Let’s bid farewell to a couple of legends – Week 11 College Football TV Schedule

Posted on November 7, 2023 by guelphbossman

I don’t think we have ever seen two football minds like this get let go within a week of each other. It is crazy to think this could happen, but it did. Two legends who didn’t get their proper sendoff on here. So here we go.

*deep breath*

Ladies and gentlemen, it is time to say farewell to two of, arguably……….the worst coordinators in recent Power Five football history. Brian Ferentz, son of Iowa head coach Kirk Ferentz, had to be put on a points minimum to be able to keep his contract after this season was over. And Alex Grinch, one of Lincoln Riley’s loyal soldiers. Two men who undoubtdedly pushed football back 50 years with their horrendous playcalling and obvious lack of attention to detail.

Ferentz wasn’t even allowed to take a shot at the points amount (it had to be at least an average of 25 a game). He was told by interim Iowa athletic director Beth Goetz, who obviously knew his chances of hitting that mark were slim, that he would not be retained for the 2024 season. So technically he is still around although he’s in a lame duck position. Not so for Grinch who wasn’t allowed to continue putting out awful defense after awful defense, something that has almost killed USC’s chances of anything but going to a bowl game. Riley had no choice in the end but to axe him.

Realistically, these two guys should have been let go weeks ago. It was apparent to anyone with some knowledge of college football that these two weren’t cutting it. But nepotism and loyalty can go a long way in this sport and we have seen it time and again in the past. And it will continue to do so. Hopefully head coaches learn to take a step back and look at a situation from a bird’s-eye view so that they can honestly assess it. Otherwise you hurt the team and, potentially, yourself.

Alright, enough of fired coaches. Let’s get to the damn schedule!

Tuesday

		US	Canada
Ball State at Northern Illinois	7:00
Central Michigan at Western Michigan	7:00
Ohio at Buffalo	7:30

Iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit’s MACTION!!!!!!! Second week of MACtion and boy do I love it. Also, the College Football Playoff rankings come out a few minutes into the early games so I am sure the announcers will stick to calling the games and not mention anything about the rankings. I’m sure of it.

Wednesday

		US	Canada
Bowling Green at Kent State	7:00
Eastern Michigan at Toledo	7:00
Akron at Miami-OH	7:00

EMU-Toledo is easily the biggest game here. Depending on a few other results, the Rockets could clinch the MAC West with a win.

Thursday

		US	Canada
Virginia at #11 Louisville	7:30
Southern Miss at Louisiana	7:30

Louisville’s potential run to the New Year’s Six might have some potholes. This shouldn’t be one of them. Thing is, it’s either that, the Fun Belt game or one of the worst Thursday Night Football games ever. I’ll stick with the ACC matchup as long as I can (with some check-ins on the Southern Miss-Louisiana game of course).

Friday

		US	Canada
North Texas at SMU	9:00
Grambling at Arkansas-Pine Bluff	9:00

The Mustangs feel like a bit of a surprise team at the top of the American Conference and they shouldn’t be. Some had them at least getting to the conference championship. Take the over with this one.

Saturday Early

Absolutely colossal matchup in the early window. Yes, I am talking about ~~Indiana-Illinois~~ Michigan-Penn State. The second of the three-game Big Ten East round robin of Fun and Frolic lands in State College. Should this be under the lights with a Penn State Whiteout? Yeah, probably. But FOX is adamant that Noon is their big game. Big Noon Saturday. It’s not called Big Evening Saturday for a reason.

Saturday Afternoon

		US	Canada
NC State at Wake Forest	2:00
#21 Arizona at Colorado	2:00
Miami at #4 Florida State	3:30
Pittsburgh vs. Syracuse (in the Bronx)	3:30
Rutgers at #22 Iowa	3:30
#13 Tennessee at #14 Missouri	3:30
UAB at Navy	3:30
#15 Oklahoma State at UCF	3:30
NC Central at Howard	3:30
#18 Utah at #5 Washington	3:30
Minnesota at Purdue	3:30
Washington State at California	4:00
Auburn at Arkansas	4:00
Stanford at #12 Oregon State	5:30

Utah-Washington. Big game. Tennessee-Missouri. Big game (but not as big as the first one). Miami-FSU. Big game, mostly for one team. So there are some important games in this timeslot. It’s rare to see a November Saturday timeslot not to have an important game at all. Now, all games are not equal. Let’s be honest: very few will give a shit about Pitt-Cuse even if it is at Yankee Stadium.

And on that note, can we quit with putting football games on in baseball stadiums? Look at last week’s shitshow at Wrigley. I mean the game was hilariously bad as is considering the two teams playing. But the turf was in shambles. At one point they were trying to fix a patch that looked to be about two feet long and one foot wide. Like, seriously? Want to go to new places? Play in more NFL stadiums. Play in big high school stadiums. Hell, go to Barrow, Alaska and play on their field that borders the Arctic Ocean. Just stay away from the baseball stadiums or otherwise one day some guy is going to get seriously hurt.

Saturday Primetime

		US	Canada
San Diego State at Colorado State	7:00
#9 OIe Miss at #2 Georgia	7:00
West Virginia at #17 Oklahoma	7:00
Georgia Southern at Marshall	7:00
#7 Texas at TCU	7:30
Mississippi State at Texas A&M	7:30
Rice at UTSA	7:30
Michigan State at #1 Ohio State	7:30
Florida at #19 LSU	7:30
Duke at #25 North Carolina	8:00

You are going to notice that TSN (other than TSN+) is barely appearing this Saturday. Well, just like last week, the CFL has their playoff games on a Saturday. I guess it makes sense from a viewer perspective since I am sure they lose viewers to the NFL on Sunday and would lose less viewers going up against college football. I think it has become apparent that TSN is pushing college football (among a few other live sports properties) to TSN+ and putting much less on their actual television networks. Sad for fans who either don’t want to spend more money on an online platform or just would struggle figuring out the online platform to begin with. Sure, live sports on TV is still a huge thing and will be for a long time but slowly…SLOWLY…more and more things are moving online. Give it, let’s say, 20 years and I could see a big difference in what you see now.

Anyway, the actual schedule has Ole Miss-Georgia as the main game and a few other games that could have been huge if certain teams hadn’t shit the bed. Take Duke-UNC. UNC losing on the CW to Virginia and then to Georgia Tech made this game an afterthought. Same with WVU-Oklahoma. The Sooners’ upset losses to Kansas and then Oklahoma State in the final Bedlam have killed the hype for this matchup. It happens every season.

Saturday Late Night

		US	Canada
Arizona State at UCLA	9:00
Iowa State at BYU	10:15
Fresno State at San Jose State	10:30
USC at #6 Oregon	10:30

FOX quadrupleheader! Gotta love when they do this. I wish ABC would just do it once. I think they’d be surprised how many people would tune in to a late night game on ABC. USC could put a massive wrench in Oregon’s plans of at least getting to the New Year’s Six with a win here and Fresno State needs to keep winning to have any hope of having the same kind of plans.

Hey, Watch This

Michigan at Penn State (Noon, FOX) – This is easily the most hyped game of the weekend and rightly so. Penn State (and James Franklin) has a chance to do what many have been waiting for them to do: take that final step towards the CFP. This is their final chance this season. Lose this and perhaps even an NY6 spot is gone. Lose and The Game becomes so massive it may overshadow last year’s affair and maybe even 2006’s Game of the Century. Win and they move up the rankings and then pray for a Michigan victory over Ohio State. Then they would head way down the tiebreaker list to see who wins the division. Oh, and the last tiebreaker? A random draw. I am not joking. Wouldn’t that be insane television? ESPN and FOX would go nuts.

Ole Miss at Georgia (7:00, TSN+/specialty pack) – This should be almost as hyped as the UM-PSU game but for one thing: the Rebels need Bama to lose two conference games for them to win the division. So the Fighting Kiffins’ best shot is to win out, go 11-1, and hope for some chaos around them. Then they might sneak into the playoff. As for Georgia, this is yet another prove-it game. Last week was Missouri, this week Ole Miss, next week Tennessee. Survive those then they may not even have to win the conference championship to go to the playoff.

Utah at Washington (3:30, FOX) – Man, FOX has a crazy-good set of games for their quadrupleheader this Saturday. The Huskies have been sort of hanging on lately. Almost like TCU did last year winning games late and winning games that are close. That has to be their mantra right now though: Al Davis’s popular “Just Win Baby.” As for the Utes, could they almost kill the Pac-12’s playoff hopes with a win here? Not totally but they would do a lot of damage and something tells me they would be happy doing that.

USC at Oregon (10:30, FOX) – Two ranked teams facing each other warrants a spot (most of the time) on this list. Well, ranked in the AP Poll at least (sorry, USC). USC could be just like Utah in the previous game: be the spoiler. Oregon has recovered very nicely from their close loss to Washington. Win here, don’t stumble against Arizona State and then win the Civil War over the Beavers and they get their chance at revenge (probably) on Washington.

Tennessee at Missouri (3:30, CBS) – This is an interesting one. The Vols were expected to at least be in the New Year’s Six conversation. Mizzou? Not at all. They have played out of their minds most of the season and put a scare into UGA last week. They can’t win the SEC East so they have to push to win out and give The Committee something to think about. The Vols actually can win the East but it would take the craziest of scenarios to have that happen.

Sickos Game of the Week

Vanderbilt at South Carolina (Noon, TSN+/specialty pack) – The SEC never ends up here. Nor should they. But this game has awful written all over it. It was down to this one and Pitt-Cuse but I will give this game the nod. The Pitt-Cuse game is at Yankee Stadium which is kind of cool but I am sure the field conditions will not be. But the aura of it being in a baseball stadium is what I will use to grudgingly tip the scales towards Vandy and the Cocks getting this spot. Now, if this game had been played at Vandy’s Bob the Builder Stadium then it would have been a no doubter.

Hubba Bubba Blowout of the Week

Michigan State at Ohio State (7:30, NBC) – OK hear me out. At some point, the Buckeyes have to stop with their extremely slow starts. Enough of them being in a dogfight with Rutgers or Maryland. One game it will catch up to them. I think that Ryan Day might finally push them hard to come out of the gate strong. If they do, this game will essentially be over at the half and NBC will be less than pleased with the viewers flocking elsewhere (but, that’s what they signed up for).

Wanna Bet?

I was SO close on the score of my Tennessee-UConn bet. And honestly, I wasn’t too far off with USC-Washington even if I did have the Trojans winning in an upset. And I got Bama’s points dead on. Don’t look at my Virginia pick. Let’s get to this week’s picks, shall we?

