Thanksgiving. Footballgasm. Let’s Do This!

The 2023 version of Footballgasm has arrived! Get ready for an absolute fuck-ton of college football and NFL football from Thursday through to Monday night. Why does this happen? Americans need something to do while they let all that food settle in their stomachs. I mean our Thanksgiving comes first and is pretty good but we really missed the mark. Take out green bean casserole and there’s very little to dislike about American Thanksgiving.

Alright time to unleash the college football schedule for this week, the final week of the regular season. This is done in traditional Bossman’s Blog American Thanksgiving style. Every game is listed. Some are not important. Some are very important. But every game gets their own section. College football deserves it (for the most part).

Tuesday

Bowling Green (-1.5) at Western Michigan

7:00

Does this mean anything? No. But it’s the final night of MACtion so enjoy it. Predicted score: Western Michigan 27 Bowling Green 24.

Eastern Michigan (+6.5) at Buffalo

7:30

Now this game is more important…well, at least for one team. The Eagles can become bowl eligible with a win here. The Bulls are just here to try and play spoiler. Predicted score: Buffalo 31 Eastern Michigan 21.

Thursday

#12 Ole Miss (-11) at Mississippi State

7:30

The Rebels are juuuuuuuuuuuust on the outside looking in at the New Year’s Six. Could they leapfrog Missouri or Penn State without those two teams losing? It’s doubtful but they could strengthen their case by putting a beating on Mississippi State. Predicted score: Ole Miss 34 Mississippi State 30.

Friday

Miami (-9) at Boston College

Noon

Miami destroyed any chance of doing anything this season, mostly with piss-poor coaching (although Tyler Van Dyke seriously regressed this season). The Eagles on the other hand, they played much better than expected and Jeff Hafley has saved his job. Predicted score: Miami 38 Boston College 15.

#17 Iowa (+2) at Nebraska

Noon

Big game here for the Huskers. Win and they are bowl-eligible in Matt Rhule’s first season in Lincoln. Maybe, just maybe, the sun is finally shining on Huskerland for the first time in quite a few years. To do that, though, they will have to upset the Hawkeyes who have defied every odd and probably some theories of offensive football to become Big Ten West champs. Take the under (even though the over/under is a record-low 26.5). Predicted score: Iowa 14 Nebraska 7.

Ohio (-14) at Akron

Noon

Ohio can win their ninth game of the season which is pretty impressive. Unfortunately, it won’t be enough to win the division. Akron is hoping to stay out of double digits in the loss column. Predicted score: Ohio 30 Akron 10.

Memphis (-11.5) at Temple

Noon

Memphis lost their shot at a potential American Conference championship spot last weekend. So really, this means nothing. Predicted score: Memphis 31 Temple 7.

Toledo (-10.5) at Central Michigan

Noon

The Rockets will need a win and a lot of help to somehow sneak into the New Year’s Six. The Chips are trying to get to their sixth win. Actually, quite a bit at stake here. Predicted score: Toledo 34 Central Michigan 16.

TCU (+10) at #13 Oklahoma

Noon

Huge game here for the Sooners. An Oklahoma win and they still have a shot at going to JerryWorld one last time, much to the chagrin of the rest of the Big XII members. TCU isn’t going to lie down for them, though. They have to win to go bowling. Predicted score: TCU 38 Oklahoma 26.

UTSA (+3) at #23 Tulane

3:30

Tulane gets to eleven wins with a win here. More importantly, a win here puts them in the AAC Championship game and makes them the favourite to go back to the New Year’s Six. I am honestly shocked that no team has taken a flyer on Willie Fritz, despite his age. A Roadrunners win doesn’t eliminate the Green Wave either although they would need some help from Navy. A UTSA win would put them in the conference championship and would finish one of the best conference moves (outside the Sun Belt) in recent memory. Predicted score: Tulane 29 UTSA 24.

Utah State (-7.5) at New Mexico

3:30

The Aggies go bowling if they beat the Lobos. A UNM win would put them at five for the season which, honestly, would probably save Danny Gonzales’ job and constitute one of their better seasons in a long time. Predicted score: Utah State 49 New Mexico 31.

#9 Missouri (-7.5) at Arkansas

4:00

Mizzou locks themselves into the New Year’s Six if they can defeat the lowly Hogs. Sam Pittman has already been retained for next year so no surprise shitcanning in Fayetteville like Bret Bielema got a few years back. Predicted score: Missouri 33 Arkansas 14.

Texas Tech (+13) at #7 Texas

7:30

A massive game for the Longhorns. There is honestly so much on the line here. The most important being a spot in the final four-team College Football Playoff. It’s within their grasp but they have to stop allowing teams to stick around in games. The Red Raiders, on the other hand, are playing for one thing since they are already bowl eligible: spoiling the Horns’ entire season. Predicted score: Texas 31 Texas Tech 17.

#11 Penn State (-21) vs. Michigan State (in Detroit)

7:30

Do the Nittany Lions deserve to be in a New Year’s Six bowl? It’s debatable but at this point, a win probably clinches a spot unless Ole Miss goes nuts on Mississippi State the night before. The Spartans just want to end one of the most miserable seasons in their program’s history, on and off the field. Predicted score: Penn State 49 Michigan State 28.

#16 Oregon State (+13.5) at #6 Oregon

8:30

The Ducks want a rematch with Washington for the Pac-12 Championship. The Beavers just want to spoil Oregon’s season as all teams do in rivalry games. Predicted score: Oregon 44 Oregon State 29.

Saturday Early

Kentucky (+7) at #10 Louisville

Noon

Louisville needs a win to keep their slim CFP hopes alive. That alone will make this game interesting. Kentucky has no stakes other than maybe trying not to lose too badly so that Mark Stoops can be guaranteed for 2024. Predicted score: Louisville 31 Kentucky 10.

Pittsburgh (+6) at Duke

Noon

Duke is already going bowling and are middle of the ACC standings. Pitt is pretty awful (other than playing lights out against Louisville) and are looking forward to the offseason. A lot of better options in this window. Predicted score: Duke 20 Pittsburgh 7.

Indiana (+3) at Purdue

Noon

The Old Oaken Bucket. Even with this being a rivalry game, it’s really not worth watching. Predicted score: Purdue 32 Indiana 13.

Miami-OH (-6.5) at Ball State

Noon

Redhawks are in. Cardinals are out. Let’s see if Mike Neu finally gets the axe like I’ve predicted for a few seasons now. Predicted score: Miami-OH 30 Ball State 28.

Texas A&M (+10.5) at #14 LSU

Noon

For two good teams (OK one quite good team and one OK team), this game does not mean a whole lot. The Aggies are bowling and playing under an interim coach. LSU would need a damn miracle to get into the New Year’s Six so should start packing for a Florida bowl game. Predicted score: LSU 45 Texas A&M 31.

Navy (+20) at SMU

Noon

Now with TSN pushing a lot to TSN+, games like this will almost never make it to the regular TSN channels again which sucks for people who don’t subscribe. It feels like it has finally come to the point where you have to either get one off the specialty packs, get TSN+ or go the IPTV route to see as much college football as you want as a Canadian. Anyway, Navy has two shots to go bowling and would like to close that out here. The Mustangs are in the American Championship with a win in Big D. Predicted score: SMU 48 Navy 20.

Troy (-17) at Southern Miss

Noon

Troy has no shot at the New Year’s Six and is already hosting the Sun Belt Championship. Southern Miss is home for the holidays. Meh. Predicted score: Troy 23 Southern Miss 8.

#2 Ohio State (+3.5) at #3 Michigan

Noon

Another huge version of The Game. Not a total surprise. The winner is in the Big Ten Championship and all but guarantees a spot in the playoff. And just like last year, the loser isn’t out with a loss depending on what happens on conference championship weekend. If GUS JOHNSON would ever pass out from lack of oxygen, this would be the game he would do it in. Predicted score: Michigan 28 Ohio State 24.

Saturday Afternoon

Wake Forest (+3) at Syracuse

2:00

The two worst teams in the ACC but it’s still important for one team. The Orange need a win here to somehow become bowl eligible. Wake would be just outside at five wins if they win here and could nab a spot due to their great APR score if it comes down to that. Predicted score: Syracuse 35 Wake Forest 15.

Southern vs. Grambling (in New Orleans)

2:00

Prairie View A&M has already clinched the SWAC West so this means nothing for either team other than bragging rights: both for the football teams and the bands. Predicted score: Southern 23 Grambling 18.

Colorado (+22) at Utah

3:00

Utah has been very good considering the sheer amount of injuries that team sustained. The Buffaloes season finally ends after the most hype ever given to a one-win team before the season began (and well into the season as well). Predicted score: Utah 39 Colorado 17.

BYU (+17.5) at #20 Oklahoma State

3:30

BYU needs to win here to be in a bowl game. It would be a pretty big upset if they did, but hey, crazier things have happened. The Pokes are holding on to an outside shot at the Big XII Championship. They need to win and have a few other things go their way but again, it’s not impossible. Predicted score: BYU 49 Oklahoma State 31.

Virginia Tech (-3) at Virginia

3:30

Last year’s Commonwealth Cup was cancelled after the murders of three Virginia players. Just having this game will bring back quite a few emotions I’m sure for the Cavs. For the Hokies, they can do the improbable and become bowl eligible if they beat their rivals. Predicted score: Virginia 40 Virginia Tech 35.

Northwestern (+6) at Illinois

3:30

If you had told me at the start of the season that this game would have Northwestern already going bowling and the Illini fighting for their bowl lives, I would have thought you had just went to a cannabis shop for the first time in your life and ate a few too many edibles. But here we are. The Wildcats have been amazing considering their offseason. David Braun has done a masterful job in Evanston. Bret Bielema on the other hand is still at the helm of a struggling Illini team. He will make it to 2024 but a loss here will put him on a much shorter leash. Predicted score: Illinois 31 Northwestern 23.

Maryland (-1.5) at Rutgers

3:30

I have this game showing in most homes in this area. I have no idea what will happen. Hell, I have Big Ten Network and three alternate BTNs and even then, one game usually gets left out for everyone. Why do they do this when they honestly don’t have to? Anyway, both teams are going bowling so are looking for momentum heading into the postseason and nothing else. Predicted score: Maryland 20 Rutgers 17.

#8 Alabama (-14.5) at Auburn

3:30

How close can the Tigers keep this game? The spread honestly seems way too low. Don’t even bother talking about an upset. Kind of a dud for the final SEC on CBS regular season game if you ask me. Now watch it be close deep into the fourth quarter. Predicted score: Alabama 41 Auburn 21.

#25 Liberty (-17) at UTEP

3:30

In what is feeling like a broken record, here’s another game that means very little. Sure, the Flames can finish an undefeated season with a win over the terrible Miners. Problem is they need quite a bit of help to get that coveted NY6 spot. I just can’t see it happening. Predicted score: Liberty 38 UTEP 20.

#15 Arizona (-11.5) at Arizona State

3:30

ASU is already home for the Christmas holidays. The Wildcats have to win here and hope Oregon has already lost the Civil War. So we will know going in whether this game means anything or not. Predicted score: Arizona 23 Arizona State 13.

James Madison (-9) at Coastal Carolina

3:30

Big game in the Sun Belt and unfortunately only for one team. The Dukes are almost guaranteed a bowl slot after all the bowl eligible teams get their spots. For the Chants, because of JMU’s ineligibility for the Sun Belt title, they win this and they will face Troy for the Sun Belt Championship. Predicted score: James Madison 42 Coastal Carolina 24.

Georgia Southern (+8.5) at Appalachian State

3:30

The Mountaineers will be scoreboard-watching and trying to pay attention to the task at hand. Not easy for sure. If CCU can’t beat JMU then App State, with a win, will head to Troy and face the Trojans as the champions of the Sun Belt East. Predicted score: Appalachian State 26 Georgia Southern 10.

Vanderbilt (+27) at #21 Tennessee

3:30

This would have been at least a bit more humourous being played at Vanderbilt’s stadium with their ongoing construction issues. Predicted score: Tennessee 49 Vanderbilt 21.

Washington State (+16.5) at #4 Washington

4:00

The Apple Cup continues to produce high drama. The Huskies’ dream season could come crashing down if they get upset by the Cougs. Wazzu has to win to become bowl-eligible. This should nab a lot of viewers until it gets out of hand. Predicted score: Washington 52 Washington State 17.

Saturday Primetime

#5 Florida State (-6.5) at Florida

7:00

If this had been discussed a week ago the spread might have been over 20 points. Instead, we will find out if the Noles can continue their success without Jordan Travis. The Gators could do the improbable by going bowling with a win here. Predicted score: Florida State 36 Florida 27.

South Alabama (-6) at Texas State

7:00

Two teams that are already bowl-eligible here. Good for them but it means that the NFL Network’s final game of the year will not get a whole lot of viewers. Predicted score: South Alabama 20 Texas State 14.

#18 Notre Dame (-26) at Stanford

7:00

I’m sorry but this is fucking hilarious. The final Pac-12 Network football game ever and it will feature Notre Dame. NOTRE DAME. Irish fans are going to be so damn pissed off trying to find a way to watch this. That alone makes this fun. Not quite worth watching a lot of but still, you’ll be seeing history at the end as the worst conference network closes its football doors for good. Predicted score: Notre Dame 42 Stanford 32.

#1 Georgia (-24) at Georgia Tech

7:30

A little Clean, Old-Fashioned Hate. I love some of the names of these rivalries. There might be a bit of intrigue to see if UGA can cap off another undefeated regular season but other than that, you can avoid this one. Predicted score: Georgia 34 Georgia Tech 10.

Kansas (-6) at Cincinnati

7:30

Kansas is pretty good again this season. It’s nice to see. Cincinnati, on the other hand, may be regretting the Scott Satterfield hire although he deserves another season to see how they can truly compete in the Big XII. Predicted score: Kansas 28 Cincinnati 14.

Charlotte (+5.5) at USF

7:30

Speaking of teams playing much better than most thought they would, the Bulls are one win away from going bowling. They showed a lot in the near-upset of Alabama back in September and have scratched and clawed their way to this point. The only thing standing in their way? The bare arms of Biff Poggi and his Charlotte 49ers. Might not be as easy as USF thinks it should be. Predicted score: USF 31 Charlotte 30.

#24 Clemson (-7) at South Carolina

7:30

Gotta give Dabo Swinney from credit for turning around the team after that poor start. Either that or we give all the praise to Tyler from Spartanburg for lighting a fire under the Tigers. Either way, they come into this game as actually one of the hottest teams in the country. And they could actually make their season for a lot of fans by ruining South Carolina’s. The Gamecocks need the win to be bowl eligible. I don’t think this will be as feisty as their brawl-filled game many years ago but I could see it getting chippy. Predicted score: Clemson 41 South Carolina 24.

North Carolina (-3) at #22 NC State

8:00

North Carolina was supposed to be one of the teams to go to the ACC Championship this year. NC State was supposed to be fighting for a .500 record. Instead, they both come in at 8-3 with maybe something other than bragging rights on the line. Let’s be honest: teams would much rather go to a Florida destination than the Sun Bowl or Military Bowl. Predicted score: North Carolina 28 NC State 27.

