Here’s a game-by-game rundown of what to watch this weekend and why. (Again, I missed Thursday, so, sorry you missed out on getting previewed for Utah State’s 51-13 win over Idaho State. I know that one stings.).

It’s a full TV schedule, but I’m only going to write about games that interest me in any way. Also, because I think picking winners is kind of dumb and a waste of space, I won’t bother forcing that anymore.

Friday, September 8

7:00 – Alcorn State vs. FIU (Legion Field)
8:00 – Oklahoma State @ South Alabama, ESPN2
8:00 – Ohio @ Purdue, FS1 – Unimportant, but it has good potential for a close matchup.

Saturday, September 9

12:00 – Cincinnati @ Michigan, ABC
12:00 – Florida Atlantic @ Wisconsin, BTN
12:00 – Louisville @ North Carolina, ESPN
12:00 – Charlotte @ Kansas State
12:00 – Northwestern @ Duke, ESPNU – I’m not necessarily interested, but this has close game/shootout potential.
12:00 – East Carolina @ West Virginia, FS2
12:00 – Buffalo @ Army, CBSSN
12:00 – Towson @ Maryland, BTN
12:00 – Eastern Kentucky @ Kentucky, SEC
12:00 – UT-Martin @ Ole Miss, SEC
12:00 – Iowa @ Iowa State, ESPN 2 – This game is rarely predictable, and it’s often close. All-time, the Hawkeyes lead 42-22, but over the last two decades, it’s a 10-10 split, with 9 games decided by less than a TD. The winner gets the Cy-Hawk Trophy, which was hilariously redesigned for about 15 minutes in 2011 to this:

12:30 – Jacksonville State @ Georgia Tech, ACC

1:00 – Wake Forest @ Boston College, ACC – Good potential for a really close game, even if it’s meaningless.

2:00 – Texas State @ Colorado, Pac12

3:00 – UAB @ Ball State, ESPN3

3:30 – Fresno State @ Alabama, ESPN2
3:30 – Pittsburgh @ Penn State, ABC – I wasn’t thinking this game would be all that close, and then Pitt barely eked past Youngstown State in OT last week, so now I’m really not expecting a lot. Still, this game was fun last year (Pitt won 42-39), it’s a historically close rivalry (PSU leads 50-43-4), and these teams did boast two of football’s best offenses a year ago. There’s a chance last week was just a flatline game for Pitt, and they’ll be competitive here.
3:30 – Delaware @ Virginia Tech, ACC
3:30 – TCU @ Arkansas, CBS – Another game that doesn’t mean a lot, most likely, for either team, but still could be close and fun.
3:30 – Tulane @ Navy, CBSSN
3:30 – Indiana @ Virginia, ESPNU – In the early weeks, I tend to highlight worse teams. After all, conference championship and playoff contenders have bigger worries down the road. For bottom-of-the-division teams just looking to go bowling, how they fare in non-conference play in September makes a huge difference. That’s why a game like this is pretty big for Virginia’s season. Indiana is favored by 3, making it more or less a tossup game. There aren’t a ton of those on the schedule for Bronco Mendenhall’s Cavaliers, so this one really needs to come up heads if the Cavs are going to go to a bowl.
3:30 – Villanova @ Temple, ESPN3 – Temple should win this handily, but it’s not historically your typical FBS/FCS matchup of dominance. In 32 meetings, the series is deadlocked at 15-15-2. The winner takes home the Mayor’s Cup and a lead in the series, which Temple has never had before.
3:30 – Savannah State @ Appalachian State, ESPN3
3:30 – Austin Peay @ Miami OH, ESPN3
3:30 – Eastern Illinois @ Northern Illinois, ESPN3
3:30 – Howard @ Kent State, ESPN3
3:30 – Middle Tennessee @ Syracuse, ACC
3:30 – Old Dominion @ Massachusetts
3:30 – Western Michigan @ Michigan State, BTN – Their upset bid collapsed in the final half-quarter against USC last week, but they’ll have another shot against their in-state bullies. This game has played closer than expected in recent years (26-13 in 2013, when WMU went 1-11, and 37-24 in 2015, when MSU went to the playoffs), and Michigan State has not yet completely proved that last year’s disappointing season was not a trend-changer. If PJ Fleck were still here, I’d feel better about the upset chances, but I still feel like it’s possible enough to keep an eye on. It could be a huge win for Tim Lester’s legacy at WMU, and it could help an entire fanbase get over losing their HC to Minnesota.
3:30 – Eastern Michigan @ Rutgers, BTN – After winning 7 total games from 2012-2015, EMU won 7 last year. The program is on the uprise, and nothing could put a bigger stamp on the job Chris Creighton has done than a win against a Power 5 school. They have a real shot here. Rutgers is favored by 5.5, and I expect it to play closer. It’s in Jersey, but a year ago, EMU beat a good Wyoming team in Laramie in their road opener, so I don’t think they’ll be affected by nerves. Go Eagles.
3:30 – San Jose State @ Texas, Longhorn Network
3:30 – Abilene Christian @ Colorado State

