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

Posted on September 7, 2023 by guelphbossman

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

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

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

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

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

Thursday

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

Friday

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

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

Saturday Early

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

Saturday Afternoon

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

Saturday Primetime

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

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

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

Saturday Late Night

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

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

Hey, Watch This!

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

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

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

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

Sickos Game of the Week

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

Hubba Bubba Blowout of the Week

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

Wanna Bet?

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

Indiana (-30.5) over Indiana State

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

Ohio State (-41.5) over Youngstown State

Utah (-8) over Baylor

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

Michigan (-37.5) over UNLV

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

Texas A&M (-4) over Miami

Alabama (-7) over Texas

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

Minnesota (-20.5) over Eastern Michigan

Mississippi State (-9) over Arizona

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

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

It’s Another BATTLE TO THE BOTTOM! Also some Surprises and Disappointments.

Posted on October 5, 2016 by guelphbossman

Yep it’s that time. Time to look at the worst of the worst. Relegation candidates if this was the English football league system. Sometimes I wish it was like that. Then you would get the hot FCS team (like future Mountain West Conference member North Dakota State) facing off against a shitty Group of Five team (like, say, Hawaii) to see who should stay up in FBS. But with conferences and TV contracts and realignment and a bunch of other crazy crap, this will never happen. But a man can dream right? OK just so you know I really don’t dream about this type of thing…much.

I will start with the winless teams because amazingly enough there are only four remaining. And here they are:

Rice (0-5) – The Owls have been much worse than many thought to start the season. Saying that, their schedule (at least for a Conference USA team) wasn’t easy. Especially with Army and North Texas now having resurgent seasons. I still think they will play pretty good the rest of the way with a much weaker part of their schedule down the stretch. Predicted record: 5-7.
Miami-Ohio (0-5) – I didn’t think much of this team this season. Figured they were a year off from bowl contention. But to lose to Eastern Illinois? That’s no Bueno. I’ll be honest: I have them winning one game the rest of the season and that’s against Eastern Michigan. And EMU is off to a 3-1 start. So I make this prediction with a bit of trepidation. Predicted record: 1-11.
Arkansas State (0-4) – Wow have the Red Wolves got off to a HORRIBLE start. I am honestly shocked since I considered them a Sun Belt favourite. I still think they will end up going to a bowl and they may still be close to the Sun Belt title but it isn’t going to be easy sledding for this squad. Predicted record: 6-6.
Georgia State (0-4) – Another surprise. Didn’t think they’d make any waves but they did go to a bowl game last season so you have to wonder what the reason is for the drop-off. Then again, their schedule wasn’t that easy but they should have beat Ball State. They won’t make a bowl game but won’t be near the bottom by year’s end. Predicted record: 4-8.

OK we’re done with the winless teams. I am going to throw in a couple other teams since other than the other Miami, none of these teams will be near the bottom at the end of the season. And no this doesn’t get you the #1 draft pick.

Kansas (1-3) – Almost guaranteed they are going 0-fer the rest of the Big XII sked. Predicted record: 1-11.
Charlotte (1-4) – A program that needs a few more years under its belt to become competitive. Right now that isn’t happening. Predicted record: 1-11.
ULM (1-3) – Matt Viator was used to winning at McNeese State. It will take a while in Monroe, Louisiana. Predicted record: 1-11.
Oregon State (1-3) – I would like to know the real reason Gary Andersen moved from Wisconsin to Corvallis. Why Gary? Seems like a bonehead move at best. Predicted record: 1-11.

Almost a guaranteed one of these teams will be 1-11 at the end of the season, if not more. Kansas is almost a foregone conculsion but it’s interesting that we may only have one 1-win team this season. I figured there would be multiple winless teams. Shows what I know.

Which leads into surprises and disappointments. There are some teams that are surprising the heck out of me (and many experts). Then there are some that are total shitshows and are so much worse than we imagined. Let’s start with the good news.

Surprises

Wisconsin (4-1) – They were supposed to win between 7 and 9 games this year. They were not supposed to come out of the gate like they did. Other than a close loss to Michigan, they have been magnificent this season. Paul Chryst would be pretty much the coach of the year if it wasn’t for our next team on the list.

Nebraska (5-0) – Mike Riley has finally found the formula for this program. For now. The only way to say the Huskers are back is if they lose less than four games. Otherwise, fans will petition for Riley to change his last name to Pelini.

Wake Forest (4-1) – I figured the Deacs would make a bowl game. Didn’t think they’d start with four straight wins. They have a pretty good shot at getting to eight wins this season thanks to one of the weaker ACC schedules.

Colorado (4-1) – Is it the late 80s or early 90s again? Is Bill McCartney at the helm? This team is somehow at the top of the Pac-12 South and looks like a bowl game possibility this season which is huge. Mike MacIntyre deserves a big raise and a contract extension for what he’s done there.

