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!

Bowl Games? Yep. New Year’s Six? Sure. College Football Playoff? Uh-huh. Coaching Hot Seat List? Why not? My Heisman Ballot? I mean, if you have to…

Posted on August 8, 2023 by guelphbossman

Hey remember last year when I dumped all that stuff I mentioned above into one post? Guess what I’m doing again.

Look, you could say that it would take the same amount of time to put all this in separate posts. And you’d be wrong. These tags don’t just create themselves. Although if there is a way to do tags automatically I would feel like a big fucking moron. Oh well, I’m just going to keep on living thinking I have to type in all the pertinent tags to this post. Ignorance is bliss!

Let’s start with some postseason predictions. You read the two posts where I predicted the standings for all the conferences (and those four mangy Independents). At least I hope you did. If not, you might want to so it can prepare you for this because, ho boy, this could cause some people to think twice about my mental capacity. We begin with the top of the mountain, the College Football Playoff. Here is what I think the semi-finals will look like along with the rankings of the teams involved:

January 1st	Sugar Bowl	#1 Georgia	#4 Florida State
January 1st	Rose Bowl	#2 Michigan	#3 Alabama

Am I close to the experts’ picks? I don’t really know. I think Georgia is the easiest call here but the road to get there isn’t easy. Their regular season loss to Tennessee means they had to beat Alabama in the SEC Championship to be in the Top 4. I believe they do. I also believe Bama, being #1 going into conference championship weekend, wouldn’t fall four spots on a single loss to one of the best teams in the nation. So they stay in at #3 which I am sure will cause a ton of people to become irrational and use Twitter as a ridiculous sounding board and causing people to not want to talk about college football. Sorry…use X as a ridiculous sounding board and cause people to not want to talk about college football on social media. X. What a dumb fucking name. Anyway, Michigan should get in with a in in the Big Ten Championship, even if it is over a Minnesota team that would be near the bottom of the Top 25 going in. Finally, remember what I said about the Tide? Triple that hatred for this one. Florida State, I predict, will beat Clemson for the ACC title. The Tigers would come in to the game at #2 and FSU would be #5. I have the Noles moving up a spot and the Tigers being that one-loss team that loses out in this bunch. The amount of venom spewed by college football media and fans about this, rightly or wrongly, would be way over the top. I think it would be the first time (and would be the only time) that a team goes into conference championship weekend undefeated, loses, and tumbles out of the College Football Playoff when the smoke clears. And because of that, I hope this, or something like this happens because we need a ton of chaos for the final four-team CFP ever.

Now we go to the next tier down: the New Year’s Six. The final New Year’s Six. I would shed a tear but it feels like it’s hardly been around long enough:

January 1st	Fiesta Bowl	#9 USC	#11 Ohio State
December 30th	Orange Bowl	#5 Clemson	#7 Tennessee
December 30th	Peach Bowl	#8 Penn State	#10 Notre Dame
December 29th	Cotton Bowl	#6 Texas	#14 UTSA

Do the games look interesting? Absolutely. Could there be some debate as to who is here, who isn’t and where everyone should go (and how they get there)? Absolutely. Am I backing down from these predictions? Absolutely not. I mean if this was the 12-team playoff, I am sure people would debate that as well but you can’t tell me none of these teams would be worthy of being there. That’s crazy. “Durr, Texas doesn’t deserve to be there. They won’t even be bowl-eligible.” Yeah go fuck yourself if you think that. That’s just plain dumb.

Alright, enough anger, more analysis. Let’s start with Clemson since that’s the easiest one to explain. They were #2 and undefeated, lost to Florida State in the ACC Championship, so they get the Orange Bowl spot reserved for the top ACC team remaining. Simple. The Pac-12, in their final unglorious season, will again beat each other up making it impossible for one team to come out unscathed. So the ninth-ranked Trojans will head to the Fiesta Bowl after winning the Pac-12 title. Ohio State slots in as their opponent although it could easily be Penn State. The reasoning here is that tOSU already plays Notre Dame during the season and it makes more sense for USC to play in Phoenix than Penn State for bowl season. Those Longhorns I mentioned? They go off into the sunset, leaving the Big XII as conference champions. It puts them in the Cotton Bowl against the best Group of Five team. I think Tulane almost runs the table during the regular season and gets a pretty healthy lead in the rankings over the next best teams, UTSA and Boise State. The Roadrunners’ win in the AAC Championship would trump anything the Broncos do and, should be enough to leapfrog the Green Wave to sneak into the final NY6 spot. Let’s be honest here: Texas-UTSA at AT&T Stadium for the Cotton Bowl is an instant sellout, no doubt about it.

Now for the rest of the bowl extravaganza:

January 1st	Citrus Bowl	#12 LSU	Minnesota
January 1st	ReliaQuest Bowl	#20 South Carolina	Michigan State
December 30th	Arizona Bowl	San Diego State	Toledo
December 30th	Music City Bowl	Ole Miss	#17 Iowa
December 29th	Liberty Bowl	Texas A&M	#16 TCU
December 29th	Sun Bowl	Duke	#24 Utah
December 29th	Gator Bowl	Kentucky	#21 North Carolina
December 28th	Alamo Bowl	#19 Kansas State	#18 Oregon
December 28th	Pop Tarts Bowl	Pittsburgh	Oklahoma
December 28th	Pinstripe Bowl	Maryland	Louisville
December 28th	Fenway Bowl	Syracuse	FAU
December 27th	Texas Bowl	Arkansas	Baylor
December 27th	Holiday Bowl	Miami	#13 Oregon State
December 27th	Duke’s Mayo Bowl	Wake Forest	Auburn
December 27th	Military Bowl	NC State	#15 Tulane
December 26th	Guaranteed Rate Bowl	San Jose State	Oklahoma State
December 26th	First Responder Bowl	UCF	East Carolina
December 26th	Quick Lane Bowl	Illinois	Ohio
December 23rd	Hawaii Bowl	SMU	Fresno State
December 23rd	Las Vegas Bowl	#23 Wisconsin	Washington State
December 23rd	68 Ventures Bowl	South Alabama	Middle Tennessee
December 23rd	Idaho Potato Bowl	Air Force	Miami-OH
December 23rd	Armed Forces Bowl	Kansas	UTEP
December 23rd	Birmingham Bowl	Mississippi State	North Texas
December 23rd	Camellia Bowl	Appalachian State	New Mexico State
December 22nd	Gasparilla Bowl	UCLA	James Madison
December 21st	Boca Raton Bowl	Coastal Carolina	UConn
December 19th	Frisco Bowl	Marshall	Navy
December 18th	Myrtle Beach Bowl	Southern Miss	Buffalo
December 16th	Independence Bowl	Texas Tech	Memphis
December 16th	LA Bowl	#22 Washington	#25 Boise State
December 16th	New Mexico Bowl	Wyoming	Louisiana
December 16th	Cure Bowl	Army	Georgia Southern
December 16th	New Orleans Bowl	Troy	WKU
December 16th	Bahamas Bowl	Eastern Michigan	Liberty

That is a lot of bowl games. I am not complaining. I am fully embracing the Sickos mentality of all football is good football. Even arena football if you can believe it! And why am I not complaining? Because I am desperate for the season to start. Talk to me in mid-December and I may have a slightly different answer. Some notes on these bowl games:

The teams that juuuuuuust missed out on the New Year’s Six train to nowhere include LSU, Oregon State, Tulane and TCU.
Quite a few teams would be playing close to home, including Mississippi State travelling to relatively close by Birmingham, Air Force with a not-so-long drive north into Idaho, South Alabama playing exactly 0 kilometres from their home stadium in the renamed 68 Ventures Bowl, Ohio venturing into hostile territory to play in the Quick Lane Bowl and Wake Forest making their way to hopefully get their coach dumped with mayo in the Duke’s Mayo Bowl.
Hey remember what I said two posts ago about James Madison and a surprise for their fans? I know that was a lot of reading ago. Look, there won’t be enough teams to satisfy all the bowl slots. I have a feeling that will be a trend going forward. And because of that, the Dukes will have the opportunity to go to a bowl if they are invited before the team with the best APR score. And I’m sure at least one bowl would do that since JMU should be good once again this season. Man, do I ever hate the transition rule. I get the first year coming up that you shouldn’t qualify for anything. Get your feet wet. Sure. Longer than that is just the NCAA being insufferable dicks and not updating policies that are over 50 years old.
As for those 5-7 teams making bowls they would be Georgia Southern, Buffalo, and Navy (which would kill my scenario for the Army-Navy Game).

I guess I should mention who I think will win the whole thing. Well, I’ve got Georgia beating Florida State and Michigan beating Bama in the semis and then the Wolverines ending the three-peat talk by beating the Dawgs in Houston for the title. Then Khaki Jim can ride off into the sunset…that sunset being back to the NFL.

Well look who is back in the FBS. Rich God Damn Rodriguez! He is at the helm of one of FBS’s newest teams, the Jacksonville State Gamecocks. I’m sure it won’t be an amazing season for the team but man, who thought he would be back at the top level of college football? Probably a few although I wondered if he was basically done being a head coach at this level. Shows what I know.

Hey, hey it’s HOT SEAT TIME! Last year my top two were jettisoned and Herm got an all-timer of an on-field shitcanning. I am still surprised some made it to this season (I am looking at you Mike Bloomgren) but all in all this list is a list I am actually proud of since I actually do well at it, as morbid as that sounds.

Alright let’s get to the list. Going with the new categorizations as well this time around. Let’s go!

Almost Guaranteed Shitcanning

Neal Brown (West Virginia) – He was #3 on my list last season and I honestly don’t know how he is still employed in Morgantown. And it’s not like things are looking super rosy there. Needed to keep his job – Honestly? A fucking miracle. Prediction – A mid-to-late-season shitcanning and no job next year as he starts quite a few rungs down the ladder in 2025.
Danny Gonzales (New Mexico) – Now let’s head to the southwest and a place that is very difficult to win at. Other than Rocky Long I don’t think anyone has really done anything of note in Albuquerque. The problem becomes how long do you give a coach a chance to win at a place where victories are at a premium? Honestly, Gonzales would be lower down the list if it wasn’t for what Jerry Kill did down the road in Las Cruces last year. Needed to keep his job – Vying for a bowl spot in the final two weeks of the regular season. Prediction – Near the bottom of the Mountain West pecking order yet again and maybe even a late-season firing.
Dana Holgorsen (Houston) – Look, Drunk Uncle Dana is entertaining. But the shtick gets old. And if they are as mediocre as I believe they will be in their first year in the Big XII, it’ll be lights out for Holgorsen. Needed to keep his job – Bowl eligibility, period. Prediction – I don’t think they will even have a shot at a bowl game in the final week of the season meaning Dana’s fate will be pretty much sealed by that point.
Eliah Drinkwitz (Missouri) – I don’t like harping on a guy’s looks but this guy looks more like Milton from Office Space than a college football head coach. Which is perfectly fine…if you win. This guy has hovered around .500 since coming to CoMo and I think a year under .500 would be the final straw. Needed to keep his job – At least a .500 record if not an upset or two inside the SEC. Prediction – I see him falling one game short of his goal and the athletic department feeling like they have to make a move now rather than wait.
Mike Neu (Ball State) – Neu has had his moments at Ball State but really hasn’t rose above an also-ran in the MAC. The Cardinals seem to consistently sit near the bottom of the MAC West which gives plenty of reason for a coach to get jettisoned. Needed to keep his job – Bowl eligibility. That’s it, that’s all. Prediction – I can’t see them winning more than four games this season so expect him to be the most likely MAC head coach to be fired first.

