I can finally seriously post about college football again! Not draft stuff: actual college football blog posts. It feels almost cathartic to me to be honest. Schedules are now pretty much out although games will change days as we go along. FBSchedules has started to release their popular (to me at least) helmet schedules. And I ordered my Phil Steele College Football Preview magazine. AND I am also looking to when other preview mags will appear in stores. So yeah, I am starting to think about college football.
Starting a lot earlier with the posts this year as well. And by a lot earlier I mean one day earlier. As for accuracy, do not take these lists as gospel. As the season goes on, it may turn out that some teams are way better than I thought and vice versa. It happens. For example, FOX has made it so the best games will definitely be the Noon games on their broadcast network this season. Not that we needed proof since this is what happened last year as well at least half the time. But let’s say that, for reasons that would always be unclear, FOX moved The Game (Ohio State vs. Michigan for the uneducated college football fan) to the 4:00 EST time slot and put, oh, Northwestern-Illinois in at Noon instead. One of two things would have had to have happened:
- Northwestern is Northwestern and Lovie Smith somehow made Illinois a Top 25 team, or
- To the pure joy of almost every non-Big Ten fan (and every fan outside Ann Arbor and Columbus), Ohio State and Michigan both suck.
So at this point I feel safe putting The Game there instead of the Sweet Sioux Tomahawk, uh, I mean, um *checks Wikipedia* the Land of Lincoln Trophy. Seriously? That sounds so boring.
Disclaimer: Just so you know, some of the broadcast info may change between now and the time I do my network-specific posts. I said it above and I have to say it again. And I understand that. Bear with me. Or don’t. I don’t care. (Note: this disclaimer has been entered in this post every year since the beginning of Bossman’s Blog time…since I am sure people might gripe about my non-accurate information)
For the second year in a row, the Important Games list will be broken down week-by-week and then as per the following:
- Game of the Week – This is my opinion of the game of the week. It may differ from your opinion. That is OK. Because the next part is…
- Other Really Important Games – See? One of these games might be your game of the week choice.
- Sneaky-Good Underrated Game – Some games are underrated. I will try to find one each week that could fulfill that criterion.
- Best Group of Five Game – Pretty self-explanatory but has to have TWO G5 teams involved.
- Worst Power Five Game – Just like above, except the opposite (with two P5 teams involved).
The “Other Really Important Games” section is the one section where the number of games I include may vary. In some weeks you will only see one or two. Others there may be like seven. We pretty much know which weeks will have better games and which ones won’t so it shouldn’t be much of a surprise.
Let us begin the way I always begin this ordeal/exercise: the weekly rankings. Normally it is the same every year but, lo and behold, this year we see something different. Interesting… (remember, I list the week and the date that corresponds to the Saturday of that week):
- Week 14 (November 30 – American Thanksgiving)
- Week 7 (October 12)
- Week 9 (October 26)
- Week 12 (November 16)
- Week 8 (October 19)
- Week 4 (September 21)
- Week 11 (November 9)
- Week 6 (October 5)
- Week 5 (September 28)
- Week 13 (November 23)
- Week 3 (September 14)
- Week 1 (August 31)
- Week 10 (November 2)
- Week 2 (September 7)
First off, 14 weeks instead of 13. More college football? Sounds good to me. A couple of years back when Week 1 was huge, many wondered if it was a harbinger of things to come. Not so. This year’s Week 1 doesn’t have many huge games at all. To be completely honest, Week Zero has, arguably, one of the games of the year with Florida and Miami facing off. American Thanksgiving is back on top, beating out the second-best week (Week 7) by a good margin. Not to say Week 7 isn’t good. It is (along with Weeks 9, 12 and 8). But here’s the craziest thing. SEC Shitbreak Week is not the worst week though this season. Not even close! It is only the fifth-worst week. It may have got to the point that I can’t make fun of the SEC (and any other conference) playing FCS teams that week…oh come on I will still do that but I have to tone it down a bit. For the second consecutive year, Week 2 is the worst and it is the worst by a mile. I would honestly even rate Week Zero higher just because of the one good game. Problem is, they have two potential games of the year. Then the week falls off a steep cliff. It’s the secondary games that are making it look seriously bad. But it’s still college football so I will watch of course. I am sure Bell and Rogers will not show Week Zero games so fingers crossed the UF-Miami game ends up on a TSN station or two.
Now it’s time for the weekly breakdowns. I will be guessing with quite a few of them, especially when it comes to TSN coverage. I will be using last year’s schedule as a basis for this but I know it won’t be fully accurate. Keep that in mind. At least the lists of games I will be presenting should, for the most part, be important games throughout the 2019 college football season. Let’s go!
