green 14 Minnesota 10

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

Arizona State 35 Colorado 13

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

UTSA 31 Memphis 28

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

Notre Dame 41 Wisconsin 13

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

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

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

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

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

I guess now we begin – Week 8 College Football TV Schedule

Posted on October 22, 2020 by guelphbossman

The Big Ten and Mountain West start playing football this weekend. There is already a cancellation as New Mexico and Colorado State will not play this weekend. Other than though it is full steam ahead as almost every team is in play now. It’s two weeks until the Pac-12 and MAC finally commence but who knows if they will have a legitimate shot at the College Football Playoff or New Year’s Six, respectively. My best guess right now is no but this has been a wonky season so far so who the hell knows. I am sure ESPN will go all-out to promote the Big Ten’s return. FOX as well since they have some pretty huge games in the B1G the rest of the season. It will get nauseating pretty quickly, I’m sure.

Anywho, I got nothing else so let’s get to the sked shall we?

Thursday

		US	Canada
Arkansas State at Appalachian State	7:30 PM

One game. But it could be considered a pretty big Sun Belt game. Most people are probably going to watch the Thursday Night Football matchup since the World Series will be on a break. Let’s look at this one this way though: whichever team loses will give their respective division leaders another leg up. A Red Wolves loss helps Louisiana and a Mountaineers loss will assist Coastal Carolina in their shocking 2020 campaign.

Friday

		US	Canada
Tulsa at USF	7:30 PM
Illinois at #14 Wisconsin	8:00 PM
Louisiana at UAB	8:00 PM

CBS Sports Network probably has the biggest game of the night. I know the Big Ten is starting this night but the winner of ULL-UAB probably moves into the Top 25 and may still have an outside shot at a NY6 spot. Funny enough, ESPN has the worst game of the night. Doesn’t happen often.

Saturday Early

		US	Canada
Oklahoma at TCU	Noon
Syracuse at #1 Clemson	Noon
Rutgers at Michigan State	Noon
Mercer at Army	Noon
#23 NC State at #14 North Carolina	Noon
Nebraska at #5 Ohio State	Noon
Auburn at Ole Miss	Noon
Tulane at UCF	2:00 PM

It’s an alright start to the day I guess. Not as great as last week but still good. Problem is it’s a few cases of a good, ranked team playing a not-so-good unranked team. Also, if you are a masochist, you can immerse yourself in Rutgers Scarlet Knights football.

And yes, that is not a typo. ESPN2 has a game on at 2 in the afternoon. Why is this happening? Because UFC 254’s preliminary matches are on ESPN2 starting at Noon. Yes, Noon. Because they are in Dubai and they finally decided to stop making the fighters fight locally in the morning, which is completely stupid. So yeah, the PPV itself starts at 2:00 so that’s when ESPN2 gets to start airing college football.

Saturday Afternoon

		US	Canada
#3 Notre Dame at Pittsburgh	3:30 PM
Iowa at Purdue	3:30 PM
#2 Alabama at Tennessee	3:30 PM
Houston at Navy	3:30 PM
Baylor at Texas	3:30 PM
#17 Iowa State at #6 Oklahoma State	3:30 PM
#8 Penn State at Indiana	3:30 PM
West Virginia at Texas Tech	5:30 PM

Some pretty good games here. OK more like one great game and a bunch of good ones. ISU-OSU could end up being massive in the Big XII scheme of things (and pretty much put the nail in the coffin for the conference if the Cowboys lose). Notre Dame has a bit of a landmine game as they head to Pittsburgh to play the Panthers. Oh and Penn State is in tough to start their season as they face the Hoosiers. And you can see that TSN2 is going with an all-ESPN quadrupleheader this weekend. Smart on their part. It always makes me wonder why they don’t do that every weekend they can.

Saturday Primetime

		US	Canada
Wyoming at Nevada	7:00 PM
South Carolina at LSU	7:00 PM
#18 Michigan at #21 Minnesota	7:30 PM
Maryland at Northwestern	7:30 PM

Again, I am not showing any possible specialty pack games since I haven’t seen anything to the contrary. It’s sad since at this point of the season they would be clocking in with about 12-18 games every week. That’s a lot of games that now we won’t be able to see with a normal cable subscription. Anyway, the Michigan-Minnesota game is huge and could make my predictions about Michigan look terrible if the Wolverines pull off the win. It’s a small amount of games for this timeslot though which is odd as we are not quite into a full college football schedule yet.

Saturday Late Night

		US	Canada
#9 Cincinnati at #16 SMU	9:00 PM
Texas State at #12 BYU	10:15 PM
UNLV at San Diego State	10:30 PM

The back third of the weird 2/5:30/9 ESPN2 tripleheader has one of the biggest games of the day with Cincinnati and SMU possibly battling for one of the spots in the AAC Championship. We finally see some Mountain West games which feels so right. And BYU looks to continue to run the table as they should beat TSU but they need to win big to keep themselves in the minds of The Committee.