Iowa State (+10) at #19 Kansas State

8:00

By this point, we will know if the Wildcats have any shot at the Big XII Championship. Other than that, neither team has anything to play for other than to win…FARMAGEDDON. Predicted score: Kansas State 50 Iowa State 34.

Saturday Late Night

Wyoming (-11) at Nevada

9:00

Yes, the odd CBS Sports Network Thanksgiving Saturday timeslot is back again. At least they do their best to cram in as much live sports as humanly possible into this day. Predicted score: Wyoming 35 Nevada 27.

California (+9.5) at UCLA

10:30

It’s really hit or miss with this final game of the regular season. Sometimes, it’s a massively important game that is must-watch and keeps everyone up well past Midnight. Other times we get games that have absolutely no importance. For once, it’s somewhere in the middle. Shockingly, the Bears are in line for a bowl spot if they can pull the upset on a Bruins team who might still be on a high after defeating USC for the Victory Bell this past weekend. Predicted score: UCLA 38 California 34.

That’s a lot of football. I am not complaining. At all. I would have thought TSN might have stepped up for the final regular season weekend but, alas, that is not the case. They are pushing TSN+ for college football so that is the future we have to live with. Oh well…progress, right? Ugh.

I will update the rankings when I see them. I figured I should get this post out in some form so my MACtion predictions don’t look too fishy. Enjoy the games everyone!

Lists, Lists…..LISTS!

You’d think I was employed by Buzzfeed with all these lists I’m making.

So just like last year, I will add a few more lists to accompany the Most Important Games post. It should give you a good idea of the important games to watch (at least at this point) and maybe some games to avoid (unless you are a Sicko like me and will watch any football…even, yes…arena football!)

I know, I know, I have always stated my disgust for arena football but I have to admit it does have its own trashy charm to it. OK let’s just get to the lists, shall we?

Sneaky-Good/Underrated Games

I used to list a game like this for every week of the season. This time I will rank the top dozen games that should be considered underrated but very good and that didn’t rank in the Top 35 from the previous post.

1. Oklahoma vs. Texas (at the Cotton Bowl) (Week 6, Noon, ABC/TSN2) – First of all, I am not on drugs. Not many are talking about the Sooners and most are calling for the Longhorns to walk off to the SEC with a Big XII Championship title. Do you remember what game this is? It’s the god damn Red River Shootout/Rivalry/Game/Brawl/Drinking Contest. Many times it is ridiculous, crazy, wild and just plain dumbfounding. Don’t count OU out…at least in this one game…….oh the second thing. Yeah, ABC has picked up this game but the time hasn’t been set. It will be either Noon or 3:30 because the State Fair of Texas becomes a gangland shootout at night or something like that.
2. TCU at Kansas State (Week 8, Noon, specialty pack) – The rematch of last year’s Big XII title game loses a bit of its luster but should still be important in the grand scheme of things in the conference. I get it’s not Gary Patterson anymore but Sonny Dykes is already showing he can also make the whole greater than the sum of the parts. Chris Klieman will get every opportunity to show off why he got a big extended contract and this is one of those opportunities at home in front of the Wildcat faithful.
3. Iowa at Wisconsin (Week 7, Noon, Big Ten Network) – As I said in the Most Important Games post, it feels like all the conference networks get at least one good game a season now. This could be that game, if it ends up there. Once again this could be for the Big Ten West title but it’s going to feel weird with Wisconsin not running the ball as much. Iowa, on the other hand, should be exactly the same, trying to win games 6-5.
4. Texas A&M at Ole Miss (Week 10, Noon, specialty pack) – Many will sleep on these two teams…wait, bad analogy. I forgot Petrino was at College Station. Anyway, two teams that many will cast aside but it’s almost a guarantee one of them will cause a bit of a stink in the conference. Also, take the over.
5. UCLA at Oregon State (Week 7, 5:30, Pac-12 Network) – Speaking of conference networks, here’s the worst of the bunch. That includes the Big XII’s non-existent network. Look, one of these two teams is going to be very good (I think) and will cause quite a few headaches at the top of the Pac-12 food chain (I think) and will end up being in the Pac-12 Championship (ehhhh, I don’t know).
6. TCU at Oklahoma (Week 13, Friday, Noon, FOX, confirmed) – Black Friday will start with a game between a team who just got destroyed in the national championship and a team that normally is great and struggled to be bowl-eligible. Both teams will have something to prove and this could be their last real chance to do so (and make it count) this season.
7. Kansas State at Texas Tech (Week 7, 3:30, ABC/TSN2) – I guess it makes sense that the Big XII fills a good portion of this section after almost being shut out of my Top 35 most important games of the season. The Red Raiders always put up the points, no matter who the quarterback, head coach, or receivers are. And KSU can also do that when they want to. Should be a shootout (of sorts).
8. South Carolina at Texas A&M (Week 9, Noon, specialty pack) – More Fun Bobby! And Fun Shane…ok that one doesn’t have as good a ring to it. But BeamerBall 2.0 is a lot of fun to watch.
9. Arkansas at Ole Miss (Week 6, 7:30, specialty pack) – Could Sam Pittman be the most lovable coach in the game right now? Perhaps. He still feels like a bit of an underdog and you always root for the underdog, right? Wait…I’m getting something here….a message…ah, OK. Lane Kiffin doesn’t agree.
10. Minnesota at Iowa (Week 8, 3:30, FOX) – Row The Boat vs. Single-Digit Scoring. I am intrigued, I’m not going to lie. Plus we will see the best new tradition in all of not just college football but sports in general, the Iowa Wave.
11. Duke at North Carolina (Week 11, 8:00, specialty pack) – The Eastern version of the Victory Bell could be important once again. Both teams look like they could slot in anywhere from three to six in the ACC this year (with no divisions thank god). So a win here and maybe an upset or two somewhere else and one of these programs will duke it out for a conference championship.
12. Ole Miss at Tulane (Week 2, 3:30, specialty pack) – The game time is confirmed. I assume it heads to the specialty pack. Too bad because TSN would be smart to pick up this game. The Green Wave, who have to be considered to have the best odds to make it back as the best Group of Five team, hosting Ole Miss in what will be stiflingly hot weather in New Orleans…yeah I like Tulane’s chances but I still think it will be a close one.

Best Group of Five Games

Next up is our friends from the Group of Five. Three of them got invited to sit up at the adult table so overall this group is a tiny bit weaker. That just means other teams will have opportunities that they may not have had before. So let’s look at the best Group of Five games this season. And no, the Ole Miss-Tulane game above doesn’t count. This is full G5-on-G5 violence, bruh.

1. UTSA at Tulane (Week 13, 7:00, specialty pack) – As per usual, the American Conference should make up the bulk of this list. The defending Group of Five champion (and Cotton Bowl champion), Tulane is the favourite to do it again. UTSA is in its first season in the American but already could be the team to knock the Green Wave off their perch. Huge game where I have to favour Tulane only because it’s in New Orleans not the Alamodome where the Roadrunners have a huge home advantage.
2. Air Force at Boise State (Week 13, Friday, 4:00, FOX Sports One, confirmed) – Not having FS1 will deprive Canadians of a lot of good Mountain West action. This should be the conference’s game of the year and the winner probably goes to the Mountain West Championship. Being on the Smurf Turf, I would give the Broncos the slight edge here.
3. South Alabama at Tulane (Week 1, 8:00, specialty pack) – This game is set for ESPNU on opening Saturday and, I can almost guarantee, will head to the specialty pack. The Jaguars (Jag-you-ares) came out of nowhere last season to almost win the Sun Belt. They are the favourites to win the conference and if they can pull the mini-upset here, could feasibly run the table. I guess I could say the same thing about Tulane.
4. Boise State at Fresno State (Week 10, 10:00, CBS Sports Network, confirmed) – Hey it’s CBSSN’s first foray onto any of these lists. CBSSN is a nice palette cleanser really. It shows games you never would have normally watched. Plus it shows most of UConn’s games. I am liking CBSSN having the CFL. Yes it’s just a simulcast of TSN’s showing but it works. Kind of wish they would come up with at least their own play-by-play and analysis and just use the TSN visuals.
5. Tulane at Memphis (Week 7, Friday, 7:00, TSN2) – It’s the time of year when the American and ACC split most of the Thursday and Friday night games on ESPN and their dysfunctional family of networks. TSN tends to show more Friday night games because they can put it on TSN2 and not have it interfere with the CFL’s Friday Night Football. Anyway, yes, it’s the Green Wave again. Bored yet? They might be that good. Maybe even legit Top 12 good if everything falls right.
6. Boise State at San Diego State (Week 4, Friday, 10:30, CBS Sports Network, confirmed) – And here comes Boise State again. I mean I want to say there aren’t two obvious frontrunners in the G5 but there are. Both the Broncos and Tulane should be in it to the end to see who gets that single spot.
7. South Alabama at Troy (Week 10, Thursday, 7:30, specialty pack) – Hey it’s not Tulane, Boise State, the American or the Mountain West! Let’s give the Sun Belt a lot of respect. They have become the third-best Group of Five conference and it’s a pretty wide gap between them and the two conferences below them, the MAC and Conference USA. The Battle for the Belt (so good to have a wrestling title belt as the rivalry trophy) should be for the de facto Sun Belt West title unless Louisiana or maybe Southern Miss has something to say about it.
8. Boise State at Memphis (Week 5, 3:30, specialty pack) – This might end up on ESPN or ESPN2 depending on how both teams are doing at this point. I could see it happening because ESPN made a point to trade with CBS for this BSU road game.
9. Tulane at East Carolina (Week 10, 3:30, specialty pack) – I figured East Carolina would have to find someone to replace Holton Ahlers and his 245 passes per game. Instead they plan to completely turn to the running game and grind teams into the turf. If this somehow works, Georgia Tech fans are gonna be real mad.
10. WKU at Troy (Week 4, 3:30, ESPN+) – First Conference USA appearance and it heads to ESPN+. I have that this year for the first time so I am going to have a lot of fun and totally destroy my remote control this season with that. Kind of wish it even got to ESPNU so that the specialty packs could pick it up. I still think WKU and MTSU were foolish not to take the MAC’s potential invite as they are stuck now in arguably the worst FBS conference with not much in the way of rivalries.
11. San Diego State at Air Force (Week 5, 8:00, CBS Sports Network, confirmed) – OK two teams that aren’t quite fitting the mold of the top G5 teams. Nice. And, if things go according to plan, we should see a bazillion yards rushing and the game might be over by 10:00.
12. Eastern Michigan at Toledo (Week 11, Wednesday, 7:00, specialty pack) – Finally we end this list with a MACtion game since I have to. MACtion is awesome. We also have Fun Belt now and whatever the American conference calls their weeknight games. Oh and Conference USA is doing pretty much all weeknight games in October. Crazy! Anyway, this could very well be the two best MAC teams so let’s call this the de facto MAC West championship.

Best Group of Five vs. Power Five Games

Let’s bring back this section because these games are the ones many college football fans feast on. What is better than watching your hated rival lose to a Group of Five team? Not much. And I have always said, Group of Five teams, at least the better ones, should get their shot at Power Five teams to see what they are worth. If it wasn’t for that happening, very few teams would have moved up and the Power Five may have already separated from the rest of college football by now.

1. Ole Miss at Tulane (Week 2, 3:30, specialty pack) – This was already discussed above but it is the biggest G5 vs. P5 game of the season and hosted by the Group of Five team which is a rarity but happening more often these days which is nice to see.
2. UTSA at Tennessee (Week 4, 7:30, specialty pack) – The Roadrunners meep their way up the food chain to the American Conference this season and are already a contender for the league title (and perhaps a NY6 spot). The Vols will be really good this season but a UTSA win her would be massive for the program and for the college football season as a whole.
3. Boise State at Washington (Week 1, 3:30, ABC/TSN2) – Everything is confirmed except for if the game will appear on TSN. I believe it will but we won’t know for like another two months. Ridiculous. Washington is looking to ride their Heisman contender quarterback all the way, hopefully, to the College Football Playoff so a slip-up here would almost derail that entire plan.
4. WKU at Ohio State (Week 3, 4:00, FOX, confirmed) – Look, are the Hilltoppers going to win this? No. All we can hope for is for WKU to put a scare into tOSU. If, somehow, they ended up with the upset, it would be the biggest upset in the history of college football and you wouldn’t be able to convince me otherwise.
5. Troy at Kansas State (Week 2, Noon, FOX Sports One, confirmed) – OK now this one has intrigue written all over it. Troy is one of a handful of teams that has legit New Year’s Six aspirations out of the Group of Five. Kansas State is the defending Big XII champions but have a few question marks. This feels ripe for an upset.
6. SMU at TCU (Week 4, Noon, specialty pack) – The Battle for the Iron Skillet. This might be the best one yet if the Mustangs are as good as some say they will be. Not the favourite in the American so they will have to show out in games like this to catch voters’ eyes. This could be a good litmus test to see how far TCU has fallen from last year’s national runner-up team.
7. San Diego State at Oregon State (Week 3, 3:30, FOX Sports One, confirmed) – This could be a tasty affair if the Aztecs step up and prove they could be eventually Pac-12 worthy in football. Otherwise, you might hear a lot of chainsaws going in this one since Oregon State is definitely a dark horse contender this season.
8. SMU at Oklahoma (Week 2, 6:00, ESPN+, confirmed) – Ouch. Seeing this relegated to ESPN+ surprises me a bit but the Sooners are not the team they had been for the past few decades. The Sooners are going to try and come out of the gate swinging but don’t be surprised if the Stangs give them some trouble in this one.
9. UCF at Boise State (Week 2, 7:00, FOX Sports One, confirmed) – Last year this would have been in the previous section. Now the Knights are in the Big XII but they may still be an underdog on this one. If I were a betting man I would put my money on the Broncos here as they are hoping to run the table and get back to where they believe they belong: as the top dog among the Group of Five.
10. East Carolina at Michigan (Week 1, Noon, Peacock, confirmed) – The debut of Peacock on these lists. I am sure at some point it will be available for Canadians but we aren’t quite there yet. Yeah I don’t think this will be really close but you never know. I wonder if ECU can run on this Michigan offense. If they can, the entire Big Ten will be watching tape of this game all season to see if they can replicate it.
11. UCLA at San Diego State (Week 2, 7:30, CBS, confirmed) – Nice to see the Mountain West appearing on CBS. The week before this we get Texas Tech/Wyoming and here we get a very interesting matchup that could easily lead to an upset, if SDSU has things going by the second week of the season.
12. UTSA at Houston (Week 1, 7:00, FOX Sports One, confirmed) – The Cougs have stepped up to the Big XII conference. Good for them. Problem is they start their first season back on the top tier of college football against one of the best Group of Five teams. The only thing helping Houston is that the game is in Houston and not San Antonio. I am sure Drunk Uncle Dana will be about seven Red Bulls in by the time this one starts.

Worst Power Five Games

Didn’t think I’d forget this section, right? These are the games that you can probably avoid, unless they are close. They fill conference networks (and really are the reason those networks exist but I will not complain about that) and even sometimes creep onto FOX or an ESPN2 or ESPNU. Sad but true. Spoiler alert: I will still watch most of these games.

