College Football Schedule – Week 5

Bit of a holding pattern this week, with no real great matchups, or relatively many games at all. All times Eastern.

TOP 25 GAMES

Arkansas State

@

#2 Iowa

Noon

ESPN2

Pam Ward, Ray Bentley

#4 Cincinnati

@

Miami (OH)

1 PM

ESPN360

Jim Barbar, Bob Chmiel

#5 Oklahoma

@

Miami (FL)

8 PM

ABC

Brent Musberger, Kirk Herbstreit, Lisa Salters

#7 Virginia Tech

@

Duke

Noon

ESPN360

Dave Weekley, Danny Kanell

#8 Alabama

@

Kentucky

Noon

SEC Network

Dave Neal, Andre Ware, Cara Capuano

#9 LSU

@

Georgia

3:30

CBS

Verne Lundquist, Gary Danielson, Tracy Wolfson

#10 Auburn

@

Tennessee

7:30

ESPN

Brad Nessler, Todd Blackledge, Erin Andrews

UC Davis

@

#11 Boise State

8 PM

CSN CA

Mark Johnson, Tom Scott, David Augusto

Washington State

@

#12 *Oregon

9 PM

CSN NW

Joe Giansante, Anthony Newman

#14 South Florida

@

Syracuse

Noon

B.E. Network

Mike Gleason, John Congemi, Quint Kessenich

#15 Ohio State

@

Indiana

7 PM

BTN

Craig Coshun, Glen Mason, Rebecca Haarlow

#16 UCLA

@

Stanford

3:30

ABC

Dave Lamont, David Norrie

#17 Clemson

@

Maryland

Noon

ESPNU

Clay Matvick, David Diaz-Infante

#18 Michigan

@

Michigan State

Noon

BTN

Wayne Larrivee, Chris Martin, Charissa Thompson

#21 USC

@

California

8 PM

ABC

Ron Franklin, Ed Cunningham

#23 Penn State

@

Illinois

3:30

ABC/ESPN

Mike Patrick, Craig James, Heather Cox

#24 Houston

@

UTEP

9 PM

CBSCS XXL

Carter Blackburn, Jon Berger

#25 Pittsburgh

@

Louisville

8 PM FR

ESPN2

Joe Tessitore, Rod Gilmore

WATCHLIST AND OTHER POSITIVE B POINT TEAMS

Texas A&M

v.

Arkansas

7:30

ESPN2

Mark Jones, Bob Davie

SMU

@

TCU

8 PM

mtn.

James Bates, Todd Christensen, Cash Sirois

Florida State

@

Boston College

3:30

ABC/ESPN

Sean McDonough, Matt Millen, Holly Rowe

Oregon State

@

Arizona State

7 PM

VS.

Ron Thulin, Kelly Stouffer, Lewis Johnson

South Carolina State

@

South Carolina

7 PM

ESPN Classic

Bob Wischusen, Brian Griese

Mississippi

@

Vanderbilt

7 PM

ESPNU

Eric Collins, Brock Huard

Kansas State

v.

Iowa State

3 PM

FCS

Dan McLaughlin, Yogi Roth, Samantha Steele

Wisconsin

@

Minnesota

Noon

ESPN

Dave Pasch, Bob Griese, Chris Spielman

Colorado

@

West Virginia

7:30 TH

ESPN

Chris Fowler, Craig James,
Jesse Palmer, Erin Andrews

NC State

@

Wake Forest

3:30

ESPNU

Todd Harris, Charles Arbuckle

Hawaii

@

Louisiana Tech

8 PM WE

ESPN2

Rece Davis, Mark May, Lou Holtz, Rob Stone

THIS WEEK’S OTHER HD GAMES

Southern Miss

@

UAB

8 PM TH

CBS CS

Dave Ryan, Akbar Gbaja-Biamila

East Carolina

@

Marshall

Noon

CBS CS

Tom Hart, Aaron Taylor

Northwestern

@

Purdue

Noon

BTN

Ari Wolfe, Anthony Herron, Tony McGee

Virginia

@

North Carolina

Noon

Raycom

Steve Martin, Rick Walker, Mike Hogewood

Washington

@

Notre Dame

3:30

NBC

Tom Hammond, Pat Haden, Alex Flanagan

New Mexico

@

Texas Tech

3:30

FSN

Bill Land, Gary Reasons, Emily Jones

Air Force

@

Navy

3:30

CBS CS

Craig Bolerjack, Randy Cross

Kent State

@

Baylor

7 PM

FS SW

 

Tulsa

@

Rice

7:30

CBS CS

Jason Knapp, Akbar Gbaja-Biamila

Georgia Tech

@

Mississippi State

7:30

CSS

Doug Bell, Chris Doering

Colorado State

@

Idaho

7:30 PT

ESPNU

 

MWC

Utah State

@

BYU

9 PM FR

mtn.

Bill Doleman, Blaine Fowler, Toby Christensen

UNLV

@

Nevada

3 PM

CSD.com

 

New Mexico State

@

San Diego State

8 PM

   

CONFERENCE USA

Memphis

@

Central Florida

3:30

CBSCS XXL

Drew Fellios, Mark Royals, Dave Baumann

MAC

Toledo

@

Ball State

Noon

ESPN+

Michael Reghi, Doug Chapman

Temple

@

Eastern Michigan

1 PM

CSD.com

 

Western Michigan

@

Northern Illinois

3:30

CSN Chicago

Dave Kaplan, Bob Chmiel, Jim Blaney

Central Michigan

@

Buffalo

3:30

Gameplan

Howard Simon, Brian Koziol

Ohio

@

Bowling Green

4 PM

CSD.com

Greg Franke, Tom Cole

SUN BELT

Florida International

@

Louisiana-Monroe

3:30

CSS/CST

Todd Kalas, Derek Rackley

BOWL SUBDIVISION

Wyoming

@

Florida Atlantic

4 PM

   

2009 College Football Rankings – Week 4

It’s still way too early to know what sort of college football season we’re going to have, although it is starting to take shape. The general consensus so far seems to be that, while not quite as wild as 2007, the 2009 college football season may well be very upset-ridden… but it’s hard to know whether any of these games should really be considered upsets.

People have complained about the preseason polls for a long time, and this year seems to have underscored it. Ole Miss was ranked very highly in the polls, rising to #4 after the first three weeks, only to fall to South Carolina. That sparked a discussion as to whether Ole Miss should have had that much hype thrust upon them without this year’s version of the team having done anything to deserve it. After all, we’re hit with surprise teams in both directions all the time in pro sports; why should college be any less of a crap shoot to predict?