Disappointments

Notre Dame (2-3) – This is arguably the biggest disappointment of the season. I, along with many others, figured that the Irish would be at least in New Year’s Six contention if not CFP bound if they navigated their schedule properly. Instead they start 2-3, fire their defensive coordinator, and may axe the rest of the staff if things don’t improve.

Oregon (2-3) – Two wins in their first five and dead last in the Pac-12 North. Terrible. They won’t finish there but they are going to struggle to make a bowl game this season. I have this feeling that if Mark Helfrich can’t turn this around and quick, he could be out of a job and another huge Power Five head coaching job (and potential Les Miles destination) will open up.

Texas (2-2) – OK this is more of a disappointment to most out there. I pegged Texas as a middle-of-the-road Big XII team to make a decent bowl. That’s it. Some had them winning the conference and being a College Football Playoff contender. Seriously? I think Chuck Strong is going to be looking for another job at the end of the season unless they somehow win at least seven games down the stretch (including a bowl game) out of their next eight (nine with a bowl game).

Michigan State (2-2) – Funny how two of the teams on this list beat a third. Ah, good times. I had picked Michigan State for the College Football Playoff this season because I guess I’m a dumbass. No, I figured their schedule was easy enough (by B1G standards) to warrant this prediction. Never thought they would lose to Wisconsin, let alone Indiana. So they are a disappointment to most and a MASSIVE disappointment to me. Sparty, NO!

There you go. So guaranteed one of the teams on the surprise list will fall flat on their face and one of the disappointments will damn near run the table. Just to make me look bad.

Alright, tonight we have college football…wait, tonight? AW YEAH! Georgia Southern travels to Jonesboro to face a surprisingly pathetic Arkansas State team (that I outlined above). And the games are on TSN! Right now on the TSN site it says TSN3 only but I am positive I noticed it on two different TSN channels this morning. Either way, at least one of the TSNs is showing it, which is good.

UPDATE: I must be blind or was seeing things. It is only on TSN3. There are more important things, evidently, on the other four channels. They are: UFC Presents, early rounds of the China Open, and the World Series of Poker. Yeah I don’t get it either.

Tomorrow I will have the college football schedule up. However, Hurricane Matthew (that prick) could be causing problems with it. Kind of like last year when the LSU-South Carolina game had to be moved from Columbia to Baton Rouge and the time changed and it caused all sorts of domino effects. So I will be diligent with updates. NFL sked, as per usual, goes up Friday.

How long until the Sun Belt loses Georgia Southern, Appalachian State, Arkansas State among others?

Posted on July 22, 2016 by guelphbossman

sunbelt

I give it five years at most. This conference must be frustrating to be a part of. You just know that being the bottom of the totem pole in FBS meaning you are going to probably get hit hardest by realignment. There’s also no guarantee you can get schools in your geographic footprint (which is massive right now by the way) from FCS that are good enough to actually be in an FBS conference. Remember, for every Georgia Southern or Boise State there’s a UMass or Idaho.

If the Sun Belt was smart (and they aren’t since Karl Benson is their commissioner) they would contact Conference USA and figure out how to split up the teams properly. When your footprint is North Carolina to Idaho then your conference is messed. Richer conferences don’t even do shit like that. Some thought it was crazy that the SEC invited Texas A&M or Missouri in yet the Sun Belt does this? At least Idaho is going back to FCS football in a couple years. So using the current conference rosters (I include UAB here and also included NMSU) this is what I think should happen:

Conference USA	Sun Belt
Marshall	Texas State
Appalachian State	UTSA
Old Dominion	Rice
Charlotte	UTEP
Florida Atlantic	North Texas
FIU	Arkansas State
Georgia State	UL-Lafayette
Georgia Southern	ULM
Troy	Louisiana Tech
Western Kentucky	South Alabama
Middle Tennessee	Southern Miss
UAB	New Mexico State

There you go. Two 12-team conferences that you can easily split into divisions for football. And even with an outlier like New Mexico State it isn’t too far from the next closest team, UTEP. This will never happen of course because, for the most part, the Group of Five conferences wait for things to get really bad and then react. By then it’s too late. And with the Power Five conferences probably breaking off at some point from the NCAA, it will get much worse for the G5.

Alright enough of that. Way too angry for a Friday. Here’s my predicted standings followed by some dips into the pool:

	Conference		Overall
	W	L	W	L
Arkansas State	8	0	10	2
Georgia Southern	7	1	8	4
Appalachian State	7	1	9	3
UL-Lafayette	5	3	6	6
Idaho	5	3	6	6
South Alabama	4	4	5	7
Troy	3	5	5	7
Georgia State	3	5	5	7
New Mexico State	1	7	1	11
Texas State	1	7	2	10
ULM	0	8	0	12

