Underrated Games, Best G-5 Games, Best G-5 vs. P-4 Games and Much, Much, More!

That sounds a bit like a Don West intro. And, not gonna lie, if I had the money back in the day I would have been all over those baseball card deals. I mean those cards are worth almost nothing now but at that time, in the Junk Wax era as it is known as, I loved collecting cards. And I wasn’t one of those people who thought I could collect a ton and then sell it and eventually retire on that one sale like some idiots out there. I just liked collecting the cards. Problem was, being a completionist, I always wanted to finish sets. That was the most important thing. Not getting the best or most popular cards. Completing the set. That was the goal. I’m sure that ties in to my mental illnesses somewhere but I’m really not wanting to look that deep into it. Anyway….

The most important games post is complete. Now it’s time for the rest of the lists. I have to watch myself here. If I keep adding more games to these lists, soon enough I will be listing like 75% of the games. At that point, I’m basically doing a preview of every game which is honestly ridiculous. So I will try to keep this relatively small while still feeling like I am giving everyone a good post chock full of informationy goodness.

Sneaky-Good/Underrated Games

Remember when I used to list one of these games for every week of the season? Ah, good times. These are the games that aren’t on the most important list but could end up being very good and are, of course, worth watching. Then again, I would tell you that an early season game between a Conference USA team and a low-level FCS team is also worth watching so what do I know.

1. Missouri at Texas A&M (Week 6, Noon, TSN+/specialty pack) – This is SEVERELY underrated as I have it going to ESPNU. Helps that the SEC has a stacked schedule that week but still. It might end up getting moved but Mizzou is the kind of program that will be somewhat buried early on in the season in the broadcast schedule and will finally get their due in the second-last week of the season when it turns out they are actually a Top 10 team (as we saw last year with the Tigers).
2. Oklahoma State at Kansas State (Week 5, 7:00, TSN+/specialty pack) – Both of these teams will be in the Big XII mix but does that say more about how good these two programs are how much of a minefield at the top the conference is? I have listed five programs who could win the conference title and, to be honest, I could see ten or more bowl teams. A lot of teams grouped around the .500 mark for sure.
3. Iowa State at Utah (Week 13, 8:00, TSN+/specialty pack) – Did you hear the rumours of Utah now wanting to head to the ACC? I think some people just like to plant rumours to see if people take the bait. Not saying that the Utes couldn’t move again in the next few years but the Big XII seems like the proper spot for them. Also, is this a matchup of two of the best head coaches in recent college football history? You could make the argument.
4. Louisville at Clemson (Week 10, 7:30, ABC/TSN+) – A big-time ACC game appearing on ABC in primetime and it’s fourth on the Underrated Games list. This is where we are now in college football. It’s essentially three tiers. No more Power Five and Group of Five. It’s now the Power Two, Middle Two and Group of Five. Anyway, by this point, this could end up essentially being an elimination game for the ACC Championship. And let’s be honest: will the ACC get more than two teams in the playoff? Probably not.
5. Oklahoma at LSU (Week 14, 7:00, TSN2) – The Sooners have a really rough debut season in the SEC as they got a tougher schedule than Texas. Could the Sooners be battling for bowl eligibility here? I doubt it but they have a minefield to go through before this game. As of right now I have this game on on in primetime but I could see it being moved to Black Friday.
6. Wisconsin at USC (Week 5, 3:30, BTN) – Yeah, BTN. Big Ten Network. That network is going to get a bunch of good games this season just due to the sheer size of the conference alone. They have to show something and it won’t always be Indiana-Rutgers. I don’t see either of these teams as competing for the conference championship but it also wouldn’t surprise me if either of these teams ends up in 9-win territory.
7. Kansas State at Iowa State (Week 14, Noon, TSN+/specialty pack) – FARMAGEDDON! Always an underappreciated affair but this could end up being a very important game inside the Big XII. KSU might need this game to head to JerryWorld for a Big XII title and a potential first-round bye in the College Football Playoff. ISU…well, it’s ISU so who knows where they will be. They could be fighting for bowl eligibility at this point or they could also be looking at a potential conference championship game berth.
8. Miami at Louisville (Week 8, 8:00, TSN+/specialty pack) – I’m not saying the ACC is going to end soon but wouldn’t it be something if many of the teams left this conference after this season and the final conference champion was Miami, of all teams? A program that everyone thought would win at least a few conference titles in their first couple decades in the ACC have been shut out. I still don’t think they will win it this year but if Mario Cristobal can figure out how to not snatch defeat out of the jaws of victory, they may be a dangerous team this year.
9. Tennessee at Oklahoma (Week 4, 7:30, ABC/TSN+) – It feels like there are some good teams in these underrated games list. Tells you the quality of the games on the Most Important Games list. This is probably the 20th best SEC game of the year. Yeah, the SEC is going to be a gauntlet this season. Hey, at least this isn’t relegated to the SEC Network (not like it matters much to us Canadians).
10. Wisconsin at Iowa (Week 10, 3:30, CBS) – What’s the over/under going to be for this game? I put it at about 30. If you love defense and Big Ten West football, this is the game for you!
11. USC at Washington (Week 10, 3:30, FOX) – This is underrated? If you had said this even last year, I am sure you would have been laughed at. Look, the Huskies got to the national championship last year and no one is talking about them going into 2024. And the Trojans are still the Trojans. There were very few seasons where one of these two teams, if not both, were not near the top of the Pac-12/10/8 standings. Again, it gets a bit buried because it’s now a Big Ten game but I could see this being a damn good one.
12. SMU at Louisville (Week 6, 3:30, ABC/TSN+) – Speaking of teams moving conferences, here is arguably the oddest move of the offseason. SMU will make no money on media rights until 2033. That is crazy. They are fully betting on themselves here. Saying that, we need to understand what kind of program they were before their death penalty back in the 80s. Constantly a ranked team and a program that looked very close to competing for national championships. So who knows…maybe in a couple of years this will be the team that runs the ACC.

Best Group of Five Games

To be a true college football fan is to know something about the Group of Five. To watch their games when you can because you know there are good teams down there and some seriously exciting (and potentially insane) games. For every huge SEC game there are a bunch of Fun Belt and MACtion games. Tuesday night Conference USA action. Mountain West games that are tough to find as Canadians. And the top Group of Five conference, the American, which gets raided on a damn-near yearly basis by the top conferences. Also a reminder: this is for G-5 teams only. No Power Five Four Two whatever teams eligible. Finally, I am not including Washington State or Oregon State here. They are in a bit of a no-man’s land but I wouldn’t put them as Group of Five teams…yet.

1. Liberty at Appalachian State (Week 5, Noon, TSN+/specialty pack) – Already included in the Most Important Games section. Arguably the top G-5 game of the year.
2. Troy at Memphis (Week 2, Noon, TSN+/specialty pack, time confirmed) – Another game with two teams that could very well be in contention for what will probably end up being the singular G-5 spot in the College Football Playoff. The Trojans lost their head coach and I could see the Tigers losing Ryan Silverfield if Memphis gets to the CFP.
3. Appalachian State at Louisiana (Week 7, Tuesday, TSN1/TSN3) – You read that right. Tuesday. The Sun Belt will have a couple of games on Tuesday nights (to go along with Conference USA’s crazy October weeknight schedule) and I have a feeling this will be one of them. And it’s the Sun Belt Game of the Year (probably). These are the two division favourites in the only conference left in the FBS that has divisions (hopefully they end that next season).
4. Memphis at UTSA (Week 10, Noon, TSN+/specialty pack) – The Roadrunners of Texas-San Antonio (said in extreme Greg Gumbel voice) has to be considered a fantastic success. The program, which had its first season only 13 years ago, are now one of the best teams in the Group of Five and they draw a lot of people to a stadium that was woefully underused for years, the Alamodome. This will be a rough one for Memphis and a Roadrunners victory could signal UTSA’s ascent to the top, perhaps for the foreseeable future.
5. WKU at Liberty (Week 13, 1:00, ESPN+, time confirmed) – Yep. ESPN+. Look, I have said it many times before but I will say it again (or more like type it): the Conference USA has a horrifically bad television contract and it continues to this day. It’s the worst conference in FBS and even having two teams like this doesn’t help their cause. Apologies to New Mexico State but this is probably a preview of the C-USA Championship.
6. James Madison at Appalachian State (Week 13, 3:00, ESPN+) – Ya know, for not being a great week of games, there sure are a lot of Group of Five games on ESPN+. Third time on this list and the first divisional game that could derail what could be a special season in Boone. Now if somehow Boone gets College Gameday for this one I hope ESPN does the right thing and at least puts it on ESPNU.
7. Troy at Louisiana (Week 13, 2:00, ESPN+) – What in the fuck? This is what happens when ESPN decides Yale-Harvard has to air on ESPNU. I hope they put that game in a four-hour window to make time for the eventual yearly protest in that game. This is the West Division version of the JMU-App State game above. Winner of these two games probably sets up the Sun Belt Championship, (hopefully) sponsored by Little Debbie or Bojangles or some other Southern company.
8. Boise State at UNLV (Week 9, Friday, 10:30, CBS Sports Network, confirmed) – Nice to see the Rebels on this list. What a great season they had last year and I have a feeling that will continue this year. The Mountain West might struggle to have a team in the playoff this year, just from the fact that there are quite a few candidates to win the conference that I just assume they will all beat up on each other and it becomes a war of attrition.
9. Jacksonville State at Liberty (Week 10, Wednesday, 7:00, CBS Sports Network, confirmed) – RichRod returns for another year in Alabama for the Gamecocks. And as you can see, yes, that is not a typo. Wednesday night. Aw yeah, Weekday Conference USA! The one redeeming quality of C-USA’s shit-tacular broadcast contract is that in October they get a bunch of Tuesday and Wednesday night games. We thought MACtion and the Fun Belt had to bend to get national coverage. This is ridiculous (but great for lunatics like me who would watch college football every day from late August until the national championship if it was scheduled that way).
10. Memphis at USF (Week 7, Friday, 7:00, TSN+/specialty pack, time confirmed) – I do wonder if the Bulls can recreate the magic they showed in their near-upset of Alabama at the beginning of last season. The Bulls have a rough early-season schedule but a win here could start a seven-game winning streak to end the season. That could also lead to a berth in the American Championship if things fall their way.
11. Tulane at Louisiana (Week 4, 5:00, ESPN+) – There is a possibility this game sneaks on to ESPNU or even ESPN2 if Tulane can somehow beat either Oklahoma or Kansas State (it wouldn’t totally surprise me if either happened). Otherwise they will probably be relegated to ESPN+ and perhaps a weird start time (at least for Eastern Time Zone people like myself). Which reminds me of a poll I saw recently: what is the best time zone for watching sports? Not going to lie, I feel a bit envious of Central Time Zone since they have the best balance. Nothing super early but you can finish the Hawaii Test before 2 in the morning most times.
12. Fresno State at UNLV (Week 5, 3:30, FOX Sports One, confirmed) – Even with how good UNLV did last year, no one would have “UNLV being in the two most important Mountain West games of the 2024 season” on their bingo card. I like the fact that the Mountain West gets CBS and FOX to set out most of their game times before the season begins. I am sure the fans appreciate it as well. Also, this is my yearly rant about Canadians deserving a television package that allows for every game short of the ones on ESPN+ to be available for purchase. Will never happen but that would be the only thing that would take me off of IPTV (and even that might not be enough).

Best Group of Five vs. Power Five Four Games

I could also call this the Potential Upset list although a few of these games have small odds of an upset (I love chaos but even I would struggle to even consider putting money on some of these). Now that we essentially have the Power Two and the Middle Two and not the Power Five anymore, I could see more upsets involving teams from the Big XII and ACC than ever before.

