Oh man, here we go again

Posted on August 1, 2023 by guelphbossman

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Just For You

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

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

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

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

Geogpraphy, Go Eat a Dick

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

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

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

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

Deep Tissue Massage and/or Analysis

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

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

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

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

Belly Expansions

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

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

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

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

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

California Nightmarin’

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

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

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!

A Week Unlike Any Other – Week 18 NFL TV Schedule

Posted on January 7, 2023 by guelphbossman

This has been a very difficult couple of days for everyone involved with the NFL and the fans. Damar Hamlin’s on-field heart attack stunned everyone and really made everyone pause and take account of what really mattered. Football became secondary and it still is.

Hamlin is now showing signs of recovery. This is awesome. And now that it looks like he might just be out of the woods in terms of eventually recovering from this, the NFL went ahead and decided what will be done going forward. And yeah, to say that Twitter has had something to say about it would be an understatement.

Alright, here is the schedule for Week 18 and the points afterwards…well they may be the craziest in the history of this blog:

American Networks


New England at Buffalo	1:00	All affiliates (except Cleveland)
Cleveland at Pittsburgh	1:00	Cleveland
Minnesota at Chicago	1:00		Tacoma, Seattle, Spokane, Minneapolis, Detroit
NY Jets at Miami	1:00		Buffalo, Rochester, Watertown, Burlington, Boston, Presque Isle
NY Giants at Philadelphia	4:25	All affiliates
LA Rams at Seattle	4:25		Tacoma, Seattle, Spokane, Detroit
Arizona at San Francisco	4:25		Minneapolis
Dallas at Washington	4:25		Buffalo, Rochester, Watertown, Burlington, Boston, Presque Isle

Canadian Networks

Primetime & Saturday Games

Kansas City at Las Vegas	Saturday, 4:30, ABC, CTV, TSN1/3/4/5
Tennessee at Jacksonville	Saturday, 8:00, ABC, CTV, TSN1/3/4
Detroit at Green Bay	8:15, NBC, CTV2, TSN1/3

Special Last Week of the Regular Season Notes

For the sixth straight year, the NFL has put a lot of thought into what the final week of the regular season will look like. Unfortunately, this has caused a lot of issues and, frankly, it feels like the NFL didn’t do exactly the greatest job here.
The only obvious game to put in its own timeslot is the Titans-Jaguars game. The winner wins the AFC South. Technically, there is a way for the Jags to get the final Wild Card spot and I will explain that later on. So they put Tennessee and Jacksonville Saturday night. So far so good.
The league put the Chiefs-Raiders game on Saturday afternoon. A bit of an odd choice and considering what happened this past Monday, takes on a whole new level of importance. Still, not a bad choice so this is fine.
The Sunday nighter. Ho boy. The NFL obviously went for ratings. Basically they said “Fuck the Seattle Seahawks, we want a money matchup in our final spot.” And they got it. Lions-Packers is not a win-and-you’re-in/lose-and-your out scenario. The Lions have to hope that the Seahawks also lose their game which was slotted on Sunday afternoon. Will the Lions play tough regardless of where they stand? Dan Campbell won’t allow them not to. But that isn’t the point. The point is the NFL decided that instead of putting these games on at the same time, they willingly put two teams over another one for what amounts to cash. Not surprising but kind not the best idea.
As you know by now, the Bills-Bengals game from Monday night was cancelled. It’s been ruled a no contest. Not a tie. It’s like it never happened. This means both teams will finish a 16-game schedule rather than a 17-game schedule. Ramifications for this? Oh you bet there are some.
First of all, there is an interesting situation involving Baltimore and Cincinnati. Cincinnati has now clinched the AFC North. No matter what happens in their game, the Bengals will have a higher winning percentage. This is the main reason why this game wasn’t put on Sunday night (although I have a feeling the NFL was leaning Lions-Packers anyway). Here’s the issue with all this. If the Ravens win this Sunday’s game, and the Wild Card round has the same two teams facing off, there will be a coin toss to determine who the home team is. So the Bengals could become the first division champion to not host a Wild Card game since the league went to seven (and even six) teams in the playoffs per conference.
That’s not all! The AFC Championship is now possibly going to be a neutral site game. This would also be a first-ever. The reason for this is that going into last Monday’s game, Buffalo controlled their own destiny. Win out and they get the only first round bye in the AFC. Now that the game was cancelled, they lose that. So the NFL had to figure out a way to make it so the Bills didn’t completely lose out because of what happened. This is what they came up with: if there is a chance that the Bills (or even the Bengals in one case) could have been the #1 seed after this Sunday’s games, the AFC Championship will be at a neutral site. This will only happen if the AFC title game involves two of the Chiefs, Bills or Bengals. So here are the AFC Championship Neutral Site scenarios:
- If the Chiefs and Bills lose and the Bengals win, then a KC-Buffalo OR a KC-Cincinnati AFC Championship will be at a neutral site.
- If all three teams lose, only a KC-Buffalo AFCCG would be at a neutral site.
- If the Chiefs lose and the Bills win, a KC-Buffalo AFCCG would be in Buffalo and a KC-Cincinnati AFCCG would be in Kansas City.
- If the Chiefs win and the Bills lose, KC would host the AFC Championship if they made it there, no matter who they play.
- If the Chiefs and Bills win, a KC-Buffalo AFCCG would be at a neutral site and a KC-Cincinnati AFCCG would be in Kansas City.
- If only one of these three teams makes it to the AFC Championship, they would host. Got all that?
- Was this the best way of doing things? No, however the NFL adamantly refused to drop the gap between the conference championships and the Super Bowl down to one week. So this is arguably one of the better ways to do this. Is it the best? Who knows. This is all a shitshow. And it’s unprecedented. Remember that. If this happened two months ago, the game would have been somehow rescheduled.

So now let’s look at the final playoff picture, which, obviously, in the AFC is a mess:

AFC	NFC
#1 Kansas City (clinched AFC West)	#1 Philadelphia (clinched playoff berth, leads NFC East)
#2 Buffalo (clinched AFC East)	#2 San Francisco (clinched NFC West)
#3 Cincinnati (clinched AFC North)	#3 Minnesota (clinched NFC North)
#4 Jacksonville (leads AFC South)	#4 Tampa Bay (clinched NFC South)
Wild Cards:	Wild Cards:
#5 LA Chargers (clinched playoff berth)	#5 Dallas (clinched playoff berth)
#6 Baltimore (clinched playoff berth)	#6 NY Giants (clinched playoff berth)
#7 New England/Miami/Pittsburgh	#7 Seattle/Detroit/Green Bay

For the Wild Cards it comes down to the Patriots, Dolphins, Steelers and Jags in the AFC and the Seahawks, Lions and Packers in the NFC. The Patriots and Packers control their own destiny so wins will put them in. If that doesn’t happen, an absolute boatload of possibilities come into play. So let’s go game-by-game and see what we’ve got before us this weekend in terms of clinching scenarios. By the way, I am not including ties here. I hope this doesn’t come back to bite me in the ass.

Kansas City at Las Vegas

Kansas City clinches a first round bye with a win OR a Buffalo loss
Kansas City clinches a first round bye and home field advantage with a win AND a Buffalo loss

Tennessee at Jacksonville

Tennessee clinches the AFC South with a win
Jacksonville clinches the AFC South with a win
Jacksonville clinches a playoff berth with a Miami loss AND a New England loss AND a Pittsburgh loss

New England at Buffalo

Buffalo clinches a first round bye and home field advantage with a win AND a Kansas City loss
New England clinches a playoff berth with a win OR (a Miami loss AND a Pittsburgh loss AND a Jacksonville win)

Cleveland at Pittsburgh

Pittsburgh clinches a playoff berth with a win AND a Miami loss AND a New England loss

NY Jets at Miami

Miami clinches a playoff berth with a win AND a New England loss

NY Giants at Philadelphia

Philadelphia clinches a first round bye with a win OR (a Dallas loss AND a San Francisco loss)
Philadelphia clinches the NFC East with a win OR a Dallas loss

Dallas at Washington

Dallas clinches a first round bye with a win AND a Philadelphia loss AND a San Francisco loss
Dallas clinches the NFC East with a win AND a Philadelphia loss

LA Rams at Seattle

Seattle clinches a playoff berth with a win AND a Green Bay loss

Arizona at San Francisco

San Francisco clinches a first round bye with a win AND a Philadelphia loss

Detroit at Green Bay

Green Bay clinches a playoff berth with a win
Detroit clinches a playoff berth with a win AND a Seattle loss

As for seeding, things get a bit more difficult. Only two seeds out of 14 are locked in. For something new this season and to make this already-long blog post even longer, here are the seeding scenarios.

NFC

#1 seed

Philadelphia – win
San Francisco – win AND Eagles loss
Dallas – win AND Eagles loss AND 49ers loss

#2 seed

San Francisco – (win AND Eagles win) OR (loss AND Vikings loss)
Philadelphia – loss AND Cowboys loss AND 49ers win
Minnesota – win AND 49ers loss
Dallas – win AND Eagles loss AND 49ers win

#3 seed

Minnesota – loss OR 49ers win
San Francisco – loss AND Vikings win

#4 seed

Tampa Bay locked in

#5 seed

Dallas – loss OR Eagles win
Philadelphia – loss AND Cowboys win

#6 seed

NY Giants locked in

#7 seed

Seattle – win AND Packers loss
Detroit – win AND Seahawks loss
Green Bay – win

AFC

#1 seed

Kansas City – win OR Bills loss
Buffalo – win AND Chiefs loss

#2 seed

Buffalo – (loss AND Bengals win) OR (win AND Chiefs win)
Kansas City – loss AND Bills win
Cincinnati – win AND Bills loss

#3 seed

Cincinnati – loss OR Bills win
Buffalo – loss AND Bengals win

#4 seed

Jacksonville – win
Tennessee – win

#5 seed

LA Chargers – win OR Ravens loss
Baltimore – win AND Chargers loss

#6 seed

Baltimore – loss OR Chargers win
LA Chargers – loss AND Ravens win

#7 seed

New England – win OR (Dolphins loss AND Steelers loss AND Jaguars win)
Miami – win AND Patriots loss
Pittsburgh – win AND Dolphins loss AND Patriots loss
Jacksonville – loss AND Dolphins loss AND Patriots loss AND Steelers loss

Finally, the Texans clinch the #1 pick in the upcoming NFL Draft with a loss or a Bears loss. If the Texans win and the Bears lose, Chicago will be on the clock. The Texans are almost assuredly going to take Bryce Young. If the Bears get the #1 pick, who knows what they will do since they won’t be taking a quarterback.