But the rest of the weekend seems to have suggested that’s not the problem. Miami (FL) wasn’t ranked at all in the preseason poll and rose to the top ten in only three weeks, only to be demolished by Virginia Tech. Meanwhile, the two teams considered the undisputed top two in the country on the basis of the preseason polls, Florida and Texas, thanks to the volatility of the early rankings, have zoomed up to take two of the top three spots in the C Ratings – they are who we thought they were, despite the Gators losing Tim Tebow during the Kentucky game. That the C Ratings already reflect the national consensus in this area suggests people should pay close attention to the fact Iowa stands between the two in the 2 hole – they are the real deal, and should be considered a budding national championship contender.

I heard someone on ESPN (Kirk Herbstreit?) suggest that the preseason polls are too useful for focusing our attention on certain teams early in the season, so we should keep them but make them meaningless later. Individual conferences have media and coaches’ preseason polls and don’t even have polls during and after the season; to say the conferences should have preseason polls and the entire country shouldn’t seems absurd. Here’s my solution: Have a preseason poll, but hold off on putting out any other polls until week 4 or so, maybe even as late as the release of the first BCS standings. That way, instead of having pollsters make requisite “tweaks” from week to week, you force them to look at the entire body of work of the first four weeks and free them to make a fresh, unencumbered ranking.

How the C Ratings are tabulated: First, A Ratings are tabulated by multiplying the total score ratio, which is expressed by (points-opponents’ points)/points, by the winning percentage. Score ratio minimizes the effect of running up the score. Next, B Points for each game are tabulated by (margin of victory)/(opponent’s A rating)+/-1 for wins, and -(margin of loss)/(1-opponent’s A Rating)+/-1 for losses. The “+/-” is + for road games and – for home ones. The total number of B Points is multiplied by the A Rating to get the B Rating. Conference Ratings are tabulated by averaging the B Ratings of all teams in the conference. (Independents are counted separately, and Army and Navy are counted as one conference.) Finally, the C Rating is tabulated by taking the difference between the team’s B Rating and his conference’s rating, taking a fraction of that equal to the fraction of Division I-A the conference makes up, and taking the result off the B Rating. The three ratings go A, B, C across. Click here to see the complete ratings.

1 Florida (4-0)
SEC Leader
Princeton-Yale Title
.888 21.444 19.498 Demolished Kentucky for Wildcats’ first loss, even once Tim Tebow left. Good thing they have the bye before LSU; with this lead and Iowa playing lowly Arkansas State they might not even lose the top spot.
2 Iowa (4-0)
Big Ten Leader
.733 19.202 17.425 Obviously, Iowa’s ranked in the polls now, but right now they’re ranked behind the Buckeyes’ bigger name. Will they get the respect they deserve if they beat Michigan in two weeks?
3 Texas (4-0)
Big 12 Leader
.825 16.770 15.373 An impressive blowout of UTEP going into the bye; UTEP’s weak standing and Texas Tech losing keeps them behind Iowa. Taking a bye will hurt them as well, and Colorado will just be a tune-up for the Red River Rivalry.
4 Cincinnati (4-0)
Big East Leader
.785 15.879 14.875 Escaping with an 8-point victory over weak Fresno State the main reason the Bearcats slip, as is Oregon State losing. But they might still be a national championship gadfly, especially if the Big East is as down as everyone thinks.
5 Oklahoma (2-1) .547 11.562 10.685 Huh? Oklahoma moving up despite not playing? Credit big wins for both FBS opponents. Imagine where they’d be if Sam Bradford hadn’t gotten injured. Now to get to work this week against Miami.
6 Kansas (4-0) .821 9.890 9.180 Handed Southern Miss their first loss, but it was by only a touchdown, preventing them from leapfrogging their Southern brethren. And now they could slip back after the bye.
7 Virginia Tech (3-1)
ACC Leader
.501 9.818 8.593 What Alabama loss? Beating a team with as much hype as Miami by that much earns the Hokies their own ticket to the top ten in the polls.
8 Alabama (4-0) .826 9.042 8.336 Alabama is showing as the second-best team in the SEC now, but other than V-Tech no team they’ve played measures up to a Miami. Kentucky has a higher A Rating than Arkansas, but the real test: Ole Miss in two weeks.
9 LSU (4-0) .737 8.549 7.892 Way too tight a pullout against weak Mississippi State, but the real bad news is big losses for Washington and especially Louisiana-Lafayette. Will Georgia be enough tune-up for Florida in two weeks?
10 Auburn (4-0) .733 8.452 7.805 Winless Ball State just doesn’t get within two touchdowns, or score as many as 30 in general, in Jordan-Hare Stadium. And the only opponent that had a game lost. Will a road trip to Tennessee be a rebound, or an upset opportunity?
11 Boise State (4-0)
Non-BCS Leader
.828 8.747 7.147 A blowout’s a blowout, especially on the road. And the win over Oregon is starting to look more and more impressive as the Ducks continue to win. At 5th in the polls, might they have a real shot at the national title game?
12 Oregon (3-1)
Pac-10 Leader
2006 Boise State Title
.433 8.007 7.137 The embarrassing loss to Boise State seems a distant memory now as the Ducks follow a BCS-buster-busting defeat of Utah with a win over Cal to inherit pole position in the conference – without LeGarrette Blount.
13 Nebraska (3-1) .622 7.500 7.030 55-0 is 55-0, even against Louisiana-Lafayette. But don’t awaken the echoes of Tom Osborne just yet – you’ll slip for a bye you need to prepare for a showdown with Missouri to determine who’ll challenge Kansas for the Big 12 North.
14 South Florida (4-0) .880 4.134 3.912 The only FBS team the Bulls had played was newbie Western Kentucky. But beating Florida State shows they’re for real, and they want this year to be similar to 2007 in another way – South Florida in the national conversation.
15 Ohio State (3-1) .558 4.055 3.666 Shutting out Illinois, even a mediocre Illinois, and not allowing a point since USC a needed feather in the Buckeyes’ cap to justify the top-10 poll ranking. What would really help: Beating Indiana this week.
16 UCLA (3-0) .732 4.182 3.630 Skipped a week but Tennessee and Kansas State each had big wins, making UCLA look all the better – and scarier, heading into a game at Stanford that’s a tuneup for a huge game with Oregon in the Rose Bowl in two weeks.
17 Clemson (2-2) .309 4.138 3.482 Losing to TCU at home not the way to represent the ACC. They probably need to beat Maryland to prove themselves deserving of this ranking.
18 Michigan (4-0) .698 3.785 3.421 Could it be? Are the Wolverines riding the shoulders of Tate Forcier back? They only won by three to Indiana at home and no other opponent so far is in positive B Points, but that’s far better than the team that lost to Appalachian State.
19 Missouri (4-0) .763 2.744 2.749 Beating winless Nevada isn’t much of an argument that you’re for real, especially with Illinois and Bowling Green losing as well. They better be able to bounce back for Nebraska in two weeks if they want a shot at the Big 12 North.
20 Connecticut (3-1) .488 2.399 2.293 The fact the win came against a I-AA team limits the benefit the Huskies get from it, and still no one is giving them any respect. They’ll drop for the bye but then get a chance to prove themselves against Pitt in two weeks.
21 USC (3-1) .534 2.678 2.251 Matt Barkley’s injury really hurts the Trojans in the rankings, not only because of the loss to Washington but the narrowness of the win over Ohio State. Can he return to full strength for a big test against Cal?
22 Arizona (3-1) .463 2.661 2.236 Off go Arizona State, on go their rivals after a big win over an Oregon State team expected to be among the Pac-10’s Big Four. With their only loss being to red-hot Iowa, could they be a big factor in the Pac-10 as well?
23 Penn State (3-1) .544 2.280 2.054 Don’t slip much because Arizona State and Indiana losing provided a cushion, Iowa’s a good team, and Syracuse and Temple won. Still, with Ohio State and Michigan zooming onto the Top 25, JoePa might want to kiss the Rose Bowl goodbye.
24 Houston (3-0) .688 3.879 1.833 Slip because they beat middling Texas Tech by only one at home, but two wins against the Big 12 is two wins against the Big 12, and the Cougars smell BCS Buster this year.
25 Pittsburgh (3-1) .536 1.805 1.739 Bad sign when you lose to a team that isn’t even positive. It was close and on the road, but their schedule really looks bad now, and the Big East looks that much tougher.

