How To Watch: The Bye Week

Ahh, the dreaded bye week. Great for players, coaches, staff, but as for fans? Well, not so great. We build our weekends around football, and without our respective teams playing we feel lost. Worry not, we’ve got you covered here at B5Q. Read on as we help you decide what to watch and do on your bye week.

Saturday morning (pre 11 AM Slate)

Option 1: College Gameday (ESPN)- If you’re looking for something to watch Saturday morning before kickoff you might not have much to choose from. Sure, College Gameday is always an option but do you really want to tie up all of your morning watching that? It might just be me, but Gameday just doesn’t do much for me anymore. I’ll pass.

Option 2: English Premier League - Bournemouth vs. Tottenham (Peacock)- Generally, if I am home on a Saturday morning soccer (it’s called soccer cuz the US is winning the World Cup) is my watch of choice. Looking at the EPL slate, nothing really stands out much here either. I think Bournemouth and Tottenham is a decent game as the closest two in the EPL standings but not close to must-see TV.

Option 3: Fresh air, breakfast with friends, running some errands, etc. - The first two options are not must-see TV so might I propose you not watch something Saturday morning? Crazy thoughts. Anyway, walk the dog? Grab a bite? Get outside? Knock out some errands so you can watch the football later? All good ideas in my opinion. Weekends are a marathon, not a sprint people.

Winner: Option 3

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Noon Slate (11 AM in God’s Country)

Option 1: Ohio State @ Penn State (FOX)- Big Noon Saturday is headed here and it’s by far and away the best early game as 2nd-ranked Ohio State takes on 13th-ranked Penn State. James Franklin hasn’t beaten Ohio State all that much, but he has covered the spread in four of the last five meetings. I think that is where the intrigue lies here. Penn State getting 15.5 points at home? I’ll dabble.

Option 2: Notre Dame @ Syracuse (ABC) - Pretty solid second option as the Irish travel to the Carrier Dome to take the 16th-ranked Syracuse Orange. I have the Irish as one of my best bets for the weekend (+3) so I think I’ll need to have eyeballs on this at some point.

(Odds/lines subject to change. T&Cs apply. See draftkings.com/sportsbook for details.)

Option 3: TCU @ West Virginia (ESPN) - TCU is undefeated on the season and they’ll be traveling to Morgantown to take on 3-4 West Virginia. Feels VERY trappy for TCU coming off their wins over Kansas State and Oklahoma State. Morgantown can kill a season pretty quickly if you are not careful.

Winner: A flip between Option 1 and Option 2, add in option 3 if it’s close late or you’re getting the dreaded double commercial.

Photo by James Gilbert/Getty Images

2:30 Slate

Option 1: Illinois @ Nebraska (ABC) - Speaking of trappy games, this feels trappy for Illinois. Something about Nebraska and close games are always there, especially at home. I’ll be invested in this one from a spread perspective (Nebraska +7.5) and intrigue perspective. An upset here would send the Big Ten West into full chaos. Please.

Option 2: Oklahoma State @ Kansas State (FOX) -This game feels like an elimination game in the Big 12 so that brings some intrigue, but both teams are dealing with some injuries that could make this one a little slow. Kansas State may not have Adrian Martinez in this one but it should still be a fun contest.

Option 3: Cincinnatti @ UCF (ESPN) - UCF, Cincy, and Tulane are all alive for the top two spots in the AAC. Tulane and Cincy are undefeated in conference play, while UCF has one loss. If the Knights want to get to the title game they’ll need this one and likely a win over Tulane later this year. That gives some intrigue for sure.

Option 4: Florida vs. Georgia (CBS) - On paper, this sounds intriguing but Florida stinks and Georgia is really good so I dont think it will be worthy of watching for very long.

Winner: I’ll have a steady flip between option 1 and option 2, options 3 and 4 will get a rotation spot should it prove worthy.

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Night Slate

Option 1: Kentucky @ Tennessee (ESPN) - Tennessee has Georgia on deck but they’ll need to get through the Wildcats first. UK is off a bye, so I think this one will have legs to be interesting. I’ll be taking Kentucky and the points (+13) hoping to have some drama here.

Option 2: Michigan State @ Michigan (ABC) - Rivalry game so it’s cool on paper but I dont know if this one is going to be close. I hope it is, but I have my doubts.

Option 3: World Series Game 2 - Go Phils right, @DrewHamm? The other option involved Texas A&M. You should not subject yourself to Texas A&M football anymore. Watch some baseball.

Winner: I’ll be exclusively on option 1 for most of the night with Option 3 filling in the commercials.

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Late Slate

Option 1: Stanford @ UCLA (ESPN) - Meh.... we’ll see. Doubt it’ll be worth much time but all PAC-12 AFTER DARK deserves some attention.

Option 2: Bed - Catch up on those Z’s my friend.

Option 3: Bed/Football Hybrid- Turn on Stanford/UCLA in bed, end up falling asleep, wake up when you hear the announcer roar and pretend like you didn't miss anything.

Winner: Option 3