2021 NCAA Basketball Conference Tournament TV Schedule

Please, please, please, please, PLEASE let it be different than last year’s conference tournaments.  Remember what happened?  Of course you do.  But if you want a refresher, check last year’s post on this and see what happened in a short time.  We really had no idea what we were all up against when the Coronavirus reared its ugly head for the first time in the sporting world.  Last year the second week of the conference tournament schedule was decimated and March Madness was cancelled.  This year, the NCAA Tournament will be entirely in the state of Indiana.  Good call.  Now let’s see if the conferences can get their tournaments completed without any COVID-related mess.  I am not holding my breath on this.

Sixth year of doing this and honestly it has become a lot easier with the SEC, Big Ten and ACC all having conference networks.  Oh and t​​he Pac-12 as well I guess (although we don’t get it in this area anymore as far as I know…oh wait we do…kind of….on DAZN….if you get it).  Maybe the Big XII will come to their senses and AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA yeah there was no way I was finishing that sentence.  Let us begin.​

March 5	Ohio Valley Semi-Final #1	8:00 PM
March 5	Ohio Valley Semi-Final #2	10:30 PM
March 6	Atlantic-10 Semi-Final #1	11:00 AM
March 6	Atlantic-10 Semi-Final #2	2:00 PM
March 6	Missouri Valley Semi-Final #1	5:00 PM
March 6	Missouri Valley Semi-Final #2	8:00 PM
March 6	Ohio Valley Championship	8:00 PM
March 6	WCC Quarter-Final #1	10:00 PM
March 7	WCC Quarter-Final #2	12:30 AM
March 7	Big South Championship	Noon
March 7	Missouri Valley Championship	2:00 PM
March 7	Atlantic Sun Championship	2:00 PM
March 7	SoCon Championship	5:00 PM
March 7	SoCon Championship	7:30 PM
March 8	CAA Semi-Final #1	6:00 PM
March 8	Horizon League Semi-Final #1	6:30 PM
March 8	SoCon Championship	7:00 PM
March 8	Sun Belt Championship	7:00 PM
March 8	WCC Semi-Final #1	9:00 PM
March 8	CAA Semi-Final #2	9:30 PM
March 8	Horizon League Semi-Final #2	9:30 PM
March 8	WCC Semi-Final #2	11:30 PM
March 9	ACC First Round Game #1	2:00 PM
March 9	ACC First Round Game #2	4:30 PM
March 9	Horizon League Championship	7:00 PM
March 9	NEC Championship	7:00 PM
March 9	ACC First Round Game #3	7:00 PM
March 9	CAA Championship	7:00 PM
March 9	WCC Championship	9:00 PM
March 9	Summit League Championship	9:00 PM
March 10	ACC Second Round Game #1	Noon
March 10	ACC Second Round Game #2	2:30 PM
March 10	Pac-12 First Round Game #1	4:00 PM
March 10	Patriot League Semi-Final #1	6:00 PM
March 10	Big Ten First Round Game #1	6:00 PM
March 10	ACC Second Round Game #3	6:30 PM
March 10	Pac-12 First Round Game #2	7:00 PM
March 10	Big XII First Round Game #1	7:00 PM
March 10	SEC First Round Game	7:00 PM
March 10	Patriot League Semi-Final #2	8:30 PM
March 10	Big Ten First Round Game #2	8:30 PM
March 10	ACC Second Round Game #4	9:00 PM
March 10	Big XII First Round Game #2	9:30 PM
March 10	Pac-12 First Round Game #3	10:00 PM
March 11	Big Ten Second Round Game #1	Noon
March 11	ACC Quarter-Final #1	Noon
March 11	AAC First Round Game #1	Noon
March 11	SEC Second Round Game #1	Noon
March 11	Big XII Quarter-Final #1	12:30 PM
March 11	Mountain West Quarter-Final #1	2:30 PM
March 11	ACC Quarter-Final #2	2:30 PM
March 11	Big Ten Second Round Game #2	2:30 PM
March 11	AAC First Round Game #2	2:30 PM
March 11	Pac-12 Quarter-Final #1	2:30 PM
March 11	SEC Second Round Game #2	2:30 PM
March 11	Big XII Quarter-Final #2	3:00 PM
March 11	Mountain West Quarter-Final #2	5:00 PM
March 11	Pac-12 Quarter-Final #2	5:30 PM
March 11	Big Ten Second Round Game #3	6:30 PM
March 11	ACC Quarter-Final #3	6:30 PM
March 11	AAC First Round Game #3	6:30 PM
March 11	Big XII Quarter-Final #3	7:00 PM
March 11	SEC Second Round Game #3	7:00 PM
March 11	Pac-12 Quarter-Final #3	8:30 PM
March 11	Mountain West Quarter-Final #3	9:00 PM
March 11	ACC Quarter-Final #4	9:00 PM
March 11	Big Ten Second Round Game #4	9:00 PM
March 11	Big XII Quarter-Final #4	9:30 PM
March 11	SEC Second Round Game #4	9:30 PM
March 11	AAC First Round Game #4	10:00 PM
March 11	Mountain West Quarter-Final #4	11:30 PM
March 11	Pac-12 Quarter-Final #4	11:30 PM
March 12	Big Ten Quarter-Final #1	Noon
March 12	SEC Quarter-Final #1	Noon
March 12	AAC Quarter-Final #1	1:00 PM
March 12	Conference USA Semi-Final #1	1:00 PM
March 12	Big Ten Quarter-Final #2	2:30 PM
March 12	SEC Quarter-Final #2	2:30 PM
March 12	AAC Quarter-Final #2	3:30 PM
March 12	Conference USA Semi-Final #2	3:30 PM
March 12	MAC Semi-Final #1	5:30 PM
March 12	Big Ten Quarter-Final #3	6:30 PM
March 12	ACC Semi-Final #1	6:30 PM
March 12	Big XII Semi-Final #1	7:00 PM
March 12	SEC Quarter-Final #3	7:00 PM
March 12	AAC Quarter-Final #3	7:30 PM
March 12	MAC Semi-Final #2	8:00 PM
March 12	Pac-12 Semi-Final #1	8:30 PM
March 12	ACC Semi-Final #2	9:00 PM
March 12	Big Ten Quarter-Final #4	9:00 PM
March 12	SEC Quarter-Final #4	9:30 PM
March 12	Big XII Semi-Final #2	9:30 PM
March 12	Mountain West Semi-Final #1	10:00 PM
March 12	AAC Quarter-Final #4	10:00 PM
March 12	Pac-12 Semi-Final #2	11:30 PM
March 13	Big West Semi-Final #2	Midnight
March 13	Mountain West Semi-Final #2	12:30 AM
March 13	America East Championship	11:00 AM
March 13	Big Ten Semi-Final #1	1:00 PM
March 13	SEC Semi-Final #1	1:00 PM
March 13	MEAC Championship	1:00 PM
March 13	Atlantic-10 Semi-Final #1	1:00 PM
March 13	AAC Semi-Final #1	3:00 PM
March 13	SEC Semi-Final #2	3:00 PM
March 13	Big-Ten Semi-Final #2	3:30 PM
March 13	Atlantic-10 Semi-Final #2	3:30 PM
March 13	MAAC Championship	4:00 PM
March 13	AAC Semi-Final #2	5:30 PM
March 13	Mountain West Championship	5:30 PM
March 13	SWAC Championship	6:00 PM
March 13	Big XII Championship	6:00 PM
March 13	Big East Championship	6:30 PM
March 13	MAC Championship	7:30 PM
March 13	Big Sky Championship	8:00 PM
March 13	ACC Championship	8:30 PM
March 13	Conference USA Championship	8:30 PM
March 13	Southland Championship	9:30 PM
March 13	WAC Championship	10:00 PM
March 13	Pac-12 Championship	10:30 PM
March 13	Big West Championship	11:30 PM
March 14	Patriot League Championship	12:30 PM
March 14	Atlantic-10 Championship	1:00 PM
March 14	SEC Championship	1:00 PM
March 14	AAC Championship	3:15 PM
March 14	Big Ten Championship	3:30 PM
March 14	Selection Sunday	6:00 PM

A few notes:

• I see there are a few conferences who are doing more tournament games at school sites or having schools host pods of more than two teams.  Not a bad idea.
• At this point, none of the TSN conference tournament schedule is out.  I have made educated guesses based on previous schedules but who knows what it will look like.  So if you see Fishing with Italo Labignan instead of your favourite college basketball team in their conference tournament, don’t blame me. Saying that, I will update this schedule as fast as I can.  UPDATE: The entire TSN tournament schedule is now out and is reflected above.
• CBS, I believe, gets the Greg Gumbel Show this year.  At least I think they do.  I want to say this may be more interesting than the usual Selection Show but it won’t be.  At least it’s better than the College Football Playoff Selection Show.
• Yes, if you have DAZN (or IPTV) you can get the Pac-12 Network.  Otherwise you are out of luck.  As for the Big East Tournament, most of the games will be on FOX Sports One so if you don’t have IPTV then you won’t be able to watch them.
  

Now this year the First Four is not on Wednesday after Selection Sunday.  It’s on the Thursday.  The First Round will start Friday just after Noon (March 19th).  That means the Round of 32 will go Sunday-Monday.  This also shifts the Sweet 16 and Elite 8 by not one, but two days.  I assume this is to allow for any issues to be solved, although if there is a huge Covid-related issue, it could cause massive problems to the schedule no matter what the planning committee does.

As I have said before, stay tuned for updates since there will be some.  For sure.  No questions asked.  So check in relatively often.

Now with the other potential posts I usually do around this time of year: mock drafts.  I will probably do one soon.  More to keep my sanity and keep me doing something that makes me feel that I am productive.  But that will probably be it until closer to the draft in April.

I have actually started piecing together the 2021 schedule.  I enjoy doing it and, again, it’s something that keeps me going these days.  I know it’s a few months until my posts on the most important games of the season but it’s something to look forward to.

Finally, this has been a very rough time for me.  Still unemployed.  At the 12 month mark.  It’s draining financially and mentally.  Physically it doesn’t do me any favours either.  I am trying my best to keep my mind at ease but if you noticed my Twitter posts, it has not been easy.  Hopefully things change for me soon.  I don’t want to stop doing this blog but it may come to a point where I have to.  It’s a day I never wanted to come.  I sincerely hope it doesn’t.  Thank you for reading.  Have a good weekend.  And take care of yourself.

Sometimes I wonder why I do this

Why do I review my predictions?  It’s like I’m a glutton for punishment.  Maybe I am.  It’s like that for other parts of my life so why not this.  OK so you saw my college predictions.  Alright, I guess although there was less of a way to determine how well I did this year than any other year.  Now on to the NFL predictions I made.  Some of them are OK and some of them are straight trash.  Let’s begin.

The biggest change this year is there is an extra Wild Card team for each conference.  So it’s almost a guarantee there will be a .500 team getting into the playoffs every season.  This year I have the Eagles getting in at the 8-win mark.  Also, you won’t see many teams with winning records now miss the playoffs.  Houston I have at 9-7 will miss the second season.

Well did I ever have that on the nose!  Actually, no, I didn’t.  I had the NFC East champion being that bad playoff team.  It ended up, though, being the Football Team du Washington instead of Philly and the WTF only won 7 games and had to win on the final night to get to that mark.  Good fucking God.  The poor Miami Dolphins ended up winning 10 games and missing the playoffs .  Houston ended up 4-12 so I totally whiffed on them although no one could foresee that franchise as being as much of a fucking catastrophe as it is now.

