Coaching Carousel Time! And the Week 12 College Football TV Schedule

Posted on November 14, 2023 by guelphbossman

Yeah it’s that time of the year. The coaching carousel has begun! And what I am going to do this time around is actually compare it to my start-of-the-year predictions. I mean what could go wrong, right?

Let’s look at who has already been shown the door. Jimbo Fisher, Andy Avalos, Zach Arnett and now soon-to-be-retired Brady Hoke…none of who were on my list. Great start, Bossman. Mel Tucker was on my list in the Doubtful Shitcanning section although even I couldn’t think that the way he went out would be the way he went out. What a fucking perv. As for who is currently on the hot seat and was on my list?

Neal Brown. Now Neal probably just has to win one of his final two games to secure his job for next season. Lose both those games and end up 6-6? That would be an interesting conversation.
Dana Holgorsen. You can give them a bit of slack as they stepped up their competition by joining the Big XII. But Drunk Uncle Dana has been a hot seat regular for a while now and at some point he’s either got to prove he’s still the guy or find a coordinator position somewhere.
Danny Gonzales. One of the toughest places to be an FBS head coach, Gonzales probably would have been safe for another year. But with New Mexico State doing so well, some in the New Mexico athletic department might wonder if they should try someone else at the helm.
Tom Allen. It’s pretty damn obvious now that the 2020 season was an anomaly and that the Hoosiers are barely treading water with Allen. I doubt he makes it to 2024.

I really don’t want to talk much about certain coaches appearing my list. Guys like Jeff Hafley or Scot Loeffler or Shawn Elliott or Greg Schiano or Brent Pry or Mike Bloomgren and definitely not Eliah Drinkwitz. Nope. Got nothing. So let’s just move on and stop talking about my hot seat list, ALRIGHT ALREADY?

Ok calm down Bossman. Time to give the people what they want: hot, nasty college football TV schedules for Canadians who enjoy watching college football on their television sets.

Tuesday

		US	Canada
Akron at Eastern Michigan	7:00
Toledo at Bowling Green	7:00
Western Michigan at Northern Illinois	7:00

Toledo has already clinched a spot in the MAC Championship. Now we are looking at bowl eligibility battles. Eastern Michigan has to beat the Zips to stay alive for a bowl game. And the WMU-NIU game is a Loser Won’t Go Bowling matchup. Big stakes on MACtion Tuesday.

Wednesday

		US	Canada
Buffalo at Miami-OH	7:00
Central Michigan at Ohio	7:00

The Redhawks clinch the MAC East with a victory here and will get their rematch with Toledo in Detroit in December. And the Chippewas become bowl-eligible if they can somehow beat Ohio. Another important MACtion evening.

Thursday

		US	Canada
Boston College at Pittsburgh	7:00

Yeah this is about as unimportant a weeknight slate as you can get. One game. No stakes. Meh.

Friday

		US	Canada
USF at UTSA	9:00

This, on the other hand, is a much more important night. Both teams with a lot to play for and USF is definitely not the USF of recent years (as we could see from their near-upset of Alabama earlier in the season).

Saturday Early

A pretty heavy early slate with two ESPN+ games appearing on TSN+. I can see that being a feature all next season. As for the important games in this window I count one big one. The Mustangs and Tigers face off in a matchup that essentially eliminates the loser but doesn’t automatically guarantee the winner a spot in the American Championship. Everything else is kind of meh, although the Sooners could keep up their hopes of one final Big XII Championship appearance in JerryWorld. Finally, the annual Harvard-Yale game appears in this timeslot as per usual.

Saturday Afternoon

		US	Canada
#22 Utah at #17 Arizona	2:30
Duke at Virginia	3:00
UCLA at USC	3:30
NC State at Virginia Tech	3:30
#1 Georgia at #18 Tennessee	3:30
UNLV at Air Force	3:30
#20 North Carolina at Clemson	3:30
Bethune-Cookman vs. Florida A&M (in Orlando)	3:30
Wake Forest at #19 Notre Dame	3:30
Louisiana at Troy	3:30
Minnesota at #2 Ohio State	4:00
#23 Oklahoma State at Houston	4:00
#6 Oregon at Arizona State	4:00
New Mexico State at Auburn	4:00

UGA-UT is the big one, obviously, here. A lot of other choice with a lot of other teams looking to stay near the top of the rankings. Oregon, tOSU, and Utah are in must-win mode if they want to keep any CFP or even NY6 possibilities alive. Also, the Rebels of Nevada-Las Vegas play in what could be considered the biggest football game in school history. A win here and they all but clinch a spot in the conference title game. And this is something I never thought of. If UNLV is the #1 team, will they play at home? That game would be about 16 hours after the end of the Pac-12 Championship which is already being played at Allegiant Stadium (which I think is a dumb idea but that’s for another post). So the turnaround would be crazy for the stadium crew.

Saturday Primetime

		US	Canada
North Alabama at #4 Florida State	6:30
California at Stanford	6:30
Boise State at Utah State	7:00
#5 Washington at #11 Oregon State	7:30
Florida at #9 Missouri	7:30
FIU at Arkansas	7:30
Nebraska at Wisconsin	7:30
Kentucky at South Carolina	7:30
Syracuse at Georgia Tech	8:00
Georgia State at #15 LSU	8:00
#7 Texas at Iowa State	8:00

Speaking of big games, U-Dub has to try and win in one of the toughest small stadiums to win in, Reser Stadium in Corvallis. Lose and the Pac-12 is all but done in the College Football Playoff race and it opens up a bevy of possibilities to replace the Huskies at the top. The Longhorns are trying to do what the Sooners are also trying to do: give the Big XII one last Fuck You before leaving for the SEC by playing for their conference championship. And finally, you are not seeing things. It is true. A god damn CW DOUBLEHEADER! I hate to admit that the CW has delivered but it has. It has had some great games which has made up for some sub-par production values.

Saturday Late Night

		US	Canada
San Diego State at San Jose State	10:30

Yeah. You could probably go to bed early if you wanted.

Hey, Watch This

Washington at Oregon State (7:30, ABC/TSN2) – I think it’s been a long time since the Beavers have been in the Game of the Week. And I would honestly call this Game 1A since you could easily switch it with the next game on this list and no one would bat an eye. I just think this game has the possibility of being much closer than the other one. The Huskies put themselves in the Pac-12 Championship with a win in Corvallis but Oregon State could put the entire college football world on its head if they pull off the upset.

Georgia at Tennessee (3:30, CBS) – One of the final SEC on CBS games ever and it’s a huge one. If this game was Between the Hedges it wouldn’t be this high. But this game is on the shores of the Tennessee River and it will be one of the loudest Neyland Stadium crowds in recent memory. Another game where an upset is not crazy talk and it would also cause absolute chaos at the top of the college football food chain.

Utah at Arizona (2:30, Pac-12 Network) – Jesus Christ who made the call to get this game on the fucking Pac-12 Network? Well at least us Canadians have an easy time of getting it. Hop on YouTube and search for the Pac-12 Network channel and you’re good to go. Americans…well, they have a much tougher time if it’s not a part of their cable package. What a dumb network. Anyway, both teams have outside chances of getting to the Pac-12 Championship but they would need a lot to happen. A win here isn’t enough. Also, you have to be impressed with the job Jedd Fisch has done in Tucson. This team could be a force in the expanded Big XII next season.

Kansas State at Kansas (7:00, FOX Sports One) – Man, you know it’s kind of a fucked week when two of the top four games are on the Pac-12 Network and FS1. So yeah, can’t see this one if you are a Canadian unless you have other means. I have IPTV. There are also many streams out there to watch. Go find one. Shouldn’t be too hard. Plus, this should be the best Sunflower Showdown maybe ever. Has there been one where both teams were ranked? I don’t think so. Plus, the Wildcats have extra incentive here as they have an outside shot at spoiling a potential Texas-Oklahoma conference championship if they can win here.

Sickos Game of the Week

Michigan State at Indiana (Noon, Big Ten Network) – There are quite a few options for this spot but I will give it to a Big Ten game for once. Here are two terrible teams who will probably have a terrible game that will somehow be close near the end. Think 13-10 which means you almost have to watch because the finish could be spectacular. I almost feel dirty watching games like that.

Hubba Bubba Blowout of the Week

Chattanooga at Alabama (Noon, TSN+) – Once I saw TSN+ was showing this game I knew which game would go in this section. This will be over by halftime. The question is how long does Nick Saban leave Jalen Milroe in.

Wanna Bet?

How about we look back at my picks from last week………..alright, maybe not. I mean I got my first upset pick right with Southern Miss and then it went downhill from there. Stupid Penn State. Anyway, let’s get going with this week’s pickaroos…that sounded dumb.