Probable Shitcanning

Ricky Rahne (Old Dominion) – Rahne really has not been able to recreate some of the magic that his predecessor, Bobby Wilder, had. I’m not saying the Monarchs were great under Wilder: but they were fun to watch and competed hard. Haven’t seen as much of that under Double R. Needed to keep his job – Be competitive and play some meaningful November football. Prediction – Quite possibly the worst Group of Five team and a tough decision to be made by the athletic director.
Tom Allen (Indiana) – Where are the 2020 Indiana Hoosiers? We can finally say that that version of the team was a complete aberration which sucks for their fans. Allen really is on borrowed time but there is the slight possibility he is kept on when the brand-new Big Ten starts next season without divisions. A SLIGHT possibility. Needed to keep his job – 4 or even 5 wins and looking more competitive against some better Big Ten teams. Prediction – 3 wins and a quiet exit (for Tom).
Mike Bloomgren (Rice) – The bloom comes off the rose yadda, yadda, yadda. One of these years I am going to be right about this guy. Not that I want to be: I am just genuinely befuddled as to why this guy is still the head coach at Rice. Needed to keep his job – Not looking like a punching bag moving up to the American Conference. Prediction – Four wins which isn’t bad but some bad losses inside the conference and finally his removal from the sidelines.

Possible Shitcanning

Billy Napier (Florida) – Napier suffers from the fact that even if the previous few coaches have ended up as disasters they had their successes as well. He hasn’t done anything and the Gators were barely bowl-eligible with a supposed franchise quarterback under centre. Now it’s a step back. It comes down to how far of a step back he will be allowed. Needed to keep his job – Bowl eligibility should do the trick. Prediction – I have them missing out on the postseason so there should be plenty of angry fans in Gainesville.
Brent Pry (Virginia Tech) – Poor Brent. Last season wasn’t too bad when he took over the Hokies. This season on the other hand…I don’t see good things in Blacksburg. Maybe I’ll be wrong (and lord knows I have been wrong in the past) but if it’s as tough a season as I think it will be for VaTech, Pry might be fine with being done as head coach. Needed to keep his job – Some improvement over last year. Prediction – I have the Hokies winning only one game this season. One. That is not improvement. At all.
Greg Schiano (Rutgers) – I don’t know where Rutgers goes from here. They’ve had a tough slog since joining the Big Ten. They are the butt of pretty much every realignment joke and meme. And I’m not sure firing Schiano, their best coach ever, will fix anything. But at some point, changes have to be made to at least try and improve. Needed to keep his job – At least 4 wins but more to be competitive inside the Big Ten. Prediction – 4 wins but the competitiveness part…yeah I don’t know about that.
Terry Bowden (ULM) – Same spot for Terry as last year. I honestly don’t know the end game for all of this. I can’t see him coaching the Warhawks into being a top notch Sun Belt team. Is he grooming the next head coach? It’s very confusing. That’s why I put him here and not higher up the list. Needed to keep his job – Have a better record than last year and put a scare into a few of the better Sun Belt teams. Prediction – Last year I predicted one win for them. This year it’s two. Something has to give at some point.
Shawn Elliott (Georgia State) – Look, it’s not like Georgia State is a destination coaching spot. Saying that, the Sun Belt has become a lot tougher over the past half-a-decade. So if you’re not moving forward, you’re falling further behind. And this is what it feels like with Georgia State. They aren’t getting worst but they aren’t improving and quite a few teams are leaving them in their dust. Needed to keep his job – Competitive football in November and possibility for bowl eligibility during the final week. Prediction – I have them at 4 wins this season so this could be an interesting off-season decision in Atlanta.
Scot Loeffler (Bowling Green) – This is Scott (with one T)’s fifth season at Bowling Green. I don’t know why that surprises me but it does. The Falcons really haven’t done anything other than sneak into one bowl game in his tenure. It is, however, Bowling Green so the expeectations are a lot lower here. At some point, though, thre has to be some semblance of results and this guy just isn’t delivering. Needed to keep his job – Bowl eligibility and looking like a contender in the MAC East. Prediction – No bowl game and they won’t look like a contender. Saying that, he may still be around for 2024 but on a very short leash.
Jeff Hafley (Boston College) – It has been a struggle on the Hill for Hafley and with no divisions there’s nowhere really to hide now in the ACC. The lack of success over the past decade-plus could be what keeps Hafley on for 2024. Needed to keep his job – 5 wins and having a shot at a bowl on the final weekend. Prediction – 5 wins and they will have two shots to claim bowl eligibilty and will fail at both but it will be enough for another year with Hafley.

Doubtful Shitcanning (although it still could happen)

Justin Wilcox (California) – Wilcox might not have to worry if Cal just shuts down the entire program. I’m only half-joking with that sentence. I think the athletic department has much bigger things to worry about right now. Meaning if Wilcox is fired it might be done by text. Needed to keep his job – Possible bowl contention. Prediction – They aren’t going to a bowl game and it looks like, for now, they have to be thinking about filling a schedule for 2024 more than dealing with their below-average head coach.
Mel Tucker (Michigan State) – Tucks signed for a lot of money to coach in East Lansing so last year better be an aberration. Let’s be honest: even with being in arguably the toughest division in college football, the Spartans will be much improved this season. Shouldn’t be much of a worry here unless they come out of the gate VERY slowly. Needed to keep his job – Probably 7 wins. Prediction – He will get them to 7 and maybe, just maybe, they will put a scare into one of the top three teams in the division.
Dana Dimel (UTEP) – Dimel must have been thanking his lucky stars once he saw the exodus from Conference USA. Having a few newcomers join makes things a bit easier for the Miners this year and gives Dimel one more year, almost certainly, on the job. Next season? Who knows. Needed to keep his job – Fighting for bowl eligibility during the final weekend. Prediction – They should be bowl eligible in early November so the pressure will be off…for now.
Thomas Hammock (Northern Illinois) – It feels like every other year at NIU things look good. And then every other year things look bad. And so forth. So it should be good this year in Dekalb, no?. Needed to keep his job – Look like a contender in the MAC West. Prediction – I have them at five wins so maybe they will shock me?
Don Brown (UMass) – Probably the toughest job for a head coach in FBS is being the head man at UMass. I have said for years now that the Minutemen should just drop to the FCS. I still think they should but I do understand the financial ramifications. Still, at some point don’t you think the fans yearn for something more than a couple of wins a season at most? Needed to keep his job – Win a game. Any game. Prediction – I think they win one game and I’m not guaranteeing it will be against their one FCS opponent. Brown should be fine going into 2024.

I think I say this ever year but I have to go back one day and really determine how good I am at this coaching hot seat list. I feel I do well and I hope the numbers would back me up. But I am used to disappointment so I am not holding my breath.

There’s a reason I don’t get a Heisman ballot. I am sure if even if I was the most prominent college football journalist in the land they would say “Sorry, Bossman, no can do.” Probably because my ballots have been mostly garbage in the past. Let’s see if I can somehow do better this year. Let’s just get to my ballot before I regret even posting this.

Bossman’s Heisman Ballot of Mediocrity

Jordan Travis, Florida State – I know everyone and their mother is picking Caleb Williams to win the Heisman. I can’t see that happening because voters almost seem to want to avoid giving any player not named Archie Griffin back-to-back Heismans and most of the time it goes to a player on a team that’s in the Top 4 (or close to it). Travis is predicted to at least go to New York for the ceremony so it’s not like I am way off here. Plus, I think his passing stats will explode as FSU hits the CFP for the first time in what feels like forever.
Caleb Williams, USC – Because I don’t have the Trojans winning the title this season or getting to the College Football Playoff is one of the main reasons I think Williams doesn’t win his second Heisman. He should be close to his passing stats from last season and at least he will make the voters think twice all year as he will never be far from the top of the Heisman hopefuls list.
Drake Maye, North Carolina – Maye is only a sophomore this season so he may be prepping for his true Heisman run in 2024. He will turn a lot of heads this season, though, with UNC battling FSU and Clemson at the top of the ACC.
Bo Nix, Oregon – Bo’s move from the SEC to the Pac-12 was huge and reinvigorated his fledgling career. Much of the Ducks’ hopes this year to win the Pac-12 in their swan song season rests on his shoulders and it is going to be a dogfight at the top. One huge game from Bo in a big conference game could put Oregon in the national title picture.
Marvin Harrison Jr., Ohio State – As long as the Buckeyes can figure out who is going to be flinging the ball over the field at quarterback, Harrison should have a monster season. There is an outside chance that he will be the #1 pick in the NFL Draft so I am sure he will be going all-out all season. As long as Ryan Day doesn’t decide to run the ball a lot more this season, Harrison is tOSU’s ticket to New York.
Michael Penix Jr., Washington – I believe that, as is the case lately, that the Pac-12 teams will beat each other up and no one will be high enough in the rankings to be in the CFP. For some players it’s not a huge issue (see: Williams, Caleb last year). For some, it’s the main reason they either don’t win the Heisman or don’t get invited to New York at all. I see Penix being one of those guys. Washington will be very good but not quite good enough and stuck in a group of six teams that are all pretty damn good this year. Playing out west doesn’t help either, despite what some may say.
J.J. McCarthy, Michigan – Here is the guy under center (centre?) who will finally push Michigan over the top this year. He won’t throw for a shit-ton of yards but it will be enough (along with this ground game) to put him in the Heisman conversation for a bit at least. A win over tOSU alone may give him the New York invite (if it was up to Michigan fans).
Quinn Ewers, Texas – Texas is probably a huge dark horse pick to win it all this year and Ewers has to be considered a bit of a dark horse Heisman cadidate. The only thing that could make this not the case is if he has a bad quarter or two and Sark gets an itchy trigger finger and puts Arch Manning in for longer than a few series.
Cade Klubnik, Clemson – The Fighting Dabos are going to be back on top…at least through the regular season. I don’t think many will be surprised with this. I’m not fully sold on Klubnik but he is an improvement on D.J. Uiagalelei and the Tigers defense will be able to pick up the slack when he struggles a bit. But those struggles will cost him a seat at the Heisman table I’m sure.
Jayden Daniels, LSU – Hey, have you ever remembred a time where the quality of the quarterbacks in the SEC has been this low? Not saying Daniels isn’t good because he is. But there are a few teams, Alabama and Georgia most notably, that have potential QB issues this season in the SEC and a few other teams that have returning quarterbacks that are honestly just above-average at best. Daniels may get some Heisman talk just because he may end up being that much better than any other QB in the conference.

Honourable Mention

Blake Corum, Michigan
Sam Hartman, Notre Dame
Joe Milton III, Tennessee
Braelon Allen, Wisconsin
Kyle McCord, Ohio State
Drew Allar, Penn State
Harold Perkins, LSU
Brock Bowers, Georgia
J.T. Tuimoloau, Ohio State

There you go. If one of those nineteen aforementioned players wins the Heisman, I will feel…well, good is not quite correct. Satisfied? Sure, let’s go with that.

The college football predictions…..they are complete! In a little less than half a year from now, I will find out how poorly I did. Gee, I can’t wait.

At some point soon I will do my lovely NFL predictions which are sure to also be not fully correct. Then…….Week…..Fucking…….ZERO!!!!!! I will have the schedule up at least a few days before the games commence. And yes, if you are looking for games on the specialty pack, don’t. Week Zero has almost never shown Week Zero games. Almost. Kind of a crapshoot with these idiotic Canadian cable companies. Enjoy your week everyone!

We got the Week Zero appetizer. Now it’s time for the Week 1 Main Course!