OK, now college football. I usually don’t do previews but I won’t be doing a whole post for the two national championships. The FCS National Championship is on Sunday at 2:00 on ABC. As for the College Football Playoff National Championship, it is at 8:00 Monday night as TCU faces Georgia. The game will appear on TSN1, TSN3, TSN4 and TSN5. These are all the regular broadcast. You can check out the Field Pass, Command Center, SkyCast and All-22 broadcasts on TSN.ca. No Coaches Film Room and no Coaches Film Room with Open Bar this season which makes me sad. As for a prediction, I would love to say the Horned Frogs will pull this out. I would love to say Sonny Dykes finishes one of the most improbable seasons in college football history with a victory and a national title. Instead I think Georgia will repeat. It will be close but I see the Dawgs winning 38-34.

UPDATE: Well, not an update but more of an oversight on my part. The game begins at 7:30, not 8:00. Interesting choice considering it’s in Los Angeles.

Alright, if you read all this, you are prepared for the insanity that is coming up in the NFL. Have fun watching the games everyone!

Hey let’s do some Bowl Game Rankings!!!!

Posted on December 12, 2022 by guelphbossman

I’ve done some different scales for this post. In some cases I have done just a straight ranking, other times I have done the Network Scale and of course there is the Uncle Verne scale.

This year I will go slightly different. I am introducing the Play-by-Play Announcer Scale! That’s right, I am going to rank the bowl games going from best play-by-play announcers down to, well, not as good ones let’s say. I mean if you aren’t Mike Goldberg you are at least competent at calling football, right?

So let’s get started. 41 bowl games. 8 tiers. 1 blog post. This sounds like Survivor.

The Jackson/Musburger Tier

Must-see games. No matter what. Even if you are a casual college football fan, you will want to watch these.

Peach Bowl – Georgia vs. Ohio State (Dec. 31, 8:00, TSN2) – There is a reason this game was chosen for primetime and not the other College Football Playoff semi-final. On paper, this is the bowl game of the season and nothing else is really close. Yes, the Buckeyes backed in to the CFP which will make a few fans upset but don’t worry: in two years that won’t make a difference. Georgia does look primed to repeat as national champs but this one will not be easy and it might not end before 2022 ends. My pick: Georgia 40 Ohio State 34.

Fiesta Bowl – Michigan vs. TCU (Dec. 31, 4:00, TSN3) – Normally I would rail against the College Football Playoff semi-final games being on New Year’s Eve but to be honest, I don’t care this year. Not going out for New Year’s so it’s football watching time. I can see many people up here, who are watching TV at least, being split between this and Canada’s World Juniors game against Sweden. How close this is will probably dictate what kind of viewing audience the hockey game gets. Anyway, fingers crossed this is a good one as many think TCU can’t hang with the Wolverines. To be honest, as much as I would love to see the Horned Frogs pull this out, I can’t see it happening. My pick: Michigan 39 TCU 21.

Rose Bowl – Penn State vs. Utah (Jan. 2, 5:00, TSN2) – I always wish the Rose Bowl would go back to ABC. It just feels like it belongs there. The Nittany Lions come in here exactly where pretty much everyone thought they would be. Losses to Michigan and Ohio State and relatively mundane victories over everyone else. Utah is probably the hotter team coming in, coming off their Pac-12 Championship win over USC. My pick: Utah 35 Penn State 30.

Orange Bowl – Clemson vs. Tennessee (Dec. 30, 7:30, TSN2) – This bowl is orange. ORANGE bowl. ORANGE tigers. ORANGE volunteers. ORANGE everything! Let’s just hope both teams don’t figure they should be wearing orange uniforms. This might end up being the most competitive of the New Year’s Six bowl games. This might have been the top New Year’s Six game if not the top bowl game period (seriously) but without Hendon Hooker, it won’t be the case. My pick: Clemson 27 Tennessee 24.

Alamo Bowl – Texas vs. Washington (Dec. 29, 9:00, specialty pack) – It felt like these two teams had good chances to be involved in conference championship weekend. Alas, they both came up short in odd circumstances (especially in hindsight) so they land here in San Antonio. The Alamo Bowl is usually one of the top non-CFP, non-NY6 bowl games and this one is no exception. There should be a LOT of points with Quinn Ewers and Michael Penix Jr. chucking the ball over the field indoors. Take the over. My pick: Washington 48 Texas 40.

The Lundquist/Nessler Tier

These are still big although these guys were hampered by some, uh, questionable analysts *COUGH*Gary Danielson*COUGH*

Cotton Bowl – USC vs. Tulane (Jan. 2, 1:00, TSN2) – Some may call this the worst of the New Year’s Six games. I disagree. It could end up being a fun one especially if USC tackles like they did in the Pac-12 Championship. A lot will ride on if Caleb Williams is 100% or not because if he isn’t, the Green Wave could pull off the biggest victory in the long history of that program. My pick: USC 44 Tulane 31.

Holiday Bowl – North Carolina vs. Oregon (Dec. 28, 8:00, FOX) – If you watch this game for one thing, it should be the quarterbacks. Oregon’s Bo Nix is confirmed to be ready to go and Drake Maye will be there as well and hopefully not playing like he did in the ACC Championship (which was easily his worst game of the season). My pick: Oregon 38 North Carolina 25.

Sugar Bowl – Alabama vs. Kansas State (Dec. 31, Noon, TSN3) – This is gonna feel REAL odd to see the Sugar Bowl on at Noon on New Year’s Eve. Let’s consider this the lesser of the New Year’s Six games. Still good but it’s a wonder whether one of the teams will show up. The Wildcats certainly will be ready to go but will Bama be ready for this one? I could see several Bama players opting out or entering the transfer portal or just not caring. Also, Nick Saban is either going to seriously pissed off and motivating his players like crazy or barely wanting to be there himself. My pick: Kansas State 31 Alabama 28.

Cure Bowl – UTSA vs. Troy (Dec. 16, 3:00, TSN1) – EASILY the best pre-Christmas bowl game. And it is played on a Friday afternoon. Ugh. Surprisingly, this is the only bowl game that features two conference champions. And it’s a bit of a classic offense vs. defense matchup as the Roadrunners, who definitely live up to their name, take their high-octane offense to Orlando to face the all-time leader in tackles in FBS in Carlton Martial. Should be a good one. My pick: UTSA 33 Troy 26.

Gator Bowl – South Carolina vs. Notre Dame (Dec. 30, 3:30, TSN2) – The Gamecocks had, arguably, the two biggest season-changing wins this season, destroying Tennessee and eeking out a victory against Clemson. These two games changed the College Football Playoff and New Year’s Six for sure. As for the Irish, things looked bleak but Marcus Freeman has turned things around and are trying to finish his first season with a big bowl win. My pick: Notre Dame 28 South Carolina 17.

The Fowler/McDonough Tier

You know, at the very least, that a game called by either of these two will be a great one…on paper. No guarantees otherwise.

ReliaQuest Bowl – Mississippi State vs. Illinois (Jan. 2, Noon, specialty pack) – The Outback Bowl is history. Honestly I went once and it was pretty overrated (except for the Bloomin’ Onion which was fantastic). Now it’s sponsored by ReliaQuest which is supposedly a cybersecurity company. Fun. My pick: Illinois 27 Mississippi State 19.

Citrus Bowl – LSU vs. Purdue (Jan. 2, 1:00, ABC/TSN3) – The first game on ABC on this list. How sad. I guess this a nice consolation for getting boatraced in a conference championship game as both of these teams were. Let’s see which team is hungrier and wants to create some momentum going into the offseason. My pick: Purdue 39 LSU 36 (OT)

Texas Bowl – Ole Miss vs. Texas Tech (Dec. 28, 9:00, TSN3) – Do not, and I repeat, do not go grab a snack or a drink unless you are sure it’s a commercial break. These two teams will light up the scoreboard. I can see this game not ending until after 1 in the morning. My pick: Ole Miss 51 Texas Tech 42.

LA Bowl – Washington State vs. Fresno State (Dec. 17, 3:30, ABC/TSN3) – This could be another game where you should probably take the over. At the very least, Jake Haener should light the Wazzu defense up. Whether the Cougs can do what the Cougs usually do (throw the ball about 2,000 times a game) is up for debate. My pick: Fresno State 49 Washington State 28.

Sun Bowl – Pittsburgh vs. UCLA (Dec. 30, Noon, CBS) – If it wasn’t for Pitt actually turning things around late in the season, I would have had the Bruins winning this one in a cakewalk. My pick: UCLA 35 Pittsburgh 29.

The Franklin/Enberg Tier

Two old-school announcers who might actually be underrated. It was always good to hear their voice though.

Cheez-It Bowl – Oklahoma vs. Florida State (Dec. 29, 5:30, specialty pack) – This game is at the top of the list if it’s 1987. Now? Not so much. I mean at least the Noles are holding up their end of the bargain. The Sooners? That’s a different story. My pick: Florida State 40 Oklahoma 30.

Las Vegas Bowl – Florida vs. Oregon State (Dec. 17, 2:15, TSN2) – Thanks to the Raiders being terrible, this game was moved back from their ABC primetime slot to a mid-afternoon slot on ESPN. Ugh. I think the Beavers deserved better. This could be a 10-win season for a team that almost never hits that plateau. And with Anthony Richardson opting out of this one, it won’t be pretty. My pick: Oregon State 36 Florida 10.

Military Bowl – Duke vs. UCF (Dec. 28, 2:00, TSN3) – This game may be overlooked by many and it shouldn’t be. I mean the timeslot doesn’t help but I could see this being a good game. A really good Group of Five team up against a much-improved Power Five team. It’s kind of what bowl season is partially about. My pick: Duke 31 UCF 27.