Miami-OH 31 Buffalo 28

Michigan 42 Maryland 10

Ole Miss 48 ULM 20

Utah 40 Arizona 19

Duke 38 Virginia 24

Tennessee 31 Georgia 27 (yes, I am calling this massive upset)

USC 36 UCLA 26

Ohio State 51 Minnesota 16

Oregon 59 Arizona State 24

South Carolina 42 Kentucky 37

Oregon State 46 Washington 35 (yep, going out on a limb again)

Missouri 41 Florida 20

San Jose State 34 San Diego State 28

Look, normally I am up into the wee hours of the morning watching college football. And I rarely miss games. Well, rarely miss full ones. But I am looking at the Saturday late night sked and asking myself “Bossman, do you really need to watch this game?” The answer is obviously no but I have to convince my brain that that is the correct answer. We shall see how it goes this Saturday. Enjoy the games everyone!

The Bossman Top 26. My first true Bowl Projections. And it’s firing season!

Posted on November 13, 2023 by guelphbossman

Yep, firing season in college football has commenced! In what was, honestly, a shocking shitcanning, Texas A&M followed up an absolute drubbing of Mississippi State by keeping the good times going and firing Jimbo Fisher. Yes, Jimbo has been let go and will get $76 god damn million dollars as a buyout. Holy shit. Stupid me trying to be a teacher, then an accountant when the real money was in being a failed college football head coach. How dumb can I be?

Following that, Boise State announced that they, too, followed an easy win by firing their head coach. Andy Avalos was never really accepted in that position and he never kept the Broncos at the level everyone expects them to be. I guess that’s what happens: a long string of good seasons means expectations go up for everyone.

Then Mississippi State decided that Zach Arnett isn’t the right guy going forward and he was dismissed from his head coaching position. That one game put huge dents in two coaching staffs. Impressive.

Back to the Aggies situation, they now will have to hire someone after the season is over. As fucking hilarious as it would be to promote Bobby Petrino, they will definitely go outside the school in their search. And remember: the Texas A&M job is still a big one. So most coaches would love to have it. Right now I would put Mike Norvell, Mike Elko and Dan Lanning as 1A, 1B and 1C to be hired. Don’t rule out a guy like Lance Leipold, though. He has done amazing things at Kansas and will get a lot of looks in the offseason.

OK let’s get to the Bossman Top 26 which will probably not resemble the College Football Playoff rankings whatsoever:

#1	Georgia (10-0)
#2	Michigan (10-0)
#3	Washington (10-0)
#4	Oregon (9-1)
#5	Alabama (9-1)
#6	Ohio State (10-0)
#7	Florida State (10-0)
#8	Texas (9-1)
#9	Louisville (9-1)
#10	Missouri (8-2)
#11	Oregon State (8-2)
#12	Ole Miss (8-2)
#13	LSU (7-3)
#14	Tulane (9-1)
#15	Penn State (8-2)
#16	Utah (7-3)
#17	Oklahoma (8-2)
#18	James Madison (10-0)
#19	Arizona (7-3)
#20	Notre Dame (7-3)
#21	Tennessee (7-3)
#22	Liberty (10-0)
#23	North Carolina (8-2)
#24	Oklahoma State (7-3)
#25	Iowa (8-2)
#26	Kansas State (7-3)

There are five undefeated Power Five teams at the top. There could end up being four going into conference championship weekend. Something’s gotta give but honestly, will it? Georgia, Washington, Florida State and the Michigan/Ohio State winner in two weeks have clear paths to the playoff. Run the table and you’re in, no ifs, ands, or buts about it. If one falters, that’s where the fun begins. Also, yes I have Tulane at #14 and I’m sure The Committee will have them at like #23 at best. I know it pained them to have Cincinnati so high a couple years back and they never wanted to replicate that again. And if they have their choice, they still won’t even with the expanded playoff starting next season.

Now we turn to bowl projections which actually have a bit of meat to them now that we are closing in on the end of the regular season. Unless we see chaos (which I always hope for), many of these projections can be backed up with relatively easy answers. Let’s go!

Sugar Bowl	CFP #1 vs. CFP #4	Michigan vs. Washington
Rose Bowl	CFP #2 vs. CFP #3	Florida State vs. Georgia

I believe Michigan ends up winning The Game and then the Big Ten Championship. Florida State and Washington I have running the table. Georgia, I think, will have a hiccup this week against Tennessee but still end up winning the SEC Championship to move back into the Top 4. Pretty easy, right? Let’s see if the New Year’s Six predictions make just as much sense.

Fiesta Bowl	CFP at-large vs. CFP at-large/G-5 #1	Oregon vs. Memphis
Orange Bowl	ACC Champ vs. Big Ten/Notre Dame/SEC	Louisville vs. Ohio State
Peach Bowl	CFP at-large vs. CFP at-large/G-5 #1	Alabama vs. Penn State
Cotton Bowl	CFP at-large vs. CFP at-large/G-5 #1	Texas vs. Ole Miss

I’m sure one thing really stands out here so let’s get to that first.

Yes, I have Memphis winning the American and the Group of Five spot in the NY6. How does the current fourth-place team rise to the top? It starts with Memphis beating SMU this coming Saturday. Then Tulane defeats UTSA on the final weekend and, due to tiebreakers, the Tigers get the spot opposite Tulane. Then they pull the upset and beat the Green Wave to move up high enough to get the spot. That shouldn’t be too hard with James Madison ineligible, Liberty’s stupidly easy schedule and The Committee’s MAC disrespect which kills Toledo’s chances.
As for the rest, they are pretty self-explanatory. Louisville ends up losing the ACC Championship but is the best representative from the conference and gets the Orange Bowl spot. The Orange Bowl selects Ohio State as the top team left from the Big Ten or SEC. Oregon, Alabama, Texas and Ole Miss are almost shoo-ins at this point. I do think Penn State sneaks back into the Top 10 and passes Missouri to garner the final spot. Whether they face a pissed off Alabama or a Bama that doesn’t care would remain to be seen.

So far, so good. Nothing crazy (other than Memphis). I’m sure there could be some debate but it would be minor (other than Memphis). Let’s look at the rest of the bowl picture:

Citrus Bowl	SEC vs. Big Ten	LSU vs. Iowa
ReliaQuest Bowl	SEC vs. Big Ten	Kentucky vs. Maryland
Arizona Bowl	MWC vs. MAC	Fresno State vs. Miami-OH
Music City Bowl	SEC vs. Big Ten	Texas A&M vs. Wisconsin
Liberty Bowl	SEC vs. Big XII	Missouri vs. Kansas State
Sun Bowl	ACC vs. Pac-12	Miami vs. Arizona
Gator Bowl	SEC vs. ACC	Auburn vs. North Carolina
Alamo Bowl	Big XII vs. Pac-12	Oklahoma vs. Utah
Pop Tarts Bowl	ACC vs. Big XII	Notre Dame vs. Kansas
Pinstripe Bowl	Big Ten vs. ACC	Rutgers vs. NC State
Fenway Bowl	2 of ACC/AAC/C-USA	Georgia Tech vs. Tulane
Texas Bowl	SEC vs. Big XII	Tennessee vs. Oklahoma State
Holiday Bowl	ACC vs. Pac-12	Boston College vs. Oregon State
Duke’s Mayo Bowl	SEC vs. ACC	UCF* vs. Clemson
Military Bowl	ACC vs. AAC	Duke vs. UTSA
Guaranteed Rate Bowl	2 of Big Ten/Big XII/MWC	Wyoming vs. Iowa State
First Responder Bowl	2 of ACC/Big XII/AAC/Sun Belt/C-USA	Syracuse vs. Texas Tech
Quick Lane Bowl	Big Ten vs. MAC	Illinois vs. Northern Illinois
Hawaii Bowl	AAC vs. MWC	Rice vs. Boise State
Las Vegas Bowl	Big Ten vs. Pac-12	Minnesota vs. USC
68 Ventures Bowl	2 of Sun Belt/C-USA/MAC	Georgia Southern vs. WKU
Idaho Potato Bowl	2 of MWC/MAC/Sun Belt	UNLV vs. Marshall
Armed Forces Bowl	Big XII vs. C-USA	BYU vs. Utah State*
Birmingham Bowl	2 of SEC/ACC/AAC/C-USA	Louisiana* vs. Jacksonville State**
Camellia Bowl	2 of Sun Belt/C-USA/MAC	South Alabama vs. Toledo
Gasparilla Bowl	2 of SEC/ACC/AAC/C-USA	James Madison vs. Florida*
Boca Raton Bowl	2 of AAC/Sun Belt/C-USA/MAC	Appalachian State vs. Bowling Green
Frisco Bowl	2 of AAC/Sun Belt/C-USA/MAC	Arkansas State vs. North Texas***
Bahamas Bowl	MAC vs. C-USA	Ohio vs. New Mexico State
Independence Bowl	Big XII vs. AAC	West Virginia vs. SMU
LA Bowl	Pac-12 vs. MWC	UCLA vs. Air Force
New Mexico Bowl	2 of Group of Five	San Jose State vs. Texas State
Cure Bowl	2 of AAC/Sun Belt/C-USA/MAC	Coastal Carolina vs. Eastern Michigan
New Orleans Bowl	Sun Belt vs. C-USA	Troy vs. Liberty
Myrtle Beach Bowl	2 of AAC/Sun Belt/C-USA/MAC	Georgia State vs. Central Michigan

A few notes on this:

One asterisk (*) means there weren’t enough bowl-eligible teams to fill that bowl slot. Two asterisks (**) means that all bowl-eligible teams have been slotted in a bowl game and there are still spots remaining. Three asterisks (***) means a team that gets in due to APR. That final one I have no idea how it will be filled since I don’t have a great idea as to the smarter schools compared to the not-so-smart schools.
James Madison and Jacksonville State are almost guaranteed bowl games. JMU is pretty much a lock since I can’t see many scenarios where all the bowl games are filled with bowl-eligible teams.
Remember, Notre Dame gets an ACC spot as long as they have one more win than a team they would be replacing….which is pretty much every team left in the ACC to slot into a bowl game.
The other Independents are not going bowling so that doesn’t really matter.
We are WAY too early to see bowl bids being accepted. And with the Bahamas Bowl having to be played in Charlotte there are no issues with issuing passports that would make it so bowl bids would have to be accepted in November. For this reason, I see no bowl bids going out until the first of December at the earliest.

