Oh man, here we go again

It felt like things were calm. We were all lulled into this. It was just the eye of the storm. Sure the wind wasn’t moving but about 200 metres away, a cow just went flying headlong into a barn.

What am I talking about? Realignment, of course! Another shoe has dropped…OK let me use a different analogy. Sorry Deion. We have another big move as Colorado will be going back to the Big XII starting next season. And that probably won’t be all. The rumours have at least one of Arizona, Arizona State, Utah, Oregon or Washington following the Buffaloes. Or, if no other schools leave the Pac-12, the Big XII is more than willing to dip into the American Conference (hello SMU, Memphis, Tulane) or even way out east…yes, UConn! And maybe once the Pac-12 (or more like Pac-9) gets their act together, they can start bringing in teams from the Group of Five. The same teams from the American would be in play, especially SMU. Also, the Mountain West would be watching closely as San Diego State, Boise State and perhaps Colorado State and UNLV could be looked at. There will be a lot of meetings in the next month or so to determine where this all leads.

For now let’s focus on what this post was supposed to be (and still will be). It’s time for the Power Five conference predictions. This will give a better indication on how I think things will go during this season. So let’s dive right in!

Changes are coming soon for the Ess Ee Cee. Texas and Oklahoma join the conference next season. Also, no more SEC on CBS after this year. Everything moves to ABC and ESPN. And finally, no divisions. Halle-fucking-lujah.

As for this year, all the talk is about Georgia and doing something no team has done (fully) in the AP Poll era: win three national championships in a row. It’s not like they will fall apart, despite the fact they lost their starting quarterback and a bunch of other players in the NFL Draft. Then again, I’m sure Kirby Smart has looked them all dead in the eye and told them “Everyone thinks you are going to go 5-7 and lose to Vanderbilt. Prove them wrong!” And they will believe it because college football head coaches are just a notch-and-a-half below cult leaders in the pecking order of how much they can make their “followers” drink their Kool-Aid.

Remember, though, there are other teams in the conference as well. Like those lovable underdogs from Tuscaloosa, Alabama, and the team that just reeks of success (in the classroom and on the baseball diamond), Vanderbilt. And eleven other teams. Want to find out how I think they will do? OK. I will do that. Just for you.

		Conference		Overall
	East	W	L	W	L
	Georgia	7	1	11	1
	Tennessee	6	2	10	2
	South Carolina	5	3	8	4
	Kentucky	3	5	6	6
	Missouri	2	6	5	7
	Florida	2	6	5	7
	Vanderbilt	1	7	4	8
	West
	Alabama	8	0	12	0
	LSU	6	2	9	3
	Ole Miss	4	4	8	4
	Texas A&M	4	4	8	4
	Arkansas	3	5	7	5
	Auburn	3	5	7	5
	Mississippi State	2	6	6	6

Just For You

• You might think I am crazy for having UGA not run the table. I do think they will lose a regular season game and it will be to those upstart Tennessee Volunteers. It won’t keep them from winning the division though as you can see I have those same Vols losing two conference games during the regular season.
• As for the SEC West, though, Bama will once again rule the roost….as long as they figure out their quarterback situation. I am thinking they will and will go undefeated and be #1 in the nation going into conference championship weekend. If they don’t get their QB situation settled…well, maybe they lose two games? Three? It’s not like they will fall to 6-6.
• I could see South Carolina or last year’s SEC West champs, LSU, making a bit of a run this time around. They have the top two quarterbacks in the SEC and could each put up piles of points. Watch for the Cocks’ game against Georgia early on in the season and LSU’s post-Halloween trip to Bryant-Denny to face the Tide. Upsets in either of those games will seriously upset the apple cart.
• Look, the Gators were barely .500 with who I think may be one of the most overhyped quarterbacks in recent memory. I don’t think Anthony Richardson was that great. And now they don’t even have him. Unless every other part of the roster improved (it didn’t), how do people expect this team to bounce back and all of a sudden become an eight or nine win team? Spoiler alert: they won’t.
• I have Mississippi State at 6-6. They will do just enough to get a bowl game. I wonder how tough it will be after the loss of Mike Leach but I can see them straightening things out just in time late in the season.
• As for the SEC Championship, SURPRISE! I have the Dawgs beating the Tide and creating a massive clusterfuck in the final College Football Playoff rankings. Fun times!
• Eleven bowl teams from the SEC with two juuuuuust on the outside. That’s insane and I don’t think I will be that far off with this prediction. Next year could be even crazier with Texas and Oklahoma joining the conference that just means more.

Man have things really changed in terms of where you will see Big Ten games this season. Gone are ABC and ESPN. In is NBC and CBS. This is gonna feel weird the first time I see it. And maybe the next few times as well. I will get used to it at some point. Now if you want the opportunity to watch every Big Ten game, better find a way to get FOX Sports One and Peacock otherwise you will be shit out of luck to watch potential bangers like Northwestern-Purdue and Indiana-Rutgers (if they end up there and not the Big Ten Network).

Alright, let’s get into the final conference predictions before the B1G gives a big Fuck You to geography and brings in USC and UCLA.

		Conference		Overall
	East	W	L	W	L
	Michigan	8	1	11	1
	Penn State	8	1	11	1
	Ohio State	8	1	10	2
	Michigan State	5	4	7	5
	Maryland	5	4	8	4
	Indiana	1	8	3	9
	Rutgers	1	8	4	8
	West
	Minnesota	6	3	8	4
	Wisconsin	6	3	9	3
	Iowa	6	3	9	3
	Illinois	5	4	7	5
	Nebraska	2	7	5	7
	Purdue	2	7	5	7
	Northwestern	0	9	2	10

Geogpraphy, Go Eat a Dick

• Look, I know some might look at the Big Ten East standings and think I am a bit crazy. I am not. Although that is what a crazy person would tell you. Yep, a three-way tie at the top at 8-1 between Big Blue, tOSU and PSU. Because each team will be 1-1 against the other two, the CFP Rankings will decide the winner. I believe the Wolverines will somehow win that. And yes, I think Ohio State also loses to Notre Dame. O-H! I-No.
• If Sparty doesn’t make it to a bowl game, they may end up giving Mel Tucker the Herm Edwards treatment and fire him before he can leave the playing surface one game. I get they have a tough division but they should be able to do well enough against the rest of their schedule to get back in the postseason after last year’s debacle.
• No, I don’t have Wisconsin winning the West division. Meaning I am different than almost every expert out there. Also, there’s the fact I’m not an expert but I digress. Again I have a damn three-way tie but no need to look at the rankings for this one as I believe the Gophers will Row the Fucking Boat all the way to Indianapolis after beating both Wisky and the high-octane Iowa Hawkeyes. See what I did there? Yeah, I don’t care that the Hawkeyes have a new quarterback in town. Until Kirk tells his son to do better, Iowa will be pushing for some 7-6 victories. Sorry. 8-6. Two field goals and a late safety to win.
• Nebraska will be better but I think the Huskers are a season away from getting back to the top of the West…just in time for the West to just not exist anymore.
• As for Northwestern…man. What a shitshow. Look, I played a lot of sports earlier in my life and did so at the university level. Are there fun little pranks and stupid things the rookies have to do? Sometimes. But it’s usually harmless. Carrying bags, standing up during a team dinner to get embarrassed by singing some Mariah Carey song, dumb things like that. Not getting fucking dry humped in some cultish fashion by weirdos in robes. What the fuck is wrong with that school? And yes, it’s not just the football program. Sounds like at least half the teams there have serious issues. Ugh.
• Now let’s get crazy. Yeah! The Big Ten Championship will…OK who am I kidding. It won’t be close. I have Michigan plowing through Minny to clinch their spot, yet again, in the College Football Playoff.

