It’s happening everywhere right now.  High school football seasons have ended across America.  Seniors who haven’t already signed a college athletics scholarship are hoping to hear from recruiters – especially those from the “brand name” schools.

There’s one big problem.  The phones aren’t ringing.

This is another consequence of the changing landscape of college football.  In prior years, many college football teams would be scrambling today to high schools across the country to sign talented young players.

Unless your name happens to be Manning, many top high school football players are being told to sit tight and wait right now.

The reason is the NCAA’s version of the old telephone party line called the “Transfer Portal”.

Let’s say you were recruited by Large State University last year and unhappily sat on the bench for most of the year waiting for a chance to play.  If your dream was playing college football and, perhaps, making it to the NFL, you will find yourself with hundreds of other current college players in the same predicament.  Many are picking-up the NCAA’s transfer portal “party line” phone and announcing (to anyone willing to listen) that they are ready, willing, and able to transfer to another college immediately.

What about the college football team you are currently playing for?  No problem!  The NCAA transfer portal has effectively made every current college player a permanent free agent.  Players can change schools every year if someone else is willing to take a chance on them.

On the flip side of this huge mess, the player’s current college is also more willing to pull the rug (meaning the player’s scholarship) out from under some benchwarmers, too.  Your current college is also watching the transfer portal and shopping for talented players on other teams who want to transfer to your current school (and take your place).

Welcome to college football’s rapidly growing new game of Musical Chairs!

This new game is causing a permanent change in the high school football recruiting process and in the post-season college bowl games.

For example, a top ranked high school running back may have heard overtures from Large State University before and during his senior season.  However, he has now put on “hold” while the college reviews available players on the NCAA transfer portal first.  The school is searching for more experienced college football players who may desire to transfer into the school.  Though the high school football player may turn out to be a better college football player than the incoming transfer, many college programs apparently feel more secure in making room for a college transfer instead of an incoming freshman right out of high school.

There’s also the issue of money.  In some cases, it could mean BIG money.

The relatively new pay-for-play scheme known as “Name, Image, and Likeness” (NIL) allows for college athletes to receive money from legitimate (and, perhaps, a few nefarious) businesses in order to promote their products or services.

The colleges are quickly becoming more sophisticated in how to entice new money into their school’s NIL pool of cash.  That money comes from wealthy supporters along with corporate sponsors.  The NIL (with a little help from the college coaching staff) will determine how much money is to be redistributed to any player.  In return, the college athlete must perform some type of reciprocating service for the NIL sponsor(s).  This is usually in the form of personal appearances and/or commercials.

Instead of the old-fashioned method of having a wealthy booster buy a car or slip a wad of hundred dollar bills into the pockets of a high school recruit, today’s colleges are allowed to utilize these legal NIL payments to players as inducements to sign with the school.

Instead of beating a path to sign high school seniors to a ...

It’s time to put my reputation on the line and predict each of the 41 games in the upcoming college football bowl season.  After providing a season’s long ranking of all 131 major college teams, let’s review each bowl match-up by the SwampSwamiSports.com rankings, predict the winners and provide a few insights to prepare you for the upcoming three week marathon of college football bowl watching!

My projected winners will have the lower SwampSwamiSports.com numerical ranking and are denoted in bold.  Here we go!

#1 – Friday, Dec. 16 – Bahamas Bowl – 9:30AM ESPN – #82 Miami (OH) vs #83 UAB  

This is one of the closest projected match-ups of the bowl season.  Both teams went 6-6.  The edge goes to the Redhawks – barely.

#2 – Friday, Dec. 16 – Cure Bowl – 2PM ESPN – #5 Troy vs. #9 UT-San Antonio

Mark this game down as “Must Watch” TV.  These teams both went 11-2 and are conference champions.  This could be a dandy!

#3 – Saturday, Dec 17 – Fenway Bowl  – 10AM ESPN – #22 Cincinnati vs. #51 Louisville

The Bearcats went 9-3 and Louisville 7-5.   Seeing a football game in baseball’s historic Fenway Park in Boston is a unique viewing experience.