Dips Into the Pool

I like the summer. I do. But not when it’s 34 out. Because when it’s 34 it’s more like 42 in this neck of the woods. If it weren’t for the humidity it would be probably pretty nice. Saying that, can you imagine what it’s like in some southern schools? Last couple of weeks before games begin must be absolute hell at a school like Texas State.
Yes I have ULM winless this season, one of three FBS teams to do so (North Texas and Eastern Michigan the others). Matt Viator comes from McNeese State where he’s used to winning so this will be a shock to his system, at least in year one.
I don’t foresee Texas State and New Mexico State being a whole lot better than ULM so at least the Warhawks will have company in the basement.
There could be a lot happening in the middle of the Sun Belt. Five teams at either 5-7 or 6-6. And yes, I have Idaho going to a bowl game. And no, I just didn’t smoke a big bowl of crack.
The top three will be the same top three as it was last season so realistically you could make an argument that any of them could win the Sun Belt and get…what? Their pick of bowl games? I don’t even think they get that. They need to have one pretty decent bowl for the champ to go to make this all worth it.
Out of the ashes I have Arkansas State taking the Sun Belt crown. A-State gets Georgia Southern at home and doesn’t play Appalachian State so I think they will sweep their conference sked.
Their 10-2 record is obviously not good enough for the G5 New Year’s Six spot. A Sun Belt team would almost have to be perfect to have that opportunity unless the G5 goes all 2007 and implodes and everyone has at least two losses (which would kind of be fun to watch).

We are almost into the home stretch. Next up is our west coast pals, the Pac-12. I wonder when we will find out about the Pac-12 Network’s availability here in Canada since it has been approved by the CRTC. My guess is August 25^th at the earliest knowing Rogers and Bell.

Where we are headed in college football: Part 4

Posted on June 13, 2016 by guelphbossman

We are at the end of the scenarios. The last one. And arguably the most extreme. The most predicated on what I believe should happen in a mostly ideal scenario. I will be honest here: all this will not happen. Saying that, some of these occurrences may happen but the idea that all of them could is probably a no-go. I’ve seen many “fantasy” conference realignments in the past and many of them are not just improbable (like this one) but also completely dumb and may make no semblance of sense (unlike this one). So let’s jump in, shall we? Spoiler alert: this will be a long post.

Now we all know that there is a distinct divide between the Power Five and Group of Five conferences. Some teams are wanting to sneak into the P5 whereas others are holding on for their Go5 lives. Issues with the Big XII and ACC are going on almost every day.

Because of all this, I am implementing something fairly drastic. First off, the top conferences will be on their own. Their own bowls and they will be the only ones with access to the College Football Playoff. The amount of teams in this “new” Power Five will increase so no real worries there. It allows for more elite-on-elite games throughout the season than there is at this moment. The amount of conferences in the top tier will be eight. The biggest change will be the complete blow-up of the Big XII. Welcome back the Big Eight and the Southwest Conference (golf clap). As much as we hope Texas and Oklahoma want to play and get along and share the sandbox, they really don’t. They want their own sandboxes or bigger portions of a conference sandbox. So might as well split them up. Yes they love their Red River Rivalry matchup but that’s where it ends really.

Here’s the new conference lineup, followed by the steps I took to get there:

SEC	Big Ten	Pac-10	ACC
Alabama	Ohio State	USC	Florida State
Florida	Wisconsin	Oregon	Miami
LSU	Michigan	Stanford	Clemson
Georgia	Notre Dame	UCLA	Georgia Tech
Auburn	Penn State	Oregon State	NC State
Tennessee	Michigan State	Arizona State	North Carolina
Texas A&M	Iowa	Washington	Wake Forest
South Carolina	Minnesota	California	East Carolina
Ole Miss	Purdue	Arizona	USF
Mississippi State	Northwestern	Washington State	UCF
Kentucky	Illinois		Duke
Vanderbilt	Indiana		Memphis


Big 8	SWC	American	Mountain West
Oklahoma	Texas	Virginia Tech	Boise State
Nebraska	TCU	West Virginia	Utah
Kansas State	Arkansas	Louisville	BYU
Oklahoma State	Texas Tech	Boston College	Air Force
Missouri	Baylor	Pittsburgh	Fresno State
Colorado	Houston	Virginia	North Dakota State
Iowa State	Tulsa	Maryland	Colorado State
Kansas	New Mexico	Cincinnati	San Diego State
	Rice	Syracuse	Nevada
	SMU	Marshall	Montana
	UTEP	Navy	Wyoming
	UTSA	Rutgers	Utah State
		Connecticut	San Jose State
		Temple	UNLV

Step-by-Step

I kind of wish I had those terrible IKEA characters to put in here…you know the ones that say lift in pairs, don’t lean certain things against a wall, and don’t stab yourself with the Allen key (or hex key for you people who just want to be insufferable cocks).