Posted on September 1, 2021 by guelphbossman

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! Yes we have made it to what is really the official start of the college football season. You can count Week Zero if you want, and I do, but let’s be honest: it’s merely a tiny appetizer to what’s ahead. Like getting a platter of nachos before your meal except there are only four nacho chips on the platter with a tiny bit of melted cheese, a splatter of salsa and no jalapenos. Week One…now that’s where it’s at. A meatier schedule that really immerses us (finally) in what college football is all about. It gets me back into doing sweet fuck all most Saturdays (if I can help it). Great times.

So let’s get right down to brass tacks. Here is the glorious Week 1 schedule (in high def).

Wednesday

		US	Canada
Jacksonville State at UAB	7:30 PM

Wednesday? WEDNESDAY! Man this is great. Now we have SIX nights of college football during Week 1. Just awesome. I mean this game probably won’t be that good but at least it will be at UAB’s new stadium and not at Legion Field which looked like it was going to collapse at any moment.

UPDATE #2: This game is not in Birmingham. I wonder if their new stadium isn’t ready yet. Instead it is in Montgomery, site of the legendary Camellia Bowl.

UPDATE #3: Maybe I should have waited. Thanks to Pete Thamel on Twitter, UAB’s new stadium opens in October.

Thursday

		US	Canada
Temple at Rutgers	6:30 PM
Boise State at UCF	7:00 PM
USF at NC State	7:30 PM
East Carolina vs. Appalachian State (in Charlotte)	7:30 PM
Weber State at #24 Utah	7:30 PM
#4 Ohio State at Minnesota	8:00 PM
Bowling Green at Tennessee	8:00 PM
Southern Utah at #25 Arizona State	10:30 PM

Pretty big time Group of Five start with Boise State heading to Orlando to face the Knights of UCF. And FOX has an opening week Thursday game! Noice! Nice to see them jump into the pool. Not like it’s a super competitive matchup but it’s put them in the weekday night game and that’s hugely important. A couple of things I have to mention before you get too far into reading this. I am still not quite sure that you can get the Pac-12 Network on DAZN here in Canada. You’re supposed to be able to get the P12N games on there but looking at the site, that might not be the case. I will have to dig further. The other thing is that the specialty packs are, well, there. I don’t see anything there in terms of a schedule yet but I assume these games will end up there as they normally do.

UPDATE #4: Temple-Rutgers has been moved to Saturday at Noon because of the weather issues in and around New York City and will still be able to be seen on BTN.

UPDATE #5: Thanks to reader Dan, we now know that the Pac-12 Network is not on DAZN. But it’s free (for now) on their YouTube page. Nice!

Friday

		US	Canada
#10 North Carolina at Virginia Tech	6:00 PM
Old Dominion at Wake Forest	7:00 PM
Duke at Charlotte	7:00 PM
Michigan State at Northwestern	9:00 PM
Northern Colorado at Colorado	9:00 PM

OK this is better than Thursday night…but not by much. North Carolina starts what could be their biggest campaign ever with a tough one in Blacksburg. We get a nice TSN doubleheader with ESPN’s stupid three-hour windows. They just never learn. Also, if you are a glutton for punishment, check out Duke face Charlotte. I honestly wouldn’t be surprised if the 49ers (not the San Francisco kind) beat Dook in what would be considered an upset but not a huge one.

Saturday Early

		US	Canada
#2 Oklahoma at Tulane (in Norman)	Noon
Colgate at Boston College	Noon
Fordham at Nebraska	Noon
Holy Cross at UConn	Noon
Western Michigan at Michigan	Noon
Army at Georgia State	Noon
#19 Penn State at #12 Wisconsin	Noon
ULM at Kentucky	Noon

A lot of games here. PSU-Wisky is a pretty massive game to start is off on Week 1. The winner here has the inside track on what could be a special Big Ten season (if they can beat Ohio State). We shall see if OU-Tulane will be played in New Orleans as the people of that area are dealing with Hurricane Ida as we speak. UPDATE: No. No it won’t be. It will be in Norman. And will Scott Frost be fired? If they somehow lose to Fordham then Frost might be fired during the post-game interview on the field.

Saturday Afternoon

		US	Canada
Fresno State at #11 Oregon	2:00 PM
#1 Alabama vs. #14 Miami (in Atlanta)	3:30 PM
#17 Indiana at #18 Iowa	3:30 PM
Marshall at Navy	3:30 PM
West Virginia at Maryland	3:30 PM
UMass at Pittsburgh	4:00 PM
Louisiana Tech at Mississippi State	4:00 PM
Central Michigan at Missouri	4:00 PM
#23 Louisiana at #21 Texas	4:30 PM
San Jose State at #15 USC	5:00 PM

Whoa now THIS is impressive for Week 1. Bama-Miami, if close, could be an amazing game. Indy-Iowa is a massive get for the Big Ten Network. The best game of the weekend could be FOX’s afternoon affair as the Ragin Cajuns look to pull off….I’m going to call it a VERY minor upset if they beat the Longhorns and only because it’s in Austin. Louisiana is that good and will be part of the Group of Five story all season. Don’t sleep on the Spartans heading to LA to play USC (if you get Pac-12 Network), WVU-Maryland could be quite close if Tagovailoa Dos can carry the Terps and LaTech heading to CLANGAland could be sneaky good. A lot of channel surfing/stream switching in this timeslot for sure.

Saturday Primetime

		US	Canada
Syracuse at Ohio	7:00 PM
Texas Tech vs. Houston (in NRG Stadium)	7:00 PM
#5 Georgia vs. #3 Clemson (in Charlotte)	7:30 PM
Northern Illinois at Georgia Tech	7:30 PM
UTSA at Illinois	7:30 PM
William & Mary at Virginia	7:30 PM
Florida Atlantic at #13 Florida	7:30 PM
Kent State at #6 Texas A&M	8:00 PM
Montana at #20 Washington	8:00 PM
#16 LSU at UCLA	8:30 PM

One game, obviously, is going to carry most of the hype. UGA-Clemson is a Game of the Year candidate but make no mistake about it: the loser is not out of the College Football Playoff picture by a longshot. The loser of this one could run the table and be as high as the #2 seed going into the CFP. UCLA showed that it will not be a pushover and that LSU should be ready for the Bruins. Sure it would be an upset if UCLA won but not a huge one and if they can pull it off, Chip Kelly might finally strike fear into the rest of the Pac-12 South. Glad to see most of the networks showing games in primetime unlike 2019 (I won’t discuss 2020 because that’s not fair). It means we get that good game on FOX. It means TTU-UH could be a lot of fun to watch and we get to see it. It means we get to see if Florida Atlantic and Kent State can follow up a good year with another good year. By this point we will all be on college football overload but I have faith we can all get through it and plow into the late night sked.

Saturday Late Night

		US	Canada
New Mexico State at San Diego State	10:30 PM
BYU vs. Arizona (in Las Vegas)	10:30 PM
Utah State at Washington State	11:00 PM

OK so it kind of falls off a cliff here. Can’t win ’em all. Here’s hoping at least one of these games is close since, on paper, none of them look to be.

Sunday

		US	Canada
Jackson State vs. Florida A&M (in Miami)	3:00 PM
Grambling vs. Tennessee State (in Canton)	4:00 PM
Fort Valley State vs. Tuskegee (in Montgomery)	7:00 PM
#9 Notre Dame at Florida State	7:30 PM

A lot of FCS action on the Sunday before Labour Day. Smart work by the HBCU schools to do this as it should get a lot of eyeballs on their games. I wonder if we will get the game in Canton here since the NFL Network can be a bit funny with their schedule when it comes to what Canadians get to watch. It feels like Florida State could cause the Irish some problems. Let’s all hope so or else it’s an early bedtime for everyone.

Monday

		US	Canada
Ole Miss at Louisville	8:00 PM

This may not look great but Ole Miss should be quite a good team this year. I mean at least their offense should be fun to watch with Lane Kiffin as the head coach. I’m glad the CFL (and TSN) ditched the stupid idea of putting the Labour Day Classic (Eastern edition) in primetime. Fucking dumb. Ti-Cats-Argos should be on at 1 and ~~Eskimos~~ Elks-Stamps on at around 4:30 or so. That’s tradition so keep it that way because there’s no reason not to.

Games to set your eyeballs on

Georgia vs. Clemson (in Charlotte) (7:30, ABC/TSN2) – This is one of the Game of the Year candidates and is a relatively easy choice for Week 1 Game of the Week. Could it be a national championship preview? Some think so. Not me, but I know some do. This is where we get to see if D.J. Uiagalelei wasn’t a flash in the pan after his two games last season. We get to see if J.T. Daniels (what is it with initialed quarterback first names?) is the real deal and a potential Heisman candidate. We also get to see two of the whitest, southernest coaches around. Now this is college football at it’s finest.

Penn State at Wisconsin (Noon, FOX) – BIG NOON SATURDAY gets a damn good game to start their season. I am somewhat positive this is where Gus and Joel will be but it’s not a guarantee with another great FOX game right afterwards (and another great one after that). This is probably going to be somewhat underhyped but is extremely important in the Big Ten scheme of things as if Ohio State trips up at some point this season, one of these two teams could be the one sneaking past into the top spot. After years of crap Week 1s, FOX really has hit it out of the park this year. I don’t expect this all season but at least it’s a good start.

Indiana at Iowa (3:30, BTN) – I’m not lying. BTN. The Big Ten Network. Every year this network gets one game that would easily be on either FOX or ESPN and somehow they nab it. The good thing about the way the Big Ten Network contract is structured because every team has to show up at least twice with one game being a conference game. This could be the closest game of the day and we shall see if the Hoosiers are still climbing or if Iowa will somehow Ferentz their way to a victory to open their season.

Louisiana at Texas (4:30, FOX) – I’m serious when I said above this would not be much of an upset if Louisiana won. The Ragin Cajuns are a serious contender for the single Group of Five New Year’s Six spot (although don’t be surprised if two or even three teams really push the envelope this season). And we all know what opening weekend Texas games are like. Really wild and completely wacky doesn’t quite cover it.

LSU at UCLA (8:30, FOX) – Yeah, all three FOX tripleheader games in the GOTW section. First time ever? I would check but I’m lazy so I’m going to say no, it has never happened before. If the Bruins’ performance in Week Zero is any indication as to what this team could be like, this game will be a ton of fun. Then again they were playing a Hawaii team that looked like it wasn’t ready to start the game at all. The Tigers lost their starting quarterback before the season began so it could be an interesting journey for Ed Orgeron’s team this season (plus we may see Coach Eaux on the hot seat amazingly enough if things go south).

Honourable mention: North Carolina at Virginia Tech (Friday, 6:00, TSN2); Notre Dame at Florida State (Sunday, 7:30, ABC); San Jose State at USC (5:00, DAZN)

Some gambling fun and games

Oh man, this fuckery again. OK look I don’t pick against the spread, just straight up win or loss. I also advise you never to copy these picks. Yes I may be fully correct once but after like 100 misses you’d lose a lot of money. Let’s go:

Notre Dame over Florida State

Texas over Louisiana (but it will be close)

Clemson over Georgia

Alabama over Miami

North Carolina over Virginia Tech

LSU over UCLA

USC over San Jose State

Indiana over Iowa (slight upset?)

Duke over Charlotte

UCF over Boise State

Tennessee over Bowling Green (I might regret this)

SIX straight days of college football starts tonight! I believe I am ready to go. College football gives you Week Zero to get a bit acclimated and then BAM! It’s go time! I’m struggling with specialty pack information as I haven’t seen this little information in years on it. Saying that, it’s pretty easy to outline what games will probably appear on them. As for the Pac-12 Network/DAZN situation, I am looking into it and hoping to get an answer before the first potential P12N game in Canada this year Thursday night. I will definitely hit the Twitter machine and try to stay in my lane (college football, NFL and a little general sports sprinkled in) and not venture into Politicsland or Vaccineville, two places no one should ever go to when dealing with Twitter.

