Category Archives: college football

This Weekend in College Football: Week 2

As usual, all times Eastern and all predictions wrong.

Thursday
7:30: Clemson @ Georgia Tech (ESPN): Whooo boy. Big one for Tech here, and frankly I’m not a fan of conference games in September. Just too early – something that didn’t help in the past. Nonetheless, these games are always fun – Clemson is Tech’s biggest in-conference rival, and it’s more of a friendly rivalry. Also, these games tend to generally be really close. Despite the fact Tech has won 4 of the last five, the scores break like this: 28-24, 10-9, 7-31 (ugh), 13-3, 21-17. Last week, both teams had their with patsies, though worryingly we fumbled 5 times.

Friday
9:00: Colorado @ Toledo (ESPN): While nothing is guaranteed for Colorado these days, Toledo lost big last week to a very depleted Purdue squad. I think CU can pull this out.

Saturday
Noon:

  • Fresno State @ Wisconsin (ESPN): While we all would love to see FSU knock off one of the big boys, I just don’t see it happening in Madison.
  • Central Michigan @ Michigan State (ESPN2): MSU pads the win column with an easy win over one of the directional Michigans, though this is probably the best of the three.
  • Iowa @ Iowa State (FSN): This seems like an easy Iowa win, right? Well, to their credit, at least Iowa State was able to easily beat their DI-AA and not have to block two straight field goals to pull out the last second win. And it’s not like these superior Iowa teams have been taking care of Iowa State the past few years, anyway – the series is at 2-2 over the past four meetings. I’ll take the Cyclones.
  • North Carolina @ Connecticut (ESPNU): Continuing the “I’d Rather Watch This as a Basketball Game” series, UNC won 38-12 last year in Chapel Hill. I’d expect a similar result here.
  • Duke @ Army (CBSCS): Duke: 0-1 against DI-AA opponents. Army: 1-0 against DI-A opponents. If Army is going to get back to the 6-win promised land, they’ll need to beat teams like Duke, and based on last week’s, er, “performance” I think they can.
  • Syracuse @ Pennsylvania State (BTN): Penn State should take this one pretty easily.
  • Troy @ Florida (SEC/Gameplan): Sorry, Rob, but Florida by a few touchdowns.
  • Stanford @ Wake Forest (Raycom/Gameplan): I know Baylor has a good QB and all, but Wake should’ve still beat them. Which makes me worried about Wake’s ability to beat Stanford. I mean, I’m still picking Wake, but I have my doubts.

3:30:

  • Notre Dame @ Michigan (ABC): I just don’t, you know, care about this game. I think Michigan should win and all, but this will be either be an exciting, high-scoring contest or super boring, I think.
  • Brigham Young @ Tulane (ESPN2): BYU got a huge win last week in Dallas, Bradford or no. Now they have to keep it up through lulls in the schedule like this, against a Tulane squad that got pounded last week by Tulsa. In other words, this is a bit of a trap game for BYU with FSU coming up next weekend.
  • Houston @ Oklahoma State (FSN): I’m glad as anyone else Oklahoma State beat UGA last weekend, now they face a reasonable challenge in high-flying Houston. OSU should still win, but I bet this will be good to watch.
  • Texas @ Wyoming (Versus): [Checks to see if Wyoming still has those brown home jerseys.] [Yup.] This is the “1” end of a 2-for-1 between these schools. I highly suspect Texas expects, and will get, 3 wins out of it.
  • Texas Christian @ Virginia (ESPNU): TCU is pretty decent. Virginia, uh, isn’t. I’ll take the frogs.
  • Louisiana Tech @ Navy (CBSCS): Navy’s got to pick themselves up after being a two-point conversion away from Ohio State last weekend. They can definitely do that against LaTech.

4:00: California-Los Angeles @ Tennessee (ESPN): Both of these teams took care of their requisite patsies last weekend, so it’s hard for me to get a read here. I may change this later, but right now I just like Tennessee and I’m not really sure why.

7:00:

  • South Carolina @ Georgia (ESPN2): I hope you don’t like offense! Well, if you’re watching this, anyway. I’d just go get dinner or something and get ready for USC-Ohio State. I’ll take UGA here, unfortunately.
  • Vanderbilt @ Louisiana State (ESPNU): Alas, poor Vandy. Good luck against LSU, you’ll need it.
  • Air Force @ Minnesota (BTN): Air Force is generally pretty pesky, but do they have a chance against UMN? Eh, probably not.
  • Mississippi State @ Auburn (SEC/Gameplan): I wonder how much people made last year on this game taking the under? Nonetheless, I can say with a fair degree of confidence there will be more than five points scored in this game, and that Auburn should probably win.

