Thanksgiving. Footballgasm. Let’s Do This!

The 2023 version of Footballgasm has arrived! Get ready for an absolute fuck-ton of college football and NFL football from Thursday through to Monday night. Why does this happen? Americans need something to do while they let all that food settle in their stomachs. I mean our Thanksgiving comes first and is pretty good but we really missed the mark. Take out green bean casserole and there’s very little to dislike about American Thanksgiving.

Alright time to unleash the college football schedule for this week, the final week of the regular season. This is done in traditional Bossman’s Blog American Thanksgiving style. Every game is listed. Some are not important. Some are very important. But every game gets their own section. College football deserves it (for the most part).

Tuesday

Bowling Green (-1.5) at Western Michigan

7:00

Does this mean anything? No. But it’s the final night of MACtion so enjoy it. Predicted score: Western Michigan 27 Bowling Green 24.

Eastern Michigan (+6.5) at Buffalo

7:30

Now this game is more important…well, at least for one team. The Eagles can become bowl eligible with a win here. The Bulls are just here to try and play spoiler. Predicted score: Buffalo 31 Eastern Michigan 21.

Thursday

#12 Ole Miss (-11) at Mississippi State

7:30

The Rebels are juuuuuuuuuuuust on the outside looking in at the New Year’s Six. Could they leapfrog Missouri or Penn State without those two teams losing? It’s doubtful but they could strengthen their case by putting a beating on Mississippi State. Predicted score: Ole Miss 34 Mississippi State 30.

Friday

Miami (-9) at Boston College

Noon

Miami destroyed any chance of doing anything this season, mostly with piss-poor coaching (although Tyler Van Dyke seriously regressed this season). The Eagles on the other hand, they played much better than expected and Jeff Hafley has saved his job. Predicted score: Miami 38 Boston College 15.

#17 Iowa (+2) at Nebraska

Noon

Big game here for the Huskers. Win and they are bowl-eligible in Matt Rhule’s first season in Lincoln. Maybe, just maybe, the sun is finally shining on Huskerland for the first time in quite a few years. To do that, though, they will have to upset the Hawkeyes who have defied every odd and probably some theories of offensive football to become Big Ten West champs. Take the under (even though the over/under is a record-low 26.5). Predicted score: Iowa 14 Nebraska 7.

Ohio (-14) at Akron

Noon

Ohio can win their ninth game of the season which is pretty impressive. Unfortunately, it won’t be enough to win the division. Akron is hoping to stay out of double digits in the loss column. Predicted score: Ohio 30 Akron 10.

Memphis (-11.5) at Temple

Noon

Memphis lost their shot at a potential American Conference championship spot last weekend. So really, this means nothing. Predicted score: Memphis 31 Temple 7.

Toledo (-10.5) at Central Michigan

Noon

The Rockets will need a win and a lot of help to somehow sneak into the New Year’s Six. The Chips are trying to get to their sixth win. Actually, quite a bit at stake here. Predicted score: Toledo 34 Central Michigan 16.

TCU (+10) at #13 Oklahoma

Noon

Huge game here for the Sooners. An Oklahoma win and they still have a shot at going to JerryWorld one last time, much to the chagrin of the rest of the Big XII members. TCU isn’t going to lie down for them, though. They have to win to go bowling. Predicted score: TCU 38 Oklahoma 26.

UTSA (+3) at #23 Tulane

3:30

Tulane gets to eleven wins with a win here. More importantly, a win here puts them in the AAC Championship game and makes them the favourite to go back to the New Year’s Six. I am honestly shocked that no team has taken a flyer on Willie Fritz, despite his age. A Roadrunners win doesn’t eliminate the Green Wave either although they would need some help from Navy. A UTSA win would put them in the conference championship and would finish one of the best conference moves (outside the Sun Belt) in recent memory. Predicted score: Tulane 29 UTSA 24.

Utah State (-7.5) at New Mexico

3:30

The Aggies go bowling if they beat the Lobos. A UNM win would put them at five for the season which, honestly, would probably save Danny Gonzales’ job and constitute one of their better seasons in a long time. Predicted score: Utah State 49 New Mexico 31.

#9 Missouri (-7.5) at Arkansas

4:00

Mizzou locks themselves into the New Year’s Six if they can defeat the lowly Hogs. Sam Pittman has already been retained for next year so no surprise shitcanning in Fayetteville like Bret Bielema got a few years back. Predicted score: Missouri 33 Arkansas 14.

Texas Tech (+13) at #7 Texas

7:30

A massive game for the Longhorns. There is honestly so much on the line here. The most important being a spot in the final four-team College Football Playoff. It’s within their grasp but they have to stop allowing teams to stick around in games. The Red Raiders, on the other hand, are playing for one thing since they are already bowl eligible: spoiling the Horns’ entire season. Predicted score: Texas 31 Texas Tech 17.

#11 Penn State (-21) vs. Michigan State (in Detroit)

7:30

Do the Nittany Lions deserve to be in a New Year’s Six bowl? It’s debatable but at this point, a win probably clinches a spot unless Ole Miss goes nuts on Mississippi State the night before. The Spartans just want to end one of the most miserable seasons in their program’s history, on and off the field. Predicted score: Penn State 49 Michigan State 28.

#16 Oregon State (+13.5) at #6 Oregon

8:30

The Ducks want a rematch with Washington for the Pac-12 Championship. The Beavers just want to spoil Oregon’s season as all teams do in rivalry games. Predicted score: Oregon 44 Oregon State 29.

Saturday Early

Kentucky (+7) at #10 Louisville

Noon

Louisville needs a win to keep their slim CFP hopes alive. That alone will make this game interesting. Kentucky has no stakes other than maybe trying not to lose too badly so that Mark Stoops can be guaranteed for 2024. Predicted score: Louisville 31 Kentucky 10.

Pittsburgh (+6) at Duke

Noon

Duke is already going bowling and are middle of the ACC standings. Pitt is pretty awful (other than playing lights out against Louisville) and are looking forward to the offseason. A lot of better options in this window. Predicted score: Duke 20 Pittsburgh 7.

Indiana (+3) at Purdue

Noon

The Old Oaken Bucket. Even with this being a rivalry game, it’s really not worth watching. Predicted score: Purdue 32 Indiana 13.

Miami-OH (-6.5) at Ball State

Noon

Redhawks are in. Cardinals are out. Let’s see if Mike Neu finally gets the axe like I’ve predicted for a few seasons now. Predicted score: Miami-OH 30 Ball State 28.

Texas A&M (+10.5) at #14 LSU

Noon

For two good teams (OK one quite good team and one OK team), this game does not mean a whole lot. The Aggies are bowling and playing under an interim coach. LSU would need a damn miracle to get into the New Year’s Six so should start packing for a Florida bowl game. Predicted score: LSU 45 Texas A&M 31.

Navy (+20) at SMU

Noon

Now with TSN pushing a lot to TSN+, games like this will almost never make it to the regular TSN channels again which sucks for people who don’t subscribe. It feels like it has finally come to the point where you have to either get one off the specialty packs, get TSN+ or go the IPTV route to see as much college football as you want as a Canadian. Anyway, Navy has two shots to go bowling and would like to close that out here. The Mustangs are in the American Championship with a win in Big D. Predicted score: SMU 48 Navy 20.

Troy (-17) at Southern Miss

Noon

Troy has no shot at the New Year’s Six and is already hosting the Sun Belt Championship. Southern Miss is home for the holidays. Meh. Predicted score: Troy 23 Southern Miss 8.

#2 Ohio State (+3.5) at #3 Michigan

Noon

Another huge version of The Game. Not a total surprise. The winner is in the Big Ten Championship and all but guarantees a spot in the playoff. And just like last year, the loser isn’t out with a loss depending on what happens on conference championship weekend. If GUS JOHNSON would ever pass out from lack of oxygen, this would be the game he would do it in. Predicted score: Michigan 28 Ohio State 24.

Saturday Afternoon

Wake Forest (+3) at Syracuse

2:00

The two worst teams in the ACC but it’s still important for one team. The Orange need a win here to somehow become bowl eligible. Wake would be just outside at five wins if they win here and could nab a spot due to their great APR score if it comes down to that. Predicted score: Syracuse 35 Wake Forest 15.

Southern vs. Grambling (in New Orleans)

2:00

Prairie View A&M has already clinched the SWAC West so this means nothing for either team other than bragging rights: both for the football teams and the bands. Predicted score: Southern 23 Grambling 18.

Colorado (+22) at Utah

3:00

Utah has been very good considering the sheer amount of injuries that team sustained. The Buffaloes season finally ends after the most hype ever given to a one-win team before the season began (and well into the season as well). Predicted score: Utah 39 Colorado 17.

BYU (+17.5) at #20 Oklahoma State

3:30

BYU needs to win here to be in a bowl game. It would be a pretty big upset if they did, but hey, crazier things have happened. The Pokes are holding on to an outside shot at the Big XII Championship. They need to win and have a few other things go their way but again, it’s not impossible. Predicted score: BYU 49 Oklahoma State 31.

Virginia Tech (-3) at Virginia

3:30

Last year’s Commonwealth Cup was cancelled after the murders of three Virginia players. Just having this game will bring back quite a few emotions I’m sure for the Cavs. For the Hokies, they can do the improbable and become bowl eligible if they beat their rivals. Predicted score: Virginia 40 Virginia Tech 35.

Northwestern (+6) at Illinois

3:30

If you had told me at the start of the season that this game would have Northwestern already going bowling and the Illini fighting for their bowl lives, I would have thought you had just went to a cannabis shop for the first time in your life and ate a few too many edibles. But here we are. The Wildcats have been amazing considering their offseason. David Braun has done a masterful job in Evanston. Bret Bielema on the other hand is still at the helm of a struggling Illini team. He will make it to 2024 but a loss here will put him on a much shorter leash. Predicted score: Illinois 31 Northwestern 23.

Maryland (-1.5) at Rutgers

3:30

I have this game showing in most homes in this area. I have no idea what will happen. Hell, I have Big Ten Network and three alternate BTNs and even then, one game usually gets left out for everyone. Why do they do this when they honestly don’t have to? Anyway, both teams are going bowling so are looking for momentum heading into the postseason and nothing else. Predicted score: Maryland 20 Rutgers 17.

#8 Alabama (-14.5) at Auburn

3:30

How close can the Tigers keep this game? The spread honestly seems way too low. Don’t even bother talking about an upset. Kind of a dud for the final SEC on CBS regular season game if you ask me. Now watch it be close deep into the fourth quarter. Predicted score: Alabama 41 Auburn 21.

#25 Liberty (-17) at UTEP

3:30

In what is feeling like a broken record, here’s another game that means very little. Sure, the Flames can finish an undefeated season with a win over the terrible Miners. Problem is they need quite a bit of help to get that coveted NY6 spot. I just can’t see it happening. Predicted score: Liberty 38 UTEP 20.

#15 Arizona (-11.5) at Arizona State

3:30

ASU is already home for the Christmas holidays. The Wildcats have to win here and hope Oregon has already lost the Civil War. So we will know going in whether this game means anything or not. Predicted score: Arizona 23 Arizona State 13.

James Madison (-9) at Coastal Carolina

3:30

Big game in the Sun Belt and unfortunately only for one team. The Dukes are almost guaranteed a bowl slot after all the bowl eligible teams get their spots. For the Chants, because of JMU’s ineligibility for the Sun Belt title, they win this and they will face Troy for the Sun Belt Championship. Predicted score: James Madison 42 Coastal Carolina 24.

Georgia Southern (+8.5) at Appalachian State

3:30

The Mountaineers will be scoreboard-watching and trying to pay attention to the task at hand. Not easy for sure. If CCU can’t beat JMU then App State, with a win, will head to Troy and face the Trojans as the champions of the Sun Belt East. Predicted score: Appalachian State 26 Georgia Southern 10.

Vanderbilt (+27) at #21 Tennessee

3:30

This would have been at least a bit more humourous being played at Vanderbilt’s stadium with their ongoing construction issues. Predicted score: Tennessee 49 Vanderbilt 21.

Washington State (+16.5) at #4 Washington

4:00

The Apple Cup continues to produce high drama. The Huskies’ dream season could come crashing down if they get upset by the Cougs. Wazzu has to win to become bowl-eligible. This should nab a lot of viewers until it gets out of hand. Predicted score: Washington 52 Washington State 17.

Saturday Primetime

#5 Florida State (-6.5) at Florida

7:00

If this had been discussed a week ago the spread might have been over 20 points. Instead, we will find out if the Noles can continue their success without Jordan Travis. The Gators could do the improbable by going bowling with a win here. Predicted score: Florida State 36 Florida 27.

South Alabama (-6) at Texas State

7:00

Two teams that are already bowl-eligible here. Good for them but it means that the NFL Network’s final game of the year will not get a whole lot of viewers. Predicted score: South Alabama 20 Texas State 14.

#18 Notre Dame (-26) at Stanford

7:00

I’m sorry but this is fucking hilarious. The final Pac-12 Network football game ever and it will feature Notre Dame. NOTRE DAME. Irish fans are going to be so damn pissed off trying to find a way to watch this. That alone makes this fun. Not quite worth watching a lot of but still, you’ll be seeing history at the end as the worst conference network closes its football doors for good. Predicted score: Notre Dame 42 Stanford 32.

#1 Georgia (-24) at Georgia Tech

7:30

A little Clean, Old-Fashioned Hate. I love some of the names of these rivalries. There might be a bit of intrigue to see if UGA can cap off another undefeated regular season but other than that, you can avoid this one. Predicted score: Georgia 34 Georgia Tech 10.

Kansas (-6) at Cincinnati

7:30

Kansas is pretty good again this season. It’s nice to see. Cincinnati, on the other hand, may be regretting the Scott Satterfield hire although he deserves another season to see how they can truly compete in the Big XII. Predicted score: Kansas 28 Cincinnati 14.

Charlotte (+5.5) at USF

7:30

Speaking of teams playing much better than most thought they would, the Bulls are one win away from going bowling. They showed a lot in the near-upset of Alabama back in September and have scratched and clawed their way to this point. The only thing standing in their way? The bare arms of Biff Poggi and his Charlotte 49ers. Might not be as easy as USF thinks it should be. Predicted score: USF 31 Charlotte 30.

#24 Clemson (-7) at South Carolina

7:30

Gotta give Dabo Swinney from credit for turning around the team after that poor start. Either that or we give all the praise to Tyler from Spartanburg for lighting a fire under the Tigers. Either way, they come into this game as actually one of the hottest teams in the country. And they could actually make their season for a lot of fans by ruining South Carolina’s. The Gamecocks need the win to be bowl eligible. I don’t think this will be as feisty as their brawl-filled game many years ago but I could see it getting chippy. Predicted score: Clemson 41 South Carolina 24.

North Carolina (-3) at #22 NC State

8:00

North Carolina was supposed to be one of the teams to go to the ACC Championship this year. NC State was supposed to be fighting for a .500 record. Instead, they both come in at 8-3 with maybe something other than bragging rights on the line. Let’s be honest: teams would much rather go to a Florida destination than the Sun Bowl or Military Bowl. Predicted score: North Carolina 28 NC State 27.

Iowa State (+10) at #19 Kansas State

8:00

By this point, we will know if the Wildcats have any shot at the Big XII Championship. Other than that, neither team has anything to play for other than to win…FARMAGEDDON. Predicted score: Kansas State 50 Iowa State 34.

Saturday Late Night

Wyoming (-11) at Nevada

9:00

Yes, the odd CBS Sports Network Thanksgiving Saturday timeslot is back again. At least they do their best to cram in as much live sports as humanly possible into this day. Predicted score: Wyoming 35 Nevada 27.