1. Northwestern at Rutgers (Week 1, Sunday, Noon, CBS, confirmed) – What a way to show off the new Big Ten on CBS with a game between *checks notes* uh….Northwestern and Rutgers? My God that is not good at all. Who the hell is picking these games at CBS? The only thing I can think happened was that it was the last game remaining…like picking the last kid in dodgeball. Well, nothing else will be on at that time at least in a college football sense so guess what ol’ Bossman will be watching?
2. Stanford at Colorado (Week 7, Friday, 10:00, TSN2) – This is confirmed for ESPN2 but who knows if TSN will pick it up or not. Look I understand there is a lot of hype with Deion Sanders now coaching at Colorado. And that’s a good thing for that program. But they will struggle to be bowl-eligible this season. Now Stanford….that’s a different story. They are back to the days before Jim Harbaugh and then David Shaw resurrected this program. They may just be the worst Power Five team at this point. What a fall from grace.
3. Virginia Tech at Virginia (Week 13, Noon, specialty pack) – What happened last year at Virginia was tragic. Three players gunned down late in the season. UVA rightfully cancelled their final two games, including the Commonwealth Cup game against VaTech. Now they are back but this will not be an easy season for the Hoos, both on the field and emotionally. The Hokies are as bad as I have ever seen them be. Then again, I only mostly saw them as a Frank Beamer team. Beamerball, this is not. Look, I hate putting this game here but these two teams might be god-awful this season.
4. Rutgers at Indiana (Week 8, Noon, Big Ten Network) – Rutgers is, unfortunately, back to being Rutgers. And Indiana without Michael Penix Jr…well we found out they were bad. Both coaches will be on the hot seat with Tom Allen in the much hotter seat for sure. The loser might not win a Big Ten game this season.
5. Virginia at Boston College (Week 5, Noon, specialty pack) – As for non-Virginia teams in the ACC who probably won’t be going bowling, BC comes to mind. I can’t see them finding the magic formula especially with a young, relatively untested quarterback manning the ship.
6. California at Stanford (Week 12, 9:00, Pac-12 Network) – Ah, the worst of the conference networks. What a shitshow it is. Anyway, The Big Game will be anything but big this season as I already mentioned how bad Stanford will be and I don’t know how many people outside the Cal football program care about Cal football. A shame, really.
7. Colorado at Arizona State (Week 6, 9:00, Pac-12 Network) – Remember when ASU was the laughing stock of the Pac-12 for like a second? Everyone thought their ship was going to come crashing down. Well it did but other teams flew past them into the basement. That doesn’t mean this is some kind of comeback story, though. They still aren’t good and will be fighting for bowl eligibility. Wins in games like this are a must for that to happen.
8. Georgia Tech at Virginia (Week 10, 3:30, specialty pack) – It feels kind of weird watching Georgia Tech play football when they aren’t running the Paul Johnson option offense. You know, I’m starting to think they never should have changed from that. Made them unique and helped them win just as often as they lost.
9. Virginia Tech at Rutgers (Week 3, 3:30, Big Ten Network, confirmed) – Hey let’s dip into some non-con action now. I would ask who the hell scheduled a game like this but it was probably scheduled back when the Hokies played their first season in the ACC.
10. Arizona at Stanford (Week 4, 7:00, FOX Sports One) – I have to be honest: Jedd Fisch has already exceeded my expectations for a) his coaching in Tucson and b) a guy named Jedd. This team is on the brink of getting back to postseason play for the first time in years. I will put the over/under on fans attending this game at 14,000.
11. Arizona State at California (Week 5, 9:30, Pac-12 Network) – I am still on the record saying that there should be a pure sports-style Netflix or Amazon Prime out there. One where you can add or subtract whatever channels you want based on sport, country, etc. Would it be the death knell to cable? No but it would be quite the flesh wound. By the way, this game has some pretty good Pac-12 After Dark vibes to it and could get wacky because both teams are just not that good.
12. Northwestern at Nebraska (Week 8, 2:30, Peacock) – I would be remiss if I didn’t include Nebraska somewhere on this list. They’ve fooled and many others over the past few years. So until they prove it, I will not take the bait. Nope, no more. I refuse to drink the Husker Koolaid.

Alright, done and dusted. A reminder that tomorrow is the end of the fiscal year for pretty much all the FBS schools. There are rumours that something on the realignment (oh god that word) front could happen by the end of the night or the very next day. Last year it was USC and UCLA to the Big Ten. Can’t see anything as big as that but you never know.

Well, I would like to wish everyone a great Canada Day weekend and Fourth of July celebration. We are less than two months away folks. Nice to be talking college football again.

So I wonder how he got back from Ireland? Oh, and the Week 1 college football schedule

I can’t see the Nebraska team and staff and everyone else who made the trip to Dublin allowing Frosty the Coachman to board the same flight as him. Probably safer for him anyway. He would have been thrown out of the plane over the Atlantic somewhere. All because of a horrible onside kick playcall that was not needed (among other poor coaching decisions). Just a complete fucking disaster for that team and now Frost’s hot seat is basically the surface of the sun.

Finally we have made it! Week One! And a full schedule. Hell, more than a full schedule it feels like. So much football and I will watch as much as I can because come January, it feels bad when it’s all gone. Let’s right to the (true) opening weekend schedule.

Thursday

		US	Canada
West Virginia at #17 Pittsburgh	7:00 PM
Central Michigan at #12 Oklahoma State	7:00 PM
Ball State at Tennessee	7:00 PM
VMI at #22 Wake Forest	7:30 PM
Alabama A&M at UAB	8:00 PM
Louisiana Tech at Missouri	8:00 PM
Penn State at Purdue	8:00 PM
New Mexico State at Minnesota	9:00 PM
Northern Arizona at Arizona State	10:00 PM
Cal Poly at at Fresno State	10:30 PM

As I said during the Week Zero schedule post, I would be including games that most Canadians won’t get up here, even with the specialty packs. I’m doing this because some have switched to an IPTV provider and can get some (or all) of these games. So while the NAU-ASU game might not look exciting (and it probably won’t be), I will still list it.

Nice to see the Backyard Brawl back as WVU and Pitt get a bit of a national spotlight for this one. Also, you have to wonder if Mike Gundy has the last game the Pokes played against CMU in his mind when the Chips won on a Hail Mary play that shouldn’t have even been allowed. Also, FOX will show a Thursday night game on the network to start the season. I wish they did that more often and they honestly could with the NFL’s Thursday Night Football package moving to Amazon Prime.

Friday

		US	Canada
Western Michigan at #15 Michigan State	7:00 PM
Virginia Tech at Old Dominion	7:00 PM
Temple at Duke	7:30 PM
Illinois at Indiana	8:00 PM
TCU at Colorado	10:00 PM

3-hour windows. Good lord. Yes, TSN’s schedule says that the TCU-CU game starts at 10:30 but that’s not true. Stupid ESPN.

UPDATE: If you were planning on watching the WMU-MSU game on ESPN, you will have to move to ESPN2 as ESPN is now showing US Open tennis.

Saturday Early

		US	Canada
Colorado State at #8 Michigan	Noon
Rutgers at Boston College	Noon
Buffalo at Maryland	Noon
Delaware at Navy	Noon
#13 NC State at East Carolina	Noon
North Carolina at Appalachian State	Noon
South Dakota State at Iowa	Noon
Sam Houston at #6 Texas A&M	Noon
Richmond at Virginia	12:30 PM

First full slate of Saturday games. Feels good. Nothing big here. The UNC-App State game could be the most intriguing as you don’t often see Power Five teams travel to Group of Five teams so there is some upset potential there.

Saturday Afternoon

		US	Canada
Bowling Green at UCLA	2:30 PM
#3 Georgia vs. #11 Oregon (in Atlanta)	3:30 PM
Bethune-Cookman at #16 Miami	3:30 PM
North Dakota at Nebraska	3:30 PM
Arizona at San Diego State	3:30 PM
#24 Houston at UTSA	3:30 PM
#23 Cincinnati at #19 Arkansas	3:30 PM
UTEP at #9 Oklahoma	3:30 PM
Tulsa at Wyoming	3:30 PM
#25 BYU at USF	4:00 PM
UC-Davis at California	4:00 PM
Troy at #21 Ole Miss	4:00 PM

Now we get to the meat of Week One. I am not really a fan of neutral-site games but let’s be honest: we are all watching a good portion of that UGA-UO matchup. Perhaps a College Football Playoff elimination game there (although we know one loss almost never kills a Power Five team’s chances). I’m interested to see what the brand new era of Sooner football will look like with Brent Venables now at the helm. And CBS opens with SDSU’s brand new stadium as they finally left the cavernous Murph for a more intimate viewing arrangement.

Also, you will notice a couple of other things. First, no games on ESPN2. As is usually the case, the U.S. Open tennis tournament is on ESPN2 all Saturday so that’s why there are no games airing there. It’s also why most of the TSNs aren’t available to show games this week. Secondly, the odd timing of the Pac-12 Network games. Well, thanks to the brains of Larry Scott (and others, yes, I know, but he was the commish), the Pac-12 Network has a national feed and regional feeds for all the schools. Each pair of schools shares a region. In this timeslot, the UCD-Cal game is actually only available on the P12N Bay Area feed. The BGSU-UCLA game is the P12N National game. Confused? Yeah it’s dumb.

Saturday Primetime

		US	Canada
Rice at #14 USC	6:00 PM
#7 Utah at Florida	7:00 PM
Illinois State at #18 Wisconsin	7:00 PM
#5 Notre Dame at #2 Ohio State	7:30 PM
SMU at North Texas	7:30 PM
Memphis at Mississippi State	7:30 PM
Utah State at #1 Alabama	7:30 PM
Louisville at Syracuse	8:00 PM
Colgate at Stanford	8:00 PM

Game of the year in the opening weekend? You could argue that. The Irish and the Buckeyes face off in a massive non-conference matchup (I don’t know why I’m even saying that since the Irish will NEVER join a conference, right?). This will hopefully be worth the hype (and boy is ESPN/ABC going to push the hype to the next level for this one). So you could watch that OR you can watch Bama beat the snot out of USU. Your choice. Now watch that game be closer than the ND-tOSU game.

Saturday Late Night

		US	Canada
Idaho at Washington State	9:30 PM
Boise State at Oregon State	10:30 PM
Kent State at Washington	10:30 PM

One of the more interesting matchups of the weekend goes down in Corvallis. I would normally say Boise is the favorite here but the Beavs have been a much improved team as of late. Also, there’s a true Hawaii Test if you can find a way to stream it (it starts at midnight).

Sunday

		US	Canada
Florida A&M vs. Jackson State (in Miami)	3:00 PM
Tuskegee vs. Fort Valley State (in Montgomery)	7:00 PM
LSU vs. Florida State (in New Orleans)	7:30 PM

Speaking of interesting matchups, LSU-FSU is a juicy one down at the Superdome. Both teams are popular picks to improve this year. Let’s see how definitely Southern Brian Kelly fares in his opening contest in the SEC.

I am not sure about the two non-FBS games appearing on the specialty pack. Over the years, these opening Sunday games have been hit or miss so stay tuned.

Monday

		US	Canada
#4 Clemson at Georgia Tech	8:00 PM

Geoff Collins wouldn’t be fired after Week 1 would he?

Big Games O’ The Week

Notre Dame at Ohio State (7:30, ABC/TSN2) – Sure there is another game that’s huge but this is THE big game of the week. I don’t remember the Irish starting with a game like this in recent memory and no, Texas doesn’t count. Now we have to hope ND doesn’t play like shit and makes the game unwatchable in the second half.

Georgia vs. Oregon (in Atlanta) (3:30, ABC/TSN2) – A new head coach for the Ducks up against a team trying to do the toughest thing in sports: repeat as champs. If you want, you can call this Game 1A of the Week (especially if you are a whiny SEC fan). A few questions will definitely be asked here, chief among them being can Bo Nix thrive outside the SEC, because last season he certainly didn’t thrive inside it.

Cincinnati at Arkansas (3:30, specialty pack) – If you had said three years ago that this would be the third best game of opening weekend, I would have drove you to the nearest AA or NA meeting. It’s a new college football world, though, and the Bearcats are still the Group of Five’s signature team until they are beaten. And Arkansas is slowly moving up the SEC ranks under possibly the most underrated head coach in the land, Sam Pittman. The Cats lost a lot of talent so this will give everyone a good idea as to what we can expect from them this season.

West Virginia at Pittsburgh (Thursday, 7:00, TSN2) – The Backyard Brawl is BACK! I am sure we will see references to 13-9 up until and throughout the game. Let’s see if the ‘Eers can put a bit of hurt on a Pitt team that believes they can repeat as ACC champs.

Psycho Game of the Week

Temple at Duke (Friday, 7:30, specialty pack) – Every week now instead of listing honourable mentions in the games of the week section, I will list a game that we all can get here but you would have to be a complete psycho to watch the entirety of (or you are a fan of one of the teams and even then). This week we have Temple travelling to the Carolinas to face Duke. Ugh. This feels like it could be a torture device used by the military. Anyway, unless it’s close, just avoid it.

The Degenerate Portion of Our Show

This section is the section for all you gambling degenerates out there and you KNOW WHO YOU ARE! I do bet on the NFL from time to time but I stopped gambling on college games. I think it took the fun out of it to be honest. Also, I sucked at it.

Alright, this season I am going to do something different. I am going to pick AGAINST THE SPREAD. That’s right! Make things a bit more difficult for me and gives all the more reason for you to not use these picks for your own gambling. I’ve warned you. Let’s begin.

Pittsburgh (-7.5) over West Virginia

Missouri (-19.5) over Louisiana Tech

Purdue (+3.5) over Penn State (with the Boilermakers winning outright)

Duke (-7.5) over Temple

TCU (-14) over Colorado

Appalachian State (+1.5) over North Carolina (with the Mountaineers winning outright)

San Diego State (-6) over Arizona

Oregon (+17) over Georgia (with the Bulldogs winning the game)

Florida (+3) over Utah (Gators win outright in upset)

Notre Dame (+17.5) over Ohio State (tOSU wins but game will be close)

Oregon State (-3) over Boise State

LSU (-3) over Florida State

And there you go! We are at Week 1 so rejoice, college football fans! I am so happy we have made it to this point. I will try to keep things updated over the next couple of days (if need be). I will be on Twitter (@TheBauceman) for a good portion of the action so check me there if you wish. And everyone enjoy the games!

Most Important Games of the 2022 College Football Season: Prepare for Change

Alright let’s be honest here.  It has been a slooooooow return for ol’ Bossman.  This is partially done on purpose, though, not because I have forgotten about all of you.  I am going with the less is more approach…kind of.  At least in the off-season.  I think an explanation is warranted here.  The plan, on my part, is to post less but to put a lot more in each post.  Like not going to Wendy’s as often but when you do…it’s Dave’s Triple Cheeseburger time!  I think this might just work.  Or it won’t.  I mean you never know with these things, right?  Anyway, where was I?

