It’s been too damn long since I’ve written a post directed solely to college football. Annnnnnnnnnnnnnnnd….this won’t be one either. I did not do a full NFL draft review post because, honestly, I didn’t feel like it. There are enough reviews of the draft so I can put a paragraph or two at the end of this post and that should suffice. I will say it was nice to watch that. And then to watch some actual college football? An absolute delight. The FCS, as a whole, has got a lot of publicity with this Spring season. To play games on ESPN and even ABC is huge for some of those teams. Don’t be surprised when realignment talk starts again (and oh it will), that some of these teams that got big national audiences in April and May surface as possible FBS teams.
Anyway, now to the task at hand: the upcoming 2021 college football schedules. At least this year I am almost 100% positive that games won’t be cancelled except for reasons that aren’t COVID-related but those rarely happen. I’m doing this a tiny bit later than I normally do so if for some reason you were waiting for these posts, I apologize. As the saying goes, life sometimes gets in the way. I will say the same thing I have said every year I have done this. Very few of the games are confirmed. I will try and note if they are in these important game posts. A lot more should be set by the time I get to network-specific schedule posts but even then, it’s really a crapshoot once October comes around.
Saying that, there are a few probables. Like let’s be honest here: the Iron Bowl will be on CBS. The only way this doesn’t happen is if both teams are somehow under .500. I’d bet everything I have (which isn’t much) on that not being the case. So you can be rest assured some things will be the same as they’ve always been.
For the fourth year in a row, the Important Games list will be broken down week-by-week and then as per the following:
- Game of the Week – This is my opinion of the game of the week. It may differ from your opinion. That is OK. Because the next part is…
- Other Really Important Games – See? One of these games might be your game of the week choice.
- Sneaky-Good Underrated Game – Some games are underrated. I will try to find one each week that could fulfill that criterion.
- Best Group of Five Game – Pretty self-explanatory but has to have TWO G5 teams involved.
- Worst Power Five Game – Just like above, except the opposite (with two P5 teams involved).
The “Other Really Important Games” section is the one section where the number of games I include may vary. In some weeks you will only see one or two. Others there may be like seven. We pretty much know which weeks will have better games and which ones won’t so it shouldn’t be much of a surprise.
SOUND THE TRUMPETS! Hear ye, hear ye! It’s time for the commencement of the Bossman’s Blog college football blog posting season: the ranking of the weeks. If you were looking for something similar to every other year then ho boy are you in for a shock…again. For all that stays the same with college football, these weekly rankings have been changing a fair bit lately. Just a reminder that I list the week and the date that corresponds to the Saturday of that week so you can follow along at home:
- Week 10 (November 6)
- Week 13 (November 27 – American Thanksgiving)
- Week 5 (October 2)
- Week 9 (October 30)
- Week 1 (September 4)
- Week 7 (October 16)
- Week 12 (November 20)
- Week 11 (November 13)
- Week 8 (October 23)
- Week 6 (October 9)
- Week 3 (September 18)
- Week 4 (September 25)
- Week 2 (September 11)
First off, same as last year there are thirteen weeks to the regular season. Do I like this? I have not changed my stance from last year that no I do not like this. Honestly I would prefer 14 if not 15 weeks in a season. I understand there are issues there when it comes to the schools and players’ courses but for the health and safety of the players, this is a no-brainer. Which means the NCAA will take another decade to figure this out. For the first time since they did that Sunday night Notre Dame-Texas thriller years ago, Week 1 is really good. Top 5 even! There are some great games to start the season and that is what college football needs this season: a strong start. American Thanksgiving moves up to second but still hasn’t regained its crown. Weeks 10 looks ridiculously good. Honestly, all of November is great, even the former SEC Sleepwalk Saturday which I really can’t call it that anymore because it’s a good week now. October is a big drop from last year as it feels like we are really easing into the end of the season and then building to the November crescendo, if you will. Then there’s September. Ouch. After Week 1 it’s a bit of a shitshow. As per usual, there are a couple of potential games of the year in there with a lot of crap surrounding it. Meaning at least one of those weeks will end up being the most exciting week of the year. Why? It’s what the college football universe has decided. I don’t make the rules.