38 teams total with positive C Rating (none with negative B Rating)

Off Top 25: #29 Florida State (was #16), #30 Arizona State (was #23), #32 Indiana (was #24), #33 Mississippi (was #14), #51 Miami (FL) (was #15), #74 California (was #7)

Unbeaten teams not on top 25: #26 Texas A&M*, #28 TCU, #36 Wisconsin

Rest of Watch List: #27 Stanford*, #29 Florida State, #30 Arizona State, #31 South Carolina*, #32 Indiana, #33 Mississippi, #34 Iowa State*, #35 Utah*

Other Positive B Ratings: #37 West Virginia*, #38 Wake Forest*, #39 Hawaii, #40 Duke, #48 SMU* (*=Newly Positive)

No Longer Positive: #43 Minnesota, #51 Miami (FL), #52 Southern Miss, #56 North Carolina, #57 Washington, #58 Kentucky, #63 Northern Illinois, #71 Colorado State, #74 California, #76 Louisville

Bottom 10: #111 Akron, #112 Memphis, #113 Washington State, #114 Buffalo, #115 Tulane, #116 San Jose State, #117 New Mexico, #118 Western Kentucky, #119 Miami (OH), #120 Rice

Conference Rating: Big 12 (2.795), #2 SEC (1.982), #3 Big East (.811), #4 Big 10 (-.189), #5 ACC (-2.429), #6 Pac-10 (-2.436), #7 MWC (-9.326, leader #28 TCU), #8 WAC (-12.590), #9 C-USA (-16.583), #10 MAC (-18.081, leader #60 Central Michigan), #11 Sun Belt (-19.835, leader #79 Middle Tenn. St.)

Best game of week: UCLA @ Stanford, 12:30pm PT, ABC

All logos taken from Sportslogos.net, and are the trademarks of their respective schools, used without permission under fair-use clause of United States copyright law. Some logos may be out of date. Use of logos for commercial purposes without consent of the respective schools is prohibited.

Some idle football thoughts

What does losing Tim Tebow really mean for the Gators considering what they did to Kentucky regardless? What does Oregon’s win over Cal mean for how good Boise State really is and how good the Ducks could have been if LeGarrette Blount hadn’t become me a few years ago? What does it mean that the Bears could very easily be 3-1 after the game with the Lions? What does it mean that a Lions team that just picked up its first win in over a year could hold the NFL Lineal Title a week later?

Well, actually, very little. But lineal title wankery isn’t the only thing I do involving the NFL. Tune in after the close of games for one of the earliest traffic drivers to my blog back in 2007, the Sunday Night Football Flexible Scheduling Watch, my attempt to determine which games are moving to primetime in the last eight weeks of the season.

Henceforth, my weekly schedule, sports-wise, is likely to be something along the lines of: college football rankings Monday or Tuesday, flex scheduling watch Monday through Wednesday, and college football schedule Tuesday through Thursday. As for this week, expect the college football rankings and schedule sometime over the next two days.

Some thoughts on the infinite canvas

I haven’t done a webcomic review this week and if you haven’t been following me on Twitter you missed my Random Internet Discovery of the Week. So consider this a makeup for both.

I don’t read Scott McCloud’s blog regularly, and right now I’m still leaning towards not starting. But a common topic there (and at Comixtalk) involves developments related to the potential of the basic, core idea of webcomics, especially those raised by McCloud himself in Understanding Comics and Reinventing Comics, and especially especially the notion of the infinite canvas.

I’ve pretty much always found the infinite canvas, in practice, to be mostly of use in artsy and experimental works. Things that make the creation of a work more “practical” are generally embraced more by experimental artists that aren’t concerned with making money, but rather with the purity of a work. During my Webcomics’ Identity Crisis series, I explained that the infinite canvas wouldn’t take off unless McCloud’s other Reinventing-proposed revolution, micropayments, also took off, since that was probably the only way it could make money, certainly while maintaining the purity of the format. Micropayments probably aren’t taking off anytime soon, so the infinite canvas looks to be fairly doomed, but if micropayments and the infinite canvas were to take off, what form would it take?

Back in February, I was convinced that the sorts of models McCloud proposed in Reinventing were problematic in their own right, as they focused too much attention on the form, away from the work itself. That makes them inherently more applicable to artsy, experimental fare no matter how good the market for the infinite canvas gets. For the infinite canvas to really take off as more than a gimmick it needs to offer a superior experience to the reader; it must be applied in a way that the reader gets the advantages of the infinite canvas without having the model become a piece of art in itself, because that will cause people to scream “artsy” and either walk away or study the form itself without regard for how good the work is. The medium cannot get in the way of enjoyment of the work.

Things like this or even this, while praiseworthy for (at least in the former) doing things not strictly possible in print, don’t really fit McCloud’s vision of the infinite canvas, viewing the screen as a “window”, which aims to free artists entirely from the trappings of print. Most applications of McCloud’s vision, such as they are, often control how the reader views them in such a way that you view one panel at a time, ignoring how overlapping panels can sometimes be used in print. (For example, take a look at the first two panels of this and think of a true, McCloudean infinite canvas you’ve seen where that would be possible.) But the best way to apply that is probably a click-and-drag interface that – at least without a touchscreen or something like that – might be more user unfriendly than your average “really long page”.