Ah yes: change.  Change is sometimes tough but is also sometimes needed.  So as it pertains to the usual four-post Most Important College Games series, it is going to go through an overhaul.  This post will be just about the most important games but I won’t be going week-by-week.  It will be a relatively well-thought out selection of the best 30 games of this coming year (at least at this very early point).  Don’t worry, I will still rate the weeks.  Can’t change everything.  Then I will post again later on with some other lists of games.  You know, the worst Power Five games, best Group of Five games, etc.  You ready?  I am.  Let’s go.

Remember the rules (my rules).  Most of the games after Week 3 are not set in terms of time or network.  Any game that is confirmed, I will let you know that it is.  This time I won’t include Canadian info because, especially with TSN, it’s a complete crapshoot.  Just assume that ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, ACC Network and SEC Network games will appear on TSN or on the specialty packs.

It’s…time!  IT’S….TIME!  IT’S……RANKING TIME!  (cue Vader theme)  Alright the first piece of college football to discuss is the ranking of the weeks.  We know how this usually goes and it is almost never a surprise when it comes out that way.  So let’s get right to it and then I can tell you how I did this (if you didn’t know before) and all that jazz:

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

Same as always, there are thirteen weeks of the regular season.  Week Zero is starting to get more games as more waivers are being granted but until they have I’d say at least 30 games on the schedule that Saturday then it can’t be counted as its own week.  I mean I could but it would be last place every year without a doubt.  I’ve said this before but I wish they would always have fourteen weeks in a season.  This way, every team gets two bye weeks and it’s perfect for the health and safety of the players (something that is sometimes put on the backburner).  I’m sure the NCAA will go along with my idea by the year 2058.  As for the rankings this season, not too many surprises.  The final week of the regular season is back on its perch as the best weekend of college football this season.  Week 1 has dropped off a cliff and doesn’t look  that great but the hype around it will be off the charts, I can guarantee you that.  October has a massive week as Week 6 truly starts the conference season in a big way (and you’ll see later on why I say that).  Just like last year, November is great, even SEC Sleepwalk Saturday which is a middle-of-the-road week rather than the awful week of games it used to be.  And of course, September is, well, September in college football.  A few really good games surrounded by a lot of meh but you know what will happen.  That’s right, Frank Stallone quite a few upsets since that’s how college football works.

Normally this would be the time I start the weekly breakdowns but those are no more (at least for this year).  This is a long list but I think it will be a good list.  It’s the top 30 most important games of the college football season (until some team like Northwestern comes out of nowhere and is battling for a conference title).

1. Texas A&M at Alabama (Week 6, 8:00, CBS) – Yes, Bama is again the favourite to win it all this season.  But the Aggies might be as ready as they have ever been during the Jimbo Fisher era.  Almost a guarantee this will end up as the lone CBS primetime game of the year.
2. Michigan at Ohio State (Week 13, Noon, FOX, confirmed) – Captain Khaki brings his Wolverines to Columbus to see if he can get his team to relive the magic of last season once again.  They haven’t won at the Horseshoe in 22 years.  Winner of this one most likely heads to the Big Ten Championship so huge stakes, as it usually is with this rivalry.
3. Notre Dame at Ohio State (Week 1, 7:30, ABC, confirmed) – As is normally the case, the Irish have a bunch of landmine games this season.  No game is a bigger landmine than this one.  If Notre Dame can pull this off, then the season is already turned on its head and Marcus Freeman immediately becomes a legend in his second game as head coach.
4. Clemson at Notre Dame (Week 10, 7:30, NBC, confirmed) – Clemson will be looking for a tiny bit of a rebound this year and retake control of the ACC.  Yes, this isn’t an ACC conference game but winning this game would put every other team in the conference on notice.  I am wondering, with all this realignment happening, if we may get to the point where the Irish are the only Independent team remaining.  This is something I wouldn’t have said even two years ago.
5. Georgia vs. Oregon (in Atlanta) (Week 1, 3:30, ABC, confirmed) – Is this an early-season College Football Playoff elimination game?  Could very well be.  Georgia is still loaded for bear again and the Ducks are ready to make that final climb back into the CFP.  This game (plus the ND-tOSU game later in the night) are the easy highlights of a relatively bland Week 1 schedule.
6. Notre Dame at USC (Week 13, 7:30, ABC) – It would be either a) horrible for Notre Dame fans if the Irish came in undefeated and blew a tire here against a probably good USC team or b) great for Notre Dame haters who don’t want them anywhere near the College Football Playoff (or the New Year’s Six for that matter).  This could end up being a massively important game in the grand scheme of things.
7. Utah at Oregon (Week 12, 7:30, ABC) – This might just be a preview of the Pac-12 title game and a statement game for both teams…as long as both teams are ranked at this point.  With the Pac-12 finally on the rise again (I think), this could bring in a lot of eyeballs during a week that is usually not the greatest on paper.
8. NC State at Clemson (Week 5, 3:30, ABC) – This is probably the game for the Atlantic Division title…the final Atlantic Division title if I get my way and divisions are abolished going forward.  With all due respect to Wake Forest, unless they pull off at least one upset, they aren’t getting close to these two teams.  This being in Death Valley may give the Tigers the slight edge but the Wolfpack have had some seriously huge wins on the road in their past.
9. USC at Utah (Week 7, 3:30, ESPN) – As I said above, I am only including American broadcast info at this point.  That will change when I get to network-specific posts later in the summer.  The Utes should worry about this USC team.  They are finally poised to get back into Top 10 territory and an upset of Utah isn’t a crazy idea at this point.  If Lincoln Riley can get the Trojans to pull this off, it may be off to the races and a return to glory in Los Angeles.
10. Michigan State at Michigan (Week 9, Noon, FOX) – Big brother and little brother are both good.  This always make this rivalry game extra spicy.  This game could honestly derail Michigan’s season before they get to the Game.  This should end up on FOX which means no THERE’S A TROUBLE WITH THE SNAP!  AND THE BALL IS FREE AND IT’S PICKED UP BY MICHIGAN STATE’S JALEN WATTS-JACKSON AND HE SCORES ON THE LAST PLAY OF THE GAME!  All in Sean McDonough Cracked-Voice perfection.
11. Clemson at Wake Forest (Week 4, 3:30, ESPN2) – This might be the first game I get seriously wrong.  Saying that, the ACC tends to get neglected in favour of the other Power Five conferences when it comes to game placement…especially when Wake Forest is involved.  And some would still consider this a surprising pick in the #11 spot but I stand by it.  Remember what I said above about the Deacs?  Well this would be their chance, at home, to shock the world and announce their true arrival as contenders for at least the New Year’s Six.
12. Ohio State at Michigan State (Week 6, 7:30, ABC) – Another THE Ohio State University roadblock game here.  Nothing would please Spartans fans (and Wolverine fans) for Sparty to knock off the mighty Buckeyes here.
13. Baylor at Oklahoma (Week 10, Noon, FOX) – Dave Aranda might be the most popular coach in college football and he wouldn’t give two shits about that nor would his facial expression change.  He’s in Waco to coach college football, dammit, and that’s all.  I’m sure his family has seen him smile before but those rumours are unconfirmed.  Lincoln Riley-less Oklahoma could be an interesting team to watch this year since no one knows how they will fare.  As much of a wild card as any team expected to be in the Top 25 to start the season.
14. Tennessee at Georgia (Week 10, Noon, ESPN) – This could very well be an SEC East title match although you never know what team will kind of come out of nowhere to cause havoc at the top.  Kentucky may still be good and the rest of the teams, sans Vanderbilt, could make a run if they get an upset or three.  Until further notice, though, the Dawgs are the defending champs so someone has to knock them off their perch.  Who better than the Vols?  I’m sure there would be many people who could give me quite a few examples.
15. Miami at Clemson (Week 12, 3:30, ESPN2) – If this was the 80s or early 90s or early 2000s, this wouldn’t be here because Miami would be like a 30-point favourite.  I’m sure there’d be a lot more cocaine and steroids involved as well, but I digress.  Instead, it’s the Tigers who could be a double-digit favourite coming into this potentially huge conference matchup for both teams.
16. Alabama at Tennessee (Week 7, 3:30, CBS) – Man, it took long enough to get to our first afternoon CBS game.  I guess that’s what happens when Alabama is on the network all the time.  So speaking of heavy favourites, the Tide will be those here.  The Vols, however, are better than they have been in over a decade and with the game at Neyland, who knows.  If this game is close going into the fourth quarter, watch out.
17. Miami at Texas A&M (Week 3, 9:00, ESPN, confirmed) – Oh god the weird three-hour windows rear their ugly head this week.  Game at 6:00 followed by a game at 9:00.  Can ESPN just fuck off with this horseshit?  What’s the big deal putting this at 9:30?  Half an hour won’t make a difference.  Anyway, this should be a pretty good game I think but those FUCKING THREE-HOUR WINDOWS…OK I’m gonna stop now.
18. Wisconsin at Ohio State (Week 4, 7:30, ABC) – If the Big Ten abolished divisions, this would become a much bigger game.  I mean it’s still huge but…OK fine I just hate divisions.  I’m sure Wisky’s gameplan here is to run the ball 60 times and hope tOSU’s run defense is snoozing for most of the game.
19. Wake Forest at NC State (Week 10, 7:30, ACC Network) – Look, this might change between now and then but as I’ve said before, this is how little respect the Demon Deacons get.  If both teams only have one loss (or less) at this point, then it definitely gets moved to ESPN or ABC.  Otherwise, there’s a good chance this is where this game will end up, sadly.  The winner here is probably the one and only contender to screw up Clemson’s ACC run this season.
20. Oklahoma State at Baylor (Week 5, Noon, FOX) – First appearance for the Fighting Mullets from Stillwater on this list.  The Pokes are almost always in contention even when it feels like they aren’t.  Eleventh-year starter Spencer Sanders hopes to finally find some consistency at quarterback and beat a Baylor team that could be even more special than last year’s squad.
21. Georgia at Kentucky (Week 12, 3:30, CBS) – Fine, I will put this game here but it’s iffy whether it belongs.  It isn’t like the SEC West where even the worst team usually isn’t that bad.  Saying that, UK could be good again.  It wouldn’t fully shock me.  The only thing on their side is this is in Lexington which is underrated for how rowdy the fans can get.
22. Arkansas vs. Texas A&M (in Arlington) (Week 4, 3:30, CBS) – Considering the SEC slate of games this week, it is almost a guarantee that this game will be on CBS.  Last year, the Razorbacks won this game rather easily and a good thing they did since they lost three straight right afterwards.  If both teams are as good as they are predicted to be, maybe JerryWorld will be at least three-quarters full this time around.  I still don’t get this always being a neutral-site game but whatever.
23. Ohio State at Penn State (Week 9, 7:30, ABC) – Now we are getting into the games that might not look close on paper but have a history of being inexplicably close.  I’ve seen the Nittany Lions make things difficult for tOSU so it wouldn’t be out of the realm of possibility for them to pull off an upset on a night that will most certainly be a White-Out.
24. Alabama at Arkansas (Week 5, 3:30, CBS) – See what I mean?  Saying that, it’s not like this game will be relegated to the SEC Network as Sam Pittman has the Hogs looking good.  Not Bama-good, but definitely a far cry from the Bret Bielema/Chad Morris years.
25. Oklahoma State at Oklahoma (Week 12, Noon, FOX) – BEDLAM!  Normally near the top of these kinds of lists, this could be a sneaky-good game this season for once.  The Sooners feel like they are in rebuild mode when they really aren’t and the Pokes always feel like they are a step behind one team every season in the Big XII.  By this point, we will know if either of these teams have a hope for the Big XII Championship and a trip to good ol’ JerryWorld or not.
26. Penn State at Michigan (Week 7, 3:30, ABC) – Not exactly a CFP elimination matchup but it will be very important in terms of the Big Ten East Division race.  Look, PSU now has Sean Clifford hopefully back for a full, healthy year.  That alone makes the Nittany Lions a bit more dangerous than they were last year.  Michigan is loaded for bear so this will not be easy between the two teams with the biggest stadiums in the land.
27. LSU at Texas A&M (Week 13, Noon, ESPN) – This could end up being a forgotten matchup by this point of the season.  LSU is certainly not the Joe Burrow LSU Tigers.  And Texas A&M has been hanging on the periphery of greatness for a while now.  At some point, you think something has to give.  My guess is there is a good possibility a NY6 spot could be on the line here.
28. Wisconsin at Michigan State (Week 7, 7:30, ESPN2) – At this point I would call this an underrated game as many would probably put it in the same spot I’m putting it now.  The Badgers are probably the odds-on favourite to win the Big Ten West which is never on par with winning the much more difficult Big Ten East.  The Spartans need to win games like this to have any chance of doing what they did last year (or even more).
29. BYU vs. Notre Dame (in Las Vegas) (Week 6, 7:30, NBC, confirmed) – BYU’s final year as an Independent and as usual they have loaded up.  Call it a Western version of the typical Notre Dame schedule.  These teams don’t play nearly enough against each other if you ask me so it’s fun when they do.  And boy, will they have a TV audience, there is no denying that.  The Irish love these games because it’s a recruiting bonanza.  I guess the same for the Cougs.  Independent supremacy is on the line in this one.
30. Florida vs. Georgia (in Jacksonville) (Week 9, 3:30, CBS, confirmed) – The World’s Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party.  How can this not be on this list of games?  I guess if both teams were bad which hasn’t happened in….well, it’s been a while.  This is my seventh straight year, I believe, imploring CBS to give the broadcast crew an open bar for this one.  Hey, either Gary Danielson becomes seriously fun to listen to or…he’s still Gary Danielson.

There you go.  Top 30 games of the season.  That wasn’t so bad, eh?  There is only 60 days left until the season begins.  That is much closer than I am used to when doing this post.  I may have to up my game over the next two months.

I’m not going to lie, this felt like a lot of work but it also felt good to do.  The craziness hasn’t stopped in my life and so this is my chance to start getting a break from “reality” by doing this blog again.  I think I’ve needed it (although I had to be sure I was ready to go again).  Have a great week everyone!

The Student Finally Defeats the Master – Week 6 College Football Recap

Up until early Saturday evening, Nick Saban had been 24-0 against his former assistants.  24-0.  That’s like an Undertaker-like streak.  Completely insane.  Then came the game.

The Aggies came out strong and it looked like the Crimson Tide defense was struggling.  Yes we had seen this earlier in the year but it’s not like things had gone off the rails for them.  But Bama’s offense could only do so much and couldn’t pull away.  And even though TAMU was keeping pace, it felt to me (and I assume a lot of others) that eventually the Tide would win.  Until Seth Small hit the field goal with no time left to clinch the Aggie victory, I still thought the Tide would pull it off, somehow.  That’s just what they do.  This time it did not happen.  The field goal was good (barely) and the fans stormed the field.  The mighty Alabama Crimson Tide had been defeated, 41-38 in a thriller.

For people saying this is starting to feel like 2007, you might want to tuck that away.  This is shaping up as being way more volatile than 2007 could ever think to be.  I’ve said something every week about this and major things continue to happen.  We aren’t even halfway through the season.  And this past week could have been considered one of the best Saturdays of college football in a long time.  A lot of good games, a lot of close games and just a lot of shit happening that is turning the college football world upside down.  If it’s chaos you want, this season is bringing it.  Now let’s see what pitfall Georgia will fall victim to because we kind of know that’s coming, right?

