Today's Schedule of Games
No killer matchups like last week, but still some interesting games as the season gets rolling in earnest.
Here are some of today’s highlights:
At Noon on FOX: #8 USC at Colorado. The Coach Prime circus has been muted, but it has by no means left town. It’s still the big story for the college football media. For now. Colorado actually matches up better against USC than they did against Oregon. But not that much better. USC will boat race Colorado, and the Deion story will diminish from an amazing story to a merely interesting story, and slowly start to move aside for other CFB stories. *snort* yeah, right.
Also at Noon on ABC: Clemson at Syracuse. This is an under-the-radar game that is a much bigger deal than it is being given credit for. Syracuse is undefeated, and the dome is a tough place to play. The place will be rocking. Meanwhile Clemson stumbles in at 0-2. Another loss could spell the end of the Dabo Swinney regime. It would be a canary in the coal mine for all those programs that were blatantly buying players . . . everybody can buy players now. There is no hidden advantage anymore. And Dabo’s refusal to use the Portal is making it worse. Couldn’t happen to a nicer cheater.
In the Afternoon at 3:30 PM on FOX: #2 Michigan at Nebraska. A lot of people are calling this a trap game, but I disagree with that. This is Michigan’s first game on the road, against a Big Ten opponent with both a tricky offense and a tricky defense to adjust to. Nebraska will have Michigan’s undivided attention. There will be no sleepwalking in this one. As is the Michigan way though, we will be uncomfortable through 3 quarters. But then the laws of physics will take over and Michigan will grind Nebraska down. I’m still glad it’s not a night game.
Also at 3:30 PM on ABC: #24 Kansas at #3 Texas. I’m not sold on Kansas (especially Kansas over Texas), but there are only a few matchups of ranked teams so I will check this one out. It won’t last very long. Texas under Sark has been known to stumble after a big win, but this won’t be the game that happens.
Also at 3:30 PM on CBS: #1 Georgia at Auburn. Games like this will be the death of my wallet when the world fully moves to a pay-per-view streaming model. It’s a game I want to take a look at here and there, but it’s not a game I’m passionately interested in (unless Auburn does something surprising). Right now I can check it out all I want because it’s easy and free. When it costs me something, it’s going to be a dilemma. I’m going to burn too much money out of habit for a while until I realize that the party is over. I will no longer be able to watch parts of every mildly interesting game every week. I will miss that. But for now, we live! Auburn will keep it interesting for a while but then Georgia will let me practice putting down the remote and moving on to something else.
In the Evening at 6:00 PM on ESPN: #13 LSU at #20 Ole Miss. I love an SEC night game. And speaking of circus, Brian “Faaamily” Kelly against Lane “Tarmac” Kiffin is its own brand of circus. Both are controversial coaches, but both are still good coaches. Kelly is a more well-rounded coach and his team is more balanced, so I’ll go with LSU.
At 7:30 PM on ABC: #11 Notre Dame at #17 Duke. The Bullies of Buckeyes take their show on the road. They may even bring more than 10 players. They are in a funk over that (comically unnecessary) loss, and a scrappy well-coached Duke team will punch them in the mouth. But then they will channel their inner Lou Holtz and overpower the Blue Devils. It will at least be fun for a while.
Finally, your Pac-12 After Dark Special - meaningless crazy football just for the fun of it:
At 10:00 PM on PAC 12 Network: #7 Washington at Arizona. This is a classic Pac-12 After Dark Special . . . favored team on the road far from home at night against an overlooked underdog. Then the underdog bites them in the ass. Arizona especially seems to be a place where this happens a lot. Will it happen again tonight? I’ll go out on a limb and say it will. Arizona over Washington in an upset that nobody will know about until Sunday.