California (+9.5) at UCLA

10:30

It’s really hit or miss with this final game of the regular season. Sometimes, it’s a massively important game that is must-watch and keeps everyone up well past Midnight. Other times we get games that have absolutely no importance. For once, it’s somewhere in the middle. Shockingly, the Bears are in line for a bowl spot if they can pull the upset on a Bruins team who might still be on a high after defeating USC for the Victory Bell this past weekend. Predicted score: UCLA 38 California 34.

That’s a lot of football. I am not complaining. At all. I would have thought TSN might have stepped up for the final regular season weekend but, alas, that is not the case. They are pushing TSN+ for college football so that is the future we have to live with. Oh well…progress, right? Ugh.

I will update the rankings when I see them. I figured I should get this post out in some form so my MACtion predictions don’t look too fishy. Enjoy the games everyone!

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

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

*deep breath*

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

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

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

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

Tuesday

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

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

Wednesday

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

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

Thursday

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

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

Friday

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

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

Saturday Early

		US	Canada
Georgia Tech at Clemson	Noon
Virginia Tech at Boston College	Noon
Indiana at Illinois	Noon
Holy Cross at Army	Noon
#8 Alabama at Kentucky	Noon
Tulsa at #23 Tulane	Noon
Yale at Princeton	Noon
#3 Michigan at #10 Penn State	Noon
Vanderbilt at South Carolina	Noon

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

Saturday Afternoon

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

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

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

Saturday Primetime

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

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

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

Saturday Late Night

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

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

Hey, Watch This

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

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

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

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

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

Sickos Game of the Week

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

Hubba Bubba Blowout of the Week

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

Wanna Bet?

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

Southern Miss 29 Louisiana 28 (upset!)

North Texas 31 SMU 27 (another upset!)

Alabama 34 Kentucky 21 (no upset)

Penn State 30 Michigan 23 (yet another upset!)

Tulane 41 Tulsa 10

Wake Forest 31 NC State 27 (minor upset)

Florida State 42 Miami 32

Washington 34 Utah 14

Tennessee 45 Missouri 35

Washington State 31 California 24 (very slight upset)

Georgia 38 Ole Miss 27

UTSA 37 Rice 21

Oregon 63 USC 33

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

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

Man, oh man, were there some overreactions this week…oh and the Week 2 College Football TV Schedule

Look, did Colorado surprise a lot of people this past weekend? Absolutely. No doubt about it. Deion Sanders is proving, whether you like him or not, that he can flat-out coach. And overhauling the roster like he did was not a bad idea at all. It does suck for the players that had to transfer out but unfortunately it’s football and the name of the game is winning.

Saying that………the amount of people I saw on Twitter that said Colorado will win 10 or 11 games this season was way too much. It should have been zero. Colorado may be better than advertised but they aren’t all of a sudden a New Year’s Six possibility. But hey, that’s the reactions from Week 1 of college football. Every. Single. Fucking. Year.

So let’s do it again on here! It’s overreaction time! Let’s look at some of the other overreactions you may (or may not) have heard after the Week 1 games were complete:

• Ohio State is just an average team. Do we expect more from the Buckeyes against a team like Indiana? Sure. But they are bringing in a new quarterback and their best receiver was not 100%. The defense was amazing. Now the offense does have to be ready since in about a week and a half they get Notre Dame and that could get ugly if they don’t produce more points.
• Colorado will have not one, but TWO Heisman finalists. What in the fuck? Who are the morons saying this? They are out there for sure. I saw them. Sure, they did great in their opening week win over TCU but calm the fuck down. TCU isn’t the TCU of last season for one and it’s only WEEK ONE. Anyway, moving on…
• Gene Chizik has finally got the defense cooking in Chapel Hill. Again, it’s one game. Do the Heels look improved? Sure. But it’s not like South Carolina played well at all because, for the most part they didn’t. That, and the chain gang wouldn’t eat their hot dogs fast enough. Let’s see how UNC does when a top-notch offense is staring them in the face.
• Jalen Milroe is already looking like another Alabama Jalen…that being Hurts. My God where do these people come up with this shit? Milroe looked OK but it was Middle Tennessee and he’s playing for Ala-frickin-Bama. We will see how he handles SEC competition before crowning him anything.
• Washington has the best offense in the country. Could that end up being the case? Possibly. Michael Penix Jr. has already started his Heisman campaign in style. But let’s slow our roll here. There are at least four teams who looked better on offense (Colorado, Florida State, Oklahoma, Oregon) during Week 1. And I wouldn’t even say any of those teams will be the best offense in the country so why go ahead and put the Huskies at #1?
• Book the Sooners for the Big XII Championship NOW! As I said, their offense was on fire but they were playing Arkansas State. We are all waiting to see if Brent Venables can have a Venables-type defense in Norman. If that happens, this could very well happen. But for now, I wouldn’t book any tickets yet if I were a Sooners fan.
• Miami is BACK. Ho boy. Pump the damn brakes.

Let’s just put Week 1 behind us, shall we? Let’s move on to Week 2 which…oh my. Well, it’s better than Week 1. That’s really all I can say. But you know what that usually means. That’s right…chaos!

Thursday

		US	Canada
Murray State at Louisville	7:30

Yep, that’s a new logo you see. TSN+ will be showing college football games this year. It kind of mimics the specialty pack but there are a few differences. But if you want to get TSN+ rather than the specialty pack for your college football fix, you are getting close to the same. Not a bad alternative and a good move by TSN to copy ESPN for the 10,000th time.

Friday

		US	Canada
Indiana State at Indiana	7:00
Illinois at Kansas	7:30

It kind of feels like this could be a relatively important game when the Illini travel to Lawrence to face the Jayhawks. Imagine saying that even two years ago. You’d be laughed out of whatever building you were in.

Saturday Early

		US	Canada
Vanderbilt at Wake Forest	11:00 AM
#10 Notre Dame at NC State	Noon
Youngstown State at #5 Ohio State	Noon
Delaware State at Army	Noon
#12 Utah at Baylor	Noon
Purdue at Virginia Tech	Noon
James Madison at Virginia	Noon
Nebraska at #22 Colorado	Noon
Ball State at #1 Georgia	Noon

Is the quality there? Eh, not really. But there’s choice. A lot of it. Can’t ask for much else. Also…MORNING FOOTBAW! The ACC Network’s weird annual Week 2 quadrupleheader hits again with the odd three hour-and-fifteen-minute windows. This will be a lot easier to do next year when Stanford and California join as you know one of them will host the ACC After Dark Week 2 matchup, guaranteed.

Saturday Afternoon

		US	Canada
Charleston Southern at #25 Clemson	2:15
#23 Texas A&M at Miami	3:30
UTEP at Northwestern	3:30
Richmond at Michigan State	3:30
UNLV at #2 Michigan	3:30
Wagner at Navy	3:30
#20 Ole Miss at #24 Tulane	3:30
Iowa at Iowa State	3:30
Marshall at East Carolina	4:00
Kent State at Arkansas	4:00
Tulsa at #8 Washington	5:00
Appalachian State at #17 North Carolina	5:15

Is the afternoon slate better than the Noon slate? Sure. Not by much though. Some intriguing matchups though. As per the rules, one of Texas A&M or Miami must win their game against each other. Ties were outlawed almost three decades ago. Will CyHawk feature more than 30 points? Can App State and UNC put up ridiculous numbers like last year? And this will be Tulane’s opportunity to get a huge leg up in the Group of Five. A win over Ole Miss would be massive.

Saturday Primetime

		US	Canada
Ohio at FAU	6:00
Cincinnati at Pittsburgh	6:30
#11 Texas at #3 Alabama	7:00
#13 Oregon at Texas Tech	7:00
Houston at Rice	7:00
#19 Wisconsin at Washington State	7:30
Eastern Michigan at Minnesota	7:30
Temple at Rutgers	7:30
UCLA at San Diego State	7:30
Grambling at #14 LSU	7:30
McNeese State at Florida	7:30
Charlotte at Maryland	7:30
Arizona at Mississippi State	7:30
Air Force vs. Sam Houston (in NRG Stadium)	8:00
Southern Miss at #4 Florida State	8:30

FIFTEEN GAMES! Holy shit! I think this has to be the most in one timeslot ever on this blog. I don’t feel like checking so let’s just say we have a new record! Plenty of games but most people will be watching one game in particular, that being the Longhorns and the Crimson Tide. If Texas can somehow do what they were robbed of last season and upset Bama, this season turns on its head. This game is so big that they are also showing it on ESPN2 in the US and on TSN+ and the specialty packs. But it’s not the same broadcast. It’s the Pat McAfee Show alternate broadcast. So if you like that kind of thing, have at it.

Also, you will notice we have a new network showing college football. That’s right, the CW, with such hits as 7th Heaven, Gilmore Girls, Smallville and LIV Golf (well it was a hit with the golfers who got fucking PAID with that Saudi blood money) will be showing ACC football (and later on, ACC basketball) this year. This replaces Bally which, for all intents and purposes, is flat broke. There will be games most weeks and, it looks like, at odd times. 6:30? Weird.

Saturday Late Night

		US	Canada
UC-Davis at #16 Oregon State	9:00
Auburn at California	10:30
Stanford at #6 USC	10:30

FOX quadrupleheader? Don’t mind if I do. TSN2 quadrupleheader? Yes, please. A good week if you are a Canadian as I don’t remember seeing this much college football being shown up here in a while. Maybe things are turning around. Looks like TSN finally gives a shit about things that aren’t the CFL, NFL, and NHL (which they don’t even have the national broadcasting rights to).

Hey, Watch This!

Texas at Alabama (7:00, TSN2/TSN+/specialty pack) – Unequivocally the game of the week and there’s nothing else close. That also means there will be some wild and wacky finishes that might overshadow this game. That is, unless, this is a close one and the Longhorns pull off the upset. Then it will be THE story in college football no matter what else happens.

Ole Miss at Tulane (3:30, TSN+/specialty pack) – As I mentioned above, if the Green Wave pull off a win here in front of what should be a raucous crowd in hot and humid New Orleans, there’s not a whole lot that will prevent them from a perfect regular season and another New Year’s Six spot. Normally I would say this is a lose-lose situation for any Power Five team in this situation but when the Group of Five team is ranked it can count as a big win (as long as that team doesn’t totally shit the bed the rest of the way).

Texas A&M at Miami (3:30, ABC/TSN2) – I made the joke above that one of these teams has to win, as per the rules of college football. We may actually see which one of these teams is back (for the most part) and which team still has some work to do. Now watch it be a 13-10 almost-unwatchable slog.

Nebraska at Colorado (Noon, FOX) – Alright, I’ll bite. Let’s see if the hype matches what ends up happening. Some might have put this higher but that’s crazy. It makes this list because of the talk, not because of the teams involved. And Colorado can’t just win this game by a little. That would prove nothing. If they beat the brakes off the Huskers, then we all have to take notice and maybe think the Buffs could be for real.

Sickos Game of the Week

Temple at Rutgers (7:30, specialty pack) – Look, Rutgers is probably going to start 2-0 which really doesn’t mean a whole lot considering their schedule but still, that’s something right? With everything on at this time, you would have to be a complete psychopath to watch this game. I will make sure to tune in and watch at least a few plays. I feel like I owe it to everyone and myself.

Hubba Bubba Blowout of the Week

Ball State at Georgia (Noon, TSN+/specialty pack) – Time to bring back the blowout of the week segment. And this could be the dictionary definition of blowout. I could see UGA putting up 60 on the poor Cardinals.

Wanna Bet?

Nebraska was actually a good bet. That game ended up exactly how I thought it would (for the most part). Florida, however….well the less said about that one the better. Time for my gambling picks for the second week of the college football season. Use them at your own peril.

Indiana (-30.5) over Indiana State

Purdue (+3) over Virginia Tech (and the outright win)

Ohio State (-41.5) over Youngstown State

Utah (-8) over Baylor

Nebraska (+2.5) over Colorado (and the upset win…definitely going out on a limb with this one)

Michigan (-37.5) over UNLV

Tulane (+7.5) over Ole Miss (but the Rebs will hold on for a close victory)

Texas A&M (-4) over Miami

Alabama (-7) over Texas

Washington State (+6) over Wisconsin (with the Badgers winning a tight affair)

Minnesota (-20.5) over Eastern Michigan

Mississippi State (-9) over Arizona

Stanford (+29.5) over USC (I feel a backdoor cover in this one)

I will be on the Twitter/X machine again this weekend. Even without Tweetdeck I am figuring out how to navigate fairly well. We shall see if I can make it two Saturdays in a row making it all the way to the end. Enjoy the games everyone!

ALL. THE. SCHEDULES!!!!

OK not all the schedules but quite a few. I mean there’s some I may not even take a guess at.

Just like last year I am going to put all my schedule predictions in one long-ass post. So wait until you have to take an absolute monster of a shit before taking this one into the bathroom to read. Let’s go!

This is a crazy transition year for CBS. Out with the old (SEC) and in with the new (Big Ten). A few sprinkles (Mountain West) and you have a brand new college football sundae. Sorry fans, Gary Danielson, as far as I can tell, is still around. Worst part is we have heard him be one of the best analysts in the business. More often than not, though, he goes off on some stupid tangent that ends up with him declaring he has a college football boner for Bama.

As is the norm, I will let you know which games are confirmed. The ones that are not…well, some of them will be right because it makes sense and the rest will be not right because one or both of the teams I predicted to play at that time or not nearly as good as I thought they would be and/or I’m an idiot. So let’s start this bizarrely stupid puzzle and follow it with some It Just Means More Sweet Tea Analysis (which may or may not contain grits):

September 2nd		Ohio State at Indiana		3:30 PM
September 2nd		Texas Tech at Wyoming		7:30 PM
September 3rd		Northwestern at Rutgers		Noon
September 3rd		Oregon State at San Jose State		3:30 PM
September 9th		UNLV at Michigan		3:30 PM
September 9th		UCLA at San Diego State		7:30 PM
September 16th		South Carolina at Georgia		3:30 PM
September 23rd		Ole Miss at Alabama		3:30 PM
September 23rd		Iowa at Penn State		7:30 PM
September 30th		Alabama at Mississippi State		3:30 PM
October 7th		Kentucky at Georgia		3:30 PM
October 14th		Arkansas at Alabama		Noon
October 14th		Auburn at LSU		3:30 PM
October 21st		Air Force at Navy		Noon
October 21st		Tennessee at Alabama		3:30 PM
October 28th		Purdue at Nebraska		Noon
October 28th		Florida vs. Georgia (in Jacksonville)		3:30 PM
November 4th		Penn State at Maryland		Noon
November 4th		Kentucky at Mississippi State		3:30 PM
November 4th		LSU at Alabama		8:00 PM
November 11th		Ole Miss at Georgia		3:30 PM
November 11th		Rutgers at Iowa		7:30 PM
November 18th		Minnesota at Ohio State		Noon
November 18th		Georgia at Tennessee		3:30 PM
November 24th		Iowa at Nebraska		Noon
November 24th		Missouri at Arkansas		4:00 PM
November 24th		San Jose State at UNLV		7:30 PM
November 25th		Alabama at Auburn		3:30 PM
December 2nd		SEC Championship		4:00 PM
December 9th		Army vs. Navy (in Foxborough)		3:00 PM
December 29th		Sun Bowl		2:00 PM

It Just Means More (Games other than the SEC on CBS) Analysis:

• I feel like I shouldn’t have to remind you but in all these tables, a game in bold means it has been confirmed. Not bold? Bossman used his dumb brain to try and figure it out.
• The appearance list will look a bit different this time as it will have a few conferences involved so let’s start with the SEC appearances:
  • 5 times – Alabama, Georgia
  • 3 times – Ole Miss, LSU
  • 2 times – Kentucky, Arkansas, Auburn, Tennessee
  • 1 time – South Carolina, Mississippi State, Florida, Missouri
  • No times – Vanderbilt, Texas A&M
• Wait, WHAT? No TAMU on CBS? Wow, I honestly didn’t notice until now when I started breaking out the different schedules. Crazy. I guess they will have to prove it this season to maybe get on late in the year.
• Now we have the Big Ten appearance list:
  • 3 times – Iowa
  • 2 times – Ohio State, Rutgers, Penn State, Nebraska
  • 1 time – Indiana, Northwestern, Michigan, Purdue, Maryland, Minnesota
  • No times – Michigan State, Wisconsin, Illinois
• I look at these numbers and can glean….well, nothing from it. Wisconsin is good and appears no times and Rutgers appears twice. However, tOSU also appears twice and Michigan State doesn’t appear at all. Seems all very random. Which could very well be the case at least for this first season.
• I’m not going to get into the Mountain West game count since there aren’t enough games to see any trends.
• The Army-Navy game heads to New England for the first time ever. Foxborough gets the game this year and I like this idea. Not saying they have to move it around all over the place but every two or three years to take it out of Philly is a smart move.