Split the Big XII into the Big 8 and the SWC. Oklahoma and Texas each get their own conferences now.
Re-create the Big Eight as it was before becoming the Big XII. I think it wouldn’t be a major issue to get Nebraska out of the Big Ten and Missouri out of the SEC if there wouldn’t be as much of a hit to their per-team revenue.
As for the SWC, all the old members are back except one: Texas A&M. I’m sure they’d rather crawl on broken glass while naked than go back into a conference with the Longhorns. To fill out the conference (but keep the southwest feel), they invite New Mexico, UTEP, and UTSA.
The SEC loses Arkansas and Missouri but does not add replacements for them. Texas A&M isn’t as much of an outlier with LSU next door and now TV revenue is split only twelve ways. The conference is not really hurt by this at all.
To replace Nebraska, the Big Ten grabs Notre Dame. As I’ve said before, Independent Football is probably all but dead with the next major round of realignment.
The Mountain West, now a “major” conference, gets Utah back from the Pac-12. Despite recent success, the Utes (along with Colorado) don’t seem like a program that will ever fully fit in with the Pac-whatever number it is. The only way this would change is if they went on a sustained run of success.
The Pac-12, losing Utah and Colorado, go back to being called the Pac-10. All we need now is Keith Jackson calling their games on ABC and all will be right with the world.
The ACC and American also do a bit of a shuffle. The American becomes more of the northeast conference (think old Big East minus Miami) whereas the ACC goes south of Virginia. Makes sense geographically. So the ACC gets East Carolina, USF, UCF, and Memphis in exchange for Virginia Tech, Virginia, Boston College, Louisville, and Syracuse.
Maryland and Rutgers leave to go to the American. They were never a good fit in the B1G, markets be damned.
Also, the American picks up West Virginia who doesn’t belong in Big 8/SWC world anymore (and rightfully so).
To even things out, The American Conference takes the top team from Conference USA, Marshall who should get an instant boost by moving to a better conference.
Hey the Mountain West (along with The American) are joining the big boys! They get Utah back from the Pac, invite BYU, North Dakota State, and Montana and hopefully cash in at some point.

There you go, the top division (Power Eight?) are set. Now we get to the CFP and bowl setup. Here’s how it would look:

Bowl	Bowl Tie-In #1	Bowl Tie-In #2
CFP Championship	Orange Winner	Cotton Winner
Cotton Bowl	Fiesta Winner	Rose Winner
Orange Bowl	Peach Winner	Sugar Winner
Fiesta Bowl	CFP Poll #1	CFP Poll #8
Peach Bowl	CFP Poll #2	CFP Poll #7
Sugar Bowl	CFP Poll #3	CFP Poll #6
Rose Bowl	CFP Poll #4	CFP Poll #5
Outback Bowl	SEC #2	Big Ten #2
TaxSlayer Bowl	SEC #6	Big Ten #6
Citrus Bowl	SEC #4	Big Ten #4
Music City Bowl	SEC #3	ACC #3
Sun Bowl	Pac-10 #3	SWC #3
Liberty Bowl	SEC #5	ACC #4
Alamo Bowl	SWC #2	Big Eight #2
Belk Bowl	ACC #2	American #2
Texas Bowl	SWC #4	MWC #2
Pinstripe Bowl	Big Ten #5	American #3
Cactus Bowl	Pac-10 #4	MWC #3
Holiday Bowl	Big Ten #3	Pac-10 #2
Armed Forces Bowl	Big Eight #3	American #4
Las Vegas Bowl	Big Eight #4	MWC #4

The bowl tie-ins are pretty easy to figure out. Tried to go as regional as I possibly could. The SEC and Big Ten received five actual tie-ins, the rest of the conferences got three. As for the CFP, it has to be expanded to eight. It’s going to be expanded anyway so why fight it. They can’t go to sixteen since that would be ridiculous but eight probably will work (until the 8-seed wins the title and then all hell will break loose). I bet you think “Oh, eight conferences, eight champions, right?” WRONG! Considering the strength of the conferences now, I have gone this route:

The SEC, Big Ten, and Pac-10 champions get automatic berths.
From the other five conferences, the top 2 conference champions also get automatic berths. This will be settled by the CFP ranking.
The other three spots will be at-large choices.

This makes it so that if one conference (cough*SEC*cough) has two teams in the top four, the worst of the two won’t be penalized.

What does this all mean for our friends in Conference USA, the MAC, and the Sun Belt? Well, they would form the new Tier Two (Group of Seven? Wait, no that’s been used before…) that would look like so:

Conference USA	MAC	Sun Belt	Missouri Valley
Southern Miss	Toledo	Appalachian State	South Dakota State
Louisiana Tech	Northern Illinois	Troy	Youngstown State
UAB	Bowling Green	Arkansas State	Illinois State
Middle Tennessee	Northern Iowa	UL-Lafayette	Southern Illinois
Western Kentucky	Western Michigan	South Alabama	Western Illinois
Tulane	Miami-Ohio	ULM	South Dakota
North Texas	Ohio	Texas State	Missouri State
Florida Atlantic	Central Michigan	Georgia State	North Dakota
Old Dominion	Ball State	Furman	Indiana State
FIU	Army	Wofford
Charlotte	Akron	Coastal Carolina
Georgia Southern	Kent State	Jacksonville State
	Buffalo
	Eastern Michigan

