College Football Schedule: Week 6

This post has nothing to do with politics. The rankings are based on my own college football ranking formula. I worked on this before most of the games of the weekend were completed, and only started moving stuff around once all the games were over. All times Eastern.

Top 25 Games
Kentucky @ *Alabama 3:30 CBS
Oklahoma @ Baylor 12:30 FSN
Texas @ Colorado 8 PM FSN
*Missouri @ Nebraska 9 PM ESPN
Penn State @ Purdue Noon ESPN
*Oregon State @ Utah 9 PM TH VS.
Texas A&M @ Oklahoma State 7 PM
Ball State @ Toledo 7 PM CSD.TV
Auburn @ #12 Vanderbilt 6 PM ESPN
Oregon @ USC 8 PM ABC
Ohio State @ #14 Wisconsin 8 PM ABC
#15 Florida @ Arkansas 12:30 R’com/Y’hoo
Kansas @ Iowa State 12:30 VS.
Iowa @ Michigan State Noon ESPN2
#18 BYU @ Utah State 8 PM FR BYUTV/KJZZ
#19 Texas Tech @ Kansas State 3:30 ABC
Pittsburgh @ #20 South Florida 7:30 TH ESPN
Rice @ #21 Tulsa 8 PM CBS CS
San Diego State @ #22 TCU 6 PM mtn.
Arizona State @ California 3:30 ABC
Watchlist and Other Positive B Point Teams
Connecticut @ North Carolina 7 PM ESPN2
Louisiana Tech @ Boise State 8 PM WE ESPN
Indiana @ Minnesota Noon BTN
Duke @ Georgia Tech Noon ESPNU
Western Kentucky @ Virginia Tech 1:30 CBSCS XXL
Stanford @ Notre Dame 2:30 NBC
South Carolina @ Mississippi 3:30 Gameplan
Florida State @ Miami (FL) 3:30 ABC
Boston College @ NC State Noon Raycom
Navy @ Air Force 4 PM VS.
Washington @ Arizona 7:30 VS.
Hawaii @ Fresno State 7 PT Gameplan
Northern Illinois @ Tennessee 7 PM Gameplan
This Week’s Other HD Games
Florida Atlantic @ Middle Tenn. St. 8 PM TU ESPN2
Cincinnati @ Marshall 8 PM FR ESPN
Maryland @ Virginia 7 PM ESPNU
Washington State @ UCLA 7 PT FSN/FCS
Big Ten
Illinois @ Michigan 3:30 ABC/ESPN2
Big East
Rutgers @ West Virginia Noon ESPN+
Mountain West
UNLV @ Colorado State 2 PM mtn.
Wyoming @ New Mexico 9:30 mtn.
MAC
Akron @ Kent State Noon ESPN+
Ohio @ Western Michigan 2 PM CSD.TV
Temple @ Miami (OH) 3:30 Gameplan
Eastern Michigan @ Bowling Green 4 PM CSD.TV
Conference USA
Memphis @ UAB 8 PM TH CBS CS
SMU @ Central Florida 3:30 CBS CS
UTEP @ Southern Miss 7 PM CBSCS XXL
WAC
Alcorn State @ New Mexico State 1:30
Nevada @ Idaho 5 PM CSD.TV
Sun Belt
Florida International @ North Texas 7 PM ESPN+
Louisiana-Lafayette @ Louisiana-Monroe 7 PM CSD.TV
Bowl Subdivision
Army @ Tulane 3 PM CST

Five weeks in the books in college football…

If you had Week 4 in your “First Lineal Title Change” pool, collect your prize! If you had Week 4 in your “First Lineal Title Held By A Team That’s Not Unbeaten” pool, collect your prize! If you had both… you obviously saw the Oregon State upset of USC coming (or you saw Mississippi State beating LSU, or you had Alabama losing by now).

It’s funny… before Georgia beat Hawaii in the Sugar Bowl to unify it with the Auburn Title, the 2004 Utah Title was, in a way, the “mid-major” title. Now, if Utah beats the Beavers this week, the 2007 Boise State title, another title created by a mid-major BCS buster, could serve the same role – only going through Washington, Ohio State, Illinois, USC, and Oregon State first. As for Bama, although this means the Auburn-Utah and BCS titles are now both held in the same division, it’s a long road to unification – LSU must beat Florida, South Carolina, Georgia, and Tulane (two of those teams are ranked), while Bama must face Kentucky, Ole Miss, Tennessee, and Arkansas State (one of those teams is ranked and another is in positive B Points). It would actually have been a shorter road if Georgia had won, as Georgia would have had to face only Tennessee and Vandy, but Vandy is still ranked. Bama really runs the risk of losing to Kentucky this week, and if that were to happen we’d need another loss or a Kentucky-LSU title game for unification before the bowls, but the game is at home and Bama can handle the pressure.

