College Football Viewer's Guide, Week 7

Weekly look at what games need to be being watched in each time slot.

Morning Games – 9 AM PT Kickoff

Texas A&M vs Missouri – FSN

Michigan St. vs Illinois – Big Ten Network

Syracuse vs Pittsburgh – Big East Syndicated/ESPN Gameplan

Florida St. vs Boston College – ESPN

East Carolina vs NC State – CBS College Sports

Georgia vs Vanderbilt – SEC Syndicated/ESPN Gameplan

Clemson vs Maryland – ACC Syndicated/ESPN Gameplan

Purdue vs Minnesota – ESPN2

Indiana vs Arkansas St. - ESPNU

ESPN can't like this. The two biggest games of the morning segment are not on any of its channels. Texas A&M/Missouri should be a fun shootout with Missouri trying to stay undefeated and set up a mega showdown with Oklahoma next week. Michigan St. is also trying to stay undefeated as they barrel towards Iowa at the end of the month. That game game would likely be the top game if it was at Illinois, but the homefield advantage for Michigan St. bumps it down. Most of the rest could be entertaining. This is a good day to be on ESPNews for the look ins on all the ESPN and ESPN Gameplan games.

Afternoon Games – 1230 PM PT Kickoff

Auburn vs Arkansas – CBS

Nebraska vs Texas – ABC/ESPN

Michigan vs Iowa – ESPN/ABC

Texas Tech vs Oklahoma St. - Fox Sports Plus (Good luck finding that)

USC vs Cal – FSN

TCU vs BYU – Versus

Virginia Tech vs Wake Forest – ESPNU

Navy vs SMU – CBS College Sports

Notre Dame vs Western Michigan – NBC (Why?)

Realistically, only fans of certain leagues and teams should be leaving the top four games (gold star to you if you actually have the 4^th one). Out of that, Auburn/Arkansas has wild shootout potential and a pair of Heisman candidate in Cam Newton and Ryan Mallett, Nebraska/Texas is the one and only chance anyone will likely ever see when the respectful Nebraska fans act like SEC style jackasses and Michigan/Iowa has Denard Robinson and the Michigan defense made of air which are both very entertaining. Texas Tech and Oklahoma St. will also play a crazy shootout, likely of a different variety than Auburn/Arkansas. Special note at the stupidity that is the NBC contract. Western Michigan is on national TV Really. This is idiotic.

Afternoon Snack – 3PM PT Kickoff

Kentucky vs South Carolina – ESPN2

Wyoming vs Utah – MTN

Because of some odd scheduling with Prime time games, the Mountain West actually has company in this spot this week. Both games are watchable (ok early on in the Wyoming/Utah case), but not over the top games in the last slot that will still be playing. It really is an odd spot.

Prime time games – 4-5 PM PT Kickoff

Wisconsin vs Ohio St. - ESPN

Florida vs Mississippi St. - ESPNU

Alabama vs Ole Miss – ESPN2

Oklahoma vs Iowa St. - FSN

San Diego St. vs Air Force – CBS College Sports

Washington St. vs Arizona – Versus

Welcome to the worst prime time window of the entire season. And its like this every year (thanks NASCAR on ABC). Here is my solution to this problem: Rework the SEC schedule and tell CBS they are doing their doubleheader with the prime time game on whatever week happens to be the ABC Prime time NASCAR race. Whatever the biggest movable game you can find on the schedule is needs to be on this week along with one other that can still draw that kind of audience. I suggest something involving either Alabama or Florida against one of the other major teams in the conference and Auburn/LSU that is always entertaining always be on this weekend whenever it falls. Back to the games. Go out, do something else. Don't watch football. If you must, stay on the Wisconsin/Ohio St. game until the Buckeyes blow them out (yes Wisconsin is bad) and then flip to Florida/Mississippi St. Nothing else in this time slot is worth watching and unless you have the Gameplan package, nothing in the next time slot will be worth the time either.

Late Night games – 6PM PT Kickoff or later (games expected to end after midnight ET)

Hawaii vs Nevada – ESPN Gameplan

Washington vs Oregon St. - ESPN

Fresno St. vs New Mexico St. - ESPNU

Couldn't we have gotten a favor and gotten the immortally bad New Mexico/New Mexico St. game in this time slot last week. That would have been interesting. Anything else involving the Aggies is awful. Or even better, couldn't we have gotten the game coming from the islands involving the top 25 team. Ridiculous in the WAC. For those who don't have Gameplan, the Washington/Oregon St. game will likely have some entertainment value as Washington is normally much better at home (except the Nebraska debacle) and Oregon St. generally plays interesting games.