Tomorrow night we have more MACtion. I will try my best to put out the college football TV schedule post tomorrow as well. Rankings will have to be edited in since the CFP rankings aren’t being released until 9:00 tomorrow night. Enjoy the rest of your week everyone!

Oh man, here we go again

Posted on August 1, 2023 by guelphbossman

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Just For You

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

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

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

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

Geogpraphy, Go Eat a Dick

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

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

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

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

Deep Tissue Massage and/or Analysis

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

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

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

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

Belly Expansions

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

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

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

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

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

California Nightmarin’

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

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

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!

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!

The Land of the Undefeated 7.0

Posted on October 11, 2022 by guelphbossman

Yes we are at that point of the season where I am going to look at all the undefeated teams left. I can’t believe this is the seventh version of this post. And I can safely assume that Alabama was probably in all of them.

I’m glad I do this after Week 6 now since otherwise it would end up being like a fifth of the entire FBS that would be undefeated and that’s quite a few teams. Conference play tends to pare that down pretty fast. Alright, let’s get to the list!

#1 Georgia (6-0) – They were in this spot in last year’s post and they are here again. It hasn’t been as smooth as their start last year. A sloooow start against Kent State and a tough game against Missouri has kept them from being the overwhelming #1 at the mid-point of the season. And if they sweep the rest of the schedule, they will deserve the #1 ranking. Florida, Tennessee, Mississippi State and Kentucky in consecutive weeks. Yikes. That’s a gauntlet. But, I think they will pull it off. Barely. But they will. Predicted record: 12-0.

#2 Ohio State (6-0) – No surprise at the #2 spot…ok maybe some surprise since I assume some would have Alabama at #2 at this point. The top three are kind of interchangeable at this point to be honest. Will they have a tough time going undefeated the rest of the way? Possibly with Penn State and Michigan on the schedule but I think they will do it. Predicted record: 12-0.

#3 Alabama (6-0) – Yes I’m sure Nick Saban is secretly pissed off that the Tide are #3 in the rankings, despite getting eleven first place votes (out of the 63 total). They’ve had quite the roller coaster first half of the season…at least for them. By all rights, they should have lost to Texas and thanks to Jimbo Fisher Jimboing all over himself, they survived the Aggies. I assume Bryce Young will be back for the rest of the season and that is why I also have them running the table. If he isn’t back right away, well…. Predicted record: 12-0.

#4 Clemson (6-0) – D.J. Uiagalelei has looked quite a bit better than most predicted he would. He’s done enough to hold up their end while a good Clemson defense does their thing (other than against Wake Forest). They basically escaped Winston-Salem with a win but have looked great otherwise. I don’t see them quite running the table but they will do enough to make them a College Football Playoff possibility come conference championship time. Predicted record: 11-1.

#5 Michigan (6-0) – Despite the fact that FOX has a serious Michigan fetish this season, not that many are discussing the Wolverines as a true contender. They are rolling so far but have a tough back half of the schedule. Their undefeated run could end as early as six days from now (I don’t think it will but it’s very possible). They won’t make it to the end unscathed. Predicted record: 11-1.

#6 Tennessee (5-0) – Quite the start for the Vols this season. Many, especially Volunteer fans, have been waiting for this for a long time. They have their biggest test of the season coming up next week with a game against Bama. If they win, or lose a close one, we can confirm that Tennessee is finally back where they should be…competing for SEC East crowns at the very least. I don’t think they’re quite there yet…but they’re close. Predicted record: 10-2.

#7 USC (6-0) – The Trojans are fun again! Ever since the Pete Carroll days, this team has struggled to maintain their spot at or near the top of the Pac-12. One or two years they are quite good; then they lay an egg. Frustrating to say the least for USC fans. I might catch some flak for this but I don’t see USC running the table. Actually, I see their run ending this coming Saturday. Predicted record: 10-2.

#8 Oklahoma State (5-0) – The Pokes were on this list last year. Mullet Mike continues to do a fantastic job coaching this team. Spencer Sanders is finally looking like a big-time Big XII quarterback. And they are being virtually ignored in their own conference. The rest of their schedule is BRUTAL with a capital B so there is almost no way they run the table. Saying that, this is a team that could potentially make The Committee have to take a hard look at them. Predicted record: 11-1.

#9 Ole Miss (6-0) – You might not want to hear this but Lane Kiffin is, once again, doing an amazing coaching job in Oxford. Yes, this team was going to improved from last year but this has been a great start for the Rebels. If they can beat Bama in a month’s time, they could make the Egg Bowl extremely relevant for the first time in forever. I see them falling short there and in one other game, unfortunately for them. Predicted record: 10-2.

#10 Penn State (5-0) – I’ll be honest with you: I don’t like Penn State’s chances against Michigan and Ohio State. The rest of the schedule? Sure, they’re fine. Predicted record: 10-2.

#11 UCLA (6-0) – Eleven straight undefeated teams at the top of the rankings. I don’t think this has ever happened. No, I’m not going to check. Some will be surprised the Bruins are here but I am not. I had this team playing very good ball and Chip Kelly finally (FINALLY!) doing what he did when he was at Oregon. It won’t be clean but expect this team at least to be looking at the New Year’s Six come early December. Predicted record: 11-1.

#13 TCU (5-0) – If the Big XII was going to have a team on this list, other than the Pokes, most would have figured Oklahoma. Or Baylor. Maybe Texas. Not TCU. Sonny Dykes is doing some amazing things in Fort Worth with this Horned Frogs squad but it has become a very tough conference and the road will be rife with speed bumps. Expect them to have a bit of a rough ride the rest of the way. Predicted record: 9-3.

#18 Syracuse (5-0) – I’ll be honest: I didn’t think the Orange would even win five games all season let alone win their first five games of the season. At some point the bubble will burst. I say it happens this coming weekend and it’s mostly downhill from there. I’d love to be wrong but I don’t think I will be. Predicted record: 6-6.

#25 James Madison (5-0) – This should be a huge story. I mean it is, but it should be bigger. But it won’t be. Why? Because the NCAA are full of fucking idiots who can’t figure out that archaic rules need to be changed. JMU is not eligible to play in a bowl game because they are “transitioning” from FCS to FBS. There’s no real “transition” per se. They are playing one less game than everyone else because of needing to change up their schedule. Other than that, they are like every FBS team. But they aren’t treated like one. Hopefully the NCAA gets off their ass and does something about this. But they won’t. we know that. Too bad for the Dukes who are doing something no other team has done moving to FBS/Division 1-A ever: be ranked in their first year. Will they finish undefeated? I highly doubt it. That’s not really the point here. The point is they deserve respect…plain and simple. Predicted record: 7-4.

Coastal Carolina (6-0) – Now here’s where things get even more interesting. Coastal really has the only legitimate shot among Group of Five teams to go undefeated and may be the only G-5 team to have less than two losses. So how do you keep them out of the Cotton Bowl (which is where the best G-5 team most likely goes)? I wonder if The Committee will find a way. If there are other one loss teams in the G-5 that have played amazing, even in their lone loss then sure, there’s a good debate brewing. But if no other G-5 team has less than two losses? Come on. I kind of hope they do get in so that the Sun Belt will finally get their New Year’s Six payday. Predicted record: 12-0.

We have fifteen undefeated teams as we motor past (Canadian) Thanksgiving. There’s still a lot of time for chaos on this list. Before November hits, the Nittany Lions play both the Buckeyes and Wolverines, the Tide faces off against the Volunteers, the Tigers get the surprising Orange at home and Oklahoma State travels to Fort Worth to face TCU. So this number will dip to at least eleven by the time the calendar turns to the next month. Knowing the chaos we have seen already, I wouldn’t be surprised if we were down to seven or even six by that point.

