2021 College Football Discussion and Pick'em Thread

[Donerail]

After 700 days, I'm finally going to return to Dudley Field tonight!  A little rain (and a flash flood watch) won't keep me out tonight!

No in-person game for me today, but I got to listen to this one — something right about college football on the radio during a long drive (to Santa Cruz and back for me).

[Donerail]

Week 4

Friday, September 24th
Wake Forest @ Virginia
Liberty @ Syracuse

Saturday, September 25th
#12 Notre Dame vs #18 Wisconsin
LSU @ Mississippi State
Missouri @ Boston College
SMU @ TCU
Texas Tech @ Texas
Boise State @ Utah State
San José State @ Western Michigan
Toledo @ Ball State
Washington State @ Utah
#7 Texas A&M @ #16 Arkansas
#9 Clemson @ NC State
#14 Iowa State @ Baylor
Rutgers @ #19 Michigan
UTSA @ Memphis
#24 UCLA @ Stanford — I'll be at this game
#25 Kansas State @ Oklahoma State
Kentucky @ South Carolina
West Virginia @ #4 Oklahoma
UAB @ Tulane
New Mexico @ UTEP
California @ Washington
Oregon State @ USC
Colorado @ Arizona State

[Donerail]

Not enough Pac-12 IMO

[Donerail]

We never pick Thursday night games in order to give more people time to get picks in.

[Donerail]

What games will have Stadium, FS2, and ESPN3 broadcasts?

Air Force @ New Mexico will appear on FS2, while FIU @ FAU and Marshall @ MTSU will appear on Stadium. Ohio @ Akron, Southern Miss @ Rice, and a handful of FCS games will be on ESPN3.

[Donerail]

Do they not have Thursday night games because they don’t want to play at the same time as an NFL game?

Virginia plays Miami at 7:30pm Thursday night.

[Donerail]

Week 5

Friday, October 1st
Houston @ Tulsa — best 1-3 team in the country?
#5 Iowa @ Maryland — best QB in the conference?

Saturday, October 2nd
#8 Arkansas @ #2 Georgia
#14 Michigan @ Wisconsin
Tennessee @ Missouri
Pittsburgh @ Georgia Tech — Pitt is gonna push em around, very ugly game
Minnesota @ Purdue
Texas @ TCU
Western Michigan @ Buffalo
#7 Cincinnati @ #9 Notre Dame
Eastern Michigan @ Northern Illinois
#12 Ole Miss @ #1 Alabama
#3 Oregon @ Stanford — Oregon will win, we will lose, Cristobal will stay at Oregon b/c it's a better job than SC
#6 Oklahoma @ Kansas State
Syracuse @ Florida State — UConn-Vandy really overshadowing a lot of sick, sick sh**t on the schedule this week (see also Pitt vs Tech, Northwestern vs Nebraska, Wazzu vs Cal)
Texas Tech @ West Virginia
Tulane @ East Carolina
Central Michigan @ Miami (OH)
#10 Florida @ Kentucky
#21 Baylor @ #19 Oklahoma State — one of these two is legit and one is a fraud, not sure which tho
Liberty @ UAB
Boston College @ #25 Clemson
#22 Auburn @ LSU
Washington @ Oregon State
Arizona State @ #20 UCLA — travesty that Arizona State is not ranked!

[Donerail]

Is the Mountain West the only FBS conference that has a contract with Stadium?

Conference USA has a television deal that includes Stadium, as well as CBS Sports Network and ESPN+.

[Donerail]

BLASTED OFF FIREBALL, RUSHED THE FIELD, FUCK THE DUCKS, STANFORD TO THE RSOE BOWL!!!