Where will the good division races be?  The AFC South, AFC East and NFC West should be fairly close races with the top two teams being very close in terms of talent.  The Saints will blow everyone away to win the NFC South and I can’t see the Chiefs having any trouble this season winning their division.

The AFC South was very close.  The other two, not so much as Buffalo and, to a lesser extent, Seattle didn’t have a ton of problems clinching their division.  The Saints won the NFC South but didn’t exactly blow the rest of the division away.  The Buccaneers easily got in as the best Wild Card team and made it to the Super Bowl and kept close with the Saints all season.  At least I had the Chiefs right as they won their division by six games!

The NFC Wild Card race should be exciting down to the end.  The Seahawks should get in rather easily.  The Buccaneers, now with Brady and Gronk, should do enough to be one game clear of the field for the second Wild Card spot.  The Eagles, Packers, Falcons and, yes, the Bears will be in the race for the final spot in the final weekend of the season.  I think the Eagles will beat the Packers in their Week 13 matchup to clinch the tiebreaker for the seventh playoff spot in the NFC.

Alright this is a lot of info.  The Bucs ended up with the first Wild Card spot so I will take that as a good call on my part.  The Bears actually got in as the last Wild Card team in the NFC, backing in because the Cardinals lost.  The Seahawks and Packers both won their divisions so no dice there.  The Eagles were fucking terrible and thankfully fired Doug Pederson for being a complete piece of shit (there are other reasons but that last game was a god damn farce).  The Falcons were also awful…again.  So this is was some good and some bad with nothing being dead on.

In the AFC, not as much of a race but still a few teams in the mix.  The Patriots (or the Bills if they finish second in the AFC East) will get the first Wild Card spot easily.  The Steelers, Texans and Chargers I all have at 9-7 for that final spot with Pittsburgh and Los Angeles going through (as I mentioned above).  I doubt anyone else would even be close.

The Patriots were not good as Cam Newton was a complete mess.  People can say what they want about the guy but he looks just about done.  The Steelers, after an 11-0 start, stumbled to the end and got the shit kicked out of them by the Browns, who made the playoffs!  I don’t know how I missed so badly on Houston and the Chargers but I did.  Like, WAY off.  The Colts and Ravens got in with 11 wins and barely beat out an overachieving Miami squad.

There won’t be much of a race to the bottom this season.  The Jaguars are awful and will be awful and if they don’t even get Gardner Minshew back for the season, they could be even worse than the 2-14 record I have them at.  That franchise is a gongshow and that one year making the AFC title game we can definitely say was now an aberration and not the norm.

Hey did I hit that out of the park or did I hit that out of the park?  Everyone, including myself, thought the Jets would clinch the top pick with their horrifically bad season.  Then they somehow beat the Rams and we all noticed the Jags were right there, slinking along near the bottom.  Their one-win season is one of the worst in recent memory.  I was also close with Cincinnati and Detroit although that’s low-hanging fruit in this case.

Patrick Mahomes and Lamar Jackson are the two MVP favourites.  But let met throw another dark horse contender into the mix: Dak Prescott.  Despite the fact this means the Cowboys will be good it will make for some VERY uncomfortable times in the Metroplex and for Jerry Jones.

Oh man.  Honestly, Dak could have been a good choice as he was carrying a woebegone Cowboys team on his shoulders until his season was ended early.  Instead, it was Aaron Rodgers going crazy throwing the ball this season, winning his third MVP award.  With the shift in how quarterbacks play, it was interesting to see someone who is considered a more pocket passer win the award.  Mahomes and Jackson had good seasons, as well as Josh Allen who finally lived up to the hype.  I wouldn’t be surprised if one of these three (or Russell Wilson) is MVP next season.

As for the Rookie of the Year choices, I will go with Clyde Edwards-Helaire and Chase Young.  As always it is a crapshoot as to who could win this but these two seemed to be set up for success right out of the gate.

I was right with Young!  Good choice, Bossman.  CEH was another good prediction on my part but Justin Herbert was far and away the best first year player.  He might be the only reason the Chargers weren’t in the basement and battling for the #1 pick.

And now my playoffs preview.  Let’s see how good/awful I did:

• I had the Chiefs losing in the AFC Championship and the Buccaneers losing in the Divisional Playoff round.  Well, at least I had both of these teams making the playoffs.
• I also had San Francisco losing the NFC Conference Championship so yeah.  Wow that’s….pretty bad.  In my defense I thought Jimmy G would improve.  He didn’t and was injured for much of the season.
• I did better than the previous year’s predictions when I didn’t have one game that ended up with two actual playoff teams in it.  I had Buffalo winning the AFC East (good), Indianapolis winning the AFC South (they tied for the division lead with Tennessee) and Seattle making it as a Wild Card (they did better than that).  So not bad.
• On the other end of the spectrum, I had New England, Houston, Dallas, Philadelphia, Minnesota, and San Francisco all making the playoffs.  Some of these teams, there were some excuses (like the Dak Prescott injury in Dallas) but others….what was I thinking?

I am wondering if I should go with the dartboard method next year.  And with my mediocre darts play (no raspy Brit yelling “ONE HUNRED AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA-TEE!” for me), that would be interesting.

Now let’s get to everyone’s favourite off-season college football storyline: Realignment!  The American Conference has started talks with San Diego State and Boise State.  It sounds like it’s football-only at this point although it might end up being a full invite since it could be disastrous for the other non-football sports.  If they do join, that would put the AAC at 13 teams.  Will the conference look at adding a 14th team?  They may although after this past season, as odd as it was, it was proven that divisions aren’t really needed so a 14th team for balance’s sake isn’t really as much of an issue as it used to be.  How does this affect the other conferences?  Well, the American looks more and more like a Power conference with those two additions and just in time for early College Football Playoff contract negotiations.  The Pac-12 and Big XII have to look at this as another kick to the gut as they fall farther behind their Power Five brethren.  The rest of the Group of Five also fall father behind as the American, at least at this point, would easily be the strongest of the G-5 conferences.  And finally, the Mountain West.  They are in a heap of trouble and are powerless to do much.  No other schools in that region look like good additions, at least immediately.  Expect rumblings of Montana and/or North Dakota State moving up to the MWC soon if Boise and SDSU accept their invites.

The next post will be the conference tournament schedule and it’s still a while away from now.  As it looks right now, the conference tournaments would start no earlier than March 1st.  Also, what airs will be…well…up in the air.  The specialty packs, as far as I know, are showing college games so at least we can be sure to find many games there.  This will be a slightly different season as I can see many changes to conference tournament formats.  I mean, we have already watched the NCAA tournament be adjusted so it is all in the state of Indiana with some of the dates changed.  If they are willing to adjust that schedule and format, then the conference tournaments are definitely not immune from that.

Anyway, enjoy your weekend everyone.

2020 NCAA Basketball Conference Tournament TV Schedule (Big Update below)

We are almost there…almost.  Yes I know it’s not March yet but bare with me.  If you want to know who the most overrated teams are going into the Big Dance, watching some of these games is imperative.  I’ll be honest: I don’t watch a ton of college basketball until now because of college football.  The only things I really pay attention to is how great North Carolina would be if they just had Cole Anthony and which team decided to be #1 this week and why Gonzaga will probably disappoint us again in the NCAA Tournament but looks like a dynasty in the West Coast Conference.

This is the fifth year of doing this and I tell myself that I am getting better at this.  No more stupid ACC Network games on Raycom and not on the actual ACC Network so this becomes a much easier exercise (at least in terms of the ACC).  I will make sure that I update these as we go along since things can change and I might just be wrong (I know it sounds crazy but it happens).  Here we go:​​

