Andy

"Neutral" as in scheduling a northern / western team to play somewhere in the deep south? Neutral as is not on campus. 2021 they played Miami in Atlanta. 2017 they played Florida State in Atlanta. 2024 they are scheduled to play Wisconsin in Madison. I hate that I'm defending Alabama but is it weak to play a team like Louisville if the game is in Florida? Or USC in Texas? It's definitely a lot more fun now that they're playing home-and-homes. And starting in 2025, they have two Power 5 OOC games scheduled every year through 2034 - ND, Ohio State, Oklahoma State, West Virginia, Florida State and others. There's also an Oklahoma series in there that will be folded into the SEC schedule.

Top 25 games ------------------------------ (1) Alabama at Texas (12 pm, FOX) Samford at (2) Georgia (4 pm, SEC Network) Arkansas State at (3) Ohio State (12 pm, BTN - Regional) Hawaii at (4) Michigan (8 pm, BTN - Regional) Furman at (5) Clemson (3:30 pm, ACC Network) Appalachian State at (6) Texas A&M (3:30 pm, ESPN2) Kent State at (7) Oklahoma (7 pm, ESPN+) Marshall at (8) Notre Dame (2:30 pm, NBC) (9) Baylor at (21) BYU (10:15 pm, ESPN) (10) USC at Stanford (7:30 pm, ABC) Arizona State at (11) Oklahoma State (7:30 pm, ESPN2) (20) Kentucky at (12) Florida (7 pm, ESPN) Southern Utah at (13) Utah (1:30 pm, Pac-12 Network) Akron at (14) Michigan State (4 pm, BTN - Regional) Southern Miss at (15) Miami (12 pm, ACC Network) South Carolina at (16) Arkansas (12 pm, ESPN) (24) Tennessee at (17) Pittsburgh (3:30 pm, ABC) Charleston Southern at (18) NC State (12:30 pm, ESPN3) Washington State at (19) Wisconsin (3:30 pm, FOX) Central Arkansas at (22) Ole Miss (7 pm, ESPN+) (23) Wake Forest at Vanderbilt (12 pm, SEC Network) (25) Houston at Texas Tech (4 pm, FS1) Other nationally available games --------------------------------------------------- Friday Louisville at UCF (7:30 pm, ESPN2) Boise State at New Mexico (9 pm, CBSSN) Saturday TV Ohio at Penn State (12 pm, ABC) Missouri at Kansas State (12 pm, ESPN2) Duke at Northwestern (12 pm, FS1) Western Illinois at Minnesota (12 pm, BTN - Regional) North Carolina at Georgia State (12 pm, ESPNU) UTSA at Army (12 pm, CBSSN) Colorado at Air Force (3:30 pm, CBS) Memphis at Navy (3:30 pm, CBSSN) Indiana State at Purdue (4 pm, BTN - Regional) Iowa State at Iowa (4 pm, BTN - Regional) Wagner at Rutgers (4 pm, BTN - Regional) Virginia at Illinois (4 pm, ESPNU) UNLV at California (4 pm, Pac-12 Network - Regional) Portland State at Washington (4 pm, Pac-12 Network - Regional) Alabama State at UCLA (5 pm, Pac-12 Network - Regional) Eastern Michigan at UL Lafayette (7 pm, NFL Network) Syracuse at UConn (7 pm, CBSSN) Georgia Southern at Nebraska (7:30 pm, FS1) San Jose State at Auburn (7:30 pm, ESPNU) Southern at LSU (7:30 pm, SEC Network) Idaho at Indiana (8 pm, BTN - Regional) Boston College at Virginia Tech (8 pm, ACC Network) Eastern Washington at Oregon (8:30 pm, Pac-12 Network) Oregon State at Fresno State (10:30 pm, CBSSN) Mississippi State at Arizona (11 pm, FS1) Saturday Streaming South Alabama at Central Michigan (1 pm, ESPN+) Lafayette at Temple (2 pm, ESPN+) Western Michigan at Ball State (2 pm, ESPN+) Maryland at Charlotte (3:30 pm, Stadium) Kennesaw State at Cincinnati (3:30 pm, ESPN+) Norfolk State at James Madison (4 pm, ESPN3) Robert Morris at Miami (OH) (6 pm, ESPN3) SE Louisiana at Florida Atlantic (6 pm, ESPN3) Gardner-Webb at Coastal Carolina (6 pm, ESPN+) Western Carolina at Georgia Tech (7 pm, ESPN+) Holy Cross at Buffalo (6 pm, ESPN+) Kansas at West Virginia (6 pm, ESPN+) Old Dominion at East Carolina (6 pm, ESPN+) UAB at Liberty (6 pm, ESPN+) Alabama A&M at Troy (7 pm, ESPN3) Stephen F. Austin at Louisiana Tech (7 pm, ESPN3) Alcorn State at Tulane (7 pm, ESPN+) Florida International at Texas State (7 pm, ESPN+) Howard at South Florida (7 pm, ESPN+) Lamar at SMU (7 pm, ESPN+) Northern Illinois at Tulsa (7 pm, ESPN+) UMass at Toledo (7 pm, ESPN+) McNeese at Rice (7:30 pm, ESPN3) Texas Southern at North Texas (7:30 pm, ESPN3) Nicholls at UL Monroe (8 pm, ESPN3) Tarleton at TCU (8 pm, ESPN+) New Mexico State at UTEP (9 pm, ESPN+)