Now it’s time for the weekly breakdowns. Many of the TSN times will be wrong but hey, it’s May. If the game time has been confirmed it will be in bold. Let’s GO!
Week 1
Game of the Week: Georgia vs. Clemson (in Charlotte) (7:30, ABC) – Wow this is quite the game of the week to start the season. College football is seriously not fucking around. I mean don’t get me wrong, it’s a neutral-site game which I am not the fondest of but I understand the reasoning behind them (spoiler: it’s money). You can honestly say this game is a Game of the Year candidate right off the hop. Let’s also be honest here: when the College Football Playoff expands to 8 teams, you could make the argument that this game isn’t nearly as big since a loss doesn’t even close to eliminate either of these teams from contention. It will be interesting to see who gets the bigger start on the road to topple Bama from their throne. Clemson is the favourite here but there will be a lot of questions after losing Trevor Lawrence and Travis Etienne in the NFL Draft. Both teams are at least New Year’s Six or bust but the winner takes a step up in their bid for the College Football Playoff which is still four teams.
Other Really Important Games: Alabama vs. Miami (in Atlanta) (3:30, ABC) – Maybe the ACC and SEC should do an opening week ACC-SEC Challenge from now on. Who the hell says no to this? I mean yes it means that you will get a Duke-Vanderbilt game possibly somewhere but if you don’t want to head to the ACC or SEC Network then don’t. No one is forcing you to. But with the annual Labour Day game that seems to always end up being the SEC and ACC to opening up the day before Labour Day for college football and neutral-site games all over the place, this might be a good idea. I’m sure there’s a party pooper out there that would say it’s a dumb idea but that might also be the same person who thinks scheduling games two decades out makes sense. Anyway, Bama will probably win by three touchdowns. NEXT!
Penn State at Wisconsin (4:00, FOX) – At least FOX has realized that opening weekend is a good weekend to at least try and get a good slate of games on. Now if they can just realize that for the rest of the weeks during the regular season that only getting one good game to show with two mediocre ones after is not the greatest approach to grow a fanbase. It looks like the Big Ten will be a huge part of FOX’s opening week which is no surprise since the B1G is to FOX like the SEC is to CBS (almost). Both of these teams looking to rebound from bad years (at least for each of these programs). The Big Ten West is always wide open so the Badgers have as good a chance as any team not named Illinois. The Nittany Lions will be looking up once again at Ohio State so every game is huge and these are the games they have to win to have a shot at a division title. I wish they would just do away with division titles but let’s not start that talk again. Speaking of the Buckeyes…
Ohio State at Minnesota (Thursday, 8:00, FOX) – Will this be close? Probably not but it’s an early Big Ten game on a night that Ohio State is not used to playing. And now with no Justin Fields, we shall see if it’s steady as she goes for Ryan Day or a bit of stress and a higher blood pressure for Ryan Day. See what I mean about FOX really stepping up this opening weekend? This is the first Thursday night FOX college football regular season game ever if I’m not mistaken.
Indiana at Iowa (Noon, FOX) – The third straight FOX game and the third straight Big Ten game. The Big Ten may have a good idea here with putting a few big conference games during Week One when pretty much no other conference is doing so. I guess that’s the advantage of having nine conference games instead of eight. Both of these teams have to be considered dark-horse contenders this season. No one will put them in their College Football Playoff predictions. Hell, I’m sure most won’t put either team in their New Year’s Six predictions. I haven’t done my predictions yet but I have a feeling that will be the case with me. And that’s fine since I wouldn’t mind either of these teams surprising a lot of people and being in contention late into November.
