After last weekend’s debacle, I am positive (POSITIVE I SAY!) that it won’t be nearly as bad this week. Hey I can even see that the specialty pack channels are appearing for Bell and that there are games on them (at least for Thursday). So there’s progress. Not nearly enough for me but I have exquisite tastes.

We have made it everyone! College football truly begins this Thursday night (OK I know it started this past Saturday…I choose to forget that). And, despite the fact the Week 1 schedule never stacks up against a few of the weeks later in the year, it still offers some tasty morsels for us rabid fans. So let’s get started shall we? Remember, the Bell/Rogers logos mean it’s a specialty pack broadcast so let’s pray that they get it right so we start the season on the right foot (since the first start went horribly wrong):

Thursday

US Canada Presbyterian at Wake Forest 6:30 PM Buffalo at Minnesota 7:00 PM #2 Ohio State at Indiana 8:00 PM Florida A&M at Arkansas 8:00 PM ULM at Memphis 9:15 PM

As of this point, this is what I know about this schedule:

PC-WF is on Rogers’ Super Sports Pack but I can’t see it for Bell yet. That may change although it’s the first of those odd games that don’t fit anywhere that kind of just appear on either or both of the specialty packs.

Bell subscribers don’t get BTN at all so no UB-UM for them.

Some Rogers subscribers (and Bell Satellite subscribers) don’t get CBSSN so no ULM-Memphis for them.

tOSU-Indy will also be on TSN GO as ESPN is doing the Megacast again. I think it’s a test run to see how well it does for an early regular season game. So if you want to see coaches discussing the game as it goes on or random guests who may know less football than you do discussing the game or perhaps Paul Finebaum allowing callers to discuss the game, this is for you. Otherwise, specialty pack.

Rogers customers now get the SEC Network. Good for them.

And this is just for the Thursday night. Ho boy this is going to be an interesting season to say the least. I can just feel it.

UPDATE #2: Well I’m an idiot. I totally forgot that FIU and UCF were starting at 6:00 on CBS Sports Network. Not a good start, Bossman.

UPDATE #3: Looks like Presbyterian-Wake Forest is not appearing anywhere here. I have a feeling this will be a long few days. Don’t get why there are still bugs to work out but there seems to be. Also, according to some readers, tOSU-Indy STILL not appearing on Rogers SSP guide. Seriously, Rogers?

UPDATE #4: So Rogers is also deciding to get into the fuck-uppery game early on. No Ohio State-Indiana. The major game of the night. Ridiculous. Reader mike has mentioned that there is a possibility that this has to do with the rest of the Megacast being on TSN GO and maybe its presence there has taken it off the Super Sports Pack for Rogers. Don’t know why that would be the case but this is Rogers so anything is possible.

UPDATE #5: Rogers just sent me a series of tweets stating that “due to changes from the broadcaster” they cannot show the game on the SSP. Then they pointed me to TSN.ca. So reader mike might be right on with his theory. Which is completely dumb. Smells like another fun Bell-Rogers pissing match.

Friday

US Canada Fordham at Army 6:00 PM Navy at Florida Atlantic 8:00 PM Utah State at #9 Wisconsin 9:00 PM Boston College at Northern Illinois 9:30 PM

TSN has their first game of the college football season with USU-Wisky (which is a bit of an odd pick but anyway). I am very intrigued with the Navy-FAU game since it’s Lane Kiffin’s first game as head coach for the Owls. This could be insight into whether the turnaround in Boca Raton will start now or if it will be the Kiffin Shitshow that some people love to watch. Nothing showing up yet for the Navy-FAU game on Bell. I assume that will happen soon enough.

