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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Marinating in American Sauce

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

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

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

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

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

Juuuuust a tiny bit of Sleep-Deprived Lunacy

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Upbeat Comments

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

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

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

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

Points with Pork Chops and Aeeeplesauce

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

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

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

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

Weeknight Non-Sitcom Commentary

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

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

Realignment: One of college football’s dirtiest words

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

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

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

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

1987

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

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

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

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

1989

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

1991

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

1992

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

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

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

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

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

1993

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

1994

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

1995

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

1996

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

1997

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

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

1998

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

1999

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

2000

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

2001

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

2002

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

2003

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

2004

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

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

2005

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

2008

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

2011

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

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

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

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

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

2012

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

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

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

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

2013

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

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

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

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

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

2014

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

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

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

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

2015

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

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

2017

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

2018

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

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

2021

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

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

2022

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

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

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

2023

Alright, let’s blow shit up.

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

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

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

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

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

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

2024

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

It’s OVERREACTION time! Oh, and the Week 2 College Football TV Schedule.

Isn’t this almost the worst tradition in college football?  When college football media and fans go to ridiculous extremes after one week of college football (shut up, Week Zero).  So let’s get right to those reactions that are probably overreactions (at least at this point):

• “UCLA is gonna win the Pac-12!”  Look it’s quite a good start for the team in sissy blue.  But they still have their entire conference schedule to go through.  Could they be better than I thought (which was .500)?  Absolutely.  But to say they will win 9 or 10 games.  Let’s just pump the brakes a bit.
• “The ACC is terrible!” Yeah, no.  They aren’t.  Yes, the conference as a whole had a bad first week.  But North Carolina lost to what looks like could be a really good Virginia Tech team and Clemson lost to national title contender Georgia.  Not much else of note but give them some time.  Now if the highest ranked team in the ACC is at like #18 going into October then yes, they should start to panic.
• “Cincinnati or UCF is the Group of Five team to go to the New Year’s Six!”  Don’t book it just quite yet.  Yes, UCF’s victory over Boise State was impressive and Gus Malzahn may have brought something to the program that they slightly lost the past couple years.  And Cincy is Cincy.  But there are still a bunch of teams that have opportunities and you never know what surprise Group of Five team will be out there.
• “Oklahoma has no shot now.”  Wait, what?  First off, they won.  Yes, it was closer than it should have been and it was Tulane but they still won.  I can see their defense needs work but if they can figure it out, they have the offense to beat every team on their schedule.
• “Well, Indiana sucks again.”  One game against what looks like a seriously good Iowa team shouldn’t mar the Hoosiers’ season.  Let’s see how they do the rest of the month before saying they are coming back down to Earth a bit (yeah, like Tom Allen is going to allow that to happen).
• “Spencer Rattler and Sam Howell aren’t Heisman contenders at all.”  Howell has fallen farther than Rattler in many people’s minds but they are still near the top of the Heisman contender list.  Remember, some players really have won the Heisman in November so let’s chill here.
• “Randy Edsall is going to get shitcanned.”  HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.  So silly.  He quit instead.

Another tradition seems to be a quite bad Week 2 schedule (on paper) that somehow gets one really good Game of the Year candidate.  Unfortunately, this is not an overreaction.  It happens damn near every year.  Oh well, if it sets us up for better weeks, then fine.

Friday

		US	Canada
Kansas at #17 Coastal Carolina	7:30 PM
North Carolina A&T at Duke	8:00 PM
North Dakota at Utah State	9:00 PM

UNDEFEATED KANSAS!  UNDEFEATED COASTAL CAROLINA!  Irresistible force, immovable object, and all that jazz.  If it’s anything like last year’s Chants game against BYU, the crowd will be rocking which is amazing since there aren’t many seats in their stadium.  There are also two other games you can watch but really, we all know what you’ll be watching.

Saturday Early

		US	Canada
Illinois at Virginia	11:00 AM
Western Kentucky at Army	11:30 AM
Youngstown State at Michigan State	Noon
Indiana State at Northwestern	Noon
Pittsburgh at Tennessee	Noon
South Carolina at East Carolina	Noon
Miami-OH at Minnesota	Noon
#12 Oregon at #3 Ohio State	Noon
Kennesaw State at Georgia Tech	Noon
Alabama State at #25 Auburn	Noon
#13 Florida at USF	1:00 PM
Rutgers at Syracuse	2:00 PM

Jesus Christ that is a lot of games in the Noon timeslot.  And oh man, morning football!  It’s funny: I like morning college football but early morning NFL games in London?  Not so much.  Probably because I am up until like 2 or 3 into Sunday morning and getting up like six hours or so later to watch NFL football is actually too much for me.  And yes, there is a weird start time for the game on ABC.  If you have been living under several rocks, you might not have realized that this Saturday is the 20th anniversary of 9/11.  So there will be a lot of shows on in the morning about it, which makes a lot of sense considering when that tragedy occurred.  ABC is running a special until 1:00 meaning college football is waiting a little bit to start on there.  No big deal really and to many Americans it’s a huge thing this day so we can all wait an other for a game featuring…USF?  Yeah definitely not a big deal then.

Saturday Afternoon​​

		US	Canada
Purdue at UConn	3:00 PM
Buffalo at Nebraska	3:30 PM
Air Force at Navy	3:30 PM
UAB at #2 Georgia	3:30 PM
California at TCU	3:30 PM
#5 Texas A&M vs. Colorado (in Denver)	3:30 PM
Mercer at #1 Alabama	4:00 PM
#10 Iowa at #9 Iowa State	4:30 PM
South Carolina State at #6 Clemson	5:00 PM

Here is our Game of the Year candidate, funny enough (well the second one after Oregon-tOSU earlier).  Would you ever have thought that CyHawk could be Game of the Anything?  It’s such a huge game this year that College Gameday is there as well.  You will notice that the Notre Dame home game against Toledo is not on NBC.  That’s because it’s on Peacock, the streaming app for NBC.  Meaning, I am pretty sure none of us will be able to watch it.  Slowly, these streaming platforms are getting into the sports game.  Soon enough there will be multiple big games every week on like Hulu and will be shit out of luck if you don’t have Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hulu, Peacock, and whatever else is out there.  Two final things here: yes, TSN2 is showing a game featuring the Mercer Bears.  And yes, the ACC Network is doing their three-hour broadcast window thing.  Stupid, but they can’t have games starting at 10:00 pm locally so they do what they feel like they have to do.

Saturday Primetime

		US	Canada
Houston at Rice	6:30 PM
#15 Texas at Arkansas	7:00 PM
Appalachian State at #22 Miami	7:00 PM
NC State at Mississippi State	7:00 PM
Howard at Maryland	7:30 PM
Idaho at Indiana	7:30 PM
Georgia State at North Carolina	7:30 PM
Missouri at Kentucky	7:30 PM
Washington at Michigan	8:00 PM
Jacksonville State at Florida State	8:00 PM

Yeah there really isn’t much here in terms of hugely important games.  But see?  The ABC started at 1pm “issue” worked itself out and we get the normal-for-about-a-decade 8:00 start in Ann Arbor where Washington might be the underdog?  No TSN games in this timeslot which kind of sucks but it’s not like they are going to grab any ratings hits here.  Texas-Arkansas might be the most interesting game here although there could actually be a fair amount riding on Mizzou-UK as the winner could actually contend in the SEC East (as long as Georgia falters at least once inside the conference).

Saturday Late Night

		US	Canada
Vanderbilt at Colorado State	10:00 PM
#21 Utah at BYU	10:15 PM
UNLV at #23 Arizona State	10:30 PM
Stanford at #14 USC	10:30 PM

FOX Pac-12 After Dark?  FOX Pac-12 After Dark!!!  It’s too bad that Gus Johnson will be calling the Big Noon Saturday game because Gus After Dark would have been tons of fun.  It’s unfortunate Stanford looked like shit on opening weekend but, hey, remember what I said about overreactions?  Now watch the Trojans blow them out by like 40.  Also, we have the Holy War between Utah and the soon-to-be-in-the-Big XII BYU Cougars.  TSN is smart to pick up this once since it should be a raucous crowd in Provo.

Games to set your eyeballs on

Oregon at Ohio State (Noon, FOX) – One of, surprisingly, two Game of the Year candidates.  And both teams looked, well, a bit off during Week 1.  The Ducks struggled with Fresno State and needed a late score to win and the Buckeyes took quite a long time to finally shake off Minnesota and get the victory.  This should be good and should be close.  This game has been hyped since last year when people were already looking forward to this season.  Let’s hope it matches the hype.

Iowa at Iowa State (4:30, ABC) – This has quickly become a massive game and could actually be a big part of the College Football Playoff story.  The winner here may vault into the Top 5 depending on what else happens.  The loser isn’t out of anything though and could still be in a good spot to get to a New Year’s Six bowl.  This is easily the biggest and most important version of CyHawk ever.

Utah at BYU (10:15, TSN2) – OK so it doesn’t drop off too much after the first two.  The Holy War is always a hotly contested matchup.  College football is always good when rivalries have two good teams playing.  Like if Alabama and Auburn are both good or if Michigan and Ohio State are both good.  This one is no different.  Utes are in the Top 25 and the Cougs are just outside it.  This game is in Provo which has arguably the craziest crowd in the Mountain or Pacific time zones except for the one in Salt Lake City.  As I said above, TSN was smart to pick up this one and it should be the gem of the late night window.

UAB at Georgia (3:30, specialty pack) – OK now it falls off a cliff.  Don’t me wrong.  UGA is a fantastic team and UAB has been a great story since reviving their team a few years back.  But this probably won’t be close and as the fourth-best game of the week it doesn’t really scream quality to be honest with you.

Kansas at Coastal Carolina (Friday, 7:30, TSN2) – Aw fuck it why not?  Kansas is in the Games of the Week list, BAYBEE!  Let’s be honest: the Chants will probably mop the floor with the Jayhawks.  But what if Kansas keeps it close through three quarters?  Man, that would be quite the interesting final segment and bring in a lot of viewers…way more than Kansas football is used to.

Honourable mention: Texas at Arkansas (7:00, specialty pack), Stanford at USC (10:30, FOX), Appalachian State at Miami (7:00, specialty pack).

You wanna bet?

Only the most degenerate of gamblers will bet on these Week 2 games.  I mean if it was NFL I’d for sure be doing it but not college.  I’ve told you all my reasons, I won’t rehash them here again.  Here are the picks!

Oregon over Ohio State

Iowa State over Iowa

Miami over Appalachian State

Coastal Carolina over Kansas

USC over Stanford

BYU over Utah

Texas over Arkansas

Georgia over UAB

Rice over Houston (big upset!)

Nebraska over Buffalo (Upset?  Ahahahahahahahahahahaha…no wait….really…….Upset?)

Navy over Air Force (kind of an upset)

From what I can tell, everything is up on the specialty pack.  Only thing I haven’t seen anywhere is the second BTN games at Noon and 7:30 but I’m sure that will be sorted out.  As for the Pac-12 Network, no it is not on DAZN.  Frustrating.  So I won’t be listing those games on the schedules since there is no real point to doing so.  Hopefully they scrap the current setup and then be smart and pair up with FOX or CBS and set up a proper conference network like the ACC, Big Ten and SEC have.  It would be the best thing for that conference for sure and bring in some more money.

