What a dreadful existence – Week 16 NFL TV Schedule

Posted on December 21, 2023 by guelphbossman

This was the scene at Bank of America Stadium this past weekend in Charlotte for the Falcons-Panthers game. And if you think that’s just maybe part of the upper deck, think again. The entire stadium looked like this. Don’t believe me?

That is during the game as you can see a play going on in this picture. How sad is this? How dreadful must it be to be a Carolina Panthers fan right now? Not only does your team suck-diddly-uck but you don’t even get the chance at the number one draft choice. Why? Well, the Panthers wanted Bryce Young so badly that they exchanged first round picks with the Bears last year. The Panthers had to sweeten the deal so sent a 2025 second rounder, D.J. Moore and…..their first round pick in the upcoming draft. Yeesh. There is a good chance that will be the #1 pick and Bears fans are salivating at the thought. Marvin Harrison Jr.? Caleb Williams? Drake Maye? Maybe another position of need since they aren’t very good either? The possibilities are endless.

For Panthers fans, though, the possibilities aren’t. They won’t pick first overall, they very well might finish last in the league and unless some of their young players (and 2024 draftees) step up in a hurry, this is not a playoff team next season. Nowhere close. Frustrating for sure.

Not frustrating? Getting to watch NFL football on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day!!! Let’s fucking go! Here’s the schedule to get you all amped up!

American Networks


Seattle at Tennessee	1:00	Seattle, Spokane
Cleveland at Houston	1:00	Cleveland, Buffalo, Rochester, Watertown, Burlington, Boston, Presque Isle
Detroit at Minnesota	1:00		All affiliates
Jacksonville at Tampa Bay	4:05	Minneapolis, Detroit
Dallas at Miami	4:25		All affiliates

Canadian Networks

Primetime & Saturday & Monday (Christmas Day!) Games

New Orleans at LA Rams	Thursday, 8:15, Amazon Prime, CTV2, TSN 1/3/4/+
Cincinnati at Pittsburgh	Saturday, 4:30, NBC, CTV, TSN 1/4
Buffalo at LA Chargers	Saturday, 8:00, NBC Buffalo, CTV2, TSN 1/3/4/5
New England at Denver	Sunday, 8:00, NFL Network, ABC Boston, CTV2, TSN 1/3/4/5/+
Las Vegas at Kansas City	Monday, 1:00, CBS, CTV, TSN 1/3/4/5/+
NY Giants at Philadelphia	Monday, 4:30, FOX, CTV, TSN 1/3
Baltimore at San Francisco	Monday, 8:15, ABC, CTV, TSN 1/3/4/5

Christmas-y Type Notes

There are some games on this week that, somehow, are not being shown here in Canada without the assistance of a Sunday Ticket or a RedZone:
- Washington at NY Jets
- Green Bay at Carolina
- Arizona at Chicago
How in the blue hell can three games not be shown at all here with how spread out the games are this week? The power of scheduling. Maybe they do need to go to Matt Zemek’s idea of three Sunday timeslots.
Look at all the national and almost-national telecasts. It is, I believe, an NFL record for the most national broadcasts in one week with seven. Then there’s two on Sunday that might as well be national broadcasts as well.
Just so you know, the Bills-Chargers game will be joined in progress on TSN3 and TSN5 at about 10:30 after the World Juniors pre-competition game between Canada and the U.S. (on TSN3) or the Lakers-Thunder game (on TSN5). Man, TSN loves the World Juniors.
As I said before, a lot of nationwide broadcasts. If you love watching football on CTV, then I hope you love one of four teams because those are the only ones appearing on Sunday afternoon. Lions-Vikings followed by Cowboys-Dolphins across the entire network. At least they should be two really good games.
Finally, the Nickolodeon game is back. This year’s “Nickmas” game will be the early Christmas Day affair between the Raiders and the Chiefs. It’s only on TSN+ up here but if you have it and have younger kids who may be interested it’s….kinda fun, not gonna lie.

OK we are getting close to the end of the season. Three games remain. Here’s what the playoff picture looks like at this point:

AFC	NFC
#1 Baltimore (11-3) (clinched playoff spot)	#1 San Francisco (11-3) (clinched NFC West)
#2 Miami (10-4)	#2 Dallas (10-4) (clinched playoff spot)
#3 Kansas City (9-5)	#3 Detroit (10-4)
#4 Jacksonville (8-6)	#4 Tampa Bay (7-7)
Wild Cards:	Wild Cards:
#5 Cleveland (9-5)	#5 Philadelphia (10-4) (clinched playoff spot)
#6 Cincinnati (8-6)	#6 Minnesota (7-7)
#7 Indianapolis/Houston/Buffalo (8-6)	#7 LA Rams/Seattle/New Orleans (7-7)

As I’ve said before, this Wild Card race may be the wildest in years, no pun intended. Oh and my dream of a 7-10 NFC South champion has gone up in flames as the Bucs and Saints face each other next week so the division champion can have no fewer than eight wins. Damn.

And behold, your list of eliminated teams:

Carolina
New England
Arizona
Washington
NY Jets
Tennessee

Only six. And only maybe three or four will join the list after this week. Good to see a lot of teams still in the mix instead of a few of the seasons in the recent past where half the league was pretty much done with a couple weeks to go.

Now some clinching scenarios. That’s what we are looking at these days anyways and wait until you see some of the scenarios. Fucking ridiculous:

First-Round Bye and Home-Field Advantage

San Francisco clinches with a win AND a Dallas loss AND a Philadelphia loss AND a Detroit loss

Division Title

Detroit clinches the NFC North with a win
Baltimore clinches the AFC North with a win AND a Cleveland loss
Kansas City clinches the AFC West with a win
Miami clinches the AFC East with a win AND a Buffalo loss

Playoff Berth

Detroit clinches with an LA Rams loss OR a Seattle loss
Miami clinches with a win
Cleveland clinches with a win AND (a Denver loss AND an Indianapolis loss AND a Buffalo loss AND a Miami win) OR (a Pittsburgh loss AND (a Denver loss AND an Indianapolis win AND a Jacksonville loss) OR (a Denver loss AND a Miami win and one of Buffalo/Indianapolis/Jacksonville losing) OR (a Buffalo loss AND an Indianapolis win AND a Jacksonville loss AND (a Miami win OR a Kansas City win)))

Elimination

Chicago is eliminated with loss AND (an LA Rams win) OR (a Seattle win AND one of Minnesota/Green Bay/Tampa Bay winning) OR (a Tampa Bay win AND one of Minnesota/Green Bay/NY Giants winning)
NY Giants are eliminated with a loss AND (an LA Rams win) OR (a Seattle win AND (one of Minnesota/Green Bay/Tampa Bay winning) OR (an Atlanta win AND a Chicago win)) OR (a Tampa Bay win AND (one of Minnesota/Green Bay winning) OR (an Atlanta win AND a Chicago win)) OR (a Minnesota win AND a Green Bay win AND an Atlanta win AND a Chicago win) OR (a Green Bay win AND a Chicago win AND an Atlanta win)
Las Vegas is eliminated with a loss
LA Chargers are eliminated with a loss OR a Jacksonville win OR (a Cincinnati win AND an Indianapolis win AND (a Houston win OR a Denver win OR two of Washington/Detroit/New Orleans/Arizona/Tennessee winning)) OR (a Cincinnati win AND a Houston win AND (a Denver win OR three of Washington/Detroit/New Orleans/Arizona/Tennessee winning)) OR (a Cincinnati win AND a Denver win AND (a Las Vegas win OR one of Washington/Detroit/New Orleans/Arizona/Tennessee winning)) OR (a Cincinnati win AND four of Washington/Detroit/New Orleans/Arizona/Tennessee winning) OR (a Pittsburgh win AND an Indianapolis win AND a Houston win AND a Las Vegas win) OR (a Pittsburgh win AND an Indianapolis win AND a Houston win AND one of Washington/Detroit/Green Bay/New Orleans/Arizona/Baltimore/Tennessee winning) OR (a Pittsburgh win AND an Indianapolis win AND a Denver win) OR (a Pittsburgh win AND an Indianapolis win AND a Cleveland win AND one of Washington/Detroit/New Orleans/Arizona/Tennessee winning) OR (a Pittsburgh win AND a Houston win AND two of Washington/Detroit/New Orleans/Arizona/Tennessee winning) OR (a Pittsburgh win AND a Cleveland win AND a Denver win AND a Las Vegas win) OR (a Pittsburgh win AND a Cleveland win AND a Denver win AND a New Orleans win AND one of Washington/Detroit/Green Bay/Arizona/LA Rams/Baltimore/Tennessee winning) OR (a Pittsburgh win AND a Cleveland win AND a Denver win AND an LA Rams win AND one of Washington/Detroit/Arizona/Tennessee winning) OR (a Pittsburgh win AND a Cleveland win AND three of Washington/Detroit/New Orleans/Arizona/Tennessee winning)

For fuck’s sake that is crazy. But if you are a betting man (or woman) you could make a boatload of money if one of these stupid Chargers scenarios hits.

So there you go. Enjoy the NFL football over the holidays and have a Merry Christmas!

Brazil? – The Week 15 NFL TV Schedule

Posted on December 14, 2023 by guelphbossman

Yep, the NFL is heading to Brazil next year! Not Rio, which is pictured here but Sao Paulo. The plan is to have a game at Corinthians Arena and it will be the fifth country outside the U.S. to host a regular season game after Canada, England, Mexico and Germany.

So how do I feel about this? Eh, I’m fine with it. It won’t be played in the morning which makes me happy and I’m sure the NFLers that get to go there will be happy to enjoy some Brazilian culture like walking down the beach and things that occur on LiveLeak.

I think the bigger story was after this when it was announced that there would be EIGHT international games in 2025. My guess is, at some point, every team in the league will play one international game a season until the NFL eventually expands there because that’s what Commissioner Goodell wants, dammit!

Until then we are stuck with 32 teams and schedules that still aren’t too large. So let’s get to that not-too-big schedule followed by a few musings:

American Networks


Tampa Bay at Green Bay	1:00	Minneapolis, Detroit
NY Jets at Miami	1:00	Buffalo, Rochester, Watertown, Burlington, Presque Isle
Kansas City at New England	1:00		All affiliates (except Rochester & Watertown)
NY Giants at New Orleans	1:00		Rochester, Watertown
San Francisco at Arizona	4:05	Seattle, Spokane, Cleveland, Boston
Dallas at Buffalo	4:25		All affiliates

Canadian Networks

Primetime and Saturday Games!

LA Chargers at Las Vegas	Thursday, 8:15, Amazon Prime, CTV2, TSN 1/3/+
Minnesota at Cincinnati	Saturday, 1:00, NFL Network, CBS Minneapolis, TSN 1/3
Pittsburgh at Indianapolis	Saturday, 4:30, NFL Network, TSN 1/3
Denver at Detroit	Saturday, 8:15, NFL Network, FOX Detroit, TSN 1/3
Baltimore at Jacksonville	Sunday, 8:15, NBC, CTV, TSN 1/3/4/+
Philadelphia at Seattle	Monday, 8:15, ABC, TSN 1/3/+

Non-Brazilian Musings

Are you ready? Are you ready for some football? A, uh, Saturday afternoon and evening partayyyyyyyyy? Yep, it’s that time of year where the NFL says fuck it, we are taking over more days and if we were allowed we’d have games every day of the damn week. Problem for me is that it’s the start of Bowl Season. Will I watch some of these games? Sure but my focus is almost always on college football (sorry pro football enthusiasts/college football haters).
Games not being shown in the region of Canada without the use of Sunday Ticket or RedZone:
- Houston at Tennessee
- Atlanta at Carolina
- Washington at LA Rams
Quite the mixed bag for all the non-Sunday afternoon games. For every Ravens-Jags there’s a Chargers-Raiders. Can’t win em all with six games in those timeslots. Hey, at least we get Kevin Fucking Harlan on the call for the Saturday nighter which is a Mount Everest-sized step up from the earlier play-by-play guys, Chris Rose and Rich Eisen.
For the first time in a long time, we have an Absolute National Game. The Cowboys and Bills are on every FOX station in the U.S. meaning the same thing in Canada. Not surprising with so many games not on Sunday but in previous years the Niners and Cardinals would have been shown on televisions in about 53 combined city blocks in the cities of San Francisco and Phoenix. Why I’m so glad the true AFC on CBS/NFC on FOX thing has ended. Progress. Should have done it years ago.

Hey let’s get an updated playoff picture since there’s a team ACTUALLY ALREADY IN THE PLAYOFFS (it’s the Niners):

AFC	NFC
#1 Baltimore (10-3)	#1 San Francisco (10-3) (clinched playoff spot)
#2 Miami (9-4)	#2 Dallas (10-3)
#3 Kansas City (8-5)	#3 Detroit (9-4)
#4 Jacksonville (8-5)	#4 Tampa Bay (6-7)
Wild Cards:	Wild Cards:
#5 Cleveland (8-4)	#5 Philadelphia (10-3)
#6 Pittsburgh (7-6)	#6 Minnesota (7-6)
#7 Indianapolis/Houston/Denver/Cincinnati/Buffalo (7-6)	#7 Green Bay/LA Rams/Seattle/Atlanta/New Orleans (6-7)

Holy shit. What an absolute clusterfuck at the bottom of the Wild Card list. In each conference, five teams are tied for the final spot with the first team in each list (the Colts and Packers) holding what I assume are insane tiebreakers over the other four teams. This could end up being one of the best final months of a season in a long time.