March 5	Mountain West Quarter-Final #1 (Air Force vs. San Diego State)	2:30 PM
March 5	Mountain West Quarter-Final #2 (UNLV vs. Boise State)	5:00 PM
March 5	Mountain West Quarter-Final #3 (New Mexico vs. Utah State)	9:00 PM
March 5	Mountain West Quarter-Final #4 (Wyoming vs. Nevada)	11:30 PM
March 6	Ohio Valley Semi-Final #1 (Belmont vs. Eastern Kentucky)	8:00 PM
March 6	Mountain West Semi-Final #1 (San Diego State vs. Boise State)	9:00 PM
March 6	Ohio Valley Semi-Final #2 (Murray State vs. Austin Peay)	10:00 PM
March 6	Mountain West Semi-Final #2 (Utah State vs. Wyoming)	11:30 PM
March 7	Missouri Valley Semi-Final #1 (Bradley vs. Drake)	3:30 PM
March 7	Mountain West Championship (San Diego State vs. Utah State)	5:30 PM
March 7	Missouri Valley Semi-Final #2 (Missouri State vs. Valparaiso)	6:00 PM
March 7	Ohio Valley Championship (Belmont vs. Murray State)	8:00 PM
March 7	WCC Quarter-Final #1 (Pacific vs. San Francisco)	10:00 PM
March 8	WCC Quarter-Final #2 (Saint Mary’s vs. Pepperdine)	Midnight
March 8	Patriot League Semi-Final #1 (Boston University vs. Bucknell)	Noon
March 8	Big South Championship (Winthrop vs. Hampton)	1:00 PM
March 8	Missouri Valley Championship (Bradley vs. Valparaiso)	2:00 PM
March 8	Patriot League Semi-Final #2 (Colgate vs. Lafayette)	2:00 PM
March 8	Atlantic Sun Championship (Liberty vs. Lipscomb)	3:00 PM
March 9	CAA Semi-Final #1 (Hofstra vs. Delaware)	6:00 PM
March 9	SoCon Championship (ETSU vs. Wofford)	7:00 PM
March 9	Horizon League Semi-Final #1 (UIC vs. Wright State)	7:00 PM
March 9	CAA Semi-Final #2 (Northeastern vs. Elon)	8:30 PM
March 9	WCC Semi-Final #1 (San Francisco vs. Gonzaga)	9:00 PM
March 9	Horizon League Semi-Final #2 (Green Bay vs. Northern Kentucky)	9:30 PM
March 9	WCC Semi-Final #2 (Saint Mary’s vs. BYU)	11:30 PM
March 10	ACC First Round Game #1	2:00 PM
March 10	ACC First Round Game #1 (Wake Forest vs. Pittsburgh)	4:30 PM
March 10	Horizon League Championship (UIC vs. Northern Kentucky)	7:00 PM
March 10	NEC Championship (Robert Morris vs. St. Francis-PA)	7:00 PM
March 10	ACC First Round Game #2 (Virginia Tech vs. North Carolina)	7:00 PM
March 10	CAA Championship (Hofstra vs. Northeastern)	7:00 PM
March 10	WCC Championship (Gonzaga vs. Saint Mary’s)	9:00 PM
March 10	Summit League Championship (North Dakota State vs. North Dakota)	9:00 PM
March 11	ACC Second Round Game #1 (Clemson vs. Miami)	Noon
March 11	Big East First Round Game #1 (Georgetown vs. St. John’s)	Noon 7:00 PM
March 11	ACC Second Round Game #2 (NC State vs. Pittsburgh)	2:00 PM
March 11	Big East First Round Game #2 (Xavier vs. DePaul)	2:30 PM 9:30 PM
March 11	Pac-12 First Round Game #1 (Oregon State vs. Utah)	3:00 PM
March 11	Pac-12 First Round Game #2 (Arizona vs. Washington)	5:30 PM
March 11	Big Ten First Round Game #1 (Minnesota vs. Northwestern)	6:00 PM
March 11	ACC Second Round Game #3 (Notre Dame vs. Boston College)	7:00 PM
March 11	Big XII First Round Game #1 (Oklahoma State vs. Iowa State)	7:00 PM
March 11	SEC First Round Game #1 (Ole Miss vs. Georgia)	7:00 PM
March 11	Patriot League Championship (Colgate vs. Boston University)	7:30 PM
March 11	Big Ten First Round Game #2 (Indiana vs. Nebraska)	8:30 PM
March 11	ACC Second Round Game #4 (Syracuse vs. North Carolina)	9:00 PM
March 11	Big XII First Round Game #2 (TCU vs. Kansas State)	9:00 PM
March 11	Pac-12 First Round Game #3 (Stanford vs. California)	9:00 PM
March 11	SEC First Round Game #2 (Arkansas vs. Vanderbilt)	9:30 PM
March 11	Pac-12 First Round Game #3 (Colorado vs. Washington State)	11:30 PM
March 12	Big East Quarter-Final #1 (Creighton vs. St. John’s)	Noon
March 12	Big Ten Second Round Game #1 (Rutgers vs. Michigan)	Noon
March 12	ACC Quarter-Final #1 (Florida State vs. Clemson)	12:30 PM
March 12	Big XII Quarter-Final #1 (Texas vs. Texas Tech)	12:30 PM
March 12	AAC First Round Game #1 (UCF vs. USF)	1:00 PM
March 12	SEC Second Round Game #1 (Tennessee vs. Alabama)	1:00 PM
March 12	ACC Quarter-Final #2 (Duke vs. NC State)	2:30 PM
March 12	Big XII Quarter-Final #2 (Kansas vs. Oklahoma State)	2:30 PM
March 12	Big East Quarter-Final #2 (Providence vs. Butler)	2:30 PM
March 12	Big Ten Second Round Game #2 (Iowa vs. Minnesota)	2:30 PM
March 12	AAC First Round Game #2 (UConn vs. Tulane)	3:00 PM
March 12	Pac-12 Quarter-Final #1 (Oregon vs. Oregon State)	3:00 PM
March 12	SEC Second Round Game #2 (Florida vs. Georgia)	3:30 PM
March 12	Pac-12 Quarter-Final #2 (USC vs. Arizona)	5:30 PM
March 12	Big Ten Second Round Game #3 (Ohio State vs. Purdue)	6:30 PM
March 12	ACC Quarter-Final #3 (Virginia vs. Notre Dame)	7:00 PM
March 12	Big XII Quarter-Final #3 (Baylor vs. Kansas State)	7:00 PM
March 12	Big East Quarter-Final #3 (Villanova vs. DePaul)	7:00 PM
March 12	SEC Second Round Game #3 (Texas A&M vs. Missouri)	7:00 PM
March 12	AAC First Round Game #3 (SMU vs. Temple)	8:00 PM
March 12	ACC Quarter-Final #4 (Louisville vs. Syracuse)	9:00 PM
March 12	Big XII Quarter-Final #4 (Oklahoma vs. West Virginia)	9:00 PM
March 12	Big Ten Second Round Game #4 (Penn State vs. Indiana)	9:00 PM
March 12	Pac-12 Quarter-Final #3 (UCLA vs. California)	9:00 PM
March 12	SEC Second Round Game #4 (South Carolina vs. Arkansas)	9:30 PM
March 12	Big East Quarter-Final #4 (Seton Hall vs. Marquette)	9:30 PM
March 12	AAC First Round Game #4 (Memphis vs. East Carolina)	10:00 PM
March 12	Pac-12 Quarter-Final #4 (Arizona State vs. Washington State)	11:30 PM
March 13	AAC Quarter-Final #1	Noon
March 13	Big Ten Quarter-Final #1	Noon
March 13	SEC Quarter-Final #1	1:00 PM
March 13	Conference USA Semi-Final #1	2:00 PM
March 13	AAC Quarter-Final #2	2:00 PM
March 13	Big Ten Quarter-Final #2	2:30 PM
March 13	SEC Quarter-Final #2	3:30 PM
March 13	Conference USA Semi-Final #2	4:30 PM
March 13	Big Ten Quarter-Final #3	6:30 PM
March 13	Big East Semi-Final #1	6:30 PM
March 13	MAC Semi-Final #1	7:00 PM
March 13	ACC Semi-Final #1	7:00 PM
March 13	Big XII Semi-Final #1	7:00 PM
March 13	AAC Quarter-Final #3	7:00 PM
March 13	SEC Quarter-Final #3	7:00 PM
March 13	AAC Quarter-Final #4	9:00 PM
March 13	ACC Semi-Final #2	9:00 PM
March 13	Big XII Semi-Final #2	9:00 PM
March 13	Big East Semi-Final #2	9:00 PM
March 13	Big Ten Quarter-Final #4	9:00 PM
March 13	Pac-12 Semi-Final #1	9:00 PM
March 13	SEC Quarter-Final #4	9:30 PM
March 13	MAC Semi-Final #2	9:30 PM
March 13	Pac-12 Semi-Final #2	11:30 PM
March 13	Big West Semi-Final #2	11:30 PM
March 14	America East Championship (Vermont vs. Hartford)	11:00 AM
March 14	Ivy League Semi-Final #1	11:00 AM
March 14	Big Ten Semi-Final #1	1:00 PM
March 14	SEC Semi-Final #1	1:00 PM
March 14	MEAC Championship	1:00 PM
March 14	Atlantic-10 Semi-Final #1	1:00 PM
March 14	Ivy League Semi-Final #2	2:00 PM
March 14	AAC Semi-Final #1	3:00 PM
March 14	SEC Semi-Final #2	3:00 PM
March 14	Big-Ten Semi-Final #2	3:30 PM
March 14	Atlantic-10 Semi-Final #2	3:30 PM
March 14	MAAC Championship	4:00 PM
March 14	AAC Semi-Final #2	5:00 PM
March 14	SWAC Championship	6:00 PM
March 14	Big XII Championship	6:00 PM
March 14	Big East Championship	6:30 PM
March 14	MAC Championship	7:30 PM
March 14	Big Sky Championship	8:00 PM
March 14	ACC Championship	8:30 PM
March 14	Conference USA Championship	8:30 PM
March 14	Southland Championship	9:30 PM
March 14	Pac-12 Championship	10:30 PM
March 14	WAC Championship	11:00 PM
March 14	Big West Championship	11:30 PM
March 15	Ivy League Championship	Noon
March 15	Atlantic-10 Championship	1:00 PM
March 15	SEC Championship	1:00 PM
March 15	Sun Belt Championship	2:00 PM
March 15	AAC Championship	3:15 PM
March 15	Big Ten Championship	3:30 PM
March 15	Selection Sunday	6:00 PM

A few notes:

• I am not going to ask why conferences have tournaments in New York and Las Vegas this time around.  It’s about money.  That’s all.
• At this point, none of the TSN conference tournament schedule is out.  I have made educated guesses based on last year’s conference tournament schedule.  I am sure I will be relatively close but you better come back for updates just to make sure you don’t tune to TSN and it’s a World Series of Poker repeat from 2009.  UPDATE #1: TSN has come out with their conference tournament schedule…sort of.  I know which games will appear on a TSN station but the actual station hasn’t been determined yet.  I assume in about a week that information will be available.
• I think TBS gets the Selection Sunday Show (also know as the Greg Gumbel Variety Hour).  I get that they do this because of the contract so that more people watch TBS for something other than Conan O’Brien.  But still, someone in Canada better pick this up then.  TSN?  Figure this out!  UPDATE #7: So I guess CBS does get the selection show.  That’s good for all of us.
• I have included games that will be on FOX Sports One and the Pac-12 Network since, technically, you can get these games in Canada now.
  

UPDATE #2: ACC Tournament games, at least the first two rounds, slated to be on either TSN5 or TSN1.  I have re-listed them above for your information.

UPDATE #3: Big XII quarter-final games are now on TSN2.  The ACC quarter-final games on the same day have moved from TSN1 to TSN5.

UPDATE #4: Big XII semi-finals will now appear on TSN4 rather than TSN5 which is what I had originally reported.

UPDATE #5: The first SEC semi-final is on TSN3 and TSN5.  Only TSN5 will show the second semi.

UPDATE #6: The SEC Championship is now confirmed for TSN2.

UPDATE #8: It looks like there are only two first round ACC games, not three.  Why?  Because Georgia Tech is ineligible for the conference title due to various recruiting violations.

UPDATE #9: The Ivy League has completely cancelled their tournament.  I think that’s a bit of an overreaction considering other conferences may be playing games in an empty arena which makes a lot more sense.

UPDATE #10: Remember what I said about the Ivy League overreacting?  Well I then started thinking it was just dumb because yeah they cancelled their conference tournament but Yale would be still heading to the NCAA Tournament.  Now, the conferences are confirming, one-by-one, that they will also not be allowing fans into venues for their tournaments.  So yeah, not an overreaction now.

UPDATE #11: Huge update.  All Power Five conference tournaments have been cancelled.  The Big East has started their games today and all other conferences, other than the Ivy League who had already cancelled their tournament, are still ongoing.  I can see more conferences ending their tournaments as soon as possible but we shall see.

The NCAA Tournament First Four starts March 17^th with the actual tournament (you know, the one you can do your bracket selections in) starting March 19th.  The First Four is only on TSN GO.  Same with a few games in the first round of the tournament.  After that, pretty much everything is on at least one of the TSN networks, as well as CBS.

As I have said before, stay tuned for updates since there will be some.  For sure.  No questions asked.  So check in relatively often.

Will I be doing other mock drafts?  I will be but it won’t be for a while.  I tire of changing mock drafts and I refuse to watch the Kreepy Kombine because it’s fucking weird.  I will come up with other blog posts I’m sure.

Soon enough I will start piecing together parts of the 2020 schedule.  Haven’t started yet which is unusual since it’s usually right after the college all-star games are completed I start diving into it.  I know that much of it won’t be correct but it’s an exercise I enjoy doing (yeah I know, I’m nuts) and it also allows me to create the schedule posts during the summer and not have to rush the entire thing.  Anyway, have a great week everyone!

UPDATE #12: This will be the final update on this.  I am not going to cross out all the games being cancelled since all the games are now cancelled.  The conference tournament season is over.  Duke, Kansas and Arizona State have also cancelled all athletics through the end of March at least meaning the NCAA Tournament is probably postponed if not outright cancelled.  An odd time in the world these days and sports is an extension of that so the weirdness travels there as well.  

2019 NCAA Basketball Conference Tournament TV Schedule

It’s that time again…almost.  March Madness is almost upon us but one problem…it isn’t March yet.  So to ramp up towards that (and all the pools you will invariably be in), we have conference tournament time.    It’s a fun time of year and, honestly, the first time I truly pay attention to college basketball other than any time North Carolina and Duke play, anything about Zion Williamson or R.J. Barrett, why the Pac-12 sucks and who Jim Boeheim hit with his car.

