Let all the Bulldog faithful rally behind the men who now wear the red and black with two words, two simple words which express the sentiments of the entire Bulldog Nation: Auburn Sucks.
I wrote last week about the B1G’s fewer eyes on the TV and Big Noon Snoozers, which seemed at the time a bit of arrogance and bravado on the B1G’s and Fox’s behalf, but in retrospect, it seems like it’s more a function of giving way to let people watch bigger games and bigger rated games on other networks.
To be fair, I’m probably putting on my tin foil hat and doing some heavy lifting here, but hear me out.
Take, for example, the absolute oddity of airing this slate of SEC games all in the noon or 3:30 slots on October 17th:
Florida at Texas alone could be a 7:30 prime time event, as could be Alabama at Tennessee or, hell, even Missouri at Ole Miss.
Yes, these time slots were selected in the summer, but it’s important to note here that all three 3:30 games were in the “flex” slots and could’ve been night games. They probably should be, except for one glaring reason:
So, ABC looks at their lineup of games, sees Notre Dame and BYU, and has to make it “must see TV”.
Why? Well, it’s simple. It’s helping to build Notre Dame’s brand, and they want to make sure all eyes are squarely on the TV watching the justification for the most over-hyped team in all the land make their case for the CFP, as if the Top 16 autobid clause wasn’t doing that, already.
So what else is on at night on the 17th? Absolutely nothing, except for one thing. See if you see it, too.
Oh, look, there’s Miami, kicking off a half hour before Notre Dame, and that will lock in your channel flipping for the evening broadcast on the World Wide Leader. This helps with the previewing for Miami’s Week 8 tilt against NOW RANKED Pittsburgh and also helps to hype the Week 10 matchup between the Catholics and Convicts, which also happens to be on…PRIME TIME. On NBC.
The B1G and the SEC will have their usual suspects in the CFP hunt, but the networks having to work overtime to place these lousy brands of football in front of people’s eyes is both desperate and reeks of “look at me” opportunities to make the case for Miami and Notre Dame, or, by proxy, the ACC.
I’ll take my tin foil hat off now. It’s definitely been getting way more use than my regular Georgia ballcap the past few seasons, and I’d like to hang it up for good.
But I don’t think it’ll get hung until the real vision is finally actualized, which is the super conference model brought to you by ESPN/ABC/Fox/NBC/Cartoon Network. It’s too rich of a pie for everyone to not take a bite, even if the taste nowadays is way more bitter than it used to be.
This week’s recent release of the AP and Coach’s Polls are a bit of a head-scratcher, but let’s face it, they almost always seem to be, and the CFP Polls are likely to be worse.
Mind you, if you disagree with any of it, make sure you show how in this week’s Mumme Poll:
Firstly, Missou moved up quite a bit from “why are they ranked” last week at 25 all the way up to 14, while Florida was Free Fallin from 8th to 16th.
Oddly, Mississippi State got walloped by Alabama and only went down one place to 17th, while Alabama’s beating didn’t impress enough to move them ahead of Miami and Notre Dame, and let’s recall Ohio State already has one loss to their name, so what gives?
Northwestern is on a tear and beating folks pretty handily, yet it was Pitt that they decided should debut in the poll this week after eeking out a little over 200 yards and benefitting from a missed Virginia Tech field goal, where Pat Narduzzi took the gift and used it as his pulipt to whine about the polls.
Pitt HC Pat Narduzzi after defeating Virginia Tech and improving to 5-0:
“We’ve got a helluva football team. If any of those [AP] voters wake their a**es up, they might figure that out.” 🥶
Disregard that Pitt beat UCF 12-7 and a hapless Syracuse team 27-13.
Nebraska is undefeated with a nearly similar resume to Pitt and UCLA, yet remains unranked. Kentucky, on the other hand, has the 7th hardest schedule in the country, is 4-1 with a “good loss” to Alabama, yet sits outside the polls.
BYU, meanwhile, snuck out a win against TCU (now 2-3), 17-10, and remains in the top 10, despite being 16th in ESPN’s FPI and 21st in the Sagarin Rankings.
