If you haven’t heard, there was a huge tragedy on the campus of the University of Virginia in Charlottesville. Three players on the Cavaliers, Lavel Davis, D’Sean Perry and Devin Chandler were killed in a shooting at the end of a field trip. Two other students were severely injured and are in hospital. The shooter is a former UVA football player. I have not heard anything about a motive. This is just awful. Seems like more senseless violence. I don’t know how the team is going to move on for the final two games of their season. At this point, it feels pointless to move on but many of them probably need football as a distraction to help healing and mourning the loss of their teammates and friends. Condolences to everyone at the University of Virginia. I would say hopefully lessons are learned from this but they never are, unfortunately.
UPDATE: The Virginia-Coastal Carolina game will not be played this Saturday. This does not affect Canadians and what they can watch but it is noteworthy. And also not surprising in the least. There is also no word about what will happen with the Commonwealth Cup game against Virginia Tech the following weekend.
Alright, it seems much less important this week but let’s get on with the schedule.
Tuesday
| US | Canada | ||
| Ohio at Ball State | 7:00 PM |  |  |
| Bowling Green at Toledo | 7:00 PM |  | |
A couple of big MACtion games to start the week. If the Bobcats can beat Ball State and the Rockets beat Bowling Green, then Toledo will help Ohio win the MAC East. This would mean that Ohio would go to Ford Field in a couple weeks to face…Toledo. Interesting how that works out.
Wednesday
| US | Canada | ||
| Eastern Michigan at Kent State | 6:00 PM | | |
| Miami-OH at Northern Illinois | 7:00 PM |  | |
| Western Michigan at Central Michigan | 8:00 PM | | |
If Ohio loses the previous night, then the EMU-KSU game becomes quite a bit more important as the MAC East will still be up for grabs. Otherwise we got some bowl-eligibility issues here: Kent State, Miami-OH and Central Michigan all have to win to keep their bowl game chances alive.
Thursday
| US | Canada | ||
| SMU at #21 Tulane | 7:30 PM |  | |
Only one game Thursday night (not even a game on a network Canadians can’t get). It’s a big game for the Green Wave as they absolutely need to win this one to stay alive for a berth in the AAC Championship.
Friday
| US | Canada | ||
| USF at Tulsa | 9:00 PM | |  |
One game here. TSN is picking it up. I don’t know why because it means nothing. Neither team can go bowling.
Saturday Early
| US | Canada | ||
| Navy at #17 UCF | 11:00 AM | | |
| Illinois at #3 Michigan | Noon |  | |
| Duke at Pittsburgh | Noon |  | |
| Indiana at Michigan State | Noon |  | |
| UConn at Army | Noon | | |
| Wisconsin at Nebraska | Noon | | |
| Yale at Harvard | Noon | | |
| #4 TCU at Baylor | Noon |  | |
| Florida at Vanderbilt | Noon |  | |
I’d say the most interesting game here is the TCU-Baylor game. It’s your classic trap game as the Bears are a good team and the game is in Waco. The other truly interesting one out of the bunch is the Wisky-Nebraska game in the Big Ten West Chaos Carnival. No one is in the driver’s seat (but the Huskers aren’t on the trip at all). All the teams are in seats on the bus trying to see who can last to the final stop. I think I got that analogy right.
Yes, you see that right. We have morning football. ESPN2 still has their quadrupleheader but it starts an hour early. I will explain more later in the post. And yes, you see that right. Yale and Harvard, once again, appearing on ESPNU. Despite the fact there are other teams that might deserve that spot, it’s nice to see ESPN embracing FCS football. I just wish they would do that when Gameday goes to an FCS school, like this Saturday when they head to Bozeman for the Brawl of the Wild between Montana and Montana State. That game is on at 2 in the afternoon on ESPN+. Ridiculous. Give it the late ESPNU spot for Christ’s sake!
Finally, a little bit about the UConn bowl situation. The Huskies are bowl-eligible. They do, however, have to hope that there are not enough teams to fill all the spots. There is no guarantee for them as they have no tie-in to any other bowl. Even worse, Liberty is in the same boat and is ranked way ahead of them so will get the first chance when a bowl doesn’t have two teams to fulfill the tie-ins. So the program is still fingers crossed to make a bowl as it’s not set in stone just yet.