[Donerail]

Week 6

Friday, October 8th
Stanford @ #22 Arizona State — have zero faith in our ability to do that again, especially against an even better opponent

Saturday, October 9th
Red River: #6 Oklahoma vs #21 Texas
Maryland @ #7 Ohio State
#11 Michigan State @ Rutgers
#13 Arkansas @ #17 Ole Miss
South Carolina @ Tennessee
West Virginia @ Baylor
Northern Illinois @ Toledo
Virginia @ Louisville
#2 Georgia @ #18 Auburn
Boise State @ #10 BYU
#19 Wake Forest @ Syracuse — I do not believe in Wake at all but they should beat Syracuse
#24 SMU @ Navy
Florida Atlantic @ UAB
Florida State @ North Carolina
Wisconsin @ Illinois
C-UM
#4 Penn State @ #3 Iowa
East Carolina @ UCF
TCU @ Texas Tech
Buffalo @ Kent State
Wyoming @ Air Force
#9 Michigan @ Nebraska
LSU @ #16 Kentucky
Utah @ USC — no idea what to make of these teams

[Donerail]

Which games will be on the BTN overflow channels?

why don't you use the google and figure it out yourself. I believe in you!

[Donerail]

There are no miracles. That's a lot of boosters paying players to go there.

You hate workers being compensated for their labor? Interesting.

[Donerail]

WEEK SEVEN

Friday, October 15

Clemson @ Syracuse

Saturday, October 16

#12 Oklahoma St. @ #25 Texas
Auburn @ #17 Arkansas
Nebraska @ Minnesota
Ball St. @ EMU
#11 Kentucky @ #1 Georgia
#19 BYU @ Baylor
WKU @ ODU
Miami @ N. Carolina
Pittsburgh @ Va. Tech
Toledo @ CMU
Arizona @ Colorado — this is gross, worst Pac-12 conference game in a while
Fresno St. @ Wyoming
Vanderbilt @ S. Carolina
TCU @ #4 Oklahoma
#5 Alabama @ Miss. St.
#13 Ole Miss @ Tennessee
#22 NC St. @ Boston Coll.
Iowa St. @ Kansas St.
Stanford @ Wash. St. — no faith in us this week after <20 yds rushing
Army @ Wisconsin
UCLA @ Washington
Air Force @ Boise State — bad slate throughout this week but this is a very good MW game
La. Tech @ UTEP — have you told your children about 6-1 UTEP?
#18 Arizona St. @ Utah

[Donerail]

Ahahahahaha Texas will never be back.

But UCONN is back!! Thrilling upset win in East Hartford today

[Donerail]

Ahahahahaha Texas will never be back.

But UCONN is back!! Thrilling upset win in East Hartford today

The fact that UConn upset Yale is almost impossible to fathom.  I wonder when the last time an Ivy League school was favored against a program in the top level of CFB (FBS/1-A/Division 1 pre-split) was.

I think the answer is never, at least since the Ivy went non-scholarship, just because Ivy vs FBS games are so rare. Today's game was the first Ivy vs FBS game since Yale beat Army in 2014. Penn also beat Navy in '86 and Harvard beat Army in '83, but I can't find a line for either; they only seem to schedule the service academies.

[Donerail]

Gameday should take the next two weeks off to prepare for the long flight out to El Paso on the first weekend of November, when 7-1 UTEP will host 8-0 UTSA in the Sun Bowl in a game with major national championship implications.

Next week should probably be SDSU vs Air Force, but they won't do it because they don't support our troops.

[Donerail]

Ed Orgeron out at LSU at the end of the season.

Looking at who LSU might consider to replace Orgeron, I'm thinking Kentucky Head Coach Mark Stoops, Oregon Head Coach Mario Cristobal, Cincinnati Head Coach Luke Fickell or Wake Forest Head Coach Dave Clawson.

Bad list. Here are some more realistic options:

• Former Arkansas & Ole Miss HC Houston Nutt
• Liberty HC Hugh Freeze
• Missouri State HC Bobby Petrino
• Jacksonville Jaguars HC Urban Meyer
• U.S. Senator Tommy Tuberville (R-AL)

All experienced head coaches with records of success in the SEC. LSU would be foolish not to choose from among these options.