College football schedule and NFL schedule upcoming later on this week as per usual. Have a great (taco) Tuesday everyone!

Power Five….Power Four? Power THREE?

Posted on August 15, 2022 by guelphbossman

Really, who knows what we are looking at in the next few years. For sure, the two conferences on the left are the major players. I would be very shocked if neither conference went to 18 teams by 2025. As for the other three conferences, it’s a big game of conference chicken right now. I would say the Big XII has the slight upper hand at this point but that could change in an instant. So if you love realignment, ho boy, you must have a raging hard-on right now (and will for the next few years).

OK enough of that disgusting talk. Let’s get to the meat of this post. The Power Five conference predictions. All of them. Don’t lie, you liked all the Group of Five conference (and Independent) predictions in the last post, DIDN’T YOU? So one more time, I will cram as much information down your gullet I possibly can without choking you to death with college football information. Let’s begin.

Let’s start with the….well I can’t call them the undisputed king of conferences anymore because the Big Ten is making a big charge at them. Saying that, I can still call them #1…for now. Here are the predicted SEC standings followed by some grits and chitlins and other weird Southern “delicacies.”

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

Chitlins…GROSS!

Who the fuck figured out to eat the large intestine of a hog?
Yep, two undefeated teams coming from the SEC. Bama and UGA don’t play each other during the regular season. UGA has a relatively easy schedule (in an SEC sense). Yes they have Oregon in a neutral-site game to start the season but they avoid the Tide, Aggies and Ole Miss out of the West. Lucky Dawgs!
As for the Fighting Nick Sabans, damn near everyone has them running the table, at least during the regular season, and I am going right along with that prediction. Other than their matchup against TAMU (at home) and Ole Miss in Oxford, I can’t foresee any close games all season.
As for the Aggies and their weird traditions (just watch a Midnight Yell practice…it’s fucking bizarre), I see them ending up one game short of getting to the SEC Championship. Also one game short of the College Football Playoff. Critics of Jimbo Fisher will find a way to make this sound like a failure of a season if they do comfortably make it to the New Year’s Six.
As per usual, the SEC West is an absolute minefield. The worst team is Mississippi State and they wouldn’t be last in any other conference…not by a long shot. Unfortunately, Bama’s continued dominance and TAMU and Ole Miss not falling at all will mean the rest of the teams are playing for fourth.
The Tennessee Volunteers are my Drinking The Kool-Aid pick of the year. I’m buying that they will be improved enough to be on the precipice of a double-digit win season. I can see them beating Pitt and South Carolina on the road and being perfect at home. Now watch them go 5-7 and make me look like a dummy.
Conference Championship prediction: Alabama 38 Georgia 30. Closer than last year’s win by the Tide but still not enough for UGA.

When are they going to change the name of this conference? Just call it the BIG Conference now or something like that. Big Ten. For a conference with sixteen schools. Schools. Educational institutions. And they can’t count. Glorious. Anyway, here are the predictions followed by some BTN After Dark comments:

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

BTN After Dark Comments

I am so looking forward to Rutgers travelling clear across the country to face UCLA on Big Ten Network starting at 10:30 at night.
Can The Fighting Ann Arbor Khaki Warriors repeat as Big Ten champs? To be honest, I don’t think they will even repeat as Big Ten East champs. It will come down to their big matchup with tOSU two days after American Thanksgiving. This one is in Columbus so I am giving the nod to the Buckeyes here which will be huge when it comes to what The Committee has to look at.
You know, considering how good the Terps’ recruiting has been lately, do you think they kind of wish, money aside, that they were back in the ACC? Not saying they could beat Clemson but man, they would look like a really good team there.
The Big Ten West is going to be ridiculous. I just have this feeling. Five teams within one game of each other. Yes, even Nebraska is in there. In the end, Wisconsin will win some sort of game of Spin The Bottle, except using an ear of corn, and end up getting to the Big Ten Championship where they can scare the Buckeyes for a quarter-and-a-half.
Conference Championship prediction: Ohio State 32 Wisconsin 10. As I said in the previous point, this will be close well into the second quarter and then the Buckeyes will decide enough’s enough and do away with Wisky on their way to the CFP.

I think that right there tells you all you need to know about what’s going on with the rest of the Power Five. The ACC, at this point, might as well chill since their contract with ESPN lasts for more than another decade and any change would require a hell of a lot more money to leave than what USC and UCLA will have to deal with.

Now, there are rumblings that ESPN is stepping in and trying to broker an ACC/Pac-12 merger of sorts but I can’t see that happening to be perfectly honest with you. As long as the Big Ten or SEC doesn’t decide to poach any of their members (which is still a possibility), they should be fine for the time being. Alright, let’s get to the predictions, followed by a bong hit or five:

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

Hey Dude

I’ve honestly thought of going to one of those cannabis shops to see what’s there. It’s basically punishable by death here (in this condo area) to have anything weed-related so I’d have to be super sneaky about it.
Hey, is Clemson back on top? Sure looks like it although NC State is going to give them a serious run for their money. Both teams look like they are a tier above the rest (sorry Miami and Pitt) and their game on October 1st will probably be for the division title. High stakes for sure.
Coastal Chaos is…not back. Speaking of the Canes and Panthers, they are also a step above all the other teams in that division. They will battle it out in another important ACC game on American Thanksgiving weekend which might just decide who gets their shit pushed in by the Tigers or Wolfpack.
I don’t consider this a Kool-Aid pick. Florida State will be better. No stupid upset losses to FCS schools. Just the slow ascent back to, potentially, the top of the ACC. Same goes for Louisville (without the FCS issue).
I did have Wake also in the ACC title hunt but the news that Sam Hartman will be out for at least a bit is a massive worry in Winston-Salem. He steers the ship and without him, sorry Deacs fans, the offense just doesn’t go like it normally does.
Remember last year when I had North Carolina bullying their way into the College Football Playoff? Yeah, not falling for that this time, Mack.
Conference Championship prediction: Clemson 47 Miami 14. Yeah this won’t be close.

OK now we get to the first of the quasi-feuding brothers (sisters? cousins?). The Big XII is adding four teams next season and is pushing hard to get the rest of the Pac-12 teams to join them. It’s almost a certainty Oregon and Washington would rather drop football than join this conference but the rest of the schools remaining could very well be up for grabs, especially the two Arizona schools and the Mountain region schools. Until the next shoe drops, though, it’s another year of the Big XII with X schools. Here are my predictions followed by musings from a pissed off Count Von Count:

	Conference		Overall
	W	L	W	L
Baylor	8	1	10	2
Oklahoma	8	1	10	2
Texas	7	2	9	3
Oklahoma State	7	2	9	3
TCU	4	5	6	6
Iowa State	4	5	6	6
Kansas State	3	6	6	6
West Virginia	2	7	4	8
Texas Tech	2	7	3	9
Kansas	0	9	2	10

ZERO! ZERO FUCKS GIVEN! AH AH AH!

Funny that if things stay as they are, the Big XII will actually get back to twelve teams so at least one conference understands preschool math.
The bottom of the Big XII looks to be the same. Kansas at the bottom. Texas Tech not far from them. And it always feels like one of West Virginia, Kansas State or TCU ending up in eighth. Will this change with the newcomers? I’m gonna say no.
Not quite their swan song in the conference but I see the Sooners, despite all the defections, getting back to the Big XII Championship. They are just too deep a team to not contend for, at the very least, a NY6 spot. I expect Baylor to continue to do well under Dave Aranda and join OU at JerryWorld.
Conference Championship prediction: Baylor 25 Oklahoma 23. Yeah I am predicting the Bears to finish the Big XII Championship State of Oklahoma sweep by beating the Sooners in a very close game.

I remember doing a post eight years ago on my Pac-12 predictions. Here is what I said in that post:

The Pac-12 has become the de facto second best conference in the land and it’s by a long shot as well.

Wow. I mean eight years is a long time but the fall off the cliff of the Pac-12 started not long after this post. It has been a near-disastrous eight years for the Conference of Champions in football and with USC and UCLA leaving for the Big Ten things are looking even worse for the soon-to-be Pac-10.

Look, let’s just get to the predictions before I make Bill Walton cry:

	Conference		Overall
North	W	L	W	L
Oregon	9	0	11	1
Oregon State	4	5	7	5
Washington	4	5	6	6
California	3	6	5	7
Washington State	3	6	5	7
Stanford	3	6	4	8
South
Utah	8	1	10	2
UCLA	7	2	10	2
USC	6	3	9	3
Arizona State	4	5	6	6
Arizona	2	7	3	9
Colorado	1	8	1	11

Bill Walton’s Tears

Hey remember I had U of A being terrible last year and I was right? Well, this year I am doubling down with the Colorado Buffaloes. I have a feeling Karl Dorrell is going to be taking a lot of ibuprofen this season. And may start drinking if he doesn’t already do so.
I see a lot of experts saying USC is going to win the Pac-12 South. They will be better, there’s no doubt about it. But win the division after going 4-8 last year? Let’s pump the brakes a bit. I think Lincoln Riley is still a season away from really pushing USC to the heights they were at during the Pete Carroll era.
So who will win the South Division? I think Utah repeats as South Division champions but it will be UCLA that will give them the toughest time. The Bruins should be really good…like New Year’s Six good. Now watch them go 4-8 and Chip Kelly get fired.
As for the North Division, Oregon should clinch by Thanksgiving…our Thanksgiving. There is no one close to them.
Conference Championship prediction: Utah 32 Oregon 20. Closer than last year but this time the Utes will destroy the Ducks’ dreams of the CFP.