4:00 – Indiana State @ Tennessee, SEC
4:00 – Gardner-Webb @ Wyoming
4:00 – Central Michigan @ Kansas
4:00 – Alabama A&M @ Vanderbilt, SEC
4:00 – New Hampshire @ Georgia Southern, ESPN3
4:00 – UL-Lafayette @ Tulsa, ESPN3

4:30 – Nebraska @ Oregon, FOX – Apologies to Southern Utah, but THIS is the game where we find out what Willie Taggert’s Oregon Ducks really will look like in Year 1. For a national brand with so many questions about where it stands, this is the first important game of the Taggert era.

5:00 – Hawaii @ UCLA, Pac12
5:00 – Weber State @ California, Pac12

6:00 – Marshall @ NC State, ACC
6:00 – South Dakota @ Bowling Green, ESPN3
6:00 – Alabama State @ Troy, ESPN3
6:00 – Arkansas-Pine Bluff @ Akron, ESPN3

7:00 – Auburn @ Clemson, ESPN – It’s hard to know what post-championship Clemson really looks like, and they haven’t been tested. In most years, we’d know if Auburn had been tested, but Georgia Southern is just a smoking crater these days, so this is something of a debut for both. Auburn leads the all-time series 34-14-2, but they’re 0-3 since 2011, meaning the last time Auburn won, they had to outbid Starkvegas for Cam Newton’s services. Perhaps bringing in Baylor transfer Jarrett Stidham will suffice for Auburn. The game is in Clemson, which is actually Auburn plus a lake, so the players from the plains shouldn’t be too out of their element. With Deondre Francois’ injury putting a damper on FSU’s expectations, this might be the toughest remaining game on Clemson’s schedule.
7:00 – Toledo @ Nevada, ESPN3
7:00 – UNLV @ Idaho, ESPN3 – It’s Idaho’s last year in FBS play before they become the first team to go the other direction – they’ll be FCS next year. I know that program would love to give FBS the finger on the way out the door and make their last FBS game a bowl game. To do that, they’ll need to win this game, I think. UNLV is off a FCS loss and looking for a bounceback, and this came looks like it could be close. It’s not a big one for the rest of us, but it’s a big one for the Vandals’ season.
7:00 – Southern @ Southern Miss
7:00 – North Texas @ SMU, ESPN3 – These two Dallas-Ft. Worth area schools first played in 1922, but have only gotten together 35 more times since, despite being only about 40 miles apart. It’s dubbed The Safeway Bowl, because in 1994 UNT HC Matt Simon, after the series went on hiatus, declared that he’d play SMU anywhere, even a Safeway parking lot. This will be the 4th year of the resumed rivalry, and over the last 7 meetings, SMU holds only a 4-3 edge. Both teams are coming off similar week 1 victories – SMU beat Stephen F. Austin 58-14 while North Texas defeated Lamar 59-14. SMU is expected to win here, favored by nearly two touchdowns, and that seems about right. They have more talent and they have Chad Morris. But an upset isn’t out of the question, and if that happened, it could propel North Texas to a big year 2 under Seth Littrell. North Texas OC Graham Harrell is no stranger to upsets in the state of Texas, so here’s hoping the Safeway Bowl is closer than it really should be.
7:00 – South Carolina @ Missouri, ESPN2 – It’s a gerrymandered “rivalry”, dubbed The Battle of the Columbias, and the winner gets some sort of Mayor’s Cup, but really, this matters because Missouri needs an upset or two to go bowling this year, and getting the Gamecocks at home sounds more manageable than winning at home against Auburn, Tennessee or Florida, or at Arkansas, Kentucky, or Georgia. If they lose this one, they’ll have to win one of those games to make it to 6-6, and that’s if they can win in Vanderbilt; the last time they tried, they lost 10-3.
7:00 – Nicholls @ Texas A&M, ESPNU