As per usual on this blog, we will soon get into the CFB schedule/NFL schedule/watch some damn football/recap/rinse/repeat carousel. No NFL recaps since a) I really barely have time to do this blog so doing NFL recaps would be tough and b) there are plenty of places to find those recaps out there and they aren’t hard to find. I’m glad to be back. Glad to have all of you back. It’s going to be a fun season. I can feel it. Have a great week everyone and enjoy Week 1!

My blog version of blind roulette: predicting the TSN schedule

Posted on June 28, 2021 by guelphbossman

Spoiler alert: this will be a gongshow.

It’s almost Canada Day meaning normally people would go out and camp and go to barbecues and get shitfaced. Unfortunately, this year it is on a Thursday which kind of sucks since many businesses will close on the Thursday instead of the Friday, denying the employees a long weekend. C’mon man, give ’em that long weekend!

Anyway, here’s my chance again to guess the TSN schedule. And that’s what it kind of is: a guess. I find I have less info as the years go on as to what the TSN schedule will look like because things change so much. Take a look at this Fall. The CFL is starting up again in early August and TSN airs all their games, with some showing on Saturdays. And now with the Grey Cup being in mid-December (because of the later start to the season), it means we might not see as many college football games on TSN as we normally would late in the season. Look, let’s just get this going and I will follow it up with some Labatt Blue notes (I’m not a fan of Labatt Blue but if someone offered me one I would gladly drink it because my favourite beer is free beer). Any game where the station(s) has as asterisk beside it denotes it will also air on ABC:

September 2nd	Boise State at UCF	7:00 PM	TSN2
September 3rd	North Carolina at Virginia Tech	6:00 PM	TSN5
September 4th	Western Michigan at Michigan	Noon	TSN2
September 4th	West Virginia at Maryland	3:30 PM	TSN2
September 4th	Texas Tech vs. Houston (in NRG Stadium)	7:00 PM	TSN2
September 4th	BYU vs. Arizona (in Las Vegas)	10:30 PM	TSN2
September 5th	Notre Dame at Florida State	7:30 PM	TSN5*
September 6th	Ole Miss at Louisville	8:00 PM	TSN1, TSN4, TSN5
September 11th	Washington at Michigan	7:30 PM	TSN2*
September 17th	UCF at Louisville	7:30 PM	TSN2
September 18th	Cincinnati at Indiana	Noon	TSN1, TSN4*
September 25th	Texas A&M vs. Arkansas (in Arlington)	Noon	TSN1
September 25th	LSU at Mississippi State	Noon	TSN3
September 25th	Kentucky at South Carolina	Noon	TSN4
October 1st	Houston at Tulsa	7:30 PM	TSN2
October 2nd	Indiana at Penn State	Noon	TSN1, TSN4*
October 2nd	Minnesota at Purdue	Noon	TSN3
October 2nd	Memphis at Temple	Noon	TSN5
October 8th	Temple at Cincinnati	7:00 PM	TSN2
October 8th	Stanford at Arizona State	10:30 PM	TSN2
October 9th	Florida State at North Carolina	Noon	TSN2*
October 9th	Maryland at Ohio State	Noon	TSN4
October 9th	LSU at Kentucky	Noon	TSN1
October 9th	TCU at Texas Tech	3:30 PM	TSN2*
October 16th	Nebraska at Minnesota	Noon	TSN1*
October 16th	Texas A&M at Missouri	Noon	TSN5
October 16th	Tulsa at USF	Noon	TSN3
October 16th	Alabama at Mississippi State	8:00 PM	TSN2
October 20th	Coastal Carolina at Appalachian State	7:30 PM	TSN1, TSN4
October 23rd	NC State at Miami	Noon	TSN1*
October 23rd	Northwestern at Michigan	Noon	TSN5
October 23rd	Temple at USF	7:00 PM	TSN2
October 30th	Iowa State at West Virginia	Noon	TSN2*
October 30th	Miami at Pittsburgh	7:00 PM	TSN2
November 6th	Penn State at Maryland	Noon	TSN4*
November 6th	Missouri at Georgia	Noon	TSN1
November 6th	Florida at South Carolina	Noon	TSN5
November 13th	Notre Dame at Virginia	Noon	TSN4*
November 13th	Georgia at Tennessee	7:00 PM	TSN3
November 20th	Arkansas at Alabama	7:00 PM	TSN2
November 26th	West Virginia at Kansas	Noon	TSN2
November 26th	Arizona at Arizona State	3:30 PM	TSN2
November 26th	USF at UCF	7:00 PM	TSN2
November 27th	Clemson at South Carolina	Noon	TSN2
November 27th	Virginia Tech at Virginia	3:30 PM	TSN2*
November 27th	Texas A&M at LSU	7:00 PM	TSN2
December 4th	Big XII Championship Game	Noon	TSN4*
December 4th	Sun Belt Championship Game	3:30 PM	TSN2
December 4th	ACC Championship Game	4:00 PM	TSN3*
December 4th	AAC Championship Game	8:00 PM	TSN3*
December 17th	Bahamas Bowl	Noon	TSN2
December 18th	New Mexico Bowl	2:15 PM	TSN2
December 18th	LA Bowl	7:30 PM	TSN5*
December 18th	New Orleans Bowl	9:15 PM	TSN2
December 21st	Idaho Potato Bowl	3:30 PM	TSN2
December 21st	Frisco Bowl	7:30 PM	TSN2
December 23rd	Gasparilla Bowl	7:00 PM	TSN3, TSN5
December 25th	Camellia Bowl	2:30 PM	TSN2
December 27th	Quick Lane Bowl	11:00 AM	TSN5
December 27th	Military Bowl	2:30 PM	TSN5
December 28th	Guaranteed Rate Bowl	10:15 PM	TSN1, TSN5
December 29th	Pinstripe Bowl	2:15 PM	TSN3, TSN5
December 30th	Duke’s Mayo Bowl	11:30 AM	TSN3
December 30th	Music City Bowl	3:00 PM	TSN3
December 30th	Peach Bowl	7:00 PM	TSN3, TSN5
December 31st	Cotton Bowl	3:30 PM	TSN3, TSN5
December 31st	Orange Bowl	7:30 PM	TSN3, TSN5
January 1st	Fiesta Bowl	1:00 PM	TSN3, TSN5
January 1st	Rose Bowl	5:00 PM	TSN1, TSN3, TSN4, TSN5
January 1st	Sugar Bowl	8:45 PM	TSN1, TSN3, TSN4, TSN5
January 4th	Texas Bowl	8:30 PM	TSN5
January 10th	National Championship Game	8:00 PM	TSN1, TSN3, TSN5

Labatt Blue Notes

How many people are using a vacation day on Friday? Smart people. I mean I can’t (just too much work to do) but it’s a smart idea to do to get you that sweet, sweet four-day weekend.
I have 72 games going to TSN channels this season. With the CFL back it’s less than it would have probably been last year and a bit less than it has been in the few years previous to that. I hope this is not a trend in the wrong direction for Canadian fans.
As of right now I have 21 bowl games and the national championship airing on TSN. That is really close to two years ago. Remember, all the issues after Christmas Day (except for New Year’s Day) have to do with the World Junior Hockey Championship. TSN has a contract to show all WJHC games meaning bowls have to take a bit of a back seat. Saying that, TSN has done quite the incredible job scheduling these bowl games around the hockey games. Honestly, if you want to watch anything other than football or hockey in those days, good fucking luck.
As is the norm, there are no confirmed games for TSN yet. Chances are I won’t see anything until early August on that front. I kind of wish they had a setup that ESPN does where you can go to a Press Room-type site and find schedules up to three months or so in advance. Yes, it may not have details but it will say “we have college football on between this time and this time on this day.” Which is great since at least I can know that a game for sure will be in that timeslot.
How many ABC simsubs do I see happening? I have 16 at this point (which includes the conference championships and the LA Bowl). That seems like too much and a move in the opposite direction of where I think TSN should go.
Not doing a conference breakdown. Instead I will do a channel breakdown:
- TSN2 – 29
- TSN1 – 13
- TSN3 – 17
- TSN4 – 11
- TSN5 – 21
If I predict even close to correct, TSN is utilizing every channel for college football. This is what they need to do. To be honest they should do this with the NFL as well since most games (other than the Sunday nighter) only appear on one or two channels. As for the networks whose games appear on TSN, count ABC, ESPN, ESPN2, and the SEC Network. I am a bit surprised an ACC Network game hasn’t appeared on TSN but until it happens I won’t predict that it will.
I only have TSN showing the first Thursday night game of the year and after that, nothing. TSN shows Thursday Night Football (NFL style) throughout the season and I am assuming TSN2 won’t pick up the college games that night. Friday, on the other hand, is a different story. I have predicted 6 Friday night games along with a Black Friday tripleheader heading to TSN. It makes sense for TSN to try and bulk up on those games, especially if they use TSN2 for most of them (which I believe they will). It’s the one channel that the CFL rarely goes to which means it’s perfect for these Friday Night college games.
Again with the CFL coming back, who knows what will happen with some of the Saturdays. If the CFL has three games on any Saturday it could become an issue if there other sports that TSN are also contracted to show like NASCAR or the PGA. Week 2 could be interesting but the Noon window is wide open as the first game of the CFL tripleheader that weekend starts at 4:00. Same thing for Week 8 of the college football season. Finally, it looks like at least for the last few weeks of the season, the CFL is going with the Friday doubleheader followed by a Saturday doubleheader which won’t interfere much with college football, especially with the fact that TSN prefers using the Noon timeslot for college football and most of the rest of the day for their other contracted sports.

I was honest above and I’ll be honest again: these are guesses. Educated guesses based on previous seasons and info I have at my fingertips, but guesses nonetheless. I have thought about updating it just before the season but if there are 12-day holds on games ESPN will be showing, then TSN will never have even close to a complete schedule before the season begins. For this reason I will never do that.

I believe the next post will be the Dog’s Breakfast of Schedules post I’ve done a couple of times before. Might as well bring it back to give as complete a picture as I can for Canadian viewers before the season begins. Then, the conference/season predictions which I have to work on before I can even consider posting about.

Alright we are closing right in on Opening Day/Week Zero. OK closing in is really not the phrase I should use here. More like we have two months to go. Two months. Period. Part of me wants it to go quickly but it’s the Summer so not too fast alright. Have a great Canada Day everyone!

The (insert team name here) ain’t played nobody Week 3 College Football TV Schedule

Posted on September 12, 2019 by guelphbossman

We hear it every year. There is always one Top 10 team that ends up having a seriously easy schedule. The 2019 candidate for this is Dabo Swinney’s Clemson Tigers. And man do they have an easy schedule. Let’s be honest here: what will the Tigers easiest game be during the regular season? That would be last Saturday’s game against Texas A&M. So now let’s look at the rest of their schedule this season:

at Syracuse
vs. Charlotte
at North Carolina
vs. Florida State
at Louisville
vs. Boston College
vs. Wofford
at NC State
vs. Wake Forest
at South Carolina

Now you tell me the ranked teams on this list. I’ll wait.

I mean you can make a bit of an argument that North Carolina or NC State could be ranked when the Tigers face them. But honestly, they don’t have a seriously difficult team left on their schedule. This is beyond ridiculous. And it’s not Clemson’s fault. I’m not saying that. What I am saying here is that if Clemson goes undefeated, no big deal, they go to the Big Dance (football style). But if they lose one game and they don’t blow the doors off everyone else they should be scrutinized just like any one-loss conference champion. And they won’t be because they now have the cache that most schools do not have in 2019. Which gets back to the question we need to answer every year: which four teams deserve to be in the College Football Playoff. A schedule like this leaves very little wiggle room in my opinion. Whether The Committee feels the same way, who knows.

