More like Mari-No Cristobal, am I right? And the Week 7 College Football TV Schedule

Posted on October 10, 2023 by guelphbossman

If you missed it this past Saturday, one of the most egregiously bad coaching decisions in college football history occurred.

Miami had Georgia Tech beat. All they had to do was kneel down with 33 seconds left in the game and they would have escaped with a win over the Yellow Jackets. Tech had no timeouts. This is about the easiest call to make. A horrible high school football coach could figure it out. Not Mario though.

The Canes instead ran the ball and fumbled. The fumble was close. Honestly, if it had been called not a fumble and the runner down initially, I think it would have stayed that way. Instead, Georgia Tech got the ball back and went down the field and scored a touchdown with only a couple of seconds left (that play alone was ridiculous as Haynes King seemed to scramble forever and then found a relatively wide open Christian Leary for the TD pass).

Immediately, some harkened back to Cristobal doing almost the exact same thing when he was the head coach at Oregon. Kind of the same situation where a kneel down would almost certainly have got them the win over Stanford. Instead, the Ducks ran a play, fumbled, Stanford recovered and would go on to win in overtime.

Whether Cristobal survives this is debatable. Even with Miami still at 4-1, some Canes backers will want him gone unless they can at least be ranked at the end of the season. Either way, that set of events will go down in college football infamy.

OK enough of Fumblegate or Kneelgate or Cristogate or whatever some idiot will come up with for this. It’s schedule time!

Tuesday

		US	Canada
Louisiana Tech at Middle Tennessee	7:00
Coastal Carolina at Appalachian State	7:30
Liberty at Jacksonville State	7:30

Here we go. Conference USA weekday action. All October. No Saturday games. It’s like somewhat southern fried MACtion except not as good. Also throw in a Fun Belt game and you got a decent night of football.

Wednesday

		US	Canada
UTEP at FIU	7:30
Sam Houston at New Mexico State	9:00

The latter half of the first early week Conference USA set of games. Nothing super important here although we will see if Sam Houston can get their first FBS victory in program history.

Thursday

		US	Canada
Wagner at St. Francis	7:00
SMU at East Carolina	7:30
Fort Valley State at Benedict	7:30

This is easily the weirdest schedule segment I have ever put on my blog. The first ever NEC game appears as Wagner travels to St. Francis. Also, a rare Division II matchup between Fort Valley State and Benedict. Why is this D-II game on this Thursday night? Hell, if I know but it’s football so I will watch.

Friday

		US	Canada
Tulane at Memphis	7:00
Fresno State at Utah State	8:00
Stanford at Colorado	10:00

TSN going with the late game and not the early game is certainly a choice. Two things though: CFL football is on in the early window and TSN probably wants to get in on the Colorado ratings early-season juggernaut.

Saturday Early

This is not as good as your normal Nooner schedule. It’s surprising since most networks are trying to avoid going up against USC-Notre Dame in the primetime window and Oregon-Washington in the afternoon window. And yet still, the best game in this timeslot is arguably Syracuse-FSU (although I think Georgia Southern-JMU will be the better game).

UPDATE: Syracuse-FSU has been added to TSN+.

Saturday Afternoon

		US	Canada
California at #16 Utah	3:00
#8 Oregon at #7 Washington	3:30
Wake Forest at Virginia Tech	3:30
UMass at #6 Penn State	3:30
Texas A&M at #19 Tennessee	3:30
Troy at Army	3:30
BYU at TCU	3:30
FAU at USF	3:30
Illinois at Maryland	3:30
Florida at South Carolina	3:30
Ohio at Northern Illinois	4:00
Iowa at Wisconsin	4:00

OK now this is a timeslot. A ton of choice. The undisputed game of the week lands here along with a bunch of other tasty college football platters for our consumption. UW-UO is that big game of the week (year?) and will have a huge impact on the Pac-12 going forward (and even the national championship picture). TAMU-UT could be low-key good and Iowa-Wisconsin might just be for the Big Ten West title. Let’s see if Iowa can put up some offense for once.

Saturday Primetime

		US	Canada
#14 Louisville at Pittsburgh	6:30
Wyoming at Air Force	7:00
Auburn at #22 LSU	7:00
Marshall at Georgia State	7:00
Arizona at #19 Washington State	7:00
#25 Miami at #12 North Carolina	7:30
#10 USC at #21 Notre Dame	7:30
Missouri at #24 Kentucky	7:30
NC State at #17 Duke	8:00
UAB at UTSA	8:00
#18 UCLA at #15 Oregon State	8:00

I already mentioned the big USC-Notre Dame game that appears here alongside UCLA-Oregon State which is another Pac-12 cannibalization game that I believe will keep the Pac-12 out of the College Football Playoff once again. You will notice that UF-SC is not on TSN+ even though it probably should be. I wonder if it’s an error in the current schedule as otherwise it would make absolutely no sense but would be right up TSN’s alley when it comes to college football broadcasting gaffes of the past.

UPDATE #2: Normally I would chastise myself for not waiting but didn’t have time to wait (thanks a bunch, Conference USA). Anyway, Mizzou-UK has been added to TSN+ as I thought would happen.

Saturday Late Night

		US	Canada
Montana at Idaho	10:30
San Diego State at Hawaii	11:00

Ho boy. Is it an interesting schedule? Sure. But there isn’t much meat on the bone here. It does give Canadians the rare opportunity to participate in the Hawaii Test though.

Hey, Watch This!

Oregon at Washington (3:30, ABC/TSN+) – I have mentioned the Pac-12 and how they tend to cannibalize themselves often. It’s happened a few times in the past few years already. And it’s already rearing its ugly head again. Wazzu beat Oregon State and then promptly lost to UCLA. So yeah, no guarantees for the winner here except the fact they should be in the Top 5 with a win and will remain among the (quickly shrinking) land of the undefeated.

USC at Notre Dame (7:30, NBC) – This might have been considered for Game of the Week if the Irish had been able to beat Louisville last Saturday. A Trojan win here keeps them in at least of a share of the driver’s seat to go to Las Vegas for the Pac-12 Championship and conference supremacy. An Irish win and the Trojans cost themselves greatly and Caleb Williams’ chance at history could take a huge hit.

UCLA at Oregon State (8:00, FOX) – Man, this is truly the Pac-12’s week to shine. Five of the six teams in the games of the week reside in a conference that will be dead very soon. How sad. Anyway, the Beavers could put UCLA out of the mix at this point if they get the victory here. The Bruins would be the shock of the college football world if they could somehow make it to the Pac-12 Championship. It would also validate (finally) Chip Kelly’s hiring.

Missouri at Kentucky (7:30, specialty pack) – I mentioned above that this game was not on TSN+ and only on the specialty pack at this point. That should change but until I see it I won’t post it. Anyway, this section drops off a bit of a cliff after the top three games. Both of these teams had their chances last week to make serious noise in the SEC. The Wildcats got blasted by Georgia and the Tigers couldn’t outlast one of the other Tigers in the conference (LSU). The winner here still has an outside shot at the New Year’s Six with the loser being relegated to the third tier of the SEC East behind the winner and, of course, UGA.

Sickos Game of the Week

Wake Forest at Virginia Tech (3:30, TSN+/specialty pack) – Every conference network has their share of, let’s say, not-so-good games and this is certainly one of them. The Demon Deacons aren’t nearly as good as they have been in recent years and the Hokies are bordering on awful. Luckily for these two teams, Virginia and Boston College exist in the ACC. Honestly, there really aren’t too many seriously bad games that we can watch here so this will look better than most of the games that appear in this spot this season.

Hubba Bubba Blowout of the Week

UMass at Penn State (3:30, Big Ten Network) – Good god. I wonder if the Nittany Lions can put an 80-burger on the board in this one. This will be bowling shoe ugly for sure.

Wanna Bet?

Look, I had Texas-Oklahoma being close. And it was. A great Red River Shootout as it almost always is. Some of my other picks….well…I’m looking at that Miami over Georgia Tech pick and shaking my head. Not because it was a bad pick: it’s because of what you saw at the top of our show. So let’s move on to this week and not dwell too much on the past.

New Mexico State 24 Sam Houston 21

Florida State 49 Syracuse 14

Michigan 54 Indiana 27

James Madison 47 Georgia Southern 10

Texas A&M 33 Tennessee 24 (mild upset)

FAU 45 USF 25

Washington 34 Oregon 31

TCU 35 BYU 21

Wisconsin 30 Iowa 10

Pittsburgh 31 Louisville 22 (fairly big upset!)

Kentucky 27 Missouri 21

Notre Dame 38 USC 35 (OT)

Oregon State 31 UCLA 19

Alright we shall see how busy I get. I am sure to wtch a fair amount of college football on Saturday but it might not be my usual all-day affair. I hate to say I hope for somewhat shitty weather on Fall Saturdays sometimes but I do. It gives me all the excuses I need to stay inside and be a slob and watch football.

Also, small apology for the blog post coming out after the games commenced this week. Starting the week on a Tuesday certainly creates a time crunch even with a holiday Monday. Anyway, enjoy the games everyone!

What is wrong with the Week 3 College Football TV Schedule?

Posted on September 14, 2023 by guelphbossman

Nothing, really.

Now if you asked me what is wrong with Mel Tucker? Or Jeff Lebby? Or a host of past football coaches? I’d say plenty. I mean what the fuck is up with some people?

If you haven’t heard about ol’ Tucks, here’s a brief rundown:

Brenda Tracy, a well-known rape victim advocate (and victim herself), was hired to speak to the Spartans football team two years ago. Depending on who you believe, Tucker and Tracy became friends and then developed a bit of a romantic interest in each other. Tucker says this is true, Tracy denies this. He said, she said. Then last April, there was a phone call between the two where Tucker decided it should be phone sex (Tucker says they were both speaking in that manner) and then decided to whip it out and jerk off on the phone.

Tracy filed a formal complaint in December and then a report was filed in July to say that they should have a hearing to discuss whether Tucker violated a school policy on sexual misconduct. This hearing was to be next month. Now Tucker is suspended and probably will be fired with cause.

Crazy. And ridiculous. And even if it isn’t all true, the stuff Tucker admits paints him as a guy who can’t control himself. Then his letter on the matter makes him sound like a fucking idiot. No matter what, this is not going to turn out well for someone.

As for Jeff Lebby, he decided this was a perfect time to let his father-in-law, disgraced piece of shit former head coach Art Briles, on to the field after an Oklahoma victory on Saturday. Lebby just wanted his family on the field. Which includes Briles. I don’t know if Lebby understood the whole situation which makes him a complete dummy. He did apologize, though. Whether he meant it or did it while Brent Venables held a gun to his nuts, we will never know.

All of this is to say that there are some college football head coaches, past and present, who seem to think they can do whatever the fuck they feel like and get away with it. Again, even if Tucker is deemed not guilty, he admitted to cheating on his wife and pretty much seems OK with it. Lebby didn’t think once that “hey, my father-in-law, who has not been hired anywhere else since he was fired from Baylor for pretty fucking terrible reasons, should get to have Sooners gear on and come on the Sooners field and celebrate with the Sooners because…”…..why exactly? Oh, because he pretty much doesn’t give a shit. That’s why some of these players need to be told “Don’t be like your coach. He’s an asshole.”

Alright, enough of that nonsense. It’s schedule time.

Thursday

Nothing much of note here but I am interested in seeing Navy truly for the first time this season (after watching very little of them earlier on).

Friday

		US	Canada
Army at UTSA	7:00
Utah State at Air Force	8:00

Interestingly enough, the other two military academies play on Friday night. So all three are done before Midnight on Friday. Odd. But fun that they are all pretty much getting national play on their own.

Saturday Early

Big games? Ah no. So devoid of big games that Big Noon Kickoff decided not to stick with Champaign as the site before the Illini host Penn State. They moved it to Colorado so they can keep that Deion Boner going. I guess you got to strike while the iron is hot.