7:30: Kansas @ Texas-El Paso (CBSCS): It’s Kansas! It’s UTEP! It’s, uh… hrm. I got nothin’, except for Kansas.

8:00: Southern California @ Ohio State (ESPN): Ahhh, it’s the Trobuckalypse! Both these teams are pretty vulnerable, though that term is purely relative compared to the rest of college football. For a difference on perspective, consider the hoopla around USC starting a freshman QB and realize that he would start for probably 90% of the schools in the country. Also consider Pryor is experienced in relative terms as well, being a sophomore and beginning his first year as a starter. This all also makes it extremely difficult to pick a side here, especially with the game in The Shoe. The advantages that USC had over OSU last year are no longer present as long as Pryor is competent, so I’ll take the Buckeyes.

10:15: Purdue @ Oregon (FSN): This post will not mention anyone by the name of “Blount” or anything about the practice of sucker punching anyone. Nope. But don’t be surprised if Purdue perhaps feels like they just did get sucker punched, though.

10:30: Utah @ San Jose State (ESPNU): I should trek down to San Jose and see this on in person! Yeah! Er, maybe not. Utah should win easily.

11:00: Oregon State @ Nevada-Las Vegas (CBSCS): Oregon State will at least win on the field this weekend, though I can’t say the same about their odds on the slots.

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This Weekend in College Football: Week 1

Since this is the first post of the year, I’ll explain how this works. Basically, I list each game that will be on TV for a particular weekend. In general, I list games that will be on a network that is reasonably national or feature a BCS team, though this judgment can be arbitrary. (For instance, I will list only national Big Ten Network games, but will always list the ACC and SEC regional games. Yeah, I’m biased.) Normally, I don’t list anything other than Saturday games except on special occasions, as the post usually goes up on Friday. I also include the following disclaimer:

As usual, all times Eastern and all predictions wrong.

Thursday
7:00: South Carolina @ North Carolina State (ESPN): This is it. The first game of the year. Are you excited? Because I’m excited. Except, well, I won’t see any of these. But that’s all right! I’ll be on a plane destined for a much-needed vacation. That said, there’s been a fair amount of hype about NCSU this year and quite frankly I’m not sure why. They were the second worst team in the ACC last year and I’m not sure what they did to get better. Stever Spurrier is still trying to get his mojo back at South Carolina. I will begrudgingly take the Gamecocks here.

7:30: North Texas @ Ball State (ESPNU): So I get ESPNU now! Thanks Comcast! It makes me feel moderately better about the utterly ludicrous amount of money I have to pay for cable, I guess. Oh, also, UNT is terrible, taking Ball State here.

8:00: Eastern Kentucky @ Indiana (BTN): Hey, a game Indiana should win! Hope they don’t get too used to that.

10:15: Oregon @ Boise State (ESPN): You should stay up for this one, East Coast folks. Provided you survive the initial color clash of Oregon’s uniforms with the blue turf, you should be in for a treat as a big time program pays a visit Boise for the first time since Oregon State in 2006. Oregon State lost to that Boise team, that you probably remember from the legendary Fiesta Bowl that year versus Oklahoma. More notable, Boise won last year’s contest at Eugene, 37-32. Both these teams have lost some guys, but with less losses and the home field, I’ll take the Broncos.

Friday
8:00: Tulsa @ Tulane (ESPN): Conference USA! Feel the excitement! Tulsa will be trying to see if they can score more than 56 this time around, I suspect.

Saturday
Noon:

  • Navy @ Ohio State (ESPN): Ohio State is going to honor the Middies before the game, a nice gesture. Perhaps they’ll only win by 3 TDs instead of 4?
  • Minnesota @ Syracuse (ESPN2): This is a fairly amusing insight into rooting for a bad team. I especially like the “Quest for Toronto” feature. Gotta have reasonable goals. That said, I have to pick the Gophers.
  • Kentucky vs. Miami University (@Cincinnati, OH; ESPNU): Guide to Miamis: MU is the one in Ohio, and UM is the one in Florida. I will be referring to them as such throughout the season. Oh, and uh, Kentucky.
  • Akron @ Pennsylvania State (BTN): Penn State starts it’s, uh, “schedule” with a doozy against Akron. I’ll take Penn State.
  • Western Kentucky @ Tennessee (SEC): Congratulations Western Kentucky, you’re now fully a member of Division I-A and the Sun Belt Conference! Now go be good boys and sacrifice yourself for the sake of getting Lane Kiffin his first college win.