Week 1
Game of the Week: Auburn vs. Oregon (in Arlington) (7:30, ABC/TSN3) – So I see ABC has moved to all 7:30 start times for it’s primetime games. Not that it matters to me since I am up until like 2 in the morning anyway but for many people, to have the game done around 11 is huge. By the way, this game is the biggest by a fair bit for Week 1. Means that the emphasis is back off opening week, somewhat. And what we have here is two dark horse contenders for the national title. A loss here is a huge blow to their CFP chances.
Other Really Important Games: Georgia Tech at Clemson (Thursday, 8:00, specialty pack) – The ACC Network starts out with a bang as they scored this game for opening Thursday. Been a while since two teams that were this good played on opening night. It’s a lock that the Tigers will be a great team again this year despite all the losses on defense. It will be interesting to see how Georgia Tech fares in their first game under new coach Geoff Collins. The Ramblin’ Wreck could throw an insanely huge monkey wrench into the season right off the hop with an upset here.
Houston at Oklahoma (Sunday, 7:30, ABC) – Glad to see ABC continuing to do the Labour Day Sunday games still. Always nice to have some football on a day where there will be, well, nothing but perhaps drinking. I am very curious as to how the Dana Holgorsen experiment will go in H-Town. And I am sure the broadcasters will mention it a few thousand times as well. I can’t see an upset here but Houston is notoriously a tough out for most teams.
Northwestern at Stanford (7:00, absolutely fucking nowhere up here) – I am taking a guess here with this one as I have it on FOX Sports One which means Canadians would, for the most part, not be able to see it. FOX might decide to put this in either the 3:30 or 7:30 timeslot, however, considering that this week is weak. Stanford has no excuses now about jetlag and their body clocks being earlier since this would be an afternoon game most likely.
Sneaky-Good Underrated Game: Boise State vs. Florida State (in Jacksonville) (7:00, TSN2) – This is going to be an interesting year for the Seminoles. They have had two bad seasons (in FSU terms) in a row. This is the kind of high-profile game they need to win. On the other side of the field, Boise State gonna Boise State. A win here and they take the early lead in the Group of Five spot in the New Year’s Six.
Best Group of Five Game: FIU at Tulane (Thursday, 8:00, CBS Sports Network) – Hear me out here. Both of these teams could end up being good, in a G5 sense. Butch Davis and Willie Fritz have done nice jobs here and hope to continue their ascent (and potentially a new Power Five job down the line). Also, this is probably the only time you will see FIU or Tulane in this list so enjoy!
Worst Power Five Game: Oklahoma State at Oregon State (Friday, 10:30, specialty pack) – Oregon State is here again in the Week 1 WGOTW (Worst Game of the Week). So it’s OSU Bowl II: Mulletmania this time around. The thing is this is better than the Best G5 game which pretty much never happens. Anyway, this will probably end up being late Friday night in the middle of the Labour Day Weekend-Plus Footballgasm so I can see it being easily missed. I mean I will watch it but that’s not saying much.
Week 2
Game of the Week: Texas A&M at Clemson (3:30, ABC) – Funny that this is the worst week of the college football season by far yet has two great games. I picked this one juuuuust over the next one. After last year’s game, this year’s one should get a lot of hype and who knows what Jimbo will cook up for his Aggies when they head to Death Valley. A TAMU win here blows the national championship conversation wide open.
Other Really Important Games: LSU at Texas (7:30, ABC) – I honestly thought FOX would try to snatch this one up. I guess they are looking at other games instead. Plus, their assertion that the best games will be on in the Noon timeslot means this may not have fit (and it would have been disgustingly hot in Austin for an 11:00 am kickoff). Anyway, this is another huge early matchup with College Football Playoff implications. Consider these two teams dark horses who could do serious damage to their more accomplished counterparts (Alabama and Oklahoma, respectively). The winner here gets an early jump on all the national championship hype. The loser will have their coach on an undeserved hot seat for a bit.
Stanford at USC (8:00, FOX) – USC should be back in the mix this season. And Stanford has David Shaw at the helm, still, so they will be good as well. It wouldn’t surprise me to see either team win here and take the early catbird seat in the Pac-12. It also wouldn’t surprise me if Clay Helton was put on a scorching hot seat by the local fanbase if the Trojans can’t win this one at the Coliseum.
Sneaky-Good Underrated Game: West Virginia at Missouri (19:00, specialty pack) – See what I mean? After Tigers-Longhorns, the game quality falls off a steep cliff with only Stanford-USC an important enough game to list. I had to choose between this game and the San Diego State-UCLA possible late-night thriller but went this way instead. The Mountaineers will not be nearly as good as they were last year. Losing Will Grier isn’t something you just shrug your shoulders and yell “NEXT!” to the next QB in line. You could say the same thing for Missouri and Drew Lock. So there is a possibility that a game that last year would have been like a 60-57 shootout with no overtimes will be a 17-14 defensive battle this time around. Either way it should be close.