What is ABC going to do for this one season without the Big Ten and with the SEC showing up in 2024? They will have to lean heavily on the other three Power Five conferences to carry the load, especially when it comes to the primetime schedule. Don’t worry though: there are enough good teams in these conferences to fill most of these spots where it looks like the network won’t have missed a beat. Then next year, might as well pencil (or pen…or Sharpie) the SEC in for the majority of those primetime games.

But hey we haven’t hit 2024 yet. It’s still 2023 so let’s get to the ESPN on ABC regular season college football schedule for the FBS for this season. I will follow it up with some Power(ful) Two Thoughts:

August 26th		Jackson State vs. South Carolina State (in Atlanta)		7:30 PM
September 2nd		Tennessee vs. Virginia (in Nashville)		Noon
September 2nd		Boise State at Washington		3:30 PM
September 2nd		South Carolina vs. North Carolina (in Charlotte)		7:30 PM
September 3rd		LSU vs. Florida State (in Orlando)		7:30 PM
September 9th		Notre Dame at NC State		Noon
September 9th		Texas A&M at Miami		3:30 PM
September 9th		Wisconsin at Washington State		7:30 PM
September 16th		Florida State at Boston College		Noon
September 16th		Alabama at USF		3:30 PM
September 16th		Pittsburgh at West Virginia		7:30 PM
September 23rd		Texas Tech at West Virginia		Noon
September 23rd		Texas at Baylor		3:30 PM
September 23rd		Florida State at Clemson		7:30 PM
September 30th		Notre Dame at Duke		Noon
September 30th		Kansas at Texas		3:30 PM
September 30th		Clemson at Syracuse		7:30 PM
October 7th		Oklahoma vs. Texas (in Dallas)		Noon
October 7th		Notre Dame at Louisville		3:30 PM
October 7th		Wake Forest at Clemson		7:30 PM
October 14th		Kansas at Oklahoma State		Noon
October 14th		Kansas State at Texas Tech		3:30 PM
October 14th		BYU at TCU		7:30 PM
October 21st		Duke at Florida State		Noon
October 21st		Clemson at Miami		3:30 PM
October 21st		Utah at USC		7:30 PM
October 28th		Duke at Louisville		Noon
October 28th		Clemson at NC State		3:30 PM
October 28th		Oregon at Utah		7:30 PM
November 4th		Florida State at Pittsburgh		Noon
November 4th		Notre Dame at Clemson		3:30 PM
November 4th		Kansas State at Texas		7:30 PM
November 11th		Baylor at Kansas State		Noon
November 11th		Miami at Florida State		3:30 PM
November 11th		USC at Oregon		7:30 PM
November 18th		Kansas State at Kansas		Noon
November 18th		Texas at Iowa State		3:30 PM
November 18th		North Carolina at Clemson		7:30 PM
November 24th		Miami at Boston College		Noon
November 24th		Navy at SMU		3:30 PM
November 24th		Texas Tech at Texas		7:30 PM
November 25th		Pittsburgh at Duke		Noon
November 25th		Houston at UCF		3:30 PM
November 25th		Washington State at Washington		7:30 PM
December 1st		Pac-12 Championship		8:00 PM
December 2nd		Big XII Championship		Noon
December 2nd		American Championship		4:00 PM
December 2nd		ACC Championship		8:00 PM
December 16th		Celebration Bowl		Noon
December 16th		Cure Bowl		3:30 PM
December 23rd		Birmingham Bowl		Noon
December 23rd		Armed Forces Bowl		3:30 PM
December 23rd		Las Vegas Bowl		7:30 PM
December 30th		Music City Bowl		2:00 PM
January 1st		Citrus Bowl		1:00 PM

Power(ful) Two Thoughts

• Once again, ABC puts on a mega-matchup on the night before Labour Day. LSU-FSU, if it is anything like last year’s game, should be a massive ratings success. Oh and also a game that could shape the entire college football season.
• With the Big Ten saying adios to ESPN/ABC, the primetime slots really opened up. I expect the ACC to pick up most of those times the Big Ten has left behind with the Big XII and Pac-12 coming in just behind. Right now I have 6 ACC primetime games, 5 Pac-12, and 4 Big XII. Even if I’m wrong with which games go where I see this being pretty equitable.
• I am not doing a TSN schedule because there is no point right now. TSN struggles to get anything that’s not the CFL scheduled out more than a couple of weeks. Right now I have 23 ABC games that would be simulcast on TSN. That seems high but I am going off of last year’s numbers and it was actually very close to that. So we shall see.
• I am calling for three games to be on Black Friday on ABC. Miami-BC at Noon and TTU-UT at 7:30 are set. I think they select an American conference game in the middle so that there isn’t a gap in the middle of the day with nothing to show AND to fulfill the American’s contract. Now watch it not happen at all that way.
• First few weeks are confirmed but that’s pretty much it. The rest is a bit of a crapshoot. Also, if you couldn’t tell Week 2 was a pretty bad week, look at the ABC schedule. Woof. Wisky-Wazzu as the primetime game? Ouch. It’s been a while since there has been that poor a game for the ABC Saturday Night game.
• Finally it’s time for the conference breakdown. Remember I am doing things slightly differently. Every time a team appears, they get counted as an appearance. So Miami-Boston College, for example, counts as two appearances for the ACC. Here we go:
  • ACC – 37 (including conference championship)
  • Big XII – 29 (including conference championship)
  • Pac-12 – 12 (including conference championship)
  • AAC – 5 (including conference championship)
  • SEC – 5
  • Notre Dame – 4
  • FCS – 2
  • Mountain West – 1
  • Big Ten – 1
• The ACC is really picking up the slack here. The Big XII is not all that far behind and, ho boy, is the Pac-12 lagging here. Problem is other than their top five teams I don’t feel right putting the rest of the teams in any of the ABC timeslots and that includes Colorado. Also, I have not included bowl tie-ins here because we know that bowls break them all the time.
• Speaking of bowl games, ABC has SEVEN this time! That’s great! A step in the right direction. I still think the Rose Bowl and Sugar Bowl should move back to ABC as well but that’s just my opinion (and the opinion of a lot of other people).

For quite a long time it felt like there was quite a drop-off in play-by-play prowess after GUS JOHNSON. But now with Jason Benetti cemented as the number two man, you know you have two solidly called games every week on FOX. Tim Brando is the #3 guy and is pretty good although I still think it would be great to hear him back in the studio.

OK so the Big Ten is a bit more in with FOX meaning the Big XII and Pac-12 might suffer because of that. Let’s find out! Here’s the predicted 2023 FOX college football broadcast schedule followed by some Johnsonian rhetoric.

August 31st		Nebraska at Minnesota		8:00 PM
September 2nd		Colorado at TCU		Noon
September 2nd		Rice at Texas		3:30 PM
September 9th		Nebraska at Colorado		Noon
September 9th		Iowa at Iowa State		3:30 PM
September 9th		Oregon at Texas Tech		7:00 PM
September 9th		Stanford at USC		10:30 PM
September 16th		Penn State at Illinois		Noon
September 16th		WKU at Ohio State		4:00 PM
September 16th		TCU at Houston		8:00 PM
September 22nd		BYU at Kansas		8:00 PM
September 23rd		UCF at Kansas State		Noon
September 23rd		Oklahoma State at Iowa State		4:00 PM
September 23rd		USC at Arizona State		8:00 PM
September 30th		Michigan at Nebraska		Noon
September 30th		Iowa State at Oklahoma		3:30 PM
October 7th		TCU at Iowa State		Noon
October 7th		Texas Tech at Baylor		3:30 PM
October 7th		Michigan at Minnesota		7:30 PM
October 14th		Ohio State at Purdue		Noon
October 14th		Illinois at Maryland		4:00 PM
October 14th		Oregon at Washington		8:00 PM
October 21st		Penn State at Ohio State		Noon
October 21st		Minnesota at Iowa		3:30 PM
October 28th		Ohio State at Wisconsin		Noon
October 28th		Oregon State at Arizona		3:30 PM
November 4th		Oklahoma at Oklahoma State		Noon
November 4th		Houston at Baylor		7:00 PM
November 11th		Michigan at Penn State		Noon
November 11th		Indiana at Illinois		3:30 PM
November 11th		Texas at TCU		7:00 PM
November 11th		Arizona State at UCLA		10:30 PM
November 18th		Baylor at TCU		Noon
November 18th		Illinois at Iowa		4:00 PM
November 18th		UCLA at USC		8:00 PM
November 24th		TCU at Oklahoma		Noon
November 24th		Oregon State at Oregon		8:30 PM
November 25th		Ohio State at Michigan		Noon
November 25th		BYU at Oklahoma State		4:00 PM
November 25th		West Virginia at Baylor		8:00 PM
December 2nd		Mountain West Championship		3:00 PM
December 2nd		Big Ten Championship		8:00 PM
December 27th		Holiday Bowl		8:00 PM

SOME JOHNSONIAN RHETORIC…..WOAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

• So FOX has abandoned putting a game on Labour Day for putting a game on the Thursday before it. Interesting. Not a bad strategy as they can try and get a jump start on the season. Sure Florida-Utah could get more eyeballs but starting with a Big Ten conference game? That will get their fair share of looks for sure.
• With the Big Ten leaving ESPN/ABC, it means most of their big games will land on FOX. That is a huge coup for the network. Couple that with the few huge games out of the Big XII and Pac-12 and you can finally, honestly, put their Big Noon Saturday schedule up against ABC’s Saturday Primetime schedule. Of course that may all change next year when ESPN/ABC gets the SEC. But for one year, let’s savour this.
• FOX only going with two Black Friday games again this season and they are both confirmed. And it is two huge games (or could be). TCU-OU could be for a spot in the Big XII Championship. Same with the Civil War game between Oregon State and Oregon. I guess they will be moving WWE Smackdown to FS1 for this night which I’m sure won’t upset wrestling fans in the least.
• Conference breakdown time! Remember, a conference game I am counting as two appearances for that conference:
  • Big XII – 32
  • Big Ten – 30 (including conference championship)
  • Pac-12 – 17
• Shockingly, the Big XII has moved to the top of the list. Now, this has more to do with the Big Ten moving some games to NBC and CBS than anything but still, it proves that the Big XII carries a bit more weight than the Pac-12 these days.
• I have no Mountain West games on the main FOX network. They have quite a few on FOX Sports One, though. I don’t know if FOX’s strategy is to eventually put more than the MWC conference championship on the main network or if they just stay the way they are. I suspect starting next year we will see at least a couple of Mountain West games on the main network, especially when there’s a quadrupleheader.
• And speaking of quadrupleheaders, I have a feeling we will see two of them just like last season. One is confirmed for Week 2 and I believe the other will land, just like last year, during Week 11. I love the quadrupleheader idea, especially if you only do it twice since it feels special.
• FOX has only one bowl game and it is the only bowl game, at this time, without a confirmed date. The Holiday Bowl, I believe, will end up on December 27th but that is definitely subject to change.
• I honestly don’t know what will happen come October with the MLB playoffs. I know during the early rounds, FOX tends not to be used nearly as much as FS1 for their baseball games. Come World Series time though, expect FOX to scale back on college football broadcasting windows.

Alright let’s get to the Notre Dame on NBC sched…WAIT JUST A MINUTE! THAT’S THE BIG TEN’S MUSIC!!!!

For the first time in a loooooooooooong time, Notre Dame will share NBC’s college football coverage with other teams under other contracts. The Big Ten will have games almost every week on the network and usually in primetime going forward. So yeah, this will be the longest NBC schedule I will ever predict unless the network really goes all-in with college football and invites another party (COUGH*Pac-12*COUGH) in to the pool. Let’s get to it!

August 26th		Navy vs. Notre Dame (in Dublin)		2:30 PM
September 2nd		Tennessee State at Notre Dame		3:30 PM
September 2nd		West Virginia at Penn State		7:30 PM
September 9th		Charlotte at Maryland		7:30 PM
September 16th		Syracuse at Purdue		7:30 PM
September 23rd		Ohio State at Notre Dame		7:30 PM
September 30th		Penn State at Northwestern		Noon
September 30th		Illinois at Purdue		7:30 PM
October 7th		Purdue at Iowa		7:30 PM
October 14th		Michigan State at Rutgers		Noon
October 14th		USC at Notre Dame		7:30 PM
October 21st		Michigan at Michigan State		7:30 PM
October 28th		Pittsburgh at Notre Dame		3:30 PM
October 28th		Indiana at Penn State		7:30 PM
November 4th		Purdue at Michigan		7:30 PM
November 11th		Michigan State at Ohio State		7:30 PM
November 18th		Wake Forest at Notre Dame		3:30 PM
November 18th		Michigan at Maryland		7:30 PM
November 24th		Penn State vs. Michigan State (in Detroit)		7:30 PM
November 25th		Southern vs. Grambling (in New Orleans)		2:00 PM
November 25th		Wisconsin at Minnesota		7:30 PM

Touchdown Jesus, Meet Purdue Pete

• Look, it’s not like the Irish haven’t seen Big Ten teams before. They play at least one every year and probably will until the Earth explodes. But sharing the entire network with them? I have a feeling this may impact Notre Dame’s next contract talks with NBC which will start soon with the contract ending at the conclusion of the 2025 season.
• Only two primetime Notre Dame games this season but they add a game during Week Zero against Navy over in Ireland. I have the Big Ten moving their game to Noon when the Irish are on in primetime.
• As for the Big Ten, let’s look at the breakdown:
  • 4 times – Penn State, Purdue, Michigan State
  • 3 times – Michigan
  • 2 times – Maryland, Ohio State
  • 1 time – Northwestern, Illinois, Iowa, Rutgers, Indiana, Wisconsin, Northwestern
  • No times – Nebraska
• I think more so than the CBS breakdown for the Big Ten, the better teams, for the most part, will appear on NBC more often. I believe that will be the case going forward as well.

