Anchor Drop, November 23, 2019: Saturday Open Thread

Good morning.

It was a successful night for Vanderbilt’s basketball teams at Memorial Gym on Friday night. First, the women’s team beat Furman 74-46 behind 17 points from Brinae Alexander and 16 from Mariella Fasoula. In the nightcap, the men’s team beat South Carolina State 97-60, with six Commodores scoring in double figures. Both teams are now 4-1 on the season.

Vanderbilt bowling is in ninth place after the first day of the Eastern Shore Hawk Classic in Delaware.

Today’s Football

Vanderbilt football hosts ETSU at 2:30 on the SEC Network Alternate, in what is a pretty drab day of college football overall. (SoCon Saturday, everyone!)

Your viewing guide for today, to the extent that you’re not getting an early start on Christmas shopping or something: FOX has probably the game of the day at 11 AM, with Ohio State hosting Penn State. Of course, to give you an idea of the kind of day we’re dealing with, ABC is showing 9-1 Minnesota at 2-8 Northwestern, while ESPN has Alabama hosting Western Carolina. The SEC Network has Samford at Auburn, which is an oversight because clearly they should have picked UCF-Tulane (that’s on the CBS Sports Network.) ESPN2 has Oklahoma State at West Virginia; FS1 has Michigan State at Rutgers. Blaaaaargh. At least ESPNU has Harvard-Yale. Somehow the Big Ten Network got Illinois at Iowa.

Things don’t get that much better in the afternoon. CBS has Texas A&M-Georgia at 2:30, which is definitely a football game. ABC has UCLA-USC, which, again, is technically football. Michigan-Indiana on ESPN, Pitt-Virginia Tech on ESPN2, UT-Martin at Kentucky on the SEC Network, Nebraska-Maryland on the Big Ten Network. Texas-Baylor on FS1 in theory sounds pretty good. Fuck it, watch SMU-Navy on CBS Sports Network if you’re not watching the Vanderbilt game. Or, hell, Bethune-Cookman at Florida A&M on ESPNews. At 3, Purdue-Wisconsin is on FOX for... some reason.

At 6, ESPN has the absolutely gross matchup between Arkansas and LSU, which might be the widest point spread in an SEC game going back to 1996 (when Steve Spurrier’s Florida team was favored by 43 over Rod Dowhower’s Vanderbilt, and Florida somehow won this game by a touchdown.) Kansas State-Texas Tech is on FS1, and Temple-Cincinnati is on ESPN2. Tennessee-Missouri at 6:30 on the SEC Network should be a close game, but not a good football game. Oregon-Arizona State on ABC, and Duke-Wake Forest (oh, hell, there’s the AoG matchup) on the ACC Network. At 7, FOX has TCU at Oklahoma.

The late games might be okay. At 9, Washington-Colorado on ESPN and Utah-Arizona on FS1. This isn’t a good day of football though. I recommend doing something else.

Bad Gambling Advice (Football Edition)

Western Carolina at Alabama (11:00 AM, ESPN): Western Carolina +57, Over 61

Samford at Auburn (11:00 AM, SEC Network): Auburn -45.5, Under 64

Texas A&M at Georgia (2:30 PM, CBS): Georgia -13.5, Under 44.5

UT-Martin at Kentucky (2:30 PM, SEC Network): Kentucky -29.5, Over 43.5

East Tennessee State at Vanderbilt (2:30 PM, SEC Network Alternate): ETSU +20.5

Arkansas at LSU (6:00 PM, ESPN): LSU -43.5, Over 69

Tennessee at Missouri (6:30 PM, SEC Network): Tennessee +4, Under 45.5

Abilene Christian at Mississippi State (6:30 PM, SEC Network Alternate): Abilene Christian +37, Under 57

Bad Gambling Advice (Basketball Edition)

Ole Miss at Memphis (12:00 PM, ESPN3): Ole Miss +4, Over 145