Let’s get right to the recap as it was a fun (for the most part) 14+ hours of football.

And now for the rest of the recap

• A great game down in Iowa City this past weekend.  Iowa grinded out a victory over Penn State in a Top 5 matchup.  Sean Clifford was knocked out of the game in the second quarter with the Nittany Lions leading 17-3 and the offense fell apart.  Iowa’s defense saved the day and now the Hawkeyes have legit College Football Playoff aspirations.  I think everyone agrees except for one Penn State fan who was pretty upset that I had mentioned Iowa and the CFP.  He basically said I was dumb and that Iowa should be ranked 6th in the new poll, so three spots down…after a win.  Riiiiiiiiiiight.  I mentioned Iowa should be #3 and I will admit I was wrong.  They are actually #2 now.  My mistake.
• An absolutely insane game went down at the Cotton Bowl for the Red River Shootout and it’s no surprise since this game is almost always nuts.  Texas looked like they had Oklahoma on the ropes early.  Then Spencer Rattler was benched so I assume most thought it was over.  But Caleb Williams came in and did a good job in bringing the Sooners all the way back from a 21-point deficit to win the game.  Let’s be honest here though: the combination of Kennedy Brooks going crazy (including what was essentially a walk-off touchdown to win the game) and the Longhorn defense self-destructing was what gave Boomer Sooner the big win.  Oklahoma had looked like the worst undefeated Top 10 team in quite some time but this victory could be a turning point for a team who may not meet an equal until Bedlam in late November.
• How about that game down in Lincoln?  As the game went along, I really started to believe that finally the Huskers, under Scott Frost, would get that huge victory to start turning the program around.  Man, was I wrong.  In typical heartbreaking fashion, Nebraska blew the game late and allowed Michigan a late game-winning field goal.  The Wolverines honestly looked pretty pedestrian for a good portion of the game.  They really can’t be like that going forward considering how brutally difficult the Big Ten East looks.  As for Nebraska, oof.  Another loss, another black mark on Scott Frost’s record and unless things turn around I could see the program moving on since nothing is really improving at the end of the day.
• Speaking of hot seats, there was another great game on the night, this one in Blacksburg.  It felt like the Hokies would hand Notre Dame their second straight loss and almost destroy their New Year’s Six chances.  Instead, Jack Coan, who played like shit early on, came on, drove the Irish down the field for the touchdown and game-tying two-point conversion and then drove them again for the winning field goal with only 17 seconds remaining.  Great performance but Virginia Tech had their chances to stop the Irish as their defense had been pretty good in the second half.  Unfortunately they came up short and Justin Fuente’s seat gets juuuuuuust a bit hotter.
• To start Saturday there was the Arkansas-Ole Miss game which was basically drugs.  So damn ridiculous and completely defense-optional.  Both offenses went crazy and both teams got 50-burgers on the day.  It came down to the end where Sam Pittman decided he has balls the size of coconuts and would go for 2 and the lead instead of the extra point to send it to overtime.  The pass fell incomplete and the Rebels won a game that raised the blood pressure of both team’s fanbases.  Now the Rebel fans can truly enjoy that popcorn.
• Let history show that the Auburn Tigers were, at one point, tied with the Georgia Bulldogs 3-3. I’m sure most fans on The Plains who watched the game would love to just remember up to that point and forget the rest.  Georgia proved they are the undisputed number one team in the land (for now) as they destroyed Auburn by 24.  And this is with Stetson “The Mailman” Bennett at quarterback.  What happens when J.T. Daniels comes back?  Or do they platoon?  This team has looked better than Bama all season and now they will have the #1 ranking to back that up.  Their next two games against Kentucky and Florida will either prove that’s where they belong or bring them back down to Earth a bit.
• I didn’t think Florida State could keep close with North Carolina.  So what did they do?  Just beat them fairly easily and look as good as they were back in the Jameis Winston days (OK maybe not THAT good but still pretty good).  I am ruing the day I decided to be a smart guy and pick North Carolina as my chic pick to get to the College Football Playoff.  I feel like an idiot.  So they can now go 3-9 for all I care since it doesn’t really matter anymore (to me, anyway).
• Another game that was bonkers that no one saw was the game between South Alabama and Texas State.  I believe this is the longest game since they changed the overtime rules yet again.  I am not a fan of the new rules.  If you don’t know, starting in the second overtime, you must go for two after a touchdown and then starting with the third overtime, it becomes a two-point conversion contest.  The college football equivalent of hockey’s shootout.  Ugh.  Anyway, this game went to four overtimes and there were so many reviews it got ridiculous.  Like the replay booth was being paid per review.  Texas State won after stopping USA’s two-point conversion attempt.
• If I told you in, say, August of 2020 that Ed Orgeron would be on one of the hottest seats in the nation by October of 2021 you would have thought I was smoking crack.  But LSU’s loss to Kentucky this past Saturday will put Coach Eaux in that seat.  Look, Kentucky is a damn good team and losing to them is not a bad thing.  Not looking competitive when you are a team that should be in the Top 25 range is a different story altogether.  The team looks like there is a lack of effort and it shows.  The next few weeks will probably help determine Eddie O’s future.
• Ugh what a fall from grace for BYU.  The Cougars were stunned by Boise State and are now not undefeated.  Unless a lot of truly wacky things occur (and I’m not saying they won’t), BYU’s chances of the New Year’s Six are essentially gone.  What does this mean?  It means when they do become bowl-eligible they will be locked in to the Independence Bowl in Shreveport.  Yuck.  Imagine dropping from a potential Fiesta Bowl berth to that.  Brutal.
• Put up your hand if you thought Wake Forest…ok I am going to stop there since no one really thought much of Wake Forest this season.  OK that’s not totally true.  I had them going 9-3 this season and many had them in the 6-8 win range.  But to think this team is the only ACC hope left for the College Football Playoff in mid-October?  Yeah, no one thought that.  Wake had to survive a surprisingly tough Syracuse team, in overtime, to stay undefeated.  Now, with their next three games against Army, Duke and North Carolina, it looks like the Deacs could be 9-0 and firmly in the Top 10 when they host NC State in mid-November.  They have Clemson and Boston College after that so they have a rough end of the season to look forward to but get through all those unscathed?  They could make some history in December.
• Welp, Oregon State’s time in the sun went quick.  The Beavers were looking like they could make some hay in the Pac-12 with all the turmoil in the conference.  Instead, they shit the bed and lost to a Washington State team who’s biggest news has been coach Nick Rolovich and his absolute refusal to get the COVID vaccine.  That conference is an absolute mess.
• Another great game was shockingly at the Naval Academy.  No I’m not kidding.  The Midshipmen played undefeated SMU very tough.  The Ponies needed a fourth quarter touchdown and a couple of big defensive stops to escape Annapolis with the W.  I think Navy, despite being 1-4, is probably quite a bit better than their record indicates.  SMU?  They are very lucky considering some of the games they’ve been in this season.  If they can win their next four, a massive, probably primetime, game with Cincinnati looms large.
• Louisville…ugh.  They had the game won against Virginia.  But instead of going for it on 4th and about 3 fairly deep in Hoos territory, they kicked the field goal.  Then their defense allowed Virginia to drive the length of the field in two minutes for the touchdown and the win.  Cowardly coaching from Scott Satterfield and it might cost him his job.  And did anyone think this Cavaliers team would be 4-2 at this point?  I highly doubt it.  The ACC is another conference that’s just a dog’s breakfast (other than Wake Forest).
• Finally, UTSA was able to outlast Western Kentucky’s potent offense.  Quietly, the Roadrunners are 6-0, undefeated, and no one is noticing.  So what happens if this team finishes undefeated?  My guess is they will get no respect in the polls but they really should, despite the conference they are in.

Alright that was seriously fun.  And the late night schedule was light so it made it easier to pay a bit of attention rather than have my full attention which can get tiring into the wee hours of the morning.  Alright, let’s now look at the Bossman Top 25:

#1	Georgia
#2	Iowa
#3	Cincinnati
#4	Oklahoma
#5	Ohio State
#6	Oregon
#7	Alabama
#8	Michigan
#9	Penn State
#10	Ole Miss
#11	Notre Dame
#12	Michigan State
#13	Coastal Carolina
#14	Kentucky
#15	Oklahoma State
#16	Wake Forest
#17	Florida
#18	Texas A&M
#19	Arkansas
#20	BYU
#21	Arizona State
#22	NC State
#23	Auburn
#24	Clemson
#25	SMU

Yes there are a few somewhat glaring differences between my poll and the AP Poll and that happens of course.  I have Alabama at #7 and they only dropped to #5 in the AP Poll.  AP dropped Oregon whereas I moved them up to #6 since they didn’t play so why should they drop?  You can put the #8 through #12 teams in a hat and mix them up and any combination would probably be fine.  A lot is going to happen for these teams the next three weeks so no point in getting all bent out of shape about it now.  And I did mention undefeated UTSA earlier.  I also don’t have them in my Top 25 but they are just outside of it meaning a win next week should put them in.  Finally, I got Coastal at #13 and they are #15 in the AP Poll and Coaches Poll.  I have a feeling they may get to #12 or even #11 but that would be their ceiling unless a lot of crazy shit happens to the teams currently above them.  Which, considering the way this season has gone, wouldn’t surprise me one bit.

WEEKDAY FUN BELT ACTION!  Yes, it’s that time of year that we start getting more weekday football.  And this one, between Appalachian State and Louisiana, is a pretty big game.  And it’s tomorrow night!  Hell yeah!  God, I love Tuesday and Wednesday night college football.  Kind of feels like now we can say that Autumn has truly commenced.  Have a good week everyone!

This week could change everything – Week 5 College Football TV Schedule

We’ve got through most of September now.  And you don’t expect to have great weeks of college football early on.  We have truly lucked out with how quality the first part of the season has been.  Which leads us to this week.  This is looking like one of the best non-Thanksgiving weeks in a long time.  So many matches between ranked teams.  Still a few unranked teams that are undefeated and playing in important games.  It’s the kind of week that can put the entire season on its head.  You have to expect at least one upset if not more.  This week, as it says in the title, could change everything.  Maybe we finally get some new blood in the College Football Playoff picture.  The college football world would do well to hope for that as well.  It puts more teams in the mix without resorting to expansion of the playoff (which is now being hotly debated among the ten conferences and Independents).

OK, let’s get to the task at hand which is getting you the college football schedule TV information for what looks like an awesome Week 5.

Thursday

		US	Canada
Virginia at Miami	7:30 PM
Arkansas-Pine Bluff at Prairie View A&M	7:30 PM

Virginia might be not bad.  Miami is looking worse than advertised and Manny Diaz is on the hot seat.  This has the potential to be a crazy game.  The other options are a SWAC game or Thursday Night Football featuring the Jacksonville Football Jaguars.  So what I’m saying is, your options are limited.

Friday

		US	Canada
Dartmouth at Penn	7:00 PM
Houston at Tulsa	7:30 PM
#13 BYU at Utah State	9:00 PM

NOW we get into some stuff, kinda, sorta.  BYU continues their run to try and go undefeated and get to the New Year’s Six.  Utah State is a good team and may cause the Cougs some problems with their firepower on offense.  A win here would make the Aggies an instant Mountain West contender.  Houston is going to try and be that second team in the AAC Championship Game that gets fucking hammered by Cincinnati.  They need to win games like this over Tulsa to do so.

Saturday Early​

		US	Canada
Texas at TCU	Noon
Pittsburgh at Georgia Tech	Noon
Charlotte at Illinois	Noon
Minnesota at Purdue	Noon
Western Michigan at Buffalo	Noon
#8 Arkansas at #2 Georgia	Noon
Duke at North Carolina	Noon
Memphis at Temple	Noon
#14 Michigan at Wisconsin	Noon
Tennessee at Missouri	Noon
Louisville at #24 Wake Forest	12:30 PM

Oh my.  This is quite the early schedule and a harbinger for what we are all in for this Saturday.  If you want to know how special Arkansas’s season is shaping up to be, realize that Chris Fowler and Kirk Herbstreit are calling this game.  Yes, Fowler and Herbie are calling a Noon game for the first time ever.  That is insane.  Pair that with GUS JOHNSON calling a game where Michigan could win and continue to move up the rankings and you got a great pair of games.  Add Louisville-Wake, WMU-Buffalo, and Texas-TCU and this is a seriously loaded early slate.  Buckle up.

Saturday Afternoon

		US	Canada
#7 Cincinnati at #9 Notre Dame	2:30 PM
#3 Oregon at Stanford	3:30 PM
Syracuse at Florida State	3:30 PM
#11 Ohio State at Rutgers	3:30 PM
#12 Ole Miss at #1 Alabama	3:30 PM
UCF at Navy	3:30 PM
Texas Tech at West Virginia	3:30 PM
#6 Oklahoma at Kansas State	3:30 PM
Troy at South Carolina	3:30 PM
USF at SMU	4:00 PM

And the amazing schedule continues.  Holy moly it’s been a while since I’ve seen two timeslots in a row that were this good.  Where do I begin?  Let’s start with Cincinnati and their road to glory.  They beat the Irish and there is no reason for this team to not be in the Top 4 by Sunday afternoon.  The Sooners get Kansas State and you know how well they tend to do in Manhattan (spoiler: not very good).  Also, Lane Kiffin gets another shot at Bama.  You will notice there are no TSN games in this timeslot, nor the next one.  Nothing until the late night sked which is odd considering what ESPN is doing today with the 6:00/9:00 games.  Unfortunately, TSN’s contracts with UFC, MLS, CFL and NASCAR usurp anything college football-related.  I get it.  I just don’t like it.

Saturday Primetime

		US	Canada
#10 Florida at Kentucky	6:00 PM
Liberty at UAB	7:00 PM
#21 Baylor at #19 Oklahoma State	7:00 PM
Mississippi State at #15 Texas A&M	7:00 PM
Indiana at #4 Penn State	7:30 PM
Boston College at #25 Clemson	7:30 PM
Western Kentucky at Michigan State	7:30 PM
Northwestern at Nebraska	7:30 PM
UConn at Vanderbilt	7:30 PM

OK not as good as the first two timeslots but still a solid set of games.  It’s highlighted by, you guessed it, UConn-Vandy Baylor-OSU.  And expect UF-UK to be a sneaky good game and an important SEC one.  I think ABC might be a bit miffed now to have picked Indy-PSU considering the Hoosiers’ start to the season.  Maybe they can push the Nittany Lions to the limit in this one.  And if you like pain, yes, UConn against Vanderbilt on the specialty pack.  I just don’t get it.  How many games could have been put there and then you can send this game to ESPN+ but no.  Somehow we are going to get a lot of UConn football on our TV sets this year and that’s not a good thing.

Saturday Late Night

		US	Canada
#22 Auburn at LSU	9:00 PM
Montana at Eastern Washington	10:30 PM
#18 Fresno State at Hawaii	11:00 PM

This is an…interesting way to finish off the day.  I guess it’s a nice cooldown compared to the pure insanity we will receive all day.  The fact that TSN2 has 10:30 as a game to be determined is interesting since the only game available at that time is Montana-EWU.  UPDATE: TSN is now not showing a college football game, going with Must See SC.  I guess they saw the game and decided not to bother.  It would be the first non-Week Zero, non-FCS Playoff game on a TSN station ever (I believe).  Also, another Hawaii Test as Fresno State heads to a high school field in Honolulu for a game that will end around 2:30 or so in the morning.