SATURDAY SEPTEMBER 30, 2023:
AWAY HOME TIME TV
NOON:
6 Penn State @ Northwestern 12:00 PM BTN
8 USC @ Colorado 12:00 PM FOX
22 Florida @ Kentucky 12:00 PM ESPN
Texas A&M @ Arkansas 12:00 PM SECN
Louisiana @ Minnesota 12:00 PM BTN
Utah State @ UConn 12:00 PM CBSSN
Clemson @ Syracuse 12:00 PM ABC
UAB @ Tulane 12:00 PM ESPN2
South Alabama @ James Madison 12:00 PM ESPNU
Buffalo @ Akron 12:00 PM ESPN+
AFTERNOON:
Eastern Michigan @ Central Michigan 1:30 PM ESPN+
Virginia @ Boston College 2:00 PM CW NETWORK
Miami (OH) @ Kent State 2:30 PM ESPN+
Arizona State @ California 3:00 PM PAC12
1 Georgia @ Auburn 3:30 PM CBS
2 Michigan @ Nebraska 3:30 PM FOX
24 Kansas @ 3 Texas 3:30 PM ABC
Indiana @ Maryland 3:30 PM BTN
Illinois @ Purdue 3:30 PM Peacock
Wagner @ Rutgers 3:30 PM BTN
Bowling Green @ Georgia Tech 3:30 PM ACCN
Houston @ Texas Tech 3:30 PM FS2
Baylor @ UCF 3:30 PM FS1
Arkansas State @ Massachusetts 3:30 PM ESPN+
South Florida @ Navy 3:30 PM CBSSN
Old Dominion @ Marshall 3:30 PM ESPN+
Ball State @ Western Michigan 3:30 PM ESPN+
Northern Illinois @ Toledo 3:30 PM ESPNU
23 Missouri @ Vanderbilt 4:00 PM SECN
Boise State @ Memphis 4:00 PM ESPN2
Hawai'i @ UNLV 4:00 PM -
New Mexico @ Wyoming 4:00 PM -
EVENING:
13 LSU @ 20 Ole Miss 6:00 PM ESPN
9 Oregon @ Stanford 6:30 PM PAC12
Iowa State @ 14 Oklahoma 7:00 PM FS1
East Carolina @ Rice 7:00 PM ESPN+
Abilene Christian @ North Texas 7:00 PM ESPN+
Coastal Carolina @ Georgia Southern 7:00 PM NFL NET
Troy @ Georgia State 7:00 PM ESPN+
Texas State @ Southern Miss 7:00 PM ESPN+
Utah Tech @ Colorado State 7:00 PM -
11 Notre Dame @ 17 Duke 7:30 PM ABC
South Carolina @ 21 Tennessee 7:30 PM SECN
Michigan State @ Iowa 7:30 PM NBC|Peacock
Charlotte @ SMU 7:30 PM ESPNU
Pittsburgh @ Virginia Tech 8:00 PM ACCN
West Virginia @ TCU 8:00 PM ESPN2
Appalachian State @ UL Monroe 8:00 PM ESPN+
San Diego State @ Air Force 8:00 PM CBSSN
12 Alabama @ Mississippi State 9:00 PM ESPN
LATE NIGHT:
7 Washington @ Arizona 10:00 PM PAC12
Nevada @ 25 Fresno State 10:30 PM FS1
September 30th, 2023 at 10:28 AM ^
Here's a fancy schmancy schedule link with some nice aesthetically pleasing graphics:
September 30th, 2023 at 10:42 AM ^
I'm playing at a wedding tonight, so I can't watch MSU take on Iowa. Drat.
September 30th, 2023 at 11:22 AM ^
Whatever you are playing will be much better than whatever MSU and Iowa are going to play.
September 30th, 2023 at 11:59 AM ^
Most definitely- I'm gonna put my set list together and warm up with USC-Colorado on for background noise, but it's pretty standard wedding dance stuff- September, a few Stevie Wonder tunes, I Wanna Dance with Somebody, etc. We do three one-hour sets, I think we've got something like 40 tunes lined up for tonight.
September 30th, 2023 at 12:11 PM ^
Ah yes the wedding gigs. Good pay, but dealing with bullshit in excess of any other kind of show:
- the diva mother of the bride/groom who thinks you’re part of the venue/catering staff
- the pissed off and stressed out bridesmaids who just want to go apeshit on someone
- the drunk groomsmen who feel the need to be part of the show. Bonus points if any of them play(ed) any instrument: you will hear about it all night
- the drunk father of the bride/groom who actually does get on stage and takes over a mic
- I’ve never actually had a problem with a bride or a groom at a wedding gig. They’re always too busy. The only thing that even vaguely qualifies is requests to play songs multiple times, which means resetting the MIDI/click/cue tracks
September 30th, 2023 at 1:00 PM ^
You know, I haven't had toooo many run-ins with bullshit at the wedding gigs I do- we do get song requests, but the organizers do a pretty good job at asking the party for any requests in the planning phase, so a lot of times we have them in the book already as part of the set list. We may just have to call an audible to pull the tune out ahead of time. We don't go with MIDI tracks or song intros, so that's never an issue for us.
I've never really had any issues with drunk groosmpeople (yet haha) but we have had wedding party members who played an instrument in college and asked to play something, but they did it as part of the speeches during dinner, it was pretty cringey.