Let’s be honest here: nothing much will change for this network. It’s not like they will all of a sudden be showing Michigan-Ohio State. Saying that, it’s one of the channels you almost need to complete your college football viewing experience. I don’t want to speak for anyone else but I love watching close finishes, regardless of the game, so if Rutgers and Northwestern are going down to the wire, I want to watch that shit. Alright let’s get to my projected schedule:

September 2nd		Fresno State at Purdue		Noon
September 2nd		Towson at Maryland		3:30 PM
September 2nd		Toledo at Illinois		7:30 PM
September 8th		Indiana State at Indiana		7:00 PM
September 9th		Youngstown State at Ohio State		Noon
September 9th		UTEP at Northwestern		3:30 PM
September 9th		Richmond at Michigan State		3:30 PM
September 9th		Eastern Michigan at Minnesota		7:30 PM
September 9th		Temple at Rutgers		7:30 PM
September 16th		Louisville vs. Indiana (in Indianapolis)		Noon
September 16th		Georgia Southern at Wisconsin		Noon
September 16th		Western Michigan at Iowa		3:30 PM
September 16th		Virginia Tech at Rutgers		3:30 PM
September 16th		Bowling Green at Michigan		7:30 PM
September 21st		Louisiana Tech at Nebraska		7:30 PM
September 23rd		Akron at Indiana		Noon
September 23rd		Maryland at Michigan State		3:30 PM
September 23rd		Florida Atlantic at Illinois		7:30 PM
September 30th		Louisiana at Minnesota		Noon
September 30th		Wagner at Rutgers		3:30 PM
September 30th		Indiana at Maryland		7:30 PM
October 7th		Howard at Northwestern		3:00 PM
October 14th		Iowa at Wisconsin		Noon
October 14th		UMass at Penn State		3:30 PM
October 14th		Indiana at Michigan		7:30 PM
October 21st		Rutgers at Indiana		Noon
October 21st		Wisconsin at Illinois		3:30 PM
October 28th		Maryland at Northwestern		2:30 PM
November 4th		Ohio State at Rutgers		Noon
November 4th		Iowa vs. Northwestern (in Chicago)		3:30 PM
November 4th		Nebraska at Michigan State		7:30 PM
November 11th		Northwestern at Wisconsin		Noon
November 11th		Minnesota at Purdue		3:30 PM
November 18th		Michigan State at Indiana		Noon
November 18th		Purdue at Northwestern		3:30 PM
November 18th		Rutgers at Penn State		7:30 PM
November 24th		Indiana at Purdue		3:00 PM
November 25th		Maryland at Rutgers		Noon
November 25th		Northwestern at Illinois		3:30 PM

B1G Country Notes (no, not Bryant Reeves)

• The first three weeks are completely booked. After that…nothing. Well, that’s not entirely true. There are a few homecoming games that are almost guaranteed to hit BTN but I won’t call them confirmed until, well, they are actually confirmed.
• Let’s get right to the appearance list (with the conference and non-conference split) and then some explanations on the numbers:
  • 8 times – Indiana (3 non-con, 5 conference)
  • 7 times – Northwestern (2 NC, 5 C), Rutgers (3 NC, 4 C)
  • 5 times – Maryland (1 NC, 4 C)
  • 4 times – Purdue (1 NC, 3 C), Illinois (2 NC, 2 C), Michigan State (1 NC, 3 C), Wisconsin (1 NC, 3 C)
  • 3 times – Minnesota (2 NC, 1 C), Iowa (1 NC, 2 C), Penn State (1 NC, 2 C)
  • 2 times – Ohio State (1 NC, 1 C), Michigan (1 NC, 1 C), Nebraska (1 NC, 1 C)
• Every school must make at least 2 BTN appearances. Plus, one of those appearances has to be a conference game. My predictions satisfy that criteria and I think the amount of appearances will be failry close to what actually happens. I was a bit surprised to see what I had done with Nebraska. Maybe I am drinking a tiny bit of Husker Kool-Aid.

Alright now we have what could be the longest schedule of the bunch. Surprisingly though, it has the most confirmed games, easily. I guess when you have a good portion of the Group of Five stationed here, you will have a lot of games. And if you don’t watch college football on CBSSN? Shame on you. There are some great games on there and you get to see teams you wouldn’t normally see. Time for the huge-ass schedule followed by a few G5 musings:

August 26th		UTEP at Jacksonville State		5:30 PM
August 26th		FIU at Louisiana Tech		9:00 PM
August 31st		NC State at UConn		7:30 PM
September 1st		Stanford at Hawaii		11:00 PM
September 2nd		Bowling Green at Liberty		Noon
September 2nd		USF at WKU		3:30 PM
September 2nd		Washington State at Colorado State		7:00 PM
September 2nd		Idaho State at San Diego State		10:30 PM
September 9th		Delaware State at Army		Noon
September 9th		Wagner at Navy		3:30 PM
September 9th		Air Force vs. Sam Houston (in Houston)		8:00 PM
September 15th		Utah State at Air Force		8:00 PM
September 16th		Liberty at Buffalo		Noon
September 16th		FIU at UConn		3:30 PM
September 16th		Vanderbilt at UNLV		7:00 PM
September 16th		Kansas at Nevada		10:30 PM
September 22nd		Delaware State at Miami-OH		7:00 PM
September 22nd		Boise State at San Diego State		10:30 PM
September 23rd		Tulsa at Northern Illinois		Noon
September 23rd		Duke at UConn		3:30 PM
September 23rd		Appalachian State at Wyoming		7:00 PM
September 23rd		Kent State at Fresno State		10:30 PM
September 28th		Middle Tennessee at WKU		7:30 PM
September 29th		Louisiana Tech at UTEP		9:00 PM
September 30th		Utah State at UConn		Noon
September 30th		USF at Navy		3:30 PM
September 30th		San Diego State at Air Force		8:00 PM
October 4th		FIU at New Mexico State		9:00 PM
October 5th		Sam Houston at Liberty		7:00 PM
October 7th		Boston College at Army		Noon
October 7th		North Texas at Navy		3:30 PM
October 7th		San Jose State at Boise State		8:00 PM
October 10th		Louisiana Tech at Middle Tennessee		7:00 PM
October 11th		Sam Houston at New Mexico State		9:00 PM
October 13th		Fresno State at Utah State		8:00 PM
October 14th		Kent State at Eastern Michigan		Noon
October 14th		Troy at Army		3:30 PM
October 14th		Wyoming at Air Force		7:00 PM
October 14th		San Diego State at Hawaii		11:00 PM
October 17th		Middle Tennessee at Liberty		7:00 PM
October 18th		FIU at Sam Houston		7:00 PM
October 21st		Akron at Bowling Green		Noon
October 21st		USF at UConn		3:30 PM
October 21st		Utah State at San Jose State		7:00 PM
October 21st		Colorado State at UNLV		10:30 PM
October 24th		New Mexico State at Louisiana Tech		7:00 PM
October 25th		Jacksonville State at FIU		7:00 PM
October 28th		UMass at Army		Noon
October 28th		Miami-OH at Ohio		3:30 PM
October 28th		Air Force at Colorado State		7:00 PM
October 28th		New Mexico at Nevada		10:30 PM
November 3rd		Colorado State at Wyoming		8:00 PM
November 4th		Army vs. Air Force (in Denver)		2:30 PM
November 4th		Louisiana Tech at Liberty		6:00 PM
November 4th		Boise State at Fresno State		10:00 PM
November 7th		Central Michigan at Western Michigan		7:00 PM
November 8th		Akron at Miami-OH		7:00 PM
November 11th		Holy Cross at Army		Noon
November 11th		UAB at Navy		3:30 PM
November 11th		San Diego State at Colorado State		7:00 PM
November 11th		Fresno State at San Jose State		10:30 PM
November 14th		Akron at Eastern Michigan		7:00 PM
November 18th		Coastal Carolina at Army		Noon
November 18th		UNLV at Air Force		3:30 PM
November 18th		Boise State at Utah State		7:00 PM
November 18th		San Diego State at San Jose State		10:30 PM
November 24th		Ohio at Akron		Noon
November 24th		Utah State at New Mexico		3:30 PM
November 25th		Northern Illinois at Kent State		Noon
November 25th		Liberty at UTEP		3:30 PM
November 25th		Wyoming at Nevada		9:00 PM

Gee-Five Musings

• Really, CBS Sports Network doesn’t have to lock in over 80% of the games. Nice to see that they do though. Honestly, over the past few years, CBSSN has had their fair share of exciting games so waiting to see what ESPN doesn’t take really doesn’t make sense for them. It won’t change the amount of viewers they get (for the most part). Just scoreboard watch like I do.
• CBSSN lands a couple of Black Friday games this season, which seems to be the norm now. One is confirmed and the other is a MAC game. Which leads us to…
• The non-confirmed games. Most of them are MAC-controlled games. They will be 12-day selections during the season. The others might not end up happening as those timeslots may be used for something else.
• Conference breakdown time!
  • Mountain West – 49
  • Conference USA – 33
  • MAC – 21
  • Army – 7
  • AAC (other than Navy) – 6
  • UConn – 5
  • FCS – 5
  • Navy – 4
  • ACC – 3
  • Sun Belt – 3
  • Pac-12 – 2
  • SEC – 1
  • Big XII – 1
  • UMass – 1
• OK so it was more than conferences but it gives you an idea of what is happening this year versus previous years. During October, Conference USA will have all their conference games on Tuesday and Wednesday nights. A crazy idea but hey, that’s how MACtion was born. It also means we will go nearly two months with football almost every day! What’s wrong with that?

We made it! Schedule Journey 2023 is over! Christ, that was long. And no, I will not do a TSN schedule. That would be a complete guess. Up next are the season predictions. Expect that post (which will also be a stupidly long one) some time in late July.

Have a fantastic rest of your Sunday and let’s hope for nice weather this coming week…for people who aren’t stuck working in an office. For those people, I am sure you are fine if it rains all week.

Iiiiiiiiiiit’s…TIME! For another Thanksgiving* FOOTBALLGASMMMMMMMMMMMM!!!!!!!!

*of course I mean American Thanksgiving but you already knew that….right?

Just because it’s Thanksgiving south of the border doesn’t mean we can’t have turkey and mashed potatoes and gravy and peas and sweet potatoes and stuffing and pumpkin pie and…oh man I’m getting hungry. I think it’s a good way to support our ‘Murican friends on Turkey Day, don’t you think?

One sad thing is that everyday college football ends tonight. Tomorrow there are no games. I think there should be one. When I become commissioner of college football, I will do that. For all of you. There’s still college football on American Thanksgiving Day along with the usual NFL fare and then things ramp the fuck up starting Black Friday. I am so ready. Let’s get to the schedules and again it will be in the normal Thanksgiving style that I use….with a bit of a twist this year. Again, I am using AP Poll rankings because this blog post will come out a few hours before the next College Football Playoff Rankings come out.

Tuesday

Bowling Green (+6.5) at Ohio

7:00 PM

The week starts with the MAC East Division title game. If the Bobcats win, they head to Detroit. If the Falcons win, as of right now, they also head to Detroit. What is planned for Buffalo with their cancelled game against Akron is anyone’s guess. Predicted score: Ohio 38 Bowling Green 28.

Thursday

Mississippi State (+2.5) at #20 Ole Miss

7:00 PM

There is no chance this game could be important. It would have been if the Rebs could have beat Arkansas last week. Instead they were run out of the building. There may also be the distraction of Lane Kiffin possibly being named head coach of Auburn soon. Oh, and if you’ve noticed, I’m including the spread and a predicted score for each game. Predicted score: Ole Miss 41 Mississippi State 24.

Friday

#19 Tulane (+2) at #24 Cincinnati

Noon

I’m glad that ABC has made sure to have the AAC appear a few times on the main network during a season. Otherwise, this would have gone to, at best, ESPN if not lower. Huge game. Winner goes into the catbird seat for the Cotton Bowl spot. The loser could still go to the AAC Championship Game with a UCF loss later on. Predicted score: Cincinnati 43 Tulane 27.

Utah State (+16.5) at Boise State

Noon

I’m sure CBS was hoping for a much bigger game here. USU is already bowl-eligible and Boise has clinched their spot in the Mountain West Championship. That’ll be a pass for me, dawg. Predicted score: Boise State 34 Utah State 27.

Central Michigan (-2) at Eastern Michigan

Noon

Speaking of games that mean nothing, here’s another one. CMU is not going bowling. EMU is. Predicted score: Eastern Michigan 35 Central Michigan 27.

Baylor (+8.5) at #23 Texas

Noon

This could mean big things for Texas. They have to take care of business on their own end and beat the Bears here. If they do, they can then watch Kansas State-Kansas and hope the Wildcats lose for them to get a Big XII Championship opportunity. Predicted score: Texas 41 Baylor 39.

Toledo (-7.5) at Western Michigan

Noon

Nothing really to see here. Toledo is going to Ford Field for the MAC Championship and WMU is home for the holidays. Predicted score: Toledo 30 Western Michigan 19.

NC State (+6.5) at #17 North Carolina

3:30 PM

The Tar Heels will use this as a tune-up for their game against Clemson the following weekend. Beating the Tigers is the only probably way for UNC to get to the Orange Bowl. Predicted score: NC State 30 North Carolina 29.

Arkansas (-3) at Missouri

3:30 PM

Mizzou needs a win here to go bowling. Arkansas is already in…barely. Could be fun. Predicted score: Arkansas 26 Missouri 24.

New Mexico (+7.5) at Colorado State

3:30 PM

Arguably the two worst teams in the Mountain West here. There are better options on at the same time. Predicted score: Colorado State 18 New Mexico 12.

Nebraska (+10.5) at Iowa

4:00 PM

I do find it a bit funny that this seems to get relegated more and more to the Big Ten Network. Anyway, a win here and the offensively challenged Hawkeyes get a trip to Indianapolis. Lose and there are ways in which they still go to the Big Ten Championship and other ways where they don’t. I went over that in the previous post and flat-out refuse to go into it here. Predicted score: Iowa 32 Nebraska 17.

#18 UCLA (-10) at California

4:30 PM

The Bruins played themselves out of a potential Pac-12 Championship berth so they are playing for the extremely slim possibility of going to a New Year’s Six bowl. And it is EXTREMELY slim. Predicted score: UCLA 45 California 27.

Florida (+9.5) at #16 Florida State

7:30 PM

Does this game mean much in the grand scheme of things? Not really. The Noles would need a lot to happen to get into the NY6 and the Gators are bowl-eligible. Does this game mean much to fans of either team? Abso-fucking-lutely. Predicted score: Florida State 33 Florida 14.

Saturday Early

South Carolina (+14.5) at #8 Clemson

Noon

With so many options, this is one of them. Could the Cocks shock the Tigers? Yeah I guess. I can’t see it happening though. Clemson does need to win here, though, to keep any small College Football Playoff possibilities alive. Predicted score: Clemson 43 South Carolina 24.

Rutgers (+14) at Maryland

Noon

Rutgers is out, Maryland is in. I think we will see a fair amount of these types of games for this week. Predicted score: Maryland 38 Rutgers 24.

WKU (-7) at Florida Atlantic

Noon

The Owls are fighting for their bowl lives here. The Hilltoppers need a win (and a North Texas loss) to play for the Conference USA Championship. For once, there are some good stakes from the noon CBSSN game. Predicted score: WKU 38 Florida Atlantic 31.

Georgia Tech (+35.5) at #1 Georgia

Noon

Clean, Old-Fashioned Hate. There actually is quite a bit of importance to this one. Georgia cannot slip up if they want to go into conference championship week as the number one team in the land. Tech needs a victory to go bowling which would be an absolutely remarkable turnaround from the dreadful Geoff Collins era. Predicted score: Georgia 52 Georgia Tech 20.

West Virginia (+8.5) at Oklahoma State

Noon

No. I mean why? To see if Neal Brown gets fired after the game ends, Herm Edwards-style? Predicted score: Oklahoma State 30 West Virginia 28.

Coastal Carolina (+13.5) at James Madison

Noon

This seems like a huge spread in favour of JMU considering how good the Chanticleers have been this season. I guess it does show what kind of home field advantage the Dukes have. Unfortunately, thanks to stupid NCAA rules, JMU can’t go to a bowl game because they had the audacity to be good in their first year at the FBS level. Stupid. CCU needs a win and a LOT of help to be considered in the Cotton Bowl conversation. Predicted score: Coastal Carolina 24 James Madison 18.

#3 Michigan (+7.5) at #2 Ohio State

Noon

The Game. The biggest one in a few years. Winner almost guarantees themselves a spot in the College Football Playoff. The loser isn’t out either if things go their way. High, HIGH stakes here in a game where Gus Johnson might lose his voice. Predicted score: Ohio State 38 Michigan 37.