Duke’s Mayo Bowl – Maryland vs. NC State (Dec. 30, Noon, TSN2) – It’s always fun when you know the winning coach gets a big vat of mayo dumped on them at the end. This also being a matchup of former ACC foes gives this at least a bit of intrigue. My pick: Maryland 41 NC State 38 (OT).

Fenway Bowl – Louisville vs. Cincinnati (Dec. 17, 11:00 AM, TSN2) – This would have been well down the list if it weren’t for the fact that Scott Satterfield just left Louisville to become the new head coach at Cincinnati. He should try and coach both teams. I would definitely love to see that. My pick: Louisville 29 Cincinnati 21.

The GUS/TESSITORE Tier

MY GOD! DID YOU JUST…..SEE………THAT THREE-YARD RUN! FANNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNTASTIC. Lots of enthusiasm for this tier from two guys who get enthusiastic for a touchback.

Armed Forces Bowl – Baylor vs. Air Force (Dec. 22, 7:30, TSN2) – Other than the Bears nearly beating TCU they did nothing of note this season. A big downgrade from the previous season. The academy is actually winning games because of their defense. So a great defense against a coach who is known for great defenses. Choose the under. My pick: Air Force 24 Baylor 20.

Liberty Bowl – Arkansas vs. Kansas (Dec. 28, 5:30, TSN3) – The Jayhawks were the feel-good story through the end of October this season. Unfortunately they are not playing very good football lately. Arkansas on the other hand…well, they’ve been no more than mediocre all season but they have the talent to put up points especially if they get the running game going. My pick: Arkansas 26 Kansas 21.

Music City Bowl – Kentucky vs Iowa (Dec. 31, Noon, ABC/TSN2) – Thankfully for all of us there is another bowl game on at the same time. This could end up being a yawner. You would have to be a moron to pick the over here. My pick: Kentucky 14 Iowa 10.

Pinstripe Bowl – Minnesota vs. Syracuse (Dec. 29, 2:00, TSN1) – The Cuse is back in the Bronx and I remember the last time they were here. A fabulous FOOTBAW WEATHER game against Kansas State. I hope the weather is shit for this one. Sorry to all the players and coaches and fans. My pick: Minnesota 29 Syracuse 17.

Gasparilla Bowl – Missouri vs. Wake Forest (Dec. 23, 6:30, specialty pack) – Still wish this was sponsored by Bad Boy Mowers. That was fun. This should be the swansong for Sam Hartman so expect the Deacs to throw the ball over the field. I can’t see Mizzou stopping them, plus they have already lost a few players to the transfer portal. My pick: Wake Forest 36 Missouri 14.

The Jones/Criqui Tier

Ah remember when these two would call a game on NBC? It was either a great bowl game or perhaps even a Notre Dame game when they started on NBC. Those were the days. They don’t quite measure up to the ones above them but are still great play-by-play guys.

New Mexico Bowl – BYU vs. SMU (Dec. 17, 7:30, ABC/TSN3) – And we start this section with a rematch of the 1980 Holiday Bowl that had an absolutely insane ending (look it up if you haven’t seen it before). I could see another shootout here, especially from SMU since they did put up 77 on a pretty good Houston team. My pick: SMU 39 BYU 34.

New Orleans Bowl – South Alabama vs. WKU (Dec. 21, 9:00, specialty pack) – This used to be the game where the Sun Belt and Conference USA champs went. Not anymore. At least we have two programs on the rise, especially South Alabama who is looking for their first 11-win season. My pick: South Alabama 38 WKU 16.

Birmingham Bowl – Coastal Carolina vs. East Carolina (Dec. 27, 6:45, TSN2) – Let’s call it the Battle for Lesser Carolina since the five ACC Carolina schools (as well as South Carolina) would have a fit if I called it the Battle for the Carolinas. If Grayson McCall plays this could be one of the best bowls of the season. We know Holton Ahlers will throw the ball about 50 times so there will be no shortage of offense. I’m going out on a limb and saying McCall will be ready. My pick: Coastal Carolina 49 East Carolina 47.

Guaranteed Rate Bowl – Wisconsin vs. Oklahoma State (Dec. 27, 10:15, TSN2) – Wisky comes in with no head coach as Luke Fickell won’t start with the team until after the bowl game. The Pokes definitely have a head coach and Captain Mullet watched his quarterback and the Badgers’ QB head to the transfer portal. It should be close but might not have as many points as the previous game on this list. And by might not, I mean definitely won’t. My pick: Wisconsin 28 Oklahoma State 23.

Arizona Bowl – Wyoming vs. Ohio (Dec. 30, 4:30, Barstool Sports) – The only bowl game you can’t get here. Hell, there may not even be an illegal stream for this one. Ohio has to be disappointed that they came pretty close to winning their first conference title in over five decades. I can see them coming in here wanting to prove a point. My pick: Ohio 32 Wyoming 21.

The Patrick/Hammond Tier

Here’s some 90s guys for you. They weren’t the greatest but they were pretty good and you knew their voices. They just tended to fuck up every so often…Patrick more than Hammond because Hammond only had to cover Notre Dame and whatever team Notre Dame was playing that weekend.

Boca Raton Bowl – Toledo vs. Liberty (Dec. 20, 7:30, TSN2) – Hey, the Rockets won the MAC and the Flames started 8-1 so it’s not like we have two teams who crawled into bowl season. Neither team scores much and both have had their embarrassing losses so maybe it’s time for some players to impress their coach, right? My pick: Toledo 34 Liberty 33.

Myrtle Beach Bowl – UConn vs. Marshall (Dec. 19, 2:30, TSN1) – Sorry for Marshall fans but no one gives a fuck that your team is in this bowl. It’s all about UConn. An unreal turnaround by Jim Mora Jr. and the Huskies as this team improbably going bowling on the teal turf on the South Carolina coast. Now watch the Herd destroy the fun. My pick: Marshall 35 UConn 17.

Independence Bowl – Houston vs. Louisiana (Dec. 23, 3:00, TSN2) – This feels like the death spot in the bowl schedule. Pre-Christmas, Christmas Eve Eve if you will. In the afternoon. Ugh. Also you have two up-and-down teams that really don’t have a calling card. I’ll watch it but if it gets to be out of hand in the second half, there’s no guarantees I will keep it on. My pick: Houston 32 Louisiana 14.

Idaho Potato Bowl – San Jose State vs. Eastern Michigan (Dec. 20, 3:30, TSN2) – Many fans will pull for the Spartans considering the tragedy that happened late in the season. Don’t forget there’s another team in Boise for this game, though. The Eagles have quietly gone to five bowl games since Chris Creighton took over in a stunning turnaround for a once terrible program. I still wish this game was played at night so it could be icy cold and the field may or may not turn into an ice rink. My pick: San Jose State 24 Eastern Michigan 20.

Frisco Bowl – North Texas vs. Boise State (Dec. 17, 9:15, TSN2) – Almost a home game for North Texas here. And no this isn’t the legendary Frisco Football Classic that had a one-and-done deal last year. Another classic offense vs. defense matchup as the Mean Green can move the ball but Boise has had their best defense in a long time. I wonder how UNT will be considering they just fired Seth Littrell in a bit of shocking move. My pick: Boise State 27 North Texas 10.

The Ward/Bestwick Tier

OK I lied. Not that there are bowl games that you shouldn’t watch. But that there are announcers that are fucking terrible. These two are arguably the worst ever. I would never turn off a game but I definitely did mute it at times with these two on the call. Brutal.

Hawaii Bowl – Middle Tennessee vs. San Diego State (Dec. 24, 8:00, TSN2) – I love this game. Why? Because it’s the perfect time to get all the stocking stuffers wrapped and in their stockings. This is the first time since 2019 we will see this game and it is at the converted high school in Honolulu that the Hawaii Rainbow Warriors play at. Fun times. My pick: San Diego State 26 Middle Tennessee 21.

First Responder Bowl – Memphis vs. Utah State (Dec. 27, 3:15, TSN2) – Utah State was surprisingly good this season. Memphis did about as expected. Both teams like to move FAST on offense. This one might be over by 5:30. My pick: Memphis 37 Utah State 31.

Bahamas Bowl – UAB vs. Miami-OH (Dec. 16, 11:30 AM, TSN1) – Two teams, playing in front of about 5,000 fans in usually breezy weather near the ocean. Yeah these two programs lucked out wouldn’t you say? I sure would. Better than Shreveport or Boise, at least in terms of the weather. My pick: UAB 34 Miami-OH 13.

Quick Lane Bowl – New Mexico State vs. Bowling Green (Dec. 26, 2:30, TSN3) – The Aggies are back in a bowl game! The drought was only six years this time so it’s not nearly as exciting. The bowl drought was actually longer for the Falcons, at seven years. This is NMSU’s final game as an Independent as they join Conference USA next season. I might be out, playing Free Uber for my kids as they spend their gift cards that day so we shall see how much of this I get to watch. My pick: Bowling Green 21 New Mexico State 20.

Camellia Bowl – Georgia Southern vs. Buffalo (Dec. 27, Noon, TSN2) – Both teams BARELY made it to bowl eligibility. The Eagles beat Appalachian State in double overtime and the Bulls squeaked by Akron in a rescheduled game. The only oddity here is that Georgia Southern is not a running team anymore: they pass the ball almost as much as any team in the land. Feels weird to day. My pick: Georgia Southern 37 Buffalo 28.

LendingTree Bowl – Southern Miss vs. Rice (Dec. 17, 5:45, TSN2) – Alright the worst bowl game of the bunch. A Southern Miss team that doesn’t feel like a bowl eligible team and a Rice team that lead the APR list to get here at 5-7. Ugh. There are other bowls at the same time so unless this is close, I hate to say it, you can probably avoid it. My pick: Southern Miss 35 Rice 10.

Done! All the bowl games ranked and my predictions locked in place. I am going to make another prediction: that my predictions won’t be that great. Enjoy the bowl games everybody!

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

Posted on December 8, 2022 by guelphbossman

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

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

Anyway, let’s get right to the sked!

