Week 1 college football picks: Utah vs. Michigan, Texas vs. Notre Dame, more

College football Week 1 picks: SI.com's writers predict winners for Ohio State-Virginia Tech, Alabama-Wisconsin and more.

The college football off-season is always a slow time, but it was especially brutal in 2015. Just think: We spent months discussing satellite camps, speculating about possible conference expansion (that never really seemed close to happening) and debating who would start at quarterback for Ohio State. All of those storylines will finally give way to real results from actual games.

While many squads scheduled cupcakes to open their respective 2015 campaigns, the opening weekend includes a handful of intriguing matchups. Will Michigan stumble at Utah in Jim Harbaugh’s debut? Can Wisconsin push Alabama in Jerry World? And could the Buckeyes' title defense get off to a inauspicious start against Virginia Tech? SI.com's team of college football writers—Andy Staples, Pete Thamel, Thayer Evans, Zac Ellis, Colin Becht, Lindsay Schnell, Brian Hamilton and Ben Glicksman—offer their predictions for those games and more.​

• CRYSTAL BALL: SI.com writers make their picks for the playoff, Heisman, more

• HAMILTON: Week 1 Walkthrough: Notre Dame's Ronnie Stanley is back and better than ever

• STAPLES: When will Charlie Strong make Texas a contender again?

	Staples	Thamel	Evans	Ellis	Becht	Schnell	Hamilton	Glicksman
Michigan at Utah
TCU at Minnesota
North Carolina at South Carolina
Michigan State at Western Michigan
Washington at Boise State
Stanford at Northwestern
Virginia at UCLA
Louisville vs. Auburn
Bowling Green at Tennessee
BYU at Nebraska
Arizona State vs. Texas A&M
Texas at Notre Dame
Wisconsin vs. Alabama
Arkansas State at USC
Ohio State at Virginia Tech