College Football - "Week Zero" and Week 1 (Aug. 23-30)

[Andy]

Catch-all thread for preseason discussion as well with the release of the preseason AP poll today.

 

"Week Zero" (Aug. 23)

(17) Kansas State vs (22) Iowa State - in Dublin, Ireland (12 pm, ESPN)

Fresno State at Kansas (6:30 pm, FOX)

Stanford at Hawaii (7 pm, CBS)

Sam Houston at Western Kentucky (7 pm, CBSSN)

Top 25 games

(1) Texas at (3) Ohio State (12 pm, FOX)

Nevada at (2) Penn State (3:30 pm, CBS)

(9) LSU at (4) Clemson (7:30 pm, ABC)

Marshall at (5) Georgia (3:30 pm, ESPN)

(6) Notre Dame at (10) Miami (7:30 pm Sunday, ABC)

Montana State at (7) Oregon (4 pm, BTN)

(8) Alabama at Florida State (3:30 pm, ABC)

Northern Arizona at (11) Arizona State (10 pm, ESPN+)

Western Illinois at (12) Illinois (7:30 pm Friday, Peacock)

Virginia Tech vs (13) South Carolina - in Atlanta (3 pm Sunday, ESPN)

New Mexico at (14) Michigan (7:30 pm, NBC)

Long Island at (15) Florida (7 pm, ESPN+)

East Texas A&M at (16) SMU (9 pm, ACC Network)

North Dakota at (17) Kansas State (7 pm, ESPN+)

Illinois State at (18) Oklahoma (6 pm, ESPN+)

UTSA at (19) Texas A&M (7 pm, ESPN)

Old Dominion at (20) Indiana (2:30 pm, FS1)

Georgia State at (21) Ole Miss (7:45 pm, SEC Network)

South Dakota at (22) Iowa State (3:30 pm, FOX)

Arkansas-Pine Bluff at (23) Texas Tech (7:30 pm, ESPN+)

Syracuse vs (24) Tennessee - in Atlanta (12 pm, ABC)

(25) Boise State at South Florida (5:30 pm Thursday, ESPN)

 

Other nationally available games
Thursday

Ohio at Rutgers (6 pm, BTN)

Lafayette at Bowling Green (6 pm, ESPN+)

East Carolina at NC State (7 pm, ACC Network)

Delaware State at Delaware (7 pm, ESPN+)

Jacksonville State at UCF (7 pm, ESPN+)

St. Francis at UL Monroe (7 pm, ESPN+)

Wyoming at Akron (7 pm, ESPN+)

Central Arkansas at Missouri (7:30 pm, SEC Network)

Elon at Duke (7:30 pm, ESPN+)

UT Martin at Oklahoma State (7:30 pm, ESPN+)

Buffalo at Minnesota (8 pm, FS1)

Stephen F. Austin at Houston (8 pm, ESPN+)

Alabama State at UAB (8:30 pm, ESPN+)

Nebraska vs Cincinnati - in Kansas City (9 pm, ESPN)

Miami (OH) at Wisconsin (9 pm, BTN)

UNLV at Sam Houston (9:30 pm, CBSSN)

Central Michigan at San Jose State (10:30 pm, FS1)

 

Friday

Tarleton at Army (6 pm, CBSSN)

Western Michigan at Michigan State (7 pm, BTN)

Appalachian State vs Charlotte - at Bank of America Stadium (7 pm, ESPNU)

Kennesaw State at Wake Forest (7 pm, ACC Network)

Bethune-Cookman at FIU (7 pm, ESPN+)

Wagner at Kansas (7:30 pm, ESPN+)

Auburn at Baylor (8 pm, FOX)

Georgia Tech at Colorado (8 pm, ESPN) 

 

Saturday TV

Mississippi State at Southern Miss (12 pm, ESPN)

Ball State at Purdue (12 pm, BTN - Regional)

Florida Atlantic at Maryland (12 pm, BTN - Regional)

Northwestern at Tulane (12 pm, ESPNU)

Duquesne at Pittsburgh (12 pm, ACC Network)

VMI at Navy (12 pm, CBSSN)

Toledo at Kentucky (12:45 pm, SEC Network)

Eastern Kentucky at Louisville (3 pm, ACC Network)

Bucknell at Air Force (3:30 pm, CBSSN)

Alabama A&M at Arkansas (4:15 pm, SEC Network)

Albany at Iowa (6 pm, FS1)

Coastal Carolina at Virginia (6 pm, ACC Network)

Missouri State at USC (7:30 pm, BTN)

UTEP at Utah State (7:30 pm, CBSSN)