There you go! All conference standings predictions complete! Next up I will put it all together and tell you who I think will win the whole thing. Have a great week everyone!

Most Important Games of the 2022 College Football Season: Prepare for Change

Posted on June 28, 2022 by guelphbossman

Alright let’s be honest here. It has been a slooooooow return for ol’ Bossman. This is partially done on purpose, though, not because I have forgotten about all of you. I am going with the less is more approach…kind of. At least in the off-season. I think an explanation is warranted here. The plan, on my part, is to post less but to put a lot more in each post. Like not going to Wendy’s as often but when you do…it’s Dave’s Triple Cheeseburger time! I think this might just work. Or it won’t. I mean you never know with these things, right? Anyway, where was I?

Ah yes: change. Change is sometimes tough but is also sometimes needed. So as it pertains to the usual four-post Most Important College Games series, it is going to go through an overhaul. This post will be just about the most important games but I won’t be going week-by-week. It will be a relatively well-thought out selection of the best 30 games of this coming year (at least at this very early point). Don’t worry, I will still rate the weeks. Can’t change everything. Then I will post again later on with some other lists of games. You know, the worst Power Five games, best Group of Five games, etc. You ready? I am. Let’s go.

Remember the rules (my rules). Most of the games after Week 3 are not set in terms of time or network. Any game that is confirmed, I will let you know that it is. This time I won’t include Canadian info because, especially with TSN, it’s a complete crapshoot. Just assume that ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, ACC Network and SEC Network games will appear on TSN or on the specialty packs.

It’s…time! IT’S….TIME! IT’S……RANKING TIME! (cue Vader theme) Alright the first piece of college football to discuss is the ranking of the weeks. We know how this usually goes and it is almost never a surprise when it comes out that way. So let’s get right to it and then I can tell you how I did this (if you didn’t know before) and all that jazz:

Week 13 (November 26 – American Thanksgiving)
Week 6 (October 8)
Week 10 (November 5)
Week 5 (October 1)
Week 9 (October 29)
Week 12 (November 19)
Week 7 (October 15)
Week 11 (November 12)
Week 4 (September 24)
Week 8 (October 22)
Week 3 (September 17)
Week 1 (September 3)
Week 2 (September 10)

Same as always, there are thirteen weeks of the regular season. Week Zero is starting to get more games as more waivers are being granted but until they have I’d say at least 30 games on the schedule that Saturday then it can’t be counted as its own week. I mean I could but it would be last place every year without a doubt. I’ve said this before but I wish they would always have fourteen weeks in a season. This way, every team gets two bye weeks and it’s perfect for the health and safety of the players (something that is sometimes put on the backburner). I’m sure the NCAA will go along with my idea by the year 2058. As for the rankings this season, not too many surprises. The final week of the regular season is back on its perch as the best weekend of college football this season. Week 1 has dropped off a cliff and doesn’t look that great but the hype around it will be off the charts, I can guarantee you that. October has a massive week as Week 6 truly starts the conference season in a big way (and you’ll see later on why I say that). Just like last year, November is great, even SEC Sleepwalk Saturday which is a middle-of-the-road week rather than the awful week of games it used to be. And of course, September is, well, September in college football. A few really good games surrounded by a lot of meh but you know what will happen. That’s right, ~~Frank Stallone~~ quite a few upsets since that’s how college football works.

Normally this would be the time I start the weekly breakdowns but those are no more (at least for this year). This is a long list but I think it will be a good list. It’s the top 30 most important games of the college football season (until some team like Northwestern comes out of nowhere and is battling for a conference title).