Games to set your eyeballs on

Iowa State at Oklahoma State (3:30, FOX) – Another team that no one thought would be in the Top 10 (and probably shouldn’t be). People just love Mike “The Mullet” Gundy. And he finally has the team, shockingly enough, that will make a great run at a potential Big XII Championship. Chuba Hubbard really hasn’t even begun his Heisman campaign yet. They haven’t had the crazy offense yet that everyone thinks they will see. Gundy has done a great job with this team. As for ISU, Matt Campbell has also done a great job and don’t be surprised if these two teams meet yet again in the least-watched Big XII Championship ever at JerryWorld.

Cincinnati at SMU (9:00, ESPN2) – Did anyone think the freakin’ SMU Mustangs would be undefeated at this point, AGAIN? Honestly I am surprised it didn’t somehow get an ABC timeslot because I know Disney likes to put the huge American conference games on there. But the Big Ten’s return was going to overshadow everything but I, Bossman, am not falling for that! Cincinnati is ranked #9 for God’s sake and SMU is #16 and this, as of right now, is the first New Year’s Six elimination game (barring future chaos). Too bad it’s not being shown in Canada.

Michigan at Minnesota (7:30, ABC) – Big Blue vs. Row The Boat. This is the Wolverines’ chance to start yet another year as a College Football Playoff contender. But we know that playing Minnesota, at night, in the cold, in front of the rabid Gopher fans is quickly becoming one of the toughest playing atmospheres in college football. This will feel great just because it truly signifies the Big Ten’s return to playing football.

NC State at North Carolina (Noon, TSN2) – Who thought the Wolfpack would be in the Top 25 at any point this season? Now put down your hands, you dirty liars. Could Dave Doeren finally break through with the amazing campaign that fans in Raleigh have been waiting for since he was hired? As for North Carolina, who knows how they are feeling after last week’s upset loss to Florida State. Mack Brown should have these guys ready as this is the biggest battle in the state in recent memory.

Penn State at Indiana (3:30, FOX Sports One) – Huge game for FOX Sports One since FOX just had to grab Nebraska-tOSU for Big Nude Saturday. Anyway, the loser here is probably already out of the Big Ten East race. I know it’s the first game for both teams this season and it sounds harsh but it is what it is. Don’t be surprised if the Hoosiers can pull off the upset.

Honourable mention: Georgia Southern at Coastal Carolina (Noon, ESPNU); Louisiana at UAB (Friday, 8:00, CBS Sports Network); Florida Atlantic at Marshall (2:30, Stadium)

Some gambling fun and games

I have no shame in saying I was wrong in some of my picks last week. Honestly, I never have shame for that. Here’s this week picks:

North Carolina over NC State

Louisiana over UAB

SMU over Cincinnati (mild upset)

Marshall over Florida Atlantic

Oklahoma State over Iowa State

Georgia Southern over Coastal Carolina (another mild upset)

Minnesota over Michigan (mild upset?)

Penn State over Indiana

San Diego State over UNLV

Northwestern over Maryland

Navy over Houston

Sorry for it being late this week. What a day this has been for me. Let’s just say I was busier than I thought I would be.

Tonight’s Thursday Night Football is a shitshow game. It’s the Eagles hosting the Giants. Winner will have two wins on the season and be only a half-game behind the Dallas Cowboys. God the NFC East is a fucking joke this season.

So we shall see how my viewing goes this weekend. Should be pretty open for me to be on Twitter and be a general jackass. Have a great weekend everyone!

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

Posted on May 24, 2020 by guelphbossman

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Week 1

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Week 2

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Week 3

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Posted on January 15, 2020 by guelphbossman

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

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

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

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

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

Bossman's Blog

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

Tag Archives: Gophers

Injuries, Injuries, Injuries…and the Week 7 College Football TV Schedule

Wednesday

Thursday

Friday

Saturday Early

Saturday Afternoon

Saturday Primetime

Saturday Late Night

I guess now we begin – Week 8 College Football TV Schedule

Thursday

Friday

Saturday Early

Saturday Afternoon

Saturday Primetime

Saturday Late Night

Thursday

Friday

Saturday Early

Saturday Afternoon

Saturday Primetime

Saturday Late Night

Sunday

Monday

Hey, Watch This!

Sickos Game of the Week

Wanna Bet?

Wednesday

Thursday

Friday

Saturday Early

Saturday Afternoon

Saturday Primetime

Saturday Late Night

Thursday​

Friday​​

Saturday Early

Saturday Afternoon

Saturday Primetime & Late Night​

Thursday

Friday​

Saturday Early

Saturday Afternoon

Saturday Primetime​​

Saturday Late Night

Thursday

Friday

Saturday Primetime & Late Night

Friday

Saturday Primetime