Alright a short post about the national championships coming up. That’s right…national championships. Two of them to be exact.
Let’s start with the one that’s on today. For some unknown reason, someone decided that the FCS Championship should be on in the middle of the NFL’s final regular season week. Are they fucking stupid? I don’t need anyone to answer that since I know the answer already. This game could have been on Saturday and been done before the first Saturday NFL game even starts. But no. Instead it’s today at 2:00 on ABC and TSN+.
The Grizzlies of Montana face off against the juggernaut South Dakota State Jackrabbits. What the hell is in the water in the Dakotas to produce all these good football teams? Here’s hoping it’s a close one since SDSU hasn’t seen a close game in quite a while.
As for the other championship, the College Football Playoff National Championship, it airs on Monday night on TSN 1, 3 and 4. It also appears on TSN5 after the women’s hockey game is over. So around 8:30 or just into the second quarter. TSN+ will have a bunch of alternate broadcasts of the game, including the All-22 view, Skycast and the Pat McAfee Show version. So whichever way you want to watch the game, it’s there for you. I still think they should bring back the Coach’s Filmroom but provide an open bar for the coaches. That alone would bring a lot of entertainment I’m sure.
UPDATE: I forgot to post the time of the game! It starts at 7:30 although I’m sure you already knew that.
The game itself should be a good one. Will it approach how insanely good the semi-finals were? That would be something. Now who does the Bossman think will win the whole thing? Well, how about we look back at what I said in August about this game:
I had Michigan beating Bama in the semis. Well I’ll be damned. Might as well go for the whole thing and say that I am sticking with Big Blue to win the title over a different type of Dawg. And yes, I think Harbaugh heads back to the NFL after this. Remember, I predicted he would leave before all the shit he has had to endure (some of it partially his own doing) and the suspensions he had to deal with (meaning his own…two of them…for six games total). So I think he is a lock to leave if the Wolverines win the title. Score? Let’s go 34-30 Michigan.
So for the last time this college football season…enjoy the games everyone!
And you know what means. That’s right. It’s Army-Navy time. And the Heisman Trophy presentation. Two of the most important occurrences in any college football season. Look, let’s just get right to the schedule since it’s not that long and then get to some Heisman discussion.
Friday
FCS Quarter-Final: Furman at Montana
9:00
Last year was an FCS doubleheader in this spot. Why they didn’t do that this year? Well, my best guess is that since there are no teams from the Eastern Time Zone, it would make no sense for either South Dakota State or South Dakota to begin their game at 6:00 local time. That would make it very tough on attendance for sure. I am sure otherwise that would have been the plan since there is nothing else that was going to air on ESPN2 this night.
Saturday
FCS Quarter-Final: Villanova at South Dakota State
Noon
FCS Quarter-Final: North Dakota State at South Dakota
2:30
Army vs. Navy (in Foxborough)
3:00
FCS Quarter-Final: UAlbany at Idaho
10:00
Well, we have two new wrinkles this year. Normally we would get an FCS playoff game at Noon and the Army-Navy game at 3:00. This year, ABC is showing NDSU-USD at 2:30 which is, I believe, the first time ever that an FCS quarter-final game has appeared on ABC. Plus, the final quarter-final game should also be appearing in this area (if you have TSN+ or one of the specialty packs). Now, at this point I see no info for the final two games on the specialty pack. I honestly don’t know why the afternoon game is scheduled for TSN+ when it’s already on ABC but it is. As for the nighttime affair, I only see it appearing on TSN+ although it might end up on the specialty pack at some point. I will keep you updated on this.
TSN3 will be showing the Heisman Trophy presentation ceremony this year (Saturday night at 8:00) after being fucking dicks and not showing it last year. They probably needed to show Top 50 plays in Arizona Coyotes history or something like that. Anyway, here are the odds going into Saturday night’s ceremony:
Jayden Daniels, LSU (-1200)
Michael Penix, Jr., Washington (+900)
Bo Nix, Oregon (+1500)
Marvin Harrison, Ohio State (+20000)
Wait, +20000? Twenty thousand? So basically, Maserati Marv might as well not show up. Not saying Daniels won’t win it because he probably will but Penix and Nix are still at least in the ballpark when it comes to odds. Harrison’s odds are like if they took a single-A baseball team and put them up against an MLB all-star team. Or like if the worst football team in your high school district was going to play the Western Mustangs. It would be a bloodbath.