And people are screaming about Duke…but they have only played four games, two against P4 teams, which was a 28 point win against Stanford and a four point win against an Illinois team that just lost to *checks notes* PURDUE. Not exactly a resume to write home about…but let’s look at the Coaches Poll:
The Top 9 is pretty much the same as the AP (they give Indiana more credit in the Coaches Poll), but how is LSU ahead of Ole Miss and how is Florida ahead of Missouri? And look…there’s Duke at 23, formerly at 21…WHY?
And let’s pause for a second and ask ourselves the question…what is so damned appealing about the Men of Troy?
USC played their first three games against G6 teams, barely beat Rutgers by 7, lost to Oregon lead by Dylan Raiola, and took everything they had to beat Washington, who is currently 3-2.
Another oddity in the polls is SMU. It took a power outage unusual game in Tallahassee to beat FSU by 3, they lost to unranked Louisville, beat Boston College, arguably the worst P4 team in the land, by 9, and only beat Missouri State by 10. They have no quality wins on their resume, yet they occupy the bottom of both polls.
Why argue and bitch about it? Well, because they’re doing their damndest to make something out of nothing:
The ACC is utter shit, and that’s the nicest I can be about it. Outside of Miami, who frankly is a question mark given they’ve played exactly nobody thus far, who else in the ACC is really that good? By ranking Duke and Pitt, they’ve added two more ranked teams to Miami’s already lousy schedule. That’s Miami’s resume booster for you.
BYU at 8 is also odd, until you realize they play Notre Dame here this weekend. By inflating the BYU brand, it helps Notre Dame in the rankings by saying “they beat a quality BYU team” since the rest of their schedule is crap…except for
Miami versus Notre Dame COULD be the meteor game for both teams. Whoever loses would be questioned relentlessly for the rest of the season, and grounds for keeping them out of the CFP at season’s end. By giving them a few other needless high ranked opponents, they’re helping them out in the polls.
The B1G and the SEC have a host of quality teams. The ACC and the Big XII do not. But man, they’re going to make them seem that way in the polls, aren’t they?
Between the CFP Expansion noise and the ever growing sizes of conferences, it’s interesting to note that we’ve seen here Pate’s take on expansion and an article yesterday about overall viewership being down by 11%.
While the B1G has been dominating NIL and CFP Championships over the past three years, one thing that is becoming glaringly apparent is the SEC is becoming the champion of television revenue.
It’s not just the quality of the product on the field, where the B1G’s biggest games this year has been against OOC opponents, but it’s also the fact that the actual games and their Charmin-soft scheduling just plain sucks.
If Greg Sankey was out for anything with the expanded nine game schedule, whether he argued about strength of resume for the CFP or not, it’s landing well for television viewership, and especially for Mickey Mouse (but not necessarily for SEC programs).
Fox seems content with the current arrangement. They’re making money, and the Big Ten has been largely happy cashing checks that are bigger than their SEC rivals by an average of around $400 million per year. Past feedback from fans and schools hasn’t registered as a problem for Fox, as they have an effective blueprint for making money, which includes:
A decent Friday night game
A mildly successful alternative to College GameDay
A Big Noon showcase game
Enough mediocre games on BTN and FS1 to keep validating their cable carriage fees
Cashing checks from NBC and CBS for Big Ten games, the majority of which are pretty mid and get clobbered by SEC games … an arrangement those networks seem less than thrilled with.
It makes money. A handful of noon games do well. CBS and NBC usually have one or two games per year to puff their chests out about.
But in the larger picture, the Big Ten is fading, at least in terms of ratings and its television product. Obviously, three straight national titles have reset the discourse on the best conference on the field, but undeniable problems seem to continue unabated in the short term.
I’ve been told the conference itself has grown increasingly annoyed by the trend, as well as by Fox’s de facto stance that the Big Ten needs to do more to help itself. There is a growing sense at the Big Ten, from those who work for the conference to the individual athletic departments, that, compensation aside, they are at a disadvantage when it comes to the television product. And they fear the situation is only getting worse.
Fox and the Big Ten Have a September Problem
From 2021-2023, Big Noon was the most-watched TV window in the sport. It’s now fallen to a third behind ABC’s primetime and 3:30 game, both around 8 million viewers per week, compared with Big Noon’s 6.3 million weekly viewers in 2025. There’s chatter that Fox’s noon window could even end up behind ABC’s noon game this season.