I assume by now you’ve heard the news: the Big XII is (finally) expanding.  BYU, Cincinnati, Houston and UCF are expected to be voted in to the conference today sometime after they all sent in their applications a couple days ago.  The vote is a no-brainer.  The question will be when will the teams join and what happens to the American Conference now.  The last thing I have heard is that BYU is probably moving for next season.  The three AAC teams would then move the following year.  Whether Oklahoma and Texas will still be around by then is anybody’s guess although I’d be shocked if they weren’t in the SEC by 2023.  As for the AAC, I expect that they will look to expand.  They would be down to eight teams with not exactly a murderer’s row of football programs.  The schools that have already been bandied about include Marshall, Appalachian State, UAB and even Boise State and San Diego State (although I am sure the Mountain West will do everything they can to hold on to their new spot at the top of the Group of Five).  So yeah, realignment news isn’t going anywhere after those four teams officially join.

Once I get back home, hell yes I will be watching football the rest of the weekend (sometime near the end of the Noon timeslot).  Will I be watching football past midnight?  Does a bear shit in the woods?  I’ll catch up on sleep maybe in February.  Enjoy the games everyone!

How about a little OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOVERTIME and a Week 2 recap?

I love college football.  You know that.  So what’s better than a bunch of games going into overtime, eh?  Let’s recap those games right off the hop OK sounds good let’s go.

• Michigan 24 Army 21 (2OT) – What a game this was….for Army.  Michigan did not play well at all and it kind of felt like they had no idea what to do with Army’s triple option.  Even so, Shea Patterson stunk and the playcalling was puzzling at times.  Michigan lucks out by getting a strip sack in double overtime to stay in the Top 10.  As for Army, watch out for them if no teams end up undefeated this season.
• Colorado 34 Nebraska 31 (OT) – A classic Big 8 matchup that was a barnburner.  It looked like the Huskers were going to destroy the Buffs until a late game comeback by Colorado put them into overtime.  A missed field goal clinched the game and now I am starting to feel kind of stupid for drinking the Nebraska Koolaid (which was obviously cherry-flavoured).
• Kent State 26 Kennesaw State 23 (OT) – The earlier women’s field hockey game was stopped in double overtime so that this game could start on time.  Absolutely crazy.  And then we almost see Kennesaw State pull the FCS-over-FBS upset.  Kent State escapes and continues to be known for bad things, one much, MUCH worse than the rest.
• Florida State 45 ULM 44 (OT) – Good god Willie Taggart.  What is going on in Tallahassee?  Most of the fans had left by the time this game ended.  And for a while it looked like the Warhawks would win in regulation.  Instead, FSU tied it up and then won the game thanks to a ULM missed extra point.  Yeesh.  Not a good look for the Noles who may have hit a bit of a rock bottom.
• BYU 29 Tennessee 26 (2OT) – Since we are talking about once-proud teams who have fallen far, let us check in on the University of Tennessee Volunteers football program.  Gross.  They could not put BYU away.  And to top it off they have a coverage breakdown and allow BYU to go more than half the field with under 15 seconds to play to get the tying field goal just to make it to overtime.  Expect Jeremy Pruitt to now be on every hot seat list in the country.
• Minnesota 38 Fresno State 35 (2OT) – College football this past weekend conspired to not allow me to go to bed at a reasonable time…and when I say reasonable time I mean 2 in the morning.  A great back-and-forth game which ended on a great Antoine Winfield Jr. interception in double overtime.  Maybe other Big Ten teams should take note and not make trips to the West Coast.

This week of college football really had a dearth of marquee games, as is somewhat usual for Week 2.  However, the action this week was damn good.  A fun Saturday of college football was had by all (who watched).  Let’s go through the week that was!

• Let’s take a trip out to Seattle for a game that didn’t start until 1:30 in the morning.  I am not joking.  Thanks to some severe weather they had to delay the game by almost three hours.  I did not stay up to stay updated on this game and I missed a great one of course.  Washington did not play well at all and let Cal stick around for far too long.  This led to the Golden Bears winning on a last-minute field goal and furthering the Pac-12’s overall misery.
• Kansas lost a game…at home…to Coastal Carolina.  So yeah it is going to take quite a long time for Les Miles to turn this thing around.
• Clemson made relatively easy work of Texas A&M.  Yes they only won by 14 but it never felt like the Aggies were in this one.  So the Tigers beat yet another SEC team.  I think they need to stop this whole “Oh yeah well Clemson doesn’t have an SEC schedule” horseshit.  They are damn good, plain and simple.  And they are still the favourite to win the whole thing in January.
• Don’t look know but there might be a new contender in the ACC Coastal.  Step right up Mack Brown!  The Tar Heels looked good against Miami and won the game late in front of a raucous home crowd in Chapel Hill.  Yes, the same team that almost beat Florida in one of the worst college football games of the year so far.  Considering the state of the ACC Coastal beyond Virginia, don’t be surprised if North Carolina isn’t at least bowl-eligible by the end of the year which would be a huge complement to Mack Brown’s coaching ability.
• Breaking news!  West Virginia is awful.  No wonder Dana Holgorsen left for a Group of Five team.  Neal Brown is going to have a tough go here in 2019.  I sincerely hope that the Mountaineer faithful are patient with this as this will not be a fun season in Morgantown, that’s for sure.
• Maryland blew Syracuse out of the water on Saturday, winning by 43.  No that is not a misprint and no it’s not a joke.  The toughest division in college football just got a lot tougher as the Terps are looking seriously good this season so far.  As for the ACC, Virginia will replace Syracuse in the Top 25 but will more than two teams ever get into the rankings?  It doesn’t look good for the conference.
• On Friday night, Boise State beat Marshall but it sure wasn’t convincing.  14-7 doesn’t exactly speak dominance and the fact that freshman quarterback Hank Bachmeier was average at best in this one…let’s just say I am still not convinced the Broncos will be the Group of Five representative in the New Year’s Six if this keeps up.
• Joe Burrow was absolutely fantastic in the primetime ABC game as he threw for the second-most yards in LSU history.  The Tigers beat Texas but Texas also hung around as well.  Both teams need to play better defense as the season wears on but these two offenses may be two of the best in college football this year.  And Burrow may force himself into the Heisman conversation whether people like it or not.
• Ohio State shutout Cincinnati in Luke Fickell’s return to Columbus.  I don’t know, it feels like Ohio State is going to look really good at least into October and then they will lay an egg or three and we will wonder what kind of team they really are.  You know, like almost every other season they have had.
• Everyone was wondering how Kedon Slovis would play against Stanford.  Well, Clay Travis can breathe a bit of a sigh of relief as Slovis was excellent, the Trojans played a nearly flawless game, and we continue the narrative that no one really wants to win the Pac-12.  Except maybe Utah.
• I don’t think Charlie Strong is long for this 2019 season.  Another loss, this time to a rebuilding Georgia Tech team, puts the Bulls at 0-2 to start the season and at eight straight losses stretching back to last year.  For a team that not too long ago was battling with UCF to be the big-time team in this conference, this is a stunning fall and Strong is going to be the scapegoat for it, rightly or wrongly (mostly rightly).
• Oh and how could I forget UCLA?  They lost again, this time to San Diego State.  UCLA was behind most of the game and never really seemed in it.  I don’t know if it’s just Chip Kelly not having the right personnel to run his offense or what.  But for a team that many (including myself) thought would at least be going bowling this season, it’s not a good look, for the Bruins or for Kelly himself.

Recap complete!  Considering the schedule was one of the worst I have seen (beyond the top two games) it was a super fun weekend to watch college football.  The lesson?  Never assume when it comes to this sport.  Some great schedules create horrible weeks (in terms of quality of the actual games played) and some shitty schedules produce some of the most historic weeks.  You never know.  Anyway, here’s the return of the Bossman Top 25:

#1	Clemson
#2	LSU
#3	Alabama
#4	Georgia
#5	Ohio State
#6	Oklahoma
#7	Michigan
#8	Florida
#9	Auburn
#10	Notre Dame
#11	Utah
#12	Penn State
#13	Wisconsin
#14	UCF
#15	Texas
#16	Michigan State
#17	Texas A&M
#18	Oregon
#19	Iowa
#20	Washington State
#21	Washington
#22	Boise State
#23	Iowa State
#24	Maryland
#25	Virginia

As per usual I am close to the current polls but have a few differences.  And yes, I have LSU leapfrogging Alabama for #2.  Bama ain’t played nobody and LSU just beat Texas so I have to give them the nod here.  I don’t have USC in the Top 25, yet.  Not entirely convinced that they belong there but if they win next week they will be there.  Other than that I am confident that this is the perfect Top 25.  You all agree, right?  Don’t answer that.

Another recap done.  Hurricane Dorian was devastating to the Bahamas.  The States were mostly spared from the destruction.  So for now, we can safely say there will not be games added during conference championship week.  If you have read this blog before, you know my thoughts on these games.  Now they are at the peak of hurricane system so as long as they can get through the next few weeks unscathed there shouldn’t be any scheduling issues and, most importantly, no more damage to people and their property.

Same old, same old with the college football schedule Thursday and the NFL schedule Friday.  We are back in football season, ladies and gentlemen and it feels oh so good.  Enjoy your week everyone.

Things have got very interesting for the favourites – Week 5 College Football TV Schedule

I had something else prepared for the opening section and it wasn’t very exciting.  Once this Kelly Bryant story came out, it became a bit more intriguing.  Bryant is planning to transfer to another school.  This means he probably will not play again this season.  Now with the new rule, players can play up to four games without burning their redshirt.  So Bryant can now go to another program next season and play his redshirt senior year which will be a MASSIVE help to some programs.  Jalen Hurts is contemplating the same decision down in Tuscaloosa.  Tua Tagovailoa has taken over the starting position at Alabama, just like Trevor Lawrence did at Clemson.

The intriguing part comes from this: say Tagovailoa or Lawrence get hurt.  Let’s be honest, if they play poorly one game it won’t matter since it’s their team now.  But getting injured is a different story.  Then the Tide and Tigers would not have an adequate backup.  This is a serious problem for the two favourites to get to the CFP National Championship this season.  Everyone involved with both programs, including their fans, better cross their fingers that nothing happens with their star quarterbacks or they could be up shit creek without a paddle.  And you can’t blame Bryant or Hurts for potentially transferring.  They have quarterbacked in huge games and are good quarterbacks.  In the right situation, they could guide a team to a championship.  They have to do what is best for themselves and their futures.  It will be an interesting story to follow the rest of the season.

Enough about transferring at the moment.  Time to get down to the task at hand which is getting you the college football schedule TV information for Week 5.  And I will be honest: so far, on a whole, it has been easier than last season.  Not much.  But somewhat.  Which is nice.  Less headaches.

