Forty Observations About the 2023 College Football Schedule

As the season approaches, Pat Forde breaks down the FBS’s fall slate.

It’s August, and you know what that means: Preseason camps open, and the first games are played before the end of the month. That also means it’s time for the annual list of 40 thoughts on the 2023 college football schedule:

1. Strength of schedule will be cussed and discussed all season, so let’s start with some information about which schools are challenging themselves outside the league and which ones are not. Schools playing 11 Power 5 conference opponents/Notre Dame: Purdue, Pittsburgh, Louisville, West Virginia, Utah and Colorado. Of that group, Pitt and Louisville have scheduled three nonconference games against power opponents. Pitt is playing Cincinnati (new to the club), West Virginia and Notre Dame; Louisville is playing Indiana, Notre Dame and Kentucky.

Notre Dame will have to look out for an Oct. 7 trap game on its upcoming schedule.  :: Jeremy Reper/USA TODAY Sports

2. Boston College is the lone P5 team playing just eight power-conference opponents. Outside the Atlantic Coast Conference schedule, the Eagles will face Northern Illinois, Holy Cross, Army and Connecticut. Six other schools will play zero non-league opponents from power conferences but have nine league games: Michigan, Oklahoma, Central Florida, Houston, Oregon State and UCLA. The Wolverines and Bruins were originally scheduled to play this year, but Michigan bought out the two-year series.

3. Among the above teams, these are the average 2022 Sagarin ratings of their ’23 nonconference opponents: Boston College, 119th; Michigan, 109th; Oklahoma, 66th; Central Florida, 113th; Houston, 126th; Oregon State, 95th; and UCLA, 125th.

4. Hardest overall schedule: Florida. The Gators open with defending Pac-12 champion Utah in Salt Lake City and close with potential ACC champion Florida State. In between is two-time reigning national champion Georgia, reigning SEC West champion LSU, Tennessee, a Kentucky program that has beaten the Gators twice in a row and other potential headaches. Florida has just six games in The Swamp.

5. Hardest non-SEC schedule: Michigan State. In addition to the three-headed Big Ten East monster of Michigan, Ohio State and Penn State, the Spartans will host what could be a top-10 Washington squad and catch Iowa in Iowa City in divisional crossover play. The good news is that Michigan State will open with four in a row at home, but it finishes by playing the Nittany Lions in Detroit on Black Friday instead of Spartan Stadium.

6. Easiest overall P5 schedule: UCLA will play Coastal Carolina (post–Jamey Chadwell), San Diego State (sliding) and North Carolina Central (FCS) in the nonconference slate; does not face either Washington or Oregon; leaves the state of California only three times; and plays the bottom-six teams in the Pac-12 preseason poll (Washington State, Arizona, California, Arizona State, Colorado and Stanford).

7. Hardest September: South Carolina will open with North Carolina in Charlotte, visit Georgia on the 16th, host Mississippi State on the 23rd and visit Tennessee on the 30th. Honorable mention: Mississippi is at dangerous Tulane on Sept. 9, at Alabama on Sept. 23 and hosts LSU on Sept. 30; West Virginia will open at Penn State and has Pitt on the 16th, Texas Tech on the 23rd and visits TCU on the 30th; Utah has Florida, at Baylor, UCLA and at Oregon State; Colorado opens at TCU, hosts Nebraska, visits Oregon on the 23rd and hosts USC on the 30th.

8. Easiest September: Michigan will open with East Carolina, UNLV, Bowling Green and Rutgers at home before a trip to Nebraska on the 30th. All things considered, a fine month to be suspended. Honorable mention: Oklahoma will open with Arkansas State, SMU, Tulsa, Cincinnati and Iowa State; TCU will face Colorado, Nicholls, Houston, SMU, West Virginia.

9. Hardest October: Syracuse will play no home games in the month. It will be at North Carolina, at Florida State, have an open date and then play at Virginia Tech. Honorable mention: Indiana will visit both Michigan and Penn State; Ohio State has Penn State and Wisconsin in consecutive weeks; Wake Forest will play both Clemson and Florida State, with Virginia Tech and Pittsburgh in between; Tennessee will host Texas A&M and visit both Alabama and Kentucky.

10. Easiest October: If Northwestern still has a football program by then, the month will offer a glimmer of hope. The Wildcats will host Howard on the 7th, have an open date, visit the only team they beat last year (Nebraska) and host Maryland. Honorable mention: North Carolina has three straight at home (Syracuse, Miami, Virginia) and then visits Georgia Tech; Boston College plays Army, Georgia Tech and Connecticut.

Following an easy start to the season, Michigan finishes off with tough matches against Penn State and Ohio State :: Mark J. Rebilas/USA TODAY Sports

11. Hardest November: Michigan will make up for the early softness by finishing with both Penn State on the road (Nov. 11) and hosting Ohio State (Nov. 25). And beware the sandwich game between those two at Maryland. Honorable mention: Kentucky will play three of its last four on the road, and the home game in that stretch is against Alabama; Texas will finish with Kansas State, at TCU, at Iowa State and Texas Tech; Washington will close with USC on the road, Utah, Oregon State on the road and the Apple Cup.