#4 – Saturday, Dec 17 – Las Vegas Bowl – 1:30PM ESPN – #20 Oregon State vs. #67 Florida

9-3 Oregon State should (on paper) roll this depleted 6-6 Florida team.  The Gators get to try-out a new QB as overrated Anthony Richardson has departed for the NFL draft.  Meanwhile, Florida back-up Jalen Kitna was recently arrested on child pornography charges.  Third-string QB Jack Miller will hand the ball off – a lot – to Florida’s talented group of running backs.

#5 – Saturday, Dec 17 – Jimmy Kimmel Bowl – 2:30PM ABC – #27 Fresno St. vs. #62 Washington St.

Fresno State (9-4) finished on a roll while the Cougars (7-5) faltered after a hot start.  This has the makings of a real snoozer.  Zzzz

#6 – Saturday, Dec 17 – Lending Tree Bowl – 4:45PM ESPN – #65 Southern Miss vs. #97 Rice

Rice is the big story here.  At 5-7, Rice was the only bowl team selected this year with less than six wins.  Yes, it’s complicated.  Appalachian State went 6-6 but two of their wins came over small-college FCS teams.  Army also just finished 6-6 but didn’t win their sixth game (against Navy) until the week after bowl selections were made.  As a result of Rice’s top ranked academic rating, the Owls earned the tie-breaker as America’s “most deserving” 5-7 team.   And now you know…the REST…of the story!

#7 – Saturday, Dec 17 – New Mexico Bowl – 6:30PM  ABC – #48 SMU vs. #52 BYU

Both teams finished 7-5, have explosive offenses but played inconsistently this year.  A toss-up.

#8 – Saturday, Dec 17 – Frisco Bowl – 8:15PM  ESPN – #28 Boise State vs. #64 North Texas

Though the Broncos finished 9-4, the 7-5 Mean Green from North Texas will be playing a virtual “home” game in the nearby Dallas area.   After six bowl games today, good luck staying awake for this Saturday nightcap!

#9 – Monday, Dec 19 – Myrtle Beach Bowl – 1:30PM ESPN – #32 Marshall vs. #75 U Conn

Marshall went to Notre Dame and beat the Irish this year.  The Huskies are happy just to be playing in their first bowl game since 2015 (ironically, they lost that bowl game to Marshall!).

#10 – Tuesday, Dec 20 – Famous Idaho Potato Bowl – 2:30PM ESPN – #44 Eastern Michigan vs. #45 San Jose State

The Eagles from the MAC went 8-4, while the Mountain West Spartans finished 7-5.  The game will be played on the lovely blue turf in Boise.  Beware of incoming ducks trying to land on the blue football field (not a joke!).

#11 – Tuesday, Dec 20 – Boca Raton Bowl – 6:30PM ESPN – #41 Liberty vs. #46 Toledo

If you are a fan of an NFL team in Denver, Chicago, Phoenix, Indianapolis, New Orleans, Green Bay or Houston, your upcoming Christmas stocking is likely to feature a big lump of coal inside.

That’s because your favorite NFL team currently has a 1% or less statistical chance of reaching the NFL playoffs in the final five weeks of the regular season.

For many of us, this time of year is already quite stressful.  Trying to satisfy everyone during these hectic weeks leading up to Christmas is already tough enough.

For NFL fans in the cities mentioned earlier, the reality is finally settling-in that your favorite team really does stink this year and has a 99% chance or more to miss the NFL playoffs.

Denver Broncos

Denver fans are really suffering this year.  The team spent nearly $50 million per year to acquire the one piece of the puzzle which Broncos fans thought would take them back to the top.  Quarterback Russell Wilson jumped ship from Seattle to Denver last year.  He was hoped to be the spark needed to revive the pro football fortunes in the Mile High City.

Denver has a record of 3-9 today.  Even if they were to win five straight games to finish 8-9, the Broncos will still miss the AFC playoffs.

At this point, Denver Broncos fans would gladly take a one-game winning streak.

I don’t remember a bigger free agent dud than Russell Wilson has been in Denver this season.  The former Super Bowl winner in Seattle appeared to desire a change of scenery after playing his first ten seasons with the Seahawks.

Orange Crush fans in the Rocky Mountain region loudly welcomed Russell Wilson to the Broncos.   After Denver finished 7-10 in 2021, the Broncos believed that a top-level quarterback was exactly what this team needed to rescue their lingering offensive woes.   Denver’s defense had allowed the third fewest points in the AFC during 2021.  All this team needed was to score more points on offense, and Broncos should quickly become a factor in the AFC West this season.