Games to set your eyeballs on

Arkansas at Georgia (Noon, TSN3) – There is not an easy choice for Game of the Week with four games between ranked teams on the docket.  I do believe with the top ABC/ESPN crew going to Athens for this one, it pushes it to the top.  This is a massive game for both teams but really a bigger one for the Hogs.  If the Razorbacks can pull this one out, you might want to at least pencil Sam Pittman in as Coach of the Year already since this is already the best coaching job we’ve seen in quite some time.  It would also set up a crazy Bama-Arkansas game later on in the year between possibly two undefeated teams the week before American Thanksgiving.  Giddy up!

Cincinnati at Notre Dame (2:30, NBC) – Still no respect for this Bearcats football team.  The fact this is a day game shows what many still believe about Cincinnati and the Group of Five as a whole.  Let’s be honest: this is Cincinnati’s best chance ever to make some noise in college football.  I know they went to a BCS bowl in the past (where they were blown out by Florida).  But this is their one true shot to get into the College Football Playoff before it expands, whenever that ends up happening.  They need to win this because there are a few games on their American Conference schedule that will not help them at all, even if they win big.  I kind of hope it happens only to make The Committee’s job difficult.  I still wonder if they need an open bar when they have their meetings.  Could be fun to watch one member who goes way too far and ends up puking before inexplicably stumping for UConn to be in the New Year’s Six.

Ole Miss at Alabama (3:30, CBS) – Normally a game with the Tide in it has a shot at being the GOTW.  On almost any week this would end up being the case.  It’s still going to be a good game I think as Lane Kiffin and his offense figured out the Tide last year, putting 48 points up on the board against them.  Expect the same against a team that is not as good as last year’s.  Nick Saban’s squad is still a heavy favourite but we know what the Rebels have been able to do in the past to them.  Another game that could upset the balance in college football if an upset occurs.

Baylor at Oklahoma State (7:00, specialty pack) – If you thought this was going to be a game between two ranked teams at the start of the season, I would have taken you to Vegas to bet on roulette.  The Cowboys are a bit of a shock at this point but the Bears are a full-blown surprise.  Kind of surprised this didn’t end up being the ABC Primetime game but it does show what ABC/ESPN thinks of the Big XII (and it won’t get any better in a couple years).  Anyway, both of these teams have a serious chance to be the team that gets to surprise everyone and get to go to JerryWorld for the Big XII Championship.  With the conference being a bit of a mess right now, nothing says either of these teams can’t go all the way.

Oklahoma at Kansas State (3:30, FOX) – There are quite a few games that could go in this spot.  We know about the Sooners’ struggles in Manhattan.  Kansas State has looked good so far this season going 3-1 so it’s a team just outside the Top 25 here.  Don’t be surprised if the Sooners defense struggles yet again.  Or their offense.  Who knows with this team.  Now watch Oklahoma win by like 50 and prove me wrong.

Honourable mention: Iowa at Maryland (Friday, 8:00, FOX Sports One); BYU at Utah State (Friday, 9:00, CBS Sports Network); Louisville at Wake Forest (Noon, specialty pack); Oregon at Stanford (3:30, ABC); Florida at Kentucky (6:00, specialty pack); Ohio State at Rutgers (3:30, Big Ten Network); Indiana at Penn State (7:30, ABC); Boston College (7:30, specialty pack); Auburn at LSU (9:00, specialty pack); Arizona State at UCLA (10:30, FOX Sports One).  I told you there were a lot of good games this weekend.

You bet!

My picks were not that good although they were all upset losses.  That makes me feel at least a bit better.  I have a feeling I will do better this week.  I am adding more picks just for this week just because of the sheer number of great games.  Alright *deep breath* let’s go!

Florida over Kentucky

Georgia over Arkansas

Alabama over Ole Miss

LSU over Auburn

BYU over Utah State

Notre Dame over Cincinnati

Oregon over Stanford

UCLA over Arizona State

Clemson over Boston College

Wake Forest over Louisville

Penn State over Indiana

Iowa over Maryland

Ohio State over Rutgers

Oklahoma State over Baylor

Oklahoma over Kansas State

Alright it seems like the specialty pack schedules are still a bit slow in coming out.  I haven’t seen any definitive information for the Saturday games on any of the schedules I have looked at.  I’m sure the info will come up shortly but really this info should be ready pretty much the day after the previous week’s games are done.  I don’t buy the whole idea that it’s up to ESPN to “release” games to the cable companies.  That’s horseshit.  You have the contract, you show the games.  It’s not like you get all the ESPN and ESPN2 games this week but next week, nope, only ESPNU games.  Like, fuck off.

I went against my own advice (kind of) and did do the Twitter thing last weekend and it wasn’t bad at all.  I guess I shouldn’t judge it based on one day but I know what Twitter can be like if you get into the wrong part of Twitter…the Twitter on the other side of the tracks.  Enjoy the games everyone!

1. Bring in Texas and Oklahoma. 2. Make even a pissed off Texas A&M comply. 3. ????? 4. Profit!

We are not just inching towards super conferences now.  If Texas and Oklahoma are admitted to the SEC then college football is on a bullet train to super conference land!  We may be witnessing the biggest and possibly last huge realignment spree for a while.  This is just the tip of the iceberg.  If you are happy with the potential of super conferences and these teams breaking off from the NCAA (or at the very least, FBS), you can thank Greg Sankey, the current commissioner of the SEC.  He is a guy that sees the future for what it is and plans to put the Southeastern Conference in front of it all.  This post could look entirely different starting as early as next season if he gets his way (and UT and OU gets theirs and TAMU really doesn’t get theirs at all).

How about we get right down to the predictions that Just Means More (teams) followed by Texas Barbecue Thoughts (and whatever the fuck they eat in Oklahoma):

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

Texas Barbecue Thoughts

• Wait, they will eat barbecue as well in Oklahoma…slathered in Jim Ross’s BBQ sauce.
• I’ve done this before with not-so-great results.  But I don’t learn from my mistakes so I’m doing it again.  Bama does not have an easy schedule (which is par for the course in the SEC West) and I can’t see them going unscathed.  I have them losing to Texas A&M but still winning the division.  This would mean not being #1 and you’ll have to wait to see where I have them after the conference championships in another post.  Again, don’t be pissed.  It’s not like I have them going 6-6 and heading to the Independence Bowl.
• I have Georgia winning the East division by a healthy margin.  Again, it all comes down to the World’s Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party between the Dawgs and Gators and I have UGA winning that one and then winning the title going away.  Kentucky and Missouri will be good once again but good isn’t good enough to win the SEC East.
• Yes, I said the Aggies would beat Bama.  Problem is they have a brutal schedule and I see them losing two other games, conceding the division to the Tide.  How dare they be in the SEC West!
• LSU, Ole Miss and Auburn are all potential Top 25 teams (or just outside the Top 25) with Arkansas improving under Sam Pittman.  And Mike Leach will have an exciting brand of ball down in Starkville.  Damn, the SEC West is a minefield.
• When is Tennessee going to turn it around?  Be back, as you will.  It won’t be this season and I don’t know when that will happen.  UT (the one in Knoxville) routinely falls behind most of the SEC teams when it comes to recruiting and they can’t seem to get any traction or a really good head coach (or a head coach who becomes really good) to move them up the conference ladder.  Would it surprise me to see them make a bowl game?  No but it’s not going to be exactly a New Year’s Six game or a bowl game in the state of Florida.
• Auburn is an interesting case.  They finally shitcanned Gus Malzahn despite the fact he’s done pretty good work on the Plains since he arrived.  But it wasn’t enough even with beating Bama a few times.  Now they have Bryan Harsin, previously of Boise State, to try and push the Tigers to that next level.  The only way that happens is if Bo Nix can become the quarterback he was supposed to be and the rest of the offense follows his lead.  Otherwise I may even be generous giving them eight wins.
• Eleven bowl teams!  And maybe even twelve if they need Tennessee for some reason.
• Alabama-Georgia again?  Yep.  Crimson Tide winning a close one again?  Yep.  Does this put Bama in the CFP?  You’ll have to see.  But you can probably make a good guess at the answer.

We are down to four conferences left in the prediction posts.  Next up is a conference that really doesn’t know what to do although with a new commissioner hopefully they will be better…the Pac-12.

Still 33 days to go until the first college football game of the season.  Why the hell does it feel like it’s taking so long to get there?  Considering the season we came off of, I am thinking a lot of fans will be seriously pumped for this season  Have a great week everyone!

WOO PIG! – Week 7 College Football Recap

OK we might have to finally agree that what Sam Pittman has done so far this season at Arkansas has been remarkable.  I mean they should be 3-1 if it wasn’t for an absolutely all-timer of an atrocious call.  They looked good against Ole Miss on Saturday and it feels like it has been a long time since the horrific Chad Morris days.  Now I’m not saying they are ready for Alabama (almost no one is) but they could cause some serious issues for other SEC teams this season.  It’s nice to see the Hogs back to playing well.  It’s been too long.  It was also nice to see someone like Stewart Mandel, who made light of the fact that there were six elite coaches in the SEC West and then Pittman, have to eat crow (especially since The Athletic, by and large, have become a bunch of sanctimonious pricks).  Alright let’s get on to the rest of the recap:

Man, that offense is for real:  Alabama had the biggest win in the biggest game as they beat Georgia in a rivalry that is quickly becoming the SEC’s best.  And, man did you see that Bama offense?  No matter what teams put up against the Tide, they can’t seem to stop their offense.  Ole Miss failed as did the Dawgs.  Saying that, I am sure it was a coup for CBS as they had by far the biggest game of the year so far and had it in primetime.  CBS has been quite brilliant with putting their primetime game early on in the season (Notre Dame-Georgia was the other one) getting massive ratings.  As for UGA, don’t count them out.  Just know that they are a tier below the Fighting Nick Sabans (who got to coach after three negative COVID-19 tests).

CHANTS!  That is pronounced “Shawnt”.  The Coastal Carolina Chanticleers were able to pull out a huge victory over #21 Louisiana and will almost certainly be ranked this week.  It’s now a definite that their game against Appalachian State, if both teams keep this up, will be for the Sun Belt East, the Sun Belt (essentially) and perhaps a look at the New Year’s Six.  That would be a boon to the Sun Belt who is still looking for their first NY6 representative.

Can we blame Gus Malzahn for this one?  Auburn never seemed in this one.  South Carolina wasn’t dominating play but it felt like it was just a matter of time before they pulled this one out.  And it’s not like Auburn didn’t have chances to win.  They did, and they could never capitalize on those.  Many will want to blame Gus but Bo Nix has been nothing short of awful so far this season.  What Malzahn does next with the quarterbacking situation is what will determine his fate after this season.

OK so what does Mike Leach do now?  Not that I thought they would absolutely win but they looked dreadful on offense again.  I honestly thought the Bulldogs would at least be able to move the ball.  Boy was I ever wrong.  Texas A&M keeps on rolling and very little seems in their way that could stop them…from getting to the New Year’s Six.

The Pittening:  It has happened and with no divisions we can pretty much safely say that Pitt will not be going to the ACC Championship.  The Canes have played well (except against teams that rhyme with Blemson).  Even though it was only a 12-point win for The U, this did not feel close.  The Canes are still trying to keep pace in second place to try and get that other spot opposite Clemson in the ACC title game (to get their asses kicked again, probably).

Time to watch the Cougars:  Of the BYU variety.  For three quarters it looked like Houston was ready to pull the rug out from the BYU party (with no alcohol or caffeine).  Then Zach Wilson decided to declare himself a Heisman contender with a bonkers fourth quarter.  BYU’s 22 fourth quarter points put away the Fighting Holgorsens and kept them undefeated.  Even with the rest of the conferences starting shortly, you have to watch out for this team.  Can you keep them out of the New Year’s Six when they’re undefeated?  I don’t think you can but it will put The Committee in an interesting position.

You just got LAWRENCED!  That sounds disgusting but may be true for some women on the campus at Clemson University.  This game was rough to watch.  Trevor Lawrence, Travis Etienne and the vaunted Clemson offense absolutely annihilated poor Georgia Tech.  Clemson keeps on chugging and really has no roadblocks now to get to the CFP until they face Notre Dame in November.  Georgia Tech still has work to do but they are, this game notwithstanding, on the right track now under Geoff Collins.

Is Notre Dame’s defense that good?  Their defense could be what keeps the Irish going this season.  They had to be as their offense sputtered against Louisville, of all teams.  Only 46 points allowed through 4 games so far and I can’t see Pitt or Georgia Tech putting up a boatload of points against them.  Geez.  Their game in three weeks with Clemson could be something special.  Interesting to see how Trevor Lawrence does against his first truly good defensive opponent this season (no offense to Miami).

SMU?  SMU!  I am sure there are some people who thought SMU would be 5-0 at this point but not many.  Will they finish undefeated?  I doubt it.  But to be honest, they are, right now, the Group of Five favourite to go to the NY6 despite Cincinnati ranking higher than them.  It wasn’t easy to keep that unblemished record as Tulane gave them all they could handle and took them to overtime.  Next week’s game against Cincinnati could decide one of the entrants in the AAC Championship game.

Oh North Carolina, no!  Mack Brown looked like they had a relatively easy road to the ACC Championship (as long as they took care of business against Notre Dame later in the season).  They had everything going for them and Florida State, yes, FLORIDA STATE snuffed that all out.  The Seminoles got out to a huge 31-7 lead going into halftime and held on to beat the Tar Heels by 3.  Embarrassing on the Heels’ part to allow FSU to get that far out in front for sure.  Despite there being no ACC Coastal division, most of the conference IS the ACC Coastal division (apart from Clemson and Notre Dame at this point).

Is this considered an upset?  I don’t know.  Honestly, I am leaning towards no.  Yes, Tennessee was ranked and it was in Knoxville but Kentucky’s defense has been pretty dominant this season.  They continued that trend by catching a lot of passes from Jarrett Guarantano.  Problem for the Volunteers is that’s their quarterback.  Not good.

Hey what about the Hokies?  Not saying Boston College is horrible but they were pretty much boatraced by Virginia Tech.  It was kind of close early but the Hokies blew it wide open in the third.  They don’t have a super easy schedule the rest of the way but all the games are winnable until they host Clemson in early December.  Look, if they end up with two losses, both to Top 10 teams at the time, and somehow win the ACC Championship that could make for some fun chaos.  The Big Ten and Pac-12 are watching this team closely hoping they shit the bed just once more to ease their minds.

Good lord Kansas:  So Les Miles has COVID so he couldn’t show up to coach the Jayhawks against West Virginia.  This meant the spread changed from the Mountaineers as 23 point favourites to just 21.5.  Fucking hilarious.  Not that it mattered since they still lost.  Well it may have mattered to degenerate gamblers but other than that, yeah, nobody gives a shit.