Saturday Afternoon

		US	Canada
VMI at NC State	2:00
Weber State at #12 Utah	2:00
#10 Alabama at USF	3:30
Northwestern at #21 Duke	3:30
Western Michigan at #25 Iowa	3:30
Virginia Tech at Rutgers	3:30
South Carolina at #1 Georgia	3:30
FIU at UConn	3:30
Minnesota at #20 North Carolina	3:30
East Carolina at Appalachian State	3:30
#19 Oklahoma at Tulsa	3:30
Tulane at Southern Miss	4:00
WKU at #6 Ohio State	4:00
ULM at Texas A&M	4:00
NC Central at #24 UCLA	5:00

A ton of choice here. The CW gets to show an afternoon game. Also a Pac-12 Network quardrupleheader. Well, a quadrupleheader here if you watch Pac-12 International on YouTube. See, the games on Pac-12 International are the Pac-12 Network national feed games. There are a couple other games that won’t be shown in Canada because they are regional only. Again, no big games here but we all remember what South Carolina did Between the Hedges back in 2019. If an upset of that magnitude happened again, it immediately changes the season and turns it on its head. Finally, Notre Dame is playing today…at home. But it’s on Peacock so no getting it here.

UPDATE: Thanks to reader William, I have found out about Fighting Irish TV (https://fightingirishtv.live/login). If you want to watch the game on Peacock, there’s your ticket.

Saturday Primetime

		US	Canada
Vanderbilt at UNLV	7:00
#11 Tennessee at Florida	7:00
James Madison at Troy	7:00
Pittsburgh at West Virginia	7:30
Bowling Green at #2 Michigan	7:30
BYU at Arkansas	7:30
Akron at Kentucky	7:30
Syracuse at Purdue	7:30
Georgia Tech at #17 Ole Miss	7:30
FAU at Clemson	8:00
TCU at Houston	8:00
Wyoming at #4 Texas	8:00
Hawaii at #13 Oregon	8:00

No massive games but Tennessee travelling to The Swamp to face Florida bears some interest since the Vols have struggled there a lot in years past. Still no Harbaugh on the sidelines (unless you count Jack) as the Wolverines host Bowling Green who hopes to keep things relatively close. And lookie here…the Longhorn Network? That’s right. For the first time ever (as far as I can tell), LHN can be viewed (legally) in Canada. Hopefully Wyoming can play like they did against Texas Tech and keep this game competitive.

Saturday Late Night

		US	Canada
Colorado State at #18 Colorado	10:00
Kansas at Nevada	10:30
UTEP at Arizona	11:00

Finally, the game that’s being played where both ESPN and FOX’s pregame shows were at…Colorado hosting mighty Colorado State. It must be since both networks were there. Don’t get me wrong, I totally get the hype but with two much bigger games coming up for the Buffaloes you think they would save this for the next couple of weeks. Or they might just camp out there until October. I mean why take the set down if you are just going to put it back up again a few days later?

Hey, Watch This!

South Carolina at Georgia (3:30, CBS) – Yes this is, arguably, the best game of the week. Kind of sad, not gonna lie. Saying that, if 2019 happens again, the SEC is seriously wide open. Don’t bet against the Gamecocks, even if they did look mediocre against North Carolina earlier this year. Or do because you think UGA will win. Either way.

Washington at Michigan State (5:00, Peacock) – This feels a bit icky but there is a ton of intrigue now with this one. A very good Huskies team against a team that will have to fight some adversity without their disgraced head coach. And it’s on Peacock of all places. NBC might have inadvertantly struck it rich by putting this game on the streaming service a while back.

Tennessee at Florida (7:00, TSN+/SP) – As I said above, the Vols, and many teams, have struggled in the hot and humid Swamp in Septembers past. Will it happen here? Eh, probably not. Man, how can a week be that devoid of big games?

Minnesota at North Carolina (3:30, TSN+/SP) – Um……well, it’s two undefeated teams so there’s that. Yeah, I got nothing.

Sickos Game of the Week

Vanderbilt at UNLV (7:00, CBSSN) – Look, there is a possibility that we see a 3-0 UNLV team by the end of Saturday night. So yeah, you could say the season is already a bit strange. And if Barry Odom wants a signature victory of sorts, this game is ripe for the picking. Or…OR…this could be a hilariously bad game that one team has to win. I am morbidly curious.

Hubba Bubba Blowout of the Week

Alabama at USF (3:30, ABC/TSN2) – Why is this game on ABC? Well, it’s not like there are a ton of strong contenders *waves wildly at the Games of the Week list*. Coming off a loss, Nick Saban is going to be uber-pissed. Which will make the rest of the coaches pissed. Which will make the players very angry. And they are going to take it out on a Bulls team who might not know what hit them until long after this one is over.

Wanna Bet?

Will this list be decent? After looking back at my picks last week, I am going to venture to say that’s a no.

Bethune-Cookman (+53.5) over Miami (but the U wins by 40)

Buffalo (+3.5) over Liberty (and the outright win)

LSU (-9.5) over Mississippi State

UConn (-7) over FIU

North Carolina (-7.5) over Minnesota

South Carolina (+27.5) over Georgia (and I think this will be relatively close but the Dawgs will hold on for the W)

Tulane (-13) over Southern Miss

Florida (+6.5) over Tennessee (the Vols win a VERY close one)

Vanderbilt (-4.5) over UNLV

Michigan (-40.5) over Bowling Green

Clemson (-24.5) over FAU

Oregon (-38) over Hawaii

Colorado (-23) over Colorado State

Spotty information so far for the specialty packs as I see some information but not all of it. It should all be up by tomorrow and should match what I have. Funny enough, TSN+ has their shit together and has their full schedule up (and has since Monday).

I’ll be on the TwiXter machine this Saturday (@TheBauceman) so you can interact mwith me there if you like. Or you can just sit in your favourite chair like a normal person and watch more than 14 hours of football unlike a normal person. Enjoy the games everyone!

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

Posted on August 31, 2023 by guelphbossman

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

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

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

Thursday

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

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

Friday

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

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

Saturday Early

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

Saturday Afternoon

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

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

“I told you so!”

“When?”

“Uh…”

Yeah that’s right, go fuck yourself.

Saturday Primetime

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

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

Saturday Late Night

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

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

Sunday

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

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

Monday

		US	Canada
#9 Clemson at Duke	8:00

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

Hey, Watch This!

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

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

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

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

Sickos Game of the Week

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

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

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

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

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

Wanna Bet?

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

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

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

Miami (-16.5) over Miami-OH

Stanford (-3.5) over Hawaii

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

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

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

Washington (-14) over Boise State

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

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

Tulane (-6.5) over South Alabama

Oregon State (-16.5) over San Jose State

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

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

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

WE! ARE! BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACK!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Posted on August 23, 2023 by guelphbossman

We have made it everyone. Our long ordeal is over. College football has returned! Sure, we’ve had the XFL and then the USFL and the CFL started their season and the NFL has their preseason going but this….THIS is the real fucking deal my friends. College football begins…

…with Week Zero. Now, I know Week Zero rarely has huge games anymore. Gone are the Kickoff and Pigskin Classics of yesteryear and the odd huge matchup that somehow gets moved to August. But it’s college football.

Will I get excited for Navy and Notre Dame way over in Dublin? I sure will.

Will I have my eyes glued to UMass-New Mexico State that has somehow made it to ESPN? Of course!

Will I watch with anticipation as Hawaii starts their season in Nashville against Vanderbilt in what looks like a stadium that is only 75% built? You god damn right I will be.

Hell, I may even try to figure out how to watch San Jose State face off against USC…you know the game with possibly the best team this coming weekend that has ended up on, you guessed it, ~~Frank Stallone~~ the Pac-12 Network. No wonder that conference is pretty much dead.

So let’s get to the schedule. You know the drill; the SP logo means it will appear on the specialty pack and as far as I know, Week Zero almost never has games on the specialty packs because why would they? That would make too much sense. I just don’t get it sometimes. However, they did last year so I will keep you updated on whether they come to their senses again or revert to the way they used to be.

Saturday Afternoon

Look, after what Northwestern went through last season (let’s not even begin to discuss what’s gone on there the last couple months), both the Middies and the Irish might want to be a bit cautious about winning the opening game being held in the football hotbed of Dublin, Ireland. We also have the FBS debut of another team of Gamecocks: these ones from Jacksonville State with their head coach, RichRod!

UPDATE #2: The specialty packs are starting to be updated as now UNA-Mercer is appearing there for Bell Fibe and Satellite. No word about Rogers but I assume by the end of the day it should be appearing there.

Saturday Primetime

		US	Canada
UMass at New Mexico State	7:00 PM
Jackson State vs. South Carolina State (in Atlanta)	7:30 PM
Hawaii at Vanderbilt	7:30 PM
FIU at Louisiana Tech	9:00 PM

For the first time ever (as far as I know), ABC will be showing an FCS game in primetime. Jackson State doesn’t have Deion Sanders or most of the talented JSU teams of the past couple seasons there but I’m sure it will still be a fun game to watch. Also, you can watch the final game of the night because there will be nothing else on (football-wise).

There are a few other games on this day. Nothing major but five other games won’t be available to Canadians with three of those normally being specialty pack options. I’ll say it again: it’s why I’ve gone the IPTV route. Even if the functionality is different, the options on what to watch are way higher than what you can get on Canadian cable or satellite and that will never change. I hate relying on the specialty packs just because they can be a bit unpredictable. What they are supposed to show doesn’t always end up happening which can be very frustrating.

UPDATE: Reader Mike has informed me that the UH-Vandy and UMass-NMSU is now appearing on the Bell Satellite specialty pack. I looked just now and saw that Bell Fibe has also updated their listings and those two games will appear there as well. Good.

UPDATE #3: According to reader Gordo, Cogeco has their specialty pack up. This should mean that Eastlink and Rogers have theirs up as well since they are pretty much connected at the hip. If it’s otherwise I will try and let you all know.

UPDATE #4: Reader Mike D reminded me that the Pac-12 Network can actually be seen up here in Canada on YouTube through their international feed. Which means we have more access to that network than most of America. Again, I will be checking this during the evening and will let you know either way.

UPDATE #5: Reader Hot Tub Matt Leinart (great name by the way) mentioned TSN+. This isn’t a new thing but they have been showing a lot more of, well, everything this year. And that should include college football. UNA-Mercer, UMass-NMSU, UH-Vandy and SCSU-JSU will all be appearing on TSN+ today for those who subscribe to the service.

UPDATE #6: Pac-12 Network International does indeed work on YouTube for Canadians. At first I thought it wasn’t working but then I remembered to turn my VPN off that was set to the United States. Stupid Bossman. So yeah, if you want to watch probably the best team playing today, head to YouTube.

Again, it’s Week Zero so I won’t be doing the games to watch section this week. There aren’t any huge games, despite what fans of any of these schools would say. Also, let’s be honest…if you can watch New Mexico State, in primetime, on ESPN, it’s already a bit of a crazy day.

Wanna Bet?

Might as well do some bets for this week, right? And yes, they will be AGAINST THE SPREAD!

San Diego State (-3) over Ohio

FIU (+10.5) over Louisiana Tech (LaTech wins a close one)

Jacksonville State (-1.5) over UTEP (small upset special?)

New Mexico State (-7.5) over UMass

Notre Dame (-20.5) over Navy

Hawaii (+17) over Vanderbilt (with Vandy winning by about 10)

USC (-30.5) over San Jose State (this could get ugly)

We are almost there. A few days to go. My schedule is cleared to watch football all fucking day. I hope the rest of my Saturdays are like that but I know that’s a pipe dream and will never happen. But you got to have hope, right? I am looking forward to another season of college football and I am sure you are too. Good to be back. Have a great week everyone and enjoy the games!

The G-5. It’s like that big vat of McDonald’s orange drink…

Posted on July 23, 2023 by guelphbossman

Many of the better teams have gone on to greener pastures. They have been replaced (kind of) by weaker teams from FCS. So yeah, they keep watering down the Group of Five. How far can they water it down? Groundskeeper Willie thinks we need to stop. I sort of agree with the angry Scot.

As you already know, Houston, UCF and Cincinnati left the American Conference for the Big(ger) XII. BYU joined them from the Independent ranks but the Cougs were always a weird hybrid since leaving the Mountain West. Not quite Power Five but better than Group of Five. Either way, they moved up as well.

Coming up from FCS is Sam Houston (not the wrestler) and Jacksonville State (two Gamecocks? What is this, the CFL?). Kennesaw State joins next season. All three teams will be in Conference USA. Yeah, the teams coming in don’t exactly measure up to the teams leaving.