Thursday

		US	Canada
South Carolina State at North Carolina A&T	7:00 PM
North Carolina at #16 Miami	8:00 PM

Hey North Carolina doesn’t suck as bad now!  I think.  I don’t know.  But after winning this past weekend they certainly don’t look like complete ACC doormats anymore.  Now they have to face Miami so I can’t see them doing anything of note but if they keep it close, there will be people doubting Miami all season, no matter what they do.

UPDATE: UNC-Miami is also appearing on the specialty pack for some reason.

Friday

		US	Canada
Princeton at Columbia	7:00 PM
Memphis at Tulane	8:00 PM

Not much to say here although the addition of Ivy League football is a nice one.  Doesn’t make me feel more educated though.  I’ve watched FCS football before.  I know what I’m in for (sometimes).

Saturday Early

		US	Canada
Syracuse at #3 Clemson	Noon
Army at Buffalo	Noon
#12 West Virginia at #25 Texas Tech	Noon
Indiana at Rutgers	Noon
Arkansas vs. Texas A&M (in Arlington)	Noon
Temple at Boston College	Noon
Louisiana at #1 Alabama	Noon
Virginia at NC State	12:30 PM

As per usual, the early games are interesting even if they are lacking some star power.  WVU-TTU will be on the top of most people’s lists but Syracuse-Clemson could end up being a really good game.  We shall see if the Orange are for real or not.

UPDATE #2: I should have trusted my original gut instincts.  I thought Bowling Green-Georgia Tech would be on the specialty pack but it hadn’t shown up on any of the guides I saw.  Now it has shown up.  Of course.

Saturday Afternoon

		US	Canada
Baylor at #6 Oklahoma	3:30 PM
Tennessee at #2 Georgia	3:30 PM
Cincinnati at UConn	3:30 PM
Purdue at Nebraska	3:30 PM
Florida State at Louisville	3:30 PM
Pittsburgh at #13 UCF	3:30 PM
Southern Miss at #10 Auburn	4:00 PM
Tennessee State at Vanderbilt	4:00 PM
#14 Michigan at Northwestern	4:30 PM

Again with the no ESPN at 3:30 thing so that they can show a game at 6 (and then have a short window).  I don’t get it but whatever.  I’m not in charge.

A few decent games but nothing really stands out.  All the games with ranked teams have their opponent not being that good.  For example, Michigan.  Yeah, OK!  Against a down Northwestern team.  Ugh.  Oh well.  Hopefully one of these will end up being really good like the Virginia Tech-Old Dominion insanity of last Saturday.

UPDATE #3: Remember what I said above about Bowling Green-Georgia Tech?  Same thing goes for Rice-Wake Forest in this timeslot (3:30 pm).  I wonder if this is the prelude to the ACC Network showing games on the specialty pack (hopefully) next year.

Saturday Primetime

		US	Canada
Florida at #23 Mississippi State	6:00 PM
Samford at Kennesaw State	6:00 PM
Boise State at Wyoming	7:00 PM
Virginia Tech at #22 Duke	7:00 PM
Iowa State at TCU	7:00 PM
#7 Stanford at #8 Notre Dame	7:30 PM
#4 Ohio State at #9 Penn State	7:30 PM
Louisiana Tech at North Texas	7:00 PM
South Carolina at #17 Kentucky	7:30 PM
#20 BYU at #11 Washington	8:30 PM

Holy shit do things kick into high gear in the primetime slate.  Three games with ranked-on-ranked violence, three more with ranked teams and Boise State-Wyoming which could essentially be for the Mountain West Mountain Division title.  This is about as loaded as you will ever see in September and it’s glorious!  It makes the stupid short ESPN window not seem as such a big deal (although I really do not understand why they can’t put it at 5:30 (although I am sure something is on ESPN that needs two-and-a-half hours to air).

Saturday Late Night

		US	Canada
Ole Miss at #5 LSU	9:15 PM
USC at Arizona	10:30 PM
Toledo at Fresno State	10:30 PM

Pac-12 After Dark, Late Night Mountain West, and some SEC action that will go past midnight.  LSU should mop the floor with the Rebels but the other two games definitely have some intrigue.

UPDATE #4:  Don’t know how I missed this but USC-Arizona is not on the specialty pack.  It’s on TSN2.

Games to set your eyeballs on

Ohio State at Penn State (7:30, ABC) – This is not an easy choice for the game of the week as there are quite a few good games, especially in the primetime timeslot.  I have Penn State winning this one (as you will see in the next section).  Either way, the winner is the Big Ten’s biggest hope of going to the College Football Playoff.

Stanford at Notre Dame (7:30, NBC) – Looks like I will be flipping back and forth between this big game and the tOSU-PSU game.  It’s a good problem to have.  Anyway, both teams have looked shaky at times.  Stanford looked bad through about 2.5 quarters against Oregon before finally waking up.  Notre Dame barely beat Vanderbilt a couple weeks ago.  Here’s where we find out which team is for real…or as real as a team can get considering it’s still late September.

BYU at Washington (8:30, FOX) – Who thought BYU would be in this section at all this season?  Now put down your hands you filthy liars.  None of us thought this.  BYU has come back a lot quicker than many anticipated which is good.  To be an Independent you need to have a decent team or otherwise you barely get noticed (unless your Notre Dame or to a much lesser extent, Army).  Washington is looking down the barrel at a huge showdown with Stanford in a little over a month but cannot overlook these games.  Could end up being a massive roadblock for the Huskies.

West Virginia at Texas Tech (Noon, TSN3) – Four games that involve two ranked teams playing each other.  That’s a good college football schedule I must say.  Texas Tech is looking a hell of a lot better than many (including myself) thought they would be.  A few more wins and Kute Kliff Kingsbury keeps his job for sure into next season (as long as some crazy story about him doesn’t come out in the offseason).  The Mountaineers have to be considered dark horse College Football Playoff contenders now and a win here might put them in the Top 10 before October.

Syracuse at Clemson (Noon, ABC) – None of the top games are on the specialty pack.  Interesting.  Usually ESPN gets one really good one but not this week (although WVU-TTU is technically an ESPN game).  I don’t believe Clemson is #2 in the land but they are still one of the favourites (along with Bama as I mentioned at the start of this post) to go all the way to the natty.  Syracuse is really fun (thank you Dino Babers) but do we really think they will keep things close here in Death Valley?  If they do, then wait for the Clemson hot takes all next week.

Honourable mention: Ole Miss at LSU (9:15, specialty pack); Oregon at California (10:30, FOX Sports Onegoddamit); South Carolina at Kentucky (7:30, specialty pack)

Some gambling fun and games

I got almost every one of those picks right last week.  If it wasn’t for Oregon shitting the bed, I would have been perfect…which then would have made me sad I hadn’t put money down on it.  So I guess it’s for the best.  Not saying these picks this week will be as good but I sure hope so.

Oregon over California

Washington over BYU

South Carolina over Kentucky

LSU over Ole Miss

Clemson over Syracuse

West Virginia over Texas Tech

Notre Dame over Stanford

Penn State over Ohio State

Fresno State over Toledo (this one could be a wild Late Night Mountain West game)

Boise State over Wyoming

UCF over Pittsburgh

Hey everything, as far as I can tell, is showing up on the specialty packs!  WOOHOO!  This is the way it should be.  It helps that TSN is showing almost nothing this week so it’s easier to figure out the schedule.  I am a bit worried, however, about next year when the ACC Network commences.  How will the specialty packs deal with it?  It should be a not-so-difficult question to answer but this is Rogers/Bell/Eastlink/Shaw/Cogeco we are talking about.

Thursday Night Football will have a special feel tonight.  For the first time ever, FOX will have the game on their broadcast network.  So not only do you get Joe Buck and Troy Aikman (which may or many not be a good thing) you get it on FOX which, for the most part, means nothing to us since TSN gets it as well anyway.  OK so maybe special feel isn’t exactly right here.  But the game is big.  Eagles-Rams.  Which starts………5:00 local time?  Sweet Jesus, have fun with that Rams fans.

I should be on the Twitter machine at some point this Saturday so follow along.  Or don’t.  Really doesn’t matter to me.  Enjoy the games everyone!

It doesn’t feel like Fall yet – Week 4 College Football TV Schedule

It’s still hot out.  Stinkin’ hot at times.  I shouldn’t really complain because I know what some of the Winter months bring but still.  Alright, enough bitching about the weather.

Understand this: we have just come off of what had looked like two of the worst weeks of the season on paper (Week 2 was the worst; Week 3 was the 5th-worst).  This is supposed to be a bit better.  And arguably the best week before conference play really kicks into gear (which looks like next week).  So it should be good, right?  Perhaps.  Let’s just get to the schedule and find out if that statement is factual or not.

Thursday

 

		US	Canada
Tulsa at Temple	7:30 PM

Let’s be honest: there’s two ways to look at this really.  One, it’s Tulsa and Temple so is it an important game?  Probably not.  The other way to look at it is that it’s mid-week college football and that is good.  I choose the latter.

Friday

		US	Canada
Florida Atlantic at #16 UCF	7:00 PM
Harvard at Brown	7:00 PM
Washington State at USC	10:30 PM

Three games on Friday evening (that we can see…Penn State goes to face Illinois on FS1).  FAU-UCF should be very interesting because if UCF wins they are EASILY the front runner once again for the Group of Five New Year’s Six spot.  If FAU wins, a bunch of teams are back in the mix early.  USC better be careful with Wazzu.  They’ve struggled with them before on a Friday night.  Nice to see TSN picking this one up.

Saturday Early

		US	Canada
#8 Notre Dame at Wake Forest	Noon
Nevada at Toledo	Noon
#2 Georgia at Missouri	Noon
#23 Boston College at Purdue	Noon
Minnesota at Maryland	Noon
Buffalo at Rutgers	Noon
Ohio at Cincinnati	Noon
Kent State at Ole Miss	Noon
Pittsburgh at North Carolina	12:30 PM
Louisville at Virginia	12:30 PM

We are now at the beginning of the annual TSN step-up when it comes to airing college football games.  At least for early Saturday games since the CFL is still in full swing.  I say this every year but it will be interesting to see what happens next season.  Maybe more so since the ACC Network starts up.  It’s a bit of a slow start to the day but don’t sleep on UGA-Mizzou or ND-WF.  They could go a long way towards determining the College Football Playoff and the New Year’s Six if either Georgia or Notre Dame falters.

UPDATE #2:  It looks like UL-UVA is not appearing on the specialty pack after all.

UPDATE #3: And now UL-UVA IS appearing on the specialty pack.

UPDATE #4: Kent State-Ole Miss is on TSN2, not the specialty pack.

Saturday Afternoon

		US	Canada
#3 Clemson at Georgia Tech	3:30 PM
#22 Texas A&M at #1 Alabama	3:30 PM
#13 Virginia Tech at Old Dominion	3:30 PM
Tulane at #4 Ohio State	3:30 PM
Kansas State at #12 West Virginia	3:30 PM
FIU at #21 Miami	3:30 PM
Northern Illinois at Florida State	3:30 PM
South Carolina at Vanderbilt	4:00 PM
#17 TCU at Texas	4:30 PM

A lot of ranked teams in this timeslot.  Very nice.  If it wasn’t for South Carolina’s loss to Georgia a couple weeks ago and Florida State being inexplicably bad, we could have had the unprecedented every game has a ranked team involved timeslot.  This still ends up being good with Clemson-GT, TAMU-Bama, KSU-WVU and TCU-UT all good games to watch.