Alright enough about Clemson’s schedule. Let’s talk about EVERYBODY’S schedule (that we can see on on TV in Canada). Let’s see if I can piece it together:

Friday

		US	Canada
North Carolina at Wake Forest	6:00 PM
Kansas at Boston College	7:30 PM
#20 Washington State vs. Houston (in NRG Stadium)	9:15 PM

Yep, no Thursday games again. That ends next week. Anyway, the first game is a non-conference game. Yes, I am not joking. The Tar Heels and Demon Deacons have scheduled a home-and-home non-conference set of games. It has not caught on anywhere else. And it shouldn’t. It’s fucking dumb. As for the late games, the over/under should be set at at least 80 since it should be a shootout.

Saturday Early

		US	Canada
Pittsburgh at #13 Penn State	Noon
Furman at Virginia Tech	Noon
Eastern Michigan at Illinois	Noon
#21 Maryland at Temple	Noon
Kansas State at Mississippi State	Noon
Arkansas State at #3 Georgia	Noon
Miami-OH at Cincinnati	Noon
#6 Ohio State at Indiana	Noon
Chattanooga at Tennessee	Noon

So TSN is showing games this week but only in the early timeslot. OK. Problem is TSN1 and TSN4 are showing Pitt-PSU and TSN3 and TSN5 are showing ASU-UGA. Are they fucking serious here? They couldn’t spread it out, maybe show KSU-MSU on one of those channels? No, have to show two games. So ridiculous. I mean who the hell is only getting two TSN stations in 2019? Anyway, nothing huge here in terms of important games.

Saturday Afternoon

		US	Canada
New Mexico at #7 Notre Dame	2:30 PM
#24 USC at BYU	3:30 PM
UNLV at Northwestern	3:30 PM
Georgia Southern at Minnesota	3:30 PM
#2 Alabama at South Carolina	3:30 PM
East Carolina at Navy	3:30 PM
Stanford at #17 UCF	3:30 PM
Oklahoma State at Tulsa	3:30 PM
Memphis at South Alabama	3:30 PM
Army at UTSA	3:30 PM
Bethune-Cookman at Miami	4:00 PM
Arizona State at #18 Michigan State	4:00 PM
Colorado State at Arkansas	4:00 PM
SE Louisiana at Ole Miss	4:00 PM

USC-BYU and ASU-MSU could be low-key games of the week considering the schedule. Conference USA has their second game ever on the NFL Network and they get Army. Nice. Smart move by this conference moving from beIn Sports to the NFL Network. NBC is continuing with some of those 2:30 starts for Notre Dame games. Considering they are playing New Mexico it will get a shit-ton of eyeballs if the game is somehow close going into the fourth quarter. And finally, UCF has another chance to beat a Power Five team and have it mean almost nothing as they will still be kept out of the College Football Playoff.

Saturday Primetime

		US	Canada
#9 Florida at Kentucky	7:00 PM
Kent State at #8 Auburn	7:00 PM
Lamar at #16 Texas A&M	7:00 PM
#1 Clemson at Syracuse	7:30 PM
Florida State at #25 Virginia	7:30 PM
TCU at Purdue	7:30 PM
SE Missouri State at Missouri	7:30 PM
Northwestern State at #4 LSU	7:30 PM
#12 Texas vs. Rice (in NRG Stadium)	8:00 PM
#5 Oklahoma at UCLA	8:00 PM

It was supposed to be a huge game at the Carrier Dome and College Gameday was supposed to be there and all that jazz. Then the Orange shits the bed against Maryland (or gets destroyed by a superior Maryland team, whichever you prefer) and makes it so we have no ranked-on-ranked violence this week. It’s amazing the perception of a week when this happens. There could be some underrated close games if UCLA, Purdue, Florida State, Syracuse and Kentucky show up to play in this timeslot. Otherwise, meh.

Saturday Late Night

		US	Canada
Portland State at #22 Boise State	10:30 PM
Texas Tech at Arizona	10:00 PM

Oh my this is honestly not that great. I kind of hope for one of two things. Either:

Portland State keeps it really close with the Broncos going into the fourth quarter. Or
Boise puts like 63 points up on them in the first half.

No other scenarios will keep me awake. At least there is a possibility for a shootout between the Red Raiders and the Wildcats.

Games to set your eyeballs on

Iowa at Iowa State (4:00, FOX Sports One goddammit) – A lot of decent games this week. But not one that could be even considered close to a Game of the Year candidate. College Gameday is heading to Ames for the first time and it will be a big deal for the state of Iowa. Unfortunately none of us will be able to see this. Cy-Hawk should be a good game this season and really there is no favourite here.

Arizona State at Michigan State (4:00, FOX) – Let’s be honest here: this week’s schedule is actually pretty poor and may be worse than last week’s all things considered. Michigan State has looked good so far this season but ASU has only looked slightly above average so far. If the Sun Devils show up this could be a barnburner. Bet the under.

Florida at Kentucky (7:00, specialty pack) – Remember what the Wildcats did last year to Florida? Do not be surprised if, despite the fact UK is not the UK of last year, they still beat the Gators or at least give them a good game. And it wouldn’t be a huge surprise since Florida has only looked average so far this season. It’s like we are just waiting for everyone to really get going for the Fighting Dan Mullens.

Washington State vs. Houston (in NRG Stadium) (Friday, 9:15, TSN2) – This could be very interesting. Wazzu has to be considered a dark horse contender in the Pac-12 North and I wouldn’t be surprised if they go a long way into the season undefeated. Houston is still a premier Group of Five team and if they ever get it together, this could be the game they announce they are back as a team to reckon with in the American. If it’s less than 80 points in this one I will be, quite honestly, shocked.

Stanford at UCF (3:30, specialty pack) – To be honest I could have stopped the list at four games. Or three. Or just skipped it altogether. UCF absolutely needs this game if they are to make any argument for the College Football Playoff, let alone the New Year’s Six. Stanford is just trying to stop this slide since they haven’t looked that good all season so far. Well at least as good as a contender in the Pac-12 North should look.

Honourable mention: USC at BYU (3:30, ABC); Hawaii at Washington (7:30, Pac-12 Network); Maryland at Temple (Noon, CBS Sports Network).

Some gambling fun and games

Alright let’s see if I can do well this week since last week went, um, less than well:

Washington over Hawaii

BYU over USC (Upset? Upset.)

Temple over Maryland (serious upset!)

Stanford over UCF (Am I getting carried away at this point?)

Washington State over Houston

Michigan State over Arizona State

Iowa over Iowa State

Florida over Kentucky

Texas over Rice

Georgia over Arkansas State

Virginia over Florida State

I see no information on the specialty packs but I am assume it will be up very soon. This is the kind of thing that happens when there are no games on Thursday night.

Thursday Night Football tonight on CTV2 and all the TSNs except TSN2 which is probably showing Golf Talk or Poker or something like that. Buck and Aikman! I am still waiting for them to do Smackdown promos since I am sure Buck will be SO happy to do those. Which I am sure will lead to Buck and Aikman teaming up with John Cena and The Rock to face four jabronies at Wrestlemania.

Anyway, enjoy the games everyone and have a great week!

It’s Grab-Bag Time! The rest of the schedules…well, most of them

Posted on July 10, 2019 by guelphbossman

Yeah not like I am doing the schedule for Facebook although I probably could. But what’s the point. Even stupider would be me doing the schedule for FOX Sports Network. I mean I am sure there will be some close games on there like when Kansas inevitably plays a close game against an FCS school. But if Canadians can’t see it then there is no point. Let’s begin!

A seriously long schedule to begin with here. CBS Sports Network is home to the American Conference, Mountain West Conference, Conference USA, and the MAC. So most of the Group of Five has games here. Which means you will get some good matchups from time to time and, considering it’s college football, some crazy games. Want proof? Old Dominion beat Virginia Tech last season. Yes. ODU…beat…VaTech. Checkmate. Alright let’s get right to the schedule now that I have proven its worth, followed by some minor thoughts:

August 24th	Villanova at Colgate (confirmed)	Noon
August 24th	Arizona at Hawaii (confirmed)	10:30 PM
August 29th	Florida A&M at UCF (confirmed)	7:30 PM
August 30th	Rice at Army (confirmed)	6:00 PM
August 30th	Purdue at Nevada (confirmed)	9:30 PM
August 31st	Indiana vs. Ball State (in Indianapolis) (confirmed)	Noon
August 31st	Holy Cross at Navy (confirmed)	3:30 PM
August 31st	Missouri at Wyoming (confirmed)	7:30 PM
September 7th	UAB at Akron (confirmed)	Noon
September 7th	Illinois at UConn (confirmed)	3:30 PM
September 7th	UCF at Florida Atlantic (confirmed)	7:00 PM
September 7th	Minnesota at Fresno State (confirmed)	10:30 PM
September 14th	Maryland at Temple (confirmed)	Noon
September 14th	East Carolina at Navy (confirmed)	3:30 PM
September 14th	Texas vs. Rice (in NRG Stadium, Houston) (confirmed)	8:00 PM
September 20th	FIU at Louisiana Tech (confirmed)	8:00 PM
September 21st	Morgan State at Army (confirmed)	Noon
September 21st	Wyoming at Tulsa	3:30 PM
September 21st	Baylor at Rice (confirmed)	7:00 PM
September 21st	Utah State at San Diego State (confirmed)	10:30 PM
September 27th	San Jose State at Air Force (confirmed)	8:00 PM
September 28th	BYU at Toledo	Noon
September 28th	UConn at UCF	3:30 PM
September 28th	Colorado State at Utah State (confirmed)	7:30 PM
October 4th	New Mexico at San Jose State (confirmed)	10:00 PM
October 5th	Tulane at Army (confirmed)	Noon
October 5th	Air Force at Navy (confirmed)	3:30 PM
October 5th	Tulsa at SMU	7:00 PM
October 5th	Boise State at UNLV (confirmed)	10:30 PM
October 11th	Colorado State at New Mexico (confirmed)	8:00 PM
October 12th	BYU at USF	Noon
October 12th	Northern Illinois at Ohio	3:30 PM
October 12th	Fresno State at Air Force (confirmed)	7:00 PM
October 12th	Wyoming at San Diego State (confirmed)	10:30 PM
October 18th	Marshall at Florida Atlantic (confirmed)	6:30 PM
October 18th	UNLV at Fresno State (confirmed)	10:00 PM
October 19th	Buffalo at Akron	Noon
October 19th	USF at Navy (confirmed)	3:30 PM
October 19th	Tulane at Memphis	7:00 PM
October 19th	Air Force at Hawaii (confirmed)	11:00 PM
October 24th	Ohio at Ball State	7:00 PM
October 26th	San Jose State at Army (confirmed)	Noon
October 26th	Tulane at Navy (confirmed)	3:30 PM
October 26th	Nevada at Wyoming	7:00 PM
October 26th	San Diego State at UNLV (confirmed)	10:30 PM
November 1st	UNLV at Colorado State	9:00 PM
November 2nd	SMU at Memphis	Noon
November 2nd	Army at Air Force (confirmed)	3:30 PM
November 2nd	Tulsa at Tulane	7:00 PM
November 2nd	Boise State at San Jose State (confirmed)	10:30 PM
November 5th	Ball State at Western Michigan	7:00 PM
November 9th	UMass at Army (confirmed)	Noon
November 9th	UConn at Cincinnati	3:30 PM
November 9th	Utah State at Fresno State (confirmed)	7:00 PM
November 14th	Buffalo at Kent State (confirmed)	7:00 PM
November 15th	Louisiana Tech at Marshall (confirmed)	7:00 PM
November 16th	VMI at Army (confirmed)	Noon
November 16th	Central Michigan at Ball State	3:30 PM
November 16th	Tulane at Temple	7:00 PM
November 23rd	East Carolina at UConn	Noon
November 23rd	SMU at Navy (confirmed)	3:30 PM
November 23rd	Miami vs. FIU (in Marlins Park, Miami) (confirmed)	7:00 PM
November 23rd	Boise State at Utah State (confirmed)	10:30 PM
November 28th	Utah State at New Mexico	3:30 PM
November 29th	Toledo at Central Michigan	Noon
November 29th	Boise State at Colorado State (confirmed)	3:30 PM
November 30th	FIU at Marshall (confirmed)	Noon
November 30th	UConn at Temple	3:30 PM
November 30th	BYU at San Diego State (confirmed)	9:00 PM
December 1st	Army at Hawaii (confirmed)	1:30 AM
December 7th	Conference USA Championship Game (confirmed)	1:30 PM
December 21st	Cure Bowl (confirmed)	2:30 PM
December 31st	Arizona Bowl (confirmed)	4:30 PM