Anyway, Daniels most definitely deserves the award, especially considering the fact that LSU was never a contender this season. If it wasn’t for him, the Tigers are sniffing .500 and a scramble to become bowl eligible. I wonder what would have happened if either of the two Pac-12 quarterbacks had gone off during the Pac-12 Championship but, alas, neither did and they basically handed the trophy to Daniels.
And hey, remember College GameDay not going to the Army-Navy Game last year? Well, this year they will be going. It seems like there is a lot of divisiveness with the show now that Pat McAfee has joined the show and essentially replaced David Pollack. I get that they are trying to tap into a different audience. What that audience is I don’t know since I am sure most people who are fans of the Pat McAfee Show already watch copious amounts of college football but I may be wrong. And it sounds like eventually he will be the replacement for Lee Corso. I honestly don’t understand that but in the end it doesn’t matter to me. Why? Because I don’t really watch pre-game shows for any sport. They usually aren’t good or are way too long (or both). And GameDay definitely falls under the latter. I don’t even bother with the final helmet pick part of the show because I will see hundreds of people post it anyway. No skin off my back. Live sports. That’s what I watch. So just bring on the football.
The bowl schedule is up for TSN so I will go about doing that post soon along with my bowl game rankings. Whether TSN makes changes as it goes along, who knows although they were pretty good last year with it. There is no need to make changes unless something happens with any of the World Junior Hockey Championship games which is obviously priority number one to them (and I get that). Other than that, no reason to change things because they just needed to show a repeat of NFL Live or That’s Hockey (is that even a show anymore?).
Alirght, enjoy the games everyone. We are close to the end of the season so bundle up and watch as much college football as you can (or are allowed to).
OK where do I begin here with the MILF Hunter? So The Athletic (I won’t say much about that website other than they believe much more highly of themselves than they probably should) reports that Zach Wilson does not want to start for the Jets. Would I blame him? No. The Jets O-line is basically papier-mache. Saying that, he’s a professional athlete and it is EXTREMELY rare to find the one that does not want to compete. And Wilson isn’t that guy.
So after seeing Tim Boyle (TIM FUCKING BOYLE) start and Trevor Siemian pass Wilson as the backup, Jets head coach Robert Saleh has finally seen the light (kind of) and put Wilson back under centre as the starting quarterback. Boyle has been released (and shouldn’t have got a shot in the first place) and Siemian can be the experienced backup. If…IF the Jets can somehow win their next three games, don’t be surprised if a certain recurring guest on the Pat McAfee Show makes his long-awaited return. That’s also if the Jets aren’t mathematically eliminated at that point as well which is a dicey proposition in the AFC as you will see later in this post. Look, the Jets do have a somewhat bright future if they can get some O-line help and have Rodgers for a full season. Barring that, it’s more agony for fans of the J-E-T-S, Jets, Jets, Jets.
Huh, that’s two Jets introductions in a row. Must be a record. OK now let’s get to the schedule which does include the Jets and a very weird occurrence that’s never happened before.
Thursday, 8:15, Amazon Prime, FOX Boston, CTV2, TSN 1/+
Philadelphia at Dallas
Sunday, 8:15, NBC, CTV, TSN 1/4/5/+
Green Bay at NY Giants
Monday, 8:15, ABC, TSN 3/+
Tennessee at Miami
Monday, 8:15, TSN 1/+
Just a Bunch of Schedule Notes
The games that will not appear on Canadian television networks (or American ones you can view) unless you have Sunday Ticket or RedZone:
Tampa Bay at Atlanta
Denver at LA Chargers
Carolina at New Orleans
Oh, the NFC South. The worst division in football. And all four teams are not being shown here. Sounds like justice to me.