Texas A&M at Alabama (Week 6, 8:00, CBS) – Yes, Bama is again the favourite to win it all this season. But the Aggies might be as ready as they have ever been during the Jimbo Fisher era. Almost a guarantee this will end up as the lone CBS primetime game of the year.
Michigan at Ohio State (Week 13, Noon, FOX, confirmed) – Captain Khaki brings his Wolverines to Columbus to see if he can get his team to relive the magic of last season once again. They haven’t won at the Horseshoe in 22 years. Winner of this one most likely heads to the Big Ten Championship so huge stakes, as it usually is with this rivalry.
Notre Dame at Ohio State (Week 1, 7:30, ABC, confirmed) – As is normally the case, the Irish have a bunch of landmine games this season. No game is a bigger landmine than this one. If Notre Dame can pull this off, then the season is already turned on its head and Marcus Freeman immediately becomes a legend in his second game as head coach.
Clemson at Notre Dame (Week 10, 7:30, NBC, confirmed) – Clemson will be looking for a tiny bit of a rebound this year and retake control of the ACC. Yes, this isn’t an ACC conference game but winning this game would put every other team in the conference on notice. I am wondering, with all this realignment happening, if we may get to the point where the Irish are the only Independent team remaining. This is something I wouldn’t have said even two years ago.
Georgia vs. Oregon (in Atlanta) (Week 1, 3:30, ABC, confirmed) – Is this an early-season College Football Playoff elimination game? Could very well be. Georgia is still loaded for bear again and the Ducks are ready to make that final climb back into the CFP. This game (plus the ND-tOSU game later in the night) are the easy highlights of a relatively bland Week 1 schedule.
Notre Dame at USC (Week 13, 7:30, ABC) – It would be either a) horrible for Notre Dame fans if the Irish came in undefeated and blew a tire here against a probably good USC team or b) great for Notre Dame haters who don’t want them anywhere near the College Football Playoff (or the New Year’s Six for that matter). This could end up being a massively important game in the grand scheme of things.
Utah at Oregon (Week 12, 7:30, ABC) – This might just be a preview of the Pac-12 title game and a statement game for both teams…as long as both teams are ranked at this point. With the Pac-12 finally on the rise again (I think), this could bring in a lot of eyeballs during a week that is usually not the greatest on paper.
NC State at Clemson (Week 5, 3:30, ABC) – This is probably the game for the Atlantic Division title…the final Atlantic Division title if I get my way and divisions are abolished going forward. With all due respect to Wake Forest, unless they pull off at least one upset, they aren’t getting close to these two teams. This being in Death Valley may give the Tigers the slight edge but the Wolfpack have had some seriously huge wins on the road in their past.
USC at Utah (Week 7, 3:30, ESPN) – As I said above, I am only including American broadcast info at this point. That will change when I get to network-specific posts later in the summer. The Utes should worry about this USC team. They are finally poised to get back into Top 10 territory and an upset of Utah isn’t a crazy idea at this point. If Lincoln Riley can get the Trojans to pull this off, it may be off to the races and a return to glory in Los Angeles.
Michigan State at Michigan (Week 9, Noon, FOX) – Big brother and little brother are both good. This always make this rivalry game extra spicy. This game could honestly derail Michigan’s season before they get to the Game. This should end up on FOX which means no THERE’S A TROUBLE WITH THE SNAP! AND THE BALL IS FREE AND IT’S PICKED UP BY MICHIGAN STATE’S JALEN WATTS-JACKSON AND HE SCORES ON THE LAST PLAY OF THE GAME! All in Sean McDonough Cracked-Voice perfection.
Clemson at Wake Forest (Week 4, 3:30, ESPN2) – This might be the first game I get seriously wrong. Saying that, the ACC tends to get neglected in favour of the other Power Five conferences when it comes to game placement…especially when Wake Forest is involved. And some would still consider this a surprising pick in the #11 spot but I stand by it. Remember what I said above about the Deacs? Well this would be their chance, at home, to shock the world and announce their true arrival as contenders for at least the New Year’s Six.
Ohio State at Michigan State (Week 6, 7:30, ABC) – Another THE Ohio State University roadblock game here. Nothing would please Spartans fans (and Wolverine fans) for Sparty to knock off the mighty Buckeyes here.
Baylor at Oklahoma (Week 10, Noon, FOX) – Dave Aranda might be the most popular coach in college football and he wouldn’t give two shits about that nor would his facial expression change. He’s in Waco to coach college football, dammit, and that’s all. I’m sure his family has seen him smile before but those rumours are unconfirmed. Lincoln Riley-less Oklahoma could be an interesting team to watch this year since no one knows how they will fare. As much of a wild card as any team expected to be in the Top 25 to start the season.
Tennessee at Georgia (Week 10, Noon, ESPN) – This could very well be an SEC East title match although you never know what team will kind of come out of nowhere to cause havoc at the top. Kentucky may still be good and the rest of the teams, sans Vanderbilt, could make a run if they get an upset or three. Until further notice, though, the Dawgs are the defending champs so someone has to knock them off their perch. Who better than the Vols? I’m sure there would be many people who could give me quite a few examples.
Miami at Clemson (Week 12, 3:30, ESPN2) – If this was the 80s or early 90s or early 2000s, this wouldn’t be here because Miami would be like a 30-point favourite. I’m sure there’d be a lot more cocaine and steroids involved as well, but I digress. Instead, it’s the Tigers who could be a double-digit favourite coming into this potentially huge conference matchup for both teams.
Alabama at Tennessee (Week 7, 3:30, CBS) – Man, it took long enough to get to our first afternoon CBS game. I guess that’s what happens when Alabama is on the network all the time. So speaking of heavy favourites, the Tide will be those here. The Vols, however, are better than they have been in over a decade and with the game at Neyland, who knows. If this game is close going into the fourth quarter, watch out.
Miami at Texas A&M (Week 3, 9:00, ESPN, confirmed) – Oh god the weird three-hour windows rear their ugly head this week. Game at 6:00 followed by a game at 9:00. Can ESPN just fuck off with this horseshit? What’s the big deal putting this at 9:30? Half an hour won’t make a difference. Anyway, this should be a pretty good game I think but those FUCKING THREE-HOUR WINDOWS…OK I’m gonna stop now.
Wisconsin at Ohio State (Week 4, 7:30, ABC) – If the Big Ten abolished divisions, this would become a much bigger game. I mean it’s still huge but…OK fine I just hate divisions. I’m sure Wisky’s gameplan here is to run the ball 60 times and hope tOSU’s run defense is snoozing for most of the game.
Wake Forest at NC State (Week 10, 7:30, ACC Network) – Look, this might change between now and then but as I’ve said before, this is how little respect the Demon Deacons get. If both teams only have one loss (or less) at this point, then it definitely gets moved to ESPN or ABC. Otherwise, there’s a good chance this is where this game will end up, sadly. The winner here is probably the one and only contender to screw up Clemson’s ACC run this season.
Oklahoma State at Baylor (Week 5, Noon, FOX) – First appearance for the Fighting Mullets from Stillwater on this list. The Pokes are almost always in contention even when it feels like they aren’t. Eleventh-year starter Spencer Sanders hopes to finally find some consistency at quarterback and beat a Baylor team that could be even more special than last year’s squad.
Georgia at Kentucky (Week 12, 3:30, CBS) – Fine, I will put this game here but it’s iffy whether it belongs. It isn’t like the SEC West where even the worst team usually isn’t that bad. Saying that, UK could be good again. It wouldn’t fully shock me. The only thing on their side is this is in Lexington which is underrated for how rowdy the fans can get.
Arkansas vs. Texas A&M (in Arlington) (Week 4, 3:30, CBS) – Considering the SEC slate of games this week, it is almost a guarantee that this game will be on CBS. Last year, the Razorbacks won this game rather easily and a good thing they did since they lost three straight right afterwards. If both teams are as good as they are predicted to be, maybe JerryWorld will be at least three-quarters full this time around. I still don’t get this always being a neutral-site game but whatever.
Ohio State at Penn State (Week 9, 7:30, ABC) – Now we are getting into the games that might not look close on paper but have a history of being inexplicably close. I’ve seen the Nittany Lions make things difficult for tOSU so it wouldn’t be out of the realm of possibility for them to pull off an upset on a night that will most certainly be a White-Out.
Alabama at Arkansas (Week 5, 3:30, CBS) – See what I mean? Saying that, it’s not like this game will be relegated to the SEC Network as Sam Pittman has the Hogs looking good. Not Bama-good, but definitely a far cry from the Bret Bielema/Chad Morris years.
Oklahoma State at Oklahoma (Week 12, Noon, FOX) – BEDLAM! Normally near the top of these kinds of lists, this could be a sneaky-good game this season for once. The Sooners feel like they are in rebuild mode when they really aren’t and the Pokes always feel like they are a step behind one team every season in the Big XII. By this point, we will know if either of these teams have a hope for the Big XII Championship and a trip to good ol’ JerryWorld or not.
Penn State at Michigan (Week 7, 3:30, ABC) – Not exactly a CFP elimination matchup but it will be very important in terms of the Big Ten East Division race. Look, PSU now has Sean Clifford hopefully back for a full, healthy year. That alone makes the Nittany Lions a bit more dangerous than they were last year. Michigan is loaded for bear so this will not be easy between the two teams with the biggest stadiums in the land.
LSU at Texas A&M (Week 13, Noon, ESPN) – This could end up being a forgotten matchup by this point of the season. LSU is certainly not the Joe Burrow LSU Tigers. And Texas A&M has been hanging on the periphery of greatness for a while now. At some point, you think something has to give. My guess is there is a good possibility a NY6 spot could be on the line here.
Wisconsin at Michigan State (Week 7, 7:30, ESPN2) – At this point I would call this an underrated game as many would probably put it in the same spot I’m putting it now. The Badgers are probably the odds-on favourite to win the Big Ten West which is never on par with winning the much more difficult Big Ten East. The Spartans need to win games like this to have any chance of doing what they did last year (or even more).
BYU vs. Notre Dame (in Las Vegas) (Week 6, 7:30, NBC, confirmed) – BYU’s final year as an Independent and as usual they have loaded up. Call it a Western version of the typical Notre Dame schedule. These teams don’t play nearly enough against each other if you ask me so it’s fun when they do. And boy, will they have a TV audience, there is no denying that. The Irish love these games because it’s a recruiting bonanza. I guess the same for the Cougs. Independent supremacy is on the line in this one.
Florida vs. Georgia (in Jacksonville) (Week 9, 3:30, CBS, confirmed) – The World’s Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party. How can this not be on this list of games? I guess if both teams were bad which hasn’t happened in….well, it’s been a while. This is my seventh straight year, I believe, imploring CBS to give the broadcast crew an open bar for this one. Hey, either Gary Danielson becomes seriously fun to listen to or…he’s still Gary Danielson.

There you go. Top 30 games of the season. That wasn’t so bad, eh? There is only 60 days left until the season begins. That is much closer than I am used to when doing this post. I may have to up my game over the next two months.

I’m not going to lie, this felt like a lot of work but it also felt good to do. The craziness hasn’t stopped in my life and so this is my chance to start getting a break from “reality” by doing this blog again. I think I’ve needed it (although I had to be sure I was ready to go again). Have a great week everyone!

The Student Finally Defeats the Master – Week 6 College Football Recap

Posted on October 11, 2021 by guelphbossman

Up until early Saturday evening, Nick Saban had been 24-0 against his former assistants. 24-0. That’s like an Undertaker-like streak. Completely insane. Then came the game.

The Aggies came out strong and it looked like the Crimson Tide defense was struggling. Yes we had seen this earlier in the year but it’s not like things had gone off the rails for them. But Bama’s offense could only do so much and couldn’t pull away. And even though TAMU was keeping pace, it felt to me (and I assume a lot of others) that eventually the Tide would win. Until Seth Small hit the field goal with no time left to clinch the Aggie victory, I still thought the Tide would pull it off, somehow. That’s just what they do. This time it did not happen. The field goal was good (barely) and the fans stormed the field. The mighty Alabama Crimson Tide had been defeated, 41-38 in a thriller.

For people saying this is starting to feel like 2007, you might want to tuck that away. This is shaping up as being way more volatile than 2007 could ever think to be. I’ve said something every week about this and major things continue to happen. We aren’t even halfway through the season. And this past week could have been considered one of the best Saturdays of college football in a long time. A lot of good games, a lot of close games and just a lot of shit happening that is turning the college football world upside down. If it’s chaos you want, this season is bringing it. Now let’s see what pitfall Georgia will fall victim to because we kind of know that’s coming, right?

Let’s get right to the recap as it was a fun (for the most part) 14+ hours of football.