Saturday Afternoon

Southern vs. Grambling (in New Orleans)

2:00 PM

Prairie View A&M had a chance to wrap up the SWAC West Division title and were stunned by lowly Mississippi Valley State. This means that Southern can now sneak in and win the division and a date with Jackson State in the SWAC Championship if they beat Grambling. Predicted score (I couldn’t find any gambling lines for this game): Southern 40 Grambling 24.

#25 Louisville (+3.5) at Kentucky

3:00 PM

And odd start time here, especially by SEC Network standards. Both teams are bowling. Neither team can get to the New Year’s Six. People will watch if this game stays close but otherwise there is no reason to. Predicted score: Kentucky 33 Louisville 26.

#9 Oregon (-3) at #21 Oregon State

3:30 PM

Look, Oregon State is a good team. No, I’m not lying. No wonder the spread is so low. Could be very loud in Corvallis for this one. The Ducks need a win here to get to the Pac-12 Championship and keep their CFP hopes alive. Oregon State is going for their ninth victory of the season, their highest win total since 2012. Predicted score: Oregon 41 Oregon State 40.

Illinois (-14) at Northwestern

3:30 PM

We will know by now whether this game actually means anything to Illinois. I could see Bret Bielema getting a nice, fat extension in the offseason. As of right now, I have no idea whether this game or the other BTN game on at this time will be shown on the specialty pack. The specialty pack schedules show neither at this point which is always a bad sign. Hopefully this gets rectified by Saturday. Predicted score: Illinois 41 Northwestern 21.

UPDATE #2: This is now showing on the specialty pack guide.

Purdue (-10.5) at Indiana

3:30 PM

The Old Oaken Bucket. Again, we will know by start time whether Purdue has a shot at the Big Ten West or not. I have this game in the BTN slot that Canadians would get. Who the hell knows what will happen though. Predicted score: Purdue 30 Indiana 15.

Auburn (+22) at #7 Alabama

3:30 PM

Alabama doesn’t really have a chance at the College Football Playoff, do they? I mean I don’t think so but I know ESPN’s love for the Bama brand. Oh and do you want some laughs? Auburn needs a win here to be bowl-eligible AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. Barely got that out before laughing. Predicted score: Alabama 41 Auburn 17.

UAB (-17.5) at Louisiana Tech

3:30 PM

The Blazers are having a down year. At least a down for year for this program since they were resurrected. They can get in to a bowl game with a win here. Predicted score: UAB 35 Louisiana Tech 18.

Minnesota (+3.5) at Wisconsin

3:30 PM

Look there’s nothing much going on here. Neither team really has a legit shot at the Big Ten West title. And they are both going bowling. Meh. Predicted score: Wisconsin 30 Minnesota 26.

Wake Forest (-3.5) at Duke

3:30 PM

Duke has been a massive surprise this season. They have been seriously competitive all season and Mike Elko is going to get a bit of Coach of the Year consideration (even though he won’t win). This game doesn’t mean anything as both teams are comfortably bowl-eligible. Predicted score: Wake Forest 38 Duke 26.

UPDATE #3: This still isn’t showing on the specialty pack guide although it should in the next 24 hours.

Virginia at Virginia Tech

3:30 PM

cancelled

The Commonwealth Cup game between UVA and VT has been cancelled. I am not surprised by this decision and it was made a lot easier by the fact that neither team would be going to a bowl game this year anyway. I put forth an idea on Twitter of maybe having the game during Army-Navy week (before the game perhaps) and have the ticket money go to the families or charity or something like that. Don’t think that would go through as I have a feeling the Virginia football program just needs this season to end so they can continue their mourning.

Memphis (+4.5) at SMU

3:30 PM

Both teams are 6-5. This means very little in the grand scheme of things. Predicted score: SMU 31 Memphis 25.

UPDATE #4: This isn’t showing on the specialty pack guide. I am sure the UVA-VT cancellation has to be adjusted before this will show up.

Troy (-13.5) at Arkansas State

3:30 PM

This is an odd one. This game was moved here during the shuffle caused by the Hoos-Hokies cancellation. Non-cable users in the U.S. can get this game on ESPN+ as an ESPNU game. I have a feeling this might be enough to screw things up on the specialty pack end of things meaning this game would show up nowhere here. We shall see. Predicted score: Troy 36 Arkansas State 13.

UPDATE #5: Well I am right that at this point the specialty pack is not showing this game. I have a feeling that will change by Thursday afternoon but I will keep you all updated.

Iowa State (+10) at #4 TCU

4:00 PM

The Horned Frogs cannot falter here. They are closing in on a dream season and the last thing they need is a struggle against the Cyclones. I could see ISU keeping this one close in what could be Matt Campbell’s final game as head coach of the Clones. Predicted score: TCU 34 Iowa State 24.

#14 Utah (-29.5) at Colorado

4:00 PM

Utah doesn’t have a shot at the Pac-12 Championship so this means little to them. Colorado is horrendously awful so I am sure they want this season to end quickly. Predicted score: Utah 42 Colorado 10.

Saturday Primetime

#5 LSU (-10) at Texas A&M

7:00 PM

LSU cannot look ahead to Georgia despite the fact that the Aggies might very well be the worst team in the SEC this year. Never thought I would say that about a Jimbo Fisher-coached team but they are awful. Predicted score: LSU 39 Texas A&M 23.

#22 UCF (-19.5) at USF

7:00 PM

The Knights should mop the floor with USF. They need to, otherwise they unbelievably won’t go to the AAC Championship and destroyed their Cotton Bowl chances in a matter of one week. Predicted score: UCF 48 USF 14.

#15 Notre Dame (+5.5) at #6 USC

7:30 PM

Notre Dame looked dead to rights earlier in the season. Now, if they win here, they probably lock up an Orange Bowl bid. Incredible. USC, on the other hand, has already clinched a spot in the Pac-12 title game and have to win here to keep their CFP hopes alive. ABC was smart to put this in primetime. Predicted score: USC 43 Notre Dame 40.

Tulsa (+12) at Houston

7:30 PM

Nothing to play for here. Unless it’s close, don’t bother. Predicted score: Houston 31 Tulsa 26.

#10 Tennessee (-14) at Vanderbilt

7:30 PM

This is actually a big game for both teams. Crazy, right? The Dores win here and they go bowling which would be huge for this program that has struggled since James Franklin left. The Vols need to keep up with the rest of the teams above them if they want any hope of getting into the College Football Playoff, as much of a long shot as it is. And both teams will want to destroy the chances of the other. Too bad for Vandy that I have a feeling Tennessee will show up VERY angry. Predicted score: Tennessee 49 Vanderbilt 13.

Pittsburgh (-6.5) at Miami

8:00 PM

A Miami win gets the Canes bowl-eligible. It’s shocking how far this team has fallen. Good call shitcanning Manny Diaz for no reason other than to nab Mario Cristobal, right? Some of these programs just overthink these kinds of things, usually to their detriment. Predicted score: Miami 22 Pittsburgh 15.

Kansas (+12) at #12 Kansas State

8:00 PM

OK sure the primetime slate doesn’t have some of the pizazz as the earlier games of the day (minus the ND-USC game) but a lot of these games still have importance. KSU wins here and they head to JerryWorld for the first time for the Big XII Championship. Kansas can stop that from happening. And it could happen. Kansas is actually pretty good. Predicted score: Kansas State 36 Kansas 30.

Saturday Late Night

Air Force (-1.5) at San Diego State

9:00 PM

SDSU and the AFA squandered any chances of promising seasons early on in the season. Both teams are still having decent years but they are being overshadowed by a few other teams who have just been that much better when it counted. Predicted score: San Diego State 23 Air Force 17.

SE Missouri State at Montana

10:00 PM

How about this? FCS Playoffs on ESPN2? Sure. But the first round of the playoffs? This has not happened since they expanded to 24 teams in 2013. Should be a nice change of pace. And it should be seriously cold up in Missoula. Predicted score: Montana 38 SE Missouri State 36.

UPDATE #6: For some reason, this isn’t appearing on the specialty pack guide. I’m sure it will soon enough but being an FCS game I am a bit worried it won’t end up appearing at all.

#13 Washington (-2) at Washington State

10:30 PM

If Oregon loses to Oregon State earlier in the day, this game becomes massive. The Huskies can then clinch a Pac-12 Championship Game spot with a win here in the Apple Cup. Otherwise, this game isn’t really that important. I mean I will watch it. Hell, I will also watch the BYU-Stanford game that starts half an hour after this. Why? Because that’s what I do. I honestly can’t totally figure it out anymore. Predicted score: Washington State 24 Washington 14.

UPDATE: I have updated the rankings to match the CFP Rankings.

Holy shit that’s a lot of football! No complaints though since we know what it will be like in a few months. I will be on Twitter often but not all the time as even I need sleep/pass out. As I mentioned about TSN last week, their coverage is much reduced this year for the final week of the college football regular season. I wouldn’t look too much into this as the World Cup takes up most of the early window and that’s where TSN usually had three or four games alone. Does it suck for college football fans who don’t have the specialty pack? Absolutely. But I guess if you are a college football fan, buying a specialty pack would be the least you would do, no?

I will keep this post updated when need be. It wouldn’t surprise me if there were some specialty pack updates. I hope TSN is set but I don’t trust them fully. Anyway, have a great rest of the week and enjoy the games everyone!

We got the Week Zero appetizer. Now it’s time for the Week 1 Main Course!

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!  Yes we have made it to what is really the official start of the college football season.  You can count Week Zero if you want, and I do, but let’s be honest: it’s merely a tiny appetizer to what’s ahead.  Like getting a platter of nachos before your meal except there are only four nacho chips on the platter with a tiny bit of melted cheese, a splatter of salsa and no jalapenos.  Week One…now that’s where it’s at.  A meatier schedule that really immerses us (finally) in what college football is all about.  It gets me back into doing sweet fuck all most Saturdays (if I can help it).  Great times.

So let’s get right down to brass tacks.  Here is the glorious Week 1 schedule (in high def).

Wednesday

		US	Canada
Jacksonville State at UAB	7:30 PM

Wednesday?  WEDNESDAY!  Man this is great.  Now we have SIX nights of college football during Week 1.  Just awesome.  I mean this game probably won’t be that good but at least it will be at UAB’s new stadium and not at Legion Field which looked like it was going to collapse at any moment.

UPDATE #2: This game is not in Birmingham.  I wonder if their new stadium isn’t ready yet.  Instead it is in Montgomery, site of the legendary Camellia Bowl.

UPDATE #3: Maybe I should have waited.  Thanks to Pete Thamel on Twitter, UAB’s new stadium opens in October.

Thursday​

		US	Canada
Temple at Rutgers	6:30 PM
Boise State at UCF	7:00 PM
USF at NC State	7:30 PM
East Carolina vs. Appalachian State (in Charlotte)	7:30 PM
Weber State at #24 Utah	7:30 PM
#4 Ohio State at Minnesota	8:00 PM
Bowling Green at Tennessee	8:00 PM
Southern Utah at #25 Arizona State	10:30 PM

Pretty big time Group of Five start with Boise State heading to Orlando to face the Knights of UCF.  And FOX has an opening week Thursday game!  Noice!  Nice to see them jump into the pool.  Not like it’s a super competitive matchup but it’s put them in the weekday night game and that’s hugely important.  A couple of things I have to mention before you get too far into reading this.  I am still not quite sure that you can get the Pac-12 Network on DAZN here in Canada.  You’re supposed to be able to get the P12N games on there but looking at the site, that might not be the case.  I will have to dig further.  The other thing is that the specialty packs are, well, there.  I don’t see anything there in terms of a schedule yet but I assume these games will end up there as they normally do.

UPDATE #4: Temple-Rutgers has been moved to Saturday at Noon because of the weather issues in and around New York City and will still be able to be seen on BTN.

UPDATE #5: Thanks to reader Dan, we now know that the Pac-12 Network is not on DAZN.  But it’s free (for now) on their YouTube page.  Nice!

Friday

		US	Canada
#10 North Carolina at Virginia Tech	6:00 PM
Old Dominion at Wake Forest	7:00 PM
Duke at Charlotte	7:00 PM
Michigan State at Northwestern	9:00 PM
Northern Colorado at Colorado	9:00 PM

OK this is better than Thursday night…but not by much.  North Carolina starts what could be their biggest campaign ever with a tough one in Blacksburg.  We get a nice TSN doubleheader with ESPN’s stupid three-hour windows.  They just never learn.  Also, if you are a glutton for punishment, check out Duke face Charlotte.  I honestly wouldn’t be surprised if the 49ers (not the San Francisco kind) beat Dook in what would be considered an upset but not a huge one.

Saturday Early

		US	Canada
#2 Oklahoma at Tulane (in Norman)	Noon
Colgate at Boston College	Noon
Fordham at Nebraska	Noon
Holy Cross at UConn	Noon
Western Michigan at Michigan	Noon
Army at Georgia State	Noon
#19 Penn State at #12 Wisconsin	Noon
ULM at Kentucky	Noon

A lot of games here.  PSU-Wisky is a pretty massive game to start is off on Week 1.  The winner here has the inside track on what could be a special Big Ten season (if they can beat Ohio State).  We shall see if OU-Tulane will be played in New Orleans as the people of that area are dealing with Hurricane Ida as we speak.  UPDATE: No.  No it won’t be.  It will be in Norman.  And will Scott Frost be fired?  If they somehow lose to Fordham then Frost might be fired during the post-game interview on the field.

Saturday Afternoon

		US	Canada
Fresno State at #11 Oregon	2:00 PM
#1 Alabama vs. #14 Miami (in Atlanta)	3:30 PM
#17 Indiana at #18 Iowa	3:30 PM
Marshall at Navy	3:30 PM
West Virginia at Maryland	3:30 PM
UMass at Pittsburgh	4:00 PM
Louisiana Tech at Mississippi State	4:00 PM
Central Michigan at Missouri	4:00 PM
#23 Louisiana at #21 Texas	4:30 PM
San Jose State at #15 USC	5:00 PM

Whoa now THIS is impressive for Week 1.  Bama-Miami, if close, could be an amazing game.  Indy-Iowa is a massive get for the Big Ten Network.  The best game of the weekend could be FOX’s afternoon affair as the Ragin Cajuns look to pull off….I’m going to call it a VERY minor upset if they beat the Longhorns and only because it’s in Austin.  Louisiana is that good and will be part of the Group of Five story all season.  Don’t sleep on the Spartans heading to LA to play USC (if you get Pac-12 Network), WVU-Maryland could be quite close if Tagovailoa Dos can carry the Terps and LaTech heading to CLANGAland could be sneaky good.  A lot of channel surfing/stream switching in this timeslot for sure.

Saturday Primetime

		US	Canada
Syracuse at Ohio	7:00 PM
Texas Tech vs. Houston (in NRG Stadium)	7:00 PM
#5 Georgia vs. #3 Clemson (in Charlotte)	7:30 PM
Northern Illinois at Georgia Tech	7:30 PM
UTSA at Illinois	7:30 PM
William & Mary at Virginia	7:30 PM
Florida Atlantic at #13 Florida	7:30 PM
Kent State at #6 Texas A&M	8:00 PM
Montana at #20 Washington	8:00 PM
#16 LSU at UCLA	8:30 PM

One game, obviously, is going to carry most of the hype.  UGA-Clemson is a Game of the Year candidate but make no mistake about it: the loser is not out of the College Football Playoff picture by a longshot.  The loser of this one could run the table and be as high as the #2 seed going into the CFP.  UCLA showed that it will not be a pushover and that LSU should be ready for the Bruins.  Sure it would be an upset if UCLA won but not a huge one and if they can pull it off, Chip Kelly might finally strike fear into the rest of the Pac-12 South.  Glad to see most of the networks showing games in primetime unlike 2019 (I won’t discuss 2020 because that’s not fair).  It means we get that good game on FOX.  It means TTU-UH could be a lot of fun to watch and we get to see it.  It means we get to see if Florida Atlantic and Kent State can follow up a good year with another good year.  By this point we will all be on college football overload but I have faith we can all get through it and plow into the late night sked.