1:00: Jacksonville State @ Georgia Tech (espn360.com): With wayward Ryan Perrilloux out, JSU is missing its best player. I will shy away from making an actual prediction as usual, but I do hope that we don’t overlook this won for their upcoming Thursday night dates. OH AND I AM SO EXCITED. WOOOO FOOTBAW.

3:30:

  • Georgia @ Oklahoma State (ABC/GP): This is the first or second most interesting of the day, most likely. That said, I think UGA has just lost too much on offense to really keep up with OSU at home, so I’ll take the orange Cowboys.
  • Baylor @ Wake Forest (GP/ESPN2/ABC): Baylor actually has a shot at this one, which is more than I would say. But one QB does not a team make, and Jim Grobe is perhaps the craftiest coach in the country.
  • Western Michigan @ Michigan (ESPN2/ABC): I think Michigan will avoid losing, but I didn’t say they would avoid embarrassment.
  • Nevada @ Notre Dame (NBC): Nevada is not chopped liver here. But it is at ND and ND should succeed on sheer talent alone. Should.
  • San Jose State @ Southern California (FSN): Yeah, uh… hrm. This line is 32-33.5 right now, and well, I like USC to cover.
  • Jackson State @ Mississippi State (ESPNU): Hey, it’s a team Miss State will be able to beat. Not sure how much they’ll be able to say that this year.

3:40: Missouri vs. Illinois (@St. Louis, MO; ESPN): I’ve made it know I like this series of games elsewhere, so I’ll stop now. But suffice it to say, these are both good teams, but I think year’s edition of Illinois is probably better.

7:00:

  • Brigham Young vs. Oklahoma (@Arlington, TX; ESPN): This is a pretty interesting game. Even if BYU is just competitive they can make a statement. If they win? That would, just, wow. That said, I still have to take OU.
  • Louisiana Tech @ Auburn (ESPNU): Auburn. I’m running out of time, so these will be short unless it’s interesting from here on out.
  • Northern Illinois @ Wisconsin (BTN): Wisconsin.

8:00: Alabama vs. Virginia Polytechnic (ABC): I’ll try to see this, but I doubt I’ll be able to. For the sake of my conference I want VPI to win. I think this will be a defensive struggle, but ‘Bama just has to have more offensive talent, don’t they? It’ll be close but I have to admit the Tide will probably end up on top.

10:00: Maryland @ California (ESPN2): California. Okay, this is actually kind of interesting, and while this is probably the best Terp outfit in awhile, I still like Cal better.

10:30: Louisiana State @ Washington (ESPN): LSU. Washington will probably win a game this year… just not this one.

Sunday
3:30: Mississippi @ Memphis (ESPN): Sunday games! The best way to know the NFL hasn’t started yet, outside of the games tomorrow. That said, Ole Miss doesn’t need a lot of pre-season hype to know they should beat Memphis.

7:00: Colorado State @ Colorado (FSN): There’s a certain segment of the Georgia Tech fanbase that wants to move the Georgia game to the beginning of the season. Hogwash, I say. It’s a lot more fun at the end of the year. That said, when your rival is a major conference team, I guess you take what you can get when you’re CSU. CU probably wins.

Monday
4:00: Cincinnati @ Rutgers (ESPN): Almost there! Woo. Rutgers had a terrible start last year, including a 13-10 loss to eventual conference champ Cincy. No one has any Earthly idea who is supposed to win the Big East this year. It could even be Rutgers! Could. That said, I like Cincy here.

8:00: University of Miami @ Florida State (ESPN): A lot of folks are predicting the return of Miami this year. Not a lot are predicting the return of FSU. I’m not really that optimistic about either team, but I do like Miami better in this game.

And that’s it! I fly off to Seattle this afternoon and will miss a lot of these, but rest-assured I will be back in full force next week!

Rating the 2009 Non-Conference Slate: Epilogue

Before we can properly dive back in to college football, let’s examine our treatment of the best, and worst, of college football scheduling this year. Unlike the previous editions, this has a bit of subjectiveness to it, after all, no one really cares what kind of schedule Duke plays – the point here is to reward or shame programs that should, well, know better.