This is the fourth year of doing this and I keep improving (I think).  This is the last year of the ACC Network on Raycom thing so it should become easier next season…I hope.  No one ever knows with these specialty packs.  Now, much of this is not set in stone so you will have to keep coming here to monitor any changes since there will be some for sure.  OK, let’s begin:

March 8	Ohio Valley Semi-Final #1	8:00 PM
March 8	Ohio Valley Semi-Final #2	10:00 PM
March 9	Missouri Valley Semi-Final #1	3:30 PM
March 9	Missouri Valley Semi-Final #2	6:00 PM
March 9	Ohio Valley Championship	8:00 PM
March 9	WCC Quarter-Final #1	10:00 PM
March 9	WCC Quarter-Final #2	11:55 PM
March 10	Patriot League Semi-Final #1	Noon
March 10	Big South Championship	1:00 PM
March 10	Missouri Valley Championship	2:00 PM
March 10	Patriot League Semi-Final #2	2:00 PM
March 10	Atlantic Sun Championship	3:00 PM
March 10	MAAC Semi-Final #2	8:30 PM
March 11	CAA Semi-Final #1	6:00 PM
March 11	SoCon Championship	7:00 PM
March 11	Horizon League Semi-Final #1	7:00 PM
March 11	CAA Semi-Final #2	8:30 PM
March 11	MAAC Championship	9:00 PM
March 11	WCC Semi-Final #1	9:00 PM
March 11	Horizon League Semi-Final #2	9:30 PM
March 11	WCC Semi-Final #2	11:30 PM
March 12	ACC First Round Game #1	Noon
March 12	ACC First Round Game #2	2:00 PM
March 12	Horizon League Championship	7:00 PM
March 12	NEC Championship	7:00 PM
March 12	ACC First Round Game #3	7:00 PM
March 12	CAA Championship	7:00 PM
March 12	WCC Championship	9:00 PM
March 12	Summit League Championship	9:00 PM
March 13	ACC Second Round Game #1	Noon
March 13	ACC Second Round Game #2	2:00 PM
March 13	Big Ten First Round Game #1	6:30 PM
March 13	ACC Second Round Game #3	7:00 PM
March 13	Big XII First Round Game #1	7:00 PM
March 13	SEC First Round Game #1	7:00 PM
March 13	Patriot League Championship	7:30 PM
March 13	Big Ten First Round Game #2	9:00 PM
March 13	ACC Second Round Game #4	9:30 PM
March 13	Big XII First Round Game #2	9:30 PM
March 13	SEC First Round Game #2	9:30 PM
March 14	ACC Quarter-Final #1	12:30 PM
March 14	Big XII Quarter-Final #1	12:30 PM
March 14	Big Ten Second Round Game #1	12:30 PM
March 14	AAC First Round Game #1	1:00 PM
March 14	SEC Second Round Game #1	1:00 PM
March 14	ACC Quarter-Final #2	3:00 PM
March 14	Big XII Quarter-Final #2	3:00 PM
March 14	Big Ten Second Round Game #2	3:00 PM
March 14	Mountain West Quarter-Final #1	3:00 PM
March 14	AAC First Round Game #2	3:30 PM
March 14	SEC Second Round Game #2	3:30 PM
March 14	Mountain West Quarter-Final #2	5:30 PM
March 14	ACC Quarter-Final #3	7:00 PM
March 14	Big XII Quarter-Final #3	7:00 PM
March 14	SEC Second Round Game #3	7:00 PM
March 14	Big Ten Second Round Game #3	7:00 PM
March 14	AAC First Round Game #3	8:00 PM
March 14	Mountain West Quarter-Final #3	9:00 PM
March 14	ACC Quarter-Final #4	9:30 PM
March 14	Big XII Quarter-Final #4	9:30 PM
March 14	SEC Second Round Game #4	9:30 PM
March 14	Big Ten Second Round Game #4	9:30 PM
March 14	AAC First Round Game #4	10:30 PM
March 14	Mountain West Quarter-Final #4	11:30 PM
March 14	Pac-12 Quarter-Final #4	11:30 PM
March 15	AAC Quarter-Final #1	Noon
March 15	Big Ten Quarter-Final #1	12:30 PM
March 15	SEC Quarter-Final #1	1:00 PM
March 15	Conference USA Semi-Final #1	1:30 PM
March 15	AAC Quarter-Final #2	2:00 PM
March 15	Big Ten Quarter-Final #2	3:00 PM
March 15	SEC Quarter-Final #2	3:30 PM
March 15	Conference USA Semi-Final #2	4:00 PM
March 15	MAC Semi-Final #1	6:30 PM
March 15	ACC Semi-Final #1	7:00 PM
March 15	Big XII Semi-Final #1	7:00 PM
March 15	AAC Quarter-Final #3	7:00 PM
March 15	SEC Quarter-Final #3	7:00 PM
March 15	Big Ten Quarter-Final #3	7:00 PM
March 15	AAC Quarter-Final #4	9:00 PM
March 15	Mountain West Semi-Final #1	9:00 PM
March 15	ACC Semi-Final #2	9:30 PM
March 15	Big XII Semi-Final #2	9:30 PM
March 15	SEC Quarter-Final #4	9:30 PM
March 15	Big Ten Quarter-Final #4	9:30 PM
March 15	Pac-12 Semi-Final #2	11:30 PM
March 15	Mountain West Semi-Final #2	11:30 PM
March 15	Big West Semi-Final #2	11:55 PM
March 16	America East Championship	11:00 AM
March 16	Ivy League Semi-Final #1	12:30 PM
March 16	Big Ten Semi-Final #1	1:00 PM
March 16	SEC Semi-Final #1	1:00 PM
March 16	MEAC Championship	1:00 PM
March 16	Atlantic-10 Semi-Final #1	1:00 PM
March 16	AAC Semi-Final #1	3:00 PM
March 16	Ivy League Semi-Final #2	3:00 PM
March 16	SEC Semi-Final #2	3:30 PM
March 16	Big-Ten Semi-Final #2	3:30 PM
March 16	Atlantic-10 Semi-Final #2	3:30 PM
March 16	AAC Semi-Final #2	5:00 PM
March 16	SWAC Championship	6:00 PM
March 16	Mountain West Championship	6:00 PM
March 16	Big XII Championship	6:00 PM
March 16	Big East Championship	6:30 PM
March 16	MAC Championship	7:30 PM
March 16	Big Sky Championship	8:00 PM
March 16	ACC Championship	8:30 PM
March 16	Conference USA Championship	8:30 PM
March 16	Southland Championship	9:30 PM
March 16	Pac-12 Championship	10:30 PM
March 16	WAC Championship	10:30 PM
March 16	Big West Championship	11:55 PM
March 17	Ivy League Championship	Noon
March 17	Atlantic-10 Championship	1:00 PM
March 17	SEC Championship	1:00 PM
March 17	Sun Belt Championship	2:00 PM
March 17	AAC Championship	3:15 PM
March 17	Big Ten Championship	3:30 PM
March 17	Selection Sunday	6:00 PM

A few notes:

• I think I ask this every year but why are there so many tournaments in New York and Las Vegas?  Thankfully, the Big Ten is not there and therefore doesn’t have to put on their tournament during Week One of Conference Championship Week like last season.  That felt dumb to have one of the biggest conferences in college basketball be done their tournament a week before Selection Sunday.
• At this point, only a bit of the TSN conference tournament schedule is out.  I made guesses on the rest of the games since there really is never that many broadcast by TSN at this time of year (until March Madness hits).  There will be updates so make sure you come back here to look if you enjoy college basketball at this time of year.
• This year, Selection Sunday is back on CBS so we will get to see it up here.  TBS gets it every other year for the near future so we will have this issue of “where is the selection show?” every two years.  Great.  At least we can breathe easy this year.
• I honestly have no idea what is going on with the whole ACC Network/Raycom thing when it comes to conference tournaments.  Last year, some of the ACC early tournament games ended up on Peachtree TV.  At this point, I looked to see which affiliates would be showing this game and Peachtree TV is on there but I can’t see that far ahead in any guide to determine which games they will broadcast.  For this reason I have just Peachtree in for all the ACC Tournament games knowing it will probably change.  UPDATE #6: All the ACC Tournament games will be on Peachtree TV.  This will be, I am sure, the final year of this.
  

The NCAA Tournament First Four starts March 19^th with the actual tournament (you know, the one you can do your bracket selections in) starting March 21st.  The First Four is only on TSN GO.  Same with a few games in the first round of the tournament.  After that, pretty much everything is on at least one of the TSN networks, as well as CBS.

As I have said before, stay tuned for updates since there will be some.  I am sure of it.

UPDATE #1: Might as well number them right off the hop.  The ACC tournament on Mar. 13 is now on TSN3 and TSN5 during the afternoon and TSN5 in the evening.  The Big XII tournament is now showing on TSN3 during the evening.

UPDATE #2: A bunch of changes for Mar. 14.  The ACC Tournament has moved to TSN1 for that day with the Big XII moving to TSN4.  The SEC Tournament also gets some play on TSN that afternoon as those games are now on TSN5.  The primetime slate is still on the specialty pack though.

UPDATE #3: For Mar. 15, the SEC Tournament moves to TSN1 and TSN4 during the afternoon and TSN3 in primetime.  The ACC Tournament gets TSN1 and the Big XII Tournament gets TSN5 in primetime.

UPDATE #4: On Mar. 16, the SEC Tournament semi-finals go to TSN4.  The Big XII Championship follows that on TSN4 at 6:00.  The ACC Tournament Championship is on TSN1 and TSN4 in primetime followed by some Pac-12 After Dark with the Pac-12 Championship right afterwards.

UPDATE #5: The SEC Tournament Championship on Mar. 17 has moved from TSN2 to TSN1.

UPDATE #7: The Selection Show now starts at 6:00 after the Big Ten Championship on CBS.  It’s also only an hour this year which will be much better than least year’s terrible 2-hour show.

I will be doing another mock draft but it won’t be until next week at the earliest.  No point in rushing them at this point.

Other than that, I am working on piecing together the 2019 schedule as best I can knowing much of it, especially in the latter part of the season, will be wrong.  It is what it is but allows me to send out schedule posts in a reasonable fashion rather than cramming everything into a six-to-seven-week period where I’d be posting damn near every day.  Not exactly what I would envision my summer to be to be honest.  Have a great week everyone!

And you thought my college football predictions were bad…

Well as you might know, I thought my predictions weren’t bad for college football, despite the overwhelming evidence to the contrary.  My Stassen score was better than last year’s so that meant I was closer in my conference predictions than I was the previous season.  Problem is, compared to the magazines and websites that actually do this thing for a living, I was almost dead last.  Now I turn my attention to the NFL predictions I made.  I am sure this will work out better right?  I’m not holding my breath.  Same way as the past two seasons: I will take snippets of my NFL predictions post and put them here and see if I was right or if I might have been drunk when I made that prediction.  Let us begin.

I can see a fair amount of parity this season. There are always candidates to win more than 12 games this season but I could see it where one or even no teams hit the 13-win mark. The best candidates are the LA Rams, New England, Philadelphia and Jacksonville.

I got the Rams right!  Thirteen wins on the nose.  And the Patriots were close with 11.  There was actually a decent amount of parity this season so I wasn’t totally wrong with that.  A bit of a miss on the Eagles but that was more due to their slow start than anything.  Then there’s the Jaguars.  Ho boy.  Talk about bottoming out.  They were an unmitigated disaster.  This coincides with the end of the Blake Bortles era and the start of the (pick one out of) Kyler Murray/Dwayne Haskins/Drew Lock era.  So in the end, this prediction wasn’t too bad but not fantastic.