1. Memphis at Florida State (Week 3, Noon, TSN+/specialty pack, time confirmed) – Is this the best upset possibility? Probably not but here are two things: Memphis is considered one of the favourites to get to the College Football Playoff from the Group of Five and who knows how good Florida State will be this year. As good as they were last year before Jordan Travis got injured? Not likely. Still one of the ACC favourites, though. Saying all this, a Tigers victory here will give Memphis a huge boost and make it so social media shits all over the ACC, at least for the following week or so.
2. Boise State at Oregon (Week 2, 10:00, Peacock, confirmed) – First of all, yes it is on Peacock so no Canadian will have (easy) access to the game which is a complete joke. Second, Oregon is supposed to be very good this year so any loss will be scrutinized heavily, especially if it happens here. Boise should also be good, in a G-5 sense, but a win here does what a win would do for Memphis in the previous game on this list: boost them up the rankings and potentially allow them to hold on to a high ranking even with a loss later in the year.
3. Appalachian State at Clemson (Week 2, 8:00, TSN+/specialty pack, time confirmed) – An ACC Network appearance on the list. Is that a shot at Clemson or App State (or both)? App State, like the two other G-5 teams so far on this list, have a good shot at the playoff. I am on the fence about Clemson, though. I’ve talked about this with Dabo’s disdain/fear of the transfer portal. Will that work in his favour or will it kill a bit of his legacy in Death Valley? This could be the season we find that out.
4. Fresno State at Michigan (Week 1, 7:30, NBC, confirmed) – OK this could be the first game where I am pretty sure there won’t be an upset. Michigan won’t be as good as last season but they are still a really good team and one of the Big Ten favourites. Fresno might struggle considering Boise, Air Force and even UNLV could be in their way to even getting to the conference championship. Keeping it close with the Wolverines here could at least give them a good repuation going forward.
5. Miami-OH at Notre Dame (Week 4, 3:30, NBC, confirmed) – Man, NBC (and Peacock) are already taking up a good portion of this list. The Irish have traditionally struggled against at least one Group of Five team every year. Remember Marcus Freeman’s first game at home as Notre Dame head coach? A loss to Marshall. And the year before that they struggled to beat Toledo. So don’t be surprised if this is at least a close one going into the final quarter.
6. Tulane at Oklahoma (Week 3, 3:30, TSN+/specialty pack, time confirmed) – Tulane is a big question mark in the G-5 grand scheme of things. A new head coach, new quarterback, new starters in key positions. This isn’t your slightly older brother’s Green Wave. Saying that, the Sooners are taking a massive step up in competition. They can’t have missteps in non-conference games or otherwise we could see…GASP…the Sooners struggling to be bowl-eligible.
7. UTSA at Texas (Week 3, 7:00, TSN+/specialty pack, time confirmed) – Too bad this game wasn’t in San Antonio. I would have loved to have seen what the crowd split would have been. And how loud it could have got.
8. Kansas State at Tulane (Week 2, Noon, TSN+/specialty pack, time confirmed) – Not often you see a team of Kansas State’s caliber going on the road to face a Group of Five team. Tulane could be considered slightly different considering their last two years of success but still, it doesn’t happen often. I love these kinds of games and, no offense to the Wildcats, I would love to see a Green Wave victory here because I almost always love G-5 wins over P-5 teams.
9. Troy at Iowa (Week 3, 4:00, FOX Sports One, confirmed) – Sorry, can’t help you here. FS1 gets some good Big Ten games and this may end up being one of them. Also, other than teams using acronyms for names, this is the least amount of letters for any matchup all season.
10. Fresno State at UCLA (Week 14, 7:00, FOX Sports One) – Late season G-5/P-5 warfare? Interesting. Another anomaly of the schedule where conference play usually reigns supreme. Hey, remember when Jake Haener got the shit beat out of him yet still led the Bulldogs to a 40-37 victory over UCLA? That was only three years ago if you can believe it. Don’t be surprised if the other FSU gives the Bruins headaches once again.
11. Jacksonville State at Louisville (Week 2, 3:30, ESPN+, confirmed) – It took a while but there is finally an ESPN+ game on this list. The RichRod Fighting Cocks might give the Cardinals fits in this one. JSU loves to run the ball and the Cards only let up over 150 yards rushing once last season. Something’s gotta give.
12. Miami at USF (Week 4, 3:30, TSN+/specialty pack) – Should be one of the largest crowds in USF history. Will it approach the 66,000 that saw the Canes destroy the Bulls back in 2009? Perhaps. USF should still be a decent team and Miami is a huge wild card coming into the season. At least we know Mario Cristobal has probably learned his lesson about kneeling when the game is in hand. At least I hope he has.

Worst Power Five Games

Realistically, this could be called the Sickos Section. Games that no casual fan would even consider watching. Games you might have to look hard to find. Games that even conference networks would try to avoid if they can (except for the Big XII which has no choice in that matter). And as I said last year, I will watch portions of all these games. Guaran-fucking-teed. Let’s go!

1. Purdue at Indiana (Week 14, Noon, Big Ten Network) – The Old Oaken Bucket is the number one game on this list. It could be a close game but I can’t see either team being any good. And considering it’s on the final week of the regular season, it will be buried beneath most every other game, including most of the G-5 games.
2. Wake Forest at Stanford (Week 9, 8:00, TSN+/specialty pack) – This is the kind of game I was talking about above. Even the ACC Network is loathe to take this one. The announcers might beg to stay at ACC headquarters to call the game remotely rather than head to The Farm for this one. Expect a lot of games like these with the Cardinal and Cal joining from the complete opposite side of the continent.
3. Indiana at Michigan State (Week 10, 7:00, FOX Sports One) – It’s one of those weeks where I see only two BTN games. Plus, I am sure BTN doesn’t want Indiana every fucking Saturday. So FOX gets saddled with this one. Indiana might very well be the worst Power Five team this season although they will surely get competition from the usual suspects like Vanderbilt and Virginia.
4. Boston College at Virginia (Week 6, 2:00, CW) – Speaking of the Hoos, here they are on a game tailor-made for the CW. BC is another team that has struggled to be any better than medicore over the past few years.
5. Purdue at Michigan State (Week 13, Friday, 8:00, FOX, confirmed) – OK so this honestly not a seriously bad game but for FOX to select this game defies reason. Unless they had to pick a variety of teams because it’s the first season of these Friday night games. That’s the only thing I can think of here.
6. Mississippi State at Arizona State (Week 2, 10:30, TSN2, time confirmed) – Is this the first late-night game on any of these lists? I love late-night games. Usually that’s when the insanity happens. And this feels like a game that is destined to be ridiculous.
7. Stanford at Syracuse (Week 4, Friday, 7:30, TSN+/specialty pack, time confirmed) – This looks odd to be a conference game but I better get used to it (before the next set of wacky realignments). This is when the ACC Friday night games really get going and you end up seeing some odd matchups that really don’t garner an ESPN timeslot but they get it anyway. Besides, I could see Cuse being not bad but Stanford…no. Not a chance.
8. Virginia at Wake Forest (Week 2, 7:00, TSN+/specialty pack, time confirmed) – Remember when the Deacs would qualify for this section often? They aren’t all the way back to that but I don’t think they will be as good as they had been under Dave Clawson.
9. Michigan State at Boston College (Week 4, 7:30, TSN+/specialty pack) – I still look back at when I picked Sparty to be in the College Football Playoff and they then proceeded to go 3-9. Assholes.
10. Arizona State at Cincinnati (Week 8, 4:00, FOX) – The first appearance of the Bearcats on any type of Power Five list on this blog. Uh…congrats? Cincy has found life in the Big XII not exactly easy and I could see the Sun Devils having the same kind of experience, at least this year.
11. Baylor at Houston (Week 13, 3:30, FOX Sports One) – The mid-card of the Big XII has ballooned to a ridiculous size. It feels like there could be upwards of ten teams sitting within one game of .500 in 2024. So yes, neither of these teams will be a Bottom 10 Power Five team this year. But put them together and you would have to a true Sicko to watch more than a few minutes of this.
12. Virginia at Pittsburgh (Week 11, 7:00, CW) – Of all the teams using off-campus stadiums, Pitt has to be the one that most needs an on-campus stadium. Acrisure Stadium (Heinz Field) is WAY too fucking big for them other than when Penn State or West Virginia comes to town. They need a nice 30K-40K capacity stadium that they can fill on a weekly basis where they will have a true home-field advantage.

Possible FCS-over-FBS upsets

A new section! Pretty self-explanatory since it happens every year. Some years we get one or two FCS teams beating FBS teams. In other years it hits double digits. I am going to list six potential upsets and I mean true upsets. I mean is a win over Akron an upset? Sorry to any Zips fans out there but it is probably not. This list contains games that should at least shock some out there if the FCS team prevails.

1. South Dakota State at Oklahoma State (Week 1, 7:00, ESPN+, confirmed) – The Jackrabbits have overtaken North Dakota State as the new big dog in the FCS yard. And they are seriously good. If they were put in, let’s say, Conference USA, they would be, at their worst, a .500 team but I think they would have a chance to take the conference title. Now this would be a massive upset but it would make sense that the defending champ could start the season off with a bang (and deal the Big XII a huge blow in the process).
2. Villanova at Maryland (Week 4, 6:30, FOX Sports One) – Oh yeah, just realize that most of these games cannot be seen up here. You think they are putting an FCS team on like ESPN2 in the middle of a college football Saturday? Not bloody likely. The Terps have been a bit of a weird team since joining the Big Ten. Great recruiting, mostly above .500 and always give one really good team a scare. Yet they would be considered now the 8th or 9th best Big Ten team at best? Villanova, not just a basketball school, has had a great run of FCS football success and feel like the kind of team that could beat a Power Four team.
3. North Dakota State at Colorado (Week 1, Thursday, 8:00, TSN4/TSN5, time confirmed) – OK I kind of lied although this seems like a special case where a game like this would go to ESPN. Thursday night. Opening weekend. Another super-hyped Buffaloes team against what is still a very dangerous NDSU squad. This game is ripe for an upset and I could see a lot of Vegas money pushed toward the Bison.
4. Southern Illinois at BYU (Week 1, 8:00, ESPN+, confirmed) – One of the newer Power Four teams is still trying to figure out its place at the top of the college football chain (for now). A team that is always at least fairly good and one with quite a home-field advantage whether you want to admit it or not. That means a Saluki win here would be bigger than normal, even for a team that took Idaho to overtime in the second round of the FCS Playoffs.
5. Sacramento State at Fresno State (Week 2, 10:30, Mountain West Network) – OK this is the first time the Mountain West Network has appeared in, well, anything on this blog. MWN is shown on a network called Stadium in the U.S. and also can be streamed online. So I can be sure that damn near no one here has seen games on this. Now that that is out of the way, here’s a fun fact: the Hornets play at the same field as the Sacramento Gold Miners, a team that was part of the CFL’s USA experiment back in the 90s.
6. Youngstown State at Pittsburgh (Week 4, 3:30, ESPN+, confirmed) – All six of the FCS teams on this list made to at least the second round of the FCS Playoffs. The problem with YSU (and Southern Illinois from higher up the list) is that they have the audacity to be in the same conference as North Dakota State and South Dakota State. How dare they. Probably why it has been a long time since the Penguins have gone deep in the playoffs (they lost to James Madison in the 2016 FCS Championship).

Done, done, DONE! All the lists of games are complete. That was a bit exhausting but it also felt good. It means college football season is coming closer. I’m trying to figure out which preview magazine I will get next. Probably Athlon since I will be able to find it in a bookstore in the next week or so. As for Phil Steele, I am thinking of forgoing it. There are a couple of other magazines that I might look into that include Pick Six Previews that has been gaining a lot of fanfare. So a lot of decisions I have to make over the next few weeks. Not important decisions, let’s be honest. But decisions nonetheless.

Next will come the network-specific posts. Last year I put all the schedules in one mega-post. I might do that again but that, too, is up in the air. I think we are at the point where as much broadcast information, sans TSN, has been announced for the first few weeks of the season and various games scattered throughout the rest of the schedule. We are not going to see a ton more new information on this so it feels safe to piece this post together. 71 days away until the start of the season. Get all your weekend work around the home done soon since, if you’re like me, that shit won’t get done in the Fall. Have a great weekend, everyone!

It’s the Final Mock Draft!

…..the final Mock Draft!

Yep, not kidding. This is it. I’m not going to do like four in a matter of six days or something ridiculous like that. I have a job and a life (sort of) outside of this blog. I also know things may change on the day of the draft (or more like opening day of the draft). Nothing I can do about that. Let the experts deal with it. Between ESPN and the NFL Network there has to be about 70 mock drafts ready to go in the half hour before the draft begins. So without further adieu, let’s get to l’ébauche finale:

First Round

1	Chicago	Caleb Williams, QB (USC)
2	Washington	Jayden Daniels, QB (LSU)
3	New England	Drake Maye, QB (North Carolina)
4	Arizona	Marvin Harrison Jr., WR (Ohio State)
5	LA Chargers	Malik Nabers, WR (LSU)
6	NY Giants	Dallas Turner, EDGE (Alabama)
7	Tennessee	Terrion Arnold, CB (Alabama)
8	Atlanta	J.J. McCarthy, QB (Michigan)
9	Chicago	Laiatu Latu, EDGE (UCLA)
10	NY Jets	Joe Alt, OT (Notre Dame)
11	Minnesota	Bo Nix, QB (Oregon)
12	Denver	Brock Bowers, TE (Georgia)
13	Las Vegas	Olu Fashanu, OT (Penn State)
14	New Orleans	Rome Odunze, WR (Washington)
15	Indianapolis	Quinyon Mitchell, CB (Toledo)
16	Seattle	Troy Fautanu, G (Washington)
17	Jacksonville	Taliese Fuaga, OT (Oregon State)
18	Cincinnati	J.C. Latham, OT (Alabama)
19	LA Rams	Kool-Aid McKinstry, CB (Alabama)
20	Pittsburgh	Byron Murphy II, DT (Texas)
21	Miami	Jer’Zhan Newton, DT (Illinois)
22	Philadelphia	Jared Verse, DE (Florida State)
23	Minnesota	Chop Robinson, EDGE (Penn State)
24	Dallas	Amarius Mims, OT (Georgia)
25	Green Bay	Cooper DeJean, S (Iowa)
26	Tampa Bay	Michael Penix Jr., QB (Washington)
27	Arizona	Darius Robinson, EDGE (Minnesota)
28	Buffalo	Brian Thomas Jr., WR (LSU)
29	Detroit	Jackson Powers-Johnson, G (Oregon)
30	Baltimore	Graham Barton, G (Duke)
31	San Francisco	Tyler Guyton, OT (Oklahoma)
32	Kansas City	Jordan Morgan, OT (Arizona)

Second Round

33	Carolina	Xavier Legette, WR (South Carolina)
34	New England	Kingsley Suamataia, OT (BYU)
35	Arizona	Nate Wiggins, CB (Clemson)
36	Washington	Zach Frazier, C (West Virginia)
37	LA Chargers	T.J. Tampa, CB (Iowa State)
38	Tennessee	Patrick Paul, OT (Houston)
39	Carolina	Ennis Rakestraw Jr., CB (Missouri)
40	Washington	Troy Franklin, WR (Oregon)
41	Green Bay	Chris Braswell, EDGE (Alabama)
42	Houston	Ruke Orhorhoro, DT (Clemson)
43	Atlanta	Ladd McConkey, WR (Georgia)
44	Las Vegas	Christian Haynes, G (UConn)
45	New Orleans	Marshawn Kneeland, EDGE (Western Michigan)
46	Indianapolis	Xavier Worthy, WR (Texas)
47	NY Giants	Cooper Beebe, G (Kansas State)
48	Jacksonville	Adonai Mitchell, WR (Texas)
49	Cincinnati	T’Vondre Sweat, DT (Texas)
50	Philadelphia	Kamari Lassiter, CB (Georgia)
51	Pittsburgh	Edgerrin Cooper, LB (Texas A&M)
52	LA Rams	Kamren Kinchens, S (Miami)
53	Philadelphia	Ricky Pearsall, WR (Florida)
54	Cleveland	Michael Hall Jr., DT (Ohio State)
55	Miami	Keon Coleman, WR (Florida State)
56	Dallas	Trey Benson, RB (Florida State)
57	Tampa Bay	Ja’Lynn Polk, WR (Washington)
58	Green Bay	Sedrick Van Pran, C (Georgia)
59	Houston	Cam Hart, CB (Notre Dame)
60	Buffalo	Kris Jenkins, DT (Michigan)
61	Detroit	Javon Bullard, CB (Georgia)
62	Baltimore	Roman Wilson, WR (Michigan)
63	San Francisco	Austin Booker, DE (Kansas)
64	Kansas City	Braden Fiske, DT (Florida State)