Saturday Primetime

		US	Canada
Clark-Atlanta at Kennesaw State	6:00 PM
NC State at Marshall	7:00 PM
Florida at Tennessee	7:00 PM
#14 Mississippi State at Kentucky	7:00 PM
Louisiana Tech at #6 LSU	7:00 PM
#24 Michigan State at Indiana	7:30 PM
Arkansas at #9 Auburn	7:30 PM
#7 Stanford at #20 Oregon	8:00 PM
#18 Wisconsin at Iowa	8:00 PM

There are a few good games here but it kind of pales in comparison to the afternoon timeslot which happens from time to time.  I’m just glad these are spaced out inside the timeslot, meaning there won’t be three or four finishes around the same time with the chance of some of them being fantastic finishes.

Saturday Late Night

		US	Canada
Air Force at Utah State	10:15 PM
Eastern Michigan at San Diego State	10:30 PM
Arizona State at #10 Washington	10:30 PM

Pac-12 After Dark is back!  Despite Chris Petersen’s protestations, the Pac-12 has to have a late night game.  I don’t get why not.  I mean yes, I would draw the line if there was like three of them but one or two is fine.  Can’t always be in primetime Chris.  Anyway, let’s hope one of these games is good because all three look relatively non-competitive on paper.

Games to set your eyeballs on

Texas A&M at Alabama (3:30, CBS) – Still a big game and arguably the game of the week although I will put this as 1A to the next game’s 1B.  Only because this game may not end up being close.  But if the Aggies can muster up the same kind of game they played against Clemson, you never know.  Bama hasn’t been spooked yet this season so it would be interesting to see what they do if it happens.

Stanford at Oregon (8:00, ABC) – Pac-12 in primetime!  Stanford is Stanford.  We know what they bring.  Oregon is interesting.  They started getting better under Willie Taggart last year and have continued it with Mario Cristobal (who Florida International might regret ever firing).  I wonder if the Ducks are secretly smiling over Willie’s struggles in Tallahassee.  Anywho, this is the game that will show if Oregon is truly back to the Bellotti/Kelly/Helfrich days or if they are still a second-tier Pac-12 team until further notice.

Georgia at Missouri (Noon, TSN1) – This could be the sneaky good game of the week if the Tigers can put up a pile of points on the Dawgs.  Missouri not being ranked is kind of weird but a win (or even being close) should do the trick.  This may now end up being Georgia’s last hurdle for a division title.  Staying in the top four is a different story since they still have LSU and Auburn on their schedule to play.

Notre Dame at Wake Forest (Noon, ABC/TSN4) – Yes the Deacs got beat by Boston College last week.  Saying that, BC could end up being really good this season; much better than I thought they would be at least.  This is another one of Notre Dame’s landmine games.  The thing is, Notre Dame doesn’t have many of those left.  And we are only in Week 4.  Could we see a repeat of Notre Dame in 2012?  Part of me hopes not.

Wisconsin at Iowa (8:30, FOX) – Has there even been a time when I have done this section and not one of these games is on the specialty pack?  This feels weird.  Anyway, after Wisky’s gaffe last week against BYU they almost have to win this game against Iowa (and their awesome Iowa Wave) or else the Big Ten West is in serious trouble.  And by serious trouble I mean not even a sniff of a New Year’s Six bowl.

Honourable mention: Kansas State at West Virginia (3:30, specialty pack); TCU at Texas (4:30, FOX); Arizona State at Washington (10:30, specialty pack)

Some gambling fun and games

Not so good last week for the ol’ Bossman.  I did get my upset picks of Texas and San Diego State right but I also included Stanford winning over San Diego State.  They played UC-Davis last week so I don’t know what the hell I was thinking there.  Anyway, maybe I will be lucid enough to do the picks properly this week.  Not saying they will be good, more like they will actually all include games from Week 4 and Week 4 only.  Here we go:

Notre Dame over Wake Forest

West Virginia over Kansas State

Texas over TCU

Georgia over Missouri

Alabama over Texas A&M

Wisconsin over Iowa

Oregon over Stanford (upset of the week)

Washington over Arizona State

Utah State over Air Force

Florida over Tennessee

Clemson over Georgia Tech

Last I checked, tonight’s game was up on the specialty pack and nothing else.  Same old same old.  This really makes no sense since last week was a week with hurricane implications and Bell and Rogers got it pretty much spot on.  I will check again tonight to see if they have finally updated things.

UPDATE:  The specialty packs look like they are all updated and the games scheduled.

Also, there’s a Thursday Night Football game tonight.  And it’s……………….the Jets and Browns.  Well I wish Joe Buck and Troy Aikman luck tonight.  They will need it.  Maybe they will drink on air.  Enjoy the games everyone.

It’s the fallout from Week 1 and Overreaction time! Also the Week 2 College Football TV Schedule.

Oh you think I should be fired? That’s funny.

How many people are now, all of a sudden, saying that Jim Harbaugh won’t make it to next year because Michigan will fire him?  Or that he will take an NFL job with, say, the Browns next year?  Or that people should burn down his house because the Wolverines had the audacity to lose on the road against a pretty good Notre Dame team?  OK that last one might be a bit extreme (but only a bit) but the overreactions from Week 1 are just like this.  Complete overreactions.  Most of the time.  Remember “Texas is Back?”  Yeah I member.  And I member how it turned out as well.  That Texas wasn’t back.  It happens every season.  Social media makes it a hundred times worse than it should be but it’s the nature of society these days.  So we have to take a step back, as college football fans, and not buy into a lot of it.  Or just go insane and have hot takes about everything.  Who cares.

Now that Week 1 is in the bag, let’s move to Week 2 and oh my this isn’t as good as Week 1.  My apologies.

Thursday

		US	Canada
Kennesaw State at Tennessee Tech	7:00 PM

And it starts reeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeally slowly this week.  One FCS game.  Reason for this is that the NFL opener is also tonight.  So yeah, probably a good idea not to compete with that.

Friday

		US	Canada
#16 TCU at SMU	8:00 PM

The not-as-rare-anymore Power Five team traveling to meet a Group of Five team.  In this case it’s the annual Battle for the Iron Skillet which seems to be less of a battle these days and more of a complete ass kicking since TCU has dominated this series for a while now.

Saturday Early

		US	Canada
Georgia Tech at USF	Noon
Arizona at Houston	Noon
Liberty at Army	Noon
Eastern Michigan at Purdue	Noon
New Mexico at #5 Wisconsin	Noon
#18 Mississippi State at Kansas State	Noon
Duke at Northwestern	Noon
Nevada at Vanderbilt	Noon
Georgia State at NC State	12:30 PM
UCLA at #6 Oklahoma	1:00 PM

As per usual, a boatload of games in the early timeslot.  MSU-KSU looks like a tasty affair early on and there are some decent games on the sked but nothing that really stands out.  As for the reverse mirror, here’s how it will look:

• Everyone basically east of Sault Ste. Marie will get GT-USF on ABC and UA-UH on the specialty pack.
• Everyone west of Sault Ste. Marie will get UA-UH on ABC and GT-USF on the specialty pack.

Saturday Afternoon

		US	Canada
Ball State at #8 Notre Dame	3:30 PM
Colorado at Nebraska	3:30 PM
#3 Georgia at #24 South Carolina	3:30 PM
Memphis at Navy	3:30 PM
Rutgers at #4 Ohio State	3:30 PM
Arkansas State at #1 Alabama	3:30 PM
North Carolina at East Carolina	3:30 PM
East Tennessee State at Tennessee	4:00 PM
Southern Illinois at Ole Miss	4:00 PM
Iowa State at Iowa	5:00 PM

Getting better with the afternoon slate as we get one of the two ranked vs. ranked matchups here.  South Carolina could make the big early statement if they could stop Georgia at home.  CyHawk goes on at the weirdly amusing 5:00 time.  Now that I very rarely use the PVR, these types of things are refreshing and if the game is close will give FOX a bigger audience as the primetime games are getting started.  And we finally get the debut of Scott Frost at Nebraska.  Let’s see if he can finally truly turn the Husker ship around.

Saturday Primetime

		US	Canada
#2 Clemson at Texas A&M	7:00 PM
SE Louisiana at #11 LSU	7:00 PM
Wyoming at Missouri	7:00 PM
Arkansas at Colorado State	7:30 PM
Western Illinois at Illinois	7:30 PM
Virginia at Indiana	7:30 PM
Samford at Florida State	7:30 PM
FIU at Old Dominion	7:30 PM
Kentucky at #25 Florida	7:30 PM
Alabama State at #7 Auburn	7:30 PM
#13 Penn State at Pittsburgh	8:00 PM
#17 USC at #10 Stanford	8:30 PM

Last year we actually had a stacked lineup in primetime for Week 2.  This year, not even close.  I mean yes USC-Stanford should be good and you never know what Pitt might do against Penn State.  Of course we have Clemson-TAMU to start the primetime slate so hopefully The Fighting Jimbos show up and keep that close.  Other than that, ugh.  Not impressive at all.

Saturday Late Night

		US	Canada
California at BYU	10:15 PM
UConn at #20 Boise State	10:15 PM
#15 Michigan State at Arizona State	10:45 PM

Actually a pretty decent late night spread although I am sure Boise will blow the Huskies out of the water.  Now we see what Herm Edwards’ Sun Devils are really all about.  They win this (or keep it very close) then I will admit I might have been very wrong with my prediction for them this season.

Games to set your eyeballs on

USC at Stanford (8:30, FOX) – FOX gets their own timeslot (kinda sorta) and the game of the week (kinda sorta).  Really it’s by default since other than UGA-SC, the schedule doesn’t have any huge games at all this week.  But we know what happens on weeks like this.  Usually absolute chaos and/or some fantastic finishes.  Anyway, this could end up being a Pac-12 title preview as long as both teams show up after their relatively dismal showings last week (even though they both won).

Georgia at South Carolina (3:30, CBS) – Survive this game and the Dawgs are over a huge hurdle towards a potential perfect regular season.  It won’t be easy against the eastern USC but remembering what their division is still like (no offense to potentially resurgent Florida, Tennessee and Missouri) means this could be the de facto SEC East Championship.

UCLA at Oklahoma (1:00, FOX) – Man, top three games and FOX has two of them.  Considering the calibre of the week though, I don’t think FOX would consider this a “success.”  The 1:00 start time is the start of FOX’s offsetting of their games from the rest of the networks to stand out.  I like it although I remember when I PVR’ed a lot of games.  This type of thing would have infuriated me to no end like two years ago.  I am hoping Chip Kelly’s offense actually shows up so that this is a decently competitive game.  Otherwise I will regret putting this game on the list.