I see some great races happening in both South divisions, along with the NFC West and North. The others won’t be near as competitive with the Patriots easily steamrolling to yet another AFC East crown. Also, and let’s be honest here, the LA Chargers will win the AFC West because the rest of the teams just aren’t that good and probably will all be under .500.

Well I was half-correct about the South divisions.  The Saints were seriously good and ran away with the NFC version.  The AFC South was fun though.  The Texans, Colts and Titans came down to the wire in the best divisional race in the league.  I was almost right with the other divisions but the AFC North was also a barrel of fun.  That’s partly because the Ravens and Steelers seemed to one-up each other in trying NOT to win the division and the fact that the CLEVELAND F’N BROWNS were almost .500!  And my apologies to the Kansas City Chiefs, the most exciting team in god-knows-how-long.

The NFL Wild Card race should be pretty something. I have the Packers and Falcons getting those two spots but the Niners, Lions and even perhaps the Giants and Cowboys will have something to say about that.

Good lord what in the hell?  What do I make of all this?  Well the Cowboys won the NFC East!  But that only happened because the rest of the division was garbage most of the season.  The rest of the teams I listed were awful.  I get a pass for the Niners since they would have been much better if Jimmy Garoppolo hadn’t been injured.  The Packers and Falcons might have to actually rebuild after their shitty seasons.  Yet another Bill Belichick disciple failed as a head coach.  Go figure.  And finally the Giants…well they have Saquon Barkley.  That’s good right?

In the AFC, it almost feels like a race to get over .500 to get into the playoffs. Or maybe just to .500. I think the Texans and Titans will be the two Wild Card choices and to be honest, do any of the other non-qualifying AFC teams deserve to make it? Probably not.

The Titans were close, at 9-7.  The Steelers were even closer at 9-6-1.  But yeah, other than those two teams, every other AFC team that missed the playoffs was under .500.  But Indy was surely better than I figured they’d be but that sounds like something most experts would be saying right now.

Should be a three-team race for the bottom with Tampa Bay, Indianapolis and Washington vying for that #1 overall pick. Buffalo and Cleveland should be juuuuuuuuuuuuuust good enough to not be lumped in with those three teams which is an improvement for the Browns and a bit of a disaster for the Bills (who fully look like they are attempting to tank this season).

Buffalo wasn’t good but Cleveland was fun to watch.  And Indy, as I said before, was damn good.  At one point it looked like the Redskins would actually win the horrifically bad NFC East but tailed off down the stretch.  Tampa Bay was awful though so that’s close.  No, it was San Francisco (who shouldn’t have been this bad but Jimmy G) and the Cardinals who were the dirt worst.  Oh and the Jets.  The fact I didn’t include them in this part baffles me even to this day.

Last year I said Jameis Winston would win the MVP. Good fucking lord. This year I will select Jared Goff. Sorry Jared.

Goff was good.  Quite good.  But Patrick Mahomes had a season for the ages.  And so did Drew Brees.  So there was no way Jared was getting into that MVP race despite the fact the Rams were the second-best regular season team this year.

I am not even going to pick a Rookie of the Year. No point. I’ll just be wrong.

I honestly would have picked Saquon Barkley as the Rookie of the Year.  He was…the offensive ROY.  The defensive ROY was Darius Leonard who I never would have picked to win that award.  So I would have been half-right.

And now my playoffs preview.  Let’s see how good/awful I did:

• I had the Rams winning the Super Bowl and the Patriots losing in the Conference Championship.  Not bad.
• I did have Pittsburgh winning the AFC though so that wasn’t so good of a prediction.
• Get this: I had the Rams beating New Orleans in the NFC Championship.  Wow!  I am pretty damn proud of myself for that.
• The team I whiffed on the most was easily Jacksonville.  Who knew that 2017 would be an anomaly?  I also had Atlanta and Green Bay in and they were pretty bad.

All in all, I had a pretty good year with my NFL predictions.  Which is stunning to be honest with you.

For the most part, we are into the third year of no offseason realignment news right after the college football season has finished.  There will always be rumblings but nothing serious since the Big XII did their disastrous look into expanding.  I still think we will see major happenings on that front but we are at least a year or two away from that.

The next post will be the conference tournament schedule and it’s a while away from now.  The conference tournaments don’t officially start until March 4th.  As has been the case the past few years, the Atlantic Sun is the first conference to start the fun.  But we won’t see any of that.  As per usual, the first conference tournament action we will see will be on the Friday night (March 8th) when the Ohio Valley Conference has their second semi-final matchup.  Things are kind of slow through that first weekend, then everything goes crazy the following Monday with a string of days containing a ton of games to watch.  I still wonder if the NCAA Tournament would be better if it was done FA Cup-style.  So that we would be bound to see a team in like the SWAC or WAC or Metro Atlantic go on a crazy run through the first few rounds.  Then their fifth-round matchup would be again Duke and Zion Williamson would pour in 65 points and the Blue Devils would win by 80.  Good times.

Anyway, enjoy your week everyone.

2018 NCAA Basketball Conference Tournament TV Schedule

We are there again.  The precursor to March Madness!  Conference tournament time!  To be honest, conference tournament time is a lot of fun and usually there are some fantastic finishes and a lot of teams most people (especially me) would never watch.  I also make the excuse that this will help me with my March Madness pools but I know that’s a load of crap because I have only won once in the past decade.

This is the third year of doing this and I keep improving.  Last year was the first time I put pretty logos up.  Well the Bell and Rogers logos aren’t that pretty so they are now replaced with the SP designation to denote that those games will go to the specialty pack.  And believe me, the specialty pack is LOADED with these games.  So let’s get to the schedule already (followed by some mediocre analysis):

February 28	Big Ten First Round Game #1	5:30 PM
February 28	Big Ten First Round Game #2	8:00 PM
March 1	Big Ten Second Round Game #1	Noon
March 1	Big Ten Second Round Game #2	2:30 PM
March 1	Big Ten Second Round Game #3	6:30 PM
March 1	Big Ten Second Round Game #4	9:00 PM
March 2	Big Ten Quarter-Final #1	Noon
March 2	Big Ten Quarter-Final #2	2:30 PM
March 2	Big Ten Quarter-Final #3	6:30 PM
March 2	Ohio Valley Semi-Final #1	8:00 PM
March 2	Big Ten Quarter-Final #4	9:00 PM
March 2	Ohio Valley Semi-Final #2	10:00 PM
March 3	Big Ten Semi-Final #1	2:00 PM
March 3	Missouri Valley Semi-Final #1	3:30 PM
March 3	Big-Ten Semi-Final #2	4:30 PM
March 3	Missouri Valley Semi-Final #2	6:00 PM
March 3	Ohio Valley Championship	8:00 PM
March 3	WCC Quarter-Final #3	10:00 PM
March 4	WCC Quarter-Final #4	Midnight
March 4	Patriot League Semi-Final #1	Noon
March 4	Big South Championship	1:00 PM
March 4	Missouri Valley Championship	2:00 PM
March 4	Patriot League Semi-Final #2	2:00 PM
March 4	Atlantic Sun Championship	3:00 PM
March 4	Big Ten Championship	4:00 PM
March 4	MAAC Semi-Final #2	9:30 PM
March 5	CAA Semi-Final #1	6:00 PM
March 5	MAAC Championship	7:00 PM
March 5	Horizon League Semi-Final #1	7:00 PM
March 5	CAA Semi-Final #2	8:30 PM
March 5	WCC Semi-Final #1	9:00 PM
March 5	SoCon Championship	9:00 PM
March 5	Horizon League Semi-Final #2	9:00 PM
March 5	WCC Semi-Final #2	11:30 PM
March 6	ACC First Round Game #1	Noon
March 6	ACC First Round Game #2	2:00 PM
March 6	Horizon League Championship	7:00 PM
March 6	NEC Championship	7:00 PM
March 6	ACC First Round Game #3	7:00 PM
March 6	CAA Championship	7:00 PM
March 6	WCC Championship	9:00 PM
March 6	Summit League Championship	9:00 PM
March 7	ACC Second Round Game #1	Noon
March 7	ACC Second Round Game #2	2:00 PM
March 7	ACC Second Round Game #3	7:00 PM
March 7	Big XII First Round Game #1	7:00 PM
March 7	SEC First Round Game #1	7:00 PM
March 7	Patriot League Championship	7:30 PM
March 7	ACC Second Round Game #4	9:00 PM
March 7	Big XII First Round Game #2	9:00 PM
March 7	SEC First Round Game #2	9:00 PM
March 8	ACC Quarter-Final #1	Noon
March 8	AAC First Round Game #1	Noon
March 8	Big XII Quarter-Final #1	12:30 PM
March 8	SEC Second Round Game #1	1:00 PM
March 8	ACC Quarter-Final #2	2:00 PM
March 8	AAC First Round Game #2	2:00 PM
March 8	Big XII Quarter-Final #2	2:30 PM
March 8	Mountain West Quarter-Final #1	3:00 PM
March 8	SEC Second Round Game #2	3:00 PM
March 8	Mountain West Quarter-Final #2	5:30 PM
March 8	ACC Quarter-Final #3	7:00 PM
March 8	Big XII Quarter-Final #3	7:00 PM
March 8	AAC First Round Game #3	7:00 PM
March 8	SEC Second Round Game #3	7:00 PM
March 8	ACC Quarter-Final #4	9:00 PM
March 8	Big XII Quarter-Final #4	9:00 PM
March 8	AAC First Round Game #4	9:00 PM
March 8	SEC Second Round Game #4	9:00 PM
March 8	Mountain West Quarter-Final #3	9:00 PM
March 8	Mountain West Quarter-Final #4	11:30 PM
March 9	AAC Quarter-Final #1	Noon
March 9	SEC Quarter-Final #1	1:00 PM
March 9	Conference USA Semi-Final #1	1:30 PM
March 9	AAC Quarter-Final #2	2:00 PM
March 9	SEC Quarter-Final #2	3:00 PM
March 9	Conference USA Semi-Final #2	4:00 PM
March 9	MAC Semi-Final #1	6:30 PM
March 9	ACC Semi-Final #1	7:00 PM
March 9	Big XII Semi-Final #1	7:00 PM
March 9	AAC Quarter-Final #3	7:00 PM
March 9	SEC Quarter-Final #3	7:00 PM
March 9	ACC Semi-Final #2	9:00 PM
March 9	Big XII Semi-Final #2	9:00 PM
March 9	AAC Quarter-Final #4	9:00 PM
March 9	SEC Quarter-Final #4	9:00 PM
March 9	Mountain West Semi-Final #1	9:00 PM
March 9	Mountain West Semi-Final #2	11:30 PM
March 10	Big West Semi-Final #1	Midnight
March 10	America East Championship	11:00 AM
March 10	Ivy League Semi-Final #1	12:30 PM
March 10	AAC Semi-Final #1	1:00 PM
March 10	SEC Semi-Final #1	1:00 PM
March 10	MEAC Championship	1:00 PM
March 10	Atlantic-10 Semi-Final #1	1:00 PM
March 10	SEC Semi-Final #2	3:00 PM
March 10	Ivy League Semi-Final #2	3:00 PM
March 10	AAC Semi-Final #2	3:30 PM
March 10	Atlantic-10 Semi-Final #2	3:30 PM
March 10	SWAC Championship	5:00 PM
March 10	Mountain West Championship	6:00 PM
March 10	Big XII Championship	6:00 PM
March 10	Big East Championship	6:30 PM
March 10	MAC Championship	7:00 PM
March 10	Big Sky Championship	8:00 PM
March 10	ACC Championship	8:30 PM
March 10	Conference USA Championship	8:30 PM
March 10	Southland Championship	9:00 PM
March 10	WAC Championship	10:00 PM
March 11	Big West Championship	Midnight
March 11	Ivy League Championship	Noon
March 11	Atlantic-10 Championship	1:00 PM
March 11	SEC Championship	1:00 PM
March 11	Sun Belt Championship	2:00 PM
March 11	AAC Championship	3:30 PM
March 11	Selection Sunday	5:30 PM