Lineal title updates and the new C Ratings, including stylesheet changes and most logos, are now up (or should be up by the time 45 minutes have passed from the timestamp on this post). No logos past R for now, and UConn will have to wait for the Us. Many of the changes are a result of the ratings being more volatile early in the season.

I think I figured out why I couldn’t load more than two files at a time in Freehostia’s new file manager: it only opens up a new line if you put something new in the first line, not any later lines. So if I change the file in the first line, I get a new line, but not if I put something in the line I would normally put it in. Which sucks.

Sports Watcher for the Weekend of 9/27-28

All times PDT. All college football rankings reflect my C Ratings for teams in positive B Points.

Saturday
9-12 PM: College Football, Northwestern @ Iowa (ESPN Classic). Three teams in my top 25 and a team not in the top 25 but ranked ahead of either one of these two could conceivably go in this spot. But none of them are playing teams in positive B Points, and this might be a game to take that leap into the top 25, especially for Northwestern. Wait… Northwestern’s actually good?!?

12-2 PM: WNBA Basketball, Los Angeles @ San Antonio (NBA TV). Wait… a conference finals game on NBA TV? And it might be the deciding game?!?

Honorable Mention: 12:30-4 PM: MLB Baseball, regional action (FOX). All the hot playoff chase action! Too bad everything’s probably already determined.

4:45-8 PM: College Football, Alabama @ defending 2004 Auburn-Utah title holder Georgia (ESPN). Boy, how about my prediction on last week’s Watcher that Alabama would be “surprisingly strong”? Isn’t this two straight weeks CBS has screwed up the best SEC game? Not that Tennessee-Auburn is bad, per se…

Sunday
10:30-3 PM: PGA Tour Golf, THE TOUR Championship (NBC). The end of the playoff system that’s nothing like a playoff that no one cares about.

Honorable Mention: 11-3 PM: NASCAR Sprint Cup Racing, Kansas race (ABC).

5:15-8:30 PM: NFL Football, Philadelphia @ Chicago (NBC). A mediocre team and a team that was mediocre last year. But at least you got the big time markets!

College Football Schedule: Week 5

All rankings come from the new C Ratings, out now. I’m going to do some reorganization later that will mean that link will always link to the current ratings; this will also involve improving access to last year’s ratings, and making some CSS changes. The asterisk still indicates lineal title holders (also updated). All times Eastern.

Top 25 Games
Alabama @ *Georgia 7:45 ESPN
*USC @ Oregon State 9 PM TH ESPN
Virginia Tech @ Nebraska 8 PM ABC
Mississippi @ Florida 12:30 R’com/Y’hoo
Wisconsin @ Michigan 3:30 ABC/ESPN
Weber State @ Utah 8 PM
Kent State @ Ball State Noon ESPN+
Illinois @ Penn State 8 PM ABC
Navy @ Wake Forest 3:45 ESPNU
#15 TCU @ #12 Oklahoma 7 PM FSN
Arkansas @ Texas 3:30 ABC
Western Kentucky @ #14 Kentucky 7 PM Gameplan
Central Arkansas @ #20 Tulsa 7 PM CBSCS XXL
#21 Colorado v. Florida State 3:30 ABC/ESPN
#22 Minnesota @ Ohio State Noon BTN
Troy @ #23 Oklahoma State 7 PM
Connecticut @ Louisville 8 PM FR ESPN2
Mississippi State @ #25 *LSU 7:30 ESPN2
Watchlist and Other Positive B Point Teams
Tennessee @ Auburn 3:30 CBS
Michigan State @ Indiana Noon ESPN
Houston @ East Carolina 3:30 CBS CS
Northwestern @ Iowa Noon ESPN Classic
Colorado State @ California 6 PM
Rhode Island @ Boston College 1 PM ESPN360
South Florida @ NC State 7:30 ESPNU
UAB @ South Carolina 7 PM Gameplan
North Carolina @ Miami (FL) Noon ESPN2
Oregon @ Washington State 6:15 FCS
Fresno State @ UCLA 3:30 ABC
This Week’s Other HD Games
Maryland @ Clemson Noon Raycom
Virginia @ Duke Noon ESPNU
Purdue @ Notre Dame 3:30 NBC
Big 12
Army @ Texas A&M 12:30 Versus
Big East
Pittsburgh @ Syracuse Noon ESPN+
Morgan State @ Rutgers 3:30 ESPN+
Pac-10
Stanford @ Washington 7 PT FCS
MAC
Northern Illinois @ Eastern Michigan Noon ESPN+
Western Michigan @ Temple 2 PM CSD.TV
VMI @ Ohio 2 PM CSD.TV
Buffalo @ Central Michigan 4 PM CSD.TV
Conference USA
Southern Methodist @ Tulane 8 PM TH CBS CS
Central Florida @ UTEP 8 PM CBS CS
WAC
San Jose State @ Hawaii 9 PT Gameplan
Bowl Subdivision
Arkansas State @ Memphis 2 PM CBSCS XXL
Cincinnati @ Akron 3:30 Gameplan
Marshall @ West Virginia 3:30 ESPN+
Louisiana-Lafayette @ Kansas State 3:30
Bowling Green @ Wyoming 4 PM mtn.
North Texas @ Rice 5 PM CBSCS XXL
Florida International @ Toledo 7 PM CSD.TV
New Mexico @ New Mexico State 8 PM Gameplan
Idaho @ San Diego State 8 PM
Nevada @ UNLV 7 PT mtn.