Saturday Late Night

		US	Canada
New Mexico State at San Diego State	10:30 PM
BYU vs. Arizona (in Las Vegas)	10:30 PM
Utah State at Washington State	11:00 PM

OK so it kind of falls off a cliff here.  Can’t win ’em all.  Here’s hoping at least one of these games is close since, on paper, none of them look to be.

Sunday

		US	Canada
Jackson State vs. Florida A&M (in Miami)	3:00 PM
Grambling vs. Tennessee State (in Canton)	4:00 PM
Fort Valley State vs. Tuskegee (in Montgomery)	7:00 PM
#9 Notre Dame at Florida State	7:30 PM

A lot of FCS action on the Sunday before Labour Day.  Smart work by the HBCU schools to do this as it should get a lot of eyeballs on their games.  I wonder if we will get the game in Canton here since the NFL Network can be a bit funny with their schedule when it comes to what Canadians get to watch.  It feels like Florida State could cause the Irish some problems.  Let’s all hope so or else it’s an early bedtime for everyone.

Monday

		US	Canada
Ole Miss at Louisville	8:00 PM

This may not look great but Ole Miss should be quite a good team this year.  I mean at least their offense should be fun to watch with Lane Kiffin as the head coach.  I’m glad the CFL (and TSN) ditched the stupid idea of putting the Labour Day Classic (Eastern edition) in primetime.  Fucking dumb.  Ti-Cats-Argos should be on at 1 and Eskimos Elks-Stamps on at around 4:30 or so.  That’s tradition so keep it that way because there’s no reason not to.

Games to set your eyeballs on

Georgia vs. Clemson (in Charlotte) (7:30, ABC/TSN2) – This is one of the Game of the Year candidates and is a relatively easy choice for Week 1 Game of the Week.  Could it be a national championship preview?  Some think so.  Not me, but I know some do.  This is where we get to see if D.J. Uiagalelei wasn’t a flash in the pan after his two games last season.  We get to see if J.T. Daniels (what is it with initialed quarterback first names?) is the real deal and a potential Heisman candidate.  We also get to see two of the whitest, southernest coaches around.  Now this is college football at it’s finest.

Penn State at Wisconsin (Noon, FOX) – BIG NOON SATURDAY gets a damn good game to start their season.  I am somewhat positive this is where Gus and Joel will be but it’s not a guarantee with another great FOX game right afterwards (and another great one after that).  This is probably going to be somewhat underhyped but is extremely important in the Big Ten scheme of things as if Ohio State trips up at some point this season, one of these two teams could be the one sneaking past into the top spot.  After years of crap Week 1s, FOX really has hit it out of the park this year.  I don’t expect this all season but at least it’s a good start.

Indiana at Iowa (3:30, BTN) – I’m not lying.  BTN.  The Big Ten Network.  Every year this network gets one game that would easily be on either FOX or ESPN and somehow they nab it.  The good thing about the way the Big Ten Network contract is structured because every team has to show up at least twice with one game being a conference game.  This could be the closest game of the day and we shall see if the Hoosiers are still climbing or if Iowa will somehow Ferentz their way to a victory to open their season.

Louisiana at Texas (4:30, FOX) – I’m serious when I said above this would not be much of an upset if Louisiana won.  The Ragin Cajuns are a serious contender for the single Group of Five New Year’s Six spot (although don’t be surprised if two or even three teams really push the envelope this season).  And we all know what opening weekend Texas games are like.  Really wild and completely wacky doesn’t quite cover it.

LSU at UCLA (8:30, FOX) – Yeah, all three FOX tripleheader games in the GOTW section.  First time ever?  I would check but I’m lazy so I’m going to say no, it has never happened before.  If the Bruins’ performance in Week Zero is any indication as to what this team could be like, this game will be a ton of fun.  Then again they were playing a Hawaii team that looked like it wasn’t ready to start the game at all.  The Tigers lost their starting quarterback before the season began so it could be an interesting journey for Ed Orgeron’s team this season (plus we may see Coach Eaux on the hot seat amazingly enough if things go south).

Honourable mention: North Carolina at Virginia Tech (Friday, 6:00, TSN2); Notre Dame at Florida State (Sunday, 7:30, ABC); San Jose State at USC (5:00, DAZN)

Some gambling fun and games

Oh man, this fuckery again.  OK look I don’t pick against the spread, just straight up win or loss.  I also advise you never to copy these picks.  Yes I may be fully correct once but after like 100 misses you’d lose a lot of money.  Let’s go:

Notre Dame over Florida State

Texas over Louisiana (but it will be close)

Clemson over Georgia

Alabama over Miami

North Carolina over Virginia Tech

LSU over UCLA

USC over San Jose State

Indiana over Iowa (slight upset?)

Duke over Charlotte

UCF over Boise State

Tennessee over Bowling Green (I might regret this)

SIX straight days of college football starts tonight!  I believe I am ready to go.  College football gives you Week Zero to get a bit acclimated and then BAM!  It’s go time!  I’m struggling with specialty pack information as I haven’t seen this little information in years on it.  Saying that, it’s pretty easy to outline what games will probably appear on them.  As for the Pac-12 Network/DAZN situation, I am looking into it and hoping to get an answer before the first potential P12N game in Canada this year Thursday night.  I will definitely hit the Twitter machine and try to stay in my lane (college football, NFL and a little general sports sprinkled in) and not venture into Politicsland or Vaccineville, two places no one should ever go to when dealing with Twitter.

As per usual on this blog, we will soon get into the CFB schedule/NFL schedule/watch some damn football/recap/rinse/repeat carousel.  No NFL recaps since a) I really barely have time to do this blog so doing NFL recaps would be tough and b) there are plenty of places to find those recaps out there and they aren’t hard to find.  I’m glad to be back.  Glad to have all of you back.  It’s going to be a fun season.  I can feel it.  Have a great week everyone and enjoy Week 1!

You know what time it is? WEEK 1 OVERREACTION TIME! Oh and the Week 2 TV Schedule as well.

Who saw that coming for Tennessee last Saturday?  What’s Jeremy Pruitt’s future with the team?  Should people dump garbage on his lawn because they are upset?  Overreaction?  Absolutely!  But some people think that and are serious about it.  Week 1 of the college football season is always chock full of these tasty nuggets.  Like these:

• UCLA will lose almost every game this season.  Not so fast.  One game against one of the better Group of Five teams does not a season make.  Now if the Bruins lose to San Diego State this Saturday then yeah maybe you can start to panic.
• The SEC is terrible!  The SEC is a lot like many of the Power Five conferences: the top three-to-six teams are good to great and the rest are mediocre to trash.  No difference here.
• Boise State has clinched the New Year’s Six spot.  Uh, no.  I will admit the Broncos are a great contender but UCF is still the favourite and I still have Memphis as my choice.
• The Pac-12 has no chance at going to the College Football Playoff.  Um, Oregon is not the only good team in the Pac-12.  Now apologize to Utah and Washington THIS INSTANT!

Alright Week 1 is in the books and it’s time for Week 2’s schedule and yeah, it’s pretty bad.  Sorry guys.

Friday

		US	Canada
WIlliam & Mary at Virginia	8:00 PM
Wake Forest at Rice	8:00 PM
Marshall at #24 Boise State	9:00 PM

A huge Group of Five game starts the week as two New Year’s Six contenders clash on the blue turf of Boise.  Still got to favour Boise State in this one but you never know as they always struggle at least once year when they shouldn’t.  The Deacs are playing Rice in one of those not-so-odd-anymore Power Five at Group of Five games as well.  And yes, there is no Thursday college football.  Don’t want to compete with opening night in the NFL since no one would watch the college game (I hate to say that but it’s true).

Saturday Early

		US	Canada
Ohio at Pittsburgh	11:00 AM
Cincinnati at #5 Ohio State	Noon
Vanderbilt at Purdue	Noon
UAB at Akron	Noon
#21 Syracuse at Maryland	Noon
West Virginia at Missouri	Noon
Old Dominion at Virginia Tech	Noon
Army at #7 Michigan	Noon
Charleston Southern at South Carolina	Noon
Western Carolina at NC State	12:30 PM

As per usual, a boatload of games in the early timeslot.  And yes, one game starts at 11 in the morning.  You can thank the ACC Network going with stupid three hour windows in their second week of existence.  Ridiculous.  So if you are an ACC fan you will miss the first quarter of multiple games almost guaranteed.  A few good ones early on with UC-tOSU and Army-UM the two biggest (although the over/under for Cuse-UMD could be seriously high).  I am going out on a limb and saying Western Carolina-NC State will appear on the specialty pack although I see nothing yet in any of the guides.

Saturday Afternoon

		US	Canada
USF at Georgia Tech	2:00 PM
#12 Texas A&M at #1 Clemson	3:30 PM
Central Michigan at #17 Wisconsin	3:30 PM
Eastern Illinois at Indiana	3:30 PM
Illinois at UConn	3:30 PM
Southern Miss at Mississippi State	3:30 PM
#25 Nebraska at Colorado	3:30 PM
Grambling at Louisiana Tech	3:30 PM
Murray State at #3 Georgia	4:00 PM
New Mexico State at #2 Alabama	4:00 PM
ULM at Florida State	5:00 PM

One of the games of the year right here in this timeslot.  The Aggies will make a massive statement and upset the college football apple cart if they can somehow beat Clemson.  Here you see the continuation of the weird ACC Network times.  If you are using a PVR this may get frustrating but I know it’s because there are so many ACC non-conference games this week, more than any other week by a country mile.  The rest of the games are technically college football games so let’s all hope they are at least close going into the fourth quarter.  Also we have the debut of the NFL Network as they will be broadcasting Conference USA games this season.  Interesting contract but hey, it could work for the conference as they need some sort of quasi-national audience so they don’t fall behind the rest of the Group of Five conferences.

Saturday Primetime

		US	Canada
#18 UCF at Florida Atlantic	7:00 PM
BYU at Tennessee	7:00 PM
#6 LSU at #9 Texas	7:30 PM
Western Michigan at #19 Michigan State	7:30 PM
Tulane at #10 Auburn	7:30 PM
UT-Martin at #11 Florida	7:30 PM
Buffalo at #15 Penn State	7:30 PM
Eastern Michigan at Kentucky	7:30 PM
Arkansas at Ole Miss	7:30 PM
Miami at North Carolina	8:00 PM

Not exactly stacked but this does contain another potential Game of the Year as LSU travels to Austin to play the Longhorns.  Again, don’t need to belabour the point but this could lead to College Football Playoff chatter (along with New Year’s Six chatter).  Yes, Miami-UNC could be good considering how the Tar Heels have already looked impressive and Miami…not so much.  Also the Cougars of BYU travel to Knoxville to face a team with the most frustrated fanbase in college football.  Other than that there are a few decent games and some dreck.  Can’t win ’em all.

Saturday Late Night

		US	Canada
Minnesota at Fresno State	10:30 PM
#23 Stanford at USC	10:30 PM

Not much of a late night sked but two pretty good games, at least on paper.  Clay Helton better pray his new quarterback, true freshman Kedon Slovis, figures things out quick or Helton’s days may be numbered…and by numbered I mean single digits.  The other game should be close as Minnesota looked shitty against South Dakota State and should be better against a good Mountain West team in the Bulldogs.

Games to set your eyeballs on

LSU at Texas (7:30, ABC/TSN2) – This is the only game on TSN this week and it’s the game of the week.  Honestly this isn’t a huge deal since there is only one other game that could warrant GOTW status.  But we know what happens on weeks like this.  Usually absolute chaos and/or some fantastic finishes.  Anyway, we have to say that this is a huge game that could shape both teams’ seasons.  The winner has a leg up on hopefully getting to the College Football Playoff whereas the loser almost has to look at the New Year’s Six (unless more chaos happens later on in the season).

Texas A&M at Clemson (3:30, ABC) – Survive this game and the Tigers don’t have much to stop them from winning the ACC Atlantic Division.  Before I continue, can they either make the divisions make more sense geographically or get rid of divisions altogether?  That would be great.  Don’t think this will be an easy one for the Dangerous Dabos since TAMU might be improved from last year when they took Clemson to the limit.  I still think this would be a monumental upset, though, if the Aggies can pull it out.

Cincinnati at Ohio State (Noon, ABC) – Man, does this ever drop off after the first two.  But ABC does have the top three games of the week officially.  Time to celebrate?  I’d say no.  Honestly I can’t see this game being close but it does mark the return of Luke Fickell to Columbus.  And now the Bearcats are actually a good team.  Still though.  I won’t regret putting this game on the list since there isn’t much to pick from.

Army at Michigan (Noon, FOX) – Hey, finally a non-ABC game.  Fantastic.  I hope FOX really doesn’t care about this week since this is not good as their best game.  Saying that, remember what the Black Knights did in Oklahoma last season.  They almost pulled off the monumental upset of the Sooners.  Now if they can somehow finish things off this year it would do two things: have everyone saying Michigan still sucks and putting Army squarely in the New Year’s Six conversation.  Actually there will be a third thing.  Jimmy Harbaugh will go back to the hot seat list which he is almost never off of anyway.

Stanford at USC (10:30, specialty pack) – Look, USC is an interesting story so far this season.  And now they have lost their starting quarterback for the season and will have to start a true freshman.  But this is USC so you know they always have a chance.  Plus, the Cardinal didn’t exactly look like world-beaters against Northwestern last week.  Don’t be surprised if around 1:30 in the morning, many eyeballs are on this game because it’s close.

Honourable mention: Buffalo at Penn State (7:30, FOX); Syracuse at Maryland (Noon, specialty pack); Marshall at Boise State (Friday, 9:00, specialty pack)

Some gambling fun and games

Like last year at this very same time, I will say that Florida State losing wasn’t a bad pick on my part since they should have won.  Picking Oregon was also not a bad pick since that was a great again against Auburn.  Other than that I did amazing last week.  So let’s get to another week of fantastic (or not fantastic) picks that are straight up and not against the spread:

Boise State over Marshall

Penn State over Buffalo

Texas over LSU (upset pick!)

Clemson over Texas A&M

Michigan over Army

Ohio State over Cincinnati

Syracuse over Maryland

USC over Stanford (another upset pick!)

Tennessee over BYU

Arkansas State over UNLV

Wisconsin over Central Michigan

As of now I see nothing on the guide for the specialty pack.  Nothing.  I know the games are coming but don’t see them yet.  Frustrating.  Maybe that will change by the time the games start tomorrow.  I wonder if it’s due to nothing on tonight for college football.  Who the fuck knows.  Either way, the schedule I have above (less the one game on FOX Sports Network) should appear as I have said it will.

The reason no college football tonight?  The NFL is back baybee!  The opening game for this season (which is the NFL’s 100th season) is the Packers and the Bears.  We will get a good idea of if Aaron Rodgers can co-exist with new head coach Matt Lafleur.  Also we will get a good idea of Vic Fangio was the reason for the Bears’ success last season.  The game is on NBC, CTV2 and all the TSNs except TSNs 2 and 5.

I will be on the Twitter machine again this weekend.  I made it to the end last Saturday.  I felt very proud of myself.  It means I know I’m ready for the season.  Now I have to hope a late night game doesn’t go to like five overtimes otherwise I will be a brain-dead idiot on Sunday.  Enjoy the games everyone!

Hey hey! (in Krusty the Clown’s voice) – It’s time for the first bowl recap of the season!