Saturday Afternoon
| US | Canada | ||
| Washington State at Arizona | 2:00 PM |  |  |
| #25 Oregon State at Arizona State | 2:15 PM | | |
| Boston College at #18 Notre Dame | 2:30 PM |  | |
| #2 Ohio State at Maryland | 3:30 PM | | |
| NC State at Louisville | 3:30 PM | | |
| #11 Penn State at Rutgers | 3:30 PM | | |
| #1 Georgia at Kentucky | 3:30 PM |  | |
| Akron at Buffalo | 3:30 PM | | |
| Miami at #9 Clemson | 3:30 PM | | |
| South Alabama at Southern Miss | 3:30 PM |  | |
| #22 Cincinnati at Temple | 4:00 PM | | |
| Iowa at Minnesota | 4:00 PM | | |
| WKU at Auburn | 4:00 PM | | |
| Georgia Tech at #13 North Carolina | 5:30 PM | | |
| Stanford at California | 5:30 PM | | |
This might be the biggest afternoon schedule I have ever seen. Saying that, it’s definitely quantity over quality as there isn’t a ton here to whet the appetite. What does this mean? We are in for something crazy. It never fails.
I talked about TCU’s trap game earlier. You could say the same for Georgia here. I like UGA’s chances more than TCU’s obviously but if the Dawgs let the Cats stay around into the fourth quarter, expect a lot of nervous Georgia fans around the country. The Big Ten West Round Robin Fun-Time Carousel continues in this timeslot with Iowa and Minnesota facing off to see if we can get some clarity going into the final regular season week.
UPDATE #2: Akron-Buffalo has been postponed due to the snowstorm that has already hit the Buffalo area and moved this weekend’s Bills game to Detroit. The game is reportedly going to be moved to Sunday but I don’t see that happening with what the area will be like through the end of the weekend.
Saturday Primetime
| US | Canada | ||
| Boise State at Wyoming | 7:00 PM | | |
| #5 Tennessee at South Carolina | 7:00 PM | | |
| #24 Oklahoma State at Oklahoma | 7:30 PM | | |
| New Mexico State at Missouri | 7:30 PM | | |
| #14 Ole Miss at Arkansas | 7:30 PM | | |
| Syracuse at Wake Forest | 8:00 PM | | |
| #7 USC at #16 UCLA | 8:00 PM | | |
A huge Pac-12 game that could have been one of the biggest in years if the Bruins hadn’t blown a gasket against Arizona, of all teams, last weekend. Plus the Oklahoma Sooners are in a very odd spot, at least for this program: they need a win to become bowl-eligible in November. This is a stark difference to some Bedlam games of the past decade or so where it was the Pokes who needed that win badly to play some postseason ball. The Sooners don’t need to win this one but if they lose here they only have one more shot to keep their bowl game streak going.
Saturday Late Night
| US | Canada | ||
| UAB at #6 LSU | 9:00 PM | | |
| Colorado at #15 Washington | 9:00 PM | | |
| Fresno State at Nevada | 10:30 PM | | |
| #10 Utah at #12 Oregon | 10:30 PM | | |
So the entire reason for ESPN2 starting their schedule at 11 in the morning is so that LSU could host UAB on the station at night? Are you fucking serious? That might be one of the dumbest things I’ve heard. The schedule could have easily been shuffled around to accommodate this in a normal way but ESPN is really upping how much they kowtow to the SEC. It’s probably a good thing the Big Ten is leaving for FOX. Also here we have the other high stakes Pac-12 match of the weekend that is, once again, a little less high stakes than it could have been. Both the Utes and Ducks still have Pac-12 Championship and New Year’s Six opportunities available…well, one will after this game.
Big Games O’ The Week
USC at UCLA (8:00, FOX) – I don’t remember a time when I’ve done this blog where the Pac-12 is the conference to watch on any given week. I think every other Power Five conference has had their week to shine (with the SEC and Big Ten having a lot of weeks to shine) but this may be a first for the Pac-12 on this blog. Look, a USC win may move them up to #6 or even #5 going into the final regular season week. It clinches their spot in the Pac-12 Championship Game and possibly sets them up to return to glory. A UCLA win doesn’t fully eliminate any team but makes it a lot tougher for any team from the conference to get to the College Football Playoff. What it does do, though, is cause massive Pac-12 chaos inside the conference which is also fun…for me at least.
Utah at Oregon (10:30, TSN2) – Hey a TSN quadrupleheader! That’s nice. What’s not so nice? This is probably the high water mark for TSN college football coverage this season. I will explain later. Anyway, the other big Pac-12 game this week pits two teams who still have big aspirations which hopefully lead to a Rose Bowl spot. No matter the result, there will still be a bit of chaos left in the Pac-12 to just determine it’s title game participants. Thankfully there are no divisions this year as it’s so much better to just have the best teams in.