LSU at UCLA (8:00, FOX) – Four of the most important games of the week are on FOX (from what I believe). That’s FOX’s entire weekend schedule. Seriously impressive. And something ABC does rarely and ESPN does never. Here’s to hoping LSU is at least not worse than last year’s team (which they have the reasons why so I can give them that) and that UCLA is better than what they’ve been the past few years. Many believe both those things will be true so we could be in for a great end to at least the Saturday portion of the 5-day Labour Day College Football Fiesta.
Sneaky-Good Underrated Game: Ole Miss at Louisville (Monday, 8:00, TSN1/TSN4/TSN5) – Maybe some will consider this not so underrated. Louisville was much better under Scott Satterfield this past season and, well, Lane Kiffin is Lane Kiffin. But until either or both of these teams shows some serious Top 25 consistency, I can’t buy that we would be looking at one of the best games of the week. Both teams have almost no chance to win their conference considering the teams on top but they could certainly put a scare in those same top teams if they are better than advertised. We may look back at this game and realize this was, in actuality, a huge game in the battle for a New Year’s Six spot.
Best Group of Five Game: Boise State at UCF (Thursday, 7:30, TSN2) – Interesting that I have the chance to watch games on all sorts of different networks now and the best games of Week One will all be available quite easily in Canada. C’est la vie. Boise State has a very interesting part of the Mountain West’s new television deals (which started last year but really do come into play starting this season). FOX gets ALL of Boise State’s home games on the season so there’s a good chance at least one time that the Broncos will get to the main network which would be huge for the conference. CBS gets all of Boise State’s conference road games. I don’t know if any of those will be shown late night on CBS (which is the plan at least once this season) but if I were them I would try and do so. As for the other couple games that Boise State has, they can be shown anywhere. Like this one, which will probably be on ESPN. Bizarre? Not really for a team that should have been picked up by the Big XII by now and is somewhat stuck in a Group of Five conference. A good Group of Five conference but a G-5 conference nonetheless.
Worst Power Five Game: Oregon State at Purdue (3:30, Big Ten Network) – I had to go through a lot of games to find this one. The next worst game? Stanford and Kansas State in Arlington. And this isn’t a part of Week One having a much better schedule than normal. Week One is not really known for too many P5 vs. P5 games so it’s slim pickings trying to find a really bad one. We will really see if either of these teams are worse than what they were last year: probably near the bottom of their conferences but honestly not that bad and a couple of breaks away from a bowl game.
Week 2
Game of the Week: Oregon at Ohio State (Noon, FOX) – Hey, how about that? Same two teams occupy the Game of the Week spot for Week 2 and have to be considered a Game of the Year candidate. I will not refer to the Oregon Ducks as the defending Pac-12 North champions. They didn’t fucking win the division. They only went to the Pac-12 Championship because Washington couldn’t due to COVID. See this would have been a great year for USC to have been Top 5 and looking at a College Football Playoff spot and it’s ruined by a 4-3 team. Considering what some people want, Oregon would have to also be put in the CFP. How stupid is that? It’s really fucking stupid.
Other Really Important Games: Washington at Michigan (7:30, ABC/TSN2) – Not fully confirmed for TSN2 but it will be on at least one TSN channel. This could be a lot better than the two teams have been as of late. Washington hasn’t hit the heights from early on in the Chris Petersen era. And, Michigan is Michigan under Jim Harbaugh. Usually good for at least 8 wins and a loss to Ohio State. Big Blue can’t be as bad as they were last year can they? No one thinks that but you never know. This shows how bad Week 2 is since this may not even be an important game in the New Year’s Six story of the season.
Iowa at Iowa State (3:30, FOX) – Iowa State should be back in the Big XII title mix this season. And Iowa has one of the longest tenured head coaches, Kirk Ferentz, who is good for at least one Ferentzing every season. It’s why he gets these crazy contracts and great bonuses for a team that is almost never a Top 10 team. Saying that, I would love to see one of these two teams on the precipice of the CFP because it needs some new blood, especially from non-blue blood programs.