Clemson at Texas A&M (7:00, specialty pack) – Could I have put this higher?  Sure.  I think most are.  I don’t buy it though.  I know there’s a lot of hype around Jimbo Fisher at College Station but this is Clemson we’re talking about.  A team that many believe could win the whole shebang.  TAMU isn’t there yet and it will take a season for Fisher, probably, to really make his mark on the program.  If it’s close, then I guess I will say I’m wrong but I don’t see it happening.

Mississippi State at Kansas State (Noon, specialty pack) – This is an interesting sleeper pick of a game.  Kansas State is almost never bad and Mississippi State is actually considered by some (myself included) to be the second best team in the SEC West with a potential Heisman candidate.  If this is close they will get a ton of eyeballs just before the afternoon games commence.

Honourable mention: Michigan State at Arizona State (10:45, TSN5); Kentucky at Florida (7:30, specialty pack); Penn State at Pittsburgh (8:00, ABC)

Some gambling fun and games

Florida State losing wasn’t a bad pick on my part.  Picking Texas certainly was (Texas is not back).  Here’s this week’s fun-time picks, for entertainment purposes only.  You use these to gamble you are really, uh, gambling with your own money and…I really should have thought that through:

Stanford over USC

Clemson over Texas A&M

Michigan State over Arizona State

Mississippi State over Kansas State

Georgia over South Carolina

Oklahoma over UCLA

Florida over Kentucky (for like the 1000th time in a row)

Penn State over Pittsburgh

California over BYU

Nebraska over Colorado

Arizona over Houston

As of now I see nothing on the guide for the specialty pack.  Nothing.  I know the games are coming but don’t see them yet.  Frustrating.  Hell, there isn’t even anything for tonight.  I don’t get this at all but I have harped on this before.  They have our money so they don’t have to put very much effort into the specialty pack at all…for any sport.  Well, except hockey since the slightest issue sends thousands of people into a frenzy.  Maybe I seriously will look into alternative methods of getting these games since this is becoming tiring.

UPDATE:  The entire specialty pack schedule is up.

And the NFL is back!  Falcons-Eagles tonight in the opening night game.  And the Nike Colin Kaepernick ad will air at some point.  I know this because of the millions of angry tweets on both sides of the coin about this.  2018 is ridiculous folks.  Oh well the game is on NBC, CTV2 and all the TSNs except TSN2.

I will be on the Twitter machine again this weekend.  It was a rough go last Saturday toughing it out until the wee hours of the morning especially with starting to do no caffeine.  I will try my best this Saturday.  Enjoy the games everyone and watch for any updates.

Faux Outrage over the first CFP Rankings and your STACKED Week 10 College Football TV Schedule

It’s here!  We know it’s the start of the best time of the year if you are a football fan.  From late October through the end of November there are only a few non-football days.  We are in the midst of 27 in a row right now.  Then there’s a one-day reprieve.  Then American Thanksgiving’s five-day FOOTBALLGASM!  Yeah it’s awesome.

But this also means it’s time for overreaction season.  The first College Football Playoff Rankings came out Tuesday evening and boy were there reactions to it.  How could Ohio State be so low?  How could Clemson be so high?  Bama should be first gul darn it!  Wisconsin and Miami ain’t gettin no love!  You know what?  Who gives a shit.  These rankings, like the preseason AP Poll mean almost nothing.  Not completely nothing but pretty close to it.  I still think October is too early for these rankings.  Maybe the first Tuesday in November works.  Then at least 75% of the season is in the books and we can make pretty good assumptions.  A week can make all the difference.  Look at all the teams that have fallen from the Top 5 this season so far.  So everyone should calm down.  Next week when the rankings come out and somehow Alabama is back to #1 then you can start getting pissed off.  Until then, have a beer and cool down.

Now it’s on to an absolutely STACKED Saturday in college football.  Good lord this gun be fun!  I had this as the third best college football week of the season and it looks to be a spot on prediction (behind November 11th and American Thanksgiving’s Football-kakke).  Enough slapping my back, it’s Sked Time!

Thursday

		US	Canada
Ball State at Eastern Michigan	6:00 PM
Northern Illinois at Toledo	6:00 PM
Navy at Temple	8:00 PM
Idaho at Troy	9:15 PM

OK so we start low and slow with the schedule this week.  Nothing huge of note although some interesting early MACtion start times.  And the final two games could be very interesting ones as well with all four teams not quite being up to the preseason snuff that people expected of them.  This could also likely be Idaho’s last national FBS broadcast ever since they move to FCS next season.  So a tiny bit of college football history there.

Friday

		US	Canada
Marshall at Florida Atlantic	6:00 PM
#23 Memphis at Tulsa	8:00 PM

Is the Memphis-Tulsa game important?  Only if UCF ends up blowing a gasket between now and the conference championship.  Then these are the types of games that could be very important.  Look for the Tigers to shoot for a 70-burger in this one.

Saturday Early

		US	Canada
East Carolina at Houston	Noon
#9 Wisconsin at Indiana	Noon
Illinois at Purdue	Noon
#14 Auburn at Texas A&M	Noon
Florida at Missouri	Noon
Western Kentucky at Vanderbilt	Noon
UMass at #16 Mississippi State	Noon
#7 Penn State at #24 Michigan State	Noon
Syracuse at Florida State	12:30 PM

And it starts out fast and furious.  PSU-MSU in the noon slot is a pretty big deal since very rarely do you see ranked-on-ranked violence this early on.  FOX is really hitting out of the park with their main network games this season.  A few other good games in this timeslot as well.  These good games do not include Syracuse-FSU.  Oh and did you hear that the Noles are wanting to play that lost game against ULM during conference championship week?  Talk about pathetic.  They aren’t making a bowl game so why bother?

Saturday Afternoon

		US	Canada
Kennesaw State at Montana State	2:00 PM
Army at Air Force	3:30 PM
South Carolina at #1 Georgia	3:30 PM
Northwestern at Nebraska	3:30 PM
Maryland at Rutgers	3:30 PM
#4 Clemson at #20 NC State	3:30 PM
#6 Ohio State at Iowa	3:30 PM
#15 Iowa State at West Virginia	3:30 PM
#21 Stanford at #25 Washington State	3:30 PM
Wake Forest at #3 Notre Dame	3:30 PM
USF at UConn	3:30 PM
Coastal Carolina at Arkansas	4:00 PM
Ole Miss at Kentucky	4:00 PM

OK let’s not talk about quality for a second.  When is the last time there has been this many games in one timeslot?  Thirteen!  This is something else!  So much choice.

Alright back to the quality of the games.  They are good.  Damn good.  Two huge ranked team games.  Worst part is?  The best game (Bedlam) won’t be seen in this neck of the woods.  Sucks really but considering what we are getting up here I will let it slide (as long as we get FS1 next year…if not then this is bullshit).

UPDATE #2: Thanks to the ridiculously long weather delay in East Lansing (looks like it will be a new college football record), Stanford-Wazzu has been moved to FOX Business Network meaning we lose that game now.  However, we do get the start of Bedlam on FOX.  Once PSU-MSU resumes, we will get that game.

UPDATE #3: Stupid me.  How could I think it would be even remotely smooth.  Stanford-Wazzu will continue on FOX until PSU-MSU resumes.  Then we won’t get Stanford-Wazzu at all after that (except for the West Coast which might continue to get that game).  We also still don’t get to see Bedlam.  What a gongshow.

Saturday Primetime

		US	Canada
Colorado State at Wyoming	7:00 PM
Nevada at Boise State	7:00 PM
Texas at #8 TCU	7:15 PM
#18 UCF at SMU	7:15 PM
Southern Miss at Tennessee	7:30 PM
UTEP at Middle Tennessee	7:30 PM
Minnesota at Michigan	7:30 PM
#13 Virginia Tech at #20 Miami	8:00 PM
#19 LSU at #2 Alabama	8:00 PM

Interesting.  Yet again you can make the argument that the afternoon window is better than the primetime window.  It’s a little less obvious this week though.  Two huge matchups for sure though including the Tide’s first true test.  They have two more (Mississippi State and Auburn) left and this is the way they move back to #1 in the CFP rankings: by winning these games.  VT-Miami is for all the (ACC Coastal) marbles.  UCF also has a tricky one in Dallas against the Mustangs.  Lose and the Group of Five goes into chaos!

Saturday Late Night

		US	Canada
San Diego State at San Jose State	10:30 PM
#22 Arizona at #17 USC	10:45 PM
BYU at Fresno State	10:45 PM

And some more huge games.  Ok, game.  Singular.  But still.  This is the de facto Pac-12 South Championship that no one figured at the start of the season.  Khalil Tate could signal his true Heisman arrival if he goes off on the Trojans in this one.

Games to set your eyeballs on

Oklahoma at Oklahoma State (4:00, FOX Sports One) – OK remember what I said above?  OK I am a bit more pissed than that.  It’s the game of the week, man.  We should all be able to see it on a channel that we can all get if we want to.  When a huge game ends up on the specialty pack I don’t gripe about it because 1) I get the specialty pack already and 2) you have the ability to see the game legally in Canada if you want to.  In this case we can’t.  Which is bullshit.  OK I better stop now before I get too heated.  Anyway, this could be a preview of the Big XII Championship.  Could be.  Loser is almost certainly eliminated from the CFP and will struggle to even get a New Year’s Six spot.

Virginia Tech at Miami (8:00, ABC) – So many games to choose from.  I will choose this one here.  Two reasons: one, it’s in primetime on ABC so it has to be considered at least somewhat big.  And two, the winner of this game basically clinches the ACC Coastal and has a decent shot at either getting to the College Football Playoff or ruining Clemson’s chances of getting into the final four.  I know Mark Richt is, deep down, champing at the bit to get a chance at Georgia in the semis.  You just know it.

Clemson at NC State (3:30, ABC) – The other half of the ACC puzzle will also probably be figured out after this one is complete.  It’s in Raleigh and the Wolfpack took the Tigers to the limit last year (and should have won it really).  Dave Doeren gets at least until October with no calls for his job if he wins this one.  Winner, in all likelihood, gets the VT-Miami winner in early December in Charlotte.

Arizona at USC (10:45, specialty pack) – Another division championship and one of the few times Pac-12 After Dark is one of the top games of the week.  No one thought the Fighting RichRods would be in this position at the start of the year.  No one.  Not even the majority of Wildcat fans.  Khalil Tate is a revelation and this could be his signal to the rest of the Heisman contenders that he is for real.  There is a very real possibility that USC could fall out of the Top 25 if they lose here.  Would serve me right for jumping on the Clay Helton/Sam Darnold bandwagon.  Shame on you, Bossman.  Shame.

LSU at Alabama (8:00, CBS) – Usually this game is at or near the top of this list.  This year it BARELY makes it into the top 5.  Everyone is expecting Bama to go off on the Tigers here.  Luckily for Coach O, he won’t get a plethora of calls calling for his job after this one.  Now, if he keeps it close (or if somehow LSU pulls off the stunner) it buys him quite a bit of time in Baton Rouge.  The Fighting Evil Sabans may be a bit perturbed after being only #2 in the inaugural 2017 CFP Rankings.  Expect them to play a bit pissed off.