Southern Miss 29 Louisiana 28 (upset!)

North Texas 31 SMU 27 (another upset!)

Alabama 34 Kentucky 21 (no upset)

Penn State 30 Michigan 23 (yet another upset!)

Tulane 41 Tulsa 10

Wake Forest 31 NC State 27 (minor upset)

Florida State 42 Miami 32

Washington 34 Utah 14

Tennessee 45 Missouri 35

Washington State 31 California 24 (very slight upset)

Georgia 38 Ole Miss 27

UTSA 37 Rice 21

Oregon 63 USC 33

OK I picked a ton of upsets here and look at Oregon. Yeah I think they are going to have a field day with the USC defense even with Alex Grinch not there to fuck things up.

I am preparing for another day of college football, starting Saturday at Noon and going into Sunday morning. Remember, we are in November, people. We don’t have much longer to go. Soon enough it will be conference championship weekend and the schedules like these go away. So savour it. Take your time to watch a lot of football before it’s gone and the only thing to watch (after the Super Bowl is over at least) is the Xtreme United States Football Association and/or League, also known as the XUSFAL. That acronym will probably end up being better than what they come up with. I’d put money on it. Like ten bucks. Enjoy the games everyone!

WE! ARE! BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACK!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Posted on August 23, 2023 by guelphbossman

We have made it everyone. Our long ordeal is over. College football has returned! Sure, we’ve had the XFL and then the USFL and the CFL started their season and the NFL has their preseason going but this….THIS is the real fucking deal my friends. College football begins…

…with Week Zero. Now, I know Week Zero rarely has huge games anymore. Gone are the Kickoff and Pigskin Classics of yesteryear and the odd huge matchup that somehow gets moved to August. But it’s college football.

Will I get excited for Navy and Notre Dame way over in Dublin? I sure will.

Will I have my eyes glued to UMass-New Mexico State that has somehow made it to ESPN? Of course!

Will I watch with anticipation as Hawaii starts their season in Nashville against Vanderbilt in what looks like a stadium that is only 75% built? You god damn right I will be.

Hell, I may even try to figure out how to watch San Jose State face off against USC…you know the game with possibly the best team this coming weekend that has ended up on, you guessed it, ~~Frank Stallone~~ the Pac-12 Network. No wonder that conference is pretty much dead.

So let’s get to the schedule. You know the drill; the SP logo means it will appear on the specialty pack and as far as I know, Week Zero almost never has games on the specialty packs because why would they? That would make too much sense. I just don’t get it sometimes. However, they did last year so I will keep you updated on whether they come to their senses again or revert to the way they used to be.

Saturday Afternoon

Look, after what Northwestern went through last season (let’s not even begin to discuss what’s gone on there the last couple months), both the Middies and the Irish might want to be a bit cautious about winning the opening game being held in the football hotbed of Dublin, Ireland. We also have the FBS debut of another team of Gamecocks: these ones from Jacksonville State with their head coach, RichRod!

UPDATE #2: The specialty packs are starting to be updated as now UNA-Mercer is appearing there for Bell Fibe and Satellite. No word about Rogers but I assume by the end of the day it should be appearing there.

Saturday Primetime

		US	Canada
UMass at New Mexico State	7:00 PM
Jackson State vs. South Carolina State (in Atlanta)	7:30 PM
Hawaii at Vanderbilt	7:30 PM
FIU at Louisiana Tech	9:00 PM

For the first time ever (as far as I know), ABC will be showing an FCS game in primetime. Jackson State doesn’t have Deion Sanders or most of the talented JSU teams of the past couple seasons there but I’m sure it will still be a fun game to watch. Also, you can watch the final game of the night because there will be nothing else on (football-wise).

There are a few other games on this day. Nothing major but five other games won’t be available to Canadians with three of those normally being specialty pack options. I’ll say it again: it’s why I’ve gone the IPTV route. Even if the functionality is different, the options on what to watch are way higher than what you can get on Canadian cable or satellite and that will never change. I hate relying on the specialty packs just because they can be a bit unpredictable. What they are supposed to show doesn’t always end up happening which can be very frustrating.

UPDATE: Reader Mike has informed me that the UH-Vandy and UMass-NMSU is now appearing on the Bell Satellite specialty pack. I looked just now and saw that Bell Fibe has also updated their listings and those two games will appear there as well. Good.

UPDATE #3: According to reader Gordo, Cogeco has their specialty pack up. This should mean that Eastlink and Rogers have theirs up as well since they are pretty much connected at the hip. If it’s otherwise I will try and let you all know.

UPDATE #4: Reader Mike D reminded me that the Pac-12 Network can actually be seen up here in Canada on YouTube through their international feed. Which means we have more access to that network than most of America. Again, I will be checking this during the evening and will let you know either way.

UPDATE #5: Reader Hot Tub Matt Leinart (great name by the way) mentioned TSN+. This isn’t a new thing but they have been showing a lot more of, well, everything this year. And that should include college football. UNA-Mercer, UMass-NMSU, UH-Vandy and SCSU-JSU will all be appearing on TSN+ today for those who subscribe to the service.

UPDATE #6: Pac-12 Network International does indeed work on YouTube for Canadians. At first I thought it wasn’t working but then I remembered to turn my VPN off that was set to the United States. Stupid Bossman. So yeah, if you want to watch probably the best team playing today, head to YouTube.

Again, it’s Week Zero so I won’t be doing the games to watch section this week. There aren’t any huge games, despite what fans of any of these schools would say. Also, let’s be honest…if you can watch New Mexico State, in primetime, on ESPN, it’s already a bit of a crazy day.

Wanna Bet?

Might as well do some bets for this week, right? And yes, they will be AGAINST THE SPREAD!

San Diego State (-3) over Ohio

FIU (+10.5) over Louisiana Tech (LaTech wins a close one)

Jacksonville State (-1.5) over UTEP (small upset special?)

New Mexico State (-7.5) over UMass

Notre Dame (-20.5) over Navy

Hawaii (+17) over Vanderbilt (with Vandy winning by about 10)

USC (-30.5) over San Jose State (this could get ugly)

We are almost there. A few days to go. My schedule is cleared to watch football all fucking day. I hope the rest of my Saturdays are like that but I know that’s a pipe dream and will never happen. But you got to have hope, right? I am looking forward to another season of college football and I am sure you are too. Good to be back. Have a great week everyone and enjoy the games!

It’s about that time…time for a post about nothing (kind of)

Posted on May 31, 2023 by guelphbossman

OK more like a bunch of little somethings but really they don’t all amount to much (don’t get mad at me for that comment).

The plethora of college football posts (and NFL posts) coming from yours truly are coming soon and they will come in hot and heavy. Until that time (which is still a few weeks away) I figured I should fill the time with another post. But what to post about? How about all sorts of other football-related stuff that doesn’t really warrant a full post. Maybe I can even dip back to the time when I said I should become football commissioner (still waiting for the call from….well, I don’t know since that whole thing doesn’t exist).

I know this isn’t the current XFL logo but whatever. Actually, I could have just put a pic of The Rock and you would know exactly what I was going to talk about.

I have to admit…the XFL was pretty fun to watch most of the time. Sure there were times you could tell this wasn’t NFL caliber (and maybe not even FBS caliber) but it’s minor league football and you had to expect some growing pains. They had a good TV contract although sometimes it was tough to figure out where and when the games were on. And you had the Beer Snake in D.C. How can you beat that?

I will say most of the franchises did OK. Well enough to warrant another season. Two teams I wouldn’t bother with are Vegas and Orlando. Watching games in Vegas was painful. The field they played at was awful and if they can’t get Allegiant Stadium for at least one of their games, move them. I hear San Diego is clamoring for football. As for Orlando, they just didn’t draw. And the Citrus Bowl (or whatever the fuck it’s called now) is pretty damn big so it looks horrible when only 9,000 fans show up in a 65,000 seat stadium. I’d move them to a place that really has nothing much going on in terms of outdoor pro sports and see what happens. Mobile has a pretty nice sized stadium. Same with the Cramton Bowl in Montgomery. Hell, almost anywhere in Alabama (or even Mississippi) might work. Or…..send them to Kibbie Dome. Guaranteed sellouts!

Now there is no plans to expand which is probably a good thing. Especially since the USFL looks like it will return, despite the fact it looks completely bush league. I get the telecast quality is good but that’s all the networks (and the USFL has a good set of TV contracts). The empty seats are SERIOUSLY jarring to the eyes. Next year will be the true prove-it year: all teams will play in their home stadiums. If they can’t draw at that point then they might shut its doors. At that point, that’s when the XFL should seriously look at expanding and becoming the true minor league of football.

The CFL season is almost upon us. Well, the preseason has started but you know my thoughts on preseason anything. Hell, I looked at getting preseason Buffalo Bills tickets since it used to be a cheap way to watch an NFL game live. Nope. Not anymore. I just can’t justify paying these ticket prices for a lot of things. Maybe that’s just another way of saying I’m poor. Anyway, opening day is June 8th, right around the corner.

So let’s see if the CFL has even remotely decided to look at some of my ideas to make the CFL better. Eliminating the rouge on punts? Nope. Getting rid of the salary cap? Sounds like a few teams are over, including the fucking Ottawa Redblacks. How? How are you that bad and over any salary cap in any league? They should fire everyone in the front office. Everyone. Even the janitor. Expansion? Well, Schooners Sports and Entertainment has, for now, abandoned their journey to bring a CFL team to the East coast. Which means we are back to square one. And I am sure they won’t even look into American expansion despite the fact they should.

One more thing that should happen but won’t: they need to get a game every week on a network that is not TSN. Sure, TSN, for a few years, basically propped up the league. But now, it is sometimes painful to watch a TSN telecast of a CFL game. Why not go back to CBC? Or try something new. CTV? I know they showed the CFN games back in the day but maybe see what they can provide. Global? That would be crazy but hey, maybe it would work. Omni? No. Let’s not get stupid here.

Anyway, I will watch some of the games for sure until college football and the NFL start. Then they take a back seat to both. Or more like the trunk of an SUV. You can still see them but they are far back in the car.

Simon Fraser decided to leave the Lone Star Conference and drop football. Or was it that the LSC dropped Simon Fraser and then the Clansmen/Clan/Red Leafs/Whatevers dropped football? The reality is that SFU decided against playing a lame duck football season in the Lone Star Conference and why not. Their old conference, the Great Northwest Athletic Conference, stopped sponsoring football so SFU and the two other GNAC teams remaining (Central Washington and Western Oregon) were picked up by the LSC so that they wouldn’t have to go Independent. Well unlike USC and UCLA playing in the Big Ten, these three schools really can’t afford the kind of travel that would have faced them.