Texas at Arkansas (7:00, specialty pack) – The first appearance of the specialty pack in this year’s important games series. Not quite the Game of the Century of 1969…ok not even close to that. But Arkansas is somehow trending in the right direction with one of the more popular coaches in college football nowadays and we get to see what Steve Sarkisian is really all about. I sincerely hope he does well and doesn’t fall off the wagon again. Now that doesn’t mean I want Texas to win the national championship. I just mean I want Sark to have a good time in Austin and for people in Austin to give him a chance. OK, I’m now officially worried for his well-being.
Sneaky-Good Underrated Game: Missouri at Kentucky (7:30, specialty pack) – This will be buried in the schedule but could end up being a gem for the SEC Network. We have two teams that really are on the rise (and in the Cats’ case, again). It’s never the case that the SEC East is wide open but you need to win games like this to have a shot at the division title. Kentucky knows that from a few years back when they still had a shot in November to clinch a spot in the SEC Championship. I kind of wish this somehow gets to ESPN or ESPN2 but I doubt it. And no, it won’t go to CBS, I’m almost certain of it.
Best Group of Five Game: Liberty at Troy (2:00, ESPN+) – Yes…ESPN+. It was either this or UTEP-Boise State which I have going to FOX Sports One which, yes, is a better network. But the Broncos should win that one by about 50 whereas this game should be fairly competitive. It will be very interesting to see if the Flames are as good as they were last season. It was funny watching the begrudging respect from so-called open minded college football media members last year so I hope they do well again this season. Maybe, Conference USA finally gets their act together and invites them (unless the Sun Belt or even, dare I say, the American gets to them first).
Worst Power Five Game: Rutgers at Syracuse (Noon, ACC Network) – Funny I had these same two teams in this exact same spot last season before shit went sideways. At least this season it would go to the proper network, unlike last year where the rumour was it would be on FOX because FOX just doesn’t care about their primetime window nearly as much as they should. Again, I had other options here. The one that stood out most was Illinois-Virginia but I think that might end up being good. Just the Bronco Mendenhall-Bret Bielema coaching matchup is intriguing in itself. RU-SU has none of that intrigue. Zero.
Week 3
Game of the Week: Alabama at Florida (3:30, CBS) – This will have serious national championship implications but I don’t need to tell you that. Now could this end up as a primetime game for CBS? Possibly and it wouldn’t surprise me if they do it just for the fact that it would then be on at night and not in the afternoon where the players (and fans) would bake in the Gainesville sun. This is a rematch of the SEC Championship where the Gators honestly looked like they could beat the Tide which is surprising considering how good Bama was last year. It was the only time where the Tide looked like they were in trouble. I wouldn’t even mind seeing a Bama loss here as it would make the SEC season, if not the entire college football season, a lot more interesting.
Other Really Important Games: Auburn at Penn State (7:30, ABC) – OK we’re still doing good with the high-profile games. A definite step down from the Game of the Week but still a great game. It was also really the only choice for ABC in primetime, especially since Boise State can’t be on the network for any of their home games and I can’t see them putting Cincinnati-Indiana on in that spot (although that would be a great idea in my opinion). Two teams who have definitely taken a step, or two, back from previous seasons. This should be a highly heated matchup as a loss could be devastating and portend not-so-good things to come on their season.
Nebraska at Oklahoma (Noon, FOX) – The story of this game was almost too good to be true. Nebraska was trying desperately to get out of this game. Social media found out and, predictably, took a huge creamy dump all over the Huskers organization. In the end, they relented and kept this game on the schedule. This is Scott Frost’s biggest chance since coming to Lincoln to put a huge stamp on the program and show that they are turning the corner. A win here, as unlikely as it seems, would be the jolt the program needs to get back to prominence. Now watch the Sooners win by 60.