I’m concerned that even McCloud’s notion of the screen as a window and of the spacial model might be too limiting. It’s not possible to view all of the space at once when the infinite canvas is applied the way McCloud wants, so we have to zoom in on part of the space and work our way around it; the one-panel-at-a-time approach is just the simplest way to do that. Distill that to its basic elements, and remind yourself that the purpose of this is to further the cause of comics, and you realize that all that resource-hogging zooming and sliding and moving and twisting and shouting and grooving and all that jazz is just another gimmick that’s not part of the story itself and therefore takes your attention away from it – a gimmick that doesn’t benefit readers or creators that just want to entertain, since they have to think about arranging everything.

Which is why I think the application of the infinite canvas that has the most potential is the format used in these two comics from February, which McCloud linked to in March.

In some sense, it actually involves turning the screen, not into a window, but into a stage on which events happen. It’s an intuitive design with a simple click-click-click interface (no sometimes-difficult scrolling) that doesn’t start a bunch of unnecessary animation (seriously, read some of these and try and keep your focus on the story), so the emphasis remains on the story itself. At the same time it not only fits the goal of the infinite canvas – to, at least partially, free comics from the restraints and contortions of the page – it opens up a variety of new frontiers (some explored in the above-linked comics themselves) for things that can be done with the “panel” that, at the very least, wouldn’t have the same effect in print, but despite taking some cues from animation (and not “juxtaposing” panels side by side as in McCloud’s definition) it’s still fairly convincingly comics, replete with all the aspects of comics’ “unique visual language”. (One important factor in this: the reader controls the pace at which he reads, with some assistance from the author “pacing” them from “panel” to “panel”.) Apply this model to a good story, slap a paywall on it, and maybe the infinite canvas might take off in the way McCloud always envisioned.

(And if McCloud is concerned about turning comics into a slideshow he should look at his own The Right Number and ask himself what makes it different from a glorified PowerPoint slideshow with fancy slide transitions turned on.)

College Football Schedule – Week 4

We unveiled the first edition of the college football rankings earlier this week; now time for the newly rankified version of the schedule. Rankings are from my college football rankings; asterisks still denote lineal title holders. All times Eastern.

TOP 25 GAMES 

Fresno State 

@ 

Cincinnati

Noon 

B.E. Network 

Mike Gleason, John Congemi, Quint Kessenich

Ball State 

@ 

#2 Auburn 

7 PM 

SEC/FSN 

Bob Rathbun, Dave Archer, Jenn Hildreth

#3 Iowa 

@ 

#20 Penn State 

8 PM 

ABC 

Brent Musberger, Kirk Herbstreit, Lisa Salters

#4 LSU

@ 

Mississippi State

Noon 

SEC Network

Dave Neal, Andre Ware, Cara Capuano

UTEP

@ 

#5 Texas

3:30 

FSN 

Bill Land, Gary Reasons, Emily Jones

#7 California

@ 

*Oregon

3:30 

ABC 

Terry Gannon, David Norrie

Arkansas

@ 

#8 Alabama

3:30 

CBS 

Verne Lundquist, Gary Danielson, Tracy Wolfson

Southern Miss

@

#9 Kansas

Noon

FSN 

Joel Meyers, Dave Lapham, Jim Knox

TCU

@

#10 Clemson 

3:30 

ESPN360 

Dave Weekley, Danny Kanell

#11 Missouri

@

Nevada

9 PM FR

ESPN 

Joe Tessitore, Rod Gilmore

#12 Pittsburgh

@ 

NC State

3:30 

ESPNU 

Todd Harris, Charles Arbuckle

#13 *Florida

@ 

Kentucky 

6 PM 

ESPN2 

Mark Jones, Bob Davie

#14 Mississippi

@ 

South Carolina

7:30 TH

ESPN

Chris Fowler, Craig James,
Jesse Palmer, Erin Andrews

#15 Miami (FL)

@ 

#17 Virginia Tech

3:30 

ABC/ESPN 

Sean McDonough, Matt Millen, Holly Rowe

South Florida

@

#16 Florida State

Noon

ESPNU 

Clay Matvick, David Diaz-Infante

#18 Boise State 

@ 

Bowling Green 

7 PM 

Gameplan 

 

Louisiana-Lafayette

@

#19 Nebraska 

7 PM 

PPV 

Brent Stover, Matt Davison, Kent Pavelka

Texas Tech 

@ 

#22 Houston 

9 PM 

ESPN2 

Mike Patrick, Craig James, Heather Cox

#23 Arizona State 

@ 

Georgia 

7 PM 

ESPNU 

Eric Collins, Brock Huard

#24 Indiana

@

Michigan

Noon

ESPN2 

Pam Ward, Ray Bentley

Rhode Island

@

#25 Connecticut 

Noon 

ESPN360 

 

WATCHLIST AND OTHER POSITIVE B POINT TEAMS 

North Carolina 

@ 

Georgia Tech

Noon 

Raycom 

Steve Martin, Rick Walker, Mike Hogewood

Washington

@

Stanford 

9 PM 

FCS 

Sean Farnham, Yogi Roth, Samantha Steele

Michigan State 

@

Wisconsin

Noon

ESPN 

Dave Pasch, Bob Griese, Chris Spielman

Arizona 

@ 

Oregon State 

7:30 

VS. 

Ron Thulin, Kelly Stouffer, Lewis Johnson

North Carolina Cntrl

@

Duke 

7 PM 

ACC Select 

 

Illinois

@ 

Ohio State

3:30 

ABC/ESPN 

Ron Franklin, Ed Cunningham

Louisville 

@ 

Utah 

7:30 

CBS CS 

Tom Hart, Akbar Gbaja-Biamila

Washington State 

@ 

USC 

7 PT 

FSN 

Barry Tompkins, Petros Papadakis, Michael Eaves

Minnesota 

@

Northwestern

Noon

BTN 

Wayne Larrivee, Chris Martin, Charissa Thompson

Colorado State

@

BYU 

6 PM 

mtn. 

James Bates, Todd Christensen, Sammy Linebaugh

Idaho 

@ 

Northern Illinois 

3:30 

CSN Chicago

Dave Kaplan, Bob Chmiel, Jim Blaney

THIS WEEK’S OTHER HD GAMES 

Western Kentucky 

@ 

Navy 

3:30 

CBS CS 

Craig Bolerjack, Randy Cross

Notre Dame

@ 

Purdue

8 PM

ESPN

Brad Nessler, Todd Blackledge, Erin Andrews

ACC

Wake Forest

@

Boston College 

2 PM 

ESPN360 

Ryan Rose, Jeff Genyk

MOUNTAIN WEST

San Diego State

@

Air Force 

2 PM 

mtn. 