What does this all have to do with U Sports? Well, some are saying SFU should start their football program up again and join the Canada West conference and get back to playing Canadian football. The athletic department seemingly wants nothing to do with it. This is upsetting the current players and many alumni. I mean these are the same alumni who probably didn’t support the team at all when they couldn’t fill a 3,000 seat stadium to watch this team when they competed at the Division II level but I digress.

The rest of Simon Fraser’s teams are still in the GNAC and seem to be comfortable there. OK, comfortable might be a stretch considering some of the issues with Simon Fraser athletics, namely the women’s soccer team being a gongshow and their athletic director sounding like a completely lazy fucker. But sure…comfortable. They really don’t want to move those teams unless they have to. I do believe, though, that SFU would be a good fit for the CWUAA and it’s never a bad thing to have another football program in U Sports since it’s not like there are a ton of them.

Are we sneaking up on a smidge of realignment or getting on a fucking jet on flying at supersonic speed and slamming straight into realignment armageddon? I guess it depends on who you listen to. Some say we may see a bit of movement over the next year or two but that nothing major will happen to close to the end of this decade at the earliest. Then there are others who have the Pac-12 completely collapsing and college football heading towards a Power 2 of the SEC and the Big Ten with a third conference holding the majority of the rest of the current power conference teams. Me? I just want the damn season to start.

Well now that much of the first three weeks of the schedule has come out for college football (and parts of the rest of the schedule), I can start piecing everything together and doing the normal posts that I started doing last year. Long posts but chock-full of great info. We are 86 days away from the start of the college football season. Soon enough it will be here but don’t waste your summer counting down the days…or do. I don’t care, do what you want. Have a great rest of the week!

Sure, let’s do a bit of a draft recap

Posted on May 10, 2023 by guelphbossman

I will get to this man a bit later since he went through quite the night.

As usual, the draft was a fun time…well, the first night was fun then it got steadily less fun until the final rounds when other than NFL Network’s Stump The Truck, almost nothing was really all that fun. But I watched most of it. What can I say, I am way into football. Probably too much but soon enough I will be on my own a lot more so football may be the only thing that keeps me company. God, that’s sad. Let’s move on.

First of all, I will take a look at my mock draft and compare it to the actual draft results and…yep, I got basically nothing right. I couldn’t even get the first two picks right. I had C.J. Stroud going first followed by Bryce Young. I think Carolina made the right pick out of the two but I was sure they had their sights set on Stroud. Funny enough, though, I got two picks exactly right: Zay Flowers to the Ravens at #22 and Wanya Morris to the Chiefs at #92. That really doesn’t make any sense but it’s the truth. Other than that, everything else wrong and some were REALLY wrong.

Reaches

It’s always too soon to look at this but there seem to be picks that were universally thought of as reaches: as in a team picked a player way earlier than they probably would have gone. I know some teams absolutely want a specific player and worry about not getting them that much that they either take them too soon or trade up to get them when they didn’t need to. Still doesn’t mean it wasn’t a stretch for that player. Let’s look at a few that felt obvious.

Darnell Wright (#10 overall to Chicago) – I, along with most others, had Wright pegged as a late-1st round/early-2nd round pick at best. The fact that the Bears also passed on Peter Skoronski, from Northwestern (supposedly Chicago’s Big Ten school) is the real headscratcher here.

Jahmyr Gibbs (#12 to Detroit) – Speaking of headscratchers, it’s like Detroit brought back Matt Millen and his new focus wasn’t wide receivers but running backs. Detroit did not need help at running back but took Gibbs at this point anyway. I had figured he’d end up on the Bills which didn’t thrill me but Gibbs is better than what they have at this point. Anyway, Detroit ended up trading D’Andre Swift to the Eagles because of this pick. I don’t get it.

Deonte Banks (#24 to NY Giants) – Did the Giants need a cornerback? Absolutely. Was Joey Porter Jr. still on the board? Absolutely. Was Kelee Ringo still on the board? Absolutely. Was Cam Smith still on the board? Absolutely. I could go on and on but Banks wasn’t a first rounder and I’d be shocked if he plays like one.

Derick Hall (#37 to Seattle) – The Seahawks didn’t exactly need a defensive end but they decided to pick one anyway. OK, that’s fine. To pick Hall when there were a few other guys on the board who were rated way higher made no sense. Hall was barely a second rounder in most mock drafts.

Steals

On the other hand, we have our draft steals. Every draft has their steals and yes I know Tom Brady was a “steal.” Actually, no, at the time, no one thought he was a steal of a pick. No one. At all. If you say you did, you’re a dirty fucking liar. Again, this is way too early so by the time the next draft occurred, yes, Brady was considered a massive steal. Hell, he would have been a steal as a late second rounder.

Christian Gonzalez (#17 to New England) – The biggest steal of the draft in my opinion. I had him going third overall and many mock drafts had him in the top seven picks. Did the Pats need any help in the secondary? No, but how do you pass on a guy that has dropped approximately 10 spots or so in the first round when you don’t have a huge need? Once again, Bill Belichick is playing 4-D Parcheesi while everyone else is playing Snakes and Ladders.

Dalton Kincaid (#25 to Buffalo) – I was not happy when Bijan Robinson was off the board super early. Man did he go from not even a first rounder like a month ago to Top 10 pick. Anyway, the Bills did the next best thing (that they needed) by getting the best tight end in the draft in Kincaid. Josh Allen could make the guy…well, not a star but a very dependable receiver.

Joey Porter Jr. (#32 to Pittsburgh) – How did the last into the second round? There were easily six different teams that should have taken him and passed. Yeah I’m looking at you New York Football Giants (or GEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE-Men in honour of Chris Berman). He may make a couple of teams pay for passing on him this coming season.

Jalin Hyatt (#73 to NY Giants) – So the Giants make one of the worst picks of the early part of the draft and then somehow snag Hyatt in the third round. Hey, whatever works. I could have also put Hyatt’s Tennessee Volunteer teammate Cedric Tillman here as he went one spot later to the Browns.

Alright let’s get down to the Will Levis situation. ESPN did this man (and his family) dirty. Well, most of them. I think the girlfriend loved the attention. Still though, to spend four-plus hours in that room and not get your name called has to suck. And ESPN loved it. You know they did. Most people had him going in the #7-#13 range. I had him going to Washington at #16. Then someone on Reddit (I think) tweeted that the Panthers were considering him for the top pick. All of a sudden, people became a lot more interested in him. It also meant that every draft pick that wasn’t him would make him look worse. And yes I know there are others that suffer the same plight but he is, by far, the most hyped of anyone who has had that happen. Also, why didn’t Tennessee move up into the first round to get him? Now they lose a potential option year if he ends up being good. Poor management by the Titans there.

Best Draft

Again, this is way too early but you can kind of tell when a team probably had a good draft (unless one of their top picks is a flop). Here is my list of the top three teams from draft day.

Philadelphia – It feels almost unanimous among experts (which I am not one of) that the Eagles had the best draft. Not only did they continue their Georgia Bulldog-riffic defense picking Jalen Carter and Nolan Smith, but they also drafted Bama’s Tyler Steen who could potentially anchor the offensive line soon enough and somehow had Kelee Ringo (another Bulldog) fall into their lap in the fourth round. Finally, Detroit’s stupidity made it so the Eagles got D’Andre Swift in a trade with the Lions. An all-around great few days for possibly the NFC favourites.

Indianapolis – No, this isn’t all about the Anthony Richardson pick although that is what much of the Colts’ draft will hinge on. They had a great draft otherwise, though, with a huge value pick in the fourth round, nabbing Adetomiwa Adeboware. Really, it’s Richardson and Adeboware for the Colts. If they both hit then this will end up being the number one draft crop in hindsight. Otherwise….yikes. Huge risk-reward for a team that feels the time is right to make huge moves.

Pittsburgh – The Eagles’ cross-state rival also had quite the good, if not underrated, draft, looking like the smartest team coming out of the draft. They filled pretty much all their needs in the first three rounds and then got some great value late. Porter is a steal and teams may regret not picking him.

Worst Draft

Very rarely does a team get selected having the worst draft and then it ends up that everyone was wrong in hindsight. So yeah, this is not a good group to be in.

Jacksonville – Third worst on our list is the Jags with a bit of a perplexing draft. Things were looking great for a team that looked like it may run away with the AFC South over the next few years. That may not be the case anymore, and this draft didn’t help matters any. Unfortunately, the Cam Robinson situation forced them to pick O-line early but Anton Harrison may not have been the guy. Tank Bigsby was a pretty bad pick and could have been got two rounds later. And for a team that needed a tight end as another weapon for Trevor Lawrence, getting Brenton Strange isn’t it with other guys on the board. Just weird all around.

Minnesota – Look, they did pretty well with the Jordan Addison pick. Beyond that? Woof. Every other pick was a reach and they really didn’t do anything to help Kirk Cousins beyond getting Addison to hopefully pair with Justin Jefferson. Cousins is in the last year of his contract and this felt like the year the Vikings really had to try and go for it or start building for the future and they did neither.

San Francisco – Just like Philly, it’s a pretty unanimous vote on the other end of the draft grades. The ass end, if you will. The 49ers did a deplorable job this time around. Lucky for them, as long as Brock Purdy and/or Trey Lance are ready to go, this team is ready to battle for the NFC title at the very least. But holy shit, you’d think you would draft one guy that would help the team this coming season. Especially on the offensive line, where they needed help and drafted nobody. But hey, they drafted a kicker. Before the 100th pick. For fuck’s sakes what a joke.

Finally, a quick look at the two networks showing the draft. Most people seemed to be watching ESPN, as per usual. The NFL Network picked up the rest of the viewers. Problem was, the amount of complaints I heard about ESPN were staggering. Yet, these same people obviously outright refused to just, oh I don’t know, turn to the other network with draft coverage. I get that hearing the old NFL Primetime music is great (it really is) but if the coverage sucks then change the channel. My opinion, as you may know, is that the NFL Network has always had better coverage since they started showing the draft. I mean, that’s their whole thing: the NFL. ESPN suffers from trying to put in as many horrific stories about the draftees and too many people involved in the production. At least a quarter of the people involved could have been axed because they sucked at their job on this night.

I think that’s the first draft recap I have done in a long time. I don’t feel like looking. I’m not really a recap kind of guy but I figured what the hell. We are now 107 days away from the college football season and the posts will start coming along more frequently once again. We are getting close to true football season, folks! Not that I’m minding the XFL since it has been pretty good. The USFL, on the other hand, ugh. Have a great rest of the week everyone.