So you notice something about Monday night? Yeah, two games going on at the same time. The only thread between them? The ManningCast which is on TSN+. Get that, you can watch Peyton and Eli and whatever stupid guests they have try to watch and analyze two games at once. Interesting idea and again it’s a lookahead towards when the NFL expands (and they will expand, make no mistake about it).
The Thursday Nighter. My god. The schedule maker must have thought this was hilarious. Then again, I don’t think he could have even envisioned two offenses so woeful. At least the Steelers got rid of Matt Canada and are opening up somewhat on the offensive side of the ball. The Pats? They might as well tank at this point and get that long snapper quarterback of the future since Mac Jones ain’t it.
The Bills and the Chiefs get a national audience this week which is nice to see (only one really…Jags-Browns are close but no cigar). Now while the two teams are only two games apart in the standings, it feels like they are miles apart on how good they really are. The Chiefs are doing OK by recent KC standards but the Bills have been terrible at times. Just don’t have the Chiefs needing to score with 13 seconds to go since it might send the Bills (and their fans) over the edge.
Updated playoff picture time bitches!
AFC
NFC
#1 Miami (9-3)
#1 Philadelphia (10-2)
#2 Baltimore (9-3)
#2 San Francisco (9-3)
#3 Kansas City (8-4)
#3 Detroit (9-3)
#4 Jacksonville (8-4)
#4 Atlanta (6-6)
Wild Cards:
Wild Cards:
#5 Pittsburgh (7-5)
#5 Dallas (9-3)
#6 Cleveland (7-5)
#6 Minnesota (6-6)
#7 Indianapolis/Houston (7-5)
#7 Green Bay/LA Rams/Seattle (6-6)
Not quite three-quarters of the way through the season but with 17 games there is no way to do fractions nicely so let’s just say we are in the home stretch. It’s December. Close enough. No one has clinched yet but there will be opportunities as I will state below. The NFC South is a complete fucking mess and I hate to say this but I hope the, ugh, Cowboys mop the fucking floor with whoever wins that sorry division. Pains me to even type that but I believe it.
Might as well get right to clinching scenarios. As you know, I do not include ties until the final week of the regular season and even then, only if I absolutely have to since otherwise the amount of scenarios goes through the roof. Let us begin.
Playoff Berth
Philadelphia clinches with a win AND (an LA Rams loss OR a Seattle loss OR (a Minnesota loss AND a Green Bay loss) OR (a Green Bay loss AND a Detroit loss))
Dallas clinches with a win AND a Detroit win AND a Tampa Bay loss AND a Seattle loss AND (an LA Rams loss OR a New Orleans loss) AND a Green Bay loss AND a Minnesota loss
San Francisco clinches with a win AND (a Minnesota loss OR a Green Bay loss)
Elimination
Arizona is eliminated with an LA Rams win AND a Green Bay win
New England is eliminated with a loss OR a Houston win OR a Cincinnati win OR (a Las Vegas win AND a Buffalo win)
OK that Dallas scenario is insane. Would be fun if it happened!
Everyone have a great rest of the week and enjoy the games…even tonight’s affair.
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
US
Canada
Murray State at Louisville
7:30
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
US
Canada
Vanderbilt at Wake Forest
11:00 AM
#10 Notre Dame at NC State
Noon
Youngstown State at #5 Ohio State
Noon
Delaware State at Army
Noon
#12 Utah at Baylor
Noon
Purdue at Virginia Tech
Noon
James Madison at Virginia
Noon
Nebraska at #22 Colorado
Noon
Ball State at #1 Georgia
Noon
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
US
Canada
Charleston Southern at #25 Clemson
2:15
#23 Texas A&M at Miami
3:30
UTEP at Northwestern
3:30
Richmond at Michigan State
3:30
UNLV at #2 Michigan
3:30
Wagner at Navy
3:30
#20 Ole Miss at #24 Tulane
3:30
Iowa at Iowa State
3:30
Marshall at East Carolina
4:00
Kent State at Arkansas
4:00
Tulsa at #8 Washington
5:00
Appalachian State at #17 North Carolina
5:15
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!
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