Honourable mention: Stanford at Washington State (3:30, FOX); South Carolina at Georgia (3:30, CBS); Wake Forest at Notre Dame (3:30, NBC); Ohio State at Iowa (3:30, TSN4…yes couldn’t leave this one out so had to throw in FOUR honourable mentions!); Penn State at Michigan State (Noon, FOX…ok make that five!)

Some gambling fun and games

My Ohio State pick from last week looks damn good now!  Same with my Northwestern one.  Last week was pretty good to be honest.  Let’s see if I can keep going with the pretty good picks (not great…just pretty good).

Ohio State over Iowa

Alabama over LSU

Miami over Virginia Tech

USC over Arizona

Oklahoma State over Oklahoma

Clemson over NC State

Washington State over Stanford

Penn State over Michigan State

Georgia over South Carolina

Notre Dame over Wake Forest

SMU over UCF (massive upset but I could seriously see it happening)

So as of right now, no information on the specialty packs on Saturday.  Rogers/Eastlink/Shaw/Whomever else at least has information for tonight and tomorrow on their guides.  Can’t say the same thing for Bell who, for two nights in a row, aired MACtion games with no guide info whatsoever.  Re-goddamn-diculous.

UPDATE: The info appeared just before the MAC Thursday night game.  It’s about time.  All games in for Bell (and it looks like for SSP subscribers as well).

Thursday Night Football yet again.  Can we please stop this?  At least until American Thanksgiving.  Then have all the Thursday Night Football you want.  Until then?  Can it already.  Anyway, where was I…oh yes, tonight’s Thursday Night Football matchup!  The Bills travel to somewhere in New Jersey to face the New York Jets.  I don’t think they are doing Color Rush this year which is good because most of those uniforms were god awful.  This is the kind of game the Bills fucking LOVE to lose.  A game they should win that would keep them in the thick of a playoff race and they inexplicably play horrible and it puts them back outside looking in.  Same old Bills.

I have Saturday to myself.  You know what this means…live-tweeting the entire day of college football (@LikeABauce1978).  I understand Twitter is now the scourge of social media thanks to Donald J. Asshole.  But like most social media you just have to try and steer clear of the garbage.  I enjoy Twitter to be honest.  I don’t know if I could do a full day of college football anymore without it.  Actually I know I couldn’t.  I’d either have to take multiple decent-sized breaks throughout the day or PVR certain timeslots.  Both of these things are wimp moves in my estimation.  Go big or go home, right?  I know I will regret this Sunday morning but again, I don’t care.  No wonder I look and feel like shit all the time.  Anyway, enjoy the games everyone!

OK this has got way out of hand – Week 9 College Football TV Schedule

I get that there are rabid fanbases for schools in FBS college football.  It gets worse when you include alumni in the equation.  And current students.  Remember, for the most part, college/university students are not nearly as bright as they will be five years after they finish school.  Lack of life lessons and dealing with reality is not there yet.  It’s kind of why teachers tend to have a lot of trouble understanding the world outside of education if they haven’t had jobs outside of education before starting to teach.

Anyway, that was a long-winded introduction to me saying that people sending Jim McElwain and Gators players death threats are complete fucking wastes of oxygen.  If you are sending a death threat over a fucking game (albeit an awesome game to watch and maybe bet on) then you clearly are not a productive member of society.  Fuck off and let other less-rabid fans fight in the stands, be complete racists, get completely hammered, and yammer on message boards overreacting to the slightest issue with their team.  Like it should be, right?  God, our society is awful (America worse than Canada but still).

An update already on this: so maybe there wasn’t death threats?  The university might not believe McElwain and his claims?  What in the blue fuck?  I give up.

On to the sked!

Thursday

		US	Canada
Eastern Michigan at Northern Illinois	7:00 PM
South Alabama at Georgia State	7:30 PM
#20 Stanford at Oregon State	9:00 PM

We are starting to get into some serious MACtion and Fun Belt games now.  Soon enough we will have football every day and we have the MAC and Sun Belt to thank for it.  I mean, sure, it impacts how many fans are in the stands at these games but do we really care as the fan watching on TV?  Obviously not.  Because we’re assholes that just want what we want.  I will admit that MACtion and Fun Belt are great for home viewers but sometimes it does feel like too much.  Like we don’t need three MAC games on at the same time on a weekday night.  That’s too much.  There is a limit you know.  Even for me.

Friday

		US	Canada
Florida State at Boston College	8:00 PM
Tulane at #24 Memphis	8:00 PM
Tulsa at SMU	9:00 PM

Normally this would look like a much bigger night than it will actually be.  But with Florida State and Tulsa shitting the bed this year, this night has become kind of meh.  I will still watch but I plan to PVR and skip parts and only watch if it’s relatively close.  At least Memphis and their razor-thin New Year’s Six chances are on display against the Fighting Fritzs.  So one game that could end up being relatively important.

Saturday Early

		US	Canada
Buffalo at Akron	11:30 AM
#11 Oklahoma State at #22 West Virginia	Noon
Rutgers at Michigan	Noon
#5 Wisconsin at Illinois	Noon
#8 Miami at North Carolina	Noon
Texas at Baylor	Noon
Arkansas at Ole Miss	Noon
Virginia at Pittsburgh	Noon
Louisville at Wake Forest	12:30 PM

Looks like we are into that time of year when we get the ACC Network Extra/FSN-Regional/ESPN3/Whatever games popping up for little to no reason. I am not complaining.  It’s just odd that’s all.

CBS Sports Network starting half-an-hour early is interesting.  Don’t know the reasoning for it since it’s not a huge adjustment but an adjustment nonetheless, especially for the PVR folk out there.

Saturday Afternoon

		US	Canada
Kennesaw State at Presbyterian	2:30 PM
Air Force at Colorado State	3:00 PM
Florida vs. #3 Georgia (in Jacksonville)	3:30 PM
Indiana at Maryland	3:30 PM
#4 TCU at #25 Iowa State	3:30 PM
#16 Michigan State at Northwestern	3:30 PM
UCLA at #12 Washington	3:30 PM
#2 Penn State at #6 Ohio State	3:30 PM
#14 NC State at #9 Notre Dame	3:30 PM
Houston at #17 USF	3:45 PM
Vanderbilt at South Carolina	4:00 PM

A massive Big Ten game almost overshadows a few other very good games in an afternoon timeslot that is much better than it normally is.  PSU-tOSU of course is the big game here and it’s on FOX.  College Gameday…ESPN’s College Gameday is in Columbus for a game that won’t even be a primetime affair because FOX also has the World Series.  Basically, unless something major happens somewhere else, FOX has won the day in sports on Saturday.

Don’t sleep on the other sneaky good games including NCSU-ND, TCU-ISU and the Cocktail Party where Georgia tries to do something they haven’t done since 2013: beat Florida.  A loss here by the Dawgs means Bama may be the SEC’s only College Football Playoff hope.

UPDATE: Shocking news here.  They have fucked up thanks to the reverse-mirror.  OK not shocking at all.  So as far as I can tell, whatever game you are not getting on ABC in this window you will not get.  Thanks a bunch, telcos.

Saturday Primetime

		US	Canada
Missouri at UConn	6:30 PM
Mississippi State at Texas A&M	7:15 PM
Tennessee at Kentucky	7:30 PM
New Mexico at Wyoming	7:30 PM
Nebraska at Purdue	7:30 PM
Texas Tech at #10 Oklahoma	8:00 PM
Georgia Tech at #7 Clemson	8:00 PM

This almost never happens but the primetime window is INFERIOR to the afternoon window.  Crazy.  What’s also crazy?  Double reverse-mirror!  And the coverage maps are out.  Here is what you are looking at:

• For the 3:30 window, viewers who get ABC out of Seattle or Spokane will get the UCLA-Washington game on ABC.  The rest of us get TCU-ISU on ABC.  Whether you get the proper game on your specialty pack is a complete unknown since I don’t trust the telcos to get it right (as has been seen in the past).
• As for the primetime game, if you get ABC out of Minneapolis or west of there you will get the TTU-OU game on ABC.  East of Minneapolis, you get GT-Clemson on ABC.  Again, the specialty packs will be a crapshoot despite the fact they shouldn’t be.

Saturday Late Night

		US	Canada
Boise State at Utah State	10:00 PM
#21 USC at Arizona State	10:45 PM
San Diego State at Hawaii	11:15 PM

A couple of oddities here.  First, a late night TSN game.  That’s nice to see.  And amazingly enough, it is a super important Pac-12 South game.  The other oddity is some REALLY late night football.  SDSU-UH starts at 11:15 EST.  That’s crazy late.  Well, I guess I will be super tired Sunday morning.

Games to set your eyeballs on

Penn State at Ohio State (3:30, FOX) – Was there any doubt this was the game of the week?  The thing is this is a bit of a stacked week so it makes it look that much bigger.  The Big Ten East rides on this game (pretty much) and the shape of the College Football Playoff will change regardless of the winner.  Should be a good one and the networks know this since every pre-game show is there.  I am sure the SEC Network’s pre-game show even considered heading to Columbus.

NC State at Notre Dame (3:30, NBC) – No one should sleep on the Wolfpack.  This team is dangerous and really an upset of Clemson later on in the season away from flipping the ACC upside down.  The Irish know what they have to do.  One more loss the rest of the way and it’s no CFP.  Two losses and the New Year’s Six is probably gone as well.  Very little room for error.  Part of me wonders what will happen if they run the table but end up with many other one-loss teams at the end of the season with at least two of them being conference champions.  What then?  Last year we found out that the whole season is more important than the conference championships themselves.  Will Independence be a hindrance or a plus for Notre Dame, if it comes to that?

TCU at Iowa State (3:30, ABC/specialty pack) – Iowa State is in the games of the week section.  Iowa State.  Let that sink in.  OK now that you have come to from fainting let’s look at another possibility (however remote): what if the Cyclones pull off another massive upset?  They already beat Oklahoma and a win over TCU throws the Big XII in chaos.  What it definitely does is help Notre Dame, the ACC, and Pac-12 who all may need help from elsewhere to secure CFP spots.

Oklahoma State at West Virginia (Noon, ABC/TSN1) – Here is your Big XII pew-pew-pew shootout game of the week.  Somehow the over-under is 73.5.  I don’t get it either.  Watch it end up being a defensive battle.  Both teams are right in the thick of things in the conference race and an ISU upset of TCU makes it so five teams would have a legitimate shot to get to the Big XII Championship.  OSU’s very slim CFP hopes would be dashed with a loss here.

Georgia Tech at Clemson(8:00, ABC/specialty pack) – Gotta have one primetime game in this section, no?  I guess technically I don’t but I feel safe putting this game here.  Clemson is not a shoo-in to win here as the option offense tends to give a lot of teams fits on the defensive side of the ball.  Huge ACC ramifications here and not just for the Tigers.  A Ramblin’ Wreck win keeps them within earshot of Miami in the ACC Coastal.