Russell Wilson, a nine-time NFL Pro Bowl quarterback while in Seattle, was ready for a new beginning in Denver.  The Broncos reworked his contract and agreed to pay him nearly $50 million per season ($245 million over five years).  The franchise bet heavily on their new quarterback to quickly deliver success on the football field in Denver.

Through the first 12 games of his time in Denver, Russell Wilson has thrown just eight touchdown passes.  Over his previous ten NFL seasons, Wilson has thrown at least 20 touchdowns in every year.  He’ll need to throw another dozen touchdowns in the final month to avoid setting a new career low.

Last Sunday in Baltimore, Denver was only able to manage three field goals on offense but held a 9-3 lead against Baltimore late in the fourth quarter.  The Broncos then allowed a game-winning touchdown in the final minute – engineered by the Ravens’ back-up quarterback – as Denver lost 10-9.

If you think the Broncos fans are depressed, let’s now discuss the New Orleans Saints.

New Orleans Saints

Monday night in Florida, the Saints were leading Tom Brady’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers 16-3 with less than four minutes to go in the game.  With a win, the disappointing Saints would have regained some hope for the season and moved to 5-8.  Despite that poor record, the Saints would have moved to just one-half game behind Tampa Bay for the lead in the dreadful NFC South division.

Knowing that Tom Brady is the NFL’s biggest magician late in football games, the Saints failed to capitalize on several opportunities to put this game away late in the fourth quarter.  Right on cue, Tampa Bay’s talented 45-year old legend rallied the Buccaneers to score twice in the final three minutes.  Tampa Bay scored a shocking 17-16 last-second win over New Orleans.

An endless parade of made-for-television (and conference wallets) college football conference championship games have now been played.

After all was said and done, there really weren’t a lot of surprises.

Georgia (13-0) is still the best team, by far, in the SEC.   Even Alabama (reluctantly) knows it this year.

Michigan (13-0) beat a rather mediocre 8-5 Purdue team to win the Big Ten.  Yawn.

Kansas State kicked a field goal in overtime to even the score with formerly unbeaten, TCU (now 12-1).

A very good 10-3 Kansas State team was crowned the winner of the Big 12 Conference championship.   But how does that make any sense after TCU went 9-0 during the regular season beating every Big 12 conference team (including Kansas State)?

Out west, Utah proved that they have USC’s number once again this year.  The 10-3 Utes ruined the post-season dreams of the USC Trojans (11-2 –with both losses to Utah) and claimed the Pac-12 Championship.  Utah is heading to the Rose Bowl to play Penn State.  Meanwhile,   USC is going to play…

Tulane!  The 11-2 Green Wave is going to play in its first major bowl game since the year 1939 with its 45-28 American Athletic Conference championship win over UCF.  The Greenies and USC will do battle in Dallas on January 2.  Bring a calculator with you to keep score!

The Sunbelt Conference champion Troy Trojans are one of the best teams you probably never saw on television this season.  They finished 11-2 with a convincing 45-26 victory over a solid 9-3 Coastal Carolina team.

For its bowl reward, Troy will play another Rodney Dangerfield-type of team in the Cure Bowl in Orlando on Friday, December 16.  The UTSA Roadrunners quietly finished another quality season with a terrific 11-2 record and are champions of Conference USA.

The true reason why these relatively meaningless conference championship games were played this past weekend is the same reason why you will soon be watching an endless procession of fairly meaningless bowl games.

The television networks get to sell 3 ½ hours of holiday advertisements during each game in the weeks leading up to Christmas Day.

The television contract money being paid to the major football conferences must be recouped, so that’s why we now get to sit through endless three and four minute commercial breaks selling us cars, jewelry, beer, snack foods, and assorted gadgets.

It’s a reminder of how big of a business that college football has continued to become.

This weekend, a select group of people was paid handsomely to sit in a lovely hotel to watch the endless parade of conference championship football games on television.  Much like February’s appearance of the groundhog, this special committee has watched the games, slept (that wasn’t hard to do after most of those games) and has now rendered the decision which America has awaited to hear today.