OK maybe using an exclamation mark at the end was a little too much.  Not saying I am not excited about bowl season.  I am.  I have gone over what I wish would change many times so won’t reiterate them here.  But we know how bowl season works out.  Out of the (now) 41 games, here’s how they will (probably) pan out:

• There will be 10 that were anywhere from damn good to awesome to INSTANT FUCKING CLASSIC!
• Ten more that are in the “Hey that was some good football and I enjoyed watching it” category.
• The next ten would fall into the category of “You know what?  There were some good moments here and plus it was still decent football which we don’t get from mid-January until mid-August (at least of the college variety) so shut your piehole!”
• The final eleven will fall into the “Eh, I watched some of it, PVR’ed the rest, and caught up on other things in my free time.”

Can’t win em all.  Just remember all this come the middle of May when college football has been long gone yet still feels so far away from beginning again.

Let’s get to the recap!

Celebration Bowl – North Carolina A&T 21 Grambling 14

I did not make a pick for this game although I probably should have.  It would have rated higher than at least a dozen bowls this season for sure and lo and behold it was a good game.  North Carolina A&T could have been in the FCS Playoffs and could have done well.  Not James Madison or North Dakota State well but could have made the quarter-finals.  This team was that good.  And Grambling was pretty dominant in the SWAC this season.  Probably the best 1-2 HBCU school combination in a long time.

New Orleans Bowl – Troy 50 North Texas 30 (My pick: Troy 48-27)

I was VERY close with my selection.  Didn’t go exactly the way I thought.  I figured North Texas would keep it close until early in the fourth and the Trojans would then run away with it.  Nope, Troy had this one in the bag early.  Not a good start for the FBS bowls but not a bad one either.

Las Vegas Bowl – Boise State 38 Oregon 28 (My pick: Boise State 55-44)

Alright I was very close with the margin of victory.  Other than that?  I got nothing.  This was about the weirdest and wackiest game I have seen in a while.  Boise looked like they were going to score 100 at one point and then allowed Oregon to get back into it with some bad turnovers.  This game wasn’t nearly as close as the score indicates but Oregon looked REALLY bad here, especially on offense.  Here’s hoping new head coach Mario Cristobal gets things trending in the right direction next season.

Cure Bowl – Georgia State 27 Western Kentucky 17 (My pick: Western Kentucky 45-14)

I rated this the worst bowl game of the season.  Ends up it won’t be the worst.  Not saying it gets much past 3/10 territory but still.  My beef with this game and this day is this: this bowl was on at the same time as two other bowls.  Yes they overlapped a bit but as I have said before, one of the big points of bowl games (in my opinion) is that they are national showcases, especially for programs that rarely get the national spotlight.  With a game starting at 1:00, this game on at 2:30, another starting at 3:30, then the 1:00 game ending and another one starting right after that at 4:30, this game was getting very little of the spotlight.  Which sucks for them.  Then again, we can mostly blame ESPN for this since CBSSN and FOX have to work around their schedule and they leave a sliver of room for inclusion.  And we wonder why many people (mostly Americans) have a hate on for ESPN.

New Mexico Bowl – Marshall 31 Colorado State 28 (My pick: Colorado State 48-32)

Not even close with the pick (except for Marshall’s score) but at least this was WAY better than I thought it would be.  Actually came down to the final minute or two which is kind of what you hope from most bowl games.  That they be competitive.

Camellia Bowl – Middle Tennessee 35 Arkansas State 30 (My pick: Arkansas State 45-31)

Two good bowl games in a row.  Was a good way to end the opening day of bowl season.  And this was a wild one.  No play was more crazy than this:

• Ball thrown to MTSU receiver is caught.
• As he is being tackled to the ground, the ball comes out but no one can be sure he made a “football move.”
• ASU player picks it up while he was down but he might not have been fully down.
• He runs all the way back until fumbling just before the goal line.
• One teammate misses picking up the fumble but another pounces on it in the end zone.
• After a loooooooooong delay, it was ruled the ASU defender was down at the ASU 1 negating almost everything that happened afterwards.

Now there is some bowl game football for ya!

Cheribundi Tart Cherry Boca Raton Bowl – Florida Atlantic 50 Akron 3 (My pick: Florida Atlantic 58-28)

To start, I knew this would be a blowout.  FAU is way better than Akron, has LANE FUCKING KIFFIN as the head coach and was on their home field.  More importantly: what is Cheribundi?  Here’s the answer straight from their website:

Cheribundi packs over 50 cherries in each bottle, which gives you a nutrient-packed elixir that fights inflammation, improves sleep, boosts memory and more.

Huh.  Ok then.  Btw, Lane going for two up by like 31 points because of shit talk from Akron administrators is fucking glorious and we need more of that.

Frisco Bowl – Louisiana Tech 51 SMU 10 (My pick: SMU 43-20)

Two bowl blowouts in a row.  Ugh.  And if I hadn’t made my picks so early I might have changed my pick or made SMU not win by so much.  Good luck Sonny Dykes.  Luckily it’s SMU and not Texas or otherwise your ass would already be on the hot seat.

Gasparilla Bowl – Temple 28 FIU 3 (My pick: FIU 33-21)

This game was not good.  At all.  I was hoping it would stay close as it was like 7-3 in the third quarter.  Once Temple went up 14-3 I knew it was pretty much over.  Didn’t help that FIU lost their starting quarterback on the first series of the game.  Poor kid playing his only bowl game as a senior and goes out like that.  I just wish they did Bad Boy Mower races all night.  Would have been way more exciting.

First recap over!  Started out strong but man did we have three pretty bad bowl games to finish this recap.  Let’s hope the next batch of games are good.  Like the ones today…that are on in the afternoon.  My PVR getting some work today.

This will be the last post before Christmas so I am wishing all of you and your loved ones a very Merry Christmas.

SO…….MANY……BOWL GAMES!!! Bowl Game TV Schedule

There are 41 college football bowl games this season if you include the Celebration Bowl and the CFP National Championship.  Might as well at this point right?  Before I get too deep into the schedule, let me divert your attention momentarily….I plan to do another “If I Ran the Bowl Games” post at some point in the next week.  Should be fun right?  I enjoy doing that post, feeling all high and mighty and then realizing my plans for change will never come to fruition.  Oh well.

Amazingly enough TSN has their whole bowl schedule up!  Then again, when I thought that last year, they ended up changing some games and one game never appeared on the guide, showed up anyway in SD, then disappeared in the second quarter for good.  Fun times.  Not really.  Let’s get on with this!

Saturday December 16th

Celebration Bowl: Grambling vs. North Carolina A&T

Noon

Bowl season starts, once again, with the Celebration Bowl between the two FCS HBCU conference champions.  Funny thing here is that North Carolina A&T was ranked in the top 10 near the end of the season.  I wish they would just sack up and give it a go in the FCS Playoffs.  Can you imagine an HBCU school getting to, say, the semi-finals?  Or even the quarters?  The SWAC and MEAC already do usually lead FCS in attendance so this could be huge for attendance and ESPN.  By the way, remember how last year’s Celebration Bowl ended?  That’s right…with an excessive celebration penalty that led to a blocked extra point which lead to Grambling’s one point victory.  Irony.

New Orleans Bowl: North Texas vs. Troy

1:00 PM

And here starts TSN’s foray into bowl season.  It’s actually better than last year for non-specialty pack citizens.  Last year was brutal.  Pretty much half the bowl games went to the specialty pack.  Will be a lot less this time.  Also, this is some CLASSIC Sun Belt action from the mid-2000s.  Yay, nostalgia!

Cure Bowl: Western Kentucky vs. Georgia State

2:30 PM

It seems that this game is pretty much universally considered the worst bowl game of this season.  Georgia State is here for a second year in a row I think.  Right?  No, wait it isn’t.  It was the inaugural game two years ago.  That’s it.  Anyway at least the proceeds for this game are going to charity which is a good thing.

Las Vegas Bowl: Oregon vs. Boise State

3:30 PM

In terms of pre-Christmas bowl games this is the tops.  This is almost always a good matchup as the Mountain West sends their champ and the Pac-12 doesn’t send their worst bowl team.  Kind of the way it should be for all G-5 champs’ bowl games but nonetheless.  Hopefully the hype matches the actual game.

New Mexico Bowl: Colorado State vs. Marshall

4:30 PM

It’s opening day for bowl games so I will watch this.  I know I will.  Plus, the New Mexico Bowl is usually a fun game and these two teams can definitely bring the offense so take the over.

Camellia Bowl: Middle Tennessee vs. Arkansas State

8:00 PM

It feels like these two teams are always in bowl games.  They need to get their chance against Power Five teams in the postseason.  Anyway, should be a fun one between two teams with head coaches who I am surprised haven’t left for better conferences.

Tuesday December 19th

Boca Raton Bowl: Akron vs. Florida Atlantic

7:00 PM

It’s the Lane Kiffin Bowl!  The Fighting Kiffins get to stay home for the holidays so hopefully they get a good crowd for some LaneBall (actually that sounds like a bowling knockoff).  Anyway, FAU is going to try to put up a bunch of points so let’s see how the Zips fare in this one.

Wednesday December 20th

Frisco Bowl: SMU vs. Louisiana Tech

8:00 PM

For people railing against this game being played in a soccer stadium, remember two things:

1. This stadium has been used for the FCS Championship the past few years and it looks like a good stadium.  Not too big so the fans will feel close to the game.
2. The Chargers play in a soccer stadium and, ya know what, forget this point.

UPDATE: The Frisco Bowl has been taken off TSN2 and put on the specialty pack.

Thursday December 21st

Gasparilla Bowl: FIU vs. Temple

8:00 PM

More like GAH!sparilla am I right?  Ugh, I can’t believe they continue to have a bowl game at this hellhole.  The Trop is a fucking joke.  I mean I will watch this game (or at least parts of it) but I still can’t stand a field that looks worse than an inner-city football field that hasn’t been tended to in months.  And it’s turf for fuck’s sake!  Can’t they replace it?

Friday December 22nd

Bahamas Bowl: UAB vs. Ohio

12:30 PM

This is one of my pet peeves with bowl season.  Are there too many bowl games?  Absolutely.  But that doesn’t bother me much.  This does.  An early afternoon game on the Friday before Christmas?  Who the fuck is going to watch this?  Bowl games are supposed to be national showcases for teams, not PVR showcases.  Glad to see UAB here though so I will definitely watch (much later on).

Idaho Potato Bowl: Wyoming vs. Central Michigan

4:00 PM

This isn’t a whole lot better but at least you could probably see the second half live depending on what you do for a living.  All I know is this game will be cold.  At least it isn’t on at night like last year’s affair.  Although that’s part of what it made so hilariously awesome!

Saturday December 23rd

Birmingham Bowl: Texas Tech vs. USF

Noon

This should be a good game as USF is still an exciting team to watch.  And Texas Tech is, well, Texas Tech.  Expect a lot of points here.

Armed Forces Bowl: Army vs. San Diego State

3:30 PM

I estimate this will have about 900 yards of rushing between these two teams and the game should be done by 6:00.  This is also the first bowl that hits the specialty pack as we start getting closer to World Juniors time.

Dollar General Bowl: Toledo vs. Appalachian State

7:00 PM

G-5 Champ-on-G-5 Champ Violence!  One of the very few good games that people are looking forward to before Christmas.  Looks like an evenly matched game and a bit more of a must-watch at this time of the year.

Sunday December 24th

Hawaii Bowl: Fresno State vs. Houston

8:30 PM

The annual Present Wrapping Bowl!  Isn’t that what most parents (who are also college football fans) do during this bowl?

Tuesday December 26th

Heart of Dallas Bowl: West Virginia vs. Utah

1:30 PM

Arguably one of the worst P5 vs. P5 bowl games and it’s still a good game.  These two teams last met like three-quarters of a century ago in Atlantic City.  Yeah.  I can’t imagine putting a bowl game in an arena.  Although it might be fun if they didn’t fully do arena football rules.

Quick Lane Bowl: Northern Illinois vs. Duke

5:15 PM

Full disclosure: I was hoping Florida Atlantic would go here.  Quick Lane.  Lane Kiffin.  God, the jokes write themselves!

Cactus Bowl: UCLA vs. Kansas State

9:00 PM

Some people are saying this is a great matchup.  I’m not so sure.  I mean it’s still college football but there are a bunch of other better games.  Just not in this exact timeslot so I will be watching of course (like the madman I am).

Wednesday December 27th

Independence Bowl: Southern Miss vs. Florida State

1:30 PM

I am fine with Florida State being here.  It’s Shreveport.  Nothing special.  The bigger story is this: they did get a great head coaching hire though with Willie Taggart so you never know what they will be like next season (watch me peg them at like 7-5 and they run the table).

Pinstripe Bowl: Iowa vs. Boston College

5:15 PM

Unless BC or Iowa fans travel well I can’t see this being really well attended as it’s in New York, outdoors, just after Christmas.

Foster Farms Bowl: Purdue vs. Arizona

8:30 PM

The only game on the main FOX network during bowl season (we will get to the wrinkle in all this in a bit).  Nice to see Purdue back in a bowl game at least.

Texas Bowl: Missouri vs. Texas

9:00 PM

Here’s an interesting one.  Technically it’s on TSN2 but it won’t get to TSN2 until about 9:30.  My guess is that Slovakia-Canada is on right before this.  This may mean we don’t get to see the start of the game anywhere since I can’t see the telcos putting the start of the game on the specialty pack and then going to TSN2 one the World Junior game is over.  It wouldn’t surprise me if this just gets moved to the specialty pack, period.

UPDATE #3: This game has been moved to the specialty pack.  Probably a good thing.

Thursday December 28th

Military Bowl: Virginia vs. Navy

1:30 PM

So of course the big story here is the guy who left BYU to coach Virginia facing the guy who was favoured to get the BYU job after the previous coach left.  Bronco Mendenhall and Ken Niumatololo are two damn good coaches.  I am sure BYU would prefer one of them to be their coach right now.

Camping World Bowl: Oklahoma State vs. Virginia Tech

5:15 PM

Now we are getting into the big-time bowls.  Outside the CFP and NY6 many may argue that this is the best bowl left.  Two really good teams who were never really considered in the New Year’s Six conversation.  And of course we get more of Mike Gundy’s fabulous mullet so it’s a win-win!

UPDATE #4: This doesn’t happen too often but this game has been moved from the specialty pack to TSN3.  Nice.  Shoutout to @CamPeverley on Twitter for letting me know about this change.

Alamo Bowl: Stanford vs. TCU

9:00 PM

Back-to-back huge bowl games.  This one should be another good one between two conference runner-ups.  Let’s see how Bryce Love takes out his Heisman loss on the TCU defense.

Holiday Bowl: Michigan State vs. Washington State

9:00 PM

Yep, the Canadian info is empty.  Why?  Because it’s on FOX Sports One.  Not surprised this is starting to happen.  Expect to see more bowl games head there next season meaning less we can actually see at all.

Friday December 29th

Belk Bowl: Texas A&M vs. Wake Forest

1:00 PM

It’s kind of a home game for the Deacs but we will see what kind of home advantage they have as we know that Aggie fans travel well.  Could be an underrated bowl game at this point.

Sun Bowl: Arizona State vs. NC State

3:00 PM

I will continue my quest to either a) get this game off of CBS which I really don’t want to do or b) get an SEC team into this bowl game since it’s on CBS and CBS is the home of the SEC.  An SEC West team would slot perfectly in here and possibly fill the stadium, something that is hard to do depending on who is invited to play.  This shouldn’t be much of an issue this year with Arizona State being there but some years it has been relatively empty in the stands in El Paso.