What this does, though, is open the door for other teams to ascend to a level where they are almost always competing for the Group of Five crown. Boise State is the only program left who constantly contends for the one G-5 spot in the New Year’s Six. Tulane went last season and looks like a team that should continue that kind of success this season. UTSA, SMU, San Diego State and a few Sun Belt squads also have their eye on that singular prize. Let’s get to the conference standings and see where I believe thing will head this season.

Man, imagine the Big East was back? That conference would be…well, it would be pretty good. Not amazing. But a step above the Group of Five. Anyway…

The cream of the crop among Group of Five conferences is the AAC until further notice. The Mountain West has tried their best but it feels like that competition is over, even if Boise State does win the G-5 title. The Sun Belt is gaining but I can never see them catching the American under the current format. So let’s look at the predictions for the Kings of the G-5 followed by some marinations:

	Conference		Overall
	W	L	W	L
Tulane	8	0	11	1
UTSA	7	1	10	2
Memphis	6	2	8	4
SMU	6	2	8	4
FAU	4	4	6	6
East Carolina	4	4	7	5
Navy	4	4	5	7
North Texas	4	4	7	5
UAB	3	5	4	8
Tulsa	3	5	4	8
USF	3	5	3	9
Rice	2	6	4	8
Temple	2	6	4	8
Charlotte	0	8	1	11

Marinating in American Sauce

Honestly, that sounds disgusting. I am surprised no one has created it…whatever it might end up being.
Look, Tulane is not coming down from their perch. The schedule is, once again, in their favour and other than a huge matchup against South Alabama to start their season and their season-ending matchup with UTSA, the rest of the schedule is more than manageable. Expect the American Championship to go through New Orleans for the second straight year.
No surprise with the Roadrunners of UTSA (I just said that in Greg Gumbel voice) being the team that will end up facing the Green Wave for the conference title. This program is seriously on the rise and could soon enough be called the premiere Group of Five team (until they are poached by the Big XII).
Memphis and SMU will be good once again. But as has been the case, both teams will probably drop at least one game they should win and that is what will ultimately cost them the chance to upset Tulane for the league title.
Some people are very high on Florida Atlantic with their new head coach Tom Herman. I am taking more of a wait and see approach. The same goes for North Texas as they break in a new head coach as well.
I believe Navy will go into the Army-Navy Game needing a win for bowl eligibility. Well, you can tell by their record what I think will happen. I wonder how bowl committees will deal with this. Maybe some bowl gives them the first ever conditional bowl bid? That would actually be kind of exciting. Win and you’re in. Lose and your bid goes to James Madison.
As for the AAC Championship, I see Tulane winning their second game against UTSA in as many weeks to be crowned the AAC champion. I don’t see the Green Wave having an easy time in either game though but they will feel lucky not to be in the Alamodome for either of these games.
Seven projected bowl bids for a conference with fourteen teams. Not exactly great but I think it will take some time for teams like Charlotte and Rice to get acclimated to their new surroundings. Especially since they weren’t that great in the conference they came from.

I am a bit worried that I won’t be ready to do the long Saturday nights that the Mountain West (and Pac-12) give us. Don’t even mention the Hawaii Tests. And this is at a time when I am desperately trying to restrict my caffeine intake. Ugh, this could be very interesting. Maybe I’ll just drink the entire time.

This is the second year of the Mountain West deal with FOX so we won’t see nearly as many MWC games. Yes there will be at least one every week on CBS Sports Network and we get some early-season CBS affairs but with no conference games on any of the ESPN networks, it really hinders our ability as Canadians to watch this conference. Hell, we can probably watch more Conference USA this season.

OK let’s get to this season’s predictions followed by sleep deprived lunacy:

	Conference		Overall
	W	L	W	L
Boise State	8	0	10	2
San Diego State	6	2	8	4
Fresno State	6	2	8	4
Air Force	5	3	9	3
Wyoming	5	3	7	5
San Jose State	4	4	6	6
UNLV	4	4	5	7
Utah State	3	5	4	8
Nevada	3	5	3	9
Colorado State	2	6	3	9
New Mexico	1	7	2	10
Hawaii	1	7	3	10

Juuuuust a tiny bit of Sleep-Deprived Lunacy

You will notice something different with these standings compared to all the others I have predicted in the past. No divisions! About damn time. Divisions are just useless in this day and age. And soon enough, no FBS conference will have divisions. I am certain of that.
Reader John might not be too pleased with this but I think Boise State runs through the conference schedule with relative ease. Not saying teams like SDSU, FSU or Air Force aren’t good. It’s just that the Broncos’ schedule is so favourable you’d have to be crazy to think they don’t have a great shot not just to win the conference, but that one New Year’s Six spot. Really, their September will shape their season. Be at least 3-2 at the end of the month and they will be on their way. Less than that and the conference might just be up for grabs.
In terms of teams just below that top tier, Wyoming should ho-hum their way into another bowl game. I can’t believe Craig Bohl has been in Laramie for almost half of the life of the Mountain West conference it self. SJSU and UNLV will be in a dogfight for a bowl spot and I could honestly see it going either way. But no, I don’t agree with that one voter who thinks the Rebels will win the conference crown. I think that person was obviously coming off a gambling-coke-and-booze fueled bender when they made that choice.
I’ve got the Aztecs winning the tiebreaker with Fresno to get the other MWC Championship spot opposite Boise on the frigid smurf turf. I think the weather is what gives the Broncos the edge in this one as I have them winning the conference championship and then awaiting to see what happens in the rest of the Group of Five.

Annnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnd we’re back down to four teams. Liberty and New Mexico State fucked off to Conference USA and BYU headed to the Big XII, leaving Notre Dame less little brothers to have to hang around with. The thing is, if you took UMass out of the equation…well, you’ll see. Let’s get right to the short set of predictions followed by some actual team-by-team analysis (which is much easier with just four teams):

	Overall
	W	L
Notre Dame	10	2
Army	6	6
UConn	6	6
UMass	1	11

Actual Team-by-Team Analysis (I wasn’t lying!)

Of course we have to start with the team that doesn’t belong in this entire post, the Notre Dame Fighting Irish. It was tough going through their schedule because I don’t know how much they will improve from last year. But they have Sam Hartman. A bonafide Heisman contender at quarterback for the first time in I don’t know how many years. So my ten win prediction for them doesn’t seem too far off the mark and it wouldn’t surprise me if they were able to get to eleven either and get in the College Football Playoff converstaion.
Hey, remember what I said about Navy earlier? That they would be playing for their bowl-eligibility lives in the Army-Navy game? Well, guess who else I think will be in the same boat. Oh yes. I think this will be, easily, the most important Army-Navy Game in a long time. I now wonder if the provisional bowl selection will be a winner-take-all type of deal. Which would be so damn awesome to see.
Will UConn get back to a bowl game? That seems to be a huge question. And to be honest, I think bowl eligibility is almost the floor for this program. Amazing what can happen when you get the right coach in the right spot. Is Jim Mora Jr. an amazing coach? Not really. But he’s good and he landed in the perfect spot for him and the Huskies. Now they have to avoid what happened in the past even when they were somewhat decent: lose games to teams they should beat. Do that and they should be in the postseason once again.
And finally we get to the Minutemen and yes, they will be awful. Quite possibly the worst FBS team once again. I predict them to win one game. That’s it. And it won’t be against Merrimack. I think they squeak by New Mexico and that’s all. And even then, I could see this team go winless. I’m not as huge an advocate of moving teams back down to FCS as I used to be but I do wonder if UMass just needs to drop down. There’s nothing keeping them up in FBS. No conference affiliation and no possibilities in the near future. It might be time to pull the trigger on this program’s demotion.

The Sun Belt (and MAC) are being joined by Conference USA when it comes to mid-week action this season. I will have to check but we may have football every day for over a month.

Other than that, there are less similarties than ever between the Sun Belt and the MAC or Conference USA. The Fun Belt has set themselves up pretty well as the third best Group of Five conference. They are actually closer in quality to the Mountain West than the MAC which is something that never would have been said even five years ago. Also, they seem to be pretty safe from any realignment unless some doomsday scenario comes about and college football conferences as we know it change forever. And I’m not going to say that won’t happen.

Anyway, for now, let’s get to my predictions for the eighth-best FBS conference followed by some upbeat comments:

	Conference		Overall
East	W	L	W	L
Appalachian State	7	1	8	4
James Madison	6	2	8	4
Coastal Carolina	6	2	9	3
Marshall	5	3	7	5
Georgia State	2	6	4	8
Georgia Southern	2	6	5	7
Old Dominion	0	8	1	11
West
South Alabama	7	1	9	3
Troy	7	1	10	2
Southern Miss	5	3	6	6
Louisiana	4	4	7	5
Arkansas State	2	6	4	8
Texas State	2	6	3	9
ULM	1	7	2	10

Upbeat Comments

Well…upbeat for some teams.
The top of each of the divisions continue to be exciting. It’s the one conference that defies my No Divisions preference. In the East, you have four legitimate contenders and you can possibly say the same for the West. Parity rules the day in the Sun Belt once again.
App State, after an odd year that saw some pretty extreme highs and lows, should be back on top of the mountion in the East, barely beating out JMU and Coastal.
South Alabama will finally get their shot at the Sun Belt Championship with what I believe will be a late-season win over Troy.
As for bowl games, officially only seven of the contenders I’ve mentioned would be able to go to a bowl. But, I have a bit of a surprise for Dukes fans once I put out my bowl predictions post.
I still say the Sun Belt champ should get a shot at an SEC team in New Orleans. Imagine how many fans they would get for that?

As I said above, the Sun Belt and Conference USA have a lot of weekday night games now. But it still isn’t MACtion. The originators to us sickos that love more and more and more football. I don’t even care about the attendance issues that these games cause. The MAC is getting their ESPN money and I am getting my football fix. Everyone wins!

Alright, predictions time followed by some points in a Midwestern accent:

	Conference		Overall
East	W	L	W	L
Ohio	7	1	8	4
Miami-OH	5	3	7	5
Buffalo	4	4	5	7
Bowling Green	3	5	4	8
Akron	3	5	4	8
Kent State	0	8	1	11
West
Toledo	7	1	9	3
Eastern Michigan	6	2	9	3
Central Michigan	4	4	4	8
Northern Illinois	3	5	5	7
Western Michigan	3	5	3	9
Ball State	3	5	4	8

Points with Pork Chops and Aeeeplesauce

I mean I’m not gonna lie: I like pork chops and applesauce. I just think it’s way more of a staple in a place like Minnesota than here.
Looks like two teams who are used to being near the top should head back to the MAC title game. Not that Toledo and Ohio won’t have their speed bump games in the MAC but I feel they have the best talent to win their respective divisions.
Only two teams that will be with new head coaches this season and both of them are going to struggle. Lance Taylor takes over for Tim Lester at Western Michigan where Lester just couldn’t do what P.J. Fleck did there. Tall order but most were hoping he would be close and he wasn’t. As for Kent State, they lose Sean Lewis to Coach Prime and Colorado. Bring in Kenni Burns. Yes Kenni with an i. And ho boy is it going to be a long season in Kent for Mr. Burns.
I only see four bowl-eligible teams from the MAC. I have done this before and I was wrong. I just can’t see most of these teams doing enough in their non-conference schedule to get them to a bowl game in December.
Ford Field should see another dandy for the MAC Championship. I’ve got Ohio winning a close one over Toledo with the prize being to go back to Ford Field a few weeks later. At least the tie-in there states that they should face a Big Ten team. That’s the way it should be.

Hey remember what I used to say about Conference USA? Well, it has pretty much come to fruition. You would have to be some kind of dumb or not watch college football to know that this is now the bottom of the barrel when it comes to FBS conferences. I warned them. I’m sure others did too. And now they are stuck. Could they end up being not last place? Sure, maybe. But other than WKU and Liberty, what other teams are really pushing things here? That’s what I thought. Luckily they were able to snag a contract with ESPN to show games on weeknights in October. And when I say weeknights I mean all weeknight games. No Saturday conference games that month. I will be happy though because it means there will be college football on like four consecutive Tuesdays. Not a bad thing at all.