Ari Wolfe, Blaine Fowler, Andrea Lloyd

UNLV 

@ 

Wyoming 

3 PM 

   

MAC

Buffalo 

@ 

Temple

Noon

ESPN+

Michael Reghi, Doug Chapman

Akron 

@ 

Central Michigan 

3:30 

FS Ohio

 

Miami (OH)

@

Kent State 

7 PM 

CSD.com 

 

CONFERENCE USA

Marshall

@

Memphis 

1 PM 

CSS 

Richard Cross, Brian Jordan, Melissa Lee

Central Florida

@

East Carolina 

3:30 

CBSCS XXL 

Patrick Kinas, Billy Weaver, Brian Meador

SUN BELT

Louisiana-Monroe

@ 

Florida Atlantic 

4 PM 

   

Troy

@

Arkansas State 

4:30 

CSS/CST 

Todd Kalas, Derek Rackley

Middle Tenn. St.

@

North Texas 

7 PM 

CSD.com 

 

BOWL SUBDIVISION 

Tennessee Tech 

@ 

Kansas State 

2 PM 

   

Rutgers

@

Maryland 

3:30 

ESPN360 

Jim Barbar, Jeremy Bloom

McNeese State

@

Tulane 

3:30 

CBSCS XXL 

 

Maine 

@ 

Syracuse 

7 PM 

TW Cable 

Mark Lawson, Dan Liedka, Chris Watson

Ohio

@

Tennessee

7 PM

Gameplan

Randy Smith, Pat Ryan, Mike Stowell

Northwestern State

@

Baylor 

7 PM 

CBSCS XXL 

 

Army

@

Iowa State 

7 PM 

CSD.com 

 

Hofstra

@

Western Michigan 

7 PM 

CSD.com 

 

Toledo 

@ 

Florida International 

7 PM 

CSD.com 

 

Grambling 

@ 

Oklahoma State

7 PM 

   

UAB 

@ 

Texas A&M 

7 PM 

   

Sam Houston State 

@ 

Tulsa 

7 PM 

   

Cal Poly 

@ 

San Jose State 

8 PM 

   

Vanderbilt

@

Rice

8 PM

CSS

Matt Stewart, Chuck Oliver, Sandra Golden

Southern Utah 

@ 

Utah State 

8 PM 

Stretch Int. 

 

New Mexico State

@

New Mexico

7 PT

mtn.

Dan Gutowsky, Robert Griffith

What the Colts winning on Monday night despite a 3-to-1 time of possession disadvantage tells us:

Something I’ve figured for a while, and never 100% gotten about NFL conventional wisdom: Time of possession doesn’t mean as much as you think it does.

Having a low time of possession could mean that you’re not moving the ball and getting first downs as much as the other team… or it could mean you’re moving it faster and scoring in less time, while the other team has to plod slowly down the field. The Colts won because they could go bang-bang-bang-end zone while the Dolphins played the way most average teams play, working methodically and slowly but surely moving towards the end zone.

At some point, low time of possession becomes a sign of an efficient offense, not a bad one. And you could argue that other stats, like first downs, have a similar problem. The Colts won because they didn’t hold the ball for very long, not in spite of it.

2009 College Football Rankings – Week 3

Finally, it’s time to unveil this year’s edition of the college football rankings! I explain the formula behind the C Ratings, designed to factor in both margin of victory and strength of schedule in a sane fashion, in more detail here; an abbreviated version is below. The basic principle is that margin of victory and strength of schedule are interrelated: who you beat and how you beat them are important, but the Morgan Wick Ratings are unique in that your margin of victory against a given team is associated with that team. Two innovations protect against running up the score: diminishing returns in the A Rating for RUTS, and because margin of victory is associated with the team the margin of victory came against in the B Point formula, you don’t get much benefit for beating a scrub team big. (Ignore the part in the post about the B and C Ratings being overly high; I fixed that problem last season.) If I’d change anything, I’ve considered making C Ratings dependent on all a team’s opponents’ B Ratings, not just the rest of their conference regardless of whether they’ve played everyone or not, and fixing my database so FCS games are counted as being against a team with an A Rating of 0, instead of just not counting for B Points.

It’s so early that we’re going to get some really wacky results in the ratings, and you’re probably going to have to take everything with a grain of salt. We are, however, far enough into the season to make some early judgments, and one of them is that the Big East just may be due for another season like 2006, when – in contrast to the conference’s usual mire of mediocrity – at least three different teams were in the national championship conversation very late into the season. The Big East has had a fantastic nonconference slate so far, and their reward is that the team that looks to be the biggest diamond in the conference, Cincinnati, takes the top spot in this first edition of the rankings.

How the C Ratings are tabulated: First, A Ratings are tabulated by multiplying the total score ratio, which is expressed by (points-opponents’ points)/points, by the winning percentage. Score ratio minimizes the effect of running up the score. Next, B Points for each game are tabulated by (margin of victory)/(opponent’s A rating)+/-1 for wins, and -(margin of loss)/(1-opponent’s A Rating)+/-1 for losses. The “+/-” is + for road games and – for home ones. The total number of B Points is multiplied by the A Rating to get the B Rating. Conference Ratings are tabulated by averaging the B Ratings of all teams in the conference. (Independents are counted separately, and Army and Navy are counted as one conference.) Finally, the C Rating is tabulated by taking the difference between the team’s B Rating and his conference’s rating, taking a fraction of that equal to the fraction of Division I-A the conference makes up, and taking the result off the B Rating. The three ratings go A, B, C across. Click here to see the complete ratings.