Might as well call this the Stable Conference…for now. Just nothing happening here which is just fine for most of the teams in the ACC. Status quo isn’t a bad thing. There are some changes with where you will see games. The CW…yes, the C-Fucking-W, will have an ACC game during most of the weeks of the season. You can take the ACC out of Jefferson-Pilot (or Raycom) but you can’t take the Jefferson-Pilot (or Raycom) out of the ACC. Or something like that.

So before this conference possibly gets pillaged by the Big Ten and SEC, let’s get to the predictions followed by some deep tissue massage and/or analysis.

		Conference		Overall
		W	L	W	L
	Clemson	8	0	12	10
	Florida State	7	1	11	1
	North Carolina	6	2	9	3
	Pittsburgh	5	3	8	4
	Louisville	5	3	8	4
	Duke	4	4	8	4
	Wake Forest	4	4	7	5
	NC State	4	4	7	5
	Miami	4	4	7	5
	Syracuse	3	5	6	6
	Boston College	2	6	5	7
	Virginia	2	6	4	8
	Georgia Tech	2	6	4	8
	Virginia Tech	0	8	1	11

Deep Tissue Massage and/or Analysis

• I should book a massage. My back is in horrible shape.
• Some may scoff at me having Clemson going undefeated this season. They have the schedule to do it and if Cade Klubnik is as good as he can be this could relatively easily happen. If Klubnik struggles…well then this entire set of standings might need to be scrubbed from existence.
• Reader Gord will like where I have Florida State. This team could be scary good. And at the very least, they will be near the top of the ACC standings this season. Mike Norvell has done a great job getting this team back to what it was like during the Jimbo Fisher days. I had my doubts about him but I have to admit he has been the right guy to right the ship in Tallahassee.
• Hey did you notice? NO DIVISIONS! I love it.
• Don’t be surprised that if Clemson or FSU stumbles that there are no shortage of teams that could get one of the two ACC title game slots. A list of seven teams could pull off a couple of upsets and be at the top and it wouldn’t be a huge surprise. A slight surprise sure. Maybe a slightly bigger surprise if it was Miami or NC State. But not a massive surprise.
• Poor Virginia Tech. I think this will be their worst team since before Frank Beamer graced Blacksburg. It feels like it has been forever since the Hokies were contenders. It was only seven years ago when they were in the ACC Championship and almost upset the eventual national champions, Clemson. This team is pretty bad in almost every aspect of the game and the schedule will not be helpful to them. Other than Old Dominion I don’t see them winning any other game and the Monarchs have given VT all sorts of fits the past few years.
• Look for a tiny bit of a bounce back from Virginia. Just them taking the field after what happened last year is a win in my books.
• For that ACC title game, how about another game that will turn everything on its head. Yep, I think the Noles will get revenge for a regular season loss by inching out the Tigers. Chaos!

OK it’s about time the Big XII rebrands. They will have at least thirteen teams by the time the 2024 season starts and it may be as high as sixteen. So change the fucking name. They have the rights to the Big Fourteen and Big Sixteen so use one of those. It would be easy. Find a graphic design student at Kansas and have them do a new logo. Easy peasy. Why do I have to come up with everything?

Where was I? Oh that’s right, predictions. Let’s see if this conference will go all Pac-12 and cannibalize itself or if they can see a team get to the CFP once again. Also, Texas and Oklahoma will be trying their best to leave the conference on a high note much to the chagrin of the rest of the schools in the conference. So here are the Big XII standings predictions, followed by Belly Expansions.

		Conference		Overall
		W	L	W	L
	Texas	8	1	10	2
	Kansas State	7	2	10	2
	Baylor	6	3	8	4
	TCU	6	3	9	3
	Oklahoma	6	3	9	3
	Texas Tech	5	4	8	4
	Oklahoma State	5	4	8	4
	Kansas	4	5	7	5
	UCF	4	5	7	5
	BYU	3	6	5	7
	Cincinnati	3	6	5	7
	Houston	2	7	4	8
	Iowa State	2	7	4	8
	West Virginia	2	7	3	9

Belly Expansions

• No I don’t mean pregnancy. I mean eating a big meal and having to loosen the ol’ belt or just unbuckle the pants altogether. Funny enough, people in the restaurant don’t appreciate that.
• Let’s start at the bottom. There won’t be one truly bad team. There will be a bunch of below-average ones. West Virginia, Iowa State, Houston, Cincinnati and BYU could all finish last and I am sure no one would bat an eye.
• I see the Longhorns making their final Big XII season a special one. They have the team, the schedule and the head coach (I think) to be the top team in this conference this season. The only question will be can Quinn Ewers hold off Arch Manning. Will one of them transfer in the offseason? Remember, when you have two starting quarterbacks, you have none. I think.
• How about this lukewarm take: Kansas State will be good again. Yeah really going out on a limb there Bossman. This team has become so steady-as-she-goes it’s almost boring. The people in the Little Apple are fine with this.
• I do think one of the newcomers will make a bowl game and that team will be UCF. I think they are the most prepared of the newbies coming into this conference. But make no mistake about it: all four teams will be good at various points over the next few years.
• I can’t see Oklahoma taking enough of a leap to get to the Big XII Championship. Nor do I think the Horned Frogs of TCU have the, uh, toads? to make it back to the conference title game. Good seasons for both, yes, but not great.
• The Longhorns should win the conference title game in their final season in the Big XII. Will this get them into the CFP or will it “relegate” them to the New Year’s Six? I think you can tell from my predictions so far but you will know for sure in a different post.

So where are we going to be able to watch Pac-12 games in the future? Who the hell knows. My money is on PBS.

But seriously, the Pac-12 is quickly dropping from the Conference of Champions to almost a Group of Five conference. They are losing USC and UCLA next year to the Big Ten. They knew that already. The bombshell of Colorado leaving now has them at nine teams starting the 2024 season. And it may not end there. The only schools I haven’t heard potentially leaving are Oregon State and Washington State. That’s not to say all these rumours will be correct but I will be pretty surprised if no more teams leave for the Big XII before next season. It’s sad for a conference that really started their slide once Pete Carroll left USC for the NFL. Thanks a bunch, Peter.

Prediction time! No divisions which is one thing they are ahead of the game with, starting that last year. Let’s get to those divisionless predictions followed by some California Nightmarin’.