A few notes:

• Again I wonder if they shouldn’t put more tournaments in New York and Las Vegas.  It’s getting ridiculous at this point.
• As of right now there is no TSN information on what will be appearing on any of the five channels when it comes to conference tournament action.  Last year there were a few games so I assume at least one will migrate from the specialty pack to TSN.
• This year, Selection Sunday is not on CBS.  It’s on TBS in the States.  So this means, chances are, that the Selection Show will be on TSN.  As of this point I see nothing in the TSN schedule that says that would be the case.  The ESPN Bracketology show is on at 7:00 on March 11th, just after the selections are announced.
• I don’t know what it going on with the ACC Network telecasts.  Last year some of the ACC tournament games ended up there and on the specialty pack; some were just on the ACC Network (so WSBK, WNLO and a few others up here); and some were just on the specialty pack.  The ACC Championship also ended up on TSN.  So it’s a crapshoot at this point.  It’s the second-last season this will occur before the true ACC Network is up and running and the specialty pack has to add more games (and hopefully more channels).  UPDATE #5: From what I can see, these ACC tournament games will end up on Peachtree TV for some reason.  Didn’t think ACC Network games ended up there but there you go.  Don’t see them on WSBK or WNLO at all.  However, for the semi-finals and championship, the games WILL be on WSBK and WNLO (and all other ACC Network affiliates).  I give up.
  

UPDATE #1: Might as well start numbering them now.  Starting to get some info for TSN.  The two ACC semi-final games will be on TSN2 on the 9th starting at 7:00.  This means it will come off the specialty pack.

UPDATE #2:  Not really an update but more of an explanation.  Like last year, the Brier runs from March 3rd until the 11th…so right in the heart of conference tournament time.  Those ACC semi-final games are the first games TSN will be showing this entire conference tournament season.  I don’t expect more than one or two games on the weekend to go to TSN (and chances are they will go to TSN2 since the rest of the stations are being used for Brier coverage).

UPDATE #3: The Big XII and ACC title games on March 10th will be on TSN5.

UPDATE #4: The SEC Championship will be on TSN2 on March 11th.

The NCAA Tournament First Four starts March 13^th with the actual tournament (you know, the one you can do your bracket selections in) starting March 15^th.  The First Four is only on TSN GO.  Same with a few games in the first round of the tournament.  After that, pretty much everything is on at least one of the TSN networks, as well as CBS.

I will be doing, I assume, quite a few updates on this post for the next week and a bit.  It’s what happened last year so I have to assume it’s the same this time around.

Next post will be another mock draft post.  Hold your applause.  It’s the third version of it so I will go back and forth as to whether to make myself look dumb by going to two rounds or keep the stupidity to a minimum and go with one round.  I’ll see how I feel.

So other than that there is not a whole lot to post about, at least for the next couple months.  The dead period is upon us my friends.

2017 NCAA Basketball Conference Tournament TV Schedule

It’s time once again for NCAA Basketball conference tournament time.  Since I have the U.S. College Sports Package, college basketball games are foisted upon me whether I like it or not.  It gives me gratuitous Rece Davis, shirtless Bill Walton, and small conference games in half-empty arenas.  Huzzah!

After last year’s success (I guess?) with posting the conference tournament schedule I figured I would do it again.  I will actually watch some of these games, I promise.  It will get me set up to fail yet again at any March Madness pool I enter (although last year I actually won…I know, crazy right?)

Alright, enough of that crap, here’s the schedule in all its glory!  Just a note, if you see the Bell and Rogers logos, it means it is in their specialty pack.  As far as I know, SEC Network games are on Rogers now so there are no issues there.

March 3	OVC Semi-Final #1	7:30 PM
March 3	OVC Semi-Final #2	10:00 PM
March 4	Missouri Valley Semi-Final #1	3:30 PM
March 4	Missouri Valley Semi-Final #2	6:00 PM
March 4	OVC Championship	8:00 PM
March 4	WCC Quarter-Final #3	10:00 PM
March 5	WCC Quarter-Final #4	12:30 AM
March 5	Patriot League Semi-Final #1	12:00 PM
March 5	Big South Championship	12:00 PM
March 5	Missouri Valley Championship	2:00 PM
March 5	Patriot League Semi-Final #2	2:00 PM
March 5	Atlantic Sun Championship	3:00 PM
March 6	SoCon Championship	7:00 PM
March 6	Horizon League Semi-Final #1**	7:00 PM
March 6	CAA Championship	7:00 PM
March 6	MAAC Championship	9:00 PM
March 6	WCC Semi-Final #1	9:00 PM
March 6	Horizon League Semi-Final #2	9:30 PM
March 6	WCC Semi-Final #2	11:30 PM
March 7	ACC First Round Game #1	12:00 PM
March 7	ACC First Round Game #2	2:30 PM
March 7	Horizon League Championship	7:00 PM
March 7	NEC Championship	7:00 PM
March 7	ACC First Round Game #3	7:00 PM
March 7	WCC Championship	9:00 PM
March 7	Summit League Championship	9:00 PM
March 8	ACC Second Round Game #1	12:00 PM
March 8	ACC Second Round Game #2	2:30 PM
March 8	Big Ten First Round Game #1	4:30 PM
March 8	ACC Second Round Game #3	7:00 PM
March 8	Big XII First Round Game #1	7:00 PM
March 8	Big Ten First Round Game #2	7:00 PM
March 8	SEC First Round Game #1	7:00 PM
March 8	Patriot League Championship	7:30 PM
March 8	ACC Second Round Game #4	9:30 PM
March 8	Big XII First Round Game #2	9:30 PM
March 8	SEC First Round Game #2	9:30 PM
March 9	ACC Quarter-Final #1	12:00 PM
March 9	Big Ten Second Round Game #1	12:00 PM
March 9	Big XII Quarter-Final #1	12:30 PM
March 9	SEC Second Round Game #1	1:00 PM
March 9	ACC Quarter-Final #2	2:30 PM
March 9	Big Ten Second Round Game #2	2:30 PM
March 9	Big XII Quarter-Final #2	3:00 PM
March 9	Big Ten Second Round Game #2	2:30 PM
March 9	Mountain West Quarter-Final #1	3:00 PM
March 9	SEC Second Round Game #2	3:30 PM
March 9	AAC First Round Game #1	3:30 PM
March 9	Mountain West Quarter-Final #2	5:30 PM
March 9	Big Ten Second Round Game #3	6:30 PM
March 9	ACC Quarter-Final #3	7:00 PM
March 9	Big XII Quarter-Final #3	7:00 PM
March 9	SEC Second Round Game #3	7:00 PM
March 9	Mountain West Quarter-Final #3	9:00 PM
March 9	Big Ten Second Round Game #4	9:00 PM
March 9	ACC Quarter-Final #4	9:30 PM
March 9	Big XII Quarter-Final #4	9:30 PM
March 9	SEC Second Round Game #4	9:30 PM
March 9	Mountain West Quarter-Final #4	11:30 PM
March 9	Pac-12 Quarter-Final #4	11:30 PM
March 10	Big Ten Quarter-Final #1	12:00 PM
March 10	AAC Quarter-Final #1	12:00 PM
March 10	Conference USA Semi-Final #1	12:30 PM
March 10	SEC Quarter-Final #1	1:00 PM
March 10	Big Ten Quarter-Final #2	2:30 PM
March 10	AAC Quarter-Final #2	2:30 PM
March 10	Conference USA Semi-Final #2	3:00 PM
March 10	SEC Quarter-Final #2	3:30 PM
March 10	MAC Semi-Final #2	5:30 PM
March 10	Big Ten Quarter-Final #3	6:30 PM
March 10	ACC Semi-Final #1	7:00 PM
March 10	Big XII Semi-Final #1	7:00 PM
March 10	AAC Quarter-Final #3	7:00 PM
March 10	SEC Quarter-Final #3	7:00 PM
March 10	MAC Semi-Final #2	8:00 PM
March 10	Big Ten Quarter-Final #4	9:00 PM
March 10	ACC Semi-Final #2	9:30 PM
March 10	Big XII Semi-Final #2	9:30 PM
March 10	AAC Quarter-Final #4	9:30 PM
March 10	SEC Quarter-Final #4	9:30 PM
March 10	Mountain West Semi-Final #1	10:00 PM
March 10	Pac-12 Semi-Final #2	11:30 PM
March 10	Big West Semi-Final #2	11:55 PM
March 11	Mountain West Semi-Final #2	12:30 AM
March 11	America East Championship	11:00 AM
March 11	Big Ten Semi-Final #1	1:00 PM
March 11	SEC Semi-Final #1	1:00 PM
March 11	MEAC Championship	1:00 PM
March 11	Atlantic 10 Semi-Final #1	1:00 PM
March 11	Ivy League Semi-Final #1**	1:30 PM
March 11	AAC Semi-Final #1	3:00 PM
March 11	SEC Semi-Final #2	3:30 PM
March 11	Big Ten Semi-Final #2	3:30 PM
March 11	Atlantic 10 Semi-Final #2	3:30 PM
March 11	Ivy League Semi-Final #2**	4:00 PM
March 11	Big East Championship	5:30 PM
March 11	AAC Semi-Final #2	5:30 PM
March 11	Mountain West Championship	6:00 PM
March 11	Big XII Championship	6:00 PM
March 11	SWAC Championship	6:15 PM
March 11	MAC Championship	7:30 PM
March 11	Conference USA Championship	8:30 PM
March 11	Big Sky Championship	8:30 PM
March 11	ACC Championship	9:00 PM
March 11	Southland Championship	9:30 PM
March 11	WAC Championship	11:00 PM
March 11	Pac-12 Championship	11:30 PM
March 11	Big West Championship	11:30 PM
March 12	Ivy League Championship	12:00 PM
March 12	Atlantic 10 Championship	12:30 PM
March 12	SEC Championship	1:00 PM
March 12	Sun Belt Championship	2:00 PM
March 12	Big Ten Championship	3:00 PM
March 12	AAC Championship	3:15 PM
March 12	Selection Sunday	5:30 PM

UPDATE #1: We already start with the updates and the tourneys haven’t even started.  The Big South Championship has been moved up to Noon on the 5th.  UPDATE #2: The MAAC Title game has been moved back to 9:00 pm on the 6th.  UPDATE #3: The Ivy League Semi-Finals still not appearing on the specialty pack guide.  UPDATE #6: The Horizon League first semi-final game is still not appearing on the guide.  It should because it’s on ESPNU so I will keep looking to see if, and when, it shows up.  UPDATE #7: It’s less than 24 hours away and still no Horizon League Semi-Final #1 on the guide.  It may still air but it’s unlikely to appear on the guide beforehand.  UPDATE #8: OK now the ACC tournament games tomorrow aren’t appearing either.  They were yesterday.  I don’t know anymore what’s going on here.