Honourable mention: UCLA at Washington (3:30, ABC/specialty pack); Houston at USF (3:45, specialty pack); Washington State at Arizona (9:30, Pac-12 Network…damn)

Some gambling fun and games

Last week…well, it wasn’t that great.  Plus I think I listed Oklahoma beating Kansas State twice.  I guess I REALLY thought they were going to win.  On to this week’s picks!

Notre Dame over NC State

Washington over UCLA

Georgia over Florida

Clemson over Georgia Tech

Ohio State over Penn State

TCU over Iowa State

Oklahoma State over West Virginia

USF over Houston

Washington State over Arizona

USC over Arizona State

Northwestern over Michigan State (had to throw one quasi-upset in here)

An update on my above mention that soon we will have football every day.  Well, that starts TODAY!  And it goes until the day before American Thanksgiving.  It’s the most…wonderful tiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiime of the year!

More Thursday Night Football.  Yay?  Tonight it’s Miami going to Baltimore to face the Ravens.  Unless it’s close I probably won’t much of it.  The issue with Thursday Night Football is part of the whole NFL over-saturation issue.  You could put the best games on Thursday nights and people won’t watch.  Older fans (older than, say, 30) have been conditioned that Sunday is NFL day along with Monday Night Football.  That’s it.  Things can get wacky starting at American Thanksgiving and that is fine for fans.  But before that?  It seems the fans are saying no.  As for the younger fans they are tuning in at a far lower rate than the older fans.  They want instant gratification (somewhat).  They are also smart enough to say “If I am not interesting in this game I might tune in for the fourth quarter if it ends up being good.”  Otherwise, they will check out the highlights on the TSN app (or ESPN app down in Murica).  But the NFL is all about money so expect Wednesday night games in the future because “that’s what the fans want.”  Sure, Roger.

This will be an interesting Saturday.  Have to determine the best approach to this.  Go all-in with the PVR and be smarter about how much of the games I watch?  Or go no PVR like I did a couple weeks ago and hope that the times I am at home I get to watch the most important parts of the games.  Decisions, decisions.  Either way, enjoy the games everyone!

OK it looks to be one of those weeks – Week 6 College Football TV Schedule

One of the, um, lesser weeks of the college football season is upon us.  No it’s not SEC Sleepwalk Saturday but it’s still not exactly chock full of big-time games on paper.  Usually you know what this means right?  Almost every time we have a week that doesn’t look to be big we end up with some crazy finishes that reaffirm our love for college football and show us that the games still have to be played.  The opposite is not true although sometimes we have had “big” weeks end up being colossal letdowns (see: American Thanksgiving weekend 2015).

Alright it’s on to the schedule.  No opening song and dance like the Emmys or Oscars or any other crappy awards show (don’t even get me started on the ESPYs).  Just pure information.  Smooth, hot, nasty information.

Thursday

		US	Canada
Alcorn State at Alabama State	7:30 PM
#17 Louisville at #24 NC State	8:00 PM

This should be a very intriguing Thursday night game.  Both teams are trying desperately to get close enough to Clemson in ACC Atlantic pecking order (since they’ve pretty much caught Florida State).  Winner still has some semblance of a shot at a division title (with NC State having the advantage of not playing Clemson yet).  Loser can’t even make the New Year’s Six.  It’s pretty much that simple.

Friday

		US	Canada
Memphis at UConn	7:00 PM
Morgan State at South Carolina State	7:30 PM
Boise State at BYU	10:15 PM

I find it odd that TSN2 has the early ESPN game but not the late one that the early one will certainly flow into thanks to the three hour and fifteen minute timeslot.  Nothing too special here especially since BYU has completely shit the bed early on.

Saturday Early

		US	Canada
#4 Penn State at Northwestern	Noon
Illinois at Iowa	Noon
#5 Georgia at Vanderbilt	Noon
Wake Forest at #2 Clemson	Noon
Temple at East Carolina	Noon
Iowa State at #3 Oklahoma	Noon
Ole Miss at #12 Auburn	Noon
Eastern Michigan at Toledo	Noon
Duke at Virginia	12:30 PM

FOX Tripleheader.  FOX TRIPLEHEADER!!!!  I hate the fact we don’t get FOX Sports One and hopefully that changes next season.  But it’s always a good thing that FOX is doing more college football on the main network.  I get it: people love to hate on FOX.  Some of the hate is fully warranted.  But some of it is not at all.  And listening to GUS JOHNSON! and retired Abercrombie & Fitch model Joel Klatt is a treat as they do a very good job (top three announce team now).  Lots of choice.  A couple games on TSN stations.  Good times.  Fall has officially arrived with this kind of schedule!

UPDATE #3: Pitt-Syracuse has been added for Bell at 12:30.  I don’t know if other telcos are showing it since it hasn’t showed up on any guide I have seen.

Saturday Afternoon

		US	Canada
LSU at #21 Florida	3:30 PM
Charleston Southern at Indiana	3:30 PM
#21 Notre Dame at North Carolina	3:30 PM
#13 Miami at Florida State	3:30 PM
Minnesota at Purdue	3:30 PM
Air Force at Navy	3:30 PM
Western Michigan at Buffalo	3:30 PM
Tulsa at Tulane	4:00 PM
Arkansas at South Carolina	4:00 PM
Maryland at #10 Ohio State	4:00 PM

Pretty good afternoon schedule here.  Funny thing is that Miami-FSU didn’t show up on the specialty pack this morning, at least a full day after every other game had shown up.  My guess is this was an issue with the game being moved from mid-September to this upcoming weekend thanks to Hurricane Asshole (or was it Hurricane Fuckface, I can’t remember).  If it hadn’t shown up yet, I would have been under the assumption this would have shown up by Saturday morning.  Or, as Bell reps tell me, it may not but the game will still appear because Bell may not get the information in time.  That still floors me.  How the fuck is that even possible?  So the game just appears on a channel that your telco creates and operates?  Like magic?  And you have no info about it?  You must have something.  It makes it sound like ESPN has full control over what appears, what channel, whether we get guide information or not, etc.  So I guess I should go ahead and blame them for the bullshit earlier in the year of using two of the three Bell Fibe HD SP channels for the fucking SEC Network all god damned day!

UPDATE: Tulsa-Tulane has been moved to Noon and will air on ESPN3.  This is due to possible issues surrounding Tropical Storm Nate.  Man, the weather is wreaking havoc all over the schedule this season.  Nothing has been put in the 4:00 ESPNU slot as of yet and I have a feeling there won’t end up being anything there.  Stay tuned.

UPDATE #2: I have really got to learn to be patient.  Stop being so TMZ with these updates.  Anyway, Western Michigan-Buffalo has moved into the ESPNU afternoon slot and the time has been pushed back to the normal afternoon start time of 3:30.  UCF-Cincy stays at 8:00.

Saturday Primetime

		US	Canada
Army at Rice	6:30 PM
SMU at Houston	7:00 PM
Texas Southern at Kennesaw State	7:00 PM
#1 Alabama at Texas A&M	7:15 PM
#16 Virginia Tech at Boston College	7:15 PM
Missouri at Kentucky	7:30 PM
Michigan State at #7 Michigan	7:30 PM
#25 UCF at Cincinnati	8:00 PM
#9 Wisconsin at Nebraska	8:00 PM
#11 Washington State at Oregon	8:00 PM

I am not quite understanding the ESPNU broadcast windows on Saturday.  Are they doing 4-hour windows for a reason?  This doesn’t make a whole lot of sense unless it’s some sort of a test run for something at a later date.  I mean it makes more sense than three-hour windows but still.  Just seems weird.  And yes, the ESPN and ESPN2 games start at 7:15.  Let’s see how well that goes.  Finally, Big Ten ABC Primetime game means the game starts at 7:30 which I am a fan of.

Saturday Late Night

		US	Canada
Hawaii at Nevada	10:30 PM
California at #6 Washington	10:45 PM
#19 San Diego State at UNLV	10:45 PM

Your normal average late night fare, highlighted by some Pac-12 After Dark with Washington who doesn’t want to be on Pac-12 After Dark anymore.  I really do believe the Pac-12 should only have one game on this late…maybe two when conference season really kicks in.  More than that means the Pac-12 does stay out of much of the viewing public’s eyes.  There are very few people here in the central part of the country that would stay up until 2 or so in the morning like the maniac running this blog.  And remember, this includes Pac-12 Network and FOX Sports One games as well.  Give the Pac-12 some love!  As for the Mountain West they should take what they can get.  I get their point more with the Thursday and Friday late night games.  A lot of people do not watch those at all (last week’s USC-Wazzu supermatch notwithstanding).

Games to set your eyeballs on

West Virginia at TCU (3:30, FOX Sports One………) – OK this feels like trolling.  One of the games of the week and it’s on FOX Sports Fucking One?  My god.  Next year’s specialty packs better include this channel.  It has gotten out of hand and will not get better and we all know it.  Anyway, the Mountaineers and Horned Frogs will face off in a game we can see in highlight packages later on in the day.  Ugh.

Louisville at NC State (Thursday, 8:00, specialty pack) – After last week’s big Friday matchup, we have a huge Thursday matchup this week.  Much like the above game, this is a play-in and play-out game.  Loser has no shot at basically anything, even the New Year’s Six.  Winner still has a shot to do something special but they will need to beat the front-runner (Clemson in this case, Oklahoma in the above case) to really become a dark-horse contender.

Alabama at Texas A&M (7:15, specialty pack) – Again, it feels like a game Bama may destroy their opponent.  But this isn’t the same Texas A&M from that epic comeback loss to UCLA.  Kevin Sumlin has saved his job (for now) and a loss to the Tide wouldn’t derail that but keeping it close (or winning) would do wonders for this possibilities of returning to Aggieland in 2018.

LSU at Florida (3:30, CBS) – This doesn’t feel like the SEC game of the week.  But it is.  Only because they don’t want Alabama’s maximum appearances to hit before the Iron Bowl.  Well, two relatively disappointing teams (one way more disappointing than the other) are going to butt heads in a game with a lot of animosity after the shitshow last season with the game being moved due to a hurricane to later in the season and LSU having to have it at home and Florida being dicks early on and all that jazz.  Let’s hope it shows this Saturday…as long as it’s not a plethora of targeting penalties.

Washington State at Oregon (8:00, FOX) – I sincerely hope Wazzu doesn’t shit the bed here.  The last part of the FOX Tripleheader has a great game that should end up 61-60 and knowing our luck will be 28-27.  But if it’s close, let’s call it a win.  Plus, as long as the Cougs keep on winning, the better the chance ESPN College Gameday goes to Pullman in November for their game against Stanford.

Honourable mention: Michigan State at Michigan (7:30, ABC); Maryland at Ohio State (4:00, FOX); Wake Forest at Clemson (Noon, TSN4)

Some gambling fun and games

My picks were only so-so last weekend which is better than most weekends.  Thank god I don’t put real money down on these games.  I hope you take these picks with a grain of salt…more like a chunk of salt.  Like a salt lick for a zoo animal.

NC State over Louisville (mild upset?)