		Conference		Overall
		W	L	W	L
	USC	8	1	10	2
	Utah	7	2	9	3
	Oregon	7	2	9	3
	Oregon State	7	2	10	2
	Washington State	6	3	8	4
	Washington	6	3	9	3
	UCLA	5	4	8	4
	Colorado	3	6	4	8
	California	2	7	4	8
	Arizona	2	7	4	8
	Arizona State	1	8	3	9
	Stanford	0	9	2	10

California Nightmarin’

• No state will have it better this year in the Pac-12 than the state of Oregon. Both the Ducks and the Beavers look to be serious contenders and only need the ball to bounce their way one extra time to maybe get to the Pac-12 Championship. And considering the way that title game has gone, who knows what may happen after that.
• The strongest team, though, should be USC. They have Caleb Williams coming back to try and do what no one other than some guy named Archie has ever done, and that’s win two Heisman Trophies. The hope there is that the sting of the two season-ending losses will motivate them to push themselves that final step into the CFP.
• OK look, I know you see Washington in sixth place and you are wondering what the fuck is wrong with me. This is another case where the schedule is just flat-out against them. A slightly easier schedule and I might put this team at eleven or even, dare I say it, twelve wins. It will be that close at the top of the conference.
• On the other hand, I am sure no will think I’m crazy for putting Stanford in last place. It’s been a long time since the Cardinal have been this bad and it doesn’t look like they will be ready for bowl action for another year at least.
• I think I was fair putting Colorado at 4-8 for this season and playing fairly meaningful football going into November. There seems to be two schools of thought with this team. One section thinks Coach Prime has done wonders and with all the fresh faces in the lineup it will push the team over the line and into bowl-eligibility territory. The other section thinks the entire program is overhyped and they will win maybe two games. I am in the middle on this. This team won’t go bowling this year. That would be too much of a leap. But they should win more games than they did last year. If not, what the hell was all this hoopla for?
• As for the Pac-12 title game, USC gets the Pac-12 Championship they probably should have won last year. Problem is that by this point there will be a lot of teams in the mix for those four College Football Playoff spots and in typical Pac-12 fashion, the league will have cannabilized itself again and missed out on the CFP again.

There you go! You now have a complete set of Bossman conference predictions. Next up, is kind of the wrap-up post where I put everything in a nice, neat little ball and let you know who I believe will win the whole damn deal. Have a great week everyone!

2021 NCAA Basketball Conference Tournament TV Schedule

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

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

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

A few notes:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

A few notes:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

It was a case of premature gatoration – Week 13 College Football Recap

Welp, that was something.  If you weren’t able to watch the LSU-Texas A&M marathon then that’s too bad.  It was something to witness.  It had a bit of everything it seemed.  Let’s recap what happened from about the last couple minutes of regulation through to the last of the seven (yes SEVEN!) overtimes:

• That Gatorade bath you see above for Ed Orgeron was after it looked like LSU had the game-winning interception late in the fourth quarter.  Replays showed Kellen Mond’s knee was down when he struggled to pick up the ball after a bad snap.  So it was still Texas A&M’s ball.
• The next play was 4th & 18 and it looked like the Aggies were short of the line to gain.  No review.  Bad call by the SEC officials there.
• Kellen Mond then spiked the ball and it looked like time had expired.  Instead, there was actually one second left.  That set up Mond’s game-tying TD throw to Quartney Davis with no time left to send the game to overtime.
• Both teams scored in the first two overtimes.  In the third overtime, LSU scored a touchdown and got the two-point conversion.  That set up Kendrick Rogers’ TD catch which was one of the most ridiculous catches of the year to tie things up again.
• The teams traded scores in the next three overtimes to get to the seventh overtime period.  This tied the NCAA record for the longest game ever.
• LSU scored first but failed on the two-point conversion.  Texas A&M scored a TD then failed on their two-point conversion so it looked like we would be witnessing history with the first ever eight-overtime game.  Instead a somewhat questionable pass interference call allowed the Aggies another shot.  They converted and ended the highest scoring game in FBS history, 74-72.

It capped a week of college football that, up until that game was looking like a pretty good but not great week, continuing a string of weeks that have peaked at being good but not great.  For the rest of the recap I will do exactly what I did last year, just keeping the broadcast information and going through it in chronological order.  So let’s go!

Thursday

Air Force 27 Colorado State 19

3:30 PM

A pretty good game to start the week (if you don’t include the MACtion from Tuesday).  Air Force pulled away as Cole Fagan ran for 260 yards.  Typical Air Force running game.

Mississippi State 35 Ole Miss 3

7:30 PM

This game was marred a bit by a brawl in the second half.  The Bulldogs dominated this game from start to finish.  It was nice to see Nick Fitzgerald play this game after the brutal injury he suffered at last year’s Egg Bowl.

Friday

Memphis 52 Houston 31

Noon

Memphis had a slow start but pulled away in the second half to earn their spot in the AAC Championship.  For everyone that thinks it will be a blowout, remember Memphis took UCF to overtime last year before losing.

Iowa 31 Nebraska 28

Noon

Iowa wins this one on a walk-off field goal.  Nebraska will somehow be within sniffing distance of the preseason Top 25 before the 2019 season.

Ohio 49 Akron 28

Noon

Meaningless game won big by Ohio.

Buffalo 44 Bowling Green 14

Noon

Buffalo, with the easy win, clinches the MAC East and will face Northern Illinois Friday night in Detroit for the MAC Championship.

Missouri 38 Arkansas 0

2:30 PM

Arkansas is terrible.  This proved it.  Missouri is good but this was such a poor performance by Chad Morris’ Hogs.  I am sure CBS may look to try and snag LSU-TAMU for Black Friday next season rather than this game that almost always disappoints.

Virginia Tech 34 Virginia 31

3:30 PM

Ugh.  The Hokies win a close one over UVA.  This means next week’s game against Marshall is on and if VaTech wins, they go bowling.  This also means a Group of Five team will be home rather than go bowling.  Or perhaps BYU which would not make that fanbase happy at all.

Cincinnati 56 East Carolina 6

3:30 PM

Cincinnati had a great season other than that loss to UCF and a crushing loss to Temple.  If it wasn’t for those two games, we may have been talking about Luke Fickell’s Bearcats for the New Year’s Six spot.

UCF 38 USF 10

4:00 PM

Not nearly as exciting as last year’s epic War on I-4.   UCF had already clinched the AAC East.  This keeps them undefeated and in the driver’s seat for the Group of Five spot in the NY6.  Their chances of a College Football Playoff spot, however, are zero.

Oklahoma 59 West Virginia 56

8:00 PM

This was about the most Big XII game you could ask for.  A lot of offense and a close game with high stakes.  Oklahoma will now face Texas, who beat Kansas, at JerryWorld for the Big XII Championship and perhaps a spot in the CFP.

Washington 28 Washington State 15

8:30 PM

This game was played in a huge snowstorm.  Visually it was fun to watch.  I can’t imagine it was as fun for the players.  Washington outlasted Wazzu as the Cougs troubles in the Apple Cup continue since Mike Leach took over.  This also means the Pac-12 is shut out of the College Football Playoff for sure.

Saturday Early

Florida 41 Florida State 14

Noon

Florida State could not pull off the upset so for the first time since 1982, will not appear in a bowl game.  Florida, on the other hand, may have played their way into the New Year’s Six with this impressive win.

Ohio State 62 Michigan 39

Noon

tOSU seems to be Michigan’s kryptonite.  Especially Jim Harbaugh’s.  It’s like a mental block.  62 points?  Most scored on Michigan in regulation ever.  Ohio State just dominated, thanks to a breakout performance from freshman Chris Olave who caught two touchdown passes and blocked a punt leading to a touchdown.  Ohio State now has a potential shot at the College Football Playoff if they beat Northwestern next week in the Big Ten Championship.  Michigan is probably in a New Year’s Six bowl and will go to the Rose Bowl if the Buckeyes end up in the Top 4.

Purdue 28 Indiana 21

Noon

Purdue is, fittingly, going bowling.  An up-and-down year highlighted by a massive win over Ohio State (the Buckeyes’ only loss) was capped by this close victory over Indiana for the Old Oaken Bucket in the winner-goes-bowling matchup.