Colonial	Big Sky	Southland
Villanova	Hawaii	McNeese State
James Madison	Eastern Washington	Central Arkansas
Massachusetts	Idaho	Sam Houston State
Richmond	New Mexico State	Stephen F. Austin
New Hampshire	Cal Poly	Northwestern State
Delaware	Northern Arizona	SE Louisiana
William & Mary	Montana State	Abilene Christian
Maine	Portland State	Lamar
Elon	UC-Davis	Nicholls State
Towson	Weber State	Incarnate Word
Rhode Island	Southern Utah	Houston Baptist
Albany	Sacramento State
Stony Brook	Idaho State
	Northern Colorado

Tulane and Hawaii move down from previous conferences since, well, they just wouldn’t fit in with the new money maker conferences. Army is invited into the MAC and there are a few changes to the rest of the conferences (call-ups if you will). This new tier will not have bowl games but will inherit the FCS Playoffs. 16 teams instead of 24. I think it would work well with some better programs than they currently have now in the FCS (no five-in-a-row dynasty stuff then).

As for the new bottom tier of D-1, it consists of eight conferences where half of them don’t even compete in the playoffs. The Ivy League doesn’t do the playoffs at all and the MEAC and SWAC do their own fun-time HBCU championship. The other five conferences might as well join D-2 at this point. To be honest, they are probably so low on the food chain that myself (along with a lot of others) wouldn’t care unless you were an alumnus of that school.

Alright, now to broadcasting info since this breaks into what my blog is all about (for the most part):

CBS would still get the SEC game of the week.
FOX would get either the Big Ten or Pac-10 game of the week.
NBC, with Notre Dame going to the Big Ten, would probably get the ACC or American game of the week.
ABC would get the Big Eight, SWC, or Mountain West game of the week.
CBS would most likely show a doubleheader. With ESPN’s hold on the rest of SEC football, I see them picking up another conference, most likely the Big Eight or SWC.
FOX would probably move to tripleheaders on the main network as long as they didn’t interfere with Major League Baseball. My best guess is they would have one Big Ten and one Pac-10 game and then one more from either conference.
NBC would show a doubleheader I’m sure, with one game each from the ACC and American.
ABC would get their normal tripleheader with the best game from the three conferences above getting the primetime 8:00 pm slot.
ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, ESPNEWS, FOX Sports One, and FOX Sports Net would pick up most of the rest of the games (anywhere from 18-24 each week).

Again, this renders the conference networks moot at this point. The only other way they could possibly survive is if they overpay to get their selection of games past the game of the week in their respective conferences. So basically it would be like Tier Two rights. I can’t see that happening, especially with ESPN having a finger in the pie with the SEC Network.

Saying all this, live sports on TV might cease to exist like it is now a decade later. We may be watching all college football games through the various conference networks online by then. This would affect my media prediction here as well as the previous three scenarios. But until that starts to take shape, we have to assume the networks (and ESPN) would have some semblance of control over live broadcasts.

So there you have it. All four scenarios. Guaranteed none of them are correct but you never know what insanity will befall us over the next few years. No one, back in the late 80s, would have ever thought the Southwest Conference would be dissolved around the middle of the next decade. This despite the fact that we had the SMU death penalty and almost every team mired in some sort of controversy. So my predictions are always with the idea that none of this at all may happen and it may be steady as she goes as we head into 2026.

Next up is the biggest games of the college football season. No CFL post this season since I have less knowledge than ever about the CFL. I was shocked to see how much tickets were going for for Ti-Cats games. I think that’s absurd but that’s just me I guess. Following the biggest games posts will be the various network predictions and then we get into conference predictions. Finally getting back into posting on a regular basis so I better get myself organized. That’s always a fun exercise. And by always I mean never.

Week 1 Recap – Sponsored by Bell (and perhaps Rogers) and what the hell happened Monday night?

Posted on September 8, 2015 by guelphbossman

To say I was pissed off would be an understatement. First off, the Monday night Ohio State-Virginia Tech game was originally supposed to air on TSN3. It was removed at some point over the weekend and replaced with the FIBA Americas Basketball tournament since TSN has been pushing that thing to the moon despite the fact I’m sure the ratings aren’t that good for it. However, I was fine with that. TSN is a sports network and has the right to put whatever they want on there and make programming changes as they see fit. Putting the basketball game on what I found out was four of the five channels makes absolutely no sense but oh well.