Sports Watcher for the Weekend of 9/20-21

All times PDT.

Saturday
9:30-12:45 PM: College football, Alabama @ Arkansas (Raycom Sports). Look for Alabama to be surprisingly strong when the new ratings come out on Monday.

12:45-4 PM: MLB Baseball, regional action (FOX). As usual, this is the only place baseball can fit.

4-6 PM: WNBA Basketball, New York @ Connecticut (NBATV). Now the playoffs are in full swing.

6-8 PM: WNBA Basketball, Sacramento @ San Antonio (NBATV). Man, the schedule really gets cramped this week and next with all the stuff I have to squeeze in.
Sunday
9-3 PM: Ryder Cup, final round (NBC). Is it just me, or does it seem like only sports journalists and groups that cover sports (ie ESPN) care about the Ryder Cup? And gee, it seems a lot bigger now that ESPN is covering the final round…

Honorable Mention: 10-3 PM: NASCAR Sprint Cup Racing, Dover race (ABC). When I looked, both this race and the next one were identified as the “Camping World 400”, but with different “presented by” sponsors.

5-8:30 PM: NFL Football, Dallas @ Green Bay (NBC). Obligatory NFL game that has to be SNF.

College Football Schedule: Week 4

Gonna try something different just for this week. Normally I put in the entire schedule, then I put in all the TV assignments, then I sort out the HD games. This week, for non-lineal title games, I’m going to start with putting in games from the TV schedule, and then adding in other games from the whole schedule. You shouldn’t notice the difference unless you’ve noticed that the schedule has pretty much followed the order on CBS Sports.com, and will seem a bit more random this time. All times Eastern, and college football rankings next week!

Lineal Titles (all games on Saturday)
Buffalo @ *Missouri 7 PM PPV
*LSU @ Auburn 7:45 ESPN
*Georgia @ Arizona State 8 PM ABC
This Week’s HD Games
Kansas State @ Louisville 8 PM WE ESPN2
West Virginia @ Colorado 8:30 TH ESPN
Baylor @ Connecticut 8 PM FR ESPN2
East Carolina @ NC State Noon ESPN
Iowa @ Pittsburgh Noon ESPN2
Florida Atlantic @ Minnesota Noon BTN
Troy @ Ohio State Noon BTN
Temple @ Penn State Noon BTN
Central Michigan @ Purdue Noon BTN
Mississippi State @ Georgia Tech Noon Raycom
Alabama @ Arkansas 12:30 R’com/Y’hoo
Central Florida @ Boston College 1 PM ESPNU
Arizona @ UCLA 3 PM FSN
Florida @ Tennessee 3:30 CBS
Rutgers @ Navy 3:30 CBS CS
Houston @ Colorado State 3:30
South Florida @ Florida International 5 PM ESPNU
Wake Forest @ Florida State 7 PM ESPN2
Rice @ Texas 7 PM FSN
Ball State @ Indiana 7 PM BTN
Fresno State @ Toledo 8:15 ESPNU
Other Games
Ohio @ Northwestern Noon BTN
Akron @ Army 1 PM ESPN Classic
Eastern Michigan @ Maryland 1 PM ESPN360
South Carolina State @ Clemson 1 PM ESPN360
Wyoming @ BYU 3 PM mtn.
Indiana State @ Northern Illinois 3 PM CBSCS XXL
Louisiana-Monroe @ Tulane 3 PM CST
Notre Dame @ Michigan State 3:30 ABC/ESPN
Miami (FL) @ Texas A&M 3:30 ABC
Virginia Tech @ North Carolina 3:30 ABC/ESPN
Marshall @ Southern Miss 3:30 CSS
Boise State @ Oregon 3:30 CSD.TV
Northeastern @ Syracuse 3:30
Utah @ Air Force 4 PM VS.
Idaho @ Utah State 4 PM Altitude
Alabama State @ UAB 4 PM CBSCS XXL
Sam Houston State @ Kansas 7 PM FCS
Portland State @ Washington State 7 PM FSN NW/FCS
SE Louisiana @ Louisiana Tech 7 PM ESPN+/CST
Wofford @ South Carolina 7 PM Gameplan
Middle Tenn. St. @ Arkansas State 7 PM CSD.TV
Kent State @ Louisiana-Lafayette 7 PM CSD.TV
New Mexico @ Tulsa 7 PM CBSCS XXL
Tennessee Tech @ Western Michigan 7 PM CSD.TV
Murray State @ Western Kentucky 7 PM CSD.TV
Vanderbilt @ Mississippi 7 PM PPV?
Massachusetts @ Texas Tech 7 PM
Miami (OH) @ Cincinnati 7:30 ESPN360
TCU @ SMU 8 PM CBS CS
Nicholls State @ Memphis 8 PM CBSCS XXL
Iowa State @ UNLV 9 PM mtn.
New Mexico State @ UTEP 9 PM CBSCS XXL
San Jose State @ Stanford 9 PM