Syracuse 42 Boston College 21

Noon

This really wasn’t close.  Steve Addazio, after BC’s hot start, may be on the hot seat after the Eagles’ disappointing finish.  Syracuse will be left out of the New Year’s Six although it has to be considered a massive success as Dino Babers has finally brought the team to the heights he said he would bring them to when he was hired.

Western Kentucky 30 Louisiana Tech 15

Noon

WKU was awful this year but ended the season with two straight victories and played their best game of the year trying to save Mike Sanford’s job.  Alas, it didn’t work.

Tulane 29 Navy 28

Noon

Willie Fritz showed some balls, going for two after a late Tulane TD got the Green Wave to within one.  They converted and beat Navy to become bowl-eligible for the first time in five years.  I am honestly surprised this game wasn’t over by 2:30.

Georgia 45 Georgia Tech 21

Noon

Speaking of games that weren’t close, this one was it.  Georgia rolled the Yellow Jackets and should be in the Top 4 going into the SEC Championship.

NC State 34 North Carolina 28 (OT)

12:30 PM

What a way to end Raycom’s ACC telecasts.  NC State defeats North Carolina in overtime and right afterwards there is a huge brawl.  I will be interested to see if there are any hiccups bringing ACC Network telecasts to us Canadians next year.  I am not holding my breath.

Wake Forest 59 Duke 7

12:30 PM

Yeah I think the Deacs really wanted to go bowling.  A 52-point shellacking of an already bowl-bound Duke proved that the Demon Deacons could be a tough out in a bowl game.

Saturday Afternoon

Penn State 38 Maryland 3

3:30 PM

It would have been nice to see Maryland come back from all the adversity they have had from the D.J. Durkin/Jordan McNair issues from before the season but they couldn’t beat a really good Penn State team (who may end up in the New Year’s Six).  Matt Canada may have done enough to secure the job next season and remove the interim tag.

Alabama 52 Auburn 21

3:30 PM

Bama wins.  Ho hum.  They should get a good match with Georgia next week though.

Minnesota 37 Wisconsin 15

3:30 PM

Row the damn Boat!  P.J. Fleck’s Golden Gophers beat up on Wisconsin to earn bowl-eligibility.  Huge for Fleck as it keeps him off the hot seat.  Wisconsin was seriously disappointing this season and never felt like a contender in the Big Ten West.

Miami 24 Pittsburgh 3

3:30 PM

Does anyone have any faith in Pitt to keep things close in the ACC Championship?  Because I don’t.

Tulsa 27 SMU 24

3:30 PM

SMU had their chance to go to a bowl game but their loss to Tulsa shuts them out of bowl season.

Northwestern 24 Illinois 16

3:30 PM

Northwestern shouldn’t have had any problems with the Illini but did.  They pulled out the victory, though, and look forward to their Big Ten Championship match against Ohio State.  Somehow, Lovie Smith will stay on as Illinois’ head coach.  I don’t get it either.

Temple 57 UConn 7

3:30 PM

UConn has now allowed the most points and yards of any FBS team in history.  They have to be considered among the worst Div. 1-A/FBS teams ever.  So of course we have to assume that Randy Edsall will be back next season.

Michigan State 14 Rutgers 10

4:00 PM

It almost looked like Rutgers was going to win a game on national TV.  It would have been one of the craziest things to happen all season.  In the end, they came up just short.  The Scarlet Knights are a ways away from competing in the Big Ten and it’s almost sad they are in that conference rather than the American, where they belong.

Vanderbilt 38 Tennessee 13

4:00 PM

Wow.  Not even close.  Vandy really wanted this.  Derek Mason has done a pretty good job taking over for James Franklin after a very rocky start.  I don’t know what to say about Tennessee.  This program has been mired in mediocrity for years and it seems like there is no way out of it.

Saturday Primetime & Late Night

Clemson 56 South Carolina 35

7:00 PM

At times it looked like the Gamecocks were in this game but you had that feeling they weren’t going to be close enough.  In the end, those feelings were correct.  Clemson marches on to Charlotte to face Pitt in what should be an ACC Championship victory.

Kentucky 56 Louisville 10

7:00 PM

It’s amazing not too long ago that Mark Stoops was on a perpetual hot seat.  Now he has to be considered a candidate for coach of the year and has the Wildcats very close to a 10-win season.  On the other side, Louisville is a disaster.  I don’t know what head coach wants to pick this up but they have to expect next season to be a rough one as well.

Fresno State 31 San Jose State 13

7:00 PM

San Jose State was actually close for a while in this one.  But the possibility of an upset left early in the third quarter.

Texas A&M 74 LSU 72 (7OT)

7:30 PM

This was talked about above but it was still amazing to watch this game.  The game didn’t end until Nevada and UNLV were halfway through the fourth quarter.

Notre Dame 24 USC 17

8:00 PM

OK this is really starting to look like the Notre Dame of 2012.  A bunch of close wins over teams where the wins shouldn’t have been that close.  I get that USC played one of their better games of the season but still: the Irish will get into the CFP and might be a double-digit underdog which never bodes well.  As for the Trojans, athletic director Lynn Swann has stated that Clay Helton will return for the 2019 season.  I, along with many others, still have my doubts about that.

TCU 31 Oklahoma State 24

8:00 PM

This feels like a defensive battle considered it was a Big XII game.  Nevertheless, Gary Patterson’s defense was good enough to get the Horned Frogs to bowl eligibility.  Seven out of the ten Big XII teams are bowl eligible with two just on the outside at 5 wins.  That’s a pretty deep conference.

UNLV 34 Nevada 29

9:30 PM

For a game that had no bearing on anything, it ended up being a really good one.  I mean I was stuck on LSU-TAMU until this one got well into the fourth quarter but it was a great last nine minutes.  UNLV may have saved Tony Sanchez’s job by winning the Fremont Cannon which is a hilariously huge rivalry trophy (about 500 lbs.).

Boise State 33 Utah State 24

10:15 PM

Huge game here but we all have to remember that Boise is nearly unstoppable on the blue turf at Albertson’s Stadium.  They again pull off the huge victory and will now play Fresno State in the Mountain West Championship and pray that UCF loses their game earlier on in the day.

Hawaii 31 San Diego State 30 (OT)

10:30 PM

A phenomenal game to end the night.  Rocky Long decided to go for two in the first overtime after his kicker missed what would have been the game-winning field goal at the end of regulation.  Bad playcall (50-50 jump ball) and Hawaii held on to win.

Bowl eligibility

The following teams clinched bowl eligibility this past week:

Vanderbilt

Purdue

Minnesota

TCU

Baylor

Wake Forest

Tulane

Wyoming

Miami-OH

Southern Miss

Also, with Virginia Tech’s win, they will play Marshall with a chance to go to 6-6.  Good lord, that’s a lot of teams to clinch in the final weekend but it was pretty much the same thing last season.  This eliminates any 5-7 team from going bowling. As far as I can tell, at least three teams will sit at home even though they are bowl-eligible.  I figured out Liberty’s bowl-eligibility picture as well.  They will probably end up 6-6 after next week’s game against Norfolk State; however, they will have two wins over FCS teams and only one is eligible to count towards your overall win total.  So technically they would be a 5-win team and would be ineligible for a bowl game.