When’s the last time I did a Super Bowl Preview?

Posted on February 9, 2023 by guelphbossman

Huh, it looks like last year was the only year I didn’t do one. That doesn’t feel right. Oh well.

Saying that, I will not go all out and have a post that takes twenty minutes to read to preview this one game. There are many other sites that do that and they do it better…because it’s their job. I’m here to do this quick and relatively painlessly. See? I’m looking out for your best interests. Let’s begin.

We shall begin with the television broadcast information. The Super Bowl is on FOX and it might feel a bit weird with Joe Buck not calling this game. I’m sure Kevin Burkhardt will do a good job…maybe even a better job than Joe would do. As for watching it on a Canadian channel you can do so on all CTV affiliates and all TSN stations except for TSN2. So plenty of choice there for sure.

Now let’s get to the breakdown of the game followed by my pick which may (not a chance) or may not (most likely) be right:

Offense – This is actually closer than you might think. Patrick Mahomes is arguably the best quarterback in the league today although Jalen Hurts has put up an amazing season that might nab him the MVP. Travis Kelce is a crazy-good offensive weapon that no team can match. The offensive lines, however, are pretty much even, as are the running backs. I think the Chiefs have the edge but it’s relatively close.

Defense – This is not as close. Not that the Chiefs have a bad defense but the Eagles had the best defense in the league this year. The only think that KC might have in their favour here is that they have guys who have been to the big dance before. That can mean a lot. But really, it’s the Eagles winning the defensive battle here.

Special Teams – Both teams have great kickers and punters. Their return teams are quite good, if not underrated. It would not surprise me to see a great return during the game, if not a touchdown. I will call this a dead heat.

Coaching – Look, Nick Sirianni has done a great job this year with the Eagles. You could even say Coach of the Year for him. But he’s going up against Andy Reid. And he isn’t the coach Andy is. Advantage Chiefs.

After going through that EXTENSIVE look at the two teams (see, NFL Network will spend over 200 hours going over them. So who’s the efficient one?) I will make my prediction…drum roll, please…..

Chiefs 28 Eagles 24.

Yeah, sounds like I am picking kind of an upset but I believe it will be a close game. At least I am hoping so.

So we are the end of another football season. Well, I guess the XFL and USFL start soon and the stupid Arena League is starting back up but I have a feeling I will be watching very little of these games (and in the case of the Arena League, none at all because arena football is dumb and gimmicky). I will be back with my How Did I Do posts (poorly) and maybe a random post or two but that’s it until just before the NFL Draft. As I have said earlier on, I won’t be doing a bunch of mock drafts. It will be one prediction (with potential trade predictions) just before the draft. Anyway, enjoy the Super Bowl (and all the food and drink that come along with it)!

Realignment: One of college football’s dirtiest words

Posted on February 5, 2023 by guelphbossman

Realignment. It excites and infuriates people. It has changed college football (and college basketball) forever. Money rules the day as some of these conferences don’t even make sense anymore. The Big Ten will soon have sixteen teams with two of them based in California: thousands of miles away from all the other teams in the conference. The SEC will have sixteen teams and, sorry, Texas, Texas A&M, Oklahoma and Missouri really don’t qualify as “Southeastern” unless you are terrible at geography. Don’t even get me started on how the Sun Belt and Conference USA have bungled realignment in the past. At least the Sun Belt a) has Fun Belt football and b) acquired some good programs. Something Conference USA just hasn’t figured out.

I figured, since I’m bored and there’s not a ton to post about and we are about to go into the football dead season (don’t say XFL or USFL), I would make this post on realignment. Don’t run away! I plan to look at realignment the way I would have had it done or what I thought would have made sense. I’m not going to put Texas State in the SEC or anything stupid like that but I will take a thoughtful look at what has happened and what I think should have happened. In some cases, they may be the same! Let’s get started before I regret doing this.

Now I don’t plan on going back to 1962 and say “Well, the Border Conference never should have been disbanded.” Before my time so I don’t really care. I also won’t say the Georgia Tech or Tulane shouldn’t have left the SEC. Of course they shouldn’t have. But they were going to at some point, be it in the mid-60s or even in the 80s. It was going to happen. I will start with a year that is not paramount at all in the minds of realignmentheads but will contain something from earlier in the 80s that many know about…

(WARNING: This will be a very, very long post so strap in.)

1987

Wichita State drops football for good. Akron moves up from Division 1-AA (remember that?) to be an Independent. Nothing big. Oh wait…

Hey, remember the Big East? In football? OK it wasn’t a thing in 1987 but the conference had been formed back in 1979. In ’82, Penn State applied for membership. Georgetown, St. John’s and Villanova voted against the Nittany Lions joining. This would have been on that Freezing Cold Takes Twitter account if it Twitter existed like 30 years ago. If I had been in charge, I would have made sure at least one of those schools changed their vote to include Penn State. And instead of waiting until the 90s, I would have started Big East football in 1987 because why the hell not. So nine Independent schools would form this new conference:

Penn State, Syracuse, Rutgers, Boston College, Pittsburgh, Miami, Temple, Virginia Tech and West Virginia

Way to go Georgetown, St. John’s and Villanova. Idiots. Also, this means Penn State doesn’t move to the Big Ten in the early 90s.

1989

Louisiana Tech moves up from 1-AA to 1-A as an Independent. Also, SMU returns from the death penalty that, in hindsight, was a terrible move. Either go after more of the schools that had issues (like the entire Southwest Conference) or just ban SMU from bowl games for a bunch of years. What they did set SMU football (and only SMU football) back 20 years. Notice how they have never done it again in football despite the fact they could have easily done it on a few occasions? That’s why.

1991

In one of the biggest moves at the time, Florida State joins the ACC.

1992

Look, I get it. The Southwest Conference was a complete mess for most of its existence. Sure, they had some great football teams but more often than not they were mired in some sort of scandal.

Saying that, I would have done my darndest to keep Arkansas in the SWC. And I wouldn’t have stopped there. Rice, sorry, you gone. There’s no reason to keep you around since you’re terrible in football and not much better in basketball. Yes, it’s one of the top academic schools in the nation and no, I don’t care. They can become an Independent. So at this point, the SWC would look like this:

Arkansas, Baylor, Texas, Texas A&M, SMU, TCU, Texas Tech, Houston

That’s still a good, competitive conference at this point.

South Carolina, on the other hand, does join the SEC, moving that conference to a somewhat awkward eleven teams. Akron moves to the MAC. Fresno State goes from the Big West to the WAC and Long Beach State drops their football program altogether. To replace LBSU and Fresno, Nevada moves up from 1-AA to 1-A and the Big West. Finally, Arkansas State also moves up from Division 1-AA to Division 1-A as an Independent.

1993

Penn State DOESN’T join the Big Ten since they are part of a better Big East (in my opinion). Cal State-Fullerton becomes the second Big West team in as many years to drop football altogether. Because of this, the Big West went on an invitation spree, bringing in Arkansas State, Louisiana Tech, Northern Illinois and Southwestern Louisiana (which is now just Louisiana), meaning they really had forgot about the West part of their conference name.

1994

Northeast Louisiana moves up from Division 1-AA to 1-A. They are now called ULM. Ho hum.

1995

Another almost-nothing year. North Texas moves to 1-A. Big whoop.

1996

This was a huge year in realignment as the Big XII came into existence, with the Big Eight absorbing four programs from the Southwest Conference. I wouldn’t go that route. I think it would be the reverse. The Southwest Conference keeps their name and absorbs all eight of the Big 8 schools. The new sixteen-team conference would be huge. I just hope they don’t go to pod scheduling. Wait, I’m running things. So no, they won’t go that route. Anywhere from two-to-four yearly opponents with the rest being filled in based on order of finish the previous season, like it should be almost everywhere.

Now, because of this, Conference USA loses one member, Houston. With some foresight, they should have kept the other five teams they had and added Rice, Tulsa, Louisiana Tech (from the Big West) and North Texas. This would give this conference the following:

Cincinnati, Louisiana Tech, Louisville, Memphis, North Texas, Rice, Southern Miss, Tulane, Tulsa

That’s a pretty good start for a new mid-major conference in football.

The WAC also has to change. See, they now don’t get Rice, SMU, TCU or Tulsa. So time to pick up some other teams. Time to basically fuck the Big West over. Bring in Nevada, Utah State, UNLV and New Mexico State. This would give the conference the following teams:

BYU, Utah, New Mexico, UTEP, Wyoming, San Diego State, Colorado State, Air Force, Fresno State, San Jose State, Hawaii, UNLV, Nevada, Utah State

That’s a lot of realignment and we aren’t even done yet. The Big West is pretty much ravaged by what the WAC did. Boise State and Idaho move up from 1-AA to 1-A to replace some of the teams but Pacific drops football altogether. The Big West sticks at six teams as Northern Illinois stays in the conference rather than going back to Independent status. Same with Louisiana and Arkansas State although it’s obvious the Big West is on its last legs as a football conference.

Finally, UCF and UAB move from Division 1-AA to 1-A as Independents.

1997

The MAC only gets Northern Illinois (from the Big West) as I would have Marshall head to Conference USA along with East Carolina.

With only five teams remaining, the Big West Conference is dead as it pertains to football. Boise State and San Jose State are invited to the WAC, while the other three teams (Arkansas State, Idaho and Louisiana) become Independents.

1998

Army does not join Conference USA. We all know how that worked out and even at the time, a lot of people thought it was a bad idea.

1999

Yeah sure why not. Let’s form the Mountain West. Arkansas State might as well stay Independent for now. The Big West doesn’t exist and there’s no reason for them to head to the WAC. Buffalo moves up from 1-AA right into the MAC. Middle Tennessee also moves up but as an Independent. Idaho moves into the WAC. Finally, UAB finds a conference home as they head to Conference USA.

2000

Two fairly benign moves: USF and UConn join the Division 1-A Independents from Division 1-AA.

2001

The Big West died (in football) and the Sun Belt started sponsoring football. Thing is, I eliminated the Big West five years ago. So Idaho and New Mexico State, now in the WAC, will not move to the Sun Belt because they don’t have to. Also, Utah State can stay in the WAC now. So the Sun Belt would comprise of Arkansas State, Louisiana, ULM, Middle Tennessee and North Texas, who moves from Conference USA. They bring in Troy State so the Trojans aren’t an Independent.

2002

Another skipped move: UCF just doesn’t bother joining the MAC because it’s the fucking MAC and they don’t need a team in Florida. Instead they just move to Conference USA a year early.

