Let’s get this bread! While the end of August doesn’t come until next Monday we have Week 0 creeping up on us as the 2026 college football season begins THIS Saturday. However, don’t get too excited just yet. The opening weekend is pretty light and we won’t get a ton of compelling matchups until later in the day during Week 1 on Saturday.

Week 0/1 Games to Watch

All times are Eastern. Rankings are from the AP Poll.

North Carolina [+7.5] vs. TCU (Dublin, Ireland)
Saturday, August 29th, 12:00 PM, ESPN

Before getting into the details on this game, a quick rant. Should college football be doing something else to kick off the season besides a game in Ireland? Look, I’m partly Irish and Notre Dame has played in this game before. It’s a good time. Yet, something about it just feels off as the beginning of the season for this uniquely American sport. The matchups typically being pretty bad doesn’t help either. But, I think anything done in the U.S. even in a sterile NFL stadium would be better served–and if we can get a season kickoff on campus, that should really be the goal. Rant over.

Contractually obligated to include this game.

Picking North Carolina here would be a complete shot in the dark. They didn’t transform their program as Belichick enters his second season and quarterback Billy Edwards winning the quarterback job hardly inspires a ton of confidence. The Tar Heels haven’t beaten a decent team in the Jordon Hudson era and last year the Frogs won this matchup by 34 points. I like Harvard transfer Jaden Craig to do some good things in the Big 12 this year and will predict a comfortable win for TCU.

TCU 32
North Carolina 17

Memphis [+4.5] at UNLV 
Saturday, August 29th, 10:00 PM, Fox

The opening Saturday concludes with this American vs. Mountain West matchup. Memphis is going through a huge rebuild (1 returning starter!) and is correctly an underdog as Charles Huff takes over the program after 4 years with Marshall and one stop at Southern Miss last year now in the past. It’s now year two of Dan Mullen in control of the Rebels and they will be moving forward with the Jackson Arnold experiment at quarterback. The UNLV early season schedule is nuts, by the way. After hosting Memphis, they travel to Hawaii, with road games against North Texas and Akron to follow. Surely no one is traveling more in September.

UNLV 28
Memphis 13

Colorado [+6.5] at Georgia Tech
Thursday, September 3rd, 8:00 PM, ESPN

Key will try to rebuild from a 9-win season.

We have a couple weeks before the NFL attempts to cannibalize the Thursday night football window. This is the return trip of a home-and-home that was played last year in Boulder. Now, the Buffs head back east in Coach Prime’s 4th season coming off a dismal 3-9 season. The reclamation project by Brent Key at Tech has been admirable, although they lost 4 out of their last 5 games last season, tons of players are gone, and talisman quarterback Haynes King is no longer on campus. The Jackets needs this game to get back on track, especially with Tennessee coming to town in week 2.

Georgia Tech 27
Colorado 24

Baylor [+7] vs. Auburn (Atlanta, GA)
Saturday, September 5th, 3:30 PM, ABC

These teams are perfect for each other in a week 1 matchup. Both could be good but probably won’t be, and we’ll get this opening Saturday primetime slot on ABC to make some stupid proclamations about their future. Dave Aranda is just barely holding on and has pushed many of his chips into the transfer of Florida’s DJ Lagway at quarterback, plus a new defensive coordinator complete with full play-calling duties. Byrum Brown coming over with head coach Alex Golesh from USF to play quarterback is a much better transfer compared to Baylor’s situation. This is my pick of the week of a super convincing win that some may not see coming.

Auburn 35
Baylor 16

Tulane [+9.5] at Duke
Saturday, September 5th, 3:30 PM, ACC Network

It’s the Darian Mensah Bowl! You can head over to the ACC Network to see if Tulane still has any juice left as an American Conference power with head coach Will Hall getting promoted following the departure of Jon Sumrall to Florida. Count me as a skeptic, Hall was super bad at Southern Miss (2021-24), I mean it’s a tough place to win but still. I have to type ACC Champion Duke is back following a 9-5 season but the prospects for their season aren’t super great. Not a whole lot to like from either of these teams during the lead up, and I haven’t taken an underdog yet.

Tulane 24
Duke 20

Boise State [+24.5] at #2 Oregon
Saturday, September 5th, 3:30 PM, CBS

Moore returned to Oregon for another shot. 

Ten years ago, this would’ve been a huge matchup likely pushed to a nighttime kickoff. I checked and Boise State hasn’t beaten a current Power program team since August 31, 2019 when they went into Tallahassee and beat a soon-to-be-fired Willie Taggart-led Florida State. But wait! The Broncos came to Autzen early in 2024 and nearly pulled off the upset that day. Sadly, Ashton Jeanty isn’t walking through that door. I think the only question is whether this win can vault the Ducks into the top of the polls after week one.

Oregon 43
Boise State 10

Clemson [+9.5] at #11 LSU
Saturday, September 5th, 7:30 PM, ABC

Perhaps the spiciest game of the opening full weekend. Neither side can afford to lose this one. Well, maybe Dabo can at this point as he’s settled into the third act of his Clemson career and the natives are probably okay with a defeat…for now. After last year’s big expectations, Clemson is expected to be just a decent Top 25 team this year as their ceiling. I think they might be worse than that. LSU looks very talented but brought in so many new pieces it could be tough to come out on the same page in game one. Clemson was favored by 4 points in this matchup at home last year and lost while the other team fired their coach. I think LSU covers in the ‘real’ (respectfully) Death Valley.

LSU 37
Clemson 20

#24 Louisville [+6.5] vs. #9 Ole Miss (Nashville, TN)
Sunday, September 6th, 7:30 PM, ABC

How much faith is there in Golding?

Our other night cap for Saturday night is a ranked vs. ranked matchup in the inaugural Music City Kickoff presented by Liberty Mutual, live from Nissan Stadium in Nashville. Louisville could be a sneaky good team this year…if quarterback Lincoln Kienholz can be a difference maker. He’s probably not very good, though. Ole Miss could be very, very good and a legit National Championship contender, although I wonder how they will deal with the coaching change from the Kiffin era. The Rebels offense may be crazy explosive but I’ll bet on some rust and a really close game while watching lots of Liberty biberty commercials.

Ole Miss 30
Louisville 24

#19 SMU [-2.5] at Florida State
Monday, September 7th, 7:30 PM, ESPN

The night after Notre Dame’s opener we’ll have this historic ACC matchup to finish off Labor Day. SMU is hoping a healthy Kevin Jennings at quarterback will vault them into the playoff conversation and they’ll need it because they are doing a major rebuild on defense. This is probably the least talked about Florida State team I can remember in recent years. They’ll open up in week 0 hosting New Mexico State so this line may move a little bit by kickoff. As Irish fans, we’ll watch this game closely. We need SMU to be a ranked opponent and definitely no hiccup here. Their schedule is not very difficult but only a modest 2.5-point road favorite situation is a little worrisome. This is probably the beginning of the end of Mike Norvell at FSU, although if he survives all of 2026 the school would still owe him roughly $45 million in a buyout if he’s axed in December.

SMU 44
Florida State 40