First, the shaming.
11. Rutgers (0.1 legit average, 2 DI-AA): Howard, FIU, @Maryland, @Army, Texas Southern. My arbitrary cut-off for consideration was a 0.1 “legit average”, which is simply the number of legit points divided by the number of OOC games a team plays. This completely uninspiring slate sees two DI-AA teams stop in and only one BCS opponent. But it gets worse. It gets much worse.
10. Arizona (0.833, 1): Central Michigan, Northern Arizona, @Iowa. Iowa doesn’t rate very highly on the “legit” scale, which is perhaps unfair, but this is still a pretty bad schedule. It’s an improvement over last year’s effort, though. Perhaps it’s a sign of change for a gradually rising program?
9. Louisiana State (0.0625, 0): @Washington, UL-Lafayette, Tulane, Louisiana Tech. Yeah, yeah, it sucks that Washington is terrible now, but completing the rest of the Louisiana Circuit (minus the other half of the UL-UM pick ’em) doesn’t make for an inspiration schedule. However, the get the nod over the following teams, because at least they aren’t playing any true DI-AA teams. The tie was broken in a completely arbitrary and subjective fashion.
T-8. Northwestern (0.0625, 1): Towson, Eastern Michigan, @Syracuse, Miami (Ohio). I considered leaving NU off the list entirely, but hey, you win 9 games and want to be among the big boys of the Big Ten, then you need to schedule better.
T-8. Virginia (0.0625, 1): William & Mary, Texas Christian, @Southern Mississippi, Indiana. As for this, well, I said earlier they might lose a game (or three) against this schedule. The continued employment of Al Groh confuses me. That said, UVA should be better and schedule better, so I guess that’s why they’re on the list.
T-6. Kansas (0.0625, 1): Northern Colorado, @Texas-El Paso, Duke, Southern Mississippi. Though I expect their counterparts in Manhattan to catch up (or is it down?) next year with the return of Bill Synder, for now this sad excuse for a schedule will have to do for one of the Big 12 North’s main contenders.
T-6. Wisconsin (0.0625, 1): Northern Illinois, Fresno State, Wofford, @Hawaii. Really? Of course, they needed overtime to beat Cal Poly last year, so…. and hey, it’s not as bad as Penn State’s.
4. Pennsylvania State (0.0625, 1): Akron, Syracuse, Temple, Eastern Illinois. Seriously. I mean, they will go 4-0 but there is just absolutely no room for error in a schedule like this. Penn State really has to hope everyone else in the conference does their part to help out, including Ohio State beating USC and subsequently losing to them, because without that the Big Ten’s overall strength of schedule will be shot.
3. Texas (0, 0): Louisiana-Monroe, @Wyoming, Texas-El Paso, Central Florida. This. I just. Wow. I will laugh if Texas pulls an Auburn (circa 2004) and winds up undefeated and 3rd in the BCS behind, say, USC and Florida because of this schedule. And how did they end up in Wyoming? Is that a 10-for-1?
2. Texas Tech (0, 1): North Dakota, Rice, @Houston, New Mexico. Of course, this schedule is worse. I’d say TTU needs to put up 230 points combined on these four in order to keep up.
1. Mississippi (0, 2): @Memphis, Southeast Louisiana, Alabama-Birmingham, Northern Arizona. Yeah, maybe Ole Miss scheduled bad in the recent past due to being terrible themselves, but still. There’s no reason to import a DI-AA team from Arizona to fill out your already terrible schedule .