2003

Utah State doesn’t move to the Sun Belt because WHY? They are in the WAC and they can stay there. USF does, however, move. They head to Conference USA to join brother UCF.

2004

Oh baby here we go. Miami and Virginia Tech will NOT be moving to the ACC! They will stay in the Big East as UConn joins. I mean we don’t get ACC Coastal Chaos but I think we can live without it.

Florida Atlantic and Florida International transition up from Division 1-AA to Independent status.

2005

This leads us to the next year where Boston College also doesn’t leave for the ACC. And with Cincinnati, Louisville and USF joining the Big East, it is becoming quite the conference. TCU doesn’t go to the Mountain West because they are already in the Southwest Conference which has weathered the storm until now. SMU also stays in the SWC and doesn’t move to Conference USA. UTEP does move from the WAC to Conference USA as it makes a bit more sense for them. FAU and FIU, one year after joining Division 1-A, move to the Sun Belt Conference. Finally, Temple does not get dropped from the Big East despite their terrible football program. I’m doing a lot of nothing with this which I am sure people will find actually refreshing. I’m sure that will change soon.

2008

WKU joins Division 1-A. I’m just going to put them right in the Sun Belt.

2011

Things were quiet for almost six years. Then the big bang hit in college football and everything went haywire went it came to the conferences and realignment. Will this be the same in Bossman’s Realignmentpalooza? No.

First off, Nebraska does leave for the Big Ten. Since Penn State never went to the Big Ten back in the 90s, this puts the new Big Ten at eleven teams. To make it even, they also invite KANSAS! Yes, I am serious. Kansas wasn’t too far from a few seasons of great football. And their basketball team was awesome as always. So this makes a lot of sense.

As for the Pac-10, they decided they wanted to bring in six schools from the Big XII. Instead, they will bring in those same six schools from the SWC: Colorado, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Texas, Texas A&M and Texas Tech. This also means Utah does not join the now Pac-16 conference.

The SWC is now down to eight schools and, chances are, would lose their automatic BCS bowl bid. With a roster of Baylor, Iowa State, Kansas State, Missouri, TCU, Houston, SMU and Arkansas they can’t make a claim to be worthy of one now. And because of that, Arkansas finally accepts the SEC’s overtures and heads there, dropping the SWC to a seven-team conference.

The trickle down effect was in play. Utah stayed in the Mountain West and was joined by Boise State. BYU also doesn’t leave the Mountain West for Independence at this point.

2012

Another crazy year in realignment that won’t be as crazy when I’m done with it. First off, Texas A&M won’t move to the SEC since they are happy in the somewhat new Pac-16. West Virginia also doesn’t move to the SWC since it would be even more ridiculous than their current move there is (although with Cincinnati in the fold it now makes more sense). Fresno State, Hawaii and Nevada leave the WAC for the Mountain West as it happened in real life. This leaves the WAC with four teams (New Mexico State, San Jose State, Idaho and Utah State). Texas State and UTSA joined to make six. For now, this leaves the WAC as a football conference…but barely.

Oh and Missouri does not go the SEC. I still believe this makes absolutely no sense. For now they stay in the SWC but it won’t be for long.

South Alabama moves up from an FCS Independent right to the Sun Belt conference.

Finally, UMass does not join the MAC. Another weird move by the MAC that doesn’t make sense now and didn’t back then.

2013

First of all, no American Conference. It’s still the Big East. If the basketball schools don’t like it, they can fuck off for the Patriot League or whatever. Also, Pitt and Syracuse do not leave the Big East for the ACC.

Now this becomes an issue because some schools were slated to head to the new American Conference. This is how I would plan to deal with this. Houston and SMU, instead of going to the AAC, stay in the Southwest Conference. They are joined by Memphis, who leaves C-USA for the SWC.

Remember TCU, Boise State and San Diego State heading to the Big East/American? I don’t see that happening now. Instead, Boise State and San Diego State head to the SWC.

San Jose State and Utah State put the final nail in the WAC football coffin by accepting bids to the Mountain West. Idaho and New Mexico State are, once again, Independent teams. Texas State heads to the Sun Belt with UTSA going to Conference USA.

UCF heads to the Big East (not American). Then Conference USA raids the Sun Belt for four teams: FAU, FIU, Middle Tennessee and North Texas. Finally, the Sun Belt reloads, kind of, by accepting Georgia State from FCS.

2014

Louisville does decide to leave the Big East for the ACC. A bit surprising but I feel they belong there a bit better than the Big East.

I know the Big Ten wants to expand into new markets. But it won’t be happening in New York and Washington as Rutgers and Maryland do not leave their current conferences. They’ve been outliers since they moved there so I want to rectify that issue.

East Carolina heads to the Big East. An odd fit but between that and Conference USA, no one conference is a perfect fit for them so might as well move them up, so to speak. Tulane and Tulsa, on the other hand, do not go to the Big East. They head to the SWC, which is finally renamed the Big XII.

Conference USA backfills their losses with WKU from the Sun Belt and Old Dominion from FCS. After that, Appalachian State and Georgia Southern head to the Sun Belt from the FCS. Idaho and New Mexico State stay right where they are as Independents.

2015

The big happening in 2015 was UAB shuttering their football program. I am here to say it won’t happen! I don’t know how I would make that happen but I’ll figure something out.

Navy joins the Big East, ending over 100 years of Independent football and Charlotte transitions to FBS by joining Conference USA.

2017

One item: Coastal Carolina joins the Sun Belt from FCS.

2018

Poor Idaho. You would have thought they could have stayed up in FBS but it wasn’t to be. The Mountain West, the one conference it made sense for them to be in, didn’t want them. And the Sun Belt, which had them in reality for a few years, might as well have been on the moon compared to where they were situated. So they are gone to FCS, probably never to return.

In actuality, Liberty replaced them as an Independent. I’m just moving them straight to Conference USA instead. Take out the middle man.

2021

I’m not including any COVID-related moves like Notre Dame being in the ACC for one season (and almost winning the conference title).

UConn left the American to go back to the basketball-oriented Big East. In my world, that doesn’t happen. Actually, nothing happens at all here because the next year, the realignment bubble doesn’t burst: it gets blown up. So I have to put new pieces together in a brand new puzzle to make it work. Should be fun right?

2022

Who’s idea was this? Good lord. At least now we can see the light at the end of the tunnel.

This season had some movement but at the low end of FBS. James Madison, an FCS powerhouse, finally moved up to FBS and joined the Sun Belt. Joining them would be three Conference USA teams: Marshall, Old Dominion and Southern Miss.

Now, if you have read my blog before, you know how I feel about the Sun Belt and Conference USA. I find them to be unwieldy conferences with massive geographical footprints that, especially in C-USA’s case, make no sense. I plan on fixing it but not this year. Let the new teams breathe in their new conference before I blow things up with enough C-4 to level a city.

2023

Alright, let’s blow shit up.

Let’s start with the SEC which has been left behind a bit in my version of realignment. Consistency was the name of the game in the conference where it just means more. Well now they get the infusion they always hoped for. Sorry ACC. Sorry Big East. It was bound to happen. The SEC invites Florida State, Miami, Georgia Tech and Clemson. They finally have attained that superconference status.

The ACC is gutted but won’t be for long. We will get to that in a bit.

The Big XII gets an infusion of teams as well. BYU, from the Mountain West, along with Cincinnati and UCF from the Big East, move to the Big XII. Because Houston was already in the Big XII, they now sit at fifteen teams. Not the best idea, especially for scheduling purposes. So they invite one more team: Utah. After missing out on the Pac-10/12/16/whatever years ago, they finally get into a power conference and deservedly so.

Hey remember what I said way back at the start. You know, the point about Penn State not going to the Big Ten. Well, it’s time they moved. With the Big East losing some teams and some conference strength, it’s time for the Nittany Lions to move up. They will bring with them Pittsburgh. Sure it’s not a brand new market but it gives PSU a travel partner and doesn’t go too far outside the current Big Ten geographic footprint, something I find important (although college sports most definitely does not).

New Mexico State gets a conference home again when they move to Conference USA. They are joined by Sam Houston and Jacksonville State who move up from FCS.

Done for this coming season but wait, there’s more!

2024

You really think I would have USC and UCLA go to the Big Ten? Fuck that noise. What I will be doing, however, is rather seismic.

The ACC is going to raid the Big East yet again. With only seven teams for the 2023 season, they were looking like a sorry-ass football conference. So they take Boston College, Rutgers, Syracuse, UConn, Virginia Tech and West Virginia from the Big East. I’m not a fan of odd-numbered conferences, so they also pluck UCF from the Big XII.

Now we start the trickle-down effect. The Big XII (now Big XVI) will take Colorado State from the Mountain West. The Mountain West responds by grabbing New Mexico State from Conference USA.

And then, the coup de grace. I am going to totally remake Conference USA and the Sun Belt and finally put the nail in the coffin of Big East football, all in one fell swoop. This is how it will work (pay close attention):

Conference USA will be the western-most conference of the two with the Sun Belt being the eastern-most. Why did I do this? Who knows.
All four former Big East teams (East Carolina, Navy, Temple and USF) join the Sun Belt.
Arkansas State, Louisiana, South Alabama, Southern Miss, Texas State, Troy and ULM move from the Sun Belt to Conference USA.
Then Charlotte, FAU, FIU, Liberty and WKU move from Conference USA to the Sun Belt.

Look at that; two sixteen-team conferences that have a tighter geographic footprint. Makes travel easier and fosters better rivalries. Like college sports had been like for DECADES. Oh and if Louisiana Tech complains even once about being in the same conference as Louisiana or ULM they can be sent to FCS for all I care.