Now it’s time for predictions for the new-ish Conference USA followed by some weeknight non-sitcom commentary:

	Conference		Overall
	W	L	W	L
WKU	7	1	9	3
Middle Tennessee	6	2	8	4
Liberty	6	2	9	3
UTEP	4	4	6	6
New Mexico State	4	4	7	6
Louisiana Tech	2	6	4	8
Sam Houston	2	6	3	9
Jacksonville State	2	6	3	9
FIU	1	7	2	10

Weeknight Non-Sitcom Commentary

Look, with Austin Reed back at QB, he may throw over 5,000 yards. They should win the regular season title pretty easily and it wouldn’t surprise me if they ended up running the table as well.
There are some newcomers! Liberty is that one newcomer, though, that most are saying will win the conference title in their first year in C-USA. I say not so fast my friend. I don’t even see them getting to the conference title game. The Flames will most likely lose a game they should win and it will cost them that spot.
Yes, I have NMSU making a bowl game again! Jerry Kill has really turned things around in Las Cruces and with this new conference I see them already in the middle if not near the top.
On the other hand, Jacksonville State and Sam Houston make their FBS debut this season and it won’t be a kind one. They will struggle and need some time to find their way. Down the road, though, at least one of these programs will turn into one of the conference’s best, if not both of them. But at least they won’t be as bad as…
FIU. Yeesh. Mike MacIntyre will be pulling his hair out by the time this season is over.
So yeah, it’s Middle Tennessee against WKU and I don’t see it being that close but you never know. The Hilltoppers should win going away. Do you think these two teams are regretting not heading to the MAC?

We have completed the journey! Well…half of it. Next up is the Power Five conferences. Then, finally, a nice little bow to tie this whole thing together. Have a great week everyone!

ALL. THE. SCHEDULES!!!!

Posted on July 9, 2023 by guelphbossman

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):

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:

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.

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!

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:

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.

Most Important Games of the 2023 College Football Season

Posted on June 25, 2023 by guelphbossman

Yeah I’m that fucking excited.

Spoiler alert: UConn does not appear on this list. If you were expecting them, I apologize for their absence.

Alright it’s time to start getting on the next season’s worth of college football posts and I always start with the most important games of the upcoming season. Remember last season when I did this post? I didn’t do three or four posts. I did one long-ass post. So guess what? No, we are not going back to three or four posts. It’s one massive post once again. I think it worked last year so I’m going back to the newer well rather than the older well that did me….well, over a bunch of years.

Now some might say “Bossman, it’s too early for this.” To them I say “Eat shit.” FBSchedules has their helmet schedules out and preview magazines are out. I’ve almost ready all of the Lindy’s one and I have the Athlon one ready to go right after. The Phil Steele magazine, the god damn granddaddy of them all, will be here in the next couple of weeks. So yeah I’m getting ready and yeah, it’s time to talk some college football.

Remember how this goes: I am listing the most important games that will shape the outcome of the entire college football season. Sure, Army-Navy is a huge game but unless either team is undefeated going into that one, the game means very little in the grand scheme of things, bowl-wise or other.

So boys and girls (maybe), how do we always start this post? That’s right, with the ranking of the weeks of the season. It is sponsored by the letter R and the number 0. Every year it is usually pretty close to the same. Week 2 is not all of a sudden going to be the biggest week of the college football season. It just never happens. So here are those rankings followed by some witty and potentially insightful banter (a reminder that the week is listed by the Saturday it corresponds to):

Week 11 – November 11
Week 13 – November 25
Week 10 – November 4
Week 4 – September 23
Week 8 – October 21
Week 7 – October 14
Week 12 – November 18
Week 6 – October 7
Week 5 – September 30
Week 9 – October 28
Week 3 – September 16
Week 2 – September 9
Week 1 – September 2

Sweet Jesus, Week 1 looks fucking awful. I mean it’s the first full week of the season so I will be all in but still…it’s like college football has taken several steps backwards from a few years ago when Week 1 was about the fifth or sixth-best week of the season and there were five or six HUGE games. This season, the opening week is highlighted by LSU/Florida State which is great. Then the quality falls off a massive cliff with the next biggest game being the annual Labour Day ACC clash, this time with Clemson and Duke. Woof. Three weeks in November, as per usual, are at the top with Week 11 being the top week this season. It was the same thing five years ago as the week is crammed with huge conference games. I don’t know if I can even call it SEC Sleepwalk/Sleepover/Shitbreak Week anymore as Week 12, the penultimate regular season week, is again near the middle of the rankings. Also, I don’t rate Week Zero. But it will be a ton of fun since it will be the first college football action in over 7 months. So yeah my eyeballs will be fucking glued to Navy/Notre Dame out in Dublin, Ireland, Hawaii/Vanderbilt and UMass/New Mexico State of course!

OK just like last year I will not be going week-to-week. I’m just listing the top games. The top 35 (up from 30) most important games of the college football season. I’ll do this list and then in late November we will all watch a team like Arkansas or Iowa or NC State play in a game that could send them well on their way to the College Football Playoff. It is what it is. Let’s get to the list! For this list, any confirmed broadcast info will be noted. Of course, nothing for TSN will be confirmed until like the night before any of these games because fuck you that’s why.

Ohio State at Michigan (Week 13, Noon, FOX, confirmed) – Chances are this is essentially for a spot in the College Football Playoff. Next year, this might be for a first-round bye in the CFP. How times change. Either way, this is unequivocally the biggest game of the season and the one where FOX sends basically everyone that works under the sports umbrella to work on the 83-hour BIG NUDE SATURDAY.
LSU at Alabama (Week 10, 8:00, CBS) – Alabama is pretty much the go-to pick for CBS’s lone primetime game of the season for the SEC and this year will be no different. This is the final SEC on CBS primetime game and should be a great one as these two teams are, once again, the pillars of the SEC West. The winner here is almost guaranteed (jury is still out on Ole Miss and TAMU) a spot in Atlanta to try and dethrone Georgia (probably).
Michigan at Penn State (Week 11, Noon, FOX, confirmed) – This game, like the first game on the list, could have national championship implications. It really is just a hair below the top two games on this list. FOX is hitting it out of the park with big games this season. I think the Big Ten might be just fine not being on ESPN/ABC going forward.
LSU at Florida State (Week 1, Sunday, 7:30, ABC, confirmed) – Two games in the top four for LSU means they will have a very tough road to get back to having some semblance of a shot at the College Football Playoff (or even the New Year’s Six). This seems like it could finally be the year that FSU returns to the top of the ACC mountain as Mike Norvell has his most talented team in Tallahassee. I love seeing ABC put a great game on the night before Labour Day. At least Week One can always rely on that.
Georgia at Tennessee (Week 12, 3:30, CBS) – If Joe Milton III continues to throw piss rockets like he did against Clemson in the Orange Bowl, this could ascend to Game of the Year territory. The Vols may have the best chance to beat the Dawgs with the game being at what should be a raucous Neyland Stadium. Not confirmed but I would be shocked if this isn’t CBS’s choice for the SEC on CBS this week.
Penn State at Ohio State (Week 8, Noon, FOX) – Man, GUS JOHNSON is getting a great set of games this season to call (if my predictions hold up). This is the final game on this list in the three-team Big Ten East Round Robin Tournament El Fantastico to determine which team (if not two) go to the CFP. I would say the Nittany Lions are pretty good underdogs here but they finally have a quarterback who looks like he can throw the ball downfield a bit so you never know. tOSU has question marks at QB so this could be quite the interesting matchup.
Florida State at Clemson (Week 4, 7:30, ABC/TSN2) – Could the Noles be the favourite here? It’s possible. Unlikely but I wouldn’t go much past a pickem for this one. With the Big Ten leaving ESPN/ABC, these primetime ABC slots open up a lot. And really, it is still the biggest timeslot of the week. This is the year the ACC has to hopefully grab as many of these as possible as next year…yeah, the SEC may end up with all of them.
Tennessee at Alabama (Week 8, 3:30, CBS) – Not going to lie: it is going to feel very weird when the SEC isn’t on CBS every Saturday afternoon. I guess that’s where a huge Big Ten game will go but I can’t see them getting most of the big games because FOX gets their pick of the litter most weeks. Going to be very interesting to watch going forward. Man, I thought figuring out this year’s schedule was difficult. Next year’s is going to seriously tough.
Ohio State at Notre Dame (Week 4, 7:30, NBC, confirmed) – The first non-conference affair on this list and it is a juicy one. Both teams should be undefeated coming into this one unless the Irish have an inexplicable loss like they had last season to Marshall or Stanford. If Touchdown Jesus pulls this one out, expect Sam Hartman to rocket up most Heisman lists.
Texas at Alabama (Week 2, 7:00, specialty pack) – This game is confirmed for ESPN but I have this funny feeling TSN won’t pick it up. Call it a CFL or US Open-based hunch. We shall see though. Let’s be clear: the Horns were fucking robbed of the win last year by the referees. This time they will have a chance to make up for that but it is not easy winning in Tuscaloosa. Ask almost every team that’s travelled there in the past decade-plus.
Utah at USC (Week 8, 7:30, ABC) – Hey, the Pac-12 has joined the party. This is the swansong season in the conference for the Trojans and they are hoping to win the conference championship in their final year. Winning games like these is a must for that to happen. This could be the game that either elevates Caleb Williams to college football history and only the second player to win two Heismans or destroy his chances at repeating.
Ohio State at Wisconsin (Week 9, 7:30, NBC) – Yeah I think NBC will get a couple good Big Ten games and this will be one of them it sounds like. Wisconsin has a new head coach and a new quarterback and a new offensive coordinator that won’t run the ball as much as Wisconsin is supposed to. Hmmm…that is going to feel very unAlvarez-like. At least the kids will get to jump around after the third quarter, testing the structure of Camp Randall like a bunch of engineers.
Washington at USC (Week 10, 3:30, specialty pack) – Again, I have this feeling that TSN will not show this game and that it will head to the specialty pack, much to the chagrin of regular Canadian cable subscribers (which I am not one of). It feels like either this game or the aforementioned Utes-Trojans game will be the game of the year in the conference and will decide at least one of the championship game participants (thanks to no divisions). It’s too bad FOX has their premiere game every week at Noon since this would be a great pick as their game of the week.
Ole Miss at Georgia (Week 11, 3:30, CBS) – Wouldn’t it be something if the Fighting Kiffins of Oxford upset UGA here? The entire college football world would be flipped upside down. And you know how I love upsets. We need another 2007!
Utah at Washington (Week 11, 3:30, TSN2) – Alright, the first game I predict will hit TSN that isn’t already on ABC. Kind of sad that TSN barely cares about their college football contract until bowl season when they suddenly show almost every bowl game despite also showing every World Juniors hockey game. Crazy. If Cam Rising is able to return for opening week then this could be a massive game. I am hoping for his sake (and for Utes fans’ sake) that is the case.
USC at Notre Dame (Week 7, 7:30, NBC, confirmed) – The traditional yearly matchup is back again and even with the Trojans moving to the Big Ten, this matchup will continue. By this point in the season, both of these teams should be in the Top 15 looking at a potential College Football Playoff berth. The loser here loses that and perhaps an NY6 spot.
Alabama at Texas A&M (Week 6, Noon, TSN3/TSN5) – OK I am sure you are looking at this and wondering if I suddenly developed brain damage. I truly believe that the Aggies will be a ton better than they were last season when they essentially bottomed out under Jimbo Fisher. Plus, the Aggies always play the Tide tough so they could throw a big-ass monkey wrench in the entire SEC West picture here with a win.
Notre Dame at Clemson (Week 10, 3:30, ABC) – OK so this is confirmed for ABC but the time is not confirmed. I am guessing it will be on in the afternoon with Kansas State-Texas being the ABC Primetime game. This could end up being switched if both the Irish and Tigers are undefeated going into this one. For once, Clemson isn’t the ACC favourite. It’s kind of refreshing. It will be interesting to see if Cade Klubnik, the next man up at quarterback, can lead the Tigers back to the promised land. I don’t see it but then again, I thought D.J. Uiagelelei was going to be the guy and he’s now out in the boonies of Oregon.
USC at Oregon (Week 11, 7:30, ABC) – Speaking of Oregon, the Trojans head there on Remembrance Day night (or I guess it’s Veterans Day down in the States). Yet another tough test for the Trojans. We all know what’s going to happen though. The best four or five Pac-12 teams will beat on each other and no team will get out unscathed so no team will go to the CFP yet again. That conference just loves to cannibalize itself.
Ole Miss at Alabama (Week 4, 3:30, CBS) – A bit of an early shit-test game for the Tide. A game that they should win but they may have trouble with because their opponent is so damn pesky and annoying. I mean it is Lane Kiffin’s boys so you expect the Ole Miss offense to chug along. Bet the over.
Oregon at Utah (Week 9, 7:30, ABC/TSN2) – Could the Utes fall back to the middle of the pack if they don’t have Cam Rising to start the season? Quite possibly. I mean seeing this game in the Top 25 games of the season means I clearly think Rising will be ready to play on opening night. If not, pray for the Utes since it could be a long season (comparatively…I mean they will still win 8 or 9 games regardless).
Washington at Oregon State (Week 12, 10:30, TSN2) – Hey remember when I mentioned D.J. Uiagelelei? Here’s where he ended up. The metropolis of Corvallis. The Beavs might actually have a contender if D.J. can do what he was supposed to do at Clemson. On the other side of the line, Michael Penix Jr. should be considered the Heisman favourite since I can’t see voters giving it to Caleb Williams again (unless he has an all-timer of a season).
Texas A&M at LSU (Week 13, 3:00, specialty pack) – I actually have this game on the SEC Network. Yeah it may sound weird but this has happened before. And that final week of the regular season is ridiculous for scheduling anyway. At least one of the conference networks ends up getting a beauty of a game. Now if this is somehow for the SEC West title then yeah, it won’t even sniff the SEC Network. But I feel it won’t be so it will end up there.
Oregon at Washington (Week 7, 8:00, FOX) – Last year’s game was crazy with the Huskies having a huge comeback win to keep their Pac-12 hopes alive and ruin Oregon’s. I wonder if Mario Cristobal wishes he was back in Eugene considering how piss poor his Miami Hurricanes did in his first season back with his alma mater.
Utah at Oregon State (Week 5, Friday, 9:00, FOX Sports One, confirmed) – And finally we get a game that, well, Canadians won’t get (unless you have IPTV or find some probably illegal stream). You know, for a stadium that’s been under construction and only holds 27,000, those games in Corvallis can sound VERY loud. Then again, when they start that chainsaw, that’s loud enough. You ever been near one of those? Sweet fucking Jesus they are loud with great ear protection so I can imagine what it’s like being within twenty feet of the thing.
LSU at Ole Miss (Week 5, Noon, TSN2) – A lot of people will feel like this is a game for second place in the SEC West but with Bama’s QB questions, this could hold a lot more importance than that. Not saying the division is a free-for-all but I have these two teams, Bama and even the Aggies having legitimate shots at winning the division so they can be pummeled by UGA in the SEC Championship.
Iowa at Penn State (Week 4, 7:30, CBS, confirmed) – The first game on this list that has the Big Ten on CBS (man that sounds weird). This is confirmed and I believe the Penn State Whiteout Game is also confirmed. To say it’s an intimidating sight for a visiting team would be an understatement.
South Carolina at Georgia (Week 3, 3:30, CBS, confirmed) – This may be the first game that feels like it might not be that close. Saying that, Shane Beamer has the Gamecocks playing great football and they have the enthusiasm and work ethic to give the Dawgs a very tough time. Problem is they are playing this game between the hedges and not at Williams-Brice. If UGA can’t win this by a bunch, the rest of the SEC East should take notice.
Oregon State at Oregon (Week 13, Friday, 8:30, FOX, confirmed) – This could be one of the biggest Civil War games ever. Oh wait, I can’t call it’s the Civil War, can I? Anyway, the winner of this game probably will have a good chance to be in the Pac-12 Championship.
Kansas State at Texas (Week 10, 8:30, FOX) – It took until the thirtieth game to get a Big XII conference game. Look, as much crap as the Pac-12 has taken over the Spring (and rightfully so), the Big XII might be at its weakest in a long time unless a few programs step up (Texas, Oklahoma, Baylor) or maintain what they did last season (Kansas State, TCU, Kansas). This conference should feel lucky that the Pac-12 is in such dire straits. The latest rumor has Colorado and Arizona headed to the Big XII and it wouldn’t surprise me but from a football standpoint…woof.
Texas A&M at Tennessee (Week 7, Noon, TSN3) – OK maybe I should have stopped at 30. No, no, I promised 35 for some strange reason and dammit I am going to pull through. I am actually looking forward to Texas A&M’s season for one reason…Bobby Fucking Petrino. At some point you know it will be a disaster in College Station. It is bound to happen. Until then though you have one of the best offensive minds in college football trying to push this Aggie team to the next level. Just tell him to steer clear of motorcycles and young female former athletes-turned-office staff.
Texas at TCU (Week 11, 7:00, FOX) – What a run the Horned Frogs had last year (if you don’t include the thrashing they took in the national championship game). They probably won’t be as good this season. To lose who they lost and somehow come back and do what they did would be almost impossible. Saying that, the Longhorns should not take this team lightly as they have struggled in the past with them even when TCU wasn’t that great. We should also definitely know by this point whether Quinn Ewers has completely taken that quarterback job or if Arch Manning’s time has arrived in Austin.
North Carolina at Clemson (Week 12, 7:30, ABC) – Look let’s not look past the Tar Heels. They have a Heisman candidate at quarterback in Drake Maye and sometimes that is enough to propel a team to an extra win or two, which is pretty much what UNC would need to get to the ACC Championship. Death Valley East is still Death Valley East and playing there at night is very difficult for opponents. But again, don’t look past the Heels and Mack Brown.
UCLA at USC (Week 12, 8:00, FOX) – Time once again for the Victory Bell and it is gonna feel weird. Final Victory Bell in the Pac-12. No DTR means possible trouble for the Bruins and if they can’t find a quarterback to lead them this season then this game has no right to be in the Top 35.
Clemson at South Carolina (Week 13, 7:00, TSN2) – My hope is that TSN does pick up the ball a bit for the final week of the season like they used to. It was 2019 when they were doing double digits’ worth of games for the final college football weekend. Now, we are lucky to get 4 or 5 which is crazy since there’s almost nothing to compete with it in the live sports arena. Anyway, it’s the Battle for the Palmetto State and it is usually a fun game that can get way too rough at times. Should be good. I hope.