[Donerail]

Bad list. Here are some more realistic options:

• Former Arkansas & Ole Miss HC Houston Nutt
• Liberty HC Hugh Freeze
• Missouri State HC Bobby Petrino
• Jacksonville Jaguars HC Urban Meyer
• U.S. Senator Tommy Tuberville (R-AL)

All experienced head coaches with records of success in the SEC. LSU would be foolish not to choose from among these options.

I can't see a problem with your list, other than Tuberville. He seems to enjoy being a Senator (of course, if the Alabama job opened up for some reason....).

What? It's a joke. LSU should not hire any of those people. It would be an utter catastrophe if they did.

Real names in the LSU search — keeping in mind that they're still at a very early stage — are Napier, Aranda, Tucker, Kiffin, probably a few bigger names they'll swing at and probably miss

[Donerail]

WEEK EIGHT

Friday, October 22

UCF

Saturday, October 23

Wake Forest
Texas Tech
CMU
Va. Tech
Georgia St.
Wisconsin
Iowa St.
UCLA
Ole Miss
Clemson
Minnesota
Miami-OH
Buffalo
California
BYU
Louisville
Houston
Alabama
Air Force
Fresno St.
Notre Dame
Virginia
TCU
Utah

[Donerail]

Why is Iowa State such a large favorite over Oklahoma State?

At Ames

[Donerail]

Why is Iowa State such a large favorite over Oklahoma State?

At Ames

Yeah, I get that.  I'm one of the biggest home field leaners here, and I'll probably pick the Cyclones.  I'm just surprised at the size of it (7 points) against a team with a better record that looks stronger on paper, even with the home field advantage.

I haven’t been impressed by OK State — it feels like we have to pretend they’re better than they actually are just because they’re unbeaten. Sanders is not a very good quarterback (very interception-prone) and the defense is fine but certainly not exceptional. Iowa State is sort of the inverse situation, where they came into the year highly overrated, looked very shaky early and fell out of the national conversation, and now seem to be figuring some stuff out.
Wazzu names — not Petersen (lol) and not Sitake (he's already in a better job). Hard to think of a list for that job tbh, it's an exceptionally difficult place to win — recruiting is extremely difficult, you're very isolated and far away from anywhere with talent, and they don't have a ton of money for assistants/facilities. Probably the worst job in the Pac-12, maybe even the P5. Someone like Jay Norvell at Nevada, who's managed to win despite a lack of resources or easy recruiting, would make sense here; problem is that, if you're Norvell, you might get better offers from somewhere else. Might have to pull someone from the FCS ranks, Jay Hill at Weber State or someone from one of the Montanas.

[Donerail]

The news not discussed here is that the American Conference appears to have screwed itself even more than we already thought it to be while putting C-USA in a marginally better position with some addition by subtraction.

Fascinated to learn that they feared the Mountain West
https://twitter.com/chrisvannini/status/1450242624405786624
Can't imagine how powerful the MW would be if they added programs like Rice

[Donerail]

I don't think Dabo would be making a denial like this if LSU weren't interested in hiring him, quite honestly

Woodward has basically said as much — that his strategy here is to go after the biggest name he can get and only turn to other options once they've said no. Probably won't pan out, but you only need one to say yes, and there's a reason people are tossing out names like Franklin and Fisher (even if the latter in particular would be financial suicide). I think Napier would be a smart hire here, but it sounds like they're going after a bigger fish.

[Donerail]

It looks like the Sun Belt wants Marshall, Southern Miss, Old Dominion, and James Madison, which will leave CUSA with five members.

The movement to watch here is ASUN/WAC reclassification to the FBS level; the WAC in particular could provide a landing spot for UTEP (and NMSU) as CUSA collapses, and if those leagues are moving up soon there's no reason for a school in either of those conferences to attempt to jump to CUSA.

The only school that wants to move up that's not in either league and wants to move up is JMU (edit: and Bobby Petrino's Missouri State, which), and if they're getting Sun Belt interest there's no point in moving to CUSA. I don't see why Liberty or even NMSU should join CUSA at this point. Not a lot of reasons to make the jump. Really looks like the conference is dead at this point.

[Donerail]

bones back
https://twitter.com/UAB_FB/status/1451222448024735745