Minor (League) Thoughts

CBS Sports Network must like someone like me to confirm more than half their games already. Let’s be honest though: they are hoping for the best Group of Five games so they try their best to get Boise State against random Mountain West opponent and UCF playing random American Conference opponent. This way you take a good chunk of inventory from ESPN which is huge in this day and age. The hope is that some of the late season games could end up becoming supremely important meaning a lot of people will be trying to figure out where CBS Sports Network is in the channel lineup.
CBSSN also gets two bowl games. The Cure Bowl is not on opening day anymore as two bowl games decided to get in on the action early. The Arizona Bowl is actually the one that may end up being a bit buried as it won’t end until around 8:00 which means many will miss the end of it since they are already out starting their New Year’s festivities and/or are already shitfaced.
Black Friday seems to have its own traditions (somewhat) and one is having two games on CBS Sports Network: usually a MAC game followed by one from the other three conferences CBSSN covers. Also glad to see them continuing to have a game on American Thanksgiving afternoon. I mean why not? There will be some people who will watch it and if it’s an important game, they will pull some viewers from the corresponding NFL game (which will involve either the Cowboys or Lions).
As for the non-confirmed games, I have a pretty good idea of what they will be. I like the fact that CBSSN says which conference they will have in each timeslot. So at the very least, the conference I have put in for each of the non-confirmed games is correct. And considering they don’t have the first pick of games, chances are movement will be less so than it would be with ESPN.
Here is the conference breakdown for ya:
- Conference USA – 10 (including conference championship)
- Mountain West – 25
- AAC – 20
- MAC – 11
- Army – 5
- FCS – 1
Army still has their CBS Sports Network agreement through the 2022 season (it was recently extended). Navy’s weird setup also continues. ESPN will get the Navy-Notre Dame game when it isn’t at South Bend and a Navy home game every year but that doesn’t start until 2020. If the AAC decides to invite Army this whole scheduling thing with CBS Sports Network could become really interesting.
The Mountain West still takes precedence with the amount of games but the AAC isn’t close behind. Conference USA still has four more years of 10 games on the network although it will be interesting to see how they do with games now on the NFL Network every week. The NFL Network could turn its Saturdays into a college football station (kind of). Wouldn’t be a bad thing considering they also show two of the weird collegiate all-star games at the end of the season.

Notre Dame on NBC. One of the few instances of college football we used to get up here. But now with more choices, less people watch the Peacock Network on Fall Saturdays…even when Notre Dame is coming off a perfect regular season. Here is the fully confirmed schedule:

September 14th	New Mexico at Notre Dame	2:30 PM
September 28th	Virginia at Notre Dame	3:30 PM
October 5th	Bowling Green at Notre Dame	3:30 PM
October 12th	USC at Notre Dame	7:30 PM
November 2nd	Virginia Tech at Notre Dame	2:30 PM
November 16th	Navy at Notre Dame	2:30 PM
November 23rd	Boston College at Notre Dame	2:30 PM

Only one primetime game this year and it’s, of course, the USC one. The other big Notre Dame primetime game is the one against Georgia which will be on CBS this season. A couple of 3:30 starts as they seem to want to stick to the 2:30 start times more often. Probably a good thing as a) it allows NBC to go to news around 6:00 and b) the end of the game will be about an hour before most of the afternoon games end which may allow for a lot of viewers to move over to these games. With the PGA’s schedule changed so that their season ends in August, there are no issues with the Notre Dame on NBC schedule in that regard.

Considering the ACC Network, as we knew it, is no more, I figured it was time to include a different schedule. Hopefully one day Bell will get the Big Ten Network since I can’t understand the reason why they wouldn’t….oh yeah the ol’ Rogers/Bell beef that seems to continue while almost no one cares. How will the specialty packs handle the brand-new ACC Network? Hopefully just like they did with the SEC Network (eventually) but seeing how many channel slots are available it could end up being very interesting. Anyway, back to BTN. Here’s the schedule for ya!

August 30th	UMass at Rutgers (confirmed)	7:15 PM
August 31st	Howard at Maryland (confirmed)	Noon
August 31st	Akron at Illinois (confirmed)	Noon
August 31st	Idaho at Penn State (confirmed)	3:30 PM
August 31st	Middle Tennessee at Michigan (confirmed)	7:30 PM
September 7th	Western Michigan at Michigan State (confirmed)	Noon
September 7th	Vanderbilt at Purdue (confirmed)	Noon
September 7th	Eastern Illinois at Indiana (confirmed)	3:30 PM
September 7th	Central Michigan at Wisconsin (confirmed)	3:30 PM
September 14th	Eastern Michigan at Illinois (confirmed)	Noon
September 14th	UNLV at Northwestern (confirmed)	3:30 PM
September 14th	Georgia Southern at Minnesota (confirmed)	3:30 PM
September 14th	TCU at Purdue (confirmed)	7:30 PM
September 21st	UConn at Indiana	Noon
September 21st	Boston College at Rutgers	3:30 PM
September 21st	Miami-OH at Ohio State	7:30 PM
September 28th	Rutgers at Michigan	3:30 PM
September 28th	Indiana at Michigan State	7:30 PM
October 5th	Maryland at Rutgers	3:30 PM
October 5th	Illinois at Minnesota	7:30 PM
October 12th	Rutgers at Indiana	Noon
October 12th	Maryland at Purdue	Noon
October 19th	Wisconsin at Illinois	Noon
October 19th	Indiana at Maryland	3:30 PM
October 26th	Liberty at Rutgers	Noon
October 26th	Illinois at Purdue	3:30 PM
October 26th	Indiana at Nebraska	7:30 PM
November 2nd	Rutgers at Illinois	Noon
November 2nd	Northwestern at Indiana	3:30 PM
November 9th	Illinois at Michigan State	Noon
November 9th	Purdue at Northwestern	3:30 PM
November 16th	UMass at Northwestern	Noon
November 16th	Ohio State at Rutgers	3:30 PM
November 23rd	Michigan State at Rutgers	Noon
November 23rd	Nebraska at Maryland	Noon
November 23rd	Illinois at Iowa	3:30 PM
November 23rd	Michigan at Indiana	3:30 PM
November 29th	Iowa at Nebraska (confirmed)	2:30 PM
November 30th	Rutgers at Penn State	3:30 PM
November 30th	Indiana at Purdue	7:30 PM

All the games start at either Noon, 3:30, or 7:30 except for two: the Black Friday game between Iowa and Nebraska (the REAL Farmageddon if you ask me) and the opening night matchup between UMass and Rutgers. To be honest, much of this is a guess but at least most of the times should be good. As for games on BTN at the same time, in the States there is a BTN Alternate Channel. Of course we don’t get that up here and if you are with Bell you don’t get the Big Ten Network at all. For the readers that get their specialty pack through Rogers or Eastlink, you should get the alternate games (i.e. the games not appearing on BTN in your guide) to go to the specialty pack. Rarely are there two decent games on at the same time so it really isn’t that big a deal but still, you get the specialty pack for a reason (some of you) and that’s to get ALL the games you might not possibly get (that the CRTC approves of).

Alright that’s it that’s all. No more schedule posts until we get to Week 0 of the season (which is 45 days away!). There are some other schedules that could be mentioned like the new Conference USA on the NFL Network or games that appear on Facebook. Not going over those here. I might do that next year but who knows.

Soon up is the conference predictions which I have not started the work on at all. I’m sure they will go well after doing so poorly at it for most of the life of this blog. This is really the bridge to the college football season since by the time I do all ten conferences, the Independents, and a few other prediction posts, it will be almost Week Zero. In the meantime you can watch the CFL or, soon enough, NFL preseason if you absolutely need football until then. Have a great week everyone!

Our long national nightmare is over. College football is back BAYBEE!!!! And here’s your Week 1 Schedule!

Posted on August 31, 2016 by guelphbossman

Longest…seven…and a half…months…EVER.

We’re back fans. We’ve made it. We’ve survived. I mean technically the 2016 college football season started this past Friday night. But really, that game kind of sucked. And the commentary was atrocious. That game should be the first red flag to ESPN to tell them that Allen Bestwick is not even close to a decent replacement for either Sean McDonough or Brad Nessler. The fact that Steve Levy is the best replacement that the four-letter network named says a lot about what is happening at ESPN past the top four or five commentary teams. Oh well, at least the FCS Kickoff game Saturday night was a fantastic one to watch. If you could get it. Sounds like Rogers customers had issues with both games. Ah, college football season…where cable companies in Canada tell you go to fist yourself if you don’t like their mediocre attempt to give you what you are paying for.

So I have decided to go with a little different format this season. Hoping this will be a little more organized, especially for you visual people. Here we go!

Thursday

			ROGERS	FIBE	SAT
Indiana at FIU	7:30 PM	SP	X	X	X
Appalachian State at #9 Tennessee	7:30 PM	SP		X	X
Rice at Western Kentucky	8:00 PM	CBSSN	X	X
South Carolina at Vanderbilt	8:00 PM	SP	X	X	X
Oregon State at Minnesota	9:00 PM	BTN	X

Nothing THAT special tonight but it is technically opening night. OK last Friday’s Outback Showdown (or whatever it was called) was the real opening night but whatever. ESPN obviously doesn’t care since they have told anyone who will listen that it starts SATURDAY! But it’s football so I will watch with glee. I am actually looking forward to seeing if Appalachian State can give the Vols a game.

Friday

			ROGERS	FIBE	SAT
Furman at #12 Michigan State	7:00 PM	BTN	X
Army at Temple	7:00 PM	CBSSN	X	X
Colorado vs. Colorado State (in Denver)	8:00 PM	SP	X	X	X
Toledo at Arkansas State	9:00 PM	SP	X	X	X

OK even less than Thursday but again, it’s still football. Toledo-Arkansas State is a great Group of Five matchup. I would argue that they should have got the main network spot and the Rocky Mountain Showdown should have been relegated to ESPNU. Doesn’t matter to us since it’s all in the same cluster of channels.

UPDATE: Thanks to reader Dan’s message, I can tell you that Toledo-ASU is no longer on TSN networks. I can’t see any evidence that it is on the specialty packs…yet. It should show there since it is an ESPNU game but we have seen stranger things before.

UPDATE #2: I have found Toledo-ASU on SD on both Fibe and Satellite. Nothing on Rogers yet but that’s not surprising. Should show up on HD on all three soon enough.