Definitely good money though! I'm playing with the Midland Symphony next week, and the Flint Symphony the week after that, and my paycheck tonight will be pretty close to what I bring in for both of those gigs, and they include more travel and multiple rehearsals. It's fun, though- I'm primarily an orchestral player (I play trombone) but I'll play whatever gigs I can get my hands on, and playing Earth, Wind, and Fire is a nice change of pace from Tchaikovsky. I really enjoy the variety.
September 30th, 2023 at 1:20 PM ^
I’m a guitarist. The amount of Motown I’ve seen in wedding requests - for YOUNG couples - has skyrocketed in recent years. My last band didn’t have a horn section, so I approximated it with guitar synthesizers. It got pretty good responses!
Our policy was that the bride has to provide written signoff on the setlist lol.
September 30th, 2023 at 10:57 AM ^
This is a good preview
September 30th, 2023 at 11:11 AM ^
Thanks. I missed doing it last week because I was out at Northwestern where my son goes. Big surprise on the NW - Minnesota game going to overtime after being down 3 TDs and then NW winning it in OT. GO CATS!!
September 30th, 2023 at 11:36 AM ^
Good for you M-Dog. Higher calling indeed. Hope you had a great time with him.
September 30th, 2023 at 12:03 PM ^
Very cool. He must be a smart kid.
September 30th, 2023 at 12:31 PM ^
Heh. Just like his dad.
September 30th, 2023 at 11:10 AM ^
PAC-12 After Dark: that's the PAC-12's problem right there. They are irrelevant nationally, and attracting modest TV packages because NO ONE east of the Mississippi wants to stay up that late to watch them.
Oh look, Colorado and USC can play at noon Eastern. When I was stationed in California, it was no problem waking up for breakfast and coffee instead of BBQ and beer to watch Michigan games.
We're losing a storied Conference because of a stupid marketing gambit.
September 30th, 2023 at 11:15 AM ^
Yep, living out west you just get used to getting up and immediately turning on the game. I actually miss that. Get the whole rest of Saturday to do whatever. It was like getting an extra weekend day.
September 30th, 2023 at 11:33 AM ^
Very good to see this back M-Dog. Missed it last week. Also glad our game is not a night game even though it will be a hot one for all involved. Thank you.
September 30th, 2023 at 11:39 AM ^
My picks in order:
Toledo
Kentucky
Maryland
Coastal Carolina
Air Force
Illinois
Eastern Michigan
Dook/ND under
Good luck all.
September 30th, 2023 at 11:41 AM ^
You really think Clemson fires Dabo if he loses today?
September 30th, 2023 at 12:32 PM ^
No, but he's starting to slide toward a warm seat . . .
September 30th, 2023 at 11:43 AM ^
I'd be so happy if Iowa beat Sparty 3-0.
September 30th, 2023 at 11:51 AM ^
Clemson won't be firing anyone today, not even with a loss. But the writing will be on the wall at the Clemson Football-Mahal...
And yeah, I'll stay up to watch the hubbub surrounding Washington. The After Dark games are super fun to watch. And the B1G fans that haven't watched yet are going to learn that in the next few years, because it's coming...
September 30th, 2023 at 12:37 PM ^
It's not just the USC's / UCLA's / Oregon's / Washington's that make those games fun. It's the "where the hell did that come from??" upset efforts of the Arizona's / Cal's / Oregon State's, usually at home, that make them fun. I will miss those games.
September 30th, 2023 at 2:47 PM ^
Fk off already with the world famous ohio state university and people say they like that idiot gus johnson
September 30th, 2023 at 3:20 PM ^
I’ve got Florida, Texas and Oklahoma going down. So far Kentucky is kept up their end. Let’s go Kansas and Iowa St!
September 30th, 2023 at 5:57 PM ^
In this week's 'availability report', MSU listed starting linebacker Jacoby Windmon as out for the year. The redshirt senior had 15 tackles, including two tackles for loss and a sack this season. In addition to Windmon, Cincinnati transfer safety Armorion Smith has been ruled out for the season. Starting cornerback Charles Brantley, who did not play during MSU's loss last week against Maryland, is still listed as 'Out' for today's game.
On the offensive side of the ball, Michigan State also lists starting right guard Geno VanDeMark and rotational offensive lineman Keyshawn Blackstock as 'Out' against the Hawkeyes. South Florida transfer tailback Jaren Mangham, who has yet to play this season, is once again listed 'Out' today.