Georgia Southern at Fresno State (9:30 pm, FS1)

Idaho at Washington State (10 pm, CW) 

California at Oregon State (10:30 pm, ESPN) 

Hawaii at Arizona (10:30 pm, TNT)

Utah at UCLA (11 pm, FOX)

Colorado State at Washington (11 pm, BTN)

 

Saturday Streaming (all ESPN+)

Merrimack at Kent State (12 pm)

Fordham at Boston College (2 pm)

Robert Morris at West Virginia (2 pm)

Holy Cross at Northern Illinois (3:30 pm)

Temple at UMass (3:30 pm)

Maine at Liberty (4 pm)

Chattanooga at Memphis (4:30 pm)

Weber State at James Madison (6 pm)

Austin Peay at Middle Tennessee (7 pm)

Charleston Southern at Vanderbilt (7 pm)

Morgan State at South Alabama (7 pm)

North Alabama at Western Kentucky (7 pm)

SE Louisiana at Louisiana Tech (7 pm)

SE Missouri State at Arkansas State (7 pm)

Portland State at BYU (8 pm)

Eastern Michigan at Texas State (8 pm)

Lamar at North Texas (8 pm)

Rice at UL Lafayette (8 pm)

Abilene Christian at Tulsa (8 pm)

Bryant at New Mexico State (9 pm)

 

Monday

TCU at North Carolina (8 pm, ESPN)

[Derwood]

All the hype around UT/OSU being the "first opening week game between #1 and #2" got ruined by the AP poll. You hate to see it

[Tim]

Illinois with a preseason ranking higher than Michigan. huh.

[champaignchris]

6 hours ago, Tim said:

Illinois with a preseason ranking higher than Michigan. huh.

Illinois was a better team than Michigan last year, beat Michigan convincingly, returns a ton of talent including QB, all 5 starting OL, and NFL-bound edge rusher, and had highly ranked recruiting and transfer portal classes. 

if you just took the names off the jerseys and labeled them Team A and Team B, there’d be no question which team should be ranked higher. 

Edited August 12, 2025 by champaignchris

[I owned a Suzuki]

On 8/12/2025 at 2:31 PM, champaignchris said:

Illinois was a better team than Michigan last year, beat Michigan convincingly, returns a ton of talent including QB, all 5 starting OL, and NFL-bound edge rusher, and had highly ranked recruiting and transfer portal classes. 

if you just took the names off the jerseys and labeled them Team A and Team B, there’d be no question which team should be ranked higher. 

Living in the Champaign area, I've noticed Illinois fans seem more reluctant about being ranked 12th than others. I think they have a legit shot at making the playoffs

[Andy]

Michigan penalties released by the NCAA, which (as all penalties do now) amount to basically nothing anybody will notice.

Fined the equivalent of postseason money for the next 2 seasons, lengthy show causes for Harbaugh and Stallions (as if either of them will ever work in college again). Sherrone Moore gets 1 more game of suspension - bizarrely to be served next year - on top of the 2 UM already imposed.

Adding this from the report just because it's funny: 

 

[I owned a Suzuki]

23 minutes ago, Andy said:

Michigan penalties released by the NCAA, which (as all penalties do now) amount to basically nothing anybody will notice.

Fined the equivalent of postseason money for the next 2 seasons, lengthy show causes for Harbaugh and Stallions (as if either of them will ever work in college again). Sherrone Moore gets 1 more game of suspension - bizarrely to be served next year - on top of the 2 UM already imposed.

Adding this from the report just because it's funny: 

 

It's actually more than I ever expected.

Stallions has been outwardly arrogant about this from the get go....probably knowing eventually it would end up being almost nothing. Also, to irritate the heck out of Spartan and Buckeye fans

[UMFan83]

As my 9 year old would say 'womp womp'

[Soul]

Whenever these cheating scandals happen, whether it’s PEDs, or sign stealing, or whatever, I always wonder how wide scale it is.  And my conclusion is always that this is just the person/team who got caught.  Many others are doing the same.  The proof is that more cheating scandals keep happening.

Michigan was doing what I’d lay money is a common practice.  Doesn’t make it right.  But it should be framed in that way.

[Ding Dong Johnson]

Nope, it’s only Michigan.

[Andy]

I don't know what the next scheduling topic fans will obsessively complain about will be, but I'm confident they'll find one.

 

[Derwood]

Will they still hold a November spot for The Citadel every year?

[Andy]

3 hours ago, Derwood said:

Will they still hold a November spot for The Citadel every year?

Oh look, we found it!

This is a public memo that there is no qualitative difference between playing crappy FCS teams in November or September, and if it's such an advantage, the beautiful thing about it is there's absolutely no rule against it so your team can do it too.