Third Round

65	Carolina	Cedric Gray, LB (North Carolina)
66	Arizona	Payton Wilson, LB (NC State)
67	Washington	Bralen Trice, EDGE (Washington)
68	New England	Jonathan Brooks, RB (Texas)
69	LA Chargers	Ja’Tavion Sanders, TE (Texas)
70	NY Giants	Caelan Carson, CB (Wake Forest)
71	Arizona	Leonard Taylor III, DT (Miami)
72	NY Jets	Tyler Nubin, S (Minnesota)
73	Detroit	Adisa Isaac, EDGE (Penn State)
74	Atlanta	Brandon Dorius, EDGE (Oregon)
75	Chicago	Christian Mahogany, G (Boston College)
76	Denver	DeWayne Carter, DT (Duke)
77	Las Vegas	Mike Sainristil, CB (Michigan)
78	Washington	Junior Colson, LB (Michigan)
79	Atlanta	Justin Egoigbe, DT (Alabama)
80	Cincinnati	Max Melton, CB (Rutgers)
81	Seattle	Tommy Eichenberg, LB (Ohio State)
82	Indianapolis	Calen Bullock, S (USC)
83	LA Rams	Spencer Rattler, QB (South Carolina)
84	Pittsburgh	Roger Rosengarten, OT (Washington)
85	Cleveland	Kiran Amedagije, OT (Yale)
86	Houston	Malachi Corley, WR (WKU)
87	Dallas	Jermaine Burton, WR (Alabama)
88	Green Bay	Blake Fisher, OT (Notre Dame)
89	Tampa Bay	Cole Bishop, S (Utah)
90	Arizona	Zak Zinter, G (Michigan)
91	Green Bay	Nehemiah Pritchett, CB (Auburn)
92	Tampa Bay	Javion Cohen, G (Miami)
93	Baltimore	Jaylen Wright, RB (Tennessee)
94	Kansas City	Blake Corum, RB (Michigan)
95	San Francisco	Elijah Jones, CB (Boston College)
96	Jacksonville	Kris Abrams-Draine, CB (Missouri)
97	Cincinnati	Johnny Wilson, WR (Florida State)
98	Pittsburgh	Jonah Ellliss, LB (Utah)
99	LA Rams	Jalyx Hunt, EDGE (Houston Christian)
100	Washington	Jalen McMillan, WR (Washington)

There are some strong opinions out there about this draft (like every draft) so let’s go through a few of them:

• The Vikings are going to trade up. This is a likely option but I don’t put trades in my mock drafts because I think dreaming up the trade packages would be insane. Saying that, I wouldn’t be surprised if they traded up to #4 or #5 to get J.J. McCarthy.
• The Cardinals are fielding a lot of trade offers. The top three picks are mostly set even though Drake Maye and Jayden Daniels seem to flip-flop in the second and third spots. The Cards are probably fielding a few offers but not as many as some might think. It will take a lot for them to trade down as they know they would get, arguably, the best overall player of the draft at a position they need.
• The Giants might be the toughest to figure out in the Top 10. Absolutely. They have all sorts of needs so there are probably 10-12 players on their board that they could conceivably take. I still like Dallas Turner at that spot but Terrion Arnold, Laiatu Latu, Brock Bowers, Quinyon Marshall and, hell, even Bo Nix could be picked at #6 by the Geeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee-Men (done in extreme Chris Berman voice).
• If Brock Bowers isn’t picked Top 10 he will fall…FAR. I don’t think so. The Broncos, Colts, Bengals and Dolphins might all take a gander at the big man if he is still sitting in the back room after the tenth pick (which I think he will be).

Other than that there are questions that mostly don’t have answers at this point. Like will the Bills make a surprising leap up the draft now that Stefon Diggs has been dealt? Is Michael Penix Jr. poised to have the biggest leap up the draft boards in the past couple months? Will there be actual players involved in any of the trades over the next few days? It’s a crapshoot and not my expertise so I will steer clear of most of those questions (possibly, possibly and probably are my answers).

Reminder that the draft starts tonight at 8:00 and is emanating from Detroit. Moving the draft around has been fun so let’s see what it’s like in the Motor City. As per usual, ESPN and NFL Network will be doing the entire draft…all seven rounds. I have the ESPN draft pick is in ringtone on my phone but I am still debating which network to watch, at least for night one. I have leaned NFL Network in the past but I have done both over the past decade. It’s a game-time decision.

Finally, on the Twitter Machine (fuck you, Elon) I will be live-tweeting at least the first round and am hoping to do ALL SEVEN this year. Can I do it? Who the fuck knows. Around halfway through round five is where things usually go off the rails and I might struggle to keep going at that point. I mean I will but who knows if I will be posting tweets at that point or semi-conscious, staring at the bag of pretzels on my desk and wondering about important questions in life like “Would Nathan Peterman be successful in the CFL?”

Anyway, enjoy the draft, however much you watch of it.

Time for Mock Draft 3.A.0-5

The A stands for April. Or Awesome. Or Asshole. Whatever.

Mock draft time! And it’s three glorious rounds of (probably) incorrect picks. Lovin’ it! Let’s go!

First Round

1	Chicago	Caleb Williams, QB (USC)
2	Washington	Drake Maye, QB (North Carolina)
3	New England	Jayden Daniels, QB (LSU)
4	Arizona	Marvin Harrison Jr., WR (Ohio State)
5	LA Chargers	Quinyon Mitchell, CB (Toledo)
6	NY Giants	Dallas Turner, EDGE (Alabama)
7	Tennessee	Olu Fashanu, OT (Penn State)
8	Atlanta	Malik Nabers, WR (LSU)
9	Chicago	Rome Odunze, WR (Washington)
10	NY Jets	Joe Alt, OT (Notre Dame)
11	Minnesota	Laiatu Latu, DE (UCLA)
12	Denver	Terrion Arnold, CB (Alabama)
13	Las Vegas	Nate Wiggins, CB (Clemson)
14	New Orleans	Jared Verse, DE (Florida State)
15	Indianapolis	Brian Thomas Jr., WR (LSU)
16	Seattle	J.J. McCarthy, QB (LSU)
17	Jacksonville	Jackson Powers-Johnson, OG (Oregon)
18	Cincinnati	Brock Bowers, TE (Georgia)
19	LA Rams	Bo Nix, QB (Oregon)
20	Pittsburgh	Troy Fautanu, OG (Washington)
21	Miami	Cooper DeJean, S (Iowa)
22	Philadelphia	Adonai Mitchell, WR (Texas)
23	Minnesota	Chop Robinson, EDGE (Penn State)
24	Dallas	Taliese Fuaga, OT (Oregon State)
25	Green Bay	J.C. Latham, OT (Alabama)
26	Tampa Bay	Xavier Worthy, WR (Texas)
27	Arizona	Kool-Aid McKinstry, CB (Alabama)
28	Buffalo	Jer’Zhan Newton, DT (Illinois)
29	Detroit	Byron Murphy II, DT (Texas)
30	Baltimore	Kamari Lassiter, CB (Georgia)
31	San Francisco	Amarius Mims, OT (Georgia)
32	Kansas City	Tyler Guyton, OT (Oklahoma)

Second Round

33	Carolina	Zach Frazier, C (West Virginia)
34	New England	Jordan Morgan, OT (Arizona)
35	Arizona	Darius Robinson, EDGE (Minnesota)
36	Washington	Xavier Legette, WR (South Carolina)
37	LA Chargers	Michael Hall Jr., DT (Ohio State)
38	Tennessee	T.J. Tampa, CB (Iowa State)
39	Carolina	Keon Coleman, WR (Florida State)
40	Washington	Graham Barton, OG (Duke)
41	Green Bay	Tyler Nubin, S (Minnesota)
42	Houston	Chris Braswell, EDGE (Alabama)
43	Atlanta	Michael Penix Jr., QB (Washington)
44	Las Vegas	Kingsley Suamataia, OT (BYU)
45	New Orleans	Ladd McConkey, WR (Georgia)
46	Indianapolis	Kamren Kinchens, S (Miami)
47	NY Giants	Ennis Rakestraw Jr., CB (Missouri)
48	Jacksonville	Patrick Paul, OT (Houston)
49	Cincinnati	Troy Franklin, WR (Oregon)
50	Philadelphia	Edgerrin Cooper, LB (Texas A&M)
51	Pittsburgh	T’Vondre Sweat, DT (Texas)
52	LA Rams	Bralen Trice, EDGE (Washington)
53	Philadelphia	Marshawn Kneeland, EDGE (Western Michigan)
54	Cleveland	Ruke Orhorhoro, DT (Clemson)
55	Miami	Ja’Lynn Polk, WR (Washington)
56	Dallas	Trey Benson, RB (Florida State)
57	Tampa Bay	Adisa Isaac, EDGE (Penn State)
58	Green Bay	Cooper Beebe, OG (Kansas State)
59	Houston	Malachi Corley, WR (WKU)
60	Buffalo	Max Melton, CB (Rutgers)
61	Detroit	Christian Haynes, OG (UConn)
62	Baltimore	Roman Wilson, WR (Michigan)
63	San Francisco	Brandon Dorius, EDGE (Oregon)
64	Kansas City	Jalen McMillan, WR (Washington)

Third Round

65	Carolina	Cedric Gray, LB (North Carolina)
66	Arizona	Sedrick Van Pran, C (Georgia)
67	Washington	Payton Wilson, LB (NC State)
68	New England	Ricky Pearsall, WR (Florida)
69	LA Chargers	Ben Sinnott, TE (Kansas State)
70	NY Giants	Kris Jenkins, DT (Michigan)
71	Arizona	Leonard Taylor III, DT (Miami)
72	NY Jets	Devontez Walker, WR (North Carolina)
73	Detroit	Caelan Carson, CB (Wake Forest)
74	Atlanta	Cam Hart, CB (Notre Dame)
75	Chicago	Ja’Tavion Sanders, TE (Texas)
76	Denver	Javon Bullard, CB (Georgia)
77	Las Vegas	Jonathon Brooks, RB (Texas)
78	Washington	Austin Booker, DE (Kansas)
79	Atlanta	Braden Fiske, DT (Florida State)
80	Cincinnati	Kiran Amedagije, OT (Yale)
81	Seattle	Christian Mahogany, OG (Boston College)
82	Indianapolis	Mike Sainristil, CB (Michigan)
83	LA Rams	D.J. James, CB (Auburn)
84	Pittsburgh	Roger Rosengarten, OT (Washington)
85	Cleveland	Junior Colson, LB (Michigan)
86	Houston	Kris Abrams-Draine, CB (Missouri)
87	Dallas	Renardo Green, CB (Florida State)
88	Green Bay	Khyree Jackson, CB (Oregon)
89	Tampa Bay	Beau Brade, S (Maryland)
90	Arizona	Andru Phillips, CB (Kentucky)
91	Green Bay	Jalyx Hunt, EDGE (Houston Christian)
92	Tampa Bay	Dominick Puni, OG (Kansas)
93	Baltimore	McKinnley Jackson, DT (Texas A&M)
94	Kansas City	Braelon Allen, RB (Wisconsin)
95	San Francisco	Kalen King, CB (Penn State)
96	Jacksonville	Johnny Wilson, WR (Florida State)
97	Cincinnati	Josh Newton, CB (TCU)
98	Pittsburgh	Jeremiah Trotter Jr., LB (Clemson)
99	LA Rams	Calen Bullock, S (USC)
100	Washington	James Williams, S (Miami)

The top few picks seem set in stone. Maybe on in that specific order but those top four will, most likely, be the top four come draft night. As for some of the other picks, man there were some huge drops. Like Kris Jenkins. Only a few weeks ago, a fair amount of mocks had him in the first round. I don’t think he’s even being considered as a first rounder anymore. Almost the same with Byron Murphy II. I had him going fifth to the Chargers which may have been a bit high in retrospect. But for him to drop to almost completely out of the first round is an alarming drop. Sometimes it’s fairly easy to find out what has happened to lower a potential draftee’s stock and sometimes…well, sometimes who the hell knows. It just happens.

Potential Draft Day Trades

OK so these would include trades coming up toward the draft as well, not just the ones on draft opening night. And no, I can’t see the Bears or the Commanders trading their picks so let’s start with the #3 pick.

New England (#3) – Chances of the Patriots trading this pick are slim but considering the haul that some teams have received for a top 3 pick in NFL history, the right package might come along to entice them to trade down. I have a feeling it would take at least two first-rounders, two second-rounders, and at least one other pick.

NY Giants (#6) – Probably the highest pick with true potential to be dealt is the Giants at #6. The Giants desperately need help on both lines but there are a few options available meaning they could trade down a few spots and still get one of the guys they covet. A first-round pick swap would have to happen and the team trading with the G-Men couldn’t be far below the #16 spot for this to work. Other picks would come the Giants way as well.

Tennessee (#7) – This becomes a possibility if the Patriots trade down. The reason is, one of Drake Maye or Jayden Daniels would be available and there are a few teams that would love to trade up to get one of the two. That includes the Falcons, Vikings, Broncos and Raiders. Knowing that, the Titans could get a larger pick haul than the Giants even though the pick would be later.