Thoughts and prayers to the Orange:  The Orange of Syracuse lost to Liberty.  No I am not lying.  And Liberty ran roughshod over Syracuse.  This wasn’t really that close at all.  So now what does the Cuse have up next?  Well it’s the ACC so it can’t be too b…oh my god.  They play Clemson next.  Pray for Dino Babers.  As for Liberty, they are 5-0.  Hugh Freeze is doing an amazing job in Lynchburg.  This means next year he will be back in the SEC.  Vanderbilt, perhaps?

A palette cleanser:  Alright we aren’t looking at the Memphis or UCF of the past few years.  But when they face each other, you just have that feeling it will be special.  No exception here.  This game was fucking amazing.  UCF took the lead.  The Tigers roared back with a big third quarter and then the fourth was absolute drugs.  Memphis scored two touchdowns in the final 3:45 to win this one.  It’s amazing how often that it’s the American conference that just blows everyone away with a fantastic game that people keep talking about.

Well all in all it was a fun weekend of college football.  So now let’s get to the Bossman Top 25:

#1	Clemson
#2	Alabama
#3	Notre Dame
#4	Ohio State
#5	Oklahoma State
#6	Georgia
#7	Florida
#8	Miami
#9	Cincinnati
#10	BYU
#11	Texas A&M
#12	Penn State
#13	Oregon
#14	North Carolina
#15	SMU
#16	Wisconsin
#17	Virginia Tech
#18	Michigan
#19	Iowa State
#20	Marshall
#21	Kansas State
#22	Coastal Carolina
#23	NC State
#24	Minnesota
#25	USC

Not a ton of movement in the Top 25 to be honest.  Really though, past #1 and #2 (and maybe the Irish at #3) you could put almost any combination and you could be considered somewhat correct (well, unless you put Kansas in your Top 25).  Some may bristle at me putting BYU at #10 but let’s be honest: this may be as high as they get.  Their schedule will not help them and any hope of them getting to the New Year’s Six hinges on chaos above them (which I am fully for).  This weekend helped but they need much more.  Also, I get that there is a Top 25 match between Michigan and Minnesota this coming weekend (welcome back, Big Ten by the way…oh yeah and the Mountain West).  But there are no fans at College Gameday so why go there?  Instead, head to Myrtle Beach.  Coastal Carolina is in the Top 25 for the first time and there is probably not a better chance to go there than now.  Nothing against Minnesota but this is another mark against the Group of Five and college football’s perception of those programs.

Alright, in the end, it was a good weekend of college football.  Let’s hope for a lot more the rest of the way.  Enjoy your week everyone!

Texas Is Not Back. OK, Boomer (Sooner). And the Week 5 College Football Recap

That is the Big XII in a nutshell right there.  The usual top teams are terrible.  The only undefeated team barely survived Tulsa previously.  The second-best team right now was upset by a Sun Belt team to start their season.  Again, a complete shitshow.  Spencer Rattler never seemed comfortable against Iowa State but that O-line is horrendous.  The poor guy played well considering that…oh and the defense. Can’t forget them.  Such a Mike Stoops defense this Sooners team has.  Then there is Texas.  Not back.  Not even close.  Again it felt like they were going to lose to TCU pretty much all game.  You got to wonder what would happen in Austin if Gary Patterson was the coach there with all that talent.  Makes you think, huh?

Other than that, it was a pretty fun weekend (not that that wasn’t fun…it was, except for Sooner and Longhorn fans).

BYU is continuing their march towards something that could be very hotly debated.  Louisiana Tech is a good team, yet was no match at all for the Cougs.  BYU stays undefeated, moves up in the rankings and could be looking at being undefeated late in the season.  So then what does The Committee do?  BYU has a cupcake schedule (and that could be an insult to other cupcake schedules).  So do you put them into the New Year’s Six?  Will they ever crack the Top 10?  My guess is now that the rest of the conferences are slowly returning that won’t happen.

Clemson put on show against Virginia.  The Tigers never looked like they were in trouble in this one.  For once, though, they don’t have a super easy conference schedule.  Meaning if they win out then there is almost no debate against having them probably #1 going into the College Football Playoff.  I get that some people are getting sick of Clemson but they are a fun team to watch and this is probably their best offense ever under Dabo Swinney.  As for UVA, my guess is they will be lucky to go bowling this season.

Hey guess what?  Alabama destroyed Texas A&M.  Just like everyone thought would happen.  I mean Bama put a colossal beatdown on the Aggies, up 35-14 at the half and winning by 28.  The Aggies couldn’t really do anything right and the Tide, consequently, looked like everything they did was near-perfect.  This shows how much better the Tide (and Clemson for that matter) are compared to every other team in college football.  Not saying either team couldn’t be upset this season because it very much could in this already crazy 2020 season.  Oh and I am sure Aggie fans are so happy with the Brinks truck that they parked in Jimbo Fisher’s driveway.

Another game that many thought would be closer went down Between The Hedges.  The Tigers were boatraced by what seems like a seriously good Georgia team.  Stetson Bennett had his coming out party in this one as he proved Kirby Smart right to choose him to start this one.  But Tigers fans shouldn’t be quick to put Gus on the hot seat just yet because I know they are doing it.  If Malzahn wasn’t paid so much I would feel sorry for the guy.

Florida is still undefeated.  They might have the best college tight end in ages in Kyle Pitts.  Kyle Trask is looking like money.  Saying all that, it’s not like they blew South Carolina out.  Still have to consider them in a spot of trouble later in the season when they head to Jacksonville for the World’s Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party to face Georgia who, as I said in the previous paragraph, looked damn good.

Virginia Tech might just be a dark horse contender for the ACC Championship game (to get plowed by Clemson).  But they have to do better than they did against Duke this past weekend.  Chase Brice has not looked good and yet somehow the Blue Devils kept it close with the Hokies until late.  This is not good news when VaTech gets into the meat of their ACC schedule.

What an absolutely wild game in Lexington.  Kentucky and Ole Miss went to overtime.  Then the poor Kentucky kicker missed an extra point after an OT touchdown.  While he tried to find a spot in the turf to crawl under, the Rebels won the game with a converted touchdown.  Slowly, the Lane Train is starting their journey in the SEC (well, Lane Train Version 2.0).  As for Mark Stoops, he may be kicking himself for not taking better coaching offers a couple years back.  He now has a very difficult job going forward with no true stars leading the way.  Don’t be surprised if he is mentioned as a hot seat candidate later on in the season.

Oh, UCF.  That was brutal to watch.  They allowed Tulsa to stay close with an absolute deluge of penalties and undisciplined play.  Now the Golden Hurricane might actually be better than we all think.  They beat the Knights here and kept things close with Oklahoma State a few weeks back.  But back to UCF, they can kiss that New Year’s Six opportunity goodbye unless chaos happens throughout the entire Group of Five.

North Carolina still living up to the preseason hype (that many thought was bullshit).  But again, a really good team struggles with a not-so-good team.  The Eagles were within two after a touchdown late.  They went for the two-point conversion and the Tar Heels picked the pass off and went for a pick-two, pretty much ending the game.  Some of these teams that are sniffing the Top 10 are going to have to really destroy some teams going forward or there is no way they have a chance at the CFP, even if they are getting through with no losses.

Uh, what the hell is happening with Mississippi State?  Oh that’s right, it’s Mike Leach.  After upsetting LSU and K.J. Costello setting the new SEC record for passing yards in a game in his first SEC game ever, the Bulldogs look like garbage and get beaten by Arkansas.  Alright, the Hogs played some great defense and did just enough to win but still, this is a team MSU shouldn’t be losing to.  Congrats to Sam Pittman for the win as it may end up being his only win this season.

Pittsburgh is not great.  Still good, but not great as evidenced by their loss to NC State.  The Wolfpack are not expected to be good this season at all yet gave the Panthers all they could handle.  I kind of expect that from Pat Narduzzi these days.  Beat a team or two that they should have had no right to beat and then shit the bed against an also-ran.

In more shitty Big XII action, West Virginia was able to outlast Baylor in two overtimes.  Honestly, this was a terrible game.  But it was close so I felt compelled to watch the last half of the fourth quarter and all of both overtimes.  So yeah, Big XII football not exactly lighting the world of college football on fire.

Alright enough recappin’.  Time for the first Bossman Top 25 of the season.  Yes I know I had mentioned I was not going to do it but I thought, fuck it, I might as well.  FOMO and all that.  Anyway let’s do this:

#1	Clemson
#2	Georgia
#3	Alabama
#4	Florida
#5	Notre Dame
#6	Miami
#7	North Carolina
#8	Ohio State
#9	Auburn
#10	Oklahoma State
#11	Cincinnati
#12	Penn State
#13	Tennessee
#14	LSU
#15	Oregon
#16	BYU
#17	Texas A&M
#18	Texas
#19	Virginia Tech
#20	Wisconsin
#21	SMU
#22	Louisiana
#23	Michigan
#24	Mississippi State
#25	UCF

Yep, I have Georgia above Alabama.  Look, it’s what the polls are at this time.  Georgia’s win over Auburn was way more impressive than Bama’s win over the Aggies.  Again, this could all change by next week at this time.  It’s only October 5th.  Plus with Florida and Auburn still in the Top 10, I am assuming the SEC will have a lot of change in the rankings as the season goes on.  And yes, I included Big Ten teams.  And Pac-12 teams.  I would have included Mountain West and MAC teams if I thought they should be in the Top 25 which I don’t just yet.

See you back on Thursday for the college football TV schedule.  Until then, enjoy your week everyone!

So….so does this mean we could get THREE teams into the College Football Playoff? The SEC Preview Post.

Covid-19 is serious, SERIOUS shit.  I want to say no one denies this but some do.  They are idiots.  This pandemic has wreaked havoc on a lot of things: small businesses, travel & tourism, me finding work, sports.  And the college football world.  While a few conferences are sitting this one out, the SEC barged straight ahead into this season because it’s FOOTBAW and they wanna play FOOTBAW.  But even SEC schools are cognizant of what is going on and are doing their very best to make sure the virus doesn’t take hold with their football teams (and I guess the rest of the students as well).

Saying all that, the SEC has to be wondering if they could maybe….just maybe….get three schools into the College Football Playoff.  You know they thought that.  It’s evil but it’s true.  Not that it would happen unless you have 2007 chaos everywhere except the SEC.  But if this happened, the college football media would go crazy.  Danny Kanell might choke to death from his turtlenecks being too tight.  Paul Finebaum would have a grin you would not be able to wipe off his face.  Absolute insanity!  But no…it can’t happen.  Right?

This is the first of the conference prediction posts.  Only about a month-and-a-half late but better late than never.  Let’s get right to the predictions followed by some Ponderings Over a Cup of Sweet Tea:

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

Ponderings Over a Cup of Sweet Tea

• The SEC is going with a 10-game, conference-only schedule.  This will make it arguably the toughest schedule in the nation.  It’s also why I have none of the teams going undefeated since I can’t see any team, especially losing months of training, being able to run the table in the conference that just means more.  So don’t look all shocked that I have Bama going 9-1.  They are still winning the SEC West so cool down.
• And yes, I have Florida at the top of the East.  Again, calm down, there’s a reason here.  With Jamie Newman deciding to forgo the season, the Bulldogs look very iffy on offense and could struggle most of the season.  The only other team that’s close here is Tennessee but the Vols could surprise many in this odd season.
• The Tide are going to have a lot of competition at the top of the SEC West.  LSU, TAMU and Auburn are all serious College Football Playoff contenders but unfortunately they had the audacity to be in the same division as the Alabama Crimson Tide.  What assholes.  I can’t see LSU doing what they did last year considering how many players they lost to the draft and graduation but if they can find another good quarterback, watch out.  I mean it is Coach O after all.
• Who the hell did Arkansas piss off to get that schedule?  Poor Sam Pittman is going to be lucky to be even close to a win with what he is seeing in 2020.  Good lord.
• Kentucky will not be as good as they were last season.  Not a chance.  You don’t lose a Josh Allen and a Benny Snell and expect to be just as good unless your team starts with A and ends in labama Crimson Tide.  This is what I wrote in last year’s preview.  Same thing this year although you can replace Josh Allen and Benny Snell with Lynn Bowden Jr.  That’s it.
• So will Auburn end up finally shitcanning Gus Malzahn since everyone seems to want it to happen?  No.  They won’t.  I mean if they do they are idiots.  Same goes with Jimbo Fisher at College Station.  Not gonna happen.
• Bowl teams?  Who the hell knows.  I don’t know the criteria anymore so until my final college football prediction post I won’t bother talking about them.  Hopefully by that point someone has an idea of what will happen.
• I have Florida facing Alabama in the SEC Championship which I assume will be in Atlanta.  I got the Tide winning this one and heading to whatever the College Football Playoff will end up looking like.  Again, I will get to all the bowl season nonsense in a later post since, from going through it myself, figuring it out requires knowledge of Advanced Calculus I think.

Alright finally got the first conference done!  Better late than never.  Next up will be the Sun Belt, who should get more prominent timeslots this season.

Tomorrow is the first Saturday of FBS college football.  It’s not many games but it’s some so I am psyched for it.  Soon enough we will have mostly full Saturdays to do nothing but watch college football and be very unproductive…if you call watching college football unproductive which I certainly don’t!  Have a great long weekend everyone!

Most Important Games of the 2020 College Football Season – Part I

Alright it’s time to get to the good stuff finally!  Actual college football posts about the next season…whenever that may begin.  As cathartic as this feels, we really have no idea what we are looking at for the 2020 season.  The schedules are out, at least in terms of what days the games will be played.  Of course, games can, and will be, moved around, usually for national television purposes.  I haven’t got any preview magazines yet though.  I will be ordering my Phil Steele magazine soon but obviously with bookstores closed, there is no timeframe as to when I will get other magazines.  Some schools are adamant they will be pretty much fully open in the fall whereas others are hesitant.  With many other sports starting to slowly put out plans as to when they will commence play again, there are a lot of balls still up in the air.  Here’s hope that things do improve as it pertains to the Coronavirus pandemic so that we can get back to semblance of normality.

Anyway, I figured I might as well get a jump on these schedules.  I am sure many things will change and some games might be outright cancelled but I am going with what I can see at this moment.  Remember, we are in May so these lists will definitely not be correct later in the season.  As the season progresses, there are always surprises and disappointments.  It happens.  For example, we all know that for the next few years, CBS has the big SEC game of the week on at 3:30.  This has been the case for years until 2024 when they no longer will have the rights to the best SEC game of the week.  Saying that, let’s say that for some unknown reason, the Iron Bowl is not shown on CBS on American Thanksgiving weekend (this happened when the Egg Bowl moved there and it was a bit of a ratings disaster for CBS and a coup for ESPN) and in its place, the Missouri-Arkansas game is moved into that timeslot.  Two of the following three things would have had to have happened:

1. Eliah Drinkwitz continues to drink success and does the same thing he did at Appalachian State.
2. Sam Pittman becomes the most shocking coaching success story in a long time at Arkansas.
3. To the absolute joy of everyone outside of the state of Alabama, the Tide and the Tigers are both unranked.

So let’s just say I feel quite secure in putting the Iron Bowl at that time instead of the Battle Line Rivalry.  I think they need to come up with a better name than that.  Like Orgy in the Ozarks.  Wait, no, don’t do that.