The 2022 College Football Playoffs will feature:

#1.     Georgia (13-0)

#2.     Michigan (13-0)

#3.     TCU (12-1)

#4.     Ohio State (11-1)

To the surprise of virtually no one except ESPN’s on-camera staff, the Playoff Committee opted not to pair Michigan against Ohio State in a semi-final rematch of a game played just a week ago.  Instead, Ohio State will get to prove itself against the current Godzilla of college football, Georgia.  This New Year’s Eve match-up will be played in Atlanta (just like yesterday’s SEC Championship game).

Good luck with that, Buckeyes!    

Meanwhile, the two darlings of this year’s college football playoffs will square off in the opening semi-final game at the Fiesta Bowl in Tempe, Arizona on Friday afternoon, December 31.

Both Michigan and TCU have fascinated fans in 2022.

While the major universities continue to moan and groan about their upcoming four-team College Football Playoffs, the smaller division schools are already battling in their playoffs and are now into the Sweet 16 round of games this weekend.

The South Dakota State Jackrabbits are in the very unusual position of being the #1 overall seed in the FCS football playoffs as the games continue on Saturday.

Despite having been a part of the FCS playoffs for the past eleven seasons, the Jackrabbits have watched as fellow Missouri Valley Conference competitor North Dakota State has hoisted the championship trophy nine times in the past eleven seasons.   It must have been hard for South Dakota State’s fans and players to watch.

This season, South Dakota State won this year’s annual match-up with a 23-21 win over North Dakota State in Fargo.  The team also posted a perfect Missouri Valley Conference record for the first time in 2022.  The Jackrabbits have never won the FCS title since the division started in 1978.   Will this finally be their year to breakthrough?

The final 16 teams are playing on Saturday.  Unfortunately, you’ll need to pay for ESPN+ to watch each of this week’s games as the major networks continue to ignore these interesting and meaningful games in favor of the major college conference championships.

The FCS finals will be played in the Dallas suburb of Frisco, Texas on Saturday, January 8, 2023.

Let’s take a brief look at all eight games being played on Saturday and become more familiar with the teams.

Delaware Blue Hens (8-4) @ #1 South Dakota State Jackrabbits (11-1)

The Blue Hens advanced to this week’s game after destroying Saint Francis 56-17 last weekend in the play-in round.  Their “reward” is now a long, cold road trip to play the number one team in this year’s FCS division, South Dakota State.  Delaware is led by quarterback Nolan Henderson.   He has thrown 32 touchdown passes already this season.

South Dakota State earned the #1 seed by going 8-0 against a very tough Missouri Valley Conference schedule.   The Jackrabbits’ only loss this year came in a very close 7-3 fourth quarter loss at Big Ten member, Iowa.   The team’s balanced offense (160 yards per game on the ground and 207 via the air) and a stifling defense (allowing just 14 points per game) are the calling cards for the top-rated FCS team of 2022.

New Hampshire Wildcats (9-3) @ #8 Holy Cross Crusaders (11-0)

New Hampshire comes into this weekend’s match-up after surviving a tough 52-42 win over Fordham in their opening round game.  Junior running back Dylan Laube posted a Wildcat record 424 total yards along with four touchdowns in last week’s win.

Holy Cross (based in Fitton, Massachusetts) had the Patriot League’s top-rated defense and offense this season.  The champs average 39 points per outing.  They may need to score a bunch to slow down New Hampshire’s exceptional running game.  The Crusaders’ multi-talented quarterback Mathew Sluka was named the most valuable player in New England this season.   He passed for 2,300 yards and 25 touchdowns and was also the team’s leading rusher.

Montana Grizzlies (8-4) @ #3 North Dakota State Bison (9-2)

The Griz trailed 24-3 – at home – in their opening round game against Southeast Missouri State last weekend.  Fortunately, Montana woke up and scored the game’s final 31 points to win 34-24 and advance to play the defending champion North Dakota State Bison this weekend.  Wide receiver Malik Flowers ran a kick-off back for a touchdown and had 250 total yards in the win.

North Dakota State has become the FCS version of the Alabama Crimson Tide over the past dozen years.  They have won the FCS title nine times in the past eleven seasons!   The Bison are a dominant running team with a q...