And now for the rest of the recap

A great game down in Iowa City this past weekend. Iowa grinded out a victory over Penn State in a Top 5 matchup. Sean Clifford was knocked out of the game in the second quarter with the Nittany Lions leading 17-3 and the offense fell apart. Iowa’s defense saved the day and now the Hawkeyes have legit College Football Playoff aspirations. I think everyone agrees except for one Penn State fan who was pretty upset that I had mentioned Iowa and the CFP. He basically said I was dumb and that Iowa should be ranked 6th in the new poll, so three spots down…after a win. Riiiiiiiiiiight. I mentioned Iowa should be #3 and I will admit I was wrong. They are actually #2 now. My mistake.
An absolutely insane game went down at the Cotton Bowl for the Red River Shootout and it’s no surprise since this game is almost always nuts. Texas looked like they had Oklahoma on the ropes early. Then Spencer Rattler was benched so I assume most thought it was over. But Caleb Williams came in and did a good job in bringing the Sooners all the way back from a 21-point deficit to win the game. Let’s be honest here though: the combination of Kennedy Brooks going crazy (including what was essentially a walk-off touchdown to win the game) and the Longhorn defense self-destructing was what gave Boomer Sooner the big win. Oklahoma had looked like the worst undefeated Top 10 team in quite some time but this victory could be a turning point for a team who may not meet an equal until Bedlam in late November.
How about that game down in Lincoln? As the game went along, I really started to believe that finally the Huskers, under Scott Frost, would get that huge victory to start turning the program around. Man, was I wrong. In typical heartbreaking fashion, Nebraska blew the game late and allowed Michigan a late game-winning field goal. The Wolverines honestly looked pretty pedestrian for a good portion of the game. They really can’t be like that going forward considering how brutally difficult the Big Ten East looks. As for Nebraska, oof. Another loss, another black mark on Scott Frost’s record and unless things turn around I could see the program moving on since nothing is really improving at the end of the day.
Speaking of hot seats, there was another great game on the night, this one in Blacksburg. It felt like the Hokies would hand Notre Dame their second straight loss and almost destroy their New Year’s Six chances. Instead, Jack Coan, who played like shit early on, came on, drove the Irish down the field for the touchdown and game-tying two-point conversion and then drove them again for the winning field goal with only 17 seconds remaining. Great performance but Virginia Tech had their chances to stop the Irish as their defense had been pretty good in the second half. Unfortunately they came up short and Justin Fuente’s seat gets juuuuuuust a bit hotter.
To start Saturday there was the Arkansas-Ole Miss game which was basically drugs. So damn ridiculous and completely defense-optional. Both offenses went crazy and both teams got 50-burgers on the day. It came down to the end where Sam Pittman decided he has balls the size of coconuts and would go for 2 and the lead instead of the extra point to send it to overtime. The pass fell incomplete and the Rebels won a game that raised the blood pressure of both team’s fanbases. Now the Rebel fans can truly enjoy that popcorn.
Let history show that the Auburn Tigers were, at one point, tied with the Georgia Bulldogs 3-3. I’m sure most fans on The Plains who watched the game would love to just remember up to that point and forget the rest. Georgia proved they are the undisputed number one team in the land (for now) as they destroyed Auburn by 24. And this is with Stetson “The Mailman” Bennett at quarterback. What happens when J.T. Daniels comes back? Or do they platoon? This team has looked better than Bama all season and now they will have the #1 ranking to back that up. Their next two games against Kentucky and Florida will either prove that’s where they belong or bring them back down to Earth a bit.
I didn’t think Florida State could keep close with North Carolina. So what did they do? Just beat them fairly easily and look as good as they were back in the Jameis Winston days (OK maybe not THAT good but still pretty good). I am ruing the day I decided to be a smart guy and pick North Carolina as my chic pick to get to the College Football Playoff. I feel like an idiot. So they can now go 3-9 for all I care since it doesn’t really matter anymore (to me, anyway).
Another game that was bonkers that no one saw was the game between South Alabama and Texas State. I believe this is the longest game since they changed the overtime rules yet again. I am not a fan of the new rules. If you don’t know, starting in the second overtime, you must go for two after a touchdown and then starting with the third overtime, it becomes a two-point conversion contest. The college football equivalent of hockey’s shootout. Ugh. Anyway, this game went to four overtimes and there were so many reviews it got ridiculous. Like the replay booth was being paid per review. Texas State won after stopping USA’s two-point conversion attempt.
If I told you in, say, August of 2020 that Ed Orgeron would be on one of the hottest seats in the nation by October of 2021 you would have thought I was smoking crack. But LSU’s loss to Kentucky this past Saturday will put Coach Eaux in that seat. Look, Kentucky is a damn good team and losing to them is not a bad thing. Not looking competitive when you are a team that should be in the Top 25 range is a different story altogether. The team looks like there is a lack of effort and it shows. The next few weeks will probably help determine Eddie O’s future.
Ugh what a fall from grace for BYU. The Cougars were stunned by Boise State and are now not undefeated. Unless a lot of truly wacky things occur (and I’m not saying they won’t), BYU’s chances of the New Year’s Six are essentially gone. What does this mean? It means when they do become bowl-eligible they will be locked in to the Independence Bowl in Shreveport. Yuck. Imagine dropping from a potential Fiesta Bowl berth to that. Brutal.
Put up your hand if you thought Wake Forest…ok I am going to stop there since no one really thought much of Wake Forest this season. OK that’s not totally true. I had them going 9-3 this season and many had them in the 6-8 win range. But to think this team is the only ACC hope left for the College Football Playoff in mid-October? Yeah, no one thought that. Wake had to survive a surprisingly tough Syracuse team, in overtime, to stay undefeated. Now, with their next three games against Army, Duke and North Carolina, it looks like the Deacs could be 9-0 and firmly in the Top 10 when they host NC State in mid-November. They have Clemson and Boston College after that so they have a rough end of the season to look forward to but get through all those unscathed? They could make some history in December.
Welp, Oregon State’s time in the sun went quick. The Beavers were looking like they could make some hay in the Pac-12 with all the turmoil in the conference. Instead, they shit the bed and lost to a Washington State team who’s biggest news has been coach Nick Rolovich and his absolute refusal to get the COVID vaccine. That conference is an absolute mess.
Another great game was shockingly at the Naval Academy. No I’m not kidding. The Midshipmen played undefeated SMU very tough. The Ponies needed a fourth quarter touchdown and a couple of big defensive stops to escape Annapolis with the W. I think Navy, despite being 1-4, is probably quite a bit better than their record indicates. SMU? They are very lucky considering some of the games they’ve been in this season. If they can win their next four, a massive, probably primetime, game with Cincinnati looms large.
Louisville…ugh. They had the game won against Virginia. But instead of going for it on 4th and about 3 fairly deep in Hoos territory, they kicked the field goal. Then their defense allowed Virginia to drive the length of the field in two minutes for the touchdown and the win. Cowardly coaching from Scott Satterfield and it might cost him his job. And did anyone think this Cavaliers team would be 4-2 at this point? I highly doubt it. The ACC is another conference that’s just a dog’s breakfast (other than Wake Forest).
Finally, UTSA was able to outlast Western Kentucky’s potent offense. Quietly, the Roadrunners are 6-0, undefeated, and no one is noticing. So what happens if this team finishes undefeated? My guess is they will get no respect in the polls but they really should, despite the conference they are in.

Alright that was seriously fun. And the late night schedule was light so it made it easier to pay a bit of attention rather than have my full attention which can get tiring into the wee hours of the morning. Alright, let’s now look at the Bossman Top 25:

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

Yes there are a few somewhat glaring differences between my poll and the AP Poll and that happens of course. I have Alabama at #7 and they only dropped to #5 in the AP Poll. AP dropped Oregon whereas I moved them up to #6 since they didn’t play so why should they drop? You can put the #8 through #12 teams in a hat and mix them up and any combination would probably be fine. A lot is going to happen for these teams the next three weeks so no point in getting all bent out of shape about it now. And I did mention undefeated UTSA earlier. I also don’t have them in my Top 25 but they are just outside of it meaning a win next week should put them in. Finally, I got Coastal at #13 and they are #15 in the AP Poll and Coaches Poll. I have a feeling they may get to #12 or even #11 but that would be their ceiling unless a lot of crazy shit happens to the teams currently above them. Which, considering the way this season has gone, wouldn’t surprise me one bit.

WEEKDAY FUN BELT ACTION! Yes, it’s that time of year that we start getting more weekday football. And this one, between Appalachian State and Louisiana, is a pretty big game. And it’s tomorrow night! Hell yeah! God, I love Tuesday and Wednesday night college football. Kind of feels like now we can say that Autumn has truly commenced. Have a good week everyone!

Urban Warfare – Week 6 College Football TV Schedule

Posted on October 6, 2021 by guelphbossman

OK I know this is an NFL issue but really it does have college connections. If you don’t know what’s going on with Urban Meyer…actually, you know what I will just assume you will know he got wasted and tried fingering a younger woman’s ass on the dance floor after she was grinding on him. Gonna be honest I have never had that happen to me but then again I’m not a multi-millionaire former college/current NFL coach so there’s that. So now Urban has gone in to full blown PR apology mode. His press conference was ridiculous where he wouldn’t even look into the camera or at the people asking him questions. Supposedly the team has no confidence in him anymore although I wonder why they would have had confidence in him in the first place since he has a history of things “happening” when things aren’t going his way. Not saying he didn’t do this on purpose to get fired but you never know with this guy. He obviously doesn’t give a shit about his wife and family so there’s also that. Like why do trust this guy to coach? Oh that’s right, he won. A lot. No one gives a shit if you’re a complete asshole if you win/are successful. That seems to be the modus operandi of society in general. The fact that people may be shocked by this is ridiculous.