UPDATE #3: OK it looks like it is SD everywhere but I can’t see it showing up in HD on any provider. Hopefully that changes. It should. I can’t see a reason why it wouldn’t. But remember who we’re talking about here.

UPDATE #4: Um, Peachtree TV is showing Ball State-Georgia State right now. Talk about out of the blue…Ah, that makes a bit more sense. It’s an ASN broadcast. We get them on MyTV in this area but it would be games close to the Buffalo area. So for Peachtree they will get ASN games close to Atlanta. Looks like we will have this all year as next week’s South Alabama-Georgia Southern is on Peachtree (as of right now).

UPDATE #5: Well, Toledo-ASU actually did end up only on SD as far as I can tell. Someone dropped the ball. And let it roll away.

Saturday Early Afternoon

			ROGERS	FIBE	SAT
Boston College vs. Georgia Tech (in Dublin)	7:30 AM	TSN1	X	X	X
#15 Houston vs. #3 Oklahoma (in NRG Stadium)	12:00 PM	ABC	X	X	X
Bowling Green at #6 Ohio State	12:00 PM	BTN	X
Howard at Maryland	12:00 PM	SP	X
Fordham at Navy	12:00 PM	CBSSN	X	X
Hawaii at #7 Michigan	12:00 PM	TSN2	X	X	X
Western Michigan at Northwestern	12:00 PM	SP	X	X	X
South Alabama at Mississippi State	12:00 PM	SP		X	X
Liberty at Virginia Tech	12:30 PM	WSBK/SP	X	X	X

Yes I know 7:30 in the morning isn’t early afternoon but I figured I would stick it here since I wasn’t going to give Georgia Tech-Boston College it’s own timeslot section. No way.

So this is where the REAL games start. Houston-Oklahoma is the first game of the season that has College Football Playoff implications. As of right now, the game in Ireland and the Hawaii-Michigan game appear on the Super Sports Pack guide but I am guessing that will be removed since both games are on one of the TSN Five.

UPDATE #6: As I figured, Hawaii-Michigan and the current ACC affair across the pond are only on TSN now.

Saturday Mid-Afternoon

			ROGERS	FIBE	SAT
#5 LSU vs. Wisconsin (in Green Bay)	3:30 PM	ABC/TSN2	X	X	X
Gardner-Webb at Elon	3:30 PM	MyTV	X	X
Kent State at Penn State	3:30 PM	BTN	X
Murray State at Illinois	3:30 PM	SP	X
#16 UCLA at Texas A&M	3:30 PM	CBS	X	X	X
Texas State at Ohio	3:30 PM	CBSSN	X	X
Miami-OH at #17 Iowa	3:30 PM	SP	X	X	X
Louisiana Tech at Arkansas	4:00 PM	SP		X	X
New Mexico State at UTEP	5:30 PM	beIn	X	X	X
#18 Georgia vs. #22 North Carolina (in Atlanta)	5:30 PM	SP	X	X	X

Now we are getting into the meat of the schedule. LSU-Wisky in the not so Frozen Tundra of Lambeau Field is another of those CFP-esque games. Wisconsin probably won’t contend but an upset turns college football upside down (and destroys my national championship prediction). Also UGA-UNC is a game between underrated contenders and UCLA-TAMU is underrated period. That should be a good one. I am glad to see CBS gets college football all year now thanks to the U.S. Open going to ESPN.

Saturday Primetime

			ROGERS	FIBE	SAT
San Jose State at Tulsa	7:00 PM	CBSSN	X	X
East Tennessee State at Kennesaw State	7:00 PM	Peachtree	X	X	X
Southern Miss at Kentucky	7:30 PM	SP	X	X	X
UMass at #25 Florida	7:30 PM	SP		X	X
#1 Alabama vs. #20 USC (in Arlington)	8:00 PM	ABC/TSN2	X	X	X
Fresno State at Nebraska	8:00 PM	BTN	X
#2 Clemson at Auburn	9:00 PM	TSN1	X	X	X
Northern Illinois at Wyoming	10:30 PM	CBSSN	X	X

This is why this Saturday is the best opening weekend lineup (arguably) in college football history. Bama-USC is the kind of mega-matchup that is worth the hype (despite the fact I don’t see USC as a true contender this year). We also get Clemson-Auburn at a special 9:00 start time. Fantastic stuff.

Sunday

			ROGERS	FIBE	SAT
Alcorn State at Bethune-Cookman	1:00 PM	SP	X	X	X
Texas Southern at Prairie View A&M	6:00 PM	SP	X	X	X
#10 Notre Dame at Texas	7:30 PM	ABC/TSN3	X	X	X

Notre Dame-Texas could be good. COULD be. Or it could be like last year’s debacle. ABC is sincerely hoping it’s the former since this is the only time ABC has EVER shown a game on Labour Day Sunday. If it bombs we may not see it next year…oh who are we kidding. We should be surprised if there isn’t a tripleheader next Labour Day Sunday.

Monday

			ROGERS	FIBE	SAT
#4 Florida State vs. #11 Ole Miss (in Orlando)	8:00 PM	SP	X	X	X

Wow there is a lot of football spread out over a lot of days. And I am not complaining. Let’s just hope that there are no issues like last year’s shitshow with the tOSU-VT game. TSN had it, then they put the FIBA tournament on, so it should have gone to the specialty pack. But for some reason it didn’t show up there. My guess is because of TSN’s late schedule change (it happened Sunday night), they couldn’t put the game on the specialty pack. Still makes no sense. Lucky for us it was a shitty game and we didn’t miss much. But again, when you pay for a service, you should expect to get that service. Period. End of story. End of rant.

So there you go. A shit-ton of football starting tomorrow night. I will be live-tweeting all Saturday so who knows what vile concoction of food and beverage will enter my belly that day (and night). I am hoping to also live-tweet the other days but we shall see. Saturday is the main event so that’s all that matters really. Remember, it’s @LikeABauce1978 if you want to catch me on the Twitter machine.

At some point I have to start mentally preparing myself for this. I tend to watch football late into the night, get less sleep than I do the other seven-and-a-half months of the year, and sometimes eat less than stellar food (health-wise at least). So if I had a personal trainer, he or she would probably go insane trying to deal with this. Ah, the life of a college football fan. I am sure it’s similar for other hardcore sports fans. At least that’s what I tell myself. Enjoy the games!

No Nessler. No McDonough. No problem? No this could be a problem.

Posted on June 29, 2016 by guelphbossman

267x267_Brad Nessler ESPN_on_ABC XXX 5988.JPG S USA NY

Time for the ABC schedule predictions which I will say are more difficult than the CBS or FOX predictions. I don’t say that so that when I inevitably get one wrong I can use that as an excuse but it is difficult. Multiple conferences, three timeslots every Saturday. That’s a lot of football! And usually a lot of good football as Disney/ESPN still likes to put quite a few marquee matchups on ABC.

As for the title of this post, as you may or may not know, Mike Tirico has moved over to NBC. This started a domino effect that affected ABC/ESPN the most. Sean McDonough has moved to Monday Night Football to replace Tirico. And then, in an unrelated note, CBS decided to move fast to get Verne Lundquist’s replacement by signing Brad Nessler away. So now the four-letter network is down two play-by-play guys. Chances are this won’t affect the ABC broadcasts as I am sure they will put their next best people on at those times (think Joe Tessitore, Bob Wischusen, Mark Jones). Or they get Big Game Brent Musburger to come back and call games on ABC. The bigger issue will be replacing them at ESPN, ESPN2, and ESPNU. As long as we don’t get someone as awful as Pam Ward calling games then it won’t be too bad but you have to wonder who they will “call up” to the main roster so to speak.

Alright, here are my predictions for the ABC schedule this season followed by the airing of grievances (*denotes time is confirmed):

September-03-16	Houston vs. Oklahoma (in NRG Stadium)*	12:00 PM
September-03-16	LSU vs. Wisconsin (in Green Bay)*	3:30 PM
September-03-16	Alabama vs. USC (in Arlington)*	8:00 PM
September-04-16	Notre Dame at Texas*	7:30 PM
September-10-16	UCF at Michigan*	12:00 PM
September-10-16	Tulsa at Ohio State*	3:30 PM
September-10-16	Tennessee vs. Virginia Tech (in Bristol)*	8:00 PM
September-17-16	Florida State at Louisville*	12:00 PM
September-17-16	Oregon at Nebraska*	3:30 PM
September-17-16	USC at Stanford*	8:00 PM
September-24-16	Penn State at Michigan	12:00 PM
September-24-16	Wisconsin at Michigan State	3:30 PM
September-24-16	Stanford at UCLA	8:00 PM
October-01-16	Rutgers at Ohio State	12:00 PM
October-01-16	Purdue at Maryland	3:30 PM
October-01-16	Oklahoma at TCU	8:00 PM
October-08-16	Maryland at Penn State	12:00 PM
October-08-16	Florida State at Miami	3:30 PM
October-08-16	Michigan at Rutgers	8:00 PM
October-15-16	Iowa at Purdue	12:00 PM
October-15-16	Northwestern at Michigan State	3:30 PM
October-15-16	Ohio State at Wisconsin	8:00 PM
October-22-16	Rutgers at Minnesota	12:00 PM
October-22-16	Illinois at Michigan	3:30 PM
October-22-16	Ohio State at Penn State	8:00 PM
October-29-16	Minnesota at Illinois	12:00 PM
October-29-16	Clemson at Florida State	3:30 PM
October-29-16	Michigan at Michigan State	8:00 PM
November-05-16	Virginia Tech at Duke	12:00 PM
November-05-16	Florida State at NC State	3:30 PM
November-05-16	Nebraska at Ohio State	8:00 PM
November-12-16	Penn State at Indiana	12:00 PM
November-12-16	Illinois at Wisconsin	3:30 PM
November-12-16	Michigan at Iowa	8:00 PM
November-19-16	Indiana at Michigan	12:00 PM
November-19-16	Ohio State at Michigan State	3:30 PM
November-19-16	USC at UCLA	8:00 PM
November-25-16	NC State at North Carolina	12:00 PM
November-25-16	Nebraska at Iowa	3:30 PM
November-26-16	Michigan at Ohio State	12:00 PM
November-26-16	Florida at Florida State	3:30 PM
November-26-16	Notre Dame at USC	8:00 PM
December-03-16	AAC Championship Game	12:00 PM
December-03-16	ACC Championship Game	8:00 PM
December-17-16	Celebration Bowl*	12:00 PM
December-17-16	Las Vegas Bowl*	3:30 PM
December-28-16	Pinstripe Bowl*	2:00 PM
December-31-16	Citrus Bowl*	11:00 AM
January-02-17	Outback Bowl*	1:00 PM

Airing of Grievances

A special Sunday night ABC game during week one! Talk about a smart move on ABC/ESPN’s part. Knowing that the top 10 games of week one are the best set of week one games in a long time meant that some would be pushed down the list a ways. To capitalize on that, Notre Dame-Texas gets its own national audience on Sunday. Why don’t other networks do that? They could easily have two or three games with no competition from the NFL. Do I need to figure all these things out for them?
For the second straight season, it looks like the Noon/3:30/8:00 set of timeslots will be used every week except for conference championship week. Smart move not to go up against the SEC Championship so they avoid the late afternoon timeslot that week.
Some of the ABC games will also be televised on TSN networks (as far as I know). I plan on doing a TSN schedule (why not right?) next week some time. I don’t know how long ABC games will continue to also be broadcast on TSN networks because of simsubbing rule changes (that may have gone into effect already).
Black Friday will have the normal Noon and 3:30 games although it seems like this year the annual Farmageddon matchup between Iowa and Nebraska may be moved to the late afternoon spot.
The first three weeks are confirmed along with the bowl game schedule. The conference championship games are pretty much set (AAC at Noon, ACC at 8:00) but not fully confirmed yet. The rest is a complete crapshoot.
The conference breakdown is as follows: Big Ten (48 appearances), ACC (16), Pac-12 (9), Big XII (4), SEC (4), American (3), Notre Dame (2). Yes it is heavy on Big Ten appearances. Remember, this is based on ACC in this area (so basically out of Buffalo or Detroit). So people farther west (say, west of Ontario or even west of Sudbury) would get more Pac-12 and Big XII contests and less Big Ten and ACC matchups. Usually that is what happens with the ABC/ESPN2 reverse mirror is that there is an east coast and west coast game and what you get is fully based on where you live.
Four bowl games appear on ABC (five if you include the Celebration Bowl). I wish there were more bowls on network TV. I also wish most of the bowls wouldn’t overlap in terms of time but hey, beggars can’t be choosers.