12. Easiest November: Iowa will close with Northwestern, Rutgers, Illinois and Nebraska. If the Hawkeyes are leading the Big Ten West after playing Wisconsin on Oct. 14, there could be no catching them.

13. The single worst stretch for any team, anywhere, belongs to Louisiana Tech. The Bulldogs will play four games in a span of 18 days, with three of them on the road. The lineup: at Nebraska on Sept. 23, at UTEP on Sept. 29, home against Western Kentucky on Oct. 5 and at Middle Tennessee on Oct. 10. When Conference USA sold out for the weeknight game package, Tech got the worst of it.

14. Georgia State has the worst overall road schedule, with three back-to-back road trips and two of them featuring five-day turnarounds. The triple double: at Charlotte on Sept. 16 and Coastal Carolina on Sept. 21; at Louisiana on Oct. 21 and Georgia Southern on Oct 26; at LSU and Old Dominion Nov. 18 to 25.

15. Western Michigan has the most relentless forced march, playing 12 straight weeks. The Broncos have nine days between their first and second games, and 10 days between their ninth and 10th, but do not have a full week off at any point. They kickoff Aug. 31 and wrap up Nov. 21, playing seven road games in that span (including three straight from Sept. 9 to 23). They have one Thursday game and three #MACtion Tuesday games. Pray for the Broncos.

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16. Last Power 5 teams to leave campus, by conference: Georgia in the SEC (Sept. 30); Michigan and Michigan State in the Big Ten (Sept. 30); Miami, Boston College and Duke in the ACC (Sept. 23); Baylor in the Big 12 (Sept. 30); Arizona State in the Pac-12 (Sept. 30).

17. The longest stretches between on-campus home games: Arkansas goes from Sept. 16 to Oct. 21; Air Force goes from Oct. 14 to Nov. 18; Toledo goes from Sept. 30 to Oct. 31.

18. Texas leaves the Lone Star State just twice, once early (at Alabama on Sept. 9) and once late (at Iowa State on Nov. 18). The Longhorns will play six games in Austin, one in Dallas, one in Waco, one in Houston and one in Fort Worth.

19. The games will always deliver, of course, but on paper this is one of the weakest nonconference slates in recent memory. There are games across five days on Labor Day weekend, but just one stands out as a showdown of high-level teams: LSU vs. Florida State in Orlando on Sunday, Sept. 3. Second week of the season, the must-see game is Texas at Alabama. Good luck finding anything in the third week. Week 4 will give us Ohio State at Notre Dame. After September, the only nonconference intrigue remaining involves the Fighting Irish, specifically hosting USC in October and visiting Clemson in November. Maybe one or two of the season-ending rivalry games between ACC and SEC teams will pack some punch.

20. Best Saturday of the season on paper: Oct. 21. Ohio State at Penn State; Tennessee at Alabama; TCU at Kansas State; Utah at USC; Clemson at Miami.

All eyes are on the back-to-back champion Bulldogs, who are on a 17 game winning streak / Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports

21. Shock Georgia/Shock the World opportunities: The legit chances to end the Bulldogs’ winning streak (17 games and counting) are exceedingly few. The best options, in order: at Tennessee on Nov. 18, at Auburn on Sept. 30, Florida in the Cocktail Party on Oct. 28. That’s it, that’s the regular-season list.

22. Big Ten Trap Game of the Year: Michigan at Maryland, Nov. 18. Sandwiched between showdowns with Penn State and Ohio State, and a second straight road game for the Wolverines. This was a competitive matchup last year well into the fourth quarter in Ann Arbor. Undercard: Ohio State at Wisconsin on Oct. 28, one week after the Buckeyes play Penn State ... though the Badgers should be way too good to overlook.

23. SEC Trap Game of the Year: Tennessee at Kentucky on Oct. 28, one week after playing at Alabama. Undercard: Alabama at Texas A&M on Oct. 7. Second straight Crimson Tide road game and third in four weeks, against a team that nearly won in Bryant-Denny last year.

24. ACC Trap Game of the Year: Clemson at Syracuse on Sept. 30, one week after playing Florida State, in a series that has been known to get weird for the Tigers. Undercard: Clemson at Duke on Sept. 4. The Tigers had better come correct to the Labor Day season opener against an opponent that went 9–4 last year.

25. Big 12 Trap Game of the Year: Texas at Iowa State, one week after playing at TCU. Longhorns have lost three of the last four to the Cyclones. Undercard: Troy at Kansas State on Sept. 9. The Wildcats won the Big 12 title last year but lost at home to Tulane early. This is a similar scenario, with Troy coming off a 12–2 season as the reigning Sun Belt champion.