Friday December 16th

Bahamas Bowl: UAB vs. Miami-OH

11:30 AM

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

Cure Bowl: #25 UTSA vs. #24 Troy

3:00 PM

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

Saturday December 17th

Fenway Bowl: Louisville vs. Cincinnati

11:00 AM

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

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

Las Vegas Bowl: Florida vs. #14 Oregon State

2:15 PM

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

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

LendingTree Bowl: Southern Miss vs. Rice

5:45 PM

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

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

Frisco Bowl: North Texas vs. Boise State

9:15 PM

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

Monday December 19th

Myrtle Beach Bowl: UConn vs. Marshall

2:30 PM

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

Tuesday December 20th

Idaho Potato Bowl: San Jose State vs. Eastern Michigan

3:30 PM

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

Boca Raton Bowl: Toledo vs. Liberty

7:30 PM

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

Wednesday December 21st

New Orleans Bowl: South Alabama vs. WKU

9:00 PM

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

Thursday December 22nd

Armed Forces Bowl: Baylor vs. Air Force

7:30 PM

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

Friday December 23rd

Independence Bowl: Houston vs. Louisiana

3:00 PM

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

Gasparilla Bowl: Missouri vs. Wake Forest

6:30 PM

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

Saturday December 24th

Hawaii Bowl: Middle Tennessee vs. San Diego State

8:00 PM

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

Monday December 26th

Quick Lane Bowl: New Mexico State vs. Bowling Green

2:30 PM

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

Tuesday December 27th

Camellia Bowl: Georgia Southern vs. Buffalo

Noon

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

First Responder Bowl: Memphis vs. Utah State

3:15 PM

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

Birmingham Bowl: Coastal Carolina vs. East Carolina

6:45 PM

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

Guaranteed Rate Bowl: Wisconsin vs. Oklahoma State

10:15 PM

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

Wednesday December 28th

Military Bowl: Duke vs. UCF

2:00 PM

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

Liberty Bowl: Arkansas vs. Kansas

5:30 PM

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

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

Texas Bowl: Ole Miss vs. Texas Tech

9:00 PM

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

Thursday December 29th

Pinstripe Bowl: Minnesota vs. Syracuse

2:00 PM

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

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

5:30 PM

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

Alamo Bowl: #20 Texas vs. #12 Washington

9:00 PM

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

Friday December 30th

Sun Bowl: Pittsburgh vs. #18 UCLA

Noon

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

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

Noon

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

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

3:30 PM

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

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

Orange Bowl: #7 Clemson vs. #6 Tennessee

8:00 PM

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

Saturday December 31st

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

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

Noon

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

Fiesta Bowl: #2 Michigan vs. #3 TCU

4:00 PM

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

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

8:00 PM

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

Monday January 2nd

ReliaQuest Bowl: #22 Mississippi State vs. Illinois

Noon

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

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

Cotton Bowl: #10 USC vs. #16 Tulane

1:00 PM

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

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

5:00 PM

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

Monday January 9th

College Football Playoff National Championship

8:00 PM

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

Let’s look at the breakdown for the games:

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

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

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

The beginning of a new era (and the Conference Championship Weekend TV schedule)

Posted on December 2, 2022 by guelphbossman

It’s official. For the 2024 FBS season, the College Football Playoff will expand to twelve teams. Everyone involved had to wait for the Rose Bowl, college football’s stubborn grandpa, to come to an agreement to be a part of the newly expanded playoff format. The Rose Bowl wanted to keep its status and it’s Big Ten vs. Pac-12 format. The officials basically told the Rose Bowl to fuck themselves with a rusty hammer and if they didn’t at least come to a compromise with the College Football Playoff, they would be out for good. If that had happened, the future of the Rose Bowl would have been in serious doubt. In the end, they all figured out a way to still make the Rose Bowl an integral part of the CFP (which they should be) without the Rose Bowl getting special treatment.

The new CFP will take the top six conference champions, regardless of conference, and six Wild Card teams. This guarantees at least one spot for the Group of Five with the possibility for two. As you probably know, first round games will be on campus and will be played around December 21st to give teams enough times to prepare for the quarterfinals which will be held between December 31st and January 2nd. What this does for the future of Bowl Season is up in the air. I can’t see the rest of the bowls all continuing going forward but who knows. The NCAA may just make it so 5 wins is the new cutoff for bowl-eligibility.

Alright let’s just get to what you’re here for: conference championship weekend. Everything comes into (mostly) perfect vision once these games are completed. And now that divisions are slowly going away in conferences (the Pac-12 has no divisions this year), we will be getting better games going forward. I honestly wonder if they should just have a regular week going forward but I know there’s a lot of money in staging these championship games.

Friday

Conference USA Championship: New Mexico State (+10.5) at Liberty

7:00

This network continues to be smart in the way they figure out WHEN to put a game. They get an entire national audience for almost an entire half and then, if the game is close, many people will stick with it to the end. Brilliant. Plus, with the added possibility of seeing a potential New Year’s Six berth clinched here, it means they should get more eyeballs on this game than ever before. Prediction: This game is the biggest one, not only in Liberty’s history, but in Conference USA’s history. This is their chance to put a team in the New Year’s Six for the first time. The first part gets done this night. Liberty 39 New Mexico State 34.

Now FOX I don’t think is smart at all putting this game here. 6:00 local time on a Friday night? Ugh. The conference and the network never seem to learn. I guess it’s better than having it in Santa Clara but it’s only a slight improvement. Maybe one day FOX will figure it out and keep this game on Saturday. Prediction: USC makes a bit of a statement and solidifies their spot in the College Football Playoff. USC 44 Utah 17.

Saturday Early

No Texas. No Oklahoma. This feels a bit weird. But nice. It’s a fresh matchup, at least in terms of conference championship weekend. TCU wins here and they get their College Football Playoff spot, much to the chagrin of a few fanbases and ESPN as a whole. A Wildcats win and all hell may break loose. I normally like chaos but TCU would be a CFP newbie and I like that as well. Prediction: The Horned Frogs will prevail and then we will wait to see if they can prove they belonged in the first place. TCU 39 Kansas State 32.

MAC Championship: Ohio vs. Toledo (in Detroit)

Noon

One of only two conference championship games on TSN this Saturday. Again, blame the World Cup but I have a feeling this may be the future of what we see with college football on TSN. And it was going so well for a while. Oh well. Important? Not really as there isn’t even a 100% guarantee that the MAC champion would play in Detroit again at the Quick Lane Bowl. Prediction: Meaningless game but it should be a close one. Ohio 31 Toledo 30.

Saturday Afternoon

Valparaiso at New Mexico State

3:00 PM

Up until yesterday, this game was super important to the Aggies. They needed to win to get in. Now, the game means less because the Aggies’ waiver has been accepted and they will be chosen before schools in the 5-7 APR pool. So it’s almost a guarantee that they will be going bowling. Prediction: This shouldn’t be close. New Mexico State 51 Valparaiso 7.

Sun Belt Championship: Coastal Carolina at Troy

3:30 PM

It’s amazing how few of these games have any importance. Especially with how Group of Five tie-ins are almost never adhered to…at least in any particular conference order. Prediction: It’s football and if it’s close I will venture to it at some point. Like flies to shit (or maybe a better analogy than that). Troy 40 Coastal Carolina 24.

If the Bulldogs and Broncos hadn’t had such terrible non-conference starts to their season, this might have been important. Prediction: I have no preference here as it’s a game that should probably be on at night in the cold on the blue turf. Fresno State 38 Boise State 35.

SEC Championship: #14 LSU vs. #1 Georgia (in Atlanta)

4:00 PM

It used to be that no conference dared to go up against the SEC Championship, at least in full. Now they do. It’s not an overall bad idea because if this game is not close then a lot of people will change the channel (or should…I don’t understand people who will stick with games that are way out of hand unless you are a fan of either team). Prediction: This will be close…for maybe about three quarters. Georgia 42 LSU 20.

This is for the Cotton Bowl spot. Does UCF really deserve to be here with this opportunity? I don’t think so. Saying that, other than Tulane, no Group of Five team has really knocked it out of the park this season and even the Green Wave have had their hiccups. Prediction: Tulane will be the next new team to clinch a New Year’s Six bowl spot. Tulane 26 UCF 23.

SWAC Championship: Southern at Jackson State

4:00 PM

I still think Jackson State should have gone into the FCS Playoffs as I think they would have a good chance to go far, if not win the whole damn thing. Instead, they are here playing for the SWAC Championship. I’m sorry; who in their right fucking mind would think JSU is not the best HBCU football school this year if they lose here? So dumb. Prediction: JSU mops the floor with Southern in what should be Deion Sanders’ coaching finale in Jackson. Jackson State 52 Southern 21.

Saturday Primetime

This is for the Orange Bowl spot. That’s it. Loser goes into the regular bowl pool. I still don’t understand why either the ACC or Big Ten doesn’t move their championship game to Noon but I think I’ve beaten that horse to the point where it’s pulp now. Prediction: I think this may be an unpopular pick but as I stated in my bowl projections post, I think Drake Maye goes off and the Tar Heels win a shootout and shock the Tigers. North Carolina 47 Clemson 43.

Do I think this game has meaning? Not really. Michigan is in the CFP. They may fall to #4 if they lose here but I can’t see them falling any farther. I guess there’s more to this game for the Boilermakers since a win puts them, improbably, in the Rose Bowl. Prediction: No Purdue fan should book a ticket to Pasadena. Just don’t. Michigan 45 Purdue 17.

We are nearing the end. Regular season is over. Conference championships will end tomorrow night. However, this is where the excitement should ramp up. Games sometimes mean a hell of a lot more than they would have two months ago. Cross your fingers that we have some dandies this weekend. I am crossing mine. Enjoy the games everyone!

Rankings: The Season Finale. Also, bowl projections!

Posted on November 30, 2022 by guelphbossman

Yeah you’re gonna get like 20 sets of projections before everything is finalized so buckle up, friends.

This will be the last set of rankings I do since doing them after conference championship weekend makes no sense. I’m already doing a bowl projection post every couple hours. Adding rankings on to it is pointless. So, the season finale of the Bossman Top 25!