And now on to the teams that have been officially eliminated:

Carolina
New England

That’s it. Two. With three games to go. Yeah this is nuts. This week that number should go up but maybe by only a couple as you will see in all the clinching scenarios:

Division Title

San Francisco clinches the NFC West with a win OR an LA Rams loss

Playoff Berth

Philadelphia clinches with a win OR (a Minnesota loss AND an Atlanta loss AND (an LA Rams loss OR (a San Francisco win AND a Detroit win))) OR (a Minnesota loss AND a Tampa Bay win AND (an LA Rams loss OR (a San Francisco win AND a Detroit win))) OR (a Green Bay loss AND an Atlanta loss AND (an LA Rams loss OR (a San Francisco win AND a Detroit win)))
Dallas clinches with a win OR (a Tampa Bay loss AND (a Detroit win AND a San Francisco win) OR (a Detroit win AND an LA Rams loss) OR (a Minnesota loss AND a Detroit win) OR (a Minnesota loss AND an LA Rams loss) OR (a Minnesota loss AND a Seattle loss)) OR (an Atlanta loss AND a Green Bay loss AND (a Detroit win OR an LA Rams loss OR a Seattle loss)) OR (a Seattle loss AND (an LA Rams loss) OR (a Minnesota loss AND a NY Giants win AND a New England win AND a Cleveland win AND a Pittsburgh win AND a Tennessee win AND an LA Chargers win))
Detroit clinches with a win AND (a Seattle loss AND a Green Bay loss) OR (a Seattle loss AND a Minnesota loss) OR (a Seattle win AND a LA Rams loss) OR (an LA Rams loss AND an Atlanta loss AND a Minnesota loss) OR (an LA Rams loss AND a Tampa Bay loss AND a Minnesota loss) OR (an LA Rams loss AND a Green Bay loss AND an Atlanta loss)
Baltimore clinches with a win AND (a Pittsburgh loss AND a Buffalo loss) OR (a Pittsburgh loss and a Denver loss) OR a (Buffalo loss and a Denver loss) OR (a Cleveland loss AND a a Buffalo loss) OR (a Cleveland loss AND a Denver loss) OR (a Houston loss AND a Buffalo loss) OR (a Houston loss AND a Denver loss)

Elimination

Arizona is eliminated with a loss OR (an LA Rams win AND a Minnesota win) OR (an LA Rams win AND a Green Bay win) OR (an LA Rams win AND a New Orleans win AND a Chicago win AND an Atlanta win) OR (a Minnesota win AND a Green Bay win AND a New Orleans win AND an Atlanta win AND a Chicago win)
Washington is eliminated with a loss
Tennessee is eliminated with a loss AND (a Pittsburgh win) OR (an Indianapolis win) OR (a Cincinnati win) OR (a Denver win AND a Las Vegas win) OR (a Buffalo win AND a Denver win AND a LA Chargers win)
NY Jets are eliminated with a loss AND (a Buffalo win AND an Indianapolis win) OR (a Buffalo win AND a Pittsburgh win) OR (a Buffalo win AND a Houston win) OR (a Buffalo win AND a Cincinnati win) OR (an Indianapolis win AND a Cincinnati win AND a Houston win) OR (a Cleveland win AND an Indianapolis win AND a Cincinnati win) OR (a Cleveland win AND a Pittsburgh win AND a Houston win)

For fuck’s sake that is ridiculous. And it’s only Week 15. Can you imagine that last Dallas scenario hitting? It would be the ultimate parlay win. A $10 bet would probably make you a millionaire. OK enjoy the games everyone and remember there are Saturday games this week (although the NFL will never, EVER let you forget).

The Week 5 College Football TV Schedule is important…but not as important as this

Posted on September 28, 2022 by guelphbossman

This happens almost every year. It’s hurricane season in Florida (and other parts of the southern United States). Scary times for the residents there. It’s a time where some need to make the decision of staying or leaving for a time, depending on the severity of the hurricane.

Which brings us to Hurricane Ian. It looks like it is going to batter a good part of the state. I hope the residents don’t get hit too hard with it. This does affect the college football schedule. Yes it’s a minor thing but considering the subject matter of this blog, I need to cover it. The following games have had their times and/or dates altered:

SMU at UCF has been moved to Sunday at 1:00
EWU at Florida has been moved to Sunday at Noon
SC State at South Carolina has been moved to Thursday at 7:00

More changes are coming I’m sure. The one interesting thing might be the ABC primetime game. It’s at Clemson. The Gamecocks have already moved their game from Saturday up to Thursday. This could be a very interesting scenario that hasn’t come into play ever for the big timeslot of the week.

UPDATE #3: SMU-UCF has now been moved to Wednesday night. No word if it will be shown here or not.

UPDATE #4: OK it looks like SMU-UCF will be Wednesday at 7:00 PM. The game will be on ESPN2 so there is a good chance it will be on the specialty pack as well.

Alright, let’s get to the schedule and see how this goes.

Thursday

Two games on tonight although originally it was supposed to only be the one. As I mentioned above SC State-USC was moved to Thursday because of Hurricane Ian. I don’t know why some games are being moved up and some are being moved back but I am sure there is a good reason for it. Anyway, both games should be blowouts so you can definitely check out the…wait a second…undefeated Miami Dolphins? OK then.

UPDATE: OK I see that games in Florida are being moved back because the hurricane is hitting there…well, pretty much right now. The hurricane will start moving up the east coast starting Friday night/Saturday early morning so it makes sense to move games in Georgia and South Carolina up to avoid that and allow road teams to leave the area before it hits.

Friday

A heavy Friday schedule with six games. That is quite unusual. One of these games is a rather big one as the somewhat surprising Washington Huskies travel to Los Angeles to face UCLA. Maybe the Bruins will finally get a good crowd for a game as the early attendance has been dismal. The Ivy League has their first game on ESPNU this season and we shall see if Boise State can turn around this season at all or if they will be pining for the return of Bryan Harsin the rest of the season.

Saturday Early

This is…different. It is the first time that the ACC Network has a game on multiple TSN channels. I’d have to look to see how often the ACC Network has been on TSN, period since I am sure I can count that on one hand. CBS has a doubleheader this week that starts with the first leg of the Commander-in-Chief’s Trophy and ends at the normal SEC on CBS time later on. Finally, there is one quite big game that will fall under the radar this weekend and it occurs in Oxford. Kentucky and Ole Miss are both wanting to prove they are for real. A UK win here…that would make things awful interesting in the SEC East where I figured Georgia would easily win the division.

Oh you will notice the SEC Network doesn’t have a game in this timeslot. It was the one moved to Thursday night. Will they put another game here to replace it? Probably not.

Saturday Afternoon

		US	Canada
Oregon State at #12 Utah	2:00 PM
#22 Wake Forest at #23 Florida State	3:30 PM
Virginia Tech at North Carolina	3:30 PM
Rutgers at #3 Ohio State	3:30 PM
#2 Alabama at #20 Arkansas	3:30 PM
Fresno State at UConn	3:30 PM
Northwestern at #11 Penn State	3:30 PM
Iowa State at Kansas	3:30 PM
#9 Oklahoma State at #16 Baylor	3:30 PM
Michigan State at Maryland	3:30 PM
Central Michigan at Toledo	3:30 PM
#17 Texas A&M at Mississippi State	4:00 PM
California at Washington State	5:30 PM

OK now we are getting into weeks where some timeslots are loaded with good games. This is one of them. Wake-FSU, Bama-Hogs and Pokes-BU are all big games that could shape how the season pans out. And if you can watch them live and not have to use a PVR, all the better. I am thankful I don’t have to do that anymore.

Not everything makes sense though here. And it has more to do with the specialty packs than anything. There should be four games in this window on the specialty packs. Right now I only see one confirmed: TAMU-MSU. Why? It makes no sense. We know they will end up there. So just do it all at once. Then again, maybe they won’t because things almost seem worse than ever at times with these specialty packs. Just schedule all the games you’re allowed to show. It’s easy. I don’t get why this is so complicated. Christ, I’m getting worked up and I don’t even have cable anymore.

UPDATE #2: If I just waited a few minutes, I could have looked again and saw that the specialty packs were updated and all the games that should appear there, are appearing there.

Saturday Primetime

		US	Canada
LSU at Auburn	7:00 PM
Cincinnati at Tulsa	7:00 PM
#10 NC State at #5 Clemson	7:30 PM
Indiana at Nebraska	7:30 PM
San Jose State at Wyoming	7:30 PM
West Virginia at Texas	7:30 PM
#1 Georgia at Missouri	7:30 PM
Georgia Tech at #24 Pittsburgh	8:00 PM

NC State-Clemson. A huge ACC game. And I have this funny feeling it will be moved, rescheduled, something. I mentioned it above and I will say it again. It really makes no sense for South Carolina to move their home game up two days and Clemson, a mere two hours away, is doing nothing at this point. Just feels like a disaster waiting to happen. Fingers crossed nothing bad occurs.

As for the rest of the primetime schedule, it’s alright. LSU-Auburn get an undeserved ESPN spot, Georgia is yet again on the SEC Network, and we will see if Georgia Tech learned what not to do from the Geoff Collins era.

Saturday Late Night

		US	Canada
Colorado at Arizona	9:30 PM
UC-Davis at Montana State	10:15 PM
Arizona State at #6 USC	10:30 PM
Stanford at #13 Oregon	11:00 PM

Four games in the late night sked and one really stands out like a sore thumb. Yes you are reading that correctly: the game on ESPNU will be UC-Davis against Montana State. ESPN has done this before, putting a Big Sky match on in the late night window because there wasn’t much else to put on there. This is especially the case now with ESPN not having Mountain West games. So it’s Pac-12 or bust and if any other network has Pac-12 games, it really dials back the inventory they can choose from. There’s three Pac-12 games on in this window but one is on the Pac-12 Network and another on FOX Sports One. So yeah, either ESPNU shows the FCS game, a rerun of an HBCU game (which they do from time-to-time) or something that isn’t live sports that won’t get the same ratings.

Big Games O’ The Week

NC State at Clemson (7:30, ABC) – One of the games of the year and, I would say, a pretty easy choice for Game of the Week. Let’s see if D.J. Uiagalelei can keep things going and play well enough to beat a very good Wolfpack team. No offense to Wake Forest but this is the Tigers’ greatest competition of the regular season. Win this and they are a win over Florida State away from going back to the ACC Championship. If the Pack win…ho boy this gets very interesting.

Kentucky at Ole Miss (Noon, TSN2) – Did I fool you there? You thought another SEC game would fall here. Not so fast. This game has a lot on the line and will send the winner into the hype zone, at least for the immediate future. Don’t want to use the terms “College Football Playoff” or “New Year’s Six” here for two teams that aren’t used to that much success (especially Kentucky) but you’ll hear that during the broadcast, I can guarantee that.

Alabama at Arkansas (3:30, CBS) – This is the game that most people would have put at least in the #2 spot and I wholeheartedly disagree. I believe Bama won’t have a ton of trouble with the Hogs. I’d love to see the Razorbacks win; mostly because I love chaos in college football. But until they show they can hang with the Tide, then I can’t believe they will get it done. Now watch them put up a 40-burger against them just to prove me wrong.

Oklahoma State at Baylor (3:30, FOX) – Yeah I’m going to go ahead and call this Okie State’s first true test of the season. No offense to Central Michigan, Arizona State or mighty Arkansas-Pine Bluff but they don’t hold a candle to the Bears. Also, I am waiting to see if Spencer Sanders truly can take this team to new heights since I have never been fully impressed with him.

Wake Forest at Florida State (3:30, ABC) – Look, Wake Forest isn’t completely out of the ACC Atlantic race just yet. To get back in the race, though, they have to win here. The Noles have finally found their footing under Mike Norvell and want the opportunity to at least play for the division later in the season.

Washington at UCLA (Friday, 10:30, TSN2) – I never would have thought I’d have this game on the list when the season started. The Huskies are better than advertised. The Bruins…well at least we can say they are undefeated. They haven’t made it look easy and they haven’t exactly played tough competition. A Friday night test for both teams.

Oklahoma at TCU (Noon, ABC) – The Sooners came crashing down to Earth last week against Kansas State…kind of. I think part of this is the horrendous non-conference schedule they had with no real competition. More teams really have to get away from that kind of thinking as it never prepares them for conference season. At least TCU had SMU last week after beating the worst Power Five team in the land, Colorado, and Tarleton State, who honestly might beat Colorado if they played each other.

Psycho Game of the Week

Colorado at Arizona (9:30, YouTube) – You have to be some kind of sick to want to watch this. Sure, the Wildcats are improved but they couldn’t have been any worse than they were last season. And the Buffs…my God. They are seriously awful. If they lose this one, the Karl Dorrell hot seat talk will be top of the list in that state (at least when it comes to college football).

Hubba Bubba Blowout of the Week

Rutgers at Ohio State (3:30, BTN) – With all due respect to the Fighting Schianos of Piscataway, this won’t be close. I am almost thinking of praying for Rutgers to keep tOSU under 60 points in this one.