Saturday Early

US Canada Akron at #6 Penn State Noon Wyoming at Iowa Noon Ball State at Illinois* Noon California at North Carolina Noon Kent State at #5 Clemson* Noon Bowling Green at Michigan State Noon Missouri State at Missouri Noon

All this should appear on the specialty packs. When it happens, who knows. Right now KSU-Clemson is not appearing on the SSP Guide. Why? I have no idea. Anyway, not the greatest Noon selection of games ever but it is another appetizer to the main course(s) later on. It’s also the reason why Week 1 is vastly overhyped compared to some weeks later on in October and November. I have just put down ACC Network for Cal-UNC. You might get it on WSBK or on WNLO. Doesn’t matter. That’s the game you get.

UPDATE #6: So of course Kent State-Clemson shows up on TSN5. It feels too early to give up but man they are not making this easy.

Saturday Afternoon

US Canada NC State vs. South Carolina (in Charlotte) 3:00 PM Nevada at Northwestern 3:30 PM #17 Florida vs. #11 Michigan (in Arlington) 3:30 PM UTEP at #7 Oklahoma 3:30 PM Temple at Notre Dame 3:30 PM Troy at Boise State 3:45 PM Kentucky at Southern Miss 4:00 PM Charleston Southern at Mississippi State 4:00 PM

Now we get into some good games. The obviously huge one is Florida-Michigan where who knows what will happen. Also NC State-South Carolina starts at 3 because ESPN still believes 3-hour windows are a thing in college football. Sneaky-good games include Temple-ND, Troy-Boise and Kentucky-Southern Miss. So a lot of good options during the afternoon.

Saturday Primetime

US Canada Appalachian State at #15 Georgia 6:15 PM South Alabama at Ole Miss 7:30 PM #16 Louisville vs. Purdue (in Indianapolis) 7:30 PM Georgia Southern at #12 Auburn 7:30 PM #1 Alabama vs. #3 Florida State (in Atlanta) 8:00 PM Arkansas State at Nebraska 8:00 PM Vanderbilt at Middle Tennessee 8:00 PM

Now this is what we’re talking about. Bama-FSU is one of the best opening weekend games in years. And the loser may not even be out of the national championship picture because these two teams are so high up in the rankings to start the season. Georgia should be on upset alert against App State. I see FOX got the short end of the stick this Saturday. That is obviously on purpose since some of their games later in the season are the best all year. Also, a note that TSN1 and TSN4 will join the Bama-FSU game in progress at about 9:00.

UPDATE #7: Two updates here. Bama-FSU will just be on TSNs 3 and 5. TSN1 and TSN4 now get BYU-LSU. Also, Appalachian State-UGA not showing up anywhere, at least for Bell, yet. Hopefully that changes.

UPDATE #9: Had a conversation on Twitter and someone mentioned that AppState-UGA is appearing in SD only on Bell. Should be fine on Rogers. Should be. This is why each channel should mirror one of the American channels it picks games from. One could be ESPN, one ESPN2, etc. This would be efficient though which is a big no-no.

Saturday Late Night

US Canada BYU vs. #13 LSU (in New Orleans) 9:30 PM

Originally, this game was in Houston but we all know what has happened there. Hurricane Harvey has devastated that city/region with more rainfall than many areas get in an entire year happening in the span of one week. I am glad they just made all these sports decisions (including the BYU-LSU game) days in advance to avoid any unnecessary problems. Should be interesting now though since LSU will have a definite home-field advantage kind of feel to this one.

UPDATE #8: As per the update above, BYU-LSU goes to TSN1 and TSN4.

Sunday

US Canada South Carolina State at Southern* 2:30 PM #21 Virginia Tech vs. #22 West Virginia (in Landover) 7:30 PM Texas A&M at UCLA 7:30 PM

After last year’s incredible Notre Dame-Texas game, this year there are two big Sunday night games. ABC and FOX go head-to-head for viewers and this will be a tough call. Both games should be really good and all four have some dark horse contender type teams for the New Year’s Six…well, except West Virginia in my opinion. So watch the Mountaineers destroy the Hokies just to make me look bad.

UPDATE #10: Double digits and it’s just the first weekend. Man. Anyway, VT-WVU is also appearing on TSN3. Doesn’t really matter since I am sure most of us do get ABC but anyway, figured I would update it even though the game has been on for over an hour.