Coaching Carousel

I always remember the music when Homer Simpson was going to go to clown college.  It fits here as well.

It started with Les Miles being hired (after David Beaty was fired but coached the last few games).  What else happened on the coaching carousel?

• Louisville pulled the trigger on firing Bobby Petrino.  Problem is, other than this season, Petrino had been a good college coach.  He clearly was at the end of the line at Louisville but he will end up coaching somewhere else in the next couple seasons.  Question now is who wants to inherit this mess?  And would it be someone who would be considered a big hire?  Probably not.
• Kute Kliff Kingsbury was shitcanned at Texas Tech.  Their loss to Baylor was probably a good thing because who knows if gaining bowl eligibility would have changed the minds of the brass in Lubbock.
• Larry Fedora was dismissed at North Carolina.  No surprise there.  The surprise comes from the rumour about who would replace him.  The rumour is that Mack Brown would come back to coach and would bring Kingsbury as his offensive coordinator and Gene Chizik out of the SEC Network as his defensive coordinator.  Wow.
• Lovie Smith got a contract extension….wait, what?  You read it.  A contract extension.  Everything is so messed up in Champaign.
• Mike Sanford was let go after a horrible season at Western Kentucky.  They won their last two games but my guess is this was decided at least a week ago and didn’t fire him then so he could coach out the string.
• Mark Whipple is out at UMass.  I have this feeling they need to drop back to FCS but that’s just me.
• John Bonamego was fired at Central Michigan after an absolutely brutal season.  No one thought the Chippewas would drop to 1-10 and a change was obviously needed.
• After starting 5-0, Colorado went 0-7 to end the season and it was the end of the Mike MacIntyre era in Boulder.  Not surprising since other than one good season, his tenure had not been that great.

So who’s going where now? Hey remember what I said about Mack Brown above?

• North Carolina has hired Mack Brown to be their new head coach.  Full disclosure, I put this in just before this blog went up.

Potential coaches on the move and where they could go:

• Mike Leach – Texas Tech might be interested in him.  Texas.  Tech.  That would just be surreal.
• Matt Wells – He has done huge things at Utah State and this year was probably the peak.  If he wants to move on, he should consider doing it now when his value is at its highest.  Colorado seems like a fairly obvious destination for him but I wouldn’t rule out another Pac-12 school, USC.
• Mike Locksley – Alabama’s offensive coordinator is getting some looks but I would be wary.  He was awful coaching at New Mexico and it would be a risk to hire him at a huge school.  Some guys are just not made out to be the top guy.  Paging Charlie Weis.  Charlie Weis.
• Jeff Brohm – Louisville wants this guy in the worst way.  But it seems Brohm wants to stay at Purdue.  That might change if Louisville parks a Brinks truck in his driveway.
• Neal Brown – If Louisville doesn’t get their number one choice, they would probably push for Brown.  I am surprised Brown’s name hasn’t come up for more coaching vacancies.
• Brent Venables – It would take a lot to pry him away from Clemson but it’s almost time for him to give it a shot on his own.  A lot of schools would be definitely interested in him with Louisville and Texas Tech at the top of the list (although the Cards have their sights elsewhere).
• James Franklin – Don’t laugh.  He has not outright said he is not interested in other opportunities.  USC might just come knocking at his door once Lynn Swann wakes up and realizes he may not want another season of Clay Helton.
• Ryan Day – He is almost certainly gone from Ohio State, regardless of what happens with Urban Meyer.  He did well coaching the team in Meyer’s absence and will get a shot almost anywhere.
• Luke Fickell – This guy has done amazing work at Cincinnati and will be sought after.  He would have been a no brainer for Illinois except they extended Lovie Smith.  He won’t leave, though, for another Group of Five job.  At this point it’s stand pat unless another Power Five school let’s their coach go.

I am sure there are more possibilities but I don’t feel like listing them at this time. Tomorrow I will have my bowl projections up then it’s back to the normal college schedule on Thursday, NFL schedule on Friday bit. Enjoy your week everyone!

ARE….YOU……..READY? – Week 13 College Football TV Schedule

Footballgasm 2018 is here!  So much college football and NFL football from Thursday until Monday night thanks to Americans celebrating their turkey day and needing something to do while they undo their pants from overeating (and potentially overdrinking).  As I’ve said before, they have a holiday on a Thursday and many people get the Friday off as well.  Pretty damn sweet.  I always thought we should have the whole Thanksgiving week off in schools and extend the school year a few days (at least at the elementary level).  I got so many dirty looks.

Time for the college football schedule and I do it in the traditional (on this site) American Thanksgiving style.  Not every game is important but every game gets its spotlight.  Here we go!  Brace yourselves!  If you’ve been on here before then you know that the first column is the American network and the second column is where we would see this game in Canada.  If you haven’t been on here before, what took you so long?

Thursday

Colorado State at Air Force

3:30 PM

This game means absolutely nothing.  Both teams are home for the holidays.  I will absolutely watch some of it though.  I am so depraved.

#18 Mississippi State at Ole Miss

7:30 PM

Ole Miss decided one year of not bowling was not enough so they are not going to go to a bowl game even if they win.  Does Mississippi State have a chance at the New Year’s Six?  Probably not but you never know, especially if they win the Egg Bowl by a lot (since “style points” count I’m sure).

Friday

Houston at Memphis

Noon

Winner of this game gets the chance to unseat UCF as the Group of Five God.  The Mountain West is very much hoping this would happen so one of their teams can snatch the New Year’s Six spot.

Nebraska at Iowa

Noon

Big game here…haha, just kidding.  This means nothing although it would be interesting to see the Huskers win their fifth in a row.  I can just imagine what the prognosticators next year would say when figuring out how Scott Frost and his team will be.  I can see the headlines now: “The Big Ten West Should Get Ready for a Frost Warning” or something equally stupid.

Akron at Ohio

Noon

Akron will be one win short if they win this game so this is strictly for pride.  Ohio found out Tuesday night that they cannot go to the MAC Championship because of Miami-OH’s win over Ball State.  So it is also for pride for them as well.

Buffalo at Bowling Green

Noon

A Buffalo win here clinches the MAC East crown  A loss and Miami-OH will represent the MAC East in Detroit as they clawed their way back to 6-6 again this season (although it wasn’t as crazy as last year’s six losses then six wins season).

Arkansas at Missouri

2:30 PM

This year we won’t have the Bret Bielema Shitcanning Watch.  So will I watch it?  Maybe a bit but with the Commonwealth Cup and War on I-4 on at the same time (kind of) then this game won’t get many views unless it’s close.

Virginia at Virginia Tech

3:30 PM

Huge game here for the Hokies.  A VaTech win and they will then play a game against Marshall on December 1st to try and gain bowl eligibility.  I hate that they are doing this.  I hated it last year with Florida State and I hate it now.  This will take a school from, most likely, a Group of Five conference and dash their bowl dreams if Virginia Tech wins out.  I hope the Hoos win by 30 so next week’s game (which wouldn’t have been available to any of us anyway) doesn’t get played at all.

East Carolina at Cincinnati

3:30 PM

Cincinnati could get to ten wins with a victory here.  That’s huge and a great coaching job by Luke Fickell.  I never thought I would say those words ever.

#9 UCF at USF

4:00 PM

It’s the War on I-4.  Will it be like last year’s game?  I sure as hell hope so since that was epic.  UCF gets that much closer to back-to-back undefeated seasons here if they win.  If they lose then the Mountain West will be salivating.