Fun-Time Stats of the Week

BYU and Utah State are actually in a trophy game on Thursday. They play for the Old Wagon Wheel. The Cougs have won it 17 times since 1994.
The only team that Boise State has a losing record against in the Mountain West is San Diego State.
The Crimson Tide have won 15 in a row against Arkansas.

The Degenerate Portion of Our Show

I’m not going to delve into my picks from last week. I just won’t. You shouldn’t either. Let’s just move on to this week’s picks:

Houston (-2.5) over Tulane
UNLV (-14.5) over New Mexico
Illinois (+7) over Wisconsin (Wisky to win game)
Oklahoma (-6.5) over TCU
Oregon State (+10.5) over Utah (Utes to win game)
Fresno State (-24) over UConn
Penn State (-26.5) over Northwestern
Florida State (-7) over Wake Forest
Auburn (+9) over LSU (and the Tigers to win outright in my upset of the week)
NC State (+6.5) over Clemson (Tigers win a close one)
Pittsburgh (-22) over Georgia Tech
Arizona State (+25) over USC (USC will win the game)
Oregon (-17) over Stanford

I will keep watching and keep you up to date on anything that changes the schedule due to Hurricane Ian. It already looks bad along Florida’s west coast and the storm just hit. Hopefully there are no casualties down that way.

So how are they going to follow that?

Posted on January 28, 2022 by guelphbossman

Last weekend’s games were the most ridiculous set of playoff games ever. In history. Nothing comes close. I won’t get into the fact that the NFL’s overtime rules are crap but nevertheless, it was exciting football from the start of the Bengals-Titans game to the end of one of the greatest playoff games of all-time, the Bills-Chiefs game. Can they follow it up with something even more special? Not fucking likely but even if it came close it would be something to behold. Here’s the sked:

Sunday


AFC Championship: Cincinnati at Kansas City (3:00)	All affiliates		All affiliates
NFC Championship: San Francisco at LA Rams (6:30)		All affiliates	All affiliates

A few notes

You see the times there. They get such good ratings (and no complaints from fans as far as I know) that they do it on Divisional Round Sunday as well. I can’t remember the article off hand, but someone proposed at least one NFL regular season week having these timeslots. It would also include two or three games at 11:30 and one starting at 10:00 (all times EST). Interesting proposal and I wouldn’t mind seeing it happen once just to see how it goes.
As per usual, CBS and FOX have the conference championship games. This won’t change until the contracts for either CBS or FOX (or both) are up. CTV has both games as well which is the norm of the past little while as well.
For the third year in a row, NFL Primetime will air on TSN2 at 10:00. No, it’s not quite the NFL Primetime of old but still not bad. I wish they would take it off ESPN+ and put it on regular cable somewhere so we can watch it up here but oh well.

I am a bit sad that the Buffalo Bills aren’t going back to the AFC Championship. What a game it was, though. I think my blood pressure was off the charts for the final part of that game. And yes, I have not liked the NFL overtime rules since they changed them so it’s not just because the Bills lost.

When it comes to the college game, it’s time for weird all-star games! Bizarre rules but still, it’s football and this is where you start to learn about many of the draft-eligible players. This Saturday is the NFLPA Collegiate Bowl at 6:00. It is on the NFL Network and is played in the Rose Bowl. On Thursday, at 8:00, the East-West Shrine Game is on the NFL Network. And then on Saturday February 5th, there are two all-star games. The Senior Bowl starts at 2:30 and that is followed afterwards by the HBCU Legacy Bowl. Both games are on the NFL Network as well. And then….no more college football. I’m sure I’ll shed a tear at that point.

Alright, everyone enjoy the games this weekend!

If I Could Fix The Postseason Version 2.0

Posted on December 28, 2021 by guelphbossman

I used to do a post where I would re-do Bowl Season in a way that I figured would make it better. I did it five times. Here are the posts: here, here, here, here, and finally, here. I still plan on “re-doing” this so to speak but really it’s all about the postseason now and how to “fix” it. And it needs fixing. Don’t get me wrong, I love college football so I am fine with all the bowl games but even I have to admit this has probably got out of hand. With players opting out to prepare for the draft more often than ever, we are getting to the point where even the New Year’s Six games will lose prominent players. The bowl games, I hate to say, are mattering less than ever, especially for Power Five teams. And there really is no going back to the way it was so if you are hoping for that, brace yourselves for what will happen in the college football world in the next few years.

Last year I did a few different scenarios. This time I am not. One scenario. That’s it. I am sure it will need some tweaking but I am going to try and get this as “perfect” as we can get it considering what I have to work with. Let’s go!

The Only Scenario

Considering where we are at now, there’s a fair amount that has to change. The playoff will be expanding. Let’s not deny it. I get that some of you hate it and I can understand why but it’s imminent so might as well…not exactly embrace it but, how about tolerate it. Sound good? Alright we are all in agreement. And by all, I mean me.

Let’s start with the format. There are some people that want it to mirror the NCAA Basketball Tournament. 68 teams. Fuck those people. Stupid idiots. There has to be an advantage for finishing at the top of the rankings. Otherwise, there is no incentive to play your starters in a game if you would be assured that there’s no advantage for winning out. They are going to go to 12 (again, whether we like it or not) so I am going to mimic that. One thing is, top four teams must be conference champions. Make it important to win your conference (if they abolished divisions it would be even better but that’s a different conversation that I have had on here many times). After that, it’s the next best eight teams, regardless of if you win your conference or not. For this season, the top 12 would look like this (with the conference champion criteria I mentioned above):

Alabama (SEC champs)
Michigan (Big Ten champs)
Cincinnati (American champs)
Baylor (Big XII champs)
Georgia
Notre Dame
Ohio State
Ole Miss
Oklahoma State
Michigan State
Utah
Pittsburgh

Sorry BYU. Too bad Oregon. Better luck next year Iowa. Can’t get too crazy (since 12 is going to feel crazy enough at first).

Now we get to how this would have been scheduled. I will use this year’s dates to make it a bit easier to understand. I will also use bowl games since I have a feeling most of the commissioners will not go with on-campus games in any of the rounds (especially the SEC):

First round games – Friday December 10th/Saturday December 11th:
- Gator Bowl (Friday, 7:00) – Georgia vs. Pittsburgh
- Citrus Bowl (Saturday, Noon) – Ohio State vs. Michigan State
- Alamo Bowl (Saturday, 7:00) – Ole Miss vs. Oklahoma State
- Holiday Bowl (Saturday, 10:30) – Notre Dame vs. Utah
- I put these four bowl games as the next four “most prestigious” after the New Year’s Six bowl games. This also allows Army-Navy to play in their regular afternoon timeslot (although it may be pushed to 3:30). Also, FOX should get at least one of these games (most likely the Holiday Bowl since they have the rights to it now).
Quarter-Finals – December 18th:
- Peach Bowl (Noon) – Alabama vs. Ole Miss/OK State winner
- Cotton Bowl (3:30) – Baylor vs. UGA/Pitt winner
- Orange Bowl (7:00) – Michigan vs. tOSU/MSU winner
- Fiesta Bowl (10:30) – Cincinnati vs. ND/Utah winner
- Look, the Rose and Sugar Bowls aren’t changing their days. They just aren’t. Is it frustrating? Fucking right it is. Nothing we can do about it. For now.
- Also, one of these games goes to FOX as well. I am going to go with the Fiesta Bowl.
Semi-Finals – New Year’s Day @ the Rose Bowl and Sugar Bowl (at 5:00 PM and 8:30 PM, respectively)
National Championship – January 10th

As you can see, ten bowl games are being used in this exercise. It keeps whatever shred of history is left with bowl games and uses them in a new way. Kind of like recycling.

As for the rest of the bowl games and their brand new tie-ins, here is what I would propose:

January 1, 2022	1:00 PM	Outback Bowl	SEC	Big Ten
December 31, 2021	7:30 PM	Texas Bowl	SEC	Big XII
December 31, 2021	3:30 PM	Sun Bowl	Big XII	at-large
December 31, 2021	Noon	Cheez-It Bowl	ACC	at-large
December 30, 2021	10:30 PM	Las Vegas Bowl	Big XII	Pac-12
December 30, 2021	7:00 PM	Music City Bowl	SEC	at-large
December 30, 2021	3:30 PM	Duke’s Mayo Bowl	Big Ten	ACC
December 30, 2021	Noon	Pinstripe Bowl	Big Ten	AAC
December 29, 2021	8:00 PM	Liberty Bowl	ACC	AAC
December 29, 2021	3:30 PM	Military Bowl	MAC	at-large
December 29, 2021	Noon	Quick Lane Bowl	Big Ten	MAC Champ
December 28, 2021	10:30 PM	LA Bowl	Pac-12	MWC Champ
December 28, 2021	7:00 PM	Birmingham Bowl	SEC	Sun Belt Champ
December 28, 2021	3:30 PM	Fenway Bowl	ACC	AAC Champ
December 28, 2021	Noon	Armed Forces Bowl	Big XII	C-USA Champ
December 27, 2021	4:30 PM	LendingTree Bowl	Sun Belt	at-large
December 27, 2021	1:00 PM	Frisco Bowl	at-large	at-large
December 24, 2021	8:00 PM	Hawaii Bowl	Pac-12	MWC
December 24, 2021	4:30 PM	Independence Bowl	C-USA	at-large
December 24, 2021	1:00 PM	New Orleans Bowl	at-large	at-large
December 22, 2021	9:00 PM	Guaranteed Rate Bowl	at-large	at-large
December 21, 2021	9:00 PM	Idaho Potato Bowl	MWC	at-large
December 17, 2021	9:00 PM	New Mexico Bowl	Pac-12	at-large

As you can see I have taken a few bowl games out of the mix. Yes they all get quite a few viewers but no one will miss them. Well maybe the glorious Frisco Football Classic. Anyway, new tie-ins makes things a bit better. Also, the Group of Five conference champs get their shot at a Power Five team in a bowl game which to me is one of the biggest misses happening right now with bowl season. This gives all these schools in the G-5 a chance to play in a game to prove their mettle. For now, most of them get to go to a place like Boca Raton (which is still nice this time of year) to play another team from the Group of Five in a game very few care about. And isn’t this what bowl games are missing (at least a bit)? The caring? Not just by fans but by players and coaches? I thought so.

If you went ahead and read up on my previous ideas to run the bowl games (it’s at the top of this post if you don’t remember) you know I have other ideas on how to set up bowl season. It’s all about entertainment and presentation. If people aren’t watching, then why not try something new? So I have come up with a way to revamp all this shit. Let’s start with the Selection Sunday show which, as of now, is horrible and pretty much unwatchable. We need to spice it up!

How are we going to do this? Easy. Shake up the way Selection Sunday is shown. This is how I would schedule this with the setup I have above:

Noon-12:05 – Introduction of hosts and panel. Look, we don’t need a 90-second monologue from Jesse Palmer explaining his opinions before the show really even gets started. Just say “Hi, I’m Jesse” (like he’s in an AA meeting), maybe give him a name tag like they do on The Price is Right and continue on to the next analyst. This shouldn’t take long.
12:05-1:00 – CFP Bowl selections and analysis. Now, we should listen to Jesse…and Rece and Herbie and Galloway and David Pollack and Bear and whoever else wants to chime in. Do a quick interview with Gary Barta so he can drone on about eye test and strength of schedule like he knows what the fuck he’s talking about and you’ve got the makings of a full segment with a lot of information.
1:00-2:15 – Tie-ins filled with analysis. A little more needed here but it doesn’t need a ton of time especially since they spend very little time on this anyway to begin with. There are 32 tie-ins but most of these should go quick which leaves some time for analysis.
2:15-3:30 – Selection time. Bowls are selected in random order of selection the day before (to give bowl committees time to pick teams and send out invites). At-large selections will be shown as they are made. Analysis will follow every pick.