NY Jets (#10) – The Jets are hoping that Aaron Rodgers will be healthy this year. And to help with that, they want an offensive lineman desperately. The hope is that one of Olu Fashanu or Joe Alt fall to them. If neither of them are available, I would fully expect the Jets to shop the pick and they could drop a fair way if they wanted to.

The Vikings feel like the most likely pick to move up since, for some reason, many are saying they really want J.J. McCarthy. I think it would be crazy to trade up because I think McCarthy, at least at this point, would be available to the Vikings at #11. Maybe I’m wrong with that. They would most likely just trade picks but they have one bargaining chip that some teams might not be able to ignore: Justin Jefferson. If the Vikings can’t extend Double J, then they might include him in a trade to see what they could get. Arizona would be a trading partner if (and only if) this was a possibility.

In non-draft news, the UFL has commenced their season. Not exactly a ton of fans for a couple of these games but some wacky shit happened. Jake Bates hit a 64-yard field goal to help his Michigan Stags beat St. Louis. Funny enough, it was on the same uprights that Justin Tucker kicked his NFL-record 67-yarder to beat the Lions a couple years ago. Then you had San Antonio punter Brad Wing throwing a 40-yard touchdown pass on 4th and 11 to the team’s centre Alex Mollette. So at least it’s entertaining, you have to give it that. And it’s football. A tiny appetizer before the CFL, then college football, then NFL season starts. So embrace it. Or don’t. I don’t care. I realize March Madness was on this past weekend so I can see why people might not watch.

OK I will do one more mock draft closer to actual draft day (which starts April 25th). And even then, most of my picks will be wrong. At least I can take solace in the fact that I will have close to the same record as the so-called experts have.

The college schedule is coming into form. It’s kind of tough with the changes coming up this season so for good parts of the schedule I have nothing to compare it to. So we shall see how that goes when I start doing my most important game posts. Anyway, I hope you all had a great Easter long weekend and have a great first week of April.

Coaching Carousel Time! And the Week 12 College Football TV Schedule

Yeah it’s that time of the year. The coaching carousel has begun! And what I am going to do this time around is actually compare it to my start-of-the-year predictions. I mean what could go wrong, right?

Let’s look at who has already been shown the door. Jimbo Fisher, Andy Avalos, Zach Arnett and now soon-to-be-retired Brady Hoke…none of who were on my list. Great start, Bossman. Mel Tucker was on my list in the Doubtful Shitcanning section although even I couldn’t think that the way he went out would be the way he went out. What a fucking perv. As for who is currently on the hot seat and was on my list?

• Neal Brown. Now Neal probably just has to win one of his final two games to secure his job for next season. Lose both those games and end up 6-6? That would be an interesting conversation.
• Dana Holgorsen. You can give them a bit of slack as they stepped up their competition by joining the Big XII. But Drunk Uncle Dana has been a hot seat regular for a while now and at some point he’s either got to prove he’s still the guy or find a coordinator position somewhere.
• Danny Gonzales. One of the toughest places to be an FBS head coach, Gonzales probably would have been safe for another year. But with New Mexico State doing so well, some in the New Mexico athletic department might wonder if they should try someone else at the helm.
• Tom Allen. It’s pretty damn obvious now that the 2020 season was an anomaly and that the Hoosiers are barely treading water with Allen. I doubt he makes it to 2024.

I really don’t want to talk much about certain coaches appearing my list. Guys like Jeff Hafley or Scot Loeffler or Shawn Elliott or Greg Schiano or Brent Pry or Mike Bloomgren and definitely not Eliah Drinkwitz. Nope. Got nothing. So let’s just move on and stop talking about my hot seat list, ALRIGHT ALREADY?

Ok calm down Bossman. Time to give the people what they want: hot, nasty college football TV schedules for Canadians who enjoy watching college football on their television sets.

Tuesday

		US	Canada
Akron at Eastern Michigan	7:00
Toledo at Bowling Green	7:00
Western Michigan at Northern Illinois	7:00

Toledo has already clinched a spot in the MAC Championship. Now we are looking at bowl eligibility battles. Eastern Michigan has to beat the Zips to stay alive for a bowl game. And the WMU-NIU game is a Loser Won’t Go Bowling matchup. Big stakes on MACtion Tuesday.

Wednesday

		US	Canada
Buffalo at Miami-OH	7:00
Central Michigan at Ohio	7:00

The Redhawks clinch the MAC East with a victory here and will get their rematch with Toledo in Detroit in December. And the Chippewas become bowl-eligible if they can somehow beat Ohio. Another important MACtion evening.

Thursday

		US	Canada
Boston College at Pittsburgh	7:00

Yeah this is about as unimportant a weeknight slate as you can get. One game. No stakes. Meh.

Friday

		US	Canada
USF at UTSA	9:00

This, on the other hand, is a much more important night. Both teams with a lot to play for and USF is definitely not the USF of recent years (as we could see from their near-upset of Alabama earlier in the season).

Saturday Early

		US	Canada
#10 Louisville at Miami	Noon
Michigan State at Indiana	Noon
Purdue at Northwestern	Noon
Coastal Carolina at Army	Noon
#14 Oklahoma at BYU	Noon
Chattanooga at #8 Alabama	Noon
East Carolina at Navy	Noon
SMU at Memphis	Noon
Harvard at Yale	Noon
#3 Michigan at Maryland	Noon
ULM at #13 Ole Miss	Noon

A pretty heavy early slate with two ESPN+ games appearing on TSN+. I can see that being a feature all next season. As for the important games in this window I count one big one. The Mustangs and Tigers face off in a matchup that essentially eliminates the loser but doesn’t automatically guarantee the winner a spot in the American Championship. Everything else is kind of meh, although the Sooners could keep up their hopes of one final Big XII Championship appearance in JerryWorld. Finally, the annual Harvard-Yale game appears in this timeslot as per usual.

Saturday Afternoon

		US	Canada
#22 Utah at #17 Arizona	2:30
Duke at Virginia	3:00
UCLA at USC	3:30
NC State at Virginia Tech	3:30
#1 Georgia at #18 Tennessee	3:30
UNLV at Air Force	3:30
#20 North Carolina at Clemson	3:30
Bethune-Cookman vs. Florida A&M (in Orlando)	3:30
Wake Forest at #19 Notre Dame	3:30
Louisiana at Troy	3:30
Minnesota at #2 Ohio State	4:00
#23 Oklahoma State at Houston	4:00
#6 Oregon at Arizona State	4:00
New Mexico State at Auburn	4:00

UGA-UT is the big one, obviously, here. A lot of other choice with a lot of other teams looking to stay near the top of the rankings. Oregon, tOSU, and Utah are in must-win mode if they want to keep any CFP or even NY6 possibilities alive. Also, the Rebels of Nevada-Las Vegas play in what could be considered the biggest football game in school history. A win here and they all but clinch a spot in the conference title game. And this is something I never thought of. If UNLV is the #1 team, will they play at home? That game would be about 16 hours after the end of the Pac-12 Championship which is already being played at Allegiant Stadium (which I think is a dumb idea but that’s for another post). So the turnaround would be crazy for the stadium crew.

Saturday Primetime

		US	Canada
North Alabama at #4 Florida State	6:30
California at Stanford	6:30
Boise State at Utah State	7:00
#5 Washington at #11 Oregon State	7:30
Florida at #9 Missouri	7:30
FIU at Arkansas	7:30
Nebraska at Wisconsin	7:30
Kentucky at South Carolina	7:30
Syracuse at Georgia Tech	8:00
Georgia State at #15 LSU	8:00
#7 Texas at Iowa State	8:00

Speaking of big games, U-Dub has to try and win in one of the toughest small stadiums to win in, Reser Stadium in Corvallis. Lose and the Pac-12 is all but done in the College Football Playoff race and it opens up a bevy of possibilities to replace the Huskies at the top. The Longhorns are trying to do what the Sooners are also trying to do: give the Big XII one last Fuck You before leaving for the SEC by playing for their conference championship. And finally, you are not seeing things. It is true. A god damn CW DOUBLEHEADER! I hate to admit that the CW has delivered but it has. It has had some great games which has made up for some sub-par production values.

Saturday Late Night

		US	Canada
San Diego State at San Jose State	10:30

Yeah. You could probably go to bed early if you wanted.

Hey, Watch This

Washington at Oregon State (7:30, ABC/TSN2) – I think it’s been a long time since the Beavers have been in the Game of the Week. And I would honestly call this Game 1A since you could easily switch it with the next game on this list and no one would bat an eye. I just think this game has the possibility of being much closer than the other one. The Huskies put themselves in the Pac-12 Championship with a win in Corvallis but Oregon State could put the entire college football world on its head if they pull off the upset.

Georgia at Tennessee (3:30, CBS) – One of the final SEC on CBS games ever and it’s a huge one. If this game was Between the Hedges it wouldn’t be this high. But this game is on the shores of the Tennessee River and it will be one of the loudest Neyland Stadium crowds in recent memory. Another game where an upset is not crazy talk and it would also cause absolute chaos at the top of the college football food chain.

Utah at Arizona (2:30, Pac-12 Network) – Jesus Christ who made the call to get this game on the fucking Pac-12 Network? Well at least us Canadians have an easy time of getting it. Hop on YouTube and search for the Pac-12 Network channel and you’re good to go. Americans…well, they have a much tougher time if it’s not a part of their cable package. What a dumb network. Anyway, both teams have outside chances of getting to the Pac-12 Championship but they would need a lot to happen. A win here isn’t enough. Also, you have to be impressed with the job Jedd Fisch has done in Tucson. This team could be a force in the expanded Big XII next season.

Kansas State at Kansas (7:00, FOX Sports One) – Man, you know it’s kind of a fucked week when two of the top four games are on the Pac-12 Network and FS1. So yeah, can’t see this one if you are a Canadian unless you have other means. I have IPTV. There are also many streams out there to watch. Go find one. Shouldn’t be too hard. Plus, this should be the best Sunflower Showdown maybe ever. Has there been one where both teams were ranked? I don’t think so. Plus, the Wildcats have extra incentive here as they have an outside shot at spoiling a potential Texas-Oklahoma conference championship if they can win here.

Sickos Game of the Week

Michigan State at Indiana (Noon, Big Ten Network) – There are quite a few options for this spot but I will give it to a Big Ten game for once. Here are two terrible teams who will probably have a terrible game that will somehow be close near the end. Think 13-10 which means you almost have to watch because the finish could be spectacular. I almost feel dirty watching games like that.

Hubba Bubba Blowout of the Week

Chattanooga at Alabama (Noon, TSN+) – Once I saw TSN+ was showing this game I knew which game would go in this section. This will be over by halftime. The question is how long does Nick Saban leave Jalen Milroe in.

Wanna Bet?

How about we look back at my picks from last week………..alright, maybe not. I mean I got my first upset pick right with Southern Miss and then it went downhill from there. Stupid Penn State. Anyway, let’s get going with this week’s pickaroos…that sounded dumb.

Miami-OH 31 Buffalo 28

Michigan 42 Maryland 10

Ole Miss 48 ULM 20

Utah 40 Arizona 19

Duke 38 Virginia 24

Tennessee 31 Georgia 27 (yes, I am calling this massive upset)

USC 36 UCLA 26

Ohio State 51 Minnesota 16

Oregon 59 Arizona State 24

South Carolina 42 Kentucky 37

Oregon State 46 Washington 35 (yep, going out on a limb again)

Missouri 41 Florida 20

San Jose State 34 San Diego State 28

Look, normally I am up into the wee hours of the morning watching college football. And I rarely miss games. Well, rarely miss full ones. But I am looking at the Saturday late night sked and asking myself “Bossman, do you really need to watch this game?” The answer is obviously no but I have to convince my brain that that is the correct answer. We shall see how it goes this Saturday. Enjoy the games everyone!

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

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

		US	Canada
Georgia Tech at Clemson	Noon
Virginia Tech at Boston College	Noon
Indiana at Illinois	Noon
Holy Cross at Army	Noon
#8 Alabama at Kentucky	Noon
Tulsa at #23 Tulane	Noon
Yale at Princeton	Noon
#3 Michigan at #10 Penn State	Noon
Vanderbilt at South Carolina	Noon

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!

This is just awful (and the Week 12 College Football TV Schedule)

If you haven’t heard, there was a huge tragedy on the campus of the University of Virginia in Charlottesville. Three players on the Cavaliers, Lavel Davis, D’Sean Perry and Devin Chandler were killed in a shooting at the end of a field trip. Two other students were severely injured and are in hospital. The shooter is a former UVA football player. I have not heard anything about a motive. This is just awful. Seems like more senseless violence. I don’t know how the team is going to move on for the final two games of their season. At this point, it feels pointless to move on but many of them probably need football as a distraction to help healing and mourning the loss of their teammates and friends. Condolences to everyone at the University of Virginia. I would say hopefully lessons are learned from this but they never are, unfortunately.

UPDATE: The Virginia-Coastal Carolina game will not be played this Saturday. This does not affect Canadians and what they can watch but it is noteworthy. And also not surprising in the least. There is also no word about what will happen with the Commonwealth Cup game against Virginia Tech the following weekend.

Alright, it seems much less important this week but let’s get on with the schedule.

Tuesday

		US	Canada
Ohio at Ball State	7:00 PM
Bowling Green at Toledo	7:00 PM

A couple of big MACtion games to start the week. If the Bobcats can beat Ball State and the Rockets beat Bowling Green, then Toledo will help Ohio win the MAC East. This would mean that Ohio would go to Ford Field in a couple weeks to face…Toledo. Interesting how that works out.

Wednesday

		US	Canada
Eastern Michigan at Kent State	6:00 PM
Miami-OH at Northern Illinois	7:00 PM
Western Michigan at Central Michigan	8:00 PM

If Ohio loses the previous night, then the EMU-KSU game becomes quite a bit more important as the MAC East will still be up for grabs. Otherwise we got some bowl-eligibility issues here: Kent State, Miami-OH and Central Michigan all have to win to keep their bowl game chances alive.