Alright, so now I bet you want to know what this all looks like. So here it is, in chart form with NO DIVISONS because divisions suck:

SEC	Big Ten	Pac-16	ACC	Big XVI
Alabama	Illinois	Arizona	Boston College	Baylor
Arkansas	Indiana	Arizona State	Duke	Boise State
Auburn	Iowa	California	Louisville	BYU
Clemson	Kansas	Colorado	Maryland	Cincinnati
Florida	Michigan	Oklahoma	NC State	Colorado State
Florida State	Michigan State	Oklahoma State	North Carolina	Houston
Georgia	Minnesota	Oregon	Rutgers	Iowa State
Georgia Tech	Nebraska	Oregon State	Syracuse	Kansas State
Kentucky	Northwestern	Stanford	UCF	Memphis
LSU	Ohio State	Texas	UConn	Missouri
Miami	Penn State	Texas A&M	Virginia	San Diego State
Mississippi State	Pittsburgh	Texas Tech	Virginia Tech	SMU
Ole Miss	Purdue	UCLA	Wake Forest	TCU
South Carolina	Wisconsin	USC	West Virginia	Tulane
Tennessee		Washington		Tulsa
Vanderbilt		Washington State		Utah
Mountain West	MAC	Sun Belt	Conference USA	Independents
Air Force	Akron	Appalachian State	Arkansas State	Army
Fresno State	Ball State	Charlotte	Jacksonville State	Notre Dame
Hawaii	Bowling Green	Coastal Carolina	Louisiana	UMass
Nevada	Buffalo	East Carolina	Louisiana Tech
New Mexico	Central Michigan	FAU	Middle Tennessee
New Mexico State	Eastern Michigan	FIU	North Texas
San Jose State	Kent State	Georgia Southern	Rice
UNLV	Miami-OH	Georgia State	Sam Houston
Utah State	Northern Illinois	James Madison	South Alabama
Wyoming	Ohio	Liberty	Southern Miss
	Toledo	Marshall	Texas State
	Western Michigan	Navy	Troy
		Old Dominion	UAB
		Temple	ULM
		USF	UTEP
		WKU	UTSA

Holy crap that took forever. But look at those conferences. I think they look way better than what we will see in reality, if I do say so myself. And if another team is moving up from FCS, they may just have to be an Independent for the near future…dammit Kennesaw State is moving up in 2024? Nope, not anymore. Not in Bossman’s realignment. I’m done.

Time for the Conference Championships!

Posted on January 27, 2023 by guelphbossman

For once, there aren’t one or even two favourites to hoist the Lombardi Trophy as Super Bowl champs. All four teams are almost equal in odds to win the Super Bowl at this point. That is impressive and shows a lot of parity in the league.

Also, I know many are glad that there won’t be a neutral-site AFC Championship. I can understand that. What I can’t understand is rooting against the Bills for that very reason. That is dumb. If that’s the case, you should have also rooted against the Chiefs. But that would be logical. And Twitter, for a lot of people, is not logical at all. Same with most social media.

I digress…it’s time for the schedule.

Sunday

San Francisco at Philadelphia	3:00, FOX, CTV
Cincinnati at Kansas City	6:30, CBS, CTV

Some notes

Again, no neutral-site game. It will be played in Kansas City. I hope it’s a raging snowstorm.
I’m predicting an Eagles-Chiefs Super Bowl which should be great news for Niners and Bengals fans.

OK by some I meant two. I should have said two notes. And one was a prediction.

Anyway, after this we will have two weeks until the Super Bowl with the new Pro Bowl Fun-Time Games of Excitement and Frolic in between. Hey, it’s better than the actual Pro Bowl game was. I might even watch some of it!

College football all-star games this weekend and next. All the games will air on the NFL Network which is good because it gives us a break from the non-stop Super Bowl pre-game trash. The NFLPA Collegiate Bowl is this Saturday at 5:00. Odd time for sure but it’s football. Then on February 2nd, the East-West Shrine Game will be played at 7:30. Pro Bowl weekend sees the Senior Bowl with their weird and interesting rules being played on the Saturday at 1:30. Finally, almost a month from now is the HBCU Legacy Bowl. It airs February 25th at 3:00. Then….no more college football for six months. God help us all.

Soon enough the NFL season will also be over. I will do posts on my prediction results which I just assume were awful. I may do a post on the XFL and USFL trying to one-up each other for spring football supremacy with the end result most likely being both end up not existing in a couple of years. And no, I will not be doing a bunch of mock draft posts this year. I will do one, around the time of the draft. And I’ll still get it wrong. Enjoy the games this weekend everyone!

2022-23 NFL Divisional Playoffs TV Schedule

Posted on January 20, 2023 by guelphbossman

Wasn’t that a fun Wild Card round? Well, most of the games were at least. That last one though…woo what a stinker. I wonder if Tom Brady has packed up his shit and moved to Vegas yet.

Without further adieu, and to make this quick, let’s get right to this weekend’s schedule, followed by a few notes:

Saturday

Jacksonville at Kansas City	4:30	NBC, CTV
NY Giants at Philadelphia	8:00	FOX, CTV

Sunday

Cincinnati at Buffalo	3:00	CBS, CTV
Dallas at San Francisco	6:30	FOX, CTV

Notes

CTV gets all four Divisional Round games this season. This is the fifth year in a row this has happened and I can’t see that changing anytime soon.
CBS got jobbed this playoffs! One Wild Card game and now one Divisional Round game. They get the AFC Championship and then that’s it. Three games. I don’t remember the last time FOX or CBS had that few playoff games. That’s because ever since CBS acquired the rights to the AFC broadcasts, it has never happened. It now seems pretty obvious that they had one game taken from them last weekend. Whether it was because of the Monday Night Football incident in Week 17 or part of the new contract, who knows. So I hope you like Jim Nantz and Tony Romo because that is all you get on CBS this playoffs.
The game in Kansas City could get some not-so-nice weather this weekend. There is a potential for rain and it’s barely above freezing. Other than that, we should see decent weather for the other three contests.

See? That was quick. This weekend there is one college football all-star game but it’s on Facebook. So if you want to catch the Tropical Bowl, it’s on at 4:00 on Saturday (if you can find it). The following weekend there are some more college all-star games but I will get them in next week’s post.

We are getting closer and closer to the dark period for football although it won’t be as dark as in years past. The XFL and USFL will be upon us and then the CFL starts up in late May. So at least you can get your football fix that doesn’t involve the NFL or NCAA. Have a great weekend and enjoy the games everyone!

Kind of Quick College Football Week 15 TV Schedule Post With Some Other Random Stuff and Things

Posted on December 9, 2022 by guelphbossman

The editor (me) can’t be too happy with the writer (also me) for how poor the writer (me again) is when it comes to grammar. Spelling? Got it down pat. I spel gud. Grammar on the other hand? I’m…..not bad at it. Definitely not great, that’s for sure. I will try my best to be better in the future but there are no guarantees. I mean if for some reason this blog starts making money (it won’t I assure you), then I will have to take this grammar thing a lot more serious. Until then…..who fucking cares?

Let’s just get to the schedule, which is much shorter than I am used to, then get on to same tasty bits afterwards…some blog mozzarella sticks if you will.

Friday

FCS Quarter-Final: Samford at North Dakota State	7:00 PM
FCS Quarter-Final: William & Mary at Montana State	10:15 PM

First time ever we are seeing an FCS doubleheader. And as of this point, there is nothing on the specialty packs saying we will see it up here. I assume that will change in the next 24 hours but I will keep watch. I guess North Dakota State decided they were sick of the 11:00 am local time they kept getting for these games and demanded something closer to primetime. You know ESPN wants to broadcast NDSU games so it was a no-brainer that they could do a doubleheader with Montana State and Sacramento State hosting quarter-final games in the late window.

UPDATE: It looks like the games are appearing on the Bell guides. Still can’t see anything for Rogers, Cogeco or Eastlink yet.

Saturday

FCS Quarter-Final: Holy Cross at South Dakota State	Noon
Army vs. Navy (in Philadelphia)	3:00 PM

It’s too bad this wasn’t set up as a game Army had to win to go bowling. Like maybe a bowl game could have picked Army and another team and the Black Knights would have to win here to go to that bowl game. Alas, college football can be no fun sometimes.

Blogzzarella Sticks

Ha ha see what I did there? Yeah, I know, I could have done better.

Anyway, as of right now all three FCS games are not on the specialty pack but should appear soon enough. I have never known them not to be shown in the past when they are on ESPN, ESPN2 or ESPNU.

Have you seen how many players have entered the transfer portal? I’m fine with the transfer portal but this may be getting out of hand. Will we have a team that doesn’t have enough players because of this and has to forfeit a bowl game? I mean it’s possible. Part of me thinks it would be funny because it’s like college football as a whole doesn’t quite get it when it comes to anything new. They fuck it up right off the hop and then scramble to fix it instead of figuring out how to set things up properly from the get-go.

You want to watch the Heisman Trophy ceremony? Well too fucking bad. Oh wait you can watch it on TSN.ca nope not there either. OK then. I guess you will have to be watching your Twitter feed or finding a stream to watch this since we don’t get it here. Spoiler alert: I have a feeling Caleb Williams is winning it. Maybe I just saved you an hour.

Oh and if you like College Gameday, they won’t be in Philadelphia on Saturday morning. Usually the crew does a show before the Army-Navy game every season but they won’t be this year. Chances are Lee Corso wouldn’t be there. Also, expect everyone that would normally be on this show to be in New York for the Heisman ceremony. I get that Philly isn’t too far from New York but I’m sure going to do a three-hour pregame show for a game they won’t be showing between two teams that won’t be going bowling may just not make sense despite the history of this game. I very rarely watch more than the picks portion of the show anyway so for me it’s not that big of a deal.

Might as well call it…home stretch time! A lot of football coming up over the next few weeks so embrace it since we know what happens come mid-February. That’s right, no football at all, although we will have the USFL and the XFL so if you want to watch something then there you go. Anyway, enjoy the games everyone!

I think I want to be the football commissioner

Posted on June 11, 2022 by guelphbossman

I don’t mean commissioner of the NFL. I mean commissioner of football. All of it…ok maybe not all of it. I don’t really need to deal with high school football. For now. So no worries, Texas, you can still go batshit crazy over a game being played by 14-17 year-olds. When you say it that way, ugh.

So I will go through some of the changes I feel should be made to make various leagues better. You may agree. You may disagree. You may not care. Whatever. I’m bored and trying to figure out how to do the schedule posts in a slightly different manner this year so this is what you get, dammit. Let’s begin.

Just don’t bother. How there are multiple arena football leagues I will never understand.