It’s like the March Madness show except longer. Hell, give Greg Gumbel a massive contract to come over just to do this show every year. Who says no (other than the accountants at ESPN)? Anyway, this is what we would see after the tie-ins are set for the non-playoff bowls:

January 1st	1:00 PM	Outback Bowl	ABC	SEC	Big Ten	Tennessee	Iowa
December 31st	7:30 PM	Texas Bowl	ESPN	SEC	Big XII	Arkansas	Oklahoma
December 31st	3:30 PM	Sun Bowl	CBS	Big XII	at-large	Kansas State
December 31st	Noon	Cheez-It Bowl	ABC	ACC	at-large	Clemson
December 30th	10:30 PM	Las Vegas Bowl	ESPN	Big XII	Pac-12		Arizona State
December 30th	7:00 PM	Music City Bowl	ABC	SEC	at-large	Kentucky
December 30th	3:30 PM	Duke’s Mayo Bowl	ESPN	Big Ten	ACC	Wisconsin	Wake Forest
December 30th	Noon	Pinstripe Bowl	ESPN	Big Ten	AAC	Minnesota	UCF
December 29th	8:00 PM	Liberty Bowl	FOX	ACC	AAC	NC State	East Carolina
December 29th	3:30 PM	Military Bowl	ESPN	MAC	at-large	Central Michigan
December 29th	Noon	Quick Lane Bowl	ESPN	Big Ten	MAC Champ	Purdue	Northern Illinois
December 28th	10:30 PM	LA Bowl	ESPN	Pac-12	MWC Champ	UCLA	Utah State
December 28th	7:00 PM	Birmingham Bowl	CBS	SEC	Sun Belt Champ	Texas A&M	Louisiana
December 28th	3:30 PM	Fenway Bowl	ESPN	ACC	AAC Champ	Miami	Houston
December 28th	Noon	Armed Forces Bowl	ESPN	Big XII	C-USA Champ	Iowa State	UTSA
December 27th	4:30 PM	LendingTree Bowl	ESPN	Sun Belt	at-large	Appalachian State
December 27th	1:00 PM	Frisco Bowl	ESPN	at-large	at-large
December 24th	8:00 PM	Hawaii Bowl	ESPN	MWC	Pac-12	San Diego State	Oregon
December 24th	4:30 PM	Independence Bowl	ESPN	C-USA	at-large	Western Kentucky
December 24th	1:00 PM	New Orleans Bowl	ESPN	at-large	at-large
December 22nd	9:00 PM	Guaranteed Rate Bowl	ESPN	at-large	at-large
December 21st	9:00 PM	Idaho Potato Bowl	FOX	MWC	at-large	Fresno State
December 17th	9:00 PM	New Mexico Bowl	ESPN	Pac-12	at-large	Washington State

Let me summarize:

The 5 Group of Five champs get a game against a Power Five opponent. In the American Conference’s case, with Cincinnati in the new College Football Playoff, the next best team takes their place. That would be Houston.
All the bowl tie-ins were filled except for one in this case. My criteria is that you have to win SEVEN games, not six, to qualify for a bowl game. West Virginia went 6-6 and is thus not eligible. That means the Big XII did not have enough teams to fulfill their tie-in obligations. This means the spot that the Big XII would have had goes into the at-large pot of teams.
ALL games get national viewings. No shared timeslots. These are supposed to be showcase games. Make them that way.
You will notice that FOX, ABC and CBS get a couple more games. Better to spread the wealth I believe. It also makes these games special when they aren’t all on ESPN (despite what ESPN might think).
Way more at-large bids than there are now. I like the fact they have gone to some bowls having G-5 bids meaning any Group of Five team can get in but it still isn’t enough. This opens it up and allows the next part of the exercise to happen.

So now we get to the fun part. Now we do the random draw of at-large spots. In the real world, the draw would have been done the previous day to allow these bowl committees to figure out who they want. Then the order of the at-large bids (picked at random) would start being filled live on air. If there are no spoilers (which is tough in this day and age) it would be like most March Madness shows where even the teams don’t know where they are headed until they find out along with everyone else tuning in.

Here is the random order and the teams that I would have selected, considering the order:

Sun – BYU
LendingTree – Mississippi State
Frisco – SMU
New Orleans – UAB
Music City – Penn State
Idaho Potato – Oregon State
Independence – Liberty
Guaranteed Rate – Nevada
Las Vegas – Boise State
Military – Army
New Mexico – UTEP
New Orleans – Coastal Carolina
Cheez-It – Georgia State
Guaranteed Rate – Kent State
Frisco – Air Force

Alright all the picks have been made and now we have the final bowl listings for the non-playoff games:

January 1st	1:00 PM	Outback Bowl	ABC	SEC	Big Ten	Tennessee	Iowa
December 31st	7:30 PM	Texas Bowl	ESPN	SEC	Big XII	Arkansas	Oklahoma
December 31st	3:30 PM	Sun Bowl	CBS	Big XII	at-large	Kansas State	BYU
December 31st	Noon	Cheez-It Bowl	ABC	ACC	at-large	Clemson	Georgia State
December 30th	10:30 PM	Las Vegas Bowl	ESPN	Big XII	Pac-12	Boise State	Arizona State
December 30th	7:00 PM	Music City Bowl	ABC	SEC	at-large	Kentucky	Penn State
December 30th	3:30 PM	Duke’s Mayo Bowl	ESPN	Big Ten	ACC	Wisconsin	Wake Forest
December 30th	Noon	Pinstripe Bowl	ESPN	Big Ten	AAC	Minnesota	UCF
December 29th	8:00 PM	Liberty Bowl	FOX	ACC	AAC	NC State	East Carolina
December 29th	3:30 PM	Military Bowl	ESPN	MAC	at-large	Central Michigan	Army
December 29th	Noon	Quick Lane Bowl	ESPN	Big Ten	MAC Champ	Purdue	Northern Illinois
December 28th	10:30 PM	LA Bowl	ESPN	Pac-12	MWC Champ	UCLA	Utah State
December 28th	7:00 PM	Birmingham Bowl	CBS	SEC	Sun Belt Champ	Texas A&M	Louisiana
December 28th	3:30 PM	Fenway Bowl	ESPN	ACC	AAC Champ	Miami	Houston
December 28th	Noon	Armed Forces Bowl	ESPN	Big XII	C-USA Champ	Iowa State	UTSA
December 27th	4:30 PM	LendingTree Bowl	ESPN	Sun Belt	at-large	Appalachian State	Mississippi State
December 27th	1:00 PM	Frisco Bowl	ESPN	at-large	at-large	Air Force	SMU
December 24th	8:00 PM	Hawaii Bowl	ESPN	MWC	Pac-12	San Diego State	Oregon
December 24th	4:30 PM	Independence Bowl	ESPN	C-USA	at-large	Western Kentucky	Liberty
December 24th	1:00 PM	New Orleans Bowl	ESPN	at-large	at-large	UAB	Coastal Carolina
December 22nd	9:00 PM	Guaranteed Rate Bowl	ESPN	at-large	at-large	Nevada	Kent State
December 21st	9:00 PM	Idaho Potato Bowl	FOX	MWC	at-large	Fresno State	Oregon State
December 17th	9:00 PM	New Mexico Bowl	ESPN	Pac-12	at-large	Washington State	UTEP

I’m just going to say it’s much better.

So there you go. This is better than the current system. Not that it’s the only way to skin a cat. There are a myriad of ways to fix bowl season but make no mistake about it, it need fixing. Like, badly. And for people that want to go back to the BCS or the Bowl Alliance or Poll n’ Bowl, just stop. It’s not happening and really, the farther back you go, the more disorganized college football was. To the point where Alabama claims, what, 53 national championships or something like that?

As for players opting out for the draft, you may never fix that short of offering a cash prize to the winning team to be distributed among the players. Or taking that money and putting towards the charity of the players’ choosing. Even that might not help if there’s a player who’s probably a first rounder deciding to secure his future (and a shit-ton of money) by not playing in what is essentially an exhibition game.

That’s it for this long post on how I would fix the college football postseason. Now I just need someone to hire me to oversee it all. It won’t cost you much. A few milly should do it.

Let’s get ready to FOOTBALLGASMMMMMMMMMM!!! – Week 13 College Football TV Schedule

Posted on November 24, 2021 by guelphbossman

Remember last year’s Thanksgiving, American Style? From a college football perspective it was just….another weekend. Nothing special at all. This year, however, that warm and fuzzy feeling is back. It’s now the final weekend of the college football regular season and starts what is known on this blog as the Footballgasm. Footballgasm is a crazy amount of football over a four-day span. Almost 50 hours of football, college and pro, will be on the airwaves and computer screens starting Thursday just after Noon and going into Sunday just before Midnight. It’s like a college football fan’s Christmas. And it’s back after a one-year hiatus. And while Canadians don’t have Thanksgiving tomorrow, we can still celebrate with Americans by watching copious amounts of football. Hell, even make a turkey if you want.

To embrace this, it’s time to go back to the Footballgasm format. Every game gets its own paragraph. I’m not saying all the games are important but because of the special nature of this time, they all deserve it. Let’s get on with the schedule shall we?

Thursday

#9 Ole Miss at Mississippi State

7:30 PM

Ole Miss has no chance at the College Football Playoff, but they pretty much clinch their New Year’s Six spot if they win the Egg Bowl. The Bulldogs have rebounded well this season and if Leach can keep this team improving, don’t be surprised if next season they are the ones aiming at a NY6 berth.

Friday

Boise State at #21 San Diego State

Noon

An absolutely massive game in the Mountain West and…wait, a 9:00 LOCAL START??? Look, I get that the conference has to do some things they don’t want to do (ugh this is sounding like gross casting couch shit) but this is absurd. I guess the players can watch the sunrise during the warmup. Both teams need wins here. An Aztecs win clinches the division and might hand the Mountain Division to Utah State. A Broncos win gives Fresno State a shot at winning the West Division and puts Boise in a great spot to join them in the Mountain West Championship. A lot at stake.

Ohio at Bowling Green

Noon

This is easy. Both teams aren’t going bowling this season so you can say this is for pride but it may not even be for that. Definitely not a must-watch.

Eastern Michigan at Central Michigan

Noon

I guess if you are big MAC fan this could be fun to watch. Otherwise, the Battle for Directional Michigan is not important in the slightest since both teams are going bowling and with seven wins, neither team is in jeopardy of being left out of the party.

Kansas State at Texas

Noon

Do the Longhorns have a chance to go to a bowl game? Surprisingly yes but they need a couple of things to go their way. First they would need to beat KSU here which is no easy task. Then the Horns have to hope for most of the 5-6 teams trying to become bowl-eligible to lose. This would mean that not enough teams qualify and bowl committees would have to look at some 5-7 teams and their APR scores. This is where Texas would shine. Now, whether they accept an invite or not is a different story. The Wildcats are playing for nothing except destroying the last slim hope that Texas has.

#16 Iowa at Nebraska

2:30 PM

This game means a bit for the Ferentzs since a win here could move them up the rankings enough to get them into a New Year’s Six at-large spot. Other than that, Faux Farmageddon means nothing as the Huskers are just not that good.

#4 Cincinnati at East Carolina

3:30 PM

This is big. The Bearcats have finally got into a spot that many thought no Group of Five team could ever get to: the Top 4. There is one more hurdle before the AAC Championship, however. And the East Carolina Pirates are no pushover as they have won more games this year than in any season since their first season in the American back in 2014. Mike Houston is building something formidable in Greenville and a win here would end Cincy’s chance at glory and be Houston’s signature coaching victory.

Missouri vs. #25 Arkansas (in Little Rock)

3:30 PM

The traditional Mizzou-Hogs Black Friday game again has no real stakes. This is a good thing, though, this time. Both teams are going to bowl games and have two of the most popular coaches in the game at the helm. It is fun football times in CoMo and Fayetteville.

UNLV at Air Force

3:30 PM

UNLV has actually played some inspired football this season. It hasn’t led to many wins but it should give Marcus Arroyo another season as head coach in Vegas. On the other hand, the Falcons have a great 8-3 mark on the season and will want to finish off their season on a high note by beating the Rebels. This would also help their MWC Mountain Division title hopes.

USF at UCF

3:30 PM

Usually the War on I-4 is a big game although lately it has been anything but. As has been the case the past little while, this game means nothing other than the Bulls hoping to pull off an upset of their cross-state rivals.

Colorado at #19 Utah

4:00 PM

The Rocky Mountain Showdown means a whole lot of sweet fuck all this season. Not the greatest choice by FOX but I have a feeling Black Friday was limited with choices anyway.

North Carolina at #20 NC State

7:00 PM

If you had told me in August that this game would mean everything to the Wolfpack and nothing to the Tar Heels I would have laughed at you. But it’s true. NC State still has a chance to win the ACC Atlantic and get to the NY6 whereas UNC is just looking to maybe get a better bowl bid with a seventh win.

Saturday Early

#1 Georgia at Georgia Tech

Noon

There’s a lot of football on this weekend but it is sometimes tough to see games like this, which have very little stakes, on ABC at Noon whereas other games are relegated to worse timeslots or networks. In this one, the Ramblin’ Wreck is trying to figure out if the Geoff Collins Experiment should continue. The Dawgs should win this easily so just have to avoid injuries before the SEC Championship. So yeah, you can probably just scoreboard watch this one to see if UGA covers the spread.

UPDATE: This has been switched to TSN2.

Maryland at Rutgers

Noon

Hey, this game has serious stakes! Winner goes bowling. Loser is home for the holidays. That’s it. I have a feeling this is going to end up being a sneaky good game.

#24 Houston at UConn

Noon

A Houston win actually benefits Cincinnati more than Houston to be honest. UConn is terrible so, yeah, you can probably skip this one.

Florida State at Florida

Noon

Now this is one that no one could have predicted. A Gators-Seminoles game where the stakes are bowl eligibility. For many, including myself, it seems insane. But it’s the facts. I actually agree with TSN picking up this one since this will get a LOT of attention.

UPDATE #2: This has been moved to TSN4. I don’t know the reason for the switch.

#18 Wake Forest at Boston College

Noon

At one point, Wake was the darling of the college football world, even more than Cincinnati I would say. Then the wheels fell off a bit with a non-conference loss to North Carolina (I’m serious) and a loss to Clemson. That loss to the Tigers means they have to win this game against BC to still stamp their ticket to the ACC Championship. A loss and they could be in trouble for that. The Eagles also had a good start to their season but they are limping to the finish line. Already bowl-eligible, this is just to make them look more valuable to bowl committees.