Thursday

		US	Canada
SMU at #21 Tulane	7:30 PM

Only one game Thursday night (not even a game on a network Canadians can’t get). It’s a big game for the Green Wave as they absolutely need to win this one to stay alive for a berth in the AAC Championship.

Friday

		US	Canada
USF at Tulsa	9:00 PM

One game here. TSN is picking it up. I don’t know why because it means nothing. Neither team can go bowling.

Saturday Early

		US	Canada
Navy at #17 UCF	11:00 AM
Illinois at #3 Michigan	Noon
Duke at Pittsburgh	Noon
Indiana at Michigan State	Noon
UConn at Army	Noon
Wisconsin at Nebraska	Noon
Yale at Harvard	Noon
#4 TCU at Baylor	Noon
Florida at Vanderbilt	Noon

I’d say the most interesting game here is the TCU-Baylor game. It’s your classic trap game as the Bears are a good team and the game is in Waco. The other truly interesting one out of the bunch is the Wisky-Nebraska game in the Big Ten West Chaos Carnival. No one is in the driver’s seat (but the Huskers aren’t on the trip at all). All the teams are in seats on the bus trying to see who can last to the final stop. I think I got that analogy right.

Yes, you see that right. We have morning football. ESPN2 still has their quadrupleheader but it starts an hour early. I will explain more later in the post. And yes, you see that right. Yale and Harvard, once again, appearing on ESPNU. Despite the fact there are other teams that might deserve that spot, it’s nice to see ESPN embracing FCS football. I just wish they would do that when Gameday goes to an FCS school, like this Saturday when they head to Bozeman for the Brawl of the Wild between Montana and Montana State. That game is on at 2 in the afternoon on ESPN+. Ridiculous. Give it the late ESPNU spot for Christ’s sake!

Finally, a little bit about the UConn bowl situation. The Huskies are bowl-eligible. They do, however, have to hope that there are not enough teams to fill all the spots. There is no guarantee for them as they have no tie-in to any other bowl. Even worse, Liberty is in the same boat and is ranked way ahead of them so will get the first chance when a bowl doesn’t have two teams to fulfill the tie-ins. So the program is still fingers crossed to make a bowl as it’s not set in stone just yet.

Saturday Afternoon

		US	Canada
Washington State at Arizona	2:00 PM
#25 Oregon State at Arizona State	2:15 PM
Boston College at #18 Notre Dame	2:30 PM
#2 Ohio State at Maryland	3:30 PM
NC State at Louisville	3:30 PM
#11 Penn State at Rutgers	3:30 PM
#1 Georgia at Kentucky	3:30 PM
Akron at Buffalo	3:30 PM
Miami at #9 Clemson	3:30 PM
South Alabama at Southern Miss	3:30 PM
#22 Cincinnati at Temple	4:00 PM
Iowa at Minnesota	4:00 PM
WKU at Auburn	4:00 PM
Georgia Tech at #13 North Carolina	5:30 PM
Stanford at California	5:30 PM

This might be the biggest afternoon schedule I have ever seen. Saying that, it’s definitely quantity over quality as there isn’t a ton here to whet the appetite. What does this mean? We are in for something crazy. It never fails.

I talked about TCU’s trap game earlier. You could say the same for Georgia here. I like UGA’s chances more than TCU’s obviously but if the Dawgs let the Cats stay around into the fourth quarter, expect a lot of nervous Georgia fans around the country. The Big Ten West Round Robin Fun-Time Carousel continues in this timeslot with Iowa and Minnesota facing off to see if we can get some clarity going into the final regular season week.

UPDATE #2: Akron-Buffalo has been postponed due to the snowstorm that has already hit the Buffalo area and moved this weekend’s Bills game to Detroit. The game is reportedly going to be moved to Sunday but I don’t see that happening with what the area will be like through the end of the weekend.

Saturday Primetime

		US	Canada
Boise State at Wyoming	7:00 PM
#5 Tennessee at South Carolina	7:00 PM
#24 Oklahoma State at Oklahoma	7:30 PM
New Mexico State at Missouri	7:30 PM
#14 Ole Miss at Arkansas	7:30 PM
Syracuse at Wake Forest	8:00 PM
#7 USC at #16 UCLA	8:00 PM

A huge Pac-12 game that could have been one of the biggest in years if the Bruins hadn’t blown a gasket against Arizona, of all teams, last weekend. Plus the Oklahoma Sooners are in a very odd spot, at least for this program: they need a win to become bowl-eligible in November. This is a stark difference to some Bedlam games of the past decade or so where it was the Pokes who needed that win badly to play some postseason ball. The Sooners don’t need to win this one but if they lose here they only have one more shot to keep their bowl game streak going.

Saturday Late Night

		US	Canada
UAB at #6 LSU	9:00 PM
Colorado at #15 Washington	9:00 PM
Fresno State at Nevada	10:30 PM
#10 Utah at #12 Oregon	10:30 PM

So the entire reason for ESPN2 starting their schedule at 11 in the morning is so that LSU could host UAB on the station at night? Are you fucking serious? That might be one of the dumbest things I’ve heard. The schedule could have easily been shuffled around to accommodate this in a normal way but ESPN is really upping how much they kowtow to the SEC. It’s probably a good thing the Big Ten is leaving for FOX. Also here we have the other high stakes Pac-12 match of the weekend that is, once again, a little less high stakes than it could have been. Both the Utes and Ducks still have Pac-12 Championship and New Year’s Six opportunities available…well, one will after this game.

Big Games O’ The Week

USC at UCLA (8:00, FOX) – I don’t remember a time when I’ve done this blog where the Pac-12 is the conference to watch on any given week. I think every other Power Five conference has had their week to shine (with the SEC and Big Ten having a lot of weeks to shine) but this may be a first for the Pac-12 on this blog. Look, a USC win may move them up to #6 or even #5 going into the final regular season week. It clinches their spot in the Pac-12 Championship Game and possibly sets them up to return to glory. A UCLA win doesn’t fully eliminate any team but makes it a lot tougher for any team from the conference to get to the College Football Playoff. What it does do, though, is cause massive Pac-12 chaos inside the conference which is also fun…for me at least.

Utah at Oregon (10:30, TSN2) – Hey a TSN quadrupleheader! That’s nice. What’s not so nice? This is probably the high water mark for TSN college football coverage this season. I will explain later. Anyway, the other big Pac-12 game this week pits two teams who still have big aspirations which hopefully lead to a Rose Bowl spot. No matter the result, there will still be a bit of chaos left in the Pac-12 to just determine it’s title game participants. Thankfully there are no divisions this year as it’s so much better to just have the best teams in.

Illinois at Michigan (12:00, ABC/TSN2) – Most years, this has the makings of a blowout. Not this time around. Yes it’s in the Big House so the Wolverines have a big home field advantage. Other than that though, this is not a game Michigan should take lightly. Illinois still has a shot at the Big Ten West title but a few other things have to go their way. A win here REALLY helps though. Michigan is heading into The Game with Ohio State and a win here, coupled with Ohio State winning, would set up the biggest matchup since…well, you could say last year but I would say since 2016’s double overtime classic.

Georgia at Kentucky (3:30, CBS) – This could be the game of a lifetime for Mark Stoops and Kentucky if they could pull off the upset. It would also completely upset the college football apple cart with very little time left. Let’s be honest though: it’s going to take a lot for the Cats to keep this close. Hopefully they have watched UGA’s games against Kent State and Missouri to figure out the best approach.

TCU at Baylor (Noon, FOX) – Dave Aranda’s Baylor Bears could throw a huge monkey wrench into TCU’s national title plans. If they beat the Horned Frogs, that probably spells the end for TCU’s CFP hopes. TCU has to be very careful with this one. It is the very definition of a college football speed bump game.

Tennessee at South Carolina (7:00, TSN2) – So it drops off a bit of a cliff after the first five games. But this could be a sneaky good one. Tennessee is not out of the College Football Playoff conversation just yet. South Carolina could put the nail in that coffin and potentially destroy the Vols’ New Year’s Six possibilities in one fell swoop if they can pull off the upset in Columbia.

Psycho Game of the Week

USF at Tulsa (Friday, 9:00, TSN2) – The Bulls are here for a second straight week. I would call that a trend. I get that TSN2, somehow, has nothing to air that night so this goes there by default. But of all the games to show. You know what, TSN? You’d be better off showing Best of Curling or World’s Most Incredible Darts Throws or something like that. This is terrible.

Hubba Bubba Blowout of the Week

Colorado at Washington (9:00, Pac-12 Network) – Man, Colorado is bad. Worst Power Five team? It’s between them and Northwestern. Maybe they should play a bowl game to determine the worst of the worst. The Huskies should annihilate Colorado here in a game that might be long over by halftime.

The Degenerate Portion of Our Show

Time for my picks for the upcoming week of college football. Is there any basis for these picks? Not really. I mostly wing it.

• Ball State (+3.5) over Ohio (and the mild upset win!)
• Central Michigan (-11) over Western Michigan
• Navy (+16.5) over UCF (they’ll cover but not win)
• Northwestern (+20) over Purdue (the Boilermakers will win though)
• Illinois (+18) over Michigan (covering but not winning)
• TCU (-2.5) over Baylor
• Oregon State (-8) over Arizona State
• South Alabama (-7.5) over Southern Miss
• Penn State (-19.5) over Rutgers
• Miami (+19) over Clemson (the Canes will cover but the Tigers will win this one)
• Minnesota (-2.5) over Iowa
• Wyoming (+14) over Boise State (the Broncos will end up with the win)
• Ole Miss (-2.5) over Arkansas
• Oregon (-3) over Utah

OK an explanation about the TSN comment I made earlier. Normally, the final week of the regular season would bring at least 8 games on TSN if not up to 13 or 14. TSN would go all in because the CFL would be done for the season. Just like this year, the Grey Cup lands on Week 12 of the college football season. One wrinkle, though: the World Cup. It begins Sunday. TSN and CTV are showing every game of the tournament. If I just take a look at the schedule, it means the following:

• It’s almost a guarantee that there will be on early Black Friday games aired on TSN.
• TSN 2, 4 and 5 are available for afternoon/night Black Friday games.
• The next day (Saturday, American Thanksgiving weekend) might be mostly out for college football games as there are World Cup games that overlap the early and afternoon windows. I can see TSN stepping up for primetime and late night games, though.

So, 14 games? Not going to happen. 10? Doubtful. Maybe they get back to that 8 mark but it will be dicey. Is this one of the reasons why the World Cup shouldn’t be in November and December? Yes. But it’s far down the list. Like WAY down the list. Remember…it’s in Qatar. That’s all you got to say.

Tomorrow you should get the bowl projection and rankings post and on Thursday the NFL post. Not guaranteeing anything but this is the time of year where staying on schedule is pretty imperative. Enjoy the games everyone!

Hey let’s storm the field (and give you the Week 9 College Football TV Schedule)

First off, remember this classic? It was awesome. So the powers that be decided to quash the possibility of it ever happening again. Instead, we get a nine-overtime affair that made me want to pour bleach into my eyes.

Anyway, as you can see from the pic, the Aggie faithful stormed the field after the win. It was a big win. An exhausting one, even for the fans who were there for over five hours. Now, rushing the field like this is now fined by certain conferences. And the fines can be hefty. LSU was just fined a quarter of a million dollars for their fans rushing the field after the Tigers thoroughly destroyed previously undefeated Ole Miss. It was a big win.

Here’s the dilemma from what I see: seeing fans rush the field can be, most of the time, an amazing visual. They are just so happy their team pulled off the victory. Can there be dangers to it? Absolutely. And there can be altercations. Look at that asshole Jermaine Burton who punched a female Tennessee fan after the Vols’ win over Bama. He said he was scared. Bullshit. He could have punched any fan and chose her. Funny he didn’t choose a bigger guy who might have taken offense to it and retaliated. Look, my point is this…I don’t think rushing the field should be fined. At all. That sounds crazy but I believe it. Now, if something happens when the fans rush the field, then the school should be punished (as long as it was not someone from the opposing team doing something wrong). And the fines should be hefty. Forget $250,000. Start at $500K and go up from there. And if students cause issues at games when they storm the field? Guess what? Pack your shit and fuck off to another university. Instead, we have these blanket fines that do nothing really except move money from one coffer to another coffer. Dumb.

Alright, let’s get down to some schedules, shall we?

Thursday

		US	Canada
Virginia Tech at #24 NC State	7:30 PM
Louisiana at Southern Miss	7:30 PM
#14 Utah at Washington State	10:00 PM

Two pretty important games here. NC State has to win here to have any chance to move back up the rankings and perhaps sneak into the New Year’s Six. Utah has the same issue going for them although they are closer to the Top 10 which basically guarantees a spot. OK make it three important games since Louisiana has to keep pace with Troy and South Alabama in the Sun Belt West.

Friday

		US	Canada
Yale at Columbia	6:30 PM
Louisiana Tech at FIU	8:00 PM
East Carolina at BYU	8:00 PM

Kind of a lacklustre night to be honest. I guess you could see some importance in the Cougs’ game since a loss might actually have them struggling to make a bowl game this season.

Saturday Early

		US	Canada
Notre Dame at #16 Syracuse	Noon
Georgia Tech at Florida State	Noon
Boston College at UConn	Noon
#7 TCU at West Virginia	Noon
USF at Houston	Noon
Toledo at Eastern Michigan	Noon
#2 Ohio State at #13 Penn State	Noon
Oklahoma at Iowa State	Noon
Arkansas at Auburn	Noon

Massive early game in State College. You could still consider it a Game of the Year candidate. This is a prove-it game for Penn State. Win this and it puts all the tough games they’ve had behind them and puts them in a great spot to make the College Football Playoff. A tOSU win means it comes down to them and Michigan for any Big Ten CFP possibilities.