Finished! Top 35 games of the season. I am sure there will be some that end up not coming close to being as important as I thought. That’s the nature of the game. Can’t always be right with these things. I will have another blog post shortly highlighting some other good (and perhaps not-so-good) games this season coming up shortly. 62 days left until Week Zero! Sure it’s not the best college football you will see all season but it will be college football so yeah I’m gonna fucking watch it all if I can! Have a great week, everyone!

Realignment: One of college football’s dirtiest words

Posted on February 5, 2023 by guelphbossman

Realignment. It excites and infuriates people. It has changed college football (and college basketball) forever. Money rules the day as some of these conferences don’t even make sense anymore. The Big Ten will soon have sixteen teams with two of them based in California: thousands of miles away from all the other teams in the conference. The SEC will have sixteen teams and, sorry, Texas, Texas A&M, Oklahoma and Missouri really don’t qualify as “Southeastern” unless you are terrible at geography. Don’t even get me started on how the Sun Belt and Conference USA have bungled realignment in the past. At least the Sun Belt a) has Fun Belt football and b) acquired some good programs. Something Conference USA just hasn’t figured out.

I figured, since I’m bored and there’s not a ton to post about and we are about to go into the football dead season (don’t say XFL or USFL), I would make this post on realignment. Don’t run away! I plan to look at realignment the way I would have had it done or what I thought would have made sense. I’m not going to put Texas State in the SEC or anything stupid like that but I will take a thoughtful look at what has happened and what I think should have happened. In some cases, they may be the same! Let’s get started before I regret doing this.

Now I don’t plan on going back to 1962 and say “Well, the Border Conference never should have been disbanded.” Before my time so I don’t really care. I also won’t say the Georgia Tech or Tulane shouldn’t have left the SEC. Of course they shouldn’t have. But they were going to at some point, be it in the mid-60s or even in the 80s. It was going to happen. I will start with a year that is not paramount at all in the minds of realignmentheads but will contain something from earlier in the 80s that many know about…

(WARNING: This will be a very, very long post so strap in.)

1987

Wichita State drops football for good. Akron moves up from Division 1-AA (remember that?) to be an Independent. Nothing big. Oh wait…

Hey, remember the Big East? In football? OK it wasn’t a thing in 1987 but the conference had been formed back in 1979. In ’82, Penn State applied for membership. Georgetown, St. John’s and Villanova voted against the Nittany Lions joining. This would have been on that Freezing Cold Takes Twitter account if it Twitter existed like 30 years ago. If I had been in charge, I would have made sure at least one of those schools changed their vote to include Penn State. And instead of waiting until the 90s, I would have started Big East football in 1987 because why the hell not. So nine Independent schools would form this new conference:

Penn State, Syracuse, Rutgers, Boston College, Pittsburgh, Miami, Temple, Virginia Tech and West Virginia

Way to go Georgetown, St. John’s and Villanova. Idiots. Also, this means Penn State doesn’t move to the Big Ten in the early 90s.

1989

Louisiana Tech moves up from 1-AA to 1-A as an Independent. Also, SMU returns from the death penalty that, in hindsight, was a terrible move. Either go after more of the schools that had issues (like the entire Southwest Conference) or just ban SMU from bowl games for a bunch of years. What they did set SMU football (and only SMU football) back 20 years. Notice how they have never done it again in football despite the fact they could have easily done it on a few occasions? That’s why.

1991

In one of the biggest moves at the time, Florida State joins the ACC.

1992

Look, I get it. The Southwest Conference was a complete mess for most of its existence. Sure, they had some great football teams but more often than not they were mired in some sort of scandal.

Saying that, I would have done my darndest to keep Arkansas in the SWC. And I wouldn’t have stopped there. Rice, sorry, you gone. There’s no reason to keep you around since you’re terrible in football and not much better in basketball. Yes, it’s one of the top academic schools in the nation and no, I don’t care. They can become an Independent. So at this point, the SWC would look like this:

Arkansas, Baylor, Texas, Texas A&M, SMU, TCU, Texas Tech, Houston

That’s still a good, competitive conference at this point.

South Carolina, on the other hand, does join the SEC, moving that conference to a somewhat awkward eleven teams. Akron moves to the MAC. Fresno State goes from the Big West to the WAC and Long Beach State drops their football program altogether. To replace LBSU and Fresno, Nevada moves up from 1-AA to 1-A and the Big West. Finally, Arkansas State also moves up from Division 1-AA to Division 1-A as an Independent.

1993

Penn State DOESN’T join the Big Ten since they are part of a better Big East (in my opinion). Cal State-Fullerton becomes the second Big West team in as many years to drop football altogether. Because of this, the Big West went on an invitation spree, bringing in Arkansas State, Louisiana Tech, Northern Illinois and Southwestern Louisiana (which is now just Louisiana), meaning they really had forgot about the West part of their conference name.

1994

Northeast Louisiana moves up from Division 1-AA to 1-A. They are now called ULM. Ho hum.

1995

Another almost-nothing year. North Texas moves to 1-A. Big whoop.

1996

This was a huge year in realignment as the Big XII came into existence, with the Big Eight absorbing four programs from the Southwest Conference. I wouldn’t go that route. I think it would be the reverse. The Southwest Conference keeps their name and absorbs all eight of the Big 8 schools. The new sixteen-team conference would be huge. I just hope they don’t go to pod scheduling. Wait, I’m running things. So no, they won’t go that route. Anywhere from two-to-four yearly opponents with the rest being filled in based on order of finish the previous season, like it should be almost everywhere.

Now, because of this, Conference USA loses one member, Houston. With some foresight, they should have kept the other five teams they had and added Rice, Tulsa, Louisiana Tech (from the Big West) and North Texas. This would give this conference the following:

Cincinnati, Louisiana Tech, Louisville, Memphis, North Texas, Rice, Southern Miss, Tulane, Tulsa

That’s a pretty good start for a new mid-major conference in football.

The WAC also has to change. See, they now don’t get Rice, SMU, TCU or Tulsa. So time to pick up some other teams. Time to basically fuck the Big West over. Bring in Nevada, Utah State, UNLV and New Mexico State. This would give the conference the following teams:

BYU, Utah, New Mexico, UTEP, Wyoming, San Diego State, Colorado State, Air Force, Fresno State, San Jose State, Hawaii, UNLV, Nevada, Utah State

That’s a lot of realignment and we aren’t even done yet. The Big West is pretty much ravaged by what the WAC did. Boise State and Idaho move up from 1-AA to 1-A to replace some of the teams but Pacific drops football altogether. The Big West sticks at six teams as Northern Illinois stays in the conference rather than going back to Independent status. Same with Louisiana and Arkansas State although it’s obvious the Big West is on its last legs as a football conference.