Navy at Temple

Noon

Oof. Pass.

#2 Ohio State at #5 Michigan

Noon

Game of the Week right here. At the very least it’s the Game of the Year in the Big Ten if not all of college football, at least for the regular season. This may end up being Jim Harbaugh’s shining moment. He gets the Wolverines to upset the Buckeyes and he would probably get a lifetime contract and a statue outside Michigan Stadium. tOSU wants to keep erasing the memory of that Oregon loss and winning here puts them one step closer to going back to the CFP. I assume most people will be watching this game and why not? This smells like an instant classic.

Miami at Duke

Noon

And from the previous game we get to this one. Unless Miami pulls of an amazing (albeit controversial) multi-lateral last-second touchdown to beat the Blue Devils, you can avoid watching this game.

Saturday Afternoon

Penn State at #12 Michigan State

3:30 PM

This is actually a pretty big game…for one team. Sparty’s hopes for the College Football Playoff are gone but they still have a chance at the New Year’s Six. It is imperative they look impressive in a win over PSU. The Nittany Lions are only playing for maybe a better bowl game now that their head coach, James Franklin, has received a 10-year contract extension.

Northwestern at Illinois

3:30 PM

Um….this is football, technically. Hopefully the weather turns really bad and the football is sloppy since that would be the only reason I would watch.

#3 Alabama at Auburn

3:30 PM

Bama has seen this story before. An upstart Auburn squad destroying their season in the Iron Bowl. I honestly can’t see it happening here but you never know. If Bo Nix does what Bo Nix has done a couple of times earlier this season, this could get interesting. The Tide need a win here to stay in this #3 spot and set up their CFP opportunity next week in Atlanta.

Western Kentucky at Marshall

3:30 PM

Winner-take-all for the Conference USA East Division. This basically comes down to the prolific WKU offense against Marshall’s stingy defense. Should be a good one.

Oregon State at #11 Oregon

3:30 PM

This is one of the biggest Civil War games ever. The Ducks win and they go to the Pac-12 Championship. The Beavers have to win and then hope Washington beats Wazzu to gobble up the division title. Huge Pac-12 stakes which mean you might want to watch this game.

Virginia Tech at Virginia

3:45 PM

Alright this game means something once again…for one team. The Hokies need a win to become bowl-eligible which would actually be a shock considering how poorly their season has gone. UVA is already going bowling so humiliation is their only goal here.

Vanderbilt at Tennessee

3:45 PM

This game means nothing which seems to be the norm these days in the battle for SEC Tennessee. Vandy is bad but not as bad as they had been the previous few seasons. Tennessee has looked good this season yet is only 6-5 so they would love a win here and then in a bowl game to make Josh Heupel’s first season as head coach of the Vols an unmitigated success.

Tulsa at SMU

4:00 PM

If the Golden Hurricane can pull off the upset here, they would get their sixth win and be able to go to a bowl game. Either way, we can almost guarantee this will be a close game because that’s what Tulsa does…every single time.

ULM at Louisiana

4:00 PM

Louisiana has already clinched the Sun Belt West and ULM is not going bowling. NEXT!

#14 Wisconsin at Minnesota

4:00 PM

Huge game in the suddenly sloppy Big Ten West. Wisky’s path is clear: win and they get a ticket to Indy. The Gophers have a muddier path. They must win here and hope for an Iowa loss AND a Purdue win. Funny how tiebreakers work sometimes.

Saturday Primetime & Late Night

#15 Texas A&M at LSU

7:00 PM

Coach Eaux’s Last Stand. I am sure he wants to get the Tiguhz to a bowl game in his final regular season game as head coach. Especially one in Florida so he can find some hot women on the beach. The Aggies have a really outside shot at the New Year’s Six but would need at least a couple of teams above them in the rankings to lose this week for them to have any chance.

#10 Oklahoma at #7 Oklahoma State

7:30 PM

BEDLAM! It’s the Pokes who already know they are in the Big XII title game which is a bit of a change from the usual. The Sooners will need a win here to qualify. I have to assume that Baylor will beat Texas Tech so an Oklahoma loss here would mean we would have a Big XII Championship without Oklahoma. Good Ol’ JR would be rolling in his grave if he were dead.

#17 Pittsburgh at Syracuse

7:30 PM

Pitt has nothing really to play for since they are already in the ACC Championship. Basically their role should be to make sure Kenny Pickett doesn’t get hurt. The Orange, on the other hand, have everything to play for. At five wins, they know what they have to do against their old Big East rivals. It also could be the difference between Dino Babers keeping his job for 2022 or getting shitcanned.

Kentucky at Louisville

7:30 PM

Honestly, there is no real importance to this game. Both teams are bowl eligible with no hope of getting into a New Year’s Six bowl.

Tulane at Memphis

7:30 PM

Surprisingly, the Tigers need a win here to become bowl-eligible. They’ve had a rough season but should be able to close out the Green Wave to get that all-important sixth win.

#23 Clemson at South Carolina

7:30 PM

If you had told me that these two teams would be on the SEC Network in this final week, I would have laughed. But here we are. This game does mean quite a bit for Clemson since they can still clinch the ACC Atlantic with a win and losses by NC State and Wake Forest. South Carolina’s only goal is to destroy Clemson’s chances.

#6 Notre Dame at Stanford

8:00 PM

This game is all about Notre Dame. They need to win and win big here to keep their faint CFP hopes alive. A big win would also, ironically, help Cincinnati’s CFP hopes.

Nevada at Colorado State

9:00 PM

This game means nothing. Nevada is bowl-eligible. Colorado State is not. It’s the only game starting at this time so if it’s close it may be worth a watch but otherwise, don’t bother.

#13 BYU at USC

10:30 PM

This game has some serious stakes. For the Trojans, they need to win this game to set up an opportunity for bowl-eligibility during conference championship week against Cal. BYU, on the other hand, could crash the New Year’s Six party in a big way with a win here. Moving up even one spot puts them in a great spot for an at-large berth, probably to the Fiesta Bowl.

Wanna bet?

As per usual, no Games of the Week section since I went over every game available up here in the Great White North. There are a few other important games that we won’t get but hey, take it up with TSN, who’s coverage has gone to shit this season. Seriously terrible. And they wonder why people keep cutting cable. Anyway, off to the biggest picks section of the season where I do picks for every damn game above. Oh yeah. Here we go!

Cincinnati over East Carolina

Houston over UConn

Memphis over Tulane

SMU over Tulsa

Temple over Navy (who cares)

Air Force over UNLV

Boise State over San Diego State (upset!)

Nevada over Colorado State

Ohio over Bowling Green

Central Michigan over Eastern Michigan

Notre Dame over Stanford

Oklahoma over Oklahoma State

Texas over Kansas State (slight upset)

Boston College over Wake Forest (upset!)

Clemson over South Carolina

Miami over Duke

North Carolina over NC State (slight upset)

Pittsburgh over Syracuse

Virginia Tech over Virginia (to become bowl-eligible)

Florida over Florida State (close)

Georgia over Georgia Tech

Kentucky over Louisville

Tennessee over Vanderbilt

Alabama over Auburn

Arkansas over Missouri

LSU over Texas A&M (upset to become bowl-eligible)

Ole Miss over Mississippi State

Oregon over Oregon State

USC over BYU (upset)

Utah over Colorado

Louisiana over ULM

Marshall over Western Kentucky

Ohio State over Michigan

Penn State over Michigan State (slight upset)

Rutgers over Maryland

Iowa over Nebraska

Northwestern over Illinois

Wisconsin over Minnesota

Wow, that’s a lot of games. This should be a lot of fun. A great way to end an amazing regular season. Enjoy the games everyone!

The Fun-Time College Coaching Carousel – Week 9 College Football TV Schedule

Posted on October 27, 2021 by guelphbossman

OK this happens every year but it feels like it has been jumped up a notch or two. Like what is being talked about more right now, the coaching carousel and hot seat or the Heisman race? It’s easily the coaching situations in college football. Might as well start this with the USC sitch. The rumour mill is going crazy with potential names to be the next head coach in LA. The candidates listed since Clay Helton was fired include Luke Fickell, Matt Campbell, James Franklin and Kalani Sitake. Jeff Fisher was mentioned as a possibility and he fairly quickly refuted it, probably because it would be impossible for him to go 7-9. Mike Tomlin was also mentioned which is weird since unless the Pittsburgh Steelers are planning to fire him, I don’t know why he’d leave one of the better coaching spots in the NFL to coach at a place with high expectations like USC. With Franklin getting a new agent, my guess is he has become the odds-on favourite and if Penn State loses badly this weekend, expect that talk to heat up a lot.

So now let’s head to the Bayou and the LSU Tigers. Ed Orgeron probably doesn’t give a single solitary shit now so is off fucking co-eds and getting drunk instead of fulfilling his head coaching duties at LSU. I kid, but I’m sure he has been hungover at his desk in the morning at least once since his shitcanning. So what’s next in Baton Rouge? Campbell, Franklin and Fickell show up on this list as well but there are other, possibly more intriguing, options. Like Dave Aranda. LSU’s former defensive coordinator would be welcomed back with open arms after the job he has done at Baylor. Billy Napier has been lights out at Louisiana, making them one of the best Group of Five programs around. And the most intriguing of possibilities, Mel Tucker. Michigan State is a very unexpected Top 10 team and Tucker is a big reason why.

This will be a story that won’t go away for a while. For my money, I think it will end up being Franklin going to USC and Aranda heading to LSU. There will be other openings showing up soon I’m sure and Fickell is almost certain to get one of them. Matt Campbell, on the other hand, I could see staying at Iowa State for at least one more season, especially if they somehow make their way to the Big XII Championship. Anyway, enough coach talk, on to the schedule!

Thursday

		US	Canada
USF at East Carolina	7:30 PM
Troy at #24 Coastal Carolina	7:30 PM

Very soon we will be at the point where it’s football every day! It means that the football matchups don’t have to always be fantastic because it’s football every damn day so let’s enjoy it! What would you rather watch, football or something meaningless like poker? Other than the NFL Thursday Nighter, nothing else worth watching will be on this night. It’s a travel day for the Houston Astros and Atlanta Braves so no baseball to distract you. So unless the pro game is good, you can sit down and watch…let’s see here….oh my….um….well, it’s college football technically. With Coastal losing last week, neither of these games are really that appealing to be perfectly honest.

Friday

		US	Canada
Princeton at Cornell	7:00 PM
Navy at Tulsa	7:30 PM
UNLV at Nevada	10:00 PM

OK so things don’t get a whole lot better on Friday night. Saying that, the Battle for the Fremont Cannon is always fun and, two years ago, ended in a massive brawl. Good times!

Saturday Early

		US	Canada
Texas at #16 Baylor	Noon
Miami at #17 Pittsburgh	Noon
Indiana at Maryland	Noon
Rutgers at Illinois	Noon
Bowling Green at Buffalo	Noon
#9 Iowa at Wisconsin	Noon
#2 Cincinnati at Tulane	Noon
Texas State at Louisiana	Noon
#6 Michigan at #8 Michigan State	Noon
Virginia Tech at Georgia Tech	Noon

One game here will get all the attention and rightfully so. The Michigan-Michigan State rivalry hits a new high with both teams ranked in the Top 10. That’s not the only game here though as Iowa-Wisky could end up being interesting on the other side of the Big Ten division menu. Pitt and Baylor try to continue their magical seasons and Cincy has to beat Tulane by a lot to probably keep that lofty #2 ranking. Finally there is Techmo Bowl to see if one of the coaches coaching in the game get fired during the halftime show. I give the odds at 10-1.

Saturday Afternoon

		US	Canada
Missouri at Vanderbilt	3:00 PM
Texas Tech at #4 Oklahoma	3:30 PM
Minnesota at Northwestern	3:30 PM
Florida vs. #1 Georgia (in Jacksonville)	3:30 PM
Louisiana Tech at Old Dominion	3:30 PM
Florida State at Clemson	3:30 PM
Purdue at Nebraska	3:30 PM
TCU at Kansas State	3:30 PM
Colorado at #7 Oregon	3:30 PM
Boston College at Syracuse	3:30 PM
Duke at #13 Wake Forest	4:00 PM

I’m sure Brad Nessler would love to have an open bar for the World’s Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party. Dealing with Gary Danielson and blowouts every week has to be gnawing at him and I think he might snap, despite the fact he is very professional. I know I would. The SEC Network going with some odd timeslots this week and I don’t know if this is a test for going forward or they had to do so because of other programming. I’m going with the former until I can find something concrete that HAD to be on from Noon until 3:00. Other than that there’s not much of note here. Maybe watch Wake keep their undefeated streak going until the second quarter once they pull away from Dook or Texas Tech pretend they can stay with Oklahoma for more than 10 minutes if you want.