No, the Hypnotoad did not cause TCU to leapfrog all of the other unbeaten teams in this week’s college football rankings.

At least, not yet!

With a solid 45-23 win at Ohio State on Saturday, the 12-0 Michigan Wolverines kept doing what they have done to every other opponent in 2022.  Michigan ran the ball with authority, passed when needed to wide-open targets, and their stellar defense clamped down on yet another opponent coming down the stretch.

It was the first win by Michigan on Ohio State’s home field since the year 2000.  Many of the players on the field on Saturday had not been born at that time!

Sporting the nation’s third best scoring defense (allowing just 12.7 points/game) coming into this showdown, the Michigan defense may have cost Ohio State quarterback C. J. Stroud his chance to win the Heisman Trophy in December.  The 11-1 Buckeyes’ quarterback tossed two interceptions to go along with his two touchdowns in the Big Ten East battle.

Michigan’s surprising 21-point fourth quarter scoring outburst served to silence the Ohio State home crowd.  With this win, Michigan will play in the Big Ten Championship game on Saturday against the West Division survivor, Purdue (8-4).

After Iowa (now 7-5) lost at home on Friday to a rejuvenated Nebraska (4-8), the door was opened for the Boilermakers to grab the West title on Saturday.  Purdue scored 27 points after halftime to take a 30-16 win at intrastate rival Indiana (now 4-8).

Purdue’s starting quarterback, Aiden O’Connell, posted a note via Twitter that his oldest brother had passed away two days before the team’s final regular season game with Indiana on Saturday.  Though O’Connell will be grieving with family this week, the team expects that the sixth-year senior will be back in time to play against Michigan for the Big Ten title this Saturday in Indianapolis.

In Athens, Georgia, the 12-0 Bulldogs trailed rival Georgia Tech (5-7) by seven points in the first quarter on Saturday.  Georgia eventually grabbed a 10-7 lead at the half.  The Dawgs exploded for 27 second half points to win the game 37-14 to complete a perfect regular season.

Georgia will now face SEC West champion LSU (now 9-3) in the SEC title game this Saturday (3PM on CBS).

LSU laid the biggest egg of the weekend by losing by a 38-23 count to 5-7 Texas A&M.

Coming into the game with two losses, LSU needed to drub the Aggies and then upset unbeaten Georgia this week to have any chance of making the four-team College Football Playoffs.  The Aggies (a disappointing 5-7 this season) dominated the game and deserved the win.  LSU is still playing for the SEC Championship this week against Georgia, but the Tigers’ magical ride won’t end in a national championship after this loss to Texas A&M.

In Fort Worth, Texas, the 12-0 TCU Horned Frogs didn’t require last-minute inspiration from the team’s animated reptilian good luck charm, the Hypnotoad, in their season finale against Iowa State.

The Horned Frogs jumped to a 24-point first quarter lead and destroyed the Cyclones (now 4-8) by a whopping 62-14 final score.   Senior leader Max Duggan completed 17 of 24 passes for three touchdowns as he leap-frogged (sorry) his way into Heisman consideration with another excellent performance.

Don’t forget about TCU’s 220-pound running back Kendre Miller.  The junior from Mount Enterprise in northeast Texas scored two more touchdowns in this game.  Miller has 16 rushing touchdowns in 2022 and averages more than 100 yards per game rushing for TCU.

TCU will try to lock-up its spot in the four-team playoffs with a win against Kansas State (9-3) Saturday at 11AM on ABC.  Even a small loss by the Frogs in this game will likely give t...

It wasn’t easy for any of the four remaining unbeaten college football teams on Saturday.  However, they are still dancing for a possible spot in the four-team College Football Playoffs.

Georgia, Ohio State, Michigan, and TCU all survived tough games Saturday to advance to 11-0 for the season.  By the end of this coming Thanksgiving weekend, a maximum of three teams will remain undefeated.

Hosting its eighth home game of the 2022 season (Does anyone know if that Is that an NCAA record?), Ohio State will fill their legendary “Big Horseshoe” football stadium for the annual battle with conference rival Michigan on Saturday (11AM on FOX).   The winner of this game moves into the Big Ten Conference championship game to play the Western Division champs.