Did I waste this weekend or what?

Posting the updated lineal titles now because I can. Looks like LSU will finally be defending against a half-decent team this week in Auburn. Georgia shouldn’t slouch either because for the second straight week a title defense is on ABC’s Saturday Night Football. USC has the week off and Missouri might as well, especially since they DO have a week off NEXT week. Three of the four title-holders’ next defenses are on national television.

I haven’t done a lick of work to set up the infrastructure for the college football rankings, which need to be up… next week. Yikes. AND I need to do, you know, actual productive things. AND I’m falling behind on my other plans for Da Blog as well. God I suck.

My thoughts on the new Monday Night Football graphics package

You can see some of ESPN’s new MNF package in action here:

And this video has a statistical graphic near the end, and a one-line statistic at about midway:

I think what may have been meant by “they’ll know it’s a better experience. But they won’t know why” was that even if people would notice the scoring bar was different, they’d only notice that most graphics were being kept out of sight if they were looking for it (perhaps because they noticed how the names of the announcers were displayed at the start of the broadcast). This would also seem to indicate an abandoning of the parallelogram in ESPN’s graphics package… were it not for the fact that some parallelograms were occasionally seen on some full-screen graphics. (Peripherally, ESPN also becomes the last NFL broadcaster to add an on-field down-and-distance indicator. ESPN also lagged in displaying the down and distance on their “dashboard”, apparently thinking the on-field graphic made it redundant, but I saw some complaints about having to wait too long to see the new down and distance.)

I would not be surprised if this never makes the leap outside Monday Night Football, at least on ESPN. ESPN seems to want to keep MNF special in some way, if the “orb” of previous years was any indication, and it would be difficult to fit college team names in there, at least if ESPN wanted to keep the team logos as well. ESPN’s wide team logos also seems best fit for the NFL; you would probably be looking at a very different look for baseball.

I can’t help but think the folks in the ESPN graphics department may be disappointed at this graphic’s revolutionary potential. Ironically, the centered score display, at least as refined by NFL Network, may be the next big evolution in score graphics, thanks to the intricities of widescreen vs. standard screen display.

College Football Schedule: Week 3

Everyone retains their titles this week (and by “everyone” I mean “the two teams that actually had games this week”) but that’s by no means guaranteed this week. Slight change to the schedule: Games on ESPN Gameplan with no other applicable item to put in the TV slot will be described as Gameplan, not ESPN360. All times Eastern.

