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Four-ish days until football starts, and week 1 is seven-ish days of intrigue and danger spanning two-ish actual calendar weeks on three-ish continents. I recall week 1 of last year being pretty good, but this one here is going to give it a run for its money. Here are some watchable games:
Friday, August 26
10:00 PM - The first college football game of the season at any level will be played by two FBS teams in the land down under (u63). This should be pretty one sided, but it IS football, and Cal has the ability to score the first ten touchdowns of the season if it so chooses, although they are only 22 point favorites. Hawaii had better run, they'd better take cover. Throw some shrimp on the barbie, mix up a Mai Tai, and turn up some Tupac, you'll be watching.
Saturday, August 27
7:30 PM - Let yourself down gently while you wait another six days for the real action to start. There's only one football game of any kind on TV today, and it features the ultimate champion of FCS in North Dakota State versus Charleston Southern. Last year, NDSU got a stunning upset in week 1 from the Montana Grizzlies, but went on to win the FCS national championship anyway, trampling over Montana in a rematch along the way. Even if another stunning upset does not happen, and it could (Charleston Southern went 10-3 last year), this will be a good chance to check out both teams before one (NDSU) plays Iowa in week 3 and the other (CSU) plays FSU.
Thursday, September 1
7:00 PM - On the menu in this time slot, a bunch of vegetables get eaten by familiar names. Two ACC teams will be scoring style points when Louisville takes on Charlotte and Wake Forest takes on Tulane. Drifting into 7:30 you can catch NC State devouring William and Mary or you can flip over to Eventual National Champions Tennessee taking on Appalachian State. Surely at least one of these games will not go as planned, right?
8:00 PM - South Carolina takes on Vanderbilt in what will be the first real conference game of the year. If you're not interested, the rest of this time slot is Utah, Utah, Utah (university of, state, southern). Western Kentucky is also playing, and should pile up silly numbers against Rice, even if Google doesn't know that Brandon Doughty isn't still their quarterback. Who can blame google for that, though? He was there for six seasons.
9:00 PM - The first interconference power 5 game pits the Oregon State of the Pac 12 against the Minnesota of the Big 10, and we find out whose worst team is the worstest.
Friday, September 2
6:00-7:30 PM - Buffalo has a good coach and could play a fun game against... Albany? Temple could be a pretty tough team again, versus Army. Syracuse could lose to Colgate under the right conditions, and Michigan State and Baylor could combine for 120+ points on their hopelessly overmatched opponents. Temple/Army looks to be the only one on regular human television. At 8, Colorado State versus Colorado comes on ESPN, which was a fun one last year that went to overtime.
9:00 PM - Kansas State at Stanford could serve as our first heavyweight interconference game of the season. Stanford is a 16 point favorite, at the moment, which just proves to me I know nothing about these teams. Toledo at Arkansas State should be higher scoring but equally competitive. You can start your pregaming for tomorrow during this time slot. Whiskey clear.
Saturday, September 3
7:30 AM - Kicking off the first full college football Saturday from Ireland, it's GT vs BC, the only game of the day that really truly matters. A game of Catholics versus drunkards in Ireland also sounds like it may leave the locals a little torn on the issue of who to pull for.
12:00 PM - A pretty good slate for noon. Houston takes on Oklahoma in the "wait, I scheduled who?" bowl. When this game was added years ago, I doubt anybody at OU was thinking Houston would be coming off a NY6 victory over FSU and looking dangerous with their head coach and much of a very stout roster returning. Also, a funny note on this game from Vegas:
You probably couldn't have ever bet on it, but that right there says that between 10 and 11 AM on 05/18, Houston was a 35 point favorite in a game where they expected 180 points. Yes, please! Also in this time slot, Hawaii travels to Michigan for the opportunity to lose TWO games in week 1, Bowling Green takes a pretty good mid-major squad to an Ohio State with question marks, and Missouri takes on West Virginia in an interconference battle of potential. Fun fact: being a 42 point dog against Michigan, Hawaii is the biggest dog of week 1 among vegas lines, and is a combined 63 point dog against its week 1 double header.
2:00 PM - Rutgers at Washington counts as a P5 interconference matchup. Technically.
3:30 PM - UCLA at Texas A&M should provide all of the points that LSU vs Wisconsin does not. Virginia might lose to Richmond.