#1	Georgia
#2	Michigan
#3	TCU
#4	USC
#5	Ohio State
#6	Tennessee
#7	Alabama
#8	Penn State
#9	Utah
#10	Washington
#11	Clemson
#12	Kansas State
#13	Florida State
#14	LSU
#15	Oregon State
#16	Oregon
#17	Tulane
#18	UCLA
#19	South Carolina
#20	Notre Dame
#21	Texas
#22	UCF
#23	Troy
#24	North Carolina
#25	Cincinnati

It seems like this is pretty close to what’s actually happening with the College Football Playoff rankings. And I didn’t need a stupid show to announce them. I had debated putting Michigan at #1 but can’t with their shit schedule and an honestly down Big Ten conference. I know ESPN would fucking LOVE it if Bama made it into the College Football Playoff but I believe they shouldn’t even be ranked ahead of Tennessee and that’s why I have them at #7. Honestly, they shouldn’t get there, even if both TCU and USC lose. I have a feeling my opinion is not shared by The Committee.

Oh I need a cliffhanger since it’s the season finale. OK how about this: some teams get so pissed off at The Committee’s rankings that they threaten to leave to form their own division. Yeah, that sounds good.

OK now I can get to the bowl projections. This is the last set before Saturday when I start doing them on a far-too-often basis as things change by the half hour it seems. Let us being with the College Football Playoff:

Fiesta Bowl	CFP #2 vs. CFP #3	Michigan vs. TCU
Peach Bowl	CFP #1 vs. CFP #4	Georgia vs. USC

The question remains: Who here can be pushed out of the Top 4? Michigan and Georgia seem to be locked in, even if they lose their conference championship games. TCU and USC, on the other hand, are still on relatively shaky ground. Either team loses their respective conference championship, expect a huge groundswell of people to want either Ohio State or Alabama to replace them. I guess if both the Horned Frogs and Trojans lose, you have to have the conversation but if only one loses…oof that is going to spark some serious controversy.

Rose Bowl	Big Ten #1 vs. Pac-12 #1	Ohio State vs. Washington
Cotton Bowl	CFP at-large vs. G-5 #1	Penn State vs. Tulane
Sugar Bowl	SEC #1 vs. Big XII #1	Alabama vs. Kansas State
Orange Bowl	ACC #1 vs. Big Ten/Notre Dame/SEC	North Carolina vs. Tennessee

I’m sure you’ll look at this and see one really odd team. So let’s get right to the elephant in the room…yes, I think Penn State will get to the Cotton Bowl. I know there could be a few teams that would fill that spot just as good as the Nittany Lions but I am going with Penn State to be there when it’s all said and done.

Oh….OH! You thought I meant North Carolina? Well I have a feeling that Drake Maye is going to light up the Clemson defense and the Tar Heels will pull off the upset of Clemson. That would relegate Clemson into the rest of the bowl games, which wouldn’t sit well with Dabo Swinney I’m sure.

Alright, finally time for the rest of the projected bowl matchups.

Citrus Bowl	SEC vs. Big Ten	LSU vs. Purdue
ReliaQuest Bowl	SEC vs. Big Ten	Ole Miss vs. Maryland
Music City Bowl	SEC vs. Big Ten	South Carolina vs. Illinois
Gator Bowl	SEC vs. ACC	Florida vs. NC State
Arizona Bowl	MWC vs. MAC	Wyoming vs. Ohio
Sun Bowl	ACC vs. Pac-12	Florida State vs. Oregon State
Duke’s Mayo Bowl	Big Ten vs. ACC	Iowa vs. Notre Dame
Alamo Bowl	Big XII vs. Pac-12	Texas vs. Oregon
Cheez-It Bowl	Big XII vs. ACC	Oklahoma vs. Clemson
Pinstripe Bowl	Big XII vs. ACC	Minnesota vs. Pittsburgh
Texas Bowl	SEC vs. Big XII	Mississippi State vs. Oklahoma State
Holiday Bowl	ACC vs. Pac-12	Duke vs. UCLA
Liberty Bowl	SEC vs. Big XII	Kentucky vs. Texas Tech
Military Bowl	ACC vs. AAC	Syracuse vs. UCF
Guaranteed Rate Bowl	Big Ten vs. Big XII	Wisconsin vs. Baylor
Birmingham Bowl	SEC vs. AAC/ACC/C-USA	Missouri vs. Memphis
First Responder Bowl	Two of AAC, Big XII, C-USA, Sun Belt, MWC	Kansas vs. SMU
Camellia Bowl	Sun Belt vs. MAC/C-USA	South Alabama vs. North Texas
Quick Lane Bowl	Big Ten vs. MAC	UConn vs. Buffalo
Hawaii Bowl	BYU/AAC/C-USA vs. MAC	Middle Tennessee vs. San Diego State
Independence Bowl	AAC vs. Army	Houston vs. Army
Gasparilla Bowl	Two of AAC, ACC, SEC, Pac-12	East Carolina vs. Louisville
Armed Forces Bowl	Two of Big XII, C-USA, AAC	WKU vs. BYU
New Orleans Bowl	Sun Belt vs. C-USA	Southern Miss vs. UTSA
Boca Raton Bowl	Two of AAC, Sun Belt, C-USA, MAC	Marshall vs. New Mexico State
Idaho Potato Bowl	MWC vs. MAC	Air Force vs. Bowling Green
Myrtle Beach Bowl	Two of AAC, Sun Belt, C-USA, MAC	Troy vs. Liberty
Frisco Bowl	Two from Group of Five	Utah State vs. Georgia Southern
Las Vegas Bowl	SEC vs. Pac-12	Arkansas vs. Washington State
LendingTree Bowl	Sun Belt vs. MAC/C-USA	Coastal Carolina vs. Toledo
LA Bowl	Pac-12 vs. MWC	Utah vs. Boise State
New Mexico Bowl	MWC vs. AAC/C-USA/MAC	Fresno State vs. Eastern Michigan
Fenway Bowl	ACC vs. AAC	Wake Forest vs. Cincinnati
Cure Bowl	Two from Group of Five	San Jose State vs. Louisiana
Bahamas Bowl	C-USA vs. MAC	UAB vs. Miami-OH

The Bahamas and Hawaii Bowls are already set. The Bahamas Bowl is always set around conference championship time because the teams have to make sure everyone that is going to the islands have their passports and that takes time. As for the Hawaii Bowl, I have no idea. But if you just look at it from a bowl destination standpoint, that’s a much better place to go than, say, Shreveport.

Oh one thing before I continue, I had one of the tie-ins wrong this entire season. The SEC sends a team every other year to the Duke’s Mayo Bowl. In the off years they send a team to Las Vegas Bowl. I had them with tie-ins to both. I have fixed that. Maybe this way I won’t always run out of SEC teams before they come close to filling their tie-ins.

OK, on to the bowl eligibility fiasco of sorts. There are 82 bowl spots. 41 bowl games. As of right now, 79 teams are bowl-eligible. Three spots remain. This is where things get a little complicated. Let’s go through this one-by-one:

Buffalo hosts Akron on Friday. This is the make-up game after Snowpocalypse hit the area a couple weeks back. The Bulls win, they are bowl-eligible. I have them winning and becoming Team #80.
New Mexico State was supposed to play San Jose State over a month ago. Unfortunately, the tragic death of SJSU’s Camdan McWright meant the game was cancelled. With the way the schedules were, it couldn’t be played. The Spartans won’t play this week because they are already bowl-eligible and want to rest. That’s very fair. The Aggies have been able to schedule a game with FCS Valparaiso. The Aggies should win and if they get a waiver they would become bowl-eligible even with two wins over FCS opponents. I think this all happens and they become Team #81.
Army is 5-6. I have them beating Navy. Here’s the thing though: they have two wins over FCS opponents and the Army-Navy game is AFTER all the bowl games are set out. So my guess is they are Team #82 and if they lose, then we get some chaos. A bit.
Appalachian State is 6-6 with two wins over FCS opponents. If they ask for a waiver and get it AND they need a bowl-eligible team, they would be next in line.
James Madison is on this list because the NCAA is, as always, a fucked up organization that makes money by accident. Since they are a transitional team, they can’t win a conference or go to a bowl. Even if they are good. Which JMU has been this year. Normally I would say it has to do with an easier schedule but that’s not really the case. They won 2 games over FCS opponents but had a regular Sun Belt conference schedule and ran roughshod over a lot of teams, including Coastal Carolina. Them only having 11 games is more of an issue in my opinion. But for people saying they should have scheduled another game, why? They already knew their fate was pretty much sealed. Anyway, if they applied for a waiver and it was accepted they would have to wait to see if the NCAA chose them or a team off the APR list (which I will explain in the next point).
Next up is the APR list. APR stands for Academic Progress Rate. Not necessarily a metric on how “smart” a school is but how well schools are graduating their athletes. So a school like Stanford, which is a tough academic school, might not graduate as many football players (as a percentage) as, say, ULM which has far less stringent academic entrance criteria but may graduate more of their students. Anyway, here is the list:
- Rice
- UNLV
- Auburn
- Michigan State
The rest don’t matter because it will never get to those schools. If there aren’t enough bowl-eligible teams, Rice would be given first choice to accept an offer. Then UNLV, Auburn and, finally, Michigan State. I don’t think it will get to these teams but it can if some of the things that happened above don’t happen. Plus, there are rumours abound that UNLV, after inexplicably firing Marcus Arroyo after the best season since 2013 under Bobby Hauck, would reject a bowl offer even if it got to them on the APR list.

Did you get all that? That needs to be a college class. I’m sure the failure rate would still be about 50%.

Alright, I won’t update this until sometime on Saturday since, chances are, nothing much will happen until then. I doubt I will be on Twitter until later in the day on Saturday. Then Sunday it will be all day, going over the bowl games as they get filled. Going to be a busy weekend. Enjoy the rest of your week everyone!