26. Pac-12 Trap Game of the Year: USC at California on Oct. 28, coming off games against Notre Dame and Utah. The Bears will have two weeks to prepare to stick it to the departing Trojans. Cal and USC first played in 1912 and have met 111 times. Undercard: Washington at Oregon State on Nov. 18, after the Huskies have played Utah and Oregon and before the Apple Cup.

27. Notre Dame Trap Game of the Year: Fighting Irish at Louisville on Oct. 7, after playing Ohio State, then at Duke, and before playing USC. Jeff Brohm has pulled off a few upsets in his time.

28. Body Clock Alerts, Early-Wakeup Division: Fresno State has a 9 a.m. PT body-clock kickoff at Purdue Sept. 2; Colorado has a 10 a.m. MT kick at TCU the same day, an early reacquaintance to Big 12 kickoff times; Utah has a 10  a.m. MT start at Baylor Sept. 9.

29. Body Clock Alerts, Late-Start Division: Coastal Carolina has a 10:30 p.m. ET body-clock kickoff at UCLA Sept. 2; Auburn and Oklahoma State have 9:30 CT kickoffs at California and Arizona State, respectively, on Sept. 9; Kansas has a 9:30 p.m. CT kickoff at Nevada on Sept. 16. But the capper is FCS Albany’s midnight ET kickoff at Hawai‘i on Sept. 9 (which also wins for longest commute of the season).

Penn State is opening its conference play on the road for the eighth season in a row :: Kirby Lee/USA TODAY Sports

30. There are 20 Power 5 teams playing at Group of 5 opponents. Some could be categorized as recruiting games: Alabama at South Florida; Mississippi at Tulane; Wake Forest at Old Dominion; maybe Iowa State at Ohio. Some are local games that present opportunities to put a lot of your fans in the opposing stadium: Oklahoma at Tulsa; Houston at Rice; UCLA at San Diego State; Virginia Tech at Marshall. Some are cost-saving games instead of paying out guarantees for home games: Vanderbilt at UNLV; Kansas at Nevada; North Carolina State at Connecticut; Duke at UConn; Boston College at Army; Texas Tech at Wyoming; Oregon State at San Jose State; Washington State at Colorado State; California at North Texas. And then there’s Miami at Temple, which is probably a budget game, but let’s just consider it the We Both Dislike Manny Diaz Bowl.

31. Most reliable schedule complaint: Penn State about opening Big Ten play on the road. When the Nittany Lions visit Illinois on Sept. 16, it will mark the eighth straight season that they've played their conference opener away from Happy Valley. Yet for all of James Franklin’s grumbling about it, his team is 5–2 in those openers. Not terrible.

32. Keeping it real: Mississippi State is the only team in FBS that is playing all its regular-season games on natural grass.

33. All artificial turf, all the time: Kansas State, North Texas, Boise State, Wyoming, UNLV, Hawai‘i, James Madison, Georgia Southern, South Alabama, Troy, Louisiana, Texas State, Toledo, Northern Illinois, Eastern Michigan, Western Michigan, Miami Ohio, Buffalo, Bowling Green, Liberty, Louisiana Tech.

34. Teams with two open-date disadvantage games: Tennessee, Florida, Rutgers, Northwestern, Houston, Colorado, Appalachian State and New Mexico State. Still hard to believe that Alabama went through the 2010 season with five of them, and the Tide fans didn’t storm the SEC offices.

35. Hardest-working equipment truck staff: BYU, which will experience life for the first time as the western-most member of the far-flung Big 12. The Cougars will play six road games, and all of them are more than a 1,000-mile drive from their Provo campus: Arkansas is 1,268 miles; Kansas, 1,046; TCU, 1,173; Texas, 1,247; West Virginia, 1,916; and Oklahoma State, 1,124. That includes two sets of back-to-back roadies—Arkansas-Kansas and Texas–West Virginia.

36. BYU might also be the first team to play both the Bearcats (Cincinnati, Sept. 29) and the Bearkats (Sam Houston, Sept. 2.) in the same season. But then Houston will do it Sept. 23 (Bearkats) and Nov. 11 (Bearcats).

37. Brand-new series: Cincinnati vs. both Iowa State and Baylor; Houston vs. West Virginia and Kansas State; Central Florida vs. Kansas, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State and Texas Tech.

38. Percentage of FCS opponents for each Power Five conference: SEC, 100% (14 out of 14 schools play one); Big Ten, 50% (seven of 14); ACC, 85.7% (12 of 14); Big 12, 78.6% (11 of 14); Pac-12, 75% (nine of 12).

39. Latest home openers: Miami Ohio will start the season with three straight on the road before hosting Delaware State on Sept. 23. Nebraska, Stanford, Ball State, Kent State, Middle Tennessee and Texas State will all play twice on the road before their first home games Sept. 16.

40. Navy will be with us forever in 2023, playing what has to be the longest regular season in college football history. The Midshipmen kick off the entire FBS season Aug. 26 against Notre Dame in Ireland and end said regular season Dec. 11 against Army in Foxborough, a span of 108 days.