Carla and Crappy Show: The Finally Mostly Football Edition

Howdy, boys and girls. It’s time.

There are Actual. College. Football. Games. on the schedule for this weekend. And that means the gang’s all here to make Season 12 of the Carla & Crappy Show officially official.

But first, we have some housekeeping to take care of, including a quick update on the Pac-4 and conference realignment situation … which, of course, changed shortly after we recorded this show. (Typical.) On Wednesday, ESPN’s Pete Thamel reported that the possible move of Cal, Stanford, and SMU to the ACC was back on the table. (Surprise!)

So after attempting to predict the future of conference realignment – and failing almost immediately – as is tradition, we each take a shot at prognosticating this year’s College Football Playoff participants. While we agree with AJ’s assessment that this year might be the most unpredictable playoff that we’ve had in recent years – and as such, our final four selections vary quite a bit – we are in consensus on this year’s top Group of Five team.

And then, after all of that … there are seven games on the schedule this weekend. We’re so amped, we talk about all of them.

Navy vs. No. 13 Notre Dame (2:30 ET, NBC): We agree that this year’s Dublin game makes way more sense than last year’s Northwestern/Nebraska tilt. Enjoy the spectacle … and an Irish win.

UTEP at Jacksonville State (5:30 ET, CBSSN): The first game of the season on the Network of Champions welcomes Jacksonville State (and HC Rich Rodriguez) to FBS football. 

UMass at New Mexico State (7 ET, ESPN): The Minutemen went 1-11 last season … and open this year’s campaign on the road on ESPN proper. Ah, welcome back, college football.

Ohio at San Diego State (7 ET, FS1): Crappy’s especially amped for this game. SDSU is looking for an offensive spark. The Bobcats have one on their side and his name is Kurtis Rourke. Fly that flag.

Hawaii at Vanderbilt (7:30 ET, SECN): Vandy won this game handily last year on the islands in a tiny stadium. The Beloved Rainbow Warriors should make the rematch closer … in a partial stadium in Nashville. 

San Jose State at No. 6 USC (8 ET, P12N): It seems somewhat appropriate that Caleb Williams begins his repeat Heisman campaign … in a game no one will see, because, you know, that whole media rights Pac-12 Network thing.

FIU at Louisiana Tech (9 ET, CBSSN): A CUSA (no hyphen) doubleheader in Week 0? Yes, please! FIU’s rebuilding (yet again). Give us the Bulldogs at home.

So … there you have it. Use this week as your warmup. Find your channels. Figure out your setup. Locate all of your remotes. Because Week 1 starts in full force on Thursday night. And then … it’s on.

Welcome back, college football … and yinz guys. We missed you. Cheers.