So I figured hey, I have the U.S. College Sports Package, I’m sure it will be put there instead. I can’t find it. What the fuck? So I ask a Bell CSR about it and she goes on about how Bell has no control over the entire package and that ESPN can move and remove what they want which I can’t see being fully true. Why ESPN would remove one of the biggest college football games of the early season off of a package that does nothing but college football for a few months I don’t know. That’s why I believe someone at Bell dropped the ball (and possibly Rogers too). Knowing TSN switched their programming, they should have looked at all the OPEN FUCKING CHANNELS for the specialty pack and, oh I don’t know, picked one to put the game on. Too hard? Evidently it is. Finally I called back a third time and a CSR stated that she saw it on her guide there so it should show up tonight even if it doesn’t appear on the guide (something about updates not fully updating the guide or some shit like that). Guess what? No fucking game. Anywhere. I didn’t even bother calling back because I am sure I would have said something I regretted later. So yeah, pissed off, angry, upset, disappointed, you name it. My worry is that this will happen again during the season since almost no one with any fucking brains seems to understand how to run a seemingly simple package focused on college football. If it was hockey this would have been resolved in minutes.

Phew! OK enough of the bad, on to the good (for the most part). Time for the college football Week 1 recap. Before I get into individual game reviews, I’d like to look at something that affected a lot of games on the weekend. I mean were the gods pissed off that college football was starting? Look at the weather delays and postponements and cancellations. LSU’s game with McNeese State and Toledo’s game with Stony Brook were cancelled and many games had lightning delays with the game at Georgia finishing early. Crazy. I don’t remember this many games being affected by weather (other than from a hurricane) ever.

Alright on to the news and notes and recaps and shit and insanity (and I will pretty much stick to the games I actually got to watch…mostly…and do it in somewhat chronological order):