Lineal Titles (all games on Saturday)
Nevada @ *Missouri 12:30 PPV
*Georgia @ South Carolina 3:30 CBS
North Texas @ *LSU 8 PM Gameplan
Ohio State @ *USC 8 PM ABC
This Week’s HD Games
North Carolina @ Rutgers 7:30 TH ESPN
Kansas @ South Florida 8 PM FR ESPN2
NC State @ Clemson Noon Raycom
Navy @ Duke Noon ESPNU
California @ Maryland Noon ESPN
Florida Atlantic @ Michigan State Noon ESPN2
Louisiana-Lafayette @ Illinois Noon BTN
Iowa State @ Iowa Noon BTN
Montana State @ Minnesota Noon BTN
Southern Illinois @ Northwestern Noon BTN
UAB @ Tennessee 12:30 R’com/Yahoo
Washington State @ Baylor 12:30 FSN
Michigan @ Notre Dame 3:30 NBC
Chattanooga @ Florida State 3:45 ESPNU
Auburn @ Mississippi State 7 PM ESPN2
SMU @ Texas Tech 7 PM FSN SW
Virginia @ Connecticut 7:30 ESPNU
Oklahoma @ Washington 7:45 ESPN
Wisconsin @ Fresno State 10:30 ESPN2
Other Games
Temple @ Buffalo Noon ESPN+
Ball State @ Akron 1 PM CSD.TV
Toledo @ Eastern Michigan 1 PM CSD.TV
Central Michigan @ Ohio 2 PM CSD.TV
Delaware State @ Kent State 2 PM CSD.TV
East Carolina @ Tulane 3 PM CBSCS XXL
Charleston Southern @ Miami (OH) 3 PM CSD.TV
North Dakota State @ Wyoming 3 PM
Oregon @ Purdue 3:30 ABC/ESPN
Penn State @ Syracuse 3:30 ABC
Georgia Tech @ Virginia Tech 3:30 ABC/ESPN
Air Force @ Houston 3:30 CBS CS
Arkansas @ Texas 3:30 ABC
UCLA @ BYU 3:30 VS.
Hawaii @ Oregon State 4 PM FSN/FCS
Western Michigan @ Idaho 5 PM CSD.TV
Middle Tenn. St. @ Kentucky 7 PM Gameplan
Memphis @ Marshall 7 PM CSS
Western Kentucky @ Alabama 7 PM Gameplan
Southern Miss @ Arkansas State 7 PM CSD.TV
Stanford @ TCU 7 PM mtn.
Rice @ Vanderbilt 7 PM
Alabama A&M @ Louisiana-Monroe 7 PM CSD.TV
Samford @ Mississippi 7 PM
Alcorn State @ Troy 7 PM CSD.TV
New Mexico State @ Nebraska 7 PM PPV
Missouri State @ Oklahoma State 7 PM FCS
Bowling Green @ Boise State 8 PM Gameplan
Arizona @ New Mexico 8 PM CBS CS
Utah @ Utah State 8 PM Gameplan
San Diego State @ San Jose State 8 PM CSD.TV
UNLV @ Arizona State 7 PT FSN AZ/FCS

Sports Watcher for the Weekend of 9/6-7

All times PDT.

Saturday
10-1 PM: College Football, New Hampshire @ Army (ESPN Classic). I chose this game almost completely at random. (Hey, Troy-LSU got postponed due to Gustav and would have interfered with tennis anyway, Missouri would also interfere with tennis, and all three lineal title games aren’t even on regional television. FSN South and SunSports for the Central Michigan-Georgia game doesn’t count.)

1:30-5 PM: College Football, West Virginia @ East Carolina (ESPN). Yes, Fox baseball will probably fall off the face of the earth with college football season in full swing.

5-7 PM: US Open Tennis, Women’s Final, S. Williams v. Jankovic (CBS). Rather than the all Williams final YOU demand, you get Williams versus a nobody!

7-10 PM: Ultimate Fighting Championship, UFC 88 (PPV). Eighty-eight, eighty-eight, eight eighty eighty-eight… why isn’t this being held in China? Okay, I’m in an odd mood this week, you can tell because I didn’t even mention Couture v. Lesnar…

Sunday
10-1 PM: NFL Football, NY Jets @ Miami (CBS). OMG it’s the debut of Brett Favre! Let’s watch every single Jets game with such rapt attention our eyes come out of our sockets! (NASCAR or WNBA also possible.)

1-4 PM: US Open Tennis, Men’s Final (CBS). I know nothing about this! NOTING!

Honorable Mention: 12:30-3 PM: IndyCar Racing, PEAK Antifreeze and Motor Oil Indy 300 (ABC). It’s the last race of the season! The championship all comes down to this! (Er… ignore that little Australian race in the corner coming in a month and a half…)

Second Honorable Mention: 11-3 PM: PGA Tour Golf, The Barclays BMW Championship, final round (NBC). More of the playoff that’s nothing like a playoff! Why is this even on here?

5-8 PM: MLB Baseball, Philadelphia @ NY Mets (ESPN). I like cookies.