Oklahoma over Iowa State (the only question is whether the Sooners will go over the 60 mark or not)

Oregon over Washington State (yes this would be considered an upset)

Alabama over Texas A&M

Michigan over Michigan State

UCF over Cincinnati

BYU over Boise State (I think the Cougars finally get back on track with this upset)

Florida over LSU

Florida State over Miami (would this be considered an upset?  I don’t know anymore)

Auburn over Ole Miss

Washington over California

The schedules are up.  Can you believe it?  Again, I still can’t believe, at least on Bell Fibe, that the SEC Network continues to operate one of their three HD channels.  Why they don’t have more HD channels I don’t know.  It’s probably ESPN’s choice for them not to, right?  Bullshit.

Hey, hey some Thursday Night Football again.  I am making it sound way more exciting than it usually is.  Saying that, it is obvious the NFL is putting way higher quality matchups on that night than they ever have.  Part of it, for sure, is the partnership with CBS and NBC.  Part of it has to be their realization that the ratings had sucked and people weren’t watching.  Tonight we have New England in Tampa Bay.  A good game involving two playoff-calibre teams.  Well, a good game on paper.  Let’s see how it turns out first.

For a second weekend in a row I will be live-tweeting most of Saturday (@LikeABauce1978).  Still trying to piece together why I added the numbers at the end since I have a funny feeling the rest of the Twitter handle isn’t being used by anyone.  Should be another fun day of college football.  Enjoy the games everyone!

Hey it could be worse right? – Week 5 College Football TV Schedule

Look we all know this kind of shit happens.  College football is rife with it.  You think people aren’t getting paid off in some fashion when it comes to recruiting wars?  To be honest, I think a lot of this could be solved if they, oh I don’t know, PAID THE PLAYERS SOMETHING!  It doesn’t have to be much or their new “salary” will be given with the proviso that tuition, their room on campus, all the food they get while on the team, books, everything to do with school and playing football at that school will come directly out of their pay before they even step foot on the practice field.  Anyway, that’s a debate for another time.

Back to what is happening in college basketball with this corruption scandal.  I don’t know a whole lot about it but this is what I do know:  Four assistant coaches (along with agents and reps from Adidas) are being charged with fraud and corruption.  Both Rick Pitino and Tom Jurich are out at Louisville (I guess it’s just administrative leave at this point but soon enough they will be gone for good).  It’s a massive shitshow.  And not surprising in the least.  When it comes right down to it, college basketball is a business.  So certain people will try to get ahead by shortcuts or nefarious means.  And this is what happens.  Again, not many are surprised.  What is somewhat surprising is the fact the FBI is involved and how much info they have dredged up on this.  An NCAA investigation NEVER goes this well.  It will be interesting to see how all this unfolds and how it eventually will affect college football (which it will in some form and we know it).

So see, things could be 100x worse for our favourite sport.  But it isn’t.  As of now.  So I will get back to the task at hand and not think about this and that is my ongoing disappointment at piecing together a college football TV schedule that should be easy to put together.

Thursday

		US	Canada
NC Central at Florida A&M	7:30 PM
Texas at Iowa State	8:00 PM

Interesting Thursday nighter.  If you had asked most at the start of the season about the UT-ISU game, they would say Horns in a walk.  Now, maybe not so much.  The Longhorns don’t look quite as good as previously advertised (although their game against USC is probably a step in the right direction).  And the Cyclones are starting to make a bit of hay in the Big XII.  Kansas is going to be so far back of the pack soon enough it won’t be funny.  They might as well be a D-II team at this point.

Friday

		US	Canada
#14 Miami at Duke	7:00 PM
BYU at Utah State	8:00 PM
#5 USC at #16 Washington State	10:30 PM

I wouldn’t say it’s a stacked schedule but it is a Friday night, not known for its massive games. USC-Wazzu should be huge and potentially be a lot of fun as we get some early Pac-12 After Dark action.  The U and Dook meet as two undefeated teams.  Crazy.

Saturday Early

		US	Canada
Northwestern at #10 Wisconsin	Noon
Vanderbilt at #21 Florida	Noon
North Carolina at Georgia Tech	Noon
Houston at Temple	Noon
New Mexico State at Arkansas	Noon
#18 USF at East Carolina	Noon
Syracuse at NC State	12:30 PM

As per usual, the early games are interesting even if they are lacking some star power.  Houston/Temple is a particularly tasty affair as is Northwestern/Wisconsin.  And we probably shouldn’t sleep on NMSU (and nor should the Hogs for that matter).

Saturday Afternoon

		US	Canada
#7 Georgia at Tennessee	3:30 PM
Indiana at #4 Penn State	3:30 PM
Florida State at Wake Forest	3:30 PM
Baylor at Kansas State	3:30 PM
Navy at Tulsa	3:30 PM
UTEP at Army	3:30 PM
North Greenville at Kennesaw State	3:30 PM
Eastern Michigan at Kentucky	4:00 PM
Iowa at Michigan State	4:00 PM

I see ESPN is going with the offset times again.  Great for live viewing, not so much if you’re not.  I know, first world problems.  Anyway…

Right now, TSN2 is supposedly showing a football game in this timeslot.  And since Baylor-KSU is not appearing on any specialty pack I have to assume that’s the game.  I hate assuming with this stuff because sometimes it can be so wildly incorrect but I am going to do it anyway.  Again, nothing really of substance although the CBS and ABC games have some intrigue there.

UPDATE: Reader Steve has pointed out that TSN2 is now showing another fun sport, Aussie Rules Football, on at 3:30.  So first off, serves me right for just checking the TSN website and not actually going through the guide searches I perform.  And two, last time I checked BU-KSU wasn’t appearing on the specialty pack.  I will have to check that out before I make the change officially although it should head there almost certainly now.

UPDATE #2: Nothing is showing up on the guide for Bell Fibe customers as of this point (11:10 am).  I have been told that the games will be on there but if ESPN doesn’t give them the information they can’t put the info in the guide.  Which makes no sense since games will appear on these channels so they must have SOME knowledge about this.  Again, completely ridiculous and shouldn’t be the case but those are the perils of being a college football fan in Canada.

UPDATE #3: Murray State-Louisville is showing up on the Bell specialty pack and I wouldn’t be surprised if it showed up with the other telcos.  Also BU-KSU is on the specialty pack but for Bell subscribers, only in SD.  Because, reasons.

Saturday Primetime

		US	Canada
#24 Mississippi State at #13 Auburn	6:00 PM
Charlotte at FIU	7:00 PM
Memphis at UCF	7:00 PM
Air Force at New Mexico	7:00 PM
Troy at #25 LSU	7:00 PM
South Carolina at Texas A&M	7:30 PM
#11 Ohio State at Rutgers	7:30 PM
#2 Clemson at #12 Virginia Tech	8:00 PM
#15 Oklahoma State at Texas Tech	8:00 PM

Again, the primetime slate rules the day (as it usually does).  I feel for poor Rutgers though.  This is one of those times I don’t miss not having the Big Ten Network.  I am wondering how many times the camera will pan to the two coaches in the OSU-TTU game.  The Over/Under right now is 93.

Saturday Late Night

		US	Canada
Ole Miss at #1 Alabama	9:00 PM
Colorado at UCLA	10:30 PM
Northern Illinois at #19 San Diego State	10:30 PM
San Jose State at UNLV	10:30 PM

Some Pac-12 After Dark, two Late Night with Mountain West games, and some SEC action that will go past midnight.  Ole Miss has had some fun with Bama the last few years.  Yeah I don’t see that happening this time.

Games to set your eyeballs on

Clemson at Virginia Tech (8:00, ABC) – This is an easy choice for the game of the week and don’t be surprised if the Hokies are up for this one.  They still aren’t really getting any respect in the ACC as all the focus is on Clemson, Louisville, FSU, NC State, and a resurgent Miami team.  If the Hokies win this one, they have to become the clear-cut favourite in the entire conference and a bit of a dark horse College Football Playoff contender.

USC at Washington State (Friday, 10:30, specialty pack) – The rare Friday late night big matchup.  USC hasn’t looked like world beaters yet this season and it’s like we’re all waiting for it to happen.  Wazzu will be another big test for the Trojans.  The USC defensive backs better expect at least 60 passes chucked their way.  Don’t be surprised if the Cougs keep it close.

Mississippi State at Auburn (6:00, specialty pack) – Auburn has turned it around for the most part since their opening weekend loss to Clemson.  Mississippi State is trying to rebound from the drubbing they took at the hands of Georgia.  Something has gotta give and the loser has no chance at the SEC West crown (not that either of them had a good chance to begin with but this would essentially be lights out for the loser).

Georgia at Tennessee (3:30, CBS) – The Champions of Life get a chance to not blow another SEC game as they face arguably the hottest team in the nation not called the Crimson Tide.  Georgia is looking a lot better than most thought they would but this is the kind of game they could trip up with.  A loss by the Vols makes Butch Jones’ hot seat just that much hotter.

Indiana at Penn State (3:30, BTN) – One of the very few times that the Big Ten Network will appear on the games of the week list.  This is a lot like what happened last year with Wisconsin.  ESPN decided they would prefer games later in the season with Wisconsin and banked on them continuing to do well so they gave an early season Big Ten game to BTN knowing it might reap rewards later on.  It did and they are trying to do the same this season, passing over IU-PSU to get the Nittany Lions (and maybe even the Hoosiers) later on in the season on ABC or an ESPN network.

Honourable mention: Miami at Duke (Thursday, 7:00, specialty pack); Northwestern at Wisconsin (Noon, ABC/TSN1); Oklahoma State at Texas Tech (8:00, FOX)

Some gambling fun and games

My picks were only so-so last weekend which is better than most weekends.  Thank god I don’t put real money down on these games.  I hope you take these picks with a grain of salt…more like a chunk of salt.  Like a salt lick for a zoo animal.

Clemson over Virginia Tech (should be another great ABC primetime game)

Oklahoma State over Texas Tech (the Over/Under better be at about 100)

USC over Washington State

Tennessee over Georgia (upset special!)

Wisconsin over Northwestern

Houston over Temple

Auburn over Mississippi State

Penn State over Indiana

Miami over Duke (this could be quite a close one…and remember what happened last time this game was at Duke)

Texas over Iowa State (another game that should be close)

UCLA over Colorado

As far as I know everything is actually showing up on the specialty pack.  Ho.  Lee.  Shit.  Only took them until Week 5.  I think going forward I need to just realize that this is the way it will be through the first quarter of the season.  I will totally forget I just mentioned this and then shit all over the telcos when it happens again in 2018.

Thursday Night Football NFL-Style appears as well tonight!  After last week’s inexplicable LA Rams-San Fran barnburner, should we expect another doozy of a game?  Nope.  It’s the Bears.  I mean they are playing the Packers and we could see some crazy stuff happen (remember the Bears just beat the Steelers).  I will keep an eye on this game on the off chance it does get to be an exciting one but I am not holding my breath.

Remember, I am on the Twitter machine this Saturday (@LikeABauce1978).  I actually had people wondering where the hell I was last Saturday.  Shows how much I tweet on those days I can watch all the college football I want and how little I tweet otherwise.  Anyway, enjoy the games everyone!