Fox’s ability to compete with ABC’s 3:30 and 7:30 time slots went out the window when Texas and Oklahoma moved to the SEC, and ESPN acquired the SEC game of the week, previously held by CBS.
Big Noon will have a handful of great games this year, and every year. But beyond that, the slot is often filled with duds. So far this season, Big Noon has opened with North Texas vs. Indiana, Oklahoma vs. Michigan, Kent State vs. Ohio State, Illinois vs. Ohio State, and Michigan vs. Minnesota.
None of these games featured two ranked teams. The spreads for three of those games were 27, 41, and 52. You can probably understand why Gus Johnson has seemingly been sulking.
Fox didn’t even send Big Noon Kickoff to Kent State vs. Ohio State. Ultimately, they knew the size of the Ohio State fanbase might draw a bigger audience than their other options that day, even against a 50-point underdog, but they couldn’t even sell their Saturday pregame show for that game.
Fox is ultimately prioritizing a TV ratings projection versus airing a competitive game. This strategy does help maximize viewers, but it significantly diminishes the Big Noon brand and seems to act as a Quaalude for Gus Johnson. While they squeeze out mediocre ratings by going to objectively crappy Ohio State, Michigan, and Indiana games over and over, the cost is that most fans now know Big Noon is only “big” a handful of times each season.
Please don’t put Gus Johnson on Quaaludes. I actually enjoy listening to his off-brand foolishness, and it’s the only thing that makes watching games on Fox interesting.
While the first four (and probably fifth) Georgia games have been snoozers – thankfully, I suppose – the rest of the SEC slate has been must-see TV. Tennessee vs. Texas, Ole Miss vs. LSU, and Ole Miss vs. Florida have been money makers for ESPN/ABC/Satan. What’s odd is that it’s making more money for Fox, and how that is happening is beyond me. That can’t last long if there’s not enough eyes on the television.
And consider that a noon game featuring Georgia versus an Arkansas team that was boat-raced by Utah the week prior pulled almost as many viewers as Oregon vs. USC and “blue blood” matchup Michigan vs. Iowa.
I asked yesterday about engagement, but this could certainly be part of the problem. The games are starting to mean less thanks to playoff expansion, and the B1G’s problem of trying to include every football program in the nation is leading to dull matchups not worthy of watching unless they play out of conference.
What they (B1G fans) are beginning to learn is that they don’t need to tune in until the season is over, and pull for their favorite team in the expanded playoffs and let the soft regular season, player rest, and NIL compensation kick in to coast to another national championship.
If it continues at this rate, not only will the regular season mean less…the Trophy at the end of it will, too.
Maybe Kirby has a point about winning the SEC being a bigger deal than people give it credit for. You don’t have an expanded conference playoff, so you have to really make the regular season matter to be there, and win it all.
Well, Mickey, maybe “It’s a Small World” isn’t just a ride, but a mantra to hold to for preserving the integrity of college football.
Alabama vs South Carolina could be one of the premier games of the 2026 SEC season, as could Florida at Missouri…and your evening entertainment for the SEC on October 3rd is a toss up between Arkansas and TAMU or LSU vs McNeese State?
I’d rather have MSU and Bama at 3:30 and a nightcap of Florida at Missouri. Frankly, they could not televise the LSU game and I don’t know if anyone outside of Louisiana would miss it.
It’s 2026, and I still DGAF about Arkansas or A&M. What is this?
Vanderbilt has named true freshman Jared Curtis its starting quarterback for Week 3 against NC State, head coach Clark Lea announced on Tuesday. The former five-star recruit played the majority of Saturday’s win over Delaware.
Fourth-year quarterback Blaze Berlowitz beat out Curtis in the preseason, but has struggled in the Commodores’ opening games of the 2026 season. Berlowitz has thrown for 178 yards, completing 14 of 25 passes through two weeks and a rushing touchdown. Curtis is 21 of 31 for 270 yards and a touchdown, along with two rushing touchdowns.
Vanderbilt beat Austin Peay 28-9 in Week 1 and survived Delaware 35-26 in Week 2. Berlowitz started against the Blue Hens, but it was Curtis who led the Commodores to the win.
He rushed for two touchdowns and threw his first career passing touchdown. He’s the first Vanderbilt freshman to record three touchdowns since Sept. 17, 2022. Curtis finished 14 of 22 for 210 yards and a touchdown.