#6 Oklahoma at #13 West Virginia

8:00 PM

One of the games of the weekend.  The winner here goes to the Big XII Championship.  And there can’t be a rematch the following week.  I know the Big XII is very happy for that (as is ABC/ESPN/Disney).  This shows up on TSN as they are going a bit light for Thursday and Friday and then much heavier on the Saturday.

#16 Washington at #8 Washington State

8:30 PM

The other huge game of the day.  The winner of the Apple Cup goes to the Pac-12 Championship.

Saturday Early

#11 Florida at Florida State

Noon

Florida State needs an upset to go bowling.  That alone makes this game exciting.  For Florida, the stakes may be even higher.  A win and they may be firmly in the conversation for one of the New Year’s Six spots and perhaps even the Sugar Bowl slot depending on what happens with Georgia.

#4 Michigan at #10 Ohio State

Noon

This is an interesting one as so many scenarios affecting the CFP and NY6 come out of this game.  A Michigan win almost guarantees (almost) that they would be firmly in the Top 4 come Conference Championship Week.  It also makes it so tOSU has no chance of being in the NY6.  A Buckeye win may just guarantee both teams to get to at least the New Year’s Six.  Ohio State would also have a good shot at the College Football Playoff with a huge resume-building win.  So much riding on this game.  FOX gets The Game again this season which is nice to see.  Also, College Gameday will start no later than 4 on Saturday morning I am sure for this one.

Purdue at Indiana

Noon

Stop me if you’ve heard this one: The winner goes bowling, loser is home for the holidays.  This is exactly like last year’s game except that one was in West Lafayette.  Purdue might be the best 5-6 team in the land and might end up not playing in a bowl game.  Crazy.  Indiana seems to be in this predicament almost every season so not as surprising for them.

#20 Syracuse at Boston College

Noon

Nice to see TSN going all in with the ESPN games on TSN3 today.  Great for the non-specialty pack folks out there.  Boston College is strictly playing for pride and perhaps a move back into the Top 25 before bowl season commences.  Syracuse, on the other hand, could potentially get into the New Year’s Six but it would take a lot for them to get there.  They can help their own cause with a huge win here.  If this game is within two scores, then no way the Orange has a shot at the NY6.

Western Kentucky at Louisiana Tech

Noon

Louisiana Tech is bowling and has no chance at the Conference USA West Division title.  Western Kentucky is awful and will have double-digit losses if they lose this one.  Many more better options in this timeslot.

Navy at Tulane

Noon

So is Tulane going to get screwed again like last year when they scored a touchdown and it was marked short of the goal line?  Probably not and Navy has been not good at all this season so maybe this option-on-option violence matchup would be fun to watch.  Tulane goes bowling with a win.  Could be over by 3:00 so watch the scoreboards carefully.

Georgia Tech at #5 Georgia

Noon

Georgia Tech could be a giant pain in the ass for the Dawgs here.  A Ramblin’ Wreck win could jeopardize Georgia’s New Year’s Six chances and would flush their CFP chances down the drain.  UGA needs to win just to keep pace and has to then stay close with Bama in the SEC Championship next week to have any consideration to be in the Top 4.  Not an easy task

NC State at North Carolina

12:30 PM

Wolfpack are in.  Tar Heels are out.  When does Larry Fedora get fired?  Also, this is the final Raycom ACC game ever as the ACC Network begins next season.  I hope the telcos have started preparing for it already (spoiler alert: they haven’t).

Wake Forest at Duke

12:30 PM

Wake needs the win here to become bowl-eligible.  Duke already bowling which is like a yearly thing now.  Imagine saying that ten years ago.  People would look at you like you had four heads.  This isn’t showing up yet on most of the guides I see but I assume it will be up by Saturday.

Saturday Afternoon

Maryland at #12 Penn State

3:30 PM

Maryland needs to win here to be in a bowl game.  It would be a pretty big upset if they did but you never know.  Penn State is trying to hold on to the periphery of the New Year’s Six so a win here could clinch that spot for them.

Auburn at #1 Alabama

3:30 PM

Will this stay within three scores?  That’s probably the question with Auburn being a 24.5-point underdog.  The chances of an upset here are almost zero.  Alabama will probably be #1 going into Conference Championship Week and Brad Nessler will have called another shitty game.

Minnesota at Wisconsin

3:30 PM

The Golden Gophers, like a lot of teams, need a win to be bowl-eligible.  Not going to say P.J. Fleck is on the hot seat but not going to a bowl game won’t sit well with the Minnesota faithful.  Wisconsin has had a below-average season by their standards but at least they are going to a bowl game for sure.  The hope is to go to one of those nicer Florida-based bowls than, say, the Redbox Bowl in San Francisco.

#24 Pittsburgh at Miami

3:30 PM

Pitt is already in the ACC Championship.  Both teams are bowl-eligible.  Unless it’s close, there are other viewing options.

SMU at Tulsa

3:30 PM

Like a broken record, here is another game where a team could gain bowl eligibility.  The Mustangs should be able to handle the woeful Golden Hurricane and do just that.  It is in Tulsa though so who knows what the weather could be like there.

Illinois at #19 Northwestern

3:30 PM

This game means nothing unless you want to watch what could possibly be Lovie Smith’s final game as head coach at Illinois.  It’s probably the reason this game is on the Big Ten Network.

Temple at UConn

3:30 PM

Not important at all although if Temple scores at least 52 points here, the Huskies will have given up 600 points on the season.  That’s an average of 50 a game.  God that team is awful.

Rutgers at Michigan State

4:00 PM

For the second straight year, Rutgers gets a game on FOX on American Thanksgiving Saturday.  It’s like some sad, yearly tradition.

Tennessee at Vanderbilt

4:00 PM

Winner-take-all here…meaning winner goes bowling.  This could actually end up being a super exciting game and has a lot of stakes attached to it.

Saturday Primetime & Late Night

South Carolina at #2 Clemson

7:00 PM

Normally I would say there is no way for an upset here.  But it is a rivalry game.  OK let’s be honest…I can’t see it happening.  Clemson has a nice tune-up for Pitt, I guess.

#15 Kentucky at Louisville

7:00 PM

Kentucky is really good and Louisville is really bad and Petrino-less.  Meh.

San Jose State at Fresno State

7:00 PM

This won’t be close.  So far, the primetime sked has been pretty damn bad.

#7 LSU at #22 Texas A&M

7:30 PM

LSU can basically clinch a New Year’s Six spot and at least a 35-day rest with a win here.  It would be huge for the Aggies and Jimbo Fisher, though, to win this one.  Would be great momentum into next season.

#3 Notre Dame at USC

8:00 PM

Get this: USC has to win to become bowl-eligible.  Seriously.  And despite the fact everyone is saying Clay Helton will be back next season, if a good candidate comes along, Helton will be shitcanned.  Brian Kelly is looking to finish his second perfect regular season as Irish head coach.  In my honest opinion, they book their spot in the College Football Playoff with a huge win.  If it’s close then they would have to play the week-long waiting game.

Oklahoma State at TCU

8:00 PM

I think after getting The Game for Noon, FOX said “Fuck it, who cares about the rest of the games.”  I guess there is some intrigue as the Horned Frogs need a win to be able to go to a bowl.