A true Wild West shoot-out is happening on the western side of the Big Ten bracket.

Iowa, Purdue, Illinois, and Minnesota are all 7-4.  However, the Hawkeyes and Boilermakers both have a 5-3 conference record.   With a home win this week against lowly 3-8 Nebraska, Iowa will win the West as they beat Purdue a few weeks ago and own the tiebreaker.  If Iowa should stumble and Purdue loses at 4-7 Indiana, then Illinois would advance into the Big Ten Championship game with a win at lowly 1-10 Northwestern.

Also this Saturday, Georgia will also play its annual grudge match with a rapidly improving 5-6 Georgia Tech team at 11AM on ESPN.  Georgia Tech may have wrecked the College Football Playoff hopes for North Carolina by downing the Tar Heels (now 9-2) 21-17 in Chapel Hill.

The 11-0 defending national champion Georgia Bulldogs settled for three field goals and a touchdown to claim a hard-fought 16-6 win at Kentucky (6-5) on Saturday.  The Wildcats had several chances to close the gap late in the game, but Georgia’s stifling defense made enough stops to secure the win.

That brings us to the amazing HypnoToads of college football, TCU.

The Horned Frogs from Fort Worth have dazed and confused their Big 12 opponents all season in moving to a perfect 11-0.  On Saturday in Waco, the Baylor Bears looked as if they were about to end TCU’s unbeaten season.

With just two minutes to go, da Bears still led 28-26 and had the football after a kick-off from the Frogs.  TCU used each of its three timeouts on the series and forced Baylor to punt with about 90 seconds left in the game.  The Horned Frogs matriculated down the field and kicked a game-winning field goal at the buzzer to win a 29-28 thriller.

This Saturday, TCU will host a disappointing but dangerous 4-7 Iowa State team in Fort Worth.  With a win, the Frogs would jump to 12-0 and set-up a Big 12 Conference title rematch game in early December against, most likely, 8-3 Kansas State.  This assumes that K-State wins at home on Saturday night against the slumping 6-5 Kansas Jayhawks.

As we covered a few weeks ago, there are a number of college football teams vying for the fourth and final spot in the College Football Playoffs.

We can now eliminate Tennessee after the Vols defense apparently missed the bus to Columbia, South Carolina Saturday night.  The offensively-challenged Gamecocks scored an amazing 63 points against Tennessee’s 38.  South Carolina (now 7-4) led the game from start to finish to send Tennessee’s record to 9-2.

UCLA also dropped to 9-2 after losing a high-scoring 48-45 game to crosstown rival USC.

The 10-1 Trojans remain the lone Pac-12 hope of advancing into the playoffs.

However, a rapidly improving Notre Dame (8-3) will visit Los Angeles on Saturday (6:30PM on ABC).  The Fighting Irish handed the first loss of the season to both Clemson and North Carolina and is riding a five game winning streak entering this week’s game at USC.

Clemson is staying alive for a possible spot in the p...

This week’s MACtion college football game on Wednesday night featured a snowstorm as the visiting Western Michigan Broncos beat Central Michigan Chippewas 12-10.  It made for a lovely sight to behold for those of us watching on television in the warmth of our homes.

An ESPN announcer even got into the act with a call of “Dashing through the snow” as a Western Michigan running back broke loose in the snow for a long touchdown.  The director of the telecast frequently featured camera shots showing a variety of snowmen in the stadium to highlight the snowy conditions of this Wednesday night college football game.

Wait a minute.  Wednesday night college football?  Yep.

In case you didn’t know, another Mid-American Conference (MAC) game was played on ESPN the night before.  Tuesday’s TV line-up featured the Bowling Green (Kentucky) Falcons grounding the Toledo Rockets.

In fact, the Mid-American Conference played all five of its conference football games on Tuesday (two games) and Wednesday (three) this week.   Welcome to mid-week MACtion during November on ESPN.

But why are they doing this?

These mid-week college football games have been incorporated into the fall television schedule as part of an ingenious and rather diabolical plan devised by the worldwide marketing wizards at ESPN.

But wait, there’s more!