Illinois at Michigan (12:00, ABC/TSN2) – Most years, this has the makings of a blowout. Not this time around. Yes it’s in the Big House so the Wolverines have a big home field advantage. Other than that though, this is not a game Michigan should take lightly. Illinois still has a shot at the Big Ten West title but a few other things have to go their way. A win here REALLY helps though. Michigan is heading into The Game with Ohio State and a win here, coupled with Ohio State winning, would set up the biggest matchup since…well, you could say last year but I would say since 2016’s double overtime classic.
Georgia at Kentucky (3:30, CBS) – This could be the game of a lifetime for Mark Stoops and Kentucky if they could pull off the upset. It would also completely upset the college football apple cart with very little time left. Let’s be honest though: it’s going to take a lot for the Cats to keep this close. Hopefully they have watched UGA’s games against Kent State and Missouri to figure out the best approach.
TCU at Baylor (Noon, FOX) – Dave Aranda’s Baylor Bears could throw a huge monkey wrench into TCU’s national title plans. If they beat the Horned Frogs, that probably spells the end for TCU’s CFP hopes. TCU has to be very careful with this one. It is the very definition of a college football speed bump game.
Tennessee at South Carolina (7:00, TSN2) – So it drops off a bit of a cliff after the first five games. But this could be a sneaky good one. Tennessee is not out of the College Football Playoff conversation just yet. South Carolina could put the nail in that coffin and potentially destroy the Vols’ New Year’s Six possibilities in one fell swoop if they can pull off the upset in Columbia.
Psycho Game of the Week
USF at Tulsa (Friday, 9:00, TSN2) – The Bulls are here for a second straight week. I would call that a trend. I get that TSN2, somehow, has nothing to air that night so this goes there by default. But of all the games to show. You know what, TSN? You’d be better off showing Best of Curling or World’s Most Incredible Darts Throws or something like that. This is terrible.
Hubba Bubba Blowout of the Week
Colorado at Washington (9:00, Pac-12 Network) – Man, Colorado is bad. Worst Power Five team? It’s between them and Northwestern. Maybe they should play a bowl game to determine the worst of the worst. The Huskies should annihilate Colorado here in a game that might be long over by halftime.
The Degenerate Portion of Our Show
Time for my picks for the upcoming week of college football. Is there any basis for these picks? Not really. I mostly wing it.
- Ball State (+3.5) over Ohio (and the mild upset win!)
- Central Michigan (-11) over Western Michigan
- Navy (+16.5) over UCF (they’ll cover but not win)
- Northwestern (+20) over Purdue (the Boilermakers will win though)
- Illinois (+18) over Michigan (covering but not winning)
- TCU (-2.5) over Baylor
- Oregon State (-8) over Arizona State
- South Alabama (-7.5) over Southern Miss
- Penn State (-19.5) over Rutgers
- Miami (+19) over Clemson (the Canes will cover but the Tigers will win this one)
- Minnesota (-2.5) over Iowa
- Wyoming (+14) over Boise State (the Broncos will end up with the win)
- Ole Miss (-2.5) over Arkansas
- Oregon (-3) over Utah
OK an explanation about the TSN comment I made earlier. Normally, the final week of the regular season would bring at least 8 games on TSN if not up to 13 or 14. TSN would go all in because the CFL would be done for the season. Just like this year, the Grey Cup lands on Week 12 of the college football season. One wrinkle, though: the World Cup. It begins Sunday. TSN and CTV are showing every game of the tournament. If I just take a look at the schedule, it means the following:
- It’s almost a guarantee that there will be on early Black Friday games aired on TSN.
- TSN 2, 4 and 5 are available for afternoon/night Black Friday games.
- The next day (Saturday, American Thanksgiving weekend) might be mostly out for college football games as there are World Cup games that overlap the early and afternoon windows. I can see TSN stepping up for primetime and late night games, though.
So, 14 games? Not going to happen. 10? Doubtful. Maybe they get back to that 8 mark but it will be dicey. Is this one of the reasons why the World Cup shouldn’t be in November and December? Yes. But it’s far down the list. Like WAY down the list. Remember…it’s in Qatar. That’s all you got to say.
Tomorrow you should get the bowl projection and rankings post and on Thursday the NFL post. Not guaranteeing anything but this is the time of year where staying on schedule is pretty imperative. Enjoy the games everyone!
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