Can’t say I’m surprised. This felt like it was predestined, but Jared will have to eat the frog in two weeks when Vanderbilt comes to town to face the Bulldogs on Homecoming weekend. Between what should be a “first big game” against Oklahoma on the 26th and the Alabama game on October 10th, I wonder if this wont’ find itself as a trap game for us with a motivated Curtis and a Georgia team kicking off it’s toughest stretch of the season.
I trust Kirby will find the proper motivation for his defense for this game. We aren’t *checks notes* Delaware (only in their second year in CUSA after moving up from FCS in 2025), after all.
You know what time it is Refugees…time to right the wrongs of those know-nothing media types by inserting your two pennies into the only poll that matters…the Mumme Poll.
Some of you said this used to wait until the release of the CFP, but let’s be participatory and get it going earlier this year, so weigh in on your thoughts about where the teams are ranking after the first games of the year.
Handle business is Arkansas and again a week later against Oklahoma, and maybe the chatter gets turned down some. Not that I’ll expect it to be, especially since we have a five week stretch where we play Oklahoma, Alabama, and Auburn.
We’re getting in to business season…to borrow a long forgotten phrase, are we man enough?
I’m just surprised she hasn’t been named to the CFP Committee, if I’m being honest. She’s in the news again because she left Michigan at 17 after their loss/win from Saturday.
Anyway, here’s the breakdown of the latest voting:
Worth noting Mike Griffith’s voting at the bottom. LSU #1? Hmmm.
For the folks at Texass, it’s important that, in what is predicted to be their bestest team ever and the most talented in modern football history, that they finally get some SEC scheduling they deserve.
Mind you, if all six of those teams remain in the Top 25 by season’s end, I’ll be shocked. Mizzou, LSU, Texas A&M, and Tennessee are all always suspect…but at least they didn’t get the Charmin soft schedule they enjoyed during their inaugural years in the SEC.
Notre Dame’s scheduled home-and-home football series with Indiana has been canceled at Indiana’s request, according to reporting from The Athletic’s Pete Sampson and Sports Illustrated’s Pat Forde. The two schools announced the agreement on April 19, 2021, with Indiana set to visit Notre Dame Stadium on Aug. 31, 2030, and the Irish scheduled to play in Bloomington on Sept. 27, 2031.
Under the terms of the 2021 contract, per Sports Illustrated, the canceling party owes $250,000 when the game is called off more than two years out, $500,000 with one to two years’ notice, and $1 million inside a year of kickoff. At more than four years from the 2030 date, the lowest tier applies.
This should come as no surprise to anyone, especially given that Cignetti proudly boasted about making his schedule easier with lighter OOC opponents.
For anyone surprised about Indiana dropping the Notre Dame series… Cignetti has already said the quiet part out loud about scheduling
Now, of course, Cignetti likes to point out that the B1G is already tough enough, so why stress yourself with a quality OOC opponent. Sure, let’s go to the stats, Curt:
Sure, there’s four B1G teams in there and four SEC teams. Seems even right…well, let’s look at the inverse of this:
From Chris Low, here’s the worst records against Top 25 teams in the past five years:
Colorado 0-16 Maryland 0-15 Rutgers 0-15 Cal 0-14 NW 0-14 Va. Tech 0-12 Virginia 0-11 Houston 0-10 Vanderbilt 1-18 W. Va. 1-17 Nebraska 1-16 Wisconsin 1-15 Iowa 1-13 SMU 1-9 Auburn 2-20 Purdue 2-19 Michigan St. 2-18 Arkansas 2-17
Yeah…that’s 8 B1G teams…8 of which post a worse record in the past five years than *checks notes* Arkansas.
The five in bold italics are on Indiana’s mighty B1G schedule this year…their other four? USC, Ohio State, Michigan, and Washington, all of which were in the Top 20 of the best records, although one could argue Michigan and Washington are shells of their programs from two years ago…so basically you have what amounts to a two game schedule, you brag about the power of your conference, and then cancel an out of conference series with Notre Dame.
Yes, he won and has the right to talk. Yes, he has bragging rights. Never thought I’d say it, but when the day comes where I have more respect for Just for Men, it’s a dark day indeed.
And for all those saying they can’t wait for the redemption day for CC, I don’t see it coming anytime soon with a schedule like this.