Anyway, how does this relate to college football? Come on, really? There is one job opening available that’s lucrative with another on the way (probably). The Urban Meyer to USC (or Miami) chatter has started and it wouldn’t surprise me one bit if this was his angle. If these schools had any dignity they wouldn’t hire the fucker but, again, winning is the only thing so these schools will do whatever it takes. Let’s be honest: all you have to do is look at a bunch of college football programs, see the issues that have happened there, and realize that many of these coaches get away with way too much and are way too powerful on campus. The sooner this type of crap ends, the better. But it won’t so I’ll just stop right there.

Enough of the rant, let’s get to the schedule.

Thursday

		US	Canada
Houston at Tulane	7:30 PM
#15 Coastal Carolina at Arkansas State	7:30 PM

Uncle Dana may have a good thing going in H-Town. It would really suck for them to stumble in New Orleans. Same goes for the Chants but I think they will have an easier time of it.

Friday

		US	Canada
Charlotte at FIU	7:00 PM
Temple at #5 Cincinnati	7:00 PM
Morgan State at Howard	8:00 PM
Stanford at #22 Arizona State	10:30 PM

Four games and only one that could end up being truly interesting. Weeknight Pac-12 After Dark could be fun with a pretty good ASU team hosting a Stanford team coming off a massive (albeit controversial) upset of Oregon. I am just going to assume that Cincy has to win by 50 to stay in the Top 5.

Saturday Early

		US	Canada
#6 Oklahoma vs. #21 Texas (in Dallas)	Noon
#11 Michigan State at Rutgers	Noon
Northern Illinois at Toledo	Noon
#13 Arkansas at #17 Ole Miss	Noon
South Carolina at Tennessee	Noon
Maryland at #7 Ohio State	Noon
Vanderbilt at #20 Florida	Noon
Georgia Tech at Duke	12:30 PM

As big as last week? No, but still fairly good. Five games with ranked teams and two with some ranked team-on-ranked team violence. The biggest game in this timeslot is, by far, the Red River Shootout. And again I will mention that this will never be in primetime because of the area the Cotton Bowl is in. It’s not the safest of neighbourhoods and that is not a great look to have 80,000 fans leaving a stadium to an area like that.

Arkansas-Ole Miss would have been on CBS if one of those teams had won last week. Instead, both teams got blown out and end up at Noon and don’t even get the ESPN primetime spot. The rest of the games, even the ones with ranked teams, aren’t the greatest but you can be sure at least one of them will be really good because that’s how college football operates. If I had to pick, I would go with Rutgers giving MSU a hard time.

Saturday Afternoon

		US	Canada
Virginia at Louisville	3:00 PM
Boise State at #10 BYU	3:30 PM
Wisconsin at Illinois	3:30 PM
#2 Georgia at #18 Auburn	3:30 PM
#24 SMU at Navy	3:30 PM
Florida State at North Carolina	3:30 PM
#19 Wake Forest at Syracuse	3:30 PM
Ball State at Western Michigan	3:30 PM
#4 Penn State at #3 Iowa	4:00 PM
North Texas at Missouri	4:00 PM

OK things pick up in the afternoon. PSU-Iowa is a Game of the Year candidate for sure. UGA also gets a test on the Plains (if Bo Nix goes all Johnny Manziel again). Glad to see BYU and Boise State getting to be on ABC. It’s too bad that Boise isn’t as good as it has been in the past few years but still a big game. It’s too bad that TSN isn’t really stepping up just yet. I get that they still have other contractual obligations to deal with but this is part of the reason people like me move to IPTV. Not like they care though.

Saturday Primetime

		US	Canada
Wyoming at Air Force	7:00 PM
TCU at Texas Tech	7:00 PM
Buffalo at Kent State	7:00 PM
#9 Michigan at Nebraska	7:30 PM
#14 Notre Dame at Virginia Tech	7:30 PM
LSU at #16 Kentucky	7:30 PM
#1 Alabama at Texas A&M	8:00 PM
Utah at USC	8:00 PM

For the first few weeks of the season, it looked like we would get a Game of the Year candidate. I had pegged Bama and TAMU to be in the primetime CBS game. It was looking huge. Yeah that has fizzled out. Bama is looking like one of the best two teams in college football and Aggie fans are wondering how much more money that will give to/waste on Jimbo Fisher. I have a feeling CBS may regret making this their singular primetime affair of the season. Honestly, you have to consider ND-VT and even Michigan-Nebraska as better games than the aforementioned CBS primetime affair. Also, we get to see Kentucky hopefully not blow a Top 20 ranking. I get that Mark Stoops has done a good job in Lexington but his blood pressure must be all over the place.

Saturday Late Night

		US	Canada
Memphis at Tulsa	9:00 PM
New Mexico State at Nevada	10:30 PM
UCLA at Arizona	10:30 PM

This is a less than stellar late night schedule. Three games that might end up being over relatively early. With no Hawaii Test it might be an early night for the ol’ Bossman.

Games to set your eyeballs on

Penn State at Iowa (4:00, FOX) – This is an absolutely massive game now that Ohio State has hit a bit of a speed bump. Whoever wins this becomes the de facto new Big Ten favourite. It doesn’t disqualify either team from the College Football Playoff with a loss but it does make it difficult for sure. Is this the biggest game ever in Iowa City? Perhaps. At the very least it’s probably the biggest game in Kirk Ferentz’s time at the helm of the Hawkeyes. A win here may allow us to eventually see some new blood in the CFP (although I guess I could say the same about Penn State).

Georgia at Auburn (3:30, CBS) – Auburn absolutely needs this win here. They still don’t seem to be getting a whole lot of respect and Bo Nix, in particular, despite the fact he went off against LSU is still considered not much of a starting quarterback. A Tiger victory proves they, and Bo, are for real. Georgia won’t be treating this as a letdown spot and will be aggressive from the opening bell like they were against Arkansas. I think in the end we just hope they all have fun and that Brad gets to call a good game, right?

Oklahoma vs. Texas (in Dallas) (Noon, ABC) – Ah, the Red River Shootout. In the decrepit Cotton Bowl. I get that it’s historic but one of these days one of the stands is going to collapse. I mean at least UAB figured out to move out equally broken down Legion Field and get their own stadium. Anyway, this game should be wild and wacky because most of the time it is. So don’t write in the Sooners as the victors just yet.

Arkansas at Ole Miss (Noon, TSN2) – If both of these teams had won, would CBS have tried to switch the primetime game? I think they are already a bit miffed with the choice: kind of like when they picked the Egg Bowl over the Iron Bowl a few years back and both Mississippi teams fell off their perch before that. Not saying both of these teams aren’t good because they are. They are, however, still second-tier in the SEC and in the SEC West and will not get above that this season. I see both squads being angry after coming off ass-whoopings so expect a chippy affair in Oxford.

Notre Dame at Virginia Tech (7:30, specialty pack) – It falls off a steep cliff after the first four games. How far of a fall you ask? Well, this game is on the ACC Network. This may be their first appearance in the top 5 games of the week and I’m too lazy to look back so I will just say that’s the case. The Irish could be a tad upset after dropping a game to Cincinnati last week (despite the fact the Bearcats are really good). But it is in Blacksburg and Justin Fuente, as is the norm, is fighting for his job as we kind of knew would happen once Frank Beamer and Bud Foster left. So it could end up being a sneaky good game.

Honourable mention: Alabama at Texas A&M (8:00, CBS); LSU at Kentucky (7:30, specialty pack); Stanford at Arizona State (Friday, 10:30, specialty pack)

Wanna Bet?

Man, I made a lot of wrong picks last week. Yes I got quite a few right but picking Notre Dame, UCLA, LSU and Florida don’t look good. Alright, well this is the gambling section so here it is, you degenerates.

Georgia over Auburn

LSU over Kentucky (upset!)

Alabama over Texas A&M

Ole Miss over Arkansas

Oklahoma over Texas

Iowa over Penn State

Arizona State over Stanford

Notre Dame over Virginia Tech

Nevada over New Mexico State

Kent State over Buffalo

Missouri over North Texas

I will be probably live-tweeting most of Saturday (@TheBauceman). I do end up taking Twitter breaks because I just can’t handle it for that many hours in a row. But I do scoreboard watch and Twitter watch to see if there are games I have to turn to soon to watch a great finish. I always try to be smart in that way so I don’t miss anything good since it’s much better to watch live than during a highlight package (especially when you already know what happened but haven’t seen it). Have a great rest of the week everyone!

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

Posted on October 4, 2021 by guelphbossman

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Bossman's Blog

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

Tag Archives: Jimbo Fisher

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Tuesday

Wednesday

Thursday

Friday

Saturday Early

Saturday Afternoon

Saturday Primetime

Saturday Late Night

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Wanna Bet?

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

Tuesday

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Friday

Saturday Early

Saturday Afternoon

Saturday Primetime

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The Student Finally Defeats the Master – Week 6 College Football Recap

Urban Warfare – Week 6 College Football TV Schedule

Thursday

Friday

Saturday Early

Saturday Afternoon

Saturday Primetime

Saturday Late Night