Finally, UCF and UAB move from Division 1-AA to 1-A as Independents.

1997

The MAC only gets Northern Illinois (from the Big West) as I would have Marshall head to Conference USA along with East Carolina.

With only five teams remaining, the Big West Conference is dead as it pertains to football. Boise State and San Jose State are invited to the WAC, while the other three teams (Arkansas State, Idaho and Louisiana) become Independents.

1998

Army does not join Conference USA. We all know how that worked out and even at the time, a lot of people thought it was a bad idea.

1999

Yeah sure why not. Let’s form the Mountain West. Arkansas State might as well stay Independent for now. The Big West doesn’t exist and there’s no reason for them to head to the WAC. Buffalo moves up from 1-AA right into the MAC. Middle Tennessee also moves up but as an Independent. Idaho moves into the WAC. Finally, UAB finds a conference home as they head to Conference USA.

2000

Two fairly benign moves: USF and UConn join the Division 1-A Independents from Division 1-AA.

2001

The Big West died (in football) and the Sun Belt started sponsoring football. Thing is, I eliminated the Big West five years ago. So Idaho and New Mexico State, now in the WAC, will not move to the Sun Belt because they don’t have to. Also, Utah State can stay in the WAC now. So the Sun Belt would comprise of Arkansas State, Louisiana, ULM, Middle Tennessee and North Texas, who moves from Conference USA. They bring in Troy State so the Trojans aren’t an Independent.

2002

Another skipped move: UCF just doesn’t bother joining the MAC because it’s the fucking MAC and they don’t need a team in Florida. Instead they just move to Conference USA a year early.

2003

Utah State doesn’t move to the Sun Belt because WHY? They are in the WAC and they can stay there. USF does, however, move. They head to Conference USA to join brother UCF.

2004

Oh baby here we go. Miami and Virginia Tech will NOT be moving to the ACC! They will stay in the Big East as UConn joins. I mean we don’t get ACC Coastal Chaos but I think we can live without it.

Florida Atlantic and Florida International transition up from Division 1-AA to Independent status.

2005

This leads us to the next year where Boston College also doesn’t leave for the ACC. And with Cincinnati, Louisville and USF joining the Big East, it is becoming quite the conference. TCU doesn’t go to the Mountain West because they are already in the Southwest Conference which has weathered the storm until now. SMU also stays in the SWC and doesn’t move to Conference USA. UTEP does move from the WAC to Conference USA as it makes a bit more sense for them. FAU and FIU, one year after joining Division 1-A, move to the Sun Belt Conference. Finally, Temple does not get dropped from the Big East despite their terrible football program. I’m doing a lot of nothing with this which I am sure people will find actually refreshing. I’m sure that will change soon.

2008

WKU joins Division 1-A. I’m just going to put them right in the Sun Belt.

2011

Things were quiet for almost six years. Then the big bang hit in college football and everything went haywire went it came to the conferences and realignment. Will this be the same in Bossman’s Realignmentpalooza? No.

First off, Nebraska does leave for the Big Ten. Since Penn State never went to the Big Ten back in the 90s, this puts the new Big Ten at eleven teams. To make it even, they also invite KANSAS! Yes, I am serious. Kansas wasn’t too far from a few seasons of great football. And their basketball team was awesome as always. So this makes a lot of sense.

As for the Pac-10, they decided they wanted to bring in six schools from the Big XII. Instead, they will bring in those same six schools from the SWC: Colorado, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Texas, Texas A&M and Texas Tech. This also means Utah does not join the now Pac-16 conference.

The SWC is now down to eight schools and, chances are, would lose their automatic BCS bowl bid. With a roster of Baylor, Iowa State, Kansas State, Missouri, TCU, Houston, SMU and Arkansas they can’t make a claim to be worthy of one now. And because of that, Arkansas finally accepts the SEC’s overtures and heads there, dropping the SWC to a seven-team conference.

The trickle down effect was in play. Utah stayed in the Mountain West and was joined by Boise State. BYU also doesn’t leave the Mountain West for Independence at this point.

2012

Another crazy year in realignment that won’t be as crazy when I’m done with it. First off, Texas A&M won’t move to the SEC since they are happy in the somewhat new Pac-16. West Virginia also doesn’t move to the SWC since it would be even more ridiculous than their current move there is (although with Cincinnati in the fold it now makes more sense). Fresno State, Hawaii and Nevada leave the WAC for the Mountain West as it happened in real life. This leaves the WAC with four teams (New Mexico State, San Jose State, Idaho and Utah State). Texas State and UTSA joined to make six. For now, this leaves the WAC as a football conference…but barely.

Oh and Missouri does not go the SEC. I still believe this makes absolutely no sense. For now they stay in the SWC but it won’t be for long.

South Alabama moves up from an FCS Independent right to the Sun Belt conference.

Finally, UMass does not join the MAC. Another weird move by the MAC that doesn’t make sense now and didn’t back then.

2013

First of all, no American Conference. It’s still the Big East. If the basketball schools don’t like it, they can fuck off for the Patriot League or whatever. Also, Pitt and Syracuse do not leave the Big East for the ACC.

Now this becomes an issue because some schools were slated to head to the new American Conference. This is how I would plan to deal with this. Houston and SMU, instead of going to the AAC, stay in the Southwest Conference. They are joined by Memphis, who leaves C-USA for the SWC.

Remember TCU, Boise State and San Diego State heading to the Big East/American? I don’t see that happening now. Instead, Boise State and San Diego State head to the SWC.

San Jose State and Utah State put the final nail in the WAC football coffin by accepting bids to the Mountain West. Idaho and New Mexico State are, once again, Independent teams. Texas State heads to the Sun Belt with UTSA going to Conference USA.

UCF heads to the Big East (not American). Then Conference USA raids the Sun Belt for four teams: FAU, FIU, Middle Tennessee and North Texas. Finally, the Sun Belt reloads, kind of, by accepting Georgia State from FCS.

2014

Louisville does decide to leave the Big East for the ACC. A bit surprising but I feel they belong there a bit better than the Big East.

I know the Big Ten wants to expand into new markets. But it won’t be happening in New York and Washington as Rutgers and Maryland do not leave their current conferences. They’ve been outliers since they moved there so I want to rectify that issue.

East Carolina heads to the Big East. An odd fit but between that and Conference USA, no one conference is a perfect fit for them so might as well move them up, so to speak. Tulane and Tulsa, on the other hand, do not go to the Big East. They head to the SWC, which is finally renamed the Big XII.

Conference USA backfills their losses with WKU from the Sun Belt and Old Dominion from FCS. After that, Appalachian State and Georgia Southern head to the Sun Belt from the FCS. Idaho and New Mexico State stay right where they are as Independents.

2015

The big happening in 2015 was UAB shuttering their football program. I am here to say it won’t happen! I don’t know how I would make that happen but I’ll figure something out.

Navy joins the Big East, ending over 100 years of Independent football and Charlotte transitions to FBS by joining Conference USA.

2017

One item: Coastal Carolina joins the Sun Belt from FCS.

2018

Poor Idaho. You would have thought they could have stayed up in FBS but it wasn’t to be. The Mountain West, the one conference it made sense for them to be in, didn’t want them. And the Sun Belt, which had them in reality for a few years, might as well have been on the moon compared to where they were situated. So they are gone to FCS, probably never to return.

In actuality, Liberty replaced them as an Independent. I’m just moving them straight to Conference USA instead. Take out the middle man.

2021

I’m not including any COVID-related moves like Notre Dame being in the ACC for one season (and almost winning the conference title).

UConn left the American to go back to the basketball-oriented Big East. In my world, that doesn’t happen. Actually, nothing happens at all here because the next year, the realignment bubble doesn’t burst: it gets blown up. So I have to put new pieces together in a brand new puzzle to make it work. Should be fun right?

2022

Who’s idea was this? Good lord. At least now we can see the light at the end of the tunnel.

This season had some movement but at the low end of FBS. James Madison, an FCS powerhouse, finally moved up to FBS and joined the Sun Belt. Joining them would be three Conference USA teams: Marshall, Old Dominion and Southern Miss.

Now, if you have read my blog before, you know how I feel about the Sun Belt and Conference USA. I find them to be unwieldy conferences with massive geographical footprints that, especially in C-USA’s case, make no sense. I plan on fixing it but not this year. Let the new teams breathe in their new conference before I blow things up with enough C-4 to level a city.

2023

Alright, let’s blow shit up.

Let’s start with the SEC which has been left behind a bit in my version of realignment. Consistency was the name of the game in the conference where it just means more. Well now they get the infusion they always hoped for. Sorry ACC. Sorry Big East. It was bound to happen. The SEC invites Florida State, Miami, Georgia Tech and Clemson. They finally have attained that superconference status.

The ACC is gutted but won’t be for long. We will get to that in a bit.

The Big XII gets an infusion of teams as well. BYU, from the Mountain West, along with Cincinnati and UCF from the Big East, move to the Big XII. Because Houston was already in the Big XII, they now sit at fifteen teams. Not the best idea, especially for scheduling purposes. So they invite one more team: Utah. After missing out on the Pac-10/12/16/whatever years ago, they finally get into a power conference and deservedly so.

Hey remember what I said way back at the start. You know, the point about Penn State not going to the Big Ten. Well, it’s time they moved. With the Big East losing some teams and some conference strength, it’s time for the Nittany Lions to move up. They will bring with them Pittsburgh. Sure it’s not a brand new market but it gives PSU a travel partner and doesn’t go too far outside the current Big Ten geographic footprint, something I find important (although college sports most definitely does not).

New Mexico State gets a conference home again when they move to Conference USA. They are joined by Sam Houston and Jacksonville State who move up from FCS.

Done for this coming season but wait, there’s more!

2024

You really think I would have USC and UCLA go to the Big Ten? Fuck that noise. What I will be doing, however, is rather seismic.

The ACC is going to raid the Big East yet again. With only seven teams for the 2023 season, they were looking like a sorry-ass football conference. So they take Boston College, Rutgers, Syracuse, UConn, Virginia Tech and West Virginia from the Big East. I’m not a fan of odd-numbered conferences, so they also pluck UCF from the Big XII.

Now we start the trickle-down effect. The Big XII (now Big XVI) will take Colorado State from the Mountain West. The Mountain West responds by grabbing New Mexico State from Conference USA.

And then, the coup de grace. I am going to totally remake Conference USA and the Sun Belt and finally put the nail in the coffin of Big East football, all in one fell swoop. This is how it will work (pay close attention):

Conference USA will be the western-most conference of the two with the Sun Belt being the eastern-most. Why did I do this? Who knows.
All four former Big East teams (East Carolina, Navy, Temple and USF) join the Sun Belt.
Arkansas State, Louisiana, South Alabama, Southern Miss, Texas State, Troy and ULM move from the Sun Belt to Conference USA.
Then Charlotte, FAU, FIU, Liberty and WKU move from Conference USA to the Sun Belt.

Look at that; two sixteen-team conferences that have a tighter geographic footprint. Makes travel easier and fosters better rivalries. Like college sports had been like for DECADES. Oh and if Louisiana Tech complains even once about being in the same conference as Louisiana or ULM they can be sent to FCS for all I care.