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

Posted on November 22, 2022 by guelphbossman

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

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

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

Tuesday

Bowling Green (+6.5) at Ohio

7:00 PM

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

Thursday

Mississippi State (+2.5) at #20 Ole Miss

7:00 PM

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

Friday

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

Utah State (+16.5) at Boise State

Noon

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

Central Michigan (-2) at Eastern Michigan

Noon

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

Baylor (+8.5) at #23 Texas

Noon

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

Toledo (-7.5) at Western Michigan

Noon

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

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

Arkansas (-3) at Missouri

3:30 PM

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

New Mexico (+7.5) at Colorado State

3:30 PM

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

Nebraska (+10.5) at Iowa

4:00 PM

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

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

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

Saturday Early

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

Rutgers (+14) at Maryland

Noon

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

WKU (-7) at Florida Atlantic

Noon

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

Georgia Tech (+35.5) at #1 Georgia

Noon

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

West Virginia (+8.5) at Oklahoma State

Noon

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

Coastal Carolina (+13.5) at James Madison

Noon

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

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

Saturday Afternoon

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

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

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

Illinois (-14) at Northwestern

3:30 PM

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

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

Purdue (-10.5) at Indiana

3:30 PM

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

Auburn (+22) at #7 Alabama

3:30 PM

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

UAB (-17.5) at Louisiana Tech

3:30 PM

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

Minnesota (+3.5) at Wisconsin

3:30 PM

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

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

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

Virginia at Virginia Tech

3:30 PM

cancelled

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

Memphis (+4.5) at SMU

3:30 PM

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

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

Troy (-13.5) at Arkansas State

3:30 PM

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

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

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

#14 Utah (-29.5) at Colorado

4:00 PM

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

Saturday Primetime

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

7:00 PM

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

#22 UCF (-19.5) at USF

7:00 PM

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

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

Tulsa (+12) at Houston

7:30 PM

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

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

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

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

Saturday Late Night

Air Force (-1.5) at San Diego State

9:00 PM

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

SE Missouri State at Montana

10:00 PM

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

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

#13 Washington (-2) at Washington State

10:30 PM

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

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

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

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

Crazy Bowl Projections V5.0!

Posted on November 16, 2022 by guelphbossman

This is the fifth edition of this completely ridiculous post. I still wish one year we get close to what I post on these but it would cement that season as the new craziest season ever. Even more so than 2007. And then if it happened I would do anything I could to get to Vegas. Fly, drive, hitchhike, I don’t give a shit. That’s a heater you ride until it ends.

I will not do all the bowl games. What would be the point? To see how WILD it would be to see Eastern Michigan in the, say, Gasparilla Bowl? Ooooooooooh, so crazy. No I’m just looking at the top because the amount of upsets it would take just to get to what I’m suggesting is staggering.

Fiesta Bowl	CFP #1 vs. CFP #4	TCU vs. Illinois
Peach Bowl	CFP #2 vs. CFP #3	Utah vs. Tennessee

Illinois? ILLINOIS? Coached by this guy?

Alright just give me a minute or two here. Let’s go through everything that would get us to this point (since it’s a lot to absorb). Hell, it even took me a bit of time to go back through everything to say “Yep, this is fucked but it seems to work.”

TCU wins out. That’s it. OK, we’re off to a good start. Is it crazy? No, but after last night’s College Football Playoff Rankings Show of Destruction and Doom El Fantastico, it seems like many at ESPN would love if the Horned Frogs would fuck right off already.
Utah also wins out. That would include wins over Oregon, mighty Colorado, and UCLA in the Pac-12 title game. Oregon would also lose the Civil War to Oregon State pulling them right out of contention for anything. USC would lose to UCLA (who also wins their final regular season game to stay near the top of the rankings) and Notre Dame who is on quite the run as the season goes on. Washington loses to Wazzu and that wraps up the Pac-12 picture. OK, not too bad honestly. All this has the potential to happen.
Tennessee. The Vols! I think Rece Davis wants them in so here you go ya Chris Fowler doppelganger. How they get here? Buckle up.
- Georgia loses to Kentucky. Chaos ensues.
- Tennessee beats the holy hell out of South Carolina.
- LSU beats UAB. Big deal.
- Alabama beats Austin Peay. Who cares.
- Ole Miss beats Arkansas. No surprise.
- The following week Georgia loses to GEORGIA TECH? OK then. Couldn’t handle the option I guess.
- Tennessee beats Vanderbilt by 50.
- LSU loses to, oh no, Texas A&M.
- Alabama loses the Iron Bowl to Auburn!
- Ole Miss wins the Egg Bowl over Mississippi State.
- UGA then beats LSU for the SEC Championship.
- All this means, LSU and Georgia would both be outside the Top 10 going into the SEC Championship. Meaning neither could get into the Top 4. Tennessee and Ole Miss would be the only two teams and UT gets in at 11-1 and Ole Miss falls just short.
- Gary Danielson would lose his ever-loving mind over all this.
Oh man we haven’t even got Illinois yet. OK. First of all, the Illini pull off a huge upset and beat Michigan. That is paired with Ohio State being stunned by Maryland (finally getting Mike Locksley and the program their signature Big Ten win). The following week, Michigan wins The Game and Purdue loses to Indiana for the Old Oaken Bucket. Illinois calmly beats Northwestern by about 40 and wins the Big Ten West. This means they get a rematch with Big Ten East champ, Michigan. They beat them yet again and leapfrog a few teams, including Michigan, to nab the final CFP spot. Penn State wins out but doesn’t have enough left to climb into the Top 4 so they barely miss out.

You’re probably asking where the ACC is. Well, North Carolina wins out but Clemson loses their final two. The ACC Championship, which was already set, has the Tigers regaining their crown in an upset over the Tar Heels. North Carolina was ranked too low in the previous rankings and needed to completely win out to have any shot at the CFP and they come up just short.

OK so that was ridiculous. It was looking good until we got to the SEC. If some of those results happen….I will be so fucking excited. But some of those game results I mentioned? They aren’t that far-fetched. On we go to the New Year’s Six where things may get weirder.

Rose Bowl	Big Ten #1 vs. Pac-12 #1	Penn State vs. UCLA
Cotton Bowl	CFP at-large vs. G-5 #1	Michigan vs. Tulane
Sugar Bowl	SEC #1 vs. Big XII #1	Georgia vs. Texas
Orange Bowl	ACC #1 vs. Big Ten/Notre Dame/SEC	Clemson vs. Ole Miss

OK so not totally messed up. Explanation:

As I said above, Ole Miss wins out but they won’t have enough to move up the rankings without being in a conference championship game so they fall just short of the CFP but are easily in the New Year’s Six.
Tulane is not the current G-5 favourite after their loss to UCF. Tulane, though, will win out while UCF gets shocked by Navy. The Green Wave winning their final two includes a victory over Cincinnati. No other conference has a team close enough and Tulane wins the AAC Championship to get the Cotton Bowl bid.
Clemson, despite their problems to end the season, shock North Carolina and win the ACC title which gives them the automatic Orange Bowl spot.
Speaking of teams kind of coming back out of nowhere to win their conference championship, here come the Georgia Bulldogs. Their win over LSU in the SEC Championship means their ranking doesn’t matter. They go to the Sugar Bowl no matter what as they would have been well out of the Top 4 after their late season collapse.
With Illinois getting into the College Football Playoff, the Rose Bowl spot opens up to the best Big Ten team remaining. And that team would be the Penn State Nittany Lions who just kind of hid and waited for all the other teams to collapse around them.
This puts Michigan in the Cotton Bowl as the only true at-large team in the New Year’s Six. Honestly, you could interchange Penn State and the Wolverines and it’s fine either way.
I briefly discussed UCLA above. They slot into the Rose Bowl after losing the Pac-12 Championship which comes after their slight upset of USC.
Finally, the Big XII spot in the Sugar Bowl. I have it going to Texas. In what would mirror what will probably happen, the Big XII would still have the lowest-ranked team in the New Year’s Six as past TCU there are a lot of good teams but no teams that could be considered great. Texas is the best of this bunch, barely beating out Kansas State and Oklahoma State.

So there you go. Yeah it’s pretty insane and makes no sense but was fun to do and if even half this stuff happens it would be quite the roller coaster for college football fans.

Next up is the Bossman Top 25.

#1	Georgia
#2	Ohio State
#3	TCU
#4	Michigan
#5	USC
#6	Tennessee
#7	LSU
#8	Alabama
#9	Utah
#10	Clemson
#11	Penn State
#12	Washington
#13	North Carolina
#14	Oregon
#15	Kansas State
#16	Ole Miss
#17	UCF
#18	UCLA
#19	Notre Dame
#20	Florida State
#21	Oklahoma State
#22	Tulane
#23	NC State
#24	Texas
#25	Cincinnati

My Top 4 is close to everyone else’s Top 4. Michigan may actually be a better team than TCU but sorry, they haven’t shown it and their non-conference schedule was horrific. If they beat Ohio State, then they can lay claim to a better ranking than the Horned Frogs. LSU is sitting there waiting and if they win the SEC Championship, it could cause some major issues at the top. And ESPN’s favourite, Alabama sits at #8. Unfortunately for them, they have no real way to move up except for complete chaos above them. And even then.

Alright next week I will be back with, let’s call them regular bowl projections. Enjoy the rest of your week!

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

Posted on November 15, 2022 by guelphbossman

If you haven’t heard, there was a huge tragedy on the campus of the University of Virginia in Charlottesville. Three players on the Cavaliers, Lavel Davis, D’Sean Perry and Devin Chandler were killed in a shooting at the end of a field trip. Two other students were severely injured and are in hospital. The shooter is a former UVA football player. I have not heard anything about a motive. This is just awful. Seems like more senseless violence. I don’t know how the team is going to move on for the final two games of their season. At this point, it feels pointless to move on but many of them probably need football as a distraction to help healing and mourning the loss of their teammates and friends. Condolences to everyone at the University of Virginia. I would say hopefully lessons are learned from this but they never are, unfortunately.

UPDATE: The Virginia-Coastal Carolina game will not be played this Saturday. This does not affect Canadians and what they can watch but it is noteworthy. And also not surprising in the least. There is also no word about what will happen with the Commonwealth Cup game against Virginia Tech the following weekend.

Alright, it seems much less important this week but let’s get on with the schedule.

Tuesday

		US	Canada
Ohio at Ball State	7:00 PM
Bowling Green at Toledo	7:00 PM

A couple of big MACtion games to start the week. If the Bobcats can beat Ball State and the Rockets beat Bowling Green, then Toledo will help Ohio win the MAC East. This would mean that Ohio would go to Ford Field in a couple weeks to face…Toledo. Interesting how that works out.