Saturday Primetime

		US	Canada
Boise State at Colorado State	7:00 PM
#10 Ole Miss at #18 Auburn	7:00 PM
#19 SMU at Houston	7:00 PM
Arizona at USC	7:00 PM
#12 Kentucky at Mississippi State	7:00 PM
#20 Penn State at #5 Ohio State	7:30 PM
Louisville at NC State	7:30 PM
North Carolina at #11 Notre Dame	7:30 PM

Penn State-Ohio State was going to be a huge game for ABC. Then last weekend’s nine-overtime clusterfuck happens and this game doesn’t mean nearly as much. It’s almost the same thing that happened last year as PSU lost to Indiana the week before tOSU. It’s like they’re looking ahead to the Buckeyes and taking their eye off the ball (or Franklin is checking his email every few minutes for something from a certain west coast school). And there’s no guarantee they get the most viewers in this timeslot, especially if it becomes a blowout. You have Ole Miss-Auburn which should be a dandy and SMU trying to stay undefeated, mostly for Cincinnati’s gain. You could also watch North Carolina who is way worse than some thought they would be (*AHEM* me *AHEM*), travel to South Bend and hopefully not get beaten up by the Irish.

Saturday Late Night

		US	Canada
UCLA at Utah	10:00 PM
Virginia at #25 BYU	10:15 PM
Fresno State at #21 San Diego State	10:30 PM

Late night college football returns this week after last week’s odd scheduling. The biggest match will happen in ~~San Diego~~ Carson, California where the Aztecs hope to remain undefeated against a very good Bulldogs team. CBS Sports Network really lucked out with getting this one. We also have the return of Bronco as Mr. Mendenhall brings his Cavaliers to Provo to face his old team.

Games to set your eyeballs on

Michigan at Michigan State (Noon, FOX) – Put up your hands if you figured both teams would be undefeated coming into this one. Absolutely no hands should be up right now, not even Spartans and Wolverines fans. One of these teams will have a legitimate shot at the College Football Playoff after this coming weekend. That sounds absurd but it’s very true. The winner here will have Ohio State later on in the season for what will probably be a winner-take-all game for the Big Ten East crown. Michigan is considered the slight favourite to win here. I would wonder about Sparty’s chances though. They really will all come down to what Kenneth Walker III does in this game. Walker has vaulted himself into the Heisman race and really if the season ended now he should get strong consideration to win the damn thing. Really, this should be a solid Game of the Year candidate so let’s hope it’s not a blowout…otherwise we get Sad Gus Johnson which never sounds good.

Ole Miss at Auburn (7:00, specialty pack) – Will either of these teams usurp Bama at the top of the SEC West? Not likely but this year there is at least a tiny sliver of hope. The winner of this one is in the driver’s seat to have that opportunity, especially if it’s Auburn who still has a game against the Tide. And with Lane Kiffin coaching in this game, the interviews, along with the offense, should be fun.

Penn State at Ohio State (7:30, ABC/TSN2) – If this was in State College I probably move it up to the number two spot on this list. Tough to move them up farther with neither team undefeated and Penn State suffering a horrible loss to Illinois. As I mentioned above, the Nittany Lions had the same fate last year, losing the game before the Ohio State one. Yes it was their first game of the year so take it with a grain of salt. They did end up losing to Ohio State last year (and the three games after that). Can’t see that kind of losing streak from this team this year but you never know. Either way, the winner here will face the winner of the Michigan-MSU game later in the season for the division crown and the rest of the teams will battle for the slight chance at a New Year’s Six spot.

SMU at Houston (7:00, specialty pack) – Yes SMU is undefeated but the Cougs are undefeated in the conference as well. This game pretty much determines who gets to face Cincinnati in the AAC Championship in December. This could also be the beginning of the end of Sonny Dykes in the Metroplex as there are rumours he will end up as the head coach at Texas Tech. Wouldn’t surprise me at all, what with his dad coaching there years ago.

Fresno State at San Diego State (10:30, CBS Sports Network) – Another surprising team shows up on the list here. Somehow, the Bulldogs are 6-2 and in the driver’s seat in the Mountain West West Division with a win here in Carson. Kalen DeBoer has done a fantastic job in the Valley for a team that many (myself included) wouldn’t even get to .500 this season. And look who is doing a great coaching job at SDSU. Brady Hoke is back, baby! He has proven to be a great coach at the Group of Five level and he’s doing it once again. The Aztecs somewhat surprising run to, hopefully, a NY6 spot hinges on winning games like this (and hoping Cincinnati loses at least once before the end of the season).

Honourable mention: Texas Tech at Oklahoma (3:30, ABC); Florida vs. Georgia (3:30, CBS); Virginia at BYU (10:15, specialty pack)

Wanna bet?

OK at least I got one upset pick right. I thought Air Force could somehow come back and beat San Diego State but sadly, for me, it did not happen. As for the rest of my picks, yeah there were a couple bad ones there as well. Look, let’s forget that and just move forward, OK?

Houston over SMU (let’s start with an upset)

Michigan over Michigan State

Ohio State over Penn State

BYU over Virginia

Georgia over Florida

Auburn over Ole Miss

San Diego State over Fresno State

Oklahoma over Texas Tech

Buffalo over Bowling Green

Louisiana Tech over Old Dominion

Coastal Carolina over Troy

Will I watch the approximately 24 hours of college football being served up over the next few days? It will be pretty close, not gonna lie. It’s mostly a free weekend so add in about 11 hours of NFL football and we get to the 35-hour mark. I am such a fucking degenerate when it comes to football. Kind of glad I don’t do the recaps anymore since it usually cut into in my NFL watching time. Honestly, I struggle with that kind of multi-tasking. Anyway. enjoy the games everyone!

OK now that Clay’s gone, who’s next? – Week 4 College Football TV Schedule

Posted on September 22, 2021 by guelphbossman

Clay Helton started the Coaching Carousel for us early this year. Pair that with Randy Edsall’s resignation/retirement/whatever/bonus payment and it’s been a rough start for the Hot Seat coaches. So the question now is, who will be next. Let’s look at the candidates:

Got to start with Manny Diaz. He hasn’t exactly lit things up in Miami and brought back memories of The U. The problem is, it’s not like they have a lot of money to throw around to pay a buyout and bring in another coach. So they may be stuck at least through this season unless things get really bad in south Florida.
Mike Norvell. Good lord have the Noles been awful this year. I wonder when enough will be enough. This program doesn’t need to get back to the Bobby Bowden era but they have to get back to approaching the Jimbo Fisher era or they could have problems for years.
Geoff Collins. I know he needed time to change the team from an option team to run a pro-style offense. But when is it supposed to happen? It feels like it never will and that Collins really doesn’t deserve a chance to continue his quest in Atlanta.
Rod Carey. Let’s get out of the ACC and move to the American. Carey left a good gig at Northern Illinois to replace dental hygienist-in-training Matt Rhule at Temple and it has been an unmitigated disaster. If it wasn’t for USF they would be looking at an easy trip to the AAC basement.
Nick Rolovich. Rolovich’s problems aren’t just on the field where Wazzu has struggled mightily so far. His ideas about the COVID vaccine have rankled a lot of people and I honestly wonder if they will get rid of him just because he has become an annoying pest.
Walt Bell. Are they really going to get anyone great to come to UMass?

As you can see, I haven’t put some of the usual suspects like Frost, Brohm, Babers or Harbaugh. Probably because they have at least not done worse than expectations at this point and, in Harbaugh’s case, has exceeded them (so far). We are only a quarter of the way through the season so now that conference play is slowly beginning we will see how these coaches’ fortunes turn out.

So far after three weeks we have had a damn good season. Like a return to college football, if you will. Here’s hoping this continues. Let’s get to the schedule!

Thursday

		US	Canada
Marshall at Appalachian State	7:30 PM
Alcorn State at Arkansas-Pine Bluff	7:30 PM

Two games. Neither of them really that good. I mean, yeah, App State is still pretty good and could sneak through and cause a lot of problems in the Sun Belt. Marshall just a blew a big fourth quarter lead and lost to East Carolina. Nothing against the Pirates but yeesh that’s bad. But it is still mid-week college football which is always better than no mid-week college football. Especially if the Thursday Night Football matchup is not exactly great. And, how about that, it isn’t. The Panthers, they’re good. The Texans…yes I know they’re 1-1 but they beat the Jaguars so no, they are not good.

Friday

		US	Canada
Middle Tennessee at Charlotte	6:30 PM
Wake Forest at Virginia	7:00 PM
Brown at Harvard	7:00 PM
Liberty at Syracuse	8:00 PM
UNLV at #22 Fresno State	10:00 PM

OK this is better. Five games. And CBS Sports Network is doing a doubleheader with their weird 6:30 start time. It will be interesting to see how badly Fresno State will beat the Rebels, who now have Tate Fucking Martell as their quarterback. I really don’t get how he gets so many opportunities. Anyway, we also have the first look at Ivy League action for the first time since 2019. OK Wake-Hoos could be good so maybe put your focus on that one.

Saturday Early

		US	Canada
Texas Tech at Texas	Noon
Richmond at Virginia Tech	Noon
Ohio at Northwestern	Noon
Villanova at #6 Penn State	Noon
Boise State at Utah State	Noon
Miami-OH at Army	Noon
LSU at Mississippi State	Noon
Missouri at Boston College	Noon
Bowling Green at Minnesota	Noon
#12 Notre Dame vs. #18 Wisconsin (in Chicago)	Noon
#2 Georgia at Vanderbilt	Noon
CCSU at Miami	12:30 PM

Normally TSN would be just starting to step up with a bit more college football coverage. Not this weekend though. The Ryder Cup will dominate the TSN airwaves for a good part of Saturday so that moves all college football to TSN2 where there will be a quadrupleheader. As for the games themselves, past ND-Wisky, not a whole lot that would be considered must-watch. And you know what happens during weeks like this. So expect one of the following to happen:

Villanova comes close to upsetting Penn State but the Nittany Lions close it late.
Richmond shocks Virginia Tech in Blacksburg.
The Red Raiders throw for like 600 yards and beat Texas in a barnburner.
Mizzou and BC go to eight overtimes and maybe, just maybe, the new overtime rules aren’t as bad as I thought (they still are but anyway).

Finally, the Mountain West finally makes their way to CBS with Boise State who is just somewhat average going to Utah State who suddenly may have a prolific offense again. 1-3 start for the Broncos? Wouldn’t be a total shock.

Saturday Afternoon

		US	Canada
Rutgers at #19 Michigan	3:30 PM
Illinois at Purdue	3:30 PM
Kent State at Maryland	3:30 PM
#7 Texas A&M vs. #16 Arkansas (in Arlington)	3:30 PM
Wyoming at UConn	3:30 PM
#9 Clemson at NC State	3:30 PM
Louisville at Florida State	3:30 PM
UTSA at Memphis	3:30 PM
#14 Iowa State at Baylor	3:30 PM
Kansas at Duke	4:00 PM
Georgia State at #23 Auburn	Noon

A good old Southwest Conference showdown highlights the afternoon sked. For once, this neutral site game that Arkansas plays every year at JerryWorld is between two good teams. And Rutgers is on ABC! I was so hoping they would be on in primetime but I’ll take it. Other than that there’s not much of note unless you really need to watch Kansas and Duke play…in football. Oh and how does CBS now think about the UConn contract? This Huskies could be worse than the 2019 version which was one of the worst teams in a long time. To see some of the teams that end up on ESPN+ (or somehow worse) and then know that UConn is getting a national game many weeks is pretty sad (except for Conference USA teams who unfortunately are stuck with horrible TV contracts as it is).

Saturday Primetime

		US	Canada
Tennessee at #11 Florida	7:00 PM
Kentucky at South Carolina	7:00 PM
Navy at Houston	7:00 PM
West Virginia at #4 Oklahoma	7:30 PM
#21 North Carolina vs. Georgia Tech (in Mercedes-Benz Stadium)	7:30 PM
Akron at #10 Ohio State	7:30 PM
Southern Miss at #1 Alabama	7:30 PM
Indiana at Western Kentucky	8:00 PM

Oh man. Feels like such a drop-off from the first two timeslots. WVU-Sooners could be pretty good if the Mountaineers get their offense going early. Navy and Houston, no matter how good or bad they both are, usually put on a great show. As for the rest? Bleh.

Saturday Late Night

		US	Canada
USF at #15 BYU	10:15 PM
Arizona at #3 Oregon	10:30 PM
Colorado at Arizona State	10:30 PM

Mormon After Dark! If the Cougs play like the Cougs have played so far, that game should be done by halftime. As should the Zona-UO game. The only interesting one could be Colorado, who struggles to score, against Arizona State, who struggles to hold on to the ball. Fun times. Just a reminder, the Arizona-Oregon game will start in progress after Southern Miss-Alabama is done. Thus are the perils of hopping from network to network throughout the day and I always wonder why TSN does this.

Games to set your eyeballs on

Texas A&M vs. Arkansas (in Arlington) (3:30, CBS) – If you thought Arkansas would be in the Top 20 at this point of the season, raise your hand. Now put your hands down, you dirty liars. No one thought the Hogs would be this good. Maybe bowl-eligible. But they have looked seriously good and could put a serious damper on the Aggies’ national title aspirations and it wouldn’t be a total shock if the Razorbacks won. Also good to see Arkansas on CBS since they almost never get on there (except for the Black Friday game against Mizzou).

Notre Dame vs. Wisconsin (in Chicago) (Noon, FOX) – So the first two games on this list are neutral-site games. In late September. I mean they are great games and I am looking forward to them but I find all these neutral-site games usually take away from the pageantry and specialness of games in actual college football stadiums. It’s part of what sets it apart from the NFL. Anyway, the Irish continue their schedule hoping to win a game without struggling…..BAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. That was a good one. This should be close which will make Irish fans sweat once again.