There is a Thursday night college football game (on ESPN, of course) featuring American Athletic Conference teams SMU at Tulane.  On Friday night, ESPN2 rolls-out another AAC game (South Florida at Tulsa).  Just a few hours later, Fox Sports’ FS1 will take you to the Mountain West Conference for San Diego State at New Mexico to end Friday night’s college football fiesta around the midnight hour.

Try to get some rest!  On Saturday morning, college football resumes with the first game kicking-off at 10AM Central on ESPN2.  The games continue non-stop on a variety of networks until well past midnight.

Though the NFL currently “owns” Sunday, Sunday night, and Monday night football games, the clever advertising marketeers have moved quickly to capture their target audience on the other days of the week via college football telecasts.

FOLLOW THE MONEY!

In a nutshell, competitive football games (college and professional) bring in viewers – especially as the temperatures drop in the northern states.  Reliable numbers of viewers translates into golden marketing opportunities to sell products geared toward one particular segment of the American television audience.

Football games deliver a primary audience comprised of nearly 75% males in the valuable “buying” 25-49 year old age demographic.  Sure, many younger people watch the games.  Same for the old guys like me!

But this younger male target market for advertisers is known for its propensity to spend money buying new cars, home furnishings, cell phones, insurance policies, fast food, snacks, beer, and, at this time of year, expensive jewelry for that special someone!

Most televised college football games played during Saturday afternoons and evenings feature the major conferences.  Those games will reliably deliver a target audience of one million to, occasionally, upwards of ten million viewers.

These relatively new weeknight college match-ups can still deliver from 500,000 to one million of those same coveted advertising pigeons.  Midweek games generally feature the same products being pitched to viewers.  The networks simply charge those advertisers a lower rate based on the reduced number of eyeballs watching those games.

With an hour or more of commercials being crammed into many of these telecasts, the television networks are doing just fine!

From an advertising perspective, ESPN and the other broadcast outlets are able to tell potential clients that they can deliv...

As both the NFL and college football seasons have passed the ten-week mark, hope is surging for the fans of some teams.  Meanwhile, a harsh reality is sinking in with others.  If we were to magically go back (just a few months ago) to the beginning of the NFL and college football season, you might be quite surprised by some of the oddities of this 2022 season:

College Football:

Oklahoma Sooners – As usual, the Sooners were expected to be a contender in the Big 12 Conference in 2022.  After losing last weekend at 4-6 West Virginia, Oklahoma’s record is now just 5-5 with two games to go.  OU fans are a bit spoiled.  Their favorite football team hasn’t lost more than two games in a season in the past seven years!  This Saturday, the Sooners will host intrastate rival Oklahoma State (7-3) in the annual Bedlam Series game.  Oklahoma will then finish the season with a tough road game at 5-5 Texas Tech.

You have to go back to the disastrous three-year record of former head coach John Blake (1996-1998) to find a Sooners football team which has lost six games in a season.  This is the first season for new head football coach, Brent Venables.  If OU has another season like this, there is a very good chance that Coach Venables may not last three years like John Blake did.

TCU Horned Frogs – Be honest.  Did anyone believe that TCU would be 10-0 at this point in the season?  The Big 12 media didn’t believe in the Froggies, either.  They voted TCU to finish #7 in this ten team league which, for some reason, still calls itself the Big 12.

Coming off a 5-7 record last year in which their long-time football coach Garry Patterson stepped down, new coach Sonny Dykes is being touted for national “Coach of the Year” honors.  TCU’s “secret sauce” has been the combination of a quick-strike offense which can score from any place on the field and its underrated defense which keeps the team close in tight games.  TCU won a 17-10 defensive battle on Saturday with 104,000 screaming University of Texas fans trying to shake them.  It didn’t work.  These Frogs don’t back down!

Alabama Crimson Tide – Alabama was widely regarded as the nation’s top team coming into the 2022 football season.  Now 8-2, Alabama’s two losses have come on a game-ending field goal at Tennessee and a surprising two-point conversion in overtime at LSU.  However, Alabama was also fortunate to win a 20-19 game at Texas to start the season and survive a scare from Texas A&M (now 3-7) with a 24-20 win at home in October.