Alright, so now I bet you want to know what this all looks like. So here it is, in chart form with NO DIVISONS because divisions suck:

SEC	Big Ten	Pac-16	ACC	Big XVI
Alabama	Illinois	Arizona	Boston College	Baylor
Arkansas	Indiana	Arizona State	Duke	Boise State
Auburn	Iowa	California	Louisville	BYU
Clemson	Kansas	Colorado	Maryland	Cincinnati
Florida	Michigan	Oklahoma	NC State	Colorado State
Florida State	Michigan State	Oklahoma State	North Carolina	Houston
Georgia	Minnesota	Oregon	Rutgers	Iowa State
Georgia Tech	Nebraska	Oregon State	Syracuse	Kansas State
Kentucky	Northwestern	Stanford	UCF	Memphis
LSU	Ohio State	Texas	UConn	Missouri
Miami	Penn State	Texas A&M	Virginia	San Diego State
Mississippi State	Pittsburgh	Texas Tech	Virginia Tech	SMU
Ole Miss	Purdue	UCLA	Wake Forest	TCU
South Carolina	Wisconsin	USC	West Virginia	Tulane
Tennessee		Washington		Tulsa
Vanderbilt		Washington State		Utah
Mountain West	MAC	Sun Belt	Conference USA	Independents
Air Force	Akron	Appalachian State	Arkansas State	Army
Fresno State	Ball State	Charlotte	Jacksonville State	Notre Dame
Hawaii	Bowling Green	Coastal Carolina	Louisiana	UMass
Nevada	Buffalo	East Carolina	Louisiana Tech
New Mexico	Central Michigan	FAU	Middle Tennessee
New Mexico State	Eastern Michigan	FIU	North Texas
San Jose State	Kent State	Georgia Southern	Rice
UNLV	Miami-OH	Georgia State	Sam Houston
Utah State	Northern Illinois	James Madison	South Alabama
Wyoming	Ohio	Liberty	Southern Miss
	Toledo	Marshall	Texas State
	Western Michigan	Navy	Troy
		Old Dominion	UAB
		Temple	ULM
		USF	UTEP
		WKU	UTSA

Holy crap that took forever. But look at those conferences. I think they look way better than what we will see in reality, if I do say so myself. And if another team is moving up from FCS, they may just have to be an Independent for the near future…dammit Kennesaw State is moving up in 2024? Nope, not anymore. Not in Bossman’s realignment. I’m done.

All Aboard the Coaching Carousel! (and the Week 6 College Football TV Schedule)

Posted on October 5, 2022 by guelphbossman

The fun-time coaching carousel has been filling up a bit earlier this year. None of us are used to this many coaches being shitcanned this early on. We are just into October and many of the good horses (or the one cool love seat thing that seems to be on every carousel) are going fast. And the tickets are EXPENSIVE.

This week it started with Karl Dorrell getting fired at Colorado which is no surprise because Colorado is easily the worst Power Five team out there. No team is close to their ineptitude so far this season. But the real bombshell came later the same day when Paul Chryst, he of the 67-26 record, seven straight winning seasons before this year, six bowl victories, and two New Year’s Six triumphs, was fired by Wisconsin. I knew he might be in a bit of trouble but that was shocking. And his buyout? Remember I talked about the tickets on this carousel being expensive? Yeah, his cost is around $11 million. My god. These buyout clauses are just completely absurd now and mean nothing to these schools anymore.

Anyway, this actually may be strategic on Wisky’s part. Jim Leonhard is the interim head coach and the prevailing sentiment is that they want to see what he can do over the final seven games of the season. If he can turn the ship around, there’s a good chance he will be named the permanent replacement. If not, well he had more than half a season and that would be enough of a barometer to know they have to send a Brinks truck to Lance Leipold’s house as soon as possible after the season ends.

I know, the coaching carousel is interesting. I wouldn’t call it fun. That would be a bit morbid. But enough of that; it’s schedule time and it starts on Wednesday this week and it’s not MACtion!

Wednesday

		US	Canada
SMU at UCF	7:00 PM

Tonight, we only have the one game. Technically this is a Week 5 game but the Mustangs and Knights both have this week as a bye week so you can all it a Week 6 game if you want. This is rescheduled because of Hurricane Ian.

Friday

		US	Canada
Harvard at Cornell	7:00 PM
Nebraska at Rutgers	7:00 PM
Houston at Memphis	7:30 PM
Colorado State at Nevada	10:00 PM
UNLV at San Jose State	10:30 PM

Is the highlight here the Nebraska-Rutgers game? Sure, I guess. The Huskers could be in the first in the Big Ten West for about 17 hours if they win this one. Speaking of that game, it’s the first of a doubleheader with three-hour fucking windows. Stupid FS1. I hope the early game goes to 16 overtimes now.

Dana Holgorsen might be on the hot seat if the Cougs don’t beat Memphis, Jay Norvell is hating life in Fort Collins and UNLV continues to try to look like a contender in the Mountain West! Makes up for the night before where there is no college football. It’s like they don’t want to compete with the NFL anymore. I mean it’s not a bad idea.

Saturday Early

A couple of good ones here with UT-LSU and Gameday going to Lawrence before TCU plays Kansas. It’s too bad they decided to go to that football hotbed of Bloomington, Indiana for Big Noon Saturday rather than Kansas. What the hell was FOX thinking? Oh that’s right…they’re hard for the Big Ten.

How about the Red River Shootout having both teams come in unranked? I’m sure if I went to ESPN’s website it would tell me the last time this happened but I have a feeling it was a looooooooooooooooooong time ago. We also have a couple potential sneaky-good games with Arkansas-MSU and Purdue-Maryland. So a relatively loaded start to the day.

Saturday Afternoon

For some reason the ABC afternoon game starts at 4:00. I don’t remember the last time that has happened. I mean it all comes out in the wash anyway but it’s odd this has happened this weekend for no rhyme or reason. CBS was hoping Auburn would have won last week to set up the AU-UGA game with both teams ranked. Alas, it was not to be and I have this feeling this will be an absolute drubbing.

I find it odd that Utah-UCLA, a game between two very good teams, is the FOX afternoon game which is basically the third best game most of the time in the FOX tripleheader. I would have thought it was heading to ABC in primetime. Again, the Pac-12 seems to be getting shafted and if things don’t change, we may have to get used to less coverage from that conference in this area.

Saturday Primetime

		US	Canada
Wyoming at New Mexico	7:00 PM
Air Force at Utah State	7:00 PM
James Madison at Arkansas State	7:00 PM
#5 Clemson at Boston College	7:30 PM
Iowa at Illinois	7:30 PM
#20 Kansas State at Iowa State	7:30 PM
Washington State at #6 USC	7:30 PM
#16 BYU vs. Notre Dame (in Las Vegas)	7:30 PM
South Carolina at #13 Kentucky	7:30 PM
Florida State at #14 NC State	8:00 PM
Texas A&M at #1 Alabama	8:00 PM

Not as big as the early sked but still pretty darn good. This is the one primetime game the SEC on CBS has and it’s….well, not as good as CBS had hoped for. The Aggies have been a major disappointment and the Tide are dominant. This could be over by 10:00.

BYU has a massive game in Vegas. A must-win for them. Lose this and it’s pretty much the Hawaii Bowl on Christmas Eve. Win and they stay alive for a New Year’s Six spot. Clemson-BC is a special game in Boston as it’s the Red Bandana Game. It’s in honour of Welles Crowther, a former BC lacrosse player who headed a rescue effort on 9/11 and got a lot of people rescued. He was known for wearing a red bandana and that’s what one of the people who were saved that day saw from the guy heading up the building when everyone was escaping down. Good to see this game in a huge national spotlight.

Finally, James Madison has a national game. Sure it’s the NFL Network but the Dukes are undefeated in their first FBS season. They really need to get rid of that archaic rule that says teams can’t qualify for a bowl game in their first season in FBS, transitioning up from FCS.

Saturday Late Night

		US	Canada
#12 Oregon at Arizona	9:00 PM
Fresno State at Boise State	9:45 PM
Hawaii at San Diego State	10:30 PM
Oregon State at Stanford	11:00 PM

This is….not a good late night schedule. Which means something wacky is coming our way. That’s the way it works in college football. I don’t make the rules.

TSN has their first quadrupleheader of the season which is always nice to see, especially for the non-specialty pack people. And let’s discuss the ESPN schedule this week. Early game. VERY late game. Nothing in between. What are they showing? Ah, that’s right. They have the Wild Card games in baseball this season. So as long as the second Wild Card game doesn’t go too far into extra innings, the Beavers-Cardinal game will start precisely at…11:00 eastern. This is almost as crazy as the Hawaii Test.

Big Games O’ The Week

Utah at UCLA (3:30, FOX) – Ya know, some people are going to bristle at this choice for top game of the week. Here are the facts: Utah is ranked #11 and is still the favourite to win the Pac-12 South. UCLA is ranked #18 and is undefeated. The winner here faces USC later in the season for the de facto Pac-12 South championship and, potentially a New Year’s Six or, dare I say it, College Football Playoff spot. So yeah, this is huge.

Tennessee at LSU (Noon, TSN3/TSN5) – Are the Vols for real (I refuse to ask if they are back…aw shit, I just did)? This is a big chance for them to prove it as the Tigers have started to claw their way back after a seriously shaky start under new head coach Jim Bob Brian Kelly. Tennessee can move up towards the Top 4 with a win here and an eventual showdown with Georgia. Maybe, LSU could put a scare in some teams…even…Bama? Wouldn’t that be something…that Saban would hate.

TCU at Kansas (Noon, FOX Sports One) – In your wildest imagination, did you think this could be one of the games of the week when this season started? No. No one did. Even TCU and Kansas fans thought that would be ridiculous. But here we are. Early October. Ranked TCU. Ranked Kansas. College Gameday in Lawrence. Its put up or shut up time for both teams. And man, if the Jayhawks pull this one out, they will be safely in the Top 15 and looking at heights that haven’t been seen around those parts since the magical 2007 season.

Florida State at NC State (8:00, specialty pack) – I’m sure many feel this is a game the Wolfpack will easily win to get back on track. This isn’t the Noles of the past five or six years though. These guys can play. I have a feeling this could very close. The ACC Network with a bit of a coup getting this one at this point of the season.

Washington State at USC (7:30, FOX) – A tiny bit surprised this didn’t end up on either ABC or ESPN but FOX gets a good primetime game here that actually will match up well with CBS’s offering. USC is on a roll and it feels like nothing will stop them. That’s why this is such a speed bump game for the Trojans. Win here and their game against Utah is probably one of the Games of the Year the following week.

Psycho Game of the Week

Wisconsin at Northwestern (3:30, Big Ten Network) – Another game where, at the start of the season, I never would have thought it would end up in this particular spot in the blog post. Northwestern is thankful that Colorado exists and Wisconsin has been a shell of its former self. Should be a fun one! And by fun, I mean horribly painful to watch.

Hubba Bubba Blowout of the Week

Auburn at Georgia (3:30, CBS) – I have a feeling that this is going to get really bad, really fast for the Tigers. I also have a feeling that Bryan Harsin will not be fired after this one since everyone expects Auburn to get boatraced Between The Hedges.

Fun-Time Stats of the Week

Rutgers has lost all five of their meetings with Nebraska but every game the margin of victory has decreased. Last time they met, they only lost by 7.
Washington has lost the last seven times they traveled to Tempe to face Arizona State.
New Mexico has more wins over Wyoming than any other Mountain West team. They have beat the Cowboys 36 times.

The Degenerate Portion of Our Show

I made some picks last week. Some were good. I picked Illinois to cover the spread against Wisconsin. As for the rest don’t bother since I was horrible. Let’s just move on to this week’s picks that people should only use at Gamblers Anonymous meetings.

Nebraska (-3) over Rutgers
UNLV (+7) over San Jose State (SJSU will win in a close one)
Eastern Michigan (+5) over Western Michigan (WMU will win the battle for Directional Michigan though)
Oklahoma (+7) over Texas (and the outright victory)
Tennessee (-3) over LSU
Wisconsin (-10) over Northwestern
UCLA (+4.5) over Utah (but the Utes will win a very close affair)
Michigan State (+26.5) over Ohio State (but tOSU will win by approximately three touchdowns just to make it feel close for gamblers)
James Madison (-11.5) over Arkansas State
Wyoming (-3.5) over New Mexico
Iowa (+3.5) over Illinois (and the outright win)
Washington State (+13) over USC (Trojans win)
Oregon (-13) over Arizona

Alright we have the rare October Wednesday night game that doesn’t involve Sun Belt teams, nothing tomorrow night and then things really get into action on Friday. And it’s Thanksgiving this weekend! So enjoy the games and enjoy the turkey (or ham, if you don’t like turkey).

YOU KNOW WHAT TIME IT IS?

