SI:AM | The Week 1 College Football Games Actually Worth Watching

A couple of upsets could be brewing.

Colorado opens its season at home against North Dakota State on Thursday. / Ron Chenoy-USA TODAY Sports

Good morning, I’m Dan Gartland. I love that Week 1 is getting started early with a bunch of Thursday night games.

In today’s SI:AM:

🅾️ Ohio State’s spending spree
🏈 The Steelers’ QB competition
🏌️‍♂️ PGA Tour power rankings

Football is here for real

Technically, the college football season has already started. But with all due respect to the four games played last weekend during Week 0, it really gets underway on Thursday night. There are almost 100 games involving FBS teams between now and Monday night. If you’re doing the math and wondering how the 134 teams in FBS can be playing that many games, it’s because many of them are facing FCS opponents. There are plenty of games on the schedule like Arkansas State vs. Central Arkansas and Northern Illinois vs. Western Illinois—not exactly the kinds of matchups football fans spent their spring and summer dreaming about. But there are still a decent number of games that neutral fans should pay attention to. Let’s break them down.

Colorado vs. North Dakota State (8 p.m. ET Thursday on ESPN)

Year 2 of the Deion Sanders era in Boulder begins with a very tricky matchup against perennial FCS powerhouse North Dakota State. The Bison are the No. 2 team in the FCS coaches poll after finishing last season ranked third.

Most FBS programs haven’t been willing to test their luck against NDSU of late. The Bison strung together six straight wins over FBS opponents from 2010 to ’16 (beating Kansas, Minnesota, Colorado State, Kansas State, Iowa State and Iowa) and then didn’t play another FBS game until ’22, losing 31–28 to Arizona. They don’t have another FBS game on the books until a matchup at Oregon in 2028. Losing to a team as consistently successful as NDSU shouldn’t be too embarrassing, but there’s definitely a stigma associated with losing to a program from the lower subdivision—and most teams aren’t willing to take the risk.

The Bison have shown that they’re able to beat teams in the middle tier of the power conferences, and there should be some question as to whether Colorado can even be considered part of that middle tier. The Buffaloes’ 2023 season began with a bang, picking up an upset win on the road against a ranked TCU team, but they were quickly humbled during conference play and finished 4–8. The expectation will be for Sanders’s team to take a step forward this year, hopefully resulting in the team’s first six-win season since 2016. Colorado has two of the nation’s best players in quarterback Shedeur Sanders and receiver/defensive back Travis Hunter, but there are questions about the rest of the roster. Roughly 40 players left via the transfer portal and just as many arrived in Boulder as transfers, so this roster is hardly recognizable. It should be better than last year’s 4–8 team, but will it be good enough to beat North Dakota State?

No. 1 Georgia vs. No. 14 Clemson (in Atlanta, noon ET Saturday on ABC)

This is the most high-profile game of the weekend, although it seemed a lot more tantalizing when the game was scheduled in 2018 and Clemson was in the middle of a six-year streak of finishing ranked in the top three. Georgia’s 2023 season ended in disappointing fashion after losing to Alabama in the SEC championship game and being left out of the playoff. Clemson’s year was even more disappointing, though. The Tigers went 9–4, their most losses in a season since 2011. They return plenty of talent from last year’s roster, so they should be improved, but Georgia is the premier program in college football right now and is favored by two touchdowns.

No. 19 Miami at Florida (3:30 p.m. ET Saturday on ABC)

Miami’s Mario Cristobal and Florida’s Billy Napier were hired before the 2022 season—and neither hire has gone according to plan. Cristobal went 5–7 and 7–6 in his first two seasons, while Napier went 6–7 and then didn’t even make a bowl game last year at 5–7.

The Hurricanes appear better positioned for success this season. The biggest change is that they added former Washington State quarterback Cam Ward in the transfer portal, who should be an upgrade over last year’s starter, Tyler Van Dyke (now at Wisconsin). They also have a fairly easy schedule: their only game against a team ranked in the preseason AP poll is against Florida State at home. The Gators, meanwhile, have a brutal schedule that features eight games against currently ranked teams.

Welcoming a ranked rival to Gainesville is a tough way for Florida to open the season. There’s a distinct possibility that the Gators, after posting their second worst season of the past decade, could find themselves at 0–1 with a matchup against a tough Texas A&M team looming in two weeks.

No. 7 Notre Dame at No. 20 Texas A&M (7:30 p.m. ET Saturday on ABC)

Speaking of Texas A&M, the Aggies have a tough one to start their season, facing Notre Dame at Kyle Field. The Irish have done well in Marcus Freeman’s first two years in charge and will have their eyes set on the expanded 12-team playoff this year. Making the playoff is a little tough for an independent team, though, since there’s no way to earn an automatic bid. If Notre Dame wants an at-large bid, picking up marquee wins against teams like Texas A&M is crucial.

No. 13 LSU vs. No. 23 USC (in Las Vegas, 7:30 p.m. ET Sunday on ABC)

Last year was a major disappointment for USC. The Trojans had the reigning Heisman Trophy winner in Caleb Williams but the defense was a disaster (ranked 121st out of 133 teams in points allowed per game) and cost them dearly, leading to an 8–5 record. Defensive coordinator Alex Grinch was fired after a 52–42 loss to Washington on Nov. 4. He was replaced by D’Anton Lynn (the son of former Los Angeles Chargers coach Anthony Lynn), who was the defensive coordinator across town at UCLA last season, leading a Bruins D that ranked 14th in points allowed per game. LSU had the best offense in the nation last season but lost Heisman winner Jayden Daniels to the NFL draft, along with several other key offensive players. Still, how the Tigers perform against a revamped USC defense will tell us a lot about what to expect from the Trojans this year.

Boston College at No. 10 Florida State (7:30 p.m. ET Monday on ESPN)

The Seminoles’ season got off to a disastrous start with a loss to Georgia Tech last weekend in Ireland. It wasn’t a good look for a program that had spent much of the past year crowing about how it was too good for the ACC. Flying halfway around the world to play a game in a foreign country can (and did, in this case) lead to a wacky result, so playing at home is a chance for FSU to get in the win column in a more familiar environment. But if the Seminoles lose? Oh, baby.

Quinshon Judkins leads a talented group of transfers ready to push Ohio State to the top. / Jason Mowry/Icon Sportswire/Getty Images

The best of Sports Illustrated

• Today’s Digital Cover is Pat Forde’s story on Ohio State’s spending spree after the Buckeyes fell to Michigan last year.

• Russell Wilson may have been named the Steelers’ Week 1 starter, but the QB competition is far from over, Conor Orr writes.

• Matt Verderame collaborated with our On SI contributors to compile a list of the 59 most important people of this NFL season.

• Jon Wertheim’s tennis mailbag leads with a look at the Jannik Sinner controversy.

• Here are Jim Stracka’s power rankings for the Tour Championship at East Lake.

• Bob Harig wrote about how Keegan Bradley’s win last week has led to a very interesting situation for the upcoming Presidents Cup.

• Jerod Mayo gave Jacoby Brissett the nod over Drake Maye as the Patriots’ Week 1 starting quarterback.

The top five…

… things I saw yesterday:

5. The Yankees’ wacky 8-6-2-3-2-5-4 double play.
4. Nationals prospect Dylan Crews’s first career home run.
3. James Bree’s stunning stoppage-time game-winner from outside the box in Southampton’s EFL Cup win over Cardiff City. It was just the third goal of Bree’s career.
2. Travis Jankowski’s catch to rob a would-be walk-off home run.
1. Shohei Ohtani’s dog’s “first pitch.”