Monday

US Canada #25 Tennessee vs. Georgia Tech (in Atlanta) 8:00 PM

The final day of five college football days in a row pits the Champions of Life against the Ramblin’ Wreck. Hopefully I’m not worn out by this point. Hahahahahaha, of course I won’t be.

As of right now, there are no games past tonight for Bell’s specialty pack and a few games aren’t appearing on Rogers’ specialty pack. That should rectify itself soon enough but never assume with these things. The missing games for Rogers are denoted with asterisks (*).

UPDATE: Games are appearing on Bell for tomorrow night. Or more like game. As in the singular. Since there’s only one on the specialty pack.

Games to set your eyeballs on

Alabama vs. Florida State (in Atlanta) (8:00, ABC, almost all the TSNs at some point) – This is THE game to watch in Week 1. The hope is that the Noles will show up and keep this game competitive since we know what Bama has done in the past to high profile teams in Week 1. Should be a good one and a must watch even for casual fans.

Florida vs. Michigan (in Arlington) (3:30, ABC/TSN5) – After Florida has suspended a bunch of players, who knows what this game will look like. At one point, this looked like it would be the best game of the weekend but maybe not anymore. Still a must watch but I will be very intrigued to see how Jim Bob McElwain gets his team going for this one. Maybe he could just fuck a shark in the locker room.

Virginia Tech vs. West Virginia (in Landover) (Sunday, 7:30, ABC) – For the first time in a dozen years, the Black Diamond Trophy will be up for grabs between these two. It would have been nice if the Mountaineers had ended up in the ACC rather than the Big XII but hey, realignment is almost never about logic. Anyway, two under-the-radar teams who are hoping to make a lot of noise to start their seasons.

Ohio State at Indiana (Thursday, 8:00, specialty pack) – Oh I can’t forget that this is a MEGACAST so there are seventeen other options (I think) to watch this game. Watch it with the coaches. Watch it with other analysts. Watch it in Spanish. Watch it with celebrities. Watch it with people taking a massive shit in the ESPN bathroom in Bristol. Good times. It will be very interesting to see if the Hoosiers can scare the Buckeyes a bit in this one.

BYU vs. LSU (in New Orleans) (9:30, specialty pack) – Yes LSU now gets home-field advantage pretty much in this one. It might not matter. If the Cougs can somehow pull this off (and finish the game before midnight when they all turn into pumpkins), Ed Orgeron will go from feel-good coach of his home state team to HOT SEAT SUPREME!

Honourable mention: Appalachian State at Georgia (6:15, specialty pack); Texas A&M at UCLA (Sunday, 7:30, FOX); Tennessee vs. Georgia Tech (in Atlanta) (Monday, 8:00, specialty pack)

Some gambling fun and games

Here are my usually pretty bad straight-up picks. I don’t do against the spread. Otherwise this section would be pretty pointless.

Alabama over Florida State (but it will be close)

Michigan over Florida

Virginia Tech over West Virginia

LSU over BYU

Notre Dame over Temple

UCLA over Texas A&M

Ohio State over Indiana

Kentucky over Southern Miss (this won’t be easy for the Wildcats though)

North Carolina over Cal

Texas over Maryland

So. We are here. Finally. Week 1. Five straight days of college FOOTBAWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW! I am happy it’s here. I really am. I will not let Bell and Rogers (and other telcos) off the hook for not being able to make easy decisions with a cable package that many of us pay a premium for. I will be updating this throughout the next few days as updates come along since I am expecting many of them especially with most of the specialty pack for Bell not even being on the guide yet. I will also be live tweeting at times (@LikeABauce1978). I look back now and wonder why I even included the number. Would a lot of people have that Twitter handle? Who knows. Besides, Twitter can be a shithole anyway. I like it but I shy away from the stupid areas (for which there are many). And I have been in arguments online which, in hindsight, looked pretty silly. Oh well, it is what it is. Enjoy the games everyone and keep tuned to this post.