Posted on September 9, 2022 by guelphbossman

It’s COMPLETE OVERREACTION TIME!!!! Yay, I guess. It happens every year and is one of the worst college football traditions in college football. I would say it’s up there with Midnight Yell practice at Texas A&M but that’s not fair. Midnight Yell isn’t bad. It’s just seriously fucking weird. Anyway, let’s begin with the first set of overreactions to the college football season after a crazy Week 1:

Ohio State is not that good on offense! Look, the Irish played damn good on defense all night and kept things close. Plus, the Buckeyes were without Jaxon Smith-Njigba for a good portion of the game. I’m sure when tOSU gets to play Maryland they will aim for a 60-burger.
Stetson Bennett could win the Heisman! I mean, technically he could. But he won’t. Yes he had a good game and it was against a fairly good Oregon team. He’s not on the level of the top 10 quarterbacks in college football, though, and will have at least a couple of games where the UGA defense (and perhaps the rushing attack) has to carry him to victory.
The Pac-12 is toast! Yes, the Oregon and Utah losses look bad. Saying that, USC looked pretty good in their opener (albeit against Rice). And there are a couple of other teams who could do the unthinkable and make a run for it. But don’t count this conference out just yet. Let’s wait until like Week 8 to do that.
The ACC is screwed! Clemson looked pedestrian for most of their game against Georgia Tech. D.J. Uiagelelei doesn’t seem to be the answer at quarterback. Cade Klubnik looked good though and it’s only Week 1. Plus, NC State, Wake Forest and Pitt are undefeated (NC State barely) and you never know what will happen inside the other conferences. Let’s not write off the ACC just yet.
Florida/Florida State/USC is back! We’ve played this game before. At least one of these teams won’t be back really, if not all three. I think all three make bowl games and it wouldn’t surprise me if at least one team enters November with still a legitimate shot at the New Year’s Six. But neither of these teams are back…yet.
Scott Frost is going to be fired soon! OK not everything on this list is an overreaction.

Hey it’s also time for the Week 2 college football TV schedule as well. Which leads us to another unfortunate tradition: the lacklustre Week 2 schedule that we see almost every season. I rank the weeks in terms of how good the games are and Week 2 almost always falls near the bottom. You know what we say about these kinds of weeks, though…we usually get a fantastic finish or five out of them. After last weekend, can we handle it? Yes. Yes we can.

Friday

		US	Canada
Louisville at UCF	7:30 PM
Boise State at New Mexico	9:00 PM

Last year we had undefeated Kansas against undefeated Coastal Carolina in this timeslot. This year we get the molten hot lava seat of Scott Satterfield hoping his team can pull out what might have to be considered an upset over the Gus Bus and a Boise State team that is not the Boise State team we’ve known and mostly loved for the past almost two decades. Fun times.

Saturday Early

An absolute shit-ton of games in this timeslot. I’m not complaining whatsoever.

Bama-Texas is the big game early and FOX is praying that it is at least remotely close. Then maybe they can say “Texas is Back” a bunch of times because you know they are itching to. Big Ten Network goes nuts this week with eight games total throughout the day. So you will see plenty of them in the specialty packs. I wonder if Wake can handle UNDEFEATED VANDY (of course they can) and thanks to reader Dan, I have added the YouTube logo for Pac-12 Network games because they are available there for Canadian viewers. I mean I don’t know if you want to watch Southern Utah against Utah but you can if you want.

Finally, it’s no longer FOX Sports Network regional games for the ACC. Bally now has all those channels. So there’s another new logo for you to remember. As of right now, the CSU-NCST game isn’t showing on the specialty pack guides but it should soon.

Saturday Afternoon

I thought there were a lot of games in the early timeslot. My god. Again, no complaints.

No Week 2 game of the year candidates this season, unlike the previous few years where among the rubble there was one massive matchup that towered over everything else and gobbled up all the hype. CyHawk is relegated to the Big Ten Network along with three other games. Funny thing, Wagner-Rutgers is not showing yet on the specialty pack guides. I don’t get it.

Also, a point about P12N games: only the national feed shows up on YouTube. The regional games do not. Just like the Big Ten this week, there is an overload of Pac-12 games so they get a couple of them on the Pac-12 Network regional feeds. I am still shocked no one told Larry Scott and his crew back then that this regional feed stuff is horseshit.

Saturday Primetime

		US	Canada
Syracuse at UConn	7:00 PM
#20 Kentucky at #12 Florida	7:00 PM
Eastern Michigan at Louisiana	7:00 PM
#10 USC at Stanford	7:30 PM
Arizona State at #11 Oklahoma State	7:30 PM
San Jose State at Auburn	7:30 PM
Georgia Southern at Nebraska	7:30 PM
Southern at LSU	7:30 PM
Boston College at Virginia Tech	8:00 PM
Idaho at Indiana	8:00 PM
Hawaii at #4 Michigan	8:00 PM
Eastern Washington at Oregon	8:30 PM

This shows how lacklustre the schedule is. Nothing special here unless you think the USC-Stanford game could be a trap game. The most interesting game here might just be UK-UF. No one is going to catch Georgia in the SEC East but if one of these teams can get to ten wins then a New Year’s Six bowl is in their future. And yes, that is a game on the NFL Network. This week and next there is a college football game on the NFL Network. Kind of odd but I wonder if it’s more of a test run to see if they will get more involved next season.

Saturday Late Night

		US	Canada
#9 Baylor at #21 BYU	10:15 PM
Oregon State at Fresno State	10:30 PM
Mississippi State at Arizona	11:00 PM

Big-time game in Provo and we move to TSN5 for this one because the ABC game won’t be done by the time this one starts. The game in Tucson starts at 11. Not exactly a Hawaii Test but that’s a late start.

Big Games O’ The Week

Baylor at BYU (10:15, TSN5) – Not to put down either of these teams but this is not the kind of game that usually is the highlight of a week. But here we are. And honestly, it is a big game. It’s the kind of non-conference game that Baylor is not known for scheduling. It’s the kind of game that BYU must win to have a chance at the New Year’s Six (or more). The stakes are high.

Tennessee at Pittsburgh (3:30, ABC/TSN2) – Last year’s game between these two teams was fantastic. And if you had told me a few years ago that this would be one of the big games of this week I would have thought you took a little bit too much advantage of the legal weed here. The winner here could be in for some big things but both teams are going to have to pull off upsets later on in the season (the Vols especially).

Kentucky at Florida (7:00, specialty pack) – As I said above, no one is catching Georgia in the SEC East (probably). But second place in the division could be huge if it means a potential New Year’s Six spot or, at worst, a good New Year’s Day bowl (or more like January 2nd this season). Both teams look better than advertised so far, especially the Gators after their huge win over Utah. Expect a close game.

Arizona State at Oklahoma State (7:30, specialty pack) – It really drops off a cliff after the first three games. I’m sure many would put Bama-UT in this spot but do you really think that game will be close? This might also be not very close but I have faith on either a) Herm rallying his team and getting them to put together a good four quarters or b) the Pokes fucking up left, right and centre and keeping the Sun Devils in the game.

Psycho Game of the Week

Syracuse at UConn (7:00, CBS Sports Network) – Honestly, despite the lack of high-level matchups this week, there aren’t any ridiculously bad games with two teams that almost no one would want to watch. Yes, Syracuse beat Louisville pretty badly but I think the Cards may be a lot worse than I thought they’d be. And UConn is UConn.

Hubba Bubba Blowout of the Week

Arkansas State at Ohio State (Noon, BTN) – Another new segment! Here I will put the obvious blowout of the week that there is really no point in watching. This one is, well, plainly obvious. Butch Jones is going to have a long day. At least they get paid a lot to just show up. Well, the school does.

The Degenerate Portion of Our Show

Hey, who picked Florida to beat Utah? This guy…I’m pointing to myself. Honestly there were quite a few who also picked the Gators so it’s not a massive deal but I am impressed with myself. So on to Week 2’s picks. And remember…I’m picking against the spread. Let’s go!

Notre Dame (-20.5) over Marshall

Memphis (-6.0) over Navy

Pittsburgh (+6.5) over Tennessee (but the Vols win this one)

Boise State (-16.5) over New Mexico

USC (-9) over Stanford

Colorado (+17.5) over Air Force (Falcons still win but it’ll be closer than you think)

UCF (-6.5) over Louisville

Syracuse (-23.5) over UConn

Baylor (+3.5) over BYU (Cougs win by a field goal)

Arizona State (+11) over Oklahoma State (Pokes win but don’t make it easy for themselves)

Alabama (-20) over Texas

Iowa State (+3.5) over Iowa (Hawkeyes will somehow win it 9-8)

OK so from what I can tell, everything is up on the specialty pack other than those two games I mentioned earlier. I assume they will pop up at some point. Even if this week is a bit lacking of big games, I will still be watching as much as I possibly can. I can catch up on sleep sometime in March. Have a great weekend everyone and enjoy the games!

Our long (inter)national nightmare is over…Week Zero has arrived!

Posted on August 24, 2022 by guelphbossman

We have finally made it! College football is back. Sure it’s only Week Zero but it’s still actual live college football. Great for insane fans like me. Let’s just get to the damn schedule so it feels REAL, DAMMIT!

Saturday Early

		US	Canada
Austin Peay at WKU	Noon
Nebraska vs. Northwestern (in Dublin)	12:30 PM

Nothing says college football like starting the season with two Big Ten midcarders in Ireland. Unlike the NFL, however, I would probably watch this game in its entirety if it started at 9 in the morning. I will not do that for the NFL London games. Mostly because I have stayed up so late the night before watching college football but I digress.

WKU and Austin Peay technically start the season off so I will be with CBSSN for the first half hour of the day.

Saturday Afternoon

		US	Canada
Idaho State at UNLV	3:30 PM
Jacksonville State vs. Stephen F. Austin (in Montgomery)	3:30 PM
Wyoming at Illinois	4:00 PM
UConn at Utah State	4:00 PM
Duquesne at Florida State	5:00 PM

I guess it’s a little better in terms of quantity. I’m sure three things stick out to you in this table. The first one being that I have a FOX Sports One game in here. Figured I might as well list as many games as possible (within reason), so that Canadians with and without the specialty packs, and people like me who have gone the IPTV route, will have as much info as possible as it comes to scheduling. The second thing is that I don’t have that ACC Network game on the specialty pack. If it’s like the past few years, the specialty packs will not be up and running. Bell and Rogers’ excuse is that it’s because ESPN doesn’t give them access to the games. I don’t understand why that would be the case so it feels like a flimsy excuse. If, for some reason, the specialty packs are running the few Week Zero games they could, I will make sure to do an update for all of you.

And the final thing is that there is an ESPN game that isn’t appearing on TSN. TSN is filled with other live events this Saturday so I am not surprised they aren’t picking up the FCS games that are appearing on ESPN in Week Zero.

UPDATE: Thanks to updates from readers Mike and Gordo, I can announce that the specialty packs are showing the games that should show up there. So you get the FCS games, plus the two ACC Network games (as long as Florida A&M makes the trip to Chapel Hill).

Saturday Primetime

		US	Canada
Charlotte at Florida Atlantic	7:00 PM
Alabama State vs. Howard (in Atlanta)	7:00 PM
Florida A&M at North Carolina	8:15 PM

An HBCU matchup, an FCS vs. FBS game and a Conference USA game that is appearing in Week Zero since the NCAA is relaxing the rules so much that Week Zero soon enough will just be called Week One since so many teams will be playing on that date. Nothing special here so watch out for the game that’s close.

Saturday Late Night

		US	Canada
Nevada at New Mexico State	10:00 PM
Vanderbilt at Hawaii	10:30 PM

I remember five years ago when they had Stanford and Rice play in Australia and it was going up against the Floyd Mayweather-Conor McGregor boxing match. Yeah, we can all assume the ratings were piss poor for that one. Are the ratings going to be amazing for these two games? Probably not but an early-season quasi-Hawaii Test and probably our only chance to watch football from Las Cruces might pique the interest of some.

Look I am not going to do the section where I tell you what the biggest games of the week are. I mean, look at the schedule! We all know what game everyone is looking forward to….Vandy-Hawaii.

Wanna bet?

Normally I don’t do this for Week Zero but what the hell, right?

WKU over Austin Peay

Nebraska over Northwestern

UNLV over Idaho State

Jacksonville State over Stephen F. Austin

Illinois over Wyoming

Alabama State over Howard

Florida Atlantic over Charlotte

Utah State over UConn

Florida State over Duquesne

North Carolina over Florida A&M

Nevada over New Mexico State

Vanderbilt over Hawaii

Alright readers, soon you will be looking LIVE at actual college football games and oh, it feels so good. Looking forward to another great season of football. Enjoy the games everyone! Welcome back!

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