Disclaimer: Just so you know, some of the broadcast info may change between now and the time I do my network-specific posts.  I say it every year and luckily no one says anything about it.  Which is great because I wouldn’t want my feelings hurt or something like that.  I am sure some people do it in private and that’s fine.  We aren’t like much of Twitter where the smallest thing ends up being a massive argument.

For the third year in a row, the Important Games list will be broken down week-by-week and then as per the following:

• Game of the Week – This is my opinion of the game of the week.  It may differ from your opinion.  That is OK.  Because the next part is…
• Other Really Important Games – See?  One of these games might be your game of the week choice.
• Sneaky-Good Underrated Game – Some games are underrated.  I will try to find one each week that could fulfill that criterion.
• Best Group of Five Game – Pretty self-explanatory but has to have TWO G5 teams involved.
• Worst Power Five Game – Just like above, except the opposite (with two P5 teams involved).

The “Other Really Important Games” section is the one section where the number of games I include may vary.  In some weeks you will only see one or two.  Others there may be like seven.  We pretty much know which weeks will have better games and which ones won’t so it shouldn’t be much of a surprise.

Let’s start with the official commencement of college football blogging season (for me): the weekly rankings.  If you were looking for something similar to every other year then ho boy are you in for a shock.  Just a reminder that I list the week and the date that corresponds to the Saturday of that week so you can follow along:

1. Week 5 (October 3)
2. Week 6 (October 10)
3. Week 13 (November 28 – American Thanksgiving)
4. Week 12 (November 21)
5. Week 2 (September 12)
6. Week 7 (October 17)
7. Week 10 (November 7)
8. Week 9 (October 31)
9. Week 4 (September 26)
10. Week 8 (October 24)
11. Week 11 (November 14)
12. Week 1 (September 5)
13. Week 3 (September 19)

First off, we are back to thirteen weeks.  Do I like this?  No I do not.  Honestly I would prefer 14 if not 15 weeks in a season.  I understand that the way the Saturdays fall makes this a difficult venture but it is tough on the players to go through these three-plus months with only one bye week.  This year’s Week 1 is much like last year’s Week 1: weak.  It should be called Weak One.  Really, the Notre Dame-Navy Week Zero game is almost better than any other game in the Week 1 schedule.  American Thanksgiving falls to third…THIRD!  Weeks 5 and 6 are the big weeks so far on paper.  I don’t remember a time when the October schedule has been this good but here we are.  But here’s the craziest thing.  SEC Sleepwalk Week is NUMBER FOUR!!!!!!!  And no I am not high saying this.  I can’t even call it Sleepwalk Week anymore which does kind of make me sad.  There are a lot of good conference games this week including a couple in the SEC.  For the first time, Week 3 is the worst week of college football.  It’s a lot like many worst weeks in the past.  At least one potential game of the year.  Maybe another good game or two and then it falls off a massive cliff.  It’s when you get past the first three or four games of a week where you find out how good a day of college football it will be and man, this is not shaping up to be a good one.  In the end, it is college football, which I am craving right now, so I will watch as much as I can.  Also, last year the networks stepped up and Week Zero football appeared in Canada.  Nice.

Now it’s time for the weekly breakdowns.  I will be guessing with quite a few of them, especially when it comes to TSN coverage.  Again, keep in mind there is a lot that could change here, especially with this season kind of being up in the air.  At least the lists of games I will be presenting should, for the most part, be important games throughout the 2020 college football season.  Let’s begin.

Week 1

Game of the Week: Alabama vs. USC (in Arlington) (7:30, ABC) – Remember, it’s all 7:30 games for the ABC Primetime game, not just something for the Big Ten because it might get chilly.  Honestly, it could start at 9 and it wouldn’t matter to me since I am up through 2 in the morning watching college football so I may just have a problem.  About five or six years ago this would be a game of the year candidate.  Not so much this time around and it shows that Week One is back to being what it used to be:  the introduction to the season that gets everyone excited but rarely has huge matchups.  Saying all this, a USC win here would be huge for Clay Helton’s future in Los Angeles.  You also wonder how Bama is feeling after playing in the Citrus Bowl last year which might as well have been the Independence Bowl in Shreveport for all they care.  It’s always New Year’s Six or bust for this program.

Other Really Important Games: Georgia at Virginia (Monday, 8:00, TSN1/TSN4/TSN5) – The annual Labour Day SEC-ACC Football Challenge takes on more importance this year thanks to the Hoos actually being good now.  Bronco Mendenhall has done wonders in Charlottesville and this might be the year they put it all together and make a real run at the ACC title.  It’s a lock that the Dawgs will be a great team again this year despite their losses on offense.  With it being in Virginia, this could be a big test for Georgia and could affect their CFP plans.  UVA could throw the first staple in the shredder for this season if they pull off the upset.

Michigan at Washington (3:30, FOX) – FOX steps up on opening weekend unlike, well, any year before now.  A game between two teams that many believe underachieve most seasons.  How many times will we hear that Jim Harbaugh’s job is on the line in this one?  I put the over/under at 12.  As for the Huskies they are now in the post-Chris Petersen era.  Jimmy Lake takes over and has a lot of pressure right out the gate.

Florida Atlantic at Minnesota (Thursday, 8:00, BTN) – I am not joking with this one.  Minnesota should still be really good rowing that boat.  And FAU should still be good despite the fact the Lane Train departed for Oxford.  Now watch both teams be about .500 so I look like a moron.

Indiana at Wisconsin (Friday, 8:00, FloSports) – This is the first instance of me including FloSports in the important games posts.  It means that this game will be on FOX Sports One.  I used to hate when these games ended up on the list since it meant I couldn’t see it, nor could any Canadians.  Now, we have the means.  This is good.  Progress.  The more we are allowed to see, the better.  It’s not about giving us all the games, it’s about giving us the avenues to watch these games legally.  And it’s becoming more and more that way.  Anyway, it looks like four of the five nights on opening week have big games so at least you can say it’s spread out and not all in one or two timeslots.

Sneaky-Good Underrated Game: BYU at Utah (Thursday, 10:15, TSN5) – This is going to be an interesting year for the Utes.  They came within one poor performance at the Pac-12 Championship from getting into the College Football Playoff.  This is the kind of high-profile game they need to win.  On the other side of the field is their Holy War rivals, the Cougs.  Unfortunately for them, the only way for them to even get into the New Year’s Six is to lose no more than one game on the season.  For their sake, a win here gets them into the conversation.

Best Group of Five Game: Georgia Southern at Boise State (9:00, FloSports) – This is why it is important that we get FOX Sports One games here now.  The Mountain West inked a new deal with FOX meaning some games end up on the main network and also FS1 (FS2 as well but we won’t discuss that).  Part of the deal is that Boise State games are to appear on either FOX or FS1.  Meaning it is imperative that we get to view FS1 games because otherwise we would miss the blue turf every season for the next several years.  As for the game, the Broncos are again looking to break through into the CFP whereas Georgia Southern is trying to just win the Sun Belt for once after being very close for most of their seasons up in the FBS.

Worst Power Five Game: Purdue at Nebraska (Noon, FOX) – These are two teams that are never supposed to end up in this spot.  But really, the Huskers have been no better than average for a long time now and the Boilermakers, other than one good season, have been pretty bad since Drew Brees was quarterback there.  Worst part is that the other choice for worst P5 game is another Big Ten game, Michigan State and Northwestern.  Really, the bottom part of the Big Ten is not looking good and could be considered the worst of the Power Five conferences (if you include Rutgers and Maryland).  I will watch part of it, I know I will.  It’s just that there are other options so unless this game is close I won’t be clocking in much more than a few minutes here.

Week 2

Game of the Week: Ohio State at Oregon (3:30, FOX) – Last year this was the worst week, on paper, in the college football season.  This year it is way up the list and has an early candidate for game of the year.  The Ryan Day Buckeye Juggernaut Express rolls into Eugene for this one and tOSU is going to try and do what they always do…win big games.  An Oregon win here probably blows the national championship race wide open and cements Mario Cristobal as one of the upper tier coaches in the game.

Other Really Important Games: Texas at LSU (7:00, specialty pack) – I kind of wish CBS would pick up games like this but they never do.  Probably due to the contract that they can only show two SEC teams.  I, am, however glad that this game is at night in Death Valley.  One, it is arguably the best atmosphere in college football.  And two, if this was at Noon, the temperature would be approximately lava.  Hey let’s find out if Texas is back here.  God am I ever glad that horseshit is over.  Saying that, the Horns are good and are the first speed bump for the Tigers defending their national championship.  Without Joe Burrow this could be a very interesting matchup.

Tennessee at Oklahoma (7:30, ABC/TSN2) – Tennessee should be back in the mix this season.  And Oklahoma has one of the brightest head coaches around, Lincoln Riley, at the helm, so they will be good as well.  As much as the Vols are improved I would be shocked if they pulled off a win here.  If they did it would be another grenade thrown on the national championship race.

Kentucky at Florida (Noon, specialty pack) – Now that the streak is over and Kentucky finally got their victory over the Gators a couple seasons ago, the Wildcats have gained a modicum of respect in the college football world.  Unfortunately, they have to travel to Gainesville and play a game on a field that will be slightly cooler than the surface of the sun.  Without Lynn Bowden, the Cats could be in real tough here for a team that has to be considered a legitimate SEC title contender.

Louisville at Clemson (7:30, specialty pack) – We all desperately need more ACC contenders.  I, for one, am getting tired of Clemson and the Thirteen Dwarfs.  The Cardinals might not be quite there yet but they had a young team last year and one of the better coaches around so who knows.  The Tigers have had at least one early season struggle the past couple years (Texas A&M and then North Carolina) so this could be that game that gets the Tiger faithful’s heart racing.

Penn State at Virginia Tech (Noon, ABC) – Does anyone realize that this could have ended up as a conference matchup?  Check out my what-if post on the Big East and you will learn why.  This is one of those matchups you never get and, as a college football fan, is a real eye-opener.  I am so looking forward to this one as it should be a great match.  Now watch one team blow out the other.

Sneaky-Good Underrated Game: Iowa State at Iowa (Noon, FOX) – This is quite a good week when this is considered an underrated game.  Cy-Hawk has been a fantastic game the past few years despite the fact that the Hawkeyes continue to dominate the rivalry.  This is definitely a statement game for the Cyclones as this is one of the humps they can’t seem to get over.  The other is the Big XII title (or at least getting into the Big XII title game).  I am positive this will end up with a score of like 16-15 and Kirk Ferentz will do something Ferentzian to somehow help Iowa to the W.

Best Group of Five Game: Boise State at Air Force (3:30, CBS) – No that is not a misprint.  The Mountain West’s new contract with CBS calls for games to appear on the main network three times a season.  Huge for the conference as this allows it to compete with the American for the title of best Group of Five conference (and believe me, that does mean something).  This may be the biggest Mountain West conference game of the season and hearing Brad and Gary call it will be all kinds of weird but fun at the same time.

Worst Power Five Game: Syracuse at Rutgers (7:30, FOX) – As per tradition, at least once a year FOX absolutely shits the bed for a primetime choice and to be honest, I don’t think they even care.  This is what happens with more of these conference networks in play: you will get a terrible game or two on FOX or ABC.  I just wonder about the fact that there are other better options.  The only thing I can think of is that they would have to fulfill their Big Ten total games on the main network for the year and this is a relatively easy way to do it.  I mean I would have picked WKU-Indiana or Memphis-Purdue or even Ball State-Michigan but I am not a network exec so I obviously don’t know what I’m talking about.

Week 3

Game of the Week: Georgia at Alabama (3:30, CBS) – This will have serious national championship implications but I don’t need to tell you that.  Now I did have a choice as to whether this game would end up as the lone SEC on CBS primetime affair.  I did not choose this one and I will explain it in a later blog post.  I think you will hear a hundred-some-odd times that Kirby Smart will need this win to get over the Nick Saban’s assistant hump.  Nick Saban destroys his assistant coaches and probably relishes doing so.  Also, if you noticed above, this is the worst week of the season and you will see why in a bit.

Other Really Important Games: Iowa at Minnesota (Friday, 8:30, FloSports) – See?  It’s already starting to go downhill.  Saying that, this could be the de facto Big Ten West Championship depending on what happens in Madison this season.  This is another big test for a Gophers team that likes to schedule difficult in non-conference knowing they are going to probably get a brutal Big Ten schedule anyway.

Appalachian State at Wisconsin (3:30, BTN) –The number two and three games on this list are a Friday night FOX Sports One affair and a mid-afternoon Big Ten Network matchup.  Good fucking God.  To be honest, the bigger deal here is obviously the Mountaineers.  I have this feeling that this might be the season App State makes a serious run to becoming the first Sun Belt team to reach the New Year’s Six.  If this wasn’t a non-conference matchup I might have considered it elsewhere and I still think it might end up on FOX seeing what the week three schedule is like.  Plus it’s not like ABC has a stellar schedule on this week so it may be a week to bring eyeballs over to FOX.

Hawaii at Oregon (6:30, DAZN) – Some of you may be asking what DAZN is.  It is another site that, like FloSports, allows Canadians to get games on a channel we won’t normally get.  In this case it’s the Pac-12 Network.  This week is such a shit sandwich.  Now watch it be one of the most exciting weeks in college football history because if it isn’t, it may be one of the worst.

Sneaky-Good Underrated Game: Florida State at Boise State (Noon, FOX) – Boise State on FOX!  This is thanks to the new Mountain West contract with FOX but man, Boise making some serious concessions with this game going off at 10 AM.  Ten…in the morning.  I honestly do think this is underrated because of the Noles but you never know with this team.  If they ever get a good quarterback this team could be relatively dangerous.

Best Group of Five Game: Navy at Tulane (3:30, specialty pack) – To be honest, the early season doesn’t usually give us a bunch of good G5-on-G5 violence.  The previous week has a huge AFA-Boise matchup.  The first week got, well Boise State again, that time against Georgia Southern.  These two teams have been two of the most exciting recently which I know sounds weird when we talk about Navy but I like watching them play.  Tulane is like a pseudo-Navy where they also pass the ball more but run the option as well.  This game could be over by dinner.

Worst Power Five Game: Maryland at West Virginia (Noon, ABC/TSN1/TSN4) – This may be the only time you ever see an ABC game in this section.  I could see TSN deciding not to show this game so they can show a repeat of Motoring 2017.  Look the ‘Eers may end up being good soon with Neal Brown at the helm.  Maybe the Terps can turn it around with Mike Locksley, the hometown boy, in town and starting to recruit his own brand of team.  But as of right now, neither team is very good and there are other, somewhat less shitty options in this timeslot.  OK remember what I said about TSN not airing this game?  I wonder if instead of ABC this goes to FSN and we don’t get to see it at all here.

There you go.  The first three weeks are complete.  And it’s the first official blog post for what could be a very weird 2020 college football season.  I’d love to say we are getting close but are we?  Nobody knows.  As of right now there is only 97 days until the start of the season.  That could very well change.  I mean I love college football but if there isn’t a way to do it at that point then better to delay the start of the season.  Saying that, it’s more than three months away so anything more than two weeks into the future should really not be speculated on since no one has an idea of how things will go.  Hopefully you have a great rest of the weekend with this nicer weather (at least in my part of the world).