We are getting closer to conference prediction time. Damn, that means I am going to have to do my conference predictions then. Better get on that. Next post will be a combo post with schedules for the SEC Network (Bell/Telus viewers who get the specialty pack), NBC (Notre Dame), BTN (for Rogers/Eastlink viewers) and TSN. TSN will easily be the toughest bunch of them all and will be based purely on speculation and what happened last year since that’s the only bit I can go off of.

Biggest games of the 2016 College Football season – Part One!

Posted on June 20, 2016 by guelphbossman

Now we are getting serious. The real college football posts are starting. We are under 75 days until the start of the college football season. FINALLY! It feels like the 2015 season ended eons ago (it was a little more than five months but still). I am starting to get excited for the upcoming season.

And as tradition states (all three years of it), the first big set of posts for this season is the annual biggest (and most important) games of the year posts. As per usual, this will be split out among four separate posts. Otherwise it would be such a long post that I would even get bored with it.

Before we get started with the actual games, I will do something I did last year and that’s rank the college football weeks. As we all know, all weeks aren’t created equal in college football land. Some are much better (American Thanksgiving weekend) than others (the week before American Thanksgiving weekend). So without further adieu, here are the rankings (I have put the date as the Saturday of that week to ease confusion…I hope):

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

Yes, I am serious. The American Thanksgiving college football week is not the best one this season. I have Week 5 pegged as the best and you will see why when I list the games. In terms of biggest games, nothing trumps it. No surprise with the bottom week. Again it’s week 2 which is usually a horseshit week for college football. I mean I’ll still watch it like the depraved, addicted college football fan I am, but I am always amazed at how brutally bad the schedule is almost every year in this one week. The other interesting part is all the hullabaloo about opening week. Sure it’s arguably the best opening weekend in college football this century. But when you stack it up against conference play (which is almost always more important), it doesn’t hold up as well. Saying that, it will be a great intro to the season.

I have not included Conference Championship week because of course it would be the most important week of the regular season. Army-Navy is its own beast (or at least has been for the past decade). So neither of those weeks get ranked. So let’s get down to it!

Week 1

Houston vs. Oklahoma (in NRG Stadium in Houston) – This may ruffle a few feathers. Especially Bama, Wisky, Nole, Reb, Trojan, Irish, and Horns fans. With all the hype for opening week, this is the one game that hasn’t got nearly enough of it and should have got most of it. This could very well be the true coming out party for Houston (yes the Peach Bowl victory over Florida State was huge but this is different). If they can somehow win this game over the Sooners, they may set themselves up for an improbable run to the College Football Playoff (and eventual invite to the Big XII). (Noon, ABC)

Alabama vs. USC (in Arlington) – Now this is the game that everyone believes is the game of the week. I can fully understand that. The team of the century (so far) against a possibly resurgent Trojan program. I still do wonder if USC is all the way back and if they made the right choice with Clay Helton as head coach. I have a feeling we will find out a lot the night of this game. (8:00, ABC)

Florida State vs. Ole Miss (in Orlando) – The traditional opening week Monday nighter (before actual Monday Night Football starts). This will be a good one and if it wasn’t in Orlando (let’s be honest, this is about as neutral site as Wisconsin playing LSU in Lambeau) I would almost pick the Rebels as the favourites. Chad Kelly starts his Heisman campaign here and by then we should know if Ole Miss will be serving penalties from all the Laremy Tunsil fallout. (Monday, 8:00, specialty pack)

LSU vs. Wisconsin (in Green Bay) – And speaking of home field advantage, despite the organizers making sure some LSU fans got tickets to this one, this will be a partisan crowd in favour of the Badgers no doubt. Too bad LSU doesn’t give a shit about that. The Hat plans on taking The Tigers into The Lambeau to beat The Wisky. (3:30, ABC/TSN3)

Georgia vs. North Carolina (in Atlanta) – OK it is officially getting way out of hand with these neutral site games. There are nine in week one. Too many. It takes the lustre off of the idea. So are the Heels ready to take the next step? Will Kirby Smart improve on what Mark Richt did in Athens for years? Will Larry Fedora wear a fedora on the sidelines? How many S-E-C chants will we hear? You can find out all this and more…if you have the specialty pack. Sorry. (5:30, specialty pack)

Kansas State at Stanford – The only non-neutral-site game on the list. This is a bit of a sneaky one as there are others that could have filled this #6 spot (as you will see in the honourable mention section). Christian McCaffrey begins his second attempt at the Heisman while Papa Bill Snyder continues to try and do some more Bill Snydering in the Little Apple as the Wildcats try to rebound from one of their worst seasons in thirty years (Ron Prince era not included). (Friday, 9:00, FOX Sports One….dammit)

Honourable mention: Bowling Green at Ohio State (Noon, BTN), Clemson at Auburn (9:00, specialty pack), Notre Dame at Texas (Sunday, 7:30, ABC), Arizona vs. BYU (in Glendale) (10:30, FOX Sports One dammit), UCLA at Texas A&M (3:30, CBS)

Week 2

Arkansas at TCU – And this is why Week 2 is the worst of all the weeks. This is the game of the week? Yup! Not taking anything away from the Hogs or Frogs but unless they were facing a top 5 team they probably shouldn’t be at the top of any best games list. Anyway, here we look at two teams that are juuuuuuust on the outside looking up at the major powers. The loser here coughs up any chance at the College Football Playoff. (7:00, specialty pack)

BYU at Utah – Regular season Holy War!!! After last year’s Las Vegas Bowl where BYU almost made out with the comeback to end all comebacks, I don’t know how these two teams could come up with an encore. They will have to. Being one of the biggest games of the week means the hype meter on this may go off the charts. And for the love of Joseph Smith, Big XII, just invite the Cougars already. (7:30, FOX)

Western Kentucky at Alabama – No I don’t think the Hilltoppers can beat the Tide. However, I do believe WKU will put a big scare into Bama in this one. I don’t know if the Fighting Evil Sabans will look past this game but they shouldn’t. This has upset potential all over it (even though, again, I don’t think that will happen). This may be the true coming out party for Western Kentucky as they have almost nothing to lose and everything to gain. (3:30, specialty pack)

Washington State at Boise State – It’s always fun when a Mike Leach-coached team is good. Throwing the ball like 90 times a game. All offense all the time! YEE-HAW! They will get a massive test though going to the blue turf as they will surely be an underdog. Many are conflicted on who to pick as their Group of Five champion this season, the Broncos or Houston. Boise may prove in this one why they should be everyone’s pick. (10:15, specialty pack)

Tennessee vs. Virginia Tech (in Bristol) – Ah, the Battle of Bristol. Bristol Motor Speedway will host a college football game. The first time a racetrack has ever hosted a football game. Because…well, to be honest I don’t know if it makes a whole lot of sense to host a football game on a racetrack. Hopefully I am proven wrong and just the look of it is awesome. Both teams are on the precipice of bigger things. New coach in Blacksburg in Justin Fuente and Butch Jones hoping to finally reach his goal of an SEC East title. Should be a good one. And no TURNIN LEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEFT! (8:00, ABC)

Penn State at Pittsburgh – Yes, this is not what you would call a star-studded week of college football. Middle-of-the-road Big Ten team against middle-of-the-road ACC team doesn’t exactly move the needle. Will be interesting to see if Christian Hackenberg’s replacement will be sacked less than 80 times this season. (Noon, specialty pack)

Honourable mention: California at San Diego State (10:30, CBS Sports Network), Central Michigan at Oklahoma State (Noon, FOX Sports who cares we aren’t getting it), Nevada at Notre Dame (3:30, NBC), North Carolina at Illinois (7:30, BTN), Tulsa at Ohio State (3:30, ABC)

Week 3

Ohio State at Oklahoma – What a stark contrast between the previous week and this one. Now this is a game of the week. Hell, this could be considered the regular season game of the year (and after further look, yes, I can say it is by a hair). Two CFP candidates going toe-to-toe in Norman. I would say this is an elimination game but we know how early season games tend to not affect the rankings as much as late-season conference play. This should be a dandy (say that in your head in a Keith Jackson voice). (7:30, FOX)

Alabama at Ole Miss – Most weeks this would be the game of the week. Not so here. Then again, it should be a MASSIVE early season SEC West matchup. Unless another team comes out of the woodwork to seriously contend (perhaps an LSU or Auburn or even Mississippi State), this may be for the SEC West title. And the thing is, Ole Miss may end up being a slight favourite here especially since they have a true Heisman candidate in Chad Kelly. Must-watch for sure. (3:30, CBS)

Michigan State at Notre Dame – Another potential CFP quasi-elimination game that may not necessarily eliminate the loser. But a loss here would make it very difficult for either team to get back into the final four at the end of the season. With Connor Cook not around anymore, you have to wonder how good the Spartans will be. The Irish have the opposite problem: two good quarterbacks and only one spot available. Cue the QB controversy if the Irish have a not-so-good game here in South Bend. (7:30, NBC)

USC at Stanford – It’s the Christian McCaffrey Show! With special guests David Shaw…Clay Helton…new USC quarterback Max Browne…the guy handing the ball off to Christian McCaffrey…the return of Clancy Pendergast…and the Stanford tree!!! This is where McCaffrey has to start his Heisman campaign. Last year he didn’t get much in terms of recognition until a bit past the halfway point, which was too far back to catch up with the other contenders. He goes off on the Trojans in this one, he may have one foot already at the Heisman Trophy presentation in the Big Apple. (8:00, ABC)

Mississippi State at LSU – This is the consolation game in the SEC West…kind of. This matchup may be forgotten with the Bama-Ole Miss hype. The loser here is almost definitely out of the SEC West. Harsh to say this so early but there’s no way you could lose this then somehow run the rest of the SEC schedule. Not. Gonna. Happen. And despite the fact LSU is as close to cash money as it gets when playing at night in Death Valley, remember what the Bulldogs did to them last time they were in that exact same scenario. (7:00, specialty pack)

Florida State at Louisville – These days, you almost have to say that Louisville has the shittiest divisional setup. Having to play Florida State and Clemson every year makes it near impossible to even get to the ACC Championship. At some point, they may have the team to do it. I can’t see them winning against both those teams but having the Noles come to Papa John’s and the rabid Cardinal fans there could be enough to propel Louisville up the rankings early on before their visit later on to Clemson. (Noon, ABC/TSN5)

Honourable mention: Pittsburgh at Oklahoma State (3:30, specialty pack), Houston at Cincinnati (7:30, TSN3/TSN5), UCLA at BYU (10:30, specialty pack), Temple at Penn State (Noon, BTN), Miami at Appalachian State (Noon, specialty pack)

Bossman's Blog

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

Tag Archives: NRG Stadium

My blog version of blind roulette: predicting the TSN schedule

No Nessler. No McDonough. No problem? No this could be a problem.

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