We need to take out the rouge for punts. I think it’s a dumb rule and I get that it has been around forever but still. I don’t mind if the receiving team didn’t get the ball way out at the 20 or 25 but had to start at the 10 instead. At least that’s some sort of “punishment” for allowing the opposition to punt into your end zone. But other than that, I think it’s dumb. And would it be missed? Doubtful.
Get rid of the salary cap. Why does it exist? They make it sound like a couple of the teams are super rich. Newsflash: none of them are. It’s either that or have one player on both sides of the ball be excluded from the salary cap calculations. Something has to change there.
Now let’s to a bit of a thorny issue. Expansion. I know the CFL (and many of their fans) are very hesitant to talk about this after being snakebitten before. Problem is, the American expansion, outside of Baltimore was completely dumb and never thought out. A team in fucking Shreveport? Who’s bright idea was that? So I figured I would come up with some potential candidates over the next decade and explain the rationale behind at least considering these cities/areas. Let’s start with Canadian locales:
- Quebec City – This is the first and obvious choice to everyone not named the Montreal Alouettes. They “claim” Quebec as their own when it comes to the CFL. It’s archaic. They don’t like it? Fold. You’ve done it before. Yes, there are issues with Quebec City but I am sure they would gladly expand Telus Stadium to at least 20,000 to make it CFL-ready.
- Moncton/Halifax – Ah, the Atlantic Schooners. Ready to take the field in 1984. 1984! Yeah they missed by only four decades. Good job. Realistically, either city would have to build a brand new stadium since even the sites of the Touchdown Atlantic games aren’t big enough for a full-time CFL team. But it’s doable.
- London/Saskatoon/Windsor/Waterloo/Victoria – No, I will not put Guelph there. I live in Guelph. There is no fucking way this city would support a CFL team. And no, they really did not support the Ti-Cats when they were here for one year. Remember, there were only like 12,000 seats. So stop. Saying that, I would be shocked if any of these other cities in this point could do it as well. A lot would have to be done to get these cities ready for that, not including a brand new stadium.
OK so realistically there are two Canadian spots. Now, how about CFL American Expansion 2.0? Hear me out. There’s a way this could work. Let’s start with not having some of the teams 50,000 miles away from the Canadian border. There’s a good start. Alright, here we go:
- Portland, Oregon – This seems to be the most obvious choice for a south of the border team. If they could use Providence Park (home of the Timbers), it would be perfect. 25,000 seat stadium, not too far from the border, an almost instant rivalry with the BC Lions. And other than those aforementioned Timbers and the Trailblazers, there are no other pro sports and probably won’t be. So this could be a win-win for the league and the city.
- Fargo/Grand Forks – Yes, North Dakota State football is huge here. But there’s nothing else. For miles. This would be the only pro game in town and with two good football stadiums (domed as well) it would make for a great atmosphere. Are the stadiums a little small? Sure but I am sure at least early on they could get around that.
- Syracuse – This is an interesting one since the Carrier Dome (or whatever it’s called now) might actually be too big for CFL standards. Almost 50,000 seats so it would be around Commonwealth Stadium size. And that stadium looks like shit when it’s less than half full. So they might want to watch it. Along with Fargo/Grand Forks, there might be an issue with the size of the field and how they would be able to go back and forth between that and an American-sized field.
- Spokane – This is a city that I don’t think is on anyone’s list. They have a stadium big enough (28,000 capacity) and really nothing in the area in terms of pro sports. They are not too far of a drive from Calgary (Google Maps tells me seven hours…OK so that’s relatively far). It feels like it could work. And we see horrible weather in Calgary and Regina anyway for games so seeing 12 feet of snow for a game in Eastern Washington state wouldn’t be a tough sell.
- Utah/Idaho/South Dakota/Montana/Wyoming – Like any state in the West that has almost nothing going for it that’s actually near the border (somewhat). So no, no franchise for Vegas at Sam Boyd Stadium where the field is hotter than the surface of the sun. Be realistic. Honestly, these spots aren’t totally realistic but some of them have big stadiums (Provo, Salt Lake City, Boise) that could easily handle a CFL team.
- Milwaukee – Hmmm…this is an odd one. Remember, there was a time when the Green Bay Packers would play at least one game every season in Milwaukee. That’s when the city had County Stadium. I doubt the Brewers would allow football to be played in their probably baseball-only stadium so this might have to be ruled out.
There are other cities you could consider like Omaha or Norfolk or some in the Vermont/New Hampshire/Maine area but really those are longshots.
The other part that many will hate to discuss is a relationship with the NFL. Most don’t want it because “I don’t want to deal with those damn ‘Muricans.” Well, at some point, there should be an agreement. If the CFL isn’t going to partner with the XFL (which is fine), they should at least talk to the NFL about some partnership agreement. This would help the CFL in the long run. Rules don’t have to be changed to mirror the NFL: it would just allow players on practice rosters to get real game action which can only help them and their NFL contract holders.

My god where do I start with this. U Sports is a mess. It has never meant less than it does now. Apologies to all the athletes playing university sports (I was once one, myself) but this is ridiculous. It’s like no one cares anymore. If there weren’t students who, every so often, went out to support these football teams, I’m sure everything would be shut down. I don’t know what the answer is to be honest. Realistically, joining the NCAA in some capacity would be difficult and the rule changes would call for a lot of money needing to be spent at these football stadiums…money that some of these schools don’t have. Really, though, until every conference has a serious TV partner (and no, local cable is not a serious TV partner), then nothing can change. Not being able to watch the games has been a bit of a death knell for U Sports. And no, just having the final three games on CBC is not nearly good enough.

Hell, I could put any other spring league here as well like the AAF. Can someone figure out how to run a proper league in the Spring? Because it feels like no one has a clue. Here are a few things that almost need to be done:

Have one league. The XFL and USFL competing means, probably, that both leagues will cease to exist in a couple years. Figure this shit out and combine forces. It’s not like everyone is clamoring for Spring football. It’s obvious they aren’t. So watching two leagues will be done by almost nobody.
Continue with having good TV partners. This is one thing that these leagues have somehow done well with. Keep that up.
Do not use just one stadium for all the games. It’s dumb. And it’s Legion Field which is a shithole. Someone should get their ass fired for that idea. I get that it saved travel expenses but if that’s the case, don’t have a fucking league in the first place. Which leads me to my next point…
Regionalize the teams. You want two divisions? Perfect. Have the teams in each division, at this point, be relatively close. This way, travel costs are cut down immensely. So don’t put a team in Birmingham then have them in the same division as a team in New York. It’s stupid.
Saying that, have more than eight teams. If you have twelve teams, you can have three divisions. Home and away inside the division is six games. Either two or four games outside the division and that’s it. Short season, not a ton of travel, and rivalries can blossom inside the divisions. When the league is making some serious coin, then expand and go elsewhere.
Do what I told the CFL to do: have a partnership with the NFL. A real one. Ask for players from practice squads so they can get some game experience. It’s worth it.

I actually don’t have too many things that I would want to change about the NFL. It’s great. And they’ve done a great job with tweaking things as the years have gone on. Take a look at overtime. Now it seems as fair and logical as it has ever been. Yes, it took time but we got there. Saying that, there are still a few more issues at hand:

I have discussed this at length before but here we go again. Division winners should only be guaranteed a top 5 seed. They shouldn’t automatically get a home playoff game in the Wild Card round because they were lucky enough to be in a shitty division. Also, the best Wild Card team, if they have a better record than the worst division winner, shouldn’t be penalized for having the audacity to be in a division with an even better team.
Stop making pass interference a spot foul. Some of these quarterbacks heave balls 40 yards down the field hoping for this call and some get it which is absurd. If they want to punish teams more than the 15-yard penalty that is done in college, then make it a 20-yard penalty (or spot foul if it’s less than a 20-yard pass). But making it a spot foul is too detrimental to defenses and defensive backs for merely trying to do their job.
The fumble through the end zone rule. Good lord. This goes for the college game as well. That should never be a touchback. I don’t know what the rule should be but that is honestly one of the worst in football. The ball should either be returned to the spot of the fumble or automatically put somewhere, like the ten-yard line. Penalizing a team that much for a fumble that isn’t recovered by either team is preposterous.

See, not too much right? Oh and don’t put a team in London. Please. I am not a fan of the early morning Sunday games.

Man, where do I start here? For a game that I love, I sure do want a lot of changes. So let’s just get to them and hope it doesn’t make this post so long that I need to include chapters.

I’ve mentioned this before but don’t stop the clock for first downs in the first and third quarters. You’d be amazed at how much time can be made up with this. Drop ten minutes off the average college game and a lot less games go over that magical 3.5 hour window.
Let the players taunt. Who gives a shit? Horns Down? Perfect. Do it. What’s the problem? We want to treat these kids as adults then tell them not to do stuff like this. Can the professionalism argument. It’s not like it happens 100 times a game. Besides, you want to stop the taunts? Score on them. That shuts them up real quick.
There needs to be two separate kinds of targeting fouls. I’m not the only one who has said this and the NCAA seems to be waffling over this decision. I don’t understand why. If there is clear intent to injure (or more like it definitely wasn’t accidental), it’s 15-yards and a 1-game suspension. If it is accidental or deemed to be not egregious, 15 yards and the offending player stays in the game. I get that it becomes up to the officials to call this and it might not be fully consistent but you have to start somewhere with this.
Can we stop with making overtime ridiculous? If they want to go college-style fine. Both teams get a chance from the 35-yard line. Keep going until one team wins. No 2-point shootouts. Hell, no need to even go to two-point conversions only after a touchdown. That’s fine. If we want full possessions, give both teams at least one shot. If it’s still tied, then it’s sudden death. Why does this have to be needlessly complicated?
Now to conference schedules. Have every conference play a nine-game conference schedule. What this does is two-fold. It heightens rivalries inside the conference and also makes non-conference games that much more exciting since you will see 25% less of them (approximately). This lends itself to bowl games as well as you might see a matchup that has never happened before and this also piques fans’ interest in these exhibition games.
I think the structure of college football when it comes to the players has to be adjusted. NIL has been a good thing. It is, however, getting to the point where these players are just being given money by the schools. OK then. If we’re being honest, college football is THE college sport. Brings in more money than any other sport by a wide margin. So it should be treated differently. Like why are players forced to carry an entire semester schedule? This leads to some cheating, some taking stupidly easy courses, some even in degree programs that are useless. So make it so they only have to take two or three courses during the Fall semester. Remember, they can always come back after being a pro or once their college career is over to finish all the credits needed. This way, you’d have less problems with academics (I think) and coaches would kind of get their way but not allowing said academics to get in the way of fielding a winning program.
A better way to determine first downs. Lasers? Microchips in the footballs? Something. Anything. It’s 2022. Come on guys. And while you’re at it, goal line cameras at all FBS stadiums!
Finally, the bowl/playoff system. I’ve kind of gone back-and-forth on this and even done different scenarios in the same season to show how things could be altered as to who wins in the end. This is very tough. If there were only a few bowl games (like 20 years ago or so), then this becomes less of an issue. But with the sheer amount of bowl games, they have to mean something. I mentioned above that nine-game conference schedules would help in this regard as it would create a bit more uniqueness when it comes to the bowl matchups. I think, though, in the end, despite the fact that the playoff is here to stay, it’s not the best option. Why do I believe that? Because it won’t stop at 8 or 12 or even 16. It will go to at least 24 and bowl games will either be cut altogether or used as sites for playoff games. We know this. It’s inevitable. It may take three decades but we will get there. Does this make the sport as a whole better? I don’t know if it does. If you want the bowl games to matter and you want to keep the exclusiveness of playing for a national championship to very few teams every season, then going back to a quasi-poll n’ bowl system would work best. Do it the way it was back in the 80s and 90s but add the plus-one game. Or do the four-team playoff after the bowls. I am not saying the current playoff is bad because it isn’t. I kind of like it even though many of the semi-final games end up being crap. But when we start talking about quarter-finals and first round games, it may lose its lustre. Actually, I know it will. Will it change the sport forever? We will find out soon enough.