A few notes:

• There will be no conference tournament games on MyTV (American Sports Network).
• The Big XII Championship, ACC Championship, and SEC Championship are all slated to appear on TSN2.  As of right now they are also appearing in the specialty pack guide.  That should change in the next few days.  UPDATE #4: None of these games appear on the specialty pack guide now.  All just on TSN2 (with the ACC Championship also on MyTV).
• I don’t remember if Selection Sunday was shown on TSN as well as CBS or not last season.  I can’t see anything that says that it is on TSN this year or not so for now, let’s go with it not appearing there.  UPDATE #5: Selection Sunday will only be on CBS.
• Most of this is set in stone even if it is not appearing as such on the guides.

The NCAA Tournament First Four starts March 14^th with the actual tournament (you know, the one you can do your bracket selections in) starting March 16^th.  As far as I can tell, the First Four will only be available on TSN GO and not one of the TSN networks.

I am guessing my next post will be my next iteration of the mock draft.  Trying to determine if I should stick with one round for now or expand it to two rounds.  Either way, most of it will be wrong anyway.

Other than NFL Draft news, there is not a ton I will be reporting on over the next month or so.  I guess it is what it is.  Not happy about it but if we had football on all the time we would have never have the chance to miss it, right?  At least that’s what I tell myself.

Still Way-way-way-too early Bowl Projections

It’s getting better though.  I mean at least the first set of College Football Playoff rankings are out.  And lo and behold, there is already a lot of debate about them.  Texas A&M at #4 and Washington at #5.  Add Ohio State at #6 and it becomes a bit confusing.  The Aggies are obviously in the 4-spot because of their strength of schedule.  So why is Ohio State below Washington then when their only loss is to a Penn State team who somehow got to #12?  Again, this will clear itself up but there will be hiccups along the way.  It also gives every college football media person a chance to give their CFP picks and debate about it ad nauseum.

Alright on to the task at hand.  Bowl projections.  OK just hear me out.  Yes it is still really too early.  But at least now my projections can make some sense (unlike my predictions before the start of the season which were terrible this year).  Let’s start with my CFP projections:

December 31, 2016	7:00	Fiesta Bowl	Clemson	Washington
December 31, 2016	3:00	Peach Bowl	Alabama	Ohio State

I think tOSU will beat Michigan in The Game and then win the Big Ten Championship.  The other three will win out.  Makes it very easy to select the top four.  Tough luck Big XII.  Now onto the New Year’s Six bowls:

January 2, 2017	8:30	Sugar Bowl	Texas A&M	Oklahoma
January 2, 2017	5:00	Rose Bowl	Michigan	Utah
January 2, 2017	1:00	Cotton Bowl	North Carolina	Western Michigan
December 30, 2016	8:00	Orange Bowl	Louisville	Wisconsin

The five conference tie-ins plus Western Michigan are relatively easy picks.  It’s the other at-large and the shared tie-in for the Orange Bowl that becomes a bit of a prickly issue.  For those two spots I would have to select from Baylor, North Carolina, Wisconsin, Virginia Tech, and LSU.  I believe the Hokies and Heels would both win out, meaning VT would get to the ACC Championship Game.  A loss to Clemson there would actually bump them below UNC in the pecking order, giving the Fighting Fedoras a spot opposite WMU in the Cotton Bowl.  As for the Orange Bowl spot, it would be down to a Big Ten or SEC team: so Wisconsin or LSU.  Even with a Big Ten Championship loss I think Wisconsin would have the resume to get the nod over LSU.  Then again, a lot can change between now and the beginning of December.

Finally, here are the other projections:

January 2, 2017	1:00	Outback Bowl	Florida	Nebraska
December 31, 2016	11:00	TaxSlayer Bowl	Tennessee	Florida State
December 31, 2016	11:00	Citrus Bowl	LSU	Penn State
December 30, 2016	5:30	Arizona Bowl	New Mexico	Georgia Southern
December 30, 2016	3:30	Music City Bowl	Arkansas	Northwestern
December 30, 2016	2:30	Sun Bowl	Stanford	North Carolina
December 30, 2016	12:00	Liberty Bowl	Auburn	TCU
December 29, 2016	9:00	Alamo Bowl	Washington State	Baylor
December 29, 2016	5:30	Belk Bowl	Kentucky	Wake Forest
December 29, 2016	2:00	Birmingham Bowl	Ole Miss	Temple
December 28, 2016	9:00	Texas Bowl	Georgia	West Virginia
December 28, 2016	5:30	Russell Athletic Bowl	Oklahoma State	Virginia Tech
December 28, 2016	2:00	Pinstripe Bowl	Minnesota	Miami
December 27, 2016	10:15	Cactus Bowl	UCLA	Kansas State
December 27, 2016	7:00	Holiday Bowl	Iowa	Colorado
December 27, 2016	3:30	Military Bowl	Pittsburgh	USF
December 27, 2016	12:00	Heart of Dallas Bowl	Colorado State*	Southern Miss
December 26, 2016	5:00	Independence Bowl	South Carolina	Western Kentucky
December 26, 2016	2:30	Quick Lane Bowl	Maryland	Eastern Michigan
December 26, 2016	11:00	St. Petersburg Bowl	Georgia Tech	Houston
December 24, 2016	8:00	Hawaii Bowl	Hawaii	Middle Tennessee
December 23, 2016	8:00	Dollar General Bowl	Ohio	Arkansas State
December 23, 2016	4:30	Armed Forces Bowl	Navy	Texas
December 23, 2016	1:00	Bahamas Bowl	Tulsa	Akron
December 22, 2016	10:30	Foster Farms Bowl	Indiana	USC
December 22, 2016	7:00	Idaho Potato Bowl	San Diego State	Toledo
December 21, 2016	9:00	Poinsettia Bowl	BYU	Air Force
December 20, 2016	7:00	Boca Raton Bowl	Cincinnati	Old Dominion
December 19, 2016	2:30	Miami Beach Bowl	Memphis	Ball State
December 17, 2016	9:00	New Orleans Bowl	Louisiana Tech	Appalachian State
December 17, 2016	5:30	Camellia Bowl	Central Michigan	Troy
December 17, 2016	5:30	Cure Bowl	Boston College**	Idaho
December 17, 2016	3:30	Las Vegas Bowl	Arizona State	Boise State
December 17, 2016	2:00	New Mexico Bowl	Wyoming	South Alabama*

*conference cannot fill spot

**team with 5-7 record with highest APR score

To be honest I am totally guessing on the APR score.  It could be almost any 5-7 team.  I still cannot foresee a scenario where all the bowl slots will be filled with bowl-eligible teams.  Army cannot get in at 6-6 since they have two wins over FCS teams.  They would have to get to 7-5 and I don’t see that happening.  However, I don’t know if they would be included before a 5-7 team here.

At this point I see some pretty good pre-Christmas bowl matchups including BYU/Air Force at the Poinsettia, Arizona State/Boise State at the Las Vegas, and Navy/Texas at the Armed Forces.  There’s a good chance none of these will happen.  But remember the hype when there was that possibility that the Holy War between BYU and Utah would go to Vegas and then it happened.  People lost their minds about it.  It was almost the only hype on that entire day when all the bowl spots were handed out.  Which brings me back to my post I made about how I would fix the bowl games.  One idea is to make it like CBS’s Selection Sunday for the NCAA Tournament.  If ESPN could somehow make a show where most of the bowl selections are made live it would actually generate ratings and interest.  Won’t happen but hey, they can send me a message if they want: I have a ton of ideas.

Alright, tomorrow will be the CFB TV schedule, followed by the NFL version on Friday.  Tonight we got some more MACtion for you people with the specialty pack.  Toledo travels to Akron needing to win to keep their MAC West hopes alive.  Also, rumour has it there is an important baseball game tonight.  Enjoy!

NCAA Basketball Conference Tournament TV Schedule

As you all know (or will know now), I subscribe to the Bell U.S. College Sports Package. This entails getting all the college football games on ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, SEC Network (and a few from ESPN3 and the FSN – ACC feed).  It also entails getting the same thing with college basketball.  I am not really a college basketball fan but conference tournament time sometimes is fun to watch.  There are also a ton of games on at all sorts of times so it gives you some semblance of choice (at times).

For that reason, I figured it would make sense to compile a college basketball conference tournament schedule for the next two weeks. Understand that this schedule isn’t complete since TSN has only sent out info up until Mar. 11^th which is two days before the end of the regular season.

So without further adieu, here is the sked:

March-04-16	OVC Semi-Final #1	7:30 PM	SP
March-04-16	OVC Semi-Final #2	9:30 PM	SP
March-05-16	Missouri Valley Semi-Final #1	3:30 PM	CBSSN
March-05-16	OVC Championship	6:00 PM	SP
March-05-16	Missouri Valley Semi-Final #2	6:00 PM	CBSSN
March-05-16	WCC Quarter-Final #3	10:00 PM	SP
March-05-16	WCC Quarter-Final #4	11:55 PM	SP
March-06-16	Patriot League Semi-Final #1	12:00 PM	CBSSN
March-06-16	Missouri Valley Championship	2:00 PM	CBS
March-06-16	Patriot League Semi-Final #2	2:00 PM	CBSSN
March-06-16	Big South Championship	2:30 PM	SP
March-06-16	Atlantic Sun Championship	7:00 PM	SP
March-07-16	MAAC Championship	7:00 PM	SP
March-07-16	Horizon League Semi-Final #1	7:00 PM	SP
March-07-16	WCC Semi-Final #1	9:00 PM	SP
March-07-16	SoCon Championship	9:00 PM	SP
March-07-16	Horizon League Semi-Final #2	9:00 PM	SP
March-07-16	WCC Semi-Final #2	11:30 PM	SP
March-08-16	ACC First Round Game #1	12:00 PM	SP
March-08-16	ACC First Round Game #2	2:00 PM	SP
March-08-16	Horizon League Championship	7:00 PM	SP
March-08-16	NEC Championship	7:00 PM	SP
March-08-16	WCC Championship	9:00 PM	SP
March-08-16	Summit League Championship	9:00 PM	SP
March-09-16	ACC Second Round Game #1	12:00 PM	SP
March-09-16	ACC Second Round Game #2	2:00 PM	SP
March-09-16	Big Ten First Round Game #1	4:30 PM	SP
March-09-16	ACC Second Round Game #3	7:00 PM	SP
March-09-16	Big XII First Round Game #1	7:00 PM	SP
March-09-16	Big Ten First Round Game #2	7:00 PM	BTN
March-09-16	Patriot League Championship	7:30 PM	CBSSN
March-09-16	SEC First Round Game #1	8:00 PM	SP*
March-09-16	ACC Second Round Game #4	9:00 PM	SP
March-09-16	Big XII First Round Game #2	9:00 PM	SP
March-10-16	ACC Quarter-Final #1	12:00 PM	SP
March-10-16	Big Ten Second Round Game #1	12:00 PM	BTN
March-10-16	Big XII Quarter-Final #1	12:30 PM	SP
March-10-16	SEC Second Round Game #1	1:00 PM	SP*
March-10-16	ACC Quarter-Final #2	2:00 PM	SP
March-10-16	Big XII Quarter-Final #2	2:30 PM	SP
March-10-16	Big Ten Second Round Game #2	2:30 PM	BTN
March-10-16	SEC Second Round Game #2	3:00 PM	SP*
March-10-16	Mountain West Quarter-Final #1	3:00 PM	CBSSN
March-10-16	AAC First Round Game #1	3:30 PM	SP
March-10-16	Mountain West Quarter-Final #2	5:30 PM	CBSSN
March-10-16	Big Ten Second Round Game #3	6:30 PM	SP
March-10-16	ACC Quarter-Final #3	7:00 PM	SP
March-10-16	Big XII Quarter-Final #3	7:00 PM	SP
March-10-16	SEC Second Round Game #3	7:00 PM	SP*
March-10-16	Big Ten Second Round Game #4	8:30 PM	SP
March-10-16	ACC Quarter-Final #4	9:00 PM	SP
March-10-16	Big XII Quarter-Final #4	9:00 PM	SP
March-10-16	SEC Second Round Game #4	9:00 PM	SP*
March-10-16	Mountain West Quarter-Final #3	9:00 PM	CBSSN
March-10-16	Mountain West Quarter-Final #4	11:30 PM	CBSSN
March-11-16	Big Ten Quarter-Final #1	12:00 PM	SP
March-11-16	AAC Quarter-Final #1	12:00 PM	SP
March-11-16	SEC Quarter-Final #1	1:00 PM	SP*
March-11-16	Big Ten Quarter-Final #2	2:00 PM	SP
March-11-16	AAC Quarter-Final #2	2:00 PM	SP
March-11-16	SEC Quarter-Final #2	3:00 PM	SP*
March-11-16	Conference USA Semi-Final #1	4:00 PM	CBSSN
March-11-16	Conference USA Semi-Final #2	6:30 PM	CBSSN
March-11-16	Big Ten Quarter-Final #3	6:30 PM	BTN
March-11-16	ACC Semi-Final #1	7:00 PM	WSBK
March-11-16	Big XII Semi-Final #1	7:00 PM	TSN2/SP
March-11-16	AAC Quarter-Final #3	7:00 PM	SP
March-11-16	SEC Quarter-Final #3	7:00 PM	SP*
March-11-16	ACC Semi-Final #2	9:00 PM	WSBK/SP
March-11-16	Big XII Semi-Final #2	9:00 PM	TSN2/SP
March-11-16	AAC Quarter-Final #4	9:00 PM	SP
March-11-16	SEC Quarter-Final #4	9:00 PM	SP*
March-11-16	Mountain West Semi-Final #1	9:00 PM	CBSSN
March-11-16	Big Ten Quarter-Final #4	9:00 PM	BTN
March-11-16	Mountain West Semi-Final #2	11:30 PM	CBSSN
March-11-16	Big West Semi-Final #2	11:55 PM	SP
March-12-16	America East Championship	11:00 AM	SP
March-12-16	Big Ten Semi-Final #1	1:00 PM	CBS
March-12-16	SEC Semi-Final #1	1:00 PM	SP
March-12-16	MEAC Championship	1:00 PM	SP
March-12-16	Atlantic 10 Semi-Final #1	1:30 PM	CBSSN
March-12-16	SEC Semi-Final #2	3:00 PM	SP
March-12-16	AAC Semi-Final #1	3:00 PM	SP
March-12-16	Big Ten Semi-Final #2	3:30 PM	CBS
March-12-16	Atlantic 10 Semi-Final #2	4:00 PM	CBSSN
March-12-16	Big East Championship	5:30 PM	FOX
March-12-16	AAC Semi-Final #2	5:30 PM	SP
March-12-16	Mountain West Championship	6:00 PM	CBS
March-12-16	Big XII Championship	6:00 PM	TSN2
March-12-16	SWAC Championship	6:30 PM	SP
March-12-16	MAC Championship	7:30 PM	SP
March-12-16	Big Sky Championship	8:45 PM	SP
March-12-16	ACC Championship	9:00 PM	WSBK/SP
March-12-16	Southland Championship	9:30 PM	SP
March-12-16	WAC Championship	11:00 PM	SP
March-12-16	Big West Championship	11:30 PM	SP
March-13-16	Atlantic 10 Championship	1:00 PM	CBS
March-13-16	SEC Championship	1:00 PM	TSN2
March-13-16	Sun Belt Championship	1:00 PM	SP
March-13-16	AAC Championship	3:15 PM	SP
March-13-16	Big Ten Championship	3:30 PM	CBS
March-13-16	Selection Sunday	5:30 PM	CBS

A few notes:

• None of the major conferences really start their tourneys until March 8^th. That’s the day you will start to see a lot of games during the day.
• As far as I can tell, TSN only has the two Big XII semi-final games on the 11^th. They will probably have at least one game on the 12^th. I don’t know about the 13^th since there are only five games on plus the new expanded two-hour Selection Sunday show.
• Not everything is set in stone, especially when it comes to the specialty packs and MyTV broadcasts. As it gets closer to the beginning of the games on the 4^th, the schedule should, for the most part, be set.

The NCAA Tournament First Four starts March 15^th with the actual tournament (you know, the one you can do your bracket selections in) starting March 17^th.

UPDATE #1: All games originally on MyTV have been removed.  UPDATE #2: All games originally on WSBK up until the end of March 10th have been removed.  Only the ACC semi-finals and championship are on WSBK.  All ACC tournament games to appear on the specialty pack however.  UPDATE #3: Big XII Championship moved to TSN2.  UPDATE #4: SEC Tournament games on SEC Network denoted by asterisk (*) and will only be seen on Bell.  UPDATE #5: ACC Semi-Finals will only be seen on WSBK and not the specialty packs for some reason.  UPDATE #6: As of right now, the Big XII Semi-Finals and Championship game are on both TSN2 and the specialty pack.  I can see the games being moved off of the specialty pack at some point.  UPDATE #7: SEC Championship moved to TSN2.

My next mock draft is coming up soon as the NFL combine is now complete. Will be mid-next week at the latest.  God I miss football.

Also, in an unrelated note, I took a quick gander at the new plans for Bell’s skinny basic bundle. Wow, talk about terrible.  They are basically saying that unless you watch very little TV and no sports, there is no way we will allow you to save money.  The new sports package alone costs $25 and it contains TSNs 1, 2, 3, and 5 (not TSN4 for some stupid reason), the four Sportsnets, and Sportsnet One.  Not surprising but it still isn’t great.  Also, most of the pick n’ pay channels they are offering are $7 a pop.  So yeah, until true pick n’ pay comes in late 2016, I definitely won’t be changing my plan despite the fact I have way too many channels I never watch.  Sucks to be a sports fan in 2016.

Welcome to the Sun Belt a.k.a. the Super-SoCon! Where dreams of conference championships and bowl games come true!

It is a wonder that there aren’t other FCS schools clamoring to get into the Sun Belt.  I mean look at what Georgia Southern and Appalachian State did in their first year in the damn conference!  Teams should be lined up to join.

Now to be honest, there are rumblings that the Sun Belt is looking at the following schools in some form when it comes to expansion:

• Coastal Carolina
• Missouri State
• Liberty
• James Madison
• Eastern Kentucky

Whether these schools would want to join the Sun Belt (or Conference USA-lite) is another question altogether.  The SBC also has to figure out what they plan to do with New Mexico State and Idaho.  New Mexico State almost seems to be a program the SBC would want to bring in for all sports.  Idaho on the other hand may be on the outs if they bring other programs in.  They are more of a geographical outlier than NMSU is and their football team has been mostly atrocious for the better part of forever.  Their basketball team doesn’t hold a candle to NMSU’s (which is almost always a contender to get into the NCAA Tournament).  Don’t be surprised if they are either back as an independent or dropping to the Big Sky as soon as next season.

Alright, doing something a bit different this year with predictions.  I still do them the same way (“play out” all the games in the schedule and determine standings and bowls from there).  One thing is I am starting with the Group of Five conferences and the Independents and then ending with the Power Five conferences.  I’m also not doing the team-by-team run through.  I will post my predicted standings and then throw in some news and notes and things of that nature.

Without further adieu, here’s the first set of predicted standings from the Frank Grimes of FBS conferences, the Sun Belt:

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

Notes

• Expect the two newbies from FCS-land (Georgia Southern and Appy State) to pretty much dominate the conference this season.  There could be a bit of a challenge from the always-tough Arkansas State and Hulk Hudspeth’s Ragin’ Cajuns but for the most part, this is the Eagles and Mountaineers’ conference to lose.
• Texas State should be bowl-eligible and should actually be selected for a bowl this season.  Dennis Franchione works his magic again.  Now we just have to wait for Texas State to become successful, move on to Conference USA, then he can resign in a controversial manner (Message behind a plane?  Cocktail napkins for all players and coaches?  YouTube video while he’s in his track pants and a mustard-stained wife beater in an obviously grungy shithole apartment?)
• ULM and South Alabama seem like the type of teams that could play spoiler.  Other than that, there is almost no way ULM replicates two seasons ago and USA replicates last season.
• South Alabama has the built-in cheer.  If they ever end up on the main ESPN network even one time I can see a bit of a Twitter blowup of “patriotic” people loving every second of the 187 U-S-A chants during the game.
• New Mexico State should be improved but not enough to hit the .500 mark.  What makes it worse is now with Ga. Southern and Appalachian State, they fall farther down the pecking order.  If they were smart, when (not if) the Sun Belt comes calling for full membership, they take it, dominate in basketball and hopefully improve enough to become a quasi-threat in this conference.
• Back to Hulk Hudspeth, when does he get a call from a school farther up the food chain?  I can’t see any other coaches looking towards the promised land (most P5 schools) from the SBC for various reasons: too new to FBS (e.g. Willie Fritz – Ga. Southern), too new to the program (e.g. Blake Anderson – Ark St) or pretty much sucking at head coaching in the SBC so why would they get an opportunity elsewhere? (e.g. Paul Petrino, Idaho).
• As I’ve said before, I think Idaho is on their last legs in the Sun Belt.  First of all, how sunny is it in Moscow, Idaho (it sounds like it’s pretty gloomy all the time)?  Secondly, the market they are in is Moscow, Idaho which makes Boise look like Los Angeles in comparison.  Finally, they can’t be good one out of every twenty years in football and expect to hang around.  The Mountain West rejected their sorry asses and I have a feeling the Big Sky will be getting a new member soon (if even they want the Vandals).  I don’t mean to be harsh but I can honestly say that I believe this program will be the worst FBS team of 2015.
• The answer about deregulation of conference championships is hanging over the Sun Belt’s head at this point.  Expanding to get to 12 teams so they can do a conference championship (and get more $$$) is a good thing unless you don’t have to do it in the first place.  The answer is supposed to come sometime late this year.  If the NCAA allows conference championships for any conference, it may slow down to a crawl the Sun Belt’s dive into expansion.  If the NCAA retains the two-division conference model for conference championships then it’s a matter of how quick can the SBC get these new teams in.

That’s it, that’s all for round one of conference predictions.  Next up will be the Independents…all three of them.  With one having a pretty ironclad affiliation with one conference and another coming just short of begging to be in a conference.  Me thinks Army may be all on its lonesome one of these days.  And no I won’t be calling it Army West Point for now.  Just Army.