If you had told me that Toledo and Eastern Michigan would be facing off in late October, essentially, for the MAC West championship I would have thought you were on some great drugs. But that is the case. EMU has shocked a lot of people this year. Chris Creighton has done a great job in Ypsilanti. It also helps that every other team in the division (other than these two) has looked below-average at best.

Syracuse has a potential speed bump game to get back on track as they host the Irish and honestly it feels weird to see Oklahoma face Iowa State where neither team is ranked.

Saturday Afternoon

		US	Canada
Rutgers at Minnesota	2:30 PM
#17 Illinois at Nebraska	3:30 PM
#10 Wake Forest at Louisville	3:30 PM
Florida vs. #1 Georgia (in Jacksonville)	3:30 PM
Temple at Navy	3:30 PM
#20 Cincinnati at UCF	3:30 PM
Northwestern at Iowa	3:30 PM
#9 Oklahoma State at #22 Kansas State	3:30 PM
#8 Oregon at California	3:30 PM
South Alabama at Arkansas State	4:00 PM
Missouri at #25 South Carolina	4:00 PM

No huge games but a lot of games of importance in this timeslot. OK fine you can say Oklahoma State-Kansas State is huge but there are still a lot of things that could happen in the Big XII with one possibility being that the conference cannibalizes itself and no one makes it to the College Football Playoff.

Illinois is actually on ABC! And they are the reason they are there! Bert doing a great job in Champaign and a win here puts them into a showdown with Purdue for the Big Ten West as long as no other screwy things happen…meaning something will happen. Yes there is an odd start for the Big Ten Network game and no, I don’t know why although I haven’t taken too hard a look to find that out.

Some are saying Georgia may be looking past Florida. I know I would if I was Georgia. I can’t see the Gators doing anything here but you never know as the Cocktail Party can get weird some years. Finally, South Alabama is in a nationally televised game on Saturday probably for the first time ever. They should easily beat ASU in this one. Maybe they are a dark horse for the NY6.

Saturday Primetime

		US	Canada
UAB at Florida Atlantic	7:00 PM
#19 Kentucky at #3 Tennessee	7:00 PM
Colorado State at Boise State	7:00 PM
Coastal Carolina at Marshall	7:00 PM
#10 USC at Arizona	7:00 PM
Michigan State at #4 Michigan	7:30 PM
Baylor at Texas Tech	7:30 PM
Arizona State at Colorado	7:30 PM
#15 Ole Miss at Texas A&M	7:30 PM
Pittsburgh at #21 North Carolina	8:00 PM

In almost any week of any season, UK-UT is the SEC on CBS Game of the Week (and potentially the primetime choice). But with the Cocktail Party this week, they are “relegated” to the primetime ESPN game. Still a good slot. Plus, this game is an elimination game. Winner has a shot at the SEC East and the loser has to hope to make up ground to get a nice January bowl game.

Speaking of relegation, USC is on the Pac-12 Network this week. OK, they are at Arizona who, while improved, is still not that good a team. But when you see that Arizona State and Colorado are on ESPNU (which is slightly better if you ask me), it makes you scratch your head a bit. I know the Trojans were picked for the P12N to fulfill their contracted amount of appearances on the network and this game was as good as any to put there. Still…it feels odd to see a Top 10 team on a conference network, especially the worst conference network around.

Saturday Late Night

		US	Canada
Nevada at San Jose State	10:30 PM
Stanford at #12 UCLA	10:30 PM
San Diego State at Fresno State	10:30 PM

The Spartans actually have a big game here. By the time the calendar turns, they might be the favourites to represent the West Division in the Mountain West Championship. Also, the Bruins look to bounce back and maybe get back into the Top 10 against the Cardinal who may have a tough decision with David Shaw ahead. Not saying Shaw will be fired this season (or even in the offseason) but something has to give here as the team has been pretty bad for a few years now.

Big Games O’ The Week

Ohio State at Penn State (Noon, FOX) – Just a reminder that this game is at Beaver Stadium so it gives the Nittany Lions more of a chance than if it was at the Horseshoe. This might not be exactly easy for the Fighting Ryan Days but a win here will put them into a one-game showdown in a month against Michigan for the Big Ten East and may put them at #1 in the first College Football Playoff poll on Tuesday.

Kentucky at Tennessee (7:00, specialty pack) – I’m sure there are many who wished this game would have been on TSN instead of the Michigan State-Michigan game but yeah, a good Big Ten game will almost always rate higher for TSN than a game from any other conference. As I said above, this is an SEC East elimination game so the stakes are high. It will be interesting to see if the Vols have a letdown after their big win over Alabama a couple weeks ago or if the Cats can get up for this game, dealing with a loud Knoxville crowd.

Oklahoma State at Kansas State (3:30, FOX) – FOX has quite the lineup this week. I know some marvel when I say that but it honestly doesn’t happen often. It probably helps that it’s only two games this week that lead into the World Series which starts after this game. This is part of the Big XII gauntlet that is happening before our eyes that involves more than half the conference (and maybe not even Oklahoma). FOX is probably hoping this game doesn’t go to a bunch of overtimes since we know it would be moved to like FOX Business Network or some channel no one in the world gets.

Notre Dame at Syracuse (Noon, ABC/TSN5) – The Cuse looks to rebound from their tough loss to Clemson. Meanwhile, Notre Dame continues their roller coaster first season under Marcus Freeman. A win by Syracuse here still keeps them in the hunt for…something. A New Year’s Six at-large spot perhaps? The Irish are just trying to make their season feel like it’s less of a failure than it has been and one where 2023 looks optimistic.

Cincinnati at UCF (3:30, specialty pack) – It feels like most years this is a battle between the top two teams in the American. I would have said Houston at the start of the season but yeah I whiffed on that one pretty hard. Tulane may have something to say about that first sentence and they may get their shot in the AAC Championship if they can keep playing as well as they are. Until then, this feels like the winner is in the driver’s seat for the Cotton Bowl spot.

Psycho Game of the Week

Arizona State at Colorado (7:30, specialty pack) – You have got to be some sort of masochist to spend more than one minute watching this one. I guess maybe hoping for some weird score like 5-3 could get you interested in this but otherwise, it is so easy to avoid this abomination.

Hubba Bubba Blowout of the Week

Georgia Tech at Florida State (Noon, specialty pack) – This might seem like a bit of a surprise but I have this feeling that the Noles will come into this one a bit angry and ready to beat the absolute shit out of whoever they face. The Ramblin’ Wreck are playing better not under Geoff Collins but at some point their lack of talent will come to the forefront. This is the game that will happen.

Fun-Time Stats of the Week

• Last time UAB traveled to Boca Raton to face FAU they were embarrassed 49-6.
• This is the first time in four years that Ole Miss has had to play back-to-back road games.
• NC State has lost five straight to the Hokies.

The Degenerate Portion of Our Show

For some reason I can delve into picking NFL games (which I still do from time to time on top of fantasy football) but when it comes to college football I draw a blank. I can’t seem to come up with a way to pick games other than just pick them off the top of my head for the most part. That’s something I would never say when my late night betting show commences. I wonder what the most ridiculous channel to put that on would be. OMNI?

• Louisiana (+1) over Southern Miss (and the outright win…why is Southern Miss even favoured here?)
• Louisiana Tech (-6.5) over FIU
• Toledo (-7) over Eastern Michigan
• Boston College (-7.5) over UConn (only 7.5? Who is making these odds?)
• Oklahoma (-1) over Iowa State
• Minnesota (-14) over Rutgers
• Navy (-13.5) over Temple
• Louisville (+3.5) over Wake Forest (big upset pick!)
• Florida (+22.5) over Georgia (UGA will cover but the Gators will make things interesting for about three quarters)
• Kentucky (+12.5) over Tennessee (the Vols will win a tight one)
• Coastal Carolina (+2.5) over Marshall (and they will win outright)
• Ole Miss (-2.5) over Texas A&M
• UCLA (-16.5) over Stanford (only 16.5? Yeah I’m not getting some of these)

Let’s see how much of a tool I look like with these picks. Anyway, I will be on the Twitter machine for most of the day (I think) so catch me there if you want. Hey, I got a secret for ya. Come closer….

There’s football every day between tomorrow and November 22nd!

Oh. Hell. YEAH! Enjoy the games everyone!

OK this is slightly different – Week 12 College Football TV Schedule

I talk about the coaching carousel a lot.  Maybe a bit too much.  So I have seen a lot of different stories of coaches getting fired and the methods and back stories of how it came to be.  I may not have seen anything like this, though.

Butch Davis has decided he is done at Florida International.  He was 23-21 coming into this season with FIU but the bottom fell out for the team and they have gone 1-9 so far in 2021.  No one knows yet if he will finish out the season with the team.  None of this is all that odd.  What is a bit different is Davis’ assertion that the school’s administration is sabotaging the football program and that is why he wants out.  Not saying other coaches haven’t thought this but for a coach to actually verbalize it says a lot about what is going on down there.  Here are a few of the things that have happened:

• FIU posted the head coaching position online with the American Football Coaches Association…last month.  Good god, not a good start.
• The school is using old uniforms and old equipment and won’t put any money in to purchase anything new.  Cheap bastards.
• The school has refused to offer multi-year contracts to any of Davis’ assistants.  I can kind of understand this considering how poorly the team has performed.
• The school also did not allow any of the coaches to go out and recruit the past two years.  Part of this is due to COVID-19 concerns but the bigger issue is financial reasons.

It sounds like Davis is probably correct here.  And if the school can’t afford to play football at the FBS level, drop to FCS.  There are a few schools at the top level that lose money almost every year and justify doing it as a recruiting tool not just to get athletes to come to the school, but students, in general.  That may work at a school like Alabama but less so at a school like FIU.  This and the fact that the Panthers are in Conference USA which now has set themselves up as easily the worst FBS conference all point to potential disaster in the years to come.  Something to keep an eye on.

Anyway, let’s get to more pertinent matters, that being the upcoming schedule!

Wednesday​​

		US	Canada
Northern Illinois at Buffalo	7:00 PM
Central Michigan at Ball State	7:00 PM

MACtion!  Hey it’s weekday football.  And one of the games is on TSN!  This is good.  Hopefully at least one of these games is a nailbiter.

Thursday

		US	Canada
Louisville at Duke	7:30 PM

So technically this is a college football game.  The only other football on this night is a pretty good New England Patriots team facing a woeful Atlanta Falcons team.  So your options are limited.

Friday​

		US	Canada
Southern Miss at Louisiana Tech	8:00 PM
Memphis at #24 Houston	9:00 PM
#19 San Diego State at UNLV	11:30 PM

Nothing huge here although SDSU and Houston need wins here.  We have a different kind of test game tonight: the weeknight Vegas Test.  A lot like Hawaii Test games, this game won’t end until well into the morning.  I will test my resolve and try to watch this thing but I have this funny feeling it will be over at some point in the third quarter, allowing me (and other viewers) at least some chance at sleep.

Saturday Early​​

		US	Canada
#7 Michigan State at #4 Ohio State	Noon
Florida State at Boston College	Noon
Rutgers at Penn State	Noon
Purdue vs. Northwestern (in Chicago)	Noon
UMass at Army	Noon
#10 Wake Forest at Clemson	Noon
Texas at West Virginia	Noon
Harvard at Yale	Noon
Iowa State at #13 Oklahoma	Noon
Wofford at North Carolina	Noon
New Mexico State at Kentucky	Noon

I’m honestly perplexed as to why MSU-tOSU did not get the primetime treatment.  I guess it’s so we get to possibly see Kirk Herbstreit sprint to the booth after finishing College Gameday.  We also get Oklahoma trying to avoid an upset at the hands of a team they’ve struggled with in the recent past, Iowa State.  There are a lot of other games in the early timeslot but not a ton of must-watch material.  Also, New Mexico State does not get to be on TSN again.

Saturday Afternoon​

		US	Canada
Georgia Tech at #8 Notre Dame	2:30 PM
Nebraska at #15 Wisconsin	3:30 PM
#6 Michigan at Maryland	3:30 PM
Minnesota at Indiana	3:30 PM
#21 Arkansas at #2 Alabama	3:30 PM
East Carolina at Navy	3:30 PM
SMU at #5 Cincinnati	3:30 PM
Virginia at #18 Pittsburgh	3:30 PM
Syracuse at #20 NC State	4:00 PM
Louisiana at Liberty	4:00 PM
UCLA at USC	4:00 PM
Florida at Missouri	4:00 PM

Nothing massive here although Cincinnati may have their toughest conference test before they face Houston in the AAC Championship.  The de facto ACC Coastal Championship occurs today as well as Michigan trying to avoid the speed bump as they travel to College Park.  I don’t get why the Big Ten Network puts two games on simultaneously and then doesn’t have anything in the primetime slot.  Not a huge deal up here but I am sure it’s a big deal in the States where some fans will miss their team’s game because BTN can’t get their act together.

Saturday Primetime​

		US	Canada
Auburn at South Carolina	7:00 PM
#3 Oregon at #23 Utah	7:30 PM
Virginia Tech at Miami	7:30 PM
South Alabama at Tennessee	7:30 PM
Vanderbilt at #12 Ole Miss	7:30 PM
Wyoming at Utah State	8:00 PM
#9 Oklahoma State at Texas Tech	8:00 PM

A big Pac-12 matchup highlights the primetime timeslot.  Utah could cause yet another disruption of the Top 4 in what will probably end up being a preview of the Pac-12 Championship.  CBS Sports Network is going with an odd 8:00 start time for the Mountain West game and there’s no real reason for it.  My only guess on this is that because they do not have a late night game that they put a highlights show on at 7:00 to hopefully keep people watching through that time until this game begins.  This feels more like a lack of organization because I am sure they could have put this game on late night and stuck a MAC or Conference USA game in here and just didn’t for….I don’t know.

Saturday Late Night​

		US	Canada
ULM at LSU	9:00 PM
Arizona State at Oregon State	10:30 PM

Another weird choice here for start time but at least this has a reason.  ESPN2 has the ULM-LSU game starting at 9:00 because there are preliminary fights before a boxing pay-per-view card starting at 7:00.  The only game on here in a true late night spot is a very important one for teams needing a win and some help to win their division.