West Virginia at Oklahoma (7:30, ABC) – Is this the PEW! PEW! PEW! matchup of the week? Considering the Sooners defense and the Sooners offense, I would put the over/under at about 90. One of the worst Top 5 teams I’ve seen in a while. At some point, they are going to either blow a team out and remind them what they are really about or will lose a game they probably shouldn’t have and confirm what many think about them. Don’t count the ‘Eers out of this one as long as their offense plays like they did early against Virginia Tech and not late.

Rutgers at Michigan (3:30, ABC) – Fuck, yeah! Rutgers, baby! They haven’t been 3-0 in so long and haven’t been in a relatively important game on ABC in a long time as well. And they have a challenge because Michigan is also playing better than many believed. The winner stays alive in a seriously competitive Big Ten East. But the way things are going, both teams will be going bowling and maybe, just maybe, all seven teams in the division will be in the postseason as well for the first time ever.

Iowa State at Baylor (3:30, FOX) – No specialty pack games on the Games of the Week list, which is good for many Canadians. Yes, Iowa State was expected to be good and they have been underperforming. And Baylor has not been good since Matt Rhule left. Things, however, are changing in Waco with Dave Aranda in charge as they have started 3-0. And ISU should still have quite a good season so this could be a darkhorse great game.

Honourable mention: Clemson at NC State (3:30, TSN2); Tennessee at Florida (7:00, TSN2); Kansas State at Oklahoma State (7:00, not able to be seen in this country)

You wanna bet?

Eight out of eleven isn’t too bad. I mean it’s not awesome but hey I’ve had much worse weeks. Yes I picked Arizona State. Yes I picked UCF (which most others did) and yeah I also picked Miami (which most others did as well). So really not that bad I think OK fine let’s just get to this week’s picks already:

Michigan over Rutgers

Wisconsin over Notre Dame

Florida over Tennessee

Texas A&M over Arkansas

Clemson over NC State

Iowa State over Baylor

Oklahoma State over Kansas State

Oklahoma over West Virginia

Charlotte over Middle Tennessee

Arizona State over Colorado

Houston over Navy

OK here’s hoping we have another solid weekend of college football action. Enjoy the games everyone!

The UT-OU-SEC Affair…YEAH BUT WHOSE SIDE ARE THEY ON?

Posted on July 23, 2021 by guelphbossman

Pretty much every wrestling fan knows that quote from the great Bobby “The Brain” Heenan. The night we were introduced to the New World Order. And yet, Heenan’s disdain for Hulk Hogan coming down the aisle to supposedly save WCW couldn’t be muzzled.

That brings us to what has happened just recently. A couple of events have happened. I’m still trying to determine the order but here they are:

The University of Texas and the University of Oklahoma have reached out to the SEC about possibly joining their conference.
The Big XII asked their member schools to sign an extension of the conference’s media rights contracts to go through 2020. Texas declined meaning the extension couldn’t be done.

I am guessing the second point happened first but I haven’t seen anything that points to the order of occurrences. So you know what this means….REALIGNMENT TALK!!!!! This is not surprising at all since with conference TV contracts about to come to an end for quite a few conferences in the next few years, we had to know that there could be some realignment possibilities. But Texas and Oklahoma reaching out to the SEC? That’s an interesting wrinkle. Usually it’s the conference reaching out to the programs but this…this puts a whole new spin on things.

The New SEC?

So let’s say this does go through. What would the new SEC look like? Knowing the way these conferences are usually morons with this kind of thing, I’m sure it will look something like this:

East	West
Florida	Alabama
Georgia	Arkansas
Kentucky	LSU
Missouri	Mississippi State
South Carolina	Ole Miss
Tennessee	Texas A&M
Vanderbilt	Oklahoma
Auburn	Texas

Auburn would end up moving to the East Division with Oklahoma and Texas slotting into the West. There are other variations on this, including just putting Oklahoma in the East and Texas in the West, and moving BOTH Alabama and Auburn to the East and having Missouri move to the West with Oklahoma and Texas. The other idea that seems to be floating around with various experts is the pod system. It’s stupid but people seem to love it. Four pods of four teams where you would play everyone in your pod once, every team in another pod once and then one or two other teams to complete your conference schedule.

I have a better idea though. No fucking divisions. At all. Have each team have up to three protected matchups every season. Then the rest of the games are decided based on where they were in the standings the previous season. Like the #1 team could face their 3 protected opponents, plus games against #2, #4, #7, #10, #11 and #13 to make their nine-game conference schedule (which I wouldn’t be surprised if the SEC went with). Have it set so we know what each spot would face every season. Then swap games out because of the protected opponents and voila! A good schedule that works every season. And gets rid of the stupid divisions which have basically run its course in college football.

Call Your Bluff?

Are both schools bluffing? Is one bluffing and taking the other along for a ride? It wouldn’t be the first time (in a way). The Texahoma Four were headed to the Pac-12 and then all of a sudden we had the Longhorn Network. And by we, I mean college football fans in Texas. So not really “we” at all.

But could both schools be trying to get something for them in the conference that’s advantageous to the other eight more than what they have now? Is Texas trying to do something to really keep the Longhorn Network? Could Oklahoma be setting up their own Sooner Network? There could be other things afloat that Texas and Oklahoma want and the only way to do it is to reach out on their own to the SEC to make the Big XII do what they want. We can call it Gonzagaing.

Does This Make Sense?

Does it make sense that Oklahoma and Texas go to the SEC? Possibly. If it starts the process of breaking the Power conferences (however many there may be) off from FBS then it would be perfect for both programs. If it’s to get more money through TV then of course it is (although the new ESPN/ABC deal with the SEC might have to be adjusted).

Honestly this is probably a good idea for Oklahoma. Texas? Maybe not. I would have figured they would get a better deal becoming an Independent. They keep the LHN, possibly look for a deal to show most of their own home games on another network (CBS perhaps?) and basically become Notre Dame’s Independent running mate. Depending on how the 12-team playoff is structured, it may even be advantageous to the Longhorns to go this route.

Will The SEC Accept Both Teams?

“No.” – Texas A&M.

“Yes” – the rest of the teams, probably.

What About the Rest of the Big XII?

Two ways look at this: invite a bunch of teams to replace the two departing programs or every program for themselves to finish off the Big XII.

The first way seems like the easier way to solve things. Problem is, this is something that should have been done years ago the first time teams may have left the conference. Now it could be a lot tougher. The Big XII could try and poach Arizona, Arizona State, Utah and Colorado out of the Pac-12. They could add Boise State and BYU. They could look at Cincinnati or UCF (or both). There are plenty of options. Now, if the Big XII decides to pull the trigger, will these schools accept? The Pac-12 four I mentioned might not. Even the other four schools listed might balk or at least hesitate. Realignment isn’t as cut and dry anymore if Texas and Oklahoma do lead for the SEC as the conferences below the aforementioned SEC and the Big Ten in the pecking order wouldn’t be considered as powerful anymore.

Which leads us to the second way where every program jumps off the Big XII life raft and swims for whatever conference ship will pick them up. What chaos would that give us? Let’s take a look:

Kansas – almost a guarantee for the Big Ten. You laugh but their basketball program is LUCRATIVE and the B1G would pick them up in a heartbeat. Yes they have some issues with potential NCAA infractions but still probably the best of an odd bunch.

West Virginia – they would almost beg to go to the ACC and I could see the ACC taking the plunge. They fit better there than in the Big XII anyway.

Texas Tech & Oklahoma State – they would also be doing a bit of begging. Maybe. The Pac-12 might move into Texas and Oklahoma with those two teams to become the Pac-14. It also would give them three time zones to work with which would make them automatically a hell of a lot more lucrative to FOX.

TCU & Baylor – as much as they would like to say “hey it could be the Pac-16 with us” it probably won’t happen. Doubtful they would take these two Texas schools with their religious affiliations if they can get Texas Tech.

Kansas State & Iowa State – good fucking luck. The AAC probably picks them up or they go the Mountain West route since there probably isn’t much else for them out there.

Or An Alliance?

Could the Big XII and AAC form a new conference with as many teams as possible? It’s….possible. Realistically they could take the eight left, take eight more from the AAC and there’s your new conference that’s on a tier of its own, below the Power conferences but a good step higher than the Group of Five. Sorry to East Carolina, Tulsa and Temple but you might be on the outside looking in for this scenario. It would cause upheaval elsewhere as the Mountain West, Sun Belt and Conference USA would all be watching closely to see if any programs need a home and fit in their conference.

What About TV?

I honestly don’t know what happens to the ESPN/ABC deal with the SEC that’s on top of the current ESPN/ABC deal with the SEC. Plus there’s the SEC Network to factor in. The conference network probably won’t show more games later on in the season than the three they normally show. Meaning Disney gets more inventory from the SEC. Which then in turn means other conferences get pushed out a bit. If the Pac-12 is smart, they may do what I had mentioned above, grab TTU and OSU and show FOX they are worth a lot more. This would also push the Big XII to extinction meaning one less conference to share timeslots with.

The Big Ten will also be the one to watch here. They won’t be happy with getting a lot less in terms of ABC primetime games. They could also push FOX to give them better timeslots also. The Mountain West could be somewhat squeezed out of potential network games before they even got into much of their new contract with the network.

Anyway, let’s be honest: this has opened up a lot of possibilities and a ton of questions. We probably would have been better served with this not happening a month before the college football season begins. Couldn’t Texas and Oklahoma have called the SEC in, say, April?

For the first time in two years, it’s time for Grab-Bag Mania! Yeah it really doesn’t have much of a ring to it.

Posted on July 4, 2021 by guelphbossman

I’m sure I could have come up with something better. Give me some time and if I feel like it I will figure it out. Or not. Who knows. Anyway, if you’re looking for an ESPN+ schedule here, you probably don’t live in Canada or have one of those fancy VPNs (and maybe an American credit card for all I know) and even then…why you would care about the damn ESPN+ schedule?

Grab-BagCade? No that’s awful. Let’s start with what might be the longest schedule I do most seasons. Why do I not give it its own post? Be honest: would you go out of your way to read a post that’s only about college football games that will appear on CBS Sports Network? I mean I would but I’m not normal. Look, CBSSN always has a few amazing games each season, just not on paper. Remember when Old Dominion beat Virginia Tech three seasons ago? A crazy-good game with a massive upset. And you will see those kinds of games every season on this network which is the home of to three of the Group of Five conferences, most of Navy’s home games, most of UConn’s home games and all of Army’s home games. What they may not have in quality they definitely have in quantity. Let’s get going on this monster followed by some quality comments (games NOT confirmed will have an asterisk):

August 28th	UConn at Fresno State	2:00 PM
August 28th	Southern Utah at San Jose State	10:00 PM
September 3rd	Duke at Charlotte	7:00 PM
September 4th	Holy Cross at UConn	Noon
September 4th	Marshall at Navy	3:30 PM
September 4th	Syracuse at Ohio	7:00 PM
September 4th	New Mexico State at San Diego State	10:30 PM
September 10th	North Dakota at Utah State	9:00 PM
September 11th	Western Kentucky at Army	11:30 AM
September 11th	Purdue at UConn	3:00 PM
September 11th	Houston at Rice	6:30 PM
September 11th	Vanderbilt at Colorado State	10:00 PM
September 18th	UConn at Army	Noon
September 18th	SMU at Louisiana Tech	3:30 PM
September 18th	Utah at San Diego State	7:00 PM
September 18th	Iowa State at UNLV	10:30 PM
September 24th	Middle Tennessee at Charlotte	6:30 PM
September 24th	UNLV at Fresno State	10:00 PM
September 25th	Miami-OH at Army	Noon
September 25th	Wyoming at UConn	3:30 PM
September 25th	Indiana at Western Kentucky	8:00 PM
October 1st	BYU at Utah State	9:00 PM
October 2nd	Army at Ball State*	Noon
October 2nd	UCF at Navy	3:30 PM
October 2nd	Liberty at UAB	7:00 PM
October 2nd	Fresno State at Hawaii	11:00 PM
October 8th	Charlotte at FIU	7:00 PM
October 9th	Miami-OH at Eastern Michigan*	Noon
October 9th	SMU at Navy	3:30 PM
October 9th	Wyoming at Air Force	7:00 PM
October 9th	New Mexico State at Nevada	10:30 PM
October 15th	Marshall at North Texas	7:00 PM
October 15th	San Diego State at San Jose State	10:30 PM
October 16th	Yale at UConn	Noon
October 16th	Toledo at Central Michigan*	3:30 PM
October 16th	Utah State at UNLV	7:00 PM
October 16th	Hawaii at Nevada	10:30 PM
October 21st	Florida Atlantic at Charlotte	7:30 PM
October 22nd	Middle Tennessee at UConn	6:00 PM
October 22nd	Colorado State at Utah State	9:30 PM
October 23rd	Wake Forest at Army	Noon
October 23rd	Miami-OH at Ball State*	3:30 PM
October 23rd	San Diego State at Air Force	7:00 PM
October 23rd	San Jose State at UNLV	10:30 PM
October 29th	UNLV at Nevada	10:00 PM
October 30th	Bowling Green at Buffalo*	Noon
October 30th	Louisiana Tech at Old Dominion	3:30 PM
October 30th	Boise State at Colorado State	7:00 PM
October 30th	Fresno State at San Diego State	10:30 PM
November 2nd	Eastern Michigan at Toledo*	7:30 PM
November 6th	Louisiana Tech at UAB	Noon
November 6th	Colorado State at Wyoming	3:30 PM
November 6th	Boise State at Fresno State	7:00 PM
November 9th	Buffalo at Miami-OH*	7:00 PM
November 10th	Toledo at Bowling Green*	7:30 PM
November 13th	Bucknell at Army	Noon
November 13th	UAB at Marshall	3:30 PM
November 13th	Air Force at Colorado State	7:00 PM
November 13th	Nevada at San Diego State	10:30 PM
November 19th	Southern Miss at Louisiana Tech	8:00 PM
November 20th	UMass at Army	Noon
November 20th	East Carolina at Navy	3:30 PM
November 20th	Wyoming at Utah State	7:00 PM
November 20th	San Diego State at UNLV	10:30 PM
November 26th	Eastern Michigan at Central Michigan*	Noon
November 26th	UNLV at Air Force	3:30 PM
November 27th	Houston at UConn	Noon
November 27th	Western Kentucky at Marshall	3:30 PM
November 27th	Nevada at Colorado State	9:00 PM
December 4th	Conference USA Championship Game*	12:30 PM
December 30th	Arizona Bowl*	5:00 PM

Continue reading →

Most Important Games of the 2021 College Football Season – The Third Part

Posted on June 9, 2021 by guelphbossman

It’s getting seriously hot and (at times) seriously humid outside. Meaning summer is basically here. Thank God this province wants us not to engage in any sports or camping or get togethers of any kind. Think of all the money we save on sunscreen! I need to work on this blog to get my mind off the bullshit. So let’s just get on with this already!