OK that’s about enough. There are more things I probably missed and things I, at some point, wanted to mention and just plain forgot. Oh well. My application is ready. I’ll send it off to….that’s probably the first thing I have to figure out. Probably ESPN. They run things don’t they? Anyway, have a great weekend everyone!

Hey how did I do? Also, my updated NFL playoff predictions.

Posted on January 14, 2022 by guelphbossman

Basically, this is a post of how shitty my predictions are. And some of them are BAD.

Let’s start with the college football portion of our show. As I usually do, despite the fact I make my predictions public, I always assume some of them will be horrible. But I made my choices, dammit, and I’m gonna stick with them. Unlike some of you loser experts out there. Alright let’s get going with this.

College Football Playoff and New Year’s Six

OK then here we go. This is gonna be bad, I can just feel it:
- Alabama – Picked them #2 and they ended up #1. Nice. Good start for the ol’ Bossman.
- Ohio State – I figured this was a no-brainer. It wasn’t. I had then #3 and they ended up at the Rose Bowl. So not too bad as a lot of experts had them in their Top 4.
- Oklahoma – I had them #1. Then the first game of the season happened and I realized it wouldn’t happen. Ended up outside the New Year’s Six and lost both quarterbacks to the transfer portal. Not good.
- North Carolina – What in the fuck was I thinking? I did not bank on the O-line being possibly the worst in the country, that’s what I was thinking. Anyway, they came oh so close to not even being bowl-eligible. Completely gross pick on my part.
How about my New Year’s Six picks? Might as well go through them one-by-one as well:
- I had Notre Dame going to the Fiesta Bowl. Spot on!
- Clemson to the Peach Bowl. Ugh. Not that Clemson had a terrible season but they were really never close to the New Year’s Six.
- Cincinnati to the Peach Bowl. They did better than I thought they would. Congrats to them and for breaking the Group of Five ceiling.
- Iowa State to the Sugar Bowl. I honestly though ISU would finally break through and get that Sugar Bowl bid. They hung in there but really were never in the Big XII race.
- Texas A&M to the Sugar Bowl. I figured after they beat Bama that they would be in this spot. Man, was I wrong.
- Wisconsin to the Rose Bowl. Honestly, they were a tough loss to Minnesota away from the Big Ten Championship and then who knows what happens if they get there.
- USC to the Rose Bowl. Holy shit.
- Washington to the Fiesta Bowl. Double holy shit. I whiffed so badly on my two Pac-12 picks.
Other terrible predictions included Texas at #21 and going to the Alamo Bowl, TCU being #23 and heading to the Cheez-It Bowl and Nebraska going to a bowl at all. I fall for it every year it seems.
I had Georgia, Coastal Carolina and Oregon being just on the outside of the NY6 looking in. Georgia was a huge miss on my part. Oregon ended up pretty much right where I thought they would. Coastal Carolina wasn’t as good but still won double-digit games. So I would call those not so bad picks.

Heisman Trophy

I had Spencer Rattler and Sam Howell as my #1 and #2. Well this is a great start.
OK this isn’t bad. I had Bryce Young at #5. I wondered if he could come out from under Mac Jones’ shadow and he did more than that for sure, especially in the SEC Championship where he clinched the trophy.
Let’s look at some of the rest of my Top 10:
- D.J. Uiagalelei at #3. Ouch. Despite the fact Clemson still did pretty good this season, D.J. was mediocre for much of it.
- J.T. Daniels at #7. Oh my. Georgia fans are very happy that Stetson Bennett, the former walk-on, came through for them to win the title.
- Kedon Slovis at #8. OK then. He’s now in the transfer portal which says all you need to know about how his season went.
- D’Eriq King at #10. Alright, I’m done here.

Coaching Hot Seat

I usually do pretty well with this. Let’s see.

Normally I do pretty well with the coaches on Almost Guaranteed Shitcanning section. Not so this season. Only Walt Bell was fired on this list with Jeff Brohm and Dino Babers possibly saving their jobs well into 2022. Even the things I do well at I’m not doing well at.
The next section I predicted better. Two out of three. Saying that, Jonathan Smith almost did a good enough job to be considered for other coaching openings.
I should apologize to Jim Harbaugh though. I shouldn’t have even put him on the list and I did in the Possible Shitcanning section. Stupid me. He had the best season he’s had in Ann Arbor and may end up back in the NFL in 2022.
Honestly, most of the coaches did not get fired on my list and some actually did quite a bit better than most thought. My excuse? Look at how the season was. It was insane! How was I to know it would be this crazy?

Just A Bunch of Predictions, Good and Bad

Let’s be honest: it’s probably mostly bad but let’s go through this exercise anyway.

Most of the teams I had with good records (at least 10 wins) did well if you don’t include North Carolina, Washington and USC, which I mentioned earlier.
I predicted a fair amount of games on TSN during the regular season. Boy, was I wrong. It was very weird since TSN totally dropped the ball during the regular season. Then come bowl season, TSN went nuts and broadcast almost every game. They did more college games during the past few weeks then they had during the three-plus months before it. Just bizarre. So, in the end, I wish they would balance it out a bit more but they didn’t do too badly, I guess.
Hey look who got the UTSA conference title win correct? This guy…I’m pointing at myself. They may be building something big in San Antonio with the Roadrunners. I mean it’s in Texas, a big city with only one pro team and they are joining the best Group of Five conference, the American, for 2023. Things are looking up for this quite new football team.
Boise State. Talk about being overshadowed in the Mountain West. They haven’t looked this average in a long, loooooooong time. I figured they would win the Mountain West, like they usually do, and it ended up they didn’t even get to the title game and had five teams legitimately better than them during the season.
I shouldn’t have gone all-in with Oklahoma. I think I bought the Spencer Rattler hype. OK, I know I did. I should have remembered him in that QB1 series. He’s a dick.
It still seems like no one can win at Kansas. It looks like Lance Leipold is on the right track, especially with a win over Texas, but I nailed the pick (almost) and know it will take at least another year to get all the kinks out of the program so that Leipold can put his stamp on it. I hope he gets that chance.
Who did I get right in the Pac-12? Almost none of the teams. I had Oregon winning 10 games, Utah winning 9 and Arizona State winning 9. Not bad. I also had Washington winning 11 (ugh), Oregon State winning 3 (yikes) and Washington State winning 4 (oops).
I got all 7 teams in the SEC West going bowling. I’ll give myself a light pat on the back for that because it wasn’t a huge stretch to think that would happen. I will say, though, that South Carolina was quite a bit better than I thought they would be. Same with Tennessee. Florida? Yeah that was a surprise. Same with the Dan Mullen firing. Didn’t see that coming…back in July.
Maybe I overestimated how good Coastal Carolina would be. They still won 10 games though so I wasn’t THAT far off.
Yeah I couldn’t see all the realignment that happened just before the season commenced. Could anyone have foreseen this? Probably not. I’ll go with that.
Hey who got the AAC Championship pairing correct? I think I may have been one of very few to nail the Houston pick (having them be second to Cincinnati).
The Independents were, honestly, pretty easy. Notre Dame, Liberty, Army, BYU: good. New Mexico State, UConn, UMass: bad. Simple.
Ugh, my ACC predictions. Oof, my Big Ten predictions (although I did have Iowa in the Big Ten title game). Oh god, my MAC predictions. Not even fucking close. OK enough of this.

I don’t feel like doing a Stassen score to be honest with you. I’m not as good as some of the normal prediction mags and that’s fine. I have fun doing the predictions, even when they end up being shitty.

Now, the NFL Playoffs. I have to revise my choices from August since some teams (COUGH*Seattle*COUGH) underperformed and others were better than advertised because the NFL season was almost as crazy as the college season. So here goes:

Wild Card Round

Buffalo def. New England

Kansas City def. Pittsburgh

Cincinnati def. Las Vegas

LA Rams def. Arizona

San Francisco def. Dallas

Tampa Bay def. Philadelphia

Divisional Playoffs

Tennessee def. Cincinnati

Buffalo def. Kansas City

LA Rams def. Tampa Bay

Green Bay def. San Francisco

Conference Championships

Buffalo def. Tennessee (revenge for the Music City Miracle)

LA Rams def. Green Bay

Super Bowl

Buffalo def. LA Rams

So I still have the Bills winning over an NFC West team. So not a huge change, I guess.

Now that the college football season is over it’s time for the weird all-star games they have. Some of them have bizarre rules. But at least it’s still a chance to see some college players before they head to the NFL or an NFL practice squad or the CFL or the XFL or the USFL. Man, there’s a lot of leagues. You’d think the CFL would cave and put some teams in strategic NORTHERN American cities. It worked in Baltimore, it could work again. Just don’t put a team in fucking Shreveport. Anyway, here is the schedule for the crazy all-star games:

Hula Bowl – January 15th at Noon on CBS Sports Network
NFLPA Collegiate Bowl – January 29th on NFL Network (time TBA)
East West Shrine Game – February 3rd at 8:00 on NFL Network
Senior Bowl – February 5th at 2:30 on NFL Network

After those games, no more college football until late August. Prepare for the dry season.

What will the upcoming posts be?

Spring football? No. Not a chance.
The NCAA basketball conference tournament schedules will definitely return. Those start in a little over a month so learn about some of the teams that may try and bust your brackets.
The NFL Draft. How many mock drafts will I do? I don’t know. One for sure just before the draft. I may do others. I may not. Who knows.
I’m sure there will be a random post or two in there. You know, when I’m bored.

So as I said before we are getting into the dead period…for college football. A sad, sad time. Maybe one of these years I will take the time away from watching the greatest sport on Earth (after Chess Boxing) to improve myself top to bottom. Ah, who am I kidding. Have a great weekend everyone!

		US	Canada
Navy vs. Notre Dame (in Dublin, Ireland)	2:30 PM
North Alabama vs. Mercer (in Montgomery)	3:30 PM
UTEP at Jacksonville State	5:30 PM