Best Group of Five Game: Marshall at Boise State (Friday, 9:00, specialty pack) – This game was actually moved to Friday night to get a national audience. And rightfully so. A win for the Herd on the blue turf would be massive for a conference that has yet to put a team in the New Year’s Six. After this game is over, we will know if Boise is a NY6 contender or not.
Worst Power Five Game: Arkansas at Ole Miss (3:30, specialty pack) – With the CBS announcement of gametimes for the SEC Game of the Week this season, it looks like the ESPN sublicensing arrangement is over. So CBS, for whatever reason, will not have games for Weeks One and Two. I guess they have too much rodeo and dirtbiking to show on the main network. I guess it saves them from having to send an entire crew for this game.
Week 3
Game of the Week: Clemson at Syracuse (7:30, ABC) – This could potentially have national championship implications. No seriously. Clemson has a tough schedule to start the season. Syracuse is not a pushover anymore thanks to Dino Babers. And when was the last time Syracuse hosted an ABC primetime game? I haven’t done any research on this but I am going to say never. After actual research, I found out they played Notre Dame at MetLife Stadium five years ago in primetime on ABC. Other than that, I was correct. A pat on the back for me.
Other Really Important Games: Alabama at South Carolina (3:30, CBS) – If you don’t think the Tigers-Orange game in (not quite) Western New York isn’t the game of the week, maybe you are looking at this one. The only way this ends up possibly matching any potential hype is for the Cocks to keep it close and keep at least some viewers glued to it. At the very least it should be an amazing atmosphere as the South Carolina faithful are raucous for SEC games.
Oklahoma at UCLA (3:30, ABC) – If UCLA is better in Year Two under Chip Kelly, this could end up being quite the barnburner out at the Rose Bowl. If this game was in Norman I don’t even know if this would make the list to be honest. There are many possibilities as to where this could end up. Right now I am leaning ABC but FOX could pick it up. My thoughts are, though, that since FOX wants the best game to be on in the Noon timeslot, it effectively makes it so the Big Ten and Big XII are bigger gets for FOX (in their mind) than the Pac-12.
Florida at Kentucky (7:00, specialty pack) – I had pegged this as the SEC Game of the Week on CBS until it was just announced that Bama-SC would be getting that spot. Oh well this should still be good. You could make an argument that this might be the most important SEC game of the day (unless South Carolina pulls off an earlier upset). Nothing like seeing a great head coach named Stoops on the sideline. Mark? Oh yes. Bob? Absolutely. Mike? Um let’s move on.
Stanford at UCF (Noon, ABC/TSN5) – Will UCF be the Group of Five darling again? I’m just glad they aren’t claiming another national championship after last year’s bowl loss. But, until someone else steps like perhaps Boise State, they continue to lead the pack. This can be another program-defining win if they can pull this one off against the Cardinal. And we all remember what Stanford is like in Noon EST/9am PST starts right?
Florida State at Virginia (7:30, specialty pack) – Yet another appearance of a game on the ACC Network! Nice! The new network is getting a lot of good games early on which is probably key to their growth. And yes, both of these teams SHOULD be good. The Noles won’t be nearly as bad as they were last year and the Hoos will probably win some big games early on and be bowl-eligible again. This game is probably bigger for UVA since the Coastal Division is a bit more wide open than the Atlantic and the Clemson juggernaut. And by a bit, I mean a lot.
Sneaky-Good Underrated Game: Iowa at Iowa State (Noon, FOX Sports One aw damn) – Cy-Hawk! I can honestly see this game moving to FOX or being picked up by ESPN but for now I have stuck it here barring any new announcements. I wonder how long of an extension Kirk Ferentz will get if the Hawkeyes can win this one. I put the over/under at 11 years.
Best Group of Five Game: Miami-OH at Cincinnati (Noon, specialty pack) – To be honest, the early season doesn’t usually give us a bunch of good G5-on-G5 violence. The previous week has a huge Marshall-Boise matchup. The first week got FIU and Tulane of all teams. We definitely get something more like the latter this week. Miami-OH in a Game of the anything is a rarity. I mean Cincy could be scary good and will challenge UCF for the AAC East crown but this feels like it could be a blowout in the making.
Worst Power Five Game: North Carolina at Wake Forest (Friday, 6:00, TSN2) – Such an odd time for an early-season college football game. I can see it moving to the specialty pack so that TSN can show Sportscentre and probably Fishing with Italo Labignan. This is the weird non-conference affair between two conference foes that was scheduled a while back. This is the way some of the Power Five teams will get around the rule of having to play a certain amount of Power Five teams or something like that. And as we have noticed, not a single other program has gone this route since. Don’t want to say it’s a dumb idea but it honestly makes no sense in the grand scheme of things.
There you go. The first three weeks are complete. And it’s the first official blog post by yours truly for the 2019 college football season. We are getting close, friends. Only….87 days left? Ugh. That’s way too long. Have a great hump day everyone.
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