Week 7

Game of the Week: Oklahoma State at Texas (7:30, ABC) – You don’t see many Big XII games in this spot anymore. To be honest, you don’t see many Big XII games in Canada either. Will these games mean as much when the playoff expands (which it most certainly is now)? Who knows to be honest. All I can say is I will continue to enjoy the games as much as I can as they try to, well, “make the postseason better.” To be honest, expanding the playoff would be down my list a bit. Number one on my list? Abolishing divisions.

Other Really Important Games: Miami at North Carolina (3:30, ABC) – If Miami truly gets their act together, this could end up being the Game of the Week (and possibly a Game of the Year candidate). Either way this is probably a huge game for both teams in the ACC. The winner of this game gets a leg up on the division that Clemson is not in (see my point about getting rid of divisions?).

Florida at LSU (3:30, CBS) – Hey it’s one of those weeks where the main networks (ABC, CBS…let’s throw FOX in there as well) have the biggest games. Another game that you could argue has a chance to be GOTW. Still wondering what will happen once the SEC on CBS contract ends. We have three more seasons of this and then all SEC games will be on ESPN/ABC (or ESPN2…or the SEC Network…or maybe ESPN+ you get the idea). Will CBS acquire another conference’s games? I think they’d be dumb not to. The Pac-12 could be ripe for the picking to be honest.

UCLA at Washington (3:30, Pac-12 Network/DAZN) – Let me explain since that might look like Greek to some of you. As of right now I have the Bruins and Huskies on the Pac-12 Network. First of all, it’s in the afternoon so Chris Petersen shouldn’t be upset. Secondly, Pac-12 teams have to have a minimum amount of games on the Pac-12 Network and the network usually gets a good game or two every season because it has to fill its quota. And finally, it looks like the Pac-12 Network will be available on DAZN in Canada. That may change by the time the season commences. Fingers crossed it doesn’t.

TCU at Oklahoma (4:00, FOX Sports One) – This could be worse. At first I had this game on FSN. I honestly don’t know if FSN will even have Big XII games. I have a feeling they won’t but who knows with the Mountain West invading the FOX networks. Anyway, until further notice, the Sooners will continue to be the class of the conference. At some point, though, a team is going to come along and knock them off their perch…for real. Maybe Gary Patterson’s Horned Frogs can do the trick.

Kentucky at Georgia (7:00, specialty pack) – There are a lot of good games this week. Unfortunately, after the top games (and a few others), it drops off a cliff. Normally, I wouldn’t put Kentucky in the Games of the Week but, by all accounts, this seems to be a team that could cause a lot of problems inside the SEC East. A win here and the Cats could, once again, be a contender in the SEC East. Look, I get they are very pessimistic about their football program in Lexington but if Mark Stoops somehow gets this team to the SEC Championship, they should offer him like a 15-year deal. No questions asked.

UCF at Cincinnati (4:00, specialty pack) – Yes a Group of Five game in the Games of the Week section! I have a feeling this will be the only G-5 game in this section this season. This is seriously huge too as these are the two teams that most would consider the top contenders for the Group of Five spot in the New Year’s Six (along with Boise State and maybe Coastal Carolina). Don’t be surprised if ABC pulls the trigger and gets this game in primetime knowing it may be their best chance at getting a really good AAC game on in primetime.

Sneaky-Good Underrated Game: Ole Miss at Tennessee (Noon, specialty pack) – Don’t laugh. Both teams could be quite good this year. I said don’t laugh. Either team could win nine games. I told you not to laugh. Both teams could win their division. OK now you can laugh.

Best Group of Five Game: UCF at Memphis (4:00, specialty pack) – See above.

Worst Power Five Game: Texas Tech at Kansas (7:00, ESPN+) – Jesus Christ who would watch this? This game would have to be seriously close for me to even consider watching it. Which I can’t if I predict right and this ends up on ESPN+. Crisis averted.

Week 8

Game of the Week: Oregon at UCLA (4:00, FOX) – Wow, ok. Yeah this week, on paper, does not deliver. This is easily the worst week that I will cover in these final two posts. I mean you have to think Oregon blows the doors off the Bruins but what if UCLA has one of those crazy games they’ve had in recent years under Chip Kelly? It would be fun to see them just go off and score like 50 on the Ducks. They still might lose but hey…50-burger!

Other Really Important Games: Oklahoma State at Iowa State (Noon, FOX) – Hmmm…maybe this should be game of the week especially since it’s on BIG NOON SATURDAY. I still wait for the day where Matt Campbell finally gets a job offer he can’t refuse and leaves Ames. As horrible as it sounds for Cyclone fans, I could see Iowa trying to hire him once Kirk Ferentz decides to retire.

USC at Notre Dame (7:30, NBC) – Remember when almost every year a game between these two teams was a big deal? Sometimes for only of these teams but a handful of times for both programs. This may be one of those games. The Irish will once again feed off the hatred of all non-Irish fans and hope to get into the College Football Playoff yet again, pissing off a bunch of people. USC is in the wide open Pac-12 South and a win like this doesn’t help them inside the conference but will be a huge plus when it comes to their place in the Top 25.

Ohio State at Indiana (7:30, ABC) – I think it every year. Ohio State is going to visit a Big Ten East team not named Penn State or Michigan State and lose. Haha, of course I don’t mean Michigan, silly! The Hoosiers still look like they could make some noise in the Big Ten East but they have to hope to recreate some of last year’s magic to have any hope of beating the Fighting Ryan Days.

Sneaky-Good Underrated Game: LSU at Ole Miss (6:00, specialty pack) – Ugh, I hate the three-hour timeslots. They serve no purpose whatsoever. Like unless you are showing Army or Navy or any other team who might want to try the option, this won’t work. And SEC games are not known for ending before the three-and-a-half hour mark. So good luck to the game after this one (I have BYU-Wazzu starting at 9). Have fun on ESPNEWS for perhaps an hour.

Best Group of Five Game: Coastal Carolina at Appalachian State (Wednesday, 7:30, TSN1/TSN4) – I don’t know if I am in the minority but I like watching Sun Belt football. And despite App State’s success since their move up to FBS, last year’s performance by the Chants shone a huge light on the conference and proved that one of these years, their champion will make the New Year’s Six. This is probably the Sun Belt East Division championship. See? Divisions suck (no offense to the Ragin’ Cajuns of Louisiana).

Worst Power Five Game: Georgia Tech at Virginia (Noon, specialty pack) – Honestly, this isn’t too bad. For the worst of the week? I’ve seen much worse games in this spot. Not saying I’m watching the bulk of the game but I wouldn’t mind tuning in for a bit. For such a not-so-good week it seems to have a good mid-card set of matches.

Week 9

Game of the Week: Penn State at Ohio State (Noon, FOX) – Oh my. This could be…well, this could be an amazing game. Penn State should be finally back at least sniffing the Top 10 and tOSU is tOSU. This is almost a shoo-in to end up on BIG NOON SATURDAY.

Other Really Important Games: North Carolina at Notre Dame (7:30, NBC) – A second consecutive week that Notre Dame on NBC will be in primetime. If the Irish can somehow get through this rough two-game stretch they could be home-free the rest of the way. I will admit, I am a sucker for good primetime Notre Dame football on NBC. I don’t know what it is. It just feels special, kind of like when the SEC has their one primetime game on CBS every season.

Florida vs. Georgia (in Jacksonville) (3:30, CBS) – THE MOTHERFUCKING GOD DAMNED WORLD’S LARGEST OUTDOOR COCKTAIL PARTY!!!!! Perhaps you could put this at number one. I wouldn’t argue. I also wouldn’t argue if you said it would be the best football game played in Jacksonville all year. I still say an open bar is the way to go for Brad and Gary in this one. Imagine a drunk Gary Danielson crying over a call that went against Alabama three seasons ago? Actually, maybe we should cancel the open bar.

Iowa at Wisconsin (Noon, specialty pack) – The Big Ten West Championship game? Maybe? Honestly these are the only two teams I would trust to win the Big Ten, despite the fact they haven’t won all the West division titles. But would you trust Northwestern? Minnesota? NEBRASKA? I thought so.

Florida State at Clemson (3:30, ABC) – OK this might be a stretch. Especially since this is in Death Valley. But one of these years, FSU is going to beat Clemson and everyone is going to be left with their jaw on the floor. You might snicker at that but Pitt beat them at Clemson a few years back. So there is hope you Nole fans.

Sneaky-Good Underrated Game: Iowa State at West Virginia (Noon, ABC/TSN2) – I am not going to make the mistake of saying Dana Holgorsen is the Mountaineers’ head coach like last time. I mean, I miss him as WVU’s coach because he was in some big games meaning he would blow his stack more often than he does now at Houston. I wonder if he just drinks less Monster Energy or Red Bull or whatever he has ten of before Noon.

Best Group of Five Game: SMU at Houston (3:30, ESPN+) – I had to dig a bit deeper this week for a good Group of Five game. It was either this or Troy-Coastal Carolina. I am sticking with this one although the Sun Belt game is on Thursday night and at least on the specialty pack where as this one I have on ESPN+. Why? Same problem every year when we get into mid-October towards the end of the season: so many good conference games and only so many slots to put them in. Every so often the American gets the shaft. This looks like it will be one of those weeks.

Worst Power Five Game: Rutgers at Illinois (Noon, BTN) – Good lord. Just don’t. If it plays out the way I think it will, there is probably two games at this time meaning you wouldn’t get it even if you had the Big Ten Network. Probably for the best.

A mixed bag (as October usually is). But still…it’s a bag full of college football games. I am getting excited. I’m also getting a bit nervous as I know what I am like during those Saturdays. A completely unproductive glutton. I can live with the unproductive part but I am trying to get back into some semblance of decent shape after gaining a lot of weight during the pandemic. And the type of food I would eat on college football Saturdays is no bueno anymore…at least that amount of food. I might have to do food prep Friday night just to get through the day!

Still have not got a preview magazine although I haven’t really tried. Hoping the Athlon one (which is part of my subscription) comes in the mail soon. At least unlike last year, Indigo is open so I can go in and check it out one of these days. Also I am still going back and forth on whether to order the Phil Steele magazine. It’s rather expensive and takes a while to come in the mail. I might do the thing I did a few years back and pair it with the NFL magazine (if they do one) and get them shipped at the same time. It sucks because it means I wouldn’t get it until early August but it’s such a great magazine that I don’t know if I can not buy it, you know? If you have never seen the magazine before you don’t know but believe me, it’s PACKED with info. Can I really go into the season not knowing who the Rutgers long snapper will be?

Normally, the CFL would be starting their preseason soon. However, with the NBA and NHL seasons going into July this year and the U.S. Open coming up (yeah I watch the golf majors, don’t judge me), I won’t be missing football nearly as much. Instead it looks like the CFL will start August 5th with a slightly shortened schedule. And the Grey Cup will be moved into December and is in Hamilton. The only Grey Cup I’ve ever went to was the 1996 one that has been dubbed the Snow Bowl. It was cold, snowy, and a shit-ton of fun to watch. Maybe I will buy tickets to this one as long as they aren’t brutally expensive. OK so yeah I miss football. Have a great week everyone!

Bossman's Blog

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

Tag Archives: timeslots

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Brazil? – The Week 15 NFL TV Schedule

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The Week 5 College Football TV Schedule is important…but not as important as this

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So how are they going to follow that?

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OK now that Clay’s gone, who’s next? – Week 4 College Football TV Schedule

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