Battle for the Carolinas – It was actually not much of a battle. More of a stalemate when the Red Carolina pulled it out in the end over the Blue Carolina. At least this way the Head Ball Coach didn’t have to make his team walk home from Charlotte.
Upset City – Holy crap did we ever start early with this. FIU upsets UCF. You know, the team that beat Baylor in the Fiesta Bowl only two seasons ago? Yeah that team. Worst part? UCF could still win the American and the Group of Five New Year’s Six bowl spot.
Not so Big XII – OK I know it’s only Oklahoma State (where Mike Gundy is the man!) but they should have been able to have their way with Central Michigan. The fact they didn’t doesn’t bode well for the middle-of-the-standings teams in that conference.
Now THAT’S the Vanderbilt we know and love – Speaking of boring games, I was pretty shocked that WKU wasn’t piling the points up on a mediocre Vandy defense. Instead, the Dores stayed in it to the end but we all knew the Hilltoppers would prevail right?
Hey did you hear Jim Harbaugh was hired to be the head coach at Michigan? – OK I get it, it’s a big deal. But did FOX ever blow their load on that game between the Wolverines and Utah. They must have sent 90% of their college football staff. We get it. You want the Big Ten badly and this was your way of showing how “good” you are. Well until we get FOX Sports One in this area, I hope FOX gets no more contracts. The Big XII and Pac-12 are good enough for them at this point.
Not the best way to start Trevone – I have Boykin as my pick to win the Heisman. That was not the way to start. They barely beat Minnesota. Not that the Gophers are bad (and they have a great coaching staff btw), but TCU is ranked #2 in the nation. They might want to act like it.
Congratulations to Charlotte – The 49ers start their first season in FBS with a win over Georgia State. And yes, Georgia State has staked claim to the worst team in the FBS. Do they play Idaho? If they do then that will be the Bizarro National Championship.
They sunk our battleship – Western Michigan tried rowing the boat till they couldn’t row any more. Instead, Sparty sunk the damn boat by half-time and allowed them to float around like that jabroni in Titanic before letting them drift away. Or something like that.
Bizarro SMU – Chad Morris you evil genius. What have you put in the water at SMU to allow the Mustangs to be tied with Video Game Briles and his Baylor Bears Express at one point? Yes they ended up losing by 35 but SMU might be fun to watch this season. Oh and Baylor will be fun to watch. Their game against TCU should be awesome (and hopefully I don’t have to PVR it since I can only add three extra hours to a program).
Of course Army had to lose to an FCS team – I know they’re a service academy but they just aren’t at the level of the other two. When they are constantly losing to FCS teams and, well, pretty much every other team in the FBS, it gets to the point where you wonder why they aren’t planning a move back to FCS. They could easily join the Patriot League since the rest of their sports are there too. It wouldn’t be the most patriotic move but if any more realignment takes place, they should consider it.
Petersen came thiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiis close – How Boise State let Washington stay in that game is beyond me. The Huskies were terrible for more than 2.5 quarters. I have Boise running the table and now I am worried about that selection.
The annual SEC Stats Padding FCS Game of the Year Results – Lightning saved ULM from being destroyed even further by Gerogia. Ole Miss beat the holy hell out of UT-Martin. Missouri took care of Southeast Missouri State. And finally the gods allowed some mercy to the FCS brethren by making it impossible for LSU to beat the snot out of McNeese State. In the end I much prefer these types of games in September than in November when the other half of the SEC teams do it. I get why they do it. I just don’t like it.
David Shaw. Welcome to the hot seat? – I don’t know but man did the Cardinal look bad against Northwestern. Full marks to Pat Fitzgerald’s team as they have shown that they may cause some problems in the Big Ten West this season. But still, Stanford should have pulled this out. Many had them as Pac-12 North champs. I didn’t buy the hype and right now I am looking good (for at least one of my predictions).
Speaking of basketball season – Is it here yet? Kansas fans want to know. To lose on a bobbled snap when you are trying to spike the ball so that you can get the field goal unit on the field…that is beyond ridiculous. And on top of that it was to South Dakota State. Not NORTH Dakota State (which would have been fine really). And somewhere Charlie Weis is eating a greasy cheeseburger and smiling (and still collecting paycheques).
Mike Leach can’t be happy – And he shouldn’t be. His pass-happy offense should have put up at least 500 yards passing against a Portland State team that will struggle to compete in the Big Sky this season. Instead, Wazzu is trying to book their basement spot early in the Pac-12 North.
I am putting in my resume to become a “Clock Management Technician” – What Fun Bobby Petrino was thinking late in the game against Auburn I don’t know (my guess is it had to do with motorcycles and pussy). Anyway, it is inexcusable in this day and age to be that bad at clock management yet it comes up at least a dozen times a season. Worst part is it kind of wrecked their inexcusable comeback against an Auburn team that looked like it was going to drop 50 on the Cards. And who the fuck OK’d those uniforms for Louisville? Fire that idiot immediately.
The Rosen One – Whoever came up with that nickname is a genius (I think it was Joel Klatt who is one of the few people at FOX I like listening to). And he looked every bit the part against Virginia. Then again it was Virginia. Mike London, it’s going to be a long season for you just so you know.
Did you see that Hail Mary? – Wow, what an ending to the BYU-Nebraska game. How that came about is amazing itself. Bronco Mendenhall’s balls are obviously the size of grapefruits for him to run the ball with that little time left to set up for the Hail Mary. Why the Huskers defenders didn’t knock the ball down I don’t know. More amazing than the Hail Mary? How blonde Mendenhall’s hair is. Like freaky blonde. Actually that’s more scary than anything. And somewhere Bo Pelini was smiling. Not because his new team won (although Youngstown State almost upset Pitt) but because of the ending. And the Huskers will somehow lose exactly four games this season in the most hilarious rendition of Groundhog Day in sports ever. Worst part of all of this is BYU losing Taysom Hill for the season.
Did I call it or did I call it? – Oh I called it. I said Temple would break the longest losing streak (in terms of years) in college football to one team by beating Penn State. And they did. Here’s how Christian Hackenberg’s day went: Sack, sack, sack, run for your life, throw the ball away, short completion, hand the ball off two times, sack, sack, pressure, repeat. He was sacked ten times. His QB Rating was 3.2. He was flat-out awful. Not that the rest of the team was much better. Also, good to see Temple looking like a contender in the American for once. Don’t be surprised if they are seen during Conference Championship week going for a conference title.
Well that took a while – Man did Tennessee look like they were struggling against Bowling Green. Don’t get me wrong, Bowling Green is one of the class teams of the MAC but Tennessee was ranked #25 to start the season. They haven’t done shit in half-a-dozen years! They finally pulled away in yet another weather-altered game (I was so glad I didn’t have to use the PVR this weekend).
OK maybe Craig Bohl will be on the hot seat – Shutout against North Dakota (not even North Dakota STATE which would have been fine) in the first half? Inexcusable. Unless Bohl gets the Pokes to at least five wins and in contention to possibly go bowling, he may be shown the door which is a MASSIVE fall from grace considering where he came from.
So much for “neutral site” – I don’t get these so-called “neutral-site” games that are anything but. 90% of the fans (I may be lowballing) were Aggie fans when Texas A&M played Arizona State. They can paint these neutral-site games in whatever way they want but games this close to a team’s home should be considered a home game, period. Either that or make them truly neutral-site and make sure a team doesn’t get to play in its own state during a regular season “neutral-site” game. Netural site my ass. Other than that, the Aggies did the same thing they did last year on opening weekend: upset a fairly highly-ranked team who had visions of something bigger. Hell, I pegged the Sun Devils for an 11-1 team this season. I think that prediction can be flushed down the shitter now.
A scare in Lexington – Man Kentucky allowed the wrong team to get back in the game. Hulk Hudspeth’s Ragin Cajuns tied it up late in a game the Wildcats should have finished off early. The fact that they pulled it out doesn’t mean much since Kentucky does not look improved at all over last season. Mark Stoops better not feel too comfortable considering his ass is on the hot seat if he can’t turn this program around (and make people forget that basketball season starts in about two-and-a-half months).
They are who we thought they were – And even more so. I didn’t think Texas would win but sweet baby Jesus did they ever get their asses handed to them in South Bend. Yes Notre Dame will be better this season and could sneak into a New Year’s Six bowl but they aren’t Alabama. Texas is going to struggle and unfortunately, Charlie Strong is probably going to pay for it.
Bama shows why they are still one of the best – No panic. They just went about their business knowing that eventually they would put the game away. And they did. The surprise has to be the fact that the Badgers struggled to run the ball. Corey Clement was an absolute non-factor. The bread and butter of Wisky’s offense (the line of scrimmage) may be the worst it has been in years. I figured they wouldn’t have too tough a time at least winning their division but I could be dead wrong on that front.
Hey did you see that Ohio State–Virginia Tech game? Because we didn’t. – I’m still bitter about that.