5:30 PM - Georgia vs North Carolina is your first opportunity to see how Kirby Smart stacks up, and whether the supposedly best team in the Coastal really is any good. Also in this time slot, nothing. Nothing at all. Literally dead air. Come on, scheduling people, get it together.
8:00 PM - Alabama welcomes USC to town. Lets see exactly how inconspicuous Lane Kiffin can be on the sideline. I'm betting on a fake beard and an oversized trench coat to go along with his sunglasses, at least. I think the possibility of an incognito play caller is why Vegas only has Alabama as 10 point favorites. Also in this time slot, Fresno State could actually beat Nebraska on a bad day, and you may want to DVR Texas Tech vs Stephen F Austin. TT's offense versus SFA's defense may actually be the most lopsided matchup of week 1 and a contender for the most lopsided matchup of the season. Also, SFA are the Lumberjacks, and that's okay.
9:00 PM - Clemson goes to Auburn to start its next run to the national championship. Auburn has told its fans to wear Orange, presumably so that its team can feel completely alone in its own stadium. Auburn's home jerseys are some kind of blue. If all of the Clemson fans would please show up to this game in purple, we could have one of the most confused atmospheres in all of football.
10:30 PM - Arizona hosts BYU for the traditional out-west nightcap game, comprising over 1,000 yards of offense and ending with a successful game-defining hail mary by either team, maybe both, that nobody on the east coast will watch. Brought to you by Taco Bell fourthmeal.
Sunday, September 4
7:30 PM - Notre Dame goes down to Texas, where the Irish are a 2 point favorite over the Longhorns, which says... not a whole lot about either team. Is Texas expected to be good or something? Are the Irish suddenly bad? Did Vegas just forget last year's game? Which of these two coaches seats are hotter after a loss? This is a game that is sure to generate some high quality schadenfreude from two of the schadenfreudiest fanbases in the game.
Monday, September 5
8:00 PM - A dangerous early-season tilt for FSU, as they host Ole Miss, which seems to sometimes kill giants. FSU has a new quarterback and a refreshed Dalvin Cook, and Ole Miss brings back Swag Kelly, who is a very dangerous player that has already declared himself the best quarterback in the nation. Both teams have semi-realistic national championship aspirations. This game is a pressure cooker of expectations, which would rival Texas Notre Dame for schadenfreude potential if more of the fans were literate.
Any good or otherwise entertaining ones I've missed?
Friday, August 26
10:00 PM - The first college football game of the season at any level will be played by two FBS teams in the land down under (u63). This should be pretty one sided, but it IS football, and Cal has the ability to score the first ten touchdowns of the season if it so chooses, although they are only 22 point favorites. Hawaii had better run, they'd better take cover. Throw some shrimp on the barbie, mix up a Mai Tai, and turn up some Tupac, you'll be watching.
Saturday, August 27
7:30 PM - Let yourself down gently while you wait another six days for the real action to start. There's only one football game of any kind on TV today, and it features the ultimate champion of FCS in North Dakota State versus Charleston Southern. Last year, NDSU got a stunning upset in week 1 from the Montana Grizzlies, but went on to win the FCS national championship anyway, trampling over Montana in a rematch along the way. Even if another stunning upset does not happen, and it could (Charleston Southern went 10-3 last year), this will be a good chance to check out both teams before one (NDSU) plays Iowa in week 3 and the other (CSU) plays FSU.
Thursday, September 1
7:00 PM - On the menu in this time slot, a bunch of vegetables get eaten by familiar names. Two ACC teams will be scoring style points when Louisville takes on Charlotte and Wake Forest takes on Tulane. Drifting into 7:30 you can catch NC State devouring William and Mary or you can flip over to Eventual National Champions Tennessee taking on Appalachian State. Surely at least one of these games will not go as planned, right?
8:00 PM - South Carolina takes on Vanderbilt in what will be the first real conference game of the year. If you're not interested, the rest of this time slot is Utah, Utah, Utah (university of, state, southern). Western Kentucky is also playing, and should pile up silly numbers against Rice, even if Google doesn't know that Brandon Doughty isn't still their quarterback. Who can blame google for that, though? He was there for six seasons.
9:00 PM - The first interconference power 5 game pits the Oregon State of the Pac 12 against the Minnesota of the Big 10, and we find out whose worst team is the worstest.