1. Cincinnati (3-0)
Big East Leader
.832 15.319 14.431 Account for the only loss of each of the FBS teams they’ve faced, including a very good Oregon State team, and reside in a top-notch conference. Could the Bearcats go from being unranked in the preseason polls to a national championship contender?
2. Auburn (3-0)
SEC Leader
.737 11.943 10.909 Account for the only loss of both the BCS teams they’ve faced, including being one of only five teams to beat the Big East. Never scored less than 37 or won by less than 11, and have faced better opposition than Cincinnati. And the polls don’t have them ranked?
3. Iowa (3-0)
Big Ten Leader
.723 11.237 10.271 Again, Northern Iowa struggle aside, account for the only loss of either FBS team faced, and Arizona is actually pretty good. Ohio State and Penn State better not make plans for their showdown to be a de facto Big Ten title game just yet.
4. LSU (3-0) .794 10.029 9.186 Never scored less than 23, and the one time they allowed double digits it was to the team that just upended the Trojans. The Tigers are out to prove last year was an abberation, but they’ve got a heck of a hurdle to climb to win the SEC West.
5. Texas (3-0)
Big 12 Leader
.785 9.478 8.609 A weak schedule so far and avenging last year’s Texas Tech loss by only 10 at home hurts them, but they are still the non-Florida national championship favorites.
6. Oklahoma (2-1) .547 8.488 7.718 Have yet to allow a point since the BYU loss. Haven’t faced the best opposition, but losing by only one mitigated the damage from that game, and 45-0 is 45-0 even if it’s against Tulsa.
7. California (3-0)
Pac-10 Leader
.838 7.879 7.141 With USC upset (again), Cal seems to be ready to carry the Pac-10 banner, both here and in the polls. Never scored less than 35 or won by less than 14, Minnesota is positive B Points, and you might start hearing the name Jahvid Best for the Heisman.
8. Alabama (3-0) .802 6.977 6.440 What a year it’s shaping up to be in the SEC West! People think Alabama is the best of the bunch again, ranked in both polls, but weak competition and a tight pull-out against V-Tech hurts them. It’ll be much harder to make the SEC Title Game this year.
9. Kansas (3-0) .894 6.992 6.371 They’re ba-a-ack! Weak opposition so far, but never scored less than 34 or won by less than 27, awakening the echoes of 2007 when they were in the national championship conversation. But they’ll have a bumpy road to the Big 12 North…
10. Clemson (2-1)
ACC Leader
.471 6.013 5.431 Last year Clemson was seen as the class of the ACC, but their season fell apart after losing to ‘Bama. Maybe everyone was just a year early. Never scored < 25, and their one loss was by 3 on the road – and they could get better as G-Tech and BC win.
11. Missouri (3-0) .797 5.302 4.851 How big is the Border War going to be this year? As in 2007, a trip to the Big 12 Title Game could be on the line. Weak opposition and won by only 7 to Bowling Green at home, but still demolished Illinois. There’s a reason they’re ranked in the polls.
12. Pittsburgh (3-0) .817 4.806 4.619 Never scored less than 27 or won by less than 17, but they’ve got a meatgrinder of a conference schedule ahead. Fortunately, they still have NC State before that starts.
13. Florida (3-0)
Princeton-Yale Title
.879 4.812 4.492 Not as dominant as we thought, eh? The polls didn’t drop the Gators from after their struggles against Tennessee, but they should, especially with the weak schedule outside that game – and it only gets tougher with Kentucky setting up a trip to Baton Rouge.
14. Mississippi (2-0) .893 4.619 4.317 The Rebels would rank higher if they played more than one FBS game. But it’ll still be tough to break through a meatgrinder of an SEC West.
15. Miami (FL) (2-0) .647 4.756 4.299 Have the Hurricanes made it out of the darkness of the last few seasons? It’s possible, and a top ten AP ranking is evidence of it, especially what you consider what their rivals have been able to do…
16. Florida State (2-1) .433 3.816 3.453 …that is, recover from a narrow loss to Miami to win going away against a Cougars team thought to be the BCS buster du jour. Is the ACC’s marquee rivalry finally living up to what the ACC had in mind when it expanded to 12 teams?
17. Virginia Tech (2-1) .397 3.632 3.287 Could have done better than a narrow home escape against Nebraska, but they’re a good team, and they still blew out Marshall and their only loss is still against Alabama – whether or not that reflects well on the ACC. Will the Miami game be for the Coastal?
18. Boise State (3-0)
Non-BCS Leader
.818 4.718 3.283 With BYU’s loss, it looks like Boise is once again carrying the flag for the BCS busters. With a big win over the team that just upended Utah, and never scoring less than 48 or winning by less than 17 since, they certainly seem to be playing the part.
19. Nebraska (2-1) .515 3.354 3.097 They lost to V-Tech, but it was by one on the road and the Hokies are showing signs that they will at least contend for the ACC title. Their other two opponents are from the Sun Belt but they crushed them like you’re supposed to.
20. Penn State (3-0) .888 3.042 2.827 The Nittany Lions have been nice and consistent, winning games against admittedly weak teams by scores of 31-7, 28-7, and 31-6. That streak might end after a tilt with Iowa that could influence the direction of the Big Ten.
21. UCLA (3-0) .732 3.109 2.768 The wrong LA team is undefeated! Yes, the Bruins have put together a nice string of wins against admittedly mediocre opponents, including a road win over Tennessee with a similar score to the Vols’ road loss to the Gators. Is the Pac next?
22. Houston (2-0) .773 4.020 2.302 How impressive are the Cougars to make the rankings (and the polls) with only two games under their belt, only one against BCS competition, from a non-BCS conference? That’s how impressive it is to beat 2-1 Oklahoma State on the road.
23. Arizona State (2-0) .892 2.330 2.054 Can you tell we’re in the dregs of the rankings when Arizona State has beaten only one FBS team and that was Louisiana-Monroe? Still, they’ve looked impressive enough in both games that the Pac-10 is in their sights – but Georgia ain’t Idaho State.
24. Indiana (3-0) .656 2.088 1.960 They haven’t beaten much in the way of teams, but they’ve certainly handled them, and very quietly, Indiana is 3-0 and a potential Big Ten spoiler.
25. Connecticut (2-1) .378 1.870 1.879 They’ve lost, but by two to a North Carolina team ranked in the polls, and their two wins weren’t impressive but were on the road. They just might be a factor in the Big East.

39 teams total with positive C Rating (1 with negative B Rating (South Carolina))

2006 Boise State Title: #41 Oregon (2-1), .299, .070, -.018

Unbeaten teams not on top 25: #26 North Carolina, #27 Michigan, #29 South Florida, #30 Wisconsin, #34 Kentucky, #40 TCU, #42 Colorado State, #44 Texas A&M, #54 Southern Miss (last four not in positive C points, and Texas A&M not in positive B points)

Rest of Watch List (both 2-1): #28 Washington, #31 Arizona

Other Positive B Ratings (all 2-1 unless otherwise noted): #32 Duke (1-2 but Richmond doesn’t count and Army win outweighs loss to good Kansas team), #33 Ohio State, #35 Louisville (1-1), #37 Hawaii, #38 USC, #39 Minnesota, #41 Oregon, #55 Northern Illinois

Bottom 10: #111 Washington State, #112 New Mexico State, #113 Toledo, #114 Florida Atlantic, #115 Miami (OH), #116 New Mexico, #117 Rice, #118 Tulane, #119 Western Kentucky, #120 San Jose State

Conference Rating: Big East (2.005), #2 SEC (1.604), #3 Big 12 (.787), #4 Big Ten (.693), #5 ACC (.186), #6 Pac-10 (-.980), #7 Mountain West (-9.883), #8 MAC (-11.405), #9 C-USA (-13.158), #10 WAC (-14.413), #11 Sun Belt (-15.238)

Best game of week: Iowa @ Penn State, 5pm PT, ABC

All logos taken from Sportslogos.net, and are the trademarks of their respective schools, used without permission under fair-use clause of United States copyright law. Some logos may be out of date. Use of logos for commercial purposes without consent of the respective schools is prohibited.