Alright, hopefully you enjoyed my novel. I was actually pretty tired Sunday morning from watching all that college football on Saturday. And there were no late-night games on. I guess I am just rusty from eight months off.

I should have next week’s schedule up tomorrow or Thursday (as long as Bell and Rogers cooperate). I will have the NFL schedule up by Friday as well so you are prepared for the weekend. My PVR is going to get a workout for sure. Luckily this week, according to my calculations, should be the worst weekend of the season in terms of game quality.

Now introducing the new member of the Group of Five….the Big Ten! The Week 2 recap.

Posted on September 7, 2014 by guelphbossman

So I guess that would make them the Poor Group of Six now.

Wow, did the Big Ten ever shit the bed this weekend. This was their chance to make a statement. This was the conference’s opportunity to prove they weren’t the weakest of the Power Five conferences. And they blew it. And they did it in masterful fashion. Let’s recap what the Big Ten did this weekend shall we?

Let’s start with Sparty. It was looking like they were going to pull this one out. Then they let Marcus Mariota do his thing and they let the Ducks blow it wide open. Yes, the score is not totally indicative of how close the game was since it was quite close for a little more than three quarters.

Michigan looked terrible against the Irish. Totally overmatched. Don’t get me wrong, Everett Golson makes the Irish better and probably keeps them a top 20 team this season. But the game shouldn’t have been that much of a blowout.

Urban, meet Frank. Frank’s been around the block a bit. He’s faced adversity. He also knows how to get the most out of his players. Not saying Urban doesn’t but anyone who believed tOSU was going to still win 10 games, if not 11 or run the table without Braxton Miller now knows that probably won’t be the case.

Illinois had to work hard to beat Western Kentucky (without Fun Bobby Petrino). If Ameer Abdullah isn’t a Husker, Nebraska loses to McNeese State. Penn State wasn’t exactly impressive against Akron. Purdue got blown out by a middle-of-the-road MAC team. Rutgers had trouble with Howard. HOWARD. And on and on and on.

I don’t think any of the Big Ten teams had a stellar Saturday. And that includes Wisconsin who was only up 9-3 against Western Illinois early in the 3rd before actually starting to play some FBS ball. Overall, pathetic.

Now for the rest of the weekend (and a couple of days) that was in college football:

Pitt looks like the real deal and I do believe they will start 8-0 and make some noise in the ACC.

I might have been wrong about Missouri. Gary Pinkel has his Tigers back where they were last season and that could be scary. Also, I am glad they won just for the fact it shut up those stupid vuvuzelas. Who’s brilliant marketing idea was that?

Iowa State came within a hair of upsetting Papa Snyder’s Kansas State Wildcats. Future Mountain West Conference member North Dakota State was not impressed. Speaking of the Bison…

…their former head coach Craig Bohl pulled out a huge victory in Wyoming as his Cowboys hit the win column over Air Force. I think we need to watch out for this team in a year or two.

There are quite a few teams still 2-0. One of them is New Mexico State. Another is Cal. Yet another is Kentucky. Yes, it is crazy but that’s September in college football. Usually quite a few ridiculous things happen before conference play ramps up in October.

Poor Vandy. I really thought they wouldn’t slip that far. They looked totally outclassed against Ole Miss. Yes it’s Ole Miss but it was the same against Temple.

South Carolina pulls out a win to go to 1-1 but man they still look shaky. Georgia is up next and this is where we will see if it’s the Dawgs or the Cocks who have the edge in the SEC East.

Was it just me or was it just odd for Brent Musberger to be calling a game involving Sam Houston State?

Didn’t have the game to watch but I noticed UCLA struggled against Memphis. Ugh, they have to hope this isn’t a sign of things to come with Zona and USC looking good early on.

Finally, WAAAAAY out west, Hawaii has actually kept it close against Washington and Oregon State. Maybe the program isn’t in dire straits after all. But they better be competitive inside the conference or else it’s all for naught.

Now for you NFL fans, if you see this in time, NFL Sunday ticket is supposed to be on FREE PREVIEW today. Nice to start the season with that for sure, even if it is just for one week. As of right now (1:04 pm) nothing is showing. NFL RedZone is showing as a free preview so I don’t really know what’s going on here. Typical Bell (and probably Rogers too).

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

Bossman's Blog

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

Tag Archives: McNeese State