Wednesday

		US	Canada
Eastern Michigan at Kent State	6:00 PM
Miami-OH at Northern Illinois	7:00 PM
Western Michigan at Central Michigan	8:00 PM

If Ohio loses the previous night, then the EMU-KSU game becomes quite a bit more important as the MAC East will still be up for grabs. Otherwise we got some bowl-eligibility issues here: Kent State, Miami-OH and Central Michigan all have to win to keep their bowl game chances alive.

Thursday

		US	Canada
SMU at #21 Tulane	7:30 PM

Only one game Thursday night (not even a game on a network Canadians can’t get). It’s a big game for the Green Wave as they absolutely need to win this one to stay alive for a berth in the AAC Championship.

Friday

		US	Canada
USF at Tulsa	9:00 PM

One game here. TSN is picking it up. I don’t know why because it means nothing. Neither team can go bowling.

Saturday Early

		US	Canada
Navy at #17 UCF	11:00 AM
Illinois at #3 Michigan	Noon
Duke at Pittsburgh	Noon
Indiana at Michigan State	Noon
UConn at Army	Noon
Wisconsin at Nebraska	Noon
Yale at Harvard	Noon
#4 TCU at Baylor	Noon
Florida at Vanderbilt	Noon

I’d say the most interesting game here is the TCU-Baylor game. It’s your classic trap game as the Bears are a good team and the game is in Waco. The other truly interesting one out of the bunch is the Wisky-Nebraska game in the Big Ten West Chaos Carnival. No one is in the driver’s seat (but the Huskers aren’t on the trip at all). All the teams are in seats on the bus trying to see who can last to the final stop. I think I got that analogy right.

Yes, you see that right. We have morning football. ESPN2 still has their quadrupleheader but it starts an hour early. I will explain more later in the post. And yes, you see that right. Yale and Harvard, once again, appearing on ESPNU. Despite the fact there are other teams that might deserve that spot, it’s nice to see ESPN embracing FCS football. I just wish they would do that when Gameday goes to an FCS school, like this Saturday when they head to Bozeman for the Brawl of the Wild between Montana and Montana State. That game is on at 2 in the afternoon on ESPN+. Ridiculous. Give it the late ESPNU spot for Christ’s sake!

Finally, a little bit about the UConn bowl situation. The Huskies are bowl-eligible. They do, however, have to hope that there are not enough teams to fill all the spots. There is no guarantee for them as they have no tie-in to any other bowl. Even worse, Liberty is in the same boat and is ranked way ahead of them so will get the first chance when a bowl doesn’t have two teams to fulfill the tie-ins. So the program is still fingers crossed to make a bowl as it’s not set in stone just yet.

Saturday Afternoon

		US	Canada
Washington State at Arizona	2:00 PM
#25 Oregon State at Arizona State	2:15 PM
Boston College at #18 Notre Dame	2:30 PM
#2 Ohio State at Maryland	3:30 PM
NC State at Louisville	3:30 PM
#11 Penn State at Rutgers	3:30 PM
#1 Georgia at Kentucky	3:30 PM
Akron at Buffalo	3:30 PM
Miami at #9 Clemson	3:30 PM
South Alabama at Southern Miss	3:30 PM
#22 Cincinnati at Temple	4:00 PM
Iowa at Minnesota	4:00 PM
WKU at Auburn	4:00 PM
Georgia Tech at #13 North Carolina	5:30 PM
Stanford at California	5:30 PM

This might be the biggest afternoon schedule I have ever seen. Saying that, it’s definitely quantity over quality as there isn’t a ton here to whet the appetite. What does this mean? We are in for something crazy. It never fails.

I talked about TCU’s trap game earlier. You could say the same for Georgia here. I like UGA’s chances more than TCU’s obviously but if the Dawgs let the Cats stay around into the fourth quarter, expect a lot of nervous Georgia fans around the country. The Big Ten West Round Robin Fun-Time Carousel continues in this timeslot with Iowa and Minnesota facing off to see if we can get some clarity going into the final regular season week.

UPDATE #2: Akron-Buffalo has been postponed due to the snowstorm that has already hit the Buffalo area and moved this weekend’s Bills game to Detroit. The game is reportedly going to be moved to Sunday but I don’t see that happening with what the area will be like through the end of the weekend.

Saturday Primetime

		US	Canada
Boise State at Wyoming	7:00 PM
#5 Tennessee at South Carolina	7:00 PM
#24 Oklahoma State at Oklahoma	7:30 PM
New Mexico State at Missouri	7:30 PM
#14 Ole Miss at Arkansas	7:30 PM
Syracuse at Wake Forest	8:00 PM
#7 USC at #16 UCLA	8:00 PM

A huge Pac-12 game that could have been one of the biggest in years if the Bruins hadn’t blown a gasket against Arizona, of all teams, last weekend. Plus the Oklahoma Sooners are in a very odd spot, at least for this program: they need a win to become bowl-eligible in November. This is a stark difference to some Bedlam games of the past decade or so where it was the Pokes who needed that win badly to play some postseason ball. The Sooners don’t need to win this one but if they lose here they only have one more shot to keep their bowl game streak going.

Saturday Late Night

		US	Canada
UAB at #6 LSU	9:00 PM
Colorado at #15 Washington	9:00 PM
Fresno State at Nevada	10:30 PM
#10 Utah at #12 Oregon	10:30 PM

So the entire reason for ESPN2 starting their schedule at 11 in the morning is so that LSU could host UAB on the station at night? Are you fucking serious? That might be one of the dumbest things I’ve heard. The schedule could have easily been shuffled around to accommodate this in a normal way but ESPN is really upping how much they kowtow to the SEC. It’s probably a good thing the Big Ten is leaving for FOX. Also here we have the other high stakes Pac-12 match of the weekend that is, once again, a little less high stakes than it could have been. Both the Utes and Ducks still have Pac-12 Championship and New Year’s Six opportunities available…well, one will after this game.

Big Games O’ The Week

USC at UCLA (8:00, FOX) – I don’t remember a time when I’ve done this blog where the Pac-12 is the conference to watch on any given week. I think every other Power Five conference has had their week to shine (with the SEC and Big Ten having a lot of weeks to shine) but this may be a first for the Pac-12 on this blog. Look, a USC win may move them up to #6 or even #5 going into the final regular season week. It clinches their spot in the Pac-12 Championship Game and possibly sets them up to return to glory. A UCLA win doesn’t fully eliminate any team but makes it a lot tougher for any team from the conference to get to the College Football Playoff. What it does do, though, is cause massive Pac-12 chaos inside the conference which is also fun…for me at least.

Utah at Oregon (10:30, TSN2) – Hey a TSN quadrupleheader! That’s nice. What’s not so nice? This is probably the high water mark for TSN college football coverage this season. I will explain later. Anyway, the other big Pac-12 game this week pits two teams who still have big aspirations which hopefully lead to a Rose Bowl spot. No matter the result, there will still be a bit of chaos left in the Pac-12 to just determine it’s title game participants. Thankfully there are no divisions this year as it’s so much better to just have the best teams in.

Illinois at Michigan (12:00, ABC/TSN2) – Most years, this has the makings of a blowout. Not this time around. Yes it’s in the Big House so the Wolverines have a big home field advantage. Other than that though, this is not a game Michigan should take lightly. Illinois still has a shot at the Big Ten West title but a few other things have to go their way. A win here REALLY helps though. Michigan is heading into The Game with Ohio State and a win here, coupled with Ohio State winning, would set up the biggest matchup since…well, you could say last year but I would say since 2016’s double overtime classic.

Georgia at Kentucky (3:30, CBS) – This could be the game of a lifetime for Mark Stoops and Kentucky if they could pull off the upset. It would also completely upset the college football apple cart with very little time left. Let’s be honest though: it’s going to take a lot for the Cats to keep this close. Hopefully they have watched UGA’s games against Kent State and Missouri to figure out the best approach.

TCU at Baylor (Noon, FOX) – Dave Aranda’s Baylor Bears could throw a huge monkey wrench into TCU’s national title plans. If they beat the Horned Frogs, that probably spells the end for TCU’s CFP hopes. TCU has to be very careful with this one. It is the very definition of a college football speed bump game.

Tennessee at South Carolina (7:00, TSN2) – So it drops off a bit of a cliff after the first five games. But this could be a sneaky good one. Tennessee is not out of the College Football Playoff conversation just yet. South Carolina could put the nail in that coffin and potentially destroy the Vols’ New Year’s Six possibilities in one fell swoop if they can pull off the upset in Columbia.

Psycho Game of the Week

USF at Tulsa (Friday, 9:00, TSN2) – The Bulls are here for a second straight week. I would call that a trend. I get that TSN2, somehow, has nothing to air that night so this goes there by default. But of all the games to show. You know what, TSN? You’d be better off showing Best of Curling or World’s Most Incredible Darts Throws or something like that. This is terrible.

Hubba Bubba Blowout of the Week

Colorado at Washington (9:00, Pac-12 Network) – Man, Colorado is bad. Worst Power Five team? It’s between them and Northwestern. Maybe they should play a bowl game to determine the worst of the worst. The Huskies should annihilate Colorado here in a game that might be long over by halftime.

The Degenerate Portion of Our Show

Time for my picks for the upcoming week of college football. Is there any basis for these picks? Not really. I mostly wing it.

Ball State (+3.5) over Ohio (and the mild upset win!)
Central Michigan (-11) over Western Michigan
Navy (+16.5) over UCF (they’ll cover but not win)
Northwestern (+20) over Purdue (the Boilermakers will win though)
Illinois (+18) over Michigan (covering but not winning)
TCU (-2.5) over Baylor
Oregon State (-8) over Arizona State
South Alabama (-7.5) over Southern Miss
Penn State (-19.5) over Rutgers
Miami (+19) over Clemson (the Canes will cover but the Tigers will win this one)
Minnesota (-2.5) over Iowa
Wyoming (+14) over Boise State (the Broncos will end up with the win)
Ole Miss (-2.5) over Arkansas
Oregon (-3) over Utah

OK an explanation about the TSN comment I made earlier. Normally, the final week of the regular season would bring at least 8 games on TSN if not up to 13 or 14. TSN would go all in because the CFL would be done for the season. Just like this year, the Grey Cup lands on Week 12 of the college football season. One wrinkle, though: the World Cup. It begins Sunday. TSN and CTV are showing every game of the tournament. If I just take a look at the schedule, it means the following:

It’s almost a guarantee that there will be on early Black Friday games aired on TSN.
TSN 2, 4 and 5 are available for afternoon/night Black Friday games.
The next day (Saturday, American Thanksgiving weekend) might be mostly out for college football games as there are World Cup games that overlap the early and afternoon windows. I can see TSN stepping up for primetime and late night games, though.