This Week In Lineal Titles

What’s more fun than having Final Four-style brackets for everything? Having boxing-style heavyweight champions for everything! Hence, my college football and NFL lineal titles, and this was a surprisingly eventful week for them.

Florida was the only champion to hold on to its title this week, although it came away with a narrow escape against Tennessee that suggests they may not be as dominant as everyone thinks. This week they go on the road to play a Kentucky team that, while not Top 25, seems to generally be considered better at this point.

I ended last season thinking the 2006 Boise State title was a “mid-major” title, to counteract Princeton-Yale’s BCS-team ownership, but a look at its actual history shows a lot of Pac-10 teams holding it. Oregon’s upset of Utah puts the title in the hands of a team that lost perhaps its best player to an outburst following an embarrassing loss to the title’s namesake. Now Cal comes to Autzen Stadium for a game that, with the USC loss, could have Rose Bowl implications.

How about Da Bears pulling off a last-second win over the Steelers? I doubt many people thought the defending Super Bowl champions would lose this early in the season, especially with the Bears losing Brian Urlacher. Now maybe the Vikings have a rougher road to the NFC North than a lot of people thought. Now they go to Seattle to take on a Seahawks squad that’s ailing and reeling. Yes, that’s my hometown team, folks. Hey, remember when the Seahawks were actually in the Super Bowl?

These changes have all been duly noted, and I’m thinking the first edition of my college football rankings will come out tomorrow.

Ladies and gentlemen, every mediocre webcomic cliche in one comic, minus the geeky ones!

sgrthumb(From Scary Go Round. Click for full-sized goodbye.)

There is one reason and one reason only I am reviewing Scary Go Round, and that’s because it just ended, and as such I review it right now or not at all. By putting this out this late in the week, nearly a week after the last strip, I’m technically violating my “don’t review ended comics” rule; I was actually considering putting it out Monday. As such this will be very different from my other reviews in more ways than one. I’m going in knowing absolutely nothing about the story, and I’m reviewing it almost entirely from an archive binge perspective.

Here’s my description of the first chapter: A comedy horror mystery.

Yes, Scary Go Round, like a lot of webcomics, got off to a slow start with a story about Rachel, reassigned to resurrect the school newspaper, stumbling on the paper’s former staff stuffed into a cupboard, which turns out to have been carried out by a sentient gas that was a former member of a science club. While Rachel, the whole time, makes wisecracks to her more straight-laced friend Tessa, and while the characters appear to be paper cut-outs that barely open their mouths. It’s head-slappingly stupid enough I braced for the worst from the rest of the strip.

As it turns out, after two stories of this sort of Scooby Doo-like antics, the strip shifted focus to the characters of Tim, Ryan, Shelley, and Amy, almost junking Rachel and Tessa from the strip entirely; there’s only one more Scooby Doo-like story after that. Shelley, killed off in the second story, gets resurrected as a zombie in the third, and then seemingly for good in the fourth, and the strip at this point could best be described as Sluggy Freelance meets Questionable Content, maybe even with a little Gunnerkrigg Court and Something Positive mixed in. (QC‘s Jeph Jacques even did a guest strip for SGR.) Fundamentally it’s a slice-of-life story where the characters seem to take the fact that every day of their lives they’re surrounded by wacky stuff (like portals to alternate dimensions and weird black diminutive monsters that want to eat people) in stride, simply firing off wisecracks at it all. The story evolves in focus eventually to Shelley and Amy in particular as Tim and Ryan retreat for different reasons in late 2003, and pretty much stays there for the rest of the strip.

A note on characterization. I’m trying to get away from the notion of this space as a resource for Aspiring Webcomickers Everywhere as opposed to simply a review site, but I have to say a few words about how the characters were portrayed in early SGR. I understand that you write what you know and you put a little of yourself into each character, and you want to give your comic a defining attitude, but it’s generally a bad sign when all your major characters share an attribute, like wisecracks and snark as in the early SGR, and it is in fact their defining attribute to the extent when you strip it away the characters become two-dimensional cyphers. There are differences between the characters, but they don’t shine through very well. Allison, to his credit, took more steps to separate his characters as time went on, particularly making Shelley downright sassy (if the final strip is any indication), but is it just me, or is the Shelley who’s constantly looking for adventure in the post-reboot SGR more consistent with the Amy of the first quarter of the strip than the Shelley she got drunk at least twice to drag along on wacky adventures? The later Amy seems rather demure for someone with tattoos all over her body.

There were several points in this early portion of the archive where I thought that, like Dresden Codak, John Allison was hiding some part of the archive from me as an old shame. Apparently that’s because most of these characters were part of a previous, less wacky strip dating back to 1998, but there’s almost no evidence of this on the site itself – the archive dates back to 2002 and outside the blog, there’s no mention of this earlier strip, only a “since 1998” note on the about page. The first place I learned about the existence of this earlier strip, in fact, was none other than TV Tropes. If I had to guess, the reason the existence of this strip is hidden is because of the 2007 reboot of the strip to be more new-reader-friendly, but that doesn’t explain why “first” still takes you to 2002 with the only direct mention of the reboot being the about page, and after reading the first quarter of the strips, I find Scary Go Round remarkably new-reader friendly considering its wackiness, as the status quo doesn’t really change much.

That is, until Shelley diesagain.

At that point, Scary Go Round went through its own version of PVP/Goats Syndrome, or trying to put your strip’s ridiculous elements through Cerebus Syndrome and succeeding only in making them even more ridiculous. SGR was never gag-a-day, never really tried to get rid of its humor, and never really deconstructed its ridiculous elements to my knowledge, but at this point it did start to become necessary to keep a scorecard to keep track of everything, and it sure as hell became more and more ridiculous. Here’s all you need to know about SGR from this point forward: the cast page has a fish-man (apparently as a regular part of the cast), a “nautical inventor”, a goblin infestation in Tackleford, a space owl, devil bears, Shelley’s sister Erin, who “Grew to her (comparatively) enormous size after drinking something her sister stole”, and Rachel, who was killed and subsequently sold her soul to the devil. Oh, and according to TV Tropes Shelley makes this “death” thing a bit of a habit of hers. The first storyline after the relaunch (or at least the link to the relaunch on the About page) involves Shelley, the mayor, and Shelley’s reporting partner Mike going insane, and a giant green bee stalking the British equivalent of the county fair, and generally makes very little sense.