Games to set your eyeballs on

Michigan State at Ohio State (Noon, ABC/TSN3) – This is the Game of the Week and none of the other games are really that close.  I would consider it a possible Game of the Year candidate because of the high stakes.  Michigan State could do what no one thought they could do and that is unseat Ohio State at the top of the Big Ten East ladder.  A Sparty win puts them in the driver’s seat with wins over both tOSU and Michigan.  The loser of this is probably still a lock for the New Year’s Six though.  As I said above, I am still confused as to why this didn’t get the ABC primetime slot but I have a feeling it has to do with contracted games and the Pac-12 may not have quite got to where they should be.  For this reason ESPN/ABC took the next game on this list instead of this one knowing that the final week of the season would have a better selection to choose from and they wouldn’t be forced to go with one conference over another.

Oregon at Utah (7:30, ABC) – As much as the Pac-12 tends to be ignored on the East Coast, I can see a lot of eyeballs descending on this one.  As mentioned above, it is probably a preview of the Pac-12 title match.  The stakes are high, especially for the Ducks after their inexplicable loss to Stanford earlier this season.  The Utes could cause a lot of issues for the Pac-12 and put themselves in the Top 15 going into the final week of the regular season with a win.  Realistically, the conference championship game is much more important than this one but the path there for both teams will dictate where they stand in terms of what bowl destination they will have.  Either way, at least we know the winner here clinches their spot in Santa Clara and at least will play for the Rose Bowl spot.

SMU at Cincinnati (3:30, specialty pack) – So what happens if the Bearcats lose here?  A win here leaves them at probably no lower than #5 in the CFP rankings.  But a loss…well then we have to see how far they fall.  The next best Group of Five team is San Diego State and they sit at #19 and won’t surpass Cincy even if they win and the Bearcats lose.  Yes, Luke Fickell has his sights set much higher than the NY6.  This game will show whether they can do what they need to do to capture the attention of The Committee: by blowing the doors off the Mustangs.

Wake Forest at Clemson (Noon, specialty pack) – Here’s a huge test for Wake.  Win this game and they clinch the ACC Atlantic and end the reign of Clemson at the top.  Would it be the beginning of the end of Dave Clawson in Winston-Salem?  He has done another masterful job of coaching and many teams will be looking his way with all the openings needing to be filled in the off-season.  Also, how much higher do the Deacs rise in the poll with a win here?  I can’t see them climbing higher than #8 but there still would be one more regular season week remaining, plus conference championships and this season has taught me that you can’t really predict anything week-to-week.

Virginia at Pittsburgh (3:30, specialty pack) – As for the other side of the ACC ledger, this is pretty much the game for the ACC Coastal division title.  I’m sure Wake Forest hopes Pitt wins because the better the Panthers are, the better their schedule looks.  Virginia doesn’t automatically clinch the division with a win but they put themselves in the catbird seat if they are triumphant here going into the Commonwealth Cup game with the now Justin Fuente-less Virginia Tech Hokies.

Honourable mention: Arkansas at Alabama (3:30, CBS); UAB at UTSA (3:30, ESPN+); Oklahoma State at Texas Tech (8:00, FOX)

Wanna bet?

My picks were not good last week.  I don’t even want to talk about it.  So now I have to hope that these picks are better for…some reason.  I don’t know why.  Note: do not use these picks for actual gambling purposes:

Alabama over Arkansas

Clemson over Wake Forest (minor upset)

Pittsburgh over Virginia

UTSA over UAB

Cincinnati over SMU

Oklahoma State over Texas Tech

Ohio State over Michigan State

Utah over Oregon (upset!)

Ball State over Central Michigan

Tennessee over South Alabama

San Diego State over UNLV

I’m gearing myself up.  Tonight.  Tomorrow night.  Friday night.  Saturday all day.  Then NFL Sunday all day.  Then NFL Monday night.  My god.  I love it.

NFL schedule tomorrow as per usual.  Enjoy the games everyone!

Week 7 College Football TV Schedule with no real intro

Yep, I got nothing.  Nothing really happened that was huge…I mean compared to the NFL which is a complete shitshow.  So why don’t we just get to the damn schedule?  Sounds like a plan.  Let’s go.

Thursday​

		US	Canada
Navy at Memphis	7:30 PM
Georgia Southern at South Alabama	7:30 PM

Two games.  Neither game really being big as none of these teams are near the top of their conference or division.  I mean the Thursday Night Football matchup is Tampa Bay against Philadelphia so we kind of know that will be a blowout so maybe one of these games can be close and give us something fun to watch.

Friday

		US	Canada
Marshall at North Texas	7:00 PM
Clemson at Syracuse	7:00 PM
Montana State at Weber State	10:00 PM
#24 San Diego State at San Jose State	10:30 PM
California at #9 Oregon	10:30 PM

Five games, one in the FCS on this night.  SDSU has a date with Nevada later in the year and need a win to keep pace.  Oregon trying desperately to keep the Pac-12’s almost non-existent playoff hopes alive.  I’m very curious as to why ESPN is all of a sudden showing Big Sky games.  They already have the MEAC, SWAC and Ivy League, all leagues that don’t go to the FCS playoffs.  Going this route is something different and I, for one, welcome it.  If it’s anything like the Montana-Eastern Washington game two weeks ago, then buckle up.

Saturday Early​​

		US	Canada
UCF at #3 Cincinnati	Noon
Rutgers at Northwestern	Noon
Auburn at #17 Arkansas	Noon
Yale at UConn	Noon
#20 Florida at LSU	Noon
Nebraska at Minnesota	Noon
Tulsa at USF	Noon
#12 Oklahoma State at #25 Texas	Noon
#21 Texas A&M at Missouri	Noon
Duke at Virginia	12:30 PM

OK not the sexiest lineup per se but it has some decent quality.  CBS gets their one Noon game of the season and actually didn’t get too bad a pick with the Tigers and Razorbacks.  Remember that when CBS has a Noon SEC game, they get the top SEC pick for their afternoon game and then ESPN gets the next two choices.  THEN CBS gets to select their Noon SEC game.  Other than that, UCF and the Gus Bus try to derail the Bearcat Express, Oklahoma State hopes to continue their unexpected undefeated run against the Longhorns and Yale and UConn face off in yet another game where CBS regrets ever signing the Huskies to a broadcast contract.

Saturday Afternoon

		US	Canada
Purdue at #2 Iowa	3:30 PM
Miami at North Carolina	3:30 PM
#11 Kentucky at #1 Georgia	3:30 PM
#19 BYU at Baylor	3:30 PM
Pittsburgh at Virginia Tech	3:30 PM
Kent State at Western Michigan	3:30 PM
Vanderbilt at South Carolina	4:00 PM

The afternoon shows that many times quality is much better than quantity.  We shall see if the craziness continues in Athens.  TSN has really not stepped up yet and it has nothing to do with the CFL for the most part.  I’ve mentioned it before but it feels like they are going slightly backwards with their college football coverage (and then will wonder why college football fans go different routes that aren’t TSN to get their college football fix).  Anyway, Purdue gets a rare ABC spot (which should result in them getting obliterated) and the specialty pack picks up the rest of the games.  Brutal.

Saturday Primetime​

		US	Canada
Utah State at UNLV	7:00 PM
#5 Alabama at Mississippi State	7:00 PM
TCU at #4 Oklahoma	7:30 PM
#22 NC State at Boston College	7:30 PM
Iowa State at Kansas State	7:30 PM
Stanford at Washington State	7:30 PM
#13 Ole Miss at Tennessee	7:30 PM
Army at Wisconsin	8:00 PM
UCLA at Washington	8:30 PM

Technically this is a primetime schedule.  Nothing impressive but if you don’t have quality get some quantity (I know what I said in the last section).  Again, no TSN games but at least FOX, BTN and CBSSN are back in this timeslot.  Got to hope there is at least one close game or one upset here or it’s looking pretty grim going into the late night portion of our schedule.

Saturday Late Night

		US	Canada
#18 Arizona State at Utah	10:00 PM
Hawaii at Nevada	10:30 PM

Only two games but both of them could end up being pretty good.  Hawaii could make it so San Diego State is clearly in the driver’s seat if they can beat the Wolf Pack in Reno.  And Utah isn’t as bad as their record indicates and could cause all sorts of problems for the Sun Devils, especially with their rowdy student section.

Games to set your eyeballs on

Kentucky at Georgia (3:30, CBS) – Easily the biggest game of the week, if not a great candidate for Game of the Year.  I know, even with Kentucky involved!  An expected Bulldog victory would put them in the driver’s seat in the SEC East with, realistically, a win in the World’s Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party the only thing standing between them and a trip to Atlanta.  If the Wildcats win then ho boy, the insanity meter gets ratcheted up a whole lot more (and also puts Bama back in the mix to get back to #1).  I’m hoping, for Brad Nessler’s sake, it’s a good game.

Oklahoma State at Texas (Noon, FOX) – OK so there is a bit of a drop off after the Game of the Week.  But, the Pokes are seriously good and we could be heading for the best Bedlam in a long time if they can keep this up.  Texas helped the cause by losing an absolute heartbreaker in the Red River Shootout on Saturday.  I have this feeling that if Okie State wins this, it’s basically a foregone conclusion that we will have a Bedlam rematch at JerryWorld in December.  We almost need the Longhorns to pull something out here to keep things exciting in the Big XII.

UCF at Cincinnati (Noon, ABC) – Look I will be honest: the quality of this game all depends on which Knights team shows up.  We’ve seen the quite good Knights where the team is rolling along and the Gus Bus is humming.  And we’ve seen the horrible Knights where the Gus Bus has serious mechanical problems and/or is on fire.  Here’s hoping we get the former.  You could say this is the last true hurdle to the Bearcats running the table until the AAC Championship as they don’t have Houston on their schedule.

BYU at Baylor (3:30, specialty pack) – BYU losing last week means they are locked into the Independence Bowl unless a bunch of crazy shit happens.  Don’t want to say they have nothing to play for but they have a lot less to play for now.  Baylor, on the other hand, could be the surprise team of the season if they keep winning as Dave Aranda is doing a miraculous job in Waco.  The Cougs need to win big and the Bears just need to win.  Could be the sneaky good game of the week.

NC State at Boston College (7:30, specialty pack) – The ACC Network kind of lucked out in getting this game.  Both teams are somehow contending in the ACC Atlantic division since Clemson is not the Clemson of the past decade.  The Wolfpack are obviously in better shape here since they actually beat the Tigers whereas the Eagles lost (albeit with a backup quarterback).  With a relatively weak primetime schedule, this game could shine.

Honourable mention: Auburn at Arkansas (Noon, CBS); Alabama at Mississippi State (7:00, specialty pack); TCU at Oklahoma (7:30, ABC)

You wanna bet?

Before the season I said Alabama would lose one game and I thought, at the time, it would be Texas A&M.  Then I chickened out last week and had Bama beating the Aggies.  Should have gone with my gut!  Other than that (and picking LSU over Kentucky) it was a pretty good week.  Wonder if I can replicate it….I hope I didn’t just jinx myself.  Here we go:

Baylor over BYU (an upset!)

NC State over Boston College

Oklahoma over TCU

Texas over Oklahoma State (another upset!)

Cincinnati over UCF

Georgia over Kentucky

Alabama over Mississippi State

Auburn over Arkansas

Marshall over North Texas

Utah over Arizona State (slight upset)

UNLV over Utah State (to get their first win of the season)

Going to be honest: I feel like I put less than my best effort into this post.  It’s been a rough time for me lately and I try to push through it.  Part of that is doing this blog as it gets my mind off of everything I’m going through for a few hours.  Part of my therapy so to speak.  So as much as there is work involved in doing these posts on a near-daily basis these days, it’s also cathartic and something I enjoy doing.  Everyone needs a hobby or something they do outside of work and this is the one real thing I’m doing these days.  I’m sure I will get back to doing a better job soon enough (hey, there’s an NFL post tomorrow).  Anyway, take some time for yourself and watch some college football these next few nights.  You deserve it!  Have a great week!

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

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

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

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

SUPER MEGA HYPER OMNI POST! V3.0

I have done this two times before. Let’s go for number three here. Warning: this post is seriously fucking long. So grab a drink (caffeinated would be a good idea) and settle in.
Instead of doing a full recap and then a full bowl projections post, I figured I would combine them into one insanely long post! Why? I am going to tell myself it’s a great way to save time and not have to do two posts. That is completely erroneous to be truthful but I will keep telling myself that little fib. It was a fairly good weekend of college football which had two major upsets. We are headed into an exciting finish to the season.  Also this post is different and exciting to commemorate the 150th anniversary of when Rutgers could be considered a top team in college football.

Let’s start with recapping the week that was.  Some fun stuff happened and I was totally sleep deprived for Sunday.  A Fall tradition.