Brian Kelly and insane Sunday night openers - name a more iconic duo

Sunday Night Football averaged 19.3 million viewers last year. Hitting 15 million on a streaming service seems realllll optimistic.

Jordan Travis on the other hand looks out of this world good. Every time I look up he's evading an unblocked rusher and dropping a dime. Just delivered a perfect TD pass just as an unblocked guy was coming in for the most obvious targeting in the history of the rule. Glad my team doesn't have to deal with him this year.

Tyler Buchner looked like exactly the same QB as when he last played 9 months ago, which is frustrating. I'm all aboard the Marcus Freeman hype train but it's going to be an annoying week of the easiest Twitter wisecrack of all time about him being the most-hyped 0-2 coach in history.

Just so this is on the record before kickoff, I have low expectations for tonight's game. ND lost one of their already hilariously thin WR group to an ACL tear in preseason, which means a former walk on is starting and a WR turned safety has been cross training at WR again in camp. Their best offensive lineman is either out tonight or will be playing at like 50 percent with another injury. And their secondary is rather easily the worst unit on the field and oh look an army of 5 star WRs on the other side. It will take an absolutely absurd effort on both lines to win.

The latter. You won't have to wait long to see them do it again, it's happening again next year Yeah dropped a home and home against UCLA for...reasons. I doubt its because Michigan shied away from competition considering they have a long history of scheduling a fair NC schedule. They do it one year and suddenly they're an SEC team or something. Personally I hate that its like this the next 2 years but I doubt its a trend. You mentioned ND's NC is bad the next couple of years. Why wouldn't UM and ND have scheduled a game for next year? ND does have Ohio State, @Clemson and a presumably much improved USC next year so they'll be fine at the top, I just hate the SEC cupcake flavor of the early slate. I presume the (or at least one) answer to your question is that ND was already pretty much done with their 2022-23 slates when UM dropped UCLA - which I assume they did because they would've only had 6 home games in 23 if the series had been played as scheduled.

This Tweet was sent out before Iowa actually accomplished this feat today, which is extra delicious https://twitter.com/AndyGlockner/status/1566134406653259776

The latter. You won't have to wait long to see them do it again, it's happening again next year True, but they play @Texas in 2024 and @Oklahoma in 2025 Now Penn State, THEY have some embarrassing non-conference games coming up over the next 4 seasons I can't send too many strays out, ND starts next year with Navy, an FCS opponent (their first, mega barfs) and Central Michigan. Ohio State after that, but disgusting.