Alabama has nearly zero chance of becoming one of the four teams in this year’s College Football Playoffs.  The team’s perpetually intense coach, Nick Saban, looks a bit tired on the sidelines this season.  Despite having a returning Heisman Trophy winner at quarterback in Bryce Young and another Heisman candidate on the defensive side of the ball in Will Anderson, Jr., this Alabama team is playing without passion and commits far too many penalties.  Bama is being flagged an average of 8.3 times per game.  That puts the Crimson Tide at #124 out of 131 major college football teams.  Coach Saban’s championship teams did not make mental mistakes very often.  This team does.

LSU Tigers – OK, I plead “Guilty”!  I believed that LSU would be fortunate to have a 7-5 record in 2022.  With a new coach (Brian Kelly from Notre Dame) and just 39 scholarship players remaining after last year’s 6-7 team, most reasonable LSU fans would agree that a winning season in 2022 would be considered a success and a building block toward the future.

Wrong!  Brian Kelly’s biggest success this season at LSU (now 8-2 and winners of the SEC West) has been to provide s...

Other than for a brief wake-up call in Missouri, the 10-0 Georgia Bulldogs are demolishing all comers once again in 2022.

Though supporters of currently unbeaten teams like Michigan, Ohio State, and TCU may take exception to that statement, I don’t think any team really wants to tangle with the Godzilla of college football.

This football monster is rampaging once again this season.  Even after 15 Georgia players were selected by the NFL in last spring’s draft, the defending national champions are improving every week.  After ten games in 2022, the Bulldogs’ defense (ranked #2 nationally) has allowed just 11.6 points per game.

The Georgia offense is still lead by the average-looking quarterback who simply continues to make all the right plays.  Stetson Bennett probably won’t win the Heisman Trophy this year, but he might win a second straight national championship.  The Georgia offense scores nearly 41 points per game this season.

After ten games, Georgia’s average margin of victory is nearly 30 points per game.   Though Georgia will face a tough final road game at 6-4 Kentucky on Saturday, the odds makers are giving Kentucky 23 points – at home – in the game.  Georgia’s regular season ends with a Thanksgiving weekend home game against 4-6 Georgia Tech.

Georgia Tech may become a true rambling wreck after playing this Bulldogs team in Athens.

After that, Georgia will square off with surprising SEC West Champion LSU (currently 8-2) for the SEC Championship.  That game will be played in the state of Georgia (Atlanta).  Should the Georgia Bulldogs stumble and lose to LSU, the defending national champions would still be 11-1 and hard to keep out of the four-team College Football Playoffs.

Your hard-working SwampSwami spend much of the day on Sunday reviewing the performance of the entire 131 FBS group of major college football teams.

A few things stand out in reviewing the season thus far:

* The #114 team in my list is…Texas A&M. The 3-7 Aggies are, by far, the most disappointing college football team this year.  The Associated Press #6 preseason team, the Texas Aggies have lost six games in a row for the first time since 1972.  Heck, they just lost to an Auburn team which fired its head coach two weeks ago.  With his incredibly large contract at Texas A&M, Coach Jimbo Fisher and his family will be financially set for life.  This year’s incredible pressure of losing means that I wouldn’t be surprised if Fisher negotiates a new deal to leave AggieLand.  Their unhappy fans are ready to help him pack.

* The #101 team is another SEC team, Auburn. Unlike Texas A&M, Auburn (4-6) wasn’t expected to field a very good team this season.  If you happened to watch the end of Auburn’s 13-10 home win Saturday night against Texas A&M, the sold-out Auburn football stadium crowd stayed to the end to give a standing ovation to the team and their temporary head football coach, Cadillac Williams.  After former coach Bryan Harsin was fired, the baton was handed to the enthusiastic former star running back at Auburn.  Cadillac Williams (the team’s running backs coach) has rallied both the team and its loyal fans.  Auburn’s win snapped a five game losing streak and sent the Texas Aggies to the bottom of the entire SEC at 3-7.

* The Pac-12 is back! This week, Pac-12 Conference teams occupy five of the top 17 spots in my rankings.  USC is now 9-1, but UCLA, Oregon, Washington, and Utah all have just two losses apiece.  If UCLA should knock-off USC this Saturday, the Pac-12 will have a hard time getting a single team into the four-team College Football Playoffs.

* Bringing up the rear – There are still five teams which have just one win this season.  At least Colorado and Northwestern have defeated one major college team.  The only win for South Florida, UMass,