• The only ranked-on-ranked game of the week had Ohio State outlast Penn State.  The difference here was basically one guy: Chase Young.  His return from his stupid suspension was a boon for the Buckeye defense as he was all over the Nittany Lion backfield.  He is a lot like Ndamukong Suh was at Nebraska; the best player in the nation who won’t get true Heisman hype.  The tOSU offense did just enough as Justin Fields, who is the second best player on the team, may have booked his trip to New York City in December.  In the end, though, it won’t mean nearly as much if they can’t extend their winning streak against The Team Up North this Saturday.
• LSU beat Arkansas easily.  Alabama beat Western Carolina even easier during SEC Sleepwalk Saturday.  The Tide have to be rooting for the Tigers to win this Saturday and at the SEC Championship and hopefully win big both times.  It’s Bama’s best chance to get in if the Fighting Orgerons look like a dominant #1 team (or at least something to include in the argument for them to be included in the CFP).
• You all saw it I’m sure.  The students from Harvard and Yale doing a protest just before the second half was to begin in the annual game between the two Ivy League stalwarts.  I can honestly say this is something I have never seen before during a game.  And of course Twitter, being full of very level-headed people, went crazy.  People aligned themselves on one side or the other which is what happens in situations like this nowadays.  Here is my take on this.  Are protests a fabric of both the United States and Canada?  I believe they are.  Saying people can’t protest makes us a lot more like China than the countries we are.  Does this also do a disservice to the people involved in the football game?  Absolutely.  Both of these things are, and can be, true.  If these students truly understood the issues surrounding climate change and Harvard and Yale’s role in it, then great.  It’s very rare that this is the case as I have seen many protests in this country where many really have no idea what they are truly protesting and just want to be loud and want to belong.  I think the police did as good a job as they could and didn’t let it become something violent.  I do wish the students that wouldn’t leave unless they were arrested just left.  Being arrested will probably just be something they can yell and scream about when in reality, no one gives a shit because the protest is over at that point.  On top of all this, the game was played at the Yale Bowl which does not have lights and after an hour-plus delay, went to double overtime.  If it had gone any farther the game probably would have had to end in a tie since darkness was quickly settling in.  Just a bizarre day in college football to say the least.
• Georgia’s offense basically took the day off on Saturday.  If it wasn’t for hipster kicker Rodrigo Blankenship, the Dawgs may have blown it against Texas A&M.  A 19-13 victory over the Aggies doesn’t exactly inspire confidence in the team going into the SEC Championship.  They play like this and LSU will put a 50-burger on them and the game will essentially be over by 5:00 Eastern.
• Oregon blew it against Arizona State.  I guess they didn’t play to win the game.  This is bad, not just for the Ducks but for Utah as well (and the Pac-12 as a whole).  Now Utah beating Oregon will not be them beating a Top 10 team.  Chances are Oregon will be a Top 15 team which makes a difference.  It’s also what is needed for the Bama backers who desperately want their team in the College Football Playoff.
• The other huge upset of the day was FIU beating Miami.  Yes this isn’t the Canes of early this century but good God is this team not very good.  And in a pretty bad ACC.  And now they lose to former head coach Butch Davis on the field that was built on the old Orange Bowl grounds.  Yeah this is about as bad as it gets for The U.  Manny Diaz will be on a seriously hot seat to start next season and now some have to look back and take back their thoughts of basically poaching him from Temple as the Owls are doing great under Rod Carey while Miami struggles.
• Some would include Colorado’s victory over Washington as an upset as well.  I do not.  This is easily Chris Petersen’s worst team in all his years of coaching college football.  Mel Tucker has brought the Buffs back to, at least, respectability.  They now have a chance to go bowling.  All they have to do is *checks the schedule* beat Utah.  Aw man.  Sorry guys.
• Cincinnati beat Temple in a very close one.  It all turned on one play.  Temple had an extra point blocked and returned for two points.  So a three point swing on one play.  The Bearcats ended up winning by 2 and seem to be sharing the Group of Five seat with Memphis at the moment.
• If you missed it, there was an absolutely bonkers Pac-12 After Dark affair up in eastern Washington.  It was on the Pac-12 Network (or DAZN up here) so very few would have watched it but it was fantastic.  A back and forth affair where Oregon State scored 29 points in the fourth quarter and LOST!  Wazzu pulled out with a touchdown with 2 seconds left to win 54-53.  So now Oregon State has to *checks the schedule* beat Oregon in the Civil War to become bowl-eligible.  Ugh.  Washington State is now bowl-eligible again and Mike Leach in the postseason is always fun.
• Oklahoma is going to the Big XII Championship!  They clinched their spot by BARELY getting by TCU.  I’m sorry but the Sooners will struggle with Baylor if they play like that (the Bears beat Texas handily).  Then again, if Boomer Sooner wins, do you really want them in the CFP?  I don’t know.
• Wisconsin and Minnesota both won so they are slated to play for the Big Ten West this weekend.  And College Gameday is heading to Minneapolis (finally).  So it is going to be a huge day for the Golden Gophers and if they win they basically clinch no worse than the Rose Bowl in my opinion.
• What a great way to have the Bud Foster send-off.  Virginia Tech whitewashed Pitt and were dominant on defense.  Awesome for Foster’s final game at Lane Stadium.
• Great story of the weekend?  Charlotte becoming bowl-eligible for the first time.  Will Healy did wonders at Austin Peay which was such a terrible FCS program they went almost four years without winning a game and he arrives and they almost go to the playoffs.  Now he does amazing things in his first year in North Carolina and gets the 49ers to the promised land (probably).  Watch them get picked up by the American Conference in a few years to replace UConn.

Now let’s move on to how the conference championships are shaping up as we are down to the ultimate week of the regular season.

It’s the second annual Sun Belt Championship game and I honestly believe Mountain Dew or Peterbilt or something like that should sponsor it.  This is set.  Appalachian State and Louisiana have won their respective divisions and will face off in the championship game at the home of the Mountaineers in Boone, North Carolina.

Conference USA is going to have an exciting race towards the end of the season in the West.  In the East, Florida Atlantic has clinched their spot in the title game.  As for the West, it’s between UAB, Louisiana Tech and Southern Miss and it’s messy.  So on Saturday:

• If all three teams win, Southern Miss wins the division.  Same thing if all three teams lose.
• If Louisiana Tech wins and UAB loses, Louisiana Tech wins the division.
• If UAB and Southern Miss win, Southern Miss wins the division.
• If only one of the three teams wins, that winning team obviously wins the division.

Good lord.  But at least it means it will be a fun final Saturday for this oft-ignored conference.

The MAC title tilt is halfway set.  Miami-OH has already clinched the MAC East.  The MAC West could be finished off tonight.  If Western Michigan beats Northern Illinois, they will go to Detroit to face the Redhawks.  If they lose then Central Michigan has a chance to clinch on Black Friday in their Noon game against Toledo.

This is easy.  Boise State clinched with their crushing of Utah State and then a bit of a shock as Hawaii clinched the West Division as they beat San Diego State in an low-scoring affair.  The game will be on the blue turf in Boise.

Alright Cincinnati is already in.  The West is also easy.  Memphis beats Cincy in the season finale they will have a rematch against the Bearcats also at home.  If they don’t win, and then Navy defeats Houston on Saturday night, the Middies will be heading to Cincinnati.  If both teams lose, Memphis will go to southern Ohio and play Cincinnati quite possibly for the Cotton Bowl spot.

It’s Clemson up against the winner of the Commonwealth Cup.  This is the most important game in the battle for Virginia possibly ever.

This has been set.  The surprising Baylor Bears get their chance at revenge on Oklahoma at JerryWorld.

Oregon is in for the game which starts at 5 local time yet again.  The Pac-12 has, by far, the shittiest set of TV contracts for the Power Five.  This is atrocious.  Now, if Utah wins they face Oregon but if Colorado pulls off the upset then it will be USC, of all teams, going against the Ducks.

Ohio State clinched a tough Big Ten East and will await the Wisconsin-Minnesota winner in Indianapolis.

LSU and Georgia.  No Bama.  The way things are going, though, UGA is going to get boatraced by the Tigers.

So there you go.  Coming up later in the week, we have the massive American Thanksgiving post which is, you guessed it, massive.

Alright, on to my bowl projections as of this today:

Fiesta Bowl	CFP Poll #2 vs. CFP Poll #3	Clemson vs. Ohio State
Peach Bowl	CFP Poll #1 vs. CFP Poll #4	LSU vs. Utah

No changes here.  Utah’s resume took a hit with Oregon’s loss but I still see them holding on to this spot (which means I will probably be wrong).

Has anything changed in the New Year’s Six?

Sugar Bowl	SEC #1 vs. Big XII #1	Alabama vs Baylor
Rose Bowl	Big Ten #1 vs. Pac-12 #1	Michigan vs. Oregon
Orange Bowl	ACC #1 vs. SEC #2/Big Ten #2/Notre Dame/G-5 #1	Wake Forest vs. Georgia
Cotton Bowl	CFP At-Large vs. CFP At-Large/G-5 #1	Oklahoma vs. Boise State

One change.  I’ve put Michigan in the Rose Bowl, replacing Penn State which I am sure no one will bat an eye at, right OK let’s move on.  A LOT could very well change on this section this coming week and I kind of expect it to but I have to go with my gut at this point.  The Orange Bowl spot for the ACC champ is still hilariously sad and I think that might be the big change during the next CFP contract and not a move to expand to eight teams (although a move to five would be fine by me to be honest).

Now the rest of bowl season which is a gongshow because even bowl tie-ins mean nothing anymore but not in a good way.

Mobile Bowl	MAC vs. Sun Belt	Miami-OH vs. Arkansas State
Armed Forces Bowl	Big Ten vs. MWC	Indiana vs. Utah State
Idaho Potato Bowl	MWC vs. MAC	Nevada vs. Ohio
Gator Bowl	SEC vs. Big Ten	Tennessee vs. Minnesota
Birmingham Bowl	SEC/ACC vs. American/ACC	Liberty* vs. Memphis
Outback Bowl	SEC vs. Big Ten	Auburn vs. Penn State
Citrus Bowl	SEC vs. Big Ten	Florida vs. Wisconsin
Alamo Bowl	Big XII vs. Pac-12	Iowa State vs. USC
Arizona Bowl	MWC vs. Sun Belt	San Diego State vs. Arkansas State
Liberty Bowl	SEC/American vs. Big XII/American	Mississippi State vs. Oklahoma State
Sun Bowl	Pac-12 vs. ACC	California vs. Notre Dame
Belk Bowl	SEC vs. ACC	Texas A&M vs. Virginia
Redbox Bowl	Big Ten vs. Pac-12	Illinois vs. Arizona State
Music City Bowl	SEC vs. ACC	Kentucky vs. Virginia Tech
First Responder Bowl	Big XII vs. C-USA	Kansas State vs. Florida Atlantic
Camping World Bowl	Big XII vs. ACC	Texas vs. Miami
Cheez-It Bowl	Big XII/MWC vs. Pac-12/MWC	Hawaii vs. Southern Miss*
Holiday Bowl	Big Ten vs. Pac-12	Iowa vs. Washington State
Texas Bowl	SEC vs. Big XII	Missouri vs. TCU
Pinstripe Bowl	Big Ten vs. ACC	Nebraska vs. Pittsburgh
Military Bowl	ACC vs. American	Louisville vs. Navy
Quick Lane Bowl	Big Ten/MAC vs. ACC/MAC	Western Michigan vs. Florida State
Independence Bowl	SEC/C-USA vs. ACC/American	Marshall vs. Cincinnati
Hawaii Bowl	BYU vs. American/MWC	BYU vs. Wyoming
Gasparilla Bowl	American/ACC vs. C-USA/ACC	UCF vs. UAB
New Orleans Bowl	C-USA vs. Sun Belt	Louisiana Tech vs. Louisiana
Las Vegas Bowl	Pac-12 vs. MWC	Washington vs. Air Force
Camellia Bowl	MAC vs. Sun Belt	Central Michigan vs. Georgia Southern
Boca Raton Bowl	American vs. MAC	SMU vs. Buffalo
Cure Bowl	American vs. Sun Belt	Temple vs. Georgia State
New Mexico Bowl	MWC vs. C-USA	Army* vs. Western Kentucky
Frisco Bowl	American vs. MAC/C-USA	Tulane vs. Eastern Michigan
Bahamas Bowl	MAC vs. C-USA	Toledo vs. Charlotte

A few notes for your perusal:

• No 5-7 teams.  And no teams left out at 6-6.  Everything fits perfectly like a puzzle with all the pieces actually in the box.  We all know what will happen right?  Certainly not this.
• I am sticking with the tie-ins as best I can.  I don’t know why though since the bowls don’t seem to care themselves sometimes.
• Hawaii, as far as I know, is not locked in to the Hawaii Bowl now that they are bowl-eligible.  Still a good chance they end up there but I have this feeling they will hit the mainland for their bowl game this season.
• Look at Charlotte!  I have them kicking off the bowl season by going to the Bahamas!  Talk about a great season for those players and staff.
• As for tie-ins that don’t work, I have Army filing in to the New Mexico Bowl thanks to Boise State going to the Cotton Bowl, Southern Miss going to the Cheez-It Bowl because the Big XII and Pac-12 don’t have enough eligible teams (thanks to me putting Utah in the CFP) and Liberty heading to the Birmingham Bowl due to the SEC and ACC not having enough eligible teams.  These split tie-ins are so weird and even dumber when they don’t even work out.  When two conferences can’t fill a single bowl slot you know there’s an issue.

Other than those few items, not much to talk about specifically about the bowl projections.  Nothing much changed except some of my opinions.  That might change starting tonight.  Ohio has a chance to become bowl-eligible and, at the same time, Akron could be the only winless team this season in the FBS.  The game is on ESPN+ so none of us can see it.  The other game, between WMU and NIU, is important for the Broncos as a win there clinches a trip to beautiful Detroit for the MAC Championship which isn’t on Friday night this season.  Then Wednesday, take a deep breath.  There is no football at all.  Don’t drink too much but maybe take the time to do something around the house.  Go out.  Catch up on some Netflix.  Something.  Because you will need the rest to prepare for FOOTBALLGASM 2019!

A couple of quick Canadian football notes:

• The Grey Cup occurred this past Sunday.  I am a bit sad that Hamilton lost but at least it was to Winnipeg who had an even longer Grey Cup drought at 29 years!  Plus, a fan who said, in 1990, he wouldn’t wear pants until the next time the Blue Bombers won the Cup again, can wear pants again!  Which is good in Winnipeg since it is seriously fucking freezing there.
• The Vanier Cup occurred.  I have no idea where it was on.  I think CBC online?  Ridiculous.

Alright that is it.  No more.  A seriously long post is complete.  American Thanksgiving Footballgasm post will show up later this week along with the NFL sked post.  Have a good week everyone!