Nevada at UNLV

9:30 PM

This happens every year now.  CBS Sports Network shows college basketball after their afternoon game and then goes to this odd timeslot for the final college football game of the day on the network.  And it’s always a game that has no stakes.  No difference here.  The Battle for the Fremont Cannon will have Nevada, who is bowl-eligible, and UNLV, who is definitely not.

#21 Utah State at #23 Boise State

10:15 PM

Normally this weekend ends in a whimper.  Not this time.  This is a big game.  Winner goes to the Mountain West Championship.  Also, if UCF should happen to lose on Friday, the winner could become the favourite to go to the New Year’s Six.  This ends the TSN3 quadrupleheader.

Hawaii at San Diego State

10:30 PM

Both teams are safely going bowling so not much in terms of stakes here.  I am sure most people will be watching the other Mountain West game instead anyway.

Some gambling fun and games

I combined the primetime and late night portions of the schedule here because really, the late night schedule is really small.  I eliminated the games of the week since there are a bunch of them and a bunch of secondary ones.  There’s quite a few games with no stakes but a ton that do so the list would just be crazy long and most would stop reading by this point.  Last week I got every pick correct.  Every one.  I won exactly $0.  I even picked the Oklahoma State upset of West Virginia.  Anyway, going with way more picks this week since it’s a special week, right?

Mississippi State over Ole Miss

Houston over Memphis

Buffalo over Bowling Green

Virginia Tech over Virginia (mild upset)

UCF over USF

West Virginia over Oklahoma (yes I am calling it)

Washington over Washington State (to complete the late Black Friday upset double dip)

Florida State over Florida (an upset to go bowling)

Ohio State over Michigan (four upsets in a row!)

Purdue over Indiana

Boston College over Syracuse (a tiny upset)

Navy over Tulane

Georgia over Georgia Tech

Duke over Wake Forest

Penn State over Maryland

Alabama over Auburn

Wisconsin over Minnesota

SMU over Tulsa

Tennessee over Vanderbilt

Clemson over South Carolina

Texas A&M over LSU (upset here)

Notre Dame over USC

TCU over Oklahoma State

Boise State over Utah State

This should be really good.  And why not?  It’s FOOTBAW!  And a ton of it.  Get comfortable and get all the shit you have to get done early because otherwise you won’t have time to do much else.  Or maybe that’s just me.

NFL Turkey Day games are here as well!  Here are your details of these three games today:

• Chicago at Detroit (12:30, CBS, CTV2, TSN1/3/4/5)
• Washington at Dallas (4:00, FOX, CTV2, TSN1/3/4/5)
• Atlanta at New Orleans (8:00, NBC, CTV2, TSN1/3/4/5)

The regular schedule post will still appear tomorrow as per usual.  Man, I am exhausted from typing all this up.  But still very excited.  Hoping to catch as much action on Thursday and Friday as I can but I will be locked in for Saturday and probably Sunday as well.  Enjoy the games everyone!

OK I think that this has gone on long enough – Week 9 College Football TV Schedule

OK we all know the facts here.  UCF is a good football team.  They have won 20 games in a row.  They were the only undefeated team last season.  They weren’t in the Top 4 so had to “settle” for playing Auburn in the Peach Bowl and, despite the close score, dominated most of the game.  This season, they are undefeated again.  They seem to have topped out at #10 though in the AP Poll (I have them topped out at #7 it seems as well).  People are angry.  Athletic Director Danny White says it’s ridiculous.  I get why they are upset.  But I think this story is getting a little tired don’t ya think?

We get it Knights coaches, players, alumni, current students, administrators, etc.  You are sick of the lack of respect.  Yes we know that college football is a bit of a beauty pageant.  You want to know how to win a beauty pageant?  Look the best and be not dumb (especially now that the swimsuit portion has been axed).  How do you look the best in college football?  Be in a Power Five conference.  Is it fair?  Not really.  I mean Kansas is fucking horrible at football but because they are in the Big XII and there’s no promotion/relegation in college football, they get to have a better chance at a playoff than the UCFs, Boise States and Northern Illinoisssssss of the world.  And not being dumb?  Has nothing to do with intelligence in college football.  It’s about winning.  So don’t be a loser.  If there is justice in the world, Boise State, UCF and a few others get invited to a Power Five conference in the next decade.  As for now, UCF has to hope for utter chaos above them.  If it’s 2007 all over again then hell yeah they should be in.  Otherwise, sorry for your damn luck.

Well that was depressing.  On to better matters (I hope).  The schedule!

Thursday

		US	Canada
Ball State at Ohio	7:00 PM
Toledo at Western Michigan	7:00 PM
#25 Appalachian State at Georgia Southern	7:30 PM
Georgia Tech at Virginia Tech	7:30 PM

We are starting to get into some serious MACtion and Fun Belt games now.  Soon enough we will have football every day and we have the MAC and Sun Belt to thank for it.  I’m sure I have gone over this before but there is almost never a point where I feel there is too much college football on, especially when we get into football every day season (Spoiler Alert: it starts tonight!).  I understand the MAC’s point about having too many games on weekdays.  It is a tough debate to pick a side on.  For now, I will just say I am happy that I get weekday football and leave it at that.  Oh, by the way, a test for App State trying to sneak into that Group of Five spot tonight with their game against resurgent Georgia Southern.  Also, there’s Techmo Bowl for you ACC lovers.

Friday

		US	Canada
Louisiana Tech at Florida Atlantic	6:30 PM
Miami at Boston College	7:00 PM
Wyoming at Colorado State	10:00 PM
#23 Utah at UCLA	10:30 PM

Well we have the Red Bandana game on Chestnut Hill so that’s always an interesting story to follow.  Problem is FAU and CSU have done way worse than most people expected.  Maybe the Friday Pac-12 After Dark game will be good as Utah continues their slow push to the Pac-12 South Division title.

Saturday Early

		US	Canada
#2 Clemson at Florida State	Noon
#20 Wisconsin at Northwestern	Noon
Purdue at Michigan State	Noon
Army at Eastern Michigan	Noon
Bethune-Cookman at Nebraska	Noon
Texas Tech at Iowa State	Noon
UMass at UConn	Noon
Vanderbilt at Arkansas	Noon
Wake Forest at Louisville	Noon
North Carolina at Virginia	12:30 PM

I am liking the fact that the FSN Regional ACC games are showing up each week.  It gives us an idea of what it will be like when the true ACC Network begins.  What I am wondering about is how they will incorporate the Raycom game of the week into this since right now it’s on WSBK, WNLO and a few other stations.  I pray there are no hiccups with that but me thinks my prayers will not be answered.

As for the schedule, it’s pretty meh.  Nothing really stands out except perhaps Wisconsin being on upset alert going to Ryan Field to play Northwestern.  Nebraska should also have a winning streak (yes, a WINNING STREAK!) by around 3:30 this Saturday.

Saturday Afternoon

		US	Canada
#21 USF at Houston	3:30 PM
Arizona State at USC	3:30 PM
#9 Florida vs. #7 Georgia (in Jacksonville)	3:30 PM
Kansas State at #8 Oklahoma	3:30 PM
Cincinnati at SMU	3:30 PM
Illinois at Maryland	3:30 PM
#18 Iowa at #17 Penn State	3:30 PM
Northern Illinois at BYU	3:30 PM
Duke at Pittsburgh	3:30 PM
#12 Kentucky at Missouri	4:00 PM

A massive CBS game overshadows pretty much everything in this timeslot.  And lo and behold it’s the World’s Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party!  CBS (and more importantly, Brad Nessler) gets a gift from the college football gods and gets this game between two Top 10 teams in their SEC on CBS afternoon timeslot.  It should be a good one.  At least on paper it looks that way.