With that over with, let’s take a look at teams who decided to entertain all of us and perhaps helps themselves a little in the process. This is a little more stringent than the above, as I wanted to focus on teams that played more than 1 BCS school and interesting inter-regional matchups.
6. Illinois (0.5, 1): N-Missouri, Illinois State, Fresno State, @Cincinnati. Just barely making the cut, the Illini’s neutral site game with Mizzou and games against the likes of Cincy and Fresno are definitely gambles in the OOC scheduling world. Kudos to them.
5. UCLA (0.5, 0): San Diego State, @Tennessee, Kansas State. I’ve always liked Tennessee’s willingness to travel, though in this case the beneficiary is UCLA. Tacking on Kansas State was also a good move on UCLA’s part, though you can bet K-State won’t be scheduling games like that again anytime soon.
4. Oregon (0.6667, 0): @Boise State, Purdue, Utah. Oregon is considered, generally, to be the second best team in the Pac-10. For them to go out and play at Boise is a pretty big deal. Honestly, the weakest team on this schedule might be Purdue, but we’ll see if Utah can re-live the magic from last year. About as challenging as a slate featuring Purdue as the only BCS representative can get, at any rate.
3. Southern Cal (0.6667, 0): San Jose State, @Ohio State, @Notre Dame. Southern Cal-Ohio State is pretty much the game of the year already, though I’ve already elaborated on why OSU needs it more. If Notre Dame were better, that would be enough to vault this schedule to the top, but as-is it’s just not good enough.
2. Virginia Tech (0.4375, 0): N-Alabama, Marshall, Nebraska, @East Carolina. A “neutral” site game with a major SEC and national power? Check. A home game with a historically good Big 12 team on the rise? Check. A road game at a non-BCS opponent that beat you last year? Check. Though our average doesn’t like them, this is a pretty darn good schedule. I honestly think VPI has a shot in all of these games, too. Honestly, this should challenge for #1.
1. Georgia (0.625, 1): @Oklahoma State, Arizona State, Tennessee Tech, @Georgia Tech. It hurts for me to say this, but this is a darn good schedule. I don’t think anyone expects Oklahoma State to be as good as it was last year, but I applaud at least the decision to go out there. Arizona State makes its return trip and should still be decent, and I would like to think my own alma mater isn’t exactly chopped liver. I could go either way with this or VPI’s schedule, as this 3 good to very good teams, as opposed to VPI’s great team and very good team. Nonetheless, for me to conceded anything to UGA should tell you that this is darn good.

Well folks, that’s a wrap. We’ll begin regular programming soon. I even already have the Week 1 TV Guide setup, that’s how much I’m looking forward to it! See you then.

College Football Rule Changes and You: 2009 Edition

Last year we examined college football’s very extensive list of rule changes. This year is less modest (the NCAA hasn’t even published a document listing the rule changes, even though the new rulebook is out), but being the person I am I still find it all very interesting. So let’s take a look at you need to know.

Again, page numbers reflect the PDF.

  • Rule 1-4-3-a (page 34) changes the rules regarding jersey colors, after last year’s much publicized shenanigans with USC and UCLA. The rule regarding white jerseys remains the same (that is, if a team wants to wear white at home they must obtain approval from their opponents prior to the start of the season). However, now if both teams want to wear their colored jersies, they may do so if the teams agree before the game and the home team’s conference certifies the jerseys are sufficiently contrasting. If the home team jersey rule is violated in any way, it is a 15-yard unsportsman-like after the kickoff. (Violations of the white jersey and other equipment rules is still a timeout.)
  • Rule 2-3-6 (page 48) codifies the concept of the “blocking zone”, which is 5 yards on each side of the snapper and 3 yards in front and behind him.
  • Rule 2-24-1, which defined spearing, was eliminated. It is still against the rules to target an opponent with the crown of the helmet, of course.
  • Rule 2-33 (page 65) defines the “three-in-one principle” of penalty enforcement. It just goes into detail about from which spots a penalty is enforced relative to the “official spot”. Basically, you probably already know this.
  • Rule 2-34 defines the “tackle box”, which as you know is 5-yards to each side of the snapper and behind.
  • Rule 3-2-3 (page 70) clarifies that a period is not extended for penalties that result in a loss of down.
  • Rules 3-2-4 (page 71) and 3-3-5 (page 76) say that the play clock should be set to 40 seconds after injury timeouts for the defense.
  • Rule 9-1-2-q (page 122) adds grabbing the chinstrap as a facemask foul.
  • Rule 9-1-4 (page 123) added a provision that once a kicker carries the ball outside the tackle box that he loses his protection under running into/roughing the kicker rules.
  • Rule 9-6 (page 135) was added to clarify that conferences should review video of all flagrant violations that occur during a game, and gives them the power to levy penalties against players who may have committed flagrant fouls that did not get called. Rule 1-9-1 defines “a flagrant personal foul” as “a rule infraction so extreme or deliberate that is places an opponent in danger of a catastrophic injury.”

So not much excitement this year, outside of the jersey color thing. Also worth noting is that this begins the NCAA’s two-year cycle for rules, so rule changes will not be considered again until after the 2010 season.

Rating the 2009 Non-Conference Slate, Part 6: SEC

And finally, we wrap up our look at the college football’s non-conference scheduling with the Southeastern Conference.