Cincinnati at Indiana (4:00, FOX) – I would say FOX is kicking ABC/ESPN’s ass early on. I mean they are but when it’s a week like this it doesn’t exactly mean a whole lot. It’s a pretty good drop from the second best game of the week which was already a drop from the Game of the Week. Much like last year’s Week 3 (or what it was supposed to be) this week is such a shit sandwich. Meaning there is a very good opportunity for it to be an exciting and crazy week of college football, something that happens at least once a season.
Sneaky-Good Underrated Game: Oklahoma State at Boise State (3:30, FOX Sports One) – Could this end up on the main FOX network? If they take all of their broadcast windows seriously, then yes. Which is why I have this game on FS1. At least it’s not like last season when the Broncos were slated to host Florida State on FOX at Noon Eastern, 10:00 in the morning local. Not saying they won’t have to do that in the future to get that big national audience but it’s a tough introduction to Big Noon Saturday (if it had ended up happening). Hey, maybe this game will end up at Noon. May be a better option than Nebraska-Oklahoma even if it’s just to promote the Mountain West.
Best Group of Five Game: Coastal Carolina at Buffalo (3:30, ESPN+) – Look I’m going to be honest again here. I go through the season, setting up these schedules based on what I believe will happen by using current TV contract info and what has happened over the past year or two. This does not mean that all the “choices” I make are good ones or ones that I agree with. I may change my mind even before I start doing these posts. This feels like a game, if it were in October, would easily be on ESPNU if not ESPN2. So between now and the network-specific posts, I may change my mind. This will be the first test to see if the Chants are as good as advertised and potentially a Group of Five favourite for the NY6 spot.
Worst Power Five Game: Baylor at Kansas (Thursday, 8:00, specialty pack) – This is more for Kansas than it is for Baylor. Not saying the Bears are great because it was a struggle last year in Dave Aranda’s first season in Waco. But until the Jayhawks show they can contend for a bowl game on a consistent basis, they will be treated like the Big XII’s ugly redheaded stepchild. The hope is that the hire of Lance Leipold to coach the team will be a good one. It should be but we won’t see any of that good stuff this season. They should feel lucky that they get to be on ESPN, even if it is on a Thursday night up against the NFL.
There you go. The first three weeks are complete. And it’s the first official blog post for what should be a much more normal college football season. 96 days to the start of a regular regular season. With fans in the stands. Maybe not full stadiums but man, hearing fans is so much better than the empty arenas.
Now, let’s have that quick talk about the draft. It was nice to see fans there in Cleveland despite the chilly weather. It was nice to see Roger Goodell there even though him in his barcalounger was pretty damn funny. I wonder how many fans just farted their brains out on that chair on stage. I followed along with my mock draft and saw it was crap after the first few picks, as per usual. I got a couple right later on but was way off on some. It is what it is. I won’t do a recap. There are too many out there and I might be repeating what they say. The Jags got Lawrence. The Jets got Wilson. The 49ers reached for Lance (in my opinion) but it was a better choice than Mac Jones who ended up a Patriot. The Bears may have made the smartest move in the draft. Yes the same Bears who traded up to get Mitchell Trubisky traded up this time to get Justin Fields in a trade that most everyone thought was brilliant. The team I cheer for, the Buffalo Bills, did alright. Not great but then again, they didn’t have serious needs. They just needed to shore up some areas. All in all, it was a good watch and I enjoyed it, even watching Mel Kiper try valiantly to keep his blood pressure from going through the roof with some of the picks.
Alright this felt good. It’s a bit cathartic to do this post. I’ve been through a pretty crazy last 15 months and now that my life (and hopefully, soon, life in this province) is getting back to normal, this is one of the final parts that need to return, so to speak. Make my life as whole as it was before my life turned upside-down (not that it’s an amazing life but it wasn’t bad at the time). Anyway, have a great Victoria Day, whatever you decide to do and have a great (and short!) work week as well…unless you don’t work Monday to Friday. In that case, still have a good week even if you aren’t working all those days.
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