Isn’t that what top 10 teams do to G5 schools? Or is this a knock on schedule, which is the only year I can ever remember Michigan not playing a P5/ND NC game. The latter. You won't have to wait long to see them do it again, it's happening again next year

It had to be Iowa

Jim Harbaugh has mastered routing cupcake opponents and he's getting plenty of chances to flex that skill this year

I did some quick searching on the format, is it still Top 4 conference champs get byes, top 6 conference champs get bids, and no other conference limits? I wonder if they're reconsidering the bye thing since the latest realignment/consolidation. EDIT: Looks like Auerbach's saying the Top 6 champs getting bids stays, but no other specifics confirmed in her quick story. I don't think there was ever a limit on bids per conference, and I doubt the bye thing will change, but it could. There certainly won't be a limit on bids per conference now as the SEC and B1G have the luxury now of basically ordering everyone else what to do. If this really does go through, frankly it's kind of a wonder how big a favor it does to everyone outside those 32 schools.

As opposed to getting blasted in the quarterfinals, which is the ceiling for all but maybe 18 programs

Sounds like they want it to start ASAP - could be as soon as 2024 - but it might still not start until 2026. They've punted that question to the commissioners. I dislike expansion (I'm with UMF that it felt special to make the top 4 in a way it will not to make the 12-teamer) but the model they chose was easily the best one of the bunch IMO.

Did they really? Yikes. Zimmer didn't want Mond so he did him no favors but I never thought Kellen would be any more than backup QB in the league at best. Yeah he never impressed me much either. Fell squarely into the 'good college QB but you know he's not going to hack it in the pros' bucket.

I have somehow Mandela Effected Sergio Mitre beating Roy Halladay into having occurred in Toronto. I would have put like $100 on the Cubs/Jays series from 2005 having been in Canada. This is the most ridiculous thing ever but the reason I never forget that that game was in Chicago is because Vince Vaughn's character very briefly puts it on TV in the movie The Break-Up. Mitre is shown on screen.

He had a stroke 13 years ago and has been bad ever since. It's probably a little worse each year but it blows my mind that people are still surprised by his issues. It's not really surprise, it's secondhand embarrassment. By all accounts, Corso is an absolute prince of a human being, he's of course a GameDay institution, ESPN has said he has a job for life, and of course it isn't his fault he had a stroke, but he actively detracts from the show every second he's on now except for the last 90 seconds.

To quote Harry Caray, aren't we all?

FAMU nearly bowed out of tonight's opener vs North Carolina because of widespread eligibility issues, apparently, but their players decided to play. They'll be down 20 players and playing with eight offensive linemen. School's gotta get that check.

Or horsefeathers the Cubs for not grabbing 2 future HOF for nothing Sent from my motorola one 5G UW using Tapatalk whynotboth.gif Of course, the fact that they are both putting up the best years of their career - Goldschmidt's OPS+ is thirty damn five points higher than any other year and Arenado's is 29 higher - when everything we know about baseball aging curves suggests they shouldn't be (especially Goldschmidt) is still horsefeathering [expletive] regardless of how they got them.

Luckily for them Goldschmidt is having the best year of his life at age 34 and Wainwright is still an ace at 41 so it's all good

Yeah its weird to see Milwaukee start and end the season but only 2 other series throughout the year. I don't hate it...sick of playing the reds and pirates a billion times a year but it will take some getting used to. Yeah, I think I like it. It makes sense, too, if you're going to have so many wild-card teams they should be playing the same schedules for a fair comparison.

I’d still like to know why they think shortening games will bring in more viewers. It also shortens the commercial/ad time, so that’s a revenue loser. I don’t buy there’s x thousands or y millions of people out there that will watch or attend more baseball over games being 20-30 min shorter. The commercial breaks are in the same spots they always are - between innings and pitching changes - so I don't think that part's an issue. Like you, I remain skeptical that casual fans are waiting to watch baseball in droves if the games are two and a half hours 162 times a year instead of three, but as long as the actual gameplay isn't being negatively affected I'm not against it.