So, 14 games? Not going to happen. 10? Doubtful. Maybe they get back to that 8 mark but it will be dicey. Is this one of the reasons why the World Cup shouldn’t be in November and December? Yes. But it’s far down the list. Like WAY down the list. Remember…it’s in Qatar. That’s all you got to say.

Tomorrow you should get the bowl projection and rankings post and on Thursday the NFL post. Not guaranteeing anything but this is the time of year where staying on schedule is pretty imperative. Enjoy the games everyone!

The All-New Bossman Top 25 along with some Bowl Projections!!!

Posted on November 11, 2022 by guelphbossman

I did the Top 25 a few weeks ago and then missed it since then. Not by design. I literally forgot or was rushing to get the blog post out. Anyway, now it’s time to do a different post altogether with my rankings and my bowl projections despite the fact that I might have nothing right by the time conference championship weekend comes along. Let’s just get right to it shall we? Here is the Bossman Top 25 after last week’s games:

#1	Georgia
#2	Ohio State
#3	TCU
#4	Michigan
#5	Oregon
#6	USC
#7	Tennessee
#8	LSU
#9	UCLA
#10	Utah
#11	Ole Miss
#12	Alabama
#13	Clemson
#14	Penn State
#15	NC State
#16	Texas
#17	North Carolina
#18	Tulane
#19	Kansas State
#20	Illinois
#21	UCF
#22	Washington
#23	Liberty
#24	Notre Dame
#25	Kentucky

Yes I have TCU ahead of Michigan. I think they are just a more complete team at this point AND, interestingly enough, they have had a much tougher schedule than the Wolverines have had. Michigan could arguably get to #1 if they win their final three and blow out the Buckeyes. You think this week’s UCF-Tulane game is big? They are the only two teams I have ranked in the Top 25 that are eligible for that Cotton Bowl spot (Liberty can’t qualify for that spot because it only goes to a conference champion). As I’ve said before, a Tulane loss probably brings more teams back into the mix than a UCF loss. Going back to the Big XII for a second, we aren’t going to see a truly top team in the Sugar Bowl if this keeps up for the Horned Frogs. Right now, Texas is at #16 but might drop right out of the rankings if they lose to TCU this weekend. Which would leave…who, exactly? Sometimes these bowl tie-ins leave us less than desirable matchups come bowl season.

And now for my first set of bowl projections. Is it too early for these? Yeah, probably. At least I haven’t been doing them already for a month or so. Let’s begin.

Fiesta Bowl	CFP #2 vs. CFP #3	Ohio State vs. TCU
Peach Bowl	CFP #1 vs. CFP #4	Georgia vs. UCLA

Let me explain:

Georgia is an easy one as I have them running the table and then beating LSU in the SEC Championship to be basically at home for the College Football Playoff semi-final.
Ohio State wins out, including a big win against Michigan. They win the Big Ten Championship but maybe not by as much as many think they would and they end up as the #2 team and it’s off to Phoenix.
TCU runs the table, finishes undefeated and ends up beating Texas (again) for the Big XII title. So far so good.
Now we have the last team. UCLA. This will ruffle feathers. I have the Bruins winning out, which will include a huge win over USC. Then they will get what I believe is an equally important win over Oregon in the Pac-12 title game to get into the #4 spot.

You might not agree, which is fine, but at least I have given you an explanation to my thought process. I’m sure that will change next week. Now the next part of this college football algebra equation.

Rose Bowl	Big Ten #1 vs. Pac-12 #1	Michigan vs. Oregon
Cotton Bowl	CFP at-large vs. G-5 #1	USC vs. UCF
Sugar Bowl	SEC #1 vs. Big XII #1	Tennessee vs. Texas
Orange Bowl	ACC #1 vs. Big Ten/Notre Dame/SEC	Clemson vs. Ole Miss

This may require a little less convincing but here’s the rationale:

Tennessee will not make it to the SEC Championship thanks to their loss to Georgia. I do believe they will still win their final three games and easily get the Sugar Bowl spot as the highest ranked SEC team in the CFP Poll.
Clemson is going to win the ACC Championship (probably over North Carolina). Being boatraced by Notre Dame is the thing that will keep them out of the CFP.
Michigan won’t even win their division. But with only a loss to Ohio State on their resume, they are the easy choice to go to the Rose Bowl.
Oregon will end up losing the Pac-12 Championship to UCLA but I still think they will have the edge over USC for the Rose Bowl spot. Honestly, at this point I think they could be interchangeable as one would be in the Rose Bowl and the other would go to the Cotton Bowl as the only true at-large team in the NY6 this season.
As for the other spot in the Orange Bowl, Ole Miss, I think will end up being the highest ranked SEC/Big Ten team left, narrowly beating out a few other teams for that spot.
I have UCF beating Tulane this coming Saturday and running the table to get to the Cotton Bowl with the Group of Five bid.
Man, we may have an unranked team in the New Year’s Six as I have Texas getting the Sugar Bowl spot opposite the Vols. The Big XII, despite having a lot of pretty good teams, has only one really good team in TCU. The rest are in the lower end of the polls if not just outside. Texas is the best of this bunch.
Expect NC State, Penn State, Alabama and LSU to put up a stink about not getting in but at this point they will be the ones juuuuuuuuuust on the outside.

Well hey this already looks like a shitshow. So why not throw in the rest of the bowl projections and end this week’s experiment.

Citrus Bowl	SEC vs. Big Ten	LSU vs. Penn State
ReliaQuest Bowl	SEC vs. Big Ten	Kentucky vs. Illinois
Music City Bowl	SEC vs. Big Ten	Alabama vs. Purdue
Gator Bowl	SEC vs. ACC	Florida vs. NC State
Arizona Bowl	MWC vs. MAC	Boise State vs. Buffalo
Sun Bowl	ACC vs. Pac-12	Wake Forest vs. Utah
Duke’s Mayo Bowl	SEC vs. Big Ten	South Carolina vs. Minnesota
Alamo Bowl	Big XII vs. Pac-12	Kansas State vs. Washington
Cheez-It Bowl	Big XII vs. ACC	Baylor vs. North Carolina
Pinstripe Bowl	Big Ten vs. ACC	Wisconsin vs. Florida State
Texas Bowl	SEC vs. Big XII	Arkansas vs. Oklahoma State
Holiday Bowl	ACC vs. Pac-12	Notre Dame vs. Michigan State*
Liberty Bowl	SEC vs. Big XII	Duke vs. Oklahoma
Military Bowl	ACC vs. AAC	Syracuse vs. Cincinnati
Guaranteed Rate Bowl	Big Ten vs. Big XII	Iowa vs. Kansas
Birmingham Bowl	SEC vs. AAC/ACC/C-USA	Missouri vs. Louisville
First Responder Bowl	2 of AAC, Big XII, C-USA, Sun Belt, MWC	SMU vs UNLV
Camellia Bowl	Sun Belt vs. MAC/C-USA	Coastal Carolina vs. WKU
Quick Lane Bowl	Big Ten vs. MAC	Maryland vs. Toledo
Hawaii Bowl	BYU/AAC/C-USA vs. MWC	BYU vs. San Jose State
Independence Bowl	AAC vs. Army	Tulane vs. Army
Gasparilla Bowl	2 of AAC, ACC, SEC, Pac-12	Miami vs. East Carolina
Armed Forces Bowl	2 of Big XII, C-USA, AAC	Memphis vs. Middle Tennessee
New Orleans Bowl	Sun Belt vs. C-USA	Troy vs. UTSA
Boca Raton Bowl	2 of AAC, Sun Belt, C-USA, MAC	Liberty vs. Marshall
Idaho Potato Bowl	MWC vs. MAC	Wyoming vs. Ohio
Myrtle Beach Bowl	2 of AAC, Sun Belt, C-USA, MAC	Appalachian State vs. Miami-OH
Frisco Bowl	2 of AAC, MWC, Sun Belt, C-USA, MAC	Air Force vs. Southern Miss
Las Vegas Bowl	SEC vs. Pac-12	Mississippi State vs. Oregon State
LendingTree Bowl	Sun Belt vs. MAC/C-USA	South Alabama vs. UTEP
LA Bowl	Pac-12 vs. MWC	Washington State vs. San Diego State
New Mexico Bowl	MWC vs. AAC/C-USA/MAC	Utah State vs. UAB
Fenway Bowl	ACC vs. AAC	Pittsburgh vs. Houston
Cure Bowl	2 of AAC, MWC, Sun Belt, C-USA, MAC	Louisiana vs. Ball State
Bahamas Bowl	C-USA vs. MAC	Florida Atlantic vs. Eastern Michigan

A few notes on this mishmash of information:

Michigan State would be in the Holiday Bowl to face Notre Dame because the Pac-12 wouldn’t have enough teams to fulfill their bowl bids. Blame UCLA, Oregon and USC for being good this season.
BYU is locked into the Hawaii Bowl as long as the unthinkable happens and they lose to both Utah Tech and Stanford. Army goes to the Independence Bowl with three more wins and I think they will do that although this weekend’s game against Troy won’t be easy.
I have North Texas losing their next two games but still getting to the Conference USA Championship game. And then losing again. So I wonder if they get a waiver with no real spots available for them. Could be very interesting since it feels like we will hover right around the 82 mark for bowl-eligible teams.

OK that’s good enough for now. I think next week I will do the annual bowl chaos post. I wonder if it might actually end up being close to what ends up happening. Who knows.

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

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Crazy Bowl Projections V5.0!

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

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