Friday, September 2
6:00-7:30 PM - Buffalo has a good coach and could play a fun game against... Albany? Temple could be a pretty tough team again, versus Army. Syracuse could lose to Colgate under the right conditions, and Michigan State and Baylor could combine for 120+ points on their hopelessly overmatched opponents. Temple/Army looks to be the only one on regular human television. At 8, Colorado State versus Colorado comes on ESPN, which was a fun one last year that went to overtime.
9:00 PM - Kansas State at Stanford could serve as our first heavyweight interconference game of the season. Stanford is a 16 point favorite, at the moment, which just proves to me I know nothing about these teams. Toledo at Arkansas State should be higher scoring but equally competitive. You can start your pregaming for tomorrow during this time slot. Whiskey clear.
Saturday, September 3
7:30 AM - Kicking off the first full college football Saturday from Ireland, it's GT vs BC, the only game of the day that really truly matters. A game of Catholics versus drunkards in Ireland also sounds like it may leave the locals a little torn on the issue of who to pull for.
12:00 PM - A pretty good slate for noon. Houston takes on Oklahoma in the "wait, I scheduled who?" bowl. When this game was added years ago, I doubt anybody at OU was thinking Houston would be coming off a NY6 victory over FSU and looking dangerous with their head coach and much of a very stout roster returning. Also, a funny note on this game from Vegas:
VI Consensus Line Movements said:
You probably couldn't have ever bet on it, but that right there says that between 10 and 11 AM on 05/18, Houston was a 35 point favorite in a game where they expected 180 points. Yes, please! Also in this time slot, Hawaii travels to Michigan for the opportunity to lose TWO games in week 1, Bowling Green takes a pretty good mid-major squad to an Ohio State with question marks, and Missouri takes on West Virginia in an interconference battle of potential. Fun fact: being a 42 point dog against Michigan, Hawaii is the biggest dog of week 1 among vegas lines, and is a combined 63 point dog against its week 1 double header.
2:00 PM - Rutgers at Washington counts as a P5 interconference matchup. Technically.
3:30 PM - UCLA at Texas A&M should provide all of the points that LSU vs Wisconsin does not. Virginia might lose to Richmond.
5:30 PM - Georgia vs North Carolina is your first opportunity to see how Kirby Smart stacks up, and whether the supposedly best team in the Coastal really is any good. Also in this time slot, nothing. Nothing at all. Literally dead air. Come on, scheduling people, get it together.
8:00 PM - Alabama welcomes USC to town. Lets see exactly how inconspicuous Lane Kiffin can be on the sideline. I'm betting on a fake beard and an oversized trench coat to go along with his sunglasses, at least. I think the possibility of an incognito play caller is why Vegas only has Alabama as 10 point favorites. Also in this time slot, Fresno State could actually beat Nebraska on a bad day, and you may want to DVR Texas Tech vs Stephen F Austin. TT's offense versus SFA's defense may actually be the most lopsided matchup of week 1 and a contender for the most lopsided matchup of the season. Also, SFA are the Lumberjacks, and that's okay.
9:00 PM - Clemson goes to Auburn to start its next run to the national championship. Auburn has told its fans to wear Orange, presumably so that its team can feel completely alone in its own stadium. Auburn's home jerseys are some kind of blue. If all of the Clemson fans would please show up to this game in purple, we could have one of the most confused atmospheres in all of football.
10:30 PM - Arizona hosts BYU for the traditional out-west nightcap game, comprising over 1,000 yards of offense and ending with a successful game-defining hail mary by either team, maybe both, that nobody on the east coast will watch. Brought to you by Taco Bell fourthmeal.
Sunday, September 4
7:30 PM - Notre Dame goes down to Texas, where the Irish are a 2 point favorite over the Longhorns, which says... not a whole lot about either team. Is Texas expected to be good or something? Are the Irish suddenly bad? Did Vegas just forget last year's game? Which of these two coaches seats are hotter after a loss? This is a game that is sure to generate some high quality schadenfreude from two of the schadenfreudiest fanbases in the game.
Monday, September 5
8:00 PM - A dangerous early-season tilt for FSU, as they host Ole Miss, which seems to sometimes kill giants. FSU has a new quarterback and a refreshed Dalvin Cook, and Ole Miss brings back Swag Kelly, who is a very dangerous player that has already declared himself the best quarterback in the nation. Both teams have semi-realistic national championship aspirations. This game is a pressure cooker of expectations, which would rival Texas Notre Dame for schadenfreude potential if more of the fans were literate.
Any good or otherwise entertaining ones I've missed?
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