Quite frankly, I think SGR was better in 2003, its first full calendar year, and early 2004 than it was as it went along and got wackier and wackier, even though I haven’t read most of that. For what it’s trying to do, early SGR is rather servicable; later SGR is too wacky to take seriously, and as the cast page appears to be frozen at a point in time before the reboot, it seems to me that the final story is as continuity-choked as what SGR had pre-reboot. In fact, I can’t even follow some conversations or even make out the meaning of some lines, especially in later strips. Just as Bobbins begat Scary Go Round, so Allison is planning to make SGR beget another new comic. If he ever decides to go the wacky hijinks path SGR embraced – and I’m not sure he should – I hope he looks back at what he had in 2003, and tries to recapture the magic he had there, and not find himself showing Aspiring Webcomickers Everywhere everything you need to know on what not to do.

College Football Schedule: Week 3

First edition of the Rankings next week, as soon as Monday! All times Eastern.

LINEAL TITLES (ALL GAMES ON SATURDAY)

Tennessee

@

*Florida

3:30

CBS

Verne Lundquist, Gary Danielson, Tracy Wolfson

*Utah

@

Oregon

3:30

ESPN

Ron Franklin, Ed Cunningham

THIS WEEK’S OTHER HD GAMES

Georgia Tech

@

Miami (FL)

7:30 TH

ESPN

Chris Fowler, Jesse Palmer,
Craig James, Erin Andrews

Boise State

@

Fresno State

9 PM FR

ESPN

Joe Tessitore, Rod Gilmore

California

@

Minnesota

Noon

ESPN

Dave Pasch, Bob Griese, Chris Spielman

East Carolina

@

North Carolina

Noon

ESPN2

Pam Ward, Ray Bentley

Duke

@

Kansas

Noon

VS.

Ron Thulin, Kelly Stouffer, Lewis Johnson

Louisville

@

Kentucky

Noon

ESPNU

Clay Matvick, David Diaz-Infante

Ball State

@

Army

Noon

CBS CS

Dave Ryan, Jason Sehorn

Eastern Michigan

@

Michigan

Noon

BTN

Wayne Larrivee, Chris Martin, Charissa Thompson

Temple

@

Penn State

Noon

BTN

Ari Wolfe, Anthony Herron, Kenny Jackson

Northern Illinois

@

Purdue

Noon

BTN

Craig Coshun, Rod Woodson, Larra Overton

Wofford

@

Wisconsin

Noon

BTN

Matt Devlin, Glen Mason, Jay Wilson

North Texas

@

Alabama

Noon

SEC Network

Dave Neal, Andre Ware, Cara Capuano

Boston College

@

Clemson

Noon

Raycom

Steve Martin, Rick Walker, Mike Hogewood

Michigan State

@

Notre Dame

3:30

NBC

Tom Hammond, Pat Haden, Alex Flanagan

USC

@

Washington

3:30

ABC

Terry Gannon, David Norrie, Quint Kessenich

Nebraska

@

Virginia Tech

3:30

ABC/ESPN2

Sean McDonough, Matt Millen, Holly Rowe

Arizona

@

Iowa

3:30

ABC/ESPN2

Mike Patrick, Craig James, Heather Cox

Tulsa

@

Oklahoma

3:30

FSN

Joel Meyers, Dave Lapham, Jim Knox

Indiana

@

Akron

3:30

ESPNU

Todd Harris, Charles Arbuckle

Virginia

@

Southern Miss

3:30

CBS CS

Jason Knapp, Akbar Gbaja-Biamila

Cincinnati

@

Oregon State

6:45

FSN

Rich Burk, Steve Preece

Florida State

@

BYU

7 PM

VS.

Joe Beninati, Glenn Parker, Lindy Thackson

Louisiana-Lafayette

@

LSU

7 PM

ESPNU

Eric Collins, Brock Huard

Mississippi State

@

Vanderbilt

7 PM

SEC/FSN

Bob Rathbun, Dave Archer, Jenn Hildreth

Air Force

@

New Mexico

7:30

CBS CS

Tom Hart, Aaron Taylor

Southeast Louisiana

@

Mississippi

7:30

CSS/others

Doug Bell, JC Pearson

Georgia

@

Arkansas

7:45

ESPN

Brad Nessler, Todd Blackledge, Erin Andrews

West Virginia

@

Auburn

7:45

ESPN2

Mark Jones, Bob Davie

Texas Tech

@

Texas

8 PM

ABC

Brent Musburger, Kirk Herbstreit, Lisa Salters

Louisiana-Monroe

@

Arizona State

7 PT

FS AZ/FCS

Tom Leander, Juan Roque, Jody Jackson

Kansas State

@

UCLA

7 PT

FSN

Barry Tompkins, Petros Papadakis, Michael Eaves

OTHER GAMES

Ohio State

v.

Toledo

Noon

ESPN+

Michael Reghi, Doug Chapman

Furman

@

Missouri

2 PM

PPV

Dan McLaughlin, Howard Balzer, Todd Donoho

Wyoming

@

Colorado

3:30

FCS

Drew Goodman, Yogi Roth

UAB

@

Troy

3:30

CSS/FCS

Sam Smith, Roger Schultz

Middle Tenn. St.

@

Maryland

3:30

ESPN360

 

Alcorn State

@

Central Michigan

3:30

CSD.com

 

San Diego State

@

Idaho

5 PM

4SD/CSD.com

 

Florida International

@

Rutgers

5 PM

B.E. Network

Bob Picozzi, John Gregory

SMU

@

Washington State

5 PM

   

Nevada

@

Colorado State

5 PM

   

Connecticut

@

Baylor

5 PM

   

Gardner-Webb

@

NC State

6 PM

ACC Select

 

Navy

@

Pittsburgh

6 PM

ESPN360

 

Elon

@

Wake Forest

6:30

ACC Select

 

Northwestern

@

Syracuse

7 PM

Gameplan

 

Bowling Green

@

Marshall

7 PM

CBSCS XXL

 

Florida Atlantic

@

South Carolina

7 PM

Gameplan

 

TX State-San Marcos

@

TCU

7 PM

   

Rice

@

Oklahoma State

7 PM

   

Central Arkansas

@

Western Kentucky

7 PM

   

Nicholls State

@

Louisiana Tech

7 PM

   

Utah State

@

Texas A&M

7 PM

   

Miami (OH)

@

Western Michigan

7 PM

CSD.com

 

Charleston Southern

@

South Florida

7 PM

CSD.com

 

Cal Poly

@

Ohio

7 PM

CSD.com

 

Iowa State

@

Kent State

7 PM

ESPN360

 

Buffalo

@

UCF

7:30

CBSCS XXL

Drew Fellios, Mark Royals, Dave Baumann (UCF)

UTEP

@

New Mexico State

8 PM

Gameplan

Glen Cerny, Danny Knee

Tennessee-Martin

@

Memphis

8 PM

CBSCS XXL

 

San Jose State

@

Stanford

9 PM

   

Hawaii

@

UNLV

8 PT

mtn./CBS CS

James Bates, Todd Christensen, Toby Christensen