Music City Bowl: Kentucky vs. Northwestern

4:30 PM

We were denied the rumoured Owl Bowl in Boca Raton.  But we will NOT be denied the Wildcat Bowl.  WILDCAT BOWL!  Prediction?  The Wildcats will win.  Ahahahahahaha I am so funny.

Arizona Bowl: Utah State vs. New Mexico State

5:30 PM

This is another pretty cool story.  NMSU is in a bowl game for the first time since 1960.  Nineteen fucking sixty!  That’s insane!  Let’s hope for good attendance at this one, which is the last game for the Aggies officially in the Sun Belt conference as they go Independent starting next season.

Cotton Bowl: USC vs. Ohio State

8:30 PM

I believe this is the best non-semifinal game of the bowl season.  This should be a classic.  And it’s the first New Year’s Six game of the season.  Now, in an interesting note, TSN5 will pick this one up in progress at around 10:00.  How this will work with the specialty packs I don’t know but I have this funny feeling that we will not get the first 90 minutes of this game.  Not impressed for sure.  This is why there needs to be a standalone package for college football games that doesn’t really care if TSN shows a game or not.  This way this wouldn’t be an issue.

UPDATE #5: This has been moved to the specialty pack but is still appearing on TSN5 as well.  This should change soon enough.

UPDATE #6: This is also on TSN4 and is slated to appear on TSN5 after the Sens-Blue Jackets game.

Saturday December 30th

TaxSlayer Bowl: Mississippi State vs. Louisville

Noon

I have a bad feeling this game won’t be close considering Nick Fitzgerald is out for the season for the Bulldogs.  Lamar Jackson might just go crazy in this game which would be a far cry from last year’s pathetic performance in the bowl game.

Liberty Bowl: Iowa State vs. Memphis

12:30 PM

I believe this is a massive game and one of the best examples of what bowl games are all about.  A good Group of Five team gets a chance to compete against a Power Five team on a national broadcast.  Doesn’t happen too often (a couple times or so every bowl season) so it’s good to see this.  Should also be one of the better bowl games of the season.

Fiesta Bowl: Penn State vs. Washington

4:00 PM

When this is the worst New Year’s Six game (arguably) then you know The Committee picked some good games.  This should still be a good game and if it’s anything like PSU’s bowl game last year it will be a must-watch.  And it’s not on New Year’s Eve this year!  WOOHOO!!!

Orange Bowl: Miami vs. Wisconsin

8:00 PM

Again we have two conference runner-ups facing off in a big bowl game.  I’m sure at least one of these teams will be playing What-If in their minds as they try to take out all their frustrations on their opponent.

Monday January 1st

Outback Bowl: South Carolina vs. Michigan

Noon

How many times will they replay that Jadeveon Clowney hit from a few years back?  I put the over/under at 5.5.

Peach Bowl: Auburn vs. UCF

12:30 PM

Other than the semi-final games, this could be the one game that most people are looking forward to.  To see if, once again, a Group of Five team can hang with and/or beat a good Power Five team.  Auburn was an SEC Title game away from playing in the Sugar Bowl so UCF will have its work cut out for them.  Nice to see Scott Frost stay to coach this bowl game despite the fact he was hired by Nebraska near the end of the AAC Championship Game.  Very rarely do you see a coach finish what they started when they are lured away by another school.  This will one will be on TSN1, TSN4 and TSN5 from the start and will be joined on TSN3 in progress at some point.

Citrus Bowl: LSU vs. Notre Dame

1:00 PM

In the end, this is my choice for best non-CFP/non-NY6 game.  Both teams were good but took wildly different paths to get here.  There was a time not so long ago when Notre Dame was considered for the College Football Playoff until late season losses to Miami and Stanford.  LSU, on the other hand, started slowly but has become one of the hottest teams in college football over the past two months.  Should be a great matchup.

Rose Bowl: Oklahoma vs. Georgia

5:00 PM

If this was almost any other day during the Christmas and New Year’s holidays, there is no way this game ends up on this many TSN channels.  But New Year’s Day is the only day not used by the World Juniors so it’s free for college football.  And with the only other competition at any point of the day being the New Year’s Classic NHL game, the bowl games should fare well.  This is my choice for best bowl game of the year (other than the national championship of course) and should be a dandy (as Keith Jackson would say).

UPDATE #7: The other ESPN feeds (including the Coaches’ Film Room) for this game and the Sugar Bowl are on TSN GO.

Sugar Bowl: Clemson vs. Alabama

8:45 PM

I am going to be so fucking exhausted for work the next day.  And I won’t care.  This should be another good game.  Clemson-Bama III: the Rubber Match.  To be honest, I almost want the Rose Bowl winner to win the national title because it would be something new.  But this will be good college football so I will be enthralled with it.

Monday January 8th

College Football Playoff National Championship

8:00 PM

Last game of the college football season (other than the all-star games) comes to us January 8th.  TSN4 will join in progress after the completion of the hockey game so you are looking at about 9:30 or so.

The breakdown looks like so for us Canadians:

• TSN – 21 bowl games
• ABC – 4 bowl games
• CBS Sports Network – 2 bowl games
• FOX – 1 bowl game
• CBS – 1 bowl game
• specialty pack – 11 bowl games
• one bowl game will not be seen here

UPDATE #2: Specialty pack now up to double digits but still less than last season’s bowl games.

Wow TSN really stepped up this season.  23 games.  And this drops the amount of games on the specialty pack back down to single digits.  Good stuff.  Don’t get me wrong, I like the specialty pack but it’s nice to see when games are on channels that most people can get if they want to.

OK I will make all my picks and rank the bowl games in a post later this week.   Also, the NFL schedule will be posted Thursday to make way for Thursday Night Football.  Enjoy your week everyone!

Best Conference Championship Weekend ever? – Week 14 College Football TV Schedule

The chaos American Thanksgiving weekend has made Conference Championship Week more fun don’t you think?  The sheer amount of scenarios that could cause shifts in who gets into the College Football Playoff is more than we are used to.  No team is safe.  This is what we wanted right?  And this is a prime reason why the FBS should stick with their four-team playoff for the time being.  Because it works and makes most of these games still seem important.  If there were an eight-team playoff this would not be nearly as exciting as we know it.  Alright on to the schedule and I will be using the template from last week since there are not nearly as many games.  Here we go!

Friday

Pac-12 Championship: #10 USC vs. #12 Stanford

8:00 PM

Whoever thought a game that starts at 5:00 local time would work can’t be that bright.  I know this is part of the whole ESPN-FOX flip-flop of the Pac-12 Championship and that there are only so many times available on Saturday.  Saying that, maybe this is what the Pac-12 gets for getting pissed off at ESPN about kickoff times.

Saturday Early

AAC Championship: #20 Memphis at #14 UCF

Noon

The main early game is this one.  Winner goes to the Peach Bowl (at least I am pretty sure they would be locked into the Peach Bowl).  Loser goes to…well, a much lesser bowl.  Plain and simple.

MAC Championship: Toledo vs. Akron

Noon

Akron is an interesting team here since their overall record is pretty weak but they killed it inside the MAC (and especially the MAC East).  Toledo is making their first trip to the MAC title game in over a decade which is hard to believe.  Unfortunately their best seasons have been when Northern Illinois, Western Michigan and Ball State have had program-defining seasons.

Conference USA Championship: North Texas at Florida Atlantic

Noon

Interesting that TSN2 picked up this game and not the MAC Championship.  Not complaining though.  The amount of coverage on Lane Kiffin in this one is going to be INSANE!  Winner could end up getting a matchup with a Power Five school which I believe should happen for all G-5 champs.

Big XII Championship: #3 Oklahoma vs. #11 TCU

12:30 PM

This is the 1B game to the AAC Championship.  They are starting a half hour late so that pretty much everyone tunes to FOX for the fourth quarter (probably).  Shrewd move.  Anyway, Oklahoma wins they are in the College Football Playoff.  TCU wins and it could be pretty chaotic.  I believe this is the 86th college football game this season at JerryWorld.

Saturday Afternoon

SEC Championship: #2 Auburn vs. #6 Georgia

4:00 PM

Huge game here but really, for the most part, it’s win and you’re in.  Only scenario that could see both these teams in or, GASP, Alabama, is if the other three favourites lose their conference championship games.  This is the first SEC Championship at Mercedes-Benz Stadium as well.

SWAC Championship: Grambling vs. Alcorn State

4:30 PM

This is the final SWAC Championship ever.  Starting next season, the SWAC will send their top regular season team to the Celebration Bowl which kicks off bowl season.  I wonder if this means they are scrapping divisions as well.

Saturday Primetime

Troy at Arkansas State

7:30 PM

The de facto (kind of) Sun Belt title game which means sweet fuck all.  Next year they get their conference championship which still doesn’t mean a whole lot other than a banner you get to put up.  If winning the conference got you an opportunity to face one of the big boys in a nationally broadcast bowl game that would be a bigger prize and one that makes more sense.  I will keep beating this drum until it happens…meaning the drum will have a hole in it before it ever comes to fruition.

Mountain West Championship: #25 Fresno State at Boise State

7:45 PM

Fresno State caught a bit of a bad break.  The Mountain West Championship is supposed to be hosted by the higher ranked team in the CFP Rankings.  If neither team is ranked it ends up being a combination of computer rankings and some voodoo to figure out who gets to host.  The Bulldogs are higher ranked than Boise.  But because of logistics, they had to announce the host a couple days before the rankings came out.  Another knock against conference championships.  And yes, neither team has a shot at the New Year’s Six.

ACC Championship: #1 Clemson vs. #7 Miami

8:00 PM

Another win-and-you’re-in game.  And yes, Miami will get in with a win here despite that upset loss to Pitt this past Saturday.  Clemson may still have an outside shot at the CFP with a loss but a lot of other dominoes would have to fall.

Big Ten Championship: #4 Wisconsin vs. #8 Ohio State

8:00 PM

Wisconsin is still the redheaded stepchild of the Top 4 but if they win they are safely in and if they lose The Committee will strap them to a rocket and fire them into the sun.  Ohio State is in a different position because if a couple of the top teams lose then it may come down to them or Bama for the final spot and there are a lot of people who truly believe the Tide don’t belong in the CFP this season.  And they may very well be right.

Some gambling fun and games

Alright, other than the bowl games this will be my final betting-type thing of the college football season.  It’s been a great run…OK that’s a lie.  There are a few weeks where my picks have been brutal.  Things have looked up lately but overall?  Meh.  Here are the picks:

USC over Stanford

Memphis over UCF

Toledo over Akron

Florida Atlantic over North Texas

Oklahoma over TCU

Georgia over Auburn

Grambling over Alcorn State

Arkansas State over Troy

Boise State over Fresno State

Clemson over Miami

Wisconsin over Ohio State

 

We’ve made it almost to the end.  It’s Judgment Day for a lot of teams.

Thursday Night Football, yet again, on tonight.  Washington is in Dallas.  Does anybody really care?  Most Cowboys fans are just hoping the team can be somewhat competitive until Ezekiel Elliott comes back and Skins fans are counting down the weeks until it’s Kirk Cousins’ final time under centre.

NFL schedule coming tomorrow.  Enjoy the games everyone!

Hey it’s the first bowl recap of the season…OK don’t all clap at once

Bowl recap season.  We have arrived.  It doesn’t have the same feel as the regular season but it’s still college football and it feels really good when the game is competitive.  So let’s begin!

First a quick note about the lower division games.  The D-II and D-III finals were cool to watch, especially the D-II Championship in Kansas City that was in a severe snowstorm.  Some serious FOOTBAW WEATHER!

FCS Semi-finals

The king is dead!  Someone finally figured out future Mountain West member North Dakota State.  James Madison kind of looked like the team that could give the Bison a run for their money in the previous two rounds with their gaudy offensive numbers.  They played just well enough and weathered the noise of the Woodchipper to pull out the victory.  NDSU’s streak of championships stops at five.  An amazing feat.  Alright, enough of this crap, send them up to the FBS pronto!

The other semi-final was in frigid Eastern Washington.  It came down to the final play (almost).  Kevin Rader’s catch in the endzone holding on to the ball around the back of the EWU defender is probably the catch of the year and It propelled the Youngstown State Fighting Pelinis to the FCS Championship.  An amazing game.

Now on to the bowl games and it starts with the only non-FBS bowl of the year.

Celebration Bowl – Grambling 10 North Carolina Central 9

Not that great a game until later in the fourth.  Then everything went nuts.  NC Central scores what looks to be the tying touchdown.  Then the receiver takes his helmet off in the end zone, drawing a penalty.  The Eagles go on to miss the extra point, losing by one.  My response is captured here: http://www.foxsports.com/college-football/gallery/celebration-bowl-penalty-excessive-celebration-grambling-state-north-carolina-central-121716.  Yes you can’t make this up.

New Mexico Bowl – New Mexico 23 UTSA 20

It was somewhat of a home advantage for the Lobos but it wasn’t a packed house which is kind of disappointing.  UTSA came oh-so-close in their first bowl game ever.  Bob Davie has done an excellent job in Albuquerque which isn’t the easiest thing.  Remember, this team has NEVER been ranked.  Ever.  That seems almost impossible but they have done it.  Anyway, what I am trying to say is I am sure Notre Dame would take him back in a heartbeat.

Las Vegas Bowl – San Diego State 34 Houston 10

So Donnel Pumphrey broke Ron Dayne’s record for career rushing yards.  Or did he?  Leave it to the NCAA to fuck up something as simple as counting and adding.  They can’t go back and retroactively add bowl game information that is readily available to everyone?  So stupid.  Not to take away what Pumphrey did.  The kid is a smaller running back who thrashed defenses on the reg and is, at the very least, a good option as a change of pace back in the NFL.  Also, Brent Musburger advocating for the Raiders to move to Vegas is so Brent.  I’m surprised he hasn’t invited his bookie into the booth.  Then again, he may have asked and been denied.

Camellia Bowl – Appalachian State 31 Toledo 28

I think we found our latest graduate of the Les Miles School of Clock Management.  What was Jason Candle thinking?  If Toledo hadn’t taken that delay of game penalty that field goal attempt probably ends up good and it may end up in the teams going to overtime.  Instead, it is pushed right and the Rockets lose.  Poor clock management.  Even the best coaches seem to have issues with it.

Cure Bowl – Arkansas State 31 UCF 13

I don’t know what this bowl was supposed to cure.  It was way too long (four hours) and wasn’t even that great a game.  UCF was never in it, much to the chagrin of the home crowd in, ahem, “Bowlando” (God I feel disgusting even saying that).  So it didn’t cure my boredom.  Maybe insomnia perhaps?

New Orleans Bowl – Southern Miss 28 UL-Lafayette 21

This looked like it would be over quickly when the Golden Eagles went out in front 14-0 midway through the first.  After that the Ragin’ Cajuns woke up, realized they were in a game and played Southern Miss tough the rest of the way.  They came up a bit short but it was still an entertaining game to end the first day of bowl season.

In other news, both Leonard Fournette and Christian McCaffrey have opted out of their team’s respective bowl games.  They are doing this to keep injury free and start preparing for the NFL Draft.  I expect this to be a trend.  What will this do?  Well one thing for sure is it will, eventually, drive ticket sales down at certain bowls that need brand name power to prop them up.  I mean the Sun Bowl has little they can do to promote the game.  Missing star players will just make it worse.

The bowl games continue today with the Miami Beach Bowl on at the ridiculous time of 2:30.  A college football game.  In the afternoon.  Pre-Christmas.  During a weekday.  It doesn’t take a rocket scientist/Master’s student/recent GED recipient to figure out the problem here.  It’s on my PVR and unless it’s a close game I will watch maybe fifteen minutes of it.  This shit has to stop.  I have outlined this before and will be doing it again in the coming days as I revise my If I Ran the Bowl Games post.  Also coming up will be the NFL recap tomorrow.  Enjoy the bowl games and the Monday nighter tonight.