  1. Georgia (2.5 legit, 1 DI-AA): @Oklahoma State, Arizona State, Tennessee Tech, @Georgia Tech. It pains me once again to say something good about UGA, but they have recently started to make an effort to schedule some decent teams. Many SEC schools would be content to go with their OOC rival (see: Florida, Kentucky, usually USC) and call it a day, but UGA has not one but two legit OOC opponents outside of GT. Good for them. While it gets a little easier next year I’m surprised they allowed this year to happen at all.
  2. South Carolina (1.5, 1): @NC State, Florida Atlantic, The Citadel, Clemson. And it immediately starts to go downhill. While the SEC wasn’t the lowest rated conference this year, UGA’s score does have a strong effect on the average. At any rate, this follows the formulate for the SEC: rivalry game (if applicable), OOC game with school from neighboring or same state, and two patsies, one of which should be DI-AA.
  3. Alabama (1, 1): N-Virginia Tech, Florida International, North Texas, Tennessee-Chattanooga. I may write an article later on the return of the “kickoff classic” type of game that we all thought died 9-10 years ago, but for now suffice to say I like these types of games, even if this particular series does take place in Tech’s backyard. Bama-VPI in particular is a huge deal for both teams. VPI can get on the map and start their darkhorse run for the title with a win, while Alabama can show they haven’t lost a step since last year by starting with another whipping over an ACC team. The rest of the schedule, of course, sucks very thoroughly (I may also write an article on Bama paying San Jose State a million bucks to get shallacked next year, we’ll see).
  4. Mississippi State (1, 1): Jacksonville State, Georgia Tech, Houston, @Middle Tennessee. Miss State makes the return trip to Atlanta, outside of that there’s not much to get excited about here unless Houston is decent again.
  5. Vanderbilt (1, 1): Western Carolina, @Rice, @Army, Georgia Tech. This is the 5th-ranked schedule in the SEC, and there’s only one legit team on here. It only gets a one (along with Miss State) because of our bias towards Tech, otherwise these would probably be ranked much lower. That said, they do get a trip to Rice’s historic stadium, which has to be the most diproportionally sized stadium in the country. (The stadium seats 70,000 while the university has a total enrollment of 6,392 which also makes it (along with Vandy and Wake Forest) one of the smallest schools in DI-A, period.)
  6. Tennessee (0.75, 0): Western Kentucky, UCLA, Ohio, Memphis. Tennessee avoids a DI-AA team thanks to Western Kentucky’s newfound status this year as a full DI-A member, and also gets a return trip from our favorite football trust busters. Outside of that, well, they play Memphis which I guess is sort of interesting.
  7. Auburn (0.75, 1): Louisiana Tech, West Virginia, Ball State, Furman. Well, good thing WVU is on this schedule. I think the main trend for both teams “What the hell is going on with our program” as I’m pretty sure there are segments of the Auburn fanbase that still think the Gene Chizik hire was some sort of practical joke.
  8. Florida (0.75, 1): Charleston Southern, Troy, Florida International, Florida State. Two Sun Belt teams, a DI-AA team and a mandatory rivalry game. Your defending national champions, folks! I wonder if in reference to the FIU game Florida people say, “Well, we played a team from Miami this year!”
  9. Arkansas (0.5, 1): Missouri State, N-Texas A&M, Eastern Michigan, Troy. Arkansas and TAMU are looking at making the their neutral-site get-together in the Cowboy’s new intergalactic space palace (which I saw from the air a couple weekends ago, and I’d say it’s a pretty accurate description) a regular thing, which I’m totally a fan of. The rest of this schedule, not so much.
  10. Kentucky (0.5, 1): N-Miami (OH), Louisville, UL-Monroe, Eastern Kentucky. Yes, that is an “N” next to the Miami game, as the game is being played in Cincinatti. My guess it was probably supposed to be the Redhawk’s home game in the contract and it was moved there so they could get 50,000+ folks in blue and white there to watch the ceremonial beatdown.
  11. Louisiana State (0.25, 0): @Washington, UL-Lafayette, Tulane, Louisiana Tech. In fairness, LSU didn’t know that Washington would be so terrible when this game was probably scheduled. That said, was UL-Monroe not available? Seriously, this schedule is patently ridiculous for a team with national title aspirations.
  12. Mississippi (0, 2): @Memphis, Southeast Louisiana, Alabama-Birmingham, Northern Arizona. This schedule is also patently ridiculous, mainly because it happens to have both SE Louisiani and NAU on it. Ole Miss was also supposed to play a home-and-home with GT starting next year, but backed out and replaced us with either UL-Lafayette or Jacksonville State. (GT replaced them with Kansas.) Just pathetic, but I imagine it will help accomplish Ole Miss’s goal of getting some mentions this year (as the pre-season hype train seems to love them).

Well, that’s a wrap! Well, not quite, as we’ve got a summary coming up pretty soon, so stay tuned!