7:30 – Oklahoma @ Ohio State, ABC – It’s not a rivalry, and it’s not the biggest game on either’s schedule this year, but it’s massive. Both are legitimate playoff contenders, and a loss here puts a lot of pressure on the conference slate. Then again, a win here also will help excuse a conference snafu, as this game played a big role in Ohio State going to the playoffs a year ago.
7:30 – Chattanooga @ LSU, SEC
7:30 – Georgia @ Notre Dame, NBC – It’s a chance for Notre Dame to prove that last year was a temporary blip on the radar, and they even get a true freshman QB making his first career start. It’s pretty big for both teams, to be honest, because hot seat grumbling may start for whoever goes home 1-1. The hot seat is a more imminent reality for Kelly after a loss, but a 9-6 start to his career is certainly not what UGA fans had in mind for Kirby Smart. The Irish are favored, but not by a lot, and both Georgia offerings should keep this close. The Dawg D is unlikely to let the Irish pull away, but unlike the only other time these two played, a UGA true freshman is unlikely to dominate the Irish enough to almost single-handedly win the game.
7:30 – Mississippi State @ Louisiana Tech, CBSSN – Ah, the annual Mississippi State road trip to a lower tier southern school. It didn’t go well last year, when MSU opened with a 21-20 loss at South Alabama. The Jaguars went 5-7 over their remaining games, so it’s not like the Bulldogs lost to a juggernaut. A loss last year doesn’t mean they’ll lose this year, but LaTech is better than USA, so while MSU is (properly) favored by a couple of scores, don’t rule it out. The bayou Bulldogs have won 9 games in 3 straight seasons, and they’re hungry for a big, symbolic win. This game provides an opportunity.

8:00 – Montana @ Washington, Pac12
8:00 – UTSA @ Baylor
8:00 – WKU @ Illinois, BTN
8:00 – Rice @ UTEP – After losing their opener 62-7 and then getting slammed by Hurricane Harvey, Rice could use a win, and this season is unlikely to provide many opportunities. It’s hard to envision them going to a bowl game as is, but it’s even tougher with a loss in West Texas. It’s basically a toss-up matchup, and both schools need this one if they’re going to make anything out of this season.
8:00 – New Mexico State @ New Mexico – It’s a shame they won’t televise the Rio Grande Rivalry, which is being played for the 108th time. Not that it would have a chance in this timeslot anyway. Put this game on Thursday or Friday, guys. Only 11 points separated these two over the last 3 years combined, and considering both teams’ makeup, this could make for an entertaining shootout.

8:30 – Stanford @ USC, FOX – USC’s oldest rival is Stanford, first playing each other in 1905, but few games in the series have mattered as much as those over the last decade or so. Despite their opening flub against WMU, Vegas still likes the Trojans, and so do I, but this game should be both really important and really entertaining. It’s very likely that it’s the toughest game on either schedule.

10:00 – Minnesota @ Oregon State, FS1 – It’s another coin-flip game that really matters for one school. If there are 5 more wins on the Oregon State schedule this year, this one really needs to be one. It could be fun, with PJ Fleck leading the Gophers and Gary Andersen building something at OSU.

10:15 – Utah @ BYU, ESPN2 – The Holy War! Utah has managed to win the separation of church and state, leading the series 56-31-4. The series is a pretty nasty one, and this is the biggest game all year for either school. Utah used to dominate the Holy War, but when Lavell Edwards came on the scene in the mid-70’s as HC for BYU, things got a bit closer, and that’s where the bad blood really started. In 1977, up 38-8, Edwards put starting QB Marc Wilson back into the game just to set a single-game record for passing yards (571 at the time). In 1980, you have Jim McMahon pointing at the scoreboard during a 56-6 win. In ’93, BYU’s Lenny Gomes said Utah fans would wind up “pumping [his] gas” after they tried to tear down a goalpost after an upset win. In ’98, Utah missed a 32 yard FG that would have won the game, a kick now known as the Ryan Kaneshiro Doink. The next year, a BYU fan tackled a male Utah cheerleader, and the cheerleader proceeded to beat the hell out of the fan. Urban Meyer started a Utah tradition of referring to their rival only as “that team down south”, refusing to let his players say the name BYU. Meyer’s Utes also handed BYU their first shutout since 1975, ending a NCAA-record 361 straight games with a score. After an OT win in 2009, BYU QB Max Hall said he hated everything about Utah, saying “the whole university and their fans and their organization is classless.” In 2012, this game saw a bizarre finish:

The winner gets the Beehive Boot, and if the past is any indication, it won’t be won in an ordinary or polite fashion. To make things better, Utah is favored by 1.5 points, and the S&P+ projection system projects BYU will win. By 1. As soon as the big evening games are over, watch this one.

10:30 – Houston @ Arizona, ESPNU – How far have Rich Rodriguez’s Wildcats fallen when a matchup against the Houston Cougars might be the key to Arizona going bowling? It’s a toss-up game, and while RichRod could certainly survive a loss, he really could use a win. Beating Houston settles a lot of people down in Arizona, and a hot seat gets, momentarily, cooler.
10:30 – Boise State @ Washington State, ESPN – Meaningless, because it’s unlikely either will be in the playoff hunt, but this looks remarkably evenly matched, and it probably has ramifications in regional recruiting. Every night should wind down with Mike Leach football.

11:00 – San Diego State @ Arizona State, Pac12 – Yet another game that could be pretty close without really mattering to us or even the fanbases involved. SDSU is beyond needing a big program-defining win – they’ve beaten Boise State and Cal in recent years, and I’m not sure ASU is much of a step above. Still, if you’re up at 1:30 AM, these two might be fairly close.