And oh good god we have another reverse mirror.  You can’t see me right now but I am rolling my eyes.  Last week we had this and if it wasn’t for another game ending early, I wouldn’t have seen any of the UCF-Memphis game which was fantastic (and which we all should have got….as long as you have the specialty pack).  So I am not guaranteeing that we get both the reverse mirror games.  Because we very well may only get one.  Brace yourselves.

UPDATE: Already an update and this post has been up for like five minutes.  Just found the coverage maps for the reverse mirror.  People who get ABC east of Detroit will get USF-Houston on ABC and have to hope ASU-USC is on the specialty pack.  The reverse for people who get ABC Detroit to the west coast.  ASU-USC on ABC, USF-Houston (fingers crossed) on the specialty pack.

UPDATE #2: Worst nightmares confirmed.  ASU-USC being shown on both ABC and the specialty pack and USF-UH nowhere to be found.  Ugh.

Saturday Primetime

		US	Canada
Boise State at Air Force	7:00 PM
#16 Texas A&M at Mississippi State	7:00 PM
#22 NC State at Syracuse	7:00 PM
Tulane at Tulsa	7:00 PM
FIU at Western Kentucky	7:30 PM
Tennessee at South Carolina	7:30 PM
#6 Texas at Oklahoma State	8:00 PM
#3 Notre Dame vs. Navy (in San Diego)	8:00 PM

The first of two straight weeks of primetime CBS college football.  The first one comes from San Diego where Notre Dame will either stomp all over Navy and most will say that’s the way Notre Dame has to be to get to the College Football Playoff or where Notre Dame will BARELY beat Navy and the college football media will go nuts thinking Notre Dame doesn’t belong in the College Football Playoff.

Not quite as good as the afternoon slate (thanks to the Cocktail Party) but still pretty good.  Longhorns try to avoid the upset to the Pokes so that people can still say that Texas is back.  And then…uh….well………OK there isn’t anything else of note really.  My guess is at least one of the other games goes down to the wire though.  Happens almost every week.

Saturday Late Night

		US	Canada
#19 Oregon at Arizona	10:30 PM
Hawaii at Fresno State	10:30 PM
San Diego State at Nevada	10:30 PM

One Pac-12 After Dark game and two Late Night Mountain West games.  Hawaii-FSU is arguably the most important game in this timeslot.  Whoever wins basically competes with San Diego State for the Mountain West West Division title (or the Mountain West² Division title for you mathies…or for you perverts, the best kind of threesome Division title…as opposed to the Mountain Division which is the Devil’s Threesome Division title…OK I think I’m done here).

Games to set your eyeballs on

Florida vs. Georgia (in Jacksonville) (3:30, CBS) – Was there any doubt this was the game of the week?  It was always seemed to be a running joke that this was the closest Jacksonville residents got to watching successful football.  Last year changed that thanks to the Jags run to the AFC Championship.  Anyway, unless Kentucky defies the odds and continues to win going into their own game with Georgia, this is for the SEC East Division crown and a chance to hopefully not be curbstomped by Alabama.

Iowa at Penn State (3:30, specialty pack) – No one should sleep on the Hawkeyes.  They’re coached by Kirk Ferentz for God’s sake.  We know what can happen there.  Penn State probably needs a lot of help anyway just to get to the New Year’s Six as they are now basically third best in their division.  Iowa, on the other hand, could potentially sneak up on the rest of the Big Ten West and go back to the conference championship for the first time in three years.

Washington State at Stanford (7:00, Pac-12 Network) – Seriously?  Ugh.  Now this isn’t as bad as having a good game on FOX Sports One since we can’t get that here at all.  You can get the Pac-12 Network online.  I believe it’s available on DAZN (remember them?).  So I can’t fault this as much because technically it’s available in the Great White North.  But still, I can’t watch it.  So it sucks.  Plain and simple.  A Stanford win, I think, basically ends any Pac-12 shot at the College Football Playoff.  In October.  Let that sink in.

Clemson at Florida State (Noon, ABC/TSN1) – Here is Florida State’s chance to reclaim some semblance of glory.  This season and last have not been too kind to the Noles or their fans.  Lose this game and they have to win two of their final four just to be bowl eligible.  Crazy to think they are in this situation again but here we are.  For the Tigers it’s another case of don’t look ahead.  Win the game in front of you.  Keep on motoring to that division title.  They should but they have tripped up in the past when they really shouldn’t have (hi Pitt!).

USF at Houston (3:30, ABC/specialty pack) – Honestly I have no idea if we will even get this game.  Last week I figured we’d get the UCF-Memphis game around here and it was confined to the Southeastern U.S.  That same thing might happen again.  It’s almost a guarantee that all of us will not get this game on ABC (at the very least).  Anyway, a USF win here means the War on I-4 could be bigger than last year’s.  If you don’t think that’s possible, figure that if both teams come in undefeated, then the Group of Five spot is essentially on the line in that very game.  A Houston win could set up some interesting G-5 scenarios though.

Honourable mention: Appalachian State at Georgia Southern (Thursday, 7:30, specialty pack); Wisconsin at Northwestern (Noon, FOX); Texas at Oklahoma State (8:00, ABC/TSN2)

Some gambling fun and games

I got one upset right last week calling for Temple to beat Cincy.  The other one, well, not even close (thanks Sparty).  As for the rest of my picks I was almost perfect so let’s see if we can keep that ball rolling this week.

Houston over USF (mini-upset to start things off)

Penn State over Iowa

Wisconsin over Northwestern

Appalachian State over Georgia Southern

Oklahoma State over Texas (BIG UPSET!)

Clemson over Florida State

Georgia over Florida

Stanford over Washington State (minor upset I guess?)

Fresno State over Hawaii

FIU over Western Kentucky

BYU over Northern Illinois

As I said before…we now have FOOTBALL EVERY DAY!  Arm the confetti cannons!

Thursday Night Football again!  We get a decent game this week as Miami faces Houston.  The winner goes to 5-3 which is a good spot to be in halfway through the season.  I wonder if more people are watching Thursday Night Football this season than last.  It would really put a wrench in the whole “FOX is terrible at everything” narrative that many people like to blurt out.  I mean it will never approach NBC’s ratings for Sunday Night Football nor should it.  That is the premier game of the week (or it’s supposed to be at least).  I’d have to take a hard look as to whether it matches up with Monday Night Football though which is an NFL institution and has been for decades.  It should get more viewers than MNF since the Monday Nighter is rife with terrible matchups or terrible teams or both.  And the booth hasn’t helped any.  Jason Witten is AWFUL and Booger McFarland in a crane is a stupid idea that should have gone away once Paul Maguire retired.  I have always thought Joe Tessitore was one of the best college football announcers around.  I do think he gets a little too excitable at times when he doesn’t need to be though.  All in all, a bit of a disaster.

This weekend I am going all in watching football.  All of Saturday (pretty much) and most of Sunday (pretty much).  I will get almost nothing done.  Maybe I will get a workout in.  Maybe I will get groceries bought.  Who the hell knows!  And honestly, I don’t care.  Remember this when it’s February and football is months away.  Enjoy the games everyone!