[Derwood]

1 minute ago, Andy said:

Oh look, we found it!

This is a public memo that there is no qualitative difference between playing crappy FCS teams in November or September, and if it's such an advantage, the beautiful thing about it is there's absolutely no rule against it so your team can do it too.

Breaking up your conference schedule with an easy win certainly gives you a temporary poll shift. When everyone is playing Marist or The Citadel while B1G teams are playing Michigan or Ohio State is (again temporarily) meaningful. The SEC clearly schedules this way because they believe this to be true

[Andy]

Just now, Derwood said:

Breaking up your conference schedule with an easy win certainly gives you a temporary poll shift. When everyone is playing Marist or The Citadel while B1G teams are playing Michigan or Ohio State is (again temporarily) meaningful. The SEC clearly schedules this way because they believe this to be true

Then you (PSU in this example) have the freedom to move your Villanova game to November if it's such an advantage. No one is stopping you.

Personally, as a TV consumer, I'd rather teams play fun early games, then one clunker game later in the season when other conferences are providing options I can safely ignore them to watch, rather than having virtually nothing of significance to watch for an entire month as is the case with much of the B1G.

[Derwood]

13 minutes ago, Andy said:

Then you (PSU in this example) have the freedom to move your Villanova game to November if it's such an advantage. No one is stopping you.

Personally, as a TV consumer, I'd rather teams play fun early games, then one clunker game later in the season when other conferences are providing options I can safely ignore them to watch, rather than having virtually nothing of significance to watch for an entire month as is the case with much of the B1G.

I'm not defending PSU's joke of an OOC schedule (embarrassing) 

[I owned a Suzuki]

4 hours ago, Andy said:

Then you (PSU in this example) have the freedom to move your Villanova game to November if it's such an advantage. No one is stopping you.

Personally, as a TV consumer, I'd rather teams play fun early games, then one clunker game later in the season when other conferences are providing options I can safely ignore them to watch, rather than having virtually nothing of significance to watch for an entire month as is the case with much of the B1G.

Can they? Does the B1G set the conference schedule? Can they tell the B1G to leave that week open every year? 

I dont know the answer but I suspect its a lot harder with a 9 game conference schedule

[Andy]

2 hours ago, I owned a Suzuki said:

Can they? Does the B1G set the conference schedule? Can they tell the B1G to leave that week open every year? 

I dont know the answer but I suspect its a lot harder with a 9 game conference schedule

I meant the B1G as a league could, but yeah, individual teams probably can't. It seems like the whole league is unified in thinking the SEC's cupcake week is some kind of crazy devious hack, though, so you'd think it wouldn't be a tough sell.

[Derwood]

10 hours ago, Andy said:

I meant the B1G as a league could, but yeah, individual teams probably can't. It seems like the whole league is unified in thinking the SEC's cupcake week is some kind of crazy devious hack, though, so you'd think it wouldn't be a tough sell.

People wouldn't dunk on them so hard about the cupcake week if they weren't constantly bragging about how infinitely harder their schedules are than everyone else

[Rex Buckingham]

It's also essentially an extra bye week later in the season where they can rest players and get healthy for the final few games. 

[Derwood]

Ohio State has banned Dave Portnoy from the stadium. He can do the pregame, but won’t be allowed on the field for the postgame. Hilarious. 

[Tryptamine]

1 hour ago, Derwood said:

Ohio State has banned Dave Portnoy from the stadium. He can do the pregame, but won’t be allowed on the field for the postgame. Hilarious. 

If only the rest of the world would follow suit.

[Andy]

4 hours ago, Derwood said:

Ohio State has banned Dave Portnoy from the stadium. He can do the pregame, but won’t be allowed on the field for the postgame. Hilarious. 

Now Ohio State is claiming it's their understanding that FOX won't bring Portnoy into any B1G stadiums during the season, which makes absolutely no sense at all on its face. Color me pleased, though, that this ridiculous circus act didn't even get started before it got dumb

[I owned a Suzuki]

I know Im getting old. But college pregame shows deteriorating from Corso to Portnoy and McAfee says a lot about who views these shows.

This is not an endorsement of Corso, though he used to be pretty solid.

Edited August 27, 2025 by I owned a Suzuki

[Tryptamine]

1 hour ago, I owned a Suzuki said:

I know Im getting old. But college pregame shows deteriorating from Corso to Portnoy and McAfee says a lot about who views these shows.

This is not an endorsement of Corso, though he used to be pretty solid.

America has embraced stupidity and hot takes over education and factually backed opinions.